5/29/2013

     I should blog in the morning - then I would actually be alert enough to do it!  Then again I don't know if I'm that alert in the morning either.. On Tuesday Scott went to the temple in the morning while I made food for the week.  After lunch we picked up the Grays and headed out to Los Llanos.  It had been raining on us all of the way there and everywhere you looked in the cane fields water was sitting. Last week was really wet but this week they were flooded even more.  Driving on the roads was like fording a river!

The front of the car really adds to the picture, doesn't it?  All of the roads were covered with standing water and the sidewalk in front of the church was completely flooded over.  Sister Gray had on her sandals so she just walked through the water but the rest of us waited for 1/2 an hour for the water to go down a little. 
    I forgot one of the funny things that happened on Mother's Day here.  The little girls, Eliana and Caty were so excited when we picked them up on Sunday because they had a present for me.  Here it is:

Every Sunday they have to feel my legs!  It was sweet of them to think I could use these and where they got the money is a good question.  However, if I had legs like that I wouldn't need compression hose...
   Today we got to the temple to go to the 10:00 session just to be told that they had a young man taking out his own endowments and so the session would not start until 10:30 at the earliest.  There were only me and another woman and three men counting Scott.  No one else to be the witness couple again. 
   We had our two lessons at Las Caobas - minus the millers (bugs) this time.  They gave us a room that opened up into another room so it was a much better set up having the two rooms with the six tables and 14 keyboards.  Splitting the group has made it so much easier to teach.
    

5/26/2013 Mother's Day here

     Coming to the end of a Sunday that was very different for us.  Because of Mother's Day we had no lessons this afternoon.  Then we had to think of things we could do to keep the Sabbath Day holy which has  not been an issue since we usually don't normally get home until night on Sundays.
     We took our little kids to church this morning - which is always a joy.  They even had new skirts to wear today (probably not new, but different).  Olgalydia had done Cati's hair.  She had straight bangs and two straight pigtails.  It's a lot of work to straighten their hair but she looked so cute.  It is amazing what they go through to have their hair straightened.  They must all carry store grocery bags with them because if it looks like rain they all have them tied around their hair.  Everyone carries umbrellas even on sunny days, as much to protect them from the sun as the rain.  It has been fun to see how other people live and the interesting things they do that are just normal for them.  The Senior Missionary department was right when they called and said we would love this mission!  It has been a challenge to teach music and communicate in Spanish but the relationships we have made are choice.

5/25/2013

    Another Saturday has come and gone.  We have 12 more weekends and if they continue to go as fast as they have, our time will be over before we know it.  It seems like every other day is Saturday.  Our lessons in the Los Americas Stake were normal.  Scott called William to see about the kids for Sunday and asked if they had enough food.  He said, "Barely".  So we stopped at the store and picked up some things we thought they could use.  Anyway it is the dia de Madre aqui tomorrow and Olgalydia's mom is coming to their house since they don't have the money to go to the country.  Maybe the food we take them will help with dinner, I hope so.
   We tried a new way to find Hainamosa from Los Melinos.  Might I say that it might have been new but certainly was not better!  We did see many more suburbs with the same side by side by side cement buildings that are businesses on the bottom and apartments on the top.  This has been a great experience for me because I have never seen Latin culture - Scott having served in Peru says it is pretty much the same in other Latin countries.  Well we finally arrived at the church to find many kids and a few women that said they were having a big mother's day event in the room we usually teach in.  So we moved to the Relief Society room and had all of the nonmembers (8) since the members were involved in the activity.  There are five young teenage boys that either have ADD or
are just boys and trying to find someway to keep them engaged when you can't be sitting right by them is always a challenge.  So there we no members to say the prayers.  After the first prayer Scott decided maybe they needed a lesson in praying so he taught them the steps you learn in Primary.  They usually will do it but don't really know how.
   All of our older students, but Felix, were involved in the Mother's Day event so we didn't stay after our first lesson.  It was heaven to get home before 9:00.  We pull into our parking lot, turn off the car and just sit there too tired to move. 

