a dominican christmas

My mom and I on Christmas morning with the "mellas" who live at the orphanage, just after opening gifts. These girls are Ari and Arianny, who are five-year-old twins.
We split the boys and girls gifts on separate tables, and called them up one by one to receive their gifts. Here are a few girls opening the gifts that my mom and I brought down for Christmas. The gifts they receive on Christmas are mainly brought down by volunteers. It was so sweet to see their faces opening and enjoying their gifts.
Some boys from the orphanage waiting anxiously yet very patiently to have their name called to open their gifts.
The girls' gifts!
Indiana and Yanina eating dinner on Christmas Eve. It is a very rare occasion where the volunteers get to eat dinner with the kids! They were all wearing new clothes and did their hair special for Christmas Eve.

The food line... 40+ kids and lots of volunteers to feed... SO much food! And delicious! A Christmas spent with little ones I love so much and that I will never forget!

hello again, dominican republic!

Hey all,

After two months of being in Cincinnati, my eye has completely healed and has returned to functioning properly! The iritis is cleared, and the doctor said things look good for now, but it is possible that it may flare up again. At least now I know the symptoms of it, and I know how to go about treating it!

My time at home was relaxing, refreshing, and I had sweet times with friends and family. I really enjoyed my time home. Being back in the states for so long caused me to feel kind of settled in again, only to anticipate leaving again and to eventually face another transition back into life in the DR. As friends are moving on with life after college... living in new apartments, accepting real jobs... all those things began to have a luster to me, and I went back and forth of wishing I was at that stage in life as well. However, the more I thought and prayed, the more excited I got to return to my work in the DR. God still has plans for me to fulfill here, and I walk daily, not thinking/worrying about the future too much, trusting Him and His purpose each step of the way.

My mom is down here with me for her Christmas break from school. We flew into Puerto Plata together to stay at a resort for three days, then arrived at the orphanage on Wednesday. I was welcomed here at the orphanage with children running behind the taxi chanting my name. When I stepped out of the car, I was bombarded with little Dominican hugs and questions about my eye. I also had sweet letters and a welcome sign from my roommates who I lived with in the fall who have now returned to the states. I had a great welcome back.

Christmas here with all 40ish kids at the orphanage was absolutely amazing. I will try and post some pictures within the week.

So, here I am, back again... enjoying the weather much more this time... sunshine with a slightly cool breeze... not hot and sweaty all the time!

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement through these crazy life changes! :)

Back in America

My life has drastically changed over the past three days. As some of you have probably heard, I am currently living in the states, not the Dominican Republic.

When I arrived at the orphanage in Monte Cristi, my right eye was looking pretty red. Thinking it was from the stress of traveling and lack of sleep, I brushed it off as nothing. A week went by, where it was getting worse, so I went to the clinic to see a doctor in town. He gave me medication which made my eye feel and look a little better at the time. Within the next couple of weeks, my eye was still not looking the greatest, and I then began to have blurred vision in my eye. I went to Santiago, to the best hospital around the area, to see an eye specialist, and was given two new medications to use. I used those, and my eye still was not healing back to normal. A new pain came in my eye on Monday, and after having a month without clear vision, I decided to call my doctor at home. I was advised to come home as soon as possible to get it checked out, especially since the problems I was having was with my eye, which has the potential to be serious. I wanted to wait to fly back because my boyfriend was supposed to visit the DR the following week, and I of course wanted to be there while he was. It sounded pretty urgent to figure out my eye problems, so I decided to pack my book bag and go.

I got a one-way plane ticket on Monday, and flew home to arrive in Cinci Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I had an appointment with an opthalmologist. I told him what I was doing, and how I was hoping to be able to fly out Saturday. After checking out my eye and doing a few tests, he came to the conclusion that I have something called iritis. He explained that iritis is a non-infectious problem internally of the eye. I'm glad I decided to fly home because he told me that iritis can potentially lead to blindness. He also told me that I needed to be on 'close watch' and that he would not allow me to leave the country again until my eye has healed, so I can be under proper treatment. The doctor said that I am to stay here for a month at least, and maybe two months. He gave me new eye drops to use, and I will be going back Friday morning for another appointment.

What I know about iritis: it is not an infection, it is an inflammation within the eye. It is not contagious, so I did not "catch it" while I was traveling. It was just coincidence that it showed through on my day of travel. Iritis will always be in my body, meaning it may arise later on in life again. The good news is that I now know the symptoms of it, so I can go to a doctor right away if I am to ever get it again. It will not spread to my other eye. The doctor compared it to arthritis in the sense that it is an internal problem, and that it does not spread. Tomorrow morning, at my appointment, he will do some tests to try and find out the cause of the iritis.

