5/12/1993 - Safety in the Dominican Republic

This post is part of an ongoing series in which I "look in" on the contemporary Dominican Republic while "looking back" at my mission there twenty years ago. Today, I feel inspired to write about safety in the DR.

Shortly after I arrived in the DR as a missionary, another missionary showed me a document which had been provided to the missionaries by the U.S. embassy around the time of the Gulf War (which preceded my mission by several months). I don't remember if the mission president had solicited this document or if the embassy had proffered it. It was a basically a guide on what to do if you're kidnapped. The advice I still remember is: Your best chance for escape is when they're first nabbing you; you need to psychologically prepare yourself for a long captivity; and you should press your captors to improve your conditions by demanding things like toilet paper and books.

The document made such an impression on me that I became paranoid when my trainer and I were approached by a young man who was very keen to have us come to his house but didn't want to be seen talking to us on the street. As it turned out, he did have nefarious intentions, but of a more mundane kind: he feigned a desire to convert in the hope of fleecing us of things like tennis shoes--at which he succeeded; I wasn't sufficiently paranoid on that count.

Once I got acclimated, I felt quite safe as a missionary in the DR. During the Gulf War, a missionary had been the victim of a drive-by shooting, apparently motivated by anti-American sentiment (he survived largely unscathed; his temple garments took the credit). But that incident was anomalous. People regularly shouted "CIA" to us on the streets, but I understood it more as a taunt than a threat. Missionaries, the North Americans especially, were natural targets of petty crime: missionaries liked to swap stories about the ingenious ways people made off with their watches in the streets, that kind of thing. I had my bike stolen several months into my mission while I was inside an investigator's house one night--the horrific aftermath of which is that the police carted off a Haitian neighbor of the investigator, who I also knew, and beat him to try to force a confession. I'm not up to reliving that memory right now; but there's a moral there about safety and vulnerability for different kinds of foreign nationals in the Dominican Republic.

The DR didn't feel unsafe to me until the very end of my mission, when my parents came down to pick me up. We were walking at night to our hotel in a touristy area, when a man began approaching us, pulling a coiled wire out from under his shirt as he did so. My petite, iron-willed mother glared at the man, grabbed my hand and my father's, and pulled us across the street. It was a very unnerving experience, and it suddenly made the DR feel less like home to me than it had. I had been moving blithely through this country, feeling like I belonged; suddenly I felt foreign and targeted.

In 1997, when I was back in the DR working with a Catholic program, I visited Guaricano, which had been my favorite proselyting area. I learned that while LDS missionaries still worked there, they no longer lived there. The area had been ruled to unsafe to live after burglars broke into the elders' home one night and assaulted them. In 2000, I returned to the DR again looking for a job teaching English. While there, I heard chilling stories about American teachers--women, in these stories--being picked up by fake taxis full of thieves posing as passengers, forced to use ATM cards to empty their bank accounts, and in one case killed. During that same trip, I got into such a taxi and had my pocket picked. A good Samaritan found my discarded wallet later that day, found inside the phone number of the house where I was staying, and called. My Dominican hosts feared that the caller was actually one of the thieves trying to lure me into . . . a further assault or a kidnapping, I guess. A stake high councilman and his wife drove me over to the caller's home, who turned out to be legit; in fact, the high councilman ended up trying to turn the encounter into a missionary referral.

I was just looking at the U.S. State Department's travel advisory page for the DR. They make it sound pretty scary, though there's reassuring perspective in their statement that "the dangers present in the Dominican Republic are similar to those of many major U.S. cities."

I can't end a reflection on safety in the DR without remembering . . . well, let's call her Guadi, a young mother living in the area where I was working on this day 20 years ago, whose musician husband was often away working a gig on the other end of the island. One night she was awakened at knifepoint by a thief who had broken into the house. Several days later, she saw the thief walking past their home; fortunately, her husband was home at the time, and he confronted the thief, which led to his arrest. I'm proud of the way ward members pulled together for her, spending the night with her when her husband had to go away again. My companion and I met with her one evening, when she was plainly under a lot of stress. We got the kids off in a corner playing with magnets, we three adults sat down to talk, she vented for a long while, my companion and I listened, the three of us sang "Abide with Me," we prayed. It's one of the spiritual highlights of my mission.

