Samana y Las Galeras!

Last week in Santo Domingo

Update: I have finished all of my classes and will be coming home to America on Saturday!

Vietnam

Internship

April has been busyyy! As of now, I have finished 2 of my classes + finals. (One of these two didn’t have any work all year or a final exam so I don’t know if it counts, but I’m still looking at it as a good thing.) Right now I am just trying to enjoy my last two weeks in SDQ, working on 2 final papers, and also completing hours at my internship. I have been interning at Tu Mujer since March, which is a women’s development center in a poor neighborhood that is actually called Vietnam. (Let’s just say it’s a pretty rough area.) Tu Mujer is an incredible program that trains women in Vietnam to monitor the health, environmental, and economic conditions in town and report back to the office, hold training sessions, and create changes. For my internship I go with these promotoras as they take inventories of the conditions, and also am doing an independent research project on relationships between men and women in the town. The town next to Vietnam is called Puerto Rico. I will attach some photos of the area.

Semana Santa

Traveling! I have been doing a LOT of traveling lately ~ Dominicans have a lot of “Semana Santa” (the week before Easter) off, and that was my Spring Break. During this time, I heard that there was a blackout at the airport, and after about an hour of detaining all the incoming visitors from other countries, Dominican airport security decided to just let everyone go through anyway. Safe! I took off for Spring Break early, and went to Punta Cana, which was beautiful and touristy. From there, I took a car to Sabaná de la Mar, where I was told to wait for a ferry to take me to Samaná – a little Dominican island famous for its beaches. Some friendly Dominican men told me I could wait with them for the ferry, and were nice enough to share their Presidente with me. Turns out, these guys were the captain of the ferry and his “first mate”, who were having a great time getting drunk before setting off on the boat ride. It was a nice little visit, but I eventually grew impatient.

“When are we going to leave?” I asked them.

“Whenever we finish this,” the first mate replied – a typical Dominican answer.

The captain grunted in agreement as his eyes rolled gently to the back of his head and he nodded along lazily to the merengue music blasting behind him. I was so happy to be entrusting these men with my life.

Finally on board, I was invited up into the captain’s area and asked several times whether or not I had a boyfriend, to which I obviously replied that I was happily married, thank you, and headed to the back of the boat where two huge fish had just been caught. Rather than kill these fish right away, however, the crew preferred to watch them flop around the deck – spraying blood on my fellow passengers (fortunately, however, not me. I headed to the front of the boat and sat with a European couple who had so thoughtfully brought their 2-week old baby on board.)

Samaná was beautiful! I will attach pictures! I was meeting friends in Las Galeras though, and had (obviously) missed the last bus there. Fortunately I made another friend – a motorcyclist who offered to drive me the “30 minutes” to Las Galeras.

Over an hour later, I made it, as did the pound of dust caked on my face and hair.

Playa Rincón in Las Galeras was worth all the crazy travelling, though – I have never been to a more beautiful or remote beach in my life.

Tabasco

Today, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you all to a friend of mine. His name is Tabasco and he lives right outside my bedroom window. Like many roosters in the developing world, Tabasco does not play by the rules. Rather than crowing at dawn, he crows at all hours of the day and night. My first night in my apartment, Tabasco woke me up with his beautiful crow, which I mistook for a woman's scream, and almost went outside to see what was going on before he crowed again, and someone threw a stone at him. Tabasco has over seven hen wives, a healthy sex life, and a special talent of ruining phone interviews for summer internships. As of last night, he is the proud new father of about a dozen baby chicks. Trust me, I heard all about it. I will leave you all with a picture of our friend.

PS - Tabasco's other companion is Coco, the Husky across the way who barks all night and day to protest his current location. I guess he doesn't like having a FUR COAT in a tiny apartment complex in the DR...I can't imagine why not.

La huelga

Well, a cold front hit soon after Carnaval - aka it was about 65 degrees here, and a nice break from the heat. It lasted a week, and while I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt, most Dominicans were really bundled up. I even sat next to one woman on the bus who was wearing a puffy north face-type coat! Crazyyy.

Art History Class Update: New teacher. Obviously. He seemed nice as he excitedly explained the syllabus -- no papers, no tests, no quizzes. He apparently gets called in by the university every so often to be yelled at for giving too many 100s as final grades, but maintains that if he thinks students deserve 100%, that's what he will give out. I do not entirely understand how he calculates these grades with no actual assignments to base them off of, but I'm not complaining! So we had our introductory class, and all was going well. We returned for class last Thursday, though, and were interrupted by strange sounds coming from outside. The Dominican students all looked extremely nervous, and started telling the professor that he needed to end class. I had no idea what was going on until someone told me that there was a "huelga" - a strike - going on to protest the costs of public transportation. The Dominican students told us not to leave the building because people were throwing rocks, shooting, and setting off homemade bombs! We stayed for a little while, until a Dominican student told us we could come with her and she'd show us how to leave safely. We booked it out of there, and lucky we did, because one of my friends who chose to stay was stuck in the building for three hours while homemade bombs were going off all around the area. We somehow ended up at McDonald's (obviously), where I ordered a Happy Meal. The strike continued into Friday as well - another friend of mine was riding a public bus as men were pelting it with rocks!

