I thought I might give you a little look at the waves along the coast near Santo Domingo. The beaches are about 45 minutes away from the capitol city. We haven't been there yet. Volcanic and coral reefs with wonderful wave action is the norm. Extremely beautiful. Enjoy.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
First Day
The first day in the Caribbean began with sleeping in. With the time difference (two hours ahead of Utah time) we were having a hard time getting up and going. The good folks here had put some food in the refridgerator for us so we wouldn't starve, but we had to venture out and get some money as well as get some more food. I put it off as long as I could (three or four hours) and finally Nancy said, "You are going to have to drive sooner or later so you might as well just get up and go." So, off we went on our first adventure. Let me tell you a little about driving in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican people are some of the warmest, kindest, happiest people I have ever met...until they get in a car. Then, they go "loco." Driving here is a teenager's dream...no laws. Well, there are laws, they just don't enforce them...hence, no law. Once I figure out how to post a video on here, I will put one up that shows you what I mean. What a hoot!
The Beginning
In the beginning...okay, it isn't quite to that level, but this has been an adventure of a lifetime! Many of our friends have written and asked us to share many of our experiences we are having here in the Caribbean. Some have begged us to start a blog. Didn't know what a blog was. Sounded more like something disgusting, but we did some serious investigating (typed "blog" on Google) and here we are. We're going to go back to the start and try and capture some of the highlights. So, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from a tropic port....okay, okay. Here we go.
We are Nancy and Kent Rappleye. We lived in Layton, UT until July of this year. Nancy has been a stay-at-home mother (Domestic Goddess) and has raised our four children to be wonderful individuals. She is an amazing woman as you will see as this blog unfolds. I work for the department of Seminaries & Institutes of Religion for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon.) I have been with them for 31 years, teaching in Arizona, North Idaho, Eastern Washington, and most recently, Utah; where I was teaching at the Ogden Institute of Religion, adjacent to, but not affiliated with Weber State University. On Tuesday, 7 April 2009, Ihad just finished teaching my 1:00pm Doctrines of the Gospel class, when I stopped by the office and retrieved a note from my box that informed me that I was to call the administrator of the department. One of the secretaries said, "Don't make that call." She must have had an inkling that something was up. I didn't think much of it, since our administrator had been at the institute a few weeks earlier and we had discussed some items and I just thought he wanted to follow up on some things. When I called, he asked if I was sitting down. I said I was. He said something like, "We would like to change your assignment. Will you serve as the Area Director in the Caribbean?" I honestly didn't think I heard him correctly and asked him to repeat it. He graciously did, and I said, "I'm glad you asked me to sit down." He asked me to call my wife and to then get back to him.
I called Nancy and couldn't resist a little fun. I said, "Have you ever wanted to visit the Caribbean?" She said, "Duh!" (We have dreamed of a Caribbean Cruise our whole married life.) I then said, "Have you ever wanted to live there?" She said, "What are you saying?" I said, "They just asked me to serve as the Area Director of the Caribbean." She said, "No way!" Then a little emotion entered her voice and she said, "But what about..." And she was silent. I thought that the tears were going to come as she was thinking of our first grandson who had just been born two months earlier. However, it was as if she breathed in all the emotion that was about to spill out and said, "No. We have always told them that we will go wherever they ask us to. Our grandchildren do not determine our future." And that was that. There were no tears or second thoughts. Just pure faith to move forward. She is amazing. I am extremely blessed to be married to such an incredible woman!
I won't bore you all with all the details of getting ready to leave, but suffice it to say that we endured set back after set back to the point that we stopped planning on anything to follow through and just expected it to be like the Amazing Race, where we treated every setback as a roadblock that we had to figure out how to get around. We had 1,800 pounds allotted to us to ship to the Dominican Republic, where we will be living for the next three years. Our things were packed up by Allied International on the 16th of June so that they would arrive about the same time we did on July 20th. (More on that later.) We got shot after shot and pills and physicals and dental exams (almost like going on a mission.) We thought we were using our time wisely, but it still was a last minute rush at the end.
One of the most wonderful moments in all the preparation was the reaction of our children. They were all very supportive. We met with those that were home (Jacob is serving a mission in Ghana, Africa) and we asked them what they wanted us to do with the house. Each one spoke and shared their feelings and we were very impressed with their kindness to each other and their willingness to work together. They voted to keep the house. Joseph decided to live there and Hyrum and Crystal committed to keep the yard and garden up. Anali and Jordan said they would help clean and keep it up. We were pleased with their decision, especially since it means we will have a place to stay when we come home to visit each year.
We had a nice family reunion with Nancy's whole family on lake Coeur d'Alene in North Idaho where we used to live. The kindness of the Wagstaff and Burch families was incredible to allow us to use their cabin. We also had a 20 year seminary reunion with many of my students and their families at the Jack and Tammy Hern cabin that weekend. It was such a great opportunity to reconnect and to see how these wonderful young teenagers had grown into wise and wonderful parents. That was a great gift.
