The soccer team's new uniforms

Sosua Photos

Playa Chiquita in Sosua.

Masa enjoying the beach and the immense heat.

Chicken Caesar Wraps and Caramel Frappuccinos

This past weekend I headed north, way north. I went to collect some soccer uniforms and equipment I was able to get donated to my community soccer team, and along the way I stopped to visit a few volunteers. First I hit the town of Moca (in the province of Espaillat), which is the largest town near Heather and Sabrina. Moca is really freaking nice. They have a delicious bakery and a really cool coffee shop that has coffee drinks, smoothies, and cocktails. I had a mind-blowing caramel frappuccino (at first I was deterred by the word frappuccino, since I’ve never had such things back in the States, but it was a verrrry good choice). I stayed the night at Heather’s house in Juan Lopez. She’s got a cute, 2-bedroom place, which she JUST bought a stove for. I thought I lived on peanut butter sandwiches, but I have nothing on her.

Next, I headed up to Jimao, where Masa resides. He lives in a sweet 2-bedroom, second-floor apartment with real-life windows. His town’s got a really pretty (and clean) river that runs through it. It’s a hoppin place. After a quick 2^nd breakfast of boiled bananas and eggs at his host-moms, we headed up to Sosua, a beachtown up in the Puerto Plata province (pictures to come), where my uniforms were waiting. After some time walking around town, chilling on the beach (water so clear, I took various photos of my feet), and a Stateside-eque meal at Britannia Pub (Chicken Caesar wrap and chocolate milkshake), we collected not one, but two large duffel bags full of stuff for the soccer team! Thanks to Admiral Soccer for the generous donation. That night we went to Masa’s “sports week”, a sort of patronales. We rode the “death swings” and got hotdogs on a stick with mayo squirted all over it. Back to DR cuisine.

After the 8-hour trip with my various bags, I arrived home Monday night to find that my house is finally getting bars on the windows. 3 weeks after the incident (someone tried to break into my house through a shuttered window while I was trying to get my beauty rest), they have finally started working to put protective metal bars on the windows and around the entire patio. Very exciting stuff.

Exhausting but great weekend. And when I showed the captain of the soccer team the stuff, he started to cry. First big win down here in the DR! Now back to giving classes and forming youth groups, the usual stuff of my life.