A Step into Dominican Culture

After a week of hard work with the Mariposa Foundation, Ms. MacMeekin sent another update about the Dominican Service Project Winterim's trip and their plans for the following week:

Buenos Dias!

It has been a pretty fantastic couple of days here in the DR!  Friday we got more work done on the building we are working on and the kids worked really hard.  We took the weekend to immerse ourselves in the culture and get to know the local community a little more.

Saturday we went to La Boca, which is where the river dumps into the Atlantic Ocean.  It was a great spot because on one side of the beach we had fresh water, and about 60 meters across was the Atlantic.  We spent the morning learning about the river, fishing and swimming. After lunch, we walked along the beach and learned how to catch spider crabs.

Sunday we spent in the countryside on a farm.  We learned about growing cacao, and the process for turning it into chocolate.  We had a traditional Dominican lunch on the farm which was delicious! We had to change our plans a little because the rain had made it too slippery to walk around the farm, but that's what you get during rainy season.

After the farm, we spent a little time in a local lagoon, learning about the mangroves.  Again, weather and rough water changed our plans but we still learned a lot and had fun!

Today (Monday) we are back to work.  We are going to try and get as much building done as possible so that tomorrow we just have to do the small touch up jobs.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  We have an early morning so we can have a breakfast farewell with la maripositas, the younger girls in the program, because we won't see them on Wednesday. Also, the other winterim group in the Dominican is coming to join us for lunch. We have a lot left to get done but everyone is working together and we will get it done.

Hope all is well in the US!