Hola familia y amigos!

My name is Natalia and I couldn’t have been more excited to say that I was Lider del dia especially on such a fun day. We woke up at 6am to hop on the bus and head down to La Playa Palmar de Ocoa. The Caribbean Sea was an amazing experience to the sight and touch unlike our chilly California pacific ocean. Shortly after our arrival, the San Juan de la Maguana delegation showed up and the other Lider del dia and I facilitated a safe and yet adventurous beach day experience. Of course the San Cristobal delegation brought their A game when it came to proving who had the most energy and charisma.

After eating fried chicken and tostones we played icebreakers that bonded the two groups together on a deeper level and then continued swimming some more after. Around 1 it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful Playa Palmar de Ocoa and our new friends from San Juan, to go to Escuela and teach our lovely students. On the bus ride back we had the opportunity to see the tremendous, and slightly frightening, power of a tropical storm. But, as usual, a few of my lovely exhausted delegation members were able to sleep through the chaos that ensued due to this force of nature. They arose only to get off the bus that had finally arrived at school.

All of us had very successful classes today despite some terror due to a small sized tarantula that had found its way into one of the classrooms. To the valiant Nicholas who saved the day by ending that innocent spiders’ life we thank you for slaying the beast. After a delicious dinner cooked with love by the CONAMUCA staff we went straight into our nightly meeting where I passed down the Lider del Dia cape to the very highly deserving Briana and Kyle. Being Lider del Dia comes with its challenges but the very palpable reward of being able to go to the beach today was amazing and I could not have chosen a better day to take on.

Buenas Noches,

Natalia Zuberbuhler