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After some technical difficulties, we're back!  Did you miss our updates?

It is a gorgeous Sunday morning—the sun is coming through the tropical trees, birds are chirping, I hear the sounds of the hotel pool being cleaned—and we're about to have our last breakfast at the Sangiorgio Hotel.  Our service work is completed and, as it says on the itinerary, "Sunday is Funday!"

Our three days at the Coral School in Cabarete were transformative, both for the students of La Escuela Coral and those of us from Brimmer and May.  We arrived for three days of work with several items on our to-do list.  We were to complete a mural/map of Hispanola that the Coral teachers and students would use for geography lessons, we were to begin the massive task of cleaning and organizing their virtually nonexistent library, and we were to lead both English and art classes.  Check, check, and check!

By the time we packed up on Friday afternoon, the map/mural was complete and beautiful, accented by artwork to represent something about different regions around the island: kite boarders for Cabarete, flamingos for Pedernales, a beach for Punta Cana.  As we were applying the last touches, students crowded around the wall pointing and smiling.

By the time we packed up on Friday afternoon, our students had taught their students how to weave friendship bracelets, order food and drink at a restaurant, and what they might expect to see at a zoo.  Coral students who did not get the chance to sit in a class with our kids smilingly complained to their "real" teachers about fairness.

By the time we packed up on Friday afternoon, the library had books accounted for, cataloged, and neatly lined up on the shelves.  A new bookshelf was awaiting paint, and the once musty and dusty room had a decidedly fresher air about it.

But there was more!  Our kids went beyond their tasks to complete other work as well.  Check this out:

By the time we packed up on Friday afternoon, basketball had been restored to the playground.  Our students fashioned a new backboard out of spare boards, painted the backboard as the Dominican flag, and finagled a way to attach the rim that was just waiting for somebody to figure out how to repair it.  It was all we could do the get students to wait for the paint to dry before they began shooting and showing off their skills.

By the time we packed up on Friday afternoon, a second mural was begun and completed against another wall of the school.  Deshaun created a beautiful Dominican scene of lush green grass and trees, rugged mountains, and a bright, inviting yellow sun in a calming robin egg blue sky.  Once again, Coral students stood in rows two and three deep admiring Deshaun's creation and the work of our entire group.

Time for breakfast!  More to come to catch you all up!