Happy Weekend!

This weekend has been busy so far-which is unusual. Last night I went to a 7th Day Adventist church service with my next door neighbor. I thought it would be interesting to compare the Evangelist service with the 7th Day Adventist service, and meet more community members. The church was very beautiful, clean and white. As we walked into the church I signed in as a visitor and was given a name tag. Then, my picture was taken (as to why, I didn’t know). We were one of the first few to get there at 7:45. The service ended up taking about two hours, and the church was packed by the end. The service was much more what I was used to as a protestant—songs, a sermon and scripture reading (less “GLORIA A DIOS” than the evangelist service). What I was not ready for was the slideshow at the end of the service which showed all the visitors –including my lovely picture. We had to stand and wave. Of course, I was the “rubia” from gringolandia (aka the USA). No surprise there. Then, to round off the service, there was 15 minutes of saving people (of which I was not one). I trotted home and then met with my other next door neighbors who had enticed me with promises of Dominos and beer. Unfortunately, there was a power outage and Dominos was no longer an option. Instead, I sat on the sidewalk with Dona Maria, Johnny, Eleni and Dona Ondina and drank wine and talked about the future.

This morning I slept in, which means I slept until 7:45am. I woke up, ate some fried eggs and smashed plantain and brought out my French spice mix from home for the eggs (included fennel, basil, parsley, etc)! Delicious! Then one of the other PC members in the neighborhood invited me to go shopping with her and her family. It turned out to be a true shopping extravaganza—we were gone in the city for 8 hours! We went everywhere from a stationary store to different fruit and vegetable markets to about 13 different clothing stores. I found exactly what I was looking for, which included double sided tape, a skirt and some tanktops. We ate lunch at a chain sandwich shop and I ordered a mozzarella, tomato, pesto sandwich. It was absolutely delicious and reminded me of home.

I was in bed by 9:30pm.

Other Updates:
• My Dona stumbled upon my blankie while washing my sheets (which sadly I did bring to the DR), as to which she questioned, “what IS this?”. However, she kindly offered to wash it.
• I have been given gifts from my two next-door neighbors (one on either side of my house); one of which was a ripe mango, and the other Fig Newtons. Clearly food is the key to my heart.
• I received my first letter in the DR—thanks mom! It took about 2 weeks to arrive.
• I traded in my mosquito net for a larger one that fits over my full-size bed. Now I will actually be able to sleep without fighting with the net for space (and hopefully prevent some malaria along the way).
• I woke up at 1:44 am to a gigantic cockroach crawling on me. Panic ensued as I attempted to get out of my mosquito-net covered bed. I eventually found the cockroach and had to use 2 precious wet-wipes to kill it. Pretty bad, but not as bad as the spider.
• ASB loves: My journal is recorded only in daily highs/lows.