9/30/2012

Today was quite a day!  We left early to pick up Oglivia and her kids for church.  When we got there Scott sent them down to AltaGracia's to see if her kids wanted to go.  They did so we waited a while for them to climb up the hill.  We felt bad about cramming them all in the back seat but they seem to be used to close quarters:

How many kids can you get in the back seat?? We actually had room for one more!
These kids are so special...
    Our plan was to drop them off at church then find the MiHogar Ward where one of our students was playing then return to take them home.  The dropping off went fine but for the next hour plus we drove through every street in the Oriental Stake looking for the ward building and never did find it.  The GPS which usually takes us right to a destination took us to this dead end street.  We asked a dozen people if they knew where an LDS Church building was and no one did.  So we finally decided just to go back and help Oglivia with the kids at Sacrament Meeting.  Well - it wasn't quite as easy as it sounds!  We finally found the right road back and had to go through a huge water back up in the road where something had broken.  Where the road dipped it was two inches above our car door but the car didn't stall.  I truly believe the Lord watches over His missionaries.  We got there just in time to get the kids as they came out of class looking for someone they knew.  It was wonderful to be surrounded by kids again!!  How great it would be for them to be involved in the church.  Alta Gracia's 14 year old daughter named Yiani is a darling girl and would benefit from being taught some moral values,  The only place that is taught here is in church.
     After church we headed back - through the little river we had driven through before - to Williams.  We thought AltaGracia's kids would get out there and walk down the path (kind of) to their house but they wanted us to take them so we did. I have never seen narrower roads. The people use them as their yards because they have no yards, so they have chairs in the middle of the road visiting and putting out their wash on their roofs or anything that is above the ground. Still every one you see has these bright white clothes on.  It has got to be the sun - or the fact that they was each item by hand.  I'm going to find out before I come home!  It isn't the vinegar - we have tried that.  We barely, and I really mean barely, got through the street to her house.  We were surrounded by people.  Some looked very wary but others were friendly and just in the street doing varied and assorted things.  One man ran along beside the car knocking on my window.  He stuck his hand out and I realized he just wanted to shake hands so unrolled the window. I wonder if I will ever feel safe here.  Scott went in to Oglivia's to help her with the kids and was gone for ten minutes leaving me in the car alone.  Many people passed by, close by on those streets, and looked in the car but no one stopped - thank heavens!
The car being locked doesn't carry much weight in many areas here.  Safety is such an issue William and Wilton usually ride with us back to the main road then walk back home.
  We did make it home in time to get ready to go back to Oriental for lessons.  This group is trying to learn to read and play music at the same time - it has been difficult for them.  Since we couldn't find Stephanie's ward this morning Mason rode with us and took us to the chapel so we would know where it was next time.  Maybe Scott will know but I couldn't find it in a million years!  Now we are home and I am ready for bed....

9/30/2012 A horse parade???

  Every day here the weather is the same. Even I, who loves spring and fall and have wished the whole year would be those two seasons,  have realized that four seasons are nice. Our air conditioner has been leaking for days, but chose not to leak when the repairman was here, is still leaking.
We have had power and internet most days though so we are happy.
   Saturday as we were leaving for our Hainamosa lesson we heard this parade music playing.  When we looked out to see what was going on - low and behold there was a horse parade going down the main street.  Many horses with men and women in cowboy hats! We haven't seen a horse, except the dropdead looking horses that pull carts, here anywhere.  It almost seemed like we were home.

Here is a close up so we remember for sure there are horses here somewhere!
  Then off to lessons we went.  I haven't posted a picture of this group so here they are:

You can't see two or three of them but you get the idea! This is the huge group that ended up to be about twelve.  The problem is we have new people that come each week and want to start and they are already three weeks behind.  We haven't taken any of them into the class except these two extra young men that just sit there waiting for someone to leave their keyboard for a few minutes then they sit there and practice for a few minutes. What has been surprising to me is that there are so many  young men that want to learn.
  Got home to no internet again!

