As I reflect on the 2011 trip to the DR, I am continually amazed at the goodness and power of the God to work in and though us! When we are weak He is strong! Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support for myself, Ina, and The Cercadillo Project! Please enjoy the video I’ve put together of highlights from the baseball camp and some sight-seeing…on to 2012! Lord willing, a Summer 2012 trip will be along shortly…
…and soon to be sound asleep! I am so thankful for a pretty uneventful trip home today! God put on a quite a show during my flight from Atlanta to Des Moines…there was a beautiful lightening storm for about an hour of the flight, and lightening is so awesome from above the clouds! I added some pictures from the last few days to the previous post so check them out! I will write a summary entry in the next day or so, but for right now, buenas noches!!!
Jess
“My skin is very burned!” But that’s the side story to the last couple of days! Ina and I have been hearing about a country-wide strike in the DR (called a “huelga” here) affecting all transportation with the possibility of street violence in protest about rising gasoline and diesel prices as well as a few other issues. The people here are very upset with their current president because they feel that he can fix many of the problems and is not acting in their best interest. There is always the possibility that a huelga will get called off the night before so we were not trying to make any changes to my flight home today until late last night. It became pretty clear that Ina driving me to the airport from the resort was not a viable option because of huge safety concerns to anyone driving private vehicles. There was one brave taxi driver who said he would try to get me to the airport early this morning, however he wanted to wait until daylight in case protestors would put things in the road to try and stop us. That was very unsettling to me, so we began to ponder changing my flight to Tuesday instead of today since the huelga should be over by then. Late last night, I called the Dominican Delta office, but they were unable to change my flight because it was purchased as part of a group of tickets (thanks Couches 
), so even later last night I called my mom who was able to get a hold of a woman at the travel agent and rebook me for Tuesday! Praise the Lord!!! We should be safe here at the resort today (and who doesn’t like an extra day at a resort? – except that I mentioned I am burned!), and will try to get me to the airport tomorrow. Please join us in praying that the huelga does in fact get over today or by early morning tomorrow!
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Gracias por sus oraciones,
Jess
Okay…be flexible, right? So there is supposed to be a country-wide strike tomorrow affecting all public transportation and possible attacks on people who try to travel so currently my mom is working on changing my flight to Tuesday. If you are reading this, please pray that the change will be authorized very quickly. It is not safe for Ina to take me to the airport and taxis are very risky!
Muchas gracias!
Jessica
Today was my last day in Cercadillo! We (mainly Ina ) had a great time with the women during Bible Study and their was great discussion about what we are willing to do for Christ. Pablo (Paul) was willing to die if it was the Lord’s will. This truth stirred the hearts of some of the women present, especially Elida, a believer who was baptized a few years ago and who, along with her sister Yaquelin, is really growing in her faith! How amazing to see the hearts of these women growing to be more like Christ and understanding what it means to follow him. We ended our Bible study time by having me pass out the notes that some women from my church wrote personally to each women in the business. It was fun to watch them read the notes and ask how to pronounce the names of the Americans. After Bible study we collected items the women had completed for selling, and I tried to use my Spanish to converse with Elida, Yaquelin, and Maileni . I think we actually had some meaningful conversation! Instead of spending the rest of the day sewing, we had to high-tail it out of there because a huge rain storm blew in and there was risk of a crossing flooding on the way home. We made it safely back to Villa Mella where it ended up turning out to be a pretty nice day! Ugh! Fortunately we used the extra time to wash the car (well, we paid some people to wash the car really well inside and out) and work on some projects. When people refer to the “Car Wash” in Villa Mella, what they actually mean is a disco by day, car wash by night kind of place. That explains the background behind Ina in the picture below…I promise we were just working on Cercadillo things ! We ended our day by going to Pica Pollo with our good friends Brigida and Yudy for one last dinner in the neighborhood. The restaurant is locally known as Chinese Chicken Man! They do have the best fried chicken that I’ve ever had in the DR so I’ll let them keep their reputation. They used to be a pork place which explains the pig in the window in the pictures below, and the whole in the window has been there for quite a while! After dinner we retired to Ina’s house to pack for our trip to the resort and enjoyed some massages from one of Ina’s neighbors who just recently took some kind of massage class and bought a portable table…you can’t beat a massage in your very own home! It was a great way to begin our weekend of relaxation. This was only my second massage, however it was my first with barking dogs, cat fights, and loud music playing throughout the neighborhood! Esta es la gran aventura! Due to not knowing how much internet I will have at the resort, I will sign off for now (unless I can add more this weekend) until I return to the states. Tune in for another post sometime Tuesday at the latest! Please pray that Ina and I will really relax this weekend, that I arrive home safely and that I have traveling mercies on Monday! There is city-wide or country-wide strike planned for Monday to protest the rising costs of gasoline (up past $6.00/gallon currently), so please pray that we won’t run into any problems getting to the airport and for Ina’s continued safety. I have so enjoyed sharing this adventure with you, and thank you so much for your felt prayers! God is and has been so good!!!
