Christmas stuff

We just had the most "interesting" concert we have ever been to: Christmas Concert in the Dominican Blaring music, pitch black, hurlding rock hard candies,a little devil running around(i am not kidding), drunk eight-year olds, and swearing very loudly. It started with the drunk eight-year olds swinging their bottles of cerveza and slurring their words and crashing into each other. In which Ethan dies in the end by a drunk driver crashing into him. Next their was the little devil running around scaring the little kids. Finally there was the little angel's jumping and spinning, chucking rock hard candies in the dim lighting. In the end all that we got from it was a few bruises and some interesting memories.

Yesterday we went to a christmas caroling\giving out food to the poor kinda thing.
We hopped into the back of a Daihatsu (a large japanese truck) and drove into the country giving out bags of "Christmas dinner". We only sang two songs though; Alegro bango, and Feliz Navidad. We hardly knew the words to the first one. The Dominicans didn't really seem to understand what was going on but I still think they were thankful. As you can see in the picture, we went with Escuela Caribe. It was neat to do some more missionary-type things.

Comunity Service

If you thought that us so called "missionary kids" wouldn't actually make a difference in this country.... you were wrong... We were just sitting down for lunch when suddenly our mom appeared at school saying we should finish eating in the next 2 minutes and get in the truck.
We wolfed down our food and jumped in the truck and sped away. We drove in the direction of Manaboa until we spotted our uncle, Terry and a group of students from Escuala Caribe surounding a daihatsu filled with pickaxes and shovels. We split into two groups. One, emptying a flooded school. And the other building a driveway. We picked the driveway,so till 5:00 we shoveled,pickaxed and literally built him a driveway from the rubble.
You see, there was tropical storm Olga a while ago and there where a few houses that the river went through. So we went to help.
Now on Friday we are doing a program similar to christmas cheer board.
We're good kids. :)

The things I would do again

Out on the ocean waiting for the next wave we peer back and see it growing behind us, we start to paddle, it comes closer steadily it reaches us, we push forward feeling at pull us across water, we struggle to the kneeling position and lean forward feeling the rush of air and the relaxation of our muscles from the paddle out. We cautiously move in to the next position, standing. We carve the wave by shifting our weight to the other side of the board feeling something we have never felt- flying...

We will start from the begining. A few weeks back our family rented a house at Cabarete and we stayed there for three days. During those three days we did: boogieboarding, crabhunting, swimming, and Surfing! When we went surfing, my Uncle Terry taught us how to sit on the board and swim with it. We had to wear aqua shoes because we were surfing on a coral reef and there was sea urchins. When we actually got on the water, we saw how big the waves were: over 6 feet high! So we swam out and we learned the hard part the WhiteWater. It was so tiring, it kept on pull us around! By the end we were so tired yet so ready to go again.

After the beach we were ready for some less salty water so we packed up and drove to 27 WaterFalls. 27 WaterFalls is a tourist attraction where we literally climb up 27 waterfalls. You put on helmets and lifejackets and head out with a tour-guide. On some of the waterfalls they actually have to hoist you up some slipery waterslide-like waterfalls. It was SO beautiful. At the end we jumped down them. JUMPED! They were over 20ft! The only bad part was we had to go back half way because we ran out of time.

Those are a few things I would do again...

Yay

Yay Aunty Chris and Uncle Frank came safe. g2g im in school.

The question\answer post

Post a comment with your question and we'll answer back.
(Our answer will be in the comment section to)

Birthday!

Yay! It's Dad's birthday! Yay,woo-hoo,yippie,hurah,...BANG!...bang? Baby screaming,Chickens running,Dog's yelping,kids cheering (thats us), adults laughing(thats my dad and Uncle Terry).
Let me explain, the yays,yippies,and woo-hooing, that was us when we saw one of Dads presents.
The BANG was us trying out Dads present. The rest was the after-math. Uncle Terry got Dad some fire-works. We decided to try one out in our backyard. We decided to try out one of the biggest ones. Dad climbed to the top of the house and positiond the firework to go up. It went up, then it went down. Straight down. It landed in the lanors back yard and... blewup. The explosion was so big that our shirts flapped in the shockwave. That was the end of our firework fun... for now...

