Welcome to the third day of the Dominican Republic IL. We started the day off with our daily Spanishlesson with our tour guide Brayan. We learned words for items we planned to use in our service project. After breakfast we headed over to the local environmental institute for the project. Our service project consisted of us splitting into three different groups to help build a study area for the students there. There was a group of students that worked on making the boards for the benches, a group that gathered gravel and rocks for the ground, and a group that planted flowers to add decoration to the surrounding area. It turned out to be great and it was an enjoyable experience for everyone.
After service we were able to grab a meal. We enjoyed more home-cooked traditional Dominican food, which included rice and beans and chicken stew. After that we had some time to relax. Then the crew took a little trip to Helados Ivon in the town of Jarabacoa, where we saw a bunch of cool little shops and tried some ice cream. The ice cream was different than the ones in the U.S., but it sure was good!
After that we headed back to our hotel for some free time. We went outside under a pavilion and started playing cards. We started by playing Uno and Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, which are two different card games. We then started to play a card game called Spoons, and we got almost everyone involved. We all had a great time playing cards and had a lot of fun.
After our break we headed back to the institute for dinner. We got to have plantain sweets and a traditional meat and vegetable stew called “sancocho.” After dinner we headed out for dance lessons. We all had a ton of fun dancing, and we learned traditional Dominican dances such as the salsa, bachata, and merengue. After that we played a game with our tour guide which was also a lot of fun. We then went back to the hotel for a little bit of free time and then headed to bed.
By Miles W. & Aarav S.
