On Saturday, approximately 30 of us (15 Americans and 15 Dominicans) left Azua and drove some 60 minutes towards the mountains and a farm for a leadership retreat. What made this interesting was that the 30 of us were packed into two vehicles – 13 in an SUV, and the other 17 of us in the back of a pickup truck. Did I mention that we also had the food and water back there, as well as a guitar? Although even being here is an adventure, this was our first great adventure. Most of the way we were flying down the highway trying not to get bugs in our mouths, but once we reached the farm, we were in for an additional treat – the path back to the retreat was entirely off-road! I’m talking bumpy, rocky roads. There was even a time where we were driving on the bottom of a dried up river bed!
When we could drive no further, we grabbed everything out of the vehicles and hiked through the river bed to the site. It was there that we had a time of worship, some teaching, games, and, of course, lunch cooked over an open fire – yuka (the root that tastes like potato) and salami with some cooked veggies. Mmm, what a meal!
While the food was cooking, we took advantage of a felled palm tree to open up the top part of it and take out the edible part inside. This white substance with a unique texture also has a unique taste, some said it tasted a bit like cheese, but I am not sure about that! Either way, it was pretty tasty and held us over until the food was served. I also took this time to hike up to the top of the closest hill and take advantage of the view – it truly was a spectacular sight.
We spent a good amount of time praying over each member of the Dominican church leadership (which was a very powerful experience – we had many prophetic words for them), we packed everything up and headed back to the vehicles. The SUV now had a very low right front tire, but with no other option headed back down the path we came in with the same 13 people packed inside.
For whatever reason, those of us that rode in the pickup truck now had to fit a motorcycle in the back, along with the same number of people. I am not sure where it came from, we just had to work around it. The trip back out of the retreat was as adventurous as on the way in, dodging branches, getting airbourne over some particularly large rocks, and nearly getting stuck several times trying to gun it up a hill. We all survived the trip (although there were some close calls with speed bumps on the way home) and are here to tell about it. I don’t think any of us will forget our first great adventure any time soon. 🙂
