Our Week With Courtney

We've been having electric at more convenient times during the past few days, so I pray you enjoy the pictures from our week with Courtney Gregory that we were able to load to the blog.

We met Courtney in December of last year at Faith Baptist Church in Smyrna, Deleware, where Brother Allen Ryman is the pastor.  She expressed interest in coming to visit once we were on the field.  We kept in touch through email and she planned her visit during her Spring Break from her college classes. 

Over the past couple months, we have been "doing" less and spending more time studying the language.  With Courtney arriving, we took a break from language study and Melanie and the children took a break from school, to be able to give her a taste of what life is like in the Dominican Republic.  We had some fun adventures and we hope you enjoy the pictures from "Our Week With Courtney".

Dominican houses built into the side of the mountain on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Another view of the houses built on the mountainside.

Coconut and banana trees dot the landscape.

We stopped at a colmado to grab a few things once back at home.  Courtney wanted to snap a few pictures of the inside of the store.  The storekeeper was so happy to have his picture taken and encouraged us to take more.  We gave him copies of the pictures. Many people here in Polo are too poor to own a camera, so having a picture is a novelty.

Another picture of the inside of the colmado.  It's amazing what they can fit inside of a small building.  The large, burlap sacks in the bag contain rice and beans - staples of the Dominican diet here. 

We purchased two chickens at the colmado.  Courtney got a kick out of the head and feet still attached.  The Dominicans don't waste any parts of the chicken - everything is put to good use.  :o)

On Saturday evening, we went to Prayer Meeting at Bro. Darren Truel's church in Polo.  There are always many children playing in the streets who live nearby to the church.

Some Dominican girls sitting in the back of Brother Moises' truck and enjoying getting their photo snapped.

As soon as we arrive at the church in Polo, there are always a group of two or three boys fighting over the opportunity to "Limpia Zapatos" or clean shoes.  They make their own little wooden boxes and then carry them around to clean the shoes of the church men in the town.  If you look closely, you can see Dowsey (sp) applying the stain with a toothbrush.  Sometimes your socks get ruined, ughh, I mean cleaned, too!

This little fellow was with the children in the back of the truck.  It's not uncommon here to find children still in diapers (or completely naked) toddling around in the streets!

Courtney holding the same little fella.

I told the little boy in the blue shirt (Alhenny) that we had a gift for him at my house.  The next day, bright and early, he showed up at the front door with a few friends.  He had walked several miles from near the church in Polo to come get his gift.  This little child always wants to give you everything he has.  It's not uncommon for him to clean my shoes and then want to give the money to our children.  If he has a pack of crackers, he'll always offer one to you.   

On Sunday morning, we drove down to Barahona for services at Monte Calvario Baptist Church, where Brother Roger Jewell is the pastor.  They have converted a building in downtown Barahona into a church. 

A few of the church members. 

Brother Roger talking with a few of the church members after services.  Levi's not so sure if he wants his picture taken.

Brother Roger owns a Toyota bus which they use as a personal vehicle, but it also doubles at the church bus.  Many people here do not have transportation, or only own a motorbike and cannot transport their entire families to church services. 

After morning worship service, they have a service for children.

Sister Jewell keeping the troops in order during the service.

Brother Jewell's daughter's (Amber, left, Hannah, right) teaching the children "Jesus Loves Me".

More singing with the girls and two other ladies from the church.

This is Brother Jewell's Assistant Pastor, Brother Paul (pronounced Pah-Eewll).  He teaches the children a Bible lesson, using the chalkboard to illustrate.  Brother Paul is known as being one of the best basketball players in Barahona and people recognize him when he's out and about.  He got saved under Brother Jewell's ministry and is now serving the Lord fulltime.  Move over Kobe, Brother Paul's in town!

They learn a verse and play a game before the service dismisses. 

We took a trip on the bus through Barahona to take the children back to their houses. 

A trash-littered piece of property in Barahona in a rough neighborhood.

A home in the outskirts of Barahona along the bus route.

