The trip to the Dominican was pretty uneventful in a good way with no delays or anything. Our team was extremely exhausted from lack of sleep and we were so glad to finally land. While descending it was quite a cool sight of clouds and an aerial view of the country...
Once we went through customs and got our baggage we walked outside to meet the family who we will be staying with this next week and a half. MAJOR culture shock as we stepped through the airport doors and outside into the Dominican Republic. At least a couple hundred people were lining the doors anxiously waiting for their awaited friends & family to walk out. It was so loud with cheers and music filling the warm balmy 80 degree weather. Our host family had cute signs for us and immediately welcomed us to their country.
The first stop that we agreed to make was FOOD. Getting up at 2 am to get to the airport at 3 really messed up our meal times and so we headed to the Santiago mall for what other than good ol' Pizza Hut. Once our stomachs were full we settled into our new home for the next week and a half. All of us 10 girls are in a room sleeping on foam pads on the ground. Talk about bonding!!
We finished out our night by going to our host's church that he preaches at. We will be doing work there later on in the week.
The DR is definitely not how I pictured it, it has much more of a city feel to it, but it's a gorgeous country with all of the building different colors. The people are so friendly as well. However, the hardest part for our whole team is the Spanish language barrier. I've taken three years of Spanish so I can understand some conversation but not all. My team has decided that the most used phrase today was "wait, what's going on?" between traveling and going to an all-spanish speaking church we are exhausted! Tomorrow we will be painting and doing work at the church!
Thank you for your prayers!! Good night!