Mish-Mash

A week ago we found out that our neighbors planned on killing their dog so we did what any other
animal loving,church going loving missionary family's living in the Dominican Republic would do, take the dog and bring it to Mr.Harden. (No joke, all of em do it.) Mr Harden is the principal of Escuela Caribe, he also happens to be a dog lover so... now he has six dogs. Last Sunday we went on a motorbike ride up the mountain with Uncle T me, Drew and
my dad. A lot of fun, a lot of fear. Two days ago Drew and I came back from a trip to Manabou. It was supposed to be a fun filled four-day field trip with our school which turned into a camping trip straight out of some nightmare.
It rained all the time. We didn't have tents though that shouldn't have been a problem because they gave us two tarps and some rope so of course that would work as well as a tent, right? Wrong, mini mud slides rushed into our tents and into all of our stuff making it useless for the rest of trip.
Pretty much every day went like this, Wake up, eat breakfast (alone preferably or else the others will insist on you "sharing.") Shake out muddy clothes for you to wear,
Devos, Eat lunch, do little activity eg: make sundial, classify plants ect,
eat supper, huddle in some one elses tent till 10:00 at night because yours is to
wet because it's raining again. One night some people didn't sleep because there tents were flooded. Lets just say we're happy to be home.

Tropical Rainstorm

For the last two days we haven't had school.The reason is rather odd. We don't have to go to school because it's raining. The rain has been going for so long that the rivers are on the verge of washing out. That is why we don't have school.Today my mom and dad don't think school's canceled but it is still raining. Any way I'm starving, I haven't had breakfast yet.
Brodie :)

My Suicidal Canine

My dog is stupid. Three minutes ago Chiquita showed us how very stupid she could be. She atempted somthing along the lines of kamakazi curiosity. Another dog was just strolling along on our neighbors yard so Chiquita thought she would go in for a closer look. It would have been okay but for the fact that she was on top of our balcony. That too would have been okay, if it wasn't for the fact that our house is two stories tall, and all of this would be okay but I say it again, my dog is stupid. She tried to clear our neighbors fence by jumping off the balcony. It didnt work.
(for your information my neighbors fence is barb-wire) so you can imagine the sound of my dog bouncing off the fence and back into our yard. As you might guess our whole family rushed out to see if our dog was dead, but she was in perfect condition minus a scratch on her paw. On another occasion my mom drove the truck over Chiquita's chain. Somehow the chain got stuck on the weel and started to wind around and around causing her to be sucked toward the wheel. To make the story short Mom stopped the truck, we saved Chiquita, and every one was happy. But here's the crazy part, later after every one was settled we noticed something on the ground. It was Chiquita's chain. Both her chain and her chain coller had snapped under the pressure of her head being sucked against the wheel. So here's my conclusion. Either Dominicans make poor quality chains or good quality dogs, but two things are certain: God is taking care of us and my dog is stupid.
Brodie

Got Internet

I got internet. So you can now e-mail me now and i'll reply! :)

Dissected un LAGARTO! (lizard)

Steps to dissect a lizard: I did this with Drew and Ethan
#1. Find a lizard In our own house
#2.Catch the lizard on our own floor
#3.Kill the lizard(drown-it,smack-it,sit-on-it,ect)
#4.De scale the lizard
#5.Cut the muscle tissue down the middle
#6.Take out organs.

Tips,Tricks,And facts:
.Don't puncture the heart
.Leave skin on arms and legs
.Lizards muscles are clear
.leave skin on head or be disgusted

Thanksgiving

We are missing Thanksgiving! ( and the pumpkin pie :( ) Brodie got his cast off WHOOPPE!!!!!
All we really did for Thanksgiving was sing and potluck at Escuela Caribe. My uncle Terry had a birthday and we played HappyBirthday for him on our instruments it was fun. :)

Life

Sorry Haven't posted in a while so here we go... I (Brodie) broke my arm 2 weeks ago while playing soccer. A guy named Daniel (the stongest kicker in my class) shot the ball and I happend to be goaly. 4 weeks of no river fun. Today a strike started. A strike in the Dominican is like slashing tires, burning tires, yelling,throwing rocks, ect. It's not bad in Jarabacoa but in La Vega and Santiago many people die. We are not allowed out after 5:o clock.
School is good. We are going to Manabou (a town high in the mountains) as a field trip for a week (more or less). Vanessa is a girl that lives in our house. I forgot to tell you about her. (sorry!) She has been living in our house for around 3 weeks. She is Dominican and she is 17 . She lives in our spare room down stares. Vanessa is going to live with us till December. Thats when she finishes her courses. She is very nice and yesterday I taught her how to drive a scooter and my mom taught her how to drive the truck. Chiquita is still a bad puppy and poops on the floor constantly. Getting internet soon. BYE : )

Yesterday we decided we wanted some adventure so we went out, way out, to the ocean! It was a 2 hour drive so we were all exhausted when we got there and it was blistering hot but it was still very fun. The water was so salty that when we came out of the water are eyes burned! So we decided to wear goggles:) We were reading about Cabarete (the town that we went to) and we learnt its one of the best windsurfing and kite boarding spot in the world. There were kiteboarders and windsurfers everywhere, this town was made by them!