So, here I am, in the states, with lots of mixed emotions. I'm glad that I came back and that I caught it in time to keep my vision. I've jumped into life in America so abruptly, without time to really process or even think about what life here is going to look like the next couple months. I had just gotten to the point in the DR of really feeling settled in, really knowing the girls I live with there, the music program continuing off of a good start, growing in relationships with the kids at the orphanage, and having the perspective of "This is where I live now, my home is here in the DR for a long time." To arrive at all these points was so great, only to leave them with a big question mark of what's next.

I know so clearly that God called me to the Dominican Republic. I worked so hard to create the curriculum I was using, and to raise an abundance of funds to provide for more than what I needed to be there. I'm at this point where I'm questioning my purpose and wondering why in the world He would remove me from where He so specifically called me. For now, I'm applying to school districts to be a substitute teacher for the time that I am home.

Amidst all these mixed emotions, I know these things to be true:

- God called me to the Dominican Republic on September 4, so I went in obedience.

- God does have a plan and purpose, which is specific and perfect for my life, even when I can't see it and even when I don't have answers to my questions.

- This timing is no surprise to God, and He will not give me anything I cannot handle.

- It's possible that I may not ever see the purpose as to why God has me here, but I trust there is a purpose, and that He is going to teach me things and build my character, and for whatever reason, He needs me in the U.S. to teach me.

- Blessings are coming from being here! I've been able to spend time with friends and family. I will also probably be able to attend a reunion with all of my college housemates (I was going to be the only one missing out of the eight of us!)

So, that's what's going on. The rumors are true, I'm back for a while. If you're around Cincinnati, and want to get together, let me know... I've got nothing else to do as of now, so I've got plenty free time!

Continued prayers would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :)

This week was the first week of classes at the English Institute! The English Institute is a school that Orphanage Outreach opened and supports. Our long term goal is to have every student in Monte Cristi speaking English by graduation, so that they are able to get better jobs, and can further provide for their family. A Dominican who speaks even a little English has a better chance at getting a job than a Dominican who does not speak English at all.

My main position here is working in a local school in Monte Cristi, called John F. Kennedy, where I go around to each kindergarten to sixth grade class, working with another teacher to teach music. However, on Thursdays, I am teaching at the English Institute in the library. The students are able to take out a book, and we have games, songs, and activities that are centered around the English words they are currently learning in their English classes at the Institute.

Pictured here is my classroom, the library of the English Institute. I had so much fun decorating it while listening to music a few weeks ago! The teachers pictured are Kelly, Shauna, Karen and I.

We had an activity day with the kids who live at the orphanage, and my group did dress up and a photo shoot for our activity. Pictured here is Luz Maria, one of the youngest girls who lives here at the orphanage.

Here is Shauna and I. Shauna came two weeks after I got here, and will be here until May with me! What a blessing it is to have someone consistent to be my roommate, friend, and someone to walk through life with during my entire time here! : )

During free time, I am working with Yessica, one of the older girls who lives here, and teaching her guitar. She's been learning very quickly, and I love getting to know her more and more, and sharing a common love of music with her.

Thank you for reading, and please let me know how you all are doing and how I can be praying for you!

Videos!

Here are some videos so you can see what's going in action here in the DR!

Here is a video of me being interviewed about why I'm serving with Orphanage Outreach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBMvoC7QpXw

Here is one of me interviewing another intern and some guys from Monte Cristi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYOfyypKfv0

the capital

We took a trip to the capital, Santo Domingo for a "culture day." This is a street that we spent most of our afternoon on, looking at some Dominican crafts and enjoying the Dominican sun. It was great seeing a whole different part of the country than I have seen before, on the other side of the island from Monte Cristi.

Orphanage Outreach dress code everyday is an O.O. t-shirt, and a skirt or some sort of pant that falls beneath the knee. Here, Karen, Kelly, and I enjoyed a day without having to dress in the Orphanage Outreach dress code!

These are pictures of the oldest standing church in the western hemisphere. It's called Catedral Bsilica Menor de Santa Maria. The first brick was laid by Christopher Columbus's son in the year 1514.

Kelly, Sarah, Karen, and I : )

Again, with Sean, Sarah's husband. They're moving to Haiti in about a month to be doctors there indefinitely!

Karen and I climbed to the top of Fortazela Ozama, what a great view! We didn't take a historic tour, but we had fun climbing around the fort and enjoying the scenery.

