New iphone and new school year

So I put my old iphone in a sack of rice and waited three days for it to dry. It dried and surprisingly did turn on but would only work if it was connected to electricity. I was bummed :(
I went ahead and purchased another iphone and turned my frown around :) I simply could not go back to a normal phone! You can do so much more with an iphone! In just the time that I didn’t have an iphone my productivity dropped a few points. I am constantly checking my emails, using the gps, to do lists, and googling during class when I don't understand a concept. It's knowledge at your finger tips!

I started classes Monday, the 24th. I am taking four classes, physical science, California’s real estate principles, theory of economic thought, and contemporary development planning. So far I am enjoying all my classes, except for physical science. Physical science is basically a combination of physics and chemistry. Even though the teacher is the sweetest thing his lectures are so boring! I sometimes literally feel the need to slam my head against the desk to keep myself awake. So with this science course I am going to try to just get by with a decent grade. But for my other three classes I am approaching them as investing in tools that will help me in the future, in other words I wan to learn something practical and not only go to class to pass the course.

-Maira

iphone in the toilet

So I forgot to mention earlier… I dropped my phone in the toilet earlier today… So I am going to wait a few days for it to dry and hope that it still works. So if you want to get a hold of me please send me an email: mairaflores1033@pointloma.edu or mairaflores1@hotmail.com

I'm in San Diego

First off I want to apologize for not posting sooner. As some of you might know now, the past few weeks before leaving the Dominican Republic were quite hectic. I was working long hours in the fields conducting interviews so I had no or limited internet access.

I returned to the San Diego, Friday August 7th @ 11:30pm. Since I’ve landed I been busy meeting up with friends, hanging out with family, and starting work.

I am still in denial, I can’t quite grasp that I am back in the United States. There has been so much going on around me that I have been caught up in the excitement of being back and haven’t really had the time to myself to debrief about my experience. I hope I can do so this weekend.

But here our some events that have happened in my life this past week:
On Monday I had lunch at Panera with Jocelyn, I helped her move, and then we headed to church. At church I gave a talk about poverty to Pathways’ Jr. High/ High School students who were conducting a 30hour famine à (http://www.30hourfamine.org/). The group of roughly eight students, impressively raised $2,200 to help World Vision fight hunger. After our talk I went to a volleyball game to watch Anthony play, he was definitely the star of the game :D

On Tuesday morning my friend Aida gave birth to twins , Stephanie and Alex, all three of them are healthy. Alex, the first born, is having problems breathing and is hooked up to an oxygen tank but the doctors say its normal for a twin to have respiratory problems, he should be in good shape soon. But please keep him in your prayers. After the hospital visit I headed to the beach to celebrate my sister’s birthday with the family. There I played Frisbee and volleyball with my now 6 year old nephew. I had fun riding around on a bike and the bon fire was definitely a plus (must add that our fire was the biggest on the beach!)

I headed over to Jesenia’s house, my best friend, on Wednesday morning. We had Denny’s for breakfast and then hit the mall. After the mall we met up with more friends and played Rock Band. I have to say I am getting better at playing the drums and the guitar.

On Thursday I woke up at 6:30am to go help my friend Jocelyn prepare her classroom for the new semester. We organized all the drawers and cleaned a lot of her supplies (she’s a biology, chemistry, physics, and Spanish teacher) so believe me there was a lot to do! In the evening I headed back to work for the first time since I left in May. As soon as I entered the nursery’s door, I was happily greeted by Aiya. Even though Aiya is only one she still remembered who I was after three months, she ran up to me excitedly waving her hands and then proceeded to hug me. That really made my day.

This morning, Friday, I went back to my second job for the first time since I left. I am here in the Armenian Center for International Development catching up with changes, emails and doing as much as I can before the school year starts.

For those that are reading this abroad I thought it would be cool (maybe a little jerkish) to tease you on what I’ve been eating since I left the DR.
Denny’s
Panera
Soupplantation
Chipotle
Homemade Mexican food
Italian Food
Barbecue- Veggies on Skewers, Veggie hamburgers
Ice Cream- mmm
Doritos
Okay the list is too long I have to stop… haha I am just excited that I am not eating the same thing over and over again (I used to have every day for lunch; Peruvian beans, white rice, and oven baked plantains).

Love,
Maira

Haiti

I really wanted to expand on how I fet about my trip to Haiti here but time has become my scarce commodity. But I hope you can enjoy the pictures.


The Citadelle Laferrière, the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere and designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The Citadel, along with the nearby Sans-Souci Palace, was built in 1805 by Henri Christophe, a key leader during the Haitian slave rebellion, after Haiti gained independence from France at the beginning of the 19th century.

The walls of the fortress itself rise up 130 feet from the mountaintop, and the entire complex, including cannonball stocks, yet excluding the surrounding grounds, covers an area of 108,000 square feet. The first portion of the trail is seven-miles up hill, I was excited and hoping I could hike all the way there, but got tired half way and took a horse…

(once we got to the top we had p&J's for lunch)

(We made it down!)

I have a little more than a week left here...

-Maira

An update on last weekend

On Friday, Jon and I headed towards Santo Domingo in the morning. We dropped by the Administration office to say our farewell to Kayla. Kayla was one of the persons that interviewed me before I got accepted into this internship program. She has been working with Esperanza for over two years and has done an exceptional job.

Later that day we caught a bus to Samana where we took another gua gua (local small mini-van) to Las Galleras. There we ate at a pizzeria and then took a midnight swim on the beach. The water was warm, there was a cool breeze, and a full moon; it was just perfect.

We were a group of 6 volunteers--all coming from different areas, except Nate (the one in the hat); he is living in Samana.


It rained Friday night and early Saturday morning; luckily it cleared up and we were still able to carry out our beach plans for the day. We rented a truck with two drivers and headed to Playa el Rincon. The beach was secluded and the water was calm, warm, clear, and shallow, but on the other side of a cliff there were waves. We were in the water most of the day, had chicken fights, and ate lunch there. (I even tried fish!)

