Sunday was filled with beautiful scenery this past weekend. We started off our day by having breakfast brought to our villa by a worker and his wife from 3 Mariposas Montesorri, which was absolutely delicious! After breakfast we started our day by going to see beautiful waterfalls in Jarabacoa. The coolest fact that I learned while I was there was that one of the waterfalls was used in a Jurassic Park movie, which are one of my dad and I’s favorite movies. The scenery was just breath taking, and so was the fact that we had to walk across suspension bridges to get to the beautiful waterfalls! Not going to lie, I was pretty terrified because of how much they moved around but we all made it safe and enjoyed the gorgeous view of two waterfalls. After viewing the waterfalls, we then went to a beautiful restaurant that over looked the town of Jarabacoa. Once we finished our delicious desserts at the restaurant we continued to make our way to see a monument of Trujillo, who was a very cruel ruler in the Dominican Republic. The monument was in a beautiful location that over looked the entire city of Santiago. The monument contained several statues of the men who helped to fight against and kill Trujulio, along with a brief description of what each one of them did. The history of this place is truly amazing. The courage of the people involved in taking down a man that followed the same tactics as Hitler is inspiring. How scary it must have been to be living in such horrible circumstances. We were very fortunate to have an excellent guide on the trip, Ed from 3 Mariposas Montessori. He was able to give us so much background on what these people went through and it made the experience even more impactful. It made me very interested in doing some digging around myself and get to reading different books that were written about these hard times in the Dominican Republic. After learning even more about the beautiful people of the Dominican it makes me value this experience more than before. I will miss the kindness and lively personalities of the people here. There has not been a single day here that I walk down the street and am not greeted by the brightest smiles or a genuine HOLA! Not that people are not friendly back in the states but here it is such a different atmosphere of just pure happiness and selflessness. There is no hesitation by these people to give you the shirt off their back, even though it may be the only one they have. This week while at my host family’s house, another student mentioned that she liked the bracelet that the son was wearing. Without hesitation he took off the bracelet and offered it to her, and he is only eight. It’s so incredible to be surrounded by people who are such a blessing. One thing I will never forget here is the relationships that I have made with the children at the school and my host family. Though I have only been here for 16 days, the bonds I have formed with these people I truly feel is unbreakable. It saddens me to know I can’t take them all back with me to show them my world because they have welcomed me into theirs with open arms.
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