Excuse a Misrepresentation Please

I misrepresented our showering situation a bit. Let me state for the record that I love water. I love good, clean smelling soap. I love to take showers. I love the removable hand held shower head. My home shower is my own little spa.

In the mission house where we stayed, we did have access to a shower each day – sort of. The water did not come out of the shower head, but the knob where you would turn on the shower head. So the water came out of pipe about 3 ½ feet off the ground. A pastor who was there said it best. “The Lord’s done a lot of things to get me on my knees, but this is a new one”. We contoured ourselves to bend, kneel and step wide, but we did have soap and water!

One time with the fans were running and the lights were on there was not enough power to run the pump to get the water going. That day we turned off all the lights and fans and finally got the water going (much to the delight of the three people who were waiting).

Home

The GREAT news is nothing eventful happened on the way home. Two cars braved the early morning hours and one stayed in a hotel.

Now I am tired both physically and emotionally. I miss my traveling family and the friendly faces from Barhona. I’m glad to be back with the most wonderful husband ever. (He had my favorite soap, sea-scrub, scrunchi, shampoo, conditioner all laid out in a basket on a TV tray so I would see it when I walked in the door.) My clothes are unpacked and being washed, but “unpacking” my mind of all that I learned, that’s going to take a while.

Thanks for praying for us.

There's a pig on the beach (Saturday)

Today was our fun day so I’ll just start at the beginning. We had a lazy get up morning. Breakfast was at 8 instead of 7! Then we met our friend from yesterday who was going to be our guide for shopping. He and two of his friends helped us. They were with us at the bank as we exchanged money, making sure that everything was alright. One led the group, one was in the middle and one acted as a rear guard. They did our haggling and handled our money to make sure we got correct change. I felt like a child, cared for and looked after, given freedom to do what I wanted, but my big brothers were there just in case. Highlights from the shopping included seeing someone get their tennis shoes shined, hand made hammocks for $5 and the fresh fruit stand. Pineapples (fresh and then sliced before your eyes) for only 70 pesos! Yummy.

The afternoon was the beach. I can’t even begin to truly do justice to how beautiful the water is. How gorgeous the mountain cliffs are. The surf was huge and very, very strong. Everyone showed incredibly good judgment and did not venture too far into the waves. (Again our guardian angles were there.) The beach itself was rocks, rocks worn smooth from the waves. Small pebbles the size of dimes and nickels and quarters in a myriad of colors. Breathtaking. Also at this beach was a waterfall that made it’s way down the mountain. The water was collected in stone pools that we could swim or rest in. The best of both worlds: refreshing, brisk water from the mountain and fabulous salty surf.

Yes, there was a pig on the beach. The pig looked to be about 120lbs and we saw it on the way home outside one of the homes. There were also goats on the road, dogs wandering too and fro. There are so many sights to see!

The service tonight was incredible. It was to start at 7 so Pastor Pedro and our group arrived at 7:20. The doors to the church were opened wide and Pastor Pedro began to sing and teach us a song in Spanish. WE had a beautiful prayer, spoken in Spanish and translated for our benefit. At about 7:30 the rest of the band arrived and some office holders in the church. The signing began in earnest. WOW! What a powerful joyful service. You REALLY felt the joy of the Lord radiating from the leaders. We all got swept up in the feeling and the spirit of worship and although I didn’t understand the words (except maybe two, Dios and Jesus) I knew this was praise. Real praise. Praise that couldn’t be contained. Praise that followed me home.

I love it here and tomorrow we leave. I am sad. I will miss seeing pigs on the beach, goats in the street and praising the Lord with all that I am.

Thank you for praying for us.

Concrete is hard (Friday)

On the ride home I asked: “What should I blog about today?”. One of the youth said “talk about the little boy” another said “how about this ride home” and then someone else said “why don’t you just tell them what we did today”. I said “Yeah, and the title could be ‘Concrete is hard’” We all laughed. Concrete IS hard.

Today was a good day, an exhausting day to be sure. One of the wonderful things that were expressed today was that all of our youth would like to get a job in management. I think this trip has really shown us the value of physical labor. We laid a floor in a church today. They have been waiting for three years for a church. Several groups have been through and in three weeks they now have the walls, the roof and a beautiful concrete floor. Our team helped.

The good news is that for most of the day we actually had a mixer! The groups only had to shovel the sand and gravel together and then into the mixer. Still hard work, but easier that doing the WHOLE thing by hand. Our group also moved rocks, lots and lots of rocks. One of our people moved a wheelbarrow three times their body weight. Impressive.

