DR Trip Day 7

Friday was our last day at DREAM. We arrived there at 8 and set up our experiments for the day, and made a thank you poster for them to help color. This was the day before their four day Independence Day weekend, so the kids were preparing for their special ceremony at the end of the day. The theme for the day was reviewing and reinforcing what we had taught this week, and we had chosen some favorite activities from the week to repeat - the effect of trash on water, density layers, and properties of water. Our sessions were a bit shorter since they had their ceremony to prepare for, but we got to end each group with some poster coloring and goodbyes. After both groups, we had an excellent debrief with Nicole, then watched their Independence Day ceremony, followed by some more goodbyes. It was an emotional day for us. Our students brought such incredible enthusiasm to their challenging task of teaching science in Spanish, and the Dominican kids brought amazing energy and warmth. The combination was magical.

 After one more Dominican lunch prepared by Maribel, we headed to Playa Grande, a beautiful beach an hour east of Cabarete. Some swam in the surf, some shopped the vendors, some got pineapple juice served in pineapples, and all enjoyed a spectacular afternoon.

 We then headed to Wilson’s near Cabarete. The experience starts with the animals in their small zoo. Kids got to hold a tarantula or a lizard (a few), saw larger lizards and crocodiles, and met Wanda the goose.

 We then loaded into a boat for a relaxing cruise down the river to Wilson’s beach restaurant, where everyone got to explore the beach and drink from a coconut.

We had a delicious dinner buffet of salad, rice, beans, chicken, fish, pasta and plantains, and a cake for dessert to celebrate Danny’s birthday - Feliz Cumpleanos!

We crossed back over the river to where our bus was waiting, and had our first real hiccup of the week as the bus got stuck in the sand. After a 20 minute delay at the beach, we were rolling again. We stopped to leave our backpacks at the hotel and then went to town to get ice cream. We capped the night off with a walk on Cabarete Beach and a late curfew of 1130.