My Birthday in the Dominican Republic- Written by Jill

Yes, I had a birthday this week – the big 65 one!  Really strange because I only feel 42 inside J  It was a great day that I want to share.

The night before when we had Family Home Evening with other Senior Missionaries, they sang to me, including a dear couple from Paris who sang their version of Happy Birthday.  She brought me the hat to wear for the evening.  They usually have a silly hat that someone has to wear, but no one could find it (thank goodness!)

Here I am wearing a genuine French chapeau!

Then the next morning, dear Rob gave me breakfast – scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, and a wonderful croissant from a great bakery that we have found.  

He even wrote on the mirror like he has done for every birthday as long as we have been married, I think. 

The day was mine to choose what we would do.  So, first, no going into the office – yee haw!

Second, we went to the temple for a session and just enjoyed the peace and quiet there.

Then, onto IKEA for lunch – Swedish meatballs, with lingonberries and gravy.  Yes, I know that this sounds crazy, but they just make me feel Christmasy and taste just like the ones at our IKEA back in Atlanta.  We walked through the store, and I picked up some green napkins, a cute red polka dotted tissue box and some Christmas wrapping paper – yes, big spenders.  Rob also bought me a great knife and knife sharpener. 

Then we went to the Agorra Mall.  This is a new mall down here, and I felt like we were back in the States. It’s three-stories tall and filled with lots of shops that you would find back home, even a MAC cosmetic store, Amie!   Now if they had just had a Bath and Body Works, it would be a perfect mall (This, of course, is from someone who really isn't a mall shopper - it just shows you what deprivation can do to you..._

You can see from the pictures, that the mall was really decorated including a number of Christmas trees hanging down from the ceiling!

We bought a Krispy Kreme donut to share, and felt like we were back in Atlanta.  

Then we went to the Hammons for dinner which included the Haws and wonderful Texas Sheet Cake.  That was so sweet of Joann!

A Dominican birthday card from Sister Haws

Sister Haws and Sister Hammon

I was able to get all five candles blown out!

I received some very special notes from several of my kids and my brother Bert and from several dear friends back home and a couple of calls.  I also received an email from my sister Joy, the first that I have gotten from her on the computer.  It was just a special, special day!

Thanksgiving in the Dominican Republic

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in the DR except by expatriates.  You can buy turkeys here and cranberry sauce, but only during the months of October and November, and they go out pretty quickly.  We were in charge of the Thanksgiving dinner and program that the Senior Missionaries held here the Monday after Thanksgiving.  It was great with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, veggies, rolls, and even pumpkin pies! 

Before everyone came- with Sis. Haws and Rucker who did tons of work!

 With everyone eating away - I need a photo of the food table!

Afterward, we heard the story of the First Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving in Canada – these are the only two places where it is a national holiday.  In Canada, it is held in October.

So this made us want to list the things that we have become thankful for since living down here in the DR.  It will not include our family and friends for which we are so thankful, but more life here in the DR at Thanksgiving.

The conveniences that we miss and will be grateful for when we return home

-          Having hot water come out of the tap without having to turn a switch.  We now remember to do that and wait 10 minutes instead of just jumping into a cold shower. “I have always loved really hot showers, but I’ve gotten used to tepid ones.” – Jill

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Being able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables without having to wash them in Clorox first.  This is a picture of what we are using as our bleach dispenser because it lets us just adds a few drips to our washing water.

-          Being able to take a drink while in the shower and rinse out your mouth.  You can’t drink the water here without a filter which is on the kitchen faucet.

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        Being able to go to a hotel or restaurant and flush the used toilet paper down the toilet.  Yes, here there is a basket next to the toilet to put one’s used tissue – it must just be so unsanitary beside the odor that it can give off.  This is a photo at the Hilton Hotel in Santo Domingo where we put on a seminar this past week.

             Being able to quickly run into the grocery store without having to drive into a parking garage and up several flights.

      Being able to drink fresh milk instead of boxed reconstituted milk that will expire in a couple of months.

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       Being able to get the mail at our front door instead of having to wait an extra week or more to get it through the mission home. 

