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