Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Monday In Santiago

The street outside our hotel is beginning to bustle with the sounds of Tuesday morning as I try to consolidate for you the events of Monday!

First, if your family member is on this trip... we are all well and we are all much more rested than we were when I posted a message on Sunday evening!

Second, we are having a great time!

Morning work was to wash the walls in the large room above the sanctuary that is used for the children's day care program run by Father Hipólito. While Denise and crew scrubbed, Padre H. drove Steve, Martha and Phillip to the paint store. We chose a semi-gloss in a lighter shade of blue than is currently on the walls. After lunch, and a song lesson from Poly, we headed down the stairs to greet the kids. The lesson for today was Moses leading the Hebrew people across the Red Sea and how that demonstrates that God takes care of us. The kids colored either Moses or Pharoah pictures attached to a headband. We distrubuted bandanas to wear under the headbands and the sound of staplers punctuated the general hub-bub of distributing crayons, re-distributing children in the pews and explaining that we only had bandanas for the kids who were actually in attendance!

Highlights shared at our evening meeting all included a reference to how much fun it was to work with the children at vacation Bible school (VBS). We will be applying paint today. I anticipate some photos of the blue mission group!

Monday, June 29, 2009

¡Domingo!

¡Hola, Santa Ana!

Fiona here. It’s Sunday night and our internet has been turned off, so this won’t be posted until Monday. But I’ve got to tell about the day while it’s fresh in my mind! Here goes.

‘Twas a bit of a difficult wake up this morning, we’re all still fairly exhausted. We choked down a delicious breakfast of café con leche, eggs and the FRESHEST mango in the world (such martyrs) and packed into our van, which is built for seven, but held 12 of us just fine (except for those crammed in the center…sorry Sarah and Phillip). Arriving at Cristo Salvador was like coming home. Padre Hipólito remembered those of us who have been before and was delighted to meet our seven new folks.

Church, as usual, was an absolute delight. We start off clapping with some super-excelente Dominican songs, which is sort of how you get the feel of the church. There were plenty of familiar faces, and I was delighted when two of them, named Rosanna and Lilian-Maria, came to sit with us. The peace would be familiar to any regular St. Anne’s attendant, as the church chaotically erupts into a noisy hug-fest (it’s always been my favorite part ☺). Padre Hipolito talked about (among other things) the importance of giving, no matter what hand you’ve been dealt. There is a huge amount of gratitude and appreciation for our presence and the work St. Anne’s does to get us all here. So, GO YOU GUYS!

Soon after we were presented with yet another heavenly meal, which we humbly scarfed, and took to playing catch-up. It was wonderful to talk with Padre Hipolito, his wonderful wife Dulcina, and his granddaughters Lilian-Maria and Rosanna. A bit of a food coma set in then, and we spread out taking naps, gathering around the fan, and playing games on Phillip’s iPod Touch. Around 2 we headed back to the hotel for showers, naps, blasting A/C, and general vegging. We finished getting our VBS kit for Monday ready and then sat down for (you guessed it) ANOTHER MIND-BLOWING MEAL. It sounds like I’m overestimating, but I promise I’m not. This eggplant will change your life, unless you’re Matt Miller, in which case it’s plantains.

Towards the end of dinner, Poli (Father Hipolito’s son, another priest), his wife Liliana, and their beautiful kids Lilian-Maria, Rosanna, and Gabriel joined us. It was exactly like a family reunion gone right and it was the final reminder that I was home. Gabriel has become quite taken with his new girlfriend (novia in Spanish, our one and only Sarah Binger!) and I’m sure there will be more romantic updates throughout the week.

As of right now, there is an intense card game going on that I am missing, so I’m done. We are all thinking of you, and being here is just like an extension of the St. Anne’s family.

Peace and love all around,
Fiona.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

A Long Way to Travel, But Dinner Was So Worth It!


The 2009 Dominican Republic Team is on site! We had a very smooth trip - on time flights, all luggage arrived, Ellen put us on the bus and we were checked into the Hotel Colonial with plenty of time before dinner.

