All. Inclusive.

I never fully realized the beauty of those two relatively simple words until this weekend. When mi familia told me that we were going to stay in a hotel in Puerto Plata for the weekend as a church trip and that it would cost $55 per night, I was honestly a little shocked at the price. You might be saying to yourself, "Fifty five dollars for a hotel room is a pretty dang cheap price!! Why were you shocked, Bri??" But you must remember that I am now a Dominican, so my economy is much different...When I can buy a cell phone for $13 and go to the movies for less than $3, I find $55 a night for a hotel a wee bit steep...This was until I found out that the hotel was an all-inclusive resort with direct beach access, three different restaurants that were open at practically all hours, two bars (one at the pool and one on the beach) where you could get any fun tropical-y drink you could want, and fun activities like pool aerobics, kayaks, and shows every night! Needless to say, I was completely fine with the cost after I found all of this out!!

The first thing we did when we got there was eat, of course (I have decided that is the favorite Dominican past-time) I was so excited because the buffet had...vegetables!! Yes, vegetables! Here, vegetables aren't necessarily a favorite food, and when they are served they are always, without fail, drenched in vinegar! I don't think I have ever been so excited to be eating garden salad and steamed broccoli as I was that day at lunch. After lunch, Josh and I got to enjoy a piña colada by the pool before making our way to the beach where we proceeded to eat another food I miss quite terribly...Chips and pico de gallo. I think that everyone assumes that if a country is Spanish-speaking they will have lots and lots of Mexican food...that is most definitely an incorrect assumption!! We all played in the pool for awhile and then we got ready for dinner, but the getting ready part was even wonderful because I got to take a shower with running HOT water!! It was incredible :) We went to the buffet again for our first dinner and then about 2 hours later, we went to the resort's Mediterranean restaurant set on the beach for our second dinner! After dinner we caught the end of the show, and then spent time walking on the beach and hanging around the pool area...Josh and I also started working on saying goodbye for the next month-and-a-half :/

The next morning at 6am, mi papa and I took Josh back to Santiago so he could catch his flight back to the US...I will admit that there were a few tears on my part, but I have a feeling the second half of my trip will fly by faster than I expect! When we got back to the resort, I was greeted by my extremely loving family who all wanted to see how I was doing and who also wasted no time at all getting me to do a water aerobics class with them where I think I got more exercise just from all the laughing I was doing :) We also did a lot more eating, sunbathing (a little to much...I'm now a teensy bit crispy...But mi familia continues to say that being burnt is a good thing because now I look more like them...hehe!), sleeping, and just spending time together! I again had two dinners....one at the buffet, and the second at an Oriental restaurant-- I am thinking that this weekend I may have gained back the weight I lost when I got sick!! Woohoo!

The last day (which was yesterday), we had a mini-church service in the hotel's little outdoor theater, and it was awesome! I feel like God is really trying to make me aware of the fact that He works in my life and speaks to me...He may not always speak to me about the things I think I need answers to right now, but I think He wants to make sure that I realize that He is an active part of my life and I can trust Him to speak to me clearly about everything in HIS timing, not mine! The day before, I had been reading Luke 11:9-13 where Jesus says that if you ask, it will be given to you and if you knock, the door will be opened...and how earthly fathers, even though they are sinful, give their children what they ask for, so how much more will the heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to those who ask.  It was awesome, because that same passage (from Matthew 7:7) was used in our church service, and it was just so incredible to me that God would be so intentional with me...to ensure that I am paying attention to the words that He's giving me, and that I realize that He is speaking to me. I really want to learn (and I think I am learning) what it means to really seek God and be persistent and perseverant in seeking Him even when you don't necessarily "feel" what you think you should. I really want to figure out what being filled with the Holy Spirit looks like, because I want Him to be living out of me...I'm tired of being the one living this life of mine! A bit of a tangent, but I figured it is important to let you all know how I am developing spiritually, so you can continue to pray for me as I try to work all of this out!

After our church service, we spent more time in the pool, eating, and on the beach...When we were at the beach, my brother-in-law, Audi, asked if I wanted to go kayaking with him, and I was all about it! So we started out going straight out against the waves...We got quite a rhythm down, so we were super far from the shore in no time. He kept asking if I wanted to go further and every time I said, "Por supuesto!!" (Of course!!) Finally, Audi decided that he wanted to start going parallel to the shore, so we could explore another part of the beach...Bad decision!! Going against the waves is one thing, but when you decided to place your long kayak parallel with them, they have a habit of knocking you over! The second we turned, the kayak flipped...most would expect that this would be the point that little Bri Bri would start crying, but instead, I started to laugh hysterically! I thought that the ridiculousness of our situation was absolutely hilarious! The laughing continued when every time we tried to get back on, we would flip all over again...we didn't realize until later, but apparently our kayak was missing a plug that it needed, so it was filling with water, making it harder and harder to flip back over, and also making it impossible to keep balanced once we tried to jump back on. Luckily, a motorboat full of people saw us, and the driver said he would take the cumbersome kayak and oars off of our hands and back to shore. You may be thinking that this still left us in the middle of the ocean quite far from shore, which is the correct assumption! Luckily, a little sailboat saw the predicament we were in, so they came by and picked us up to take us back to shore! There was an English woman on board who had paid to rent the boat and have the guide, and we just got to join for free!! Definitely an incredible memory, and it just goes to show you that the unplanned-for mishaps can be the most fun :)

Yesterday, we made the 2 hour ride back with 4 sunburnt people jammed in the backseat, but all was well because we had an awesome weekend! 

Lots of kisses and hugs to all!! 

Rain, Rain DON'T Go Away!!

As you can see, I have put a little twist on the good ol' children's song "Rain, rain go away!" That is because here in the Dominican, rain is a blessed event! It has been raining pretty heavily off and on for the past three days, and I am LOVING it!! It has rained here before, but this is the first time that the rain has actually made the weather feel cooler....by cooler, I in no way mean jeans and sweatshirt weather (it is currently pouring buckets and I am wearing a sundress and flip-flops, feeling quite comfortable!), but I definitely don't feel like I am dying of heat stroke just by walking down the street!

Along with the rain, another blessed event has occurred here in the DR, and that is the arrival of Mister Joshua Prince!! He got here last Wednesday, and it has been so much fun to show him where I'm living, what I am eating, how I get around everyday, and of course having him get to know my wonderful family here! Mi familia loves "Josue" (that's how you say Joshua in Spanish...Mi mama attempted saying "Josh" the first day he was here, but the attempts proved to be futile ;) ) He comes and sits in my classes everyday with me and gets to go to my family's daycare with me after school for lunch and after we usually tool around town or go back to my house and sit on the front porch (seeing as that is the coolest place in my house!) I think Josh may be seeing that his girlfriend is a little tougher than everyone may think ;) He has gotten to brave the elements with me, experience the common occurence of sickness here (we both have colds right now :/), eat the sometimes questionable food (we had sweet mashed platanos with ground beef the other night!), and the plentiful bugs (one kept Josh up the second night he was here...hehe!)

This past Saturday we went to the prettiest beach I have been to since we've gotten here!! It is called Playa Grande, and it was a three hour bus ride away, but the drive was definitely worth it! The sand was beautiful and soft, the waves at the beach were actually substantial (unlike all of the others so far), and the water was cool enough to be really refreshing! We also decided to be adventurers and made our way out to these sharp rock formations where we had to go through little rock tunnels that filled with water when the waves came in and climb onto rocks that were entirely too sharp and had sea urchins hiding in the most clever places! Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the most intelligent decision I have ever made, but it was SO MUCH FUN!! It just goes to show you, sometimes a little risk is a good thing :)

We also got to go to a Dominican wedding on Saturday night, and it was another interesting experience! The culture is so different here, so why wouldn't the weddings be radically different too?? I just feel as though not as much pressure is put on the event itself here, so it is completely fine to show up over an hour late (as we did) because it is safe to say that the ceremony probably won't start until two hours after it is scheduled to start. No worries if you do happen to show up while the ceremony is actually starting because you can just walk down the aisle as the bridesmaids do to get to your seat (yes, that actually happened!)When the ceremony finally does start, because it is held in the same place the reception is, they decide to cut the work in half and just have everyone sit at round tables to watch the ceremony. Round tables are much more conducive to socializing, so it is not uncommon to hear people making polite conversation DURING the ceremony. Although a little unorthodox to me, the weddings here most definitely follow the laid back Dominican style of things!!

So, I am definitely enjoying the time that I get to spend here with Josh, but I will admit that the days are seeming to move quite a bit more quickly while he's here, which I am not a huge fan of :/ But once he leaves, I will be over half-way done with my stay here!! Can you believe it?? I sure can't!

Mi Semana!!

This past week has been so full, so as to not give you all a novel to read, I'm going to list the things that made this past week wonderful!

- The government finally decided that picking up the trash would be a good idea, so after three weeks of trash piling up, my street is finally clean again :) Which means the streams of black ickyness on the sidewalk are also gone!!

-The APU group has made its way to Tony Roma's (yes, there is one at one of the shopping centers here!) at least three times this week after school because they have a big screen where they are playing the World Cup! (I am apparently now a futbol fan as well..who knew?)

