Stories from the DR

As you can imagine, we’ve already got lots of stories, funny moments and jokes from our trip.

We’ll get to the stories, but first, a few factoids:

There is an energy and water crisis in the DR. Consequently, we don’t always have electricity. And our bathroom procedure has changed significantly. There’s a phrase that goes as follows: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” To conserve water, we do not flush the toilet after every time we use it. Only after the “brown.” So we’ve gotten used to the smell of stale urine. Also, because of the bathroom plumbing situation, we don’t put the toilet paper in the toilet. Instead, we wipe and then put the used toilet paper in a trash basket. Gross, but true. Such is life here in the DR.

The tap water in the DR is not safe to drink. So we drink special purified water. We brush our teeth with the safe water, too. We cannot ingest the tap water at all. We can, however, take showers in the tap water. Although, our showers are really short so we can conserve as much water as possible.

Ok, onto the stories.

Many of us really connected with the children and families in Pedernales. We prayed for them, loved on them and encouraged them. I’m sure many of us would like to come back in the near future to see how those kids and families are doing. Each team member definitely has a personal story of their time in Pedernales. Interrogate them about it later.

Between all of us, thousands of pictures have been taken. There will indeed be a Facebook tagging frenzy upon our return to the States. Can you say 900 notifications? Haha.

A few funny things:

Luke fell on Ima. Allow me to explain, Ima was asleep on the bus. Luke was standing in the aisle. The bus suddenly stopped. Luke fell on Ima. What a startling way to wake up!

Brad’s impersonations of various people (himself, Bryan, Luke) have sparked many-a laugh.

The “your mom” jokes are rolling. i.e. “Your mom goes to college.”

In times of exhaustion and delirium, everything seems hilarious to Jenn Knore. Everything.

…Everything.

Our dances and times of worship have been amazing! Brad is attempting to tape all the dances so they can be viewed later. Brad’s the official videographer. Trevor is the unofficial photographer. He’s taken over 1,000 pictures in the four days we’ve been here. After the trip, I will post pictures on this blog. I do not have time to upload pictures at this time.