5/24/2013 Hard Rock Cafe

     What a great end to the day!
      We had two classes at the Institute then a Spanish class.  They decided to do away with the Friday class because the people who are new and need the help can't come in the daytime.  So that will free up a couple of hours for us on Friday.  At today's class Reed did a dance for us from the "Hannah Montana" movie.  He is just such a breath of fresh air!  As long as he is no longer looking for things with Miley Cyrus in... We will miss the class with the Marinos.
     Got home just in time to go pick up Ramish and Tamilia Shrestha for dinner.  They had wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café before and we hadn't been able to so we trekked down to the Colonial Zone for dinner.  The Café is right by the Plaza de Principal - the front part of a big, old church.  We had seen it in the light but lit up at night was just amazing.  I love all of these old buildings! 

Plaza de Principal

Hard Rock Café with a beautiful view of the Plaza

Scott was really excited about posing with this guitar shaped glass!

Tamilia and me

                                                         Ramish and Tamilia

Funny thing is I have thought Ramish was their last name all this time.  Their last name is acutually
Shrestha.  They are such a nice couple. Scott has wanted to send the missionaries by their house and could never get it arranged. So tonight as we were driving away from their apartment two sister missionaries were walking down the road. So he pulled over and waved them to come to the car.  They were just darling - full of life and so happy to meet the Shresthas.  They asked if they could come by and see them and they said yes.  So we will see what happens.  They are good friends and nice to be with.  He works for the United Nations and they will be transferring sometime so they are just waiting to see where they will be.  They have two sons and they are both in the United States working.
   Anyway sitting outside the café eating enabled us to see the Plaza and the people,  There were three men playing some kind of drums and lots of people sitting outside eating places. 

The ambiance there reminded me of when as a much younger person I was in Greece and Italy. 
Such a great night!

5/23/2013

     Another peaceful morning at the temple.  I will surely miss being able to drive five minutes to the temple twice a week.  Many of our friends are temple workers so there are always temple workers there that we enjoy being with.  On Wednesday when we went the film quit working so after ten minutes of trying to get that going they gave up and took us to another session room. They only have two session rooms here.  Some different than Ogden where they had many and had a session every 20 minutes.  Here it is two times during the morning and two times at night.  The sister missionaries were with us again today.  It is fun to watch them.  You wonder if they had any idea just what being a missionary entailed!  I certainly have learned much here - and realize that I was such a wus I never would have made a good missionary at 21 and certainly not at 19.
    I had the afternoon to study so went through all of the reflexive verbs in this Spanish program I am doing.  Used to have a lot of study time but it is rare now.  By the time I die I may have learned Spanish...
   Our lesson in Santo Domingo tonight was good.  Everyone was there even though it has been raining and so many came on Tuesday night.  This is one of the classes we had to split because it was to big.  Two of the boys in this class are doing very well.  Then there are a couple who still have a difficult time finding middle C or Do central as they call it here.  Keeping everyone going at their own pace is the challenging thing.
    We called Ramishs to see if they wanted to go out to dinner tomorrow night since last time she spent days cooking to feed us a Napaleze dinner.  They do want to go so that should be fun..  Scott has become pretty social here - seems a bit weird because we all know that isn't normal for him.
    I have really come to love the hymns even though I never get the English version here and the Spanish is hard to follow.  They teach the gospel message in such a beautiful way.  Necesita practicar mos though.

Kelsey wanted to see some pictures of us so I have been trying to include them.  Scott thinks I was born with a camera in my hand!  He is always asking "What are you taking a picture of now?" What are you taking a picture of that for?"  in that sarcastic tone of voice.

