Dinner DR Style...

Yesterday my host family came and picked me up early in the morning and took me to church. The Spanish service lasted about 4 hours then they took me to their house. It was a small two room concrete slab. They made a typical Dominican meal of rice, beans, avacados, chicken, and fried platanos. It was delicious. After dinner we went out for "ice cream". It was nice and the company was good! On my way to the apt. they took me on tour of the city. When I walked in my apartment I was greeted by a phone call notifying me that my luggage was here!! In the evening we hung out with some other teachers and tried to get some sleep.

This morning began at 5am because we left to go to the Capital, Santa Domingo, to get our residency. It's about a 2-3 hour drive on a bus. We got there and our laywer made us give our passports to someone we did not know(my dad told me not to let it out of my sight so I was freaking out!) then we had to wait, wait, and wait. The system of anything and everything here is unorganized and inefficient. We had to get a medical exam, except the whole exam was in Spanish. I did my best to answer all the doctors questions, but it was comical watching him act out the questions I could not comprehend. Then....the part I was dreading. We had to get our blood drawn. I was bothered because this was not real sanitary and I know mom would not approve! I have a history of passing out when I get blood drawn, I told the nurse..but she didn't seem to believe me. Sure enough, I passed out and they had to get people to come get me and take me to a bed. They were all speaking spanish and it was an expierence. After a few minutes I was fine and back on the bus. Then we drove to another place to get x-rays. Finally, we drove back to Santiago. We got back to our apartmnet around 5 pm tonight. It was a long day, but if I pass all the tests, I will be legal in the DR :)

I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for all your love, support and prayers. I'm so thankful for you. Miss ya!