Week 4 in the DR

Monday we had school off for a holiday which was so so nice!  We really have been spoiled lately with days off and time to go on little trips!  We decided to use Monday to take the 45 minute guagua (bus/van things here used for public transportation) ride to Cabarete beach! On our guagua ride there we met a man named Ernesto (Ernie).  He sat right in front of us and turned around chatting with us in Spanish for a little bit, wondering why we were here and where we were staying and everything.  Then he said "Well that was fun! I'm a translator here and just wanted to mess around a little bit to see if you guys knew any Spanish".  It was so fun to chat with him after that, he chatted our ears off about how he translates for pastors and different programs that he helps with that do similar things as us around here.  He even said he would come stop by our house in our little neighborhood with some of his friends in a foundation he helps with.  It was so fun to talk to a Dominican in English, I love meeting people around here and it makes it even easier to do so when they speak English :) We snuck a few pictures of him for memories.

Cabarete is a little bit past Sosua, where we went a few weeks ago! We loved Cabarete so much because it had the cutest shops and cafes lining the streets of this small little town.  The beach itself had way calmer waves than Sosua and was perfect to just relax on and lay out in the Sun!  Plus there was a cute old lifeguard tower that was a fun backdrop for pictures!

Before we headed to the beach we stopped by fresh fresh cafe, which everyone from past semesters told us was a must-go place to eat.  We wanted to just look at the menu before we went to the beach so we knew if we wanted to go back for lunch, but we ended up caving and getting nutella and banana crepes because they sounded SO good and were only 150 pesos (like 2-3 dollars).  They were so yummy, so pretty and hit the spot.  Nutella tastes like home :)  And of course we had to go back for lunch for the freshest smoothies and a yummy lunch!  We sat in the cutest little booth while we ate, and the cafe is filled with shelves of oils and beauty products.  It felt like a hipster cafe from the states, we LOVED it!

Tuesday and Wednesday were our only days teaching for the week since we had our 4-day weekend vacation this weekend!  Tuesday I actually ended up running around town to different hospitals with one of my friends who was sick, but Wednesday flew by even though the kids were extra crazy that day.  After school Wednesday I had to run with my friend to pick up her results of one last test, and then when we got back we wanted to walk to get some pineapple and bananas from the fruit stands in our neighborhood!  Angel (bottom right picture) was riding his bike outside of our gate and wanted to come with us, so we walked through the streets to go get fruit and stopped and said hi to some cuties playing outside!  We spoiled Angel with a Coke, a banana and a piece of pineapple.  He is so sweet and you can tell that he just wants to be around us teachers and hang out with him.  Love that boy!

This sweet girl is always locked in this gate in front of her house whenever we walk by.  We think that her parents go to work all day and lock her up by herself all day, we never see her outside of the gate and never see anyone in there with her.  It breaks our heart every time.  She always yells "Hola!!!" as loud as she can and always wants us to come over and hold her hand through the gate.  These kids are in such hard circumstances, and we try to show them love any way we can.

Now we're off to spend the weekend in Santo Domingo!  We are so so excited!