I had an exceptional day yesterday

This picture isn't from yesterday, but I didn't take any and I feel it sums up the day as well as any picture could

Yesterday I went into El Canal for the first time since returning to visit lots of friends, including my students who I hadn't seen since the last day of school, and as the title of this post suggests, it was a fantastic day. Before leaving, I made sure to stock up on lollipops and various candy so my students would immediately remember that they did in fact like me. First I stopped at Suni's to visit her, her granddaughter Yosmairi, and her husband Samuel who are all wonderful people. Suni's mom, sister, and her one year old grandson also happened to be there as well. I spend about a half hour with them just sitting, catching up, and squeezing her tiny grandson. The next house I stopped at after that was Ney and Denise's, which I think was the best stop of the day. Ney is nine, Denise five, their brother Delby is three, and younger sister Rudesi is a shade over one year old (yet another baby to squeeze!). When I got there Ney and Denise were helping their mom breakdown crabs that their dad had caught, so I scooped up Rudesi, pulled up a chair and chatted with them as well! I told them about what I did while I was home, everyone asked about when Colin and Megan are coming back (naturally), and I kept trying to get Denise to talk to me (she wouldn't say one word even after I gave her a lollipop!). Ney even asked me how Tori is doing by name, which is very impressive considering he's nine and me her one time months ago. Their mom, Rue, offered me a little taste of the crab they were breaking down, and it was quite delicious! After talking for a little while longer and being entertained by Ney chasing around Belby to pull the garbage out of his mouth that he kept trying to eat, we decided to play some kickball! It was Denise and I versus Ney, with Delby and Rudesi cheering us on. We played right in their "front yard," with bases about five feet apart from each other, but it was still very fun! Ney ended up winning 16 to 11 after 5 innings, when I decided it was time for me to continue on and visit more people. As I was leaving Ney told me he'd remember the score so we can keep playing the next time I'm over. 

After Ney's, I continued a little ways up the road to Sandra's to see her and her family, and by the time I got there Sarah had already been there for a while, and she was playing dominos with most of the kids from my class! Negro, Wileni, Emanuel, and Wilson were there, along with Elissa. Sandra was still getting back from visiting her mom in Moca, so we all just hung out until she got back. It was taking a while so I decided I would go visit Olga Louisa while we were waiting, but as soon as I stood up to go, Sandra came around the corner. Sarah and I say with her and we talked for a long while all together. Around five o'clock I decided to head down the road and go visit Olga Louisa. On the way a very old man stopped me and I gave him a ride, which was fun! Olga Louisa, her two year old son Joel (more squeezing!) and her husband Jose ended up being at her mom's house, which is like 100 yards down the road so it made no difference. Same as with everyone else we hung out and caught up. While I was there the ice cream man came by, and Joel got himself a popsicle, and it was super hilarious to watch him eat it. He offered me some, and I passed this time, but he shared it with his whole family! Before I left Olga Louisa told me she wants to have us all over for lunch one more time before I go back to America, which is very exciting because she is a fantastic cook, and her family fantastic company. 

It was well past five o'clock now, and I still wanted to head into Luperon to but hamburger buns and tortilla chips, so I decided to head home. I stopped back at Sandra's to hug everyone, and went on my way. I got the aforementioned groceries without incident and was so excited to get back home and make a burger and guacamole for dinner, that I didn't even think to check if I was good on gas, which I definitely should have done because there is a pump right in Luperon. As you might guess, I ran out of gas a mile and a half from the nearest gas station in El Estrecho. Some quick background on Dominican culture before I continue, when someone runs out of has on their motorcycle, a lot of the time someone else on a motorcycle will stop and help them out by putting their foot on the peg of the motorcycle that ran out of gas, and pushing the person to the nearest gas station. I always thought it kind of crazy, but also super awesome. So I hopped off my bike and started to push it down the road. I wasn't even walking for a minute before someone on a motorcycle stopped and offered to push me. Having never done it before, I was a little nervous, especially knowing how far I was from El Estrecho, but everything went well, and it was very fun! The man was very nice, and had me rolling in to the gas station in no time. After I finally had gas, the kickstarted decided it wouldn't work anymore so I had to walk the bike up to the top of a hill so I could pop the clutch, and I was finally on my way! I made it home around 7 o'clock, right before it started to rain, so it was perfect.

It was an awesome day visiting awesome friends, and I got to have a quintessentially Dominican experience for the first time. 

Jennipher Para Vasquez

This is inexplicably the best picture I have of Jenni. I say it's inexplicable because she steals my phone every single class and either takes a million selfies of herself (yes, even 8 year old Dominican girls love to take selfies), or her and Wileyni have a photoshoot. So, sorry to Jenni that it's a hilarious picture of her. It was funny, when I asked her if she'd write her full name for me, she said she didn't know how to spell Vasquez, not because she doesn't know how to read or write (she does both quite well), but because she uses her last name so infrequently she's never had the need to learn it. Jenni and Wileyni are partners in crime. If one of them is listening well and having a fun time laughing uncontrollably, then so is the other. The only problem with that is when one is in a bad mood and doesn't listen to a damn word I say, the other does so as well. But the latter is rarity for Jenni. Her and her younger brother Yefri live right next door to the school, and a lot of the time she'll still be eating lunch or getting dressed for the day when we arrive, but by the time we have everyone settled and sitting she's still able to stroll in right on time. Despite being eight years old and a tiny human, she can still play kickball with the boys, which I've always really liked about her. She's not quite as smart as Wileyni, but I certainly wouldn't bet against her chances of going to University. She's certainly acts older than her age, which actually seems like a reoccurring theme in young Dominican girls the more I think about it. Jenni is a great kid and I can't wait to come back to the DR in 20 years to see what she has accomplished. She is one of the people I will miss most when my time here is all done.

Adriel Fransico Salas Peralta

Adriel is one of the biggest 11 year olds I've ever met, but his size is very fitting of his personality. In school he's always looking after the kids, and I'm sure it's no different outside of it either. In fact, he's two of the other students uncle (Wileyni and Emanuel), and he sometimes even runs his parents colmado (convenience store). He reads and writes well and behaves better than any of the other kids in the class, which I attribute to his maturity despite being only 11 years old. I think that same maturity sometimes gets in the way when we sing songs during circle time. While all the other kids love to dance around and be silly, Adriel almost always sits in his seat and watches. I always try to get him to join in, and it's always great when he does. He's a very sweet kid and makes my time in school much more relaxed.

