We are on the way....sorta. We met at church, packed up and drove to Raleigh. The girls are staying with Amanda’s family and the guys are staying with Chris’s family. We are planning to be on the road by 3:30 am. Getting everyone and everything through check-in tomorrow will be an adventure. I’m excited for this opportunity and to get to know all these people that I don’t know very well.

So this evening we went to a park on the beach to hand out flyers. I felt really weird handing someone a flyer when I couldn’t explain it or answer questions. But the park was gorgeous and I got some good pictures. \240I got to hang out a little with Declan and Shiloh. I also got to talk with Laura and Brandon some, which was nice. After the park, we went back to the Farias for pizza and coke. The coke is made with real sugar which changed the taste some but it was really good. While there I got the chance to talk to Stephanie some, mostly about Olivia. Also, one of the twins, Tyler (I think) and I had a pretty intense Marvel discussion. It was cute!! Once we are back at the Pittman’s, we sit and chat a while and then shower and go to bed. It’s been an amazing first day!!

Up at 3:10, on the van and to the airport. Check-in took a while with all the boxes that we are taking. RDU security was actually easier than PTI. Liquids stayed in the bag (which means I could have taken more probably), shoes stayed on and the lines moved pretty quickly. RDU has drug dogs sniffing as you went through. We are just waiting at our gate now. I feel really isolated right now just because I don’t really know people but I’m also not really worried about it. It will come! 😁

So the 13 of us are scattered throughout the plane. I’m sitting with Sienna but there is a lady between us. I feel bad for a Emily because it’s her first time flying, she is sitting in the row opposite me, in the middle with no one from the team with her. I would be so nervous!! This is a bigger plane than I took from PTI. There are 3 seats on each side. We are taxiing now and take off is 7:06 am.

Because our flight from Raleigh took off late, we got to Newark late. I thought we would have under 20 minutes to get to our gate. Thankfully we were in the same terminal. But once we all got off Pastor Chris said that our next flight was delayed as well. So we ended up with an hour to kill. Colin and Evan FaceTimed me and we walked around some. The second flight is on the same size plane but this time I get to sit with Kaitlyn and Jason with Erin, Kevin and Gorge right across the aisle. I think we are having a delay out of the gate but the temperature is good and there are a few windows open so it’s all good. Take off is at 10:33!!

I can’t believe that I’m in another country!! Driving from the airport to the Farias house was unreal. The trees, the people driving the motorbikes, the stores and restaurants lining the road. We get to the Farias for lunch, where everyone is meeting. I’m definitely the odd man out - though Sierra and Emily are feeling it some too. But it will be ok eventually. After cleaning up after lunch, we split up to go to the houses we are staying at. The girls are at the Pittman’s. We are just chilling, napping, and/or chatting. It’s nice to get to know the Pittman’s a little since I’ve never had the chance to get to know them. Jodi made lime juice, which was really good.

Sunday morning- it’s nice that we don’t have to be ready until 10:00ish so we kind of stagger waking up and getting ready since we are all sharing a bathroom. We are able to sit and chill, eat breakfast and chat. Jodi made some muffins for breakfast which were really good. \240We get to church and open up the building. Pastor Chris preached with Jake translating. I tried to follow along with the words to the songs but it was hard when I didn’t know the tune either. A couple of songs were tunes that I know and it was a little easier following along. After church, we chatted and then headed back to the Pittman’s to change and Jodi is helping heat up lunch. So we are relaxing while it heats up. Judson is super into a Pokémon episode.

We head back to the Farias for lunch of chicken pie and salad. Then we talk about VBS and unpack the crates. The rest of the afternoon is spent getting VBS stuff prepped- cutting paper, making paper bag flames and then just sitting around talking. I’m enjoying getting to know everyone and it hasn’t been quite as bad as I worried about. My small talk skills aren’t as bad as I thought. 😁

In the evening, we go to the town square in the middlen of downtown. It’s outside the Catholic Church which is the highest building in town and the national religion. Laura told me about the French influences downtown because there was once a big French population. While there we passed out flyers (and by we I mean those that could speak Spanish, I just followed along). We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner of empanadas. It was really good. We make another round of the square and head back to the Pittman’s. Everyone comes, including the teens from the church to play basketball. We hang out outside and talk. The kids are riding scooters and bikes inside the gate but eventually escape into the street. I get to mess with Anthony, the Bells oldest son and talk to Regina and Laura some.

