Ramblings

This is Mrs. Bluth's new attitude and her reward is fabulous weather. Today the high is 66 degrees and next week it should hit 70 degrees. The freezing cold and ferocious wind can go away for a while. Thank you Mr. Sun for finally shinning down on us here in Chicago.

"You're a good man, Mr. Bluth"

Mr. Bluth has survived a week of a sick wife. And he survived with giving countless acts of service. He never complained about the pile of tissues that were found wherever Mrs. Bluth was laying down. He never complained about making his own dinner and living in a messy house. He also never complained about being stuck at home at night and the many nights of being awaken from the restless Mrs. Bluth.

A trip to the doctor, some antibiotics, and a few days of patiently waiting for the antibiotics to finally work has allowed Mrs. Bluth to be on the mend. Who would have thought that getting married meant giving up your immune system.

And for one last final ramble...



A couple of weeks ago Mrs. Bluth was allowing fear to enter her heart instead of faith. In hopes of finding a way to exercise her faith, she went to mormon.org to watch a few videos. Mrs. Bluth clicked the mouse over three random faces, and she watched three different videos that related to her life. One was a lady from the Dominican Republic, one was a dancer, and one was a family that adopted a baby girl.

Coincidence? Chance? Luck?

Or maybe it was just a way that Heavenly Father reminded Mrs. Bluth that He knows exactly who she is, where she came from and most importantly how she is going to get where she is going.

The outcome was peace. And a huge wave of energy from Mr. and Mrs. Bluth to use mormon.org by updating their profiles and spending more time viewing the website. We spend too much time learning about other individual's lives and interests via Facebook and other social media and it has been refreshing to spend time viewing other individuals, their interests, and how they live their faith through mormon.org.

Our Adventure

Our adventure in the Dominican Republic only was possible because Mr. Bluth has a very kind uncle that allowed us to use a buddy pass to fly standby. THANK YOU!

We flew out Monday evening and were grounded for two hours in Chicago due to ice and snow and finally arrived to JFK Airport to find out that we had missed our connecting flight. We then used our backpacks as pillows and slept in the airport until we flew out at 5:45 the next morning.

We flew into Santo Domingo, rejoiced at being back in humidity, and made our way to the temple. We both had slept at the temple housing before during our internships and while it is a blessing to attend the temple, we felt even more blessed to stay the night there. After dropping our stuff off in our room we headed to the employment center and spent time visiting with many friends of Mr. Bluth, eating a delicious dominican lunch, and walking around the historic parts of the capitol. Due to the fact that we both had visited the sites, we didn't spend money to go into Christopher Columbus' home or other events for tourist. We walked, talked, and thought of our wonderful memories and the memories we were currently making. We attended the temple, visited another friend and ended the night by visiting the grocery store to get breakfast which of course was pineapple and mangos. As we were leaving the store, a man stopped us and asked if we were members. And that was the beginning of our friendship with los Jimenez. They are from Costa Rica and Sister Jimenez was working in Santo Domingo for a short time and this month they were spending time visiting different parts of the island before they went back home. It just so happened that they were planning on going to Cabarette the next day, which was also our destination.

Wednesday we awoke to warm air and devoured our pineapple and mango before our friends picked us up. The drive was long, but filled with beautiful scenery. Mrs. Bluth started to come down with a nasty cold so she slept for a while. Upon arriving to Cabarette, our friends INSISTED that we stay with them and when we told them that their resort was not in our budget, they demanded that we pay what we were planning on paying and that they would pay the rest. After a few minutes of going back and forth, it was agreed that we would stay with them. It was a fun resort where we not only had the beach, but a pool with unlimited pina coladas and evening entertainment of Karaoke. Mrs. Bluth regrets not filming Mr. Bluth when he stole the show with the classic of Don't Stop Believing. To sum up his award winning performance,he performed with such style as Michael Jackson while being as powerful as Whitney Houston.