When we shared our highlights of the day, dinner was on nearly everyone's list. (We all look exhausted!) We're headed to bed, it's been a long day...but we're ready for tomorrow!

Thank you for your prayers, keep them coming!

One Team In, One Team Out!

As the Philly team says their good byes and prepares to return to St. Anne's, 11 people will be dropped off by family members in the wee hours of Saturday morning to begin their journey from Dulles to Santo Domingo and on to Santiago.

Wikipedia has this entry about the monument shown on the left...

The Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración is a monument in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. It was constructed by Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in the 1940's as an honor to himself. After Trujillo's assassination and the end of his regime, the government changed the name to "Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración" (Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration).

It is located on a hill in the middle of Santiago with spectacular views of the city and surrounding mountains. It also has a surrounding park and it is an attractive place at night where people go to relax.

Saturday evening, those same 11 will be able to look up the hill at the Monumento. There will be stories to tell, check back soon.

Welcome home, Philly crew!

~Martha

Friday, June 26, 2009

Did we make a difference?

Today was our last day and it was fun, but sad. We played outside all day by doing field day activities – soccer, basketball, hopskotch, ring toss, hula-hoop, four-square, tug-o-war, and water balloon toss. We played outside in the afternoon, as well as crafted friendship bracelets, gimp lanyards, and God's eyes. We bonded so much that it was really difficult for all of us to say goodbye. Many of the kids just walked away mad. I guess they've had so many highs and lows in their lives that they've learned to deal that way. Mr. Harrison, the Manor's director, said that we made a difference and that these children will remember us the rest of their lives. We hope to return next year.

- Anne J.

Projectiles

Today is Thursday, our second-to-last last day in Philly. In order to give the kids something to do for the rest of the summer, we taught them how to make paper airplanes. We then realized that we had given them a skill that involved potential eye-poking, but they loved them anyways. As excited as I am to go home, I hate to leave the kids at the Stenton Family Homeless Shelter. Some of the kids may be a little troubled, but most of them are amazing. The kids have experienced things that a lot of adults will never have to experience, but they still come in everyday with a smile on their face and a positive attitude. If more people could see these kids in action, maybe the world would be a better and more positive place. I cannot wait to go in tomorrow to see what these children can do during field day!

-Kelley F.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Wednesday

Yesterday was a pretty good day. In the beginning we worked with the kids and made bean bags and built towers out of cups while Pierre attempted to teach some willing children how to juggle. I'm not sure if giving children projectiles while others were building cup towers was the smartest of ideas. It was like a big carnival game to the kids. In the afternoon we went outside with the children and I played basketball and football with some of the older kids. I ended up on a team of all 10 year olds and below while the other team had three 12-15 year olds. We ended up winning every game. After that i played football with the smaller kids that had an age range from about 2-5 and I'm going to have to admit that they were just a bit more fun to play with. I think the best part of the day was leaving and knowing that every kid there knew my name.

KJEFF

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Tuesday

Yesterday we went to the shelter and told all the little ones that we were going to make rainsticks. They were ecstatic because we had brought examples and they just loved the sound that they made. Once everyone had finished, we took all the little ones outside on the playground. Most of the children were fine but one little boy named Seth was just having a really bad day. He wouldn't let anybody play with him and whenever we tried to talk to him he would scream and start to kick if we picked him up. Later that day, after we had gone to lunch in a park and gone to the grocery store, we had a pizza party for the older kids. The party was in celebration of the end of the school year. As i was kindly talking to some of the older kids about things, a little kid named Kameron ran straight into me in the worst possible place. I was in a chair quite a long time. As the day wound down we went outside played some basketball and went home. It was a long and tiresome day but, we all had a great time.
Signed by,
Sam A.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Day 3 in Philly

