June 12: Day 6 Jarabacoa and Santo Domingo

Church was great. Many of those we saw at the fiesta were there. Fr. Tom and Fr. John both helped Padre Carlos with the service. During the sermon Keith helped translate so that we could understand the basics of what was being said. At the close of the service, youth from the congregation performed liturgical dance to a couple of songs. Following a few good byes, we headed down to see how far the work on Pablo's house got after we left. They had another wall up. We took some pictures and then Fr. John offered a blessing. We learned that while Pablo works at the camp, he goes to the evangelical church in town.

Back to the camp we all changed back into shorts and waited for lunch and the bus to arrive. Some sat with Padre Carlos to discuss how much more was needed to finish the house. The rest of us just chilled, well not really. There was nothing chilling about sitting in the dining hall with a hot sun and a tin roof. A few ceiling fans would be a great addition, mmmmmm, maybe next trip. When the bus arrived there were a lot of goodbyes. Many were sad to see us go and we too were sad to leave. The friends we made will be with us forever giving us the feeling of having two homes.

On the bus, with it's air-conditioning going full blast it was not too long before most of the team was fast asleep for the three hour bus ride to Santo Domingo. After stopping for a comfort break about half way between the camp and hotel we arrived in just under 3 hours; there was much rejoicing. We quickly dropped our stuff in our rooms and headed out to do some souvenir shopping and exploring. We visited some really old buildings and walked around the remains of the first major fort built on the island by the Spanish.

We also checked out the different restaurants while we walked around. The group insisted on Hard Rock Cafe despite Keith's encouragement to try something more local. The appeal of a T-shirt and burger was to just overwhelming so guess where we ended up eating. After dinner we sat in the plaza to talk about the trip and to reflect on our experience. Of course a group of American tourists attracted a novelty salesman who ended up selling us a few trinkets. By the time we headed back to the hotel, the team was pretty tired. A few members checked email and Facebook before retiring for the night.