Travel Day 1 (Friday, 1/13/2012) – Miami, FL to Dominican Republic
Our first travel day went better than I expected. I always love travelling, so it was no surprise to me that I thoroughly enjoyed the day, even though it was long. However, I was quite impressed with how well everything was organized and how smoothly things went for our squad. After all, arranging safe and timely transportation for 46 people to various points in a foreign country is no easy logistical task. Luckily, we have some excellent people in these roles, which helped the day to be quite pleasurable.
It also helped that NOBODY COMPLAINED AT ALL! I was quite impressed by all of the positive attitudes that helped to make it a very fun travel experience. I’ve included a brief recap of our travel day for you below. I’m quite sure this will be the easiest one that I will experience this entire trip.
4:50am Wake Up
5:30am Backpacks are packed and piled outside so that we can clean our host church we have stayed in for Launch
6:00am Leave the church and walk approximately 20 – 30 minutes to the Bus
Bus Ride to the train station
7:45am Take train (approx. 30 min.) to the airport
9:00am Begin check-in process at the airport
11:30am Make it through security and locate the group at the gate
12:00pm Enjoy my last American meal at Wendy’s and place final phone calls to loved ones
2:00pm Board our flight (a little late since it was originally scheduled to leave at 1:25p)
5:30pm Arrive in Santo Domingo; go through line to obtain travel visas; retrieve baggage; go through customs
7:30pm Load our buses and head toward San Juan
10:15pm Drop off one team onto pick-up truck headed into the mountains for their ministry; Bathroom break on the side of the road
11:00pm Arrive @ our house in San Juan; get things unloaded; eat ham & cheese sandwiches; have a feedback session with my team
1:00am Bed (NICE – mattress on the floor and fan blowing in the room)
Thanks again for all of your encouragement and support! More updates soon I begin ministry tonight so more updates soon, I promise.