A week after we got home we struggled to get everything ready to leave. I was released from my church position as stake president on Sunday morning, 19 July, and we spent some time with family and then were up all night packing and getting ready to head to the airport at 4:00am. I feel really bad that we weren't able to get the bedroom totally packed up and that the kids had to finish cleaning and packing things up. But we made it to the airport and the long (14 hour) flight to Santo Domingo. We had a little roadblock when one piece of luggage didn't make it (took four days to get it) but we just took it in stride as part of the many issues we faced to get here. We were met at the airport by one of the coordinators I work with, Jhon Lopez (yes, Jhon is the correct spelling). He was wonderful and warm and got us to our apartment with all our keys and cell phones and everything we needed. We crawled into bed and went to sleep.
Well, that was the beginning. I left out a ton of events that were a real challenge, but as I now look back through the filter of time, I see that they were all part of our preparation. Thank you to all of our friends and family that supported us as we prepared to come here. We love you.
We are Nancy and Kent Rappleye. We lived in Layton, UT until July of this year. Nancy has been a stay-at-home mother (Domestic Goddess) and has raised our four children to be wonderful individuals. She is an amazing woman as you will see as this blog unfolds. I work for the department of Seminaries & Institutes of Religion for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon.) I have been with them for 31 years, teaching in Arizona, North Idaho, Eastern Washington, and most recently, Utah; where I was teaching at the Ogden Institute of Religion, adjacent to, but not affiliated with Weber State University. On Tuesday, 7 April 2009, Ihad just finished teaching my 1:00pm Doctrines of the Gospel class, when I stopped by the office and retrieved a note from my box that informed me that I was to call the administrator of the department. One of the secretaries said, "Don't make that call." She must have had an inkling that something was up. I didn't think much of it, since our administrator had been at the institute a few weeks earlier and we had discussed some items and I just thought he wanted to follow up on some things. When I called, he asked if I was sitting down. I said I was. He said something like, "We would like to change your assignment. Will you serve as the Area Director in the Caribbean?" I honestly didn't think I heard him correctly and asked him to repeat it. He graciously did, and I said, "I'm glad you asked me to sit down." He asked me to call my wife and to then get back to him.
I called Nancy and couldn't resist a little fun. I said, "Have you ever wanted to visit the Caribbean?" She said, "Duh!" (We have dreamed of a Caribbean Cruise our whole married life.) I then said, "Have you ever wanted to live there?" She said, "What are you saying?" I said, "They just asked me to serve as the Area Director of the Caribbean." She said, "No way!" Then a little emotion entered her voice and she said, "But what about..." And she was silent. I thought that the tears were going to come as she was thinking of our first grandson who had just been born two months earlier. However, it was as if she breathed in all the emotion that was about to spill out and said, "No. We have always told them that we will go wherever they ask us to. Our grandchildren do not determine our future." And that was that. There were no tears or second thoughts. Just pure faith to move forward. She is amazing. I am extremely blessed to be married to such an incredible woman!
I won't bore you all with all the details of getting ready to leave, but suffice it to say that we endured set back after set back to the point that we stopped planning on anything to follow through and just expected it to be like the Amazing Race, where we treated every setback as a roadblock that we had to figure out how to get around. We had 1,800 pounds allotted to us to ship to the Dominican Republic, where we will be living for the next three years. Our things were packed up by Allied International on the 16th of June so that they would arrive about the same time we did on July 20th. (More on that later.) We got shot after shot and pills and physicals and dental exams (almost like going on a mission.) We thought we were using our time wisely, but it still was a last minute rush at the end.
One of the most wonderful moments in all the preparation was the reaction of our children. They were all very supportive. We met with those that were home (Jacob is serving a mission in Ghana, Africa) and we asked them what they wanted us to do with the house. Each one spoke and shared their feelings and we were very impressed with their kindness to each other and their willingness to work together. They voted to keep the house. Joseph decided to live there and Hyrum and Crystal committed to keep the yard and garden up. Anali and Jordan said they would help clean and keep it up. We were pleased with their decision, especially since it means we will have a place to stay when we come home to visit each year.
We had a nice family reunion with Nancy's whole family on lake Coeur d'Alene in North Idaho where we used to live. The kindness of the Wagstaff and Burch families was incredible to allow us to use their cabin. We also had a 20 year seminary reunion with many of my students and their families at the Jack and Tammy Hern cabin that weekend. It was such a great opportunity to reconnect and to see how these wonderful young teenagers had grown into wise and wonderful parents. That was a great gift.
A week after we got home we struggled to get everything ready to leave. I was released from my church position as stake president on Sunday morning, 19 July, and we spent some time with family and then were up all night packing and getting ready to head to the airport at 4:00am. I feel really bad that we weren't able to get the bedroom totally packed up and that the kids had to finish cleaning and packing things up. But we made it to the airport and the long (14 hour) flight to Santo Domingo. We had a little roadblock when one piece of luggage didn't make it (took four days to get it) but we just took it in stride as part of the many issues we faced to get here. We were met at the airport by one of the coordinators I work with, Jhon Lopez (yes, Jhon is the correct spelling). He was wonderful and warm and got us to our apartment with all our keys and cell phones and everything we needed. We crawled into bed and went to sleep.
Well, that was the beginning. I left out a ton of events that were a real challenge, but as I now look back through the filter of time, I see that they were all part of our preparation. Thank you to all of our friends and family that supported us as we prepared to come here. We love you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)