Whale Watching

In February, three friends and I went to Samana Bay to go whale watching. My friend, neighbor and fellow ex-patriot Kathy Jackman is the reigning queen of fun trip planning. Anything fun that we do, she is likely to be behind. She has wanted to go see the whales, and so when she realized that the peak time was at hand (mid Feb) she called to see who was in for an adventure.

I am always up for some girl time, and so the kids were assigned to their daddy (wonder what the hair looked like at school?) and off we went!



People were so excited to go whale watching with me that they even made a sign so that people would know where to line up! Wow! Are these people friendly or what?



We left at 6:00 in the morning and drove the 2 plus hours from Santo Domingo to Samana Bay. The road to Samana is a toll road and is also one of the best roads on the island. It is only two lanes (one going each way), but there are no 2 foot pot holes and so it is great! You drive for awhile, pay a toll, drive awile, pay a toll, etc. I believe that there were three tolls to pay each way. And the strange thing is that each toll was a different, odd amount (like 72 pesos, or something like that), so that the toll workers had to make change at every toll and you were never prepared with the amount, because it was different at each station.



We arrived in Samana about 8:15 or so and so we had some time to drive around the town a bit before we went to the office. Our boat was scheduled to leave at 9:00, so in traditional Dominican fashion it left at 9:30.


A view from the boat of the bay.

My ex-patriate friends and sanity savers. From left to right they are: Denise Lilly (from Layton. Her hubby is over the welfare department here), Nancy Rappleye (from Layton. Her hubby is over seminaries and institutes here) and Kathy Jackman (from South Jordan, or maybe West Jordan. I can't remember! Her husband is over the accounting department here). Kathy has been here the longest, going on three years in July. Denise came a month after we did and Nancy came this last summer. They are so fun and a great support. Kathy lives in the same apartment building with me and Denise and Nancy live in the building next to the temple.

We decided to go out onto the front of the boat to enjoy the view. It lasted about 15-20 minutes and then it decided to rain too hard to stay outside. Drat!

Sitting in the front of the boat. Wish I had thought to bring my binoculars! I loved the look of this little island that was in the bay. You could snorkel out to it from the beach area. Unfortunately, it got too cold and rainy to do it while we were there.

This is one of the workers on the boat. Seen here tying us up to the dock.

I stole this photo from Nancy's facebook and thought that I could blow it up bigger, but it was too grainy. The water was so beautiful and I just love the little islands with the palm trees on them.

Sighting the whale! Thar' she blows! My camera batteries were too slow to catch anything good, but you can see the dorsal fin of the whale in this picture.

Whale going down for a dive.

Wish that my camera was fast enough to catch the spouting and the tail, but alas, it was not to be.

The seventh grade class from Carol Morgan makes a trip to Samana every year, as a culmination of their whale study unit. Kari lucked into going on it the very first week that we got here last year. The 7th graders had gone a few days before us, and Kathy's son was part of the group. They were so lucky to have a huge group of whales in the bay when they went and they were very active. They were even seen breaching the water! When Kari went they had dolphins gliding along the side of their boat and there was a large sea turtle swimming by the boat too.

Unfortunately, probably because of the weather (you know that whales just don't like to get wet), we just saw this one guy the day we were out.

Some of the boats that were at the dock. Boy am I glad that we were in a bigger boat and not one of the small ones that were going out. I got a bit seasick, even with 2 dramamine pills, and so I can't imagine what it would be like for someone in one of the small boats! Notice the people on the dock wearing sweatshirts..... these are Europeans, not Dominicans, so you know that the weather was a bit cold that day. The one time in the last year that I have wished that I had brought a jacket along with me!

We got back from the boat ride at about 1:00 and decided to eat our lunch sitting up in this tower. There were several of them along the "malecon" here. A malecon is what the Dominicans call the street that runs along the shore line.

After lunch we found a group of shops and went looking for some souveniers. Nancy found some jewelry that she liked, as did Kathy, and Denise got some fridge magnets and some other fun things. I was a party pooper and didn't get anything.

Around 3:30 we headed back home, back to the chores, children and chaos!

