Twas the week before Christmas

     Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, much is stirring, but not the mouse. We got him (or her) in the glue trap last week. I know that doesn't rhyme but.........
     The kids at Genesis had their last day of school on Tuesday and Karen and I finished working the rest of the week with me doing semester end paperwork and getting ready for January and Karen doing some cleaning and getting her stuff ready for January also.
        I keep saying it but, it is hard to imagine that we have been here for two semesters now and have been gone from the states for over a year. Karen and I are neither one really big on exact dates such as we have now been in the DR for 4 Months and 3 days or it has been 1 year and 3 weeks since leaving Shipshewana, or we now have two years and 9 months left here, or....... You get the idea. But at the same time we just continue to feel blessed each day and the longer we are here, the less of a sacrifice it seems to be. Going through the Thanksgiving season and now Christmas, we are even more aware of how much God has given us and blessed us with: good health, a great house and neighborhood, fantastic teachers and (for the most part) great kids at Genesis, a new family of SI staff that has openly accepted us for who we are, a great sending church and community that has supported us beyond measure. A year and a half ago or so when I started this blog, I named it "the best of times, the worst of times" We are now experiencing less and less of the worst, and more and more of the best.

On the way up Mogote

       So Marcy and Janae have three more half days at JCS and Karen and I officially start our Christmas vacation on Monday. Today Marcy and Janae and I went for a hike to the top of Mogote. It is one of the taller mountains that we see out of our front porch and we had a great day for it. It took most of the morning and returning soon after lunch just in time to get our shoes in the washing machine and get in a 1/2 hour nap. We had absolutely great weather for it. With a total of a little over two hours to the top, Marcy would periodically ask, "How far now?" I was tempted to use the "twenty minutes" line from all of my working trips to the south end of the island but I refrained and simply told her it was now about twenty minutes less than the last time she asked. :) It did make me think back to those trips when the answer to every question about distance or time was "twenty minutes". It was a bit aggravating at first but then it got to be more of a joke and we could laugh. That was the one thing that those trips taught me was how this culture never wants to give you bad news or an answer that you don't want to hear so they just tell you what they think you want to hear. How many times in my life have I done that to God by just saying what I think He wants to hear? "I will get up every morning and do devotions, I will read my bible every day, I will help out in church wherever I am needed. Maybe I even know at the time that I will not follow through but I know I should.

Playing "build a better burger"

        Some other activities that we have had take place the last couple of weeks are Marcy and Janae's Christmas program at JCS.  We also had the summer interns over for hamburgers one evening and then played games with them. That is something that we wanted to do because when our daughter Rachel lived here for 4 months back in 2010, one thing that she mentioned was how much she enjoyed going to other SI staff people's homes and getting to know them and eating American food for a change. :) We had had them over soon after they arrived for homemade Mac and Cheese and really enjoyed getting to know them a little better.

Manny Ramirez as he was up to bat.

We also went to a Dominican baseball game one evening. That was an experience to say the least. Those of you that know me very well know what a sports fan I am. In the top of the 8th, the score was 0-7 with our home team behind. That inning we got 7 runs. Of course my first thoughts were "great, now its going to go into overtime or extra innings or whatever, I was hoping to be home by 10:00"
      It was kinda funny though because as the one guy comes up to bat I was trying to impress the guy I was sitting beside and said "dude, that guy has hair as long as Manny Ramirez." That in its self is a miracle that I would know that name to start with. The guy then proceeds to tell me "That is Manny, look at the score board", sure enough, there was his name and picture. HA! How cool is that. The only name in baseball that I even know (even if it is because he has hair like a girl) and he is playing in a game that I am at.
        Karen is really enjoying her role at Genesis more and more as she is getting to know the teachers better and her Spanish is improving also. It is fun to watch them interact as she helps them with getting the resources that they need to to a better job of teaching. They are always wanting to improve something that they do or try something different.We had all 7 of them over for dinner after our "school cleaning day" last week and to have them in that setting when we could laugh, tell stories, enjoy a meal, just relax was so nice and reassuring one more time, that we are in the right place at the right time. Gloria A Dios.