5/22/2013

    A day behind again!  We have changed the days of some of our lessons so I'm all confused.  Tuesday we went to Los Llanos to teach taking the Gray's with us.  It was fun to get to know them since he is now the Branch President at Los Llanos and will be going out there with us often.  They also have 10 children so we had a fun discussion on big families.  It rained all the way there and
when we got there the sidewalk was half covered with inches of water and there was water sitting on the roads - dirt roads in fact.  It was raining so hard we just sat in the car for half an hour to see if any of our students would show up.  Sure enough.  Some of the die-hard ones started coming when the rain let up a bit. It was nice to have Sister Gray's help.
     We were late leaving because Pres. Gray had a last minute interview so that put us late getting back for our Santo Domingo lesson.  We had hoped to get home and grab a bite to eat before going out for the night (that's what the lesson ends up being).  That didn't happen!  Half of the students that come on Thursday came on Tuesday because they couldn't come to the Thursday lesson.  So the class was bigger then usual.  Finally got home around 9:30 pm.
     Today we went to the temple in the morning then I studied until 4:00 when we had to leave for the two Las Caobas classes.  Again it was just pouring and there was water running everywhere.  We doubted anyone would show up for the class but there were twelve there.  We have been meeting in the chapel - which is a big room that they set up folding chairs in for church - but came to unlock the gate for us and for some reason he wanted us to go upstairs to teach. So we hauled everything up to a room about the size of my kitchen.  First of all it was well over 80 degrees in there so we opened the windows.  At least there was a breeze and a bit cooler because of the rain.  But having 14 keyboards playing in a room that size was no fun.  Then the Bishop came in and shut all of the windows because he had turned on the air conditioner.  It was sweltering with the humidity and the heat.  However, that was the best part of the night.  About ten minutes after we started a few moth-like things started flying around the room.  Two moths soon became over a hundred.  They were everywhere! How I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture of everyone swatting at them as Scott was trying to teach the lesson.  It was actually funny until they came over to the corner I was in.  You didn't dare open your mouth to talk because they were flying around your face, inside your shirt, down your back - you name it. The only solace was we killed many of them, but they just continued to multiply.  I was never so glad to have a lesson end!!  They claim the bugs aren't usually there.....
     

5/20/2013

  I had a list a mile long of things I had to do today when we had no music lessons.  Actually got 3/4 of them done!  Worked on a contact list for Sister Johnson of all of the stake high councilors over music and stake music directors. Then pulled out the schedule for FHE and realized I had treats tonight.  So I made cheerios treats and got them all cut and put on a tray and went back to the Casa for Scott's Spanish class.  Sister Walker was there so we had a good chat.  She informed me that I had looked at the wrong schedule and that we were in individual groups tonight so I didn't have refreshments after all.  (That made Scott and Elder Yturralde happy as they could eat the treats.)
   We met at the Grays with the Ruckers and the Malans.  The Grays have been assigned to the Los Llanos branch so they will be going out with us when they can arrange it.
   On the road ahead of us was this truck with bars all around and four guys standing on the little bit of space there was.  We thought they were trucking prisoners but who really knows:

 

5/19/2013

What a nice day it has been!  Steve Spencer of Felt and Spencer Physical Therapy is here doing a volunteer program.  Their clinic gave many free hours of service to my volleyball playing daughters.  He has been to our Family Home Evening and we have met him a few other places so Scott thinking of William,s little handicapped Katy called and asked if he would just look at her and give them some excercises or something they could do at home because they have no money to take her to physical therapy.  So we picked up the kids - only four this time - and went to church in the Tres Brasos Ward.
As we drove them back home Carlos, a cousin, told us he wanted to be baptized and how did he go about that.  So Scott tells him he first has to have a testimony of the truthfulness of the church.  He said that he did and that it just makes him feel so good to be there.  You could have knocked us over with a feather!  Scott told him he would get ahold of the missionaries. So in church Eliana was sitting on my lap during the closing prayer.  I was trying to teach her the things you do when someone is praying so when I heard the word "amen" during the closing prayer I said, very loudly, AMEN.
When I opened my eyes I see all of the rows of people around us looking at me- then I realized the prayer was still going on.  So perhaps my hearing is going along with my mind...

    We picked up William and Olgalydia and Katy to come back to the city to take her to Mahon's apartment to see Spencer.  Scott let me off so I could get some dinner ready for them.  They all came back thrilled at the information he had given them.  Things they could do at home with her to strengthen her leg and arm.  It was wonderful to have them here with us.

We will always love this family.  They have allowed us to be part of their lives and shared their children with us.
         Our auditorium at Oriental where we teach was all set up when we got there.  That is always a pleasant surprise.  There are 12 tables with two keyboards on each table.  This is the stake that bought ten keyboards for their people to use so we had enough.  We had three of our past students helping so it worked very well.  Except for the time this loud music kept playing and I  was walking past each of the tables to see what was going on - then one of the English speaking girls said, "I think that music is coming from you" and sure enough in my skirt pocket I had Scott's phone on which the ring has been changed on.  I'm sure they all think I am loony and they are right!  The stake president in this stake has been phenomenal help with this music program and was delighted when he came in and saw the graduating class helping teach the other kids.  Anyway, it was a happy day for us...
     
