Dominican Experience Day 6 & 7

Friday March 12, 2010

Today was our true "fun in the sun" day!  Our Dominican families packed a lunch for us, we hopped on Wally's bus and we went to a public beach one used by the Dominicans not owned by a resort.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  White sandy beaches, azure waters, and palm trees.  There was a fantastic sea breeze, we never felt too hot!  The water was just pefrect, not cold but not hot.  We were told not to go out too far as there were poisonous sea urchins.  I also noticed there was a pretty strong undertow.

I'm going to let the photos do the talking, these pictures were taken by one of the other adults on the trip as I didn't want to take my good camera to the beach... having to pay a fortune to get sand cleaned out of it!

Sitting at the water's edge with the kids (I'm in the one not in a bikini)

Enjoying the gorgeous water!

One of the beach vendors

Getting "tourista" braids

Mioced eating the local food (stalls at the beach) we were not allowed to purchase food at the beach for fear of getting ill

We all got burnt despite applying generous amounts of sunblock, but us silly northerners just couldn't stay out of the sun!  It was a great day at the beach!

Before dinner we had our final reflection and evaluation session as there wouldn't be time to do it on Saturday.  Reflection again was very emotional for all of us, we were going home the next day.  Us adults on the trip were presented with a gift of an adorable wooden painted bus.  In our closing prayer and ceremony we were all given beautiful wooden crosses on a necklace and hugs from everyone in the program.  There were a lot of tears.

A prop used at reflection, she started out inside the jar we were asked what we thought this meant.  I saw this as myself being inside the jar, closed off from the world only seeing what was infront of me, in my comfortable life.  I am now living outside the jar.

Speaking at reflection

Local boy checking us out at reflection

Mioced presenting our gifts from Experiantia Dominicana, it reminds me of the time we spent on Wally's bus!

Closing ceremony, where we recieved our crosses

The tears were followed by lots of smiles and laughs at a dinner/party held by our host families on the rooftop of one of the houses in the neighbourhood.  We ate and danced (we were all taught how to dance murenege) in the warm evening air.

Val and I with Karmely the youngest in our family at the party

Learning to dance merengue with Berto

Saturday March 13, 2010

Saying goodbye and thank you to Dulce Maria and Karmely

Final goodbyes with our families and a prayer of thanks and safe travel

One of the students giving a soccer ball to a neighbourhood boy before we got on the bus

Sadly it was our last day in the Dominican Republic!  We had time to say goodbye to our families before getting on the bus and driving to the airport in La Romana to get on our plane and head back to Canada.

One last picture before going into the airport

Left to right : me, Ricardo, Mioced, Berto, and Wally

Despite being sad to leave the Dominican Republic, I think we were all releived to see our families and sleep in our own beds!

It was an amazing adveture and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Thank for reading about my adventure, I really appreciate all of you who took the time to read and leave comments!