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Dios le bendiga,
Jess
Good day! Ina and I spent most of the day finishing dishes and a few other projects around the house. I am glad to say that our tarantula friend was gone this morning, although it’s almost more creepy not knowing where he is. Late this afternoon we headed out to Cercadillo because a group of Americans from TIME were coming out to play with the kids. The kids could choose from legos, weaving bracelets, coloring, and playing wiffleball. Not surprisingly, most of the boys chose ball! One the way home we bought two pineapples from Ina’s friend Mario, and cored and sliced them with Ina’s fancy gadget. Then, I had the opportunity to drink the juice straight from the pineapple…yum! I also made a toilet paper reminder sign to put on the back of the toilet in the guest bathroom downstairs. We think the poem is pretty funny…it says
If you gotta PP,
don’t flush the TP.
If you do somethin’ brown,
still don’t flush the TP down!
If you accidentally drop it in, don’t blush,
just take out the TP before you flush!
Pretty catchy, eh? In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you can’t flush toilet paper anywhere in the Dominican Republic because the pipes are too small…fun, huh? Tomorrow will be my last day in Cercadillo. We will spend the day sewing with the women and then we are having dinner at a fancy little joint in Villa Mella (the sector of Santo Domingo where Ina lives) called Pica Pollo (we refer to it as Chinese Chicken Man because a Chinese family runs it). It’s actually not fancy at all, but according to Brigida, they have the best fried chicken in the DR! I’ll let you in on a little secret…Ina and I are stealing away to a resort from Saturday noon through Monday morning, and I will head to the airport from there…yes! I doubt they will have internet readily accessible so tomorrow will probably be my last entry until I get home Monday night!
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Until tomorrow…
Jess
Today was a busy day of discipleship and sewing with the women in the village. Ina woke up not feeling well at all, but praise the Lord, she was able to tough out the day! A lot of discipleship time was spent celebrating what God is doing in the lives of the women and their families. I learned today that many of the children who are now allowed to attend a school near Cercadillo passed their grade levels so that is a huge celebration. One teenager even received her high school diploma and will now hopefully have the opportunity to attend a local university. That is awesome! During sewing time, the women made tons of headbands (bandas) and a few wallets (monederos). The wallets are more difficult for the women to make because of needing to make all of the edges straight and sewing a finishing stitch all the way around the sides. Some are getting better while others are trying to pass off products that are not quality. It can be very frustrating for everyone when the women want Ina to settle for products at are not up to par. Hopefully we will get another opportunity to practice them on Friday!
Tonight at home we washed dishes, and then we washed more dishes, and then we ate dinner, and then we washed more dishes, and then we hung up some wet towels, and then we washed more dishes!!! This is all because the exterminator came on Tuesday and sprayed oustide the house, all of the floors inside the house, and inside the cupboards. It’s a lot of work, but I am thankful because of a little (that term is relative) friend that Ina spotted on the wall outside her laundry room tonight. Fortunately, the tarantula didn’t move while I ran upstairs to get my camera so I’ve included a few pictures. This is the third tarantula I’ve seen here (second this year), but he is the first one that I have been able to get pictures of. I am also thankful for Ina’s wise decision to install screens on all her windows and doors as well as the fact that he is on the wall on Ina’s side of the house, not mine ! Esta es la gran aventura!!!
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Buenas Noches,
Jess
