Catching Up on The Blog

My, but it has been a long time since we have been able to post! We waited three months for high speed internet at home and catching emails at other missionaries´homes or an hot internet cafe weren´t conducive to writing a blog somehow. A lot has happened in the last couple of months.

We feel almost settled in our home, just a few more essentials to put in place. We are so thankful for a comfortable, affordable home to rent that has a huge yard for the kids and dogs to play in. Often the yard (called a patio) are small and-or ornamental gardens not meant for soccer playing boys! Our house sits on the tope of hill, so we get a nice breeze. Our road is a pretty bumpy dirt road, which is a trial at times, but it prevents anyone from speeding by our house.

We now have two boxers, Dylan (right) and Kila (left). They were owned by missionaries who returned to the States. They are delightful dogs and yet they scare everyone away and so we don´t worry about things being stolen out of our yard. Of course we lock the house up tight when we are away, but Dylan and Kila are always on guard. They especially resent horses passing by, which is almost a daily occurence. Kila lost her leg as a puppy when she escaped into the street and got hit by a vehicle. I, Becky, have been taking them with me on my morning walks, but Kila is still skiddish of passing vehicles. Dominicans tend to be quite afraid of dogs they don´t know. This is understandable since there are so many dogs running loose. Some are pets and some are street dogs, but you never know which are friendly or aggressive, so it pays to avoid them all. We have told the neighborhood kids that the dogs won´t be mean if we are home, but if we are gone they should stay away because we don´t know if they would bite. Even so, the kid´s friends stand and call at the gate instead of coming in on their own for fear of the dogs. Once we let the kids in, the dogs are great and the kids are comfortable.

There are many major changes that one learns to adjust to when moving to a new country, but here are some little things that are different about our home. At night we keep our motorcycle in the kitchen to prevent it being stolen. However, the brooms, mops and buckets are always kept outside, because the laundry area is outside. Laundry is done often because it takes time to dry on the line and if damp, sweaty clothes are left in the hamper, they will mildew. We used to keep some of our shoes outside, but the dogs like them too much to leave them there.

Grocery shopping is quite a chore here as we cook from scratch and many fresh ingredients don´t keep more than a day or two. Coming home from the store, all fresh produce gets a soak in chlorinated water and all the jars and cans get a dunk too since there is a nasty disease that mice and rats leave behind if they happened to have passed over food items. (Yes, kinda gross, but you should always wash your can lids even in the States). The fun of eating inexpensive fresh fruit has still not worn off. Avacados are cheap, about 30 cents each. Wow!