Oh what a day yesterday was! I want to give you an idea of how things happen/work in other countries so here goes 
ps. I know its long, but I hope its worth it!
I was picked up at the Palo Blanco care center at 1:15 yesterday afternoon (about an hour or so after I was told I would be picked up). We then left for Santiago about an hour away to get bus tickets, washing machine, kitchen supplies, and other various items I needed for my house in Haiti. (I bought them here because we do not know what the availability of them will be when I get to Haiti) So, the plan was to go get the bus tickets first, which was successful! When we walked out of the ticket office 45 minutes later it was POURING down rain. I mean streets were flooded, it looked like a river was moving down the street. There was water up to the floor boards of cars. It was crazy.
We headed to La Sirena which is kind of like a super-walmart here in the DR. It was great, I could get everything I needed at one place! We had about 2 hours to get our stuff and get home for a North American Missionary meeting that was supposed to start at 5:30. After getting all of the kitchen items I needed we headed to the back of the store to get my washing machine. (Not a typical American one, this one is a little Japanese one, Ill take pictures later) We were informed that we had to pay for it at the electronics area. So off we went. I was told that my debit card should work fine so that is all I had. Well it would not work, so we headed to the front of the store to get money out of the ATM. It was 4:30 at this point and really was time for us to head home. There were too many people at the ATM line so the person I was with told me he would pay for it and I could pay him back. So upstairs we went to pay for the machine. Well, they put too much on his credit card so they had to refund some of the money….this took an hour to do 
While he was waiting for them to do this, I took his grocery list and went to get the food items he needed (which was TONS of fun since I dont know the Spanish name of things and walked the entire length of the store at least 3 times looking for things) I finally got everything and they were STILL trying to refund the money We were now going to be WAY late for the meeting.
Finally we finished with the washing machine and headed downstairs to pay for the rest of our stuff. Again, my debit card did not work (which we were told would work at the front ) He once again had to pay for my stuff, but finally we were on our way home.
After about 20 minutes of fun conversations sharing stories about animals and insects in foreign countries, we hear something slapping the side of our car….everyone knows that this is not a good sound We pulled over to find the left rear tire beginning to shred apart…no es bueno (no good)
Shortly after we got out to change the tire, we had several people around willing to help. They informed us that there was a gas station and a lift that could help us. So we slowly drove over to the lift where 2 nice men proceeded to help us! (well really 1 guy helped while the other ‘stood guard’ with a sawed off shot gun) Let me clarify that we were in NO danger where we were, he was just there guarding the gas station like every other guard at every other gas station. So about 10 minutes later the tire was changed and we were again on our way.
About 20 minutes from arriving we get a call saying that one of the missionaries house is flooding and people are heading there from the meeting that had already started to help her clean out the water. We arrived back at our house about an hour and a half after we were supposed to, but all the guys were gone at that point helping to move furniture at the house that was flooded. So we ate dinner and I left for the house I was staying the night at!
Who knew getting bus tickets and a washing machine could be so much fun! It was an entertaining day, of which I am sure I will have plenty of and hope that I will always be able to smile through them and not get too frustrated
I am heading to Haiti tomorrow and hope to update you all again soon! In the mean time, please be praying for safe travel, and wisdom in finding the house that God wants us to be in (there will be a blog about that later, but the apartment we were supposed to be in will probably not be an option because they decided to raise the price)
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!
