Pictures

Appologies for not writing much recently, maybe latter this week I'll post an update. untill then, here area  few pictures.

Flickr Views Skyrocket

I was just glancing at my viewage stats on my flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/timeludesall/) and normally, 20-35 hits a day, maybe 50 or so if I post a lot at once.  On may 30th....604 hits!! hecks ya! Checked out the refering links, it all came from a dominica guys website...... http://www.imagenesdominicanas.com/2009/05/peculiaridades-de-nuestros-pueblos-y.html

Very cool. 

Y Gracias A Renaldo por los creditos de foto

For the non spanish speaking folks, the post translated says algo to this effect: 

29 may 2009

oddities of our people and country...

when I look at this picture, I'm astonished because the man carring this washing machine on his donkey can't see where the road goes! but as they say; " "A donkey released will arrive by it's own accord" the saying fits perfectly. Enjoy  this dominican image and it percurlity. Image taken by Eric Lindsey

Miren la otra foto cuando el burro lleva al señor de frente...

Hail in the D.R.

Hey everybody hope all is well.

 

 

  If you’ve been following Cory’s writings, you well know of the insane rain we have been having lately.  In fact, just this past Tuesday, it was hailing here! In the Dominican Republic! Bien raro. It was a bizarre storm, not only was it hailing, the sun was strong as ever. I remember distinctly the warmth of the rays on my skin sitting on my balcony, watching the fallen rain slowly steam off the road.

           

            Latter that same day, It was a good conversation point in the ministry. Ice doesn’t exactly fall from the sky all that much in the Caribbean. At least one study pointed to the fact that this is the kind of stuff talked about in the bible.

 

Anyways, here’s a picture I took of a piece that fell into a spider web that looks pretty cool.  

 

Also, for comparison sake, I Included a picture of a piece of Ice that fell back home in NH a year or two ago in some nasty storm.

 

 

Wht happens when the river rises and where on the wrong side.

Cory and I had a bit adventure last night after the meeting. Lately, it’s been a game of Russian roulette with the weather. Crazy thunderstorms and such. We plan on getting wet when we leave the house. Its just the way things work.

            So anyways, we crossed the river last night like usual to get to the meeting in Ranchito. The river wasn’t really all that high, No worries. It rained a little bit during the meeting, and kind of fizzled out just before closing prayer. That was a relief at least. On the arrival to the river bank. We discovered we where in serious trouble. It had risen dramatically, all the raft runners had left, and there were large trees floating on down the river. 

 

Completely impassable.

 

This left Cory, Myself, The Abads and about 8 studies stranded en Ranchito. Fortunately, the brothers are always welcoming, and

Cory and I though opted for option B. Something to be said for being able to sleep in your own bed at night. So we set off for the 70 kilometer detour. Ranchito to Isabela, to Navis, to Imbert, to el Estrecho. About 2.5 hours all said in done after a quick stop at pica pollo in Isabela (we stopped at the one didn’t  have prostitutes hanging out front) 

Fortunately it’s a very fun ride. Very hilly and treacherous curves. almost the whole way. Oh and you have gotta love the way the omnipresent sets of Speed bumps in front of the schools and entrances to pueblitos sneak up on you in the dark. Keeps you on your toes…..those and random cows standing in the road. They will mess you up!

 

So anyways, when we talk about having to race home when we see dark clouds hovering upstream, now you know why.

Public transport story

 

So the other day Cory and I where coming back home from some food shopping up in Puerto Plata. On the last leg of the trip, that is to say, the taking of a public car that runs the route between Imbert and Luperon, seven people squeeze in to the early 90’s honda civic, Including the driver, made a total of Eight. Cozy.

 

To my immediate right, Is a older gentleman, noticeably very sick. One of those coughs that never seems to end. It gurgled. More then a little bit. Hopefully nothing serious…Tuberculosis isn’t contagious right? but do have to say was very pleasant and even made the effort to shake my hand when we arrived at his stop…

 

Half way home, The Driver suddenly looks very concerned, and starts to slow the car down a bit, even going as far as to shut it of completely going down the hills, until, eventually we finally flat-out come to a stop. Out of propane, and no gas in the tank.

 

“Fantastic”

 

  Everybody hops out and starts pushing the taxi (with the help of a few random guys walking on the street) over the crest of the hill and we all scrambled back into the rolling car. 

 

  Fortunately for the driver, he knew somebody on the next hill with a motorcycle(actually we probably could have stopped at any house and they would know somebody), so he has his buddy take off with his propane tank to fill it up. Afterwards, he hailed down passing truck for us, and then demanded that we pay him. We gave half the fare (we only made it halfway mind you) and thought that was fair. Nope. 35 pesos per person, full price.…according to him, it was because he didn’t just leave us stranded. Flawless logic…How could we argue? We where just going to hoof it the rest of the way, but oh well. Life in the DR. 

Local Experiences

The following is an excerpt from some experiences I recently had. Enjoy!

 