On the way there we met up with a lady who asked for a ride to the beach. She was selling coconut bread. Her bread was delicious. We asked her if she had heard of Esperanza International, and surprisingly she said she had. She had gotten a loan about two years ago to start her coconut bread business. Because her business took off, she is now not part of a bank but can keep it running with her profits. She did state that her husband was currently receiving a loan from Esperanza to help him with his business. How random and cool is that?



We got a hotel on Saturday in Samana, and in the moring headed towards Cayo Levantado, a little island of the coast of Samana. The island was beautiful! Doesn’t it look like a post card? The only thing that was expensive was the food. They wanted to charge us between $12-25 USD for food! And of course I protested :] I went over to where the workers were eating and asked if we could pay under the table for cheaper food. Initially they gave us a high quote for making us food but I pulled my “I am a poor volunteer" speech and they lowered their prices to 300 pesos (about half of what other places were charging). The food turned out to be delicious; we had rice, beans, salad, fish, and drinks.







The kids playing SWAP-- they love the game. They have to walk around the chairs and when I say SWAP they sit, whoever is left standing picks a card from my hand and reads it (review from the lesson).


'Till next time...

Tiny update

So I had an amazing weekend! I went to Samana with five other volunteers. I will hopefully post pictures of this trip later. I have a really good story to tell--wish I had more than five minutes to type this up, but I am about to head out to teach English. Since I don’t anticipate having much computer time this week, I wanted to let you all know I was still alive, and also share a little bit about what I am doing. I am currently translating for Breen, a nurse with a public health backgroup that is volunteering for Esperanza. She is from Seattle and is here to give advice to the Esperanza and Caridad clinic. She is also going to write up an update about the services and programs that the clinic provides to help generate donations from the US. We also plan on putting up an art gallery online (the clinic has a bunch of donated paintings from famous artists that did not sell in an auction).

So that is all for now. Much love,
Maira

Happy Monday [=

You know, we always seem to see Monday as a drag, but I am especially thankful for today, even if I didn’t get off to a great start. I woke up late, and there was no electricity. I didn’t have time to eat breakfast, and when I started walking to work it began to rain (and yes--I forgot my umbrella). I eventually got to work (a little wet but I got there), had a devotional, and ate a little bread to calm my stomach, all three a blessing. When it was time for lunch I decided to walk home and make something instead of buying lunch. I was planning on making instant soup, since it’s cheap and easy, plus something hot seemed about right for a rainy day. But my host mom had other plans (did I mention she is 95?!). She was really glad to see me there for lunch; she got really exited because today they were having mainly veggies. She served me what they were having for lunch but excluded the chicken. I had white rice, beans, steamed vegetables, avocado, and a green salad. Her hospitality warms my heart.

I came back to the office, this time with an umbrella, and now I am writing this blog. So as you can see, there are several reasons why I am happy today. The first one, it’s raining and there is a cool breeze; I love the change from the typical hot and humid days. Second, the fact that I woke up late meant that I got more sleep. Yes, there was no electricity, but it always seems to fail at least two to three times a day. This will make me appreciate this scarce resource and use it more wisely when I get back home. I got to spend my lunch time with my host family and didn’t have to pay for a meal.

But most importantly, I am thankful for the opportunity that God gives me to start this week. According to WikiAnswers, about 250,000-300,000 people die in a 24-hour time span, so I am thankful that I am alive and healthy I am thankful for this Monday.

Pictures of Batey Caimito and my grocery store

These are typical roads to a batey. In this case we were heading to Caimito, one of the poorest bateys I have visited.


Caimito, to my surprise, has been the best bank meeting I have attended thus far. They gathered shortly after we arrived, and the meeting started on time. All 30 members were accounted for; if someone was missing they had a written excuse with a representative there. Everyone was respectful when someone was talking, and when it came time to collect the money every group had theirs to the dime (no one even needed change!). But they also knew how to have a good time; once the meeting adjourned we had a birthday celebration. We had cake and soft drinks and enjoyed each other's company.



This is the home/business of Maria Vital in Caimito. Maria is in her mid-fifties and started her grocery store two years and seven months ago. Maria is Haitian, and came to the DR over 30 years ago to accompany her husband who migrated to work as a sugar plantain worker. Life hasn’t been very easy for Maria, but she states that now that her business has started rolling, her life has totally changed. She tells me that before she had her business she would sit, look at the ground and be sad. “I had nothing to do. I had my hands but couldn’t use them; it’s a lonely and sad feeling.” Now Maria is quite the hard worker, despite her age. In addition to the routine job of keeping the colmado stocked up and running, she sells bread and coconut candy that she herself makes. She says there are days where she starts work at ten in the morning and doesn’t end until midnight, yet she is proud to be able to state, “I work hard and fend for myself." But what is more surprising is that even though Maria is busy, she never fails to attend the literacy course that Esperanza is offering. This is surprising because Maria’s glasses broke and she has trouble seeing, and yet she is still determined to learn how to read and write.





The little boy I am holding is from Caimito; he just turned 2 months old. He really liked me! He was fussy around other people, but when he was with me he kept on laughing. (I think he had a little crush, haha)

As you can see from the picture, apperantly I have my own Colmado (grocery store) =]


Thanks for following this blog and for your much appreciated prayers. I hope you guys have a great Fourth of July weekend; be safe and have a blast.

A lot less talk and more pics

This is the clinic that I am visiting, and the one I wrote about earlier, which is co-partnered with Esperanza. Because I am treated as an Esperanza employee, all my doctor visits are free. I am only charged a minimal fee for laboratory tests (for both tests I had done I paid $40 pesos, about a buck fifty).


Picture by the ocean in Santo Domingo. I went with Claire and a group to church in Consuelo and then headed to the capital for lunch (about an hour drive from San Pedro). I had a plate of spaghetti and an amazing cup of coffee!


The school where I teach. The kids get a graduation at the end of the year once they are able to read (instead of the typical kindergarten graduation). I have some great footage of this; maybe i'll post it up on YouTube eventually.




