the holiday of heroes

hola. i'm not sure if anyone still actually checks our blogs since we haven't had time to update them lately, but just incase i wanted to tell everyone we are still alive and still loving our lives in the dominican. we just had an intensely fun month of hero holiday '08 down with us, which meant we worked from around 7:30am to 11ish pm everyday, which may explain our lack of posting. also our friend kyle or carlos is down now. he arrived on june 12th and is staying until august 16th.
for the first trip, rana and josh were team leaders, meaning they had about 20-25 participants they were responsible for at the hotel and worksites. we had 5 different projects this year; one was finishing the school out at arroyo seco, which hero holiday has been working on for 3 years now, also working at the school/church in cangrejo, which has been a project since last summer. we also starting building a house for a friend and translator of hero holiday, bernard! two other things we did with the teams was take them to the local dump for a day to see what it is like to be "in their shoes." there are quite a few haitian refugees living and working in dumps in the dominican republic because the conditions are better than they were in haiti; which is mind blowing in itself. they often work collecting bottles to sell for a couple pesos a bag, food to feed their families and the little drops of backwash water you and i throw out in our water bottles all the time, so they don't pass out in the heat. in the past we have gone out their to play with the kids and hand out food and clothing and shoes but this year we decided to take it a step further and get everybody in there with the workers to help increase their wages for that day. it was an intense but worthwhile experience that changed a lot of lives and perspectives. in addition, we took teams to an orphanage in santiago (a two hour busride from sosua where we live) for mentally and physically handicapped children. hero holiday has been going there for 3 years now but just in the last year or so the government has taken over funding for them and has made incredible changes. they used to have 38 children living in a tiny warehouse, sleeping on broken beds or mattresses on the floor, but they have now expanded to have an additional two story building, a new kitchen and bathroom facility, a washing machine area as well as a little courtyard for the 74 kids to move around and play in. the first time i walked in this year i couldn't believe my eyes. one of the students said it looks like it should be featured on 'extreme makeover.' to meet the demands of additional kids, they have expanded their staff as well, with now 5 kids to one worker, and they have two nurses on each shift, a doctor that visits every day, and an on-call doctor, plus all the people in charge of preparing meals, cleaning up and washing clothes etc etc. for the first trip it was my job to take groups out everyday and get them going around, feeding and interacting with the kids. it was an awesome experience for me to see how they change from when they first step off the bus to the time i have to drag everyone back on. you could definitely see a change in the kids in the orphanage as well because they don't often get that much attention because the workers are constantly changing diapers, feeding or cleaning up, so for us to be able to come and sit and just hold their hands really lights up their day/life. after everyone experiences everything out at the worksites and villages, as well as at the dump and orphanage you can really see a change in how they are and will continue thinking about things.
with the second trip, josh was moved to photography and filming, rana was going on the orphanage runs and kyle and i were team leaders. i had an awesome group that loved everything we did and it was cool to get to see the impact that all of the other experiences had on them. we finished up the school in arroyo seco, made the foundation for a parking lot and bricked walls for bathrooms at the cangrejo church/school and almost finished laying bricks for the walls at bernard's. this year was definitely very successful in those physcal aspects but also with the participants. it is a life changing experience, and you can tell that the people we met this month are going to be people that change out generation and our nation.

please pray that as we are still here God will continue blessing us as He has been and leading us in the right directions. also that as josh and rana prepare to leave (josh this thursday and rana this saturday) they will be able to get 'back in the groove' at home and won't miss me too much. (just kidding, i think i might be more worried about what i will do without them). this has been an incredible, life changing past three months and it will definitely shape what we do in the future. we just really need God's guidance and favour as we try to figure out which direction to go in. and for my last month please pray i will have more incredible experience and be as helpful and useful to people around here as i can... and also pray for safety because it seems that just as we get comfortable again something happens. thanks for all your love, prayer and support!!

love kike