Day Twelve: Si Dios Quiere...

The Dominicans living here in the mountains have a standard response whenever I tell them, "I'll see you later." There is always a momentary pause--after which there is a smile, a half-hearted shrug, and then the famous words: "Si Dios Quiere" (if God wants). At first, I found myself puzzled by their response. But upon further thought, I came to understand it. After all, they had probably been visited by many volunteers in the past, many of whom had made empty promises to return. It was perhaps only logical that they had left it in God's hands whether or not they would ever see us again.

Ana and I wrapped up our last clinic session and spent the afternoon finalizing our needs assessment report of Dina's family. In the midst of it all, we were able to fit in one final basketball session. I am amazed by the progress we made in the past 5 days. The respect that the girls have for Ana is almost palpable, and in some ways, I think her basketball clinic had more of a positive impact on their health than anything "medical" we could have done. There's nothing like taking up a sport to encourage healthy habits and build self-esteem. Here's a final picture of the team:



Our parting from Dina and Ramon was a sad one. It was late in the afternoon when we were finally able to get up the hill, and Ana and I were scrambling to catch the last gua gua off the mountain. We said that we would visit them again before leaving for the U.S., and of course, they responded to our promise by saying, "Si Dios quiere." In any case, we did manage to take a family photo of them, which we plan to send to them in a picture frame by next week:



And of course, before leaving the mountain we called "home" for the past week, Ana and I couldn't resist visiting Maribel Dulce again and buying one of her famous empanadas for the road:



Ana and I would stand at the side of the road for a long time before catching the last gua gua that would bring us back to our Santiago apartment. We licked away the last of the grease from our empanadas as we waited, watching the locals mill around the small village store. It was hard to believe that soon, we would be amidst the crazy hustle and bustle of city streets, where the sounds of car horns and sirens would replace the sounds of insects buzzing and roosters crowing. And hence, our time in the mountains had come to an end