Thanks to Kelsey, I now know how to find my lost blogs! We have spent the entire day today in Santiago or traveling to and from there. The Hammon's (area welfare missionaries) had asked us to ride with them out to find a hospital and a new institute building. We haven't been out of Santo Domingo but will be sooner or later so we were excited to go.
As as got further away from the city and into the farmland the poverty of the people became more evident. I didn't get a chance to get good pictures of the houses (?) but did get some fun pictures of the many little stands along the rode selling everything from live chickens, all kinds of fruit and vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted pork with the skin still on, wooden spoons and boards, fish, pottery, chairs, to rugs made from scraps they get from the Victoria Secret's warehouse here. There were many, many rugs but then what would expect from all of the leftover material from their merchandise! The country was beautiful with tree and bush covered mountains and trees branching over the road. I had never seen rice paddies, orange groves, or banana trees.We finally did see some cattle and lots of horses and chickens.
The way the roads are set up here is a mystery to everyone. Certainly not like they are in Utah! In the business district some of the businesses are all crowded together down a skinny little street that runs at an angle from the main road. Everything is crammed so close together. They don't have many stores that you can go to and buy a variety of things - they have specialty stores.
We enjoyed being with the Hammons. Elder Hammon thought his wife with the gps had directed him right into the miserable rush hour traffic and was getting pretty uptight - she and I started laughing (think we were just tired) and couldn't stop. Scott was trying to keep him calm and kept telling us to quit laughing. Elder Hammon would have opened the doors and kicked us out but the other cars were so close you couldn't open the doors. We finally made it home despite everything!
We did meet one of the stake presidents in the Santiago Mission and see the new Institute they are building there. That gave us a chance to talk to him about the music in his stake. He says there is none. We have to wait for the stakes and wards to organize their music programs before we can help in any way. It's about a 2 hour drive there and you can't drive after dark because there are road "robbers". President Andersen had car trouble one night and had a scary experience with some "robbers" and now they don't want any of the missionaries driving out of the city after dark.
I'm going to post some pictures of things we saw today - or I'm going to try!
As as got further away from the city and into the farmland the poverty of the people became more evident. I didn't get a chance to get good pictures of the houses (?) but did get some fun pictures of the many little stands along the rode selling everything from live chickens, all kinds of fruit and vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted pork with the skin still on, wooden spoons and boards, fish, pottery, chairs, to rugs made from scraps they get from the Victoria Secret's warehouse here. There were many, many rugs but then what would expect from all of the leftover material from their merchandise! The country was beautiful with tree and bush covered mountains and trees branching over the road. I had never seen rice paddies, orange groves, or banana trees.We finally did see some cattle and lots of horses and chickens.
The way the roads are set up here is a mystery to everyone. Certainly not like they are in Utah! In the business district some of the businesses are all crowded together down a skinny little street that runs at an angle from the main road. Everything is crammed so close together. They don't have many stores that you can go to and buy a variety of things - they have specialty stores.
We enjoyed being with the Hammons. Elder Hammon thought his wife with the gps had directed him right into the miserable rush hour traffic and was getting pretty uptight - she and I started laughing (think we were just tired) and couldn't stop. Scott was trying to keep him calm and kept telling us to quit laughing. Elder Hammon would have opened the doors and kicked us out but the other cars were so close you couldn't open the doors. We finally made it home despite everything!
We did meet one of the stake presidents in the Santiago Mission and see the new Institute they are building there. That gave us a chance to talk to him about the music in his stake. He says there is none. We have to wait for the stakes and wards to organize their music programs before we can help in any way. It's about a 2 hour drive there and you can't drive after dark because there are road "robbers". President Andersen had car trouble one night and had a scary experience with some "robbers" and now they don't want any of the missionaries driving out of the city after dark.
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