Week 4 - Julie Martin

Week four started with a celebration for Mike's birthday as we had a delicious home made cake and ordered pizza from a popular restaurant. Another intern (named Abbey) also arrived on this day. She is from Ohio, which is actually where the owners of the ministry are from. This week was completely different from the previous. We had a lot of work to accomplish around the mission house. One day was spent organizing 61 bins in a room. It was just Abbey and me. A few days were spent going through a ton of receipts from the previous year for tax purposes. Keila (Dominican translator) got married at the end of this week at the mission house so we had are hands full. She also moved in to her house and will all helped with that process. I felt like a wedding planner, making sure everything was ready and in place for her wedding. I went with Keila to pick everything up for her special day and assisted in setting it all up. Traci and Karen were actually in the wedding so I made sure everything was going well. There were a few issues, but they were all dealt with. One exciting thing I go to do was a bridesmaid's makeup. Dominican weddings are very similar to ours in the US. One difference was the Dominicans throw rice. I found it fascinating to learn that in their culture they keep both last names and end with the women's. Her wedding was beautiful even though they started two hours late as it is just a part of their culture. I had a wonderful time and was truly happy to be a part of it.