Update for Day 7 and 8

Monday - Day 7
This was a very special day. We woke up early, had breakfast and were off on a bus by 9:00am to the beach. Both Madina's family and Fran's family joined us for the day. Neither of these families had ever been to the beach before. Both families had children ranging in ages from 1-13 years old. It was a really fun day playing on the beach with the kids, laying in the sun, drinking pina colada's from a hallowed out pineapple, eating a very yummy lunch (fresh fish, rice, salad, fries, and soda), riding on a banana tube behind a boat and shopping for gifts at the local souvenir shops. After the beach we headed out to eat dinner on our way back. We ate pizza, which strangely enough pizza is huge in the Dominican Republic. We saw lots of pizza places during our entire stay in the DR. Once we were finished with dinner we headed back to our dorms in Santiago. When we arrived home their was a group of the GO staff waiting for us to tell us about how we can support them once we leave and to thank us for all of our hard work. This was also a time for us to say good bye and thank you to both Madina's family and Fran's family. What a special night it was. Many of us spent the end of the evening unpacking our bags to make sure we left all that we had brought with us with the intention of donating it.

Tuesday - Day 8
This morning we got a little extra sleep (30 minutes) before we had to be at breakfast. I think many of us still woke up early to pack our bags for our flight home. We prayed before breakfast and then enjoyed our last morning eating breakfast at our dorms. We gave a special thanks to the DR women that cooked for us our entire stay. Boy were they good cook's. In fact many of the women wanted to get their recipes to bring back home and cook for their families. After breakfast many of us went to a cigar museum to see how cigars are made in the DR and to be purchase some. I was happy to be able to purchase the worlds best cigars for my brother to give to his groomsmen at his wedding. He doesn't know this yet, but if he reads this blog he'll know......fun surprise for him.

Eventually, we made it back to the dorms, loaded our suitcases and were headed off to the airport. Everyone made home ok, with the exception that both Bethany and Zoirida missed their flight in New York and had to stay the night and catch a flight out the next day. The rest of us from CA almost missed our flight in New York, due to our connecting flight being a hour late. You should have seen us running through the airport (it was kind of fun). Just as we arrived to the gate I heard someone say we have to leave, close the doors, don't let anyone else on the flight. At this time we were still waiting on about four more people from our group to arrive at the gate. The good news is we all made it on the plan and home safely.

Praise be to God for such a great trip. I hope we were all able to come home changed and live a changed life from this experience.