Beach Day! (No. 4)

Hello everyone, Bree and JJ here! As Leaders of the Day, we started our morning waking everyone up at the maze of a hotel we stayed at for an extra fun beach day. We ate a quick breakfast of eggs, toast with butter/jam, orange juice, and hot chocolate, to ensure enough time to spend at the beautiful beach, Juan Dolio. When we arrived, it was something off a postcard! There was absolutely nobody there and we all had the best time! We started off by applying an excessive amount of sunscreen and raced toward the Gatorade-colored water. We attempted body surfing and found ourselves washed up on shore covered in sand from head to toe (this didn’t last long). Shoutout to JC and Katy for keeping us extra safe and always in sight, or as they would like to say, “Baywatch” lifeguards LOL. Many Glimpsers also enjoyed their time on the sand reading, doing yoga, and playing volleyball. Side note on that, the volleyball was hit a little too far out of reach BUT it eventually found its way back to shore about 20 minutes later, and JC gracefully sprinted to go get it (cue the Baywatch music).

The first vendor to come by was selling agua de coco! We all enjoyed the experience of watching him slice it open and drink straight from the coconut. Soon after, vendors that heard about all our impulse buys decided to stop by… We bought an endless amount of larimar, a stone native to only the DR, other jewelry for ourselves and our families back home, sunglasses, and other delicious fruit! Another shoutout to our PCs for helping us negotiate and understand prices in the DR. After enjoying our time in the sun, we sadly packed up our belongings and headed back to our hotel. We ate lunch, which consisted of moro de gandules (specific rice with beans), pork chops, and a side salad. Preparing for our long journey back to Constanza, aka home base, we took quick showers and packed everything and everyone up. On the bus, we listened and sang to highly requested music and reminisced on the amazing memories made today. We related this to our Question and Quote of the Day, sharing the importance of rest and rejuvenation. With eye-opening concepts and experiences, this fun day was exactly what we needed to reset our minds and push forward to our upcoming Community Action Project.

We safely arrived at Dilenia’s in a huge hurry to look presentable for our presentation in front of the President of the Cañada de las Palmas Community. We absolutely killed it and ensured him of our dedication to this project. After our victory presentation, we came down to eat dinner. For dinner, we ate fritos (fried smashed plantain), veggies, and salami. For those of us having stomach issues, we enjoyed the warm and comforting soup with a side of veggies. We then slightly pushed back our nightly meeting and welcomed tomorrow’s LDDs, Germary and Marisol! Thank you for reading, see you all again tomorrow!

Personal Messages:

From Bree: Hi!! I love/miss you all so very much and can’t wait to see you again! Mom, you definitely missed out on some amazing coconut. Another small shoutout, a special thank you to Amy who has been commenting on the blogs and reminding me you’re always here ?

From JJ: Hi Yarline! You better come and pick me up at the airport so that you can meet everyone from the group. Say hi to Dad and Mom for me, and wish Dad a Happy (early) Birthday.