8 hour ride!!!

~*~this should have been posted on Sept. 23, but i had some problems publishing it so here it is now~*~

Might i start by saying that today was the funnest (is that a word?) day of my entire life. A group of us (Andrea and Melvin, Jose and Chastity, Me and Christian, Gio, Jochi, and Wiliam) left this morning at 9:00 to make the long trip up to Constansa on bike. Us three girls were very nervous at first, but it didn't take us long to relax. This picture is of the first place we stopped to take a break...we are looking down on Jarabacoa. This is me and Christian! He asked me about two weeks ago if i would go with him up to Constansa. He has become a really good friend of mine! After we got to Constansa we went up the mountain to a waterfall called "agua blanca". Once we crested (that word is for you alicia) over the mountain, Cristian pointed out something off in the distance...i just smiled, not knowing what exactly i was to be looking at then he told me that that was were we were going. It looked like a sheet of silver sticking into the side of the mountain, but the closer we got i realized it was a waterfall. Makes sense now why it is called 'Agua Blanca' (white water). It was so beautiful/breathe taking and the biggest waterfall that i have seen here! I love God's creation (it gives me warm fuzzy feelings inside...hehe)! I am sure he was looking down from Heaven smiling and saying "yea, i did that for you!" Sometimes i forget to stop and take the time to look for God's little love messages to us, but this one took my breathe away! God is a romantic God!
On some of the roads there were big mud puddles and the guys thought it would be funny to see how dirty we could get. Yep...they got us pretty dirty, but it was so much fun and we (us girls) couldn't stop smiling. On the way up to this really amazing look out place (which we ended up not getting through) Cristian layed the bike down. I was so scared, but couldn't stop laughing. Everything kinda hurt at first, but i didn't get hurt...just a few little scratches and bruises. Cristian cut his knee open, but all in all we were both fine. That has always been my worse fear when riding, but God protected us both...for that i am thankful.

55 roses! From who you might ask?!? yeah, i am still wondering the same thing. Tuesday they were delievered to me at the school with a small card attached. The card said "I can't help falling in love with you, Bruck! att: Dr. Peurlte (Nathan)" I must admit that it really grates on me the way people spell my name here, but aside from that who is this Doctor?!? i'll admit at first i had no clue who nathan was, but then i remembered from the day before when Mecho (the director of the school) told me that a guy named Nathan (Natan) was in love with me. Turns out that the roses were from this guy that goes to the same church as me, but i don't even know him and just a week earlier we had been introduced for the first time. The only thing he knows about me is that my name is Brooke (or Bruck). We are not even friends so it made receiving 55 roses from him really ackward. Good thing he is a Doctor (or more so, dentist) because i was informed that the roses i received where well over 1,500 pesos (more then $50)! Seems like you would want to wait to spend that much money until you at least had a friendship going. whatever! i will just have to enjoy them till they die! hehe!

lazy day

Saturday morning we (ryan, lynn, anna, kent, anthony, chastity, and andrea) went and hiked up to the antenna. it was kinda a hard hike up 'cuz it was so steep, but it was a lot of fun. we spent a little over an hour at the top hanging out and then came back down to go to Biaguate waterfall. then from there we went to 'la confluencia'! i really like going there because it is where two rivers meet. the one river is warmer, but dirtier then the one that it flows into which is cold, but usually really blue! it was a long day, but a lot of fun getting to know 'the americans' (hehe) better!

R.I.P. Terron ~ sniff, sniff!

