Day 9 - Traveling back to Santo Domingo

Finished product pictures of the house for Pastor Paul.

We hit the International Market very close to our hotel before we started out 6 hr drive back to Santo Domingo in our bus. Lots of items that are ‘needs’ not so much a place for Americanos looking for souvenirs. 

Walking back we came across a man trying to sell a fresh octopus and a large bag of lobster.

Market happens on Friday and Mondays and Dominicans and Haitians can cross the border freely on these days. We are pictured here on the edge of the river crossing.

Tomorrow we will be finishing up our time here in the Dominican Republic.  We fly back to the US tomorrow afternoon and pray that all travel goes well.

Day 8 - Finishing Up

The skies were over cast as we drove up into the hills. Nice cool and hazy! Duane gave us all instructions at breakfast so we knew our tasks. After piling out of the van and scurrying to our tasks on the site, we noticed that Duane was speaking to a young man and sensed frustration. In Spanish, "Work must stop now! You have no permit, if you don't stop now, the military will come to demolish!" Oh my. What to do. Duane was alone, no Pastor present yet. Duane kept trying to compromise, "Let us work today and we won't come back tom!"(as we would be driving back to Santo Domingo anyways) :) No go. No deal. "You must stop AHORA!!" (NOW)

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. 

Do not be terrified, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9. 

God  answered our prayers in a BIG way, that the man who was bold and said he was NOT a Christian when Duane asked, did not come back to stop our labors! After Pastors arriving and phone calls made to respective persons, it was decided to continue with the building. Praise God, there were no more interruptions. Guido (man in charge of construction) came from capital and took care of the legalities.....or so we hope.

So the building continued!  Concrete was mixed, and another form was poured.  Even Melissa and Lindsay got involved in mixing concrete.  

Leo came down with hundreds of donated hurricane straps from Canada and Jesse took 20lbs of them donated from Vreugdenhil Construction.  Here Leo is utilizing these straps on the new house!  

Soon after the guys started to get things ready for the rafters and the tin to be put on. BJ avoided a trip to the ER as Steve and his first aid kit came to the rescue after a piece of tin disagreed with his forearm. Next it was Jesse's turn with his finger. He patched himself up and went back to work.

Meanwhile, the ladies continued painting nails, playing keep away frisbee, coloring, taking pictures, jumping rope and assisting when needed with the work. Baby Jelmy, this lad is too cute for words, don't you think?! His stoic face never changed:) I was just glad he didn't scream at the sight of white people like Freddy did 2 years ago!

Down pour - rain happens here rarely so when it's pouring they praise God! Most  people hustled to the church for cover. Lots of people in a small space! Trying to keep people entertained we started using James Van Wyk's name board that he so kindly lent us to capture the name with their face! Ciana and Alancia were two of the Pastor's daughters from Sitio Nuevo, along with Wilfania and Eveline, some of you may remember them?! This board was a fabulous tool in helping us to remember names! Since it's hard to understand them, seeing it spelled out was super!

We said our goodbyes. It was a flurry of activity. We handed out New Testament Bibles, left clothes (for the Pastor to distribute), coloring books, crayons, 57 bottles of nail polish and headed down the hill. Right now all the guys are strategically loading the van and truck and we hope to head back to the capital.

Day #7 Much excitement...

Like most of our days it started off with breakfast at our hotel at 7:30am. Our goal is to be on the road to the site by 8:15. A bug got stuck in my hair and was buzzing like crazy. I had a minor freak out incident. No worries, it was just a fly that couldn't get out.

James filling his form full

Bond beam forms were built using all the wood we had, cement was mixed and beams were filled. Then lunch break to allow the beams to dry so forms could be taken off. PB&J sandwiches, chips and water. While we relaxed in the church together and enjoyed our tasty sandwiches...a rat ran across my foot. I 'freaked' out again....only to have Lindsay say, "Um, that thing was BIG!" Oh la la, the locals came running from hearing my screams. It created a ruckus. Benji scared the rat out by jumping on the pile of wood. Outside it went. Locals chasing it, swatting it but missing. After coming back in the church and then out again they got it by stomping on it.

While the guys were mixing cement for the bond beams I was keeping the 55 gal water drum full by hauling water from the cistern in my 5 gal pails. On one of my trips back, I swore someone chucked something at me and it hit me right in the shoulder! I turned around to look for the culprit only to discover what hit me was still stuck to me and now CRAWLING!!!  A flippin 6"gecko jumped out of the tree overhead onto my skin bearing shoulder and STUCK there. My bucket went flying and much more screaming ensued.

During our lunch hour Brent taking selfies with Johan and Kakien.

After lunch the girls got out the nail polishes again, jump rope, ball and Frisbees. Handful of guys went back to Sitio Nuevo to install hurricane straps on the church built 2 yrs ago. Took off some bond beam forms and used them again to form up new ones on more walls. Poured those. Layed more block columns for the ridge board of the rafters.

 After last trip I said if I seen the ladies washing clothes I was going to help them(or try) So I did today. Oh my, they spend approx 5-10 min on EACH article of clothing!! I scrubbed and scrubbed and they kept correcting me. Their hands are super strong. Mine...not so much.

 We think this is Pastor Jean's house from Sitio Nuevo. It's actually past Magotes. We understand he has two. One right by the church and then this one as well.

Day 6 Rebar cages for columns!

 Anytime tools are being used there seems to be many longing eyes watching. They want to help. So we demonstrate a few times how to do it and then hand over the pliers, or twisty thingys.

 BJ throwing rock with two very active boys.

 Front of the house.

