Blogs from Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean - page 4

We are officially more than halfway through our Build! Time is flying by! Today we poured two concrete floors in homes that had dirt floors. Having a concrete floor will reduce family illnesses by 85%. We are blessed to be able to help these families have more sanitary living conditions. The owners were so excited and welcomed us with open arms. We also enjoyed spending time with the children in the community. We colored, blew bubbles, and threw around a frisbee. The children were such a joy to be around and even though most of us speak no, or very limited Spanish, we found ways to communicate with them. In the evening we attended a cooking demonstration. We learned to make a traditional Dominican dish using plantines, pork rinds, and spices. It was very good!... read more

Today we went to the factory to make the concrete slabs for the prefabricated houses. We were blessed with wonderful weather. We mixed concrete, poured it into forms and smoothed it out. It will then sit for several weeks to dry. This evening we went to the Jinova Community where we met two families who received a prefabricated home earlier this year. What a wonderful opportunity to see the final product of the work we did today, meet the families and see how they have made the house their home. Tomorrow we will travel back to the community and lay concrete floors.... read more

Our day started with a walking tour through the primary city of America - Santo Domingo. Evelyn was a great tour guide and we even had a furry friend join us. After lunch we traveled three hours to the project site in San Juan of la Maguana. After getting settled into the hotel we enjoyed dinner and fellowship followed by program orientation. We ended our evening with reflection and ice cream at Bon. Tomorrow we kick off our week painting together. We are all eager to get started and meet the families and community we'll be serving. God bless! ... read more

You all know by now that all-inclusive resorts are not what what I like. I prefer to go to wild places, and after one day at the beach I am completely bored! But If I have a comfortable hotel, very close the a nature's park, then this is the best of both worlds! That's exactly what I had during this week! The resort is located just beside a real nature preserve!!! Send me comments if you need more information. Highlights: 1- Night walk to look for tarantulas: we saw 15 in less than 40 minutes, not far from the hotel! 2- Guided tour to a cave, (cueva del puente). We were all alone with a park ranger. Cave is full of bats and I took lots of pictures, I identified 2 species. 3- No big reef ... read more

Trip to the Dominican Republic Day One- Saturday Feb. 20th We left Rob’s folks house early in the morning to catch the flight out of Knoxville. The flight went surprisingly smooth and so was the pass through immigration and customs in the D.R. We followed a bell hop to our transfer service, Blue travel. They got us right on and soon we were on our way to the Majestic Elegance. When we got to the Majestic we were greeted with cool towels to wipe our faces with and a delicious refreshing drink. We had to wait a bit for our room so we took the time to eat lunch and book our dive trips. We also lined up dinner at the French restaurant for Sunday night. Then we followed a bell hop to our room. Our ... read more