As we were driving home, I snapped this photo of a home along the side of the road. This is pretty typical architecture for the homes here. The nicer ones are also painted in this type of bright paint.....looks like something that Kambrielle would pick out!

This is one of the rice paddies that we passed by. They were all along the roads in this one area and so I got a decent picture of this one. The green of the growing rice plants is very vibrant, like something in a photo that you would see of Ireland.

There was one stretch of road where there seemed to be a palm tree plantation. The trees were growing as far as you could see and as deep as you could see as we drove thru. I have no idea what they were being grown for, but you could see in some sections where old trees had been harvested and new ones were growing. Hmmmm, must investigate this further......

We got home around 6:00. I gave hugs and smooches all around, helped with homework and dishes and then thoroughly crashed around 9:00 (love that dramamine)

Can't wait to go again next year with Kevin. There is a lovely resort there that would be fun to stay at. Maybe he and I can get away for a weekend and enjoy the quiet feel of the beach there.

Haiti - From Kevin's View

What the church does is amazing. Since the earthquake, we have held a daily coordination meeting with Church Humanitarian Services. They ask what is needed and then pull all of the strings to make it happen.
Here locally our Area Welfare Manager is working all hours coordinating all kinds of aid that is being offered. Because of congestion at the airport in Port au Prince people are having to land in the DR and then drive over land to Haiti. Bennie is coordinating doctors and others asking to volunteer and then flying in to help. There will continue to be shipments going over land from here. Like Kim mentioned, we transferred 2 good brothers to the border today with two pickup trucks, 40 gallons of diesel and as many hygiene kits, first aid kits, tarps water and other things as we could get into the pickups. After about a 6 hour drive we met a couple of key priesthood leaders at the border, transferred everything from one of the pickups into his vehicle and then sent the other pickup with our two good brethren on into Port au Prince. These two brothers will help assess buildings, member needs, help coordinate the massive church shipments that are coming in and anything else that is needed.
I was amazed and touched at the amazing amount of Heavy trucks, equipment etc that we saw at the border. There had to be 100 semi-trucks, apparently full of supplies, waiting to cross over. Most of that had to be coming from the already impoverished Dominican Republic. On both our way there and back we passed many other trucks, cranes, trucks with bleach, large tank trucks, and people and everything else between. A very touching show of support and solidarity for the Haitians.
As we put our arms around our Stake President/Facilities Manager at the border today we saw the shock, sadness, and stress in his eyes as he told us that he already knew of 15 deaths in his stake. We said goodbye to our friends, knowing that they will be sleeping on a hard floor tonight and doing without all of lifes conveniences. For food they took two 72 hour kits, two boxes of granola bars, 6 cases of water (for others) and one filter water bottle between them (these things will filter anything including urine, mud, you name it, so that it is drinkable). I got back home a couple of hours ago. Please pray, pray, pray for these people. Haiti was already extremely impoverished before.

Thanks. Kevin

Earthquake

Tuesday evening at 5:53 we were all hanging out on the fourth floor in the Munives apartment. The fumigator had come at 4:00 and so we couldn't go into our apartment until after 6:00. I had just returned from the school where I had picked up Kambrielle after Girl Scouts. I was visiting with Emma and the girls were watching "Phantom of the Opera" with Keny and Emily while Alex and Parker were playing on the computer. Emma got up to answer the phone and the couch felt like it was moving. I haven't been feeling well this week and so I thought, "Wow, I must be getting really sick! I had better go lay down!", thinking that I was dizzy or something from not feeling well. A second later I realized that the plants were moving and lamps moving and went "AUGH! Earthquake!" A minute later Kathy Jackman ran down the stairs and gathered us up, along with Parker, and we went out onto the tennis courts/park area to wait and see about aftershocks.

While waiting there, we learned from cell phones that the earthquake had been centered in Haiti, and had registered at 7.0. What we felt had been registered at about 4.2 (is what I read in the paper, but I can't find it to confirm the exact number) Kathy felt it more than we did, since she lives on the 14th floor. We learned that we were in a Tsunami Watch, and that continued until around 10:00. They did measure a very small Tsunami in Santo Domingo, but it was just a displacement of a foot.

