My new companion, Hna Alcantara, is a complete angel. And the other companionship in the house is Hermana Erickson (Sarah's comp in La Venta) with Hermana Safeer (Sarah trained Hna Safeer).
Feels Like Home! Me with a home made whip. I had to show the local kids I knew how to crack a whip.
Azua: It's safe and quiet I think. It gets really dark at night because no one has lights, but it makes for great stars! I guess it's a bit dangerous in some places--but that's the DR. I feel almost like home being in the country. It's nice. And Azua is very dry compared to the humidity of the DR in general.
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| Sarah & Hermana Erickson A Joyous Reunion: "We met up outside the transfer bus, and it was like a cheesy romantic movie: 'Our surprised eyes met. Speechless for a second, then she asked where I was headed. 'Sábana Yegua' I said. She just smiled, and I knew in that moment.' I then ruined the romantic cheesy moment by squealing rather un-lady-like." |
Although a large number of those wide open spaces are found in the mouths of most of the inhabitants. A full set of teeth is quite a rarity here.
Also literacy rates drop significantly out here.
So the DR has different areas, like in Utah they would be counties. We're in Azua ¨county¨ in a little town called Sábana Yegua. Today to get to the main cityof Azua (where there's a bank, grocery store, and reliable internet) we paid to hop in the back of a truck, and rode with 14 adults in the back of a truck the 20-30 minutes to Azua. It's a beautiful drive. Palm trees and fields of vegetables. And we live in a low valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the ocean on the other (but you can't see the ocean from where we usually are.)
We rarely have running water, or electricity. And rarely at the same time. I don't fully understand it, but water from the city has to come at the same time as the electricity so that you can pump up water to the tank on top of the house so that when the water doesn't come from the city, you have a reserve. Long story short, water is scarce, and so is electricity. I took it so much for granted before. Now I plug in my straightener, oh, no light. Put something in the microwave, oh, that won't work either. How about do some laundry, nope, unless you're going to do it in a bucket. And I washed my hair in a bucket for the first time. I mostly feel like I'm camping. Or sometimes when I walk around with a candle, I feel like I could possibly be in a Jane Austen book.
I went to my first temple sealing this week. The new companionship came with an extra bonus of a temple trip on Thursday. Hna Alcantara got permission to go to her sister's temple sealing. I forgot to mention Hna Alcantara is super awesome. She's from Santo Domingo. So we got to go, see her family for a few hours at the temple, and attend the sealing. It was super amazing. But I did feel a little weird being the random American that no one knew. But her family was super nice about it and let me be part of the family. That's one of the greatest characteristics of Dominican culture, they're really hospitable and welcoming.
On the way to the capital on the two and half hour gua gua ride, all the sudden, about half an hour in, I heard a rooster crow. I was confused, until I looked a few seats over and saw a chicken just sitting on the lap of a passenger. No big deal. That's just normal campo (field) for you.
Sorry I can't really update you all too much on the investigators. I´m still getting to know them. But we'll probably have a baptism this week of Wander, a 13 year old boy.
Love you all so much, thanks for the news.
Love, Sarah
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