For you, Lord.

It's been an interesting past couple of weeks. The holiday season was more enjoyable than I'd anticipated; I didn't miss home or wish I was anywhere else. I did not get caught up in the materialism of the holiday or feel compelled to give gifts or cards to anyone I wasn't doing it for out of the generosity of my heart. I spent time amongst friends and families who are in some ways accepting me as their own. I went to a Catholic Midnight Mass at a Dominican church on Christmas Eve and saw a production of the story of Jesus and then communion. I received the best "Merry Christmas" of my life this year. Some friendships that have been developing since I arrived have really flourished lately, and I can't say there has been a night off the past month where I wasn't socializing with friends. I have much to be thankful for.

On a random note, I believe I'm in the best shape of my life right now. Last year at New Year's I made a resolution to do 100 pushups a day. I didn't do it, but I'd say that over the course of the year I averaged around 75 per day. Maybe that doesn't sound like many to you, but 75 pushups a day for 365 days is 27,375 pushups. Lately I've been doing a work-out that takes a little less than an hour and incorporates pushups, pull-ups, and abdominal work...or, in other words, only my body weight. I average around 210 pushups, 60 pullups, and 200 sit ups during the 50min workout. I have also been running for about 30min on days when I don't work out. I can feel my improved agility and strength throughout the day when I walk, when I pick things up, and even when I shower and I'm lathering myself with soap. The goal behind this work out is to perform better on the FBI, or some law enforcement agencies, physical fitness test next year when I apply. Most fitness tests require you to do a certain number of pushups in 1 min, run 1.5 miles in a certain time, do a specified number of sit-ups in 1 min, etc. Right now, were I tested, I'd do fairly well...but I know I can do better and therefore I'm using this workout to improve my score.

I hope everyone else has had a wonderful holiday season this year. We'll celebrate together next year.

I decided to take a few personal days away from campus and visit the capitol, Santo Domingo. It's the most "Americanized" city in the country, yet it still has a Caribbean/Latin American flair about it. I'd say it's one of my top 5 favorite cities.

I stayed at the "Hotel Melia", which ran me $107/night. I ate at TGIFridays and saw a movie my first night, and not including transportation the evening cost me around $48. The second night I ordered room service and that cost me $17. Total transportation cost me about $55. I also bought myself a couple things at El Conde, the open-air market street, and lunch on the 2nd day cost around $14. Including a couple other small expenses, and the 3 day, 2 night trip cost about $350.

As I turned off the lamp next to my extremely plush, well insulated bed on the second night and closed my eyes...the only thing I could think about was how much money I was wasting on this trip. The $350 I spent in 3 days is more money than some of the Dominicans I work near will make in an entire year. No joke. The bed I slept in most likely cost more than their entire possessions combined. I couldn't help but place myself in one of their shoes and imagine how they'd feel to be sleeping in that bed. It's probably difficult for them to imagine there is a bed that comfortable.

Even right now, at this moment, I'm wearing $60 shoes, $20 jeans, a $15 sweatshirt, and a $100 watch. Everything besides the watch is pretty reasonably priced...it's all from Old Navy and Target, honestly. But the thing that separates what I have on right now from what a majority of Dominicans have is that everything I have on was purchased brand new. I'm the only one who's owned it. "New" to Dominicans is a relative term. Will the jeans fit? Do the shoes have soles on them? Is there enough cloth in that old blanket to turn it into an outfit for my daughter?

I hope you appreciate and value what you have, and you are, in some way, providing for those who are legitimately unable to provide for themselves and their families. God demands this from us. Are you listening?

Snapshots of my life in a 3rd world country...

I woke up Thursday morning to the sounds of baby chickens outside my window. As cute as that may be, after 20min listening to the baby chicks one tends to get annoyed. I did. I picked up a machete from the house and walked outside toward the mother hen and her chicks. She got all hysterical and started to rally the babies together. I was merely threatening at this point. She and her babies began to walk away...as quickly as baby chicks can walk, at least...so to get her to hurry up I took a couple more steps toward her with the machete raised. Next thing I know she's flying AT ME, beak first. I began to run away and, I'll be honest, let out a little girl's scream, but before running more than 2 steps I managed to bring the machete down hard on the chicken's body just before it reached me. It squawked really loud and ran back to it's chicks and promptly left my property. But...man...I was attacked by a chicken and fended it off with a machete. How many of you can say you did something that bizarre last week? :)

Friday, the next day, I went running after dropping the guys off at school. I went to the usual place and ran a pretty good pace for 30min. After walking for a quarter mile, I began to jog back to campus along the side of the road when I heard a high-pitched yelp coming from underneath the road. I glanced down into the drainage ditch next to the road and saw a puppy; an extremely tiny puppy. It was in 2in of cold water that was rushing past it. I honestly have no idea how this little tyke didn't get swept away by the water, but it managed to hold on. I reached down into the ditch and pulled the dog out, then carried it back to campus and dried it off and fed it the best I could. Needless to say, as neat a story as this sounds, it turns out the dog has a lot of health problems, doesn't like being held (was probably abused at some point), and walks around the house yelping and whining for no reason...at all hours of the night. I'll be taking it down to the bottom of the hill tomorrow afternoon and leaving it in a Dominican neighborhood that I know is popular with dogs. It'll find its way.