Hey families and anyone else reading this! It’s me Dimitri writing from the recently raining Constanza.

We started our day today by keeping it cool and waking up at 8:30 am, at the earliest, and having the option of being able to sleep until 9:30 am in order to get up for breakfast. Today, we had cereal, pineapple, and some yogurt for the morning in order to get us pumped and ready for the relaxation that was about to commence. Right after that, we had some free time in order to call our parents and family back home and get our laundry ready for cleaning so we could have them by Saturday morning at the latest. Right after that, I went to the hardware store with the help of Ivy, Neha, and our PC Fabiola in order to order and have our materials ready for the CAP project that we will be starting tomorrow; All went smoothly and we will have all of our materials ready tomorrow morning to get started! After my team and I came back, we had some more free time in order to freshen up and get ready for lunch. For lunch, we had some soup for the ones still feeling a little sick on the trip, some bread, chicken, and some rice with tomatoes and cucumbers.

Following lunch, we finally got to explore the city in groups of 4-7 with ambassadors and had some fun exploring the city. My group and I decided to get some souvenirs for the trip and play some sports since, on our last free day, we ended up coming back to the hotel a bit early since we did not really know the city very well. We started by heading to the basketball court and getting ready to play some b-ball, but the court was closed for some renovations so we were not able to play. Right after that, we decided to head to a souvenir shop but it didn’t really have what we were going for, so we decided to go to the baseball court and watch some of the kids play. Following that, we went to another souvenir shop and finally found some good souvenirs for us and our families. I got 3 bracelets that looked really nice for me and my family. Afterwards, we decided to head to Punto de Nieve, a bakery right across from the hotel, and we had some drinks while we looked at the rain that had just started. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and played some cards in order to relax after a long day of walking.

Our babies rocking their rain ponchos before exploring the city.

A picture with two of our amazing ambassadors, Randy and Heimy, at Punto de Nieve Bakery. This bakery is at a point (punto) in the mountain that would receive snowfall (nieve) and therefore has that name. Fun Fact: Randy is an ambassador that requires all of the members of his group to hold hands when crossing the street! <3

Deliciousness at Punto de Nieve Bakery.

Following that, we went to dinner and had some mashed potatoes with salad, some fried cheese, and scrambled eggs. After we were done with dinner and the dishes had been washed, we went into our nightly meeting where we talked about our day and how we have changed since coming to the DR. When it comes to me, I believe that I have changed a lot when it comes to my mentality with new people. I have never had so much fun with people that I have only known for 9 days so far and I hope that it remains that way. I also know the city better now and learned how to navigate the streets of Constanza better with the help of our ambassadors. We passed the torch to Daijah and read the agenda for our first CAP day, read the comments from the precious days making sure that we went back to all the days to check for new comments (Yes, parents we are reading these comments in front of everyone), and did our unity clap to end our day. Tomorrow is going to bring a lot in front of us but I believe we are ready to face it with a smile.

The clouds are moving in. We are going to bed with heavy rainfall tonight!

Goodnight everyone!