The Trautwein Family: December

Week 2 of December started with church at Nueva Vida, where Vic is an elder...

And then a picnic lunch to Salto Biguate with Van Der Molens and the Rosada family (Vijo and Chanina, directors of the Ark, and their kids -Jose Imer, Rut, Josias)- one of the handful of local waterfalls!

Chase and Jesse... the water was low, so it was fun to play!

The day included a mud bath (below left pic) - the doctor side of me was not too sure about this. Allison, on the right below, is a high school grad from Wheaton, IL who is living with us in our in-law apartment this year and working at ANIJA teaching English and helping with sponsorship. She also helps with our home school a handful of hours a week.

Micah, Rut and Mariana...

Okay, here is a lesson in Dominican cuisine... no meal is complete unless there is rice! Vijo has maybe lived through two or three days in his life without eating rice at the mid-day meal (the big meal of the day here). So, since we knew by feeding the poor man a simple American sandwich (which are basically not eaten here!) we would be starving him... we brought along some rice, to top off his ham and cheese! Chanina was totally behind the idea!

Vijo received this with a great laugh... and gratefully ate it and asked for another! Dominicans LOVE to laugh - medicine for the soul!

Vijo and Vic in the waterfall!

Luke, Chase, Leslie (me), Micah, Vic, Samuel and Jesse...

Tuesday morning found Vic on the road to Caraballo- to the Park Care Center - where we just completed a new dining hall. They had been cooking and eating in one of the three classrooms... and with this new comedor we can put more kids into the program! We hope to build a bathroom soon... right now they function with a makeshift set-up. There are 142 kids

in this program. that is a year and a half old... we have hopes to take in many, many more.

We have a Kids Alive (North American group) of the wild white elephant party - which took place Tuesday night at our house. We had a great dinner and everyone brought Christmas cookies to share, played some games and started into the fun of white elephant gifts. We noted that the kids have grown in our 4 and a half years here... there were no tears!

Micah was blessed by Jonathan with a prescription pair of sunglasses!
Our whole "North American" Kids Alive group on our front porch...

Wednesday we were blessed to have Carmen and her daughter Nanny and Jan Burkey over for dinner, to share some time with Jeff, Mariana and Nic. Carmen is part of the heart of ANIJA - she is the cook and mother to many! She also cooks for our teams. Nanny graduated from high school last year, is working with Jan out in the Palo Blanco Care Center for the year with hopes to start university next fall. She wants to be a pediatrician - God will use her mightily! She is an amazing young woman of great character - loving, compassionate, diligent, and full of joy! Jan just got back from a furlough trip to the States... she is the founder and director of the Palo Blanco project (and a whole lot more after 16 years here!!!... that is another story...).

Thurdsay Vic went over to Constanza... only 30 miles distance, but 1 and a half hours by time! Part of the drive is through the mountains south of us... one of my favorite roads in the country.

Lee and Nancy Lewis, friends from Wheaton Bible Church have been here about two years leading teams and constructing The Ark Constanza - our third orphanage on the island. It opened on August 30 and is now home to 4 rescued kids. The house parents have 3 kids of their own, so there are 7 kids all together.

This is a neat fulfillment of a dream Pastors Angel and Jacquiline have had for years... God is good. This picture looks down into the valley where the town lies. You can see the orphanage in the middle of this photo- a grassy area surrounded by a wall with four homes )one blue, one green). Work teams have brought funds and labor to build this... an amazing thing to watch.

A new building for CECAINI (the 5 year old day care center that sees 150 kids a day) is under construction now. We also have a woodworking vocational program there.

Thursday night was the annual Christmas lettere assembly line! We talked about doing this our first years here... when getting a stamp on the letter in the right place was very stressful work for a 4 year old! Now we have many capable hands and the work is fun!