Resort Photos

Well, as promised, here are the photos!

SI here in the D.R. is so amazing; they give the interns a weekend getaway trip to a beach resort between teams. So Ben, Karissa, Dan, Jack, Laura, Maryann, Alicia, Josh, Sarah and myself, as well as our team directors Josh and Vicki Mathews, Jeff, and Bobbie spent June 27-29 in Puerto Plata at a resort called Hacienda Lifestyle. It was SO WONDERFUL and RELAXING! It was such a beautiful place with a great atmosphere. We did nothing but swim, walk the beach, eat, read, sleep, and just chat and hang out. Lol, two nights was barely enough; for me, the perfect vacation is complete when I'm bored with sitting around and doing nothing and I feel de-stressed and relaxed to my very core. The more stressed I was before, the longer it takes me to unwind and rejuvenate myself. But we did have a FANTASTIC time! 

Laura, Sarah, Jeff, Alicia, Vicki, and Josh M. enjoying the sun and sea breeze:

Nearest to farthest: Karissa, Laura, Jack, Alicia, Bobbie, and Sarah baking in the sun:

One of the many gorgeous views of the ocean from the resort:

This was definitely my favorite pool. It was joined to a bar at one end (the gazebo-looking thing at the far end) so we could sit IN the water on concrete barstools while we sipped pina coladas and coco locos! So fun!

Left to right: Laura, Bobbie, Jeff, Jack, me, and Maryann. 

Same pool, different angle. Jeff, Karissa, Bobbie, and Laura.

Sarah playing intern Josh's guitar above the beach:

Another view of the pools and bar:

Maryann, Karissa, Laura, Bobbie, and me at the buffet restaurant. The food there was AMAZING, let me tell you!

They put some of the fruit and bread scraps outside in this feeder to feed the birds:

Another view of the beach in the evening:

A truly amazing sunset!

This woman was making beautiful glass figurines outside of the buffet restaurant:

One of my favorite things we did was have a time of praise and worship on the beach late Sunday night. The ocean at night is so beautiful! The beach was technically closed (so there was no one else there--yay!) but no one came and yelled at us, so I guess it was ok lol.

These pictures are terrible, but I don't have anything better.

Goofy pictures in front of a fountain. Lol, good times, good times!

Countdown

Six weeks left...actually a couple of days less than six weeks. I don't really know how to process it all yet; I'm not sure what to think or how to feel. When I moved to the DR last fall I thought a year sounded like a rediculously long time, but as I approach the end of it I realize that it's not. Time has truly flown! So much has happened and so much has changed for me. And I've changed, too--probably also in ways I won't discover until I'm back on American soil for a while. I really miss the people at home but other than that I'm not at all looking forward to going back. After transitioning through the initial "excitement stage" of living in a foreign culture, then battling homesickness and loneliness for a while last winter, then finally settling into a routine and finding my niche, I've finally put down roots. Life here is the new normal, and now normal must change once again.

I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster the past month or so. The end of summer is looming so close and, while I'm really looking forward to the end of the busyness, I'm not at all looking forward to the rest of what the end of summer will bring: lots of goodbyes. This is the last outreach for interns Ben, Dan, and Karissa, which means they will be leaving in less than two weeks and the rest of the interns will head home two weeks after that. Then I will have two weeks after that to kind of recuperate and say my own goodbyes to SI staff and Jarabacoa. I know change helps a person grow and is ultimately for the good, but it really sucks right now. It even hurts.

Anyway, enough of the melancholy stuff for now. Here are a few pictures from the last outreach.

The students who worked with Caroline and Daisy at the women's center in El Callejon:

Vito, one of the team leaders, playing with some little boys at our preschool in Mata Gorda:

Art students sharing hope and the love of God through art:

Tule, one of the little boys in El Callejon asked to wash my motorcycle one day when I was in the community filming art. Ryan Holloway, who is leading the micro finance ministry, has also started a kind of financial mentorship ministry to the young boys in El Callejon to teach them how to work and wisely handle money. At first Tule was really shy about asking if he could wash my bike (it was so cute!) but he finally mustered up the courage to do it. Besides the 20 pesos we agreed on, I also gave him a 5-peso tip because he did a really good job!

I'll try to get pictures of our intern excursions up soon. SI gave us a weekend at a resort a couple of weeks ago and just this past weekend some of us went sight-seeing in Santo Domingo.