The Update With Pictures

Hello to everyone, we've made it to Samana! But let me back up. The day after the wedding, Doug & I left for Sosua to visit our old congregation and friends. Unfortunately I woke up that morning not feeling very well. Cory had not been feeling very well at his reception so I'm not sure if we were dealing with a virus or something we ate, hard to say. But regardless, it was another moving day for us. Danelle who is in Sosua for a few months, kindly offered us the apartment she was in for three nights while she bunked in with some girlfriends. By the time we arrived and got our things moved in, I was about done. By mid afternoon I realized I was running a fever so I spent the rest of that day and evening in bed. The real bummer was that the meeting that I wanted to attend was that evening so Doug was able to attend but I missed it. The next day my fever was gone and I seemed to be better but weak so we spent the day on the beach in Cabarete (one of our favorite remedies to feel better) Danelle was able to come down and visit with us for the afternoon and we had supper there on the beach. On Monday we were invited to a friends home for a little gathering. It was so nice to get caught up with friends and here there experiences. One of the families, the Sarkars, will be leaving the country soon. They were one of the first families that we met when we first came to the DR 6 ½ years ago. Their son was only 11 then but has grown into a fine young man. They've served in both the Spanish and Creole fields and are hoping now to help out the Creole field in the Bahamas. They were such a help and encouragement to us during our visits in the DR and to countless others. They are an outstanding example of a self-sacrificing family who is known for their hospitality and love for the brotherhood, so we wish them well and Jehovah's blessing!

While in Sosua we heard that our friends, the Radimerskys, who we were going to visit in Samana were really sick with Dengue. Richard had been in the hospital for 6 days and Rebekka for 10. (she had pneumonia also) When Doug called them they said they were doing better and to keep our plans. So Tuesday we arrived in Samana (about 2 ½ hr drive from Sosua) . Rebekka had been checking out different apartments for us, so that afternoon they took us to a little seaside community and we looked at a few. It's actually a pretty big community made up of duplexes, houses and apartments. The one we chose is a duplex. The owner, and Italian man, lives on the one side. It's very spacious with lots of cupboards and closet and drawer space which is really unusual. It has two bedrooms, bath, and kitchen and then a nice size porch with table and chairs, a couch and two more chairs so the porch is more like a living room. If there weren't buildings in front of us, we could see the ocean but we can hear it. We have use of a washing machine, which is great and we're suppose to have internet but as of today (Feb 21) we haven't been able to get it worked out (a password issue, we need Cory here) We also have a hot water heater that we can turn on to heat the water for showers. Electricity is very expensive here so we'll use it sparingly but it's nice to have. And also there are no Roosters Here!

We were able to get in the ministry yesterday. Even though this is a seaside community, it is very mountainous so we again were walking up and down hills and of course we had some rain showers so everything was muddy but it was great to be out in service again. This is a brand new congregation (started Sep 1) and only has 17 publishers so it will be nice to work with them for the next four weeks.

February 22 - Today was a beautiful day. We were in service for the entire day. I didn't get home till 5:45 p.m. The Coordinator and his wife are a couple from Italy and they invited us to work with them in the afternoon. So this morning we worked with the group, there was probably 12 out in service for the morning. After a morning of service most of us went to a little Dominican restaurant and had a typical Dominican meal for about $3.00 a plate. Then I accompanied Emanuela or several RV's and Bible studies. So was a really nice day.  We finally have internet at our place but it is very slow. I'll try to post some pictures of our new place and my new haircut. Yes, I braved going to a local salon and just telling them to cut it off. It feels great! While the sister I was working with was talking to a householder this morning, I started talking to three little girls that seemed intrigued by me. I showed them Jehovah's name in the Bible and then much to my surprise the one little girl smelled my arm and then smelled her own, then the second little girl did this also. I guess they wanted to see if white people smelled different. They then followed us to the next few doors, fighting over who got to hold my hand. This afternoon I had another surprise, while sitting at a Bible study, I heard this noise behind me on my chair, I turned to look and there was this beautiful parakeet, it was a pet of the family. It was quite curious of me also and walked all around me and eventually attacking my skirt!

Our Apartment

the porch

The beach about 100 yards from us

Joey, from Canada, really likes pigs

I like birds better

They rent union hall for the meetings (17 pub)

The parakeet decides to visit Emanuela

Lucas did the Bible reading, he is also the Mic carrier