Day 1:January 4, 2011: From freezing to sweating.

It's 6:30am and I'm watching the sunrise out of the window of AA flight 1851 from DC to Miami. Alas however, I have an isle seat so no pictures of this beautiful sight.
  The morning ran pretty smoothly and we got through airport security without a problem. Thank you Jesus!
   As I sit here, listening to Neil and Mark snore in the seats beside mine, my mind is racing with thoughts about what to expect when I get to the DR. I've heard story upon story told in ways to both encourage my trip as well as scare the crap out of me. I decided I would write my own story, told my own way. And you, my reader, get the opportunity to share the experience with me. Sit back and enjoy!

flying into Miami

Hannah Horst

11:15am.
Plane ride number two. Goodbye USA! Again thank you Jesus that getting through security and customs went well. My story of choice from the Miami airport goes something like this: We were hungry. And well there's not very many food choices after you go through security. Chevy happened to see a sign for Wendy's! So, him and David decided to check it out while Hannah, Stephanie and I watched their stuff. Ten minutes went by and I got a text from Chevy. There was no Wendy's!!! :( It was Coming Soon! Talk about false advertising! I was looking forward to bacon cheeseburgers and fries one last time! The girls settled for beef and cheese sticks and bottled water, totaling $5.22! Ouch.
  I am very blessed to have a window seat this flight, and am sitting with Stephanie and Mark. This is my first time flying over the ocean and I must say that it is extremely pretty! I love the blues, greens and tans reflecting in the sunlight! All I can say is Thank you God for such beautiful creations! Our flight should land in Santo Domingo at 1:45pm DR time, which is an hour ahead of Pa. The weather when we left Miami was 68 and the weather in Santo Domingo is currently 76! I will mention that it was 22 when we left for the airport this morning. Talk about weather shock.

A view out of the plane window over the ocean

   I've enjoyed getting to know some of the people on the trip I didn't know before, like Mark. This guy is crazy, but so much fun. I guess you have to have an extreme sense of humor to have 3 daughters! :) Apparently Stephanie and I have already made our marks in the group as the two crazy ones. Imagine that?! I'm pretty excited to see how we grow as a group on this trip. 
I guess I should introduce you to the group huh? 

There are 18 of us: Kevin and Jen Sheeler(who are sorta the ones in charge so to speak) Curtis and Linda Berry, Johnny and Linda Horst, Kenny and Lara Lehman, Ralph Ebersole(Linda B and Lara's dad), Chet and Chevy Martin, Neil Kuhns, Mark Blank, Eric Carbaugh, David Akers, Stephanie Eshleman, Hannah Horst and myself, Victoria Utermoehlen. Quite a group if I do say so myself.  :)

Landing in the DR!

We landed safely in Santo Domingo and got through customs and all the fun stuff with flying colors. We met David & Jewel Reyes and Rafael & Heather Reyes at the airport. David is the pastor at ________ in Los Toros. Jewel happens to be Hannah's cousin. Rafael is David's brother and Heather is Kenny and Lara's daughter. We piled all 36 suitcases into the back of a truck and boarded the baby blue bus that would take us on our 3 hour ride to Los Toros, Azua, RD.

4:20pm
Currently I am sitting on the bus, parked on the side of the highway with a flat tire. And the adventures begin! We just got out of the city of Santo Domingo. My goodness the people here drive different! I think they drive on the RIGHT side of the road like in the states, but really no one really stays on their side of the road!! There were a couple times the vehicles that passed us going the other way were so close we could stick our hand out of the window and touch them! Wow! And I think that the only thing a vehicle needs to pass inspection is a working horn! They all use them!! It was an experience riding through town that's for sure. I've seen alot of the same cars we have in the states. Lots of Toyota's and Honda's. And lots of street bikes and mopeds. I think I only saw one stop light, but for some reason I don't remember if we stopped at it! All the traffic rules seem to be more along the lines of SUGGESTIONS. :) 
Right now they are jacking up the bus, with the people still in it! I find this kind of funny. Oh wait, we have to get off.  
While we were sitting on the side of the road, we got to watch lots of bikers drive by. They carry anything and everything on the backs of those street bikes! Even car doors....

 

He's packin :)

We stopped at a Buffet about half way to Los Toros. Here we got our first taste of Dominican food. Friend chicken, ham, fried plantains, as well as fish. Now the fish well they cooked it whole, which meant the head was there with eyeballs. That ruined my appetite for fish and we proceeded to dare Mark to eat the head, which he graciously obliged.  
We got to Los Toros around 10pm. So I have no idea what the town looks like! :) Mark, Eric and Neil got dropped off first at a guy named Coho's house. Next the youth- Chevy, David, Hannah, Stephanie and myself were dropped off at David and Rafael's parents house. This began another experience: Language barrier! Mama Reyes, or Albina knew less English then we knew Spanish! And she talks very fast! The first thing she did was make us Dominican coffee, which is basically strong coffee with TONS of sugar! Then we resorted to the point and show method to figure out what she was talking about. Our favorite phrase is "NO COMPRENDO!" We all got hugs when we walked in and whenever we would say 'No comprendo' we would just hug Albina. It was nice to know that she welcomed us and loved us even though we had no idea what the other person was saying! 
    We watched Baseball on TV before bed time. It was kinda weird for me to grasp at first, because it is January! But I could still understand what was going on even though the announcers were speaking Spanish. When the game was over we headed to bed. Hannah, Stephanie and myself were in the pink room. There was a full size bed and a bunk bed. Hannah got the bottom bunk of the bunk bed and Steph and I shared the full size bed. David and Chevy's room was basically two mattresses on the floor. But as far as I know they didn't mind.

Slowly we all fell asleep to the sound of blaring music from the bar down the street.......