We'll be heading out this afternoon for our rural villages. Mine is called Gajo de la Yuca, and my understanding is that it's a coffee growing community. I'm looking forward to getting out there, meeting our families, and getting settled. All of us will be staying with families throughout the town. I'm hopeful for our team, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to gel together, and I'm hopeful that God will be working. I pray only that we are receptive to the Spirit and to the great project upon which he has set us.

I am constantly amazed that God invites is into the project of the Kingdom of God, and tells us that we are vital to his work. That we are so involved in something that is greater than any of us could dream of and that any of us are capable. God is good.

The adventure of getting to know people

So it´s interesting talking to people and figuring out where people come from. That is, what´re their goals and expectations. Because not everyone comes here with the same goals and expectations, and when that happens, things sometimes get awkward or there´s disappointment.

Some people are here strictly because they wish to provide medical care to people who lack medical care. And there´s nothing wrong with pure philanthropy, but it also tends to shut out the other emotional experiences of being involved in the culture of lives of the people living here. If we come with a perception of people with special training coming to provide care to people who are lacking, we certainly miss out on the possibility of learning from the people around us. We´re more closed off to being challenged, and being broken and allowing ourselves to feel the pain and joy of those around us. Sometimes our training is a detriment because it functions as a shield for our emotions.

We´ll see how it all turns out. We have some set small group reflection times, and it´ll be interesting to see how those all turn out. Also, not everyone here is comes from a Christian, or any faith background. This isn´t necessarily bad, but I´ve always felt that faith gives you a context for your actions, and gives you a context for how you synthesize experience. Religion gives us the necessary vocabulary and insight to try to know people on a personal, spiritual level. I think it also allows us to truly feel the pain and brokenness that we may encounter, and you can only start to feel someone´s brokenness when you are able to feel it yourself.

I´ll stop rambling now.

Pictures of the ILAC Center

As I said, I would try to get some pictures of the center here. The first is the central courtyard. It´s actually not a very good shot, it doesn´t give any context for the layout of the place, I´ll try to get better ones.

They also have a fairly large outdoor area with a small dirt track for people to run. Running as a past time really is unheard of in Latin America, and I´m sure they just included it here because Americans come all year round.

 I can´t for the life of me figure out how to get these pictures to line up side by side. Maybe someone can figure it out. I have other random pictures in the gallery.

Here´s us trying to get a crash course in Spanish. We have a Jesuit visiting us who had lived in Spain for a number of years, so he´s been guiding our Spanish lessons, which have mostly been conversations. They also have other classes with Intermediate and Novice.

The center has the real nice courtyards for people to gather and sit around. Weather was cool and had a light breeze, quite comfortable.

Arrived!

Just got to the ILAC center in one of the neighborhoods close to Santiago, Dominican Republic. The facilities here are really quite nice. They have computer access, and the center actually WIFI available here. Could probably technically get VOIP working, but I haven´t played with that at all. I´ll try and get photos up if I get a chance tomorrow.

We´ll be at the ILAC center through the weekend for some orientation type stuff. After that we´ll leave to go to the rural campos. From what I hear, mine is about 3 hours distant from the ILAC center.

I added a Google Maps link below, which hopefully will point it out on the map.

Sitting in Omaha Eppley airport, waiting for to board for the flight to Dallas. It's gonna be a long day of flying. We have a 5 hour layover in Miami.