July 19, 2008

I said the other say that I was going to share some of my journal that I kept while in the Dominican Republic. There was a lot going on with me before the trip, tons was revealed to me while on the trip and right now I am still making sense to what and where God is leading me today. I searched through many blogs regarding mission trips and found few that really talked about the life changes that occur or that really explained beyond what happened on the trip...I was always searching for the emotions that were experienced also. So hopefully this will help those who searching for something more, like myself.

July 19, 2008

Today was the first time to fly....Wow, all I have to say....God you're good and know exactly what your doing! I sat between Pam & John on the flight. Pam, I like to call my guardian angel (always there for me) and John, someone who has flown before and could take apart a plane and put it back together again! As the plane is taxing down the runway and Pam is patting my leg reminding me to breath and John explaining every bump, jolt and sound reassuring me that everything was normal! They were wonderful, and I will have to say, I could of never of done it without them!

Arriving at Santo Domingo, stepping off the plane....bit by a bug....yep, oh my goodness, I hope this is not a bad sign of things to come!! As our group rounded the corner in the terminal there we were greeted by a group playing music and dancing for us, how cool was that!! We made it though customs, which was much easier than I expected and after waiting for the other group to arrive and spending $18 dollars on 2 Burger King meals (geezs!), we are ready to go!!

Santo Domingo, I thought was a really nice resort area and as we drove out of the airport parking lot, I was really shocked, totally WRONG in my thought process!! I am having a hard time with all the sights I am seeing, children as young as four walking among all this crazy traffic begging for money, crazy honking traffic jams, the smell and all the garbage in the street. If this is the city, where I think everything was going to be nice, I am not to sure if I was going to be able to handle the area that we are going. We drove about 2 1/2 hours to where our base camp was, and the further we drove the further my heart aches. How can this be?

At camp we got our luggage and started to set up our beds, wow, a pink bug net, how cute is this?? I bet DJ is thrilled!! I do have to mention the heat, or maybe the humidity, I am not sure which, but boy am I sweating!! Maybe that cold shower will not be all that bad after all!

I will have to say our first meal in the DR was not bad at all! We had some kind of rice meal for supper with salad, bread and some kind of mystery something, tasted like cornbread nuggets. Really nice and to finish the meal, home grown Dominican coffee! Yum, I love my coffee!

I am really beat tonight, so I called it quits early. I called Jeremy to tell him we arrived fine and headed off to take that wonderful cold shower. The cold shower was not that bad, but mind you my clothes were pretty sticky with sweat...but oh my, when that cold water hits your back....YIKES, really takes your breath away, not matter how hot you are!!

All in all the first day of my mission trip has really been good. I have been a little emotional, and physically worn out, but could be from lack of sleep on for the past two nights and everything else that is going on. I really did not expect to see so much poverty, even though I thought I mentally prepared myself, really nothing could of prepared anyone until you see it first hand.

I am really excited and honestly somewhat nervous about tomorrow and what it has in store. I think tomorrow is a day of orientation and we might go to a church service in the village that we are working in, La Represa. Oh well, off to bed.

Here are a few pictures of my first day.