COMREL and shipmates

Angie, me, Sloane and Rachel. We have a lot of fun together when we're not working in our various places around the ship {when we're working we're still having fun, don't read that the wrong way}. If I'm ever in need of a friend I can make a sweep of the ship and find at least one of them hanging around the places we like to spend our downtime. Fantail, sun deck, bow, flight deck, and our new favorite: aft tower {or Masada as my mom nicknamed it last night}.

The first COMREL {community relations project} in Dom Rep was a fun day for me. The volunteers from the ship included a group from the laundry/ship store/vending machine crew. We met up with a group from the US Embassy as well as a few people from the Peace Corps.

We were bused to a park about a half hour away from the BLZ {boat loading zone} where we planted trees {my favorite part cuz I love playing in the dirt}, painted a playground, cleaned up the river banks and picked up trash. It is a beautiful park that takes maybe five minutes to drive by and has paths along the river and all kinds of plants and trees I've never seen before.

We had a BBQ and listened to the Air Force Rock Band rock out when we were all done cleaning up. The band is really good and the crowd went nuts when they played some popular Spanish songs. Imagine two pavilions set up on top of a hill overlooking countryside. The band was under one rockin out, and the crazy crowd under the other one. It started pouring at one point and everyone just kept dancing and singing along.

I have lost count of the times during a day where I look around and smile and think, 'This is my life.'