Wow! Here we are at the end of our first full day in "the Dominican". We were up bright and early, around 6:30 a.m. The picture above shows us leaving our casa in Santiago to board the 15-passenger van that fits our entire group. Brian, shown above in the blue shirt and bluejeans, is our driver, host, and construction manager.
We took a short drive through the neighborhood to the local Lutheran missions office. The entire missions effort to all of Latin America, is headquartered in the Dominican Republic. We spent some time with Pastor Ted Krey, who inspired us with encouragement and stories about what missions are all about: sharing the good news about Jesus, while helping and serving others at the same time.
After about an hour, we got back in the van for a bumpy and scenic ride to Palma Arriba, a village just outside of Santiago, where a Lutheran school has been established. On this trip, our primary assignment is to perform improvements to the school, especially the outside of the building and the playground area.
As we drove through the streets of Santiago, we saw some newer houses, but at the same time, the poverty was evident. The streets were pretty littered, and locals could be seen sitting stoically in front of their homes, or working at various small businesses. Entrepreneurs sold everything from strawberries to empanadas to the cars passing by. Eventually we passed out of Santiago onto the bumpy roads that up into the hilly area which was our destination.
We arrived at the school and after a tour of the building and surrounding yard, we received our main assignments: 1) to patch some exterior holes in the masonry exterior of the building (which required the construction of scaffolding); 2) to create a 32' x 60' basketball court; 3) to set in place a 3-person teeter totter; and 4) to set apart and create a garden area in the yard. All of this would involve shoveling dirt, making mortar and concrete, building rock walls, and more.
Here is a panorama of the yard, before any construction (this is a link to a different website which will open in a new window): See Panorama of Jobsite on First Day
Other than a 1 hour break for lunch, everyone served in various ways and we made a ton of progress! When quitting time arrived at around 4:00 p.m., everyone was tired, overheated, dusty, and feeling satisfied from a hard day's work. The changes in the yard were dramatic. The scaffolding was put up and most of the tuckpointing was done. The basketball court was measured, leveled, and partially framed. The teeter totter was set into a large, poured concrete foundation. And the women worked together to build an attractive stone wall to create a newly formed garden area.
Honorable mention goes to Ward (shown at the top of the picture above), who won the "tough guy" award by surviving several bee stings after lunch, right where you see him standing in the picture above! Suffering for the sake of Christ . . . he didn't complain at all.
The following panaroma was created later in the day, and you can see some of differences: Panorama of Yard, End of First Day
All of us were feeling really good about the group effort. Despite being from 5 different churches, the 14 of us are already friends. More than friends, actually . . . brothers and sisters in Christ!
We concluded our day with well deserved rest, showers, a nice dinner, devotional, a little socializing, and now finally -- bed time!
This might be the longest blog post of the trip -- but we hope that it captures for our friends, family, and church partners, the true essense of what we are experiencing here in the Dominican Republic. Prayers for safety, unity, and good weather are being answered, and we are truly blessed by the LORD.
