Kids Across America Higher Ground - Friday
Today we started our day by visiting the Conani Orphanage. For some this was the first time visiting an orphanage, let alone one for disabled children. It opened the eyes and hearts of the youth. As tears of sorrow mixed with compassion streamed down faces, our minor issues did not matter any more. We took hold of the promises of God that He will transform our bodies when He returns. Although we could only spend 30 minutes with these children, we embraced the moment when we would soon see them whole and complete. We also had our free time day today and went sightseeing and shopping. Christopher Columbus set up a fort and home in Santo Domingo so we saw some of those sites. We also saw a church from the 1500’s. Shopping was a whole new experience for many of the youth as they were able to barter for their goods. Many got some great deals, and several were too scared to ask for less. We tried our best to help everyone get the best deal possible and our translators were indispensible in this process. The hard thing to handle was EVERY shop you went into, if you even looked at anything, they immediately started pulling out things to show you and tried to pressure you into buying. Many of the youth learned how to say NO THANK YOU and really mean it!!
And have we mentioned the driving here? If you haven’t been to another country and experienced their driving, then you don’t know the meaning of road rage. Almost everyone has dents, knocked out headlights, bashes and crunches all over their cars. No one really obeys stop signs or stop lights, they just honk through the intersections and the biggest vehicle pushes its way through. Notice the picture of the police car . . . that is one of the better ones.
