After a fun excursion to Jarabacoa, we have arrived back at our host village in La Guazara. So far, we have completed 10 houses. Yesterday morning we started the floors of the biggest house we will be working on. Later in the afternoon, we took a break and went swimming at the community pool where we enjoyed cooling off, hanging out with locals and listening to music. For dinner that night, Lily made some delicious empanadas for her independent project. We hung out with locals after we ate and played games on the basketball court at the school where we are staying.

Today, we split into two work groups, one to finish the big house and the other to start another smaller house. While working later in the morning, a storm came through and eventually it started raining so hard that we had to stop work for the day. That afternoon, we tried to watch the France vs. Belgium World Cup semifinal game at one friend Carlos’s house but due to the storm, the cable and internet weren’t working. Luckily, we caught the last 20 minutes of the game. In our group, we have two students from France, Carla and Arsene, and one student from Belgium, Noor, so the stakes were high and there was lots of internal excitement for both teams. In the end, France won 1-0 in the semifinal game. Now it’s down to France to play either England or Croatia (depending on which team wins their semifinal) in the final game this Sunday. We plan to watch it – hopefully the weather will permit!

Tonight Noor made a local stew called asopa’o for her independent project and after dinner, Arsene planned to host a 4 vs. 4 soccer tournament for his independent project but with all the rain, the tournament evolved into an arm wrestling match which was quite hilarious!

We have our longest stretch of work this week (five consecutive days until our next weekend excursion) but we will have a break tomorrow afternoon as we plan to go to the beach for Lily’s birthday and then out to dinner to celebrate! Let’s hope the weather clears up!

-Tyler and Phoebe