mi familia Dominicana

I moved in this past Saturday to my house with my Dominican family and I already have so many stories! My family is very big. My mom and dad are like the grandparents of the entire neighborhood. Amy and I are the only ones that live in our house and we have our own room and bathroom. But the rest of the neighborhood seems to live there during the day. Our house has a church attached to it (our bedroom window looks into the church, so there will be no sleeping in) and we also have a small shop. Our family includes:

Paula-my mom. She is the hardest working lady I've ever known. She is the pastor of the church and is always counseling different people in the community. All she does is take care of the family and the rest of the neighborhood. She cooks and cleans all day long.
Claudius-my dad. I can never understand what he says but he is by far the happiest man in the world. He always has the biggest smile on his face and every time he sees us he greets us with a huge bear hug and many robust words that I don't know yet.
Sheila (Chila)-my sister. She is around 28 years old and is the worship leader of the church. She's very strong-willed, but so compassionate and patient with our language barrier. She's already taught me so much.
Ashley-Chila's daughter. My neice. She's 12 years old and in 8th grade. One of my best friends so far, Ashley hangs out with us all day long. She's our insider who teaches us new words and speaks extra slowly for us to understand.
Allen-Chila's son. My nephew. Allen is 5 years old and in 1st grade. He's learning English in school and so we exchange words such as numbers and colors. He also loves this game we taught him (the hand slapping game) and we play it constantly. Allen is the cutest, sweetest 5 year old boy.
Paola-Our mom's brother's daughter. She's 9 years old and is also a great friend of ours.
Channel-Our friend's brother. He is 20 also and considers himself our brother. He lives very close and helps us with Spanish a lot.
Katerine- Channel's sister. She is 18 and is our other great friend. It's nice to have friends our age to hang out with and to help us with Spanish.

This culture is so different than America. It's going to be hard to get used to but I love it. Our days so far consist of sleeping, sitting, talking, and eating. Saturday we had 6 meals. Dominican food is different, but our mom is a great cook and overfeeds us every meal. We have rice, beans, and chicken a lot. From my understanding, this is what we eat every day. My favorite thing is ciesta which we get every day for about an hour after lunch. It is wonderful! Yesterday Amy and I went to a huge waterfall that is close to our house with our Dominican friends. I got my first Dominican kiss...the boys here love American girls and while I was walking across and rope bridge over the river one boy planted one on my cheek and ran away before I could say or do anything (don't be jealous Josh-I won't let it happen again.)

It is absolutely beautiful here and the culture is so community oriented. It is wonderful. I think that I'll fit right in. From our house we can see the mountains and it is only a short walk to the waterfall. I'm sure we will go there a lot. The language barrier is the hardest thing so far. I try very hard and talk a lot but also get laughed at a lot. Yesterday I tried to say I was embarrassed but said Estoy muy embarracada. It turns out that this word is not a cognate in Spanish. I actually said I am very pregnant...Then I tried to say I was tired and accidentally said I was married. It'll be an interesting 4 months...

Well I have Spanish class now, but I'll post more later. There is too much to say! God is great and has blessed me with a wonderful family. I am overwhelmed with trying to learn so much, but I have peace about my upcoming time here.

Dios te bendiga!