Just Another Day in the Dominican Republic

Today's schedule was much the same as yesterday. The morning started too early with breakfast and devotions (although it is much easier to get up when you get summoned by a band of wild roosters and guinea fowl). We started out our work with painting and varnishing around the campus. After lunch part of the crew stayed to finish the painting while the other half went back to the little community we were working in yesterday. Today we hauled buckets and buckets and wheelbarrows and more buckets full of sand from one side of a rickety bridge to the other. We thought the wheelbarrow might end up through the bridge a few times but thankfully it held. After we finished hauling the sand we got to spend time playing with the kids. We had an impromptu game of kickball, frisbee, baseball (played with wooden sticks and tennis balls) and as you can see below the kids enjoyed giving eachother wheelbarrow rides.

Some of the little girls had fun teaching us hand clapping games. It took awhile but I think Karen finally got the pattern down and was almost able to keep up!

We got to have a fancy night out on the town for dinner at Gilberto's Pica Pollo. Okay....so maybe not so fancy but the food was good. We had chicken strips with a choice of french fries or tostones (fried plantains). We had a crowd of watchful, hungry little eyes while we ate. A group of 4 young boys hung back from our table watching us eat. When we were finished Matt Yoder (US missionary) told us to put our leftovers in to go boxes to give to the boys. The boys accepted the food and sat down on the sidewalk to scarf it down. A few other boys on bikes stopped and ate some of the food too. It puts our everyday waste at home into perspective!!

And today was a special day for another reason......Queen Norine's birthday! We celebrated with white cake and cheesecake and several rounds of Happy Birthday throughout the day! Happy Birthday Norine!!


Tomorrow is a day we are all excited for! We get our first visit with our sponsored kids at the Ark! Look for more pictures tomorrow!!