MERRY CHRISTMAS, Y’ALL!!!
The very fabulous Jennie Morel took some incredible pix of our kids. The most
true one is at the end of this newsletter. :) Levi (10), Sarah (7) and Sam (11)
Want to know what is happening down here in the DR? Let me tell ya…...
After the Dominican elections in March, everything kind of came to a screeching halt.
Very little was open and people were not out and about. We completed school by
way of packets for my three and I was teaching on two different platforms for
Middle School and High School. It was pretty crazy, but it was the best we could
do with one day to prepare before schools were to close.
Then the summer came! Hallelujah…..except there was still really nothing to do.
It was hard to know what would be open, but many things like the pool, museums
and movie theatres were still closed. A lot of restaurants had delivery only. We
have had a curfew since March. It was extended a bit since the original curfew,
so right now people can’t be out after 9pm on weekdays and 7am on the weekends.
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Our family took one of Levi’s friends to see the home of the Mirabal Sisters. The murder of these ladies played an important role in overthrowing the dictator who ruled the DR for 30 years. |
In June, Joe and I celebrated 19 years of wedded bliss. We elected to celebrate
by spending 3 days together in Santiago…..in the hospital! Joe received great
care and every test was done to eliminate this and that and we walked out with
a high blood pressure diagnosis and a better plan to tend to his arthritis.
We are EXCEEDINGLY thankful to our neighbors, Jon and Rachel Sawyer, who
took our kids in a heartbeat and assured us that our top priority could be Joe and
his health. We are also so thankful for our other neighbors, Zech and Lauralee
Millette, for taking our kids off the Sawyer’s hands for a night.
It was a clear and beautiful picture of community.
We celebrated the 4th with a gathering of the people in our apartment complex.
At the end of July, we started virtual staff training. Administration wisely prepared
us for online teaching AND on campus teaching. The Dominican Ministry of
Education had not yet announced what they were going to allow for either public
or private schools. So, Doulos Discovery School was going to be ready either way.
There was partial tearing down of some physical walls so that no more than 10 kids
were in a room at a time and the teacher would teach from the middle of those ‘rooms’.
I was preparing for Art-on-a-Cart since the students were not going to be moving
from class to class and Joe was not really sure how his role would look as someone
who works with kids who are struggling. Would he be able to pull kids from the
classroom? All this while learning the ins and outs of Google Classroom.
Mid-August, Doulos Discovery School started 2020-2021 online with the hope
the Ministry of Education would say we could return, but did not and have not.
The public schools planned to return back to school in November. The goal and
plan is to have the country’s kids distance learning for virtual learning by next
month. Some may be going online, but if you turn on the TV during the day, you
will likely find a public school class going on. Kids here are taking class by TV and
getting packets from their local public school.
What all of this means for our family is that Joe is a homeschooling dad and I
go to school everyday and teach students on the Google Classroom platform.
We wear masks when we are anywhere, but our own rooms. It is a strange place--a
school with no students, but it has become our new normal. It meant that we
had Sam transition to middle school, Levi to 5th grade and Sarah to 3rd all online.
They all went from playing games and reading on their tablets to opening their class
page and navigating their live calls on a computer. Sam has learned how to track all his
classes, move between them for live class and turn in work. I have also learned A TON.
There have been a few mishaps, but the kids have been extremely gracious.
We have elected to not travel back as a family for Christmas due to the health
risk traveling presents to my parents who are both cancer survivors, but Joe will
head back to visit his family at the end of December. In a time of limited travel,
we long for visitors to come see us. So, feel free to book a flight. :)
Overall, we are more than hanging in there. Doulos is doing a great job in keeping
about the business of educating students in meaningful ways and we are so thankful
for that. I believe that more than ever Doulos is carrying out their mission of providing
a meaningful and excellent education and discipling students. Doulos still has Chapel
each week and small groups, we have had several drive throughs for the students,
and maintained some very ‘Doulos’ aspects. One is our Reading Under that Stars
event, which you can see how we did that virtually on our facebook page
Doulos Ministries (https://www.facebook.com/doulosdiscovery). This is a time
when the families of Doulos come together under the big mango tree on campus
and read together. The boys opted to read in the mango tree outside of our
apartment with the neighborhood boys.
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| Stars were sent home to read under! :) |
Another event is our Christmas program. It looked very different
from other years, but the show still went on and Jesus’ significance was announced.
You can also see that on the school’s FB page.
Doulos also seems to be--based on the asking around that our principal
did--the only school in the country of the Dominican Republic who
started school when we said we would. This was only one week past
what we normally do. Our students have had a full semester of education!!
In these crazy times, this is not a light statement.
Here are just a few more pictures of Sam, Levi and Sarah. :)
Photo credit: Jennie Morel for the last four photos. This last one is the more true
representation of how my beautiful kids are on most days….dirty feet and scarred
up from climbing trees. :)
THANK YOU for reading this far. THANK YOU for your interest in our
family. THANK YOU to our SUPER FAITHFUL supporters. It is so valuable
to the work that is being done in Jarabacoa through the education that Doulos is
providing. If you would like to jump on board, we would welcome you to
the team. Our support has changed since moving to Doulos two years ago.
Before moving to Doulos, people would give a one time gift from time to
time as they knew the organization and our long association with it. We
have really missed those gifts in our transition, so we would welcome one
time or monthly supporters. Here is how to give to Doulos in support of
the Majcher Family. https://give.doulosministries.us/?donateTo=79032
I’ll leave you with one of my fave verses.
Grace and peace,
The Majchers--Joe, Laurie, Sam, Levi and Sarah