Anyway, after la huelga, the cold front ended. Now it's hotter than ever, and it's still "winter" here!

Día de Independencia y Carnaval en la Vega!

El Diablo!

Cross dresser?




defense mechanisms!

This past Saturday was Independence Day in the DR, and I went to the parade along the Malecon, which was a lot of fun. Their version of 4th of July!! Street vendors and entertainers were everywhere, so I spent more time waiting for the parade to start (obviously no one knew what time it would begin) than actually watching it. Thousands of military men and women lined the streets and it seemed as if the entire military was there...I was pretty sure no one was even defending the country. Oops.

The next day, I went to Carnaval in la Vega, the biggest Carnaval celebration in the DR that really celebrates Lent the right way. We had no idea what time the festivities would start, so we were the first ones to arrive around 12:30 and spent time running around meeting people and taking pictures with the bizarre characters who were walking around. I was a little nervous about coming to la Vega; I had been warned by multiple people multiple times to TEN CUIDADO because la Vega was supposed to be so dangerous. One Dominican friend of mine advised me to bring a mask so that I would "fit in" more with all the costumed people and attract less attention. People in the streets carry inflated cow bladders around with them on strings to use as whips to hit others with when they least expect it! I got hit a few times by people before making the wise decision to buy an inflated cow bladder of my own to defend myself! The parade finally started around 4:30 and it was so much fun. The costumes were beautiful and some were really scary! In addition to the parade, a lot of random little boys were nearly naked, walking through the streets covered completely in mud or tar and dancing for money. I also got a fake tattoo of the Dominican flag, and the guy gave it to me for free because I spoke Spanish to him! I took tons of photos, so I will post some of them here! Something funny was that while I was constantly asking characters if I could take pictures with them, a lot of Dominicans were asking to take pictures with ME, a gringa. Of course I said yes!

The Fateful Story of My Art History Class

When I signed up for Dominican Art History Class at la UASD (the huuuuge public university here that looks exactly like University of Hawaii or a Cali State School), I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I registered for the class in January, and was told that the class would start January 18th. Stoked. Soon after, I received a cryptic email that said that classes at la UASD would be postponed until the following week with no explanation. Okay, sounds good. Soon, I received a similar email: Classes postponed until the following week. So, the first week of February, a few friends of mine who are also in the class and I went to la UASD to find the classroom (a near impossible experience) and were told after a significant amount of confusion that our teacher was sick, class was cancelled, and we were to come back the next week. So the next week, we came back...guess what? Teacher still sick! Lucky for us, she had left us a reading to do. Great. Next Thursday, we returned to la UASD with no idea what to expect. There was a teacher in the classroom who informed us that he had just found out he was now teaching our Art History Class the hour before. He asked us if we had read anything for the class and when one student showed him our reading packet, he goes, "Ahh. Yes..this looks good. Keep reading this. Come back next week to discuss." With that, class was over. Yesterday, we returned to la UASD for class and...guess who wasn't there? The teacher. We waited around for about 30 minutes before someone informed us that apparently the teacher was at a graduation ceremony. Ohhhh. Okay. So we are two months into study abroad, and I have not even started one of my classes. But no worries! Instead of class, I can just go to the beach. :)

Cliff diving and watching kite surfing in Cabarete!

Caño Hondo y El Parque Nacional de los Haitises

I spent this past weekend in Caño Hondo/El Parque Nacional de los Haitises in the east of the DR with my study abroad group. Our hotel was an incredible ecotourism hotel ~ the pools were real rivers with waterfalls in them! We went on hikes through caves and saw old Dominican cave paintings and got to eat bananas straight off the tree and also cacao – the stuff that chocolate is made of! On Saturday we went whale watching in Sabana de la Mar and saw so many whales flopping their fins against the water. Some actually jumped all the way out of the water and made the LOUDEST noise and a huge splash when they landed. Then we went to a beach in Samana, a town that is internationally famous for its beautiful beaches. My roommates’ parents are from Sabana de la Mar and came to visit me for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, which was fun. They knew the co-owners of the hotel so I got to meet them and we all sat around talking/they laughed at my English accent. Our group spent some of Sunday planting mangrove trees in the mud which was…interesting, before taking the 3 hour bus ride back to Santo Domingo. There has been a cold front the past couple of days, which means the highs are about 75 degrees – definitely cold. J It’s been a nice break from the blistering WINTER heat in this city! I don’t know how I’m going to survive in April or May… stay tuned.

