Carry on

We have been busy in many ways: the Elders around the Caribbean are having some health problems, Dengue Fever has been common in Puerto Rico and in the Republica Dominicana.  The CCM is full to overflowing, so many colds and minot aches...so far. We did have one Elder step  in a hole and scrape his shin badly, bad ceelulitis and off he went to the good old USA, recovering nicely there.

I'll put up another Temple picture and answer a question from the comment section. We work in the Temple two shifts a week, an island in the storm some weeks.  We are becoming proficient at the Spanish and I am doing some French.  The Elders that come to the CCM (MTC) go on Thursday morning every week, so we are with them for one of our shifts. Some Elders haven't been before so that makes it even more exciting for them to come, and to be able to help them.  A shot or two in the arm one day and a boost up the ladder the next. 


The Temple looking north.




The Casa Huespedes, in the Temple grounds, is for
 Temple patrons,Temple Missionaries, the CCM,
the Area Presidency office, and us. My Office is
the window on the third floor with white paper
covering the inside. I put x rays up on it for
 good back-lighting. Our apartment is the two window to the
right of the office.

We have mission office visits from time to time, these pictures are from a East Mission barbeque.

P day get together for three zones.



Elder Eickbush serves up the good hambugers and hotdogs.



Mission Life goes on

My companion has abandoned the field but I am here holding my fingers in the dike, missionary health is dribbling out all around me.  The McDermids, the Area mental health advisers,  have flown home as well, honorably released after doing a great work for the missionaries in the Caribbean.  We have had a group of North Americans and two Islanders in the CCM. This week the two islanders leave for the West Indies and Jamaica and on Thursday a new batch of 28 Latinos blows in. 

The medical excitement is Dengue in the Puerto Rico mission, including one with hemorrhagic Dengue. Thankfully the platelet level is rising and we had no major bleeding complication.  I am seeing the usual mix here, with colds, toenails, injured joints and belly aches all mixed together. 

The Temple re-opened on Tuesday.  I had missed working there, it is a great thing to enjoy.  Some of the missionaries attend for the first time so it is great to help them in the Clinic and also in the Temple.

We are studying Spanish still, I  have made some progress in comprehension but still don't speak very well.  I think of what to say after the time has passed to say it.

Elder McDermid, Sr. Button, Sr. McDermid and
Pres. Glazier as the McDermids were loading
to head off into the sunset.



Elder Hall, from Guyana and learning Spanish to serve in
 the Santo Domingo East Mission. Elder Ambrose from Trinidad
who will serve in Jamaica and Elder St. Rose from Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands who will serve in the West Indies.




My new camera testing the night settings on the Santo Domingo Temple. I'll miss walking by the
Temple everyday. 



Temple Closed

The Temple is closed for two weeks for its semi-annual cleaning, the lawn is also being scalped and thinned out.  The Temple missionaries are doing day trips, they don't usually go anywhere on Mondays but are taking advantage of this break.

There is an apartment building slowly rising across the street from the Temple, it will be very tall, 21 stories I think.  It will also block some of our view to the Caribbean Sea.  Progress.

We have been having very frequent disruptions of our internet. I rely on it very much for my work, receiving Emails from the islands, looking up medical histories, and looking up information on line. Just another joy of life in a generally inefficient country.  I am undeniably biased toward a capitalist, democratic form of government where the people can vote the bums out if they don't perform. I don't think Americans from the US would stand for contaminated water, electricity for 8-10 hours a day, etc.  I also acknowledge that we have our faults, sometimes I wonder if we, as a whole, can be trusted to live under a Constitution that gives us so many rights.  Many don't seem to be up to the associated responsibilities.

Baby Iva and other changes

I've noticed my typing skills deteriorating, spelling in English is hard, compared to Spanish. Pretty much in Spanish if you can pronounce it correctly you can spell it.  So the few words I know in Spanish I can spell.  Mas o menos.

I have some re tread pictures from the Internet of Iva, her hair is the biggest hit so far, not at all like any other of our babies, even Leah and Drew started with less hair.




Anna at home, trying not to laugh out loud.



The long flight and drive to Idaho, $2000,
holding Iva, priceless.

The I'm and Aunt rant.

Bachelor pad

Cindy went to help Meg drive across country and to see Anna's new daughter in Edaho Falls, she will be gone two weeks.  So far I am eating leftovers and various snacks.  Next week I may have to cook something new.  I eat while I watch the news or Oympics, so I converted the table to a work bench.  The empty box is from my new camera which arrived, haven't figured out too many buttons or setting yet. We'll see how that goes.

The Elders have had a few illnesses and even an exotic disease or two, though that case is actually a senior Sr in Puerto Rico.  They also have had Dengue there for the last few weeks, they hadn't had any since I got here.  In the Temple we had a Russian speaking couple come to be sealed yesterday, no one here speaks Russian.  Hopefully they will be able to go somewhere else soon.



Stove Top Stuffing is from the McDermids, they are cleaning up their apartment,
heading home to Fernie, BC on Friday.




The man-cave couch, ready for TV and salsa.



International Volleyball

There is a FIVB PanAmerican Tournament going on here in Santo Domingo, last night we went to the semi-finals.  The arena is in the Olympic Park area, recently spiffed up to host this group.  The stadia in  the park are for past Pan American games, they are getting run down in general, but this stadium was nice, and air conditioned, in fact it was too cold at first.

The crowd got a little bigger but not that full,
very loud for it's size!

The anthem is highly regarded, really it is a hymn. 
Some of our team didn't stand so straight for our anthem.



Blurry but they did exchange some trinkets.



Argentina upset Brasil in five games the first semi, then the US won in 5 games in the second, the crowd was almost exclusively Dominican, when they won the second and fourth game it got pretty loud. I had never been to high end VB before, pretty fast game. The US team was not the Olympic team, but a B or C team. Same with Brasil, don't know about Argentina, but they were young. It was fun to be out in the crowd, we got back to the Casa so late it was locked and security had to let us in.

What have we been doing?

We have been busy with Elders, and have had some fun too.  Sr. Glazier, wife of CCM Pres. Glazier had to go home for a ten days to get a pacemaker. This coincided with the arrival of 32 new latino missionaries. I knew that having her upstairs screened a lot of the small health troubles with out bothering me, but I really learned how busy a few persistent, and recidivist, elders could make me. Colds, tummy aches, headaches, sprained wrists, rashes all through the day. Thankfully she is back and this group has settled down.

Last week on the way to Santiago a semi tractor and trailer were tipped over in the road, we were lucky to scoot by before a back up developed. We came back this way in about three hours, the truck was gone but there was still a huge back up, must have closed the road to get it out of there.

The traffic and driving here continue to amaze, I try not to get frustrated but it doesn't always work. We have to be careful as anyone bigger than our Corrolla thinks we will get out of their way, I have to remember that. We haven't had an accident, though a truck scraped my passenger side mirror one day.

We celebrated our fortieth wedding annivesary with a trip to Guaycanes Beach, we had planned a nice day resort visit with lunch, but they weren't open when we arrived so we went to the public beach.  It was a nice day, we found some shade along a wall so we could read. I had some nice beach walks too.



Playa Guayacanes, one hour east of Santo Domingo.



This Saturday we went to the Beach with the Cornish's, Fords, McDermids, Buttons and Mahans. The Cornish's had four of their grandchildren visiting, so it was fun to watch them enjoy the beach.

Reid Cornish and the Fords