9/28/2012 AltaGraci's family

What a day it has been!  Tati was here this morning and came up to visit.  We worked on my Espanol.  I have such a long way to go!!! Her daughter, Raiza, is moving the first of the  year to be with her husband in Columbia.  They have lived apart for most of the past four years so now the kids will get to know their Dad.  Tati says her granddaughter has calmed down a little.  She has a Book of Mormon which she is having her granddaughter read to her because she has no reading glasses and can't see the words.  (Which isn't exactly true but has helped her granddaughter)
  Timilia, our upstairs neighbor from Nepal, went shopping with us today because their TV had quit working and they needed someone who speaks Spanish talk to the people at the Wind store.  They were able to get a number where they could call for help so when we got home and Elder Yturraldie got home they went to her apartment and called the service provider.  They got their TV fixed so they were very happy!  Timilia is home by herself all day and watches a lot of TV.  It was great to be able to help them.
    Yturraldies came down after that and as we sat chatting around the table Sister Yturraldie asked what that noise was - it sounded like water dripping to her.  We opened the door and sure enough water was running down the steps in the hall, down the railing, and dripping from the ceiling.  What a relief to know it wasn't ours!  Scott and Yturraldie started up the stairs to see where it was coming from.  The apartment two floors above us had water running out from under the door.  The man answered the door with a mop in his hand - the toilet had run over, and over, and over from the looks of things!
    At 5:30 we picked up AltaGracia and William to go out to their places. How humbled I am to be able to associate with people like these two.  They have so little but maintain such a happy attitude.  I really didn't think we would ever get the car down some of the roads to her house but we did.

The street was about two feet wider than the car, maybe not even that.  You can see the dashboard of the car.  One woman was washing her hair in an old metal bucket outside her house in the street.  We had to wait for her to move the buckets of water before we could pass by I'm sure most of them do not have indoor plumbing. There were groups of little boys, older teens, men and women everywhere. I have never seen so many people crammed into such a little area.  They were like ants - everywhere you looked the streets and the houses were full of people. I had to laugh thinking of how different this life is than life on the ranch with so many wide open spaces.  These people would probably be nervous with so much space!  The kids were just getting home from school.  Altagracia invited us into her house which was probably 13'by 14' total.  She has herself and six kids living in that house.She took me to a neighbor's house that sits on top of the river bank.  It was getting dusk by that time so when we went into the house you could not see much.  She walked right in.  There were three rooms on the side where sheets were used for doors.  She called a name, pulled open the sheet and introduced me to people inside the 8x8 rooms.  In one was a woman and a younger boy laying on the bed - which took up 95% of the room.  The other rooms were the same size or smaller.  Straight ahead though was the kitchen - so to speak. A very friendly woman was standing there preparing food.  Right out the door was the river.  No bank, just water. Just amazing to see how they live.  When we walked around the corner to AltaGracia's house there were six dogs fighting and some boys egging them on.  A little toddler was in Scott's arms.  She had been in the midst of the fighting dogs so he had grabbed her.  He couldn't understand why the mother, who was standing by with a big chunk of cement in her hand had not rescued her little one from the dogs.  Maybe she was frightened herself or thought her little girl would not be hurt.  Everyone knows how unstable a situation is around fighting dogs though.  You never know if they think you are interfering or helping!

We left and went to a huge mall to get some supper.  The kids were wonderful.  The little girls are twins with big brown sparkling eyes.  The girl in yellow is 14 and is reading the Book of Mormon to her brother and sisters.  I wish they had some way to get to church because I believe they would go.  We need a guagua to pick up William's family and her family!  Wilton has been very sick with a kidney infection.  The baby belongs to her brother who is on the right hand side of the picture. William came with us so UltaGraci would feel more at ease.  They are protective of their family - which is very large!  I suddenly realized why these people do not have personal space issues - there is no such thing as personal space. You would just have to see it to believe it.  What a blessing it is for us to be able to associate with them. 

We thought this would be a place with only Dominican food.  Actually there were more American fast food places by far in this huge mall center area than Dominican.  All in all it was a very memorable experience. Our senior missionary friends were eating across the street and had invited us but we are so grateful that we got to go with AltaGracia instead! 

