Dominican Republic

Flying in Frozen Plane

First Class - This is the Life

What excitement waited for me when we got to the airport; we flew on Disney's Frozen plane ;) (to a tropical country ha ha) and to be right up front in first class was just so amazing.  Life is good! Lots of snacks and pampering!!!
When we left Toronto it was cloudy and -1 C , on  arrival to Puerto Plata it was full sun and muggy, 32 C.  We were here for a total of nine days.  Most of the days were with spent with my team mates helping out in a variety of serve projects around the Island.  My teammates and I loved hanging around with the children.  They love cuddles and fun!  We played all sorts of games with them such as basketball, pick up jacks, catch the scarf, soccer and hoola hoo hoo (hooping).  


A number of my mates led art classes in schools, we helped out at a medical clinic, put together soup mixes supplied by Ontario Gleaners http://ontariogleaners.org/1279. The soup mixes were in large barrels shipped from Canada and our job was to package them and then teams went around the Island to provide food for families who were not able to afford to feed their families.

The kids love me

Volunteering is Fun

Way High up in the Trees

We happened to be in Puerto Plata at the perfect time to hand out Samaritan's Purse (Operation Christmas Child) gift boxes to the children in our sister school. Many of the students had participated in putting together the shoeboxes at Christmas time back in Canada, but to be able to put the gifts in the hands of children who rarely get any presents and to see their joy was a great privilege!  


You can’t go to a tropical country without taking in a day at the beach.  

Watching the ocean bubble up all around me made me think I was swimming in a vanilla milkshake (yum!).  

    

Perhaps the story that sticks to my heart full of stuffing... is how my teammates all came together in pooling all their resources for a lovely lady named Lydia that they met whose shanty home is so run down and mouldy from everything getting soaked every time it rains, that her children cannot even live with her and her husband until they get the funds to build a new home.  

When we discovered that it would only cost $6000 to build a house like this we all decided we would raise the money! Seeing this home that the previous team built for Octavia and her sick husband (and a home our team helped pay for!) encouraged us that we could bring the same joy that Octavia is experiencing to Lydia...even more because she will be reunited with her family in a home that is safe and dry!  I will let our leader Mr. W give y'all an update about this in the next post.



See how much fun Eveliina and Brooke are having with new friends they met at Paradio and Munos?

Well I had a blast as well, especially at Gregorio Luperon Public school where some very nice girls listened to my stories and played with me. I hope they will be able to read this blog too.


And Mr. W gave this boy at Munos the "bucket hat" that my Bestest Friend Ever screen-printed for him 5 years ago in Sackville!  I wonder if she will appreciate that? 
    I think she will be fine with  it. After all the boy does not have anything to keep the hot sun off his head, and now Bestest Friend Ever has the opportunity to get a new hat for her dad (that he can give away on his next DR trip :)  I am going to beg to go with him again!  It was a trip I will never forget.  

WARNING: Don't read the next blog if you get bad dreams sometimes... I did have a rather scary experience one day!