There is so much to love about San Juan- there really is.  For one thing... we have like..the greatest Dominican Christmas display EVER.   It might not compare to like...Longwood Gardens or anything but our faux Santa and Mrs Claus in the center of town with the awesome stuffed donkey seriously rival anything I've seen.    (Below another shot of us hanging downtown near the lights- so pretty!)

People create the coolest Christmas trees here out of sticks and then this stuff like spanish moss that they stuff in the sticks in the form of a Christmas tree and then put lights and decorations all around.   These can be found in many neighborhoods and today I saw a bunch of folks together creating a neighborhood spanish moss-stuff Christmas tree which is just COOL.    Also apparently it is completely acceptable to keep trees and lights up until at least March.   I say YES to this.   I hung some Christmas lights outside around our balcony and although it doesn't feel like Christmas with the palm tree in front of it- it still looks pretty and soft and homey.

Another bit to note is that San Juan is a baseball town.  So obviously its no secret that I love baseball and it's easy to see a softball or baseball game here nearly every night (if you want).  And some of our friends are GOOD PLAYERS.  Like SERIOUSLY good players (okay...so they are major studs and I am kinda in awe).  There are lots of fellas around now on vacation from the academies so we've seen some great ball lately.   Last weekend Laura and I went to watch a tournament downtown with our friend Monchy who knows lots of local players.   It was interesting to see how many of the guys in the tournament played in single or double or triple AAA in the States or are at the academies right now.    I'm amazed at how much home grown talent comes from San Juan.   Every little boy here- every single one- wants to play baseball.   I love it.  So love living here.

An update on the life and times of Nik Eby would definitely need to note an awesome time with Ken, Jenny, Chris and Liz,  our 4 member ultimo team who sadly left us on Thanksgiving Day.  We had an incredible couple days with these guys, including 2 days spent investigating communities in Elias Pina and a day spent in El Cercado doing home visits (joy!).   Below are some photos of these communities and our time spent there.  Incredible.

Thanksgiving Day was a complete feast cooked by Dan's parents (yay for parents in town) and spent with about 20-25 of our dear friends here.   AMAZING.   Oh and there was dominos too.

And what's next?  Well- even though there aren't any teams until New Year's Eve- there is still plenty to do.  I spent some time in the med room cleaning up and trying to figure out what we may need for the incoming teams.   Then some time in the scary room putting stuff away and wondering what to do with the stacks of stuff that I fear we will never use (you know- like the stuff for open heart surgery, etc...).   But the big job that is awaiting me (and Laura) is taking pictures of all of our sponsored kids at the 6 schools that Solid Rock supports.   Laura and I will be traveling to the schools and taking pictures of all the kids....over a thousand.   Gulp.   We started today.   I'm scared.   But it's gonna be awesome.  

Sunday  Laura and I returned to Bastida and checked on Baby Nicole (GORGEOUS) and another friend J.  And he wasn't in the best of health.  So we picked him up yesterday and had him checked out at the clinic and then he spent the last 24 hours in San Juan.  And I don't know why certain kids stick in your head and heart...but I do know that when J is happy- I feel happy.  And when he hurts- I hurt too.  And I'm glad he's okay now- thanks to the wonderful doctors that I work with here.

Tomorrow Laura, Kari and I leave for a conference on the North Coast that is focused on Integrated Health.  I'm thrilled and can't wait to go somewhere I've never been.....learning and absorbing information that I think will be incredibly beneficial to hear before we start our Winter Barrio teams.     Oh and we're probably stopping tomorrow night to catch the Gigantes at home in San Fran de Macoris.  Weeeeyyyyyyyyyyy...

A few pix to leave you with.  The one of me and Angel yapping on our phones on the moto cracks me up......and of course Genny is just......Genny!   One of the recent team members called her Yoda and the name continues to make me laugh.  She's soooo funny!   AND she caught and killed a rat a few nights ago- GO Genny!