Today is our first free day of the trip, we are free to explore the city and the town of Constanza. With the purpose of education, we spent our day enjoying our free time as the locals by exploring the town and playing sports with the local kids. The first thing that we recognized is that the Dominican Republic has really busy streets while the United State’ suburb streets are relatively empty. As teenagers of the U.S. we realized that we spend most of our time indoors with our technologies and social medias, while the Dominican Republic’s teenagers spend their time outdoors with friends rather than staying at home with technology because it is hard for them to afford any technology that we have. We were surprised that even without technology, the people are still very happy and we think that this is something that American teenagers are lacking; we spend too much time in our technologies and social medias rather than appreciate the real life social experience like in the Dominican Republic. We were really proud about how we were able to find enjoyments and happiness that the local people experience every day on the street with out technologies. We were also really proud of how we are able to be responsible to ourselves, as well as each other, and cooperate with each other.
Today, although we did not have a guest speaker, we saw something in in the community that inspired us as a grouwhile we were reflecting that night. One of these people was a teenage worker at the supermarket who instead of having free time, had to work through the day. This showed the group that in the Dominican Republic teenagers spend most of their time working and trying to provide for their families. This correlates with our day on Wednesday where we saw the homes people live in and why people need to work eight hour shifts seven days a week This left a major impact on the group that taught us all a very valuable lesson. We learned to be gracious for the time we have to spend doing fun activities because we saw that people spend a lot of their time working hard and barely making enough to get by.
Being Lider Del Dia was a very fun, exciting, and stressful experience. Some things definitely tested the amount of patience we had, which in a way was good. It showed us that being a strong leader requires patience, compassion, courage, strength, and flexibility. One of the most stressful moments we had was making an itinerary for the free day and then having to rewrite it in twenty minutes before leaving for the city. Being a leader also had a few inspiring moments that made us proud of the work we were able to do. One specific moment was when everyone was smiling and enjoying themselves. It paid off a lot for us in the end and we both would like for any future leader of the day to have as much fun with it as we did.
Being a leader made both of us realize a lot about ourselves. For Thai it was that organization and responsibility. An example of these two characteristics are when Thai developed the entire new itinerary within twenty minutes notice and kept people safe and close by calling roll call with every intersection crossed or store entered. For Alex it was confidence and charisma. An example of these characteristics are whenever we would come back for a meal or have an announcement. Alex has a great sense of humor and very skillful in communicating and taking everyone attentions. Both of us realized that we had great situational awareness and foresight. This helped us by being able to plan ahead and anticipate things in advance in order to prepare us and the group for whatever was to come.
Sounds like a fun and “free” day! Thank you Alexander and Thai for keeping everyone safe. Makes you feel like a parent… of 20 kids.
It was so wonderful hearing your voice Alesia. It was a wonderful early Father’s Day for your dad to talk to you.
We are so proud of you! We love you.
wonder who won at the “pick up” (B-Ball) game.
woo! it’s cool that y’all experienced so much.
hi navss
Athena, as you are traveling around, keep your eyes peeled for the Hispaniolan trogon- I don’t think even your grandfather has seen one! He would be so pleased if you saw one! It only lives on Hispaniola. It is colorful like a parrot, but not as big- kind of more like an overstuffed cross between a blue jay and a robin. has blue tail, red belly, gray front, orange eye! supposed to be more in the uplands so you stand a chance of seeing one. Muchos besos mija!!
Hi Vivian!!!!!
Girl, not gonna lie, I’ve really been missing you (there have now been a handful of times I’ve reached for my phone to call you and just tell you about my day Dx). Anywayy, now that summer school and volleyball open gyms/ conditioning has started this week, my schedule has been packed, but I do enjoy being busy. Can’t wait for you to come back so we can start playing volleyball together again. (I even went to an ST open gym this week, wowie.) Speaking of volleyball we actually had a bonding with the returning players today! (Lil J, Alena, Jen, and Coach Sandora too) We went on around a 12 mile hike at Big Basin, it was soo tiring, but the trip made me realize how much I appreciate them all. We went to Rita’s Italian Ice after, and it was my first time trying it. Viv…it was crazy good, we gotta go together one day, I’ll drive ;P (actually it’s pretty funny cause the Rita’s that’s around here is basically across the street from ST, so maybe we can go after volleyball there one day??) This is random but the artist SZA had a new album come out (CTRL), and omg it’s AMAZING, the song Love Galore (ft. Travis Scott) is hands down my favorite song on the album and in general right now. I BOUGHT TICKETS TO CUCO IN SF!! It’s gonna be August 25th, I’m so excited, I really love his music. Hmm, I don’t think I have anything else to update you on.
Love ya <3
P.S. Sorry I didn't write sooner! Summer school and volleyball really have had me suuper busy (going to sleep at 1/2 AM getting up at 6 kinda busy) , but… I will definitely be writing more often (not gonna be as long as this though haha.)
Thank you for the wonderful update!!
It was so wonderful to talk to you Navya and hear a little about your experiences. It made us very happy that you are enjoying your trip, that all of you have become good friends. So proud of you Navya. We love you and miss you.
Mom, dad and Nidhi
HI Bella,
Dad wanted me to write to you to tell you that he is thinking about you today, Father’s Day. You ushered him into fatherhood and he has never stopped being a proud papa. You know he wanted a boy, but soon changed his mind after seeing you. You were so cute and looked so much like him! Seriously, you were your dad’s mini-me. There seemed to be none of me in you. LOL! Your cute little round face, big smile, and dimpled knees, and all that dark hair spiky hair totally undid him. He didn’t know he could love a person as much as he did you. You have continued to amaze your dad and keep him laughing. He is so proud of you and all that you have accomplished and all that you will do in the future. Enjoy your time in the DR and come back safe to regal us with tales of your travels.
Amor y besos y abrazos,
Mom (and Dad)
Yay Alex was lider del did! Hope you and Vivienne played basketball with the locals. I hope Vivienne brought her playing cards.
Its another hot day in San Jose. Pekoe is closed for 2 weeks because the owner is on vacation. But we found a really cool boba place in socal. We will tell you all about it when we see you.
Love and miss you.
happy birthday Liam!!!!