I had an exceptional day yesterday

This picture isn't from yesterday, but I didn't take any and I feel it sums up the day as well as any picture could

Yesterday I went into El Canal for the first time since returning to visit lots of friends, including my students who I hadn't seen since the last day of school, and as the title of this post suggests, it was a fantastic day. Before leaving, I made sure to stock up on lollipops and various candy so my students would immediately remember that they did in fact like me. First I stopped at Suni's to visit her, her granddaughter Yosmairi, and her husband Samuel who are all wonderful people. Suni's mom, sister, and her one year old grandson also happened to be there as well. I spend about a half hour with them just sitting, catching up, and squeezing her tiny grandson. The next house I stopped at after that was Ney and Denise's, which I think was the best stop of the day. Ney is nine, Denise five, their brother Delby is three, and younger sister Rudesi is a shade over one year old (yet another baby to squeeze!). When I got there Ney and Denise were helping their mom breakdown crabs that their dad had caught, so I scooped up Rudesi, pulled up a chair and chatted with them as well! I told them about what I did while I was home, everyone asked about when Colin and Megan are coming back (naturally), and I kept trying to get Denise to talk to me (she wouldn't say one word even after I gave her a lollipop!). Ney even asked me how Tori is doing by name, which is very impressive considering he's nine and me her one time months ago. Their mom, Rue, offered me a little taste of the crab they were breaking down, and it was quite delicious! After talking for a little while longer and being entertained by Ney chasing around Belby to pull the garbage out of his mouth that he kept trying to eat, we decided to play some kickball! It was Denise and I versus Ney, with Delby and Rudesi cheering us on. We played right in their "front yard," with bases about five feet apart from each other, but it was still very fun! Ney ended up winning 16 to 11 after 5 innings, when I decided it was time for me to continue on and visit more people. As I was leaving Ney told me he'd remember the score so we can keep playing the next time I'm over. 

After Ney's, I continued a little ways up the road to Sandra's to see her and her family, and by the time I got there Sarah had already been there for a while, and she was playing dominos with most of the kids from my class! Negro, Wileni, Emanuel, and Wilson were there, along with Elissa. Sandra was still getting back from visiting her mom in Moca, so we all just hung out until she got back. It was taking a while so I decided I would go visit Olga Louisa while we were waiting, but as soon as I stood up to go, Sandra came around the corner. Sarah and I say with her and we talked for a long while all together. Around five o'clock I decided to head down the road and go visit Olga Louisa. On the way a very old man stopped me and I gave him a ride, which was fun! Olga Louisa, her two year old son Joel (more squeezing!) and her husband Jose ended up being at her mom's house, which is like 100 yards down the road so it made no difference. Same as with everyone else we hung out and caught up. While I was there the ice cream man came by, and Joel got himself a popsicle, and it was super hilarious to watch him eat it. He offered me some, and I passed this time, but he shared it with his whole family! Before I left Olga Louisa told me she wants to have us all over for lunch one more time before I go back to America, which is very exciting because she is a fantastic cook, and her family fantastic company. 

It was well past five o'clock now, and I still wanted to head into Luperon to but hamburger buns and tortilla chips, so I decided to head home. I stopped back at Sandra's to hug everyone, and went on my way. I got the aforementioned groceries without incident and was so excited to get back home and make a burger and guacamole for dinner, that I didn't even think to check if I was good on gas, which I definitely should have done because there is a pump right in Luperon. As you might guess, I ran out of gas a mile and a half from the nearest gas station in El Estrecho. Some quick background on Dominican culture before I continue, when someone runs out of has on their motorcycle, a lot of the time someone else on a motorcycle will stop and help them out by putting their foot on the peg of the motorcycle that ran out of gas, and pushing the person to the nearest gas station. I always thought it kind of crazy, but also super awesome. So I hopped off my bike and started to push it down the road. I wasn't even walking for a minute before someone on a motorcycle stopped and offered to push me. Having never done it before, I was a little nervous, especially knowing how far I was from El Estrecho, but everything went well, and it was very fun! The man was very nice, and had me rolling in to the gas station in no time. After I finally had gas, the kickstarted decided it wouldn't work anymore so I had to walk the bike up to the top of a hill so I could pop the clutch, and I was finally on my way! I made it home around 7 o'clock, right before it started to rain, so it was perfect.

It was an awesome day visiting awesome friends, and I got to have a quintessentially Dominican experience for the first time.