Grannies on a Mission: Hello! Hola! Bonjour!

Mark Hernandez

Mark

This is my fourth trip to the DR. There is so much to learn when you are in a different country and culture. During this trip I made an effort to learn to greet my friends correctly. You might think we greet them only the first time we see them. In the DR you greet people every day. Arriving at work you greet every person with a kiss and/or hug. This was part of the greeting that I improved on. When greeting you touch cheeks and kiss the air. Your lips do not touch them. If they are a good friend they might give you a real hug with it as well. They say "bendiciones" (blessings) or "Dios te bendiga" (God bless you) or "como estas" (how are you?) When arriving at church you greet everyone and before leaving again they give you a hug and blessings.

The children are taught at a young age to respect their elders and it is shown by how they greet them. An example of this is that on Wednesday afternoon we ate lunch at Eddy's parents' house. Adriana came home from school and entered the house. She greeted me and Ruth with a kiss on our cheeks and then greeted Eddy and Carrie with a typical family greeting. The custom is called "besando la mano". The child greets the adult by calling them by what they are to them (mom, dad, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc) and the adult responds by saying "Dios te bendiga" (God bless you). So she went up to Carrie, kissed her on the cheek and said "Tia" (Aunt) and Carrie responded with "Dios te bendiga". She then repeated the process with Eddy (Tio).

Wednesday, January 30

Because last year we helped the newlywed Carrie organize her house. This year we spent Wednesday afternoon organizing Shelley's house. Shelley requested that we help her with the large closet in her daughter's room. We emptied it, tossed lots of stuff (don't tell Sarah) and brought boxes of stuff to the school. After invading her daughter's room and closet we felt comfortable enough to make some other improvements to her kitchen and living room as well.

Wednesday night us girls went out to eat at TGI Fridays to celebrate Shelley and Carrie's birthdays. While we were out Shelley's son Mark called. He had just gotten home and he wanted her to tell us all thank you for the work we did in the house. It was very touching.

Mark is 11 years old; he is in 6th grade. He attends Santiago Christian School (SCS) which is located around the corner from Pathway to Jesus School. This is the school that Shelley visited when she was a student at Dordt College. After graduating Shelley taught at SCS for 5 years and was principal for 5 years.
Mark enjoys when the groups come down to work on the school. Along with being bilingual (Spanish and English) he takes French in school as well. Mark is now on the basketball team at school. This year he also plays on the praise team at church. Mark has lots of friends because he is a outgoing kid!