Welcome to photo blog #1 🙂 This is my first attempt, so it’s a really long one since I’m excited to post pictures for you all!
This is how it all started…riding in the back of a truck on the way up the mountains from San Juan to Padre Las Casas. So. Much. Fun.
This is our first team picture in the DR. From the left: Jessica, Morgan, me, Annie, Amber, Amanda. It’s a little blurry but I still like it 🙂
Bienvenidos a la clase de Inglés! (Welcome to English class!)
Who knew I would fall in love with these kids so fast?
They’re hilarious.
This is Natalia. She is the cutest!
Seriously, these girls are amazing. They wrote all of our names and theirs, and if you read the captions on the board, it says “Amigos por siempre,” which means “Friends for always,” and “No lo boyen, por favor,” which means “Don’t leave, please.” Love.
This is Emmanuel, but I like to call him Manny :). He is 14 and one of the most genuine, friendly boys I have ever met. He reminds me a lot of my brothers, and he always looks for us to say hi and give us high fives at Compassion and church.
What would a photo blog be without a couple fun door pictures? 🙂
This was the day we climbed a mountain in Padre Las Casas.
This is Mayi, our translator. This girl is amazing and rocks my socks off. I’m going to blog more about her later…
This is Dora. If you want more explanation…read my previous blog. Heart melter.
This weekend we visited a town higher up in the mountains called Las Lagunas. Absolutely gorgeous. (Dad, you’ll be proud of me, because I actually got up early to see the sunrise. Yes, I know. I did it! 🙂 I hiked a mountain at 6am. I’m proud of myself, haha!)
I even held a real, raw coffee bean in my hand this weekend, and went hiking a couple times through the mountains. This land is full of lush green avocado, lime, banana, and passionfruit trees, and everywhere you look there are coffee plants (at least in the mountains). It makes me want to start my own coffee business…I love it.
As you can tell, it’s really beautiful here. We’re loving it.
P.S. I have about $1,100 left to go to be fully funded, which is AMAZING. If any of you would like to give, let me know.
1 week left here in Padre Las Casas, and on October 1st, we’re off to Haiti! Craziness!
Lots of love, y’all!!!!
-Jess 🙂