So I’ve decided to wrap-up each month with a three-part blog series. Part 1 (what you’re reading now) will talk about “a day in the life” kind of stuff; part 2 will talk about the cultural experience of that place; part 3 will talk about our ministry, what God did, and my spiritual journey.
For this first month in the Dominican Republic, April and I stayed in a nice house that is rented out by Adventures in Missions with 46 other Racers. This is not normal. For most of the Race we’ll be living with just our team, but for this month there were 7 teams staying together in a house with three bedrooms (four if you include living room which functions as a bedroom).
Between the three (four) rooms that were filled with bunk beds, there were 21 beds, enough for less than half of us. There were several people who strung up hammocks in the backyard or in the small backyard balcony. April and I set up our tent on a balcony as did the other married couple. The rest had to find a spot on the floor for their sleeping pads and sleeping bags. Areas that were designed to be a dining room and an upstairs den became bedrooms with people camped out on the floor.
The house got dirty so fast with so many people going in and out. Every day of the week a team was designated to clean the entire house: wiping down everything, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping, and mopping with bleach water. Despite this, nearly everyone in the house, myself included, contracted some kind of parasite. There’s a major outbreak of those things right now.
There was no hot water, which made the rule of “military showers” easier to follow, and because there was no A.C. cold showers were actually pretty nice. In case you don’t know, a “military shower” means you turn the water on just long enough to get your whole self wet, then turn the water off while you lather yourself with soap and shampoo, then turn the water on just long enough to rinse all the suds off. We had to do this to conserve water and not keep people waiting for a shower.
In the beginning of the month, I took showers in the backyard with the water hose because I was one of the few people willing to do so and there was never a wait. For a hose shower, you just throw on your swim clothes and sandals, stand in the side corner of the backyard, and take a military shower with the water hose. Hose showers were banned about a week into our time here because somebody (not me) crushed the sapling of a banana tree that belonged to Miguel (the full time AIM missionary that lives here).
It was because of hose showers that I figured out that I could live in only two pairs of shorts for the month. It was simple. I have two pairs of board shorts. While showering I would clean the pair that I wore into the shower with body wash and then put on the other pair afterwards. Then I’d hang the wet pair up to dry and they’d be ready for the next day. By rotating back and forth, I only wore two pairs of shorts for the whole month but they were always clean.
My days would usually start between 7 and 9 a.m. I would wake up and get breakfast, which is usually eggs, because they’re cheap. If we had ministry that day, our contact, Pastor Manuel, would pick us up and drive us to Las Charcas, the village where we were ministering this month. Our ministry schedule was different every day. Some days we’d work in the morning and have the afternoon off, some days it was the opposite, some days we’d do both, and anytime there was a church service at Manuel’s church, we’d be there.
Outside of ministry we’d have some time to ourselves. Our team’s diet is mostly eggs, sandwiches, and rice and beans. We don’t have a lot of food money so we have to eat cheap so that we can have the occasional “fancy” meal, like spaghetti with questionable meat! Or go out for a “team date” at an inexpensive restaurant. In the evening we meet up as a team for feedback, which is like “family time” for a World Race team. I would usually lie down at around 11 p.m. and read the Bible/listen to music/play my DS for a little while before going to sleep.
When we had time off, April and I usually hung around the house, taking a nap or just trying to relax and recover from a hectic schedule, or from some kind of travel sickness, or both. Often we’d walk into town to find a place to get online to get in touch with people back home and post updates.
Future “Daily Life” blogs shouldn’t be quite so long. 46 Racers in a house made for 6 people really complicates things.
Part 2 (Cultural Experience) will be up soon.