 The Morning started of kind of ho-hum. nothing that special. I ran into a guy that oddly had a song book at his house. I only found this out, as a forgot my water bottle at the house he lived in (I was originally talking to his grandmother I believe) so I trucked back up the path to retrieve it, and there he was, holding the book! They kind of stick out ya know? That odd tanish brown, with slight golden overtones....so we talked about it a little bit, and I mentioned that if he wanted to, he could actually sing those songs with the  music, at the kingdom hall down the road! "Tomorrow " He said. I gave him the meeting time for the Thursday meeting and the Domingo.... Sunday meeting. So we'll see about that one.
    The afternoon experiences were somewhat of note, not just because they we good visits, but because the almost didn’t happen,  the Since this day we where working over on el ranchito side, the other side of the river that divides our territory in half, and so, something the local brothers and sisters do very regularly, which is always very nice, is invite us over for lunch(rice and beans made right) and while we finishing up lunch, we noticed the ominous rain clouds up above, and a where treated to a 45 minute downpour. This definitely dampened our spirits that the afternoon studies where not going to happen. you see, in order to get to them, you have to drive through a second river, that tends to rise quickly with the rain. To add to that, 30 minute motorcycle rides in the rain do not generally yield the best results.  but fortunately, the rain subsided, and off we went (albeit a more then a little late).
    40 minutes latter (the road was very slick and muddy, and Cory I was with couldn't climb some of the hills on his motorcycle) we arrived. I had caught the family about two months back, and finally had the opportunity to return the previous week, which was going to make this the third visit, second study. I've been trying something new (to me at least)where, as I don't offer the book right away to everybody. if they can read, I share mine with them, or maybe at best, let them borrow a book for the study only. the reason this is done is two fold, first it helps filter out the interest...no one is going to turn down a book if you offer it to them, so discretion is needed in that respect(a lot of the older ones can't read, either to never learning or just bad eyesight). the second benefit, is to help build aprecio....appreciation for the study and the book. The can see the way you mark up the book too which helps set a precedent...so after the study with the family and a neighbor, the main woman of the house, Maria-Luisa, who gets directed the majority of the questions, asked me about the study book, about the questions in it (I actually thought she couldn't read at first, turns out she was just afraid to earlier on). She said that it would be a lot easy for her to answer if she had her own copy, because then she could read it before hand...... Mission successful....Carefully pulled out the extra copy in my bag and passed it over...Marialuisa  passed it back to with a pen so as a could mark the section we where going to consider next week! I was happy to oblige....  So good progress there. Genuine interest in the bible, and a desire to learn.
    So the last experience of the day that was especially noteworthy, wasn't actually my door, it was my roommate cory's. It was on a neighbor down the road of my last call, on a man named Juan. We found Juan a few months back and had a nice conversation with him and his daughter in law, berli (well, sounds like that at least). Juan did most of the talking, as used to be some sort of priest/pastor in some church. but he was nice enough to write down and return for future conversation. Only that never seemed to happen. Sure we went back.  A lot really, just never could seem to catch him. he takes care of  a colmado (small convenience store, often no more then  a small shack with a large window on the side that folds down) down the road. Needless to say we weren’t exactly optimistic at this visit. In fact, as we where walking up the road to the house, Cory mentioned that if he didn't find anybody this time, he was going to stop trying.

    So when we get up to the top, we look around, and Juan isn't there, but out of the house pops out  verli and her young daughter. She was very excited to see us, and promptly invited us into her home, a small concrete/wooden structure with the tin roof and large sink hole in one corner of the cement floor. She told us that she had been waiting for us to come back like we said we would. She also mentioned that she had some book that she had a question about...she pulled a bible teach book with a page marker near the end of the appendix! She said that some one in Imbert (a nearby town with a small congregation)  gave it to her father in law, Juan.  She had read the whole thing! She also had received one of the placement bibles since the first time we stopped in, Juan had apparently requested it from the brother in Imbert with her in mind. So we where pretty excited by all of this, and talked for a bit, and Cory decided to offer  an official study with her, she said that was actually exactly what she wanted to ask us about as. When she read the book, She discovered that there where supposed to be witnesses who was supposed to do just that, study the bible with her. “I want that” she said.  So arrangements where made for every Wednesday afternoon to study the bible with her.
    the kicker is with that one, is that since the first call, my other roommate, mike, received a call from our friend jerry( a Mexican needgreater living in Imbert) with the phone number of some man named Juan, he had a nice conversation with and had placed a bible teach book with. Mike had been trying to find this call for a good 2 months, but no luck, and for whatever reason the just where never there at the same time.  See the connection? yeah, we never knew it was the same man since the address given to him, was that of the colmado where he worked at and not the house(plus its not like "juan" is a uncommon name or anything..)
    So the interesting thing to me, is that through a few connection the girl received her own bible and tech book, and almost had her house skipped over on more then one occasion. but with the team effort, shes having  the opportunity to learn bible truths.  you never know which seed will sprout I guess......
thats yesterdays service at least. Theres definitely lot of potential here.

If you watched the memorial video blog, you can find we had more then a 500% attendance to the memorial (118 to be exact) but a lot more really wanted to go, but our second memorial(one for each side of the river) was just so late for everybody. with no cars, it was a legitimate challenge. But we're happy still.

Memorial recap V-cast!!

So yes, part 1 of the v cast is up. no intos/outros yet. basically this sequence was shot just after the memorial here as we hashed out the recap amongst ourseves.

I will say this though, being in the middle stinks, you have to turn your head back in forth way to much. I'm going for the Left side next time (Kevin Rose's side to be exact)

The Internet Challenge

Wow, it has  been way to long since the last post! But there have been very good reasons for this, and so I refuse to apologize. Ok, I’m sorry. After guilting my NH readers into reading my postings, and a few nice comments from our PA readers, I defiantly feel regret, in the deepest part of my kidneys. 

            Enough of that though. The good news is that we are at last free and liberated of the spotty satellite internet down the road.No more, "oh, If  only it wasn't cloudy, and the satellite had signal...I could have internet to write my blog...." okthat didn't happpen much, but the point is, if its cloudy, the satellites didn't work which just wasn't cool.

 The Process was long and arduous, but we endured to the end and now proudly display our new 3g highspeed wireless card on our balcony everyday(this is actually more due to the fact that, other then the roof, a small 2 ft wide section of the balcoy is the only place it works at our house….)  

            But seriously, Me and Cory put in an easy 12 hours standing in lines at the Claro store(the phone company)  over the course of a month. The first attempt to get the card, we prepared with a stack of cash and identification. One would think that should do it. But nope.  We had ran into our buddy Kenan only moments before entering Claro, and he told you couldn’t do it.

“oh sure, the say you can do it. But you can’t. your nobody to them. Try if you want, but you can’t do it.”

 

“sure kenan”

 

3 hours latter, walking away with dejected faces and holding nothing more the a post-it note that had a “case number” which I swear they just made up to make us feel good, we begin to side more with our good friend Kenan.

 

1 week latter we return. Two hours in line. One hour at the booth. They can’t find the information. It never got sent.

 

Not good.