The following are pictures of some associates that I interviewed. I wish I had a little more time to post the whole stories, but I hope you enjoy this glimpse.

Nilcia Dubway owns a grocery store in Boca Chica. She has been doing this type of business for 24 years now; this particular grocery store is 14 years old. She has recently become an Esperanza associate; this is her second loan. She is asking for prayer. Please pray for her mom and brother's health, and for marital problems.


Nadege also lives in Boca Chica. She is a clothing designer, but at this time she is focusing only on making t-shirts. With her first loan from Esperanza she was able to buy a sewing machine and cloth to start producing the t-shirts. She goes to Santo Domingo to sell them in the mercado.


Anna is Haitian-Dominican; she sells new and lightly used clothes with her mom in the Boca Chica mercado. Even though Anna is very busy, she still takes time to give back to her community. She teaches both a literacy course for adults and a sewing class. Anna is asking for prayer because she is currently unable to have kids.

I am feeling much better :D

I am taking antibiotics and anti-inflammatory/pain killers. (5 a day!) So I am taking these as a trial to see if I get better; after a week I will go back to the doctor for another check up. I am feeling better about the pain; even though it’s not completely gone it’s a lot less severe than before. Thank you for all your prayers. I’ll keep you posted.

A small problem

I was debating if I should post something about this or not. Even though I am still not fully convinced it’s a good idea, I want to let my friends and family know what I am going through right now so they can pray for me. I’ve been having some intense bruise-type pain in my lower back. At first I didn’t think much of it, assuming that it must be a minor injury that I incurred while riding dirtbikes (the roads are very bumpy). But the pain has gotten worse to the point that it’s uncomfortable to sit, lay and sometimes even walk. I’ve visited a doctor yesterday but to my disappointment she didn’t seem to know much about it. (She suggested it was from my mosquito allergy; I disagree.) I saw another doctor today who thinks it might be a cist, and therefore sent me off to get a blood and urine test. I have the results now and I am waiting to go see the doctor when Esmeida returns from an assessment in Boca Chica. From reading the results it seems that I have low Hemogram HCT a 35.6% when the average is 37-50%. I also have a slightly high number of neutrophils 70.7% (average is 45-70%), and finally a low count of Lymphocytes 20.6% (average is 25-40%). But from what I can study in the results this still points out to be normal. By being normal it does point closer to the probability of the supposed “injury” to be a cist. So I might have to do a sonogram and if it proves to be a cist there is a chance it could be malignant (cancer) and would need to be removed with surgery.

Anyway I hope this isn’t scaring my parents; I really don’t think it is going to be bad, and if it is then it is in God’s plan. But as for now I am just waiting to go see the doctor. I wanted to throw this out there so you can pray for me.

Thanks. In this journey together,
Maira

Life is good despite the struggles :D

Note: This was written yesterday, couldn't post because we were out of electricity.

So it’s been a while since my last blog. Please forgive me. I am going to try to summarize as much as I can from this past week.

I am a little more organized now as far as job description and tasks go. I have mapped out my goals for the week and share them with the loan officers in the weekly Monday meeting. There we plan how I can accomplish my tasks more effectively. They have also trusted me with a list of their daily activities so I can easily see where the officers are traveling to and can ask with more confidence to join them when I am free.

The English course I am teaching is going well. The kids are still very interested and engaged. They have improved significantly since the first class, they can master the colors, numbers (1-20) and the alphabet, they are still practicing and improving basic greetings, days of the week, how to tell time, and body parts. I absolutely love teaching the class that I am beginning to question if I want to work with kids as a career…
(Some of the kids hw they turned in)

I have become good friends with Milan. She has taken me in as her daughter. On Sunday I literally spent all day with her and Milenia. She picked me up at 9am from my home. We had fruit for breakfast, what they call “zapote” a combination of papaya and cantaloupe. She prepared a special meal for lunch that included rice, beans, chicken, and a salad. After lunch we visited the hospital, MUSA, where we went to see two of her neighbors, one of them had a stroke while and the other got both of his legs badly injured with a machete. I helped her with some homework, she is getting her Masters from the Universidad del Caribe. All three of us spent some girl time before church, Milan was busy doing her hair, I was getting a manicure and Milenia was doing her own pedicure. We went to Iglesia Jerusalem for worship at 6:30pm. The church is 80 years old and really big; it’s two stories and has at least one thousand members. The service itself really reminded me of a church I used to visit when I was younger, Llamada final (Final Calling). It’s a very concert type of service, where they worship and dance for most of the service. I really enjoyed it.


But let me skip back to Friday and Saturday… On Friday we got a new volunteer, Jonathan. Jonathan is from Los Gatos (close to San Jose) and studies at UC Berkley. He is shadowing me until he is placed at his permanent office in La Romana. To celebrate the special occasion, we took him out to the Restaurant Amable where they serve pastels. Pasteles are very similar to tamales but instead of being corn mash, they are plantain mash filled with meat (in my case mixed veggies). They were delicious! On Saturday I went to a graduation ceremony at the Adventist church next door, Esmeida’s son graduated from high school. I hung out with Jonathan for practically the whole day, showing him around our local area and eating some Jun Jun (shaved ice with fruit syrup).