I thank God that I was safe during my time in the DR. I pray for the safety of the people I know who are living there now--Dominicans and Haitians and North Americans. Especially women.

Other posts in this series: 
4/7/1993 - Alma Rosa
2/3/1993 - Ensanche Espaillat
9/30/1992 - La Milagrosa
8/12/1992 - A year after the call
7/1/1992 - FEDOPO
5/6/1992 - Guaricano
4/1/1992 - First day in Guaricano
2/5/1992 - The Zona Franca
12/4/1991 - La Romana
11/6/1991 - My first day in the Dominican Republic
10/9/1991 - Entered the MTC
9/4/1991 - Waiting to serve
8/1/1991 - Mission call

4/7/1993 - Alma Rosa

Twenty years ago today, I was a missionary in Santo Domingo, a couple weeks into a new proselyting area--which turned out to be my last proselyting area. I spent six months here, an unusually long time by the norms of my mission. At the time, I interpreted that as a vote of confidence from the mission president: i.e., he trusted me to be diligent and persistent enough to keep building up the work in this area without getting bored and antsy to go somewhere else. But, um, who knows what his motive was. (Pessimistic speculation: Maybe it was the mission president's strategy for keeping me somewhere he thought I couldn't do too much damage.)

Anyway, Alma Rosa was the name of the area--Alma Rosa I, officially. Alma Rosa II was the next barrio eastward; the city was expanding in that direction. My companion and I lived in Alma Rosa II, but we worked and attended church in Alma Rosa I. The chapel we attended was the same one I had attended in late 1992-early 1993, while I was working in La Milagrosa, a neighborhood just northwest of Alma Rosa. In other words, I was in familiar territory.

In the map below, Alma Rosa is the area shaded green. La Milagrosa, where I'd served in late 1992-early 1993, is shaded pink. (In retrospect, I should have assigned the colors the other way around: Alma Rosa means "Pink Soul." I have no idea why that name.) The chapel in the center of the map, in Alma Rosa, is where our ward met. The chapel near the southwest corner of the map is where we attended zone conferences. The chapel toward the east edge of the map was where the missionaries in my district held our weekly meetings. Ah, yes: I was district leader while I was in Alma Rosa. A long awaited feather in my cap.

The blue circle on the map indicates the approximate location where I lived while I was working in Alma Rosa. The green circle indicates the street where the first YouTube video below was filmed. The red circle indicates where I suspect the second YouTube video was filmed, a judgment I make based on the lack of vegetation. The northern "triangle" of Alma Rosa was a relatively poorer area. The middle section (moving south) was where the most affluent housing was, although rich houses behind walls could exist literally side-by-side with tin shacks. The southernmost stretch of the neighborhood, parallel to the highway, had big apartment complexes that I have in my head were government projects.

I am proud to say that over the course of six months in Alma Rosa, I systematically tracted out--i.e., knocked doors on--every street in that barrio. We didn't just tract, of course; but tracting was what we always did when we had nothing else to do; I insisted on that as a matter of discipline. I might not pursue that same course if I could do things over, but I was proud of it then because the alternative would have been killing time while fooling ourselves that we were being productive. Six months and a few companions later, I'd worked through every street and started over. At a couple houses, people asked, "Weren't you just here?" Nope, that was six months ago. I've been keeping track.

About the videos:

1. This short rooftop look-about shows a stretch of Alma Rosa that has been "developed up" more than I remember it as being twenty years ago. That is, I don't remember there being so many multi-floor apartment buildings.


2. This will be boring for anyone except a fellow Alma Rosa alum. I'm intrigued by the number of young people who have electronic devices--smart phones, whatever these things are called. (I don't keep up with technology.)