Rachel Salas Burgos y Wileyni

For a while I've wanted to write about all of my students, and now I'm finally getting around to it. Here is the first installment.

Being a teacher has been one of most rewarding and challenging surprises of my time here in the Dominican Republic. I had no idea I would be teaching until about a week before I was to start, but I’m very glad that I have had the chance to do so. The reason the experience has been so rewarding is because of the children I get to teach and spend time with. They say that teachers aren’t supposed to have favorite students, but I’m not a real teacher so I think it’s ok that Wileyni is my favorite. She just turned seven last month (I'm pretty sure), which makes her the youngest of my students, but she is by far the smartest. She can read and write very well, which is an accomplishment in itself in this part of the country, especially for a seven year old. I’ll teach the kids a few English words that we’ll go over a few times in class on Tuesday, and no one else, not even Olga Louisa (a 23 year old Dominican woman who helps me in class) remembers the words on Thursday, but Wileyni will. She’s so smart that often times I’ll forget she’s only seven years old because I feel like I’m hanging out with an adult, then she’ll act like a seven year old and it’ll catch me off guard. It’s crazy. She’s also hilarious and makes me laugh all the time. Her and another girl, Jenni, will attack me from either side and poke me in the side and tickle me and on days when I’m exceptionally tired it’ll zap all the strength right out of me and I’ll be helpless to do anything except laugh and plead for them to stop. I asked her the other day if she wants to go to University, and she told me yes and that she’s going to be a doctor, and I believe it. I wish you could all meet her and get a hug from her because she is really a special kid, and my life is better having had the privilege of spending time with her.

The Hike

If you've been to the property, or seen the many pictures I post of it, you've seen the mountain with the antennas on top that you see looking out from the property. In Colin's second week here all the way back in the beginning of September, he decided that he wanted to hike said mountain, and this weekend we finally crossed that goal off the DR bucket list... and it was CRAZY. We both came back fine overall, but much more injured than before we left.

After a week of serious speculation and planning what to bring with us in our backpacks, Friday night was upon us and we made sure we packed food (beef jerky and trail mix), what we thought was enough water (it wasn't), our hammocks, basic medical supplies, and of course a machete each for all of the bushwhacking we were sure we'd have to do (turned out to be lots). Originally the plan was to set out from the property, hike all the way to the top, spend the night at the top, then hike back the next day, but after talking with some Dominican friends and looking at a map, we realized that would take us like four days; time we did not have. So we altered the plans and Franci dropped us off in a village called Guananico at 7 o'clock Saturday morning, about a mile from the base of the mountain. The first mile was through the village on a paved road, with the base of the mountain at the end of the road when it hit a river. We crossed the river and took the first path we found, and when we the first person we came across told us that we were on the correct path to the top of the mountain, we were feeling pretty good. After fifteen minutes on walking, it became evident that we were definitely going the wrong way, so we back tracked for about five minutes when Colin stopped and said that if we climbed up this 30 foot cliff, he thinks we would be on the correct path. Not only did that sound quite fun, but I have an absolutely terrible sense of direction and I was following Colin, so up the cliff we went. When we made it to the top we were in a pasture, and it was clear that Colin was correct and that we were exactly where we wanted to be. From this moment on, the rest of the five hour hike was steeply uphill, therefore I was sweating and out of breath for the next five hours.

The next part of the hike was relatively straight forward, with the path clearly defined. The fact that the path was so clearly defined surprised me, and I was wondering why this was so, but my question was answered shortly when we came to a fenced in area with forty or fifty cows, and three men tending to them. I don't know why, but I didn't expect that people would keep their cows up in the hills, but I was happy about it because they are the ones making the path clear. We stopped and talked to the men, Pepe, Pepe's brother whose name we never learned, and Cucho. When we told them that we were walking from Guananico to the antennas at the top of the mountain, they laughed at us like we were crazy (this became a theme throughout the day). They were very kind to us letting us pass through their land, and Pepe even took Colin's number because he wanted to call us later to ensure we made it to the top safely. After following the path past Pepe's land for another half hour, we came to a much more defined road, which was good and bad. Good because it was very clear which way to go, bad because while it was definitely uphill to this point, the incline got severely more steep. From here on out, the going was very slow. The only good part about the very steep incline was that every five minutes of walking, the view behind us got like 100 times more epic. Finally the very steep part gave way, and it was back to just normal uphill, and we were able to get back to appreciating what was around us instead of gasping for air and wiping the sweat out of our eyes. 

One of my favorite parts of the hike was all of the nature we could eat along the way. Never before in my life had I seen a cocoa tree, but they lined the path, and when we came to a forest full of them, we decided it would be ok to take just one of the pods and eat some. The inside was full of white, slimy beans, and they were DELICIOUS! They didn't taste anything remotely like chocolate (you have to do lots to turn the beans into chocolate), but I liked them much more than I though I would. Along the way we also got to eat guandules (a type of bean) off the tree, wild raspberry type berries (we asked some Dominicans if they were edible before partaking), and we found an orange tree and ate like 10 of them between the two of us they were so delicious and juicy. We also saw lots of coffee trees, which I think is pretty cool and worth mentioning even though we didn't eat any of the coffee beans. 

Eventually we came to another Y in the road, and to the right was a couple of houses with people sitting out in front of them, so we decided to ask them the way. They turned out to be Haitian people, and they spoke spanish, which was good for us cause neither of us speak one word of creole, but their Spanish was still very difficult to understand, so all we really got was to go left at the Y in the road, which was better than nothing. So we took the left, and then staying on the correct path was difficult for a little while. Luckily the trees weren't too dense here, so Colin was able to look up and either see the antenna where we were headed or the next peak over, then decide which way to go from there. We came to one fork where the left was downhill into a valley, and the right was uphill along the ridge. We couldn't decide which way to go, so we took a little break before finally deciding to go up to the right. It was super steep and difficult to hike up, and when we finally came to a clearing 15 minutes later, we took a break to decide if we should continue this way. After some deliberation, we came to the conclusion that both ways would get us there eventually, so we just flipped a coin; heads continuing along our current path, and tails doubling back. It came up tails, which in hind-sight was very lucky because that ended up being the faster way to get there. 

