"As you can see, we're friends, we're friends indeed!"

For those of you who know me, I have moved quite a few times in my life. Granted, most of those moves were within the same state, but when you are young it feels like you moved worlds away from your friends. I remember struggling with moving. On one occasion, when starting 3rd grade, I locked myself in the bathroom and told my mom I would not go to a new school...it was just too hard to make new friends. In high school, we moved once (and then we moved back...long story) and I cried more than I am proud to admit. 

In college, I managed to make friends really easily. I think all of those struggles growing up prepared me for that kind of move. My freshman year was a great time of meeting people, hanging out with different friend groups, and generally having a great time. 

Fast forward to moving to the DR. The first time I came here I was student teaching…and honestly was not coming here to make friends. I didn’t really reach out to people, but then again, they didn’t really reach out much to me either.  Everyone had their flow and their friends, and I was only supposed to be there for a short time, so it makes sense. I had a great time getting to know and love my host family, a relationship I still keep up with now that I am back. 

Now, however, we are here for at least three years. And while three years may not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, it is a long time when you are staring down the road at the beginning of the journey.  If we are going to be here for three years, we need to make friends. It is healthy, and it is hard to have true community with others if you aren’t really friends with them.

I found myself this week just feeling really down about friends. I know some great people here. However, I am an introvert at heart. I need one or two friends who really know me and that I can talk to and trust. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen overnight. Not to mention that the Doulos community tends to be better for extroverts who just want to be with a lot of people often.  

Here are my introvert problems:
-Being a teacher is so draining for me. I love my job, but I have to be on and full of energy all day. When I am done, it is so hard to want to put effort forth to socialize. 

-Same with weekends. Sometimes I just need to recharge instead of go to a party with a bunch of people.

-If you turn someone down when they invite you to do something, they just never ask again. (Just because I didn't want to do something that night I was extremely exhausted doesn't mean I never want to do something.)

-People never want to hang out one on one to begin with. You always seem to have to start with big group hangouts. It's hard for me to do those unless I really know and feel comfortable with the people.


Lies have started to form inside of my head...that I just don't have good friends yet because I am not fun enough, or because I am not interesting enough, or if I am myself, people won't really want to spend time with me. I know that is nonsense, but today I just had to pray and remember that God is in control. If he can provide me with the great friends I have from college and high school, he can provide friends for me here. If he can provide the money we need to be living and teaching in the DR without any kind of official salary, then he can provide friends for us here. 

All I ask, is that you pray for us as we wait out this time of getting to know people slowly but surely. Pray that I can have patience in waiting for my friendships to develop. 

Back home again...

   Ok, so I wasn't really home, but we were in the United States, so I'm not complaining. Last week we were able to go to Rochester, NY to see Nick's family and go to Jackie & Dino's wedding. We had a great time with everyone! One of the coolest things we did was wear traditional Indian wedding clothes for the rehearsal dinner, followed by delicious Indian food! Dino's mom gave me a sari to wear...I loved it. I never thought I'd get a chance to wear a sari, so it was pretty fun and definitely different than any other wedding experience I have had. I am also excited about it because I will get to use it next semester in my high school English class when we read a book about a Bengali family. Here is what we looked like:

Yep, Nick was wearing a turquoise shirt. I might have been a little jealous of his color choices, but my sari was pretty cool too!

Here are some reasons we loved visiting the States:

-It was so great to spend some time with Jackie, Bree, and Nick's parents and grandparents. 

-As much as we love teaching, it was refreshing to take a week away from Doulos and rest.

-We were able to get a few things we have really been wanting for our house. (the garlic press and the swiffer are our new best friends)

-Delicious food cooked by Nick's parents and grandparents.

-Showers with hot water. Must I say more? 

   And what I love is that I was not counting down the days before we got to go to the States, and I wasn't devastated when the time was over and we had to come back to the Dominican Republic. Basically, I have realized that I am content here. (Which is good, because I still have nearly three years to go). While there are times I miss seeing my family regularly, owning a car, not having to sweep every day of my life if I don't want the bottoms of my feet to turn black...I am happy where I am. I find purpose in what I do everyday, and the days fly by because I love my students and I see that what I do makes a difference in their learning, attitudes, and lives. The lack of huge convenience stores (which I really do miss at times), AC, and hot water are small prices to pay for the great life I am living.

I am so thankful.