St. Patty's Day: Is This Real Life?

We were looking forward to a great day off today and we were not let down! After an early Puerto Rican breakfast of hot cinnamon-flavored oatmeal and cold cereal, we loaded up the 12 of us from Spring Arbor, our work partners and friends, Greg and Lynette, two camp employees and friends, Julio and Jim, and the two boys from Texas. Our ride was a bit long, but we had some fun adventures along the way, including a pit stop and a really strong, strange smell. Not to mention Julio had to ask for directions to get us to Crash Boat beach (guess who named that one - not the Puerto Ricans, I bet!).
There was enough to do at Crash Boat beach, that's for sure! We battled waves on the shore, jumped off the end of the pier, went snorkeling in the deep end to see crazy large fish, and some of us even tried our hands at skim boarding. There were a lot of us who did some things for the first time today - and loved it!

On a sadder note, during lunch time and our beach-side sandwich-making, we saw a stray dog. His skinny body and lame foot put a damper on the day, but we quickly went back onto the sand and into the waves. Some of us forgot to reapply sunscreen and by the time a large cloud ended our swimming fun, many of us had turned more red than flesh-colored... lots of aloe tonight!
Right before we left, we saw Pelican Man. This Puerto Rican had several pelicans trained to come at his whistle and catch pieces of fish that he threw. It was a pretty neat way to end our day at the beach. Before leaving the Crash Boat beach area completely, we stopped to take pictures. The view was incredible: oceans, the pier, and knowing what memories we had made that day. God does truly incredible things in nature; they're just especially obvious in Puerto Rico.

We took a break from Puerto Rican food by getting Wendy's for dinner. We were our typical crazy selves in the party bus, Jorge, (yes, we named the bus) on the way back to camp. It's 9pm right now which, for most of us, means getting ready for the day tomorrow by showering and going to bed. There will be a change of view tomorrow as we move to the other side of camp to make room for another group and it's also back to work. The amount we've accomplished in our time here is awe-inspiring and speaks of how much strength God can provide. Gracias for your comments and prayers,
~Sarah, la espanol-hablante
P.S. Hey family - love you and can't wait to tell you all about it! Thanks for posting :)