sand. santiag. andddd. a million waterfalls.

helllllo.
so things here have been just moving right along and its crazy that i only have about a month left in this crazy/cool place. definitely there are mixed emotions about that. but recently i have been feeling good about being here for this last time but also i cant waitttt to see all of you and just hang out. so yeah. okay well this weekend was a great one and involved lots of swimming which is always good. friday i went with some friends to a beach that is about an hour and a half away. it was soooo pretty. here are some pics from that. i got an intense sunburn. i took a pic to show it but it was just gross looking so i decided against it...




so that was fun. the waves were seriously insane. like the biggest ones i have ever seen. fortunately i was only slammed into the sand once. not the most pleasant experience. but i will say there were entirely too many speedos slash people thinking it was okay to swim in boxer briefs. not okay. ever.
then came saturday. in the morning i didnt really do anything which was really nice just to rest. then in the afternoon daniel came from santo domingo and we wandered around the downtown area figuring out where he was staying and then getting some food for dinner. so that was fun and an adventure as always. then we met up really early on sunday and headed to the 27 waterfalls which we had heard lots of good things about, mainly via our travel books. it was soooo sweet. the whole time i wished everyone i knew could be there. sadly, i couldn't take pics of them because we had life jackets/helmets and were like swimming/jumping/sliding/climbing from waterfall to waterfall. it was soooo cool and beautiful. and fortunately, there were only a few times when i thought i might die. mainly when scaling a seemingly flat/slippery rock by a waterfall. and then to finish the great waterfall time. we took a motorcycle taxi thing back to the place to get a bus. this was our driver...look closely and you will see he has a wfu jersey on. what are the chances...


so yeah, that was quite an experience. and great. fortunately daniel didn't fall off the back of the motorcycle. that would have been a bummer.
now back to classes and santiago life. woo. friday i have a field trip to see the haitian/dominican border. i am real excited to see what it is like. it should be very interesting. k well i love you all and miss you and am really really really excited to see your face in person.
peace,
sal

pics. campo. neon walls.

so here are some pics from when i met up with emmaus people in santo domingo...





none of them were taken by me. because i didn't take any pics that week. which sadly reflects my picture taking discipline for most of my trip.

but i did take some pics when i went with my host parents to the campo (the rural area of the country) this weekend. saturday i went with them to their family's house out there and we spent the whole day there seeing lots of their fam and just relaxing. it definitely confirmed that the old people here are definitely my favorite people here. they are so so cool. granted i dont know what they are saying a lot of the time, they are still total dominators. things i learned this weekend that i would like to do/ have one day... first of all, growing your own food is just about the coolest junk ever. the thought of just going to your backyard and grabbing some plantains or oranges or whatever is out of this world to me. it definitely feels like the way we were made to live and eat. so i feel like one day i would like to grow some food. i dont plan on living on a farm, not that it wouldn't be so sweet, but i do want to get something out of my backyard. another thing, i hope to have a tin roof someday. when it rains it is the greatest sound and i love it so much. so yes, hopefully that will happen one day. well see. one thing i dont want that i discovered in the campo is tarantulas. eduardo macheted a tarantula that was in the cabinet when we first got there. fortunately, i only saw it dead. insane-o. so that was great. well i was going to add pics but it is taking forever/not working so those will have to wait.
basically, it was a great time.
so then on sunday, brie and i went with daysi and eduardo to their daughters apartment and hung out with the whole immediate fam, like their daughters and their fams. it was hilar and fun as always. overall, all the family time has been really good for me. it is definitely one of my favorite parts of being here and i hadnt seen a lot of the fam in quite a while. so that was really good as i have been missing home and friends and fam recently. but god always provides and always seems to surprise me. so yeah thats all i have for now. i got some serious medicine this weekend after daysi insisted a lot. and it is kicking in fortunately.
love and miss you all,
sal

things i miss. things i love.