Life so far in the Dominican

I have been making Monte Cristi my home for two weeks now. Here are some glimpses for you to enjoy:

My favorite place in the entire world is here, on the top of 'El Morrito' (a smaller portion of the mountain 'El Morro'). We took a sunset hike. (My camera doesn't even really give justice to it's beauty, so you can only imagine what it's like in real life!)

This is Karen, Kelly, and I on our first day of school. They came with me the first couple of days to start the music education program that I brought down with me.

The school is called John F. Kennedy. I have ten classes with students ranging from Pre-Premario (kindergarten) to 8th grade. They younger children attend school during the day, and the older children attend in the afternoon, after siesta (Dominican rest time, when most businesses and schools close for lunch until about 2 pm.) I am working with the music teacher who works at the school, Miguel Angel. Before I came, his music classes would sing the same songs everyday while he plays guitar. Now, they sing a few songs, and then I teach the music lesson. I'm trying to learn their names, but I'm not used to having to memorize so many! How do you middle and high school teachers do it?!

These are some of my students and I hanging out during "recreo (recess)." The majority of our recess time spent playing hand clap games, in both English and Spanish.

This is a typical Dominican meal. Rice, beans, and some sort of plantains can normally be found on my plate here. This is a lunch plate, the biggest Dominican meal of the day (not dinner, like Americans are used to). Pictured here, from the top, going clockwise is friend egg plant (great with ketchup), avocado with lime (I never eat this in American, but it's in season here, and it's delicious!), fresh fruit, white rice with steamed chicken and beans, sweet plantains, and con con (I think that's how you spell it-- con con is the rice at the bottom of the pot that has the butter and everything stuck to it-- it tastes like popcorn, and is a treat here!)

Every morning, I get up before the wake up bell to sit and meet with the Lord on the rooftop. It is here that I choose to surrender my day, to ask for strength and guidance, and where I'm able to talk to God about how I'm feeling and what I'm experiencing. I have experienced many thoughts and feelings here already, and sometimes have even questioned my purpose. But each morning I begin my day remembering that I am not the one who is in control. God has me here as a part of His plan for my life, and I choose to trust Him, His timing, and His control. On this rooftop, I am at the highest point at the orphanage, and my perspective is set as I stare ahead at El Morro. It is in this place that I gaze at the beauty of the Lord around me, ponder His promises He has for me in His word, and sit at peace in His presence.

That's all for now. We went to the capital, Santo Domingo, yesterday to visit. I'll post some pictures from that in a few days.

Thanks for reading this! : )

Unexpectedly halfway there

Well I should've waken up this morning at the orphanage in Monte Cristi, but instead here I am still in Miami, Florida.

Yesterday, my flight from Cincinnati was unable to land in Miami due to lightning and high winds that were in a cloud directly over the airport. I sat staring out my window at the lightning around us, and the gray cloud we were circling around. Other planes were doing the same thing. No flights were landing or taking off in the Miami airport, so we went to Fort Lauderdale to land. We sat there for a while and got more gas, then took a 15 minute flight back to Miami, where we were finally able to land.

I was sure I missed my connecting flight to the DR, so I talked to someone to get a flight for the next day, and she said I wouldn't be leaving until 6:30 the next evening. She booked me, and I made some calls to contact the orphanage. Then, ten minutes later, she said that the gates of my original flight had just closed and that I could've made it. I was frustrated that I just assumed and didn't check myself, and that she booked me another flight without double checking if my original flight had left. I was flustered, but not freaking out... I like a little adventure every now and then.

God was faithful and provided for me every step of the way. I was talking with a Dominican woman I met in Cincinnati who was really encouraging and asking lots of questions about what I would be doing in her country. I re-connected with her when we got to Miami, and we stayed with each other while I got a new flight and made sure our luggage would be transferred today. She will be on my flight this evening to Santiago. She was so sweet, and acted as my translator, because the workers at the airport I interacted with did not speak English very well.

God provided again because my mom has a friend who lives in Miami that she used to teach with, so we contacted her, and she came to get me from the airport to stay at he apartment. I hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning (it was then about 9:00 pm), so she took me out to a really nice pizza restaurant. We were in south beach, Miami, where there are lots of high end stores, classy restaurants, art galleries, and lots of people and palm trees. We walked around for a bit. I felt like I was on an unexpected vacation. Today we are going to the beach. Not too bad of an alternative for missing my flight! : )

I guess I'll have to wait to see those little ones at the orphanage just one more day. I'll be arriving the DR around 8:30 tonight, which will put me at the orphanage about 10:00 pm or a little after.

