Day: September 10, 2016
Mycah is 17!
Mycah turned 17 this week, and her day began with Emma making her breakfast in bed. We spent a fair amount of time in town, and celebrated by eating dinner at our favorite place in Luperon (chicken, rice and beans), then returned home to enjoy birthday cake. Cheri and Mycah share the same birth date, so her and Allen joined us for the celebration.
I picked the cake up in town – an authentic Tres Leches mass of amazing deliciousness, and proceeded to make my way through the streets to the dinghy to bring it home. As I walked I felt like I was in a musical because people stepped out of their homes and businesses yelling and singing “felix cumpleanos” as I made my way down the street. The more I tried to say no it’s my daughters birthday, the more they cheered. I finally made it to the dinghy, sweating like crazy (I think it was a 10 lb cake!), and stood the cake which is on a pedestal, on the 45 degree slanted dock so I could pull the dinghy in. I then stepped into the dinghy, grabbed the cake and set it down, turned and started the engine and leaned over the cake and untied the dock line. I sat down and balanced the pedestal between my thighs and worked the throttle on the engine, trying hard not to send the cake flying in any direction. Once I got close to Tanda Malaika, Danny and Emma grabbed the dinghy line and helped with the cake. I couldn’t believe I’d made it with it in one piece, but it was a fun challenge!
Aidan put frosting on his lips and gave Mycah all sorts of kisses on her cheek.
Luperon is small enough, that at this point so many faces are familiar, and we are greeted with hugs and kisses where ever we go. We know many peoples names and our Spanish is improving. We just love this place.
There is a sweet little man who shakes his guava tree for us so we can catch guavas and eat them.
Several times now I have been sitting and felt a kiss on my cheek and turn around to see Gladys standing there with a big smile on her face and a hug to greet me.
Glade and Aidan played softball again today.
The coach honored Glade as the top Gringo player and gave him a mitt and ball signed by the players. Once again, these sweet people don’t have much but give SO much.
We met with Rueben this evening to make sure everything was still on schedule to get started on Altagracia’s home/school. He said all is well, and that he would plan on beginning on Monday. As soon as the roof is repaired, we will start to paint and the floor with be done at that point as well. Altagracia asked if we could come by her home at 11am tomorrow because she wants to make us rice pudding. We feel so bad accepting because we know she can’t afford it, but don’t want to be insulting either, so we gratefully accepted and told her we are excited to spend time with her.
The dinghy’s aluminum base had a couple small crack in it which we had repaired today, and once again have a dry floor. Afterward they loaded it up…sort of…and drove back down to the dock for us.
We were so excited to hear that Chad (Marci’s Sweetheart) will be returning on Wednesday. We have missed him.
I’m pretty sure everyone is sound asleep in the berths at this point, and I am going to join them now. It’s been another wonderful day, in a beautiful place.
Adventures of a Tribe 