The older girls were a little frightened, but kind of excited. They were hoping for no school on Wednesday, but no luck there! Kambrielle was afraid and very clingy and I worried that she would be sleeping with us that night. Thanks to girl scouts, she was wiped out and crashed on the couch and was able to get a good night's sleep.

When we returned to our apartment around 7:00 we turned on CNN and were able to hear the small amount of information that they had available. Kevin stayed quite late at work, working with the brethren there trying to get information from Haiti and share it with the Presiding Bishopric. The church has some satellite phones and so late in the evening they were able to contact some brethren in Haiti and begin to get an idea of the devastation.

Yesterday Kevin went to work early and stayed quite late gathering supplies and organizing how to distribute the supplies that are being sent by the church. The church generally sends things and has them distributed by other organizations that are all ready up and running in the country, generally Catholic Relief Services.

Kevin left this morning at 5:00 and is driving with some other men with trucks full of supplies. They were purchasing walkie talkies for the leaders to be able to communicate with each other. He was looking last night for gas cans. They were taking as much gas as they could, since there is not gas available in most of the country. I am not sure of the other supplies that they were sending, since Kevin came home after I went to bed and got up at 4:00. They are meeting priesthood leaders at the border and transferring supplies there.

He told me that he was able to speak with one of his Facility Managers yesterday. Kevin asked him how the people in his stake had fared. Kevin was told that almost every family in the stake had lost their homes. (He only knew of one home that had survived) Several families had deaths in their families....... two of them had all their children die, as the home collapsed on them.

I am so overcome with grief for the people here. There are 3 people from Haiti in my Spanish class. One of them was there yesterday. She had been able to talk to her mom for 5 seconds, right after the first quake (there have been many, many strong aftershocks). and at that time they were OK. Part of their house had fallen off and crashed onto their car (they are one of the wealthy families that has a car). Their home is destroyed, but they were alive. The other two weren't there. One is an older gentleman (a lawyer in his early 60's) and he has children and grandchildren there. I am sure that he was driving to try to get them out.

One of our friends here works for Cure, International. He is leaving today with several doctors to help however they can with the injuries. Please keep all of the people that are there in your prayers and pray that the service people that are going there to help will be safe. Haiti was very unstable and unsafe before this happened.

This is the post from the church website of what the church is doing. If you have been feeling that you should do something, please give at the link attached. Or add to your fast offering this month under Humanitarian Aid.

SALT LAKE CITY 13 January 2010 In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is mobilizing resources to address the most pressing needs of the people in the Caribbean nation. Images of collapsed buildings and devastated families tell the story of the widespread destruction.
Two planes, one departing from Denver as early as Thursday and another leaving from Miami later this week will each include over 80,000 pounds of food and emergency resources such as tents, tarps, water filtration bottles and medical supplies donated by the Church. Transportation is being provided by Airline Ambassadors and Food for the Poor will aid with distribution in Haiti.
“We are constantly assessing needs to determine how our resources can directly help the people of Haiti,” said Nate Leishman, manager of the Church’s humanitarian emergency response efforts. “We are fully committed to this ongoing process and doing our best to help wherever we can.”
These new shipments are in addition to emergency supplies being sent by truck from the Dominican Republic including personal hygiene kits and supplies for newborns announced early Wednesday by the Church.
“We express our sympathy and prayers on behalf of the citizens of Haiti following the recent devastating earthquake,” said Kim Farah, Church spokesperson.
All Latter-day Saint missionaries serving in the country are safe, and Church leaders continue efforts to account for Church members in the area.
Donations for relief efforts can be made at http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse.

Uniforms

Pics are from the first day of school in August. I tried to get Kierstin to have a roommate take one of her so that I could continue the tradition, but she was reluctant.......wonder why?........

The law here states that anyone attending school must wear a uniform (the exception being college). This applies to private and public schools. I don't know the reason for the rule.

For our family it has been a good thing and I actually love that they wear uniforms. I will often hear the girls wondering "Hmm, should I go with the blue polo and the khaki pants?" And then the other will say "I was thinking the khaki pants would look better with the blue polo" At the beginning of this school year Kari told me that she was glad that they wore uniforms, since it would be impossible to "keep up" or feel comfortable with the other kids that they go to school with.

