7 days already!?

8.11.08
i cannot believe the weekend is over already.. and that i have been in the DR for a week! wow. i suppose i will fill you in now. because i am in my orientation/transition phase, i have spent A LOT of time asking a million questions about how to get places, how things work, how much i should expect people to charge, etc. this process has been intertwined with building relationships (which is of course more important to me) and having fuuun.. here goes ☺

Friday (the 8th- 08-08-08 by the way!)
i spent the day at cabarete (a beautiful beach here that is fairly touristy.. we take groups to it on their rest day- KITE SURFING capital of the world i hear for those who care) with the interns and laurin (roomie and intern coordinator). laurin and i rode the public gua-gua over an hour to the beach and met the group at an amazing german bakery for breakfast. the rest of the day was spent relaxing, running on the beach, and having quality time with each other. weston met us on the beach too.. so fun! laurin answered my 10,000 questions and gave me tips about that area. a couple girls left early for jenn to pack. jenn was an intern this summer and had to go to santiago so she could fly out saturday morning. the rest of us rode a huge gua-gua back to meet her and say bye (sidenote- we stopped a million times so it took awhile and my shorts had a huuuge wet stain from the man’s leg sweat that was sitting next to me. haha nice.)

sooo we get to the house and learn she had JUST left. by the time i ran upstairs to put my backback down, a taxi was honking for us (laurin called) and we sped to the bus station to say bye. it was SO good to see her one last time and send her off. that night paul (an intern) made a wonderful dinner for us and a neighborhood boy.. then we set up the projector on the roof and watched a movie!

saturday (the 9th)
woke up and ran with two incredible interns (emily and sarah h) to a fort that is about 4 miles away- a beautiful run on the “malecon” that runs along the beach. great fun.. i couldn’t walk back with the girls b/c i was going with the group to pancho mateo so i took a moto back to the house (interesting driver.. kept asking if i had a spouse). we took the group to pancho mateo for a tour that robin gave. while walking through the area, kids come out of the houses to see everyone and i saw one of my favorites from LAST august! it melted my heart to hug esandro again and see his little smile!! i told him i remember him and I would show him pictures ☺ ahh so happy. for those of you who know- he is the one kissing my cheek in that picture and the one i started painting.

after pancho, we ate at el campito (where we ate rice, bean, and chicken every day last trip) with the group. anne and i took the makarios truck from there to get groceries for the house and i bought phone minutes! we will get all that together soon and i can let you know what my number is.. this was fun for me bc i love the grocery store.. and i love anne.

at night we had tacos with the group on our roof . then we played NERTZ (best. card. game. ever.) and another game “mau” with the group.

sunday (the 10th)
we all went to church in the morning. it is at least 2 hrs long and in spanish which is fun to try and follow (hopefully this will get easier in time). the people at church are sweet and very welcoming. after church i went with anne, garrett, and the group to cabarete (yes, again ☺) we were able to relax and i got to have some good conversations with everyone. we were so tired so anne and i dozed in and out, which was nice. got some good crosswords in too. i think i am addicted (as you know, mom and dad). i brought snacks so i wouldn’t spend much on food. we had dinner on the beach with the group and then sent them off to santiago where they will spend most of their time serving.

monday (the 11th- today!)
this morning i got up early and went for a long run to the beach and then a little around our neighborhood. i was semi-attacked by a stray dog (they are EVERYWHERE here) but I am still here..

after showering, the staff left for montellano. we had a staff meeting at robin, cara, and camille’s apartment. we talked about a ton and spent some great time in prayer. most of us came back to the house to prepare for the group that garrett wen to pick up (oh and he took catie to the airport bc she left today ☹ i miss her already). we made snacks and drinks and greeted them when they arrived. we had another small staff meeting and then went down to prepare dinner. you have to start like 2 hours early to get everything prepared bc there are extra things that add to the process- like soaking veggies in water with grapefruit seed extract (a natural antibiotic) before chopping.. we prayed and ate on the roof. highlight after dinner: weston and jonathan’s dino (popular cookie) eating contest with no hands!

i tried to be brief and if you made it this far i am impressed. i will try to keep up more with this and give you more thoughts than actions.. waking up at 6 for prayer and tomorrow we will play outside with the kids all day soooo bed time it is!