Dominican Republic: Nice and Hot, and a little rainy too :)

Saturday:
We arrived in Santiago airport at 10:45pm last night after an hour delay. We went out for juices and sandwiches; I had a cheese sandwich with tomato and a zapote juice, both were pretty amazing :D

I am staying at The Residence Hotel in Santo Domingo with another intern, David (different rooms). After a failed attempt to get wireless last night I decided to go to bed.

Sunday:
I woke up today at 8am, took a shower, and then went back to bed. David and I went to get breakfast at a local stand. I had the same thing as last night except I tried the Chilmol natural juice, it is kind of like orange juice, it gives you that same kick that you need to wake up. After a little rest we caught up with the rest of the interns, we had some more juices and afterwards walk to their apartment. While walking there I tried to study the way so I could walk myself back. After two hours or so of seeing their cutesy apartment and talking with Coina, their landlord, I decided to walk back because I had a minor headache. Yeah probably not a good idea. I was seriously lost, somehow I ended up by the shore and honestly having no clue what direction to head. It was a little frightening because everywhere I turned guys would whistle or say inappropriate comments (including security and police!) I ended up stopping at a shop and calling a taxi. The taxi began to take me to another location in town, so that was a little nerve wrecking as well, but after I cleared up our miscommunication he turned around and dropped me off in front of the right hotel.

But the best of my day was going to church. We went to “La Comunidad Cristiana” which translated means The Christian Community. It is large contemporary church with about 300 members, maybe more. They are a sister church with a church in Chicago. The message was quite powerful; it was about acknowledging that you are not perfect. What we used to enjoy when we were part of the world gave us joy but when we came to know Christ what we once enjoy turned into disgust. Disgust not because we didn’t like it but because we knew with our new self and conscious that we were offending our Creator that loved us. I really enjoyed the way he put it, that we will always have struggles, yet what changes is our reaction to sin. When we come to know Christ we want to change because we love Him. And when you are in love you hate what the other person hates, and you love what the other person loves. The church concluded with the song “Sumerjemer”. It is an old Spanish song that I used to sing when I was growing up, the message is basically asking the Lord to submerge you in his Holy Spirit.

Oh I forgot to mention that it is hot, humid, and it’s raining. I don’t really mind the rain but it is causing a few leaks in my room…

Tomorrow I will have my first day of training in the Santo Domingo office, can’t wait.
-Maira