Just a random shot of getting ready for a wedding. Nice thing is that if the guests dont fit in your front yard, just use the street and put up a "men working" sign. HA! gotta love it.

       
      

Dia de Accion de Gracias

      As we celebrated Thanksgiving this past week, I was reminded that as the Spanish translation says, it should be more of the "Act of Thanks". What does that mean to me? It means many things but primarily it tells me to look back over the past period of time (day, week, month, year) and all the ways that I have given God Thanks for my life circumstances. Good and bad. Positive and negative. The prophet Job taught us to give Thanks to God in all of our situations. WOW! It is much easier to give thanks for the good things and then ask "why" for the difficult times. I have to wonder why that is that we often feel we should be exempt from any trials or hard times when the bible is very clear that the closer we get to God, the more trials we will experience. Maybe that is why we should be Thankful for those times, because it means we are getting closer to God as we get through them. It's still hard though.

Mogote: looking out of our front porch. It is the highest peak in the middle

(2010) Fred, Jeff, Lauren, Janae. Oh the memories of spitting wood

        On Thursday we were told to close our sites early and be at the SI base by 2:00 for games, followed by dinner at 4:00, then more games. Since most of us have left our families in the states, then this would give us the opportunity to spend time with our "DR family". It really was a great time with 90+ people in attendance. Several of the people from SI spent much of the day Wednesday and Thursday preparing for us. I had planned on a bicycle ride on Friday and then Janae and Marcy were going to climb Mogote but as the rain kept coming, our plans changed to just hanging around the house and reading. This is the second year in a row now that I have not been able to (or as my kids would say "didn't have to") cut and split wood on Thanksgiving weekend. I looked at that as a bonding time, They, of course had a different view of it :) . Either way you look at it, it didn't happen this year. I am sure we will make our own memories when we finally do get to climb Mogote with Marcy and Janae.

Sunrise coming up over the mountain that I see on my way to work on the days that is is clear.

Blessings in the not so normal days

Janae and Marcy at the Upper Falls of Salto Jimenoa

Marcy at Salto Baiguate

      As the Christmas decorations begin to go up here in Jarabacoa, it is hard to believe that we are only 2 weeks from Thanksgiving and a few more to Christmas. Our weather here has cooled off a bit and we no longer run the fans all night, it will only get up into the mid 80's during the day and then down to the low 70's at night. It has been raining more with a shower often each day for a short time (sometimes for longer times). That makes our frequent trips to the water falls to swim on the weekend a bit challenging since the water is then muddy and the walk down is a little more hazardous. We still try to get there as often as the weather permits. As we drive to work or downtown for something we are surrounded by mountains and we still marvel at them as it is much different that the scenery in La Grange County Indiana. I am not sure we will ever stop commenting on them to each other. 

Buddy playing with Maribel's daughter Abagial.

        Remembering back to last year when we spent the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in Costa Rica, we will again be spending them in a warmer climate and away from our family. Even with that downside, we continue to be blessed in so many ways here and are so thankful for so much. Good health, prayer and financial support, safety in our house, (we are one of the very few SI staff that has not been broken into or had a vehicle stolen this summer and fall. It has a little to do with our 145 pound, 30" high Bull Mastiff security system and a lot to do with God's protection). We have also experienced safety on the roads, for those of you that have ever been to the DR or other Latin countries, that is a real blessing. Good staff at Genesis where we work has also been a blessing. Improved Spanish and much much more.

