Car problems, house problems, immigration problems.

DR Sunset

It was a short romance with Dominican Republic.  She wined and dined us ... then once we tied the knot she showed her true colors ... and they weren't all sun drenched beach sunsets!





Immigration Problems
(For anyone considering coming to DR - there is a lot of confusion over the immigration process.  If you plan on staying long-term and you can afford an immigration lawyer, get one!  There is a wide range in prices from $800 to $2,500+ US per person. So shop around and ask for references.  It is painful to go through the process without guidance as there are a lot of conflicting stories.)

Soon after arriving in the country we realized that, unlike what we had been told, it was no longer possible to apply for residency within the country. That advice was a few years outdated. So less than 2 months after we arrived in DR we had to fly home and spend 4 weeks in Canada getting paperwork for our 1 year Visa.  Arrggghhhh!

"It's not too bad to be in Canada you complainer!" you say? Well ... not only do I want you to quit reading right now but you also don't realize that in the West Coast time-zone I have to get up at 2:30 am to start my teaching job.  At least in DR I can get up at 5:30 am.

So back to the story ... We contacted the Dominican Embassy and fulfilled all their requirements. How pleased we were to get the Visa stamped in our passport and be on our way back to DR only 4 days after submitting the last of the paperwork to the Embassy. According to the Embassy we had completed all that we needed to do and we were now able to enjoy a year within the country.

HAH!!!!

Soon after getting back in daily routines of online teaching and fruitful yet sweaty ministry, we were advised to go see the local Immigration office as there might be a "hiccup". That perhaps the embassy had misinformed us about the complete process. "NOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!"

Well it turns out that the embassy was wrong. There was a process that we needed to complete within the DR that we had not been informed about AND they had sent us down with the wrong papers. Some of those papers we needed to get in person back in Canada. Well we tried talking to a few immigration lawyers to see if there was a way around it but their fees of $2000 - $2500 per person were too much for us to consider paying, especially knowing we had other documentation expenses in Canada yet to pay.  Even a trip to the Haitian boarder to extend our time was to no avail. The law had changed a few days earlier and we couldn't get an extension without paying a fine.

Restaurant near Haiti

The silver lining was finding a nice restaurant on the way back.

To get around the cost we paid for a 'one time consultation' with a lawyer to see if we could just use the documents the Embassy had sent us with. "No. Sorry." was the answer.  We didn't even get free coffee! Well that was money poorly spent.

At this point we were facing other challenges too and we were seriously considering leaving the country to serve elsewhere.  Although we had seen Jehovah's direction for moving to the DR we knew our limited resources would go a lot farther forwarding kingdom interests in another country with clear immigration requirements. We were very discouraged.  It was only because of the encouraging visit of dear friends from Canada that we started to see some light again in the immigration "pit of despair" (thank you very much Kevin and Nicole!)

Samana

They dragged us against our will, kicking and screaming (okay, maybe I took a few creative liberties on that last sentence) for a 3 day mini-vacation in Samaná before we returned to Canada.

Kevin & Nicole monkey fun

Along the way we stopped at Troy's favorite place - the Monkey Jungle.

In Samana we found the answer to our prayers.  We were wallowing in despair, drowning it with double cappuccinos, eggs and bacon at Frenchie's Restaurant when 2 sisters passed by and Kevin couldn't help but chase them down, interrupt their lunch and introduce our group.

Samana breakfast

In the ensuing conversation they mentioned there was a sister who is an immigration lawyer who just happened to be around the corner selling jewelry to cruise ship passenger on the scenic harbor front.  They took us to meet her and she gave us more free advice standing under a blue vendor's awning ocean side than we received in a paid half hour appointment at a stuffy, rather musty smelling lawyer's office. Literally, her advice saved us from needing a 3rd return trip to Canada as she informed us of some requirements that we had never heard.  Again, Jehovah and our brothers came to our rescue.

Ottawa coffee break

A few days later we were back on a plane to Canada for a stay of little more than 2 weeks, but now we had hope.  We opted to fly to Ottawa and stay with friends. This was a good/bad trade-off. It has a much better timezone for teaching (4:30 am start) but us West Coaster now living in the DR are way too wimpy for the Eastern Canada winter weather! First stop, VV Boutique for touques (that's beanies for the Aussies) scarves, sweaters and gloves. We borrowed some coats and we even braved a few days in the ministry while we were there.

Ottawa friends

 Ottawa was the better choice for other reasons too. That way we would be able to go personally to the embassy and other government offices to work things out. We also got to enjoy the loving hospitality of new found friends. What a loving, warm brotherhood to which we belong. How wonderfully Jehovah cares for us through the kindnesses of our brothers. Thanks so much to our new family in Ottawa - Nikki, Denise, Arthur and Matt. 

