We enjoyed a new experience. The San Francisco (de Macoris) Stake invited Grandpa to be a guest speaker at a Saturday activity for young people. We misunderstood and thought we were joining the Young Adults and it turned out to be the Young Men and Young Women. But a slightly different approach to our presentation worked out fine.
We were told to be at the Stake Center at 8:00AM so we could travel with the group to their mountain destination. That meant we had to leave home at 6:00AM. We invited Elder and Sister Francom to go with us. They did not have another commitment and wanted to see a bit of the country so they agreed to get up early and accompany us. Naturally it took an hour or more at the Stake Center until everyone was ready to go but we followed the buses up into the hills to a lovely place that groups can rent for a day trip. The drive there was lovely. There were several poinsettia trees that reminded me of CA and Tenerife. Reminds me to think of Christmas too. We passed chickens and goats and cows and near our destination was a home with many types of poultry in the side yard.
This is where the activity was held. It has a large area with streams on both sides of the property. There was also a not very clean "swimming pool" made in one of the streams but the youth were told they could not go swimming that day. We were right after the opening prayer and only took about 20 minutes. The kids were anxious to scatter and go exploring. But we had made name tags to put around the necks of three young men and three young women. The boys had a jobs with different income levels and the girls had different numbers of children. We passed out a family budget and talked about the need for preparation and an education to have more choices when raising a family. You do have to live the life of a poor student for a few years but later you have lots more options. With a good job one can earn discretionary income and discretionary time. "Education is the key to opportunity" said President Hinckley. We want the young people to begin to see that the principles of gaining knowledge, choosing to be a hard worker, self-sufficiency and service to others will bring them the kind of life they want to live. The younger kids didn't have much knowledge of the cost of raising a family but hopefully they will begin to think about preparing for their future.
We didn't stay for the whole activity. We had the rest of the day free and wanted to drive and see whatever we wanted to see. Walking back to the car we talked with an older lady who was smoking a pipe outside of her house. She had several very large pigs and a litter of baby pigs. She obviously cared very well for her pigs and their open sided "barn" was surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. We were told that some of the trees we passed were the source of cocoa. There were large pods growing out of the trunks or larger branches. I had no idea what cocoa pods looked like. The pods hold seeds which require a lot of processing in order to be turned into chocolate. We were told that the DR exports to both the USA and Japan.
This is what the hillsides look like. And it is November. The cows resting under those trees have a pleasant place to live. All they lack is an ocean view.
This is Sister Francom choosing some cooking spoons. I bought the bowl on the lower row-the darker one that is the third to her right. It cost us $6.00 to buy a hand carved wooden bowl. It is unique. It is our fruit bowl. It doesn't sit up straight but it holds fruit. This "store" is right at the side of the highway.
We drove up the mountain toward Constanza-very steep with breathtaking views. Beautiful ferns covered the cliffs and quite a few wild flowers were in bloom even in November.We stopped at a place where they were selling pottery. We found that the factory was at that location as well and they kindly showed us around and explained how they mixed the clay and formed the pots. We watched young boys clean the pieces in preparation for painting. It was very interesting but I'm glad I don't work in that cramped dark space.
Next we stopped to see these bright hangings. It turns out they are rugs made from polyester strips of fabric hand tied onto opened up woven plastic "gunny sacks". Two women and a boy were making them by the side of the road. One woman said she could make two in a day. The other woman and boy said they couldn't finish one in a day.
Apparently they are having success because we saw many other people selling this type of rug as well. There were many different colors and some had patterns and designs in them. They said that they could be washed in the bathtub. These would definitely add color to a room!Our last stop was a lumber mill. This too was at the side of the highway but they had a permanent location and a little building for an office. I wandered around taking photos but I overheard that the father of the young man we were talking to had bought the business just a month ago and on that day they were cutting logs into boards and making table pedestals.
Lots of hard work going on but at least this enterprise had the assistance of power machinery. Labor is inexpensive here and many people work very hard without the assistance of machines.We saw lots of beautiful flowers for sale on our way home. There is much beauty in this world our Heavenly Father has made for us. Hope you are finding beauty in your life as you hurry through your busy lives. We admire your accomplishments-especially the grandchildren.
Thanks for all you do.Love, Mom, Grandma, Jeri
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