Back in the Dominican, to stay

      After a year plus in the planning and praying we have arrived in the Dominican Republic. We graduated from language school on April 24th. Then on the 26th we loaded 20 pieces of luggage into our divers van and headed to the San Jose airport. By the middle of that afternoon we were moving into our new Dominican home. We will be in one house for about 3 months or so then in August move into another house that is more suited to our needs. We have had a great first week of settling in and on Monday we start our work at Centro Especial Genesis. We are anxious to see what our daily roles there will look like but even more, how God will use us there in ways we can’t imagine!

        After 8 months of language learning in Costa Rica we are now going to start putting that to use. We found out that it is true what they say about the Dominican Spanish being a “fast Spanish”. Just imagine what it is like for me to tell other people “hablan mas lentamente por favor” (speak slower please). 
      The day after we arrived I took Janae and Marcy to the Upper Falls for a swim so we took the long hike down the hill only to find that the water was too muddy to swim since it had rained the day before. It was a nice hike though after sitting on the plane most of the prior day.

       It has been an interesting first few days though. From spending the better part of 2 days just getting cell phone service, to having our vehicle being torn apart along the street to re-repair a rear brake that had been replaced a couple of weeks before. When the mechanic ask if I had time for him to fix it right away I had just assumed that he would have me pull it into his garage. In all reality, there was much more room in the street than in his garage it only made sense to do the repair there. J

     I also bought a motorcycle from another missionary at Students International that will be moving back to the States in August. Actually we will end up moving into their house and buying all of their household furniture also. It is a 13 year old Yamaha 225 Enduro.

       Monday April 30 was a national holiday so I tried to fit into the culture and took Marcy and Janae to the beach for the day. It was about a 3 hour drive one way and I needed some things from Santiago anyway so we went to the beach and stopped for my supplies on the way back home. It was nice to get a feel for how to get there so that when ya’all come to visit I can act like I know what I am doing when we go there.

     Our new environment has changed some from the last 8 months. In San Jose we would hear a lot of road traffic and walk around people sleeping on the streets on our way to school. Now we are awakened each morning (at 3:30) by the community rooster.  We had been used to walking or taking the bus everywhere on paved roads and sidewalks, that has now been replaced with…….. well, just see the video below to get an idea of what our drive to our house is like. 

 

       As we were told at our training in Colorado last spring, it’s not wrong, it’s not bad, it is just different. With that in mind, I also noticed some differences in the grocery store here. For example when you buy eggs. (I am sure this photo will bring back memories to Kevin and Carrie, OK maybe mad memories Carrie, but at least memories). In the states we waste so much money with re-packaging. Oh and did you know that eggs really don’t need to be refrigerated. At least not in the stores. Notice the feather at the end of the arrow. (This was bought right out of the big major grocery store here in town). Ya’all put way too much emphasis on cleanliness. I mean they are going to be cracked open and the shell thrown away anyway right. So why waste time cleaning the shells? 

      Thanks to all who have made this possible for us, to the financial and prayer supporters, to the friends and family in the States, to the teachers in Costa Rica,  the the other students in our classes that helps us retain what sanity we had left, to the staff at Students International that helped so much in getting things lined up for us here in Jarabacao. Mostly to God, thanks for choosing our family at this time.