The Perfect Day

What is the perfect day? Well it certainly could be a lot of different things to different people. But for Doug & I, yesterday came pretty close. We had set aside some time this weekend to get away just the two of us. Cory had residency stuff to take care of in the Capital (all went well and he's good now for another four years). So we were anxiously watching the weather, trying to decide what we would do. I had wanted to visit Paradise Island which I had read about. There is a national park there with a protected coral reef and it is boasted to be one of the best snorkeling places in the Dominican Republic. To get there you need to take a boat ride from Punta Rucia (about an hour from Cory's house). They take you to this little dot of an island about 6 miles out in the middle of the ocean.  It is just a hunk of white sand with some little shacks in the middle that the tour guides use to serve their drinks and snacks. This past week the weather has been a bit unsettled with a lot of cloudy showery days. Ok for the ministry but not good beach day weather. We could tell Friday that the weather pattern seemed to be changing, started out as partly cloudy but by afternoon had really cleared out and when we got up Saturday morning and looked out the door, yes it looked like it could be the "perfect day".  So we loaded up the car and headed off. We arrived at Punta Rucia about 10 a.m. and thought we would just look around for and hope we could join up with a tour that was going out to the reef. Now just to give you an idea what Punta Rucia is, I don't know that you would really call it a town, you leave paved roads after passing Playa Ensenada and drive a few more miles down this really rough dirt road and every time we've driven it you have to pass through a herd of cows on the road. But anyway, we see some Dominicans hanging around with some boats and they seem to have a sign up for tours so we pull over and ask if they're taking tours out to the reef. They tell us that they have a group of 44 coming in just about 15 minutes and we could join up with them. They give us a price that we think is reasonable and we liked the timing of things so we park the car and literally within 5 mins the tour bus pulls in with all these white people. It was a little bit of a cultural shock but we quickly adapted. They were from some resorts in Puerta Plata and a mix of Americans & Europeans. They put us into three different speed boats (well not really speed boats, more like row boats with motors) and off we went. It took about 15 mins. to get to the island and it was just like the pictures that I had seen. Pretty white sand and the water was a beautiful turquoise color, different shades of blue and green. We had our own snorkeling equipment with us but the tour guide wanted us to wait to go out w/ them for the first time so they could show us where to go. So we patiently waited for the gringo tourists to get there gear and get ready to go. But the reef was not disappointing. It was gorgeous! You could tell the coral was alive and healthy, brain coral, fan coral, beautiful colors, the water clarity was great and the Fish were friendly (no biting)!  So after doing the group thing, we rested and ate a snack (the tour provided fresh fruit snacks and drinks) and then Doug & I headed off on our own. It really was a nice trip, they gave us about 2 1/2 hrs on the island. They stagger the tours throughout the day so that it doesn't become overcrowded. I estimate that there were probably 150 people on the island while we were there. They seemed to travel a little bit faster in the boat on the way back or maybe the water was a little bit rougher but there was a lot of water splashing over us, fortunately I was seated behind a  huge 300 lb Russian man who made a good shield (by the way, he was wearing a Speedo ugghhhh)  We spent the rest of the afternoon at Playa Ensenada (the beach down the road) where we ate and floated on my raft. When we arrived back at the house, Cory had brought home some fresh shark meat which we fried up for supper. So for us it pretty much was a perfect day. Sorry I don't have any pictures but I forgot to take my camera but if you google Paradise Island Punta Rucia, you can see some nice pics of the area.

So we're heading into our last week before the wedding week. We've got a couple nice studies and RV's going so we'll be saying goodbye to them and telling them that Cory & Jeni will be back in two weeks after their honeymoon.

These are the prettiest flowers, the tree drops its leaves but  these pretty flowers remain.

Here are some random shots.

In the ministry with a light shower.  (But it's still pretty)

The umbrella is for the sun today.

Hey Justin & Trish, our gecko is bigger than  yours.

 Two weeks  ago, I went on a Bible study with Roxanna (the special pioneer sister).  The study is with a Haitian family. Dad speaks and understands limited Spanish, mom doesn't speak any Spanish. The kids go to school here so can speak and read Spanish. We only covered a few paragraphs in the Teach book as it took a lot of time to explain words. Roxanna uses a Creole - Spanish dictionary to explain words that Antonio doesn't understand.  This was on a Wednesday and at Thursday night at meeting, Antonio (the dad) pulls me aside and tells me he has brought me some green beans and gives me this big bag. I was very touched by his generosity, this is a Very Poor family but they wanted to share.

 

This was stapled onto the outside of the bag of beans. It says The Mother of Cory and then his name

This past Thursday evening, Daniela (the oldest girl of the family) comes over to me and says that she thought we left  because she didn't see me at meeting on Sunday. We had attended the meeting at Jeni's hall so I explained to her that we had another two weeks yet. As we sat down for the meeting to start she came over and sat down beside me. She pulls out of her bag a snickers bar and offers it to me. This isn't the only candy she has, she has a whole stash of chocolate in there. So I happily accept the snickers bar. Even though people don't have much here, they seem to want to share what they have. Every meeting, I see the friends exchanging bags of goods. This one bakes bread that they share, another grows vegetables or fruit that they share. It's a wonderful spirit.

 
These are Antonio's children. When we arrived at meeting this morning they were there w/o the parents. I asked the boy, Jean Baptist, where they were and he said they were coming. When I asked how they got there. He said they walked all by themselves.This is probably about a 40 minute walk for them.  The little girl, I don't know her name, was sitting on a chair all sad which is unusual for her, she's generally walking around greeting everyone with hugs. So I asked her what was wrong and she showed me her knees which were scraped up, she must of fallen on the way over. When I bent down to talk with her, she wrapped her arms around my neck and didn't let go, the parents never did show up to meeting so she eventually fell asleep in  my lap. The Dad did show up on his motorcycle after the meeting to pick them up, so we don't know if someone was sick or what happened but anyway aren't they cute.