Mission Life

A friend serving a mission in Santo Domingo shared this picture with us. We have seen the same thing a couple of times but never got a picture.

This spider was in our Sunday School class. It was HUGE and was running all over. Everyone was watching it through the whole lesson. The bishop came in and tried to catch it with his bare hands. We found out that it is a teen age tarantula.

All the senior Elders with the President at Puerto Plata. President Douglas is 3rd from the left.

The senior sisters with Sister Douglas. Sister Douglas is sitting on the left. The chefs are fixing our dinner in the background.

The back yard of our villa at Puerto Plata (in the rain).

This is how they park on our street. The white building is our apartment building. Our bedroom window is the one in the middle. We are on the 3rd floor.

These are mosaics - pretty cool.

Beautiful park near the mosaics. We see bridal pictures being taken here quite often.

Flowers are sold just outside the church fence.

This picture was taken our of our apartment window. I was fascinated watching this woman doing laundry. There is a plastic surgery center next door. She is pouring detergent into the agitator. I think the other side spins. The white line at the bottom is water spinning out. We have a washer/dryer stacked combo but this is the way most people do laundry (if they have a washing machine and that is a big if.) Almost all laundry is air dried on fences, lines or trees.

The Guard at the gas station.

Me at work! Yikes!!!

This is a very common sight although usually they are carrying much more bread.

One of our students was sweet enough to bring us cajuil. It is the fruit of the cashew tree. They boil it up and then squeeze out all the water and then make a syrup of fresh water and sugar and cinnamon and spices and then cook it again. It has a very different texture.

Elder Walters on his birthday. They have very amazing candles here!

Some students celebrating with birthday cake!

This was in the chapel. It is about 2 inches long. The awful thing was that a group of toddlers were playing with it. I hate cockroaches!!

 This fort was built in the 1500's after Columbus came. It is in Puerta Plata

 Fishing in Puerta Plata

 Elder Walters and Elder Francis relaxing at lunch.

 Lunch was good. French Fries made after we ordered them.

Below - Beach bathroom - no toilet seat and they give you a bucket of water to flush with.

 If there's a tree, just build a wall around it!

 House remodel

 The Monument - Trujillo built it in honor of himself.

 At the top of the monument - young missionaries call it the touchdown Jesus.

 They love baseball here!

 Duarte Day Parade. Pictures of Duarte with the eyes cut out are kind of creepy.

 Selfie of the misioneros

 You don't want to be hit by falling leaves here. These things are huge!

 Can't believe this guy begs in the middle of traffic. We saw him one night when the power went out. I was scared to death that he would be hit. There are so many people here missing arms or legs.

 There were 2 girls dressed like this at the gas station on Valentines Day passing out heart shaped suckers to everyone.

 A chicken place named after my grandson.

 The whole family going to church in the back of the truck. You can't see the mother. She is in purple and behind the man in the back corner.

 Our hotel room - not the Marriott

   Duarte Day parade of school children. Coco frio stand in the background. Coconut water and flavoring.

Below - boys playing marbles on the beach.

 

Moving day!

Getting around!

This is a very common site in the neighborhoods. Wanna buy some plantains?? They use them both ripe and green.

On our way to church we were following this truck. I got out my camera and one of the guys saw it and they all turned around and smiled and waved. They were passing a bottle of liquor around.

This is a bad picture taken through a dirty windshield. A lady riding a moto side saddle. Seems a little dangerous to me.

Missionaries loading up to go who knows where - don't show this to their mothers.

He brought his son to hold the big pipe on the other side.

This is the view from the back. She was watching us like a hawk as she was approaching us. We were walking along this street.

I took this out of our apartment window. A guy came around bringing refreshments.

Balancing act

I would never had thought of this way to move chairs.

Who needs air conditioning?

Typical Mormon Family

Will it tip over?? How would you like to be riding on top?

Is this a big enough speaker for your moto??

What can I say??

Nice warning about a big hole in the street.

Sugar cane. They squeeze it and people drive up and buy a glass of sugar juice.

Squeezing juice out of sugar cane. Used up cane on the ground.

This truck is in the neighborhood a lot.

There is a cage filled with baby chicks on the back of this moto. He even has a shade. It is a little weird because I took it from inside the car.

Training wheels??

This totally explains it. They have a hard time yielding to pedestrians.

Garbage truck - the truck actually looks like garbage.