 

The third week, in Santiago this time, a helpful lady told us that it was actually a 10 day process for approval, not a one day. Hmmm

 

4^th week, Success. We went early and stood in line for only an hour and the rest of the time went to getting set up. But we have it, and it rocks. So hopefully now I can keep the posts coming regular.

 

As a side note, Cory has been provechando the internet too over at luperonlive.blogspot.com . Check it out.

Other good things on the way, the first video blog is now in the editing room and should be released simultaneously here at elestrechotimes, and at luperonlive. The first videocast features or memorial in el estrecho, the set up and results. So we can look forward to that.

 

Quick Recap of the States visit

 

So, Those of you serving in the states currently, Hats off to you. your brave and strong for going out every week in the ministry there. I had a really fantastic time spending some time with the friends from West Manch and G-town the past few weeks.. I do miss you guys a lot. but I do have to admit, there where a few things that I wasn't exactly thrilled with. a few are as follows;

 

    * Its cold. Waaaay to cold.

    * people not invite us in at everydoor(especially bad manners considering it was sub 20 degress), actually only one of my old calls I stopped in to see invited us in.That just seems strange to me now.

    * Few people are home.

    * Driving around in a car all day to get everywhere is a drag. Sure the assosiacion is great, but isn't nice when you can just head out with the whole congregacion. and Time really does fly by when you bouncing from one study to the next....

    * One can't(ok shoudn't) just yell out GREETINGS! HELLO!! GOOD DAY!  GREETINGS!! To alert the person at home that your there. You have to knock all the time....whats up with that?

 

For this, you all should be commended. Theres definetly need in these places. People are coming into the truth there, and someone needs to be there for them.

 

Your there for them. Way to go.

 

And you sacrifice so much to be there.

 

and I do say this with complete honesty. No joking or sacasim at all! Really. Life isn't exactly a walk in the park here  by any means, but seriosly,  Everyones so stressed all the time, and always so busy with this and that.. Everything cost WAY to much. Corruption in the Govements, from the federal to the town level. police forces. Everybody wants to sell you something, or take your time from you.tack that on to some of the above stated issues, and well... No. thank you very much, but I'll be fine where I am. I feal safer here.

 

 

But a few things that I did like..

 

 

     One of the first things to get me is the strangeness of warm water coming out of the faucets. this is not normal. I'm not sure how the do it, but made me jump back a few times in surprise.

 

Showers....Mmm...Warm showers.  This is one thing I just couldn't get enough of.

     please note that the phenomonon know as "warm showers" is not to be confused with the odity of warm sink water. Why? Well, my hypothosis states that while one can get used to a cold stream of water dripping on you hands pretty quick, its only part  of your body.   but r oppistate of "warm showers", that is to say "cold showers" are jjust something the body cannot and will not get used to. its physiologicaly impossible, even if you did mentaly prepare yourself to the utmost degree for , you body flips out everytime. Cold showers are evil! EVIL!  Warm showers on the other hand, are second only to naps on the top 10 list of things to do.

 

            StrangeBrew, and its wonderful 1/2 price appitizers and 65+ beer selection, each for  just $2.50. This is a place dreams are made of.  A good drink is hard to come by here. I'm not opposed to the some three beer selection here. but considering the selection ranges from light amber to, well, light amber.. You can feel a little left out if you more of a red/stout fan.  And the location! We else can you go to find a place filled with  the friends from the local halls on virtually any given day during the  week...other then the kingdom hall!  

The ride home...

So now that I'm back home and have had some time to get back into the swing of things a bit here, we're finally getting a blog post ready. Everything went fine on the trip back went smooth, I was a bit worried about hitting trouble at customs, as my bag was filled with very non typical vacationer gear....Cooking Utensils, Claw hammer, Laser printer....you never know with the custom guys...but to my chagrin, they didn't check a single bag of mine. just waved me through. I walked up to it real confident. Was wearing a suit.. spoke spanish with them, friendly and all. I thought I was really on to something. Then I noticed that about the next 15 people behind me cruised right through too. They where not friendly. they spoke american. they where DEFINITELY not wearing suits.......Di cuenta para el proxima vez.

Quick Recap of the States visit

 

So, Those of you serving in the states currently, Hats off to you. your brave and strong for going out every week in the ministry there. I had a really fantastic time spending some time with the friends from West Manch and G-town the past few weeks.. I do miss you guys a lot. but I do have to admit, there where a few things that I wasn't exactly thrilled with. a few are as follows;

 

    * Its cold. Waaaay to cold.

    * people not invite us in at everydoor(especially bad manners considering it was sub 20 degress), actually only one of my old calls I stopped in to see invited us in.That just seems strange to me now.

    * Few people are home.

    * Driving around in a car all day to get everywhere is a drag. Sure the assosiacion is great, but isn't nice when you can just head out with the whole congregacion. and Time really does fly by when you bouncing from one study to the next....

    * One can't(ok shoudn't) just yell out GREETINGS! HELLO!! GOOD DAY!  GREETINGS!! To alert the person at home that your there. You have to knock all the time....whats up with that?

 

For this, you all should be commended. Theres definetly need in these places. People are coming into the truth there, and someone needs to be there for them.

 

Your there for them. Way to go.

 

And you sacrifice so much to be there.

 

and I do say this with complete honesty. No joking or sacasim at all! Really. Life isn't exactly a walk in the park here  by any means, but seriosly,  Everyones so stressed all the time, and always so busy with this and that.. Everything cost WAY to much. Corruption in the Govements, from the federal to the town level. police forces. Everybody wants to sell you something, or take your time from you.tack that on to some of the above stated issues, and well... No. thank you very much, but I'll be fine where I am. I feal safer here.

 

 

But a few things that I did like..

 

 

     One of the first things to get me is the strangeness of warm water coming out of the faucets. this is not normal. I'm not sure how the do it, but made me jump back a few times in surprise.

