Another Beach & another storm

Well we ventured off with some need greaters to a little backwood restuarant in an area called Coson. The road was nice and paved for a large part of the way, although a little narrow. It was raining and when the pavement ended the potholes that were now lakes and covered the whole road were completely unavoidable. We trekked through without loosing anyone (fortunately we were in cars).

We followed our lead car into a side road and had to cross a small bridge, if you could call it that. The lead car had stopped in front of me and Jenny says quickly to open the trunk. She got her camera out, took a picture of something ahead of the lead car and after the lead car went across, I saw what we were about to cross and she then took a picture of my face.

We made it across and found that the restaurant was not open and not the right one. So back across the bridge, down the road and off onto another side road to Restaurant Luis. The sides dishes are non negotiable, they are rice, beans, fried plantains and french fries. The main consists of choice of shrimp (the whole bodies-eyes and legs);fish;chicken or beef. The latter two take a bit longer than the hour we waited for the other items. There were many people there, we joked that we had to wait until they were done with their plates before we could be served.

The beach had more waves than the previous beaches so I attempted some body surfing but the breaks were a little too close to shore for real long rides. Others walked the beach looking for shells.

We came home and had a bit of a thunderstorm with some awesome coloring in the clouds. A nice day.

P.S. Hey Carl look what we could do! :)

More snorkeling

Well we have got 3 more hooked on snorkeling that thought they were scared of what was under water. Unfortunately, they also got burned on their backsides because they snorkeled so much!
Here are some pics of these newbies.

We also found another wrecked ship and Jenny and I swam out to it, this time without seeing any sharks. I did prepare by looking up information on how to avoid a shark attack and what to do just in case. Hit the shark in the eye, gills or nose if he comes at you. Don't play dead - it doesn't fool a shark. Don't swim crazily but either stay still or calmly swim away. And the most important, if you do get bit, try to stop bleeding. Hmmm....

So a few more pics of our underwater adventure and of the beach.

We had an awesome thunderstorm yesterday morning before sunup and I got some great video but inadvertently deleted it :( . Hoping for another chance. We went to meeting yesterday and after meeting one of the three elders was handing out slips of paper. They were survey questions that the circuit overseer wanted everyone to answer and hand back (no names) asking about the study habits. Unique.

There is an english meeting in Santo Domingo on Tuesday, we will be going as we are dropping off Janet and Jeanette to catch a plane Wednesday morning along with one of the rental cars. A missionary couple has been assigned to the island, their territory is english and covers the whole island! The local congregations are to take note of any english speaking persons in the territory and pass the information on. A couple in our group are hearing the call to step over into Macedonia.

Signing off! lj

Ask me what I saw...

when I went snorkeling yesterday! Decided to go out a little farther than I had been to where an excursion boat was anchored. Wasn't seeing much but kept going in the hopes of seeing a turtle or rey or eel or something. I saw a sunken ship, not a really cool old one, but none the less a sunken ship and there were fish swimming in amongst it.

It was time to head back in and I turned to the shore in time to see a really large fish but as my eyes adjusted I realized it was a shark! Later found out it was probably a white tip reef shark. As thoughts raced through my head about whether I was suppose to stay still or swim like crazy I did both, of course not at the same time. Checked the surface to see if there was any fin coming at me as in my mind remotely I thought I remembered that sharks attack on the surface and checked under the water to see if I could spot it. Thankfully it was no where to be seen and I made it back to shallower water although my heart was beating pretty fast. The shark I saw wasn't quite as big as the one in the picture, which I got off the www, as I did not have the sense to take a picture when in the moment.

Back in what I thought was safer ground I heard some surface commotion. Poked my head up to find a surf kite about 10 feet away from me and the surfer getting dragged across the reef. He let his board go toward me so I grabbed it and waited for him to get free of the reef and returned it to him. He apologized for scaring me and went about getting his kite back up and on his board.

That was my adventure for the day. Four went to the build again and they have got the roof supports up (not exactly trusses but framing for the metal roof.) The days adventure for them included a brother who seemed to be a "Gomer Pile" strong on heart and short on experience and long on mishaps.

Well, take care! lj

27 Waterfalls and Bethel

A brave band of 6 went to the 27 Waterfalls. My camera went as my representative. The trip to this involves a 4 hour drive each way, a short hike up to the top of the falls, helmets, life jackets and deep breathing and trust in the guides. Intrigued?

Here are some pics of their adventure (Steve, Alexis, Paula, Keri, Jenny & Nathan). These were taken on Tuesday.

Wednesday we all went to the branch and dropped off the Martinez, Scott & Rhoade families to stay the night and catch planes this morning. The branch is small and is a kind of depot for the literature that comes in from the farm. It does have an assembly hall which is used for circuit assemblies and district conventions. There is one huge fan and lots of little fans hanging from the ceiling and the seats lean back. The have a baptismal pool which several in our group were willing to get rebaptized in order to get in the cool pool.

