Our Caribbean Adventure: March 2012

Last week, we were asked by the Mission President to go with him and his wife to visit the Consuelo Branch which is about an hour away from Santo Domingo. While there, the Branch President asked Rob if he could teach a Sunday School class each Sunday for the teenagers which he agreed to do. The members are very sweet although no one speaks English which is a challenge for me. I greet them and then just smile a lot:-)

About the first thing you see when you drive into this little town is this lovely Catholic church. Can you see the brightly painted walls?

I couldn't believe all the things that this man had loaded on his bike - it's a truck for him!

A typical street

Sunday is a market day for the villagers, and there were a lot of shops opened that we passed, including a butcher shop with things hanging up inside that I couldn't identify with cuts of meat that we eat. I'll try to get a picture next week...

Here's the little branch building.

The doors open right up into the chapel, and they kept them open the whole time, so you could hear the radios blaring from cars as they drove down the street, etc. It was a new experience for a worship service. If it got too noisy, they would just wait until it was quiet again outside.

We were there today with two other senior missionary couples. We helped them set up the chapel with chairs. I also helped sweep out the little room that was used for Primary for the younger children. There are about 8 fans in the ceiling which are the air conditioning - this should be interesting in the summer.

Sunday School class for the adults.

I don’t know where the last month has gone. We have been busy, running in a million directions. Although we have a nice, furnished apartment, there were a number of key items missing, such as a can opener, vegetable peeler, spoon and spatula for non-stick pans, spices, etc. The stores here carry many, many American items plus good local generic brands, so we are fine in that area. The milk is only sold in 1 liter boxes for about $1.25 each – they just sit in the cupboard until you open them and then refrigerate them – the taste is a mix between instant milk and regular milk. The fruit is lovely – they sell delicious pineapples for about $.75 off little carts on the side of the street. And peppers are gorgeous. We still have to wash all fruit and veggies, and eggs in water with about a tablespoon of Clorox added, so I just wash them when I bring them home, before putting them in the fridge.

The traffic is what really gets to me. Everyone drives like crazy with three lane roads carrying four lanes of traffic. There are a ton of small motorcycles that weave in and out of traffic. I don’t know how they survive. Recently, we saw a man and woman on one, and then I saw she was carrying a small baby in her arms! There, apparently, is a law that if a motorcyclist hits you, it is your fault, and you have to go to jail while he is in the hospital and you have to pay his expenses. So there is no incentive for them to be careful. Pedestrians, on the other hand, receive no respect, and are careful when they cross the street. Rob does a great job of driving, but we’re about 25 minutes from where we work, and it is a hair-raising trip every day. I never really liked driving before, so you can be sure I won’t miss it here!

These folks have their wares right next to the cars passing by!

You can buy anything through here!

We go to the office around 8:30 and work until 5:00. Right now is a very busy time. Every year, the Cultural Department sponsors a large book fair held on the grounds of their building. Folks build large booths about the size of our living room back home with roofs, air conditioning, lighting, etc. The Church’s booth last year had 38,000 visitors over about a 20-day period (the fair is open from 9 am to 10 pm seven days a week). The purpose of the booth is not to do proselytizing at all, but to do something to help others. Two years ago it was on Family Search and how to use the website to find their families. Last year, it was on values and used the Mormon messages posters about kindness, etc. The theme this year is going to be Family Night. We’re trying to help find potential videos and photos to use for the five minute time folks are inside. It will start April 18^th, so we have a lot to do and are a little behind (not our fault).

Here's the office where we work

Last weekend, we had two trainers from Salt Lake come and we, and the DR Newsroom staff, were taught how to develop and run LDS newsrooms for here and Puerto Rico, similar to the mormonnewsroom.org site which is the Church’s official news site for reporters and non-members. We worked from 8-8 on Saturday and then from 4-10 on Sunday evening. We were so tired, but the site is about to go live…

Here is Rob typing away!

We were invited recently to a private party for a book launch by a well-known (this is his sixth book) author in the DR at the headquarters of the largest newspaper in the country. (We were representing our "boss" in Public Affairs who was unable to attend.) After being introduced by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, in his opening remarks to the literati in attendance, the author thanked his good friends, "especially my dear friends from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." Other than his mother and collaborators on his book, no other individual or organization was specifically mentioned. Everyone turned to look at us – it was an amazing experience. We found out later that our boss Rafael is a good friend of Freddy (the author) and they have had many conversations about the Church.

Here we are with Freddy Ortiz

(also the name of a famous bodybuilder if you try to Google him!)

So you don’t think that it has been all work and no play though, we have done a couple of fun things. Every year, the humpback whales swim down from Maine to Samana Bay on the northeastern shore of the DR. Here, from January through March, they have their babies, and they all swim back north. We went out in a large boat with about 50 other folks to find some whales. We were all watching for one/them to spew out water when they come to the surface to get a breath. We ended up following a mother and baby for about 45 minutes – the baby came up about every 3 min. for a breath while the mother swam just beneath, and then she came up about every 20 minutes. It was a very rainy, windy day, but we had a great time.

This is on the top deck of our little boat moving into the bay.

I don't know if you can see these waves, but it was pretty stormy - lots (not us) got sick on the trip.

You can see the spews from these two whales - that's how they find out where they are.

This didn't come through very well - but you can see a mother and baby whale toward the top.

This is a view of where we stayed the night before - incredible beaches! But we didn't have suits...

We also did a little Santo Domingo sightseeing with our Salt Lake guests, Romina Ucheda and Michael Gibby, who had come to help with the news room. Here are just a few of the things that we saw in the old Colonial Zone which dates back to the late 1400's: