Marital status in the D.R.

According to a recent article in DR1 31.4% of the Dominican population "lives together", 18.5% of the population is married (by law or by the Catholic church), 1.5% is divorced, 5.2% is widowed,12% are separated, and 31.4% are single.  The statistics show that 2,155,144 people are living as couples without being married and that the percentage of married couples has declined since 2005 (20.9% were married and 30.6% were living together).

“Living together” here is a little different than in the states, in that most everyone refers to the couple as husband and wife not just boyfriend and girlfriend or partners. Also, typically a couple only moves in together once they are planning to stay together forever, they’re not just trying things out to see if one day they’ll “get married for real”. This raises a lot of questions for Christians here in the barrio though. Being in a poor area where roughly only 20% of all couples have been married by the law, it’s sometimes hard to know what’s right and wrong. Some think all Christians must get married by the law or else they have fallen into sin, while others feel certain that they should be devoted to one person their entire life and don’t understand the big fuss about getting married by the law. What do you think the most biblical thing is to do?

A little too late

"El Dominicano no compra candado hasta que le roban".
”A Dominican doesn’t buy a lock until after they’ve been robbed”.

This very common Dominican expression is a good description of me and my neighbors. It wasn’t until our water pump was stolen last Friday night that we decided we should buy a lock and put it in a more secure spot. Fortunately, three days after our loss, we purchased a new water pump for a good price and our friend The Welder made an almost thief proof place to store it!

The New Man of the House

It was heartbreaking listening to Idekel yesterday share about how he stood up to his mom’s boyfriend and kicked him out of their house. The boyfriend had been defiantly unfaithful to Idekel’s mom, was no longer helping pay for all the food, and was fighting with everyone in the house. His mom had only stayed with him so long because she couldn’t provide for her family on her own, but Idekel let her know he would support her and his three siblings. The very next day he started working full time.
It’s so hard watching a fifteen year old take on these types of responsibilities and part of me wants to rescue him from this situation. Yet thanks to good books like When Helping Hurts by Corbett & Fikkert I’m reminded that my good intentions of giving out handouts or trying to take Idekel out of the situation could actually do more harm than good. So what should I do? I’m not exactly sure, I haven’t finished the book yet (hahaha), but I do know that being in a relationship with the whole family is very important. I’m praying for wisdom as to how I can best help the entire family long term, that God will give Idekel strength through this tough time and use it to make him stronger in the Lord, and that God would become more real to each family member as they learn to depend on Him more.

Eating Raw in the D.R.

I’d never heard of people only eating raw foods until I met a couple who own a “raw” restaurant in Baja California a few months ago . Intrigued by the idea of “eating raw” I bought a book about it and found out that the raw diet is made up of lots of seeds, nuts, and dehydrated foods as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. Since then I borrowed a dehydrator from a friend and started experimenting. I’ve found it to be a bit challenging here in the D.R. being that some recipes require 36 hours of dehydrating and I’m only likely to get 8 to 13 hours of electricity a day. And a lot of the recipes call for special health food ingredients that don’t exist here. However, it’s fun to experiment!

So here’s what I’ve been eating these past few days.

My first meal after a seven day fresh juice feast: “raw” banana bread, fruit salad, and carrot juice.  (Raw Banana Bread: 1 cup ground flax seeds, 1 cup ground sunflower seeds, 3 bananas, and a little honey; mixed in the food processor and then kept in the dehydrator for roughly 18 hours).

My second raw meal: a tomato cheese sandwich on onion bread  and a green salad. (Raw Onion Bread: 1/2 cup ground flaxseeds, 1/2 cup raw ground sunflower seeds, 1/8 cup Bragg Liquid Aminos, 1/8 cup olive oil, and three small onions sliced thinly; all ingredients mixed in a bowl and put in the dehydrator for 36 hours). (Sunflower Seed Cheese: 1 cup raw sunflower seeds soaked for 6-8 hours, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 clove garlic, and a few tbsp’s water; blended together until creamy).

My third raw meal: vegetables with hummus and mini veggie & cheese sandwiches on onion bread.
(Raw Hummus: 1 cup sunflower seeds soaked for 1 hour, 2 cups zucchini peeled and chopped, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup lime juice, 1/3 cup water, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 2 teaspoons salt; mixed in the blender until creamy).

Yes it’s actually possible to make raw chips to go with your fresh salsa, and it’s really easy too. (Raw Corn Tortilla Chips: I put 3 cups frozen corn, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 medium sized onion, 2 tbsp lime juice, 2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne powder, and 2 tsp salt in a food processor and mixed it until smooth…. then added 1 cup ground golden flaxseed and 1/2 cup ground sunflower seeds, mixed until smooth, spread the mixture out as thin as possible and then put it into the dehydrator for roughly 12 hours.

(Raw Carrot Cake: 1/2 cup raisins, 3/4 cup shredded carrot, 3 tbsp ground flaxseed, 1/4 cup homemade dried coconut, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tbsp honey, 1/4 tbsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ginger, and 1/4 cup chopped sunflower seeds blended until all ingredients are well combined and then put in the dehydrator for about 4 hours). (Raw Sunflower Seed Frosting:1 cup raw soaked sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup honey, 2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp water, and a pinch of salt; blended until smooth and creamy).

(Raw corn tortillas -for soft tacos and wraps: 2 cups golden flax seeds soaked for 4 hrs, 1/2 cup ground flax seed, 1 cup corn, 1/4 ripe avocado, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds soaked for 1 hr, 1/8 cup chopped onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. cayenne powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp sea salt, and 1 tbsp lime juice all blended in the food processor, spread into thin circles and dehydrated for roughly 4 hours).

My favorite raw foods treat, chocolate coconut balls. (Raw chocolate coconut balls: 1/2 cup almonds, 1/2 cup cashews, 1 cup pitted dates, 1/4 cup cocoa or carob powder blended well in the food processor, shaped into balls and rolled in dried coconut).

So in conclusion of my raw foods experiment, I think everyone who likes to cook and wants to be healthier should try it for a week or two. I personally feel a bit healthier and have been surprised by how good raw food tastes!

Still Waiting

Yesterday people all over the country were going to schools and public buildings from 6am to 6pm to vote. 
The two main parties here are the Purple party or PLD (Dominican Liberation Party) 
and the white party or PRL (Dominican Revolutionary Party). Most people are very dedicated to one or the other political party, not because they share the same beliefs or think their candidate is the better man for the job. But because they’re more likely to get a government job or financial help if their political party is in power.
Today, the day after the elections, there’s a lot of noise in the streets as people celebrate whenever their political party is announced to be in the lead.

However, all the celebrating is a bit premature as the votes from each community are still being counted. Hopefully by the end of the day we’ll find out who actually won.

The final results:
About four days after the elections some officials finally announced that the Governor for the purple party (the one responsible for paving roads in the barrio) had won by more than 1000 votes. I think they new the final results sooner, but due to fear that riots and fights would break out they decided to wait. The purple party won in almost every province in the country (governor, mayor, etc.) and now holds 31 of the 32 senate seats.

More Road Work

To my surprise the government continued to work on the streets in the barrio all the way up to two days before the elections. Only four streets got paved with asphalt but all the roads got covered with tar and gravel (even the street I live on!). Supposedly if the PLD political party wins the elections here in La Vega they’ll come back quickly to finish the work they started.
 

Beautiful Creator

I was going through some of my photos and just had to take a minute to enjoy this beach scene. When I took these pictures I don’t think it hit me how beautiful the beaches are here, actually, I often take them for granted. Yet for some reason this morning these pictures reminded me how beautiful and amazing our creator must be to have made something (and so many other things) so lovely.

Running for Office

The “purple” political party has been busy in the barrio. They’ve paved a few roads. They’ve turned popular meringue songs into catchy tunes that boast about how great they are. They’ve made lots of promises to do even more work in the barrio. They’ve handed out cash to people asking for help. And just a few days ago they handed out plates of food right in front of my house. (They gave me a really big plate of rice and chicken!)  

Intolerance to milk, not poisoning

Just a few days ago there was a news report that at least 56 school children in Rio San Juan suffered food poisoning after drinking what is thought to be contaminated milk. The children who were affected were taken to several medical centers with symptoms such as nausea, stomachache, vomiting, diarrhea and general weakness.
I thought it was pretty humorous the following day when the news informed us that actually the children had simply suffered from intolerance to the flavored milk and had not been poisoned by the Ladom milk product.
I’m not sure what to believe but I think I’ll stay away from the milk provided by the government for a while!

The First Paved Road!

After over twenty years of failed promises, all of us in Maria Auxiliadora are extremely happy that Main Street is finally paved! Though it doesn’t look very likely that all the streets in the barrio will get paved, there’s still a lot to be excited about. I’m personally very happy. No more battles with mud as I walk from my house to the city. No more getting dropped off at the entrance of the barrio because a taxi driver refused to go through the muddy streets. No more muscle pains from mountain biking through the bumpy streets. So many little things to be thankful for!

Agua!

In my opinion, this country is obsessed with cleanliness (in a good way). Women often mop their floors numerous times a day and completely flood their houses with water at least once a week. And unlike me, almost everyone showers at least twice a day and three or four times on a hot day. So after nearly ten days without water people seemed pretty desperate and grumpy. Luckily, we started to get water in the faucets again this morning. People from the back of the barrio who don’t get much water pressure filled the streets today with their gallon jugs and buckets, stocking up on this valuable resource any way they could. 

The Money’s in the Bag

I thought it was a joke when I first came across the 50 pesos in my Cheetos bag. But when I found out that you can win up to 500 pesos in one bag of chips I bought a bunch of chips. Unfortunately, I didn’t come across any more winning bags.

The Day Before Easter

I’ve known that everyone here likes to make Sweet Beans around Easter, but I didn’t realize how popular it was until I went to town with Idekel to buy the ingredients the day before. The last ingredient on the list was some sweet potatoes, which are extremely common around here. Yet the day before Easter, they’re extremely scarce. After we’d gone to the fresh produce market, three grocery stores, and over ten corner stores I started trying to convince Idekel that Sweet Beans are good without sweet potato. But he was determined to find some, and at our very last stop we found some very lovely batatas.

I on the other hand didn’t bother making Sweet Beans from scratch this year….. instead I tried out a new product here in the D.R., canned Sweet Beans! They turned out to be pretty good. They’re also a good conversation starter as many Dominicans can’t believe their beloved homemade dessert now comes in a can!

Treacherous Travesia Trip

My trip up to the Travesia two weeks ago just wasn’t long enough so Idekel and I decided Holy Week was the perfect time to make another trip up there. As if the two hour speed walk up the mountain wasn’t enough for me, we decided to join some of our friends to explore a cave about another one and a half hour away.  
The cave wasn’t quite as big as any of us had expected. Actually, we’re still not sure if the passageway was closed during an earthquake, or if we somehow over looked the correct passage way.

Either way, we had fun trying to light sticks to see with, crawling on the ground under enormous rocks looking for passageway, and just hanging-out with each other. Fortunately on our long trip back to the Travesia we found an abandoned bunch of ripe bananas, a nice little swimming hole, and lots of beautiful flowers. Back in the Travesia we ate lots of good food……….
Hung out with lots of our lovely campesino friends……..
Stayed up late telling stories and jokes around a small camp fire………Had a small Sunday School class with the Travesia kids…….. Hung out with more lovely people……
 
Watched our friends work together to dry and store precious organic coffee beans……
And then said our farewells to the simple country life.