I cannot believe month one is officially over. Wow.
So now, my team and I are officially back in the Dominican Republic, and ready and excited for what God has in store for us. Per the apparent trend, travel day was QUITE the experience. The two other Haiti teams joined us Pastor’s ouse the day before we left, and we had an awesome time of community, and sharing and marveling at the ways which God worked throughout our different experiences and ministries in Haiti. Then we loaded up onto a little school bus at about 5:30 in the morning, and we were on the road to our bus station.
Oh man y’all, we rode in styyyyllllleeeeee. We were on a luxury bus, with recliner seats and AIR CONDITIONIIIIIIIIING! 🙂 and we were off. Most of us were exhausted and knocked out in the cool of the bus, and woke up at the border where we got off on both sides and lined up to present our passports, then back on and welcome back to the DR.
So theeeennnn, we get our in ride meal, (oh yes, there was a hot meal provided… lux-ur-y). and let me tell you, that was probably THE funniest inner dialogue I’ve had with myself in a long time. The food comes in these to go containers, and is nice and warm, and we are all hungrily excited, and so i open mine, and in the big part there is some lovely rice and beans, in one of the small ones, there is nice cooked cabbage, and in the other small one there is….. mystery meat. oh yes, mystery meat. At that point I was assuming it was beef, like pulled beef or MAYBE chicken…
See, i came on this trip QUITE a food prude. like no meat off of the bone, nor do i even eat most meat… i am just…ugh. But at this point, I’m like, “Lauren, you need meat…” and I told myself that by the end of this trip i would break myself of my prudence, so figure now is the time to start and be a good steward of my word…SO i eat it in small bites mixed with big bites of rice, and make myself not grumble, so as to be appreciative, laughing at myself and the multitude of thoughts racing through my mind….. I later found out, thank GOD the next day, that “mystery meat” was neither chicken, nor beef…. nope, not even pork….. it was Goat. oh yes, I, Lauren Cynthia Newborn, have eaten goat. yeup, goat.
aaaaaanyways, so after our luxury meal, our luxury bus starts going up and through the hills of the DR. As we are going up a particularly large one, our bus starts struggling, and eventually stops, and we are informed that our bus is too heavy. So we all get off, and walk to the top of the hill to wait for the bus to make it up. By the grace of God alone, this random other bus, from a different company happens to be coming up behind, and stops. and then all of us world racers and a few other the other passengers from our bus get all our packs and luggage from under the bus, and relocate onto the mystery bus, which just so happened (or God-intendedly ;)) had just enough seats. and onward we go. This bus’ overhead compartments are less effective though, and stuff flew out a few times. Jake managed to ninja catch one flying box, and then, out of nowhere on our windy road, a large squeezable bottle of Smucker’s strawberry jelly went flying out, bounced off of Kyle’s head, and SMACKED me right in the face. Oh yes, was indeed Smucker punched from temple to eye, by a projectile smucker’s jelly.
There was a few more bus switches and a little bit of chaos, but eventually our four teams made it to our new community home here in San Juan, Dominican Republic, around 10 pm that night, finishing yet another truly memorable travel day 🙂
I am sooooo stinking pumped for this month, and we ended our amazing month in Haiti in victory and celebration, and are starting this one in joyful anticipation. My team and I are working with an amazing pastor, doing work, VBS, house to house ministry, clown work (oh yea, clown work), and are blessed to have the coolest and most amazing american ministry contact, an awesome steward of God’s work, Emily. Soooo pumped! 🙂
miss all y’all from home, and cannot wait to get pictures up!!!! love love 🙂
