DR 2016 - Thursday, July 14

Hola from the Dominican Republic! It’s Olivia Smith and Rachel Delaney reflecting on Thursday. We had the opportunity to go to Vacation Bible School and construction today. We started the day with Vacation Bible School at a nearby church where we walked around the barrios (neighborhoods) to find more kids to come. Then we sang some familiar and some new songs in Spanish. Members of our team acted out the parable of the lost coin as Pastor Enol read the story from the Bible. We then split into groups: crafts and games. Both of us helped with games for the second half and Olivia helped with crafts during the first half while Rachel did games. During games, we played with chalk, bubujas (bubbles), and pelotas (balls). Some kids just wanted to sit, talk and take pictures with us (the girls mostly wanted pictures of Rob). Then we went back to the church to sing more songs and let the kids recite the verses from the week. Then we piled into trucks and cars to get back to the guesthouse for a delicious lunch. After dishes were done, some of us prepared to go to construction while others visited the barrios, helped with tasks around the guesthouse or rested. At the construction site, we helped make mortar, shovel rocks, filled in the space between bricks with the mortar, and were made fun of by the Dominican workers for taking a group picture. In the past year an enormous amount of progress had been made. Last year there was only half of one side of the wall surrounding the new clinic. This year one and a half sides of the wall surrounding the clinic were finished and some walls of the clinic had been built. Being a part of the construction team allowed us to see the way Dominicans build structures and see the hard work it takes to make it happen. It was humbling to be a part of such a huge project that so many people have contributed to in order to make it possible. After we got back from construction, we took a quick snack break before heading out to the barrios to play with the kids one last time this week. We took pictures with the kids and gave many piggyback rides before it started to rain when we had to say goodbye. We raced through the rain to get back to the guesthouse, and then Patty gave us a tour of the current clinic. It was really interesting to see how the sanitation and other conditions of the medical office here are so different from those in the US. Kyle and Josh, a couple helping Dan and Kari this summer, then took a group of us to a nearby stadium with basketball courts, a track and more. This gave us a chance to experience even more Dominican culture and have some interesting conversations with the people there. We returned for an amazing dinner of cheesy vegetables, meat, fresh fruit, salad, cookies and more. After dinner, our group met for an evening devotional where we reread the same passage that we read the first night here. We then finished our meeting with the sharing of communion. We now prepare to return to Santo Domingo and, soon, the United States where we hope to share and use what we have learned in our everyday lives. -Olivia Smith and Rachel Delaney