We got lost one more time for a few minutes, but nothing worth describing in detail. As we felt like we were getting closer to our final goal, the path started the change and turned into more of a horse path, which we took as a good sign. Pretty much as soon as we acknowledged this, we basically fell off of this path onto a road! It was a crazy surprise! We gave each other a little baffled look because we were just not expecting this. It wasn't a paved road, but certainly a road wide enough for a car to drive down. In fact, where we came out of the woods there was a pick up truck parked almost directly in front of us, and a man a little ways down the road tending to his farm. We went and talked with him for a little while and learned lots from him in just a few minutes. His name was Nelson Vargas, and he told us about a little village two kilometers down the road (another surprise), and more about the surrounding area and how they are working to turn in into a tourist area (thumb down emoji). He also told us that continuing along this road to the right, we will reach our goal of the antennas. So we set up yet another crazy steep road (I can't overstate the steepness) and another half hour later, we finally reached the antennas, and one more surprise. I did not think we would see nearly as many people along the way as we did, and I definitely did not expect to meet a family living at the top of the mountain, the husband of which tends to the antenna. 

What I have failed to far to mention is the physical toll the hike had taken thus far. None of our injuries had occurred yet, but by the time we reached the top, my legs were freakin jelly, and were cramping up every couple minutes, all of which I expected. What I did not think about was the toll carrying a heavy pack for many hours would take on my shoulders. When we got there I was so happy to take of my backpack I nearly flung it off the mountain. But none of that mattered because we had made it, and we were ready to start reaping the rewards of our hours of hiking (4 hours and 44 minutes to be exact). We sat on a roof and just stared out in the direction we had come from trying to name all the cities we could see. We could see (from east to west) Punta Rusia, Villa Isabela, Luperon, Guananico, Imbert, and at night we could see the lights from Puerto Plata. We obviously took pictures, but we talked about how in situations like this we almost feel like it's pointless to take pictures to show people because a picture could never possibly capture the vastness. After appreciating for a good long while, we wanted to hike some more to get to a vantage point where we could see the view of what's on the other side of the mountain. So we talked to the man who lives up there (who has lived up there his entire life and told us that they don't have water up there and have to go three miles to the closest village for it) and he pointed us in the correct direction. It was very clear that people don't usually go this way, because we were utilizing our machetes more than ever. But after only about 10 minutes, we reached our destination and were able to appreciate some more. It was a very interesting and unexpected view. Facing out toward the direction we came from was mountainous, but out in the other direction was completely flat almost as far as we could see (which was quite far) and all farm land, but still very beautiful nonetheless. 

Now we had only one more goal before calling it a day with the hiking and going to explore the village that Nelson told us about, which was the tallest peak of the mountain, so of course we had to get up there. And this is where it got treacherous, and the injuries started. Much like the path to the peak we were just at, it was very overgrown and we had to frequently utilize our machetes to get through. It was farther away as well, but we reached where we were trying to go in another half hour, but there were a lot of trees and we were unsatisfied with the view. So Colin climbed an old cell tower and say that "20 yards away" there were some tall rocks we could sit on top of and get the view we so desired. I put 20 yards away in quotes because it was much, much more that 20 yards, with the distance accentuated by the treacherous terrain. I know I already used treacherous before, but it's the only words to describe the way to these rocks. We were no longer hiking, but rock climbing. There were times where it was quite terrifying, but always more fun and exhilarating than anything else. After a long 20 yards, we finally made it to the rocks we were headed for. It was very cool sitting on top of the rocks because they were their own peaks, and it was a straight drop 50 feet down from them, so I made sure to hold on tight the entire time. So after even more appreciating, we decided it was time to get down off these rocks and head for the town. In heading toward these rocks, we were walking away from the antenna and the start of the road, so we were a solid hour through all the treachery from the antenna. Colin observed that the road to the town was right below us, and after much deliberation (my vote was just to take the long, safe way back around to the antennas) we decided to go Colin's way and climb down the face of the mountain down to the road to "save some time" (we did not save any time). Plus, this is where the injuries began.

So in this treacherous terrain, Colin moved much faster than I did. He has much longer limbs than I do, and he is also a bit less cautious than I am in such a situation. So as we're climbing down this mountain, I can't see him so I would call out his name every once in a while to both make sure he was ok, and to ensure I was headed in the right direction. I'm headed down nice and slow, but still accidentally grabbing the occasional thorn or getting scraped up when slipping on an unstable rock. Then, one of the times I called for Colin, there was a little hesitation, and very calmly for the situation, he says Mikey, I just took "a little fall" (it wasn't a little fall). So I got really nervous and got over to where he fell from, and he free fell 15 FEET down the mountain!! I rushed over to where he fell, owning both of my knees on the sharp edges of rocks in my haste, asking what he broke along the way. Somehow, someway the answer was nothing. Although he avoided breaking anything, he certainly didn't get away unscathed. He got some gnarly cut-bruises on his arms an legs, but was overall ok and able to walk away from the fall. He was climbing backward down the ledge, and when he took off his foot to start moving down and only had one foot and one hand on the wall, the rock he was holding on to broke and he fell backward. I asked him later once we finally reached the bottom if he though he was going to die when he started falling, he said yes and the image that flashed through his head was how the newspaper title back home would read announcing his death. The rest of the climb down the face of the mountain was full of little slips resulting in little cuts and bruises, and by the time we finally reached the road we were headed for, my hands and legs were covered in those tiny cuts and bruises, but despite all the injures, I'm really glad we chose to go the way we did, because it was incredibly fun, and I'm sure I'll never do anything exactly like it again. 

We reached the road, and walked into the village, which ended up being a typical Dominican village. A few colmados, no where to eat, and lots of people hanging out on their front porches. We talked with a woman and her children while they played Play Station 2 (another one of those surprises). Then we walked through the village more, ran into Nelson playing some dominos, bought some more water and food, and decided to head out of the village and find a place to set up camp. We ended up finding a perfect spot, up off the road with a few well spaced trees, strung up our hammocks, and started collecting supplies to build a fire. After some very hard earned relaxation, we got the fire going and roasted the hot dogs that Colin brought along, which were delicious. It was dark now, and Colin decided to walk back into the village to buy more water, just in case. While he was gone I went and checked out the view, and it was super cool to see all the same cities we did by day, which were now clusters of lights by night. I was in my hammock by 9 o'clock, and passed right out, but the sleep was very short lived, because it was very windy, and freezing up on the top of the mountain. Neither Colin nor I slept more than an hour or two, and when 5am finally rolled around, I found Colin curled up in a ball on the ground next to the fire, which was equal parts pathetic and hilarious. No matter how completely miserable and sleepless the night was, it was all worth it to see the sunrise in the morning from the top of the mountain. Pictured above, was without a doubt the most incredible sunrise I've ever seen. From the property there are too many mountains to see the sunrise until it's already up in the sky, but from such a high vantage point you could see every minute of the sunrise.

