Hilton Dominican Republic Santo Domingo

... for our kids to see such a different world. Kids are kids though wherever you go.  When I got to the school to pick Lexi up from school, she ran up to me in her school uniform and said "mom, can we come back here tomorrow."   As I write this, I am thinking back to all the amazing people we have met in the past few days, people who have a brightness and vitality about them & seem happy in the midst of their tireless service.  We are ...

... Today on the walk to CSA I saw a pigeon fall out of the sky and splat on the sidewalk in front of me (which makes this the second time in a month - Mom and I watched a pigeon drop into a café in Siena, Italy). The video from last weekend's project with Mark and Santiago is now posted on YouTube. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qch3G40S K50 That's all for now! Sorry for the lack of pictures - hopefully I'll have some for the next post! Amanda

... best country in the world to serve in, and I definitely believe him. Mi Dona y mi familia: Over the course of 6 months, we are going to have at least 3 host families. One during the 3 weeks training in Pantoja, one during the 5 week techinal training with our sectors in the rural areas, and one when we finally get put to our permanent sites. I ADORE MY HOST FAMILY. My dona (mom) is an older woman who has been working with the ...

... have many participants, so they looked quite spread out in the street (the Malecon is quite a wide avenue). Also, it was extremely hot and sunny, so many of the participants also looked worn out by the time they got where we were, a little past half-way on the parade path. I felt bad for them, especially for those people that were under many heavy layers of their costume! The sidewalk was packed with ...

... gun point but again it just reminded us again to not get too careless or reckless. We met two other guys here whom we formed another tight wee group with. Chi, a Hong Kong lad, and Jun, a Korean. Both were lovely guys and we had a few laughs together. Chi was sort of a naive but earnest guy living in the States and going to Uni. He asked a million questions. We invited him out for tea the next night. Jun had just arrived and put out his back with his extremely heavy ...

Hola amigos! Happy 4th of July to ya'll! It's been funny here "celebrating" the 4th as we have 5 people here from England. TONS of jokes going around... hilarious really. :0) Anywhoo... Right now, I'm at Sosua Beach which is the local beach to our little Crossroads villa. Really, Crossroads is beautiful. Today, I have dirt all over my white t-shirt because I was working construction at our site called ...

... island but it was nice knowing that I had somebody to hang out with, and we always planned get togethers. It´s nice to have somebody to talk to since you gotta be careful what you say to dominicans! My other closest friend Morgen is still here, thank god, and she lives in the Capital so every time I got to go to the PCO I get to see her. It gets lonely out in the campo life, but hopefully I will feel less lonely once I am livving in a community where I actually feel wanted and needed!

... t decided if I will live on my own or with a family, but I am going to wait to see how I feel once I get to my site and figure it out then. But she is very much integrated into her community, and they all love her...she gets at least 100 hugs a day just from the kids at her school, and they are just yelling her name whenever she is on the street because they want her to come to their houses, chat, eat, whatever. People ...

... so I wont be doing a latrine project in my community. They have had 5 other PC volunteers in the past, so they know what the PC is all about. Also they have an established and active youth group. So I am really happy about my new site. The people seem friendly and ready to work, and there is already an active and formed youth group, so I think on of my first projects will be working with the youth group. My new host family is also really nice, and ...

... or making a peeing sound, would catch any girls attention. The drivers here are crazy, and the cars they use as busses and taxes are pretty much barely held together. They stick two people in the front seat and 4 in back. I´ve already been in one bus were we had a flat tire. And we had to get out and find a new car. Well that´s all the news for now. I was just told that I have 2 minutes left on the internet. I´ll write you more when I can!!