stops along the way: Dominican Republic: Day 1

The day after school got out, the three of us hopped on a plane that was bound for the Dominican Republic (well, by way of New York--and not just one, but two airports there--more on this later!).

We had the most AMAZING time introducing our (not so baby) boy to our old friends and our favorite places from the year we lived there. Our only complaint was time, oh!, the very very short amount of time we had to visit with our friends. I'll have to post these pictures in several installments since we took approximately two million. So here goes: the first day in the DR!

We landed at the Santiago airport around noon and picked up our sweet rental car (a Chevy Aveo, just like we used to get...sadly I forgot to take a photo of our wheels). From there we ventured onto the highway, with nothing but our memories to get us to the mountain where we would spend our first days. As we left the airport we remarked how little had changed. There was a new Sirena (think Super Walmart done Dominican) on the airport highway and we swung in to pick up some food staples and to get our first taste of YogenFruz (delicious frozen yogurt with tropical fruit blended in). One certain mama had built up an extreme level of excitement for her first YogenFruz, but then, her beloved son ate nearly the entire cup we got to share with the whole family while in the shopping cart. And I let him eat it gladly. You change when you become a mom, you do.

After we loaded up with some food and diapers and water, we took off for the mountain. It was a tad bit surprising that we remembered exactly the roads to take to get to El Llano, the little village where the school is. But after a nice drive (in a car! with air conditioning! not in a gua gua or the back of a pick up!) we arrived and were greeted by exactly the same scene we had seen every day for a year: our 84 year old farm friend Minin walking down the path to Cheima's house!

We visited with Cheima and Rita and Diego, ate Cheima lunch (those beans! that eggplant! that concon!), and walked around the school a bit. Before long, kids began flooding into the school playground because Rita had invited all of my students back for a little party. Nearly everyone came, many with their moms (and one dad!). So the rest of this post will be the photos of that party. Many of you who came to visit us will recognize these little beauties. They were 3 and 4 years old when I had them in the school. Now they are 7 and 8! And so smart! And SO MUCH BETTER at lines! And so funny! And they loooooooooved Soren! It was a super awesome reunion with so many of our friends from the mountain. A perfect first day in the Dominican!

Soren and Keuri playing. Keuri showed up first and then we ended up hiring a moto to bring him home when, two hours after the party, no one had come to pick him up! He is such a sweet kid.