My Schedule

I realize I haven´t written a blog in a while and it's actually not my fault. I wrote a blog for part of my job and submitted it to the site (mykro.org) but it hasn't been published. Since we are not supposed to "double dip" our blog posts there, I was going to provide a link on this blog. Anyways, in this post I will describe the job that I do here and supply you guys with a couple of pictures.

I am interning with Esperanza International, a HOPE International partner, and my job is to work closely with an organization called Kiva. Kiva is a site that raises funds through donations from people all over the world. I travel around with the Esperanza loan officers and take pictures of the loan-groups as well as interview the group leaders and put their stories on Kiva.

A typical day is like this (actually every day is really different, but this is at least the amount of time each thing takes):
*6:30am get up, breakfast (cornflakes, banana, OJ, everyday)
*7:30amish travel somewhere to go to meetings with a loan officer
*8:00ish arrive where I need to be
*8:30 the loan officer arrives where I need to be (sometimes I wait 15 minutes, sometimes I wait an hour...but it really doesn't bother me, I just go with the flow of things)
*9:00 get to meeting, do interview(s) of clients and take pictures
*10-12 go to other meetings and do the same
*12pm return to office, start on the next day's schedule
*1pm lunch
*2pm-5:30pm work on the next day's schedule, post stories, journals, and pictures collected throughout the day to the website. Also I sometimes do typical "intern" things like printing receipts and data entry.
*5:30-6:30 go to the gym that is a few blocks from the office (40 pesos to work out...thats like $1.10, this is actually the "glass half full" typical day, I dont go to the gym as much as I should, I usually just work out at our apartment)
*6:30-8:30 go to the apt, shower, start making dinner, eat dinner
*8:30-10:30 "read" in my room. I usually fall asleep for a half an hour in an awkward position before I wake up, turn the light off, and go to bed for good.

Here is a typical weekend:
*Friday night usually just chilling at the apartment. The dude I live with works late a lot of times, and I am usually content resting up for the next couple of days.
*Saturday I usually go to the beach and there are sometimes a random assortment of other intern-type workers who are able to go too. It is nice that there is a good beach 5 minutes away, and two other great ones within 45 minutes and 35 pesos (about a dollar)
*Saturday evening- there is a group of people my age from the church I've been going to that I hope to get involved in...I actually haven't gone yet... (apparently "jovenes" in the DR means late high school/college aged people, while in Ecuador it meant late high school until you are like 30)
*Sunday: sometimes beach, sometimes just chilling. 6pm= church

That is a normal week. I've only been here about 5 weeks and still hope to do a lot more and develop relationships here. Your prayers are greatly appreciated. The added pictures are a couple recent shots taken at loan meetings (Schooler if you're reading this, the puppy pic is for you).

If you guys don´t have Spring Break plans and want a free place to stay in the Caribbean that is 5 minutes from an awesome beach, come and visit me. Seriously.

I will leave you with a passage from the Bible that has meant a lot to me recently:
1 Peter 5:6-11

Sometimes I wish I could just know it all right now…

Something I have been learning down here is to wait. I have a lot of expectations for being down here and a lot of things I want to learn and improve in. I think for the first couple of weeks I was frustrated that I didn’t learn everything already.

I realized that I need to be patient and wait. My Spanish will improve over time with practice and study, both of wich I need to be willing to do. I need to work hard at improving in ways I can with both learning Spanish and getting better at my job.

Something interesting about the Spanish language is that they have the same word for both “to hope” and “to wait”, esperar. That word really has taught me about the interconnected relationship between hoping and waiting. Many times in the Bible it says to “wait upon the Lord” and I think that involves a lot of hope.

Isaiah 40:31 NAS says, “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”

Some other versions say “those who hope in the Lord” showing further the connection. I guess where I’m at right now is that I need to put my hope in God and wait on him.

So in terms of Spanish frustrations, developing relationships at work and church, knowing a lot about my job, I may not be where I want to be now, but I know that with patience and the right perspective it will be getting better every day.

What I did at work this week:

I traveled with loan officers and interviewed clients about their loans and how it affected their life and family. It is really cool to interact with the people we are helping and reminds me of the impact we are having.

Major League Baseball Heaven

So if you guys don’t know (or haven’t walked into our family room at my house), I’m a big baseball fan. While I was in Ecuador, the only sport people cared about was soccer and the national hero was a speed-walker. My Ecuador experience was great, but could have been better if there was baseball.

So now I’m in the Dominican Republic. They love baseball here. Not only is it the national sport, but it’s really the only sport people value here. In that regard, I fit in quite well. I saw on the Esperanza website about a month before I came down that Jose Reyes, one of the best shortstops in the big leagues, worked with Esperanza to build a youth baseball field.

Norberto, the director of the Puerto Plata branch of Esperanza and also the guy I share an apartment with, has some MLB connections (kinda). First of all, Esperanza was started by Dave Valle, a former player in the majors who played for about 12 years. His son actually lived where I live now last fall and is a pretty sweet guy.

Since Esperanza’s main goal is to help people, people like giving money to us, and especially some wealthy businessmen. Norberto told me that one time on a HOPE trip (where donors from Esperanza’s partner HOPE come down and check out what we’re doing) a group had the owner of a pretty big bank and also the guy who was the co-owner of the Texas Rangers with George W. Bush (that was the rumor).

Norberto is from San Pedro, which is where Sammy Sosa and a lot of other players are from. He said that his dad played softball with Sosa’s brothers and went to school with Robinson Cano (of the Yankees) as well as George Bell’s sons. Apparently he even ate dinner at Alfonso Soriano’s house when Soriano helped out with Esperanza (scroll all the way to the bottom of this link), but Soriano was out of the country (Norberto said he met his mom). Felix Pie (the guy the Cubs just traded) lives right by the Esperanza office in San Pedro, used to date one of Norberto’s friends.

My hope is to meet a player or two and get a picture with them. We shall see what and who the next three months bring my way.

Some cool things I hope to do while here (besides meet some baseball players):
-meet the kid I sponsor with Compassion International and volunteer with them
-go to Haiti on a HOPE Trip
-find a gym and work out a few of times a week
-keep improving my Spanish
-contribute a lot at work

Stuff I would appreciate prayer for:
-That I could make a difference here spiritually and contribute at work
-to really grow as a person here
-that I could also find direction in life after I'm done here