We started today at 7:00 am with ham and baked oatmeal for breakfast. 

 

Today was going to be different than other days as we were not going to be working at CCED today.   We were also planning to conduct a vacation bible school in the mountains at one of the villages that  Juan Ernesto has been ministering in. 

 

We had divided up into two groups.  One group was going to Vallejuelo to visit Alejandrina, the Compassion International student that Brad and his family sponsor.  The other group was invited on a tour led by Juan Ernesto around some of the more interesting sites in San Juan.

 

Brad and Cassidy with Alejandrina and her family.

 

 

Juan Ernesto arrived at the guest house at 8:30 am and we headed out on a walking tour of San Juan.

 

 

While crossing the bridge Juan shared about how Hurricane George had killed several thousand Dominicans that were living in this flood plan in 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olvis mentioned to me that he would like to work in the San Juan courthouse below.

 

 

We started the tour at the City Hall office. 

 

 

There are two murals, one on each side of the grand staircase that describe the history and the life of the Dominican people.

 

 

 

In one wing of the building there was a display of costumes worn everyday at the annual carnival celebration in February.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the market for about an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were there we stopped by Herman's store to say hello.  You may remember that he stopped by a few days ago to take orders for hand tailored items.

 

 

 

The smells from the street vendors was incredible.

 

I don't know how this guy is ever going to get his motorcycle back together again.

 

 

Juan took us to the Public University of San Juan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were there, Juan interrupted an English class that was in session. 

 

 

The teachers were excited to have a dozen native English speakers disrupt their class, and quickly paired us up and asked us to simply talk to the students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone should probably be monitoring these two jokers facebook status.

 

 

 

The teachers - Katherine and Felix

 

 

 

After seeing the university we stopped at a memorial for Juan Bosch

 

 

 

"Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño (30 June 1909, La Vega – 1 November 2001, Santo Domingo) was a politician, historian, short story writer, essayist, educator, and the first cleanly elected president of the Dominican Republic for a brief time in 1963. Previously, he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime of Rafael Trujillo for over 25 years. To this day he is remembered as an honest politician and regarded as one of the most prominent writers in Dominican literature. He is the founder of both the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) in 1939 and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in 1973."-Wikipedia

 

 

While we were resting in the park, Juan amazed us with his singing ability.

 

 

After our break we went to the Cathedral San Juan Bautista, where we has an excellent view of the San Juan Valley.  You can see the top of the cathedral from the road in front of the guest house, it is the dome in the middle of the photo below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...144 steps to the top

 

We headed back to the guest house at 12:30 pm for lunch.  We had ham sandwiches and fruit for lunch.

 

 

After lunch we packed up the two trucks and a taxi van and headed to the mountains.  Juan Ernesto stopped and picked up his wife and kids to join us for bible school. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While riding through the mountains I did see this b40 Massey combine with steel tracks.

 

 

While we were driving around in the mountains we say this sign a few times, google translate says it means "not kill do not run will not die" - I have no idea whether this is a warning or a threat... I guess we just won't run,

 

 

Juan, his wife and daughters

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got to the village, they were not prepared and there were no kids there for bible school so we decided to go to a water fall a few miles up the rode.

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked up the river for about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

We drove to another point along the river where it was wider and deeper.  Unfortunately it was not any warmer though.

 

 

 

We left the river after 5:00 pm and everyone was exhausted.

 

 

On the way home from swimming, a thunder storm followed us down from the mountains.

 

 

Which didn't turn out so well for the people riding in the back of the truck.

 

 

After we finished swimming we headed back to the guest house for supper.  Tonight it was pork with rice and beans, salad and fruit.

 

 After supper Herman the tailor stopped by to delivered all of the hand made items he had made since earlier in the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hat that Herman made for Josh turned out quite nice.

 

 

At 7:30 we were invited back to CCED for a fiesta where those on the team who sponsor a child at at the school could meet them. 

 

 

This is Sean and Stacey's sponsor child Peral.

 

 

There was food, music, dancing, musical chairs and a presentation.

 

 

 

I don't know if I have ever seen Josh happier then this all week... well at least since English class.  

 

 

 

I am glad he is feeling better.

 

It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our time here in San Juan.

 

 

If you would like information on how to sponsor a child here at one of the schools that Solid Rock supports, please visit the following link

 

http://www.solidrockmissions.org/Student_Sponsorship.html

 

At 9:00 pm Sean led us in devotion.  He covered the topic of self-control and did a great job.  We discussed the plan for leaving the guest house in the morning and everyone went to bed at 10:30 after a great day.

 

We are headed out to Santo Domingo at 8:00 am tomorrow, there are almost 200 pictures on Flickr, if you want to see the rest of them from today.

 

See the rest of the pictures on Flicker

 

 

 

We wanted to thank everyone who has and is supporting us through your financial and spiritual support, we are happy to announce that the trip is fully funded.