As I already mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I had the privilege of having my nephew, Forest, visit me this summer (together with my friend Julie). His dad and I had been talking about how cool it would be to have him come down here for years, and we finally made it happen! I also finally got my friend Ben to come down and visit me just a week after Forest and Julie left. I’d tried to convince him to visit for twelve years without any luck, so I was a little surprised when he actually got his ticket to come down this summer! I had such a good time with all three of them and even got to see and do new things with them. Here’s a few pictures!
Dominican Pizza with corn on it served by my buddy Ydekel.
Hike up the hill above the barrio.
The two of us crammed into the front passenger seat of a public car. Forest acted like he’d done that before.
Hanging with the cute barrio kids.
A typical Travesia meal at my friend Mari’s house; stewed salmi, boiled green bananas and fresh picked tomatoes. I don’t think either of them were as excited about the meal as I was.
Exploring mountain trails and digging up sweet potatoes with Moreno.
Forest showed off his dance moves; Julie and I got out of dancing despite all the peer pressure.
We made a quick stop at the Monument in Santiago.
Then finished up our time with a few days at the beach!!!!
Just a few days after Ben arrived we went on a very long journey to the mountain village my friend Dilenia grew up in. Roughly 1 hour in a van, about 2 hours waiting for the next bus, over 3 hours in the bus, and then roughly 30 minutes on mules. (my last post talks more about this village).
Ben helped with the El Camino youth camp and even showed off his talents at eating napkins. No one even came close to beating him!
After the youth camp we hiked up to the Travesia and hiked down with 29 pounds of coffee for the team from South Carolina (they had to cancel their trip up the mountain but still wanted coffee).
We went to a Monkey Jungle. It was amazing…. the monkey’s crawled all over us and ate from our hands.
Ben convinced me and everyone at Minerva’s house to put on mustaches. Minerva’s neighbor came over right after she put hers on, she was so embarrassed and started laughing hysterically. I’ve never seen her laugh so much!
Ben and I went all over the place in Ydekel’s pink scooter! Ben’s a good driver but I was still a little bit terrified to ride with him (all three motorcycle accidents I’ve been in have been with Americans).
Overall I’m really grateful to God that I was able to share a bit of my life in the D.R. with Forest, Julie and Ben. I’m also really thankful that He kept them healthy and helped them have many good experiences!
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