The last full day in the Dominican was just as full and rich as the rest. Today began by hopping onto the bus and heading out to pick up Guillarmo on our way to tour several of the COCREF schools. COCREF is the organization here that partners with EDUDEO and operates 15 school in the Dominican Republic. There are 3,500 students that receive education from these schools. Today we were able to see the very first school that was set up in 1981.
These schools have benefitted from the work that HANDS teams have done and we could see that our school, Jerico, is newer and thus needs a lot more work done. The schools we visited today were in the outskirts of the city, while Jerico is located in a Batay (a village established by the Hatian slaves of the sugar cane industry). Batays generally are populated by people who live in dire poverty, so the hope is for the schools to help the children from these Batays to break the cycle by giving them an education and a Christian foundation.
After lunch at eh COCREF office we headed for the Market and enjoyed dickering with the vendors for better prices. Deanna and Annika proved to be the best at this paying less than half of the original price for most items.
To end the day we headed to Guillarmo's house to have dinner with his family and some of the hosts. Franklin, Mario, and Fred joined us there and we had a great night eating and learning to cha cha. Franklin presented us with t-shirts and coffee as departing gifts from the hosts. The evening was an absolutely perfect way to end a wonderful trip.
Sorry there were not more pics in the blog, but the wifi was not cooperating.
We will try to get vanilla at the airport Esther, as your request cam in an hour after we left the market.
Flight leaves 11:44, we land in Buffalo Lord Willing at 8:10
Adios, asta munyana!
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