Pictures From Our First Full Day in The Dominican Republic



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Easter Sunday in the DR is wonderful

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We woke up on Sunday morning to find out that the Easter Bunny is alive and well in Cotui, and had left green plastic cups full of Easter grass and candy eggs at the doors of the eight students with us.  No hunting necessary!  We are breakfast and set out on foot to the center of town, about a 15-minute walk, and joined the many people filing into the Immaculate Conception cathedral on the town square.  We were ushered to seats right in front and to the side, where we could see everything.  The center seats in the first few rows were occupied by proud families and young boys and girls dressed all in white, there for their First Communion.  The altar area up filled with floral arrangements.  The windows were all open, allowing a warm but not oppressive breeze to fan us. The music started with several recorded songs, and the service began with the procession down the center aisle, priests and celebrants all in white led by young acolytes bearing the Bible, th...
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We're Ready For Our Trip - Packing Day Today!

With less than a week to go before our departure to the Dominican Republic, the excitement is building and the preparations are continuing on schedule.  Today is Packing Day!  We're all meeting at the Norwich Congregational Church to sort and pack the huge amount of material that has been donated for distribution in the DR.  We have tons of stuff:  toothbrushes and toothpaste, flouride for "painting" teeth, childrens' clothing and boxes of tee shirts for all ages, eyeglasses and sunglasses, and even some donated baseball equipment for young players in a country that is devoted to baseball. In addition to the practical aspects of packing all of this material into 50-pound lots for each of the travelers to bring in a checked suitcase, today's Packing Day is also an important opportunity for us to bond together as a group and begin the process of working as a team.  This will be the first time that all (almost all, save for one or two) of us are together.  W...
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Rain Changes Everything on Tuesday

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The heavy tropical rains started Monday night, and were still going strong Tuesday morning when it was time to leave the hotel at 8:00 a.m.  Our driver Glen, who is never late, was late.  He uses his bus to shuttle University students every day, and reported upon his arrival at 8:20 that classes were cancelled because of the threat of flooding. Days with a lot of rain can be like"snow days" in New Hampshire and Vermont, we would discover.  We set out for the village, making our standard two or three stops to pick up water, equipment and people.  The bus was completely crammed, with material on everyone's lap, and five suitcases full of medical and dental equipment in the back, in anticipation of a full day at the clinic. The largest river in the district is on the outskirts of Cotui, and as we crossed the bridge we could see a construction crew frantically pumping out an area where only yesterday they had been working on building a new bridge support....
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