Dominican Republic

the sail to Dominican was long and annoying we went up wind the whole way so we couldn't set any sail. we had to motor at 6 knots the whole way there and the seas were quite rough. the ship was rolling and nodding through the waves the sail seemed to take forever. but we eventually got nearer and nearer until we docked in Samana. We docked on this lonely little fishing dock 10 minutes drive away from the town of Samana. there was nothing where we were docked and we had to take taxis into town. Samana was a little village at the seaside not very touristy really nice and simple. We had home-stays in dominican. My family was a Russian family which lived in a complex with some of there other relatives. The complex was really cool it had a small pool in the middle and houses around it four in total we were in the biggest house a two story stone/clay house like what you would see in a resort. our home-stays let us be free too which was great. I was staying with Sophie and Adriana two girls from the ship we went out both nights and didn't get back until the early hours of the morning. was great not to have a curfew. In the mornings we got up at 7:30 and then met at a local community club to muster so we could get distributed to the different projects that we were doing for the community. some people were painting houses, some building a garden, others building a scale model humpback whale exhibit for a local elementary school and the last group was painting a mural at a school. I was in one of four house painting groups we painted two houses one concrete and one wood house. they turned out great we had a lot of fun and the families were very happy after we had finished. At nights we had activities like pizza dinners and dancing shows that we all met up to see. the dominican for me has bee the best port so far. I had an amazing time here and will remember it for the rest of my life. next up cuba and Mum and Dad for the parent Port I'm excited to see them again and get caught up on everything thats happened.