July 17 – Ryan Fluharty

This is my first trip to the Dominican Republic and it has been everything I could ask for. Today we played a game against Buena Vista and both the boys and girl’s orphanage were able to come. It was great to see those faces again. The energy brought from the girls in our dugout was unmatched by anything I’ve ever seen. Every batter they chanted “Vamos” followed by the batters name. I gave my glove to a couple little kids between innings so they could play catch, it became a little difficult to find it each inning but I did not mind at all. We took a visit to the school where we were able to paint the children’s faces and get ours painted in return. The children were so happy to get my squiggly blue lines of nothing all over their faces. I also got to feed an infant noodles in the nursery area.The first week in the DR were nothing short of amazing. One of my favorite things we have done is play kickball at the girls orphanage. It was a very competitive game and the girls were so athletic. A ball kicked on the roof was retrieved in no time as they scaled up the wall and ran on the roofs to go get it. A language barrier did not stop us from having fun and playing games with them for 3 hours. With having 4 days left I can only hope they are half as good as the first week or so. One thing I take away from the games is the pure enjoyment they have playing the game. The Boca de Chavon team had players 30 plus years old and the only reason to still play at that age for free is the pure joy they have in the game of Baseball. This trip has been truly incredible and has changed my point of view on so many different things. I will take the experiences and continue to grow spiritually and as a person.