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!

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

e

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