Today is the first day of goodbyes. At 10am we are leaving Los Toros on a bus to head to our hotel in Santo Domingo.
My emotions are in jumbles. I don't want to leave these people who make me smile and laugh. I have in only 10 short days, begun to love the simplicity of life they have. And how thankful they are for the smallest things. I no longer mind a cold shower, or not being able to flush the toilet paper. The electricity isn't as important, because there are candles and flashlights to play Connect 4 by. We had electricity when we needed it and clean water to drink. I feel almost like I have become part of a family down here. Everyone looked out for us and always made sure we were comfortable. And the hospitality of each person I interacted with has been a lesson for me as well as a blessing.
After breakfast we brought all our stuff to the church to be loaded on the smaller of the two buses rented by our group for the journey to Santo Domingo. Then it was time to make our rounds to the work sites....to say Adios to the people who just might have stolen our hearts....hehe. :P
Hannah, Stephanie and myself went first to the Feliz de Leon hole(the one at Juancito's. It only took us 9 days to figure out the last names of people, but that's a another topic) to watch Joel(Ho-el), Danison and Josue dig and dig. It was so hard to say that first goodbye, we stood there like 15 minutes trying to figure out how to say it. Then finally we just did it.
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| The Feliz de Leon hole when we left |
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| Josue lowering himself to dig |
With smiles hiding the tears we said Adios to the first group of our new friends.
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| Juansa |
We walked up to Juancito and Dominga's house and found Dominga washing the breakfast dishes. I was so thankful to catch her so I could give her the bracelet I made for her. The smile on her face was worth waiting for! And I practically started crying as I hugged and thanked her in Spanglish for all the work she did helping cook for us!
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| Giving Dominga the bracelet I made for her. |
As we walked over to the house project we met up with Chevy and David, and ran into Jamie and Samuel carrying pipe for the plumbing. This offered the perfect opportunity for us to say goodbye to them. With a hug party too!
Two more stops before loading the bus: Rafael's hole and the baseball field. We had to say goodbye to Moises as well, since we got all of our other friends!
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| The front of the house when we left |
We had to FIND him first, for this reason I am glad Chevy and David were with us. Haha. We walked through and around the boys practicing til we found Moises on the other side of the backstop. We pulled him out of practice for a couple minutes to say goodbye. I got to interact with him alot in the past 3 days and got to know him better, or as well as you can for speaking as much Spanish as he speaks English. He's really good at Sequence.
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| Stephaneie saying goodbye to Moises |
At 10am we crawled on the bus, screaming goodbye to all the people we could see. Juansa was right there outside Chevy's window with Joel(JO-el), making sure they got their goodbyes in. OHH MAN I wanted to bring Juansa home with me as a little brother who would actually listen to me, but Steph and David informed me that it would be considered racism if I did!! :)
I made it out of Los Toros with just teary eyes, but that didn't last long as I stared out the window at the beautiful landscape passing as we drove 3 hours to the capital. Silently I let the tears fall as I thought through the past 9 days spent in Los Toros and all the memories I made. The smiles of the people's faces, the things that made us laugh together, and get laughed at. And how in just a few short days, a place that I never really think about other than it's just another country in the world, has become a place where I feel at home at. And I place I really didn't want to leave.
We arrived in Santo Domingo at the Hotel Discovery. Room number 203 was where Hannah, Stephanie and I resided for the next 24 hours. We had 15 or so minutes to get ready for our trip to the Market to haggle for souvenirs. It was probably a 15 minute walk, through the city passing tons of shops and streetside stands along the way. At first, I didn't think I would enjoy this haggling stuff, but after the first couple times, I really started to like it. I could be as mean as I wanted to the people and state my price and just walk away if they weren't cooperating. Most of the time they gave me what I wanted for the price I wanted! AH! So much fun!
We also got to go to the grocery store, or super market...their Walmart. I had a mission to buy coffee for a few people in the states and I wish I would have had more time to shop there, it was huge! They even had an instant photo printer kiosk!
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| David and Rubi Reyes :) |
There were a lot more cars in Santo Domingo than Los Toros, but that makes sense as it is the capital. There was even wifi in our hotel and ONE computer that cost $1 dollar an hour. FACEBOOK was our priority after we had supper. :)
For supper we walked about 3 or 4 blocks to a food court in an outdoor mall. American food! Well pizza and burgers anyway. I ordered a personal, supreme pizza...and what I got was NOT what I expected:
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| Corn is not what I think of when I think supreme pizza. |
After supper, we stopped at an ice cream shop and I got orange pineapple ice cream! It was WAY better than the orange pineapple I've tried in the States! DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! :)
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| delicious. |
It was funny to see that once we SAW a computer, we realized that we've been without one for 10 days. Well for me anyway. We each took turns checking our facebooks and emails. Then it was bed time, because we have a long day ahead of us. It was so different having A/C in our room, or even lights all the time. And warm water...it just seemed weird. This was just the first adjustments of the returning culture shock.
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