Well we survived the first night with minimal bug bites thanks to our wonderful nets. The morning began bright and early with breakfast and orientation. The orientation provided lots of good background information on the Dominican culture and prepared us for the events later in the day. Next on the agenda was Spanish Mass. We were welcome by ILAC community and surrounding community.
The afternoon brought the first adventure into to city. We broke into 3 small groups to explore the city of Santiago by means of a scavenger hunt. Each group contained 1 spanish speaking individual however were very strongly encouraged to use them sparingly. We left ILAC and travel into town on a guagua, a spanish bus comparable to a 12 person passenger van without a door. Each team averaged 19 to 23 people crammed in a single van... with no air conditioning mind you. We finally made it to town and were off to complete, not compete, to accomplish all of our tasks. The items including negotiating the city, buying fruit and ice cream from vendors, and communicating with Dominicans. Our final destination was the town monument. We were able to climb the stairs to the top and view the city from a new prospective.
During our travels around the city we noticed the large number of motorcycles and mopeds utilized as the main mode of transportation. Up to 2 adults and 2 children were seen touring the town on a single moped.
We made it back to ILCA for dinner and reflection. We decided to enjoy our fresh fruit purchase, mangos, of which Jess had never experienced. However, not 1 PT student knew the best way to cut a mango so one of our fearless leaders, who is orignally from Cuba, had to teach us. Jess is still debating about a new found love for mango.
More updates to come.
Katie L, Andrea G, Jess W
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment