PICK UP TRUCK SANTAGO FOR HAITI

We left the city and went northwest through valleys and over mountains along beautiful highway 1 to the city of San Juan.

 At the end of the highway and in the center of San Juan on a central hill stands this monument to the heroes of the Dominican fight for independence from Spain. There was a young school class of students on a field trip to see the monument when we were there.

We called the CES office and Elder and Sister Wood came to the parking lot and we followed them to the CES office. There at the office we met the CES director and exchanged our Toyota Corolla for his Toyota 4 wheel drive pickup truck. We were planning to take that truck and one other pickup truck from the office to the Haiti border the next day. They needed the trucks to haul building materials for the transitional housing and other emergency needs.

We stopped along the roadside to take a few pictures and got one of me behind the wheel of the truck. I have had a great experience driving many different vehicles; three vans, trucks, and several cars. Driving in the DR is a real driving experience as it is in all third-world countries.

We enjoy wonderful juices... here is an orange grove.

The next day we drove one pickup and Elder Berkley drove the other one 5 hours to the Haitian border. There at the border we met the men from Port-au-Prince Haiti at the Isla gas station just outside of the town of Jimani. We filled the vehicles with fuel and half an hour later we were on our way back. The Haiti bound team spent 12 hours at the border working with officials to get the LDS welfare shipment truck through customs without paying bribes. They did it and the shipment arrived to waiting saints that helped unload the cargo and the bishops and Relief Society sisters were busy delivering the food.