So, we all climbed into Bronco's van and headed out...right, that is about where I left off?
*pause*
Okay, good. Alright, we made it down the road for about 30 minutes before I started to get a little car sick, bummer, but by the time I decided that it would be a great idea to try sleeping it off, we pulled into Típico Bonao. We all jump out in anticipation of epic Dominican food. Of course we had to go look at the 3-D map of the island before we could settle down to sit for our food. I ordered Chinola Ca...I know...shock.
Now, it is important to mention at this point that the DR trips have been rained on at Típico FIVE, yes 5, years in a row.
Back to our program. I ordered a sort of fish that had basically been drowned in a whole head of garlic. It was wonderful. *happy sigh*
After lunch we headed to our new house. It was a different spot than the house we'd used in previous trips. While driving around this gorgeous country we often sing songs of praise to glorify the Creator of such beauty. But sometimes things get a bit crazy. Josh gets the guitar and Patrick bangs on anything that could ever be a conceptual percussion instrument, and thus starts the madness. We ended up with songs like:
Strumming Like A Maniac - A tune where madness became brilliance.
I'm Missing My 6 String - The sorrowful tale of the lost love of the bass 6th string. Oh babe, come back...
Once the wildness cooled off a bit we started a list of songs for the trip. Maybe this list will be published later. But while we were working on that list we stopped at a gas station (pay attention because this is kind of amusing later) to meet the owner of the house and have him lead us up to it. It was here that our Ford Explorer's trany began to say goodbye. We made great use of the time though, we all crawled out of the van again and took tons of pictures then with the help of a few people's brilliance began to take slow-mo videos of ourselves jumping. (They will be posted once we get to a place with enough bandwidth to upload videos.)
We gathered up at the van to head out then realized that it was going to be a while since a handful of DRians were surrounding the engine of the Explorer. It was at this moment that the whole team made the discovery that Janie has a epic dance talent. Thus struck the dance party. House, Dubstep, Jazz, and even a Rap song and we jammed out. Then we pack into the van again and head up to the house. So we make more crazy songs and it was getting more and more crazy. Then we stopped for gas. (why didn't we just get gas at the other place???)
Connor started the quiet game. I won. It was epic.
When we got to the house, Josh made hot chocolate. There were FIFTY steps between the car and the house. It was intense.
After unloading we needed to decide which rooms where for what persons. There was a large room with it's own full size bathroom...but no AC. Then there was a smaller room with an AC but no bathroom. Usually the girls get the AC but we wanted the bathroom more, so I went to take a shower and discovered that our room actually DID have an AC! Praise God!
I went downstairs and went to the girls to say that we have good and bad news. The bad news is that we will have to keep our door shut all the time, but the good news is that we need to do that because we have an AC. They didn't seem to be inconvenienced much.
As the Emili and I were outside enjoying the breeze we heard shouting and tires spinning out. After a moment of thought we realized that it was Bronco trying to get over a hill and the boys were out there trying to help push it up the hill. Us ladies go inside, put on better shoes for the job, run through the pitch darkness of our hilly yard, and go to help the guys.
Dominicans are creative, not safety minded...
The van couldn't make it over the hill with the trailer attached...so we disconnected the trailer and pushed by hand the trailer up a steep, muddy, hill. It was scary and crazy and really hard work and we learned that we are committed to each other. We all realized that if any of us ditched pushing on the trailer then it'd too heavy and would roll backwards. But it never did, even when we were nervous about trying to hold it still while they reattached it to the van's hitch. BUT...the good news is everyone is fine, we ate a lot of food afterwards, and it was a bonding experience for the group. Thanks for sending all your babies to the DR, we're still all alive, so it's all good.
After this adventure we had a Biblical Thinking Study. Where we spent the whole time talking about a plastic deck chair and how it relates to our souls.
Patrick gave a Spanish word for me to figure out overnight. Cisped (grass)
Then we went to bed!!!! (my favorite)
love,
Jessie Bear
John 12:44
"And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me."
