Today was our R&R day to wrap up the trip and it was wonderful! We started out with a trip to Tres Ohos or Three Eyes, which is a set of underground pools in a large cave that has been turned into a national park. Movies such as Jurassic Park and Tarzan had scenes filmed here....and the last secret was there is a 4th pool in the cavern you take a boat to go see! Next it was off to the beach where we enjoy tiki huts for lunch and plenty of sun and surf!...

We moved from the rich of the poor to the poor of the poor today and through the meandering, pot-holed filled roads; saw first had how the less-well-to-do lived in the Dominican. Upon on arrival at the site, we walked across a garbage filled ditch with non-potable water--an uncomfortable sight for most of the team. We quickly unloaded and set up our site for the day and jumped in to our painting task at hand. We strategically approached the work and compli...

When we arrived on site today, we were introduced to chalky paint, quick dry caulk, and a sand shifter with holes in it. We scattered like a shot gun and stumbled our way through the morning. Roberto left the gringos to themselves to figure it out! Randy (aka Rod), Barb and Paul (yes, he's still alive) led us through front, side, and back end of this project today. Soon enough, the work became easy as the smiles came out and we let our passion lead us throug...

We started our day by going on a walking tour with Evelyn, seeing many 16th century sites, including a hospital that now serves as a breading ground for parrots. They continue to feed us large meals 3 times a day, all of us concerned with how hard we'll have to keep to not gain weight on this trip. The afternoon brought many lessons for us....how to drive in a country without stop lights and signs that say PARE (which is interpreted locally as slow down). We l...

Everyone was excited for our first day on the job! We were blessed in many ways, the first two when we arrived on site -- a cement mixer and surrounding mango trees providing tons of shade! With our midwestern roots and work ethic...and Paul.....we hit the ground running and the mason had a solid crew as well. For those of us who have served Habitat in Central America, we remembered the standard mix of water (1) ,cement (1) , gravel (5) and sand (7)...but we h...