  
    Not having to sleep under a mosquito net.

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    Not having to look forward, right, left, and rearward when making a turn at an intersection.

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-         Not having to pay import duties on equipment which sometimes amounts to 40% of their value.

-          Not having to pay 26% value added tax (sales tax) to everything – the price on the label is not the final price of the item.

-          Not having to wait for the heavy steel gate to open in order to pull into the apartment parking garage and open an additional gate before your front door.

-          Not having to avoid loose garbage along to roadway when you go out for a morning walk.

-          Not having to remove your jewelry – watch, ring, etc. -when you go for that walk because of possibly robbery.

-            Being able to go to Church in a nice building. 

       Being able to hear songs and talks in Church above

            the whirling sound of fans because there is no air
            conditioning.

-          Not having to hunt for chalk and other teaching tools at Church on Sunday.

But what about the good things?  There are many more of those:

-          Being able to buy wonderful fresh fruit year around and in such large varieties.  These bananas and the grapefruit, along with avocados and passion fruit,  were just growing outside a home that we visited.

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    Being able to enjoy beautiful flowers all year round including blossoms on trees in December. These are wild poinsettia trees. 

    -       Being able to look out of our bedroom window at a lovely ocean and changing clouds in the sky.

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   Enjoying white, sandy beaches less than an hour       away, any time we want to go.

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          Being able to live in a safe apartment in a good part of town.

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Being able to serve such sweet, wonderful people.

Youth at a multi-stake EFY last summer!

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Folks from Puerto Rico and the US

A sweet family who were in our Book Fair video

Sisters from the DR, Barbados, and Jamaica

The Snows and Fords - they have finished their missions!

The Reeses, Lillys, Hammons, Haws

The Shavers, Eichbushes, Glaziers, Ruckers

Being able to work with other incredible Senior Missionaries who come from all walks of life and all over the world (That will be another blog post).
Being able to get many American products – Tide, Jiffy, Stove Top, Right Guard, etc.

-          Having  Christmas songs, decorations, and displays start the first of November – it makes up for not having snow!

-          Hearing the hymns in Church sung in multiple languages.

-          Being able to go to little schools and old folks homes to share wonderful gifts from the Church (more in a future post).   The smiles for the Church’s Humanitarian efforts on so many grateful people.

Hogar Ancianos Old Folks Home

Jill with some darling little girls!

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Being able to assist in a tiny congregation (branch) to help them grow and learn.

Bernice's baptism                                       

Miguel opening his mission call -
he's going to Venezuela!

Everyone stayed after Church while his call was opened.
They were all so excited.

    

       

Having the Temple less than 10 minutes away – such a nice place to even just go sit on the grounds and catch our breath after a busy day.

Christopher Columbus and the Dominican Republic

Did you know that on every voyage that Christopher Columbus made to the New World, he stopped in the Dominican Republic?  On his second voyage to the New World in 1493, Columbus sailed with 17 ships and over 1200 men to try to establish a permanent Spanish colony.  On his first voyage, he had left 39 men in a fortress on the north coast of Haiti (which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic).  When he returned in 1493, he found that the fortress had been burned and all his men dead.  The Taino Indians who were indigenous to the island did not like the white intruders.

Deciding that the area wasn't a good place for a permanent colony (good idea, Chris), they sailed along the coast of Hispaniola and established a colony in La Isabela on the north western coast of the DR.  However, although there was fresh water, a good harbor, and a great place for a fort, the area was hit be two devastating hurricanes, deadly disease, and a harbor that was actually not protected from winter winds and waves.  Many ships were lost in the hurricanes, including the famous Santa Maria and the Nina. 

The welcoming sign - In this part of the Americas,

 the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus established

 in the year 1493 La Isabela, the first city of the New World.

So he wisely (once again), moved to the south shore of the island on the west bank of the Ozama River – the current Santo Domingo.  La Isabela was abandoned by 1498. 