Kambrielle, being in elementary, has 2 uniforms. The blue polo with khaki's for regular days, and the PE shirt and shorts for PE days (they alternate, every other day). I only purchased 3 blue shirts for her, since that is normally the most that she would wear in one week.

When I do the laundry I hang the polo shirts to dry, since they would shrink terribly if I were to dry them (1. 100% cotton; 2. My dryer has only two settings..... hot and hotter) This makes them a bit wrinkly when they are dry. A few months ago I started asking the lady who helps me if she could press the shirts (they iron EVERYTHING here) and so the girls have been going to school nicely pressed and starched.

On Friday, Kambrielle went with her class to see a ballet. The rule is that when you leave campus all students must have on their blue polo uniform and long pants or a skirt. This kind of messed up our laundry schedule, as Friday was supposed to be a PE day. When Kambrielle went to get dressed yesterday, she found that there were no shirts in her closet, due to the extra shirt that she used on Friday when she went on her field trip. It was clean and hanging up in the laundry room. She grabbed it from the hanger and then there was a giant pause.

"What is wrong with this shirt?" I quickly looked it over and didn't see any problem.

"Nothing", I replied.

"It is all.......krinkly and has.......lines in it!"

"It just didn't get pressed yet, honey"

"Am I really supposed to wear it this way? Aren't you going to iron it?"

What have I created?

This conversation was going on as I was doing someone else's dinner job that they "forgot" to do the night before. Nope, I didn't iron it. Yep, she went to school without that fresh starch feeling. Cruel child punishment, for sure.

-Kim

It won't be like this for long....

Snapped these a few days ago. Kambrielle was so excited to get her turn on the Guitar Hero, as there was no school due to parent-teacher conferences. She is so cute when she plays it. She can play better than me! (OK, everyone can play better than me!)

I didn't hear anything for awhile, so I looked over to see what was up and caught her fast asleep with the guitar laying across her. So cute.

I got a new CD when my parents came. It is a collection of popular country songs, since I can't get them on any stations here. I was listening to the song "It Won't Be Like This for Long" by Darius Rucker. I love the words and the idea behind this song. Now that my youngest is growing up I find that I am trying to enjoy the stages that everyone is going through more.

I am thinking of having "it won't be like this for long...." put in vinyl and put it on the wall in my living room. It is a great reminder for me. Remember to enjoy the fun that you are having right now, with my children, with my husband and with the experiences that we are having. Also, when I am going through something really hard, remember, it won't be long until I can look back on it because I made it through.

-Kim

Tender Mercies

Going to church here is kind of hard for me.

It is hot and uncomfortable, as there is no A/C and the benches are hard wood, no padding at all. There is no carpet anywhere and the building is always dirty (There is no custodian at all for the building and when families are assigned to come and clean it, most of them do not show up for their turn. So, if we are lucky it might get cleaned once a month). I don't understand 90% of what is being said and someone stole part of the translation equipment, so Kevin can't translate for the ward anymore. He ordered a new set, but it will take several months to get here and make it through customs. I really have not bonded with anyone in the ward and so there is no social interaction in between sacrament meeting and when I go to primary. And, I teach Primary in a room that is really just for storage of old junk that for some reason they can't get rid of....... our class of two sits in there with the broken ping pong table, the broken ugly green metal (rusting) cabinet that stores the primary junk that no one uses and the broken, chipped top table that I use to put my primary manual on. The room doesn't even have it's own door. I have to try and listen to what is going on in the other room and then open the accordian door that separates us from them when it is time to go, so that we can go out their door.......