          We have had some interesting and humorous days at Genesis that you can see at our Genesis blog.  Whenever we have teams at Genesis to work with us from the states, we have an orientation with them on their first day here. As I go through what a normal day will look like to them, I always say that I can give them a lot better idea of that once we have "a normal day" there. There is always something interesting going on from taking kids to the hospital because they had a huge (4" diameter) boil on the side of their stomach that no one at home had noticed until it burst on his way to school one day, to our cooking days and teaching them how to make cookies, cake and fruit drinks, to visiting the local fire department and having the kids put on the full fireman gear. I am still trying to find a normal day in all of it after being here for 6 months now.

Picture of the week.

         I will close this post out with the photo of the week. On Monday of last week, one of the teachers reminded me that we were out of hand soap bars in the bathrooms so I needed to pick some up sometime. So I did and on Friday of last week I put a bar in each of the two bathrooms and that left the third of the three pack to go on the shelf for a spare. On Monday of this week I went to wash my hands before lunch and sure enough, no soap. I think geeeeeeez, it didn't even last two days. As am thinking this I turn to walk out after just washing with the water and I notice a bar of soap on the back of the toilet tank. I think, who put the soap over there? and as i go to get it i notice a white, milking (soapy) look in the water in the toilet bowl. No, don't tell me one of the kids actually washed their hands in ..........................  Like I said above, never a normal day at Genesis.
          

Family Visits

Eating our sack lunches at Salta Baiguate

   We had the privilege of having my folks with us last week for about 6 days and really enjoyed that. It went by way to fast but we did a lot in that time. We went to three different water falls here in town, took a tour of the coffee plant, visited some of the other SI sites in El Cajon and even made it to the Ice Cream stand (a couple of times if I remember right). Dad and I would go walk in the mornings with our dog Buddy, that was fairly uneventful. Mom helped Karen at Genesis and Dad worked with the construction crew a few days. I think our best time though while they were here was just sitting around the house and visiting with them. 

Mom helping out at Genesis

Dad working on a house in El Cajon.

I had to think back to when Fred and Lauren were here and that was true then also. We miss that the most about being gone. It was nice for them to see where we work, go to church, shop, and play so that now when we talk about those things they can picture it. Marcy, Janae and Nina even sent home some rocks to give Grandma Marner so she can have a little bit of Jarabacao in Shipshewana now. They both commented on the road condition and the driving habits of people. I guess it took a few weeks but there is so much that we don't even notice anymore when people do it. Running red lights, probably more people run them than what wait on them. Turning any direction from any lane, Stopping on a street that is only wide enough for one lane to visit with some one, maybe for 20 seconds, maybe for 4-5 minutes. Turing a regular, what we would call, a two lane road into 4 lanes just because, for no other reason, there is enough room.  I remember one time when mom jumped and said "hey, that guy is passing you on the right". I had to think how that happens many times on our way to and from the school and it is no big deal anymore.

    

 I see a real correlation in that our lives are a lot like that. We run red lights until it doesn't even register to stop at them anymore. We turn from any lane we want to, not considering the hurt it may cause us or others. We pass people by so fast that we don't even notice them until they are a blur in the rear-view mirror. When we have guests here, it always amazes us at how much they see that we miss. Here are some photos of some of the things that Karen and I have noticed and took the time to capture.

Transferring cattle, right on a main street in town with traffic going by.

Sidewalk fleemarket in Santa Domingo

This is how they hooked up the welder below to my breaker box when they installed my back door. Oh and by the way, our house is all on (1) 20 amp breaker, the well is on another one and the washer is on the other one. :)

"The Welder" enough said about that.

Lauren comparing her hand to Buddys

Truck load of bananas

Brother and sister at the the Lower Falls

Typical construction crew. All done by hand with a bucket  brigade

A cove about 1/2 mile from the Santa Domingo Airport that Jerry Yoder, Fritz Bontreger and I found a couple of years ago. We literally stumbled upon it.

Moto making a trip up the mountain.

