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)