Oh, yes, Sunday, July 29th marked Visitor’s Day
not only for the kids here, but also for me! At 3:00pm in the afternoon, I left
the craziness of kids returning after summer vacations and the many visitors on
the terreno to head to the airport with my godbrother Wilson to pick up MY
visitors: my sisters, Suzanne and Michelle, along with best friend Becca and my aunt
Mary! We came back for a grand tour of the place and got settled in! Many MANY
introductions were to be made as the kids are always curious when there’s new
people walking around, esp. chicas lindas (not to mention I had made pretty much everyone aware of the fact that they were coming prior!)
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| Becca and Michelle with Estrellita and Erika (plus Leonardo!) |
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| Carolina and me (and Natalia!) |
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| On the grand tour! |
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| Mary and Jhon Luis (here begins our intro to the baby house!) |
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| Suzanne and Estrellita in matching army pants! |
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| Becca and her new best friend, Saul. |
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| Michelle, Fausto, and Becca. |
Monday was hang-out-with-the-kids day and
attempt-to-learn-250-names day. We did lots of activities esp. with the girls
in my house. We made bracelets in the park and then later painted nails. We all
ate lunch together in Santa Ana and then that night we attempted to sleep on the
roof underneath the beautiful Dominican sky (by 2:00am, we had all
headed for cover...the moon was SO bright!)
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| Scones for breakfast! |
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| Our dining room! |
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| Belkis and me! |
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| Suzanne and her resident match-maker, Valentina. |
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| Luisito had SO much fun with all the thread! |
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| A new friend...? |
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| Nail polish time! |
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| Erika, Carmencita, and me! Seven months in, without fail, anytime these girls see me, they drop whatever they are doing and run in my direction for a big hug...a GREAT reminder of why I am here! |
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| Katherin and Suzanne! |
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| A country of contrasts...and a country of beauty... |
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| 20 bottles of nail polish is no everyday matter here...took no time for the girls to all show up! |
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| Becca got a wonderful manicure from Anaika! |
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| Cristela insisted on painting my nails...LOVE this girl! So young and so grown-up all at the same time... |
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| Michelle and Josi (had to take advantage of the fact that Josi would let me take her picture this day!) |
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| Lunch: rice, beans, meat, and salad...la bandera dominciana. |
Tuesday started out rainy, so we switched up our plans and
spent some more time with the kids right off the bat. We started out by bringing a yummy
breakfast of monkey bread to the house and soon afterwards, we did a craft the
girls had never seen before called Dream Dolls. My aunt Mary brought it along,
and it was a blast. It was so cool seeing each girl express themselves by
creating a different type of doll! Next stop was San Pedro which meant it was
time to get on some MOTOS! Yep, we grabbed three motos and hopped on over to town
to visit Wilson at his internship at the gas station and then to all get some
supper together. We also went in a public guagua, which is essentially an old
van that costs 25 pesos a ride. We gave Wilson his b-day gifts and called it a day! But
not before the girls had their first chance to see a cacata (tarantula) climbing
up the stairs to their bedroom!!
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| Monkey bread...it might not look so good, but it tasted super dulce! |
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| Katherin working on her Dream Doll... |
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| Carmencita and her Dream Doll... |
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| Belkis with her Dream Doll (and new headband!) |
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| Milis (Wilson's sister) and Michelle! |
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| Aunt Mary i.e. Director of the Dream Doll Project. |
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| Finished products!! |
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| Suzanne, Mary, and Yesenia |
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| Katherin and her finished product! |
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| The crew including Nairobi who is deaf and mute...the Dream Doll was a great way to express herself! |
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| On the moto...booyah! |
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| Visiting Wilson at Shell where he worked for 5 weeks this summer! |
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| Walking through San Pedro... |
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| Down by the malecon, right next to the ocean... |
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| Pizza and pica pollo for all! |
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| Lots and lots of motos! |
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| In the public guagua (it was a pretty nice one!) |
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| Getting ice cream at Bon! |
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| Kristen's 22... |
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| ...and Wilson's 16 (as well as a Twins fan!) |
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| EWWWWWWW! |
Wednesday morning began our second part of the
week: resort DR. We took public transport (a bus, bus, taxi, bus, and taxi) to our all-inclusive
in Puerto Plata. It was a good 7 hours of travel, but a great view of the
country. We ended the night with some dancing!
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| Hotel! |
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| Ready for supper! |
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| And Mary's on the dance floor! |
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| Dancing the night away! |
Thursday was beach day. Nuff’ said. I live in paradise.
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| Playa! |
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| Sistas! |
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| Besties! (It was Mexican night!) |
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| SO pretty! |
Friday was another day at the resort for Mary and me (beach,
books, sun) and a trip to 27 Charcos, some AMAZING waterfalls, for the rest of
the crew. Dominican coffee was drank by all. YUM.
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| Mary got artsy with her new camera after supper! |
Saturday we made the return trip back to NPH and the
decision was made to spend the rest of the time at NPH rather than doing any
more touring/sight-seeing. We went to misa at 5:00pm with the kids…it’s always
fun seeing the kids in their Sunday-best.
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| Couldn't resist the temptation of the see-saws after hours! |
Sunday was ‘batey day.’ We started the morning off by going
to the nearby batey (Haitian migrant community), Monte Cristi and we did a caña
walk. Everyone got the chance to chop some down and attempt to peel it…needless
to say, we all got our butts kicked by 3 little boys who had 3 pieces of caña
each while we were all still working on our very first one. The afternoon was
spent hanging out with the kids one last time and saying a sad goodbye to
Wilson. We got in one last Domincian experience by heading back to the batey
that night for some dancing!
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| The
caña crew! |
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| Suzanne taking a bite... |
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| The three boys were so entertained by our lack of skill! |
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| Michelle giving it a go! |
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| Didn't take long for Mary to catch on! |
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| Our walk back to NPH was made a little more exciting by this cow crossing and little Jeri's scared voice saying, "Kris, the cows are COMING!" |
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| Some of the batey boys...the place was packed! |
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| Hermanas!! |
Monday morning by 5:15am we were on the road to the
airport! It’s amazing how quickly time flies! It’s hard to pick a favorite part
of the week, but without a doubt, one of the coolest parts for me was having my
family meet Wilson and getting to hang out with him! He is definitely part
of the family now! Overall, I just feel so blessed to have such kind and
generous family and friends…it was an unforgettable week! Thanks to all who
made it happen (including Becky Tukua, Brenna, Grandma and Grandpa Becker, and of course
mom and dad!)
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