These were the things going through my mind as I left for church in a rush with breakfast still sitting on the table, calling out to the ants, no makeup on as I spent all my time getting some extra activities for my primary class (which I forgot on the kitchen counter, sigh). I told Kevin "Will I make it through today? Maybe I should just stay home." (Of course I didn't)

We made it into sacrament a bit early and had to sit on the front row, as there were no benches with enough space available where we could sit together except there. (Older girls loved sitting there!) Smiled at a few people and waved at a cute girl from Primary who I just love. (That is all that we do, is smile and wave as we can't really understand each other that well. She does like to come and sit by me during sharing time)

The first speaker got up to give his talk. He looks to be in his early 20's and was baptized a few months ago. Kevin knows him, but I don't really know him at all. He was well prepared and looked anxious to share his message with us. What I didn't know is that he has a very pronounced stuttering problem. Probably the worst that I have ever heard. Ever. He struggled and struggled and struggled to get through his talk. Since we were on the front row, I sat looking at the brother, trying to encourage him with my eyes and attention (Don't you just hate it when you are giving a talk and you look out at the congregation and it appears that maybe 2 people are listening? Everyone else is looking down, texting, studying their lesson to give next hour, etc?) I was praying for him, as was everyone else in the congregation. I thought that maybe he would be blessed to be able to share his talk clearly, or to be able to get through a sentence without struggling. Here he was, brand new in the gospel, giving a talk in Sacrament with lots of visitors here today. If anyone deserved a miracle, he did. And yet, he didn't get one. He struggled to the very last sentence of his talk. He tried and tried and tried to share the scriptures and messages that he had prepared and yet he couldn't get the words to come out of his mouth.

And yet, what could have been agonizing and awkward wasn't. I haven't felt the spirit as strongly in our Sacrament meeting in a long time. You could tell that every member there today was really rooting for him and pleading for him to be successful. When he finished, I could hear and see several sisters crying; being overcome by the spirit. I don't know how many people understood his words. There were a lot of American missionaries and ex-patriate families, like ourselves, there who speak mostly English. There was a family there from Russia. There was a large group visiting today from Guadalupe and French Guyana who spoke only French. And I am sure that those who spoke fluent Spanish had a hard time understanding. Blessedly for us, the Spirit can speak to each of us individually so that we can understand the love that our Heavenly Father has for us.

So, I guess that it doesn't have to be perfect to go to church. No, I don't have my great ward family from Utah anymore. No, I don't have a building that is new, nice or even clean. No, I can't communicate with most of my Brothers and Sisters in the ward. But I can feel the Spirit. I can know of the truthfulness of the gospel. And I can know that my Heavenly Father loves me enough to try to teach me what is really important here on the earth today.

-Kim

Scripture Study

When we went to Stake Conference one of the Stake Presidency asked the members of the stake to read the Book of Mormon. I didn't understand everything that they said, but at the end of the conference they handed out charts to track your reading, where you color in one block for each chapter that you read.

I decided that we needed all of the blessings that we could get, so for FHE this week we talked about personal scripture study, read an article from Elder Bednar in The Friend about how to get the most out of your scripture study, read an article from The Ensign about scripture study and then made some goals. We broke the chapters in the Book of Mormon into 20 chapter segments and then decided upon rewards that the girls could earn. They were things like a candy bar, a pack of gum, and when they finish, a dinner date with mom and dad. The rewards were every 20 chapters for the first 100 chapters, every 25 chapters for the second 100 chapters and then just one reward for the final 37 chapters. We taped the charts up on the wall in the kitchen so that the girls can fill them in when they finish a chapter.

You have never seen such scripture reading in your life. Kaitlin got the first prize (as she had been reading for Seminary) and now Kambrielle is determined to be the next one to earn it. She is allready on chapter 11, after only three days. Mom is the one currently in last place!!! Kambrielle has declined watching Dancing with the Stars with us the last two nights and decided to read scriptures instead. She has fallen asleep with her Book of Mormon on her face for the last two nights!

Today I went to the Distribution center and went a little crazy for Spanish items. I got the CD's for the car of the Primary children's songbook, then I got pocket size hymn books for everyone in the family (there are never enough hymn books in the chapel), Spanish triple combinations and the new Spanish bible. I also ordered a subscription to the Liahona, so that I can read the Ensign in English and then practice my Spanish with the Liahona. Hopefully I can have a moment like Elder Groberg, in the movie The Other Side of Heaven, where he learns the language by using the scriptures........hey, it could happen!

-Kim

What have you done with your family to encourage individual scripture study?