ARTS,DANCE & ICECREAM

Good morning from your day 3 leaders Melanie, Amitai, and Alif!

We started the day off with a breakfast of cereal and local fruit. Then, we headed over to the house of a local sculptor, called Dario “El Gato” Victoriano by the locals. El Gato specializes in masks honoring Taino heratige and makes masks for the town’s Carnival festival. He gave us clay and let us create our own sculptures, which he later created molds of using paper-mache and donated to a local school. He was a helping hand, that was able to deligate his time between all of us. He also graciously welcomed us into his home with open arms, allowing us to feel like we were at home, away from home.  

Then, we came back to the hotel for a delicious lunch of stew chicken, rice, corn, and coleslaw. Next, we walked over to a local dance studio where the teacher, Paul Rosado, taught us to dance merengue, salsa, and bachata. He started off simple, but by the end everyone was dancing like a native! He even let us pick some of the songs we danced to. A lot of us felt at home with the dancing, showing sides of ourselves that our peers had never seen! There were some points where the sound of the rain (and hail) on the tin roof was louder than the music, but we danced through it. We had a lot of fun! 

After the rain cleared, we got some ice cream and popsicles from a local Bon shop. Then, we came back for some free time at the hotel. Some of us stayed, some went to the store, and some went to the park to play basketball, volleyball, and soccer with people from the neighbothood. We were back by 7 for another delicious dinner of lasagna (the dominican way), bread, and caesar salad. We finished our day with a nightly meeting and got ready for bed! 

Melanie – Dancing today made me miss you guys, I hope to see you soon. I love you mom and dad! And Elijah and Chris. Also please tell us who won love island season 7?! 

Alif – Please take care of my cat! I love you guys! See you soon! (don’t touch my room)

Amitai – thank you to my family and friends for the comments, u guys are the best and i cant wait to see u guys again!

Thank you to everyone who commented, big love from us in DR

Melanie, Amitai and Alif, Signing Off!!