Off and running with Emma

I am blessed enough to have Emma visiting me for two weeks.    It's not the first time she's been to San Juan but we are exploring some new things together in this free time.    One of the most meaningful moments was returning to Bastida to visit a sweet little baby (yayyyy that I delivered in March!) and our friend Julian.   Baby Nicole is growing and beautiful and adorable and sleeeeeeepppppyyyy when I held her!   Her mother was beaming that I came to visit and I can't wait to go back.    We found Julian working outside of town far out in an onion field.   We took some friends and some of his family in the truck to find him and they all stood in the back of the truck and shouted his name until he looked up, noticed that some apparently crazy people were pulled over at the side of the road hollaring for him, and slowly made his way to us.   It is always good to see Julian.   I think about what it might mean to him, that we drive almost an hour to his town, fill up our truck with people who think they can find him in the fields, and then careen down the road until we locate him....and I hope he feels how much we love him.   During the trip I remarked to some of our friends in the truck that we should make a movie about our adventures in searching for Julian and others.   It seems that I am often looking here....for kids that I used to know, scanning the streets for them, wondering how they are,  giving fierce hugs when I do find them, a sense of relief that they are okay.

Emma and I went to a concert last weekend too.  Our friends Neftali and Jhonny are rock stars here in a band called Alientovivo (look them up on Facebook- they are awesome!) and so we are groupies and follow them around a little.  We sat in the back of the pickup under a full moon at the old casino in town (that is now a church) and ate crackers with our friend Fanelli and rocked out with the fellas.  Good times all around!

We play lots of games here (this should be hilarious to my family, esp my brother...who knows I am not a gamer).    We sometimes wake up and play dominos with Dan and Kari after breakfast.  I am now a huge fan of dominos.  Dominican dominos is not like we play in the States- it's a very serious business with lots of strategy.  So far I'm horrible but I have high hopes of eventually understanding the strategy and becoming a legit player.   I have been reassured that I am not there yet....by many many well-meaning folks.

We spent a day in El Cercado....hauling some milk to the clinic for the Infant Nutrition Program, visiting my awesome awesome family there, and then fishing with Pastor Morales.   We drove seemingly to the end of the world, Monte Mayor, and then waded across 3 rivers to get to our fishing spot, and then got DUMPED on with rain.  And it was a fabulous wonderful adventure.   We couldn't stop laughing.  I hitched a ride across the river at one point with a tractor full of workers who kindly rescued my floating flipflop and surely wondered what crazy americans were doing out in the middle of nowhere carrying fishing poles and sugar cane.  It was blissful.

We went to Barahona to spend one last day with our friend Jhonny before he leaves for the capital to continue his education.    Oh we will miss him!   Barahona is always a blast- even tho it did rain!   We played a lot of dominos, ate some fresh fried fish, laid in the rain, and fought the harsh surf and high waves.  I always laugh that there is no way this beach would be "safe" enough for the States.  There is a horrendous undertow, high crashing strong waves, trash everywhere, and not a lifeguard in sight.  In the States there would be red flags and warning signs everywhere.  And yet- I love it.  It's all part of the experience.

We spent a few hours visiting friends in Pueblo Nuevo.   I love visiting the fellas there, remembering my first times in San Juan and how deeply I felt pulled to this place even then, staying an extra week, sobbing when I left...all that good stuff.   And now they are part of my family here, part of my little community that I love so much.

And now Emma and I are outside the capital in Boca Chica.   We drove in yesterday to explore some new places today before we head to Higuey tomorrow to visit our friend Gary.   Of course we made it a whole 5 minutes outside of San Juan before the blue truck konked out.  It's a recurring theme in life here, that the blue truck fumbles frequently.  I stopped at the gas station to have them check the oil and then the truck wouldn't start.  Monchy to the rescue!   What would any of us do without Monchy, our fantastic friend, bus driver, second baseman, mechanic, and general "he knows everything" guy?  I think I have his number on speed dial.   I often call him and hand the phone to the first Dominican standing next to me to explain in great detail what I have done THIS time and then I take the phone back and he tells me what to do.  In this case, he showed up with Adia in about 5 minutes, laughed really hard at us standing next to the truck forlornly, took one look at the engine, wandered across the street to borrow a wrench, and had the engine running in about 2 minutes.   YAYYYYYY for Monchy!  

So here I am, chilling with some cafe, enjoying this free time now, trying to take it all in.  Knowing that we have a few weeks of downtime before the madness ensues again with 6-7 back to back groups.   And then another couple free weeks.  And then the insanity of winter.   I kinda love it.  That we go really hard for weeks on end, and then we have a couple weeks off.   Kari and I are trying to set some goals of how we can be "healthy" in the crazy times, trying to sneak to the track at least every other day to run or just bail on the guesthouse/clinic for 10 minutes a day, to catch a breath, to remember to continue to pour into each others lives.    It's a good thing to think about now....cuz there is no thinking when we have teams in town.  :)  And I've got 2 proposals to write this week...and some visits to the Solid Rock Schools to plan... and some time in Cercado at the clinic next week and the Scary Room is always awaiting me (horrors) ...and oh man, here we go.   Dan and Kari and I are going to spend some time exploring in another week or so too and I'm looking forward to learning more about this place, this gorgeous country that I will call home this year.   But for now, I'm going to sip my coffee and thank God that He got me here, sana y salva.   I'm thanking Him for Emma and how much she feels it too...that He is WORKING here with us..and our community here....and with Julian and  baby Nicole and Dan and Kari and Nef and Jhonny and Euclides and Santiago and Monchy and Adia and Margo and Fanelli and Ariel and all the others that are my people now.