After we were satisfied with the amount of sunrise we were able to witness, we set off down the mountain. The way down was immensely easier than the way up. While walking down the steep hills was a little bit tough on our already over tired legs, we got down in less than half the time it took to ascend the mountain. On the way down we ran into Pepe again, and talked with a few more people on the way. We made it back to Guananico around 9 o'clock, and Franci came and picked us up. By the time we got home, I was freakin exhausted and passed out in the hammock for a good while. 

It was the craziest adventure I've had so far while in the DR, and I will never look back at the top of the mountain or those antenna again. 

Farewell to the beard

Scroll for the progression (the second one is my favorite)

Today I shaved my beard! Well actually my friend, and friend of the mission, Alberto did it for me! it feels super good to be rid of it. This was the longest I've grown a beard by almost a full month, and honestly, it was terrible. All sorts of gnarly stuff fell out of it as he was shaving it too, which I thought was awesome. Everyone's reaction as I saw them was super funny, with, "who's that guy, can't be Mikey," topping the list. Riding the motorcycle home and actually feeling the wind on my face was pretty nice too. I think for the rest of my time here, I'll probably just try to maintain a constant scruff, as opposed to growing another ridiculous mountain man beard. 

La escualita

Sorry the picture is too big for the blog, but it's awesome so I wanted to make it as big as possible

      I love this picture because almost everyone in it is in motion. So much so that if you look at it for too long, too closely it seems like it could be posed. This is school. For all of August and a good part of September, I primarily stayed on the property and tended to it, but then in September after Colin arrived, schools opened and I really wanted to be a part of it because it's super fun to hang out with little kids, and also it was a way to get off of the property. So every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I would go with Colin and Megan into El Canal and we would have class with 3-5 year olds from 2-5:30. At first I assumed more of a support role because Colin and Megan are here working with VMM for the sole purpose of teaching. It was fun to get to know the kids while not having to do any of the lesson planning, which was nice. When school started, I was told that I would eventually be tutoring older kids who need help in their schools, which I was very excited about! Then when the former coordinator of our school program, Loryn, was down here for a visit in October, she informed me that I would have my own class of 6-10 year olds! She rattled off a bunch of things that I need to teach them, and told me I'd be starting the next week! Teaching the 3-5 year olds was easy, it was colors, numbers, days of the week, but teaching the 6-10 year olds meant I needed to teach them things like the alphabet, how to read, and reading comprehension. I feel like people go to college to learn how to properly teach that kind of stuff, so in the beginning I was completely lost. I didn't know what to do for lesson plans, or how to properly teach them to read. Three weeks in, I still don't really know what I'm doing, but the kids at least seem to be having a good time! I think this coming weekend I'm going to sit down, call Loryn, and really start learning how to teach these kids what they need to learn! My class started at 4 kids, and as of next Tuesday I will be up to 7! After this post I'm gonna get pictures of each of my kids individually and blog about them, so you can get to know them too!

I am completely unharmed

As the title of this posts suggests, I am completely unharmed. But, as I'm sure you can surmise from the title of the post, there was an incident. Also, sorry there is no picture, but I didn't think to take one until we were out of there.

So, I'll start from the top. Today Colin and I decided we were going to explore a village out in the boonies called El Burro. El Burro means the donkey, and the road is named that because when it rains, the road gets so bad that the only way to access the village is via a donkey. But I'll write about our adventure in detail in my next post, this one is about something else. So El Burro is on the way to Imbert, so after our adventure we decided we would start heading to Imbert on our motorcycles and stop at a random place to eat on the way. We drove and drove and there wasn't even one place to eat on the way, so we decided to continue all the way into Imbert. We got to the entrance of Imbert and Colin saw a man he met the night before in Luperon, so we parked our bikes and went walked back to Colin's new friend Carlos to ask where a good place to eat is. He told us to go to the park in town and there was a good place to eat right next to the park.

We headed out and got some delicious chicken and plantains for dinner (what else is new). While we were eating we talked with the woman who owned the barber shop next door, and she pointed out the ice cream shop right down the road. I love ice cream and that is something they definitely don't have here, so Colin and I were definitely all over that. So we got our ice cream, which was surprisingly delicious, and now we're ready to head back home because by this time it's dark out. So, Colin takes off on his bike and I still have some napkins in my hand that I used to wipe the water off of my seat because it had been raining, so I stopped and threw them in the garbage. By this time, Colin is pretty far ahead of me, but he stopped at the intersection to make sure I was on my way, and when he saw that I was, he continued on. So I'm driving and come to the intersection. I want to try to paint the best word picture possible so you can fully understand how much this was not my fault. It's your standard four way intersection, but only one side has a stop sign. The one side with a stop sign was the side directly across from me, with the other three stop-sign-less.

I slowed down coming up to the intersection, looked both ways and saw that there was no one coming, and continued through the intersection. As I'm three quarters of the way through the intersection, a man in his car who should be stopped at the stop sign (which is one of two stop signs in all of the campesino so you think he might actually obey it) decides the stop sign is unimportant, runs through it starting to make a left turn and BAM! hits me with his car. I saw him starting to go so I swerved to the right in an attempt to not be hit by his car, which I think was a good move because as a result of it, he hit me perfectly perpendicularly and I fell directly to the right. After he hit me I laid on the ground for like two second thinking, "are you freakin' kidding me?" By the time I opened my eyes and got up off the ground, there were three or four Dominican's helping me pick up my bike and bring it to the side of the road and making sure that I was ok. The car was perhaps going 5 miles an hour and I was going even slower, so I truly am completely fine, which is awesome. I literally got one minuscule cut on my ankle that didn't even bleed. So I'm sure you're wondering about the person who hit me. Before I can even get my motorcycle to the side of the road, a big fat Dominican man (who I'll refer to as the angry fat man, AFM for short) comes out of the car yelling at me immediately that it was my fault that he ran the stop sign and hit me with his car. He was yelling, so I started yelling at him too! (In spanish, which I'm actually pretty proud of). I yelled at him that he ran the stop sign and hit me with his car so it was his fault! Meanwhile he's pointing to a tiny area where the paint on his bumper got chipped telling me that I need to pay him for it. I'm telling him no way because it was his fault and he needs to pay me if my motorcycle is damaged! By now Colin realized something is up so he turned around and finally joined the party. And I call it a party because within two minutes of this guy hitting me, there are 20 to 25 Dominicans on their motorcycles taking up the whole street trying to find out what's going on, and I'm the guest of honor.

