Day Seven - Reflection

As we prepare for the Saturday night church service, we are all reflecting on the projects completed - Walls built, fences erected, desks repaired/refurbished, and a small home transformed - have left evrryone tired but with a satisfied sense of accomplishment. All through the work, relationships have grown with our Domincan hosts, as they have worked alongside us at every step - quite often leading the way and pulling the heaviest loads. I watched 2 young villagers push wheelbarrows full of sand and gravel 7 hours for mixing concrete - all while being cheerful and interactive with their American co-workers. It has been easy to see why many in our group have made this trip multiple times... it is the passion for the people.

Several of us have struggled a little today with our digestive systems - it is very common for this trip that the quantity of the fresh juices we enjoy to cause a little of this. Not a big deal, everyone is powering through it and it has had very little impact on the morale or efforts. Our kids never cease to amaze me - they have been awesome. I am humbled.

Today's meals included cereals, plantains prepared yet another 2 ways (I think we're up to 6 different versions so far...and only 1 method tasted anything close to banana), a pasta dish with vegetables, and a pepporoni-ish sausage for dinner. After church, we gathered to go over the week, highlighting the fact that our group has finished all the projects planned, and that we are the only group to repeatedly do so here.  We are all heading to bed early.

As I write, I am listening to the excited laughter of the 4 wonderful ladies who have prepared our meals as they enjoy a lively game of dominoes. (It's a very big deal here)  It only took these ladies 2 days to realize how much I was loving on their amazing coffee - then they began putting on a pot at other times of the day and letting me know. Yet another example of the graciousness, care, and consideration of a people that could certainly do more with the pesos for their own needs, than preparing extra coffee. It's hard not to fall in love with them.

Tomorrow there is a morning service, Sunday school, rest and social time with our friends, a visit into the central village area of Juan Tomas, and an evening service back at the church.

Day 6 - Wedding Day

Today was a unique day for the WCCS Dominican trip in that we worked until lunch in preparation to attend the wedding of Dario and Darhania, a couple who are members of the chirch. They planned their wedding around our trip because of the deep bonds developed over the past 8 years with the Bagleys and others in our group.

After continuing work on several projects, we had lunch, cleaned up, and loaded 2 buses with our Domincan friends and drove to the city for the ceremony and reception. It was held at a very nice facility in Santo Domingo and everyone was ecstatic to enjoy air conditioning once again. Camilla and Olivia were attendants in the wedding, and other than the obvious language barrier, the ceremony was fairly similar to American tradition. The unique things were that the ceremony and reception was in the same room, the 6 photographers roamed freely between the attendants and the bride and groom, who were all sitting (until the vows), and the atmosphere was very informal with lots of laughter, cheers, and applause throughout. It was also unique that although the wedding was scheduled at 5:00pm, it didn't begin until after 7:00. The Dominicans don't often get in a hurry, and even though they are a passionate, hard working people, members of the wedding party were very casual about coming in and getting started. After the cerremony, a meal was served to all the guests while musicians played and sang a variety of genres. Other than a single performance by a couple, there was no dancing.

Our kids looked terrific and really enjoyed this new and interesting experience.

Day Five - Divide & Conquer

Breakfast All-American style (sort of) with cereal and warm goat's milk - Mrs. Bagley calls it "fresh squeezed". Most of the kids have their cereal dry - go figure...

A third of the group returned to the house in the village to continue the project and the remainder stayed at the school to assist with the masonry work on footings and walls, desk rebuilds, welding projects, and Bible school,

Major progress was made on the house with even more siding replacement than anticipated. The crew deserves major kudos for making the 2 mile round trip - twice - and getting so much work done. Stories were shared at dinner about the family kids pitching in with the work, other village kids going into the jungle and returning with fresh mangos for the team, and the tearful appreciation of the single Mom.

Bible school had their biggest day with nearly 200 kids from the area villages. Taylor's team did an incredible job with what could be best described as controlled chaos. The laughter of young people was at its highest point of the week and the memories made will always be treasured I'm sure.

Since we are 90% young ladies it has been impressive to watch them tackle tasks that would routinely go to the boys. Sunni welding, Sara Beth carrying five gallon buckets of water, Taylor handling a whellbarrow full of gravel, and most all of them mixing concrete by hand at some point - has given me yet another reason to be extremely proud to be here with them. The 6 young men have certainly pulled more than their share of the heavy work. (Oh, to be young) All this work while interacting with the ever-present Domincan youngters make the efforts even more special.

Lunch was a cold pasta & chicken salad and dinner was a banana pancake (that's what I'll call it - their word is just too hard). Trying to explain "breakfast for dinner" to my new Domincan amigos was almost as funny as the conversation of "lefty-loosy"; "righty-tighty" when trying to explain the nuances of bolt tightening.

English class tonight was about telling time - some of the natives just shake their heads when we explain that 2:45 is the same as 15 till, or 15 before, or quarter till. But they truly appreciate the interaction with Americans and Andrea Bagley did a great job leading the class.

A late meeting and small group time (we do this every night to share stories and pray together) finshes our day and once again, bedtime comes easy.

Hasta manana!