I love how I am always surprised when things don’t go as planned. You would think calling for the bus times would be a simple task, but it really isn’t, at least not for Esalena. After getting hung up on twice because the woman “no hablo Ingles” though I was speaking to her in Spanish, I got a little peeved. When I finally got through to some one who spoke English, it wasn’t much better. By the third question I got told “Oh my God, so long with the questions!” Ya, well it would be all worth it at least if the the information I was given was correct. Wah, wah….
So there was a big group from the English congregation going to the Capital to do a tour of Bethel. I wanted to go with them since in order to get to Samana, you have to first go to the Capital and then catch a bus from there. I figured that since I was in the area it would be a nice treat. It turns out the bus was full, so I was going to have to meet up with them after taking Carribe Tours, the public bus. I would have to take the 6 am bus because the Bethel tour was at 9:30 am. But the Bells and I got invited to Marty’s for dinner, and I was going to take advantage of Marty’s beautiful full oven to bake some goodies for my trip. We ended up staying really late singing Kingdom Melodies in all different languages, and enjoying the good company.
So, needless to say, I did not wake up at 5 am the next morning. But it was ok, I decided that I would skip the Bethel tour, and just get to Samana earlier. I was told the bus to Samana left at 12 pm, turns out no…not until 2:30… I arrived at 10:30, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I decided to try and catch the Bethel tour, but by the time I got there they were just finishing up. I got to hear a few words from Jose Pena, a wonderfully encouraging brother who is in charge of all the needgreating work in the country. He urged everyone to make an appointment to come and talk with him if there was anything they wanted to discuss. Any difficulties and struggles he said he would love to make time to help in any way possible. The branch really appreciates the needgreaters, and they take good care of us!
Jose Pena with the group
Afterwards, the group was going to the Mall next door to have lunch, so I tagged a long. It was good to see everyone having a good time. I had a little look around the mall but by that time it was time to go to back to Carribe Tours to catch my bus. 4 hours later and I’m in Samana and it’s GLORIOUS!!! It brought back so many memories, and it was beautiful as ever. It is the cruise season, so they had all the booths up and it was all very festive. I hopped on a moto with my suitcase and headed up to Lauren’s.
The view from Lauren’s patio.
Glorious weather for December!
Her roommate, Bailey is engaged to a brother I had met during my trip to Samana last year, Lovesky. (pronounced lo-ve-ski) The three of us, Lauren, Bailey and I are all very similar. They are both in the ASL too, so it has been fun. Today we went out and did a few studies…easier said than done. Samana is all hills, super steep hills. I nearly died today, no joke. But I love the ASL ministry here! Amazing people.
Lauren’s neighbors are a family recently moved here from Canada. We met three of the brothers when we went to Holly’s house for the ASL class. It was Christmas day, so no one else showed up for the class. We sat and talked instead. The twins are hilarious and they are learning Spanish and ASL! Smart kids.
Zavie, Cazzy and Dante
Last night we were starving because everything was closed for Christmas. But around 7 pm things started opening up again. Turns out that Christmas day is when everyone comes out in their new fancy clothes, all done up to the 9′s hanging out on the Malecon aka Boardwalk. Larren, Bailey, Lovesky and I all went out for pizza. We had a good time. The Christmas decorations here could give Martha Stewart a run for her money!
A roasting pig made of bottles and trash.
A Christmas tree made of bottles.
Well I work all day tomorrow, but I get to go to the ASL meeting, so I am excited. I gotta go now because its BEACH TIME!!! YAY!!! I’ll be sure to post those pix with my next entry. Also, I love all the emails, keep ‘em coming!
Lol an xmas tree thats what you wanna pic of?
Hey! I just thought it was hilarious!
just started reading your blog! and for some reason i already know I’m going to be hooked to reading it loveeee it and i started following you on istagram (hope that doesn’t sound too creepy hehe) I’ll try to read most of t he past post and see how your little adventure started
Thank you for the comment! I’m glad you enjoyed. Unfortunately I cannot keep up my Instagram because my phone is too old for the new update! but there are some pictures up on there.