Happy 4th (now 5th) of July

Just wanted to share a few pics from our 4th of July extravaganza with Ina's American missionary friends! The first two are from early afternoon when we cut into the guanabana that our neighbor in Cercadillo gave us. By neighbor, I mean the guy who lives next door to the school/church buildings who was the first to tell us the Michael Jackson died. I guess he thought that was pertinent information given that we are Americans! He also supplied us with our first batch of mangoes for the season :) The first picture is of me proudly holding up the guanabana and the second is of what it looked like when Abbey cut into it. It tasted okay (really needs to be mixed with other fruit to absorb their flavor because it doesn't have much on its own), but was pretty gross in appearance and texture. We also shot a video worthy of an Oscar nomination for best documentary of the process. You can all see that when I return :) Abbey made us "awesome" guanabana shakes, which we quickly traded in for her world famous mocha frappicinos. She is by far the best barista to ever hit Villa Mella, possibly the entire Dominican Republic. I know it sounds like we are really suffering here, but we have one almost daily :) She's that good!

These pictures are of our 4th of July party! The first shows everyone who came. From left to right: Eric, little Eric, Corinne, Ina, Abbey, me, Mandy, Edwin, Jason. We had a great time talking about differences between America and the Dominican Republic. It was a fun conversation because Eric Sr. grew up in Villa Mella where we are living now but spent 7 years in the states where he met his wife. I continue to love all of Ina's American and Dominican friends. How does one person know so many cool people? The second picture shows the tres amigas sporting our let's-celebrate-America-in-a-big-way clothes :) Ina even sewed new patriotic table cloths and a "flag" for the front yard. Esteban stopped by and said, "What is that thing?" but we were not deterred from thinking it could quite possibly be the best "American" flag in Santo Domingo! I hope you all found special ways to celebrate the freedom we share!

I also wanted to share the link to Abbey's blog: www.fiveweeksincercadillo.tumblr.com
She has a lot of awesome pictures and fun info so check it out!
¡Hasta luego!