mache ak plaj la

Today we visited the international market located right at the border, on the DR side. All of the booths are run by Haitian, mostly all women. We went with the sister we are staying with, Victoria, and another sister named Arleigh. (Arleigh seems to be the designated grandma of the creole group). Ash and I quickly got seperated from the other sisters but it was no worries since out of no where a young boy named Onel appeared. He is a study of one of the special pioneers. Onel was amazing, becoming our guide through the market, explaining to us in French what things were, and making sure we did not get to ripped off. (it is hard to avoid that completely) At one point he got in small disagreement with two Haitian women selling us tomatoes and carrots. He told them it was to much and they essentially told him back "why are you arguing? They are white, they can pay" Onel told them back "we are jehovahs witnesses, we are honest, we are not rich!". It got the price down a little, but I am pretty sure he told them that we would not buy stuff there again. After that was when he took all control over haggling and exchanging money. I hope we run into Onel every time we go to the market!


Here's a few pics.

 

  

Our guide, Onel.

We also walked 5 minutes from our house to the
beach today. It was so pretty! Some young local
boys joined us later and had fun trying to teach us
spanish:)

this picture is for sarah!

Our new beach friends:)

Time to wake up........

(this post is from saturday, the 28th) Getting up after such a late night, plus not really sleeping all that well due to really loud motorbikes buzzing by our window the entire night was not too easy, but we decided that are first official day in Pedernales should be spent preaching. Plus we would get to know all of our new friends much quicker!

saturday is one of the days that the group walks over the boarder to Haiti, to a town called Anse-a-Pitre. we spent the morning there, and every house we stopped at invited us in, pulling out chairs from there house so we could have a place to sit. it was a great first day in predi.

here's a few pic's of our day:

Starting our walk to the border

This is the border crossing

Haiti

washing in the stream that seperates
Haiti and Domincan Republic

Upon Arrival....

So after an overnight stay in new York, with no sleep, we arrived in santo Domingo, Domincan Republic. A brother from the bethel branch there was suposed to meet us at the airport. We must of all had blinders on because for some reason we did not find each other for almost two hours! And that airport is very small:)

in front of bethel

Ash with the sister who gave us the tour

front lobby

Thankfully he did find us and we jumped in the Bethel van off to Bethel. After a quick nap and shower, we got to take a tour of the grounds. It is right in the middle of the city, but you would never know that if it were some higher buildings around it. Its very pretty! It has about 80 brothers and sisters who live there, with many more who commute in everyday to help out.

residence building

We got fed fantastic domincan food, got to swim in the bethel pool, and even had a brother who was a taxi driver to pick us up an bring us into la zona colonial, which is the old part or the city where Columbus had his first fort.

baptism pool

one of the turtles from the pond

Sisters working in Bethel's Ponds

A really nice couple, Sean and Andrea, offered to let us travel with them as far as Enriquillo, where they lived, and then be picked up by a brother who is in the Pedernales spanish and he would take us onto our final destination.

Beach view

we took a gaugau (small bus) for 5 hours to Enriquillo. most of the way there Sean and Andrea filled us in on tips about life in the DR. they were very helpful! Once in Enriquillo, we took a small tour around the town, got to see there tiny Kingdom Hall and also the beach. It is a really neat place, super hilly and everyone was very friendly. The brother that was coming to get us finally came, about 2.5 hours after we thought he would, around 8pm.

Speaker gets a view of the sea!

I wish someone could have taken a picture of our shocked faces as not one, not two, but 3 adult passengers, plus a toddler, rolled out of his car and began to make adjustments so Ashley and I, plus our luggage, would be able to fit as well. We had been warned about this type of rides in the DR, and we were delighted to be able to experience it first hand so soon:)

squeezed in....

our apartment is on the top

around two hours later we finally arrived in Pedernales, where a brother names Jonas Philistin, a special pioneer sent to help the creole, happily let us into our new place. so exhausted, we didnt really register the actual apartment, just collapsed into bed in our sweaty stickiness.