Orquidea Sosa Santo Domingo

... will be a tremendous shock to my very warm blood, I'm excited to come back in the thick of the Christmas season. Dominicans take decorating for Christmas very seriously (two people at World Vision did nothing but decorate the office for a solid week), but I just couldn't get into it with Christmas trees next to palm trees and fake snowflakes hanging in tropical breezes. Christmas has always been a cold weather event for me, so for it to truly be the holiday ...

Hello for the first time from the Dominican Republic! I'm thrilled to report that I'm absolutely loving it here! Everything so far is exceeding any expectations I had, and I'm having a great time. The trip to the Dominican Republic went well. I was slightly delayed leaving Atlanta, putting me into Santo Domingo about an hour behind schedule. If we had arrived more than ten minutes later, I don't think we would have been able to land. We arrived in ...

... city, I am constantly reminded of the poverty here and it's hard to not feel its impact. You see the local homeless people ask for food or money and considering the prices at the local supermarket and the average monthly salary you wonder how most people are able to survive. In the next entry, I'll talk a bit more about my conversations with a local bar owner, Francisco, who is from Spain, lived in London and then moved to DR where he has ...

... ride itself was an adventure. Although it is a 25 seater bus there are fold out seats at the end of the row so that you have to fit five people across. Now the backseat you could understand could fit 5 at a tight squeeze but there were 2 seats together, the aisle and another seat. the fold out seat would surely mean 4 people across but no you to squeeze another person in. In the en we had about 40 people on the bus and anytime anyone wanted to get out half the bus had to ...

Hi All! How is everyone? Hope all are doing well and enjoying summer as it winds down. I am back in the DR after an awesome two week trip home for Clare's wedding. It was so great to catch up with friends and family, and of course the wedding was beautiful and heartfelt. We had such a good time celebrating with Clare and Andrew, and they did such a good job with all of the planning, decorating, etc. Other than wedding stuff, I had some time to buy some ...

... time. My attempts to empower women in an effort to start a Women´s basketball movement in the DR has also been a flop. I had been planning a tournament with other volunteers to happen in Pimentel to motivate the girls to play. I poo poohed all the naysayers who said that basketball is for boys. I even got jerseys and trophies donated. What was missing? Girls to play. Of the 40+ girls I had signed up (who were really excited I might ...

... forward to not eating for 12 days. But I eventually got better and I was able to enjoy food that didn't consist of 3 table spoons of salt and 2 cups of oil. I was really just able to relax and refresh myself, which is perfect because now I need to start working! Hopefully my escojo youth group with start it's training in 2 weeks. I need to cordinate with Molly's escojo group to get them to teach my youth ...

... actually make it to be volunteers, which I had never known before, so the numbers blew me away. The avg. age is around 26, with 1/3 being males and then 2/3 females, and 95% of the volunteers are single. Single is one thing, but really, the majority of people in my group are leaving behind significant others and are going through those problems, where as I am leaving behind my beloved dog, Cooper, who I ...

... from registration, to pre-op, through their entire surgery, through recovery and on their way home was something most doctors and nurses are never able to see. The time spent in the clinic was rigorous and arduous, but outside the clinic, the doctors and ILAC staff spoiled us immensly. They took us out to dinner almost every night and gave us presents as gratitude for our work. I was overwhelmed by the constant comments and praises we recieved ...

... bed. I should have fought for the king size bed, but I was being the nice Courtney who lets people run over her a bit. Considering we were leaving a life of comfort to serve in a third world country, I would have wanted the last two days to include a comfortable bed. Cheers to poor decisions. Some of them have led to to the most unlikely people and places. Check out was at 4:30am. The airport was a mess (trying to check in 46 people).

We ...