Samaná summary

     Hey internets! It's been awhhhiiiiilleee. Hope everyone is living it up wherever in the world you are reading this. We here in the D.R are having such a fun time that we forgot to blog for a week! Sorry about that! Anyways, here we are back again! Btw I'm blogging at like midnight so this will be an attempt at a quick catch up while I'm sleep deprived!

    We have spent the last four days in the beautiful seaside town of Samaná! The town is literally in a bay in between a long peninsula and the rest of the island (pro tip: google it and be amazed by how cool it is). The girls are staying in the pastors house, while us niños are staying on the same floor in the conjoined missionary house. We spent the first day and a half of being here getting to know the town and the people, while also enjoying a nice beach recovery day. The last two days have been spent helping run a bible school for the kids. Oh, and by help run, I mean organize the chaos in whatever way we can. Personally, I have had a lot of fun hanging and playing sports with the kids. The language barrier continues to be a struggle, as in this town we are around almost zero English speakers. I would still call these first four days a success!

    Group morale continues to be running high, amidst language struggles and all! Tonight we got to experience a beautiful part of Dominican culture via a church dance lesson. Some people, young and old, from the church gathered together in traditional Dominican garb to teach us some dances they know. The dances ranged from a partner circle dance, to a dance where a chicken attacked a rooster (ask one of us and we will be happy to show you). It was our first time experiencing any traditional Dominican culture outside of a church service, and it was an absolute blast dancing with our new friends. 

    To top it all off, as I was writing this some of us had our own American dance party. Which, if you know me, then you know that dancing is one of my favorite ways to share joy with people and relieve stress. It's also one of the million activities that cause me to sweat while we are here. Other activities include: painting, walking, sitting in a hot car, sitting anywhere, standing still, writing a blog, eating anything, sleeping, having weird thoughts while I try to fall asleep but can't because I am sweating, and breathing. The beautiful country, the beautiful new friends that we have made, and the beautiful people I get to share this experience with all make my 24/7 sweat worth it. 

                                                          Until next time, Jimmy