Kate and Sortero

Kate and Sortero part. Note the ginormous bruise on Kate's arm from being hit by a baseball. Someone was throwing heat.

Tears at parting.


From Emily ....... she is funnier than me (Joelle)
Several of you might know Kate Phillips, and if you know her, my guess isthat you love her. How could you not? Not only is her heart SO big, but shekept us in stitches the entire trip. The last couple days of the trip wereprobably some of her finest. My personal favorite was when she announced tothe bus that we would "rue the day that we did not buy a stalactite." (she,however, would go home with no regrets - and a stalactite). But it is notKate's purchases at the open market (or the gigantic overflowing basket of items from the Dominican WalMart for the orphans, or the meal she shared with the little boy with starvation in his eyes outside the Walmart)that I'm supposed to be writing about -it is her relationship and one of her final conversations with Sortero, ourbus driver, that I'm supposed to recount. I hope I do it justice.







We rode on the same bus, with the same driver, every day, at least twice aday if not four or five times. When that happens people tend to sort ofsettle into a pattern. Kate settled in at the front of the bus - right nextto Sortero and a few high school girls. Well Kate doesn't speak a lot ofSpanish, and Sortero speaks even less English but boy, did they talk. InKate's words "he would say something to me and I would sort of imagine whathe might be saying. Then I would reply to what I imagined he had said andI'm sure he sort of imagined what I had said back" And so it went, prettymuch every day. Now, a quick personal note: I love that. I think it is soamazing and so admirable that these two people didn't let a little thinglike a language barrier get in the way of a good conversation. But back tothe story: so by the end of the week, these two felt like they knew eachother pretty well and somehow the subject of Kate's occupation came up.Sortero, in Spanish with a touch of English, asked if Kate was an engineer.Well she just thought that was hilarious because no, she is not an engineer.And then Sortero continued to explain himself by saying "toot toot" andacting like he was pulling on the rope of a train whistle. Kate realizedthat somehow he had gotten this idea that SHE WAS A TRAIN CONDUCTOR.



Whenshe told us this during our last team meeting we lost it. We laughed sohard and for so long that it was a little hard for anyone to share anythingserious after that. As Ecclesiastes says there is truly a "time to weep, a time to laugh."There was a lot of both on our trip to the Dominican, and Kate brought in alot of the (much needed) laughter. I am so thankful for her presence on thetrip and back here in Birmingham, because she is someone who will make youlaugh so hard your stomach hurts then turn around and cry as you cry. And,if you're really lucky, she might just let you take a picture with herstalactite.