Calgary

We viewed some beautiful countryside on our swift weekend roadtrip to Calgary a week ago. We had not seen Mark & Roel since they visited us in December. They have experienced several months of travel to countries such as Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc. It was intriguing to see some of their photos from their large collection of great pictures.
We also met their new labradoodle, a gentle spirit who allows his playful puppy mode to take over when taken out. They are taking the training seriously and Sunny listens well (until left alone when he becomes devious).
We took the Sunday to slip out to Banff and ended up hiking up Sulfur Mountain. It started innocently enough, intention being to hike a bit and then take the gondola up. After about 15 minutes following the trail we figured what can be so difficult. I found out the last 20 minutes climb, when I got winded and had to make very frequent stops to catch my breath! We did it in the basic 2 hours though. What breathtaking views (no, that was not what winded me). It puts me in awe of creation.
We are back to work, me at the Mission and Larry doing a small carpentry project.
Gotta earn more so we can fund these jaunts!

Family

We love the DR connections, the friends and the beautiful country but the down side is always missing family and missing out on special occasions. This last winter was no exception. The grandkids are involved in activities and lessons, including music theatre, musical performances, gymnastics (pre-competitive and competitive), fiddling, skating. We missed a photography show in an art gallery in BC. One grand daughter competed in the Manitoba Winter Games and came back with some medals!
We are very appreciative of the family keeping us posted on all these activities and there are still some home videos we want to see to finish catching up.

About two weeks after arriving home and before I returned to work, we did a quick road trip to BC again to visit family. We spent 4 days with them and got to be a part of their family times and got reacquainted with an energetic 2 year old and the two girls. We hiked the trail below their property, went out for ice cream, played around with the spanish language. Beautiful times.

It is good to be back in a routine, working mornings and getting opportunities to hang out with family here. The girls had a sleep over here a couple of weeks ago and we tried to cram in as much as we could from visiting a favourite playground to a campfire, making butter and watching a movie. They are always ready to get into it.

Now our globe trotting sons are back in Canada and we are excited to have them settle down for now. Looking forward to more road trips and meeting their new puppy!

Passage of Time

The winter in the DR was filled with lots of activity, rain, sun, sand, and precious time with both Dominican friends and visiting Canadians. We were priveleged to help with some leadership/translation with a work group from the Open Door church in Morris (See their DR Report 2010 at www.opendoorchurch.ca/). It was an active group, having joined a group of young people from Kitchener Ontario. We painted buildings, played with children, visited an orphanage, toured villages, among the many activities. What a quality group.
We were able to add to some existing projects by assisting getting interior walls plastered in a new church building being constructed in Villa Liberacion. We helped our friends from Winnipeg, Lee & Gerri, throw a hot dog bbq/picnic in the country, in Arroyo Seco where the DCI sponsored school is situated. It was a festive happy day.
There were several more projects such as coordinating tiling of the pastor family's new home in A.S. and construction of a water tank stand. The plumbing was hooked up to the water tank placed on it so they now have access to water (gravity flow) when the electricity is off in the community.
We were incredibly moved when invited to accompany the pastor and his wife and a few of the local women in climbing the prayer mountain behind the school property. The women ascend the high hill almost daily for worship and prayer time. There is a definite sense of reverence and awe as they pour out their hearts unashamedly. We prayed together and then they encircled us and prayed passionately over us. They are so poor by our standards and yet so rich in faith, love and devotion.
The last month there, I hurriedly picked up the laptop computer in its carrying case to take it out and did not realize the case was unzipped. The computer fell on the tile floor and the screen broke. It was heartbreaking as that meant we had no access to the hard drive to empty our pictures from the camera and we were dependent on internet cafes for communication.
It is now fixed and we are off and running again. We were gone from Jan 3 to March 30 and came back to an amazing spring in Winnipeg.

Let it go...

Another week of special activity has come and gone. We welcomed brother John and Alvina and sister Nita last week and said goodbye yesterday. Their flight in to the DR was scheduled to arrive the 28th at 2:10 and after being "diverted" to Orlando for repairs (something wrong with the door), they arrived in an airplane flown in from Canada at 1:30am. They were mighty tired, and since the hotel here did not have a clean room for them after all, they crashed with us in our condo for a night. It was wonderful to spend time together and show them around. Bobbing in the waves and soaking in the sun were highlights, as well as visitng friends, sightseeing, eating, etc.
So we have let them go again...
It feels empty but know they were ready to hit the ground running again back home. Thanks for coming to visit.

Some of our friends are showing up in the DR too, as a matter of fact, we have Lee & Gerri living in the condo next to us. It has been refreshing to share experiences with them. The last few days have been hot and pleasant but the waves were high and beaches shut down.
Tuesday we drove out to visit the school, Garcia and Jenny and a local family at Arroyo Seco. Lee & Gerri were able to visit their sponsored child's family and the groceries they brought to them were very timely, as the mom (of 7) was sick in bed.
We climbed the prayer mountain behind the church property with Jenny and two others. It is always exhilarating as the view is astonishingly beautiful and pastoral. The church people consider this their prayer mountain as this is where the pastor originally would go (at times all night) pray and ask God for a church and a school to help the community. Now a few women still make it a daily trek to just worship and pray.
It was very moving to have Jenny and Lupe encircle us with their prayers and sing spontaneously over us. These people have so much faith and keen awareness of God.