-I made friends!! Last week I played with all of kids on my street for about three hours...they loved playing with me because I have "brazos largos" (long arms!) so I can throw the ball really far (yes, these children are small, so their version of far may be a wee bit exaggerated) Anyway, now whenever I walk down the street, I hear "Amiga! Amiga!" and then little kids come running out of who-knows-where to come give me hugs :)

- On Friday night I went with mi hermana and my friend Saleena to watch Prince of Persia (still so interesting to me that we go to movies here that are in English with Spanish subtitles!) and then we went to get Yaroa, which is an extremely popular street food in Santiago...it consists of french fries, layered with a mixture of beef and chicken and onions, followed by a slice of melted white cheese, followed by ketchup, mayonnaise, and more cheese...I know, the epitome of healthy! And written down, it actually sounds pretty gross...but it was SO good! My stomach didn't really appreciate it the next day, but it was worth it ;)

-On Saturday, our group got to go out on our own for the first time, and I am so very glad we did! We took a guagua (a big bus stuffed with people) out toward Puerto Plata and stopped at a place called 27 Charcos, which is twenty-seven waterfalls that you get life-jackets, helmets, and two guides in order to climb up and then either jump of or slide down!   I wish I could explain the beauty of this place...we only did the first seven waterfalls, and just those were absolutely breathtaking, and so much fun! We would walk through the water with huge rock walls rising high above us on either side, and then be pulled, pushed, or climb up through these relatively small, yet incredible waterfalls...such a great experience!!

-When we left the Charcos, we were standing on the side of the road waiting in the BLAZING sun for a guagua, and there was NOTHING! Luckily, there was a big red truck that the 11 of us were able to jump on the back of, and he actually caught up with a guagua, so we could jump on and make our way to the beach for the rest of the day :)

-Here in the DR they have something called "Dia de Los Maestros" (Teacher's Day)...it is at the end of the year, and teachers all receive gifts from their students...and when I say gifts, I mean gifts!! Mi mama is a teacher, and her bed was filled with clothes, jewelry, bath sets, and stuff for her house...it looked like Christmas! The next day, mi mama came in my room and said she had something for me...She then proceeded to give me this beautiful little pearl bracelet she had gotten. I asked her if she had gotten it from one of her students and when she said yes, I told her that she should keep it for herself, which she responded to by saying that the bracelet looked liked me and that she loves sharing with her daughters...I almost cried! I found out that every time mi mama gets gifts like that, she makes sure to let mis hermanas and her friends look to see if they like anything so they can have it!!

-On Sunday, one of the APU girls saw a group of white people in her church, which is pretty out of the ordinary here, so she went over and introduced herself. They ended up being a group of graduating high school seniors who came for a week to visit with their Spanish teacher who has family here...True to the Dominican spirit, they invited all of the APU group over that night for fried platanos and salami, and we ended up staying for hours just talking about everything we have experienced so far :)

-Last night, mis hermanas, mi cuñado (brother in law), and I got home before mi mama and papa... that of course meant that it was our duty to put on bachata and merengue music...this led to my older sister and her husband teaching me how to dance the bachata...which of course led to my two hermanas and I dancing in the kitchen for hours while making dinner, dripping sweat (because between the already hot Caribbean air and the two burners on the stove going, we had created a sauna in the kitchen!) Honestly, one of my best nights here so far, and one I will never forget :)

This week makes exactly a month that I have been here in the Dominican, and, needless to say, this has been quite a week!! And I am bound to have another wonderful week ahead of me, seeing as Josh is coming to visit TOMORROW!!! YAY!

All my love from here in Santiago :)

Random...

I have no actual point in mind while writing this, but I don't want to forget all of the random things I see and experience everyday, so I shall enumerate them here:

- I can safely say that I have never seen a man walking through a school campus with two chickens under his arm...until today!!

- What are the odds of getting into a concho next to the same man that had given you his number a week prior?? Awkward!!

-Have you ever been barked at by a dog...staring down at you from the roof of its house?

-I didn't know that they had tornadoes here in the Dominican Republic, but apparently one decided to knock out a main power line yesterday, and we were without power for 10 hours!

-The sides of our street are currently piled with everyone's household trash because apparently after the elections the syndicate decided that public trash pick-up would no longer be on the docket of "priorities"...

-I now am a mosquito killing master! The little buggers don't stand a chance with me...unless I'm sleeping...then they get me back by attacking my legs... 

 

-As I was walking home from school, I got tickled by the fact that a chicken and rooster were just hanging out on my street!

-Now that the guagua has officially stopped functioning, I get so touched by the fact that my papa walks to the daycare my mama works at everyday so he can walk her home.

That's all I have for now...I know there are so many more things I see everyday that shock me, surprise me, make me laugh, and touch me more than you could know....but as of now, that is all I can remember!!