 Troy showing his numerous pix off of his phone. They were mighty intrigued by the videos of IA farming. HUGE equip and to see it moving was even better! The boy in the blue striped shirt spoke amazing English! Nico, and he told me more facts of the US history than even i knew!

 Preparing the one stand alone pillar for the front porch.
 Toes painted pretty! GLITTER, GLITTER, GLITTER por favor....they liked sparkles best!!!

Ending the day with a game of keep away from the man in the middle. BJ jumped right in and had to work hard to get full possession before he could leave the middle. They are playing on quite a hill. Can you see the incline?

Day 5 Laying block and playing

First corner column of the day. Exciting progress! 2 Canadians and 1 American=good team work! Locals had not yet arrived;)

By the end of the day, most of the exterior walls were up and the interior walls were about halfway.  We had 5 of the columns poured.

Abby demonstrating some jumping tricks and how to run in while turning the rope.

Nail painting! Thanks for all the polishes donated! The girls loved it. One 3 yr child walked around with her little chubby fingers spread not wanting to touch ANYTHING...and just kept gazing at them.

Baby Steven. Stinkin cute!

Even though we tease BJ tremendously, we actually caught him working. So, now he has proof that he didn't just hang out in the shade.

We had enough coloring books for each person to hold there own which was a God send since we had no flat surfaces like we did last time in the school. the LOVED it. We had all ages join us, older mamas all the way to babes. Some we had to teach how to hold a crayon and what to do with it.

This young man has downs. I don't think he ever held a crayon before and i would guess he is in his 20's or 30's. I helped him figure out how to hold it in his hand and then color and area and not just one line over and over. He was completely intrigued.;)  This boy could work! He hauled block from the road to site like nobodies business....all the while making car/dirt bike noises as he 'drove'.

Supper. I think it could be fair to say we were stretched out of our boxes in the eating dept, Oh my. When we walked into the kitchen I was pretty sure I saw a fish fin/tail sticking out of the pan and my stomach did a flip flop. Most of us were brave. I took a chunk as I simply couldn't handle one eyeball staring at me while I chewed. Needless to say, the meat was excellent...none of us got bones stuck in our throats!

It looked like 2 different kinds of fish and they each had different jaw bones...check out the teeth on the thing!!!   

Have a sunny day!! Thank you for your prayers!!!

Day #4 Sunday - Church

Sunday we all got up ate breakfast and got ready for church.  Here we all are below in our Sunday best!

 Every where we go there is always so much beautiful scenery to take in!

 We drove up to church that was built 2 years ago and this lady was teaching Sunday school.  She would recite a memory verse and the children would recite it back to her.  When we drove up, we were a little distracting and she had to keep turning their heads so they would listen to her.

 The gentleman on the left is the Pastor.  The lady in the blue is his wife who we affectionately refer to as "Big Mama".  Most of the service was in Creole - so we didn't understand much - but the important thing is we all serve and worship the same God!

 Sunday afternoon we ate dinner and then took a boat ride on the water.  And yes, we ALL fit on that boat!  It was tricky getting on and off - just ask Steve. :)

 The boat ride took us through lots of rock formations.  Cactus-like plants were growing in the rock along with other plants.  The water is so blue and clear - God's creation at its finest!

Tomorrow we will keep working on the house we built and it will be 4 days of hard work and sweat.  Stay tuned!

Day 3 - (Building & Relationship) Construction Underway

Today was the day that we made it to the worksite and started working.  It was great seeing all the locals and how excited they were that this project was starting.  The picture taken below was at the end of the workday, but many of those working on the building had already left.  We had quite the crew!

It was also amazing to reconnect with a few people that some of us at met two years ago when we were just a couple miles away building the church at Sieto Nuevo.

We were all hard at work, but also had a lot of fun.  We were trying to learn Spanish/Creole phrases as well as teaching some English phrases to the locals.  Let's just say that we were all laughing multiple times with what each other were trying to say.

Everyone was involved in helping in any way they can.  We often had so many people working around the worksite that we were on top of one another.  It was a great experience getting to know them and interacting with them, even though, many times we had a hard time knowing exactly what each other were saying.
 

At the end of the day, we were all tired, but energized.

Tomorrow, we plan on worshiping at Sieto Nuevo in the church that was built 2 years ago.  We are looking forward to meeting many more familiar faces of brothers and sisters in Christ and reconnecting with friends from a couple years ago.

Day #2

 After a long day of travel Thursday we were treated to a yummy supper cooked by the local ladies at the ministry center. Rice, beans, chicken, pasta noodles and soda. Delicious! We ate with Steve Brauning(lower left gray hair) and some others folks from Ontario who were also staying at the center.

 One of several pit stop potty breaks on long drive to Pedernales

Lunch pit stop. PBJ sandwiches along side an amazing beach! Benj was searching for shells and a big ol wave got the best of him.... so much for his dry socks and shoes for the rest of the trip!! Troy didn't mess around with the waves...he just took off his shoes right away and waltzed on in the water...then we got a guns muscle flexing show.(tall young man in the middle is James.... He came yesterday as well, but hopes to stay for 1.5 months as his co/op for grade 12) He will be joining our team for the week.

 Leo is a retired contractor from Ontario(cutting the buns) who is joining us this week as the job is a challenging one and Duane was all about some extra help. Today we drank Coca Cola in honor of Chad VanGinkel. Every time we stopped at a pit stop we remembered how you liked to purchase an ice cold Coke 2 years ago!:) Other than sore bums/stiff joints from the long trip in an old van, we had a very good day! Another delicious supper made by a local gal at the hotel we stayed at last year, group devotions, some card playing and socializing, it's now time for bed!