 

5/18/2013 Hainamosa experience - recital

     So on Saturday morning we had gone through the programs to make sure we hadn't left anyone off or made any other foolish mistakes, gotten the pop and cookies and serving things together and off we went to three lessons before our recital in Hainamosa.  Have been waiting to get a picture of a woman riding sideways on a moto on the freeway.  This one was just getting on the main road:They sit there as if they weren't going to fall off and be killed any instant.  All I can say is these people must have good balance.
  Here is a typical street in these areas we teach in:

Barely wide enough for a car but since most of them don't have cars -it works for them.  There is a certain charm for me in the simplicity of these areas and a life style much different than ours.
   I've wanted to get a picture of the church gate at Los Melinos because it is much different than the rest and this time I remembered, isn't that great!

  We haven't seen a gate quite like it anywhere we have been.  It certainly isn't very welcoming!  Looks like a prison door to me..That's one of our cute young girls that has picked up playing so quickly.  It's fun working with this group.  There are young teenagers who are doing great and older women who are slower.  We have come to the conclusion that the older you are the harder it is for you to learn - I should have realized that from studying Spanish!
    On the trip to Hainamosa for our class and recital we talked about how prepared we were for the  recital.  What a joke that was!  Three of our six students  in this recital came an hour early to practice on the church organ/piano - then another came later - fourtyfive minutes after the recital another one showed up and the last one didn't show up at all.  So we were all ready for the 6:00 recital with only half of the students there.  The only priesthood help we have had in this stake is a high councilor over music. Since he is in the class before the recital he was actually there on time and could not figure out why at 7:00 we were way past wanting to start.  Then he tells us that they thought the recital was at 7:00.  Despite deciding on the time weeks before...  Then when we said (after 7:00) "Let's just start" he informed us that there was a baptism scheduled for 6:00 and we couldn't start until that was over because one of our students was at the baptism.  By this time Scott was extremely frustrated!  The best player in that class didn't show up and it would have been such a good experience for him.  So about 7:45 our 6:00 recital began with one set of parents and a sister and another one of our students there.

We never have figured out how to tell these two apart.  They are such sweet girls and Scott has a real soft spot for them!
   One of the twins started teaching their cousin and he wanted to be in the recital also:

Jerson has great hands and is the most intense student we have.  He is so disgusted if he makes a mistake - doesn't fit in the mold here with all of these "go with the flow" people.

This is Bianca who came 45 minutes late but did a great job.

   

                               

Then there is Felix who had such a struggle learning and getting his older stiff fingers to move but did a great job.  Even played an extra song because Anderson didn't show up!

      

Scott has worked so hard to help him learn.  It was another one of those tearful moments for me.

Despite everything they all did a good job.  Of course everyone off the street finds their way in for refreshments when you start serving the people who finally came in to the recital.   One of our students who got busy with a job quit coming but for some reason came to the recital and says he is coming back until he leaves on his mission.  (Antonio)  We shall see..  We gave him a ride back to where he lives which is probably a good ten miles away and then you realize how much these kids do to actually make it to the lessons.  We were so proud of them!  Got home 12 hours after we left this morning and were we ever happy to have those two recitals over.

                                                             







5/17/2013

   Thursday was our usual temple and lesson day but also preparation for the two recitals we had this weekend.  Might I say that we weren't nearly prepared enough . . .
   After two classes at the Institute we left for San Cristobal for the first recital.  We had asked the students to come an hour and a half early so we could go through the order of who was playing when and give them an opportunity to play on the church keyboard.  Of course that should have been done last week but they hadn't even decided what they wanted to play by then.  And when they arrived at the church some still changed what they were going to play so we decided not to use the program.  Especially when one of the guys pointed out that we had left a girl off the program and I had the same man giving the opening and closing prayers!  Talk about incompetence...  Here's how they showed up:

Most in basketball shorts and levis  and very casual clothing,  I was startled. We hadn't told them what to wear assuming they would know - thank heavens before we started they one by one disappeared and came back in church clothes.  So by time to start most had changed and were still practicing on the keyboards we had set up for them.  The Bishop said he was expecting 100 people - this was at 7:00 when it was supposed to be starting and there were eight people there besides us and the students.  We laughed!  You need to take tranquilizers to work with these people!  We sure love them though...
   We took cookies from PriceMart and of course I wanted to get the refreshments all set up and ready for after the recital.  Scott wouldn't let me get them out of the car because he didn't think there would be any left for the recital if anyone noticed they were there.  And that is the way it is!  So an hour after we were to start, we were setting up chairs.  Bishop Polanco was hilarious - he was so worried about playing - as if he had time to practice.  Finally began the meeting with about 10 people in attendance.

