June 15, 2013- Shelby Schlicht

Look out Bernardo its coming for you.

Yesterday I met a boy with a sad face at the community of Los Cocos. Today I got to see him again, his name sounds like wheat thin.. I’m not actually sure what his name is. It’s hard to communicate with the kids, but we make it work in mysterious ways. Today I concluded that ”wheat thin” was sad because his shoes were too small, so I thought to buy him shoes. As we went to the market, there were no shoes. The past two days I have been trying to make him smile, I did not succeed but Morgan did (fake smile). Once ”wheat thin” had to leave he would not let go of my hand. 

From Los Cocos to Cuesta Arena we played an intense game of amarillo with Kelly, Henry, Luis and Felix. Amarillo is a game where whenever you see anything yellow with wheels you punch someone in the arm. In our case it Dominicans against Americans and yes, we won.

In Cuesta Arena I have met quite a few cool kids. Like Maria del carmen, Miguel (goober), Joelle, Jordali, Angel, Daniela, Erika, and many others. Maria del carmen read to me quite a few times, and just under a year ago she couldn’t read at all. Daniela and I played ball everyday, for a while. I had a great time with all of them to say the least.

That was my day today, but this whole trip has been amazing. On the first day, we spent the whole day in Los Cocos just getting to know the kids. Through out each day, we have played with the kids, sang with them and managed to communicate. Helping with VBS has been hard with the questions the kids have asked, probably because they were asked in spanish.

Los Cocos and Cuesta Arena have taught be that you don’t have to have all the toys or assets to have fun and be happy. Many kids in Los Cocos have carved tops out of wood and can spin the tops in weird ways. In Cuesta Arena all the kids make toys such as balls and jump ropes seem so exquisite. All together my trip to the Dominican Republic has taught me to appreciate what god has given us.