We were greeted this morning by clear skies so we headed to the work site where we found at least a foot or more of water in each of the holes. First we bailed the water out by drawing upon our bucket brigade experience from the previous trip to the DR. After about a half hour, the holes were empty, but very muddy. Along with our DR friends, we jumped into the holes and started mucking them out. Soon we hit fairly dry dirt and progress improved. We worked hard all day and made significant progress. About 6 holes are done and the others should be finished tomorrow. 12 down, 30 more to go (after we leave). We had another thrill at lunch today with an announcement over the Santo Dominigo radio station about our work in Yaguate. We were each named and they dedicated a song to us. After lunch we returned to the work site and continued work. By the end of the afternoon, there were more people there than shovels and picks, so Bob started a baseball game with some of the boys that were hanging around.
After we finished at the work site, several of the team went for a swim in a nearby river. The water was crystal clear and cool, so it was very refreshing to the team. While traveling to this river, they saw a large backhoe (digging machine). Then Bob and Jenn got out of the car to have their picture taken by the machine since we are SO missing such a machine at the work site. Apparently the security guards nearby assumed they were terrorists and prohibited any picture taking. Terri managed to pull off a good James Bond move and snap a few pictures on the sly. (Clearly she has some secret life we dont know about involving some government agencies or possibly witness protection. She has not been very clear on this.) Salvador is not going to drive us anywhere again because he doesnt want to become a person of interest to the local authorities. Hopefully we are not detained at the airport on the way out. If we are, the team is going to ditch Terri and claim we dont know her. (This story is slightly exaggerated.)
After dinner we went to the house of one of the pastors in the community and had a service in his living room that spilled out into the front yard. Dave played the song Breathe and the ever popular Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord. It is becoming his signature song, kind of like Tiny Bubbles was for Don Ho. (If you cant tell, it is getting late and we are getting punchy.)
The plan for tomorrow is that we will start early and work till lunch, then get cleaned up and go to some nearby Bateys where Haitian migrant workers live in the afternoon. They live in very poor conditions and we plan to provide them several large bags of rice.
By the way, the Spanish version of Windows XP on this computer has the keyboard scrambled so punctuation marks are a real challenge. Havent yet found apostrophe so dont think Dave skipped 3rd grade English.
Until tomorrow,
Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ on Mission to Yaguate Republica Dominicana.
Written tonight by Dave Meadows and chaperoned and editted by Terri King.
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