Monday morning- we get up, get ready and head out to Teleferico. It is the Caribbean’s only cable car and it takes you to the top of the mountain. At the top is a smaller version of Christ the Redeemer, gorgeous views and hiking trails. We went to the top, hiked, took lots of pictures and Jasen proposed to Kaitlyn!!! Yeah!! She was very surprised. We then rode back to Farias for lunch and \240a team meeting. After cleaning up, we split back up to the houses to rest.

It kind of occurred to me today, and Erin and I talked about it, how our being here really is almost too much for the kids. I know they love having us, the kids love having all these new playmates, but their routines are all severely thrown off, they are over-stimulated and probably not sleeping well not in their own beds. In the team meeting Pastor Chris and Amanda made sure to emphasize chipping in, doing our part and not making things worse, if possible. Not that I didn’t already know that, but it just really hit home today at lunch. The amount \240of food they are making, the clean up, the amount of gas....I really hope that we can be as big a blessing to counter the hassle.

VBS starts tonight. This first day will be the hardest I think, just because it’s new, I’ll have to make sure I jump in despite the confusion.

Ok, so it’s after VBS and we are chilling and getting ready for bed. It went better then I thought. I didn’t have an assigned job but I was able to move around to each station. I helped in crafts when the 2 lower groups were there and I had enough Spanish to get my point across. I helped in the opening ceremony with the slide show. I also sat in Regina’s lesson and watched games. It was fun!

Tuesday- Jodi, Adam and the kids had to drive to the capitol today to do residency paperwork. They left at 5 this morning. We were on our own for a little bit. About 9:30 the moving crew came to start Jake and Joy’s move. The Pittman’s were storing stuff for them. It was a hot, sweaty job but we had assembly lines going to pass things down the stairs and outside. It took 2 trips for the truck to get everything. Most of the crew went with the truck to unload. I stayed here with a few of the kids to babysit. \240We are waiting on a ride to the Farias for lunch. I know Jodi will be so excited to get her house back and put it the way she wants it.

After lunch several of us went to a store kinda of like Kmart- La Sirenas. \240It took me a second when I looked at the price tag and it said something like $900. \240I had to keep reminding myself that it was pesos. We are back at the Pittman’s, they got back about the same time we did. We’ll be heading to VBS soon. I realized this afternoon that Philena reminds me so much of Megan Caviness. It is insane!!

VBS went well again. I think we had about the same number as last night. Afterwards, we went back to the Farias for dinner. Laura and Daryl made burritos and we had cinnamon rolls for Kaitlyns birthday.

I think I have now hit my limit for people. I feel like such an imposition on the families because of the constant plans, food, transportation that has to be so draining. Kaitlyn is in wedding mode, Sienna is killing me with her, I know everything but pass it off as a question - Emily is ok, quiet but once she gets with Sienna, they are unstoppable- Philena is too much like Caviness and once I realized it, it’s killing me. Ok.... tomorrow is Wednesday, hump day, it’s all going to be ok!! 😁 Mostly, I’m just feeling old! 🙄

So today’s outing is a place they call Pool Slides. It’s called Sosua, according to my picture location. It’s a resort pool area with water slides, kids area, infinity pool and beach access. It’s a really cool place. I remembered to put sun screen on so I got lots of tan and only a little bit red!!! It was a nice, relaxing day. We ate lunch there and just chilled until 3ish. Now we are back home getting ready for VBS, day 3.

Today was waterfall day but I had no interest in jumping and swimming- the hiking and waterfalls would be cool but the other half not so much. Philena and I stayed with Jodi and the kids. We ran to the grocery to get supplies for meals. Joy came over to help cook and she Jodi and Philena are working on that. I’m in charge of laundry! 😁

We brought over all the food to Stephanie’s and the waterfall team won’t be back until 2ish so we might go ahead and eat. Jodi made a Dominican dish which I’m excited to try. It has plantains.

Pasta Leon (no idea if that is spelled right) was really good!! It was a little sweet, a little savory. I liked it. Jodi’s lasagna was good too. \240After lunch, we went back to the Pittman’s and we chilled. Judson and I read storybooks for quite some time. His favorite is “The Seamonster and the New Fish” and I’m pretty sure I read it 5 times today. We read an ABC book but spent most of the time counting lady bugs on each page.

Night 4 of VBS went well. I didn’t hear how many we had but it seemed to go well. I’m still hanging out in crafts but I’m trying to make sure that I’m helping out wherever I can. Sometimes I feel like I’m not much help at all but who knows.

Dinner was Brazilian Hot dogs. It’s a dish where you layer a hot dog bun, hot dogs that have been chopped up, cooked in some kind of sauce with several kinds of peppers, peas, corn, mashed potatoes and crunchy potato sticks. It was so good!!!

