Saturday was a full day for us. With no children at the school, we had a little more room to spread out, but we missed the kids....a lot. There is nothing more amazing about this trip than being able to talk and play with those students. Despite the language challenges that we face, the happiness and affection these kids show to us is so special as we are reminded that we have all been created by one God and we were all created in His image.
Before the next truck load of sand arrived, Franklin taught us to sing "Here I am to Worship" in Spanish in one of the empty classroom. We hope to sing this for the kids on Monday. Without the kids, we had a chance to get to know some of the older people we have been working with a bit better, which was also very nice.
The work was steady and hot as local temperatures reached 31 (plus humidity). Today we continued getting the sand into the upstairs classrooms, but we also used hand held sifters to create piles of fine sand for finishing the walls. The fine sand will be used to make a smoother cement for the final coat on the walls and floors.
Once again we were fed a unique and delicious lunch. Pork chops with a Caribbean pasta and mashed and fried plantains. We worked until about 2:30 then Guillarmo and Caroline (the principal of the school) took us to get ice cream in the local town a few kilometres from the school. We were thankful to receive the cold treat, before heading back to the hotel to get cleaned up for our night out.
That evening we went to downtown Santo Domingo, which we realized is a huge city of 1 million people. We ate dinner at Pizza Hut before crossing the road to pick up some water and snacks at a grocery store.
We had a chance to walk through the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo to see some of the historic buildings and areas dating back to the time of Christopher Columbus. One of the things we have noticed about the Dominican Republic is that there is music everywhere you go. These people love their music. Dave stopped to talk to a stray dog, petted him and named him Eddie, before realizing he was a she. Señorita Eddie walked with us for a good kilometre before dissappering into the night. A young musician welcomed us and played a Dominican song for us on is guitar. Towards the end of our walk there was a stage set up and a crowd of people watching some Spanish dancers and musicians, so we sat down to watch them. At the very end of their show, they came out to the crowd to invite members of the audience to join them. Ashley and Annika found them selves on stage and Mr. Tomlin was narrowly saved by Dave who jumped in to avoid what may have been a scarring spectacle.
We must have taken for granted how beautiful our young ladies are, because they seem to attract the attention of EVERY Domincan male (young and old) as we walk or drive down the street. As we drove off in our bus, we heard the voices of some Dominican Boat workers say, "Please don't go...." We kind of feel that way too.
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