Sunday, November 24, 2019

Student Takeover: Prep Day Success!


This morning we woke up to an amazing breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruits. The juice, in particular, was insanely good. After we filled our stomachs, we started organizing ourselves and prepping for the week of service ahead of us. Tons of medicine was hauled out, and donations were retrieved from every crevice of the suitcases that we had filled to the max. And so the sorting began. I was working at the medical station, so I was counting and labeling tiny bags of medicine to give out to the people on the bateys. We must have sorted at least 2,000 pills each-in just a couple of hours! 

Tyler, Jack, Sadie, Lamiah, Elijah, Anika, Julian Rachel, and Betty
Starting on the left & moving clockwise

Then we packed everything up and had spicy chili for lunch with Dominican style crackers. The food here was so different from what I was used to back in America. After lunch, we packed up and got ready to head to the beach. All the girls in the dorm grabbed their bathing suits and gushed over the pictures we were going to take, but after the seeing the clear blue water, everyone left their phones behind and jumped in. After only a few hours, I knew all of my team members’ names—Watkinson and UHSSE alike—and shared a unique memory with each of them. 

Playa Bayahibe
Post-modern post-beach selfie

We returned back to Casa Pastoral, where I got my first hands-on experience measuring blood pressure with guidance from Mrs. Crespo and a couple of other chaperones. As I sit here, with Elijah by my side pointing out every apostrophe I miss, I can’t wait to spend the next six days with my team and working to help the people of the Dominican Republic.

Sincerely,
Anika S.

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