Friday- We started the day with Adam’s pancakes, SO good!!! We then went shopping. We started with La Sirenas and then ended up at Orange Market. This was an open air market with individual rooms by different vendors. The expectations was to haggle, which of course freaked me out. As long as I was with someone who spoke Spanish, it was better. But of course the whole thing was weird in my crazy brain. I got some jewelry for me and for Kim. I also got a sea turtle carved from the soap stone that is common here. I didn’t get anything for Mom but I’m also not sure what all I got since some of them threw stuff in. I didn’t think about post cards but maybe at Jumbo if I ever go.

Saturday- so today is beach day. We are meeting at the church at 8, which really feels early since most days we have met at 9-9:30 or so. I woke up around 6:30 and laid there for a little while but figured I should just get up. Early this morning, the power went out for a few minutes and then cut back on, went out again etc. It’s been off and on for about an hour-ish, but since we’re not going to be here today, it’s all good. The funny thing is once I got used to the noise of the fan and AC, when it went silent, it was just as startling as a loud noise.

So today was a very relaxing day. We went to church this morning and then ate lunch at church. Then we all went back to our houses and had a super-chill afternoon. We watched a movie here at the Pittman’s- Here Comes the Boom. It was a cute movie and the moral of the movie was Liz needs to join UFC fighting to raise money for school. 😁 We sat around and talked, Jodi made \240brownies and it was awesome. We went to dinner at KM pizza. They sell pizza by the meter. It was good pizza and more importantly it was air conditioned!!! It was nice to sit and talk with Regina and Stephanie some more.

So last day here, or morning I guess. We got up, cleaned up the house, packed and went to the Farias for a pancake breakfast. We all loaded up and everyone came to the airport with us. By the time we got all the details checked, bags taken care of and said our goodbyes- we were only at the gate for a few minutes before boarding. I was supposed to have a middle seat but a group of 3 were traveling together and asked about me switching seats. So I got a window instead. It’s weird but I would rather have a window than a middle- once again my crazy brain! 🙄 Take off was smooth and so far, so good.

My goal for this trip was to get to know the people from my church better, which didn’t really happen. Emily and Sienna don’t go to HHBC and Kaitlyn was in wedding mode and Philena, is what she is. What I did get from this trip though, was to get to know the missionaries. I can totally be close with Jodi and Adam, Stephanie, Laura Regina and Joy. Regina and her family are coming back to the states at the end of the month for a year for Zoe. I’m lookin forward to that. Jodi, Laura and maybe Stephanie(?) are coming home in November to take care of paperwork for the babies. That will be fun! They are all super cool people and I’m really glad that I got to build those relationships.

We are scheduled to land about 4:30, which is a little earlier than I thought. Chris says customs could be insane coming back into the country. I’m looking forward to being back in the country. We all were joking around about what we are looking forward to the most- AC and good plumbing are top of my list!!!!

The first flight was pretty uneventful. I watched a movie and played a word game for a while. It ended up being 3.5 hours so it went by pretty fast. We get to Newark and have to go through customs, which didn’t take as long as I was expecting it to take. We had to do a machine scan which took a picture and I look like I’m am so very high. It was kind of funny. We had to go back through security and finally got to our gate. Then it was time to find food. We were all starving!! By the time we get back from food-it was a long trek to Wendy’s- it had started storming, bad, huge lightning strikes, thick clouds- I was starting to get nervous. I do not want to get stuck here again. But it’s starting to clear out and most flights are boarding around us, so I think we will be ok. It’s good we have such a long layover.

We ended up having a delay but not because of storms, because of a late airplane. We are getting ready to board at 10:15. It’s not much later than the original flight so it will still be about 2am. I’m not feeling good so everything I eat or drink is making my stomach feel funny. \240So I’m hungry but I don’t want to try anything just in case. I’m really ready to be home but at least I’m not traveling alone!!

Ok so 11:34 and we are still just sitting on the plane. The captain was delayed from a previous flight and weather issues. Now we are waiting on a fuel truck. So my streak at Newark continues. This is really not my favorite airport. 😑.

Midnight and we are still sitting here. The fuel trucks are here at least. I think we’ve heard “should be about 15 minutes” at least 20 times. 🙄

12:03- we have been given the everyone sit and fasten seatbelts, water cups collected.....🤞🏻

We landed at 1:46 am. I’m so tired!!

Now for the van ride to the church. I’m pretty sure I’ll be asleep.

4:00 am - finally back to the church. It’s kind of funny to think about the NYC trip I was leaving at 4:00 am and this trip, I’m arriving at 4:00 am.