Now Colin rolls up on his motorcycle trying to find out what's going on and basically takes over the argument for me, so he starts to argue with this man who's now trying to get me to go to the police station with him, which was not about to happen because the law here is extremely racist against anyone who isn't Dominican. As Colin arrives and takes over the argument for me, another man tells me that I need to move my motorcycle because it was blocking traffic, even though it was parked correctly on the side of the road and the AFM parked his "damaged" car right in the middle of it. I go to move my motorcycle to the sidewalk, and some random guy says to me that he was there when the guy hit me, and it wasn't my fault as he was walking past me. I pleaded with him to stay and tell that to the man who hit me, but his response was unexpected, and probably the best advice I've ever received, particularly in a tense situation. His advice was, "it wasn't your fault, leave." I couldn't understand why I didn't think of that myself. It hits me all at once that the AFM doesn't know my name, where I work, or that I even live in the Dominican Republic. He probably just assumed I'm some gringo on vacation. So I get on my bike, and yell once, "Colin!" but he didn't hear me over the AFM. So I yelled his name again, much louder this time, and we made eye contact and I took off. I think it was the adrenaline's fault that I didn't communicate anything else to him and just bolted, assuming for some reason that he knew what I was saying just from my look.

As I take off, the AFM sees and took two steps toward me then gave up trying to chase me realizing it would have been a futile effort. I'm speeding down the road, looking back every two seconds hoping that Colin will be following shortly after. After three or four look backs, I realize that he didn't get the message, so I turned around heading back to rescue him, trying to think of an excuse as to why I left. As I get halfway back to the scene, Colin whizzes past me and says, "that was crazy!" I whip around to follow him, and I catch up very fast because for some reason, Colin is slowing down to stop and as I zip past him I yell, "rapido, rapido, rapido," because I am not about to be chased down by this guy. We get out of town quickly, and ride side by side for a minute and decide that we'll get almost all the way back home before we stop to talk about it. We make it to the basketball court five minutes from home, pulled over to the side of the road, and sat in the bleachers to get the entire story straight. I told Colin my side of the story, then he filled me in on his side of the story after I bolted when that guy told me to leave.

Colin informed me that as he was talking, the AFM was so angry that he was all up in Colin's face with one hand balled into a fist, at which point Colin realized he needed to calm the situation way down. He was successful for a bit, but as I yelled Colin's name, took off, and the AFM gave up on chasing me, but then immediately turned his sights to Colin. As the man was distracted by me driving away, Colin caught my drift, slowly pulled his bike keys out of his pocket and put them in the ignition, but as he kicked the bike to start it, the man realized what he was trying to do and put his hands on Colin's handle bars to keep him from driving away. At this point Colin realizes that the man is going for his bike keys so he takes them out of the ignition and slips them into his pocket, but to no avail. The AFM is so angry at this point that he reaches into Colin's pocket and rips the keys away from him. Now the AFM has clearly over stepped his bounds, and the crowd of Dominicans know it, and thankfully intervene, shifting the attention of the AFM from Colin, to themselves. One Dominican guy said to Colin, just get out of here, and Colin responded he wants to, but doesn't have the keys. Colin says he doesn't even know how, but the keys ended up back in his hand thanks to the friendly Dominicans. Colin put the key in the ignition, very wisely put the bike in neutral to keep the AFM's attention off him and on the Dominicans now trying to reason with him, and when he was far enough away, kicked the bike on and made a clean get away.

There you have it. Colin and I agree that we are now officially Dominican having gotten in an argument with a Dominican man while surrounded by 20+ other Dominicans. I do feel bad that I left Colin hanging like that, but I truly didn't mean to (remember the adrenaline?), and I will point out that I definitely went back for him. All in all, now that we're both ok, along with the bike (aside from a broken front brake handle), it was kind of an awesome experience. Not one that I want to have again necessarily, but still kind of cool.

La Cirugía

September 11th, 2014

I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog about this, it was quite the experience. I'll start out describing the picture, then give you the story. So what you're looking at here is two doctors pulling a baby out of a woman's womb, or if you want to get technical, a c-section. Yes, I saw a real live c-section, it was awesome... and gross. The woman on the right was the surgeon, the woman on the left was the assisting nurse, and this is the moment where the surgeon reached into the woman's womb, and scooped the baby out.

Ok, now the story. In September two medical groups came to the mission, and when there is a medical group here, they go to the hospital in Imbert on Thursday, because on Thursdays, they do c-sections (does anyone else think it's funny they have a designated day for them?) The first group that was here was a group of 5 grumpy old ladies, who I drove around all week, so on Wednesday night I asked Sarah and Elissa, "if I wear some scrub pants, do you think I'll be able to go watch a c-section?" They said I might as well try, and I'm glad I did. Thursday morning I slipped on some scrub pants and declared with a fist pump, "I'm ready to commit so fraud!" We got to the hospital and I did my best to act like I belonged. We were all together when the doctor asked who wanted to go see a c-section, and trying not to seem to eager, I volunteered, and I was in. The next thing I know I'm in an OR and there is a woman lying on a surgery table ready to be cut open and have her baby yanked out of here. I'd like to make it known that the fact that they didn't even check if I was actually a medical professional or not wasn't even the most ridiculous part of this experience. To go into the operating room, I didn't even have to wash my hands, they let me take pictures (clearly), and when they cut something off the lady, they just threw it on the ground! They also don't have suction in the operating room so the blood (and there was LOTS of it) just runs onto the floor. I have another picture showing all the blood, but I thought it was a bit too graphic, but email or facebook me if you want to see it and I'll certainly sent it to you! The most surprising thing about watching the surgery for me was how rough the surgeon was! I don't know if that's how it is for all surgeries, but they were ripping this poor woman open, who was in fact awake the entire time. At one point the two women were gripping either side of the incision with both hands and hanging off of the woman to open her up, it was crazy! Then once they finally cut away all the muscle and fat and whatnot and finally made it to the womb, they couldn't pull the baby out, so they called in the director of the hospital who had just arrived and he came in in his yellow button down, put down the mail he was holding, and started pushing on the woman's stomach! He wasn't even wearing freakin gloves! The whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. When the doctor sewed up the last layer of skin I turned to her and said, "wow, thank you, that was incredible," then walked out of the room as nonchalantly as possible. Could you imagine in America trying to do something like this? I don't really know, but I feel like if this woman was in American her HUSBAND wouldn't have been allowed in the operating room, never mind a complete stranger with dirty hands who isn't even a medical professional! But I suppose this is a good representation of the Dominican health care system (at least out here in the campo).

