6:30am and we were off to “Translados” at the transfer chapel. Hna Johnson and I gave our parts and had the pictures of all the new missionaries taken within an hour. Everything went very smooth. Pres. & Hna. Almonte conducted the next hour of the meeting while Hna. Johnson & I ran back to the office to photocopy all of the passports. We had to get them copied, laminated and drive back to the transfer chapel before the end of the meeting so we could give the Elders their laminated copies.
When the meeting was over everyone went outside to load the “Guagua” and its trailer. I asked the driver what the Spanish word for trailer was. He said it’s called a “trailer”! (Pronounced “Tray-lair”) Every “translado” the mission hires the same Guagua and driver to haul all of the Missionaries and their luggage to “El Campo”. It will take him the rests of the day to get all of them delivered to their new areas.
The “Guagua” is pronounced “Gwah gwah” . In the Dominican Republic anything that hauls something is called a Guagua. And size doesn’t matter, so all buses, trucks, pickups, etc. are all referred to as Guaguas. They do have their regular names. For example a bus is an “Autobus” a truck is a “Camión” and a pickup is a “Camioneta” but they are almost never referred to by these names. They are all simply “Guaguas”.
Last night Hna. Johnson and I worked a little late getting ready for Translados. But it wasn’t very hard work and we were home by 7:00. However Elder Caldwell and Elder Mesidor, the AP’s, told us they had a lot to do and worked hard until 2:00am getting ready. Then they had to be up by 4:30am to get started on the day. By this afternoon they were really dragging.
In spite of the hard work and the late hours the AP’s love their job, they love being missionaries and all of this is just a big adventure to them. Elder Caldwell said that when they finised all of their work last ngith at 2:00pm they went down stairs to their apartment that they share with the office elders. He said that there were so many Elder in town for “Translados” that they had taken every available bed and mattress including his. So he said he sat down in a corner, propped his head up against the wall and went to sleep for 2 hours.
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