Day 3- Cultural Day

Today we were able to explore around the Dominican Republic. We woke up and after a heated discussion about going to the beach or not, decided to spend the day sight-seeing around Santo Domingo and shopping at a local market.

As we were driving towards the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo, we received many kisses blown at us from people in other vehicles. Of course, it was because we all looked so amazing today seeing as we weren’t working! The cars were all driving very close together. If we wanted, we could’ve high-fived the drivers of other vehicles. Lanes are just a suggestion here, and road-signs are hard to come by.

We spent the morning wandering through Santo Domingo. At lunch, we were extremely famished and decided to replenish our energy by eating our favourite thing to eat here in the Dominican- McDonald’s. To commemorate this occasion, we looked more tourist-y than usual by taking a picture in front of the familiar McDonald’s sign. And for those of you who are interested, the McDonald’s in the Dominican has a chicken mac! Mind blown!

In the afternoon, we stopped at the sea-side before going to a local market. There was only a little garbage at the beach (sarcasm), and only a few creepy men following us everywhere we went. But in all seriousness, it was a very beautiful sight. Two little boys came up to a group of the girls and gave us little candies. They were so sweet, and they followed us towards our van. Once we were at the van, Taylor gave them a pack of Welch’s, which they were thrilled about. They tried to talk to us, and were pointing at Brandi through the window of the van, but unfortunately we couldn’t understand them. It was really eye-opening to see these little boys, and it filled all of us with so much compassion for the kind people here in the Dominican.

After the beach, we went to the market. There, Taylor really served her purpose- she taught us how to bargain. Most of the vendors in the market sold the same things, so it was a little exhausting seeing everyone’s jewellery… and more jewellery… and even more jewellery. We all spent some money and had a good time buying souvenirs for ourselves, our friends, and our family. Josh bought a machete (don’t worry; it’s dull and completely harmless) and decided to take it out to show everyone in the van. This caused Emily to freak out, continually repeating, “Put it away! Put it away!”

After a long and exhausting day, we headed back to Camp Buenos Nuevos to relax and enjoy the pool before dinner. During dinner, Jesse decided it would be funny to play a trick on Dustin. As we were passing cups of juice around, Jesse would take Dustin’s cup and hide it. Even when Dustin got a new cup of juice, Jesse hid that one too. It was pretty amusing seeing Dustin think he was going crazy. We had bananas after dinner, and Josh got a little carried away, eating eight of them. A few he ate all in one bite, after giving in to peer pressure.

After dinner we spent some more time relaxing and hanging out with each other. The wall between the girls’ room and the boys’ room is very thin, so sometimes we can have conversations with each other. It’s very amusing, especially when we hear Jesse singing and rapping in the shower, or when the girls and the boys sing back to each other. We also take midnight swims… or in Serena’s case, we try to take midnight swims.

Tomorrow is going to be another relaxing day, when we go to church and just hang around camp. We’re all very excited to experience worshipping God in another culture, and we’ve already been asked to sing a couple songs in church for the people there.

We’re still lacking the technology to post pictures on our blog, but hopefully we’ll figure that out soon!

We are continually seeing the amazing ways God works in everyone’s lives, and we are so blessed to be here. Thank you all for your support, and God bless!