Life in the "Real" DR

This is not our first time living in the Dominican Republic. However, our son has always said to us that we've never experienced the "real" DR experience. Why? Well, because we've always lived in pretty nice places with 24 hr electricity, even sometimes air conditioning and there was always a pool accesible to us to cool off in. And we have never lived in a real Dominican neighborhood. So this experience is a little different for us. Cory's house has neighbors in front of, behind, and on both sides. So neighborhood noise is always there, sounds of kids playing, neighbors talking, working and of course there's the animals! Dogs, cats, chickens, cows, and of course the hated roosters! That really isn't too bad, things quiet down usually between 9-10 p.m. and it really is pretty quiet, well that is till the roosters start doing there thing and that usually begins in the early morning hours 3-4 a.m. and usually the hens get in on the chorus by 5 a.m. Oh well, we're starting to adjust to all of this background noise. Now there's the electricity, I was really worried about this. Cory has an invesor which is a battery system that charges when the power is on so that when it is off, we can still run lights, fan, computers. What you can not run on the batteries in refrigerator, washing machine, iron, or hair dryer. First week here, no problems.  The power came on regularly and we learned to work around it's schedule, batteries stayed charged, so no problems. This past week however was a little different. This past Friday evening a line went down somewhere that cut power to Cory's house and a few others on his street. He reported this to the electric company Saturday morning, however they didn't come to fix it until sometime on Monday. So we haven't had any power for three days, which meant we had to keep bags of ice in the fridge to keep things cool, no laundry done and we learned to make do with light from candles and flashlights. Ohh, so this is what he meant by the "real" DR. Anyway it's nice to have power back. So what have we been up to the past few days.  Thursday we spent the morning working in service with the Luperon congregation, so I had the privilege of working with Jeni for the morning. The restaurant where they are having the reception was in the territory so we got a brief tour.

Inside the Restaurant

Outside of the Restaurant

View from the Restaurant

Jeni and I walked up this hill to a very nice house, an older American man opened the door, so my first door of the day was in English, he was nice but not interested.

And again, cows are being herded down the main room, I get a kick out of this every time.

Yes the sisters are wearing long sleeves, the weather was cloudy and showery, so a little chilly for them.

Jeni came back to the house w/ us and went to our meeting w/ us.

After meeting, Cory & Jeni cook us some supper. (or are they dancing)

No they really are cooking.

This is it.

Cory says this dish has everything in it that you can get at McDonalds w/o the bun.

In service on Friday

That guy's too tall, the mic won't reach!

Luperon Kingdom Hall (where the wedding will be)

 Saturday was the one day school for all the Elders in the area so Cory was asked to help out with the Saturday evening meeting in Luperon. He conducted the WT study. Can you identify the public speaker for the meeting?? Mikey! Mike traveled probably about 45 mins. on his motor bike in showery weather to give the talk

Flowers at the Kingdom Hall

Jeni takes care of Magazines for her congregation

Hard to believe these two kids are the Speaker & the WT conductor

Since we went to the Saturday night meeting, Doug & I headed to the beach on Sunday for a day of rest.  Cory went to Imbert Sunday evening to spend the night with Christopher & Cheri. He caught a 4 a.m. bus to the capital to take care of his Residency papers. It's an 8 hour round trip, so a long day for Cory but all went smoothly. A brother met him at the bus stop and took him around to all the necessary offices including getting a medical examine. He'll have to return in about 20 days to finalize everything and then he'll be good for another four years.

This afternoon we headed into Puerta Plata to pick up the wedding dress. It really is beautiful! We also did some other shopping, Cory got some things for the wedding, and we stocked up on some groceries.

Putting the finishing touches on the dress!

Picking out the fish that will be used to adorn the tables at the reception.

Pizza for supper (was delicious)