Puerto Rico, My Heart's Devotion

The adventure has begun and I''m not even in the DR yet. Yesterday started as any normal travel day should, 5am wakeup call for a 6:45 flight to Dallas with a connection to Miami. Then in Miami, the rains came! After boarding the plane, a terrible storm blew through, shutting the airport down for at least an hour due to the amount of rain and lightning. The plane was actually blown back and forth with the wind and rain. After the rain quit, it took them a while to prepare everything and I imagine there was a backlog of air traffic. Suffice it to say, by the time we did land in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I had missed my connecting flight to the DR. As I was in the American Airlines customer service line, I realized a couple of things. First, there was no way I was making it to the DR that night and second, due to the delay being from weather and not anything AA had done, it was not their fault and they could not give me a free hotel room. My choices were to pay $120 to stay at the airport hotel or sleep in the terminal, which people in front of me were chosing. After a quick phone call to Sharla, she put me in connection with the nephew of a friend who lives, of all places, in San Juan, Puerto Rico! So he came to pick me up and I had a warm bed, a yummy plate of rice, chicken, and potatoes, good company, discussions of Puerto Rican electric company policies, mission work, watched some Sienfeld, and headed to bed. He said I always have a place to stay when I return to Puerto Rico! Que Suerte!

12:20 flight today to Puerta Plata, should be in the DR by 2pm.

Here's the group from when I was in the Dominican Republic in January of 2004. This village is one of many in which MAKARiOS is active.

My Dominican Adventure

Welcome to my blog! I will chronicle my upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic here as often as I can, hopefully with pictures and stories. I will be in the DR from June 27 until August 1st. I will be working for my friend Sharla's nonprofit organization MAKARiOS (www.makariosinternational.org for more information). MAKARiOS does educational, community, and spiritual development in villages along the north coast of the country, where there is a predominantly Haitian population. Sharla is losing some of her in-country staff later this month and I am filling in until the new staff arrives. My current employer, Trinity University, has graciously given me the time off that I need this summer.