Today was the real start of our mission trip. We arrived at the shelter to be given an entire presentation on the history of the shelter. Mr. Harrison broke our stereotypes of homeless shelters from just being single mothers with young kids to a mix of single men and teenagers. From this we traveled through the tiny halls to the preschool area. All of the kids were eating their snack when we proceeded to meet all of them. They were quite the bunch. Every kid was either excited and maybe a little intimidated to see us but most of them greeted us with the regular, "My name is ˍˍˍˍ, what is yours?” and finished the conversation with “nice to meet you.” Then we started to make masks with the kids. Sabrina, who is in charge of the preschool, thanked us later for doing crafts since they do not have the numbers in staff to support those types of activities. Once those masks were finished with the preschool touch, we proceeded to move onto song and dance while they dried. Kyle, Sam, and I started with some animal sounds once we had gotten them into a circle of chairs. We roared like a lion and meowed like a cat, pleasing the kids greatly. After we all joined in the familiar song of 'Old McDonald had a Farm' then taught them the girl scout's very own 'The Little Duck Song' and finished with 'The Wheels on the Bus.' They had been sitting too long and we were hurting from the miniature chairs, so we got the masks and had a parade on their playground. Every kid was joyed to run around and show of their mask. After the long haul around the playground, we got to have free time on it and play with the kids. We all felt like little kids again. Some of us set up a line for the slide but ending up in a bit of a cutting problem. Some of us were trolls under the bridge. Some of us were wanted to just walk around with them holding their hands. And some of us were given the pleasure to push people around on bikes. The black mats that make up the floor of the playground escalated the all ready hot day, making me at least sweat. Also since the bridge was tall enough for the kids to bike through, we got to run after them crawling under it. After a long fun filled free time, we had to go inside to wait for their parents to pick them up. Thus ending our first enjoyable day of preschoolers.

Signed by
Joel W

Monday, June 22, 2009

Smells, Bells, and Jazz

After a quick breakfast at the hostel, we put on our Sunday finery and headed to the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas to worship.

AECST was founded by Absalom Jones, the first African-American Episcopal priest. The combination of incense and "Wade in the Water" made for a unique, but still familiar experience for us. (No, Fr. Jim, we didn't get up and dance - but we felt you there with us in spirit!) High church and Lift Every Voice and Sing work surprisingly well together. David would have been jealous of the jazz band - I think there were at least 10 musicians, not to mention the male singers that accompanied them. Fr. Shaw and Fr. Bonney welcomed us, along with the rest of the congregation - and look forward to seeing us again next year.

After stopping by Starbuck's (we're not roughing it here!), we visited the Philly Museum of Art and the Reading Terminal Market. We definitely will be headed back to the market again for pretzels, crepes, BBQ, and shopping. We've practiced our songs, cut out the animal masks, planned games and crafts - generally, have prepared for whatever we might find tomorrow.

Compline and a good night's sleep are next on the agenda. As the NZ prayer book says -
What is done, is done;
What is not done, is not done;
Let it be.

~Anne J.

Philly Team - Anne Checking In!

We had a typical drive on I-95... much longer than it needed to be! Once we arrived, we couldn't check in yet so we planned our meals and headed to the grocery store where we raced to see which team could finish up their list first!

We still couldn't check in, so we started our first team-building event - a shopping trip to Target.

We checked in to the youth hostel which is a really old mansion in a park (www.philahostel.org). We planned for Sunday and then started dinner. There was another large group, so cooking was sort of hectic. The non-cookers did the cleaning.







The next team-building event started... playing poker (see picture)! The only rule that was made was that there was to be no gambling. Other team members (adults) decided to read!

~Anne J.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Summer Starts With a Mission Trip

School's out for summer vacation!

Summer vacation means many things: sleeping late; rolling out of bed early for swim team practice; the cheerful tune of the ice cream truck; Wednesday grill nights up at the church; reading for fun instead of homework.

At St. Anne's, summer vacation means mission trips!

The first trip of the season hits the road on Saturday morning. A group of teens and adults will head to Philadelphia for a week of work and play at a family shelter. On Sunday, they are hoping to worship at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, founded in 1792 by Absalom Jones.

The Philadelphia team will return just hours after the Dominican Republic team leaves on June 27 for St. Anne's 10th annual trip to that country.

But it doesn't end with those trips. "Mission Possible," St. Anne's mission-trip-of-the-day outreach program for our twelve and thirteen year-olds and the Dungannon mission team will hit the road in late July and early August.

Stay tuned!