I'll reiterate, it was super awesome, super gross, and I'm super happy I got to have the experience.

Hiking, Dominican style

I haven't written a blog post in a while, so I'm going all the way back to the last very interesting thing (at least in my opinion) that I did. Driving down the road, have you ever looked over to a far off mountain (or hill) and thought, "it would be cool to walk to the top of that?" That happens to me here all the time. There are rolling hills around me here wherever I go, and I want to be on the top of all of them. That was random, now background. So far, while there haven't been groups here, I have spent most of my time on the property, therefore I haven't had the chance to meet many different Dominicans (however, that will soon change, but that's a different post). Colin, however, has been working in the school and had the chance to meet a bunch of people, one of whom is Angelo. Angelo lives near our school in La Sabana, and also right in front of some very cool geography. One day Colin asked Angelo if he would take him on a hike through the hills behind his house, and of course Angelo said yes because Dominicans are awesome. Colin mentioned to us all that he was doing this with Angelo and I was all about going as well. So when the day came (Saturday, September 6th in case you're quite curious) Colin and I each rode a motorcycle into La Sabana and set out on out adventure with Angelo and his two boys. We walked down this dirt road that Angelo informed us gets very muddy during the rainy season (just like all the roads) for about 15 minutes until we ducked under a barbed wire fence (all the fences are barbed wire here) and entered an open field with lots of grazing cows, and a mountain in front of us waiting to be climbed. We walked through the field up to the base of the mountain and Angelo made sure that we definitely wanted to continue because as he informed us at that moment, there would be no path to the summit, we would have to make it ourselves. We firmly said yes because we were both very excited, so with Angelo and his machete leading the way, we set off into the dense brush that lined the side of the mountain. At the outset, the hike wasn't challenging, but soon enough the grade got very steep, and it was completely necessary to hold any small tree or bunch of vines you could get your hands on just to keep from sliding back down the mountain. Eventually as we progressed (slowly) up the side of the mountain, we came to this low wall of jagged rocks that fit perfectly into each other like you might find in the ruins of some sort of Central of South American tribe. It had clearly been there for a very long time undisturbed, but as soon as we reached it Angelo was convinced that the indigenous Dominican people had buried their gold under this rock formation, and started to tear down the wall. He didn't find any gold, but he was so convinced that he asked me to bring back gold mining materials when I come back to the DR, it was very funny. After about an hour struggling up the pathless side of the mountain, we finally made it to the summit, which was rather disheartening because we knew there was an incredible view to be had, but it was blocked by the thick layer of trees we had just struggled all the way through. Colin decided the best way to solve this problem was to simply climb a tree, but I thought otherwise and while Colin was climbing, I decided to walk around to hopefully find a clearing. After little searching, I came to a wall of a certain type of cactus that grows here, and could see that beyond it, was the opening I was hoping for. So I tucked myself into a little ball, and sort of waddled through the only opening I could find in the 20 foot tall, wall of cacti, being as careful as possible not to make a wrong move and find my arm or butt all cut up. It was certainly worth risking my butt, because when I came out the other side (unscathed I may add), the view was as I said, worth it (check the picture). Just as any picture of beautiful scenery, it doesn't do the rolling mountains justice, I also really like that there was a storm rolling in in the picture as well. That's a scene we see quite often here.

So we took our time appreciating the scene and eating some of the carrots we packed, then I figured we'd head back down the mountain and return to where we came from then head home, but as Colin and I turned to head back, we realized that Angelo was on the next mountain over, and that our adventure was in fact not finished. After realizing Angelo was so far ahead of us, Colin, Angelo's two son's and I took off in his direction in an attempt to catch up, while also stopping along the way to appreciate where we were and what we were looking at. After ducking under many more barbed wire fences and traversing many a hill, we finally came to the best part of the afternoon. We hit another opening in the mountain and the scene that was before us was amazing. From the vantage point we were at, we had a bird's eye view of 1) Luperon (a near by town we frequent) and the ocean it sits next to, 2) La Sabana (where Angelo lives) 3) the road to and part of Cambiaso, as well as 4) the summit of the first mountain we climbed. The scene was spectacular, so we all sat, talked, and finished off the bag of carrots. By this time, the storm was really closing in on us, so we started again for Angelo's house, and after about 15 minutes more of walking, we stepped onto his front porch just as it started to downpour. We hung out for a while, talked, watched some guys play marbles, and shared some coke Colin brought because Dominicans love them some Coca Cola, even if it doesn't have rum in it. Then the storm broke and we decided it would be a good time to go because we were both riding motorcycles and it would be nice not to have to ride in the downpour.

About half way home, it started raining hard again, so we decided to stop at this little "restaurant" (I put it in air quotes cause it is literally a woman's house that she happens to sell food out of). It was great because the food was delicious, of course, but even better was that her family sat with us so we were able to talk with them while we ate. We each got a fat plate of food and the whole meal for two people costed us 90 pesos (that's just over $2 US... yeah, it's awesome). By now the sun had set and it's completely dark, and still raining, so we just had to suck it up and ride home in the rain. It was the first time I road a motorcycle in both the dark and the rain, and it is terrible. The dark actually isn't so bad, but the rain feels like little needles hitting your skin. We finally made it back to the property around 8 o'clock and were happy to be off the streets and able to change our soaking wet clothes. It was a very, very cool day and an awesome experience to be able to have. I'm sure we'll have more in the future, and I am most certainly looking forward to them.

