Oh! Construction. Why do you make me so dirty? Well... One girl decided that she can't lift more than 5 pounds so she sat out basically the whole day. Again... We finished just about everything today. We were pick-axing the ground to make it level for the basketball court that we were going to put in. We were "trying" to do that anyway. It was very hard -- we felt like we weren't getting anywhere. By the end of the day we were all COVERED in dirt. I was so dirty.
I finally got a shower. Too bad my soap ran out... I've only been here for about 3 weeks and I have no soap... Good thing there are hotels coming up. I can't wait for hot showers! I also got to use some of another girl's shampoo AND conditioner. Oh. My. Goodness. I felt clean for at least a half hour. At least! :) It's so humid that I never feel clean. Today wasn't that exciting, but exciting enough for me!
May 26th, 2010
Nothing says "GOOD MORNING!" like donkeys, chickens, PEACOCKS, dogs, and buzzing bug things. It was a great start to the day... To top that off it was pouring rain. So again, we aren't sure if the kids are going to show up... To make my day better I had some more of the famous, Dominican Republic coffee with brown sugar. Then some more dry cereal! It was fantastic. It is also one of the other girls' birthday today and our project leader said we get CAKE! I want cake. I want sugar. I want something that reminds me of home. Maybe I'm missing too much of the TLC show "Cake BOSS!"
I got to talk to my grandparents today for about 15 minutes. Just a casual update and to let them know that I'm doing alright. Then I talked to Nick (the boyfriend) and he has been qualified for a mortgage! Yay! He is going to be the one picking me up at the airport :) so I told him that I would like some milk at the airport. He laughed and then my call was going to end so I had to say g'bye. He was also busy helping his friend fix his motorcycle that he had to lay down on the road... So we talked about the important stuff and then we went back to what we were doing before.
Lunch today was pb&j. Go figure? I feel like I'm 5 again. Being treated like one by our leaders doesn't help, but the peanut butter was just the icing on the cake. CAKE! We get cake tonight. Woo hoo!
Since today was our last day with the kids, we were teaching them American dances. The cha-cha slide was awesome! They absolutely loved it and didn't want to stop dancing. They just LOVE dancing. The afternooners loved it too. Everyone participated and it was just amazing. I'm going to miss them all soooooo much. :( We took our pictures and they were on their way home in their truck...
Not to mention that tonight is the finale of American Idol and I haven't been able to watch it for a few weeks. I am sooo upset that I can't watch it. Good thing that there is another girl here who is calling home to talk to her Mom because she is a fanatic of the show too. I am a Lee fan. LEE all the WAY! :) LEE WON! LEE WON! LEE WON!
Two other girls and I hung out with the workers at Rancho all night after dinner. Ariel and Jesus (pronounced hay-su), Alex, Melissa and I played volleyball and just tried to chit chat all night. My Spanish isn't that great, but I got by. The 2 guys didn't speak English very well. Hardly at all that is. It was a blast of a night!
May 27th, 2010
Pancakes and peanut butter. Syrup on top. Delicious!
Off to the construction site we go and there was nothing we could do. We couldn't start any more concrete. We couldn't pick-ax anymore. We couldn't do anything so we just left the site and went back to Rancho. We got to see the afternooners one last time and took more pictures and it was sad to watch them leave. But we were going to be on our way to Santo Domingo for the start of our adventure tour.
May 28th, 2010
We are completely squished in this van/bus thing. But I'm not sure how I feel about leaving the kids, the construction site, and the people that worked at Rancho. They were all guys our age. Well younger than me since I was with 18 and 19 year olds. I'm 21... Hhmmm... Anyways, I was sitting next to one girl who took it so hard that we were leaving that she was crying but didn't want anyone to see her. I just let her face my side and just cry. I felt soooooo bad for her. I was sad, but I wasn't crying sad. I was really excited for the adventure tour now. Off to air conditioned rooms and better meals. CIVILIZATION!!! I think that's what I'm most excited for.
Adolfo and Liza. We were told by the country coordinator (Andrea-she has an awesome name) that they were the best in the Dominican. Liza is from Costa Rica but knows everything about everything. Adolfo is just amazing. He is seriously Tarzan, Superman, Spiderman, and Under Dog all in one. He is so cool! Both of them seem so smart and knowledgable about everything that I just want to ask a random question and see if they know what it the answer is. We get to Santo Domingo and get situated in the hotel (YAY!) and then we have a meeting of what we are going to be doing for the rest of the day. Here comes the tour of the oldest city in the country.
We walked the streets of conquistadors and Christopher Columbus. We went to a few places in the Zona Colonial which is a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO in 1991. It's a huge grid system that dates back to the turn of the 15th century. One place that we went to was Calle Las Damas. It's the oldest street that is paved in the Americas. There is a tradition of women strolling up and down the street. It is called the street of ladies... :)
Another place we went to was the Fortaleza Ozama which is the oldest military plaza in the Americas. It was used as a prison into the 1960s. The walls are 6 feet thick!!!
Panteon Nacional was another place we walked to. It's an old church that was built as a Jesuit convent until the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish colonies. In 1956 it was converted into the National Pantheon and is now a museum. It was sooooo pretty. The ceiling reminds me of Michelangelo. Amazing. The chandelier was a gift from Spain when they were under the dictatorship of Franco. When the Dominican Republic was under Trujillo's rule he was big into dictatorships AND Hitler. There were these gate things that were a gift from Hitler. Can you see the 2 types of crosses?
We walked through this area of the city that was trees, shade, cement paths and the place where most weddings take place. We were all stalking this couple who had just gotten married and were taking photos. :) We get to the "central park" and there was this man who liked pigeons... Ew.
For dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe downtown. We walked along the brick pedestrian street where there were side carts and shops. It was like walking down the hall at any mall and seeing all of the stands in the middle. We got to barter with them and everything. It was unbelievable. We get to the Hard Rock and I order my food. Bacon cheeseburger, french fries, vanilla milkshake, and the YMCA on the stage! The entire group of us girls got up there and did the dance with the employees. Of course I thought of my Dad when I got there since he has shirts from quite a few different Hard Rock Cafes. Germany, Australia, Cozumel, one from Florida, now one from the Dominican Republic. He's so spoiled! :)
I need to figure out what I want to get the rest of my family. I showered, with hot water, had a grape Fanta, used my iPod touch for wireless internet. I talked to my sister and mom on Facebook for a while and went to sleep. Oh! Air conditioning!!!!
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