Getting acquainted with Santo Domingo

Students spent the weekend of primero de mayo (Labor day) with families. Carrie and Alicia Montoya travelled to the interior with their respective families.

On Wednesday morning, the students were divided into small groups of three or four, to explore Santo Domingo in small groups, and then gathered at Casa Goshen. Each Wednesday, one of the groups will go to the feria (open market) to buy food, and then prepare lunch for the whole group. The groups also take turns preparing devotions and cleaning up. This first week Kate, Justin and Laura did a very good job preparing lunch and a dessert of arroz con leche (rice-milk dessert). It was delicious! After lunch we relaxed with a devotional time, games, or just talking and reading.

• Cory, Carrie and Abby engage in dominoes, the national pasttime.

Friday found us in the Ciudad Colonial studying the places where the Spaniards set foot soon after Columbus arrived, including a colonial residence, the Casa de Bastidas, (Kate, Mark, and Carrie in the courtyard), the Ozama fortress, the oldest Church in the Americas, and the house that Columbus' son Diego built in 1511.

• In a Franciscan church and convent, Kate, Alicia Montoya, Laura and Abby explored the underground chambers.
• We stopped at the Cafe Toledo for lunch. Merengue music is everywhere. Towards dessert some passing musicians inspired some of us to dance.