Dominican Deliberations

This blog is meant to be a reflection of my time while in the Dominican Republic.  For those of you that do not know, I will be going there August 11th and coming back December 18th.  My time there will be spent in the capital city of Santo Domingo, a city of about 2 million people that is the oldest European establishment in the Western Hemisphere--Columbus landed in Santo Domingo in the 15th Century.  I will be teaching at an international school called the Carol Morgan School just outside of the city.  If you would like to find out more about the school, the website is http://www.cms.edu.do/.  I will be teaching high school biology and forensic science while I'm there.


Main ways of contacting me will be through e-mail, facebook, and skype (username: stephenmcmahan).  I also have been able to find an app for my ipod that will allow me to send and receive text messages.  The phone number for doing so is (715) 513-7853.  I will have to have wi-fi in order for this to work, but I believe it will be a useful tool for me down there to communicate with people while I'm down there.


Now that all of that is out of the way...


I am very excited to go to La República Dominicana!  In every interview that I have had for teaching jobs, I have been asked what experience I have had teaching students of diverse backgrounds.  Having this teaching stint on my resume will greatly improve it and also give me an opportunity to fulfill my personal desire to teach.  Even though the school gives all instruction in English, every student is bilingual.  I'm sure my time in the country will also give me a chance to refine some of my Spanish as well.  


The DR is in the Atlantic Standard Time Zone but do not practice daylight savings.  What this means is that right now, the DR is on the same time as Eastern time, three hours ahead of the West Coast.  However, in October, their time will stay the same when DST ends, but the U.S. will be "falling back" one hour.


This post is meant to give people a briefing of what I will be doing the next four months.  For now I am in Minneapolis with Kate and will be flying out Wednesday morning at 5:30 am to the DR.  I will look to update this more in the next week with pictures and more blog posts in order to keep everyone updated on what I am doing.


Please be keeping me in your thoughts and prayers as this will be a huge adjustment.  Also feel free to pass this blog along to friends and family that might be interested in it.  Thank you all for your support!!!


Phil 3:7-15