 

Showers....Mmm...Warm showers.  This is one thing I just couldn't get enough of.

     please note that the phenomonon know as "warm showers" is not to be confused with the odity of warm sink water. Why? Well, my hypothosis states that while one can get used to a cold stream of water dripping on you hands pretty quick, its only part  of your body.   but r oppistate of "warm showers", that is to say "cold showers" are jjust something the body cannot and will not get used to. its physiologicaly impossible, even if you did mentaly prepare yourself to the utmost degree for , you body flips out everytime. Cold showers are evil! EVIL!  Warm showers on the other hand, are second only to naps on the top 10 list of things to do.

 

            StrangeBrew, and its wonderful 1/2 price appitizers and 65+ beer selection, each for  just $2.50. This is a place dreams are made of.  A good drink is hard to come by here. I'm not opposed to the some three beer selection here. but considering the selection ranges from light amber to, well, light amber.. You can feel a little left out if you more of a red/stout fan.  And the location! We else can you go to find a place filled with  the friends from the local halls on virtually any given day during the  week...other then the kingdom hall!  

Centipedes vs Tarantulas.....Round One

3-19-09
Ah. feels good to go to a real meeting again. Tonight was the first meeting for quite some time, due originally to rain, and this past week because of our special one asamblea. This was a exciting assembly for me, as this was the first spanish assembly that I could understand. not all of course, but it was nice. There was one part I liked especially, There was a part on the young people, and there was a girl, maybe 10 or so, when asked what her favorite party of the ministry was, she was quick to answer she very much likes to explain to those in the field that there is a difference between Jehovah God and Jesus. essentially this 10 year likes to go out in the ministry and slam the trinity. I mean, just destroy it. Awesome stuff.

So our literature counter is pretty rockin. It consists of very little. in fact, there isn't even a counter. but we do have an old amour( If that's how you spell those silly french words)with a few draws (ones missing). Inside this cabinet live a variety of animals The termites, steadily eating away at everything in sight. Including the literature. Every week or so, you have to go into it dust of all the chewed up book dust that the make as the tunnel through the word of god. Needless to say a good portion of our placements have un or two tiny little holes drilled through them, scarcely bigger then a period. Its very odd.
The other Kingdom hall live ins are the spiders. There not tarantulas, but just really, really big black bodied, long legged spiders. Probably from the longest point to point the width of a woman's hand(the biggest ones at least. Were debating whether or not to start counting them in the meeting attendance numbers. If we do though, it would be great. the was a big mama watching the meeting just above the speakers head at this past meeting. I don't know if you've every seen any of spider shows on animal planet or something like that, but many spiders ride on the backs of the mama spider for a while. these do this to. and for that, If we start counting them, it looks like we'll have enough to split congregations. These suckers are fast too. Really fast. they are hard to catch. And smart. they always seem to know when you have mal-intent. Although, I will say its not uncommon to hand a book to someone after a meeting or something, and you notice a smooched carcass fall out. No match for the oblivious literature servant it seems.
Any ways. Think of this next time you go to bed.

Oh if you get a chance, and want to be exceptionally freaked out, search Google for "centipede vs mouse". "centipede vs tarantula" is pretty interesting too, taken from some old nature show.

Yeah, spiders don't have nothing on giving me the creeps compared to centipedes. although the dinner plate sized tarantulas the find in Mexico are right up there.... Sleep tight.

Growing The Stache..

So for the Past three weeks I've been Rockin' the stache. Granted In the bright light, it can't be seen well. And actually,the can be said for dimly lit rooms and such. 10 more days before it get cut. The day I fly back to the US.

Its going to be epic.

So has anyone tried to deep fry a WHOLE chicken?

3-6-09
So we bought one of those silverware organizers that fit into a drawer. Yeah know, Keep things organized.
I noticed recently, that Instead of silverware, the entire drawer now contains solely our collection of kitchen knives. It makes me happy. Big ones, small ones. Ones for slicing, some for dicing. A true mans kitchen.
As a side note, The deep frying experement turned out to be a great success. Aside from the whole house getting sick from the deep fried pancakes....Those were greasy...

The Update...

So there is a bit of a back log on the Blog now. Finally have internet access, and my two previous posting are stuck on a usb drive in the house. ugh. So a quick update on things here. The Major theme lattly seems to be rain. it hasn't stopped in over 2 weeks. so, for that, the river between us here in El Estrecho and Ranchito has been more or less impasable. While we have been having mini meetings with the seven brotheres and sisters from this side, we havn't seen some of them for quite a while.
More then just a high river though, Its destryoyed some sections of road pretty bad. For a couple days the main road going through the county was shut down between Imbert and Altamira. As a recent guagua driver said , "La calle se fue". or, "The road left", it just is gone! so no Santiago trips for a while. a Little closer to home, Two different bridges on the way to Imbert had there supports washed out, making the bridge have a big slope down and then up in the center. really sketchy. In the states this would have been a big problem, as there weren't many ways to get through to the other side. in fact none. but Here in the DR, the firefighter/construction crew just had us hop out the taxi and walk accross on foot, and then the car could go over.
So to add to the insult of Non stop rain, a lot of the water mains have broken. as well as the main pumping station for the town. So for that, no running water for the past four days(that is if you don't count all the watter dripping from our light fixtures). so we've been washing dishes and taking showers with rain water collected of the roof. Knowing that the rain would probably stop before the water came back, this morning i went out and bought a 50 gallon water tank for backup. Wouldn't you know it, all we have collect is a lousy 1/4 inch all afternoon. weather reports say that the rain might be stopping now. The Special pionner couple are in the same bind though too. only, there tank HAD plenty of water(they have a big on ont there roof) but there neighbor used it all on them when they where gone . oh well. hoperfuly it gets turned on soon.
The funny thing is, this whole issue in the states would be national emergency or something, but here, run of the mill kind of thing. power has been kind of bad too, 2-4 hours a day. Max. but No riots yet. Its been quieter lately because of this though. people don't have the energy to blast their merengue and Bachata all day like normal.
Our power has been especially bad in the house. our battery system has been on the fritz. We're not sure if its a bad invertor, bad batteries, or something to do with the water leaking out of all our light fixtures. but either way, candles every night as we make our 9 o'clock dinners. More or less I've been pretty ok with the power thing lattly. more reading and studying...things like that. While it would have been a great time to write emails and get caught up on computer things, The Internet places use satalites, and with the heavy cloud cover where not working properly. So so much for that. Sorry all.

