¿QUÉ LO QUE?

HOLA DESDE BARAHONA!!!

Hello to all. Sorry it´s taken so long to update! We have been here for a week already and can hardly believe it! But we are adjusting to the Dominican lifestyle, and are all moved into our host families. Alicia enjoyed the Dominican tradition of sitting outside her family´s shop on the street on her first day, talking (in Spanish) for four hours! Try that at home. All of our host families ONLY speak Spanish (which Lauren of course loves), and feed us more than we can stomach (apple juice in cereal, pineapple in milk WITH cereal, plantains of all shapes and forms, and hamburgers for breakfast). We have all survived our first concho rides and surprisingly love them, are being eaten alive by mosquitoes, taking bucket showers, and realize that nalgenes, while previously indestructible, can now be destroyed by the 100% deet we put on our skin twice daily. We´ve enjoyed seeing Mariners t'shirts in our houses (Elisa) and the handprints of all our friends on the mission house wall. We´ve loved being welcomed into our host families and getting to know everyone that they know. All in all, adjusting well and learning to love being sticky all the time!

Tomorrow we´ll finally start working in the bateyes, teaching English. So far we´ve been doing a lot of prep work, so we´re ready to get moving and see what God can show us through these children. We´ve been in the clinic twice, organizing supplies, updating ¨files¨, scarce as they are, and hanging out with the nurses. We´re hoping to get some vaccines to administer in the bateyes later this summer.. but since school´s out, we´ll have to do a bit of wandering from house to house.

We met up with 6 other interns here, and they have all been wonderful. We get along great and love hearing eachothers crazy host family stories from the night before! The staff is amazing, love to help us with our Spanish, and understanding the situation here in the DR. We´re excited to keep working with them and getting to know them and their stories. We all went to the beach the other day (hard life in the Caribbean, I know) and had a blast... this place is beautiful!!

Please pray for our stomachs as we continue to adjust to the food and the HEAT, for strength and courage to reach out and show God´s love to these people, as well as learn from them because they have MUCH to teach us.

Besitos,
Las Dominicanas
Lauren, Alicia, and Elisa!