Colorado Rockies Ball Camp

We  were able to  visit the training camp for the Colorado Rockies.  After traveling for over a half hour east of Santo Domingo, in two vans and a car, we turned north and  drove on a dirt road for several miles through dense greenery. It suddenly opened up to beautifully trimmed acres of lawn and NO garbage!!

 There are 40 young hopefuls at this camp that live here for nine months and work hard trying to make it to the major league. There are a number of levels before the major league. They told us about one in thirty makes it from here to the next level.. They were all good sized guys and I am sure with all the hard work they have good sized appetites.

 That thought was confirmed when they showed us the plates they used to serve them their meals.....funny, I thought that was a platter. 

Just a few of the many senior missionaries we rub shoulers with:front, l to r-President and Sister Glaizer-the MTC president; Sister Snow, esposa to Area Auditor; President and Sister Burk, 2nd counselor to temple president and assistant matron; second row- on the left and right- Elder and Sister Swapp, Area Church History Advisor and Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency; center is Elder Low, Area legal council,

Sister Low is behind Sister Swapp; back row- Elder Snow, Area Auditor, Elder Kilgore, Area Medical Advisor;Sister Atkinson, Humanitarian Services( her husband was at the office); Elder McDermid, Mental Health Advisor for the Caribbean and Central America; Sister de Schweinitz, temple worker; and Elder Crowder, temple worker.  We could take another group of senior missionaries and list their calls and they would be as diverse as the ones that were in this particular group.

The work out room is used for upper body and leg workouts.  They get their endurance training out on the field every day. (notice someone familiar in the mirror?)

All 40 guys share one big bunk house, shower and...

locker room.  Swapps are getting the full effect!

The grounds were beautifully trimmed and maintained.  It was really refreshing to see such a neat place.  We all left with a greater appreciation for the amount of time and money that goes into recruiting and training new talent.  it was an interesting day and by the time we got back to the Casa we had the rain...what good timing!

To market, to market



We had a good training session in Santiago,in the northern part of the country.  On our way home we passed a couple of trucks LOADED with bananas.  After about the third or fourth truck, we got our our camera and started taking pictures of some of the trucks we passed.  That is one big banana split!!

Cabbage

 Some of the loads were easier to recognize than others.  We had to get close to this truck to see the cabbage peeking out of the crates.  The trucks really carry tall loads!

Rice

A lot of the rice is shipped in 120 or 200 bound bags!  A lot of the rice fields were being harvested as we drove through that part of the countryside.


eggplant

I didn't know there were that many people that like eggplant!  We passed several trucks loaded with the same thing.



Carrots

  The carrots are huge and really sweet. They taste as good as the carrots fresh from a garden back home.  One carrot is enought for part of a meal. 


Peppers

The red, yellow and orange peppers here are some of the sweetest we have ever tasted. We guess a smaller truck is used for peppers because they are a lot more fragile. We also passed trucks carrying huge loads of potatoes or onions but they were so covered up that you could hardly see what they had.  A LOT of produce was heading to market!