Dia de La Raza

Dia de La Raza directly translated means "Race Day". It is the day here in the DR that they celebrate their racial roots. There is not one specific race here in the DR. The majority of people here are a mixture of Taino (the indigenous people group), Spanish, and African. The story goes that Columbus (Cristobol Colon)arrived to the New World on October 12th. He and all those with him came to the island bringing their culture and their diseases. The slave trade also eventually arrived and thus the 3 cultures celebrated. The Tainos eventually died out leaving no indigenous people group here on the island, but the are still remembered on this day.



The poster announcing America's discovery. Can you still name the 3 ships?



Worship time during the festivities...notice all the kids dressed as "tainos"



Patricia came dressed as the Queen of Spain.



Lizbeth in her native taino costume



Manuel the conqueror!



Nelito and Darwin

Wheelchairs

Sorry for the long delay in posts. It has been a busy month getting the school up and running again for the new school year. At times it can be difficult trying to meet the physical needs of all the children and at other times, like today, i can be pure joy. Yesterday we received 4 new wheelchairs in the mail...good thing we didn't have to try to stuff them in a mail box. Today Vanesa and Laura received their much needed (and anticipated) new chairs from Joni and Friends Wheels for the World program. Enjoy the photos.

Laura in her old chair

Laura in her new chair

Vanesa in her old chair


Vanesa in her new chair

WE'RE BACK!

After a much needed and appreciated month off, the children of Centro Especial Genesis are back in class. We started back on Tuesday September 9th. We said goodbye to Samuel, Miguelina, and Argenis at the end of August and have added 2 new teachers to our staff. With new teachers comes new classroom assignments, and so far the kids seem to be doing well with their new teachers and classmates.

Carmelina has our most advanced class this year with: Leonardo, Madeline, Juan Carolos, Geronimo, Vanessa, and Jeremy.

Next in line is Neli (one of our new teachers) with: Laura, Melina, Manuel Andres, Vladimir, and Daniel Polo.

Lourdes has with her: Wilman, Giselle, Darwin, Omar, and Alejandra.

With Margarita (our other new teacher)we have Candy, Patricia,Jonathan, Omar, and Henny.

And finally with Maribel and Angie we have Rances, Mildred, Franklin, Leonela, Raymundo, and Angelica.

Enjoy the photos

Outreach 7

Outreach 7 was another large outreach and a great way to end the summer. The girls we had with us from Turlock, Raisin City and our independent friends Vicki and Katie were such a blessing. Katie is a speech therapist and was a wonderful help in evaluating the kids speech abilities, and educating the teachers on things they can do to help their classes run more smoothly.

This group, as the last one of the summer, had the "privilege" of helping us end out the year. They helped us plan and prepare for the last day of classes and then helped us clean up afterward. From cleaning up the outside of the school to scraping glue off of desks and walls (yes walls)they had wonderful attitudes and servants hearts. What a blessing.

We have now finished our first week of "summer" vacation and have 3 more to go. That means there will not be a lot of posts in the next month, but pray with us that the kids not only enjoy their vacation, but that they remain safe and well cared for in the mean time.

For all you sponsors, this "break" gives me an opportunity to update our files and send out new photos. I will be joining forces with our ladies in the home office to update the sponsorship files and our roster from the school. It is possible for some of you that your sponsor child will not be continuing with us in the fall as we have had a lot of changes in our enrollment. We will notify you individually if that is the case and offer you the opportunity to help another child within our school. We have several new children starting in the fall, so please be praying for them and if you have friends who want to sponsor a child please point them in our direction.

Thank you all for all of your prayers and donations over this past summer, we could not do what we do here in the DR without your help!

Outreach 6

This past outreach was once again busy busy busy! We hosted a much smaller group this time with 2 students at special ed and 3 at therapy. During the second week of the outreach, we held a VBS for the kids at the school. We were able to have 4 "stations" for the kids to rotate through including: sports, crafts, music, and Bible story. During VBS week we also had a birthday party and a trip to the swimming pool!!! Enjoy the photos

Happy Birthday Madelin, Miguelina, and Lourdes


This is what happens when kids get cake without being at a table with plates and utensils


Vanesa during music time


Craft time at VBS

Dinner in the Community at Darwins...special ed group

Outreach 5

Amazingly another outreach has come and gone. This outreach brought old friends as well as many new ones. Brian, Megan, Kelly, John, Lourdes it was great to see you guys again. This group of students worked very hard from swimming at the pool to cleaning the yard to endless diaper changes. The PT and Special Ed groups seemed to meld into one and form one large super group!!! We had such a great time with the students representing Bethany Reformed Church, Hopewell Reformed Church, Messiah College, and the Duyst team. Thanks again for all your hard work over the last two weeks!!!!!



The beautiful ladies and gentlemen from special ed: Kayley, Kristen, Paige, Fausto, Kaelie, Jessica, and Travis (i apologize if any names got butchered in the spelling)



The wonderful PT crew: Amber, Katie, Jess, Amy, Laura, and Amy

One more update

Hey for all of you with facebook out there...Centro Especial Genesis now has its very own facebook group. We will post from the updates from here on the group, so just check in every once and a while!