So after many discussions including crazy destination ideas, we compromised on visiting friends in the Dominican Republic, chronicled here for your enjoyment!
Thursday was a flurry of errands and packing getting ready for our 9:30pm flight out of LAX. All my organization and preparation was for naught as we realized halfway to the airport, just on the other side of downtown LA's rush hour traffic, that we'd forgotten Eddie's paper ticket. It was too late to go back--we'd never make our flight if we did--so a quick call to Delta to ask if we could reprint it at the airport revealed "they should be able to print it at the counter, but they may charge of fee of $100." Seems silly considering that's more than we paid for the ticket, but we decided to deal with that at the airport and continued on. Actually that stressful moment worked in our favor! On our layover at JFK, Jonathan looked into Eddie's need for a paper ticket and was able to repurchase the ticket for much less than what we originally paid (lap children cost a percentage of the fare on international flights) and will hopefully get the other ticket refunded. Crisis averted! I will tell you, the horror of realizing we'd forgotten something so important made me want to give up traveling forever. Why do we do this to ourselves! (is what I was thinking).
But...it worked out, and we found ourselves flying across the country with a happily sleeping 9-month-old. I was not so happily sleeping.
Friday morning, after a layover in New York, we boarded the 737 to Santiago. I did manage to get some sleep on that flight, thankfully!
We had an empty seat between us, perfect for this guy!
Customs and the airport scene went smoothly; Eddie got his first passport stamp! Our friends picked us up in the Land Cruiser, the first sign we were headed for the mountains. Santiago is in the middle of the country, and from there we drove about 45 minutes to where our missionary friends live literally on the side of a mountain.
The view from the front yard of their house,
appropriately called Buena Vista.
(By the way, you really can't tell from the picture how beautiful the view was!)
Caribbean Mountain Academy (check out our friends' blog) ministers to troubled teenagers from the United States that need a drastic change of scenery and a regimented program to turn their lives around. Well, more than that, they need Jesus for real transformation. Josh and Kaitlyn are house staff.
Impressions of the Dominican Republic:
There were a lot of motorbikes (with whole families aboard, or in one case, a guy with two tires around his waist and one on his shoulder driving down the road). The traffic was a little crazy, even more so than Mexico.
It was humid. So humid. Everything seemed damp all the time. And buggy. We went through half a bottle of bug spray (which worked, Eddie was bug bite free, I didn't come out unscathed however).
It was warm when the sun was out, but it would often rain in the afternoons and get pretty cool in the evenings.
Watching the rain come up the mountain.
Our Saturday plans to walk to the river were thwarted by the rain, but we did get to spend some time with some of the other missionary families on campus.
Eddie admiring Stella's toy.
There were quite a few kids near Eddie's age and he enjoyed interacting with them!
This is Josh and Kaits' house in the background.
Eddie loved their swing!
Sunday,
This was my view from the pew at church.
Luscious and tropical!
The church service was so neat! Because they have English services, many other missionaries also serving in the community attend. I loved the music their worship team led us in!
Walking down to dinner at the girls' house.
Our rain jackets got good use!
Where Kaitlyn works and where the teen girls on campus live.
We did get to walk down the mountain to the river on Sunday afternoon in between the rain showers.
The view from a concrete bridge wide enough for 2 lanes,
no side on the bridge. At all.
Just outside the campus.
River selfie!
We were on our own Monday morning as our hosts were busy working, so we set out to explore the mountain behind CMA. Jonathan had checked it out a little previously and spotted two "roads" (using the term broadly, more like trails). He suspected one of them would lead to a ridge or view point of some kind. Unfortunately, the road we chose didn't take us to where we thought, but Jonathan set out later that afternoon to explore the other road and found his way to the ridge we admired from across the way. Maybe I can convince him to do a guest post detailing his exploration! For now,
It only counts as adventuring if you're driven to wear hiking boots at some point!
One of the views!
We were surprised by the number of coniferous trees
compared to the island palms we were expecting.
Eddie was a fantastic sport! I think he must be a lover of the outdoors, also evidenced by his love for grass, leaves, sand, dirt, etc. Jonathan had him on his back in the carrier.
He fell asleep.
But after his nap he was loving it!
We let him out, and he acted like he was ready to hike too!
At one point we had to cross some barbed wire.
Perfect! He loves to crawl on the ground.
He wasn't so sure.
There are some palm trees!
Gorgeous!
It was so clear unlike the other days which were more rainy.
In the afternoon, the students on campus went into the community to do their service project. Jonathan went with the guys to the bridge they're building. Talk about a cool project!
It's a pretty remote location,
so the supplies had to be hiked in.
I went with the girls into town where they teach several elementary classes English a couple times a week. I didn't snap a picture since Eddie and I were already enough of a distraction to the kindergartners.
Since a small work team had arrived the night before, Monday evening a few of the students shared their stories. Most amazing to me were the part where they were actually sent to the Dominican to live at CMA. In both cases their parents didn't tell them where they were going before they left! And actually that's not uncommon! What a shock! Both of the students who shared are doing well in the program and making strides toward bettering their lives and relationships with their families. One of the staff members, Chichi, the only Dominican on house staff, also shared his testimony and story.
Here he is holding Eddie. They're buddies.
We decided to leave early on Tuesday to spend some time in Santiago before we flew out. Josh and Kaitlyn both had the day off, and so did Chichi, so he tagged along. We drove through the city center, along one of the main shopping thoroughfares (and that was enough, we didn't feel the need to fight for parking, get jostled along the street, etc.). We did stop and explore the main landmark:
I'm really not sure who the statue is on top,
but they call it football Jesus, which honestly makes sense.
Overlooking the city.
After that we stopped at a supermarket for some authentic Dominican coffee to take home with us and also for lunch. Then we were off to the airport--with just enough time to get through security and customs and onto the flight!
Thanks for hosting us, Josh and Kaitlyn!
BONUS: During our short evening layover at JFK, Jesse picked us up at the airport and we got to spend a little time with him! Such a treat since we haven't seen him since March.
I had to stand on the hummer so we could all fit in the picture.
Fancy ride, good eats, and a blast catching up with you, Jesse!
And there you have it, our quick trip to the Dominican Republic! Now we're home, fully adjusted, I think, (Eddie only woke up at 4:30 am the first day, after that he was somewhat back to normal), and I'll say it again, there's no place like home!
Fun! I've never been to the Dominican Republic and that organization sounds really interesting. We did a lot of traveling when Jenna was a baby and I have good memories. Our second baby slowed us down quite a bit :)
ReplyDelete