The Vacation With a Purpose group arrived yesterday and we met them at the airport. It was a joyous time with numerous Dominicans there to welcome them.

today was a free day and some of us spent time bobbing in the waves and enjoying the sun and sand. (Hope my aging skin survives).
Tomorrow we return to the airport to welcome brother John and Alvina and sister Nita. We are so excited to have family come and spend a week here.
Safe travels!

Sitting on our balcony and listening to the lively laughter of the parties happening down the street. Right now it is lightly raining and there is the hum of motorbikes running up & down the streets. There are also planes regularly coming & going in the distance. Oh, that motorbike wsn't humming, but revving!
On that note, Larry & I had a supper invitation from a family on the other side of town last night. We didn't have a car and it would be too dark to walk the 25 minutes through the beach area (not safe). So we found what seemed to be a reasonable motoconcho (125cc motorbike taxi) who then took the both of us with him. What a ride, with the dirver basically sitting on my lap (Pearl) and Larry sitting on the steel bar behind the seat.(mostly) Had a fun family time with chuleta (browned pork chops), fried onion and deep fried platano on the menu. yummy!
This is a family whose daughter we are supporting in university. She is studying to become a doctor. SO, to return home at 9:30, the host & his wife came up the stone stairs to the main road and flagged down a meandering motoconcho (someone they were somewhat familiar with). The only downside we noticed as we hopped on was that the bike had no rear lights. A little scarey when we hit the highway (3km ride back), but not unusual here.

Would love to post pictures but the system is not co-operating. Can someone help me out here?
Whenever I upload a picture it shows up on the blog as gobbledy-gook script. Is there a setting that needs changing, or...?

We went to the next town, Cabarete, this afternoon taking Maury with us, with the intention of enjoying the beach. We had a period of sunshime before leaving but it was pouring rain by the time we got there. We ended up having a good time, browsing and then having coffee/smoothies at an open air restaurant (had a roof and we kept dry!).

Chat again soon.

The whole world has heard the news about the devastating earthquake yesterday in Haiti. As we (DR) share the island with Haiti we experienced tremors here as well on the north coast. This was a first for us and wondered what was going on when we started swaying in our third floor condo. It took only moments to realize that no, it's not a migraine starting, but rather there must have been an earthquake somewhere. It is gut wrenching to hear of the extent of destruction and loss of life. Our hearts and prayers go out to those in the area.

there has been no damage in our area though the quake registered as a 4. There is fear here and our friends were having a visit with a local Dominican pastor & his wife here when this happened. The immediate response was that the pastor started praying. They experienced a quake here in 2003 and there are a number of deserted damaged buildings in Sosua still standing.

We have been very fortunate and thank God.

It is January 13, 2010 and we have been in the DR for 10 days.
We have been slow in blogging because we have been running into obstacles in getting consistent wireless connection.
So, right now a quick word while we probably very briefly have reception in our condo doorway. We are settled for now into a furnished 1 bedroom condo, third floor in a fairly ideal central location in Sosua.
We are very familiar with the constant rain, in case you read lst year's entries. We had 2 glorious days of sunshine on the weekend and made use of them by beaching, in Cabarete and in Sosua. Perfect days.
We have reconnected with a number of Dominican friends and have been to several homes visiting. What a warm and endearing welcome back.
Looking forward for what is in store for the next couple of months and will try to blog as able.

Hasta Luego

What a special Christmas season this year celebrating Jesus' birthday by sharing love and good times. We started early with decorating the house, cracking peanuts and munching mandarin oranges, and early family get togethers. Tyra and Marissa both got to play Mrs. Claus in their school plays giving a superb performance. My family came over for a turkey dinner on December 11th and we were so pleased that 15 if us sibs were able to be here.
Tannis showed up for a 5 day pre-Christmas holiday and we hung out while Larry drove to Mpls to pick up Mark & Roel where they had flown to on business. Tan & I were able to join Chad & Crystal in taking in Marissa's gymnastics competition & seeing her gain a place in the Manitoba Games Team.
We had great family activity times with food, outdoor skating, guitar & singing, food, WII challenges, knipsbraat, Friesen family Christmas,more food, etc. We missed Jer and the family but they seemed to be partying in BC with the Hieberts and attended a concert where Ivy fiddled.
Lots of warm family times marked the season and on the 28th, Larry & I took Mark & Roel to Fargo for their flight back home. We had a scare when we had an hour and 40 minutes' wait at the border fearing we would not get them there on time. They made it!
Looking ahead into 2010, we have our bags packed ready for take-off to the Dominican Republic once again. This means parting with loving family and friends, but we know there are also friends waiting down south. We are trusting God for providing appropriate housing while we leave our home here in the capable hands of our renters.
Ready or not, here we go.