July 30th, Lunes (Monday)
6:45 AM did come quickly. Last year we were awaken super early by fighting dogs and roosters. Not so much this year. The people who had the roosters behind us have moved....so we don't have them to bother us. There are still several in the neighborhood, but at least they are not right behind us. And the bedroom I am in this year is not on the street side where the dogs fight, so I didn't have to worry about that either. We got breakfast and headed out to Hautico. We did home visits while some worked on planting trees in the church grounds. Cam stayed with the planting team. The churches around here often have fruit trees behind the church and they use their vegetation to help support the people of the church family. Really very neat. I went out with Jenn and Isaiah. We hit about 6 or 7 houses. We spoke to them and reminded them of VBS and church on Friday. Two houses really stood out to me. One was a grandma and grandpa. Some of their children and their children lived there also. Grandma's name was Michaelina. She owned a little store front. She was incredible. Her grandson had a TERRIBLE burn on his foot. We promised we would be back later to treat it to the best of our ability. We prayed for them and went on. The other house we enjoyed was another grandmas house. Her name was Norma. Her whole family lived around her. She has 9 children! She didn't even know how many grandchildren she had. She was AWESOME! We prayed with her also and moved on. I love the incredible hospitality that the Dominican people give. You go to a house and they are SO happy to host you, they will give up their chairs and say, "Sit, Sit!" They will stop whatever they are doing to be with you. They'll offer you anything and everything. They just have incredible hospitality!
After we visited, we went back to the church. Pastor Octavio gave us coconuts to drink the milk out of. I wasn't a huge fan, but it was cool and refreshing. It AMAZED me exactly HOW cool it was. It may as well have come out of a fridge and it has just been cut from the tree! The boys were still all digging and planting. Pretty soon Cam came in an asked if we wanted to see a tarantula. We did! We went outside and he was holding it on a twig! ICK! It was playing dead though as they often do when messed with....but we THOUGHT it WAS dead!! We didn't know that it had been playing dead until Cam put it back on the ground and it scampered away!!! FREAKED us out! Soon we headed off to La Casa for lunch. Lunch was La Bandera as usual with some Jamon in it this time. YUM!! After lunch I took the food to the neighbors. I had done this once before on this trip, pero la mama no esta aqui, pero este tiempo fue a la casa! She asked me my name, I told her Tonya. She asked if I was the Tonya from last year, I said yes and she was so excited and I was so excited! It was a great reunion!
After lunch we headed back to Huatico. We started VBS with the kids. It was a pretty good day. I just am not feeling the connection with these kids this year. I need to pray about it and try not to compare last year with this year. VBS was successful and then we headed back for the dinner. We had Tacos for dinner tonight! They were tasty! Then we walked to the Supermercado. I always enjoy doing that. I got COLD water, COLD gatorade and Ice Cream. Cam got Tostitos, Coke and Cheese Dip. We were all thrilled. After our walk we played Rage. We had a FABULOUS time! LOVE THAT GAME! Wayne played and he is quite the funny guy. He showed his true colors! I found Tayler crying. I asked her what was wrong. She said she just doesn't feel the connection with the community like last year and as I wrote earlier, I understand that. We prayed together. I asked a couple other people who had been here last year and they agreed. So we all prayed. Hopefully tomorrow will be different.
Michaelina and I ready for church.
Norma with Jenn and I.
Our Hautico Church.
