Dominicans don’t function on real time. It’s fine for the most part, as long as you start factoring 30 minutes-2 hours into whatever you plan on doing. Really, you should just plan on not having a plan altogether.
For example, we needed a few more things for dinner one night, so Matt and Rachel went out with Noky, our contact, to buy them in town. It should have only taken 10-15 minutes; but instead of going straight to the store, Noky took them to his house, where they all chilled on the couch and drank tea and talked with his family and read books to his nephew and generally had no idea what was going on for 45 minutes. Then they went to the store, which, as expected, took 10-15 minutes.
I once dedicated an entire day to laundry. Rachel and I hauled the team’s dirty ropas over to Noky’s to use their washer and dryer, only to find out that their electricity wouldn’t be coming on for another hour. So, as is their custom, we camped out on their porch, drank coffee, and talked to the family. The power still wasn’t on 2 (or so) hours later, so Noky’s 5-year-old nephew, Daivid, suggested we take their washer to the church, since we had power there. No big deal. We just had the Mosaic men come on over and carry the washer down the street, through the “town square”, and into the church. Where there was no power. So we washed our clothes by hand. Inside the washer. Nice.
Pretend Time allowed us to spend about 6 hours (instead of the expected 2-3) in a desolate mountain town with no church presence. Noky’s initial desire was that we all walk up there (I wore flip flops – who knew it was a hike rather than a casual stroll?) and pray over the town and its abandoned church building. Since Noky knows everyone on the face of the Dominican Republic, however, we ended up stopping by several homes and, of course, sitting down and eating/drinking rice/beans/coffee/juice. Three of us met a guy who allowed us to pray for him and his family. (We ended up running into him 2 more times that day.) We met another woman named Madera, who had an injured foot and lived alone most of the time. In spite of her poverty and limited mobility, she offered us bowls of hot arroz y habichuelas and expressed her thankfulness for how God had blessed her. We prayed for her foot and left, humbled.
I’m actually a huge fan of Pretend Time. The American way of rushing from one thing to another, always pressed for time and focusing on what’s ahead, is exhausting. It minimizes the present, adding pressure to you or the people you’re with to wrap it up as soon as possible so they won’t keep you from anything important. It’s different here. Relationships, the present, the situation at hand – those are given priority over the next thing. Enjoy where you are. It’s okay. Be thankful for this moment. Don’t worry about the next one before it’s time.
That’s something else I’ve noticed. All the believers here are so thankful. Their prayers are full of fervent praise and thanksgiving for everything God has done for them. Those with injuries and barely a bowl of rice and beans to their name live and breathe a spirit of thanksgiving, a spirit of worship, the Spirit of God. God gave them a life to live, and they don’t take it for granted.
Hola, y Dio te bendiga! We’ve been in the beautiful, hot, mountainous Dominican Republic since Friday, the 13th. Thankfully, the day’s events didn’t correspond with superstition, and we had a nice and smooth travel day. From our hike from the church where we stayed during Launch to the bus station at 6am, to the train, to the shuttle, to the airport, it was an exhausting but great day.
Team Mosaic’s ministry site is at a church in Arroyo Cano, Dominican Republic, where roosters crow all day (and night) long, natives never get “peopled out”, used toilet paper lives in the trash, running water is available “sometimes”, and coffee plants abound. We set up our sleeping bags on benches in the sanctuary so the rats can’t kill us, and we flush the toilet, take “showers”, and wash dishes via buckets of water. Oh, and they’re celebrating the Festival of the Saints from the 14th to the 22nd, so there’s been loud music playing outside everyday until about 2am. Thank God for earplugs. So it’s different… but in a sort of simple, hilarious, “I can’t believe this is actually my life” kind of way.
Everyone here speaks Spanish (and very little English), so we’ve relied on our fabulous, Spanish-speaking team leader, Rachel, to translate. We cluster around her during each church service or do our best to pick out the handful of palabras de español we happen to know. The church body is small but unbelievably friendly, and few of them leave without a handshake or a hug. Each time we visit someone’s house, they offer us a place to sit and something to eat or drink. To them, everyone is family.
Our ministry “jobs” here are still sort of in the works, but we expect to be helping out at the Compassion International base next to our church in Arroyo Cano and the one in Desarrollo. We’ll also be visiting and building relationships with families, doing Bible studies with the church pastor, and preaching (eek!) in another village.
That being said, we haven’t done much since we’ve been here. Except for the one time we ate lunch and drank fresh, homegrown coffee at our ministry host’s house, or when we hung out with un hermano de iglesia, Jesús, and picked oranges from his orange field. We also drove into Desarrollo to hang out with the Compassion International kids and ate ice cream with our host. (Side story: It’s really hard for people here to say my name. Most people here go by more than one name, so we joked that my “other name” should be Ashley. The Compassion kids called me that for the rest of the afternoon.) And we hang out with todos los niños, who are constantly screaming, “americanos! Mira, americanos!” as they run around the church or peek in our windows. Overall, it’s been pretty neat.
Thanks for the continued prayers and encouragement! Please keep praying as we learn to get into the swing of things and as a few of us have been feeling a little icky the last couple of days. Muchas gracias!
