Jarabacoa

Well, it’s Sunday night and we arrived safe and sound to Jarabacoa with no problems. Well, almost no problems. The bus that came to pick us up at the church had no air conditioner….which was not a fun idea in 80 degree weather with 38 teenagers and 8 adults who had to ride together for two hours. Thankfully, they remedied the situation and gave us another bus with perfectly functioning AC. We thank God for small blessings.

We arrived at “Pico Escondido” (the Young Life Ranch where we are staying) around 6pm and we found yet another blessing. Every year we have the exhausting task of loading up a pickup truck with all of our luggage and then trudging up a steep, somewhat rocky hill on foot. But not this year! This time our bus actually attempted and succeeded driving up the hill, taking all of us and our luggage too!! Any of my past DR members will tell you that that was a wonderful blessing that we most certainly are thankful for.

Upon arrival at the camp, we headed to our rooms (which overlook a beautiful mountain view), chose our bunk beds and settled in. The 10 Dayton girls, the 13 Dominican girls and the 4 female leaders all share 3 rooms with plenty of space to make ourselves at home. The 6 Dayton guys, the Logos guys and the 4 male leaders take the upstairs part of the ranch and they are split between 3 smaller rooms. Around 7:30pm, we gathered for dinner under a picnic shelter surrounded by beautiful tropical foliage. Dinner tonight was a traditional Dominican meal called “sancocho” (a broth based soup with chicken & pork on the bone, chunks of yucca and carrots, served with rice.) We also had one of my all time favorite Dominincan foods, “tostones” (fried plantains, which taste a lot like french fries.)

We ended our evening with some time together as a team in the upstairs of the ranch. One of the Logos leaders, Alejandro, lead us in a time of praise and worship (in both Spanish and English) and another one of the Logos leaders, Sigfrido, shared a devotional. Our time together tonight showed that the two teams are getting to know each other and bonding quite well, and I’m sure it will only continue to get better as the week goes on.

Thought I’d end today’s blog post with a couple of snapshots from the day…

On the bus headed to Jarabacoa

The Dayton & Logos Teams



Settling into our rooms

Picking out our bunkbeds

Dinner Time

Sancocho & Tostones



Hanging out after team devotions