Other posts in this series: 
2/3/1993 - Ensanche Espaillat
9/30/1992 - La Milagrosa
8/12/1992 - A year after the call
7/1/1992 - FEDOPO
5/6/1992 - Guaricano
4/1/1992 - First day in Guaricano
2/5/1992 - The Zona Franca
12/4/1991 - La Romana
11/6/1991 - My first day in the Dominican Republic
10/9/1991 - Entered the MTC
9/4/1991 - Waiting to serve
8/1/1991 - Mission call

2/3/1993 - Ensanche Espaillat

Twenty years ago today, I was working in Ensanche Espaillat, my fourth missionary area. I only spent a couple of months here--the shortest time I spent assigned to any area. Espaillat is a small rectangular-shaped neighborhood, about a ten minutes walk across in the narrower direction, about fifteen minutes in the longer direction. Our proselyting area extended beyond Espaillat proper (which ended at the cloverleaf) down to the river. That neighborhood was called Gualey; it was a substantially poorer neighborhood and was considered dangerous. We weren't supposed to go there by night, though there were a couple of members we visited fairly regularly there by day.

 
1. The missionaries' apartment. We shared with the companionship who worked in the area just southeast of us.

2. The street in Gualey where a couple of members and an investigator lived. I arrived just after Espaillat had been broken off from the adjacent ward to become its own branch. That decision had been made based on our having about 200 members on the records; 11 adults were active on a weekly basis. But church leadership in the DR really wanted a temple, and multiplying units was the way to get it.

3. La Escuela / Liceo Republica de Colombia. A public elementary school where my companion and I went once a week to volunteer as assistants for one of the teachers. Probably the most meaningful community service (meaningful for me, anyway) I did during my time as a missionary.

4. The meetinghouse attended by our branch, as well as by the ward from whom we had been broken off. There was conflict between the (mostly American) missionaries and the local leadership, centered in the ward but spilling over into my branch as well. It reached a heady adrenaline-laced crisis when our (American) mission president demanded that the (Dominican) stake president put a stop to certain prayer meetings being held by the priesthood leaders in our ward and branch, which our mission president (and the missionaries) regarded as apostate. I feel very differently about this incident now than I did at the time; I should blog about it, maybe next month.

5. According to the church's online meetinghouse finder, there's now a meetinghouse here, though it wasn't there when I served.

This is fun: Searching for information about Ensanche Espaillat online, I quickly discovered the blog of a neighborhood organization, Amigos y Vecinos Ensanche Espaillat. It looks like they hold block parties and do raffles; they post announcements of residents' deaths and marriages. I found one post featuring photos of the "ausentes de Espaillat"--former residents sending greetings back from New Jersey or Florida. Thumbs up for civil society!

One post provided the following government statistics about Ensanche Espaillat: There are 4,000 dwellings in the neighborhood (not counting Gualey), and nearly 16,000 people living there! That figure blows my mind, to the point where I'm dubious--but Espaillat was a densely inhabited neighborhood, even 20 years ago. Unemployment is at a relatively low 7 percent. A little under 3,400 women in the neighborhood are reported as being "amas de casa" [homemakers]; the blogger juxtaposes that statistic with the fact that there are only 96 "empleadas domesticas" [domestic employees, female] to remark that "el barrio tiene verdaderas amas de casa" [the neighborhood has true homemakers]--which I take is meant as a commendation for the women who do their own cooking, cleaning, and washing instead of hiring someone to do it. Had this census been taken 20 years ago, the missionaries' maid would presumably have been one of those 96 empleadas domesticas. She would not have qualified, apparently, as a true homemaker even though she was actually running two households--ours, plus her own.

Other posts in this series: 
9/30/1992 - La Milagrosa
8/12/1992 - A year after the call
7/1/1992 - FEDOPO
5/6/1992 - Guaricano
4/1/1992 - First day in Guaricano
2/5/1992 - The Zona Franca
12/4/1991 - La Romana
11/6/1991 - My first day in the Dominican Republic
10/9/1991 - Entered the MTC
9/4/1991 - Waiting to serve
8/1/1991 - Mission call

Spiral creche

As today is Epiphany, Christmas is liturgically over, so I'm taking down all the Christmas decorations (minus the colored lights, which I'll leave up to help make the dark winter more cheery).

Every year I try to do something different with the creche. This year, I arranged the figures in a double spiral being drawn in toward the center, which until December 24 was empty but was then occupied by the baby Jesus.

As of New Year's, I reversed all the figures so that they were moving away from the center, back out into the world.

