Be Strong and Courageous

Eddie's House: A Labor of Love

 

Saturday

 Every Saturday evening, we have what we call "Family Unity" in the houses.  It is a time for everyone in the house to come together and eat good food, play games and discuss house matters.  This past Saturday, Thomas house played a game of "Mafia" after another delicious meal prepared by Gloria.  Then for group discussion they talked about (among other things) ways to "keep" God in the house, the upcoming housetrip*, why they are consistently failing inspections**, and keeping the bathroom clean.  Believe it or not, most topics on Family Unity are brought up by the students.  Yes, that means your teenage boys are concerned with keeping the bathroom clean.

After enjoying a delicious peanut butter pie for desert, TKB played some cards games including Skip-Bo.  Then they discussed what they will be doing for their upcoming housetrip*.

 

Sunday

On Sunday Escuela Caribe Chapel had a guest speaker, courtesy of the Goshen Missions Team that is in town.  He spoke about being strong and courageous, drawing from Joshua 1:9 which says "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."  

In the afternoon, both houses enjoyed a game of baseball with some Dominican friends.  Then some of the Thomas house guys hit the gym and some stayed at the house and enjoyed a game of Risk.  The girls at TKB enjoyed a more relaxed Sunday afternoon, tanning in their front yard and swinging on the tree swing.  In the evening they played a game of "Hand and Foot".

 

Monday

For their free day this week, the girls once again enjoyed a day of horseback riding.  After riding, they took a special shopping trip into town to buy fun things like jewelry and make-up and stocked up on snacks for their candy cans***.  In the evening they watched "Sweet Home Alabama".

The boys had a service project free day, and for this they helped out Goshen Missions Team build a house for a man named Eddie.  Eddie is a 36 year old Dominican who has been living in a shack/chicken coup for years.  The boys helped by hauling trees, digging a "baño" hole, and laying brick.  They also played another game of baseball in the afternoon, and ended the day by watching an episode of "Firefly".

 

*Housetrip is a trip that the houses take twice a year to different parts of the island.  It is a mini-vacation from school and a fun cultural experience. 

**Inspections occur once a week.  The homelife director will inspect the houses to see if they are clean and organized.  If a house fails inspection, they are required to do anywhere from 2 - 8 hours of cleaning on their free day, depending on how bad they fail.  If they pass inspection and receive a higher score than the other houses, they have the honor of hanging the "inspection flag" outside their house, declaring them the winners on campus, and receive one week of grace from inspections.

***Candy cans are large tin cans with lids that the students keep their snacks in so that bugs and other pests do not get into them.