He's looking far more at ease than he was!  Such a great guy.
Here they are all calm and collected... That was about as nervous as I have ever seen a Dominican.

These kids haven't been playing long enough to play very well with two hands but they did a good job.  We promised another recital before we leave so they could play well - now that was insane!
And before the program was over there were over 60 people there.  The Bishop was almost right.  Guess he knows his people...

In every group there are one or two who really struggle but are determined to learn and do their best.  Carolina was one of those.  The Bishop had a keyboard he gave her to practice with the week before and she did and awesome job.  I was so proud of her I just wanted to cry.
Then there are young boys like Luis, the Bishop's son, who are so quick to learn it is amazing.
It was so much fun to meet their parents and every other relative they had.  They love to visit so after having ice cream brought by the Bishop for everyone, and our scrumptuos PriceMart cookies, we finally left to come home.  What a wonderful time it turned out to be!  Who would have guessed that at 7:00.

5/16/2013

What a relaxing day! We went to the temple early and were home before noon.  I finished the programs - well almost finished- before the power went out.  Had clothes in the washer so they had to wait. Boy I am going to be disappointed if my washer at home doesn't wash better than the one we have here.  Anyway the power came back on within a couple of hours so I was able to finish the programs and Scott took them across the street to have them copied for both recitals this weekend.
   When we got to Santo Domingo for our lesson tonight they were having a stake baptism in our room.  The font is by the other room we could use so one of the leaders in the stake took us into the high council room.  Most of our students were either at the baptism or home studying for their final tests.  We had my favorite mom, her son, and another young girl. They were almost lost in the depths of the huge table:

How nice it was to have so much one on one time to help them.  Sister Santos is carrying a lot of pain around because she is divorcing her husband.  She said for sixteen years she had done her job and his job too plus took care of their three kids and she just did not love him.  She feels a lot of guilt because she says he is a good man.  There are many fairly decent men here who do nothing but sit around and send their wives to work.   She tried to help us with Spanish as we helped them with their playing so it was a great trade off.  She is one of the many people here who have made our mission a great experience.  

The most exciting thing:  We walked into the high council room and there were hymn book setting on the table.  Scott said we should look around for my hymn book that I have been lamenting the loss of for months now.   Well right in front me was my hymn book.  I couldn't believe it!  We have looked everywhere for that book.  It is a Spanish book in which I have written all of the titles of the hymns in English under the Spanish titles.  Plus in the front it has the songs indexed in page numbers in both English and Spanish - so handy to have when you are trying to find a song in Spanish.  There have been so many times since the loss of the book that I have been asked to play and have no idea what they are singing until I have played a couple of measures.   I am so very grateful to have it back....



5/15/2013

We attended a fairly prompt temple session on Tuesday. Only started 20 minutes late.  Here if they know there is someone in the dressing room getting ready they will hold up the session until they get in the chapel.  When we finished we drove home then out to PriceMart to pick up some oatmeal cookies and pop for our recital.  Scott buys these cookies all of the time (says they are his dose of the oatmeal for the day). Got home in time to work on the recital program before our night class at Santo Domingo.
 This morning Scott went to the Institute to check on our classes - both have been moved to Friday.
I continued to work on the programs and finally got one done.  It's all of the changes that are made by the students and trying to make sure every word in Spanish is used right that drives me crazy!
   Leavitt's went with us to Los Llanos.  That's much more fun! I know someone besides us must be praying that we will be safe because otherwise we would be dead on these roads somewhere.  They always say it is unsafe to be out at nighttime but that is when most of our lessons are.  I know the Lord protects us because we are doing His work.  But then He doesn't bless stupidity!  The roads were covered with water so all of the big holes in the roads weren't visible.  Oh well....
   We brought the Leavitts back to the Casa and headed out to Las Caobas.  That is usually only about half and hour drive but when the traffic is bad it takes much longer.  The great thing is we changed the class at Los Llanos so we could teach two classes on Wednesday night at Las Caobas.  The Las Caobas class of 32 was just toooooo much.  Tonight it was a zoo!  Kids running in and out, students leaving and going from table to table because they had nothing to do while the other two kids sharing their teclada were playing, big boys not in the class sliding on the floor up to the stage to see one of their mother's.  All in all I just wanted to scream..  Scott is much better at confusion than I am but tonight was a bit much for him also.  It will be much better with the two classes - though they still will be big classes.  The traffic was much better on our way home.  It will be nice to climb into our rock hard bed.

