MARCH

 March:OK so I'm a little behind.  The months are flying by and we are busy going out to different Branches and Districts every week end.  For those that are more than 2 hours away from us we stay overnight as night traveling is not a good option even though the roads are good.  The problem is traffic driving without lights and motorcycles driving on the wrong side of the road, also without lights. 

We have started going out to our 4 districts, a different one each week end, getting to know the people.  Eldon gave a great presentation to the people in Azua.  The drive is always delightful.  There are tiendas (stores) all along the road selling various goods.

Tienda along side the road.

Wooden bowl and pestals of every size.

 When we came home Sunday night we discovered they had had a festival and blocked the street we were trying to get home on.  The festival had been planned for the week before but got rained out.

Tail end of a parade we think??

Traffic is always dreadful in the city and although there are lines painted on the road they apparently are only suggestions.

This is suppose to be three lanes of traffic.

Helmets are supposedly required.  How
they are worn is apparently optional.

Note the "No Parking" sign on left and right.

Many of you like the UBERS that are available.  We have them here too.  While they are parked they look safe but the way they dodge in and out of cars is scary.  Motorcycles have absolutely no rules.

Uber checking where his next victim lives.

I took a video of us driving home one day but when I showed the kids they wondered why I had taken a video of a parking lot.
As we travel to our assignments we see some beautiful scenery.  I love the ocean's expanse and the waves crashing on the shore.  Some beaches are white and sandy, some are the black volcanic sand and some are just seashores of volcanic rock; beautiful but treacherous.

Beautiful and rugged.

Rough and dangerous cliffs.

Black sands with the tide out.

Sandy but not white.

We had what they call a training Cluster here.  It lasts for a couple of days and they feed us very good catered meals along with it.  We also went bowling at the end of it.  I did not bowl but Eldon had fun.  I did however miss a 4" step down in the dim lighting and landed hard on my knee and hand.  Seems I cracked a bone in my foot (wore a boot for 4 weeks) and burst the bursa in my knee (healed up fine by itself after a few weeks) and tore the supraspinatus tendon in my right shoulder.  Still working on that injury.  Guess tendons take a bit to heal.

Coconut water drink.  Very refreshing and no
dishes to wash when your done.

I am including many random interesting (at least I think so) things we have come across.

Trucks of Roma tomatoes going to the
factory to be made into ketchup or something.

Lots of Egrets around here on the beaches and
in the fields where farmers are plowing

A young lawyer was in one of our finding employment classes. Lawyers are a dime a dozen and most out of work.  It is apparently hard to be successful in that field.  Anyway he asked Eldon if he could talk to him about a spiritual problem.  First reaction was go see your Bishop.  But his question was, "how do I get baptized?"  That we could direct him to and he was baptized several weeks later.

Yamico next to Eldon is getting baptized.

Some of the branches have nice chapels

Others are little houses converted as best
as possible for church purposes.

Font in Elias Pina little converted house.

Font built in backyard.

Chapel inside converted house in Elias Pina
in the San Juan District.  It's right next to the
Haitian border.

We walk down to the Zona Colonial occasionally and enjoy the touristy stuff.  It is the oldest settlement in the new world dating back to 1494.  

APRIL:

We visited San Juan and did all the tourist stuff available there in about 2 hours.  We saw an obelisk that had fallen down in the middle of the field and is used as a place to burn herbal etc. sacrifices. It's called the ceremonial plaza of the Taino (Taino are extinct. The spaniards obliterated them.)  We also visited an un-comercial cave.  That's the extent of the tourist attractions in San Juan.   

The road to San Juan also has the coolest kilometer (mileage) signs.

Kilometer road signs with flowers
growing out of the head.

Obelisk in the field.  A face was faintly visible
on the top end of the stone.

A circle of rocks marked it.  Cows wandered
all over the field grazing.

Eldon climbing up to small caves.

Not a lot to write home about but
the bats call it home.

Eldon squeezed through the opening
but not a lot to explore.  Fun anyway.

The outlying Districts and Branches welcome us with open arms.  Sure glad Eldon can understand them.  I gather bits and pieces but....

Laundry day.  Drying on barbed wire fencing.

Two family home.  Very humble.

All the poorer homes look the same.
Some wood, some concrete.

Farms are vast and green in this interior area.

The travel we do is fun and it's great to be out of the pollution of the capital but always nice to get back to the comfort of my own bed.