more and more amigos

Sitting here listening to almost four hours of thunder clapping above us in the sky, causes me to reflect on the Dominican Republic again and my friends there. The type of thunder we are experiencing around Friday Harbor is very unusual; more common in the D.R. Our Dominican friend list is exhausting, which is very cool. I have even started in on our new American friends who visited us this summer. That will be another blog story...so awesome what God has done this past summer, knitting our hearts with others. Shooting the basketball is our friend Leo, the Casa handy-man/helper, who stays at the Casa five nights a week. He has become a great friend, practicing english and spanish together, playing dominoes in the evenings, greeting me in the mornings when I wander down to the kitchen to get the coffee going. I miss the morning laughter with him that began every day. Standing in front of the new basketball basket are Nando and Franklin. They are two young guys I've known for four years now, who live in Los Robles. Both of them are in the COTN university program. Franklin's english has improved a ton! They are both young leaders in their community and I'm encouraged by their life and faith every time I see them. Alejandro is a driver and mechanic who works for COTN. He has also become a great friend. On the side, he makes beautiful jewelry with larimar, the blue stone that is only found near Barahona in the D.R. Willi, Rambo, Renso, Juanchy and I gathered together for a photo the day before we left. All of these guys, young and old, have helped our family out in many many ways over the years. Juanchy is the lead translator, and has helped us with team, communication and learning spanish. Rambo also translates, drives and helps out, Willi is just a fun young guy who is a helper and Renso is a driver who is studying to become a lawyer, attending night classes. Our cooks, Manuela and Iris are pictured with Carly in typical form, laughing and singing while preparing awesome meals in the kitchen. We love them! Pictured in the blog banner are Monique, Mikaela and Magali, a couple of young ladies who Monique tutored in English in Los Robles. Their meetings were informal, yet very productive because they had more one on one time together. Monique got help from them with her Spanish too.

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