Time Capsule Letter
¡Hola Sports Program!
We hope this message finds you well and rested from your intense two weeks here in the Dominican Republic! Junior and I wanted to update you on the projects that you all were working on while you were here a couple months ago. The basketball court in Caño Dulce is pretty much complete, maybe just a little bit of paint to finish it up.
The locals love playing on the new and extended court every afternoon. The other kids from Las Canas community where we had sports camp are also still talking about you guys. They appreciated getting to know you all through all the different sports activities you guys played with them throughout the program.
We hope you guys have had time to reflect (and rest!) from your experience here with us in the DR. We had some good times with you guys…
Alex rapping for us and being a trooper after running/falling down Mount Brisón…
Lex winning at Nun and all the other card games…
Harrison catching all the (HUGE) waves at our local beach like a pro…
Lucas smashing everything in sight and always volunteering to be the Leader of the Day…
Max making best friends with the kids at the sports camp and spitting his Spanish game in the community…
Drake getting “American” braids and showing off his table drum skills…
Deja holding her own as the solo girl on the trip and showing the boys up at headstands…
We enjoyed playing Kemps (or Kimp, depending on who you ask), choi di dee and Uno and the competitiveness it brought out in us all.
We hope you learned a lot with us and see brightness in your futures.
WEEZY OUT!!!
-Marie and Junior
Click here to jump down to the most recent posts!
Sunday June 16, 2019
Good Evening from the DR!
All seven students have made it safe and sound to Las Canas, Dominican Republic. Deja and Max were the first to arrive so they had the opportunity to not only walk along the ocean but do a beach clean up at the same time! Talk about being productive! We ate a good hearty meal of chicken, French fries, salad, and fruit for dinner before going over orientation and community ethics as a group. Everyone is tired after a long day of traveling but they are in good spirits and are excited about tomorrows community project at the local school. Here are a couple of pictures from todays activities. We look forward to updating you all on these next two weeks in the DR!
All the best,
Marie (International Director) and Junior (Local Director)
Monday June 17, 2019
Hey Everybody out there!
Fun fact, we have survived Day 2 and it was awesome! Today we went to a local school and painted a basketball court, it was really fun to be around everyone while working really hard under the sun. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were AMAZING. We had eggs, fish, rice, lasagna, and fresh fruit.
After dinner, we had an activity talking about the seven elements of human security (the partnership organization we work with in the Dominican Republic, 7E). We then had a ’speed dating’ activity where we got to know each other a lot better in a short amount of time! Our first two days have been great.
Leaders of the Day,
-Lucas and Lex
Tuesday June 18, 2019
Hola, ¿Cómo estás?
Done with Day 3! Today we helped start to expand a basketball court in Caño Dulce. We mixed cement with dirt and shovels. After all the hard work, we came back and had a good lunch. We then played different sports with the locals like basketball, soccer, and baseball. We walked back to the lodge by the beach near the lodge. Once dinner came around, everyone was pretty tired from a long day of work. Before we went to bed, we had a debate activity that got pretty heated! It was about the Dominican Republic and Haitian relations, it was really cool.
Wish us luck tomorrow for our surfing lessons…
Leaders of the Day,
Lucas and Deja
Wednesday June 19, 2019
Today was a delightful adventure. We began our day by attempting to conquer the waves of Las Canas Beach. After surfing, we walked back to the lodge where we munched on chicken with a side of rice, it was muy delicioso! After lunch, we took a guagua to Caño Dulce- a beautiful community 5 minutes away from the home base. Here we worked with the locals to extend their community basketball court.
After our service project, we had some free time to play cards and catch up on some sleep. After dinner, we watched a documentary about athletes in developing countries competing in different sports. It was really interesting. This concludes another spectacular day in the DR.
-Alex and Lucas (yes, day 3 of Lucas being Leader of the day!)
Thursday June 20, 2019
Good Evening,
So today we ate French toast and fruit. After breakfast, we proceeded to Dudu Lagoon 45 mins away from our home base. We jumped off a small a cliff and swam in crystal clear water. After that, we had a delicious lunch that consisted of rice, beans, spaghetti, chicken, and salad.
After lunch, we went to Playa Preciosa (which translates to Precious Beach). We swamis the ocean, played soccer, and bought gift for our fiends and family back home. We came back for dinner and ate a big dinner at 6. Later, we had discussions about sports controversies and other topics. We had a wonderful day and will talk to you all tomorrow.
Leaders of the Day,
Max and Harry-son
Friday June 21, 2019
Hello Parents,
Today we surfed again and we were looking a lot better than day one, we caught some waves! We also had our second day of sports camp and we think that the local kids are really enjoying it as much as we are. Tonight was taco night for dinner and we loved it, muy rico. We are looking forward to hiking Brisón tomorrow. Will send pictures soon!
Saludos,
Lucas and Lex
Saturday June 22, 2019
Hello everybody,
Today we woke up early, had breakfast, and drove an hour to our destination. We hiked up a huge hill, very green and beautiful, with cows and chickens and roosters. It was a nice community, but very far away from everything else. We learned about the human securities that these people lacked in the community. We stopped by the super market on our way home to pick up snacks and exchange money. We were very tired from the hike so we came back to the lodge to rest, eat dinner, and watch a documentary. We are excited to rest and go surfing tomorrow.
Adios!
Alex and Deja
Sunday June 23, 2019
Good Evening,
Today we woke up at 8, had fruit, cereal, eggs, and toast for breakfast. After that, we went to go surf with our instructor. We ran into the water and played games on the shore and laughed a lot. We came back to the lodge for lunch and ate rice, beans. And fish. We then played basketball against the locals at sports camp. We drove to the beach to do a beach clean up for an hour. Had some free time for a little to play cards and hangout out. Then we ate dinner at 6. At night we had an activity called Human Obstacle Olympics, where each of us had a disability and we learned to work through it.
Leaders of the Day
Alex and Drake
Wednesday June 26, 2019
Good Evening everyone!
This morning we had a wonderful a breakfast with potatoes, eggs, toast and lots of different fruits. After that, our surf instructor had us go on a skateboard to teach us different surfing techniques to move our hips. We then got in the water to try to catch some waves, even though they were smaller today. In the afternoon, we had lunch chicken fried rice with, fried yuca, salad, and fruit. Then we went to sports camp, there were a lot of locals there today so we were able to have a good game of basketball and baseball.
On our way home after the camp, we walked on the beach to the lodge. After free time, we had a delicious dinner that consisted of chicken, fries, eggplant, plantains, fruit. When it was time to do our capstone project, we broke up into two groups. We had to plan to facilitate games with the locals for our last day of sports camp tomorrow (capture the flag and TAPS). Wish us luck tomorrow because we will need to get over the language barrier when explaining our games!
-Leaders of the Day
Deja y Lucas
Hello Everyone,
Today we woke up, had breakfast, and went to another beach to go check out some local surfers. It was cool to see a bunch of different age people catching waves. We then came back to the lodge and ate a big lunch. After lunch, we had our final Sports Camp day with the local neighborhood kids. We played ‘TAPS’ with them and then ‘Duck Duck Goose’ which they really liked. We finished the camp with a game of baseball which was really fun. After camp, we had free time and then had a delicious dinner. We had a presentation on how to continue being a Global Citizen and then we had a talent show which was funny. To end the night, we all played cards and showed each other magic card tricks. It was a good day, but we are looking forward to snorkeling tomorrow!