Before I forget, Wednesday of last week I spent the entire afternoon visiting the complimentary services that Esperanza offers. I visited the Esperanza Clinic in San Pedro, a tech center, and a literacy course. The Esperanza clinic began in ’98 in conjunction with the Episcopal Church. At that time there were only 5 people working at the clinic and 8 full time staff at Esperanza. Now that clinic is huge, they employ 43 full time staff. Besides being a general clinic they also have an AIDS treatment/counseling center, an injury rehabilitation center, a pediatric center, and bring in well known specialist on a periodic basis. The computer center is also co-partnered with the Episcopal Church. The center is split into two main rooms, an internet room that is free and open to the community, and a computer course room. Courses are taught for six months, twice a week for a total of 3 hours a week. Courses teach two months of Word, two months of Power Point, and two months of Excel, and they have an option to take a month of Internet. All of this goodness for only 450 DR pesos ($12.86 USD)! They have a 20 student cap per instructor; they currently have 150 students and employ 8 instructors. Personally I was amazed with the up to date technology, cleanliness, and professionalism of the center. And to end the day, I visited the literacy course. That literacy course will forever be in my mind. I was astonished to hear and see the women read from small books only after a three month course. There were about 11 women in the room from 15 active participants. When they first started almost all the women couldn’t write their names much less distinguish the letters of the alphabet. Now all the women can write their names and slowly but surely can read and write. The oldest women in the group was71 years old, half of them were Haitian immigrants, and all but 4 were current Esperanza associates. About 43% of our associates are illiterate, but all of them are given the opportunity to attend a local literacy course. Esperanza partners with local churches for a location, pays for a local woman to receive training to be an adult teacher, gives all the literacy materials and pays for a monthly stipend for teacher.

But this journey hasn’t been all fun and rosy. I attended a few meetings that were ridiculously long because there was someone that either didn’t show up with the payment or was missing a significant amount to complete their payment. The loan officers are not allowed to collect payments if there is a group that is incomplete. And if payments aren’t collected the meetings cannot be dismissed, everyone has to sit around and wait until the issue is resolved. Fortunately this doesn’t happen frequently but when it does there are a lot of hot, hungry and upset people together, not a nice sight…

Also, remember that sun burn I got at Punta Cana? Well I am peeling now, yeah doesn’t look very attractive… I’ve had a few headaches throughout the week that are probably due to the intense heat. I scraped and cut my right leg on a glass table today, luckily I carry Neosporin so I hope the 3 inch or so cut doesn’t scar. I have some lower back pain that has been giving trouble to sit, lay or even to walk. I plan to visit the doctor either tomorrow or Friday. And lastly, mosquitoes are still aggressively evil! I’ve gone through 5 or 6 bottles of repellant, today I have to buy a new bottle since I am running low and don’t want to risk running out.

But I can’t end on a negative note. Despite my physical discomforts I am happy here. I enjoy my host family. I am also becoming good friends with people in the office and at the school. Some associates that I interviewed have confirmed my theory that Christian microfinance changes lives both financially and spiritually. There are a few people that through their actions are continuously inspiring me to continue searching for my passion. I still don’t know what I am going to do after graduation. I still question what my purpose in life is? What’s my calling, do I have one? Because I don’t know and probably won’t know anytime soon, I will end meditating on Jeremiah 29:11. I see this verse every time I enter Esperanza’s doors, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future’”.


(I can't help playing with the babies, they are so cute! This is Ana, her mom is an associate in Punta Cana)

Two cutties from the English course I am teaching

They knew how to sing this song better in English than in Spanish!


I absolutely love teaching these kids. They are all very bright and eager to learn. Today we went over 15 minutes of our class time, I lost track of time playing Simon says and "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes". When I said the time an told them, "it's time to go" they booo'd "Nooooooo". I asked them if they wanted to learn more and they said, "Si, Si" so I taught them the days of the week.

Please continue praying for me so I can constantly teach them something new.
Blessings,
Maira

Literacy group I visted, they were praising to end their lesson

They were singing the following:

Demos Gracias

// Demos gracias al Senor, demos gracias. Demos gracias por su amor. //
Por las mananas la saves cantan las alabanzas al Cristo el Salvador.
Y tu, mi hermano, porque no cantas las alabanzas al Cristo el Salvador?

Translated version:
Let’s Give Thanks

// Let’s give thanks to the Lord, let’s give thanks. Let’s give thanks for his love. //
In the morning, the birds sing the praises to Christ the Savior.
And you, my brother, why don’t you sing the praises to Christ the Savior?

Punta Cana, the ride back and thoughts...

On Thursday all of the Esperanza staff and family headed towards Punta Cana. There were over 200 of us coming from 10 different offices both from the DR and Haiti. We stayed at the all inclusive Occidental Grand Flamenco Resort. We had a quick worship/gather up on Thursday where Esperanza directors shared the most memorable successes of the year. Then we all went our separate ways to enjoy our time at the resort.

<-- Our San Pedro Office staff with family

The beach was incredible, white sand, warm water, and light waves.

On Friday I literally spent all day on the beach and in the pool. And as you can imagine I got a pretty bad sun burn. But I think it was well worth it.

<-- Claire (Hope intern Trip coordinator, also PLNU recent graduate), Me, Brande (Spiritual integration intern specialist, from Missouri)

We headed back on Saturday evening, 4pm. An hour into the drive I would say that about half of us were asleep on the bus. We were wakened up by people freaking out and standing up saying they wanted to get off the bus. I was a little alarmed but for the most part nonchalant, apparently the gears weren’t working properly and the bus was having trouble getting up the hills.

Just as this happens the director talks to the driver and orders a new bus to be sent to La Romana the closest town. After she reassures everyone that everything would be fine, we hear a large thump, the bus turns off and we slowly merge to our right. So somehow the battery fell off the bus and caused the bus to stop. After they checked the engine, they noticed that the brakes were completely gone. We were stranded in a little village 40 Kilometers from La Romana. Honestly I thought the brake down was quite adventurous. We were surrounded by cows people riding horses, the teenagers were sitting on the floor eating their smuggled food they brought from the buffet, the kids were picking wild fruits and berries, and the adults were either chatting or arguing with the bus driver. After about a two hour wait we got a little van sent our way, where about 25 people tightly squished themselves in. The second van arrived about 20-30 minutes later, there were about 30 of packed in but neatly seated on small seats or on the ground (our luggage was pulled behind us on a small trailer). We got to San Pedro at 9pm.

So there was a lot of time to ponder about life during the long bus ride. My mind drifted from politics, to addressing social issues, and then skipped to memories with family and friends. Side Note: Okay so if Becky is reading this, I am so sorry I forgot to call you or email you on your Birthday!!! I love you and hope you had an awesome time, you know I’m a ditz and forget everything!

