It’s fun for both them and for me, and they wind up learning so much without even realizing! I can’t wait to see all the ways they’ve improved by the time the last day of school comes around!
Something else I’m looking forward to is hiking Pico Duarte in May! Pico Duarte is the highest peak in not only the Dominican Republic, but in all of the Caribbean! It is 10,125 feet high, and it typically takes about three days to get to the top and come back down. We will follow a guide and a mule who will carry all of our backpacks and food, and then we will sleep in tents and cook over a fire each night before continuing the trek.
What I am most excited for is the basketball court that my community and I are building in July! Each evening around 5:00 pm, the youth of the town gather at “the play,” a big open field, to play soccer, volleyball, basketball, and baseball. However, they don’t have the same structures or supplies that you may see at a field in your hometown. There are no soccer nets, no hard-top courts, no baseball diamonds, and just one volleyball net. Because of this, I proposed the construction of a community court to some of my neighbors, and of course, they agreed! We wrote a grant for $10,000, which has since been fully funded, and the court is planned to be constructed on July 7, 2025!
Thorn (What’s been hard?)
Most of my life here is pretty great, and I don’t have too many complaints. The roses and buds always outweigh the thorns, but of course, there are aspects of life here that are harder than others, and that’s okay! It’s all part of the process.
The first difficult thing is being so far away from my family and friends.
