The Colmado

WORD OF THE DAY: COLMADO

Marsia is in complete awe of the efficiency of the colmados here. Oh, sorry, a colmado is a little neighborhood store much like a 7-11 only smaller... like a 2-11. At any time of the day or night, your colmado is there for you. Out of oil? A kid on a bike brings it within 3 minutes. Forgot to pick up yucca root? Its but only a phone call away. Unexpected guests show up? Not to worry.... you'll have your Presidente Beer and shrimp roll-ups before your guests find their seats. Need rice? No, bad example... they buy their rice in 400lb sacks I don''t think that they ever run out.

We spent the last few days with another family here in Santo Domingo, Luis and Rossy Martinez. They live on the other side of Santo Domingo, and with traffic it takes nearly an hour to get there. They have 4 beautiful daughters, ranging in age from 5 to 20 years old.

Our first night there we went to a birthday party for Luis's niece. It went on until very late in the evening. The good thing here is that it is not a problem to have music blaring at all hours of the night... they literally set up speakers for even better effect. Imagine doing that in your neighborhood. Well, actually we could in our neighborhood... :) 'cuz our neighbors would be there with us! There wouldn't be any Brugal, however. (their local rum)

Their oldest daughter Rosa Lee is the lead singer in her group and her younger sister Luisa is a back up singer/dancer. I've included a link if you'd like to see a performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US2FuGrBpNY The 3rd daughter Thalia is a real sweetie, and helped us find the video of Rosa Lee.

Thalia

The 5 year old Chanel is a firecracker and made us sing "Little Bunny Foo Foo", 600 times, complete with all the hand gestures. Very smart little girl and very cute. Chanel appointed herself as Marsia's private Spanish teacher. Marsia learned all the body parts. Her conversations with the rest of the world is still a bit limited, but if someone wants to talk about eyebrows and bellybuttons... she's there.

Marsia had a unique experience with the girls when she had her first outing without me. They don't speak much English, so it was a real test. Rosa Lee had to go by the University to drop off some things and her car broke down along the way. A short trip to the University turned into an all day adventure. Marsia was exhausted when she finally came back.

Hope all of you are doing well. We're waiting for the boxes to start our real work here. Thank you Louie for helping send those out and for those who have donated their time and/or money to the cause. Having these couple of weeks under our belts will be very helpful. We are making connections and finding more and more mission work everyday.

Until next time......