On Columbus' second voyage, he began to require tribute from the Taínos in Hispaniola. According to early writers,  each adult over 14 years of age was expected to deliver a hawks’ bill full of gold every three months, or when this was lacking, twenty five pounds of spun cotton. If this tribute was not observed, the Taínos had their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death. These cruel practices gave way for many revolts and campaigns—some being successful, some not.

We have been so fascinated by this story that we took the opportunity to visit some of these sites.  We arrived late in the afternoon at La Isabela.  We were told that the trip would take us about 30 minutes through the mountains, but it took about an hour and 30 minutes.  When we arrived the place was locked, but a kind guard let us in and took us around.  It was probably even more interesting to visit the cemetery and abandoned church by starlight. We hope to return again in the daytime.

Here is a shot looking west over the harbor as the sun is setting.  I tried to imagine Columbus seeing this same view out of his bedroom window.  

Here Rob is standing by the foundation of Chris' home.

These tombstones have not been there since 1493 or so, but have been placed where graves have been found.  Great for Halloween!  The sailors mainly died from disease that they found in the area.

This is the marker for the grave of a Spanish soldier.  Apparently, you can tell that he is Spanish because they were buried with their arms crossed over their body.  The Indians were simply buried.  

On another excursion, we visited the Colonial Zone and the home of Diego Columbus where Christopher spent some time.  It has been restored with period furniture and is so interesting. It is a magnificent palace overlooking the river on the other side.

This is a sign on the last home of the Christopher Columbus in the New World, leaving in 1504.  It says that he is Discover of the New World, The first Admiral of the Ocean and of the West Indies, Viceroy and Governor.  Columbus died in Spain but requested to be buried in the New World.

Across the Ozama River from the Colonial Zone is the Faro Colon or Christopher Columbus’ lighthouse.  It really is hardly what we consider a lighthouse.  It’s in the shape of a cross and is more like a mausoleum.  Apparently, it is lit on October 12 and sends a cross into the sky, although we missed seeing it In the lighthouse, dedicated in 1992 by Pope John?, there are rooms decorated by each of the other countries in the Americas in honor of the 500^th Anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage.  There is also a large anchor supposedly from the Santa Maria.  

Inside is a large “tomb” with the ashes of Columbus. There is a dispute between the DR and Spain about who had the actual ashes.  Spain claims to have done DNA testing on theirs which confirms ownership, but there is another story from here.  Wherever the ashes may be, Chris, himself, is on the other side of the veil probably sailing along on some cloud :-).

It is amazing to walk in the places when this famous explorer walked.  He talks in his journal about being inspired to take his ocean voyage and felt that God was with him.  In spite of his shortcomings, he was an amazing explorer.   

Dominoes, dominoes, dominoes

Did you know that next to baseball, dominoes is the most popular national sport in the Dominican Republic? During weekdays after lunch and into the night on weekends, people play on street corners and under banana trees. This game is the number one past time for most men. Makeshift surfaces for playing pop up out of nowhere while other tables are permanent fixtures finely crafted with special drink holders to accommodate refreshments. The sound of dominoes being shuffled can be heard throughout every pueblo in the Dominican Republic

Here is a set of dominoes that we purchased as a souvenir.  There are little metal dots between the numbers, and we wondered why.  We learned that they are there so that it is easier to move the dominoes around when you turn them down to mix them for the next game.  Who figured that out?






Anyway, I have been "collecting" a few fun pictures that I wanted to share. As you can see in both of these pictures, the board is pretty standard with a place to put up the seven dominoes that each player receives in a standard game.

We passed this group while driving down a tight little street.  They were so pleased when I wanted to take their picture.









This is a photo that was in paper after Tropical Storm Isaac came through.  These die-hard players are sitting in the water playing their beloved dominoes!

If it were in any other place, I would know that it was a posed picture, but not here.  And this was probably the best way for them to keep their minds off what was going on around them.




Yesterday which was a holiday here, we went to the mountain home of a great member family here, and the husband taught us how to play.  There is much more strategy to the game that I had previously supposed.  So here are the missionaries playing dominoes.




By the way, the board has Brugal on the corners and on the backs of the dominoes.  Brugal is the name of the most popular rum company here, so that was a little funny.

Rob and his partner won!