Las gallinas

         These are our chickens! I have to take care of chickens! Isn't that hilarious?? It's like I'm in Iowa or something. Two weeks ago Bill sent me an email with a list of things to do around the property, and to my bemusement, one of the items was to purchase and maintain chickens for a constant supply of eggs (we eat a lot of eggs). So I put the chicken chore far down the list figuring it would take some asking around to find out what kind of chickens to buy (who even knew there were different types of chickens), where I can buy them, how many to buy, and how to maintain them, cause before this I'm not even sure I'd ever even seen a live chicken. Then three or four days ago I was picking up lunch from Milania's (the woman who cooks for the groups when they are here), and thought to ask her about the chickens because I knew she had a bunch of her own. I usually pick up lunch around 12, and by 2 o'clock that same day when I went back to return her tupperware, she had like 15 chickens lined up for me to buy! We ended up settling on five gallinas (hens) and one gallo (rooster), and Milania gifted us two more chickens out of the goodness of her heart, one full sized hen and a little teenager one. Eight chickens in total. While I was still at her house she was showing me her chicken set up, where they lay their eggs, what to feed them, and that whole deal. When she was showing me were the chickens sleep, I got a little bit confused. Now, my spanish speaking and comprehending abilities have improved vastly over the last eight weeks, and I can almost always understand Milania now, but when she was explaining where the chickens sleep I was sure I was misunderstanding her, because what I understood was that the chickens sleep in a tree! I was cracking up and asked her three or four times to make sure I definitely understood her that at night, the chickens hop up a ladder (pictured above) into the branches of a tree and sleep for the night. My mind was blown. It makes sense if you think about it, they are up high securely away from predators, but before I was able to wrap my head around the fact, it was the funniest thing I had heard in weeks.
          Ok, so now I have the chickens in a cardboard box in the back of the pick up, I know how to take care of them, Milania's grandkids helped me set up their nests for egg laying, and Milania even lent me one of her chicken ladders so they could get up into a tree. The only problem now is that most Dominicans have their chickens running around their houses and their yards, but chickens smell awful and are quite noisy (particularly in the morning) so we weren't about to let our chickens run around the staff house. So I found a beautiful spot for them, far from the staff house, under a big shady mango tree perfect for sleeping in, but now the problem is that they were far away, so we couldn't monitor them and they could run away or get stolen pretty easily. As a solution to these problems Peter and I decided we would build them a fence out of chicken wire! So we got chicken wire, called our friend Meima to go out into the woods and cut us some posts (cause apparently you can't just buy them in a store) and after three days of the chickens roaming around randomly (thankfully they're all still around) we were building them a fence today. Digging individual holes for each post and dealing with the surprisingly rigid chicken wire was a bit tedious, but that was not, as we expected it to be, our most difficult task of the day. After we built the fence, we had to get the chickens into it. Trying to run down one chicken is hard enough (we found out), but eight seemed like a mountain we wouldn't be able to climb. Maybe if we were working out in an open field we would have had a chance, but we were by no means in an open field. We were surrounded by barbed wire fence on two sides, and lots and lots of thorny plants. So the first chicken we caught was the little teenager one cause we luckily ran it into one of the thorny bushes and it got stuck, but after that, it got much, much more difficult. Peter and I spend well over an hour army crawling under and jumping over the barbed wire fences all the while pulling thorns out of our feet. At the end of the hour and change, Peter had 10+ thorns stuck in his feet, and my right arm and leg were covered in blood from all the bushes and barbed wire I ran into, but let me tell you, it was all worth it. Each time we were able to catch another chicken and put it in it's new fenced in habitat, the feeling of satisfaction we felt rivaled that of pulling that piece of plastic off a new cell phone, or popping an entire roll of bubble wrap. So now as you can see, the chickens are happily in their shiny new enclosure living the chicken lifestyle. They eat a surprising amount of food and drink a surprising amount of water so I'm back there two or three separate times a day feeding and watering them. Now, after lots of hard work, we have a steady supply of fresh laid eggs (which are much better than ones that have been shipped all over, think fresh vs. frozen fish), and another chore to keep me busy. And *spoiler alert* I believe our next such venture on the property is going to be getting honey bees, so I'm going to learn how to be a bee keeper, how awesome would that be??? But until then, I have plenty of time to become a master chicken keeper.

Las motocicletas

Riding motorcycles is fun. No ins or outs about it. I never rode one until I arrived here, but now I find myself making up as many excuses as possible to ride them. Part of my job is to run them daily to ensure they don't die from lack of use, which is great because as I said, riding motorcycles is fun. As you can see, we have three motorcycles on the property, two road bikes, and one dirt bike. The dirt bike is by far the best one we have, especially for the terrain on which we have to ride. If there is a down side to it, it's that it's not terribly fast once you get it on the road, but that's a minute detail especially compared to how well it runs on the rocky dirt roads around here. The black Yamaha is a piece of crap. It's not its fault that it's a road bike, so even getting it out to the road is a pain (literally, I feel like I should be wearing an athletic cup). Because of this, no one rides anything but the dirt bike, hence the necessity to run them everyday. But, unlike the dirt bike, once you brave the pain and the bumps and get the Yamaha out on the road, it's super fast and very fun to drive, aside from the fact that it's a piece of crap and the whole thing rattles and vibrates while being driven and it's terrifying, but that just adds to the experience in my opinion. And the red bike on the end is a Suzuki, but the kick starter doesn't work so you can't even start it unless you get a push down the hill. Why don't we get it fixed you may ask, well, like I said before no one ever drives it so there really isn't a point. It would just be a waste of money, something we try really hard not to waste. Why don't you just sell the two road bikes that no one ever drives and buy a new dirt bike that people will drive you ask? Well Bill wants to "limp them out" for another year, and Bill is the boss and what he says goes. So until then, we stick to the dirt bike, which as I'm going to say for a third time now, not to be repetitive, but to emphasize a point, is quite fun to ride.

Monté en caballo

I rode a horse for the first time today! I think I'm kind of afraid of horses, so I always assumed that you didn't have much control when on horseback, but turns out you have complete control (at least on this horse). I went very slow at first, but then sped up a little bit and just bounced all around uncomfortably so I stopped that immediately. It was cool riding the horse, but I don't really get the appeal, maybe it's more fun if you go faster than three miles per hour.

Imbert

I was walking down the street in Imbert (a small town about 20 minutes for the property) and I passed this street and saw it out of the corner of my eye, did a double take, and said out loud to myself, "damn."

