La casa de Danelle es mi casa

Good morning from sunny Santo Domingo! Danelle, the missionary I'm staying with for a few weeks, and I drove here yesterday morning for church; the plan is to leave for Punta Cana by midday for the regional retreat followed by a regional leadership team meeting.

Backing up a bit, I arrived safely here in the DR on Thursday evening. Since then, I've mostly been settling in and putting faces to lots of names that I'm trying valiantly to keep straight. I'm still pondering the best way to fill you in on my exploits and introduce you to certain aspects of life here without regaling every humdrum detail.

I thought a good starting point might be some photos of my temporary accommodations. Danelle's is one of the newer homes in our neighborhood, Cerro Alto, but it'll give you a good idea of what a typical residence looks like. A few fun facts about Danelle are that she grew up in Montana, was also a Spanish major, and also previously served as a GEO Missionary. She's the longest running member of the DR team, having been here since 2005, and a fellow cat lover :) Her fur baby, Tabby, is friendly, playful, and helps immensely when I am missing Freddy. She's even orange & white!

The door - and windows - are open most of the time when one of us is home. There is no A/C with the exception of wall units in the bedrooms that get turned on at night. The rest of the time we sweat it out and play musical fans.

My bedroom. The aformentioned wall A/C unit is in the top left hand corner!