After 2+ weeks and many dollars we were back on a plane returning to DR. A week later we finally made the trek to Santo Domingo for visiting the Immigration offices. While there we enjoyed the warm hospitality of Ruby, Laura and Marron, former Puerto Plateños (thank you very much sisters).

Arriving at the offices early the next day we hurried through 3 or 4 processes only to sit and wait, and wait and wait and wait ... While there we met another Witness family of 3 who had been to immigration 7 times trying to get their Visas approved. That was a shadow of things to come. After 3 hours waiting we got the call.  One of the documents from Canada had the wrong month for my birthday. Thanks to that error that piece of paper currently valued at $150 US will likely end up costing us $400 US once it is replaced.

So here we sit, determined to continue, yet battered and bruised by a needlessly confusing gauntlet of incompetence and misinformation. By ourselves this would be impossible, but with Jehovah's help all things are possible! We will endure.

House Problems
We were handed a gift on a silver platter.  When Rachel was having a hard time in Bolivia and we needed an option that would be emotionally and physically possible we had a furnished apartment waiting for us.  All we needed to do was board a plane and arrive with our clothes.  It has been like refreshing waters to our soul. Thanks to Kevin and Celina who helped arrange it for us and did so much when we arrived.

But gradually we realized that although this was a nice stepping off point it was not really a long-term solution. The center of town is convenient for shopping and walking to the Kingdom Hall, but us country bumpkins like a more rural life. The noise during Christmas celebrations was not heard but was felt. Neighbors are too close.  We were now ready to think long-term as we had invested so much into immigration, furniture and a vehicle. So we started looking for a long-term home.  Over the course of weeks we viewed 15 possible future homes.  Finally we had enough information to make a choice.

We contacted the rental agent and let him know we wanted the apartment. He urged us to get down there with the money immediately because someone else was interested.  We were there within minutes. He shuffled in 20 minutes later looking dejected and said; "Lo siento, it's already rented."

Disappointed we went to choice number two.  As we drove up we saw another rental agent showing it to an interested person. Even choice two was evaporating. "why?" we thought.  "Why isn't anything working out?"

Later that day, though, we get a phone call that a brother's house was now available.  It was everything we ever wanted but would never have imagined we would get. Jehovah and our brothers were truly kind to us again.


Car Problems
Here in the DR cars are expensive.  We bought a little 2003 Diahatsu Terios, a jeepita. The brother who sold it to us gave us a good price, but nonetheless cars here are expensive.  In Canada we might have paid $2,500 dollars for this car.  In DR it cost $6000.  Then on our first weekend with the car I had a talk scheduled in a neighboring city. A third of the way into the journey the engine overheated and blew the head gasket.  The brother had warned me that it had heating issues but I hadn't been paying close enough attention to the gauges as I was preoccupied protecting us from the rather suicidal manner everyone drives here to which I wasn't accustomed.

Thanks to the dear brothers, Dave and Kevin, who came and dragged the carcass of my car back to the mechanics where Kevin wrangled a deal and got us a motor with only 100,000 km and a refurbished radiator for $1000 US including installation.

The Conclusion of the Matter
 Through all of the problems we see that Jehovah was beside us all of the way.  We didn't always see it at the time, but he never left us on our own. He helped us learn patience and endurance but he gave us even more than we ever thought.

Dinner with the Pioneers

In the end we had the opportunity to get to know some of our wonderful and kind brothers even better, we have online work that is a gift, we live in a beautiful country where there is a fruitful ministry, we have nice home even if only for a short while, we now have a car with a very reliable engine and we're almost fully immigrated residents.

What lies ahead?  Uncertainty!  But we need not be afraid.
 

Update about changes

Yes, we were in Canada for 5 hectic weeks. We traveled from Vancouver to Summerland to Castlegar to Calgary to Duncan to Lake Cowichan to Sooke to Salt Spring Island to Victoria to Parksville and back to Sooke.  We wanted to see EVERYBODY but it just WAS NOT possible.

Tubing down the Cowichan River

Although it was busy we did manage to get some relaxation time.  We spent 2 days camping in Cowichan Lake and we got to tube down the Cowichan River on the August 1 long weekend.

Victoria Symphony Splash fireworks

 We also took time to see the Victoria Symphony Splash - where they float a large barge in the Victoria Inner Harbour and have the local orchestra put on a free concert. It ends with Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture set to an amazing fireworks display.

Victoria Symphony Splash

This year over 40,000 people attended. So it was very nice that we were able to run into a few friends.  We even saw Joel and Stef who are serving as Need Greaters in St. Kitts but were back visiting family and friends.

Parksville Sandcastle Competition

And at the end of our trip we even made it up to Parksville to visit friends and check out the Annual Sandcastle competition.  This year's theme was 'Good vs Evil', or something to that effect.











