Thursday... According to Anne and Sarah

This morning we went on a neat tour of Santiago. Our first stop was the cathedral. We didn’t get to go inside because it was under renovation. A friendly man offered to give us his tour of the city. We went to a really cool museum with modern photography, and another photography museum with a water theme.

Our next stop was a folk art museum that focused on Dominican carnival masks. These wild masks were huge and showy and made of everything from buttons to cigarettes to glitter and jewels. Most found them very interesting, especially since the owner of the museum led us on a personal tour of the museum (which was actually an old house in the middle of the city). Our trek back through the streets of Santiago to the gua-gua (van) seemed to be especially hot, but we were all excited to take in the sights and sounds of the city. We returned to the cathedral to find a group of boys playing baseball on the steps. The photo-op was priceless.

Next we arrived at a Spanish Fort where Sara, Matt, Skylar, Sarah, and I took several pictures with the tanks and one of the guards on the site. We were about to get back in the gua-gua when we spotted see-saws and all took a turn before we ran back to the gua-gua and made our way to the Centro Leon.

When we arrived at the Centro Leon, we were all overjoyed to be welcomed by a blast of air conditioning. We were super sweaty and although the outdoor tour had been fun, the indoor museum was a nice change. We wandered through an exhibit about the Dominican Republic and as we looked at typical wildlife, historical artifacts, and read information about cultural traditions, we were all impressed by the how modern and thorough the museum was.

The real point of our Centro Leon stop was to see the process of making handmade cigars. We were hit with a wave of tobacco as we entered the room with several men at stations supplied with tools and lots of tobacco leaves. It was SO cool to watch them work like machines rolling the leaves together and setting them in molds to make their shape. The man who explained the process was really enthusiastic and let us smell different leaves to see the difference in their strength. This was definitely a high-point of the day-it was just so interesting! Of course… there was a gift shop in the next room, and we made some purchases. We were running late though, so we rushed back to the gua-gua and made our way back to the hotel.

The new gua-gua- came to get us from the hotel and we piled in (in our usual crammed fashion) and drove up to the church. A delicious lunch (as usual) was waiting for us when we arrived. It was fantastic (of course). As the post-lunch food coma set in, we were lucky enough to watch Jordan, an amazingly talented 16 year old, as he completed a pencil drawing of Jesus. We admired the finished work, even taking some pictures of it, but soon we had to shift our attention to getting pumped for VBS.

We walked in the door to the church, and were immediately were greeted by the smiles of the children waiting for VBS to begin. We did the Good Samaritan story and acted it out for the kids. We also did a couple coloring pages and some phenomenal songs.

After VBS the chicas made the most successful shopping excursion yet! The boys stayed at the hotel while we hit a clothing store, La Sirena, and the market. Everyone walked home happy with their finds-MUY EXCELLENTE!

Dinner was fantastic, and the showers after were even better. We successfully sang a 3-part harmony-which is incredibly notable-props to Denise for patience with our lack of singing capabilities.

Is tomorrow really Friday? False.