Ask and You Shall Receive!

Welp, be careful what you wish for! This week definitely made up for the “boring” week I had last week. It started on Sunday…or should I say about 3:45 AM Monday morning. I got a knock on my door…it was Elba, granddaughter of the woman I share a house with..and all I could comprehend half asleep (and in Spanish) was “necesitamos tu carro”….”Roseanna”….”bebe, ahora…”. And that was all I needed, a woman in my village, Roseanna (mother of Angel—my favorite preschooler) was having her baby and needed a ride to the hospital. Naturally I assumed she was in labor, but nope! As a group of men carried her to the car I quickly realized --after seeing the umbilical attached to a small blanket as well as her coo-cah—that she had already had her baby in her house, which she had done with all of her kids because she doesn’t like doctors. So I had a baby straight out the womb exposed in this BEYOND SUCIO (dirty) station wagon. I drove her to the hospital in Luperon without incident and Chris brought her and the baby home that afternoon. The baby is gorgeous…he is the 5^th child for Roseanna…4^th boy in a row. Poor Mamita (the oldest and only girl.) J

This is one of those times in my life where I feel like I was put in the right place at the right time. That baby was sent to us the week Loryn was in the states and I had her car in my village (we live in different villages) Any other time and there wouldn’t have been transportation available for who knows how long on account of how late it was and how we live in the boonies. Perfect timing God, rock on! J

So anyways, it was the second week without Loryn at the preschool and it did not go as smoothly as the first week. I will credit that to two things. 1.) I work better with Sujer and this was her week off, so it was Suni in her stead. And 2.) There was electricity Monday and Tuesday night, meaning the students most likely stayed up as long as the electricity was on, leaving them cranky. Oh and let’s not forget, the car is out of commission once again. This time it is transmission. Although I must say, I’m learning quite a bit about cars these days. It’s time for the mission to kick fundraising into high gear to get a new car down here. Maybe a safe one? Who knows, just a thought. And a muffler would be nice too! Throw in some seat belts and we will have struck gold! So as of now Chris is responsible for picking up all the kids for school in his truck. No one is happy about it.

Good-ish news: after the title/deal for the first property for the mission fell through we have since found a new property that Bill says would be perfect. The problem: our financial security is in jeopardy because down here it is a gamble to get a title. So you wanna put money down to secure that the property goes to you, but if the title falls through in the end you will lose what you put down and can get screwed. The reason it is so difficult is because here property remains “in the family” so more often than not the land is divided/owned by multiple family members who may or may not be available or willing to sign over a title. We’ll see. God willing it all works out.

A bunch of other stuff happened this week, but its Dominican gossip and personal stuff which would be difficult to explain and be boring for you so I’ll nix it. But believe you me, this week was eventful. I have a headache now. Ha… But seriously, I have a headache, so I’m gonna go. Love you all! Take care.

<3 James