week 30: finally a break (january 5-11)

el día de los reyes: the holiday season finally came to an end this week with three king’s day (the epiphany as we know it). in many latin american countries, as well as the caribbean and spain, three kings day is celebrated even more than christmas… and while our kids received a few gifts on christmas, it is the tradition to exchange gifts on this day, reminding us of the gifts the three kings brought to Jesus. for this nph home, though, this day is even more special, because it is also the anniversary of when the house began. this year we celebrated the sixth year of nph-dr! we began the day with mass with the bishop, followed by some games and a presentation in the school. we then all shared lunch outside and afterwards the chicago group passed out the gifts they had brought for the kids. later in the day we finished up the soccer and volleyball tournaments that began back when school ended in december. none of my teams made it to the finals, but we all had fun watching. as fun as advent, christmas, new years and three kings were… they were a lot of work and it’s nice to know that we’ll get a little break now.

vacation w/syd: since i worked basically straight through the past 4 weeks without any break (since lex, kylie and leah were here), i was able to get an extra day off for my free weekend this week, which was really great because my friend sydney came to visit! i picked her up on public gua-guas at the airport in punta cana on wednesday afternoon and we began 4 days of adventures in the dominican. we headed up to this peninsula called semaná, on the northeast coast of the island. ever since i’ve been here i have been hearing how the prettiest beaches in the country were here on this peninsula… and they definitely were... just these gorgeous white sand beaches with beautiful blue water. and the best part was that there was hardly anyone there! we went to one town on the east side of the penisula called las galleras and then to another town on the west side called las terrenas. the weather was beautiful (aside from a little rain here and there), the water was perfect and for the most part, we had all the beaches to ourselves. it was amazing! it is however still the dominican republic, so we did hve our fair share of adventures… from crazy gua-guas and rickety ferry rides to seeing cows on the beach to eating breakfast with a donkey and walking for miles and miles because we are lost and no one could seem to tell us where we should go… sydney got to experience both the beautiful and crazy sides of this country. she learned to wonders of public transportation, how to sleep with the never-ending bachata music and the roosters that never seemed to learn how to crow at the right hour and how every day here can be an adventure and some days you are just happy to be alive! but all in all we had a great time and definitely have some memories to add to our list. thanks for coming sydalin!


"either we see the divine image in all created things, or we don't see it at all." - richard rohr