Our First Week in the DR (Dominican Republic)

This is the Dominican Temple - I know it doesn't look like a photo, but Rob really took this picture our first morning.

We finally have internet, so I can email! We have a little contraption called a “fly box” that gives us an internet connection anywhere we can plug it in.

We do want you to know that all is well - in fact, better than all is well. We have a really nice 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath apartment about a half block from the temple. We can see the temple spire looking out our 2nd floor apartment. At the beginning the stove (gas) wasn't on, and the fridge was way too warm, but all of those glitches have been fixed.On Sunday, we attended a DR branch for Church where I had the opportunity to translate into French for a sister from Haiti. That was a little challenging because now I find myself throwing in a Spanish phrase here and there, besides the fact that I couldn't understand her very well. We broug

ht her back to the apartment for a make-shift lunch and the

n went to bed about 8:30 and slept until around 6:30 - we were beat.

Rob bartering for a papaya. The avocados are the size of small cantaloupes.

I'm standing by the meat counter - can you see that the chickens still have their feet? Yummy! (And no, we didn't buy any of it!)

Can you see the rooster just walking around? He was crowing his head off.

All of the temple missionaries who live nearby have been so great, and one couple took us to a grocery/home goods store yesterday where .we purchased all of those things we needed, such as spices, etc. to get our kitchen supplied. We went to a fun open-air market in the morning and brought home several kinds of fruit that we have never heard of before. One is large and green with prickles and makes a wonderful smoothie when peeled and blended with water. The kitchen is kind of funny though - there are three empty salt and pepper shakers and no toaster or can opener, but there's an enormous rice maker, blender and waffle maker... It's not a problem - just a little funny... Until I got a few of these supplies, I kept going to cook something and then found that I couldn't – like one night last week when I cooked ground beef to make chili and then discovered that there was no can opener!

This mission is turning out better than expected. We have a car, and Rob has had the opportunity now to drive in this crazy traffic where there are really no lanes and motorcyclists are crazy - He loves driving – I’m so glad that it’s him and not me! There's a law here that if a motorcyclist hits you and it's not your fault, you still go to jail until he is out of the hospital, and you have to pay all of his medical expenses. So they have nothing to fear... In addition, no one has insurance, so most cars have dings and swipes in them – people (and I mean everyone) just ignore them.. He is loving driving!