Baseball!

República Dominicana: Segunda Parte!

Well, let me continue my DR journey...

After my group left I spent the weekend moving to the Entrekin's house, and not doing too much. Another group came on Tuesday, and I went to the sports site to translate for the site leader Raul. I spent the rest of the week at sports, and really enjoyed spending time w/ guys from Sonoma State in California! On Thursday I was the "leader" for the dinner in the community. Because Raul had to go to meet with his military general, I was the man in charge for dinner. Everything went flawlessly, so no worries :)

Saturday again was interesting. Because one of the interns fell sick, I was asked to lead a group to the town of Jarabacoa. We went shopping and saw all the stores, and finally ate dinner at a nice little restaurant. We finished up the night by eating Popsicles and ice cream.

The second week I found myself at the education site. I spent a few days there until returning to the sports site. We had a baseball game on Friday and I was the umpire....que chulo! The banquet on Friday was nice, but that weekend was excellent!

That weekend I went with the interns to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. We left Saturday morning and arrived in the afternoon. We went to the only Wendy's in the DR. Wepa! (Yay). We visited monuments to Columbus, "Tres Ojos" (A natural cave with lakes and such). We stayed the night in a hostel, and man was it hot. There wasn't any a/c so we only had fans keeping us cool. Sunday we got up and went to the beach at Boca Chica, which is probably the most famous and most popular beach in the DR. The dictator back in the day used to use that beach to bathe in, because there was a natural jetty. He would only swim in that part, because he was afraid he'd be eaten by a shark!

We returned on Sunday, and I didn't do much until Tuesday. I spent the evenings hanging out with the guys from construction, going to play basketball, eat pica pollo, or just enjoy an evening on the town! For my last week there was an optometrist who came in from Ohio. Neither he nor his crew spoke any Spanish, so I was asked to be a personal translator for him when he was giving eye exams. I was excited and nervous because, well you never know :)

My final weekend in the DR was another exciting one! Saturday morning Jose, Christian, Melvin, Anthony, and mijo (my child) all went to the beach in Caberete! We drove up in the morning and spent all day there. We enjoyed ourselves simply hanging out in the shade, swimming in the warm water, or wrestling in the water. We left the beach at 5 and went to Santiago to the mall there. There we ate dinner and watched "El Hombre Increíble" (The incredible Hulk) which was in all Spanish. No subtitles either, so I was thrown into the fire. I was most encouraged because I understood about 99% of what was going on. There was an occasional word I missed out on, but overall very promising!

I finished out my trip by returning with the optometrist on Monday. Over the 3 days I worked with him we prescribed about 150 pairs of lenses! I said my good-byes, packed up, and left on Tuesday with Brian. Overall the trip was a blast. I learned a lot, spent a lot of time speaking Spanish and building relationships, and definitely look forward to returning next year! While I was sad I was leaving, I was most excited for my next journey...A month in Seoul, South Korea!

Thanks for reading and be sure to leave comments :)

Dominican Republic Recap!

The flag shown above is that of the Dominican Republic, or República Dominicana in Spanish. I left with a group from Grove City College for 2 weeks (May 19-31) to a town called Jarabacoa, and after the 2 week trip I lived with Brian and Sissy Entrekin until the 24th of June. While there I spent my time working with a missions organization called Students International. I helped out in construction, sports, art, education, and optometry. I had a wonderful time and can truly say it was a life changing experience. Let me tell you about it :)

For the first 2 weeks, while with my Grove City group, I worked on construction with two other guys. The work included constructing a house, doing yard work for a special education school, and working around the Students International Site. Overall the work was tough and hot, but I survived. I worked closely with a group of Dominican Workers and enjoyed time in conversation and just spending time together working hard!

After coming home from our work sites every day we had an activity in the evening. For Tuesday we had a cultural night, which included dancing Meringue (the national dance of the Dominican Republic), listened to the history of the DR, and played a local game. Wednesday we had team time and discussed our expectations for the trip. Thursday we ate dinner in the community with a person from our site. Friday we worked on our outreach night (which would be next Wednesday). Saturday we went to a waterfall during the day and shopped and ate in Jarabacoa in the evening. Sunday we attended church and had a prayer time, and in the evening listened to the director's testimony and how he got to the DR. Monday night we had a poverty experience that included role playing a poor family and almost not eating anything. Tuesday we had team time. Wednesday we had our events, and I worked as a puppet prompter and translator for a girl who gave her testimony. Thursday we had a re-entry team time, and Friday we had our banquet and final good-byes! That was just the first 2 weeks! Another post on the other 3 weeks is soon to come :)

Chappy

Wicky Wicky New Blog :)

Hello friends and readers (if there are any yet :p). This is my new blog that is going to document my summer travels in the year 2008, from the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic to the Asian country of South Korea! I'll try to detail my experiences, adventures, mishaps, and any story that might be funny or relevant to my summer travels. Feel free to leave me comments and make suggestions for posts, and I'll see about writing about it!

I look forward to your comments and enjoy reading :)

Chappy