Easter Week in Dominican Republic

Easter Dinner with Senior Missionaries



Another shot of Easter Dinner with Senior Missionaries





Janet on the Beach on Juan Dolio on her birthday




Getting around in the Dominican Republic



April in the Dominican Republic



 







 

Catching a ride



Another truck headed for the market. If you look close you can see eggs and green bananas ( these are not the regular bananas),green peppers and then some sort of roots. 

Power distribution in the Dominican Republic

According to our understanding, the government provides all the power and sells it to power wholesalers who then distribute it. The distrubtion system belongs to these distributors. Over time people have tied into it without permission and without paying that they estimate up to 60% of the power is delivered without paying for it. The distributors go broke and new one comes on line and runs new lines to try and see that he is paid for his power, but eventually he looses so much power to non payers that he also goes broke The next one runs more new lines. As you can see it is a royal mess. Usually everyday power will go out for a time. All nice apartments and office buildings have backup power generation systems.



Another view of power poles in the Dominican Republic

 Moon Lake wastes a lot of pole space. They could put a lot more wires on those poles, don't you think?

Dinner with the Fords & the Roberts at our apartment

The Fords are serving in the Santo Domingo West Mission Office, the Roberts are Perpetual Education Fund Missionaries, and those folks on the far right look a little lost, don't you think?

Groceries for this week

Here are the things we purchased today. We show this only to ask you to guess "how many plastic bags do you think they used to bag this up?" They use a lot, but I doubt you would guess 20, but that is how many bags they used. One bag had 2 cubes (not pounds) of butter, another had a small can of Nestles Quick. It is no wonder that you see so many blowing in the wind and everywhere.

When you don't have a truck a bike will do.

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Bikes just make their way through traffic



Puppet show



Elder Berkley and puppets

We were gratful to the Berkleys for taking an evening their last week as missionaries to go with us to our branch and put on the puppet show they had show several times while in the DR.  They have gone to orphanages and other branches and wards throughout their mission.



Elder and Sister Berkley getting ready for the next show
Brother and Sister Berkley  are waiting for their turn on stage as Sister  Mead and Sister de Scheinwitz's daughter in law finish their part.  the three ladies rode up with us to help.  Sister de Scheinwitz is the photographer for the group.  She is a temple missionary here from California.



the puppet stage at 6:40

We were scheduled to start and 6:00, but didn't start until 6:30-after going out and rounding up some of the kids. By the time we finished the first show we had a nice sized group, and they were still coming.

The cutest one at the show

                                                  Lots of cute little ones enjoyed the show. 

The audience by the time the second show started

As we ended the first show most of the seats were filled.  Elder Berkley would talk to them for a couple of minutes and tell them about each presentation.

Front row seat at the puppet show

 By the end of the third show every seat in the little church was filled and people were watching through the door and window and it was dark outside.  I think they would have been willing to sit through the three shows again.  It was a great evening.

Our home in Santo Domingo



Living Room

  We really enjoy our living room. It is open and spacious. Our view is out over our noicy street. If we look careful between the buildings we can see the spire of the Temple just a couple of blocks away, but mostly shielded by big high rise buildings. We also look out the east on a school yard.


Dinning Room

 This is our place to eat our meals and share with company when they come to visit.



Master Bedroom

The bedroom is spacious. When we arrived we thought it strange that the bed only had a bottom and top sheet and no blankets. That does not seem strange now. That is all you want and need.  

Second  Bedroom

We  even have a 2nd Bedroom for company

Kitchen


We have a great kitchen. We need it because all our produce gets a clorox wash and all our dishes also get a clorox rinse. We have a working microwave and a dishwasher (not built in - she is also a housecleaner and cook and audit trainer).





Office



 This is our office where we work at home, study spanish and skype.



Front Porch

Here is our room overlooking the street. It is great to study. It has a piano. Here our Dishwasher is studing Spanish

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Fresh Water Supply


                      All drinking water in purchased in bottles. We use 1 1/2 of these bottles a week.