the wetness has hurt the preaching a bit in effectivness. more then 3/4 of our studies are still unreachable due to rivers and such that have been flooded. One spot Me and Miguelito went to This week(braving the downpour with umbrellas) we walked for just under two hours(occasional call here and there) to find that for a about a miles worth of road was a river. Taking of the shoes rolling up the pant legs, we waded through. Got to the call the call on the otherside....Neighbors tell us he went to newyyork only a few days earlier. Oh well. The afternoon /evening was good. between the two of us. conducted 8 Bible studies. All with great success. Seriously, everytime you come back from service here, you always just feel great. so pumped up.
There where a few really good experciences from this day in particular, but Mikes writing about those I think. Maybe for the Non-knowers of Mike I'll Steal some for the blog. But as my turn for the internet is coming up(only two cables where i'm at right now, and mike is taking FOREVER...) We are going to leave it at that.

Oh. One other thing. I'm going to be picking up some plane tickets for a short trip back to NH. Should be the 23 of this month tho the 9th of march(something like that at least). Just as means of a heads up to those who might be interested.

Pull up bars in lui of meeting attendence

3-5-09
So the Meeting is cancelled again. Its been raining like crazy this week and River is to high. All the experienced yoleros(raft guys) have gone home, so I guess my parts are done enough. Ha.
Power has been really sketchy lately too. While we’ve been getting power everyday, it just hasn’t been enough to keep the batteries charged, so It gets to be reading by candle light at night now, not that bad really. Mildly inconvenient when you want bore a 3 anchor into a wall (which we do have a thing for) but that’s about it.

In related news, the pull up bar we installed rocks! Thanks Jose for the awesome gift, We use it every day (even Cory, who officially weighs less then Chris Cook don’t ya know.)

End Of foot Ball season

3-1-09
As I’m sure of you are all aware, this past Sunday was a special Sunday, Super bowl Sunday to be precise. Yes, a day for families and friends to be brought together, and at times split in two. A time for overeating of nachos and cheese dips and tasty beverages that fizz of a types.
Isn’t it interesting though, that even those who may not even watch a single football game all year, still faithfully go to their respective crazed sports fan friend. One who just happens to have a ridiculously oversized tv which if one was especially lucky, Dwarfs the coach one sits on to watch it..). Some Watch it for the game. The Action. The Battle that ensures..the struggle between the opposing armies. Its almost to much to handle.
I like the commercials. Sure the games are alright to a guess. But the commercials……They make me laugh. I am generally disposed to despise advertisements and the commercialization of society as a whole , the way the drain away my precious relaxation time to display things I don’t want and don’t need. But the superbowl ads are different. sometimes between plays, its like watching a minimovie they are so long. They tell a whole stories. I like stories.
Regrettably, this year there where no commercials for me to enjoy. And, for that matter, no football for any of my Pennsylvanian roommates either, As we don’t have cable or a tv for that matter. Also, while we have sports crazed, none with cable, tvs, and power at the same time that actual received the proper channel. And for that, Cory, mike, Our local friends and myself, ate pizza, cookies, crackers and cheese quietly while we stared at a wall and pretended we where watching the super bowl. Ok so that last part isn’t true, but we did eat a lot food playing games. Oh well. Maybe next year.

2 Light bulbs vs 3 Need Greaters. The show down

Some really big news is that we managed to change two light bulbs at the house. This doesn’t sound like much, I Know, but these where really high light bulbs. Since no one around has a ladder high enough (let alone not made out of sticks) one rainy day we made the stunning realizations that Abad had been storing couple sections of scaffolding behind our house, Score! If only all the pieces had all matched, and the inserts weren’t filled with concrete….but eventually, 2 hours latter came to a point where we had the two levels put together. Granted the where being held together with zip ties and electrical tape, but we weren’t ones to complain at that point. Up we went to change the dead bulbs, only to discover that the light fixtures required only tiny little bulbs which necessitated of course for us to salvage parts from the rest of the house and change the light fixtures. Inside the conduit we found a dried out centipede of considerable size which was a little surprising, but 4.5 hours latter…we had light. Until the power went out and realized that whole circuit in the main room of the house isn’t on the battery backup. Oh well.all for the sake of science. Because now when someone asks us “How many needgreaters it takes to change a lightbulb?” we can confidently reply, “three. It requires three Need greeters 4.5 hours to change a light bulb” Now you know too.

Empenadas and 80 ounce, double rotor Blenders

1-26-09


So the Other day I was asked by a couple of visiting friends from Imbert if I wanted to go scout territory with them. While in my mind I was thinking of Imbert as the large town with paved roads I drive through to visit them, It was explained that because both of them where new to the area, one being the service overseer, there was need to get some of the outer extents of the territory, which can be quite campacino. They gave all these reasons why they needed to go(at this point I was not connecting the fact that they only had one motorcycle and there where three of them)and how valuable it was for it to be done. But seriously, an excuse to explore the depths of the campo is enough for me, every thing else is just bonus.
The morning arrives that we are to head out on our quest of covering the outer reaches of the territory. Sunny weather made for an awesome early morning ride on the oh so curvy road following the river, arrive at the hall Lorenzo hops on (PO of Imbert), off we go, riding into and out of streams, Up the hills, and down the hills. This Area puts Ranchito to shame in the degree of driving difficulty… placing tracts every now with passerby’ while one of us where marking some notations on our homemade map. It began to rain hard for a while (typical). We would take refuge from the rain in some interesting shops every now and then. You see, The road we were following was one of those that some of the tourist ‘safari’ trucks would come down, and stop at these select places. You could pick them out very easy. They had big luxurious bathrooms (men’s AND woman’s) with running water. Ok so they where glorified outhouses, but still, in comparison to the scenery they stick out like a sore thumb.
At One such place, they where carving from soap stone statues of shapes and sizes. Lots of elephants and iguanas and such, a few abstract pieces. Fantastic things. They said the stone is very very soft, which makes it good to work with. After the got the basic shape, they could file down details (Like scales on a fish) and sand it down to take the roughness out. Then they would finish up with a shoe polish of all things to make everything shine and feel ultra smooth to the touch. Fun to watch them sculpt, if you every visit this country.
So all and all, we managed to only cover half the territory we wanted to, but at least we had a good time doing it and managed to have a few really good conversations with a few folks, one family even fed yucca and salami(Dominican staples) which was really nice. This Friday we’ll go for it one more time, which I’m looking forward to.

