We woke up in Santo Domingo Saturday morning, packed up our things, and hopped on the bus one more time before heading to the airport to travel home. We spent the morning in the capital, sight-seeing, stopping in a few shops, and grabbing ice cream.

After a long, emotional day we are in Santo Domingo for the night. We will take a short tour of the capital tomorrow morning, say our final goodbyes, and begin our travel home.

It was a hot day and we worked hard! The three groups rotated worksites today. The crews continue to work after we end for the day, so when we arrived this morning, both latrine sites had foundations laid for us to begin building. Youth learned how to mix cement and lay it along cinder blocks.

Today we began three of our jobs: building two latrines and painting a home. We split into three groups. Two groups dug trenches for the foundation of the latrines and built parts of the structure.

This morning we attended church at Congregación Cristiana Restaurando Vidas (CCRV) in Barahona. CCRV is a church led by the in-laws of Franklin, a friend of Kristin’s as well as past St. Luke D.R. mission trip participants. Franklin greeted us each with a joyous smile and hug making us all feel right at home. For Quentin and Will S. (our two returners) the reunion was filled with laughter, big hugs, and wide smiles!

From July 22 to July 30, ten high schoolers and four adults from St. Luke will be serving our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Dominican Republic through an organization called Joshua 1:NINE, guided by our trip coordinator and J1Nine president, Kristin Thompson.