The Dominican Republic!
When we arrived in the Dominican Republic, I didn’t know what to expect. Leaving the ship for three nights to do homestays was much more needed than I originally thought. You never know how tired you truly are until you get to sleep all the way through the night until 8:30 in the morning in an actual bed. I was a part of the group that was staying in the mountain village known as Los Naranjitos. It was a beautiful place to stay and a lovely switch in scenery from our normal oceanic view.
However, before we left the ship, the CAF group took a hike to a huge waterfall to swim. It was a beautiful place to swim and definitely needed after a hike in the hot weather. We had a buffet at Parada De Manzana and stuffed ourselves with however much food our stomachs could handle.
There were 16 students and 2 faculty members staying in the village of Los Narnjitos and the rest of the students and faculty were staying in the town of Las Terrenas. On the first day in the mountains, we had to decide on the groups we’d be staying in and in which home. I was the first to know where I was staying because no other student wanted to stay where I did considering they would be alone aside from the teachers being one building over. Me, however, found only joy in being alone after living with my peers for the last 8 months. Out of about 240 days of living with each other, we got less than 15 not sleeping all in the same room. Therefore, I didn’t see anything wrong with staying completely alone. In fact, it was BLISS. No matter how much I love the family I have made here, I loved being alone.
On the first morning of our homestay experience, we started our volunteer service projects. 2 students volunteered at the school, helping with the preschool students’ activities and classes. A large group of students in the town painted murals at schools while a smaller group in the town painted houses. Lastly, the entire group of “mountain goats” (as we dubbed ourselves) painted houses of the elderly close by where we were staying.
There were 3 groups who each painted one house the first day. We could not paint in the morning due to rain. My group’s house on the first day was bright blue with a salmon accent. The woman who lived in the house was extremely grateful for what we did. When we were done, she was trying to say something, but had to put her head down on her walking stick because she was too emotional. On the verge of tears, she exclaimed, in Spanish, that God is here and that she has been praying for someone to come paint her house. She absolutely loved it, which made me happy. Whether people think simply painting one person’s house is a “good enough” service project, this woman’s reaction should answer that. Just making one woman happy made it worth it. On the second day, we painted a man’s house who was at work at the time. He knew his house was going to be painted, but I don’t think he knew what time it would get done. Imagine coming home from work and your house is lime green with a salmon accent. Both houses looked amazing and the houses the others painted in the mountains and in the town were all lovely. We could not finish all the houses we were supposed to get done because the rain was too intense. However, we did leave the paint in the community so anyone who is able to can paint the houses of the people who we did not get to. This community of people would not be able to afford the paint, so that is a good first step.
On the second full day of the homestays, after painting the green house that I mentioned, the mountain goats went to Las Terrenas to meet up with the student and faculty we haven’t seen in a while. And by “a while” I mean two days, but when you live with, go to school with, and work with the same people every day, two days is a lot to go without them. I can’t imagine how it will be when we all go back to our homes around the world. While in town, we had a pizza party (where most people got to eat a whole pizza, which was WONDERFUL). After we had our little party, we were able to go out in groups of four. The group I was with went to go get frozen yogurt at Bon Helados, a delicious ice cream / frozen yogurt / smoothie shop. After that we walked back to the hotel to relax for a bit before the mountain goats had to head back up to Los Naranjitos. On the last day, we went back to Las Terrenas early. I went to the hotel that some of the students were staying at and used my friend’s queen sized bed to take a nap, because I just had to take that opportunity. I went back to Bon Helados to get some ice cream before we loaded onto the bus to head back to Parada De Manzana. We had another buffet style lunch and got the chance to take part in a dance lesson. The style of dance is most popular in the DR. The man and woman who taught us were very talented and it reminded me of how much I miss dancing.
We headed back to the ship after this and I gladly took another nap on the bus. Land can be so tiring on this program. You always want to do everything you possibly can, which is A LOT.
I called my family one last time today until we get to Bermuda. We get to sail straight through the Bermuda Triangle so wish us luck! The weather is supposed to be rough. I hope we get a few relaxing days at least so we can recharge for more land. I’m excited to be back at sea though!
As I write this, we just departed from the Dominican Republic and we’ll be sailing for nine days.
We aren’t even back at sea though and I’m already getting injured (not too badly). I was just walking and I hit my head pretty hard on an open port hole (which are BRUTAL when you smash into them). I have a bump on my head the size of a small marble… Whoops.
❤ - Megan
