Bus Ride

With the goal of getting out of the house no later then 4:30 am out the window, ashley and I hurried around flipping off lights, grabbed our bags and stepped out the front door at 4:40. I locked the front door, then locked the inner courtyard gate. We needed to leave our keys behind so the plan was for us to toss the keys back into the inner courtyard so that Jonsie, a brother who lives in an apartment in the back, would get them as he left. So I tossed the keys in, happy when they landed in a good spot. Ashleys starts to say "nice toss", or something like that, as we turn to face the gate. The outer gate. The gate that we also deadbolt each night with the keys that i just threw back into the other courtyard. Essentially we were now locked in Valeries yard....
Let me just say that it is a good thing we are both tall, algile, not afraid of heights, and, most importantly, Valeries fence was not armed with a bunch of jagged glass at the very top, which seems to be very common on other fences around here. :)
Needless to say we made it to the bus with about 5 min to spare. Now the whole reason we wanted to be there early was to make sure we got seats near the front; we'd been warned of the sardine like style they fill the buses. How it works is that once all the regular seats are filled (two seaters on both sides) they start pulling out these little benches that they lay on both edges of the seats creating another place to sit in the middle. They start this process from the back of the bus, moving forward. Imagine yourself sitting in the very rear of the bus slowly being boxed in as more passengers were loaded on. Now imagine in an emergency getting off the bus. Impossible! My feelings of claustrophobia having already been established in my first car ride here, I really did not want to get stuck in the back!
Unfortunately, due to my great key throwing abilities, the very back seat right in the middle, was where I ended up. Ashley had the privilege of getting the first bench seat, directly in front of me.  After her they added 3 more bench seats, plus had two militiary guys standing up by the door, with no seats at all. It was packed.  I waited for any panic to set in and when, after a few minutes, it didn't, I was much relieved. I had seen no way out of it short of climbing over the two people next to me and out the window!  Which, funny enough, is what one you girl had to do when her stop came early in the trip and no one had yet gotten off before her! The drivers helper just came up to the side of the bus and helped her down!
So are bus ride went well for the most part. Poor Ashley had to struggle with her "seat" for the first part of the trip; it kept slipping off one edge of the side seats and would collapse under her!
We just got back in from the creole meeting here in Santo Domingo. The singing there was amazing!! So loud.. We are going preaching here in the capital in the morning, then our awesome tour guides, Jessica & Andershis, are taking us aournd the city.
Will Update again when I can!