Monday, August 16
4:00am came way too early! The sleep we got was more like an extended nap. Everyone packed into Monchi´s bus (the guesthouse's bus driver) and set out for the capital. It was a three hour ride into the capital and the plan was to arrive in the Zona Colonial and spend some time shopping before we took the group to the airport and they began their journey home. The Colonial part of Santo Domingo is the oldest part of the city and is well known for being to oldest part of the new world. The architecture is very Spanish and some of the buildings date back to the 1500s. For a short moment you might actually forget you're in the Dominican and think you've stumbled back in time to a little city in Spain. While we were there the group broke off into small groups and walked around the city exploring the sites and shopping in the little stores. Tammy managed to sit down in a small cafe and complete a full three paragraphs of journaling(although she claimed she wasn't that far behind)! It was a relaxing time to take a few minutes and think about all we had seen and experienced that last week.
Then it was off to the airport where we promptly said farewell to the team and loaded the remaining six people back onto the bus. Daniel noted, "It's strange watching the team get smaller and smaller. Pretty soon it's just going to be me left by myself. Every time I see a team member leave it's like a small part of my comfort blanket is removed." Before the team left everyone was given their "I OK; U OK" bags which contained notes of encouragement from team members throughout the week. It was a real joy and encouragement reading some of the notes people had written each other. What a great team God put together in the DR this summer!
After we said our goodbyes and a few tears were shed, it was back on the bus, and off to San Juan... or so we thought. After we left the airport we made a detour for a nearby gas station to fill up. As we set off, the bus driver commented that the vehicle was making a strange noise and he wanted to check it out before we got to far. We crept along the road until we found a small parking lot to pull off into. Then Monchi set off to find the mysterious grinding sound. We were in no big hurry and were assured, "Don't worry, we'll get it fixed and still have you back in San Juan sometime today!" This was actually a small blessing in disguise as it gave us plenty of time to debrief about our two weeks. After an hour or so we were told that they hadn't fixed the problem and we'd have to head back to the shop. The problem was the shop was closed since it was a Dominican holiday and everyone had the day off. We pulled up to the shop (which was in the middle of a neighborhood) and waited. It was fun watching family life of the Dominicans as we waited. We witnessed a baseball game comprised of children in the middle of a street, as well as a full house cleaning, complete with hosed out floors!
About 30 minutes later (but no one was counting -- we were in the DR) Monchi told us that the gas station had put regular gas in the bus instead of the required diesel! More waiting. Finally, another bus arrived and we were rushed inside. This was an experience! It was a public bus and we got to ride back with a full bus of Dominican passengers. The bus stopped every few minutes to pick up more passengers and we began to wonder if we were ever going to make it back to the guesthouse. Although, there were some nice perks about this bus. One of these was the complete lack of leg room between you and the person in front of you (Daniel and I enjoyed this one the most). Secondly, the entertainment rocked! It was old Korean movies with Spanish voice overs! Even Jackie Chan! Talk about a complete loss of any cultural barings! The team decided to use our time for fun and make a game out of our predicament. We all guessed on what time we would arrive back at the guesthouse and said the person who guessed closest wouldn't have to do dinner dishes. Ended up that Tia Tammy was our winner with the time of 5:59.
Later on that evening the guys were invited over to the house of Miguel and Christine (local AIM missionaries) for a guys night out with another short term group. We loaded into a taxi and set off for a fun evening of man time. We arrived in the middle of a physical strength competition and enjoyed watching everyone else sweat their tails off while we watched and laughed. Most of the evening was spent in a time of discussion talking about what it means/looks like to be a man of God. The conversations was awesome and really hit the hearts of most the guys there. I know i was personally challenged to build upon the conversation by living out what was said. Good times. Unfortunately, we stayed out a little too late and had the girls (especially Mrs.Leinbach) a little worried about our whereabouts; especially since I had two minors with me! Thankfully we all got back to the guesthouse without any problems!
Peter (for the team)
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