Amahl and the Night Visitors

In observance of Christmas, I'm doing a "nostalgia post." Back in 1985 and 1986, I sang the role of Amahl and Gian Carlo Menotti's light Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, for Opera West, a shoestring opera company headquartered in the Utah County area. It's an experience I look back on each Christmas very fondly. I have especially fond memories of 1986, when we went on tour to out-of-the-way places like Arco, Idaho, and Vernal, Utah. I'm sure this will be "old hat" for people who do dramatic performance, but the bonding within the troupe as we toured was an unusual experience for me (loner by temperament), and one that I think of as having spiritual dimensions, in part because of the religious themes of the performance.

This year, I tried Googling and Facebooking the major cast members to see if I could find out what they're up to now, almost 30 years later. I found rather less information than I'd hoped for, but it seems that the young man who played Balthazar, Michael Wadsworth, went on to have a singing career with some national recognition. I really wish I could have found out something about Donna Wellman, who played my mother. I learned a little about her past--she'd been singing that role for several years--but couldn't find anything about her more recent life. I'm guessing that Gene Larsson, who ran Opera West and sang the role of Melchior in 1986, has since died. (Forgive me, Gene, if you're alive and reading this!) Director Jerry Elison is still a prominent and beloved figure in the Utah County performing arts scene.

Here's a clip of my favorite aria from Amahl. It's not my troupe's performance--I don't have a DVD rip of that, unfortunately.

New blog for CofC worship resources

About 6 months ago, I started doing weekly posts of worship resources for Community of Christ congregations. From here on out, I'll be posting those resources to a new blog:

thefarthesthills.wordpress.com 

Because of that shift, I anticipate that I'll be posting much less often to Liberal Mormon Spirituality, although I'm not retiring the blog altogether. (For instance, I want to finish up the 20th-anniversary series of reflections related to my mission in the Dominican Republic.)

Rejoice!

Some worship resources designed as options for December 23, the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. Scroll down to find:

• Focus Moment: Mosiah 1:93-97
• “Second Witness” Scripture Readings: 3 Nephi 1:12-14 or Alma 12:150-154, 169-171
• Disciples’ Generous Response: Hebrews 10:5-10

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FOCUS MOMENT

Excerpted from Mosiah 1:93-97

This passage from the Book of Mormon is thematically appropriate for the Candle of Joy.

Contemporary language:

A messenger from God said to me: “Wake up!”

I woke up and saw the messenger standing in front of me.

The messenger said:

“I have come to share with you glad tidings of great joy,

so that you may rejoice

and may share them in turn with your people,

so that they too may be filled with joy.

“These are the glad tidings:

The time is coming—it is not far off!—

when the All-powerful Ruler,

the Immortal One,*

will come down from heaven,

and will live among human beings

in a body made from the dust.”**

* Or: who always has been and always will be

** Or: in a body of clay

Traditional language (lightly updated):

An angel from God said to me: “Awake.”

I awoke, and he stood before me.

He said to me:

“I am come to declare to you glad tidings of great joy,

that you may rejoice,

and that you may declare to your people

that they may also be filled with joy.

“For the time comes, and is not far distant,

that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigns,

who was and is from all eternity to all eternity,

will come down from heaven

among the human family*

and will dwell in a tabernacle of clay.”

* Original language: among the children of men. The substituted phrase, “human family” is taken from Mormon 2:86.

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“SECOND WITNESS” SCRIPTURE READINGS

With sermon helps

Either of these passages might be read alongside the recommended preaching text from the lectionary, Luke 1:39-45, in the “second witness” style. For an example of that style, see this post.

Option A. Excerpted from 3 Nephi 1:12-14

Sermon help: In the lectionary reading from Luke, Mary and Elizabeth rejoice in knowing that the long-awaited promise of God’s salvation is being fulfilled. Likewise, in the following reading from the Book of Mormon, Nephi is encouraged to rejoice in Christ’s birth as a sign that God’s promises will be fulfilled.

Contemporary language:

Nephi heard the Lord’s voice say to him:

“Look up! Cheer up!*

The time has come—

this very night, the sign will be given.

“Tomorrow** I will come into the world

to show the world

that I will keep every promise

I have made through the prophets.

“I am coming to my people***

to carry out the plan that I have been revealing

since the beginning of the world.”