Tubing!

Three, different spots where I was bleeding. Two, very bashed up shins. One, crazy family hurtling down rapids. and Zero, pictures to prove it. As you may of guessed we went tubing. Lots of bruises. Lots of screams. Lots of spills. It was scary, and yet we survived and still managed to have fun. At first I didn't think it would be that fun.(stupid of me) Then I got tossed off my tube, bruised my but, scraped my shins, and was nearly drowned. Then I thought it was fun. Why? Because its exhilarating when you're so close to you're brains being bashed out while you clutch the edge of you're tube for over an hour, flying past razor sharp rocks threatening you're very existence! It's awesome. I wore a helmet and I'm thankful for it, because there are spots, where you go under, and you come up without a tube, in the middle of the rapids. The river is very cold, and even in the tropics you're lips can turn blue. Other than that, my day was uneventful : )


Brodie

YIKES!

#1HURICANE!! Winds,rainblowingsideways,garbageflying!

#2PARISITES Stomachcramps,hardtimesleeping,

#3SCHOOL!!!!!!!! Uniforms,poloshirts,TUCKEDIN!!!

My dog

This is Chiquita pronounced (chick-ee-ta ) meaning little dog. Her name is kinda ironic for two reasons. One, she's not a little dog Two, our dominican neighbors have two dogs named Lassie and George. Her soulders come to about knee height on us. She is very jumpy and she loves couches. As you can see.

Soccer camp

We have finished soccer camp! Both Brodie and I did great, my team finished first and Brodie's team finished second. It was a grueling workout and in the end our reward was that we could sit on a tile floor for two hours listening to a completly spanish movie. We also got a shirt that said 2005 fall kickoff. True Dominican style, Out dated clothing. The main character's name in the movie was named Santiago wich happens to be the the place that i'm going today. YAY!

This is a river. A cold river. The river is one of two that run through Jarabacoa. This section of river is one located on a resort that we get to visit for free because my mom and dad work at Escuela Caribe. This last week and starting tomorrow we have been, and will continue going to soccer camp. It is a very intense training complex surounded by barbed wire and guarded by a heavily armed serano (spanis h for guard) and inforced by Texans, and other slave-drivers. In other words we're having fun : )

A normal dominican day...

This is where we drive around on a daily basis with a rusty old battered-up Isuzu Trooper with no accidents so far and just to make it worse there are no seatbelts and half the time we are riding on a full propane tank. But its still lots of fun.

NOT leaving on Sunday...

We got to the airport at 3:30, unloaded all of our stuff and went to the desk to get our tickets. Turns out that the plane that we were supposed to take to Minneapolis had suffered some damage from its last flight. So we sat there in the airport with our thirty pound backpacks and four carts of our stuff trying to get tickets. We did end up getting a flight to Chicago and THEN to Miami instead of Minneapolis to Miami. Personally I think Chicago is cooler than Minneapolis, but get this, our new flight doesn't depart at 3:00 or at 4 or 5 or 6 or even in the whole day it leaves at 7:00... MONDAY MORNING! Not Sunday morning,That means that we woke up at 3 in the morning for nothing!

PS.in case you haven't already figured it out the whole getting a flight means we haven't left yet.

Leaving on Sunday...

We're leaving on Sunday at 3 in the morning from Winnipeg to the airport. Our flight leaves at 5 and we should "enjoy" 5 hours on the plane stopping in Minneapolis and then Miami and finally off to our final destination, The Dominican...

Sorry...

Sorry that we haven't been posting lately. For your information we haven't left yet (SURPRISE!) so we can't really talk about how it is there.

Your turn!

Now its your turn, we wanna here about you guys.Post here and tell us something cool,surprising or sad that happened to you guys.

The Blog

Here is the all famous Brodie and Drew blog! So keep checkin back here and see whats new.





PS add this as your favorites so you don't have to type it in every time!