World Vision Dominican Republic Photos: Top Ten {Tuesday}

I promised you a Dominican-centric post today. But I thought I’d let your eyes do the walkin’ and show you some pictures that have been resting in my iPhoto folders. So, here we go…

THE TOP TEN PHOTOS OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC THAT I HAVE NOT SHOWN YOU YET

{I can’t help it. I love my titles!!}

1. The flora and fauna. This is the view from our hotel the first night. We were 3 or 4 hours from Santo Domingo  in Barahona. We arrived late late that night and I had no idea where we were. When I woke up and looked out the window, I was so excited to see this site!

2. My Digital Camera. I told you how much the kids loved our cameras. This is a picture by our esteemed translator, Claudia. Besides my strange bangs, the thing that caught my eye the most is the wall of the house. THAT IS A HOUSE.

3. Pink Converse. Loribert, Jill’s sponsored child was all dressed up to see her. He didn’t crack more than 2 smiles or whisper more than a few sentences. But look at his shoes. How much do you love this? Such a 13 year old boy!

4. Hope. When we arrived at the ADP in Santo Domingo, there were several kids inside coloring. The assignment–their house. This beautiful picture caught my eye. These children were here as part of an HIV support group–they were either orphaned because of HIV, living with parents who had HIV or were living with HIV themselves. Yet, I saw hope and happiness in this picture.

5. Tears. Day 2 of our trip can be summed up in liquid…we sweated and cried more than anything else. After meeting the beautiful Maria and listening to her story. We had to get our picture taken with her. Even after we left her, we were all crying. And you can see it on my face here. I want to remember that.

6. Laughter. On our last day, the kids from the Art School entertained us with singing and a skit. This is them performing the story of Naomi and Ruth. They were cracking us up!

7. Mothers. I wrote a letter to Mari Luz introducing our family to her. I had it translated by Claudia and when Mari Luz’ mom read it, she immediately signed that she wanted to write me a letter. She was a sweet woman obviously thankful for the gift of sponsorship. This picture reminds me of how I am just like her…a mother wanting the best for my children. In this letter she told me she and her husband are HIV positive. Mari Luz does not know about her parents’ condition.

8. Lydia. No, this isn’t a picture of my Lydia. This is Lidia. She is a staff member at the ADP in Santo Domingo. I was immediately impressed with her strength and passion. The more I saw her speak and interact, the more I was impressed with her. We saw her love on several kids infected AND affected by HIV. The next day we saw her love and hold together a support group of HIV positive parents. She never mentioned that she herself had been living with HIV for 18 years. After she told us her story, I approached her and told her I was blown away by her. That I would tell my Lydia about her. And that I prayed my Lydia will grow up to be a strong woman like her, like Lidia.

9. New friends. The bloggers weren’t the only people on this trip. We were led by the fearless Michael and his sidekick Lee. Two super cool VEGGIE TALES folks were there, Lora and Greg. Plus the fabu videographer, Heidi. Our translators, Claudia and Anneli were beautiful and amazing. Not to mention the kids that accompanied us–Hannah, Jake, T and Brent. I am honored to know them all.

10. Jill. I could do a whole post on fun pictures of Jill. This is our last day in the Dominican. We are in the first church in the New World–founded by Christopher Columbus. And we almost got kicked out for giggling. I adore Jill.

Have you sponsored a child yet?

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Got a Top Ten list to share? We’d love for you to join us! All you gotta do is write a fun post (about anything as long as it’s TEN), then link back to me in the post so others can join in, enter the link to your post below and start visiting the other participants and givin’ them lots of bloggy love!

Ready? Set! Go!

Oh, and thanks again to Mandi for hosting Top Ten {Tuesday} last week! And thanks to everyone who linked up!