~*~Grab a kleenex and a hand to hold before you read~*~
Saturday i had spent the day with some friends (as you can see in the post above) and returned back to the house later in the afternoon. When i walked through the door i expected to be greeted by mitsy (the dog), but she was nowhere to be found so i made my way back to my room and at the end of the hall i was horrified to see mitsy guarding some black rodent on her bed. I was for sure it was a mouse as shivers crawled down my back, but as i drew nearer i realized that it was no mouse at all, but a bat! BUT GOD, WHY? "please not terron" i gasped. my heart fell to the bottom of my stomach as i grieved the lose of a faithful midnight friend. Our times together came together as a movie in my head and as i knelt down, i remembered the first time we met and the first time he scared me so bad that i hid under the table. i remembered all the laughs we had as he flew above us and all the reassuring we had to do to other people because of their fear of him. All in all, he was a faithful friend. May he rest in peace!
okay! so for real though, i came walking back to my room and mitsy was guarding it like it was her job. i freaked out a bit and went and got arlene. we thought it was dead so we had our heads right down by it when it moved...which sent us running and screaming down the hall. we returned moments later, after brainstorming, with a garbage can. the plan was that arlene would pick up the cushion and hold it over the trash while i scraped it off the cushion into the trash can with the lid. trial and error. the bat fall off as soon as arlene picked up the cushion which once again sent us running and screaming. we returned moments later to see mitsy pawing at it and it was kinda making this screaching sound. it started to crawl around using his arm thingies, but we thought he was dying so i grabed the dust pan and the tiny broom and swept him into it and put him in the trash and closed the lid. we were so proud of ourselves to be told moments later that we had trapped a live and healthy bat by the guy that was to much of a pansiy to help us. we kinda forgot the fact that bats can't see during the day. i tried to defend our actions by telling him that he could have flown at us, but he shot me down with the fact that bats are not like birds....they have to crawl up to a high place and then fall/guide down. so if you come over, don't open the trash can outside!

God's Faithfulness!

Now that summer groups are over and Kevin and Joel have left, the house seems really quiet. It feels good to slow down and have more time to relax, but i really miss all the friendships from this summer. Troyers leave on thursday to go back to the states for two and a half weeks and i have been praying that things would go smoothly for them and that they would have a wonderful time, but also that time would go fast for me (since alicia won't be here to do crazy stuff with) ! God is so faithful...last thursday night we had an american family over for supper (because the dad will be teaching alicia geometry) and they have five kids (ages 20~Lynn,17~Kent,15~Ryan,13~Anna,10~Sara). alicia and i had a lot of fun with there two sons and later when their daughter came, we hit it off right away! You would have thought we knew each other for years. Yesterday we all went to the river for the afternoon and then last night we went and ate chinese and watched a movie back at their house. I am excited to get to know them better! this pic is off Lynn, Alicia, and me!

Last weekend!

Last weekend all the SI staff went to the beach as a way to end the summer. Needless to say...it was AMAZING! Chatty, Andrea, Alicia, and I (a.k.a. the fab 4) stayed in the same room (even though chatty and andrea had another room) and hung out the whole time together. We spent most of our time laying out, swimming, and drinking pina coladas :0) during the day and then at night we would eat early so that we could sit out on the beach and watch the sun set....which was the most amazing/incredible/stunning/breathtaking/beautiful moment from the whole weekend. just to sit there in awe of God's art work and talk about how incredible it was, and then to find ourselves moments later in silence because we were speechless. It warmed my heart (for lack of better words) to know that God did that just for me...just for each one of us. He had to have been sitting up in Heaven with a smile on His face to see us girls enjoy his creation! THANK YOU, GOD! may i never become so busy that i don't take time to sit in awe of You and your creation. may i never forget the moments that your beauty took my breath away! and may i always remember that those little moments when i stand in awe of you and your art work and remember that those are your love messages to me!
Okay...back to the weekend...so my most memorable night (and favorite night) was the last night....oh where do i start? lets start with Kevin and Joel working their 'magic' to get us into the italian restaurant that required reservations...so we sit there for awhile, eat some cake stuff, and then Kevin points at me and gets these two guys to come over and sing and play the guitar...crazy! joel was talking with some old guy so we left him there and went to lay in the hammocks which got old so us girls went out on the beach where we heard music coming from one of the buildings so we walked up there and here is this five man band so we stood and watched them. they all had braids down to their butts with top hats and looked indian. eventually the guys found us and hung out with us. after that ended we headed back to our rooms because there was nothing better to do. i had WAY to much energy and wanted to do something crazy, but no one else was feeling it...to make a long story short Kevin ended up picking me up and acted like he was going to throw me into the pool, but then Joel comes running up behind him and all three of us ended up in the pool. No one is to be in the pool after 7pm and it is 11:30/12:00pm! so we all decided that it would be fun to go swimming in the bubbling pools out closer to the ocean (so that we don't get caught), so we all went and changed and met back out by the pools, but the little pools were FREEZING cold so we tried to get down on the beach, but only to be stopped by the security guard...so joel and kevin begin to work their 'magic', and we probably could have gotten down on the beach to go swimming, but we didn't want to waste anymore time and so we headed over to sosua's beach and swam over there. I was SOOOOOOOO scared! swimming in a pool at night is one thing, but in the ocean at 1:30am is a total nother thing. i was freaked out. and then kevin and joel made up this big lie about lightening bugs in the ocean and i believed them and blah blah blah...so funny! but yeah! it was one heck of a night and a good end to the summer!