New form of airide seat

Typical utility crew working on wires as the traffic passes by

One of the reasons I love it here so much (Sorry Carl, I couldn't resist :)

On the way to school

On the way to market

Home made table saw at the local lumber yard. I am not sure but it sure looked like blood to the left of the blade :(

View from the top of  Mount Mogote looking down on Jarabacoa.

We have enjoyed our first year away and look forward to the future. There have been good times, bad times, laughter, tears. But in it all we see God using us here and are excited to see what lies ahead for all of us. Thanks to all of you for making this happen.  Mike.

One more to cross off my bucket list

Janae drinking her Morir Sonando at the bottom of the mountain back in Sept.

       So about the middle of Sept. Janae and I rode to La Vega which is not that far (12 miles) but the elevation change makes it a challenge. Leaving Jarabacoa at 1700 ft and the mountain top is about 2250 then back down the other side to 400 ft. Of course you can figure out the ride down is great but you have to come back up sometime. When we did make it back up, I told Janae that I would like to ride to Santiago sometime but I am not sure that I could make it back up the mountain once I rode that far first. Well..... today I found out I was right :)

Proof that I did make it!

         Leaving the house at 6:00 I was riding back down the other side by 6:45 and enjoying every bit of it. (50+ mph). Once I reached the bottom I started the next  17 miles of the trip to the statue. I guess old age had stunted my memory as to the number of and the intensity of "hill" between La Vega and Santiago. I rode with some other bikers for about 4-5 miles until they got tired of riding so slow and then took off. I made it to the monument before 9:00 and I was aiming for 9:45 so I felt good about that and it felt good to finally get off the bike seat. 30 miles there and by 9:15 I was heading back home. The trip back to LaVega went pretty much with out incident except again I didn't remember the hills this steep and long before. As I turned off the AutoPista to the Jarabacao Highway, the next three miles went less than well. I kept thinking that once I actually started up the mountain, it would be 4 miles of no letting up until the first flat spot, and as my mind kept saying yes, my legs, arms, heart, and actually my whole body was saying NO!!!!!!!!  So my body won. I called Karen and told her that if she would come get me I would buy everyone a Morir Sonando (Orange Julius). 40 minutes later she was there. 52 miles on the odometer of the bike, Bike in the back of the car, Morir Sonando's in our stomachs, we headed back up the mountain to our home. After 1/2 hr nap I was getting ready for our afternoon Spanish church service where I worshiped like any other Sunday (You will need to come down to see what that looks like).

        Janae and I have both really enjoyed riding more since we moved. OK, Maybe that was a stretch to say that Janae has enjoyed it. What about it Greg, Abby, Rachel, Fred. Did you ever really enjoy it? :) HA. It  makes for great memories though, right? 

!!Our Vehicles Are Back In The Driveway!!

       Praise and Thanks to God. Our vehicles are back in the driveway once again. The Moto's are both running top notch and the car is .......... Well the car is in running condition again. Like I had said before, our vehicle maintenance has been probably our biggest frustration since arriving. But at the same time, God has been good in that when it does break down, it is always at a convenient time when either we dont have to have it for a couple of days and the weather is good for riding the moto or there has been another missionary away for a while and they have been gracious enough to let us use theirs. (Thanks so much Dick and Mary Ellen). At this point there is a gear in the front differential that is bad and a new one can't be ordered and so far no used one has been located. Since the vehicles here are mostly different than in the states, it is usually not even an option to order one from there and send it down. After thinking that they had located one from a different make that had the same part number, we were without it for about 10 days. They tried the one part right away and realized that it would not work then looked for the next week with no luck on a different one. So they did put it back like it was so it is drivable again at least. The Transmission is also slipping a bit here and there :(
           But, on the other side, all of our family has been healthy since arriving, we have all adapted well to the culture and Spanish is coming along for us at a slow but steady rate. So we really do have a lot to be thankfully for. We have decided now that we will begin to look for a different vehicle in hopes that we can come up with one while this one is still working. Some of the missionaries here have in the past had two vehicles so they have one that works all the time at least. We will not go that route, but I do think we need one that is more dependable so we will at least start looking.
           The school is going good. Check our the Genesis blog if you haven't yet. We have our first fall team here now and will start working at Genesis on Monday the 8th of Oct. They will be here for one week and then another 1 week team next week and then a week off before the two week team in November. My folks are coming down for a week in about 10 days so we are all looking forward to that. I have some projects lined up for Dad and I am sure Mom will keep busy as well. While Fred and Lauren were here a couple of weeks ago, I ran some ideas past them for things we could do with my folks. Lauren suggested that "cliff jumping" into the river would not be one of them so I will need to come up with another activity for that time slot. But they both agreed that the Ice Cream shop would work out well.
         

