Girl ♥’s D.R.

Meet my cousin Erin.

For a few years now she has been going on mission trips to the Dominican Republic and has fallen in love with the culture and people. Through her experiences in the DR, she as become inspired to help the local children overcome poverty through improving the quality of their education. (I know I haven’t given you much info. on my new job, but the mission of Common Hope sounds awfully familiar to this. We might just be carving a new path in our long family line of educators!)

Having just graduated from Grove City College (in Pennsylvania) with a dual degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education and an emphasis in Spanish, Erin is already setting off to make her mark on the world – today in fact! Sometime today, June 15th 2009, she boarded a plane to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic where she will be soon begin work as an English teacher in The Compassion International School of Hato Mayor. She’ll be working with the school’s director to help them with the process of becoming a bilingual school. Commonly in developing nations such as the DR and Guatemala, the demand for English education is high – especially from a native English speaker. By learning English, graduates have a greater chance of securing jobs in both tourism and business, two areas that developing countries rely on heavily.

A few years back, Ben and I took a trip to the D.R. to visit a friend and embrace the culture. We loved it there, despite the fact that we could hardly understand a word of the Spanish dialect they spoke! During our trip we visited a few of the water purification systems that Healing Waters Intl. (Aguas de Unidad) has in the country. It was here that Ben really began to envision his “dream job” of helping people who live in poverty have access to safe drinking water.

While Erin will certainly have many things that she has to adjust to – like spotty electricity, early morning roosters and noisy motorcycles – she’ll never have a lack of good, clean drinking water – just ask Compassion where the nearest ADU system is Erin! Oh and if you want to know where the best cliff jumping spot is, we’ll get you that info too!

If you are interested in supporting Erin through prayer and receiving prayer update emails, or if you'd just like to know more about what she will be doing, please email me and I will happily pass your info along.

Buenas suerte Erin! We’re so proud of this step that you’re taking. Hope we can visit you one day soon!