More flamboyant--its everywhere!

They say drug money has built these high rise buildings. In the last 20 years, such money has drastically changed the landscape to include such apartments as these all along the seacoast. Many are empty. Even with our millions of people here, most could not possibly afford to live in such luxury. This landscape here replicates reality-- the poor dead among the rich flamboyant.

We made it through a whole week with no power outages and no apocalypse! This was fortunate because we had guests for dinner on "dooms day" --the Temple President and his wife. We might have lost more than power!

Rodney is cleaning up our "invesor", our battery back-up system when power goes down. It keeps lights on, but is not sufficient to keep the refrigerator running. We're pricing some new ones; these are certainly past their prime!

Everything grows here.

1. Beautiful fan palms like this on the Santo Domingo Temple grounds are only one variety of vegetation growing here that we never see in Utah.
2. Children grow here--more children than we ever saw in New Jersey or in Spain--or even in Utah! They are beautiful children who have so little but seem so happy-- and I wonder about their future.
   
3. It is growing more hot and humid here--more than any other place we've been.
4. And sadly, the garbage is growing here--much more than we've seen in any other place. I don't know where they collect all the garbage I see thrown on the streets, empty lots, and byways. No amount of recycling in the US can make an iota of difference in the long run.
   

Merry Month of May

Adversity makes us stronger! We are experiencing this first hand! This is one of the Mormonads in the LDS booth at the hugest book fair in the world! It runs for two weeks and hosts thousands and thousands of people. Many people will visit this booth and will remember the feelings they receive from the spirit that is there confirming their beliefs that values matter.

El trafico aqui es muy mal! The traffic here is very bad. Every kind of vehicle shares the road on space available status. This truck in front of us features quite a load of machinery upon which are seated two men on a cardboard seat. The bus to the right is listing to one side, over full with passengers. The truck to the left was belching black smoke. Right after I shot this, a moto with two riders wound its way up between the small truck and the bus.