Thursday we spent most of the day on our favorite adventure. As you travel into the mountains just outside of Cabarette, you find an excursion called 27 Waterfalls. Now just imagine climbing up waterfalls and many times being thrown up by the guides that are so muscular and athletic. While climbing, your adrenaline is rising and yet your mind wants to explode because it can't take in all the beauty that your eyes are beholding. Mrs. Bluth had done all 27 and Mr. Bluth had done the first 12 waterfalls and both fell in love with this activity so they had to go again but together. Along with climbing and jumping off waterfalls, they also got a complete tour where they saw how Dominicans make chocolate and coffee, a cockfight, and man using machetes to make beautiful sculptures. To end the evening Mrs. Bluth was able to show Mr. Bluth the school she worked in, where she lived, and la loma where all the families live.

Friday we took a guagua (a bus) and were the only white people aboard and headed to Samana which is the land of palm trees. The hostel was exactly what we payed for at $25, but that was not our cheapest night. We took a boat ride to an island where we were finally able to get some much needed beach time. Beach time meaning just laying out in the sun and taking a swim to cool off. The most exhiliarating part of this day was that we took a motoconcho. Motorcycles are everywhere in the DR and they are a main source of transportation. It is not uncommon to see an entire family on one little motorcycle and men just drive around looking for people to give rides to for their form of work. Mr. Bluth is an experienced motoconcho rider, but Mrs. Bluth was not allowed to ride them due to BYU rules. If you understand the driving in the DR than it makes perfect sense why BYU would not want their internship students riding them around. Riding a motoconcho was more exhilarating than jumping 20 feet off a waterfall. It does feel so good to check things off your to do list.

Saturday came too quickly with the morning spent at the beach, the world's fastest shower and a taxi ride to the Samana airport. It was the smallest airport either of us had ever been to with only one room for passengers and everyone just walked outside to the plane. After arriving in JFK we spent the night in the airport and made it home Sunday morning to a frigid Chicago, but our stomachs were full of habichuelas, we had some color on our skin, and most importantly we were able to visit the DR TOGETHER.

La Republica Dominicana

To explain our love for the Dominican Republic, you must know that we both did internships in the beautiful country. Here is a brief summary of our experiences:

Mrs. Bluth spent the summer of '09 with a small group of students from BYU and they worked with the DREAM Project which is a nonprofit organization.

DREAM's mission: We believe that quality, early and continuing education is the most effective way to break the cycle of poverty and change destinies. Our mission is to run inclusive, sustainable education programs for children and youth in the Dominican Republic that can be replicated throughout impoverished global communities.

The organization works year round which includes a summer camp where students improve their reading, writing, and math skills. The students also get gym and pool time and field trips. Mrs. Bluth was a counselor with one other volunteer and together they were in charge of about 20 children between the ages of 9-12. Just a little side note-Mrs. Bluth did not know Spanish at this time.

Those six weeks gave Mrs. Bluth an indescribable experience that truly changed her life. She learned countless things about herself and about life. Looking back at her old blog there is one quote that barely touches the depth of her experience:
This week at camp has been one of the hardest things I have ever done and words cannot describe my emotions or the struggles. I am completely exhausted and I have found that all I can do is love. There are times during the day when I have to sit back and remember the love I have for these kids.

Mrs. Bluth made wonderful friends, got the greatest tan, and had a memorable moment when the spirit spoke so strongly and impressed upon her mind to serve a mission.

There are 10 million other things Mrs. Bluth would like to share about her experience, but at least know that it was INCREDIBLE.

Mr. Bluth also had an incredible experience working with the LDS Employment Resource Services. This internship allowed Mr. Bluth to teach career workshops in many different wards and branches throughout the DR. The career workshops consisted of many objectives such as money management, basic accounting sills, interviewing skills, and promoting your product. This experience increased his knowledge on the principles of small business and gave him the opportunity to serve, teach, and lead.

Mr. Bluth saw the self esteem of those he was teaching grow and that they began to truly believe in themselves. He was allowed the opportunity to see people really get excited about their business ideas and see these ideas flourish into small entrepreneurial start-ups.

Working closely with the Employment Center put him in the same building as institute which enabled him to make many friends with young single adults and missionaries. The three months spent in the DR created many memories and an experience that will always bless Mr. Bluth. Especially because he became so familiar with so many beaches. Nice.