pobre gatito

It seems like this is becoming my normal life now. Before, I had to reconvince myself every day that I was still in fact here in this different world. I’ve started waking up and actually expecting everything to be in Spanish. It’s gotten a little easier, but progress is hard to see when you experience it every step of the way. But others assure me that my Spanish has gotten better which is encouraging. Classes are going well. I have about 3 hours of homework every night, but it’s not hard to get done because this is my only obligation. The struggle for me is to balance my time between homework and spending time in relationship with my family.

The culture here is incredible. If ever anyone needs something, a helping hand is outstretched. Since we are part of the Pentecostal church that my mom pastors, every member considers us part of their family. Also, the community here is a small town feel. Everyone knows everyone. Already, almost everywhere I go I am greeted by a familiar face. While walking alongside the road, we get multiple offers for rides. It is not uncommon to see a family of four on one “moto” (a dirt bike equivalent that is very prevalent here), while America is teeming with SUVs each carrying only one person. Here people make to-do lists for the day, but as soon as another person, unannounced, interrupts the planned course of events and stops by to say hi, Dominicans are quick to drop whatever they are doing and just spend time in the present in community with others. In America, we are driven to cross off every last line of that list and will neglect relationships in order to do so. While my parents and Amy and I are the only people that actually live at our house, there are always at least 8 people here at any given time. Work takes on a whole different meaning here. At least with the people from church that I have encountered, work is for God. There are currently at least 4 different men who gave up their vocations for weeks in order to build an addition onto our church. Even if it means taking a cut in wages for a long period of time, they will do God’s work first with no pay. It is this selfless attitude that keeps the community strong. Another student in our group told me that a few days ago she and a friend were walking down the street when they saw a woman sitting on her porch eating dinner. As soon as the woman saw them, she immediately called out to them to come up and have some food. She proceeded to hand over her fork to literally share her dinner off her very own plate. This is the Dominican Republic. This is loving your neighbor, even the neighbor of a different skin color whom you have never met. I don’t even know who my neighbors are back home. We live in different worlds. Here, your neighbor is as good as your own blood. Truly the people here understand God’s sacred idea of living in community with one another. Experiencing this culture is making me think a lot about how I want to live within American society but not as American society lives.

I know stories are always fun to hear. If you do not have a strong stomach, stop reading now. Maybe someone can explain to me how this is possible upon my return, but it’s really gotten me thinking about biology. We have lots of animals here, our favorite of which is a tiny gatito (kitten) of only 6 months. Amy and I named her Stella, and every night while we sat and did our Spanish homework we would end up captivated by little Stella four hours on end. Sad story. Saturday morning, our brother was backing his jeep out of the driveway, and failed to look both ways. Our poor Stella got completely run over by the tire. Anyone who heard this would automatically think that she had died on the spot, but on the contrary, she lived through the tragedy! Amy and I had not known that all of this had happened and didn’t see her until Sunday morning. She slowly crept out from behind the refrigerator while we were eating breakfast and we soon learned what had happened. This is the best physical description of our cat that I can give: Her body is one inch thick now from the tire passing over her entirely, with the exception of her potbelly that drags the ground where all of her organs were squished down into a giant tangled up mass. Her knees on her back legs are inverted. And the worst of it is that most of her intestines were squished out in the whole process and are still either laying on the ground in the driveway or are still hanging behind giving her the illusion of having two tails. Amy and I were sure she would die within a few days at the longest, but somehow she’s a fighter and can still walk and eat as normal. We told our family to finish her off because she was suffering and every single one of them merely assured us that she will live, for didn’t you know cats have 7 lives?! At first I argued with them and thought they were all out of their minds, but this is day 4 ½ now and it is the first time I find myself actually believing that somehow cats do have an uncanny ability to live through hopeless circumstances. Across cultures, cats are said to have more than one life, though the number differs. The question is how was this rumor started and how did it travel from country to country even across seas? If anyone knows, please enlighten me.

In other news, we found a spider the size of my fist in our shower yesterday and a chicken in it today. That was a new experience. I’ll keep you posted with other forms of wildlife that happen to wander in there in the future.

That’s all for now. Keep praying for our group. We’ve had a few people sick from parasites already so pray for health. And pray for us to continue to deepen relationships with the people in this beautiful country.

Hasta pronto!