Last Day in La Piedra

Hola A Todos,

     With only 2 days left in the Dominican Republic, it is definitely bittersweet in that we are all missing home and but also savoring every minute we have left here.

Our first activity of the day was a baseball game with some of the locals. It just so happens that we were put up against a few members of the amateur league in La Piedra but we were still able to hold our ground... Kind of.

 

     After a tiresome morning of baseball, we invited the other players back to the Guanin community center with us for a well deserved lunch and an intense water balloon fight with all of the children. Even though we made over 200 water balloons, they definitely did not last more than 2 minutes in the frenzy of the fight. It was amazing to see the smiles on the children's faces with fists full of balloons and the chance to have some fun while also cooling off in the heat.

 

     Once things had dried off and settled down, we split up to tackle the last few tasks we had yet to finish. One group had a chance to walk to houses in the village and interact with some of the members of the community and learn about their living situations. Another group played a friendly game of volleyball with the baseball players and children from the Guanin center (luckily, we were more successful at volleyball than baseball). Others spent time teaching lessons to the local children in the classroom.

 

     Muchas gracias to Rehan and Roshni for spending the morning putting the top coat of paint on the UConn building we have been spending all week working on so that a few of us could start designing the walls with UConn logos. In the end, we all worked together to make the building look fantastic and topped it off with all of our hand prints. It was amazing to know all of our hard work has paid off and that our legacy will always be a part of Guanin history. 

 

     It was sad to have to leave La Piedra today after a really great day of sun, new friends, hard work and lots of fun, especially because we know that tomorrow we will have to say goodbye. On our way back to our host families, we stopped in the colonial district of Santo Domingo to get in some last minute souvenir shopping and get a last look around the city we have called our home through the last 2 weeks. 

 

 

Hasta luego!

 

-Melissa, Spo, Megan, and Andrea