The weekend that Courtney arrived  is known as Holy Week (the week before the Catholic holiday of Easter).  Through the streets, it was a common site to see children dressed up in costumes and cracking whips.  It reminded us much of the Roman soldiers and what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ.  To the children, it's just a tradition although there is a meaning behind it.  We tried to look up the meaning and found that they are trying to symbolize "El Diablo" (the devil) and the torment he brings. 

The Dominicans weren't the only ones celebrating...we snapped a photo of this Voodoo Ceremony on the streets of Polo.  It's hard to see, but the men were holding their machetes up and chanting war music, while some played on drums.  What's strange is how the music you hear coming from the Pentecostal churches here sounds much like what we heard during the Voodoo Ceremony going on here!  It is a tradition for Voodoo Ceremonies to be held on Easter at the border of Haiti.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed up to La Lanza for the Haitian church services there.  Here's a picture of a few homes along the way.

Outside the church in La Lanza.  Notice the head coverings on a few of the Haitian women.  They often wear head coverings because they are not able to grow long hair. 

Here's our adopoted dog, Noemi.  We also have a Pointer that lives here named Pinto.  He is quite the escape artist and broke through his fence to get to his lady dog!   Much to Pinto's dismay, Noemi went through a false pregnancy.  We thought she'd have puppies, but her time came and went and no puppies.  She still looks very pregnant though!

This billboard was just repainted to advertise the Coffee Festival, which is an international event held right here on the baseball fields in Polo.  We are looking forward to having dear friends from our home church, The Bassano Family, come in during this week and hand out tracts at the event.  The site where this billboard sits is called "Polo Magnetico".  It is a place where the landscape makes it look as if you would roll downhill, but your vehicle rolls mysteriously uphill.  It is considered a tourist attraction and you will often find children begging for money from the tourists that visit.  This site is only a few miles from El Rancho Lembert. 

On Monday, we drove into Barahona to grocery shop.  We went to the outdoor market, which they have everyday in Barahona.  The temperature difference from the cool, humid mountains in Polo is felt immediately when driving into Barahona.  The vendors are offering mangoes, pigeon peas and other fruits while enjoying the shade of their umbrellas.

We practiced some of our Kreyol when buying some vegetables from this Haitian lady.  However, most Haitians living around the Dominicans speak Spanish as well as Kreyol.

These little peppers are called aji (ahhh-hee).  They are a staple seasoning used in most Dominican recipes.  You pile (pee-lay), or pound to death, the aji (little peppers), ajo (garlic), pollo y tomate sopitas (chicken and tomato bouillon cubes), Sazon Completo, and cebolla (onions).  

More pictures from the market in Barahona.  If you don't keep your eyes peeled at all times, you are liable to get run over by a motorbike.  This road is quite wide compared to most of the narrow alleyways and walkways in the market.

I thought about doing a Little League here for the boys in the village, but the Lord didn't lead that way.  However, we did order some used baseball gloves and I try to take the boys from our neighborhood over to the fields in Polo to play once or twice a week in the evenings.  These children have too much idle time, and it's good to get them off the streets, even if it's for one evening.  The boys who come out to play range in ages from teens through around six. 

Line up guys!

The boys often play in barefeet or Dominican-style flip-flops.  Who needs cleats?

Bile, on the left, is a boy from our neighborhood who lives very close to the house.

Ellie with Dowsey and another friend.

Courtney on the sidelines! 

On Tuesday, we drove up to a village nearby called Los Charquitos.  The drive up the mountain is beautiful.

This was a Haitian family we stopped to visit in Los Charquitos.  Our home church, King James Bible Baptist Church, in Summerville, South Carolina, put together bags filled with candy and toys for the children, and soap, toothpaste, dishrags and other goodies for the ladies.  We were blessed to be able to hand out some of the bags to this family, who was in need.  Thank you to the Kennedy family also, who sent a large amount of flip-flops down.  We were able to give out shoes to this family who were in great need of clothing and shoes.   Along with the goody bags, we handed out tracts in Kreyol and Spanish to those we met along the way.

A snap shot of their outhouse.

One of the young girls was wearing a Halloween-type costume as a dress.  None of the children had shoes.

