Thursday late afternoon...the River

We gathered those who were going to the river and piled into the back of the pick up truck.
The participants of this trip were Salvador, Enrique, Richard, Carlos, Kokie, a kid, Jen, Bob Sarah and me. It has been a hot day and we are looking forward to the river. They said it was clean...we'll see. Off we go....we are all sitting on the edge of the truck bed....(can you imagine this here???? ) and onto "the road". The breeze felt good...and the fear wasn't there....(I felt your prayers) It just felt good to be here....knowing we were nearing the end of this journey. Experiencing everything I could experience just made this even more exciting.
We turned off "the road" and onto a small dirt road. We passed homes then businesses. One business stood out in our eyes. It was a business that had construction equipment....they had a BACKHOE....we ALL noticed......and looked with longing eyes......if only...............................

Back to reality....we rounded a small hill and there it was. It was amazing! Even thru the haze, it was heavenly. we were surrounded by mountains.... The water was really clear....and the bottom was all rock....river rocks..... As we piled out, we walked into the river....I can't even tell you just how refreshing this felt. After a long hot day, relaxing here was a blessing! Nothing could be better than being here right now.....Jen and I laid back in the water and let the current move us down the river...but not far....we figured at the rate the current was moving, we'd be down to the bridge in no time, so we were being careful. (yeah, i did put my camera down for this event.....) We did spend a good bit of time here....it was pretty obvious that we all enjoyed and needed this time. It was a time to be surrounded by Gods wonderful gifts. Not only were we with our Dominican family, we were surrounded by beautiful mountains dipping in wonderfully refreshing river water.... How could you ever want more in life?

It was time to roll, we had ....church tonight and we wanted to get washed up and dressed. So after Carlos washed Salvadors truck with river water and his hand, we climbed in.....I had one agenda for the way out.....I wanted a picture of that backhoe.... so the message was relayed to Salvador and when we approached, we stopped. Salvador wanted to ask first if it was ok if we took a picture.....well, this turned into an ordeal. They had to call the boss to make sure it was ok.....so we sat and waited and waited...finally, I decided....i can take a pic from the truck and I'll bet they will never know...so i took it. Then Bob climbed out and Jen climbed out and very inconspicuously, stood in front of it...and I snapped away....when I was done, we climbed back in and drove away....permission? nah, who needs permission.... it was innocent.......

We pulled back onto "the road" and Enrique started to sing. We joined him in the songs we knew....(thou in Spanish, not very well) He picked up a bucket and started drumming on it. Soooo, I found a little bucket and joined him. This was awesome. This ride back was extremely memorable....we laughed and drummed and sang....on "the road". What a ride...

The wind felt so good in my hair...my face... Richard was freezing. Obviously our body's are use to different temps...

This was an amazing time. Enjoy the water!!!