Thanks for all the prayers while I've been traveling! Continue praying for travels and smooth transitions today.

A Community Effort

These are the wonderful women who I was so incredibly blessed to live in a house with my last two years at Miami. I could not ask for a better group of sisters to walk through life with. The seven of them have been constants in my life to experience joy, to suffer together, to figure out how to anticipate uncertainty, to continuously encourage each other to surrender control and to learn what it looks like to walk with Jesus on a daily basis. The true essence of community.

These women have played unique roles in my life, as they have experienced my entire journey with me to making the decision to go to the Dominican Republic. They were there when I was first talking about how I fell in love with the pictures of those Dominican children I saw at the National Missionary Convention, in 2007. They heard stories of my first trip down to the DR, summer of 2008, when my heart was first left there, and more stories when I returned from my second trip, summer of 2009. In our house, they would pile up support envelopes I had received in the mail on my desk for me to find after a long day of student teaching. They celebrated with me by squealing, jumping, and dancing around our living room while the percentage of my financial support continued to raise closer to my goal. And on Saturday, some of them, among a few others, will be helping me lug my suitcases around the airport to send me off.

Support Raising this Summer...

To raise my funds, I sent out support letters, had conversations with people, my mom and housemates had a spaghetti dinner for me in Oxford, and I held a benefit concert to share my heart and to try and bring in another chunk of support. It is honestly not very fun to ask people for their money to support you, so I wanted to try and raise my support creatively. With lots and lots of help from the sweet community of people I get to live life with, I was able to do just that. Anna and Milovan and Kyle Sweetland and Brian Beyke (from Still Pioneers) so graciously performed for the evening. I was so encouraged by the amount of people that came! The sense of community that was built around my decision to teach and serve abroad was incredibly encouraging. I was able to share my heart about serving in the DR. And with a raffle, bake sale, and generous supporters, I was only left with a small percentage of support to finish by the end of the night!

The rest of the summer, I continued teaching Spanish at the day care, and continued raising support. I PRAISE GOD for providing above and beyond what was needed for me to spend nine months in the Dominican Republic. I received 100% support, and enough extra support to provide for my boyfriend to come visit me for a week or two while I am there!

This summer has been such a testament of God's faithfulness and how He truly does provide. I am so so so excited to be moving to the DR to ultimately love with His love and to serve, and to share with others what God has done in my life. :)

As this week goes on, I have been working to finish the curriculum I've made to take to the DR for the music education program I hope to establish. Tonight, my mom, housemate Kori, and I spent hours and hours cutting things out and laminating materials for me to take with my curriculum. If I had done that work all by myself, it would have taken three times as long to do it. This is more evidence of how God has shaped a community of people around me to send me to do His work in the Dominican.

Community support in the form of laminating, scissors, and music notes.

I have been affirmed over and over that God has clearly called me to spend these next nine months teaching music in the Dominican Republic. In all honesty, there is absolutely no way that I would actually be going to the DR without the community support that has been built around me.

If you are reading this, and you have supported me in any way, shape, or form... whether it be prayerfully, financially, donating your musical talent, donating your time to help me create my curriculum, donating your time to give me advice along my journey of arriving at this decision, or even donating your time just reading my ramblings thus far on here...

... I thank you. From the very bottom of my heart.

I would not be going to serve the Dominican without your support.

While I continue moving toward Saturday, I want to ask for prayer in the following areas:

• To rely solely on the Lord for my strength, as I am having extremely late nights getting things together.
• To follow His lead in my daily schedule as it seems crazy busy and all over the place. I tend to want to take control.
• That my time with God this week would be a time of resting in Him, and processing through everything so I am able to be mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared to go.
• For the limited time I have remaining with my friends and family, that it would be encouraging for everyone involved.

graduated, and preparing for the DR

College is over, and summer is here. Summer brings sunshine, relaxation, and quality time with friends and family... life is good, and I praise God for blessing me :)

This summer, I am working at a day care part time as the Spanish teacher. My youngest ones are two years old, and my oldest student is seven. My time spent at the day care has been great practice for what is to come similarly at the end of August.

In the Dominican Republic, I will be living at an impoverished orphanage to start a music education program and to teach English. I have raised 98% of my funds to go for the nine months I will be there!!!

Since I will be working with a music education program that I have created, I am currently looking for a few donated items to take with me that will facilitate the curriculum. If you know of any way that I may be able to get a hold of some of these items for a donation, please let me know via email at brandae.earhart@gmail.com

• 50 recorders (instruments)
• a piano keyboard
• percussion/drum sticks

Thank you so much for visiting the site, and please continue to check back for updates!