Cedar Sentinel 2013-2014 Issues April 2014: Volume 47 Issue 6 | Page 7

Quisa Diamonte

We finally landed. Our traveling journey took all day and the
night before. It was about to be a
very exhausting ten days. Luckily
our hospitality was Tambora Beach
Resort, so we had no complaints
whatsoever; other than the fact
that the “horse riding” station was
using a donkey instead of an actual horse. Mission Trip 2012 happened
to be in the Dominican Republic
that year. It was beautiful scenery. The colours were as vibrant
as neon crayons. The ocean breeze
flowed through the entire resort.
The swaying palm trees were towering over us. Although their coconuts weren’t as good as I thought
they would be, I still admired the
reverberant, green leaves and the
strong, structure of the tree.

After some of our church
outings, our nights consisted of
devouring ice cream at a petite shop
called Bon. Daniel Molina had to be
our translator for our delicious
orders, for he was the only one out
of our group who spoke Spanish. Our
fellow church attendees sometimes
came to chill with us as we socialized in the ice cream shop. We’d get
back to the resort in the late evening, but never close to midnight.

The nights were filled with
the crashing sounds of the waves
on the beach. We could hear all
kinds of noises throughout the
night, including the treacherous
shrieks of Fabiane Campos’ roommate. The nights were always cool
and content. Colleen “Beth” Smith
and I would always have crazy mem-

ories at those late times; including
her running across the long porch,
slipping on the rained on, wet tiles
and almost squeezing through the
slots of the wooden railing. Sometimes we’d just sit on the room’s balcony and watch the dark sky paint it
as the moon rang up. When I’d stand
on the beach, the breeze would just
graze my face lightly. Across the
ocean were islands whose lights lit
up like a party. Walks on the beach
always had company of the vibrant
fireflies. Daniella Oliveira always
mistook them for shiny objects.
Swimming in the salt water was always done with great difficulty.
Hannah Jensen and I literally felt
like we were getting attacked. I’m
sure a lot of us felt that way as well.
There were only two options when
wading in the ocean. You were between sharp rocks, or the barricading walls of water toppling
over you and your peers. The journey to the other side of the beach,
beyond the rocks, was horrifying.

The churches were very inspiring to be at. The people of the Dominican churches had such love for
God. Their enthusiasm when several
of us preached was spirit-filled. The
first time that we sang song service
with them was a Friday night. Pastor Decena and I were leading out
for our church’s group of Kingsway
students. But the thing is, we could
barely hear ourselves. The congregation itself were so loud and
booming with their beautiful singing voices. I was definitely amazed.

THEDOMINICANREPUBLIC