Reltionships

              Most people that have visited or lived in a Latin culture will probably tell you that the most important thing to them would be relationships and especially those within family. I would also say that family is very important to me too and even more so since we are not geographically close to them at this time. It’s like the saying, “we don’t realize what we had until we don’t have it anymore”.  I guess the difference is that the people in Jarabacoa DO realize how important family and relationships are even though they often have many of those relatives living right with them in the same house. 

                This was brought to light a little closer this past week as we had the privilege of having our son Fred and his wife Lauren with us here. We enjoyed the time with them so much. We did many things such as visiting 4 different water falls, swimming in the river, going for ice cream,  jumping off of rock cliffs into the river, going for ice cream, they had lunch with Janae and Marcy at their school, an overnight at the ocean………… but as we drove away from the airport form dropping them off, Karen mentioned that she forgot how much fun it was just to “hang out” with them in the evenings at our house. Hearing them laugh with our girls, just having them here was the best part. Driving away from the airport with tears in our eyes I told Karen, I don’t even want to go back with them, I just want them to stay J. Family.  We now look forward to having my folks come down for the last week in October. We may have a different agenda for them. Most likely it will not include jumping off the rock cliffs but needless to say I am sure just hanging out will be another top of the list for us all.

                We now have completed the first two weeks of the school year at Genesis and after losing a couple of the kids because of various reasons, we have also brought in some new ones. I want to periodically highlight one of the kids so you can get to know them a bit more and see into their lives somewhat.

Meet Genesis,  Genesis has been coming to Genesis now for about 3 years and has a motor impairment.  She lives with her mother, Yeralgida and her father and Ramón about 3 miles east of Jarabacoa. Genesis rides the van to each day and always has a smile on her face. She uses a walker to get around and is a joy to have at the site. Yeralgida has been selling clothes out of her home for the last number of years now. She buys them in a “bale” and then washes, sorts, and sells them to the others in her community. The “bales” generally come from the states and are clothes that people like you send to Goodwill or Salvation Army and then when they get more donations than they can use, they send to them to a larger warehouse for baling to send to other countries.

We were just informed on Friday of last week that Genesis will be moving to Santiago, about 45-50 minutes away, the end of October and will no longer be attending Genesis. Yeraglida is concerned that she will not be able to find a place like Genesis to send her daughter and ask us to help her maybe find a place or recommend her to a place. Pray for us as we try to help Yeralgida find a place that she feels good about to send her daughter. Genesis will be missed and maybe someday we can take a field trip to Santiago and visit her at her new home.     

Toning It Down

 Since it is time for another post, I thought this time I would share an article from Charles Spurgeon from the late 1800's that was shared with me a few weeks ago. It really hit home to me when I want to pray " God please make my life easier and less difficult" As I listened to the sermon from our sending church in Indiana this week and Pastor Carl was talking about taking responsibility for our actions. He relates a story about how when he goes grocery shopping for the last number of years, somehow, just by chance, a box of donuts somehow keeps falling into his cart and he is not sure how they get there but it just keeps happening. He closed the sermon asking the congregation, "What are your donuts that you can't seem to get rid of"? I think the following article from Spurgeon asks the same thing. When will I face the truth and deal with it and quit trying to water it down?