* Or: Do not hang your head! Take heart!

** Or: In the morning

*** Or: I am coming into the world I created

Traditional language (lightly updated):

The voice of the Lord came to Nephi, saying:

“Lift up your head and be of good cheer,

for the time is at hand,

and on this night will the sign be given.

“On the morrow I come into the world

to show the world

that I will fulfill all that I have caused to be spoken

by the mouth of my holy prophets.

“I come to my own

to fulfill all things that I have made known

from the foundation of the world.”

Option B. Excerpted from Alma 12:150-154, 169-171

Sermon help: The online sermon help for the lectionary reading explains that “Luke provides an interesting insight into the leveling, or equalizing power of the mission of Jesus Christ by using women as prophetic witnesses.” The following story from the Book of Alma likewise places two women in a prominent role as witnesses of God’s saving work in Christ. Like Mary and Elizabeth, Abish is a person considered to be of less importance in her society—a servant, an ordinary person who nevertheless recognizes that she has a mission to fulfill for God.

Contemporary language:

One of the Lamanite women, named Abish,

had converted to the Lord many years before,

in secret.

When she saw that Lamoni’s servants,

and the queen—her mistress—

and the king, and Ammon,

had all fallen to the ground while praying, as if they had fainted,

she realized that this was God’s power at work.

So she ran from house to house,

telling the people what had happened;

and they began to gather in the king’s house.

Then Abish went and took the queen’s hand,

as if to try to lift her from the ground.

As soon as Abish touched her hand,

the queen regained consciousness and stood up.

She exclaimed:

“O blessed Jesus, who has delivered* me!

O blessed God, show your compassion to this people!”

Then she clapped her hands together for joy

and spoke many words in a language that no one could understand.

* Or: rescued

Traditional language (lightly updated):

One of the Lamanitish women, whose name was Abish,

[had] been converted to the Lord for many years

[but] never had made it known.

When she saw that all of Lamoni’s servants,

and also her mistress, the queen,

and the king, and Ammon,

lay prostrate on the earth,

she knew that it was the power of God.

Therefore she ran forth from house to house

making it known to the people,

and they began to assemble to the house of the king.

[Then Abish] went and took the queen by the hand,

that perhaps she might raise her from the ground;

and as soon as [Abish] touched her hand,

[the queen] arose and stood on her feet

and cried:

“O blessed Jesus, who has saved me!

O blessed God, have mercy on this people!”

When she had said this,

she clapped her hands, being filled with joy,

speaking many words which were not understood.

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DISCIPLES’ GENEROUS RESPONSE

Based on Hebrews 10:5–10

Readers 1 and 2 take up positions in front of the congregation.

Reader 1:

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.

Reader 2:

When Christ came into the world,

this brought to pass the scripture that says:

Reader 1:

“You do not want sacrifices of animals or offerings of grain.

Daily sacrifices and sacrifices for purification mean nothing to you.

You have given me, rather, a body with which to serve you.

Therefore I say: See, God—I have come to do your will!”     [Psalm 40:7-8]

All:  God—we have come to do your will!

Reader 2:

When the scripture says

that God does not want animal sacrifices,

or grain offerings,

or daily sacrifices,

or sacrifices for purification—

this is referring to the sacrifices

that are commanded in the Law revealed to Moses.

All: God—if you do not want these sacrifices,

        what do you want from us?

Reader 1:

The scripture then adds,

“See, God—I have come to do your will!”

These words are telling us

that Christ came to end the Law and its sacrifices

in order to do the will of God.

All: And what is your will, God?

Reader 2:   [slowly and emphatically]

The will of God is this:

that we be made holy,

once and for all,

through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s body.

Reader 1:   [after a short pause]

Here ends the reading.

Readers 1 and 2 return to their places in the congregation. There is a short pause. Then Reader 3 speaks up from within the congregation.

Reader 3:

Jesus Christ,

through the gift of your body,

you have made us a holy people—

a people consecrated* to God’s service.          * or: dedicated

Therefore, we offer you

our whole selves as a gift.

Allow a few minutes of silence for prayerful reflection. The silence is followed by the Blessing and Receiving of Mission Tithes.