Fruits, and Dogs, and Beaches, Oh My!

 Alexa has been in the Dominican Republic for 1 month!  Time flies!  She has seen and experienced so much just in these last four weeks.  This is a picture of the house she and all the teachers live in.  There is a gated cement fence around the whole house, with a locked gate.  This keeps out stray dogs, children, and other curious residents.  Most days children will come to the gates and call out for the teachers to come play with them.  At night the starving stray dogs will try to squeeze between the bars to get

to the garbage.  These dogs are bone thin and whine and cry in hunger.  Alexa often takes pity on them and throws them hot dogs.  When the girls want to buy fresh fruit they can walk down the street to the fruit trucks, which are actual trucks filled with all kinds of tropical fruit.  Many mornings a truck will bring a giant bunch of bananas to the street outside their house and the girls can come out and purchase bananas fresh from the tree.

The seller will cut off what they want right there! Alexa says they taste so good -- the fruit is sweeter and more delicious in the DR!  This little girl, one of Alexa's students, is standing outside her home holding her sibling.

This past weekend a group of 8 girls took a taxi, then a guagua (like a large van, crammed full of people) to Cabarete Beach, about an hours journey from home.  She said it was the best beach so far!  They enjoyed a delicious lunch with milkshakes!  The tropical smoothies are always a big hit when it is hot, which is always!  I have looked at the temperature in  Puerto Plata and the low is always a balmy 75 degrees, with the highs ranging from 80 to 100 degrees, with a realfeel far higher!  Hot and humid!

 Last night the townspeople lined the streets with candles to commemorate a 40 year man who was shot and killed.  She said it looked really cool.

This was the view the girls were treated to on their guagua ride home from the beach!