Love you all...xoxox

Ahorita!!

If you were to look up the word "ahorita" in the dictionary it would say something along the lines of "right away; at this very moment". In the Dominican Republic, they definitely do not use this definition!! Here, "ahorita" literally means anywhere from a half hour to about two hours...You can imagine my shock the first day when my papa told me we were leaving "ahorita". I grabbed my stuff and started to get my shoes and he just looked at me rather perplexed. I have definitely learned my lesson!

As I have mentioned before, time is very different here than it is at home. Here, the focus is much more on the event itself as opposed to the exact time it begins or ends. When my papa tells me that we are leaving for church exactly at 9, I know that we will be leaving at 9:30 at the earliest (it takes time to finish eating the breakfast that is made every morning, get the car to actually start, and lock the three different gates/doors leading into our house!)

This past Wednesday I went to my first Dominican wedding (I say first because I have two more that I am going to get to go to!) The wedding I went to was scheduled to start at 3...We left our house for the wedding at 3:40...At first I was nervous that we would be late , and then I realized the ridiculousness of my nervousness! The wedding didn't end up starting until 5:15!! No one waiting for the wedding to start acted as if the waiting were anything out of the ordinary. When it did start, it was quite an event, with an entire sermon embedded in the ceremony! The reception consisted of dinner and cake (no dancing :/ because here, it is very embedded in the culture that Christians don't dance) Even with the simplicity of the reception, we didn't end up getting home until around 10pm!! 

Time definitely is not in any way the focus here, which takes some getting used to, but it is also teaching me the beauty of not really needing to run life by the hands of a clock :)

Don't Drink The Water!!

I think every single person hears this when going out of the country into a developing nation...it is like the number one rule in any savvy traveler's guide! One may think "Anyone dumb enough to drink the water after they have been told explicitly not to deserves to be sick!" To that I reply, "Well, what if the person drank the water on accident??"

This past Sunday was "El Dia de Las Madres" in the Dominican, so once more, to all you mother's in my life...Happy Mother's Day!!!! (again!) Needless to say, Dominicans are big on friends, family, and food! So, we had a bunch of people over to our house to have a big lunch after church. One big difference between here and home is that on Mother's Day at home, mom's are not supposed to lift a finger...they are to be served and taken care of! Here, every single one of the mom's was in the kitchen working on something for the day's meal. That meant that someone other than my mama made the drinks for lunch. I'm guessing that this woman had never gotten the memo that in our house we take all water and boil it before we put it in a pitcher in the fridge to drink it. This woman decided that she would make things easier by skipping the middle man and putting the water straight from the sink into the pitchers of tea and water! That leads me to my current dilemma...I thought it tasted sorta strange on Sunday and on Monday and Tuesday when I was drinking the same leftover tea and water, I had a nagging suspicion that something was amiss...today, I am paying for it!!

Moral of the story: When the collective "they" tell you not to drink the water...DON'T DO IT!! 

And we walk!!

Here in the DR, a family is very lucky to have one car. My family is one of those lucky families!! As a result, we often go and pick up my tia, cousins, family friends, and anyone else who needs a ride whenever we go to school, church, the grocery store...any outing really! If you can't tell, a car (known as a guagua here) is quite a precious commodity! Unfortunately, last week the guagua started giving my papa problems...He would be ready for work, dressed in his suit and tie, and the car would just not start. Instead of getting upset or cursing the car for not working, he would simply go to a neighbor's house with a huge smile on his face and ask for a jump...Eventually, this plan failed him because on Sunday the car refused to function any longer. Mind you, my papa is the pastor of the church...instead of kicking at the car or complaining about being late, he calmly called a taxi and on our way to church found (or rather made) the opportunity to talk to the cab driver about Jesus. My papa is honestly one of the most joyful and patient people I have ever met and he always gives all the glory to Jesus for his demeanor. Whenever I ask him if he's okay about this whole car situation, he always says "All of my problems are in God's hands. Why would I be upset?" (in Spanish, of course ;)  And whenever I praise him for being so joyful he says, "It is our job to be joyful at all times!" My family and life in general here are sure teaching me a lot!

 

Because of this car situation, I have taken quite an affinity to walking...EVERYWHERE!! My friend here and I needed to go to a certain store to get her phone fixed and to get calling cards, so we walked...5 MILES round trip!! So, needless to say, I better have toned legs by the end of this trip! Honestly though, I am finding such an appreciation for the things I take for granted at home all the  time...like having a car so I can go wherever I want whenever I want (you think through "little outings" a bit more when you know you'll be walking the whole way!)

Luckily, my papa took the guagua to the mechanic today, so I think we'll have a working car tomorrow!