   I see the spirit of compromise concerning holiness and sin, truth and error, far too prevalent. The spirit of compromise comes not of the Spirit of God, but of the spirit of the world.

It is always wisest and best to exhibit clear decision upon fundamental points; we must draw the line distinctly, and then stand to it firmly. Do not alter your course because of winds and currents. Do not try to make things pleasant all round.

Do not be like the fellow, in one of the American towns, who saw a traveler leaning against a lamp-post, weary and worn with his journey. The traveler inquired of him how far it was to such a place, and was told that it was ten miles. The weary traveler sighed, and said, "I shall never hold out. I shall faint on the road."

"Ah!" said his sympathizing informant, "I did not know you were quite so far gone, I will knock off three miles, and make it seven for you."

Of course, this operation in words did not alter the fact, nor really reduce the ten to seven. Yet this is the method of some weakly, amiable souls; they tone down truth, forgetting that their tone does not affect the fact.

This obligation is too severe; and, therefore, it is suggested that it may be somewhat relaxed. This doctrine is too stern; so make it wear a milder aspect. This manner of pleasing everybody at any cost is the style of the period. If sin, and human depravity, and so forth, are strongly spoken of in the old theology, run off to the new, and soften matters. If the punishment of the impenitent too much alarms men, treat it lightly, and spirit it away; who wants to win converts by fear?

Yes, yes; "make it seven."

But what avail your soft words? The distance is all the same for your lying; and when the deceived one finds it to be so, he will pour no blessings upon your heads.

May the Lord save us from the doom of deceivers of souls! May we be watchmen who will be clear of the blood of all men! Be decided yourselves; and then, like men who themselves stand fast, you will be able to help others whose feet are slipping.

                                                                                                                                                      

Just something to think about.                            

La Casa de Buddy

    

As I sit on our front porch writing this latest post, I can look to the South West and see the beautiful Mogote mountain range and to the North West I can see the tip of Atravesada. And for one more time yet I am truly amazed and thankful to our God that he has called our family to this place, at this time. I am reminded of the story of Esther where Modecai tells Ester “for such a time as this you were called”. But I still can’t help but ask, Why us? Why now? I also wonder why I didn’t ask myself those same questions two years ago, five years ago, 20 years ago. I am convinced that I was also in Gods will then, but just didn’t think of it that way. I would challenge you to look at your life and where you are at now and KNOW that you are where you are for a reason and ask what that reason is and maybe how you can be used better by God right there. 

      Well as the title notes, we moved a couple of weeks ago and it feels like home now. Along with the new home we inherited a dog named Buddy, or according the rest of the family, the only way to get the dog was to move into this house :). We are thankful that the Luna’s offered us their house for the first few months of our time here and it worked out great for that period. This also will work out good I am sure. Marcy has made lots of friends here already, (I am sure most of you are thinking “really? I can’t believe that!!!”) The first week after moving in the school was closed so it worked out good to give us time to move in and get settled.

            Karen and I will be back at Genesis next week again to start getting ready for the fall trimester and Marcy and Janae start back at Jarabacoa Christian School on Thursday (at least that is what the neighbors tell us, It works a little different here as there is no formal announcement of when school starts or stops or days off or…… You just kinda find those things out by word of mouth. No real schedules or anything like that.) So Janae and Marcy both have been working on some of the summer papers that they had brought home in the spring.

            Vehicle repairs still remain at the top of my frustration list, (which by the way has only one item on the list) I did pick up our car yesterday afternoon after having it in the shop all week, Ishmael put it back in usable order until he can find a different differential. He thinks it may take a couple of weeks to locate one and knew that I didn’t want to be without for that long. So that was a blessing to have that back at least for now. I picked up my Yamaha moto this afternoon after 5-1/2 weeks of being in the shop. I had asked to take all the old parts with me just to make sure that he doesn't put them back in sometime down the road. That has been the practice of some of the mechanics here so I figured I may as well not tempt him.