For those we missed seeing this time, we will be back to Canada in May, which is not too long from now.  We hope to see you then.  Please send us an email to let us know how things are going for you.  We'll try to keep you updated with the blog as things happen.  If you subscribe you will get emails directly to your inbox every time we post an update.

By now likely most of you have heard that we moved to a new country. If not, here is an overdue update.

It was a hard decision to make. Incredibly hard.  With 6 days left until our return ticket flight back to Canada we were struggling to make a decision ... 'what to do? Stay the course and hope for the best? Make a change?'

After almost a full year in Bolivia we were enjoying the service and results but we were burning out because of so many reasons ... the largest being the language hurdle.  We were feeling awful about considering abandoning our congregation, but we were becoming less and less useful as the stress added to constant bouts of sickness and induced negative emotions.

For 2 months we considered other options within the country.  We checked out the 2 English options, one brand new group in La Paz and one brand new congregation in Santa Cruz. We also checked out a Spanish congregation in Sucre that our CO wanted us to support.  But we had waited too long to consider making a change.  As Paul had said, it was as if we had been 'poured out' and now didn't have much left to give.

So here we were with a decision to make.  Our lives have been blessed very well to enable us to reach out as need-greaters; I have the online job, we currently have no family obligations in Canada, we are young enough to handle some of the rougher living conditions of developing countries and we have a burning desire to do 'what we can' within our new found limits. We didn't want to give it up and head home.

So back to 6 days before our return ticket flight back to Canada.  We were in Sucre at the time.  As usual I got up at 5:40 am to start my online job at 6:00 am.  Rachel was laying in bed knowing we needed a decision. She decided she wanted to move to the country that was our second choice when we wrote the branches a year earlier, the Dominican Republic.  We have long time friends there, it has many English congregations, it is closer to home, and it has many other benefits.  Knowing that it would require a lot of upheaval in our lives she prayed that Jehovah reassure her that it is the right choice by having our friends from the DR call right away.  We usually talk every couple of months and we had already talked recently and were not expecting a call.

She continued to lay in bed while I taught.  At the end of my class I checked on her and asked if she was any closer to a decision.  She told me she wanted to move to the DR.  I said good and we should call our friends there as they had tried to phone on Skype as I was just starting my class and I didn't answer. After we contacted them we found out they had a two bedroom furnished apartment they used as an income earning suite that they had just informed the landlord they wouldn't be needing.  After talking with us they called him right away and reserved it for us. An hour later I had the flights booked.

We wondered how we could 'tie up' loose ends in Bolivia in just 6 days.  We didn't want to have a garage sale - too much stress.  So we called the landlord and offered him everything in the suite for 25% of what we had paid for it on one condition - that he let friends stay there until the end of August.  We had paid rent until the end of August because we knew that we would be in Canada for parts of July and August.  Because of that trip we also had promised some potential need-greaters that they could stay at our place. They had contacted us months earlier through this blog and had requested to stay for a month in Oruro while they "spied out the land".  We asked our landlord to honor our commitment to them.   He agreed and bought everything.

So the next day we flew to Oruro and packed our things. Two teary-eyed days later we were in La Paz celebrating an early anniversary before our return to Canada.

Through the process of learning our limits we have drawn ever closer to our wonderful creator who is so patient and full of loyal love.  What a reassurance knowing he listens to us and answers in such a timely way.  Truly, as he promised, he is close to those who 'are crushed in spirit' and he saves them.

We feel thankful to still be able to serve in an area where year after year there is great increase.  Not because we personally get to help many learn the truth, but more because it is teaching us to rely on Jehovah and to include him in our decision making.  He becomes more and more of a close friend to us as we put him 'to the test.'

Mofongo

So that is why we moved to the Dominican Republic.

Once we arrived it brought back memories of our last visit in November of 2012.  We got to eat 'mofongo' again.  It's a mixture of plantains, cheese and bacon - all mashed together in an over-sized egg cup.  Delicious!!!

MotoTaxi -there's 3 of us on a 150cc

One of our first experiences here was going to the English Convention in Santiago. Of course, the method of transportation is not quite the same as Canada or Bolivia.  We caught a 'Moto Taxi' (a motorcycle taxi) to the bus station. The bus dropped us on the side of the highway and we had to run to make it 'almost' on time to the convention.

2015 RC with Kevin, Celina and Suzi

 It's a beautiful open air Assembly Hall.  Our only complaint was the heat. We have been told that it's an especially hot summer.  However, we enjoyed the program immensely! It was our first Regional Convention this year.  We have also been reunited with our long-lost friends from Pachuca, Mexico.  The picture is after the Friday program with them and their English speaking bible study from Germany.

We moved ...

Update coming soon.