Day 23-25 - April 26-28

Wednesday: We were able to sleep in a later than usual. Then we piled into the van and headed to a the Catholic school where Joel teaches (he is the person who has been teaching us Spanish). We visited many different grades at the school including the grade 12's, 11's, 9's, 7's and kindergarten/preschool. During the lunch break we interacted with kids our age. Some played volleyball and some sat around and chatted. This school had never had visitors from another country come to spend the day with them, so many of them were very excited to see us. We left at around 1pm and ate a delicious lunch. After lunch we continued painting until 5pm. Many people were covered from head to toe in paint. After we had supper we had our worship time. Then for the rest of the evening, we had some good laughs and very... entertaining conversations on the roof with everyone.

Thursday: The day was hot, hot, hot, and the kids were sleepy from the eventful evening on the roof the night before. Hot + sleepy = grumpy. But spirits were risen once we had our delicious breakfast (as per usual). Half our group went to construction and the other half stayed home and continued painting the upstairs living quarters. Construction was very sweaty as we were digging all day directly in the sun. As for the people who stayed home, the upstairs living quarters was beautifully designed with a bright orange tape design on the main wall. They also had a dance party with a cute local girl, Milagros. After our hard day of work, both construction and painting, we had supper. Our evening, once again, was full of laughs on the roof. We practiced our dancing and tried talking with some of the locals from the roof.

Friday: Our group always looks forward to spending the day with the kids from Renecar. Over the past couple of weeks our relationships with these kids have flourished. So the morning was full of excitement and smiles. As we headed out for the day, Franklin did his usual belting out in song and chicken noises. We spent the morning with various different grades of our choosing. Then some of the older kids did a very well done presentation for us. They talked about the history of Dominican and their culture. After this presentation we headed to one of the students house for some traditional food for lunch. We played games and talked with the Renecar kids for a couple hours. One thing about the Dominican, is that you should never expect to eat/leave/arrive anywhere on time. So lunch ended up being at 4:30pm. At around 5:30pm we headed back home and had supper, even though we were all so full from the filling but delicious lunch we had. That evening was very quiet and chill.

(hi grandpa and nana)

Mina Visscher

-Adios Chicos!!!