Sunday is Funday

Our first task on Sunday was to unpack and organize all of the meds, shoes, toys and school supplies that were so generously donated by friends and family back home. It took us about 4 hours with everyone hustling and working like a team to get this major job done. After that, we set up an assembly line and packed the food kits we will distribute at Monday's medical clinic, the first of the week. We have learned that we are going to a batey we have never been before called Cruce Pavon. Twenty six of us will head there for what Emilio (our dear friend and the lead translator our team has worked with each of the five years our team has come) predicts will be a pretty big clinic. Tomorrow, the rest of us (22) will return to Batey 50. All of the repeat travelers are nearly giddy at the prospect of seeing our friends there.

After all our unpacking and packing were done, we had lunch, a short siesta and then headed to the beach. One of the first things you learn about life in the Dominican Republic is that their concept of planning is not like ours. Here, it seems, planning is when you decide what is happening twenty minutes from now! All 47, highly expectant, type-A planners are learning to roll with the Dominican way of thinking/living! Our first experience of this was around our after dinner plans. We intended to go to church at Kilometer 6, a barrio where we have important relationships. It is always a raucous good time; but because the church had a special event during the day, they weren't holding service on Sunday night. This meant that suddenly 47 of us had a free Sunday night in La Romana! We opted to do some important team building and get a good night sleep.

We are sharing dorm space with a small team from Wethersfield. How's that for a coincidence. They are here doing a construction project at the school in Kilometer 6, called the Joe Hartman School. It is an interesting and important life lesson to work out differences with grace. Sitting at the same table and making 250 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the children at Elsa's school was a good start.