9/27/2012

This is the beginning of our 7th month here.  In ways it seems like a couple of years and in others you wonder where the time has gone.  It is so good to have a feel for what we are to do here.  If the stake presidents just moved a little, or maybe a lot, faster we could be of more help to them.  Some of the wards are finding out that we have classes in other stakes and they don't want to wait for their stake to get on board so we may be working from the bottom up in some areas.  We'll see. 
     Our Spanish class, Elder Hammons, took a field trip on Monday up to see two waterfalls.  We stayed home to wait for the internet repairman.  They told about the trip today and was I ever glad we didn't go!  They had to cross this swaying,  hanging bridge that could only hold five people at a time and spanned the distance between two mountains.  I am so afraid of heights I probably would have had a heart attack! Plus there was a river under the bridge... Then they had to hike for fourty five minutes up the side of a mountain and that about killed all of them. ( Being senior missionaries and all)  Coming down the switch back path was covered in wet leaves and gravel so they had to hold on to the trees to keep from slipping down the mountain.  When they finally got back to the cars they were starving and could not find anyplace to eat.  When they did find a restaurant they were the only ones there so the owners took them on a tour of the kitchen where they cooked.  Thank heavens that was after they ate.  They were amazed that no one got sick!  Doesn't that sound like so much fun??  Those of us who did not go had a good laugh.
    We have two new couples here again.  The Schmits (don't know about that spelling)  and the Merinos.  They are taking the place of the Fords and the McDemids.  The Schmits are from Layton.  Most of the people here have been on previous missions.  She had heard of Scott's beginning Spanish class though and wanted to know when it was.  She does know a little Spanish from a previous mission.
   We had our lessons at the Casa today.  The guys are going to sing " Peace Be Still" for me next week - I can't wait.  They have great voices.  After two Spanish classes we went to the temple and got home just in time to talk to Megan.  Talked with Melia and Alysha today also.  I really miss my girls!
They had a lunch shower for Hannah and little Samson - not yet born but coming soon!

9/26/2012

It has now officially been seven months since we left home.  Most days are good but some days I just really miss home and my family.  In the paper here it had a picture of Obama and the women on The View.  It mentioned that he had been on Dave Letterman also.  Somehow it seems a little demeaning to the office of the president of the United States.  We don't need someone who is a good conversationalist, we need a good leader! 
  We went to get on the elevator the other day when the door opened and standing there was a big white dog.  His owner was to the side that we couldn't see so it was quite shocking.  They have about as many dogs here as they have people. I've never seen a dog inside the building though.  Every morning there are people who walk their own dogs and professional dog walkers here on the sidewalks.  In the city they are contained but in the outer areas of the city they are everywhere and just run free.  Don't know why they don't starve to death because they certainly look like that could be a possibility. 
   Sunday night after lessons in Oriental we traveled across the city and outside the city to San Crystobal.  The roads here are scary at night because there is more crime and because many of the motorcycles and taxis do not have lights.  Plus pedestrians are everywhere and because of their dark skin they just blend in with the dark if they don't have on lighter color clothing.  I really want to see San Crystobal in the light.  There were 30 + people waiting for us. So Scott needed my assistance to play the hymns they want to sing.  One I had never heard of but the other was ok - scares me to death but I just keep thinking that if I will try the Lord will bless me.  And He did!  Scott told them about the music program.  Usually we do a stake group with people from all of the wards.  This ward has so many people that want to take lessons that they don't want to have to be involved with the stake.  There were many men there and they were so excited to come up and see the keyboard.

The Bishop is in the white shirt - such a great man.  He will be good to work with.  The only time we could set up lessons for them was at 7:00 Sunday night which I don't like because of the traveling at night conditions but they are thrilled to be able to learn. Hopefully we can teach them.........
   I don't know where I left off on the last blog so will go back to yesterday.  Our temple trip , all of four blocks, was good.  A woman of 80 or so was going through for the first time with her daughter.  Her daughter was in tears half of the time and by the end the woman was too.  She is the first black woman I have seen with gray hair, eyebrows a n d  eyelashes.  There were three other women, me, Scott  and Pres. Cornish.  Scott went again tonight but I stayed home to have some alone time.