Unfortunately I think I thought too much on the ride back and began to feel really home sick. The big fuzzy spiders and lizards that crawl on my walls really bothered me on Sunday. I began to wish I had warm water to shower in and just as I thought that, the water ran out! ahhh I missed the feeling of clothes right out of the dryer, the taste of tortillas, the smell of febreeze, the convenient invention of wifi, and so much more… But I got a hold of myself took a long deep breath picked up a book and read under my creatively hung mosquito net. After a few tears I was back to my normal self again. Today I woke up at 4:40am, took my three mile walk (round trip), gave thanks for my cold cup of water, picked my sun dried clothes of the electric cables outside, took a quick shower, got dressed, had a Dominican cup of coffee, said good morning to my neighbors, bought two fried danikakes (fried flour) from a street vender (5 Dominican pesos for both, about 14 US cents), walked to work, at work wrote some Kiva journals, and now I am typing this… How could I be upset? Despite all the bumps I have to get used to, there are even more good things every morning I have to look forward to.

Happy Sixth B-day Noe

I wanted to wish my favorite nephew Happy Birthday today. I hope you don’t forget about me! Remember I am the auntie with the iphone who lets you play whenever your parents aren’t around and gives you ice cream at Disneyland…haha

You’re growing too fast!
Remember when you were this little…
You were six months old here and were so glad to return from Texas.



















And this was taken on Tuesday, three weeks ago, the day before I left to Pennsylvania. You are quite the big boy!


I wish I were creative enough to have left a gift wrapped for you… But know that I owe you one when I get back. I hope you have a wonderful day today.


Much love,
Your tia Maira

Noemi: Give him a big hug and a wet kiss from me...

New habits in my life...

There are a couple of good changes that I am doing while I am here in the DR. The first and most important is that I am waking up early. I am waking up every day at 4:45am. I know quite incredible! The people that know me, especially my roommates, know that I am not a morning person! So I am waking up and walking to the pier for exercise (it’s a bout a mile walk I would say, maybe a little more…) Another change is that I am not drinking much coffee (I think I had a total of 4 cups of coffee in the past 3 weeks). I am also reading a significant amount, I have finished one book (The Poor will be Glad by Peter Greer) so far, and have two more to go. Oh and my daily meals average about $2 per day (half the world lives on less than $2 day)…

So, last week I wrote that I would begin teaching English at Tu Hogar Cristiano, Milan Tapia’s school. So this is the update. I taught around 30 kids on Monday. It was a one hour class and I had kids ranging from 8 years old to 17 years old.

We reviewed the alphabet, numbers 1-20 and basic introductions that included:
Hello (Hi) my name is ______________________________ ?
What is your name?
My name is __________________________?
How old are you?
I am ­­­­___________________ years old?
Nice to meet you, Goodbye.

I went a little fast because more than anything I wanted to know how much they already knew and their overall interest/dedication. I was surprised when about all but maybe 2 kids were actively engaged. They are all very eager to learn and I am really exited to be part of their learning process. Starting next week (this week they have final exams), I will teach two lessons a day, twice a week. The first lesson will be for a group of 20 kids, the second lesson will be for a group of 12 kids who will go visit the US in September on a HOPE trip. The director, Milan will also attend the HOPE trip in Pennsylvania in September. Milan, will also join me in the lessons so she can learn/practice her English.

Milan gave me a tour of the school and introduced me to all the teachers and students who were in classrooms that were in session. I was quite impressed with the school. The kids are well behaved when class is going on, after they are dismissed now that’s a different story, haha. The building is quite nice; it is two stories high with six classrooms, a kitchen, an office, and a play area. Tu Hogar Cristiano educates 430 kids and employs about 25 faculty/staff. This is quite impressive considering the start of this school began with a woman who after receiving an Esperanza loan to start her own sowing business, with her profits began teaching street children from her home. Milan is an inspiration, she is very positive and if I could quote her in one phrase it would be “I can do it, God willing”. She is determined to succeed in her life and see others succeed as well.

Well that is all for now. Tomorrow I will go to Boca Chica once more and Thursday-Saturday I will stay at a resort in Punta Cana.

XOXO,
Maira

Happy Friday Everyone

Yesterday, Thursday, I went to Boca Chica for a bank meeting. This particular bank has eight groups and a total of forty people. The meeting took longer than usual because there was people missing and all the payments weren’t complete. One lady was unable to do her payment of 600 Dominican pesos, approximately $17 US dollars because she had been sick and could not work. Everyone pitched in 15 pesos, an equivalent of .42 US cents. It was great to see that everyone in an organized matter did this without any real protest.

When the payments were complete Alejandro, the loan officer, jots down their information on individual booklets. Each person takes the booklet home and is able to see how much they have paid, what is left, their savings, interest, etc. While the loan officer is doing this (takes time to do 40!), Esmeida, the Human development coordinator, talked about the literacy course that was in session. An associate (client) also brought to the attention the desperate need to have Esperanza help with the people in the community who were not registered. If you are not registered you cannot be legally inscribed in schools, so many of them who do attend cannot get their degree. I was surprised when everyone in the community raised their hand to say that they had a family member, friend or neighbor they knew who weren’t registered.

After official business was sealed, we proceeded to singing Christian songs. I even pitched myself to say a joke. Since I only really know a few jokes I shared the one about the Christian horse, everyone enjoyed it. Finally after Alejandro finished with the booklets, we prayed to close the meeting.
After the meeting I met the leader of the bank’s son, for the purpose of this blog I will name him John (I forgot his name…). John and I had a decent conversation in English because he wanted to practice what he was learning in school. Even at the young age of 20 he is an Esperanza associate who invests in buying sugar cane tickets. In surrounding communities, the sugar cane plantation owners pay their daily workers in tickets. Those tickets can be later cashed at the end of the month. John finances some of those tickets for people who cannot wait until the end of the month to cash their tickets; he charges a 20% interest.

