29 November 2013

Well, Thanksgiving came and went, and it was hard to even know it was here.  We taught our usual classes on Thursday, trying to imagine what turkey, pumkin pie, dressing, cranberry, and all that stuff tasted like.  (And my  mother's fruit cake, or was that Christmas?)

No one down here can even imagine what a BIG holiday it is in the states.  It was hard for Sister P and me to know that they had all gathered, or would today, to celebrate togetherness, and food, and play, and fun times, with all kids and grandkids.  But that is OK, we are where we are supposed to be.

Our Three-Some, the robbery, accident, and the lack of Internet is almost gone now.  We have a new computer (without the pictures and many other things), we have an alarm system put into our apartment, and a steel door, lockable, we have a loaner-car to get us around, and we fought the fight to get someone else to give us an Internet that would work so we could communicate with our family. All companies want an 18 month contract.  We just agreed to pay the penalty for ending that contract in only three months rather than 18.   But all is well now.  Thus there is no excuse for not blogging and letting everyone know what is going on.

We have our release date.  It is March 1.  During these holidays, it is hard to know we cannot be there with family, but three months is a short time, and when the time comes, it will be very, very difficult to leave these wonderful students, staff, missionaries, and this life, being a missionary couple.

21 November 2013

Sorry, there has been no blog posts for a few weeks.  I guess "busy" could be the reason, but there are others.  We continue to teach our classes, enjoying it immensely, and then....  We spent a delightful week with our daughter on the beach, enjoying the sun, the water, and the country.

Sister P will expound on that diversion, our week away.

Well, I get to blog about another "event."  We went to Puerto Plata.  About hour away, on a double lane highway, on a narrow road, much traffic, crazy Dominican drivers all over.  Well, we were coming home Sunday afternoon, driving about 50 MPH.

NOTE:  The Dominican drivers often strive to pass the slow moving vehicles, even with no space to do so and expect the oncoming traffic will get out of their way.  

We were minding our own business when one of those Dominican drivers decided to pass a slow moving vehicle, entering my lane, expecting me to do whatever was necessary to get out of his way to avoid a head-on collision.  I saw him enter my lane, coming straight for us, and I knew I had better do something, or "meet" him.  Didn't want to do that, so I quickly evaluated the side of the road.  On my right was a large ditch, which I didn't want to go into.  I had micro seconds to figure it out, so I decided I would drive as close to the ditch without going into it, trying to avoid this oncoming driver.  Then I saw TWO or THREE large boulders.

 This is what the under side of the car looked like.  That black thing was the "something" that held it all in, and now it wasn't.  There was oil all over the car, the street, the engine.  Nice huh?

Again, my choices were limited, to I decided I would try to take the least dangerous path and straddle the boulders.  I am sure it was the right decision, but wrong for the car.  We crashed up over the rocks, they broke into pieces, but before they did, they put a large hole in the oil pan, damaged the radiator, damaged the air conditioner, drained the transmission fluid, and threw oil all over everything, thus we started smoking as the oil burned on the hot engine.

I immediately pulled over.  Many locals came running over to see if all was OK.  We were, but the car probably had breathed it's last breath.  (We are still waiting to see if it is totaled or not.)  We called the President, he sent the assistants, and finally after four hours, had the car towed, and us returned to our apartment.  What a way to end a wonderful week.  But once again, Father is watching out for us.  We are car-less, depending on catching rides to the Institute, and depending on others, but we are healthy, fine and avoided something that could have been much worse.

Thanks for prayers, thoughts, and support from so many.

5 November 2013

I love my companion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning she climbed out of bed about 4:45, couldn't sleep.  When I got out about 6:15, she approached me with a huge smile on her face.  She said, "Yo estoy un idea brillante."  I started laughing so hard that I almost fell down.  As I contined to laugh, she asked why.  (It means, I am a brilliant idea.)  I explained it to her and she started to laugh also.  We needed that.  I remember many months ago that, if that would have happened she would have started to cry, lamenting the idea that she didn't remember the words correctly.  But she IS a brilliant idea, right?

Yesterday, we had a holiday, something to do with the government.  Well, no work. So we, as a staff of the institute had a BBQ, inside cause it was raining.  Of course I cooked for everyone, but that is another story.  Well, last night while I was cooking, Sister P was sitting eating her hamburger.  The husband of our secretary was being kind and took a glass of water to Sister P.  She took it and said, "Mucho Gusto" rather than "muchas gracias."  Again, I laughed and laughed.  Mucho Gusto is what you say when you meet someone, "pleased to meet you" or "much pleasure to make your acquaintance."   Once again my wonderful companion is past feeling depressed about not speaking Spanish perfectly, but enjoying being here, even with being brilliant and "gusto-ing." 

We are having a ball.