so it´s been a crazy and busy week. the night that we returned from puerto plata we spent time with the verizon guy looking for a spanish teacher for me. then he said that he wanted to introduce us to a pastor before we ate dinner at his house. it turns out that the pastor has a church interested in social justice, has a center for children and works with compassion international and world vision. on hearing this i wondered about ballet there. i asked if they would be interested in ballet and the pastor repolied äctually there´s a christian dance practice going on right now¨. i went in to watch the girls dance and then we prayed and they surrounded me with smiling faces and questions. they said they knew little about dance, but they really wanted to learn. they were so excited taht i had showed up. it was such a cool random thing to experience. made me think of how good God is. the church wants me to come and dance (the tv appearence never happened. i dodged my way out of that one by telling them i was busy and wasn´t interested in being on tv). anyways, that was exciting. we got home late that night and slept for about two hours before leaving to take gadea to the airport and head to samana. unfortunatelly when we woke up the power was gone, so we had to get ready in the dark. after dropping gadea off milagros, hector, the physician´s assistant and i headed off to samana. after seven or so hours of driving we arrived. we went to the beach and climbed over a cave and onto other parts of beach taht were hidden from the public. we spent the evening seeing some patients in random houses. the next day we took a patient to the hospital to get some tests done and then went to waterfalls while we waited for his results. we hiked a path that tourists either hike or take horses on. i in my normal confused state iddn´t know what were were doing so i was wearing flip flops and a skirt. also, there´was lots of mud, and if you know me me and mud or anything dirty is bad. i once again was the dirtiest one of the group. i ended up giving up on my flip flops and doing the hike barefoot. when we finally arrived to a tall waterfall we ate a picnic and then went swimming for a while in the waterfall and in some smaller waterfalls. we then returned to the hospital to get the results and then went back to the village where we were staying ate dinner and saw a few more patients. i´ve been trying to figure out healthcare milagros style. we visit friends, but then she gives them a shot at the end of the night. that seems to be how things work from what i can figure out in my confused state. housing was slightly different this trip. the first night we stayed in the house of epople i knew, but i hadn´t stayed there before. when i asked for a toilet that night iw as handed a plastic pot. i later found out there was also an outhouse out back. the next night the girls that i had stayed with previously begged me to stay with them. during this trip i also brought my laptop to show the kids pictures of them. they loved the pictures and were very excited. we left this morning to return cramming eight people in a jeep. one girl sat in the back we crammed three adults and one child in the back seat and two adults and a child in the front. i was so glad when the long journey hoem was over except that i´m very dirty and when we returned our apartment was dry with not a drop of useable water to be found. i am now here writing this in hopes that when i return the water truck will have brought water. i miss you all and hope everything is well with everyone.