Maid's Quarters

 The apartment was designed to have a maid's quaters but we don't have a maid. Actually we do, but she is also the dishwasher, cook and Spanish student.

Our Parking Place

 Our parking space with our car.



 

Elder Snow and our assistant Kevin Brown in front of the Kingston Jamaica Mission home in Feb. 2011

Elder and Sister with with Hubermann Bien-Aime our assistant from Haiti and Sister Mead our French interpreter in the Area Office March 2011.

This was a picture from our hotel window in February in Jamaica. They do doing a benefit walk a thon on that Sunday Feb. 2011.

Elder and Sister Snow with Elder and Sister Smith in Ocho Rios Jamaica in February 2011. Sister Smith's father was a missionary companion of Alva Snow in about 1940 and they remained good friends for many years. She remembered coming with her father to Roosevelt to visit the Snow home.

The attendence really increased after our sea shell activity. This is Sunday March 13th 2011 after the activity. The attendence just doubled. The Branch President is in the center the other two men are High Councilors from San Pedro. Sister Mead attended with us.

March 20th 2011 the 2 High Councilors are headed home with the Stake Relief Society President all on the Moto. What the heck, it is only 15 miles. We offered her a ride, but she decided to go home how she came with them.

                                                      A typical home in Quisqueya

                                                        A typical home in Quisqueya

Constanza and Sea Shell Acitivity

Driving up the mountain on the way to Constanza we had to stop and take some shots of the amazing view.  the pictures are a little dissapointing.  they dont give you but a small portion of what we saw miles below.     

When we got over the mountain we saw hundreds of acres of farm ground.  there were strawberries, beans potatoes, cabbage, onions and more onions.  There were fields being planted and others being harvested.  everything was green and a lot cleaner.  As we walked around the town we found the LDS church and visited with a missionary from California.  We are our lunch in the little park in the center of town before  heading back over the mountain                                                                                                                

We stopped at a couple of pottery stands along the road on our way home.  Sister Swapp and Sister McDermid each bought a cute pot.  Every stand had diffetent colors and designs that were fun to see.

OUR SEA SHELL ACTIVITY IN QUISQUEYA ( OR FUN AT OUR 'TWIG')

Brother and Sister Whitaker and Sister Snow are getting things set up for everyone to make a picture frame of sea shells from a mounted picture they have selected.  Everyone seemed so excited to participate.    We started the evening with 7-8 and when it ended we had about 35 that had come.  the noise level grew as the night progressed.  The little church was full of people.                                                                                

The branch president, President Matthews and the Relief Society president even made a picture.

There weren't enough tables but everyone seemed just fine with working on the floor.  By the end of the evening there were shells everywhere.                                                                                                

The pictures of the Savior and the Fominican Republic temple were the favorite pictures.

Sister Chara, a councilor in the District Relief Society Presidency and the district president rode with us from San Pedro to the branch. We all had an amazing evening and were gratful for the turnout and spirit.

Puerta Plata

 The old fort overlooking the ocean at Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic.  The burro adds a nice touch.  We went to the northern part of the island for a training that was to start at 4 p.m.  and since we would be finished late we stayed the night, went to church there and then made the four hour drive back to our home.  There were so many beautiful things to see along the way that we stopped now and then a took a few pictures.

                                                    From our hotel room in Puerta Plata

 Looking towards the mountains on our ride back to Santo Domingo.  The mountains in the DR are the    tallest in the Caribbean.  The elevation goes from sea level to over 10,000 feet.

            Another "living fence"  This is cacti!  There were some that were over 10 feet tall and a lot thicker!

             Along the road going home were several flower stands and all were beautiful.  They were set up along the mountain road...where they came from wasn't evident.

                     One of the beaches in Puerta Plata...not as pretty as the ones closer to town.

              One of several golf courses we saw along the way.  Apparently Puerta Plata is a big tourist town.

              This is NOT an uncommon sight...this is the family car for a lot of people down here!