ay-ay-AY!!... This may have been the longest week of my life...go ahead, laf it up. But we shall see what happens next...
geez where do I start!
okay...so here´s the shpeel...
Bucket showers. Yay! i pour water onto myself with a pitcher of water that comes from a bucket... pretty self explainitory... I sleep with a net over my bed, and the windows aren´t windows really, and they´re always open. we wash our clothes with a little machine that spins our clothes around and we have to line dry them. Sometimes we have water...sometimes we don´t... sometimes we don´t have power either... we just deal with it. but at night we usually have power. We don´t have a maid yet, we could use some help though to clean our little abode and help with laundry so we can have more time to study important stuff. (This keyboard is way quacky and the buttons are all mixed up... I want to do smileys, but I haven´t figured it out yet.. :D ah! there we go. ;)
okay. so our apartment is...cute. it needs a good cloro scrubbing... there are little tiny ants all over our kitchen. ;P say bye bye-- hahaha!! *ahem*... We clorox our fruit and rags and eggs and veggies and stuff that we will eat directly... yum. It doesn´t taste any different. There are lots of mangos and bananas and other fruits here. :D There are colmados, or little shops on just about every corner of the little dirt streets of Canasticas. Blech they all smell the same, but we can stop at one of those and get stuff we need, and some candy too :) Ha. yeah. I wasn´t expecting a constant stench like this...I can´t imagine a tropical paradise when i smell the stink of everything on the streets. I have learned to ignore most of it. What gets me the most are the motor bikes. I hate them all!! Am I alowed to complain? Man, I swear they´ve never heard of mufflers. Everyone owns a motor bike. they´re all the same, really LOUD and they´re everywhere!! When we teach a lesson we´re usually on someone´s porch, or there´s always a window open and those stupid bikes make it so hard to teach without distraction...bikes...always those cursed bikes. But I´m sure the Dominicans are so used to it, they´re not even phased. I got a little sick one night because we walked so much around this main highway. It´s just one big long river of exhaust and noise and stink and cat calls (Pssst! novia! princesa! Americanas! etc. etc. all of which I learned to ignore the first day here ;) My brain was fried already from everything I´m learning and trying to remember and my body just gave up after all the poison from the streets. blech! oh well, I guess. Don´t worry Mom! I´ll be fine. :)
It´s really fascinating to see how these people live here... with almost nothing... pretty depressing. Our house is a dump, but it´s pretty nice compared to block, cement walls, wood or tin roofs etc... wow. Every time I walk by these houses I think... how in the world....???... I guess they just make do with what they have. Everyone just makes do... So I call Canasticas ¨The Land of Make-Do¨...very humbling...and pretty funny at times.
Yes. It´s hot. And sweaty and sticky. always sticky. Every missionary get´s their own personal fan. It is my best friend now. But I stopped noticing that it´s actually ¨humid¨. I just get ¨hot¨. Then I realize that when I get home it will be right in the winter season and I will certainly freeze my booty... so save some warm blankets and hot chocolate for me! Anyway. There are dogs everywhere..mangy dogs...I saw one missing an ear (I aim´t seen nothin´yet) and LOTS of chickens. I hate chickens now. I have learned to ignore the roosters...because we live RIGHT next to a bunch that crow all the time... even in the mornings... *cringe* ay-ay. whatever. THere are cats here too, but even if house animals look clean and kept, we don´t touch ém. I saw this one sweet kitty in a member´s house and I wanted to pet it soo bad... big green eyes and soft-looking fur... dang. Not for 16 more months. AAahhh! 16 months! ...gah, don´t think about it Julie, don´t think about it...it will make you more crazy than a banshee... Ah! I discovered that a chupacabra isn´t just a random ZIM creature. It´s actually mexican legendary little demon thing that eats goats. Cool huh? yup. Hail to all my Zim fans, Hey'O :D
Hna. Robertson says the DR is probably the most unique country in the world and on top of that...the biggest garbage hole around... it´s seriously a garbage hole. Do they think their trash is gonna dissapear?? I haven´t been to every city, but there really are some clean, beautiful places in the DR... I just got the crowded, noisy, stinky one. But hey! The people are great!
The ward here is really awesome. They are very strong and aparently they have been doing all the missionary work for a while... some missionaries haven´t been doing their job... The fact that they haven´t had sister missionaries in Canasticas since 2001 might be a little clue... ;D but we´re just doing what we need to and we´ve had great success already. in one week! Sunday we had 3-4 investigators join us and it made a great impression on their seeds of faith.
Hey Melanie, I am getting your e-mails, thanks! Marty!! we stopped by the MTC and met on sister there that is from Jamaica and will return there after some training. Her name is Ann Marie Ford and she lived in Maypen. Did you serve in that area? She says she knows you!! I guess if you remember her that would be really cool. :D She´s a really sweet happy sister and will certainly to awesome on her mission in Jamaica. :) Also, I heard Texas was ¨under water¨... are yáll okay over there?? I don´t remember where you´re living now but I hope everything is okay... luvya!
ugh... my brain is seriously fried...
Just a reminder, my birthday is Aug 15th... I would love to recieve some pictures!!... and I really need a good supply of stamps...
Mom I recieved a letter from the bensons just now, I haven´t opened it yet, but I did get it. :) Fortress, your letter did come, and yes, I could read it, thanks :) I have recieved some great letters from a lot of you THANK YOU THANKYOU! Such wonderful blessings can come from accross the ocean! So yes, I do eventually get them. ;D All your e-mails too!
If anyone happens to send me a package ever, let me know when, or even before hand, so I can estimate when to expect it...
==Mom, see if you can figure out a way to make a blog (maybe mel can help) of my e-mails and stuff... it will be neat, cuz some people don´t have e-mails... like Josh Bryson or Shaun fornoff, or Chad Truman, y´know. it would help. :) just an idea. don´t stress over it though. I can´t buy mesh garments here and I would really like some more tops...don´t remember my size, but I´ll let you know next time==
I may be able to just print out some pictures and send them home, cuz I may not be able to send my memory card home, prolly too risky. But I am getting some great pics. :)
Ahh, I have nooo more time, gotta go... I always forget something important, always... I´m freakin´out--I want to break this keybaord, it´s giving me so many problems!!! GAH!
so Thank you all again, sorry I can´t reply to all, I will try to be LESS insane next time. Yay!
This Gospel is true!
until next week...
Love,
Hna Julie Benson
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