A few updates on some events here. Abads and Jose came back from there respective trips, so at least for a little while El Ranchito was once again playing with a full deck of cards. But, Jose came back just long enough to move out to Santiago, to his the congregation he was assigned to after MTS. Very nice place, 3 bedroom, 2 porches second story in a good neighborhood, ($130 a month in rent, what a deal) We are going to miss him here in Ranchito, but the congregation there has a lot of need, and are very appreciative to have him there with them. But it’s a only bus ride away to visit.
Oh, before this gets wrapped up, in other semi-Local News, my Buddy Kenan(de Imbert) Flies out today back to the states for a couple months as a Dominican Representative in an upcoming MTS class. That’s Always exciting to hear.

~Paz

Mike and Corey regress, and our unemployment system at work

1-19-09

This Past Tuesday, was a busy day. Cory, Mike, and Mikes brother and sister-and-law(Of Luperon hall) where flying into POP after a month of being away to the states, working and visiting friends as the routine goes. Cory scheduled a taxi with Casa-Lopez to come pick them up, and set up instructions for them to pick me up at 12:30 at the house. It was all choreographed perfectly. Knowing this, I got an extra early start to the day, packing my backpack for Puerto Plata early So I could just grab it and go. I made sure I was well prepared to do the Tuesday morning studies, got to Al Fundo early, and Studied with Norca. Great study there by the way. Winter break is finally over for the school kids, and this brought the kid count at Norca’s down from 5 to 1. Finally, some relative quite. Good success there. Off to Cambiaso, Met up with Jose, told him that I probably wouldn’t have time today to share a meal with after the study, as is the custom, He proceeded to go out back to the kitchen area, and pull out a plate of fresh rice and one and a half fishes, fresh caught that day, and says I need to keep up my strength, and lunch should not be skipped.
“Ok”, I said. He had reason.
The whole fish was about 6-7” long, Head to tail. Some of the locals eat the heads I hear, but, I have to draw the line somewhere. The remainder of the fish, very Tasty. Very boney. Normally not that big of a deal, but this time I managed to lodge a rib bone into the roof of my mouth pretty deep. That hurt.
To add insult to the injury, ass a sat there, trying to remove it, I accidently broke the bone off at the insertion point. Ugh. The hazards of seafood. In my book, sharp bones piercing the flesh is right up there Mercury & toxic industrial waste seeping in to the food stream. Ok, so not that bad. Just stop the bleeding with big spoonfuls of rice if it ever happens to you.
Anywas, After eating, we followed up with a good study, and a record breaking ride from Cambiaso to Calle Coa. Mostly of this being due to there to the dry weather we’ve been having, which gave the mud holes time to dry up a little bit.
So the short of it, Raced around all morning, get home, grab my bag and start sitting on the side of the road outside the house, 12:30 on the dot. I proceed to stay there for about 35 minutes. Nothing. I finally decided to give up and take public transportation and started walking to the stop. Not sooner then 35 seconds latter, a large and shiny white SUV fly over the hill and hit the brakes, skidding to a stop in front of my house. My ride has arrived.
His name was ******(the driver, not the car), the brother of ******. **** grew up in New York much of his life, so quickly the conversation switched to English. Very entertaining Fellow, Describing his adventures of being a cable guy in the big city, some problems with, and hypocrisy in the police force, as well as the benefits of working for the government (unemployment). After reviewing what he is doing, I Pretty much figured out that it sounds pretty fishy. Getting paid for unemployment in the states, having a friend make a deposit to a different account and pulling out the money in a foreign ATM….Hmmm. I don’t know. Receiving more in a week from the government then I live on in a month here, all the while having a local business of your own, seems just downright dishonest. But who am I to judge. On the way back he told us about the apparent he was subletting to a friend in NYC, He was only paying 500 a month for it. New York City. 500 dollars a month…Hmmm. Turns out it was section eight housing. Ah man. Our tax dollars at work. Oh so it turns out, The car we where driving…the Mayors personal Car....(for the non astute reader, the driver was NOT the mayor)

Always specify “good water” from “Water you buy from the store”

Why should you do this? Well. Let me explain. Through out the week, The local brothers and sisters are extremely hospitable. “please, come and eat with us, we’ll cook you rice and beans, and we’ll chop up a chicken (they’ referring to a live chicken mind you)..You need to eat more Eric…your to skinny, 10 more pounds you need! Ect.ect. Anyways, the ones that we eat most with generally understand, that as extranjeros, we have strict dietary restrictions of purified water only. This means NO rain water for drinking. So the terminology that we’ve come to understand, is agua bueno(good water for the language impaired) for the purified drinking water. This was not the case with today. They finally had me over (scheduling has been tricky this month). Rice, beans, Lettuce and fish! I think it was mackerel. As is the custom, no water till you finish a soiled plate of rice and all the fixings. The amount of rice the give you is incredible, you eat and eat and eat, yet you still have a full plate of rice in front you that just how high they pile it! The domicans often go through two of such plates, but to me, every meal with a Dominican feels like I’ve been unwilling entered a twisted competition eating contest where if I lose, I feel very guilty for not finishing…anyways. So The brother asks me. “¿Quiera agua?”,
Sí. Claro, but is the water, good water? For as you know, as foreigner I have to be careful.”
“Oh of course its good water.”
“Great!” I’m parched!”
“ooh. It has a bit of a citrus flavor to it…”
“that’s the lime we put in, do you like it?
“oh yeah its tasty”
Yeah, its good to for your health, it kills all the things in the water”
“really.”
“yeah, see the water comes down over there, from the roof, through the gutter, and into that rusty barrel over there….and even though its clean and fresh water, we put the lime in just in case. “

“oh.”



