A Day in the Dominican

Well, here it can be quite¨tranquila¨one minute and quite interesting the next. For entertainment purposes I am going to combine events that have,and do actually happen on a daily basis. That way, from your comfy cozy computer chair you can get a taste.

Let´s see, the day usually begins around 3am. Am I up preaching then? No. But apparently one of the 500 roosters that live in our neighborhood thinks I should be. Every moring, like clockwork. Cock a doodle DOO! Sometimes he sounds like he´s choking, probably needs some Halls. (Later, we will discuss where to get those).

Thankfully, Quinn´s quite a deep sleeper so the rooster hasn´t been murdered yet. ( I think that´s the one kind of animal I could actually kill). But, something I CANNOT sleep through is the Christmas Carols at 4 in the morning. Yes, the entire week before Christmas, we were awakened by what one would think was some sort of horrible Christmas nightmare! Really it was some guy with giant speakers on the back of his truck blarring Christmas Carols. WHY??? I respect peoples right to choose music, but, would Jesus have shown this kind of inconsideration for others ears? A positive side is that I´m sure the blast of the speakers made several people hard of hearing so we will now have more deaf to preach too. :)

So now, we MUST get up. No other option. Let´s say, today we are going to Yomeri´s. She is one of Lily´s deaf studies that lives up in the Mountains. We need to stop in the copier center to copy some pictures for her. Now, I need 5 copies, which would be 5 pesos, I give her a 10 and naturally I get back 5 Halls. ¨Why thank you! How did you know I was parched?¨She didn´t actually know, she just didn´t want to use up her pesos so she gave me the equivalant of 5 pesos. Do I get to pick my flavor? No. Ok, no more questions.(Maybe I´ll leave them out for the Rooster).

Now we walk to the main corner where the Motoconchos are. On our way there we are ¨delighted¨to be hissed at by random men. Sometimes they even add pick up lines in English like, Ëllo! I Luf you!¨Or ¨Mira! Me Visa! (That´s my favorite ;) Nothing you can´t laugh at. We arrive at the Motoconchos (Oh, if you aren´t following me, these are motorcycle taxi´s). To our joy our Sandy and Jolito are there. They are the least creepy of the ¨Motos´s¨and know exactly where we want to go. They greet us with a kiss on the cheek (Don´t worry, everyone does this) and then we manage to get on without ripping our skirts. Off we go!

Yomeri´s house is about a half - hour ride. So Jolito makes conversation. Usually, this involves asking me if I have a boyfriend yet, and why I wouldn´t date a Dominican and how my preaching is going. He likes to keep eye contact with me as I´m responding so this makes for quite a thrilling ride. As the wind blows our hair it also blows Jolito´s saliva onto my face. Maybe if I give him a Halls he will stop talking...

So we arrive at Yomeri´s, with one of the most beautiful views in the whole country. It reminds me of the great valley on ¨Land Before Time¨. Anyways, we now enjoy a lovely study with our sweet Yomeri. We usually drink Cafe Dominicana which consists of an espresso size coffee half way filled with sugar.

Now we come down off the Mountain. And decide to get some ice cream. Yes we have 3 different ice cream shops in awesome Jarabacoa. At my favorite spot you go up to the window in this house and they give you a plastic cup with a popsicle stick in it. You pry off the cup and ¨Wahla!¨Popsicle!

Now what to do...let´s check our email. This shouldn´t take long. Wrong! Because of a serious lack of virus protection you can get kicked off, shut down, frozen up, many times. But, it´s worth it since we can keep in touch with all of you lovely loved ones. :) And, of course, we need the entertainment of hearing the Haitan guy at the next computer sing Gospel in a way that makes you think he´s breathing his last.

And now we return home. Lily makes something delicous to eat as she does so well. We settle under our mosquito nets to watch the Office and laugh until we fall asleep to the sounds of the parties happening everywhere. (Of course we read our Bible, brush our teeth and wash our face first).

Even though all of this is quite out of ones comfort zone, you don´t think much of it when your here. The joys outweigh the challenges. The love of the brothers outweighs the stinch of the chicken kaka. The blessings from Jehovah make one rich.

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