        We experienced our first trip to the emergency room a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t for the girls. At least not the younger girls. J.  Short version was that Karen was trying to help out with the fact that we were being transportation challenged and thought she would help out by learning to drive the moto. It was a small moped type moto that I had bought from one of the other staff that had been wrecked and we needed something for a spare for the time being. Anyway, I had worked with her on it the previous week and knowing that she was not comfortable on it, just decided to not pursue that anymore. She had not given up on the idea though and met with a concrete wall at the Genesis site when I was gone one afternoon. After a few stitches in her forehead and a sore shoulder, we were back home in an hour and a half and that night at the dinner table could look back and thank God that it had not been worse, and also thanked God for Marcy that she got Karen’s cell phone and called me to come help.(notice there was not photo for that story, I think there may have been serious repercussions for me if I would have tried that. It is risky enough just mentioning the story the story at all)

            I will be posting a video on here in the next week hopefully with a tour of our new house and a few other things. I was asked by our home church (Shore Mennonite) to put something together again like I did in May so you can be watching for that.

     

Packing up again

  

We are gearing up for a move this weekend as on Sunday the 5^th, the house will officially be empty that we will be moving into. Our plan is to move a small amount of things on Sunday the 5^th as we were told to not leave the house empty for even one night. So we will move just enough to get us by for the first night then Genesis is closed for the next week so that will give us lots of time to move and get settled in. Watch for pics and maybe even a video again. Marcy and Janae are excited because a dog comes with the house. It is a Bull Mastiff named “Buddy”.

    We have had a full summer with back to back teams and now the school will be closed until Sept 3^rd. We have the week off of Aug 6^th but then go back the following week. We will have two weeks there without teachers then they come back on Aug. 27^th to get ready for the next semester.  Last Saturday we spent the day with Maribel and her family. We enjoy her so much and they do not have a car, only a moto for Maribel, her husband Samuel, Abby (3) and Raquel (6 months).  We took them to Santiago to go shopping for things that they need but can’t get in Jarabacoa. On the way they told me that they go about twice a year and the take the public transportation. It was a great time to practice our Spanish and just spend time with them and talk about other things than just Genesis stuff.

      Vehicle repairs seem to be right at the top on our “least likely to conquer” list. Our moto is in the shop for an overhaul (a three day job that started three weeks ago), and our car is going in tomorrow morning to get the alternator replaced. I guess that is why so many locals don’t have a car and their moto is a 1956 model with a 2x8 for a seat. They spend more time in the shop than being used by the owner. So far we haven’t spent any money on our bicycles so………..

      Yesterday I had a lapse on memory of how old I am and agreed to climb Mogote (a mountain here in town). It is about a 2700’ incline. Not that bad really and very similar to the couple that I had climbed in Costa Rica several times. However, when the three “low twenty somethings” decided to go, I asked to go along.  For most of Sunday morning I kept asking mysel “why would I ask to go with these guys”. My first clue should have been when they told me it was only about 1-1/2 hours to the top when I had had other “mature age” people tell me that it was about 2-1/2 to 3 hours up. But instead of putting that discrepancy together, I just thought oh, 1-1/2 hours isn’t too bad. I found out quickly that if I ask to stop and take a picture, that I could also catch my breath a bit. I think after photo number 317 they caught on. It was good exercise though and a great view on top.

 These are views looking down on Jarabacoa from a little over 5000'

  Karen and the girls are all still doing fine and like I said above, we are looking forward to a little break in our schedule now but at the same time will miss all the people we had at the Genesis site this summer working beside us. Our two interns, Tyler and Ellie will also be leaving the middle of next week and we will miss them also. They have been a huge help with the teams this summer. We wish them God’s Blessing as they continue to further their education. Hopefully they will pursue other adventures like this with SI or other ways to serve people.