In Pedro Santana

Hey Everyone!Today I am in Pedro Santana, which is in the West of the country, and still the south. I am here because we wanted to come visit and Wilman was asked to interpret again for Food for the Hungry again, in Elìas Piña. So, that is where he is right now. I am with Eunice and my dear friend Eliza(beth). She is a wonderful girl, who wants to live in the states, I might have already mentioned her. She is also culturally pressured right now to have a boyfriend so if any of you single Christian guy friends of mine are interested, llamame. haha.
I rode in a Toyota Camry today (probably about a `95) and I am not kidding there were 7 people in it. It was nuts. Then I rode in the back of a truck for awhile and yeah, basically you hitchike here. It was alright though. All safe. I met a group of Americans that Wilman was helping and they were from San Antonion Tx, seriously I meet more diverse Americans in another country than my own. Point is, I´m safe, having fun and I have a surprise!!
I GET TO SEE MY SPONSOR CHILD TOMORROW!I AM SO EXCITED!
This is awesome, and I can´t even express. I saw Mario and Raul today, which was in itself so awesome (AND FIOR). And I can`t wait to see my little girl! I am just so thrilled, seriously. We will see what happens, but I am so excited.
Praise God, everything has been getting better and better with my cold, it seems that I will just continue to get better. I am having fun but I am a little distressed because the laptop that I brought down for Wilman broke. I think he broke it somehow and isn´t telling me or maybe it just died, but it doesn´t make any sense and it can´t start the OS. I want to try and press the restart button but I don´t want to do it without making sure what exactly it will do, and I don´t have the CDs here with me, which means I might have to wait until Pat comes down and have him bring a lot of stuff.
Oh well.Also, there are a few cultural differences I wanted to highlight.
1. Eunice was seemingly upset with me because I said I didn´t bring any nice clothes with me. I tried to explain that it was because I didn´t want to lose them in my suitcases if my suitcases were lost by the airline (because that just happened to all of us in Europe), but it went too fast for me to give my actual reason (because when someone is yelling at you in another language it is a bit intimidating you know? you have to buy yourself time to think), which was that as a missionary, I don´t want to look like I am waving money in people´s faces. you know? But here that is actually the perception of missionaries. They live in $300,000 houses with nice clothes and a nice car and go to the nice big and rich people churches. This was depressing to me, and I wish I could have explained myself better.
2. Wilman talks about how I should watch what I eat because if I don´t I will get fat. Honestly I am losing a lot of weight here, because I am not eating all the time, and so it is absolutely ridiculous. He also said, "well, men care here if their women get fat, and they say something about it." This was sort of revolting to me, but maybe that is more how it should be, I don´t know. All I know is that Pat has told me over and over again that it is ridiculous that I worry about it, and I felt VERY angry with Wilman that he felt like he could talk about it with me. This is an example of cultural misunderstanding - apparently. And there are tons of these.
3. Also, Wilman kept bugging me about preparing for my wedding, and I finally kind of yelled at him and said "Look it will be at the very least in two years I cannot go read a whole ton of marriage books right now when I should be spending my last year AT LEAST seeking God solo ya know?" It took him a really long time to understand what I was trying to say, and he did not realize that it was actually him bringing it up, but it was just ridiculous because it was in two languages and you know, that is hard.
I very much apologize for all this poor english (if there is any or a lot, I am sorry), I am so not used to English anymore and I forget words ALL the time.
Anyway, I love guys thank you so much, may God Bless you tons,Please pray for my sponsor child,
Love,Nora

¡More than a week already!

Can you believe it? I can´t it´s crazy. I have already been here a week. I am making progress with my speaking. In fact, I had a long, and understood, conversation with a girl a little older than me here. She is wonderful but her life is really hard. The fathers in the D.R. can be real jerks, and I have been praying for her, if you would too, I would appreciate it. Her name is Eliza. She is a beautiful girl, and has been very much wanting to come to the states. Please pray for her in this, for her direction in life. She is a lover of God, and has a lot going for her, but it is a hard life here.
Also, please be pryaing for me. I have a bit of a cold. We think it is because a lot of times there is a sudden change in temperature from 80-100 to 60-70 in the night, so this is something you can pray for, that whatever sickness I might encounter, the Lord would fight off for me.

