Sarah en La Republica Dominicana: Campo Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
(Termondt Family Pic 2008)

It's been a rollercoaster for the past few weeks. I've been super excited about my parents coming, super busy building the outdoor bathroom and tying up ends, and also unfortunately trying to come to terms with the fact that I won't get the chance to tell Gramps thank you again for the massive loads of chocolate he kept sending me and the advice on resources to tap into for the aqueduct project. He passed away last week unexpectedly and it has been the most difficult thing I've dealt with at my site. I want everyone to know what an incredible guy he was, which you can't accurately put into a little blog post. He was a major influence and inspiration for my doing Peace Corps. I am so lucky to have had him as a grandfather and know that he is proud of me. I'll miss you alot Grandpa.

Here is a quick photo reel of the family up in the campo. We went to a cock fight on Christmas day itself which I wasn't expecting but ended up being quite an event (Roosters don't die and it wasn't as bad as I thought. The most entertaining thing is watching my Dominican guy friends going INSANE.)

Wish I had pics of this too - Mom tried really hard to communicate and got a lesson in Bachata. I love my mom, she's such a gem. We weren't able to make it out to dance but did literally everything else possible in two days. The community LOVED them and I assuredly will come back and be asked for the rest of always 'When is your family coming back Sarah!?' They loved Dad who was handing out cigars as if he'd just had quintuplets.