5/13/2013

    We survived another weekend.  It seems like just yesterday was Sunday then before you know  it is time to start the marathon weekend again. We began Saturday at 9:00am as we headed for La Caleta.  Every time we go out there I am reminded that it won't be long before we take the airport exit instead of the La Caleta exit.  The kids were sitting out of the church grounds on the curb waiting for us because they could not get into the church yard.  My grand kids love machetes.  We have seen them many times here being used to cut brush and bush growth off the mountain side but edging a flower bed with a machete is quite a trick:

  The lesson went well and all of the kids were there on time - quite an unusual event.  We left for Los Melinos - eating lunch on the way.   The dad of the two little girls that play so well if finally back from some kind of a business trip so it was fun to see him again.  The mom of the oh-so-cute baby brought us a chocolate dulce.  It was all wrapped up so and looked a little like a bundt cake so I assumed it was flan. (Their favorite dessert here) It turned out to be a delicious chocolate cake that Scott keeps frozen so it will last longer.  These people are amazing.  They may have nothing but want to give you what they do have.
  So we have two recitals this coming weekend so we had practices today.  Oh my!  At Hainamosa the recital students all showed up at different times and the chapel was full of priesthood meeting guys.  We had the program and were just going to run through it with them so they knew what to do since they had no idea.  Well that didn't work very well!  Couldn't get in to practice on the piano in the chapel nor could we get the kids all together at one time.  It's enough to give you ulcers...
But the Dominicans never worry about things like that.  Anyway between the two classes there we didn't get home until 9:00pm.  I don't know if it was the heat or what but we were both exhausted.  We pulled into the parking lot and just sat in the car hoping we would be miraculously transported into the apartment.  We looked at each other and said, "Let's go to our own ward tomorrow."  We were both too tired to even think about taking 4-8 kids to church before our lessons on Sunday. 
     Sunday - Mother's day.  Mothers are so very important in the formation of a normal, healthy society and a happy family life.  It seems like a thankless job sometimes but I treasure being a mother to our ten kids more than anything.  We are so grateful for the good mothers our daughters and daughter-in-laws are! 
It was very nice to hear a Sunday School lesson in English and see many of our missionary friends that attend this ward.  Grabbed some lunch and studied on our way to San Cristobal.  These students are the other recital this coming weekend.  These people really are not ready for a recital but the Bishop wants them to play because it is their ward conference.  Well that would be fine but many of them had changed their minds about the numbers they wanted to play; and couldn't even play them.  Of course that isn't a problem for them.  We are the only ones that worry about that kind of a thing here.  I can't even imagine how this is going to turn out.
 Carlos and Lucianny are brother and sister and two of my favorites.  Their parents were in the class but quit after the conducting class:

          

What a joy this class has been!  Bishop Polanco probably sets the tone for the attitudes of these kids and he is wonderful.  He must have had a difficult Sunday though because he was about an hour late and came in looking pretty disheveled.  Heaven only knows how this recital will turn out.  I'm hoping it's like those Primary programs you practice for and the kids are terrible at the rehearsal but actually do a great job.                                                                                                         

We were discouraged until we got to Oriental to teach and their stake president had purchased 10 new tables for the keyboards to be set up on.  So the classroom was all set up and ready to go.  No using chairs for tables this week!  Three of our former students were there helping us so it was so much easier than it could have been.  Each time I stopped to listen to someone playing a piece I was amazed how well they were doing.  Then I just got this warm feeling of peace in the storm of 17 keyboards playing and I knew that the Lord was blessing these students as we had asked Him to do.

 

That's the two sides of the room - five tables on each side.

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that Steve Spencer from Felt and Spencer rehab-where my volleyball girls spent half of their life- is here with another doctor doing a wheelchair training.  It was fun to see him here.  He comes down to the Caribbean often to do volunteer work.                                               



                                          Now who do you think was having the most fun?

           Ruckers invited  the Yturraldes, the Buttons, and us to dinner tonight.  It was a welcome change from the computer work I have been doing all  day trying to get the programs and the invitations made so we could take them to Hainamosa and San Cristobal this weekend.  Still have to put in a new ink cartridge and print off some invitations. 
           Scott went to the temple this morning while I worked on the music things.  I woke in a panic this morning thinking this Saturday and Sunday were the recitals.  Ten minutes later I realized that they are next week - what a relief!