things i miss:
1. you
2. puffy vest
3. the streets of winston salem
4. my black cut off yoga pants, its okay mom you can keep wearing them.
5. english.
6. emmaus/visiting friends from it
7. you
8. hanging out with friend where i live. such as my house or my old trip.
9. puffy vest
10. driving

things i love here:
1. yogen fruz
2. spanish
3. my campus
4. my host fam
5. the beauty of this island
6. cielo/nazaret and everything that comes with those places
7. cheapy cheap everything
8. pub trans
9. rest
10. no class on fridays.


some things i have been told recently/always:
cold (60 degree weather) is directly related to illness
drinking cold something right after hot something could screw up your insides
more big buildings makes the air cleaner
drinking after your meal is better for digestion, you should wait at least an hour

love you all and miss you all.

give thanks to the lord. for he is real good.

dear cyber world.
sometimes god does really awesome stuff. actually he always does. sometimes we just aren't watching for it. this past week friends from emmaus came to la repub for a mission trip in santo domingo with mission emanuel. the lord provided for me to go and join them and stay in the hotel with them and everything for the whole week. it was soooo great. such a perfect break from school here and just life in general. at first it felt a little weird because it kind of felt like the last 2 months had never happened and i was just living the regular life coming here in march and everything. but whatever. i got over that. so basically, we hung out a lot and laughed a whole lottttttttt. each day we got up real early and went to cielo and nazaret and worked on starting the foundations of a house there. my personal favorite thing we did was tie wire around rebar. it kind of felt like i was in a sculpture class. then one day we laid like a boatload of concrete which i was a total wimp about. but everyone else was super strong and tough about it. after that, we didn't do much work but mostly visited homes and played with kids. i had some great conversation with one woman that i have known for a while now which i am so thankful for. then on thursday, we went to the leprasorium which is always really encouraging and gives everyone good perspective on life. overall, the lord just gave me so much joy in being there and with friends. our god is a renewing god. so then on friday, through the spirit of the lord, we had an amazing night of just reflecting and worshipping him. he is good. then saturday they left. which was sad. very sad but okay at the same time. after they left, i decided to stay for the night in santo domingo with my dear friend carol. probably not the smartest decision because of homework and sleep but well worth it. daniel and i hung out in cielo and then ate with the family he lives with which was great. probably the funniest part of that was that after we ate, milanda the mom of the family insisted that i take a little nap and her sons bed who was at his university. i was like okayyy...so then when i got up later i walked out and he was sleeping on the floor in another room. hilarious. on to more important things. that night, i went with carol (my friend), her sister, daniel and our other friend emanuel to play pool. hilarious. in 3 or 4 games i only got one ball into a hole. yikes. its not exactly my specialty but it was still fun. so then sunday, i went to a fundraiser thing the church was doing which was pretty much a potluck except they sell the food. a great i idea i think. they made lots of money. so then later i said my goodbyes and came back to good old sant. thanks to god, i am really happy to be back. i thought i was going to really just want to be in santo domingo all the time, but it is just nice to be back in my home and in semi-regular routine. so woohoo. unfortunately, i am a little sick. not my fave. so if anyone finds a mechanism that can suck the snot and whatever else causes congestion out of a persons nose, please teleport it to me. the main thing i learned this week is the faithfulness of god and the way he alwayyyyssss answers our prayers. he loves us a whole lot. so walk in that today.
love you and miss you.
if you came here, please put your pics on facebook or something because i am a failure at taking pictures.
i will put some pics up once i get them from other people.
paz afuera,
salpal

wooooooooooooooo. sb 09.

helllllo.
so I just wanted to tell you, whoever you may be, that I am leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go to the beach for the night with our program. we are going to samana which is supposed to be real prettttty. there are like a billion whales there this time of year but because of the possible rainy weather we will not be partaking in the watching of whales. I am very sad about that. but I guess its probably a good idea. maybe rain makes the large animals go berzerk and we wouldn’t want to get knocked out of the boat. so I am sitting outside of our apartment and a huge spider/mosquito just went right in front of my face. I am not really okay with that. anyways, after that, on saturday, i am taking a bus straight to santo domingo to meet up with people from emmaus for the weekkkkk. i am sooooo excited to see them and pretty much can't wait. i am so thankful the lord has provided in so many ways for me to be there. so i will be there for the whole week. so if you think i am ignoring your emails or something, i am not. it just because i won't have internet for a while. which i am also excited about. anywho, i hope that things are going well in los estados. remember jesus loves you.
and so do i.
~salpal

no snow day. frogger. cook outs. count down begins.

