Migrants,Beach, and Ice Cream!

Hello from the DR!

Today was the earliest we woke up. Quick breakfast as we had a long day ahead of us. We successfully did our headcounts in Spanish for the first time. With a great start to the day, we were all energetic.

We had a long drive across the mountains of the DR with beautiful scenery, hype music, and yummy snacks. Looking at street signs we were wondering why we weren’t following the signs of where we were supposed to be going (Puerto Plata). But we trusted the driver and, after a shortcut, we got to our destination safely.

We arrived in Sosua, Puerto Plata, and made our way to the Kerolle Initiative for Community Health, where we listened to Dr. Reginald Kerolle talk about how he started KICH. We learned from Dr. Reginald Kerolle about sugar cane industry, Haitian labor migration, bateyes, and the health necessities within Haitian migrant communities. We also learned about how to get involved with their projects as college students.

Majority of us got the opportunity to try Moro de Guandules which is a traditional Dominican rice and guandules (beans) dish. At the beginning some of us where hesitant to try it, but then we said “We came to the DR to try new things”

After lunch we arrived to our hotel for the night, a Victorian architecture style palace by the sea. Then we got ready for the beach. As Lideres del dia we got to give the safety talk for the beach.

Now we get to the best part of the day: THE BEACH!! The beautiful blue salty water, burning sand, and giant rocks awaited us! We walked along the shore and found some seashells and even made some new friends along the way. Some people ventured out to play volleyball in the sand. After so much beach fun we went to get ice cream, we got flavors like caramel crunch, chocolate, strawberry and coconut! As well as some frozen yogurt and smoothies. We came back to the hotel and although we had just gone to the beach we got some time to enjoy the pool and play some games like Marco Polo or simply hang out by the beautiful pool surrounded by palm trees with coconuts.

We watched the sunset at a deck and it was a breathtaking view. Then we ate some yummy dinner but before that we danced to bachata and salsa in front of the sea.

By your 3 favorite daughters: Kate, Maria, and Christian <3