Needless to say I entered the realm of the semisolids today. We’ll keep an eye on that.


LESSON. Always double check using the most descriptive language possible. Or better yet, stop at a colmado and pick up some soda and bring that. Not only is it a welcomed treat for your hosts, you never have to wonder if your digestive tract will Commence rebellion against you and careless ingestion tactics.






As a matter of weather is concerned, The past week or two have been just great. Not too much rain at all, and the heat has been more or less tolerable. Early fall weather in Nuevo Ingleterra. This has been very helpful with all the roads and trails we end up traveling in a day. But, all good things must come to an end, and yesterdays service was a wet one.
As it often does it rained early in the morning and stopped, right at sunup. So I figured it would be dry.. nope! As soon as we headed out of the hall on our walk to the territory it started coming down hard. Fortunately, umbrellas a customary thing here, if for nothing else it offers protection from the sun(Interestingly the word the use here is not the one I learned for umbrella, the word used here is “sombra”, which translates to shade) any ways, two people to a sombra and off we went. One Picture I do wish I had managed to capture was off two of the older sisters who I suppose didn’t want to have their hair get wet, so the managed to get hold of small plastic bags(the mini trash bags they use at the colmados for groceries) and carefully placed them of their hair. It actually looked ok, but on the way back that morning I felt somewhat relieved that the others In the group got a kick out of it too. But I suppose a garbage bag over the head isn’t the oddest thing I’ve seen here.
One time, one of the studies (who lives on the other side of the river mind you) came with hair not done. Now I will be the first to tell you that I am probably the last person to notice if a women’s hair was not done. I just assume it was the style they were going for yeah know? But this sister’s state of hair readiness was readily apparent even to me. This is because here head was completely done up with curlers. Not just a little bit. She has big hair, which requires that many more. And They where the BIG curlers too! Just struts right in, not a worry on her face. I don’t understand this mindset at all, I would figure that instead of getting my hair just the way I wanted it, I would settle with something that was complete, but then again, my hair takes a whole 30 seconds to prepare, so who am I to say anything, but still. But, Just think for a moment, this women with a head full curlers, has no problem walking 30-35 minutes on the well travelled road to get where she’s going. Wow. That’s some guts in my book. Granted many a Dominican woman does this to, at least the meander around town in curlers. Cherry says that if they are going out that night, or even just going to the city..Its a big deal, so they do there hair. And walk around in the streets to socialize, looking silly the whole time. ¿Ironic no? Its a foreign concept to me, and I’ll prolly never understand.


Pushup Count: 2945/200000

Making the Delivery.

1-7-09
So today, I was worried. I Had the service group to take out and lead for the day. Normally this isn’t that much of a big deal. But yesterday was different. today was Wednesday, and that means a big group. Normally most of the hall. But as abads are gone, and jose is gone, our source of group transportation was just about dried up. While there is one other brother with one of those big 10’ bed Daihatsu flatbeds, but that he used for work. So like the good brothers do here when the need be, all 16 of us started the walk out to the territory. At least 45 minutes out. But, on the way, we passed the brother with the flatbed. He gives me keys and asks me if I know how to drive stick. I thought of trying to pull the old, “lo siento, no hablo espanolo” trick. Not that I don’t like driving, I do really. Particuly small and nimble cars. Ideally Go-carts. Just the driving a massive truck down bumpy dirt roads with 15 or so elderlyish brothers and sisters riding in the back wasn’t exactly my cup of tee. But we did make it out there ok. No mishaps. I just drove a whopping 20 kilometres o less the whole way. But needless to say, We did have good success, I even encountered a younger guy who was learning inglish in one of the institutes, so that’s always fun to let them practice with you a little. In realidad, they don’t get all that many opportunities to talk with native speakers that far out. At any rate, When we returned everybody was super grateful of my driving. The said it was very smooth…and no one fell out. Always a plus in my book. Since most (if not all) of them have never even learned how to drive a car, the truck driving is a big deal. Oh so a new record in our hall for the most people in a pick truck( a antiquated quad cab Nissan), 21. beat the pants off the least record by 4 people. I’ll have to check and see if the visiting American sister has pictures.

Still have’t eaten the beans…

Crawling insectoids invade the habichulas

1-5-09
So Today was, well, I say to often it was a waste, but it really wasn’t. I woke to the sound of the pasture borracho at around 6:30 and got things done around the house. Always good I guess. Im getting ahead on my studying which I like, but I did have a lot of free time today and I’m still not really used to that. I wrote a lot for the email, but that’s about it. I couldn’t send it though. I was going to do some work in El Estrecho, but the guy that has it was traveling today, so, so much for that. I even went to Luperon, but there was no power there which stunk. When I came back to the house, we still did, so I’m starting to think contrary to Corey on the idea that our power is the same line as Luperon. Made some messy taco like things. Definitely not the best ones I’ve made so far.

Oh, so I got extra black beans today. Three pounds worth. Not usually anything worth mentioning, but as a I was scanning through for rocks, I noticed 1 or 2 bugs. Small little guys, but still big enough to make an audible “crunch” when you put you finger on them. I wasn’t all that concerned really. But I found at least 30 more. I got what I could and put the rest in the freezer. We’ll see what happens.

Wow. There is way to much ice in mi vaso de ron….lo prueba como….agua.

So I’ve got to something to fill up my time, but not too much. I hate the feeling of not having things done, but that feelings also is what drives me to action. Cory and mike are still gone for another week, I’m sure that will help out the time filling bit.

I started listening to some of the Spanish Dramas. They rock so far. The old ones are wicked long. Like an hour and a half. But I’m picking up a lot of it. It helps when you know the stories.

I was thinking today. In only a few days more, I will have been studying Spanish for a whole year, I really thought I’d be better, but Its coming together. Granted I’ve been saying that for 12 months. Poco a poco.

