An update on last weekend

On Friday, Jon and I headed towards Santo Domingo in the morning. We dropped by the Administration office to say our farewell to Kayla. Kayla was one of the persons that interviewed me before I got accepted into this internship program. She has been working with Esperanza for over two years and has done an exceptional job.

Later that day we caught a bus to Samana where we took another gua gua (local small mini-van) to Las Galleras. There we ate at a pizzeria and then took a midnight swim on the beach. The water was warm, there was a cool breeze, and a full moon; it was just perfect.

We were a group of 6 volunteers--all coming from different areas, except Nate (the one in the hat); he is living in Samana.


It rained Friday night and early Saturday morning; luckily it cleared up and we were still able to carry out our beach plans for the day. We rented a truck with two drivers and headed to Playa el Rincon. The beach was secluded and the water was calm, warm, clear, and shallow, but on the other side of a cliff there were waves. We were in the water most of the day, had chicken fights, and ate lunch there. (I even tried fish!)

On the way there we met up with a lady who asked for a ride to the beach. She was selling coconut bread. Her bread was delicious. We asked her if she had heard of Esperanza International, and surprisingly she said she had. She had gotten a loan about two years ago to start her coconut bread business. Because her business took off, she is now not part of a bank but can keep it running with her profits. She did state that her husband was currently receiving a loan from Esperanza to help him with his business. How random and cool is that?



We got a hotel on Saturday in Samana, and in the moring headed towards Cayo Levantado, a little island of the coast of Samana. The island was beautiful! Doesn’t it look like a post card? The only thing that was expensive was the food. They wanted to charge us between $12-25 USD for food! And of course I protested :] I went over to where the workers were eating and asked if we could pay under the table for cheaper food. Initially they gave us a high quote for making us food but I pulled my “I am a poor volunteer" speech and they lowered their prices to 300 pesos (about half of what other places were charging). The food turned out to be delicious; we had rice, beans, salad, fish, and drinks.







The kids playing SWAP-- they love the game. They have to walk around the chairs and when I say SWAP they sit, whoever is left standing picks a card from my hand and reads it (review from the lesson).


'Till next time...