Los animales de la finca: Rex

I couldn't get one quality, in focus picture of Rex (cause he doesn't stay still unless you're petting him) so you get two pictures of Rex! He is our property guard dog, despite being secured to a tree 24/7. I know, I know, it sounds harsh, but listen to the story first then decide. Actually, I'll get to that in a second, first Rex's back story. About a year and a half ago, our former security guard told Jaime about a dog tied up to a tree not far from the property that was basically dying. Jaime went to the owner of the dog and asked if he could take him but the owner said he wasn't for sale, which was ridiculous. So Jaime would bring food to the dog and eventually got him healthy and back up to weight, at which point the owner eagerly offered to sell Jaime this dog. Our property security guard was a terrible one, so Jaime was able to buy the dog for $300, and we had a new security dog in Rex. Now back to the reason he spends his days tied to a tree. So as you may have figured by the blurriness of the pictures, Rex is quite the rambunctious puppy. He's between 70-80 pounds, and loves to jump. Initially we let him run free around the property, which went well for the most part, but then Rex started killing stuff. One time, actually while I was here in March for ASB, a stray piglet got onto the property and Rex killed the shit out of it. Long story short I think the mission got sued, or threatened to get sued, so we had to give them two or three piglets to avoid a huge debacle. After that, and I think other similar incidents, Rex was condemned to his tree. It's unfortunate cause he is a really good dog, and surprisingly good on a leash for such a big dog. He'll eat absolutely anything (and super fast). And he has a big water bucket, but he knocks it over every, single, time you put it in front of him (pictured in the background of the photo on the left). The silver lining to Rex's sad story of being tied to a tree all the time is that he's (most likely) gonna get to go to America for a better life come December! We had a group down here and one of the women in the group heard his story and offered to take him home for her friend who is apparently obsessed with Rottweilers (and willing to pay all the expenses of getting him to America), which is great! Rex deserves a better life than the one he has here, so I'm happy he'll get that.

Los animales de la finca: Sally

I've liked talking about the origins of the dog's names, and Sally's is nice and simple. When Sally was abandoned as a tiny puppy, Peter took him in at the time when a group from LaSalle was here, so LaSalle --> Sally. Nice and simple, and I think very fitting. I first met Sally in March when she was just barely out of the woods and everyone was sure she would survive and grow out of the tiny malnourished dog that Peter found. Coming back almost five months later, she is a completely different dog, at least in appearance. I say this because she still hasn't realized that she's no longer a tiny puppy. She is huge now! And by the looks of her humongous paws, isn't even close to done growing yet. Just like Rica, she sleeps all day to save up energy so she can protect us by barking all night at the scary cows that wonder on to the property. Sally is the only dog on the property who knows any commands (although TK and I have been working on it). She can sit, lay down, and da me cinco (high five). What should she learn next? I'm thinking stay and come in tandem. She's just now learning how to jump up on stuff like the couch (usually she can only get her front paws up there though). She loves belly rubs, and it's really easy to get her leg a kickin' in that way dogs do when you rub their belly (which is great). And of course, I love Sally, just like the other pups.

Los animales de la finca: TK

It's not a great picture of him, but it's the description that matters, right?

TK, or if you want to be formal, Teddy Keebler Davis Dunne. I have heard the origin of his name a couple times, but I'm not entirely sure I know it, so sorry if I'm wrong here. On the last day of a group's time here, we take them to basically the only tourist attraction around Luperon, the waterfalls. The waterfalls are a guided tour up and down cascades, so it's a business, and at this business, they have a dog. Now I have never met this particular dog, but I have heard it is one of the best you'll ever meet. Because of this, Paul, one of our crew advisors, wanted to adopt this dog and name him Keebler (I think, it could have been Teddy, but I think Keebler). The waterfall dog didn't work out, but shortly after the failed adoption, Mary, another one of our fantastic crew advisors, was in Luperon and saw that one of the dogs there had very recently birthed a litter of puppies. She brought this news (and perhaps a picture) back to Paul, who decided he absolutely needed one of these puppies. Mary already had the name Teddy picked out, so as a compromise, they decided to combine the names Teddy and Keebler into TK. Phew, that was a lot (and it's probably not really accurate). Now, more about TK. He is about six weeks old, so he's still a tiny puppy. I make a conscience effort as often as possible to pick him up and squeeze him till his stuffing almost comes out (haha get it, cause teddy), cause I know that in like three months he'll be huge and have the ability to bite my face off if he so chooses. Every morning when Mary goes to feed him, he jumps around, whimpers, and barks as if, as Peter says, he had never eaten before. It's fairly ridiculous, but also fairly cute because he's, as I mentioned before, a tiny puppy. Too add on to the cuteness, when he's wolfing down his food, and Victoria tries to swipe a bite, TK will growl at her, but he won't even take a second to stop eating, so he makes this hilarious muffled growling sound to keep her away while still eating as fast as a puppy possibly can. He's still too small and afraid to jump off of the couch, but we make him get down himself anyway, and after about a minute of deep contemplation, he takes the leap, and he's even starting to land on his feet now.
       Ok, onto the controversial part, TK's intelligence. I don't want to say that he's dumb, because he is a tiny puppy, but I think this is a good anecdote to illustrate his capacity for learning:
       All of the dogs here, including the cat even, love to fight each other. Basically whenever they're awake, they're fighting. The usual match ups include Rica vs. Sally (to be featured later), TK vs Victoria (the kitty, also to be pictured later), and TK vs. Susie (who will have a cameo on here as well), all fair match ups in my opinion. Now there is one dog that hangs around here who technically belongs to no one, but she follows around Melania, the cook, who comes here everyday, and as a result, so does Lassie. Lassie is the biggest dog out of the ones on the property (excluding Rex, but he spends all day tied to a tree), and while all of the other dogs love to fight playfully, Lassie does NOT. If a barking dog gets anywhere near Lassie, she straight snaps in like one second. If I were a dog, especially a tiny puppy, I would take special notice of this and make sure to avoid Lassie at all costs. TK (pause for effect), does not do this. He will go right up to Lassie, bark in her face, and as always, Lassie will snap send him running and barking and falling all over himself. One time, about a week ago, Lassie had had enough of TK's lively puppy bullshit, and bit TK right on the muzzle, hard enough to draw a good amount of blood. Now you figure that would be the last straw, and TK would finally learn his lesson and avoid Lassie, or at the very least stop barking in her face, but that is not what TK did. Later that very same day that Lassie bit TK hard enough to draw blood, I personally witnessed TK barking in Lassie's face once again. Now I will leave you, the reader, to judge this dogs intelligence.
       Ok, sorry for the lengthy post, but it's coming to a close, I promise. Despite the minor annoyances TK does cause, he is a good little pup, and I love him too. He sleeps soundly with Mary in her hammock, has the appetite of a dog ten times his size (which I respect immensely), and certainly knows how to work a room. All in all, I firmly believe that TK will grow up to become an incredible addition to do the property, and to the Village Mountain Mission.