I remain impressed by our group. Their heard work, their cheerful spirit, all of it is just impressive. I remain in awe of the wonderful people here and their dedication. I reflect that I am here from such a short time. Soon I will go home to an abundance of choices. I will go back to my home with air conditioner, clean water and any food I can imagine I can get. Here, they often skip lunch; they’re not used to eating. They work with what ever is at hand. They are happy and they are generous with all that they have welcoming us. I want to copy their life, their joyful abandon. Now that would be hard. Even harder than concrete.

Thank you for praying for us!

Things I Miss

Thursday...I am not sure when the last time I smelt so bad. And no shower. Power is off again. The power did not come back on and so Pastor Pedro got a generator from his home so the fans in our rooms would move the stagnate air. After about two hours he some how jump started the house and we had power. The power went off at about 5 a.m.Yes, I was awake. I miss having lights come on when you flip a switch. I really, really miss showering.

I miss traffic rules and paved roads. The rules here appear to be optional, but everyone is sensible. They honk their horn when they want to turn, pass you, or just say hello. The roads are bumpy and rattle your teeth a bit. However no one seems to get in an accident. There are four people to a scooter and no one wears a helmet. CRAZY!

The poverty here is pretty astounding. I have an hour to type two blogs and it cost 30 pesos, or one dollar. A friend just treated us to ice cream, all four of us got a bar for under a dollar twenty five. She gave the people two dollars and they helped us improve Spanish. The young children at the batay wear no clothes and the older children´s clothing is nearly shredded. The people here are so friendly. They yell Americanos and wave at us. The children at the batay jumped up and down when they saw us. Being welcomed like that was wonderful and eased my tiredness.

We did get the roof finished and one latrine framed, and organized the medicine cabinet in the clinic. The work is hard, it´s very hot, and did I mention there´s no power?

Funny, since I am surrounded by friends that speak English and are trying to help me with Spanish...Beth you just told him to sit, not I´m sorry....I don´t miss seeing all the signs in English either. We are all a long way from home. The group remains in good spirits, healthy and safe and a joy to be around.

Thank you for your prayers, please continue to pray for us.

Physical Labor Is Hard!

Ok, so today, Wednesday was a little rough. The country here is so beautiful. There are lovely mountain ranges and you can see the ocean from where we are staying. Pastor Pedro is doing all he can to make our experience positive. Breakfast was delicious, boiled eggs, ham, cheese, bread and fresh pineapple. Then off to Batay 7 for a day of fun. We poured a concrete roof. This of course would not take 20 people if you had all the mixers and things from home. No, this was digging sand and putting it in a bucket and then getting a bucket brigade going to get the sand up to the roof, then another for the water and then lots of lifting bags of cement...94 lbs! After 5 hours, Pastor Pedro said that the hard day would be tomorrow and we stopped for the day. We returned back to our home to discover the power was out. This happens a lot here, I was told. Folks don´t pay their electric bill and the government can´t turn off individual homes so they turn off the power between 10ish and 8ish. We can wash our hands, but a shower isn´t really happening.

Even though I´m blogging on Thursday ' I´ll stop the story there and pick up the next day....

By the way several people remarked on what a fabulous group we have and how hard everyone is working. Our group is amazing and I feel truly blessed to be a part of them. Please continue to pray for us.

We Arrived!

If you ever travel I can highly recommend the people I am traveling with. They are WONDERFUL! We made it to Tampa and the Tampa airport just fine. The only hiccup was the five hour delay in Miami. Instead of arriving in Santo Domingo at 2:55 we arrived at 7:30. Thankfully the people meeting us still were waiting. Then we had the four hour bus ride in air conditioned comfort. We stopped about half way for dinner at 11:30! Fried chicken never tasted so good. At 1:30 we arrived at our new home and well, pretty much fell fast asleep in our bunks with a warm summer breeze blowing. Now I am at our fabulous host´s home, posting this blog before breakfast. I´ll let you know how the work goes later. Please continue to pray for us!

Packed and Ready

So, one suitcase to leave behind and one suitcase for all my stuff. I keep looking at all the stuff thinking can I leave this behind? How about this? How important is this too me? I remember the people who gave me the items; a bear from Alan (not to leave), a towel purchased for a trip to the beach (that will stay), T-shirts from the blood bank (those will stay). I’ve attached way too much sentimentality to my things. They are just items and in truth everything could be left behind. Sure I’d miss the clothes, the teapot, the special pillow, but they can be replaced. The things that truly matter, my husband, my family, my friends, can’t ever be left behind – not when they live in my heart. I do hope I learn to leave behind my preconceived notions. I do hope that I take with me a sense of God’s peace and love. Pray for us.