We took a 3.5 hour plane ride to the Dominican Republic on September 11th. We arrived at 2:30, got our bags and went and found our buses so they could drive us 7 hours to the “Hope for the DR” in the mountains.
The bus ride was crazy. We went through some insane traffic. There were mopeds swerving around all of the cars, there weren’t very many stops signs so it was pretty much just a free for all. Everyone was honking at each other and slamming on the brakes so they wouldn’t crash into another vehicle. There were some mopeds with 2 adults and 2 children on them. I’ve never seen anything like it. I felt safe the whole time though because our bus driver seemed like he knew what he was doing. And probably because God comforted me through it.
We got to the house around 10:30 that night and everyone placed their stuff in the rooms. The family had a meal provided for all of us and we were so happy. It was spaghetti (my favorite). They make us 3 meals every day and all of them have been so good. I feel so fat though..
Our days here look different every day. So far I have helped out with outreach, hospitality, administration and helping plan the weekend event. For outreach my team and another team did a prayer walk for one hour throughout the community. It was my first time seeing the community and it was so neat. Everyone said “hola” and gave us a wave. During the walk I felt peace the whole time. There were people on mopeds, horses, and some people also drove cars or big trucks. The next day was hospitality. We cleaned the rooms, bathrooms, pool, deck and we also helped during the meals. On administration day we helped Vicki with some work. Her and Reuben (the hosts) want to build two houses on their property. One for children who don’t have very good homes and one for women who have been involved in sex trafficking. We helped make a presentation for her to share with others when she goes back to the States to fundraise. The only job I haven’t had yet is property. That’s when Reuben has work for us to do around the property. Our days look like this:
Sunday: Everyone works on the property for the firsts half of the day and for the second half we went to the basketball court and played with some kids/teens in the community.
Monday: Rest day.
Tuesday: Adventure day.
Wednesday-Friday: First half of the day is work day. (Administration/Outreach/Hospitality/Property) second half is planning for VBS on Saturday
Saturday: VBS with the kids in the community
All of it has been so much fun. The only difficult part about this is the language barrier. I only know a couple Spanish words so it’s hard to communicate with everyone. I should’ve listen more in Spanish class.. oh and praise the good Lord that I haven’t gotten homesick. I haven’t talked to my parents much but I FaceTimed them the 3rd night and it was really good to talk to them but it made me miss them a lot. So I’ve decided to give up my phone for this whole month so I’m not distracted with social media and wondering what everyone is doing back home. I do have my email though so if anyone would like to get ahold of me you can email me at “[email protected]”
