D.R. - Day 1

Day 1

Before my trip to the Dominican, I was nervous. I didn’t know a lot of people and I was concerned that I wouldn’t know where I was supposed to be. But after being around the people for a while I wasn’t concerned anymore. God had a lot in mind for us and I had no idea what it was.

        The first thing I saw when I exited the Santo Domingo airport was a man shinning shoes. I wanted to take a picture but I didn’t want to offend anyone. My first thought was “Mom would think this is so cool!”
       
        That night I had a great night’s sleep. Unfortunately I was one of the few who did. I loved hearing the rooster’s crow, dogs barking and people talking. Hearing all of that is like hearing a person’s heart beat, it’s the proof that they are alive. It excites me to know that people are living all around me. This is very hard to explain but I’m a city girl, I used to live in a big city so I was pretty used to hearing things at night.

Day 2

        We woke up at seven to the sweet aroma of eggs. And the first thing I saw out our window was a beautiful sunrise; the picture I took doesn’t do it justice.

       
        Our mission in the D.R. was to help finish a church building and to pumice and paint a school. I automatically went to help pumice and paint; there was no doubt in my mind that that is where I was supposed to be. Pumicing is basically using pumice stones (or a steel brush or a scraper) to scrape off the pealing paint from the walls. Myself and a bunch of other people pumiced pretty much all morning. This job seems insignificant and way too much work than it’s worth at first. But if we don’t pumice, the new paint will peel off of the walls, defeating the purpose of repainting.
        While I was pumicing, a little girl came up to me and said “hola”. I said “hola” back and was thrilled that she came up to me! She then tugged lightly on my colorful plaid shorts and said “Bonita”. I said “no espanol” and she left. I felt so bad, I could not understand Spanish! And there was no one around me to translate. I later found out that “bonita” meant “pretty”. Maybe learning Spanish isn’t such a bad idea…

As I was pumicing I watched the people walk by. I saw Esther, the Pastors wife, walk by and decided to introduce myself. After I did, she asked if I had met her daughter, Tonia yet.  I had not. She said that she would send Tonia to come find me, “she is a good worker and knows some English.” I was so happy to hear this.

                After a few minutes Tonia came. We introduced ourselves to each other and I taught her how to pumice. We chatted for a while and worked together. I told her she didn’t have to work, but she wanted to anyway. It was a special moment for me, almost as if I had redeemed myself from not being able to understand the last girl I tried speaking too.