Have you ever hailed a taxi or waited in line for hours in College Station for Carpool to take you home? Imagine trying to communicate your destination to someone that understands nothing that you are saying. Are you imagining a really good game of charades thrown in with some pictionary? Well, that’s pretty much what our day to Santo Domingo looked like. Aweeesome.
Juliette and I left our house in San Juan around 5:30am to pick our squad leader Kyla up at the airport in Santo Domingo. After speaking mostly broken Spanish, our bus tickets were bought and we were on our way. Again, a few minutes into the bus ride, I was blessed with motion sickness. I used to get car sick when I was younger, but haven’t for awhile so God’s humor in the fact that I know get it when my whole life involves traveling is a little ironic. Thankfully, I was able to persuade my body into sleeping most of the trip so I was able to hold back my nausea.
After arriving at the bus stop, our first mission was to mail the receipts of our squad from the month of July. After asking multiple people “hablas English?”, we were directed to a younger woman who, upon our arrival, decided that she actually had a slight case of amnesia and didn’t know any English (also known as I really don’t want to deal with you Americans so I’ll just pretend I don’t understand you). Sweet.
Despite our efforts to find a DHL, which we’re supposed to use, we were still able to find a UPS which would have to suffice. After more charades and pictionary skills, we were blessed to find two English speaking women who not only helped us mail the package, but also called a friend of theirs that was a taxi driver to drive us to and from the airport. Elias was also kind enough to take pity on the non-Spanish speaking Americans and call his brother to translate directions to our destination and even stop at Burger King for us to eat lunch. A few months ago, I would have laughed at the thought of being ecstatic about eating Burger King in the back of a taxi in the Dominican Republic, but now it’s pretty much normal. It’s all about the small things :).
We wandered around a few shops in the airport while waiting for Kyla, in which we discovered that in fact it is acceptable for Dominicans to drink beer at work, and that a lot of the art here is a little pornographic…not in an artsy, oh that’s beautiful way, but in a wow, that’s disgusting and I’m going to turn my head because this just got really awkward way. Which isn’t surprising because of the culture here, but that is a completely different subject that I’ll talk about later :). Anyways, after exploring the airport for a few hours, Kyla was in tow and we were on our way back to the bus station with sweet little Elias.
While waiting to board the bus, the three of us discovered that, out of the ten or so buses, we really had no clue which bus was going back to San Juan. Again, we were blessed to find someone that spoke English, this time a young guy and his father that were pretty much bilingual Americans. What more could we have asked for? They asked around for us and discovered that our bus was running late and would be arriving shortly, so, although it was running late, we now knew which bus we would be taking, which put our mind at ease.
We boarded the bus shortly after it arrived and were on our way back to San Juan. This time, I was unsuccessful at fending off round 2 of car sickness. After trying unsuccessfully to open the restroom door, I contemplated my options. I had bought snacks for the trip, which looked less than appetizing at that moment, so I could use the plastic bag if necessary. I could run to the front of the bus and try to motion for the bus driver to pull over, which would more than likely result in my throwing up on him. I could puke in the aisle, all over myself, or on Juliette. Or, I could try the restroom again. I went with the last choice. A sweet little Dominican man saw my distress and quickly opened the door for me. There had actually been no one in the bathroom; my weak muscles just weren’t able to push open the door.
At this point, the bus drivers’ tendency to go full throttle and then less than gently slam on the breaks was too much for my stomach to bare. The Burger King that I had excitedly devoured just a few hours earlier was less than amazing this time. I continued to throw up for what seemed like hours, in reality it was only a few minutes, and then puked again because of the setting of the situation. I then proceeded to sit on the disgusting floor and cry. Yep, you guessed it. I am that cool.
So, why am I telling you this story? Well, for one it’s a look into a day of my life and, although less than humorous at the time, it is actually pretty funny. But, I also found God in the least likely place. My attitude was less than stellar while I was sitting in the disgusting floor of a dirty bathroom bus, thousands of miles from home, while also contemplating what in the hell I was doing there. Had the smell not been terrible, I probably would have crawled up in a ball and went to sleep right there. I’m sure that God was amused by my conversation with Him at this point. I eventually whiped my tears and picked myself up off of the floor, while feeling a sense of comfort that I hadn’t felt in a few days.
This was all a fabulous ending to the previous few days. The Dominican Republic has been a struggle for me; not only because the kids are the most misbehaved I’ve ever seen, but also because I haven’t felt at peace with some relationships. I absolutely despise conflict and living in community with 27 other people my age has been difficult to say the least. I’ve lived with a lot of roommates, so I thought I had that down pretty well; it’s a whole new ball game when you’re living with people that you can’t escape from. If you disagree with someone, guess what, you can’t get away…they’re always there and you are forced to work through it! Ahh living in community, how I both love and hate you.
Although this month has had it’s struggles, God is still using them to teach me lessons about grace, patience, and honoring others above myself. Please be in prayer for me about these things specifically. As always, please keep my team in your prayers as well :). And remember, if you are having a bad day, just think about my bus story and turn that day right back around!
