See, It's Not So Bad

From Eric's previous pictures and videos you can see that we are ruffling it a little. But life is so good because we are working together real well and we have an amazing community here who is willing to help us with anything! In fact they don’t even need to be asked if they know of a need you can pretty much guarantee you will get help. Sometimes it is nice to be the helpless foreigner. Laundry day was a bit trying though! I had help lined up for the day before but we had no “luz de la calle” which means we were running on the inverter power so no running a laundry machine. Eric was a trooper though and we did it together the whole time. I think I would have quit early but we had a small flood and all the dirty clothes got wet so there was no stopping and coming back to it. Needless to say we will not wait 2 weeks to do laundry again if it can be helped.

Last night we had friends over for dinner for the first time. Alberto and Milagros came with their 3 children and 1 Niece and 1 Nephew. It was a full house and we all had a blast. Alberto and I cooked together so that I can learn how to make his amazing chicken dish. The kids and Milagros arrived on 2 motos, 7 people 2 motos!!! The apartment is great for having people over and the table is in a room just off of the living room so the adults could have some private time and still keep an eye on the kids.

Yuli, the girl from our photo cards has been coming over at least twice a week since we moved in and that has been great. We are paying her to help out around the house so she comes once to work and once to hang out. We are helping her learn English and she is helping us with our Spanish. It is a great exchange! We hope to go to her house in the next week or two. She moved out of the barrio and is living with her boyfriend.

Please pray for us and this relationship that it would be blessed and profound! Yuli has two years of school left before she can go to college. Pray that she remains focused on her studies. Also pray for Eric and me because the craziness of the school year starts on Monday!

Laundry Day

Just got to do our first day of laundry... only took like 5 hours!

Kisha & The Ants

No dialogue required...

Running On An Empty Tank

A few days ago we had a practice of patience when we woke up to an empty water tank. Perhaps a little background info will help you understand how this is even possible. Every house that I’ve seen so far in La Vega, and most of the DR for that matter, has a multi-gallon tank on the roof. Most of them are black, and there are different sizes and shapes, but they all do about the same thing. They hold all of the water for a given house. Each house also has an electronic pump with an automatic switch, which pumps the water from the big pipe under the street to the tank that is on the roof. It’s really not that complicated, but there are plenty of ways that things can go wrong. A broken PVC pipe, a pump that’s not functioning, or a lack of electricity are just some of the problematic options.

At first we thought the lady that takes care of the plants left the water on in the garden. It took a day to figure out there was no way that could happen because the garden hose isn’t hooked up to the tank. Then it took a day to figure out that even though we had closed all the outdoor spigots, the tank still wasn’t getting water. On day three the chairman of the board for SCS showed up with a couple of guys from his church to help fix the problem. Mind you, that was two days of walking down to the garden to draw a bucket of water just to flush the toilet. Fun times.

With relative ease they figured out that the automatic switch on the pump wasn’t telling the pump that it was time to draw water. A quick trip to the hardware store and about US$5 and we were back in business.

I think we weathered the whole thing with good grace. Kisha and I remained on the same team as we tried to trouble shoot and network to solve the problem. We are now much more appreciative of water when we turn the spigot off and on. So I guess you could say that we practiced the patience pretty well!

El Clima

A weather report from La Vega, DR...

Kisha's 11 Day Update

It was 11 days ago that I got on a plane and headed to the Dominican Republic… So how am I feeling and what has happened? Today I am tired. We had a problem with the water that started the day after we received our inverter. So we went from not having electricity to not having water! 2 days without water because it took us a whole 24 hours to figure out something was broken.

I have gotten to spend 2 days with Yuli, the girl from our photo cards, and that is a huge blessing! We are teaching her English and she is helping me with my Spanish. She is a beautiful and smart girl that I am so very proud of. Other than that I have spent time reconnecting with my friends here. The craziness will begin on Saturday though because a group is coming for 1 week, then a couple of ladies will be here right after that. Also Eric will start working and my days will change a lot. It has been great to spend so much time together before he starts his first year teaching which means lots and lots of hours preparing lessons and correcting papers.

As for my emotions… I just got off the phone with Pop, this was my first conversation with someone state side since we got here and I had myself a cry. I am starting to miss people but most of my emotions are pointed at my dog. I wish so bad that I could have Maynard here with me. So tonight I am sad. But I have been nothing but excited since we arrived. It is great to get emails from friends. That helps me to feel like I am still a part of my church. Thank you everyone for your support. Pray for me and my dog that we can be comforted in this time of separation.

Inversion

I simply cannot believe how great it is to have power all the time! Nothing personal against the folks from the stone age, but they were seriously missing out. Here are a few photos from the installation process:






Electricity is a beautiful thing. Even some of our Dominican friends would smile when they heard about our lack of inverter... they know that means no fan while you TRY to sleep :0)



The good news is we have a fully functional inverter. The bad news is that if you visit you'll be sleeping with it! Yep, the breaker box is in the guest room :0)