So I started my new workout schedule. My goal for 2009 is to due a total of 200,000 pushups. In reality that’s a little under 550 pushups a day, not so bad. I can do 50 at a shot pretty easy, and today I pushed out 350. obviously I need a bit of time to get to the 550 a day level. But I don’t think I’m that far from being able to a 100 at a shot. Its close. Once you get to that point, it’s a piece of cake. Granted the off days im not expecting to do the full amounts, but extra on the on days. We’ll keep it posted. Currently 850.

Some happenings

The dead cat incident.

So I don’t know who decided that putting the dead cat in front of my house, but it was gross. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t hit by a car, it was still intact I have suspicions of the borracho across the street, but maybe not. I think I recognized the cat too. I used to watch him watching me through the kitchen window whenever he was walking along the rooftops of the neighbors. Sad. Anyways I really thought that something would just eat the thing or something. It was a little off to the side of the front gate, maybe it would just…disappear. I was wrong. 3 days latter (yesterday) I went outside with a garbage bag, a stick, and a mission. When I sat outside on the balcony, that sweet… ever so aromatic smell of a rotting flesh would waft up to the second level and drift slowly into the nasal cavity. Some of my neighbors (not the borracho) who happened to hanging out at the colmado, look on with amusement as I proceeded to double bag the decaying feline. All the while gagging at the pleasant view I had, of all the cute little, wiggling maggots fall off and out of the stiff. Biology. Gotta love it.


The Day the Ditches Turned Red (and the air smelled tasty!)

It was still dark in the 6:00 hour, but the sounds of the early morning alert my internal clocks that, yes, yes indeed It is my time to rise out of bed. On their way to work or run their errands, the riders of small, 125cc scooters and motorcycles, with no mufflers mind you, downshift and rev their engines so as to make it up the gentle hill my house lies on. At six o’clock in the morning, this sounds more like an angry swarm of bees has encompassed you, overtaken you, while you while simply observing a NASA shuttle launch. Yes. It was time for coffee. Normally as one drinks there morning coffee, reviewing the daily text or whatever it is they do with their coffee, one has the soft sounds of roosters doing their thing about eight feet away from head, or perhaps their neighbor, shedding a half pound or two in there “reading room”. Maybe there will be a dog that knows nothing, but that it has a voice. And wants the world to know it too.. Of course too some of the omnipresent Spanish music, most likely some Bachata or Meringue will always be playing in the background from a distant neighbor with loudspeakers and little concern about you and your commitment to drinking your coffee in the early morning hours in peace.

The first scream I heard came from a nearby home just around the corner. Barely fazed me. As this is not a human scream. Although similar at times, one learns to tell the difference….Either that or they all become non-human screams….a state of being I should be careful to avoid I suppose.

The second scream. I Little while latter, from the other direction. But still. No alarm bells had gone off.
A third.
A fourth.

What was going one?


Chancho.

Chancho is a pig. And, in the Dominican Republic, pigs are animals that should fear “Going for a walk” with there owners. As this, ultimately, means the death.

I discovered this fact one day previously in the ministry with Abad, The Indian/Puerto Rican Special Pioneerin my hall. We had just seen a man holing the ende rope in his hands, the other end carefully tied in a not-so-comfortable looking noose around Chanchos neck, Trotting down the road with not even a trace of concern or worry. In fact, I would even hazard to say..this pig was….smiling…

When I Inquired of this strange sight to Abad, He simply said “O he probably just got sold or something” ok not so bad. But then, raising his arm and pointing, he said “ ok, yeah, you see over there? That’s a carnaria (butchershop)..they to kill him and sell him”

“O”, I said.

Like the fulfillment of bible prophecy, on the way back to the hall for lunch, there was Chancho. Hanging on a hook(most of him it least) in front of the meat shop.

But this day, this day was different. This was not just your average one or to animals a day thing happening. Everyone was doing it. I have never seen so many Pigs “go for a walk” then on this day. The day before Christmas in the Dominican Republic... have fear little piggy’s. Cover yourselves with mud, and stay low to the ground, and maybe, you will be concealed of the day of Dominican hunger…
As was unlocking my front gate so as to pull out my motorcycle on the way to meet the service group, I saw exactly what the locals where doing.

Now as a way of explanation, The main streets here, like the one I live on, have steep drop-offs on either side. This is not simple to encourage people not to pass on the right, although it is effective at this. The reason for the deep trenches is that generally speaking there is no sewage in fracture, or in other words, when your wash your hands in the sink, this water is piped down into the street. Don’t worry though the toilet water should have a special septic leech field it needs to pass through first, or people just use an outhouse. Also of benefit, is that when it rains the water has a place to go and doesn’t just flood out the house everyday(just once or twice a year instead).

The result of these trenches is that in order to get from the street to your house, you need to construct a bridge of some sort, often this is down with a good solid 4” slab of concrete. Not only do this make an excellent foot bridge or, if wide enough, car bridge, it apparently makes a good platform for pig slaughtering. And you can’t beat the drainage. Needless to say, I witnessed the two next door neighbors of mine tie the feet of Chancho together, and well…see the title of the this section…

I never really considered myself a City person before. But this event kind of shed some new light on the matter for me. All part of how the food we eat makes it to the dinner plate I suppose.
But at least I gained some solace in the fact that as the day progressed, the air had that magnificent aroma of 11 million people slow roasting pork of over the open flame. Wherever we travelled that day, the sight of fully dressed pigs strung up on poles became more and more common to behold. One of the local sisters here ending up buying a whole bunch(I guess it’s cheaper then usual) and gave the Abads and I containers filled with giant roasted pork rib and plantains. Wow. Was that good. I didn’t eat the skin. I’m Not sure if your supposed or not. But I opt for the no skin or strange organs when have the opportunity,( “No thanks abad, here, you eat my portion of chicken stomachs, I just stuffed with all this rice, Tu Sabes?”

Yes it was a Morning of Hog screams and a night of a full belly. All and all an ok day