The outlying territory is definately in need of help. One couple are on the border of Haiti and the DR and it is very hard as they speak mostly Spanish but there a lot of interested Haitians. There is a couple from the first Gilead school who are still in the DR and are quite active, the brother having 7-8 studies.

Also included are some pics from the last meeting that the Spanish and Creole had together as the Creole has just been appointed as a congregation. The talk was given in Creole and translated into Spanish. The Watchtower was 1/2 in Spanish and 1/2 in Creole with questions asked in both languages. There were almost as many outside as were inside the kingdom hall.

Enjoy!

Playa Bonita

"Beautiful Beach" We found another beach to explore yesterday. After a few went out in service we headed for the beach. There were different fish and a lots of shells. We also encountered two large larvae caterpillar type creatures which Steve enjoyed scaring the sisters with. Shirley is really the only smart one of us as she uses measures to keep from sun exposure and her umbrella makes a great weapon and protection.

This morning we went out in the invitation work (Steve, Nathan, Jenny & I). We got to know the friends a little better. A special pioneer couple who have recently been assigned here. He is Dominican and she is from Colorado. Her sister will be going to the same international convention in Korea that some of us are assigned to. The territory is walking and involves perception as their are houses that are tucked into every little nook and cranny and require training as a mountain goat or mule.

Tonight we have a meeting and it will be both Creole and Spanish and it is the last time they will meet together as the Creole have been formed into a congregation officially on July 1.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of the beach!

More construction and preaching

Yesterday part of our group when to construction and part to preaching. The congregation has started their invitation work for the district assembly to be held the last of July. The first time that there was a special tract campaign the Witnesses said they could not stay to talk, the people asked if they had done something to offend them that they were not going to stay. Now after so many campaigns the people understand.

The construction is going quite quickly despite the unusually hot weather. (It's somewhat comforting that the locals think its hot too!) So it was Steve & Alexis Scott, Paula & Keri, Jenni and I that went yesterday. Some moved more concrete blocks, some turned cement, some helped in making cement and we all whenever possible sat and tried to cool off. By the afternoon there was no shade to be found on the whole site and even the brothers who have been doing this works for years were feeling the heat. But there was not a disgruntled spirit but one of empathy.

The different ways of doing things is quite amusing. There has yet to be a safety meeting and we got to see the strength of these brothers and the willing attitude and that a little play makes things easier. Check out the videos.

The Necessary Things

Laundry. It is a necessary thing to do from time to time. The home we are at does not have a washer. I mention only the washer because of the fact that most hang clothes out to dry. Both energy efficient and also inexpensive.

To do our laundry (if one is unwilling to do the laundry by hand) the clothes are loaded into bags and we drive down to the laundry mat. This is a small building with 5 washers and 3 dryers. You can either leave your laundry there and come back to pickup cleaned and folded laundry or can stay there and do the standard wait thing. Amazingly the temperature in this building doesn't change. It was 80 when we started and still 80 two hours later.

Because of the amount of humidity here it takes longer to dry clothes in a dryer. So some we ended up having to come back for.

Other necesary things that one needs to learn quickly is how to park. This is not something that the Europeans seem to have learned. There are a swarm of motorcycles in this country and especially in this town. The town is divided into a figure 8 with each side being a one way street. The one way rule seems to go out the window when it gets dark as you will frequently have a motorcycle coming at you when you are not expecting it.

So as a car driving down the street you are at any given time surrounded by 2-6 motorcycles. Reminds me of the sharks with their cleaner fish. Every move you make the motos make with you. Although often the motos are trying to squeeze past on the right or left. Often you have to dodge vehicles that are parked on the side of the already too narrow road or the vehicles coming onto the road from drives that invariably scrape bottom on most vehicles due to the odd grade that has to allow for the drainage of water from torrential down pours. Driving here is a 100% attention absorbing task. There is no "Hey, look at that!" as you watch front, back and sides.

Back to the parking thing. We were pulling into a parking spot for the laundry mat. A SUV pulled over and decided to parallel park. I honked my horn, honked again put the car into reverse and checked my rear and saw a moto, laid on the horn and...still got hit.

A little dent. The driver a french doctor that has a house here in L.T. and also in Santo Domingo. Got his info and have to call a claim in. Later in the day I was sitting and waiting for a ride and saw another vehicle attempt the parallel parking thing and nearly cause a 5 car/moto pile up. I waited to see if the driver would be european and sure enough. So the lesson when you come here and drive...DON'T TRY TO PARALLEL PARK!

The doctor took it all in stride as these things commonly occur. Our rental is a 2008 but like people here look much older than it is. We got to talking about trading his services for the repair as Jenny has a sinus infection, another sister a bladder infection, another a hernia, we all have bug bites gallor, I have a rash from the sun. We are changing colors rapidly. Most of us are a red hue, Adam is nearly black and Kerri is a beautiful Indian red/brown.

Today some go to construction and some to preaching. The congo is starting their tract campaign. TTFN! lj