Playa Alicia!

Today after we woke up and ate breakfast, Tate and Finley helped me clean some of the food that we would be using for the group that came in from Austin today! We spent almost 2 hours alone cleaning up the eggs so they would be safe to eat! Then I rode with Nicole, one of the Makarios Dominican staff that I will get to teach with, over to Montellano! On the way there I got to meet her family for the first time, which is awesome! Fun fact- Most of Nicole's family actually lives on the same street as the Mak house and the name of the street is named

after them!! 

~On the left is Tate and Belle playing with the kitty and on the right is Finley trying to hide my water bottle so I couldn't leave for the day

From Montellano, Imani, Sarah, Dena, and I took a gua gua to go into Cabarete for lunch at this burrito place called Gorditos. Gorditos is owned by a family that moved here from California and has the most amazing fish and chicken tacos I have ever had! From there we went to Sosua, where Playa Alicia was and went to the beach for the rest of the day! This was the best day of the week to go to the beach because it was soooo hot and the water felt absolutely amazing!! In Playa Alicia there was actually an area that you could swim to where there were a bunch of cliffs to go cliff jumping! This may sound dangerous, but I promise it wasn't! So Sarah and I swam over to the cliffs where we met 4 little Dominican boys who were helping tell us where it was safest to jump and how to climb up the rocks in order to get to the top. They were so cute and helpful and at the same time so fun and every time we jumped off the cliff they would go first and wait at the bottom and say "we will save you!" After a few jumps, Sarah and I swam back to the beach to relax with Imani and Dena where we met two little boys who wanted us to play with them. So we got to spend the day swimming in the beautiful water and playing with two adorable little kids! The older boy of the two had cerebral palsy and it really made me think about how the people out here that are handicap most definitely aren't getting to help that they need. Being a special education major this really upset me because I have learned how much help people with certain conditions should be getting, and I know that this wasn't the case for this boy, nor would it be for any other person I saw with a disability. When it was getting close to dinner time we left the beach to come back for the house and about the time I arrived back at the house, so did the group from Austin Ridge! So I got to meet the group and we all had dinner together and then while the group was having orientation I helped Kelsey get the kids bathed and ready for bed. It was definitely an awesome Friday, getting to go to the beach and go cliff jumping! I know things are about to get crazy when school starts, and ESL classes, and now that that the first group is here, but I am definitely making the most of the days I have to go on adventures around the island!

~Me, Sarah, and Dena standing outside of the delicious burrito place, Gorditos!

~On the left is Playa Alicia and on the right is Imani, Dena, and Sarah standing under the umbrella because the sand was so incredibly hot and it was hard to make it all the way to the water.

~This is a picture of Dena and I with the two boys we played with all day. The little one wanted us to bury him, but then he couldn't use his hands to eat the mango so Sarah had to feed it to him.

~ This is a picture of a people getting on a banana raft that you can pay to have them take you for a ride in the ocean for 15 minutes at a time. We didn't go on it today, but I still thought it looked fun and was similar to tubing for us in the U.S.