Mission trip to the Dominican Republic - Day 5 - Ready, set, go... home!

​Checkout day

​Once again the lobby looked like the day we arrived with our luggage filling every corner. All was packed on the bus and we transported back to the Hospital. It was packing day and everyone pitched in. Soon the school bus was loaded with all the supplies and half our group. The rest of us followed in a second bus. 

Ready to go home, its check out time!

The bus is loaded and ready to return to ILAC

Back to ILAC for unloading and storing supplies. At ILAC they have a warehouse with a row of gorilla racking for each mission with space for us to keep supplies for next years trip. With 34 of us it was easy to make a fireman’s line and hand the boxes from the bus to the warehouse.

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La Aurora - Cigar Factory

This afternoon a trip was arranged to tour the oldest cigar factory, La Aurora established in 1903. It was fascinating to see the production, all by hand, in action. We even got a cigar to smoke during the tour…

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​A dinner out at another local restaurant was a nice end-cap to a much more relaxing day. One cool thing they had there was the double ended fish tank coffee-table. It reminded me a little of the fish tank coffee table I used to have.

Back to ILAC for the last night in the D.R., where he stayed in one of the dormitories. These rooms consisted of four triple bunk beds. Each bed was completely encased in mosquito netting making it a little difficult to get inside. I managed okay and finally drifted off to sleep despite the futon style mattress, only to be awoken a few hours later when the top third of my bed collapsed beneath me! Not wanting to wake the rest of my teammates and not daring to venture to one of the upper bunks, I reversed my position and spent the remainder of the night with my feet dangling off the broken end. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night.