Last night I got home at around 10pm after a day that started at 3:30am!! We had to wake up that early because we had to start our 6 hour drive to La Romana early enough to actually be able to spend the day there. La Romana is a city on the east of the island with quite a bit to offer! We went to La Cueva de las Maravillas (The Cave of Miracles...for you non-Spanish speakers ;) ), which are caves that are 25 meters underground with stalagmites and stalactites which were absolutely incredible!! (You should look up pictures if you get a chance! Our God is so creative!) We went from there to a town that was modeled exactly after a 16th Century Grecian town and was actually built by a man in 1979 as a birthday present to his daughter!! Quite a present, if I do say so myself! Following that, we went to a beach called Bayahibe that was so incredibly stereotypically Caribbean...with the practically white sand, clear light-blue water, and palm trees covering the beach...It was beautiful!
We left there and then made our 6 hour bus ride back home...the entire way back, we did what most do on long trips to occupy the time...WE ATE! We ate crackers and cookies and peanuts and granola and ice cream...I don't say this just to make your mouth water (although mine is!) I say this to make you aware of the volume of food we ate. As a result, everyone was saying that they hoped their families didn't make them dinner...everyone, that is, except for me! I may be a little tired of things like rice and beans, mashed platanos, yucca and fried cheese and salami, but I now constantly say to mi familia here that they have made me into a Dominicana...in that I want to eat...ALL THE TIME! I always eat breakfast now, usually get a midmorning snack at school, a pretty big lunch, dinner, then a second dinner usually after church! So...that long tangent to say that when I got home last night, my mama had quite a bit of food waiting for me, as I had hoped!
As I sat there eating, she casually let me know that she and my papa won't be going away this coming weekend...A bit of history here, months ago, my church planned to attend a marriage conference where they have all the couples in the church staying at a resort and attending workshops run by an American pastor couple...it's the first marriage retreat our church has ever been a part of and they have these pastors being flown in from the States to do it, so it's a pretty big deal...and it happens to be during the same weekend that I am leaving. My mama didn't even realize until half way through my trip here that they would be gone when I left, and when she found out, she was so upset, but we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would just have to say goodbye two days earlier than expected. Well apparently, that was not good enough for mis padres! When I asked mi mama why they weren't going and that if they were staying here for me, they shouldn't, she just said, "You are my daughter and you are worth so much more than this conference. Your papa and I discussed it, and there is no way we could not be here to say goodbye to our daughter!" At this point, I just started crying at the kitchen table, and my mama followed suit. It was a very precious moment that I will forever be etched in my memory!
Needless to say, although I expect this to be an extremely exciting week (I actually had trouble falling asleep the other night because I started thinking about how excited I was to be going home so soon!) I also expect it to be an extremely emotional week (I cried through a lot of church today, realizing all of the things I would miss about our Sunday morning service)... This trip and these people have been such an extreme blessing in my life...saying goodbye should be interesting...
Love you all and will be seeing you in LESS THAN A WEEK NOW!!!
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