So this past week went so fast, but it feels like I’ve been in the DR for so much longer than that! I’m with (almost) my entire squad in the small mountain town of Lajas. This place is so small it was just recently added to Google maps! The people here are very friendly- it honestly reminds me a lot of the south. Everyone that passes by greets you with an “hola”. The houses are so colorful and the landscape and scenery and flowers are truly breathtaking!
I actually saw a chicken cross the road the other day. He turned around when he realized a car was coming. I couldn’t stop laughing haha.
So my team and I got our first assignment: prayer walking. We walked all over Lajas and prayed for the entire town. During this time, we got to meet some of the locals, which was honestly my favorite part. Specifically, Maria. I went to a ladies meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and when I saw her, she smiled so big at me! When the meeting was over and we were told we could pray for the women, I went straight to her. Even though there was a language barrier, it’s like she understood me. It was so amazing! Fast forward a couple days, and we went to visit her. She wasn’t home, but her older son was at the house. My team and I talked with him and he wanted us to pray for him. We asked him about his life, if he had kids, etc. I knew that God spoke to me and told me his wife was infertile, but he wanted kids and God wanted to bless him faithfulness to his wife by giving him children. At first, I really didn’t know what to do with this. How do you tell someone that?! Well, we asked him if we could ask him a personal question, and he said yes. So I asked him about his wife. Sure enough, she was infertile. Our team prayed for her healing, and I told him what God wanted to bless him with. He seemed very touched by this. It was so awesome. Honestly, awesome doesn’t even do the moment justice. It was indescribable. You just can’t put a price on moments like this. This is why I’m on the World Race.
Fast forward to Saturday- our off day (woo)! We all crammed in a bus, typical World Race style, and took a very bumpy and curvy hour long ride to the beautiful coast. The water was SO BLUE. More blue than the gulf. The sand was more coarse and dark, but the ocean floor was harder and easier to walk on than in the gulf.
Side note- did you know that you can get mani/pedis and massages from the comfort of your own beach chair? Yeah. Amazing. Should’ve done that instead of what I did…
What I did was decide to go snorkeling. I mean, why not? My whole team was doing it, I had never done it, and it was only 200 pesos (like $8 USD or something).
Yeah, I don’t know if I’m going to snorkel again lol.
A sea urchin got me.
And he got me bad.
I ended up having to go to the hospital because I had so many of the spines (needles, stingers?) in the bottom of my foot. I got no less than 12 shots of lidocaine directly in the bottom of my foot. Talk about burn, baby burn. Haha. Thank God I had my team leader (shout out to Anna Marieee!) and one of my squad leaders (Abby) and granola (the snack that has saved us so many times in the last 10 days) with me. 😉 They helped me laugh even despite the pain.
So now, I still have some spines in the bottom of my foot, and I can’t really get around much.
Thank God my ministry hosts and my squad are so compassionate! The love and assistance I’ve received in the past few days has been so great. I love our community, and the unity of my squad. We are truly a family. I’m so blessed to be doing life with them.
So for now, this is my update. Late next week, we will be heading to Santo Domingo for debrief, and then we will be on our way to Haiti for the month of February! Woooo!!
Much love to you all.
