Day 5: Saturday January 8, 2011: THE BEACH!

Slowly he walked up to us, face downcast and hidden. I looked at him, wondering why he was here...

Then he spoke. "I have a confession...I didn't have polio!"

Hannah and I flew out of our seats with exclamations of "WHATTT!! SERIOUSLY!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! I KNEW I SHOULDN'T BELIEVE A WORD YOU SAY!!!!!!!"

Meanwhile, everyone else at breakfast was laughing at our reaction to Marc's confession..everyone that is except Stephanie, who was in the bathroom! Then we had to recount the story of Marc telling us about his polio epidemic to the rest of the group, who just found it all the more hilarious! 
Polio. Hah.

This was how our Saturday in the Dominican started.  :) 


As for work, well the men worked till lunchtime. Finishing up the plastering of Juancito and Dominga's house as well as pouring more concrete for the walls of the house project.

 Jen mentioned something about making cookies at Jewel's house for our picnic lunch on Sunday. Cookies! That's all she had to say, I was ready to go help. 

Oatmeal raisin cookies were on the menu. You have no idea how excited I was to make cookies. Good 'ol American style cookies! We whipped up two batches and they went in the fridge till later that day, when they'd go in the oven.
We headed over to Mildred's then to help make pineapple juice. MmmMmm I love pineapple juice! We used 12 pineapples to make enough juice for our group! Like Friday, we cut the pineapples at Mildreds, then headed back to Jewel's to blend and strain them. The great thing, I already knew how to cut the pineapples properly!! Mildred even complimented me on my work!

After lunch, we climbed aboard a bus, our group combined with quite a few of the Dominicans and headed to the...BEACH!!!!!! I've been looking forward to the beach since I first found out about the trip to the DR!! It took us about an hour to get there, and it wasn't a tourist beach so there wasn't many people there. The first thing I noticed was how dirty it was. There was trash all over the place, like much of the country. I think the only place they have trash cans is next to the toilets for toilet paper. I think, that's the only thing I DIDN'T like about the trip..the trash all over the place. It sure made me thankful for trash pick up and removal services in the US.
The beach wasn't technically ocean front, it was more like a bay. Sadly this meant that the waves really weren't waves, but that didn't stop me from running screaming into the water! Hannah Horst had never been to a beach before, unless you count Cowan's Gap.  :) What could be better than saying that your first time at a beach was in the Caribbean! 

Hannah's first time in the ocean!

We stayed in the water about an hour, then while Stephanie and Hannah worked on bracelets I became sports photographer with Chevy's and my camera for the Baseball game that the boys were playing. With tree branches and towels set up as the bases, a volleyball being pitched underhanded and everyone in their barefeet, it couldn't have been any better. Until the volleyball got destroyed and they got a tennis ball that is. :) Sports photography is my favorite of them all. Capturing that split second when the batter hits the ball, or getting a runner in mid-stride. Oh there is nothing like it! Watching them play, brought back so many memories of the countless and endless baseball games I go to over the summer. And the millions of pictures I take of Josiah, to capture his passion for the game. I missed it, and for a minute and I realized just how much I enjoy being at baseball games! 

Neil taking a swing at the ball

JR pitching

Moises at bat

...and I'm pretty sure Moises is safe

Josue and Rafael in mid-stride

My favorite pic: Joel in mid swing!

Jamie up to bat

Chevy up at bat

 We enjoyed supper at David and Jewel's and some chill time with just our group. Rubi wanted us to play some games with her, so we played Hungry Hungry Hippos and CandyLand!! It was a night of relaxation after a relaxing day.

Hungry Hungry Hippos with Rubi

The only downside to this day was that both David and Eric came back from the beach and got sick. 24 hour stomach bug. ICK! So the ipods came out for bed time, to block out that horrid noise of barfing!!