Saturday Walk on the Malecon

Through the UASD to the coast this morning, a beautiful cool ( really) day as I started. Universitario Autonomo de Santo Domingo, that is the University. Generally very nice, though one person was killed there two weeks ago in anti- tax increase protests.

Eric can try some fishing here next week.

Fake turtle, but it is the egg laying season.

Water is clear now, maybe good for snorkeling next week.

Coconuts looking for a breakfast party.

This is the tree just outside the Temple grounds that blew over in the storm. Starting out again, and yes that is an orange peel someone dropped there.

Dengue, New Missionaries and Roti

The Dengue Fever continues to plague the elders, the wet fall keeps the mosquitoes multiplying. It is a miserable disease to get, aches, joint pain, headache and fever.  It takes a week to get better usually and the poor Mission Presidents wives spend a lot of time dealing with them, as they need hydration fluids, lab tests and a modicum of mothering.

We have missionaries from Haiti, they arrived on Thursday, the new North Americans should be here this morning, I didn't stay up to see them last night. It is a great experience to work with the Elders.

This week in the Casa and in the Temple we were able to help Sr. Appiah from Guyana.  Orin Moses, who we met in September, is her branch president. He contacted us to tell us she was coming for the first time.  She was brave to travel so far alone with no experience in traveling. She loved the temple and the shopping we did in Santo Domingo. It was great to see her joy, how silly I am to worry about anything going wrong when I could be immersed in joy.  Being in and near the Temple constantly is a great blessing.

We also had Thanksgiving this week, not a holiday here, so we went about normal life. We did have the excitement of exchanging our Corolla for a new Honda Civic. I am interested is seeing how we like it, maybe I will need a high mileage car when we go home.

Sr Appiah teaching us how to make roti. When the dough is fried and still hot you need to slap it to make it soft. 

 

 

Trading the old car for a new white Civic.

Morning view from my office window.

Mision Este Conferencia de zona

This week we attended the zone conference for the four East Mission zones.  Tuesday we were lucky to be going to La Romana, which is half way between Punta Cana and Santo Domingo.  So we had a little breakfast with Lisa and Dave and headed back west from Dreams in Punta Cana..  The driving was routine, in the day time. 

Zone conferences occur every quarter, we don't go every time but enjoy it when we do.  It is good to mingle with the missionaries and see how they are doing.  Most are healthy and doing great. I do a little presentation on health, try to prevent some diseases. The Merinos do a Mental health talk, dealing mostly with stress management and anxiety.  Interesting characters.

Elder Merino, Cindy, Sr. Hernandez and Sr Merino, with Elder Cowley's back

Elder Merino, Cindy and Elder Rakuita, whip cream initials for everyone

Mine

This week we had home made pumpkin pie from Sr. Hernandez. She even uses the raw pumpkins to make them.

Dave's visit to the Republica Dominicana

Dave and Lisa arrived on Thursday, but late, so we got together on Friday. We did a tour to the Colonial Zone and had dinner at Adrian Tropical on the south coast.  Saturday we had an interesting trip to Punta Cana Dreams, stopping along the way for lunch at El Meson in Juan Dolio and at a cave, Maravillosa.  One near brush with a speeding ticket added a little local color as I paid a small consideration to be on our way.

The drive was pretty good overall, but, as we got closer it started to rain and the sun set. We were reasonably sure of where we were going, on our map.  My Garmin  is good but not great at small roads... As we drove to where we thought the resort was we saw some gates, but nothing lit up or proclaiming itself to be the Dream Resort.  We stopped for directions and a little guy said it was four kilometers back, he thought we were walking and took off to lead Lisa and I there. We had to catch up and turn him around to get the others in the car.  It was wet with large puddles, not raining much, thankfully. Any way we went back about two hundred yards and there was a big entrance with lights and signs.  How the heck did we miss that?   After we checked in and were getting settled in our rooms, we figured it out.  The electricity cut off and on every few minutes for awhile. When it was off it was pitch black, that was the way it was on our first time past. The desk told Dave the next day that the generator was good but that it stopped sometimes in the rain. So Dominican.

Dreams was very nice, good rooms and food.  The weather wasn't perfect but we had a very good time.  We returned on Tuesday via an East Mission Zone conference in La Romana. All in all a relaxing break.

Dave and Lisa inside the Cathedral in Santo Domingo, cerca 1523.

Dinner at Adrian Tropical

Malecon park in Santo Domingo.

Outside Casa Reales, the home of the king's representative.

Setting up a memory shot.

Entrance to Cueva Maravillosa, a fun place to see.

Juan Dolio beach, after lunch at El Meson.

Sunset on the patio at Dreams.

Same place, different people.

View from our patio, Dreams Resort

Across the pool to the bar area, pretty good frozen drinks.

Saturday Beach Trip and Waiting on the Election

Saturday we met the Brown's in Azua and went to a "beach" near there.  This beach is known for its shells, we found some good ones but not a big conch. We'll keep looking.

Crossing to the side of the good shells.

Today we are waiting to go to the Temple, for our regular Tuesday shift.  The voting is underway so soon we will see if we have four more years of Obama or not. Who knows what will be the best, not necessarily what I want, but best in the long run?  We'll see.