Pray also that I can meet up with some of the people that I met last time. I will probably get to see Mario, Raul and maybe Martirez and Fior. Please be praying for me in this.
Also, I wanted to share with you all a bit of the culture.

Cultural Note:
You do not need a ring to be engaged here. In fact that hardly ever is the case.

Also! This is interesting. Men and Women/boys and girls, are hardly ever good friends. In fact, never. They might be okay friends, but there is no such thing as a boy girl friendship except in Marriage. Maybe between brothers and sisters. But it really doesn´t exist. I said something to Eunice (the pastora) about Hunter, a very good friend of mine, and about how he is my brother, and she told me that I cannot have these types of friends once I get married!! Because here, this never happens. The only reason to spend time with men (as women) is to allow them to hit on you or something like that. There are no platonic relationships between men and women here. This was so interesting to me. This coming from a Pastor! I was so surprised. I suppose it is just our culture that we can have friends as brothers and sisters, and not see them as love interests. Craziness, is it not?

Anyway, please also be praying for Eunice and Wilman, as they would like to have a baby in the next year. This is important, please be praying!

On another note, we will be venturing to Elias Piña, where Sabana Cruz is (although we will not go to Sabana Cruz I do not think), and be spending some time in Bánica, and Pedro Santana. I will also be going to Las Matas de Farfan, to see Mario and Raul. All of this will happen in the next week or so, so please be praying for me, lots of traveling.

Love you all and thank you so much for your support, thoughts, and prayers,

God Bless you!

Nora

Day 4 now!

Hey all,
I am having a wonderful time here in the D.R. I love it. I have made many friends, pretty much all girls, and they are so sweet. I am in love with this culture and language and i cant even describe how awesome it is to worship the same God as all these wonderful people here. (please forgive my poor grammatical structure right now I am not used to this keyboard (in a different language) and it is hard to do right especially since I am thinking in a different language too sometimes).
Today is the beginning of our VBS (ebdv = escuela biblica de verano), but I will not get there until after I have finished with writing to all of you. I need to go quickly though because it costs money to use the internet. (though not a lot at all)
In any case, my schedule looks like I will having meetings with the teens and youth pretty much 4 times a week, and probably church meetings with other people in between. I am so excited. Also, two more gringas came last night, from plan international (or something like that) and they are also Christian, so that is very exciting. More gringas. Also, there is a gringa here (btw gringa means white girl) who is from the peace corps (i think) and I met her, she is not a Christian, but she is here for two years to live in the community. The community I am in is called Juan de Herrera, it is a little west of San Juan de la Maguana - google earth it and tell me if you can see anything. Well I need to get going. I love you so much everyone. Thank you for your love, prayers, thoughts and support.
Dios les bendiga mucho, y mas,
Nora

I AM HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ¡ESTOY AQUÍ!

I am here! Wilman and Eunice's house is beautiful and comfortable. There was a little party for me when I got here, but we didn't get in until very late, so we showered and then went to sleep, very good. It is wonderful to be here, but my Spanish is rusty. I am picking up words again though, so that is good. I love you all and thanks for your prayers.
Nora

9 days left

Well, There are only 9 days until I leave for the D.R.
I bought some things that I needed to go yesterday with a friend who I hadn't seen in awhile. I'm slowly seeing all my friends before I go, so that I won't realize that I haven't seen so-and-so in a year and it will be another year 'til I see him again.
I am creating a facebook group that will let me get in touch with everyone and send updates all at once, and I will also be using this blog to keep in touch while I'm there.

Hopefully everyone will be good about reading the updates, and I will be good about providing them, I hope I will be able to use the internet at least once a week. We will see if that's so.

In any case, I should get going because I have to work out, pack, and finish creating this group.

With love, God Bless,
Nora