Punta Cana, the ride back and thoughts...

On Thursday all of the Esperanza staff and family headed towards Punta Cana. There were over 200 of us coming from 10 different offices both from the DR and Haiti. We stayed at the all inclusive Occidental Grand Flamenco Resort. We had a quick worship/gather up on Thursday where Esperanza directors shared the most memorable successes of the year. Then we all went our separate ways to enjoy our time at the resort.

<-- Our San Pedro Office staff with family

The beach was incredible, white sand, warm water, and light waves.

On Friday I literally spent all day on the beach and in the pool. And as you can imagine I got a pretty bad sun burn. But I think it was well worth it.

<-- Claire (Hope intern Trip coordinator, also PLNU recent graduate), Me, Brande (Spiritual integration intern specialist, from Missouri)

We headed back on Saturday evening, 4pm. An hour into the drive I would say that about half of us were asleep on the bus. We were wakened up by people freaking out and standing up saying they wanted to get off the bus. I was a little alarmed but for the most part nonchalant, apparently the gears weren’t working properly and the bus was having trouble getting up the hills.

Just as this happens the director talks to the driver and orders a new bus to be sent to La Romana the closest town. After she reassures everyone that everything would be fine, we hear a large thump, the bus turns off and we slowly merge to our right. So somehow the battery fell off the bus and caused the bus to stop. After they checked the engine, they noticed that the brakes were completely gone. We were stranded in a little village 40 Kilometers from La Romana. Honestly I thought the brake down was quite adventurous. We were surrounded by cows people riding horses, the teenagers were sitting on the floor eating their smuggled food they brought from the buffet, the kids were picking wild fruits and berries, and the adults were either chatting or arguing with the bus driver. After about a two hour wait we got a little van sent our way, where about 25 people tightly squished themselves in. The second van arrived about 20-30 minutes later, there were about 30 of packed in but neatly seated on small seats or on the ground (our luggage was pulled behind us on a small trailer). We got to San Pedro at 9pm.

So there was a lot of time to ponder about life during the long bus ride. My mind drifted from politics, to addressing social issues, and then skipped to memories with family and friends. Side Note: Okay so if Becky is reading this, I am so sorry I forgot to call you or email you on your Birthday!!! I love you and hope you had an awesome time, you know I’m a ditz and forget everything!

Unfortunately I think I thought too much on the ride back and began to feel really home sick. The big fuzzy spiders and lizards that crawl on my walls really bothered me on Sunday. I began to wish I had warm water to shower in and just as I thought that, the water ran out! ahhh I missed the feeling of clothes right out of the dryer, the taste of tortillas, the smell of febreeze, the convenient invention of wifi, and so much more… But I got a hold of myself took a long deep breath picked up a book and read under my creatively hung mosquito net. After a few tears I was back to my normal self again. Today I woke up at 4:40am, took my three mile walk (round trip), gave thanks for my cold cup of water, picked my sun dried clothes of the electric cables outside, took a quick shower, got dressed, had a Dominican cup of coffee, said good morning to my neighbors, bought two fried danikakes (fried flour) from a street vender (5 Dominican pesos for both, about 14 US cents), walked to work, at work wrote some Kiva journals, and now I am typing this… How could I be upset? Despite all the bumps I have to get used to, there are even more good things every morning I have to look forward to.