Dancers

Whenever our Vacation with a Purpose group comes out, several of our church dancers from The Meeting Place in Winnipeg prepare a special dance that can be shared with the church here. This year they did a moving interpretation of the song "This is the Air I Breathe" in spanish. At the ladies meetings everyone was invited to participate and it was so much fun to see ladies giggling and attempting fancy moves to the music. Last week the dancers showed up in brand new "uniforms" which replaced the 4 year old outfits. They were stunning and they seemed to dance with more enthusiasm than ever.

The singing and dance are so much a part of worshipping and it moves my heart to open up to God. It is a precious time.

Grandma Cecilia

We had the interesting privilege of walking around and visiting homes in Arroyo Seco. Grandma Cecilia was a most gracious hostess, gladly sharing her secrets on how to make good coffee from growing the beans to serving us the finished product. She had her own home made coffee drip system which produced a full bodied beverage. Not sure if we should share the secrets with TH.

It was fascinating to see her cook her rice and beans over her clay woodburning stove and show us how she collects eggs her chickens lay in the hollowed out split log suspended from the ceiling in the kitchen. She also toured us around her backyard to show us her coffee, grapefruit, lime, banana, avocado, mango and guava trees. She tells us her husband walks to work 2 hours one way every day to work at a farm job to provide for the family. They have some family still living with them, and the 3 young granddaughters at home tugged at our hearts as they tugged at our arms, smiling.

Cecilia has had a difficult life raising 13 children, but she exudes vitality and joy, as she claps, sings and dances with the younger generation at her church. We consider her another new friend.

The Sosua area is a beautiful vacation setting and we are enjoying our new friends.

This picture was taken in Cabarete, a destination known for its kite surfing. There are endless shorelines with white sand and waves rolling in and it feels so good to go walking and then cooling down in the salty water. We spent several days here with friends from our Canadian group. Kara, it was fun sifting through the sand for shells.

Catch up

So it's almost 6 weeks since we left home. We are feeling very much at home in our little condo in Sosua, Dominican Republic. We took our laptop with us but have had so much grief trying to find a suitable place to access the internet, that we mostly resorted to internet cafes, using their computers.
It has been an absolutely enriching experience. Right now we suddenly have wireless internet access in our condo and I am feeling exhiliarated. We have been sending mass e-mailings as updates on what we have been involved in and new experiences we have had.
The large group we were anticipating as part of Vacation With a Purpose has come and gone. It was a busy time with both beaching and running 4 medical clinics hiring local doctors, doing some food and clothing distributions, childrens activity, a community picnic, youth beach pizza party women's and men's meetings.
Oops, just got company. A local pastor, Garcia, just dropped by to discuaa some security issues related to their church/school building out in the country. He and another person have been sleeping on the cement floor this week to make sure the place is safe.
Will try to make further entries as able.