These have been an interesting first few days in the D.R.! It first set in that we were really going to a foreign country when the flight attendants gave us visitation papers to fill out. You know how on bilingual paperwork English comes first? Yeah, English was second. And it didn´t look like English at first because it didn´t look like the Spanish I´m used to seeing on the second line!
We arrived at the airport and crammed into a small shuttle bus with all our gear. Even though we were pretty much hip to hip in the seats, we were riding in luxury because there was AC! Even though we were ¨crammed¨, apparently in the rest of the world people will even sit on top of each other, so this was actually ¨pretty roomy!¨ Oh goodness!
We´re staying in some dormitory-style buildings on about an acre of church grounds — a Catholic retreat center I think it is. It´s actually been pretty decent: we have running water and electricity! Sometimes. The staff here has been super nice by cooking dinner for us; the garbage disposals: four fat doggies!
And it´s hot! I went to put on deodorant yesterday and noticed that my anti-persperant… was perspiring! You know how pets like to gather around fans on hot days? Yeah, that´s us!
We went grocery shopping the other day… It was quite a shock shopping on a budget, in a foreign currency, not being able to read product descriptions… I felt like a true foreigner! (Not to mention we´re the only white people in town haha) I was quite surprised to see that a loaf of bread was 89.96! (Pesos.) Our food budget is $5 per person per day and actually, it´s way more than enough!
Well now the whole squad is finally reunited as of a few hours ago, and for the next four days we´ll be bonding together, getting briefed on the culture and spiritual climate, and preparing for ministry in Haiti and the D.R.
