This is the dining "room", the space was obviously intended to be a balcony but it is enclosed now and part of the living room which is a good thing. The windows slide open and you almost get an outdoors experience. The only problem is that sitting down I can't see out of the windows but I can if I stand up. The ocean is to the left. They are building a new building beyond the longer wall. It is not very beautiful yet.
The living room has our two couches and coffee table. We placed the table in the corner because we need the space every morning for our "2 mile walk" DVD. We place the laptop on the dining room table and do our "walk" right here. The front door is out of sight on the right. I'm standing in the dining room to take the photo. We saw paintings in front of a house on one of our trips and stopped to ask about them. We talked to the three children and the Mom who showed us quite a few paintings. The one on the left was still wet so we came back a couple of days later to pick them up and met the man who painted them. They seem like a very nice family. The paintings are "folk art" type and depict rural life here in the Dominican Republic. You can see them more closely below.
Here is our kitchen. If you walk past the stove you are in the living room. I am standing in front of the refrigerator to take the photo of the sink. The long counter and the refrigerator face each other with maybe three feet between. I'm glad I am not cooking for lots of people but it works for us. We need to invite people over for a meal but we haven't done so yet. You can see the drinking water in 5 gallons bottles. Just tip and pour, s-l-o-w-l-y or you need to mop up the floor.
Here you can see where the second bathroom is--right in the living room. If you approach the kitchen and go right you enter the bedroom. There are three closets in the bedroom. We have all of our suitcases and the broom and mop and bucket in one and Lewis has his clothes in the second. I have a walk in closet that juts out into the room to the right of the computer table.
The bedroom is large and also has an air conditioner. We haven't used it much yet because we get nice breezes but I'm sure we will. We hang out here with the computers a lot. The bathroom has a tub with a shower. The water heater is only five gallons and you turn it on and off with a switch. The trick is remembering at the right time. The toilet and sink are not fancy but work just like at home. Life is good.
We have contacted all of the English speaking Perpetual Education Fund participants in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and a few other places for the second month. One girl has emailed back a couple of times. She emailed us this story, "Hello Elder & Sister Pettingill, Thank you guys for keeping me on my toes. I don't remember the exact month that I paid the money. But I did pay $500. Which I faxed the receipt to Sis. Frazer. My problem or weakness is procrastination and you know what the scriptures say about that. I keep saying that I will go tomorrow to the bank, then I keeping pushing it to another day. Till the month passes. However, I promise to be a lot more stronger and make it my responsibilty to pay monthly. My best friend works at Scotia Bank as a teller, so I plan to give him the money monthly to put to the PEF Account and he will then give me the receipt, so I can fax it to Sis. Frazer. Elder Pettingill, remember I told you I was at a family "Fun Day" at Church yesterday? It was fun! However when my husband and I were driving home, we met in an accident. We were on the highway and a van drove off the side walk and collided with us. I thought Lord, this is it. I am coming home. I thought I was going to die. My life flashed right before my eyes. Then I thought of Alma 5. I got married November 2007 and I said to my husband, if we had died in this car accident,this would have been it for our marriage and our love. But I thank Heavenly Father that He has spared our lives.We are coming to the Santo Domingo Temple to be sealed this year and to receive our endowments. We are both o.k but our car is badly damaged, however the offender has acknowledged that he was wrong and his insurance will fix our car. We really have a lot to be grateful for. I will pay some money today and fax the receipt to Sis. Frazer. School is great! I love learning! It's Fun! Hey! I was called to be the "Young Women President" for my branch. That is also going great too. It's just a bit challenging to get all the girls to be excited about their "PERSONAL PROGRESS". But hey," The Lord Gives Us No Commandment Unless He Has Prepared Away for Us to accomplish it".
Until Then! Take Care! Jesus is the Christ, He Lives and is mindful of each of us.
Love, Sis. Chrissie-Ann ..."
Chrissie-Ann sent us this photo of her and her husband. If I saw this photo I would think it was for a rap music video or something foreign to me. Now I'm learning that this photo is of a young couple married in Jamaica last November and eagerly awaiting their opportunity to come to the temple and be sealed. I'm not sure that most Young Women presidents would have that same facial expression in a photo but this one certainly has a testimony. She asked for a photo of us so I sent her one.
This is our friend and boss, Domingo Aybar. I like him very much. He is kind and cheerful and a great example of leadership and teaching skills. He has been a Bishop and a Stake President. He has a wife and three children and has earned his Master's Degree. He is employed by the church as the Area Welfare Manager and has responsibility for all of the Caribbean Area. He does a fair amount of traveling and teaches an Institute class every Thursday night. When you work for the church and have responsibility to train Priesthood leaders your job never ends-and he is the Bishop again in his ward. I'm sure his wife understands the frustrations of several of you with small children and busy husbands. Oh, my favorite part is that he speaks English very well. And his Spanish is clearly pronounced so I can understand almost all of that as well. He is a very fine man. Lewis said that he was reading a sales/finance book on the plane to Haiti. He has been infected with the American drive to invest and plan for the future and has a business with two locations selling motorcycles. He tells us that his wife is OK with him selling motorcycles but he can't ride one because they are too dangerous. I agree with her. He told us that is it almost impossible for an "older person" (someone in their 40's) to get a good job in the Dominican Republic and there is no such thing as a pension. I guess everyone who works for the church hopes to keep their job for a long, long time. Planning for the future is a good idea for all of us.
Lewis came home from the store with this bunch of sunflowers. He saw them and thought of Leiann. I'm sure someone was selling flowers to stopped cars at an intersection. You can buy a lot without ever entering a store. He insisted that I take a photo immediately and include it. What a good idea!--and they only cost $3.00. The only "vase" I could come up with was an empty 5 gallon water bottle.
Here are closer views of our paintings. There really are flowers in the trees here. I've seen people hang their laundry on stair railings and fences and bushes here in the city. I'm sure there are many people who still do laundry in the rivers. In fact we did see a group of people washing clothes and taking baths in swimming suits. Little kids were naked and having a great time splashing in the water. In the city they splash in blow up plastic wading pools like we do-only they don't have a yard. We ran over the hose one child was using driving by. It was a tiny narrow street with no other options. His Dad seemed to think that was perfectly normal. There are often things that surprise me here--like the time a pig ran across the street when we were driving out in the country, and the way they pile 6 passengers plus the driver into a taxi that was built to hold five people. There are no seat belt laws here for passengers or rights for pedestrians.
People here use their transportation efficiently. The more the merrier. We have always felt that way about our family and friends. Hope you are able to get together when the opportunity arises. We think of you often and love it when we get emails. Encourage the kids to write and ask us a question.We are in charge of Family Home Evening in two weeks. Hope we think of something fun to do with just boring old adults.
Love to all of you,
The Pettingills
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