Anna Comes to Visit

Anna came to visit during her spring break, too! She and Nathan overlapped in their visit by a few days, and we all had a jolly good time. Of course, she put her time in at the preschool...here she plays with Yorki in the Block Room.

We found a few new students for the school, including the cutie on the left, Crislobi. She's quite awesome...

After a few days in the mountains, we went to the beach--this time to Las Terrenas, on the northern side of the Pennisula Samaná. It's a fun place to visit, because of the French pasty shops, the gorgeous, near-empty beaches, and Salto de Limon, a huge, amazing waterfall.

We rode horses to get to the waterfall.

All of our horses were pretty great. Especially Micah's horse, White Lightening, who was a real treasure. He liked to stop at all possible opportunities to munch on the foliage.

But that allowed us to scout local produce...can you find the pineapples growing in the picture above? We were pretty excited to make it to the top of the waterfall...

As were our local guides...

The evening light on the beach was gorgeous, and we feasted on fresh fish and strolled along...

We had a blast, Anna! Thanks for coming!

Nathan's Visit

We were delighted to host Micah's older brother, Nathan, for a spell in March. He's got a brand new baby girl at home, so we felt really lucky that he was able to spend some of his spring break in the Caribbean. Micah & Nathan spent a weekend in the capital, buying street food and flying kites in the malecón (the avenue that runs along the end of the Caribbean Sea). They, along with our friends Ruthie & Abby, met me at the airport (I was in PA for the weekend) in funny costumes. We had a good laugh, and the Dominicans likely thought we'd lost our marbles.

Nathan brought a ton of supplies for both the preschool and the hospital/clinic, and we had great time looking through all the new treasures. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated items, money, and time in making the projects we've been involved with a success...the kids are really loving all the new goodies!

Nathan spent a few days in the mountains, and he was a very popular man in the preschool. He fixed bikes...

And prepared papers...

And supervised the water play...
And helped to keep these kiddos in line...

One afternoon we hiked to Gurabito, a small town with a path to the waterfall. Our local guide, Maximo, kept us entertained, and dry (we experienced a few small rain showers).We didn't quite make it to the top of the waterfall, but enjoyed the exercise and scenery nonetheless.
Thanks for coming to visit, Nathan! We loved having you here!