Beach Day (No. 3)

Today, day 8, Beach Day, was a total blast!! We (everyone but me, Obed) woke up before 7, got ready, then ate some yummy breakfast: cereal with chocolate pancakes (yummy). We then watched a bit of TV at the amazing villa we got to stay at for the night which had a pool that everyone had fun in. We all got ready and headed out making our way to the nearby beach. It was about a 10-minute walk and super tiring because of the intense heat. There were some crabs along the way. We then arrived at the beach and had a little over 3 hours to hang out at the beach doing all sorts of fun activities whether that was going in the beautiful clear water or getting a tan in we all had an amazing time. We were also able to experience and indulge in some fresh coconuts by the beach, partake in an intense game of Marco Polo, and end the afternoon off with some refreshing ice cream sundaes. After another 4-hour bus ride back to Alto Cerro we had 4 peers (Karina, Kimberlee, Obed, Anna) represent their ideas for the Community Action Project. The 4 representatives were able to express their ideas to the 3 “judges” who were all members of this community. We all took time to truly listen to the members of the community and actively engage in the conversation which is great to see because this isn’t seen often elsewhere, the sense of community in the Dominican Republic is truly inspiring and motivating to engage with others of our community. Listening and communicating with the members of this community was an amazing experience, to say the least.  After the extremely difficult elimination process, we were able to decide on what the final project will look like. Our artist decided we would mix and match some ideas from each project to create one. We discussed with the artist and have a plan for how we will execute this masterpiece of a project. After the planning, we all made our way to eat dinner, pasta, spaghetti, and garlic bread. After our meal we had our nightly meeting, a great one at that, to top off the night.

Leaders of the day:

Dani: Hola Ma, Pa y Stephi !! Los extrano mucho espero que esten todos bien. Me diverti mucho hoy en la playa. la agua de Hawaii no compara con el agua del caribe. I miss you a lot Stephi I hope you’re doing okay and that you haven’t crashed my car yet learning to drive. I can’t wait to see you in 6 days !!

Obed: Hi Mom and Dad or whoever is reading this I hope you guys are well I’m sure ya’ll are doing fine without me. I’m having a lot of fun over here so don’t worry about me too much. I miss you guys and can’t wait to return soon.