5/7/2013

      Monday is our weekend!  - That is if we don't have all- morning meetings, and we didn't today. Spanish classes and Family Home Evening don't start until afternoon so it was wonderful to have the morning to study and relax a bit.  At least this week we didn't have a "Choir Festival" meeting.  That has the potential of being such a great thing for the people here.  They love to sing and it doesn't take as much effort as learning how to play the piano.  Getting the music people  in place  and training them will be one of the biggest challenges.  In our FHE we talked about our ancestors and how they came to join the church.  Scott and I realized that we need to do some serious genealogy work when we get home.
       Tuesday was our morning at the temple. There was one car parked in the temple parking lot besides ours so we thought we would be the only people there.  But just like at the churches that look like no one is inside because there are no cars out front, there were people inside. I keep forgetting that many of these people come by public transportation because they don't have cars.
       Tonight was our lesson at the Santo Domingo stake.  Supposed to begin at 6:30 - no one came until 7:15.  One girl came at 8:00.  I do know that if there is even  one student there it is worthwhile.
We are trying to adjust but sometimes it is frustrating!!
       I was helping three girls by the window when I noticed a man looking in the window.  Thought he was one of the building people.  He opened the door and came over to me with something in his hand.  Scary looking guy!!  Then he went out but stayed on the balcony by the room we were in and kept looking through the window and door window.  When I opened up the paper it had his name and two phone numbers on and said he worked at the University - but that's all. One of the girls was shivering and said "He makes me afraid."- like I wasn't afraid!
    Well you all know how brave I am - Scott had to go back down to the car to get some cards and left me in the room with six teenage girls.  I asked him to talk to the guy and see if he could get him to leave.  Then one of the girls said,  "You don't talk to people like that.  They want money and will hurt you get it."
     So I had my trusty music baton and stood in front of the door so he couldn't open it - like that would have stopped him!  I was on my way across the room to get a broom, which looked like a better weapon, when Scott came back in.  The guy was standing outside the room so Scott said he just handed him some money and told him to leave then followed him down the stairs and out of the yard.
We all breathed a sigh of relief.
      Here we are at home again.  Grateful for another day to serve the Lord who has given us so much.


 

5/5/2013 Saturday and Sunday marathons!

      

  We arrived at 10:00 am at La Caleta to teach and found one of our students asleep on the church's keyboard!  Now that is a serious student..There was no power and no water and it felt like a sauna, but other than that it was great.  Most of the students were there but with no power you can't play the keyboards so Scott did some board work with them on recognizing the keys by name and location.  Some of the kids pick that right up and others struggle.  This is the only group, other than the Institute classes, that doesn't have adults in it.  A few started but decided they would never be piano players and quit.  No power meant no fans to circulate the hot air.

  

Each week we pass this guy selling crabs in the street - such an interesting display.

   At our next lesson, Los Melinos, the metal thing they call a gate was locked.  We were a little early but as time went on and no one came to unlock it one of the students left to find the guy with the key.

As we sat outside the gate there was a group of young boys playing on the rocks by the gate.  They always want you to take their picture, so I did..They are cute kids!  You can't help but wonder just what their lives will be here.

So when we finally got into the little parking area in front of the church - no one must drive to church here -one of our bubbly little students was posed in front of the church door:

Pretty doors don't you think??  This is far from a nice looking church on the outside but the inside is nice and spacious.  Between the rooster crowing and the music blasting from the little store across the street it was hard for an ADD person like me to stay focused on the lessons.  To be honest, I will miss those sounds just a little bit.

   Well when we did get into the building guess what??  No power - so no keyboards - and no fans working.  The building wasn't quite as hot as the last one but I could hardly wait to get home and shower.  On these busy days I am so grateful we had the opportunity to get away for a little while with the kids when they came here.  I'm ready for another vacation but we have to much to do!

In this class we have three young girls who can outplay any of the other students and so when Scott was doing the lesson, on the board again, he just called on the older ones who weren't as quick.  It was hilarious to watch them try to get his attention to call on them because they knew all of the answers. 