It’s Friday, wow does time fly! I just got off the phone with Milan, and educational director for a school here in San Pedro. I will begin teaching English courses on Monday. Here is a picture I pulled from Reader’s Digest that show children from her school.

This morning I have been busy putting together their lesson plans for the following two months (I will teach them twice a week).

So far it’s a Good Friday. The weather is nice and cloudy, I have few new mosquito bites, and I get to have lunch with Claire who is visiting from Santo Domingo.

I hope your Friday is going as nice as mine,
Maira

I am not a good friend

I had lunch with a child who was begging for cash today. He told me a long story about how he was lost and needed to get back to the capital. I heard him knowing that his situation was a tale. I asked him to join me for lunch where I proceeded to buy him chicken and french fries. We talked about family, food, and what we liked. He said he liked math and social sciences and that his family meant everything to him. I knew this was also a lie. I don’t know a 13year old that would openly state that he loves his parents and siblings… My heart ached for this lost child. He wasn’t lost geographically, but he was disoriented from a lot more. He has been forced to lie to survive. When I finished my lunch and started to get up to leave he told me “tu eres una buena amiga” (you are a good friend). As much as my ego would want this to be true I know in my heart it is not. I am not a friend if I cannot change his situation. I am not a friend because at the end of our lunch meeting I chose to turn around and go home not knowing where his home lies, if he even has home to turn to. I am not a friend because right now all I can do is stare at social injustice and secretly sob.
-Maira

Our Kiva partner :)

Many of you are probably already familiar with Kiva the online organization that allows you donate $25 at a time to an entrepreneur in your choice of country. Like I had stated in a previous blog, I will be help strengthen the relationship between Kiva and Esperanza. Just so you can see statistics and what not about this relationship, click on the following link: http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=44

Hopefully by the end of the summer we can decrease the days it takes to fund our loans, have better quality photographs, and journal more frequently letting you know how our entrepreneurs are doing.

Have a blessed day,
Maira

San Pedro

I arrived in San Pedro de Macoris on Wednesday afternoon. I thought it would be nice to add this map to the blog so it can give you a better idea where I am at. San Pedro is along the coast, I can walk to the beach! But I haven’t done so…maybe on Sunday I can better explore the city. I am living with Angelita, her mom “mamá”, a maintenance older man, a Japanese nurse, a Seventh Day Adventist Pastor, and a few nephews and nieces of Angelita that sporadically come here and there. I have my own room with a bathroom. Angelita doesn’t have children of her own but she is like a mother to all of us. She taught us how to make dumplings, how to eat Dominican food properly, and random tips here and there. We are a large and very loving family.

On Wednesday I visited Consuelo. As you can see in the picture below there is not much room or proper roads for cars, we were traveling via motoconchos (motorcycles). I was a little scared at first but I didn’t want to tell anyone it was my first time on a bike… But I got on and soon enough got the hang of it, it was great :)
I was able to see how Esperanza goes about with their transactions. The first day I sat in on a capacitación (training for the loans), alphabetizing courses (well met with the teachers). On Thursday I experienced a graduation ceremony where the groups were approved to receive loans, how loans are distributed in the office, and the closing process when the loans are paid back. I was surprised how much traveling and office work one loan officer has to make! But Esperanza is really well organized; they get a lot done and do a great job at keeping up with relationships.

A lot of times we romanticize microfinance as being so great and easy. But the reality is that it is not. Microfinance, Christian Microfinance, takes a lot of dedication. It isn’t a job it’s a calling to change lives, a form of ministry. The loan officers are in the battle ground, literally putting their life at risk to go and help those in spiritual and economic need.

This picture above is a capacitacion course, their fourth one. They have five in total and on the sixth one the Director of the branch visits and quizes the participants to see if they qualify for the loan.

This picture above is a group of five that were approved to receive their loans. They will go into the office on Tuesday to retrieve the loan.

Well I think this is all for this week. Tonight I will attend a youth gathering at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, I have been invited by two pastors and the director here in Esperanza, so why not? :D On Saturday, I will also attend their service in the morning and then go explore the Mercado. On Sunday I will buy some necessities for my room like, a light bulb, a toilet seat cover, shower curtain, hand soap, and maybe something to cover the plain white walls.

So until next time,
Maira

A great Day!

I had one of those amazing days, one of those when you wake up and want to just conquer whatever the day brings your way. I think it was because I slept well last night, and woke up late and still had time to get ready and get to work on time. I had oatmeal and a remarkable cup of coffee in the morning.
We began our day with a devotional that included all the headquarter staff in Esperanza. We started by singing traditional Christian songs, and proceeded with a lecture that included group discussions questions, a pastor gave us some insight on the lecture, and then prayer opened up for all that wanted to express a need. This type of devotional is practiced every Monday to start the week off right. You might be wondering why this is necessary. Well, here in Esperanza, the heart that keeps the organization pumping is God.

And Esperanza believes that in order to try to find a solution to poverty alleviation one must first define poverty. Here is my translated definition of poverty according to Esperanza, “The state or condition of the human being as a result of broken relationships with God, with one’s self, with other people, and His creation, all caused by sin”. Several definitions of poverty were given, I was also moved by Bryant Myers definition, author of Walking with the Poor, “Poverty is a result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of Shalom in all its meaning”. We also touched up on the definition of economic development, according to Esperanza it is the process of man’s reconciliation in which man is restored to bless and be blessed and thus become an instrument for the kingdom of God. Sorry is this sounds so academic! I really enjoyed learning about this and want to pass on the knowledge! Haha…

We also made groups and talked about what God’s purpose with humanity and what he expected before and after the fall, and to list a few:
The follwoing is how we envisioned our relationships needed to be with the following:
God--communication, trust, unity of directional purpose, not lacking anything, harmony, fullness of life, wholesomeness, happiness and obedience.
Others--Love, compassion, effective communication, encouragement, hope, support, comfort, learning, and transparency.
Creation—Sustainability, reciprocity, have dominion, responsibility and work.
Self—representatives of Him, inherent dignity & worth, calling, purpose, and vocation.

