November 1st-5th

The week pretty much consisted of teaching and cleaning. Jane and I decided to take on the project of cleaning our school supply room. It was more work than I think we anticipated, but after about 30 hours we were finally finished killing ants, sorting supplies, making lists, being eaten by bugs, and going through endless bags of junk. We just hope it stays semi organized because it took us so long. A not of the girls thought we were crazy, but everyone was grateful when it was all said and done.
Saturday the 5th was a crazy long day. It was our trip to Samaná.

It started at 4:45am when we all got up to go out and meet the bus. We all got on and started our journey with a word of prayer. In the prayer she asked multiple times for our safety and for no harm or accident to come upon us. For some reason I felt uneasy after the prayer, but I brushed it aside. The bus ride was about five hours, but we had a party with music on the way there. The speakers at one point started buzzing and we had to pull over and turn off the bus to get it to stop. We made it to the beautiful Samaná bay and climbed on a boat to head out to the Island. The boat ride was really cool and the island was beautiful. The water there is an amazing turquoise blue. While there one of the girls tripped and scraped her leg and another fell and stepped on a sea urchin. The urchin had to be removed by some Dominicans, but the poison from it has caused lots of pain. We left the Island and headed back to the bus. It rained on us a little on the boat, but rained even more when we got back in the bus.
We set off and started heading towards Laguna Dudu. On the way there we had a big dance party in the bus, it was so fun! We got there and it was still raining on us, but we paid to go in and swim anyways. The lagoons were absolutely breathtaking. They have this zip line that drops you from like 50 feet into the water. It was super sketchy. When the first girl went one of the girls, who was standing by videoing her, got her foot caught in the rope and was dragged almost off the cliff. It was so scary! I went down and was taking video of the other girls when our driver, and good friend, went down. He landed on his butt and when he surfaced he wasn't moving. The people there swam out to him so fast and brought him to the side. He was still conscious, but his back was hurt. I watched them all scramble to get him in a comfortable spot. Honestly I don't think they should have moved him much at all, but they did. Miraculously they got him up and helped get him back to our bus. At this point all the girls were back in the bus and everyone was silent. All we could hear was the pouring rain and the five people up front helping David. The silence broke when Kim suggested we say a prayer. Everyone kneeled where they could in the bus and Kim offered an amazing prayer. Amarilis was brought to tears when she realized what we were doing. After the prayer it went back to silence and you could feel the spirit so strongly. That's when Amarilis got up(she is our coordinator, it's her son in law that was hurt) and talked to us. She asked if we truly believed he would be ok and if we believed in miracles. Then she asked if we trusted God and trusted that He can do all things. She called on the Lord for strength and for a miracle. Our miracles came little by little. They helped David into the drivers seat, because he was the only one who could drive the bus, and his pain subsides enough to get us going down the road. Amarilis then asked if we would sing some hymns to give him strength and courage. We started singing, but it was hard to keep everyone together. They asked if I would sing up front with the mic to help lead. We sang for probably two hours as he drove. Standing in front I could hear his grunts and groans every time we went over bumps. I was honestly afraid, but my fears subsided as we sang about Christ.
A little over halfway through the drive another driver met us and we moved David to another seat and continued on in safety. When we got to town the streets were flooding and it was still pouring rain. We met David's father and miraculously David walked by himself out of the bus and to the car. He even from not being able to move much to thanking us for our strength and prayers and walking off the bus. It was a miracle to say the least.
We had to run down flooded streets in the pouring rain to get home, but we all made it. I learned many lessons that day and hope the other girls here did likewise.