    On the road again.  This time to Hainamosa.  Every church here is behind locked gates but this time the gate was open AND we had power!  We had more students than tecladas.  Hot, hot, hot

in that big room because it has no fans.  The older class came to practice for their recital - they never want to leave.  Finally two hours later they wanted to lock the building so kicked us all out.  Hooray!

We have certainly come to love Brother Felix who has worked so hard to be able to play a couple of simple songs.  Scott was absolutely determined that he was going to be able to learn and just kept with him week after frustrating week.

     SUNDAY:

  Off to pick up the kids.  It was even the same bunch we had last week - that is unusual! 

How special these kids are.  Olgalidia said William is not doing very well in his new venue of fruit and vegetable selling.  We want to have the kids here again before we leave.  It would be fun just to have William's kids and a couple of the cousins but as soon as they tell everybody in their neighborhood they are coming there are four to eight more added.  So we end up with kids we don't even know - like the little five year old boy we take to church every week.  Have no idea who he is or where his mother is but he climbs in the car every week.  It was a calm sacrament meeting with just four kids!

   In Relief Society they asked me to say the closing prayer - of course I didn't realize that because I can rarely understand what they are saying so was reading my scriptures instead of listening.  Suddenly I realized everyone was looking at me and couldn't figure out why.  Oracion?  Finally I

understood.  I was going to say it in English but decided to try Spanish.  Now I am a witness of the "open your mouth and I will fill it"  scripture!  Actually after the prayer all thirty women were clapping for me - it was nice of them to care.

   We had half an hour at home before our lesson at San Cristobal which is forty five minutes away on a good traffic day. This is the other class getting ready for a recital so they just worked on the songs they were going to play.  Sure love this class!  I think they are my favorite group.

    Then load up, head out to another lesson in Oriental.  This is a huge class and if it weren't for two of our graduated students we would never have been able to help everyone.  We had 17 tecladas and 24 students using classroom tables and chairs stacked on top of each other to make tables.  Thank heavens for a big auditorium with air conditioning.  At least it was structured commotion.

     And now, eleven hours later, we are home.  Hurrah!  For a tasty supper of chicken gizzards....













5/3/2013

   A day behind, as usual!  Thursday morning we went to the temple and were in a session with all of  the sister missionaries.  The temple coordinator asked if we could come and be there in the session with them on Thursday mornings.  We have been there the last two weeks but I didn't realize they get to come to the temple very Thursday.  That will be fun to be with them.  And I am excited to know that we will get to see Bailey Ferris at least six times while she is at the MTC here.
   Last week at Los Llanos it rained before we got there so it was muddy.  Our car looked like we had been out driving around in a mud pit but Scott didn't think it was dirty enough to wash. Ha!  He kept hoping it would rain and wash it off but for an entire week it didn't rain that hard.  He promised to go get it washed if it hadn't rained by the day after Los Llanos lessons.  So  when we got home from the temple on Thursday told me he was going to get the car washed.  Five minutes later he was back.  He said he had taken the car to the car wash - to look out the window and I would see it.

Next to our apartment building there is an empty lot that the Marriott Hotel next to us use to  park their cars.  They also have guys that was the cars so Scott called to one across the fence and asked if he would wash our car - so there it is - sparkling clean for $5.00.  Quite a car wash!
   After the temple we had a lesson at the Institute.  They are out of school for two weeks but some of the kids wanted to come anyway.  We thought we would continue teaching the two classes of students we have this summer session.  However as we were ending two people came in and said they had signed up for the new class and new six or so others who had also signed up.  So we're not sure exactly how that will pan out. We left there and went to Santo Domingo Stake for another lesson.  There is a woman in this class that I just love.  She is so appreciative but she is the one who rounds up five of the students and makes sure they are at the lesson. Next time I am going to get a picture of her.
   They are having a big book fair here that is about a block away so every time we come home we are caught in traffic for some time. The church has a booth there about family values that they have gotten a lot of good publicity on.
   So Friday - free day - today.  Of course that means time to wash and clean, etc. It is so humid here that things take forever to dry.  (Don't have a dryer)  Had a Spanish class this afternoon with the Marinos.  Then came home and had the Yturraldes down for rootbeer floats and a card game.  Elder Yturralde is finally feeling better but has to be careful about what he eats.
  We have wanted to get a picture of the family moto here and Elder Leavitt finally got one:

 If they are too poor to own a car many of them have motorcycles that they use to transport the family.   It is amazing how many they can fit on a motorbike!  Many people don't have any kind of transportation.