9/25/2012 Another five days without internet

We must have been sent here to develop patience!  There has to be one thing, at least, not working in our apartment at all times.  The power has been on for the past two days but the internet has  been off since last Thursday.   I don't know how many times you can fix the same problem but it is many!
   So much of this blog will be catching up.  On Friday the Eickbushes called to see if we were going out with the group for supper.  We decided to just come here and eat and maybe play games or something.  Just as they were coming the Yturraldies dropped by so they stayed and ate with us.  The only game we have is Phase 10 - which only when Scott thinks I am going to have a nervous breakdown trying to learn Spanish will he play.  The Eickbushes are game players but the Yturraldies said they would stay for one round but they weren't card players.  Well neither are we but a break is good.  Elder Yturraldie must have been holding out on us because he won the first hand, the second hand, the third hand before he had to leave for a meeting.  Anyway it was alot of fun

I'm beginning to feel like a music traveling van.  Wish we had a van to keep these 10 keyboards, boxes of books, etc in.  We went out to Hainamosa for the lesson this afternoon.  After the choir left we ended up with about 10 students there so that is much easier to handle.  We took the keyboards and set them up before the students came - you would have thought it was Christmas!  One of the women was so excited throughout the lesson that all she could do was giggle. When she figured out how to play with one hand and numbered fingers the melody of a hymn she was estatic.  It was just so much fun watching her!  There is a set of twins in the Haniamosa Stake class and one in the Oriental Stake class.

The first two are quite a bit more reserved than these last two but they are all great kids!
 Traveling to Hainamos is always interesting but today when we turned under the bridge on the small hill a man was coming down.  His hair was long and in ringlets and he looked like he could have been a lamanite warrior or something.  I was trying to decide if he had on brown clothes of just what when Scott and I both realized that what looked like a loin cloth, but was really just a narrow sash or something, and he was almost completely naked.  Can't imagine where he came from or why he hadn't been picked up by the security guards that are everywhere.

    On Sunday we went to the Ramana Ward where Olivert was playing the prelude and Sheryl was leading the singing.  They did a great job.  We are so proud of these kids!  I really admire their willingness to contribute to their wards with what little they have learned. 
   The Ruckers had invited us for dinner on Sunday - that was so nice of them since we had such a busy day. 

The Mahons were also there.  It was delicious and the company was great!
 We had to leave to get to our lesson in Oriental.  All of the students were there and we didn't have enough tables so this is what Angel got to have for a table:

That's what I call desperation!  Angel, who came late and ended up using the garbage can for a table, will likely be on time next week....
  I have ran out of picture room so will start anew tomorrow if we have internet. 

9/20/2012

You know how if you leave food out uncovered at home it gets dried out, well here you leave things out to soften them up.  Cake and brownies never get hard and stale - so Scott is happy! However other things mildew in a hurry.  It has been and still is a hot summer here, so the residents say.  It has felt hot to us ever since we got here.  The humidity makes the air feel heavy - that's the best way I can describe it.  Except for the garbage almost everywhere it is still very pretty here.

  On our way to Hainamosa we saw some interesting things.  I have never seen these trees before but they have many strange trees here that grow roots that climb up the trunk, trees that look like palm trees and about half way down the trunk of  tree where there are no leaves, bunches of berries looking things grow.  This one is a very pretty tree but looks weird when you get close.  I don't know what those hanging things are but they look like some kind of a branch growing the wrong way because they all hang down.
  Here street vendors are common but this is the woman with "something extra".:

That is the biggest variety of stuff we have seen here on one person.  There are few women out on the streets but when there are they usually have their "goods" on their heads.

Notice the leading patterns on the board...Scott should have been a teacher he is so good at it!
Even when he doesn't know what he is talking about.

We had our normal three classes today.  The music class is so frustrating for Katty because she is not a fast learner, and the two other young men are very gifted and had previous experience.  We sent a keyboard home with her so hope that helps her.  She is such a sweet girl, I just love her.  Elder Hammon's class was an exercise in making up stories with groups of words.  It actually was quite fun.  The Spanish class that Scott teaches was sparse as everyone was at the temple today.  Coming out we ran into a very white American couple - at least they looked very white in comparison to the other people in the lobby.( Blond and very fair skinned)  They were from Utah and had come to a wedding of a friend of theirs.  They love to come here and have brought their family and stayed for a year or so two different times.  They are the Tanners from down by Price.  He served a mission here 20 years ago and just loved it.
    We decided to do something different so we went looking for a Chinese Restaurant.  We found one on the GPS that we had been to before so knew where it was but had actually forgotten about it. So we went out for supper and just sat and watched all of the people come and go.  It was a nice change of pace for us.