When I was a searching for my identity as a lost teenager I remember coming across this verse, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jeremiah 29:11. And periodically, as I journey through life, God keeps on reminding me of this. When Carlos, the President of Esperanza, said that this verse is one of the founding scriptures that gave birth to Esperanza I was moved to tears. God has a purpose for each and every one of us. He doesn’t forget us, and wants us to become whole in Him, only through that we can have good relationships with others, creation and ourselves. So really that means that we are all living in poverty. If you lack some perfection in one of these relationships, you too are bound by “poverty”.

To end this wonderful day, I had a virgin piña colada. Oh yeah!

-Maira

P.S. Probably following next week when I move to San Pedro, in the more rural, I will only post once a week. So I hope fore now you are enjoying these daily updates, since they wont stay for long :)

Dominican Republic: Nice and Hot, and a little rainy too :)

Saturday:
We arrived in Santiago airport at 10:45pm last night after an hour delay. We went out for juices and sandwiches; I had a cheese sandwich with tomato and a zapote juice, both were pretty amazing :D

I am staying at The Residence Hotel in Santo Domingo with another intern, David (different rooms). After a failed attempt to get wireless last night I decided to go to bed.

Sunday:
I woke up today at 8am, took a shower, and then went back to bed. David and I went to get breakfast at a local stand. I had the same thing as last night except I tried the Chilmol natural juice, it is kind of like orange juice, it gives you that same kick that you need to wake up. After a little rest we caught up with the rest of the interns, we had some more juices and afterwards walk to their apartment. While walking there I tried to study the way so I could walk myself back. After two hours or so of seeing their cutesy apartment and talking with Coina, their landlord, I decided to walk back because I had a minor headache. Yeah probably not a good idea. I was seriously lost, somehow I ended up by the shore and honestly having no clue what direction to head. It was a little frightening because everywhere I turned guys would whistle or say inappropriate comments (including security and police!) I ended up stopping at a shop and calling a taxi. The taxi began to take me to another location in town, so that was a little nerve wrecking as well, but after I cleared up our miscommunication he turned around and dropped me off in front of the right hotel.

But the best of my day was going to church. We went to “La Comunidad Cristiana” which translated means The Christian Community. It is large contemporary church with about 300 members, maybe more. They are a sister church with a church in Chicago. The message was quite powerful; it was about acknowledging that you are not perfect. What we used to enjoy when we were part of the world gave us joy but when we came to know Christ what we once enjoy turned into disgust. Disgust not because we didn’t like it but because we knew with our new self and conscious that we were offending our Creator that loved us. I really enjoyed the way he put it, that we will always have struggles, yet what changes is our reaction to sin. When we come to know Christ we want to change because we love Him. And when you are in love you hate what the other person hates, and you love what the other person loves. The church concluded with the song “Sumerjemer”. It is an old Spanish song that I used to sing when I was growing up, the message is basically asking the Lord to submerge you in his Holy Spirit.

Oh I forgot to mention that it is hot, humid, and it’s raining. I don’t really mind the rain but it is causing a few leaks in my room…

Tomorrow I will have my first day of training in the Santo Domingo office, can’t wait.
-Maira

Second Day of training

Yesterday's blog was a little long, so today I will try to keep it short this time.

Today we discussed more in dept some of the challenges of microfinance. I could name a couple here, but it might be more interesting if some of you asked me about this when I came back to the States.

Today I was challenged to think about development. I have never really felt comfortable asking for support. Every trip that I go to I try to pay for it myself, through my family, or close friends who willingly give without me asking. Yet something that I have noticed is that people always have and always will have a heart for giving to something that is impacting lives in a positive manner. That giving could be of time, money, resources, prayer and in other creative ways. So I I didn’t want to continue blogging without thanking Pathway Christian Fellowship for their generous and unasked support, thank you. May God continue to bless your ministry. To say this I also want to open the doors to those that want to be part of this journey with me. I want you to pray for me but I also don’t want to have a limited view on how you can help. Some of you might want to contribute financially to cover some of the cost associated with this trip (my rough estimate of total cost is close to $1700, this covers two plane tickets, housing and food for three months). If you are able and feel you want to serve in this way to support this trip or HOPE’s programs financially, your donations are welcomed. They would be sent directly to HOPE’s office and you will get a tax deductible receipt. Please contact me via email if this is something you are interested in: mairaflores1033@pointloma.edu

On a different note! I will head to the Dominican Republic tomorrow at 6pm! It is about a 4hour flight from here. We will be in the capital Santo Domingo for 4 days receiving training more on the specific roles that we will fill this summer. After training I will leave to San Pedro, there I will live with a host mom, Angelita. Angelita is in her mid-fifties, owns her own home, and then rents several units out that are located behind her home. I’ll have access to the refrigerator, and all common areas of the house. I will also have my own bedroom, with a bathroom, bed, furniture, fan, lock and key. Angelita lives about ten minutes walking distance from the San Pedro office. She is in a calm and quiet section of the town, and located directly across the street from a school. For weekend recreation I am about twenty minute bus ride to San Pedro/Juan Dolio, where there are some great easy-access beaches, an hour bus ride to Santo Domingo where other volunteers are placed, and about an half hour to the Hato Mayor region, where additional volunteers are located.

Yeah this blog isn’t getting shorter…haha

So what have I taken away today? In short terms, don’t let opportunities pass you, because they might never again turn around to look you in the eyes. Wow that sounded profound, it just came out of me, haha… No but seriously I am sometimes overwhelmed with choices in this life and sometimes am too afraid to choose that I miss out on what could have been great opportunities. While I am not trying to have many expectations for the DR I do hope to fulfill God’s expectations for me this summer. Help me pray for wisdom so I can have the inner strength to be bold in pursuing God’s will.