A baby boy getting a stuffed toy.  We were also able to hand out some diapers to this family.

Clothing is often a needed item among the Haitians.

On Tuesday evening, after taking Courtney up to Los Charquitos, we stopped in to visit with the Truel family.  It's not uncommon to find one or several of their daughters in the kitchen whipping up a Dominican meal, and Tuesday was no different.  Mary and Elisabeth were working on making Moro, a Dominican dish with pigeon peas, coconut milk and rice.  Mary was also frying up chicken feet! 

Eliana enjoying her chicken foot!

On Wednesday evening, we headed back down to Barahona for church services with the Jewell family.  On the way, we snapped a picture of a herd of cows walking down the road.   The hamburger meat here has a very different taste and texture due to the muscle content of the cows.  Walking up a mountain is no easy feat!

Amber Jewell, Courtney Gregory, and Hannah Jewell

Sister Kathy Jewell (left) and my wife, Melanie (right) enjoying chatting after services.

Much to Courtney's delight (haha) we spotted some tarantulas on the way home.  This big guy was out on the road when we were coming home from church Wednesday evening.  Despite being told how slow these critters move, this guy had turbo speed! 

 

A trip to the Dominican Republic wouldn't be complete without a trip to see the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean.  We got up bright and early Thursday morning and headed down to Barahona once again to enjoy the shore before anyone else hit the beach that day.

Coconut trees along the shore.  Although it make look sandy, the shore in Barahona is very rocky.

A beautiful shot that Courtney snapped.  Looks like a post card, doesn't it?

On Thursday evening, a group of boys came up to the house and wanted to play football. 

Since baseball is more their sport, we've had to teach them how to play American football, but it still ends up being more like rugby!

A pile of boys!

On Friday, we decided to take Courtney on a feeding project.  Hours of work go into preparing the food.  Here's Courtney and Eliana peeling garlic and cutting aji the morning of the feeding. 

We made 15 lbs. of rice with carrots and pinto beans and of course lots of lots of aji, ajo, cebolla, sopitas y Sazon Completo (glorified MSG).  Courtney was our chef for the day and did a wonderful job.

Here's the Locrio all ready to go.  The rice gets it color from annatto seeds from the "Lipstick Trees", which are called "bija" (bee-hah) here.  You open the pods and beat the seeds in water to expel the rich color. 

"Eske ou vle manje?"  That's "Do you want food?" in Kreyol.  When we were first learning Kreyol, we got confused between the words diri (rice) and di wi (say yes), as they sounded almost identical to our ears.  It's become a joke between our Kreyol teacher and us to say "Di Wi pou diri!" Translated, it means, "Say Yes for rice!"

Each person got a portion of rice and beans along with a tract in their native language.  It's quite amazing how you can be in the middle of two languages and two people groups within minutes. 

 A Dominican family along the way.

A Haitian mother whose child needed shoes.  We were able to give her a tract, rice, and shoes for her baby.

A Dominican home in the area where we did the feeding.

We ended up going down a road that seemed to go to nowhere!  We 4x4'd for  miles on very rough and rocky terrain to find a remote farming community of Dominicans and Haitians on the mountainside. 

These little Dominican girls were walking along the road and were happy to get some rice, a goody bag and a tract.

While we were working on preparing the food for a feeding, Alhenny was having fun with our camera.  He took hundreds of pictures of everything in and around our house, including our groundskeeper.  Nalo is the caretaker for El Rancho Lembert.    He helps us out with any problems we may have with the house. 

Joey handing out some food.

This is the cow obstacle course!

We thank the Lord for allowing Courtney to visit with us and giving us safe travels to and from the capital, as well as to all the places we visited during the week. 

Please keep Bro. Darren Truel in your prayers as he travels back to the United States to bring his family back to the island.  Also keep me in your prayers as I am trying to plan a trip to Haiti to visit Bro. Maurice LaPierre (who is from Courtney's home church in DE) the weekend of Friday, May 13th if the Lord wills.  Pray for traveling mercies as we will be taking taxis through the country.

In closing, we thank everyone for their continued support. 

Brother Chris and Family