Home Sweet Home-

I am finally home. I arrived back around 9 pm last night. Although a small piece of me was left back at the DR and I miss it there already, it feels good to be home.
I had such an awesome experience in the DR. Our group was six girls and Dr. Unander, a professor at Eastern University. The Service learning Coordinator, Andy Horvath came down with us and stayed for 5 days. We served in Sabana Cruz, the neighboring community of El Fondo in Elisapina. We were housed in a big room of the school building on tired and squeeky metal bunks with only a large tarp dividing the men's side from the women's . The snoring became a humorous problem for some of us.
We all had a really great time bonding with each other as a group. We lived in such close quarters there was little room for much privacy. We had a bathroom with two stall and no running water so we had to flush them with buckets of water every other day. It was pretty gross. We also had to use the latrine (outhouse) nearby. That and not being able to take showers was the only thing that required the most adjusting I think. That and the bug problem. Then roaches here are twice the size of the roaches here in our neck of the woods. Well all of the bugs are significantly larger than the ones here except for the mosquitoes. That's another story. Despite the fact that I used the insect repellent, I still managed to count 24 on my left arm alone. I looked like I had small pox.
We served the community in Sabana Cruz this time because most of the latrines in El Fondo have been constructed already. So we spent the week building 7 latrines, 5 days of VBS, (there it's BVS) and going on home visits. It was awesome to be so accepted into the community.
I did get to visit my little girl in El Fondo on Thursday with two other girls on the team. She is 14 now!! and she's grown so much and she's so beautiful. It was the highlight of my day. I gave her a framed picture of us from the last trip. The other girls brought pictures too and soon enough there were a bunch of familiar faces of the kids we knew from before...It was so awesome to see them all. Most of them remembered us. We also got to go back to El Fondo on Sunday. I learned how to play Dominoes the Dominican way. Man, that is an addicting game. We played again on Monday for like 2 or 3 hours.
A typical day there usually went like this. We would wake up by the sounds of the community, children playing in the school grounds, the deaf grounds keeper blaring a radio, donkeys braying, roosters cookle-doodle-dooing, mosquitoes buzzing in our ears and if that didn't do it, Dr. U singing show tunes from broadway musicals did. We got dressed and ate breakfast, usually cereal, but sometimes eggs or cream of wheat (soooo good). Then we would break off into smaller team and do construction, or home visits in the morning. Then we had lunch together.The food was awesome. We had rice and beans for lunch almost every day. After lunch we had time for a siesta, almost a two hour break. (Becca, I got myself hung up in the Abrams Daughters. I read the first two on the trip and was sorry I didn't bring them all. Don't worry, I'll have them all finished soon!) After that we worked on latrines again or VBS. Then we bathed, the first two days in the river, the rest of the week schlopping out of buckets because the river was too muddy because it had rained. Then we would have dinner, usually sandwhiches, pringles, and Red Rock soda, which is the best soda I think I've ever had... I brought 5 bottles home with me. Then we would have group bonding time. Some nights we played games like uno or spoons, which is a fast paced game like our dear old Dutch Blitz. We also sang praise and worship songs and some hymns. We practiced singing a few songs for the church service we attended sunday night, one of which was Blessed be Your Name. Or we just sat and talked, had a debreifing and just chilled.
The last day of our trip we went to a resort in Santo Domingo, at Boca Chica, a beach in the Carribean. That was fun. We went to the beach Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. The water is so clear you can see your feet even when waist deep.
Well that is the low-down ditty. I am full of more stories and other details about the trip which I am more than willing to share if you are more interested.
Can't wait to see everyone again!