there was a snow day wake today. no snow day here. really probably the opposite of a snow day. although i am not totally sure what that would entail. probably snow being sucked up into the sky. or just a warm day. whichever you prefer. but not much has really been going on around here which has been a good break and i have gotten lots of sleep. always a good thing. eduardo and daysi did have two cook out type situations with the extended fam which was really fun. they both involved eduardo dancing a lot and his son-in-law lip syncing to every song and doing his fair share of dancing. i love hanging out with them. it is always so so hilarious. especially his son-in-law juan who knows literally every musician ever. the other day we were at his house and he showed us his huge cases of purely '80s music. and then he showed us some highlights he had taped from the grammys. oh got to love him. so then last night, some of my friends and i went to a movie. bride wars. and while the movie was a little ridiculous i still loved it because it was in english. as for frogger, yes i am talking about the game that you may have played on your calculator or other electronic devices, someone in my class the other day compared crossing the street to it. and i am in complete agreement. although in this real life version, you only get one life so you have to be quick. anyways, on to more important things...there are only 5/4 days (i never understand how to do a countdown) until i see my dear wake friends that are coming to santo domingo for a mission trip. i will be meeting up with them on saturday nightish and spending the week with them. i am soooooooo excited!!!! wooooooooooo. yeah so that will be fab. other than that, not much is going on. today, i figured out that the gas station close to my house is super fancy and has a cafe/internet stuff too. so strange. i guess i should have known. wow. mosquitos are loving me right now. my tropical fresh OFF is not cutting it. well i hope all is well in the snow and/or not snow.
i miss you a lot.
love,
salpal

cielo...jazz...rest

hola hola mis amigitos.
i hope that you are doing good. life here is finally calming down. i just finished a group presentation in one of my classes and that should finish off any big assignments for a little while at least. praise god. i am so excited to just rest this weekend and not have to rush to finish a paper or something. as for this past weekend...i got to go to santo domingo and stay with my friends, lindsay and elliott drake who are missionaries there. it was so so great to hang out with them and see a little more of their day-in and day-out life. it was a good weekend of rest and fun times in cielo and nazaret. on saturday, i got to hang out with lots of different families in cielo. i don't really know what to say about it, the lord was just so faithful in my time there. he gave me a lot of joy in being there and among my friends. and thankfully i will be returning in about a week and a half to spend the week with the group of wake students coming with emmaus. i am sooooo excittttteeeeddd to see friends and have times of worship and prayer. anyways, so here are a few pics from the weekend...

this one is one of my new fave dr pics ever:



this is one of the sweetest little friends i have...notice the unicorn featured in most of these pictures (one of the little girls insisted that we take pictures with it, i didn't resist obviously):



these are the solo shots that were at high demand:
my personal fave is llamarlyn, the smaller 2-year-old, learning how to pose for pics. hilar...







so on sunday i went to church and then hung out in the neighborhood for a while and finished the afternoon off cheering for cielo's softball team as they dominated some other not as cool team.

this is a dude i saw scaling the coconut tree right outside of lindsay and elliotts house. no big deal:



then tuesday eventually came along and some of us went to a jazz concert thing at this really small bar/jazz music place. it was really fun and really really good playing of instruments. nothing like sitting 3 feet away, directly facing, the saxophone player. awkward eye contact was basically unavoidable. love it. alright now we are on/in/at today. my friend joe and i went to teach our p.e. class bright and early this morning but when we arrived we found a very closed looking school. so we decided to wander around a little and then just walk back instead of take a van thing. it was an overall good morning and allowed us to get some good exercise. and then the rest of the day hasn't really been anything too crazy except i got to talk to my dear friend molly b which was fab of course. as for things i am learning...god answers prayers. the little prayers, the big prayers. he is a faithful god. he always brings freedom.
may you find rest in him today.