Together in this journey,
Maira

First Day of Training

Our first day of official training started today at 7:45am. After we met the staff we made intern introductions. We basically told our story of how we became passionate about serving others and end up applying to HOPE. It was nice to hear the other input from the interns. It humbled me to know that there are qualified people that are willing to dedicate a whole summer at no pay like myself; I am not the only crazy one here! There are people in the process of receiving their MBA, some that are married, or have years of work experience, and they too want to dedicate as much time as myself. That is quite sacrificial on their part since they could be making money or spending their time elsewhere, yet they choose to serve.

Another great aspect of today that I really enjoyed was HOPE President, Peter Greer’s presentation. He seems like such a down to earth and passionate person. His mission and vision are so clearly defined and he serves with such enthusiasm. Even though he holds such a prestigious position in the organization he still takes time out of his day to come speak to us, sit in at presentations and really tries to get to know us. He shared that his passion started by wanting to combine both compassion and action, and the tool he uses for that now is micro-enterprise.

So what is the culture here in HOPE: well to sum it up check out their acronym: PASSION

Prayer: On your knees, please
Allegiance: Hope by choice
Service: We’ll wash feet
Stewardship: To whom much is given…
Innovation: We find solutions
Optimism: A cheerful heart is good medicine
Nurturing: Love one another as I have loved you

So their mission in their statement of faith is: We believe God calls us, and all Christians, to help people in need. We work to meet both practical human needs and eternal, spiritual needs.

So what makes HOPE different than other Christian based micro-finance organizations?
Well again to summarize I’ll use one of their acronyms:
Focus- Christ centered micro-enterprise
Intentional witness- an intentional witness to Jesus Christ
Stewardship- 100% of donations go directly to program expenses
Hard places- Emphasis on challenging and underserved areas

Okay so the real reason I am typing this is because I have a quiz…haha…not kidding, we get quizzed on this stuff :)

Deep thoughts of the day:
The reason I joined Hope this summer was because I wanted to bridge the gap between my charitable heart and long for a solution to poverty. I wanted to be a part of something that was helping people but also bringing hope to them, a sustainable way of living. I would not consider myself a pessimist but I am not entirely an optimist. Many times I question God’s promises and lean towards a Buddhist type of view on life “All life is suffering”. I don’t really understand why millions have to die of preventable diseases, I don’t understand why some faithful Christians in developing countries still see their children die of starvation, and I don’t think I’ll I ever understand that. But right now I am in the process of accepting that I was given more than others and that I don’t have to live with guilt because of it. But I also can’t turn around and ignore that extreme poverty still exists. And to be frank I think that as Christians we should be ashamed and offended at our gospel that we preach knowing that there is still an immense amount of people in need today. I still get chills knowing that half the population in the world still lives on less than $2 a day. I challenge you to live on that budget, not very comfortable, huh? There is no reason why we as a community of faith cannot come together as one and fulfill God’s mission to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and take care of the widows and orphans. Many of us have heard the phrase, “Live simply, so others can simply live”, I hope you can take this phrase and meditate as I am doing here in Lancaster. What are we doing to help those that are living in the outskirts of society? How are we living to impact their lives?

So as you can see, this is a journey for me. Please continue to pray for God’s guidance in my life, safety, and so that my work in the Dominican Republic can actually make a difference. And I too will pray that the difference doesn’t only come in the DR but also in the hearts of my local loved ones. I want you to be in this journey with me, learning with me, laughing, weeping, and hoping with me.

Warm regards,
Maira

Lancaster

I was supposed to catch an early flight from San Diego to Las Vegas, from Las Vegas to Philadelphia @ 7am. The line for security check was extremely long. After I saw that I still had a good 25 people in front of me and 20 minutes till departure I decided to see if security could help me through the line.

Mission failed. Security had me running around the airport while time continued to click. After I went through security, I didn’t even bother to put my shoes on I ran like no other. I arrive at the gate at 6:55am only to find that the airplane doors were closed. They would not open them for me. I missed my flight. Luckily there was one more seat left on the next flight to Philly @ 10am. So I had a short layover in Phoenix and finally arrived in Philadelphia. Everyone was there waiting for me.

So what am I doing in Philly?

No not eating the Philly cheese steak sandwiches. I am actually here just for pick up, then I am off to Lancaster, PA.

I am in Pennslyvania for training with Hope International. I will be here for two days absorbing good knowledge about microfinance and discussing our mission for this summer internship. Then I am off to the Dominican Republic for 11 weeks where I will serve as a liaison between Esperanza and Kiva.

So what a little bit about HOPE: (actually just click on this link) http://www.hopeinternational.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_history

But for those who want the glimpse this is their mission, method, and motivation:

Mission:
To invest in the dreams of the poor in the world's underserved communities so that they might be released from physical and spiritual poverty.

Method:
We offer small business loans, savings services, biblically-based business training, and mentoring and coaching from a Christ-centered perspective.

Motivation:
The love of Jesus Christ motivates us to identify with the poor and care for their physical and spiritual condition.

Mobilization to End Poverty Conference

Our adventure begins... Saturday we flew to Houston, TX then we headed towards Baltimore, MD. After an expensive $75 cab we got on the metro and headed to DC.

So what are we doing in DC? The Center for International Developed at Point Loma Nazarene University sponsered Taylor, Kaley and I to attend a conference on poverty alleviation. So the conference starts April 26th and ends April 29th.

Because we got to DC Saturday night we decided to explore the city Sunday morning. So what did we find...

A fountain where we could dip our toes. I have to say it was quite nice especially since it was 90ºF outside. Don't worry everyone does it here, even the ducks, they have their own special ramp (but strangely there were not ducks in sight).

We spotted the good old Capital building.

And ofcourse the Washington Monument. Pretty nice :)

We didn't get to see the cherry blossoms but some of the trees still looked pretty amazing if you ask me. I especially like all the lily's around the park, my fav.!

Taylor and Kaley enjoying the day in front of the Washington Monument. We also visited the Holocaust museum, the American museum, and the

Natural art museum.

I have to say that I am loving the food here in D.C. Today, Sunday, I had pizza from a café inside the Holocaust museum, Starbucks coffee to fill the soul, Peruvian rice & French fries. Good stuff :)

-Maira