Wait for him...
Wait for a guy who calls you beautiful not hot...
Who calls you back when you hang up on him...
Who will stay up just to watch you sleep...
Wait for the guy who kisses you on your forehead...
Who wants to show you off to the world when you are in your sweats...
Who holds your hand in front of his friends...
Wait for the one who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares about you and how lucky he is to have you...
Wait for the one who turns to his friends and says "yeah, that's her"...

NEEDLESS TO SAY ~ I AM STILL WAITING, BUT I AM CONTENT IN WAITING!

TPING! :0)

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T T.P. IN THE D.R.?!?!? Socorro had the brilliant idea of tping brian and sissy one sunday night during a baseball game! So we all piled in the little red truck, huey, and headed to the nearest supermarket to buy up on toilet paper. But Brian got word of it and met us at his house so we made a lap around the block and came back and finished the job...little did we know that he was filling each one of our beds with baby powder. Like the smart person i am, i come home and find all this powder in my bed and call Kevin into my room to figure out what the heck happened. I couldn't image how it got there or why someone would put it there. It smelled fresh and clean so i thought maybe we were having a problem with a mold smell and Cheryl put it in our beds, but it was just really not making sense. Kevin told me to just go to bed and not to worry about it, but then i was afraid i would wake up in the morning with a rash or something. Long story short...it was worth it!

Where to start?!?!

~AT THE ZOO~

July 28, 2006

we took all 30 kids to Santo Domingo Zoo and to some building thing. It was a hot day and extremely stressful, but the kids loved it and made the whole thing worth it. I was in charge of Daniel and Raully. Thank goodness Raully didn't need much taking care of because Daniel would cry everytime i put him down, so i ended up carrying him all day...which i really didn't mind...i would do anything for that kid. We visited some building...i am really not sure what it was....first and then got back in the bus just in time for it to start raining and then we got lost on the way to the zoo, but by the time we finally got there the rain had stopped and we ate lunch and then went through the zoo. the hippos were my favorite! it was so incredibly hott. For all of you that know me really well, you know that i hate sweat and don't sweat very much...so this next pic shows just how hot it was...ewwww!Then we made the long three hour ride back home...Daniel slept the whole way and i sang to him....but i couldn't wait to get back home because my mom flew in at 2:30 and it was already 6 by the time we got back. needless to say i finally got to see my mom and i was so excited. the next three weeks flew by. we stayed up many nights talking and laughing. i forgot how much me and my mom are alike. it was so good to be able to share EVERYTHING with her and know that she would not judge me for a bad attitude, but would encourage me to lean on Jesus. My mom is such an amazing women of God and i hope that i can be just like her when i grow up.~July 24 - August 5, 2006

Our second to last group was four different groups ALL FROM CALIFORNIA! omg...i felt a little overwhelmed at first, but soon i was sucked into believing that California is the best state (but only 'cuz they have the biggest zoo)! it was actually a God-thing because i have been praying about attending a discipleship school out there next september, but one of my biggest things was that i don't know ANYONE from there...well, now i do and i have made a lot of really good friendships. the two girls that worked in physical thearopy at the special ed. school are amazing and so beautiful! to be honest i was a little intimidated at first, but by the end i realized just how much i loved them. they are amazing! Then there was my incrediboy ~ Bryan! he is so funny and we had a really good time together, but don't you think he looks like incrediboy off of Incredibles? ohh...i think so!