Gascue

It is my 7^th week in the DR and lots has been going on! I am now living with 2 other students in an apartment in Gascue, a fun part of the city (still right on the ocean!). All of my classes have officially started, although little setbacks often prevent class from being held…which is fine with me. I am taking 5 classes in Spanish at 4 different universities—Literatura Latinoamericana at El Bonó, Desarollo Económico at INTEC, Historia del Arte Dominicana at la UASD (a HUGE university that looks like a California state school), a Spanish Language class at FLACSO, as well as a Pasantía (internship) class where we work for a non-profit organization. I have been interviewing for internships, so hopefully I will hear back soon and get to get started! Not much other news for now, so I will leave you with a few fun facts about the DR:

1) Pedestrians do not have the right of way.

2) Bare feet are considered inappropriate, and even disgusting.

3) The DR is the #2 happiest country in the world.

Cabarete

A national holiday, El Día de Juan Pablo Duarte, was originially scheduled for Tuesday, February 26th. But the Dominican Republic loves to celebrate holidays so much that the government moved the holiday back to Monday so that the entire nation could really celebrate...with a 3 day weekend! Some friends and I had Thursday and Friday off as well so we decided to travel to Cabarete, a world famous kite surfing town to the north of the Dominican Republic. We surfed, swam, and worked on our tans. On Saturday, we went through Puerto Plata to the famous 27 waterfalls, where guides literally throw you up waterfalls and then you jump or slide down them. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done, and it only cost $9. Everyone in Cabarete is really friendly and eager to get to know you. People from all over the world come there to surf and most of them have amazing stories. My Spanish is getting better and I'm having a lot of fun talking to people. Over breakfast one morning, I became friends with a guy who turned out to be the most recent world champion kite surfer. He introduced us to his friends and they showed us the nightlife in Cabarete.

Now I am back in Santo Domingo, where the Haitian students in my university aren't coming to class anymore because they are in Haiti either visiting or searching for their families. I hope they will be back safe soon.

Earthquake

I was videochatting with my mom on Tuesday around 5 pm when I felt the chair that I was sitting in start to move. I suddenly felt very dizzy and thought I must have been going crazy, but the sensation continued for about 2 minutes. I didn't think anything of it until I went back inside and students from my program informed me that there had been an earthquake. Fortunately, Santo Domingo did not experience any physical damage from the shock, and some of my friends said they didn't even feel anything at all. Haiti is about 8 hours away from Santo Domingo, however, and by now everyone has heard about the earthquake's effect on Port-au-Prince.

It is so sad to think of all the lives lost. Several Haitians in my classes at Bonó still have not heard from their families, and many are leaving for Haiti to search for their loved ones themselves. I cannot even imagine. On Thursday, classes at Bonó ended early in order to have a university-wide meeting regarding the situation in Haiti and what students can do to help. Jesuit Refugee Services has taken over the entire bottom floor of Bonó to organize a drive for food, water, and medicines. I spent Thursday afternoon helping pack boxes to send to Port-au-Prince. It was incredible to see my classmates and teachers who are normally so easygoing working as quickly as possible, passing giant containers of bottled water, rice, and antibiotics down long lines of people to board buses that then drove straight to Haiti.

I am writing this post to let you all know that I am okay and also to ask that you donate to earthquake relief. Disasters like this typically stay on front page headlines for an average of 6 days before being forgotten, but I have met so many people down here who are directly affected by the earthquake that it's going to be impossible to forget about it. Here are some links for relief if you haven't already donated:

Partners in Health (Starting with donations of $10)
http://www.facebook.com/l/2e4ae;https://pih.org

Clinton Foundation (Starting with donations of $25)http://www.facebook.com/l/2e4ae;https://re.clintonfoundation.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=3869

Georgetown Center for Social Justice http://socialjustice.georgetown.edu/86785.html for direct donations to Save the Children, Jesuit Refugee Services and the Partners in Health.

January 11th, 2010

I have been in Santo Domingo for a week and have officially adjusted to the Latin American lifestyle! I am living in a house with Doña Altagracia and her daughter in "La Zona Colonial", a cute, historic part of the city. My house is exactly 2 blocks away from the ocean and the weather here is hot and humid--I love it. I have spent the week exploring the city by walking, taking buses, taxis, and public cars--sedans that squeeze in about 8 people, have set routes, and cost about 50 cents each. Santo Domingo is beautiful, but you have to be careful in parts of it. A few days ago, one of the girls in my program got her earrings stolen right off of her ears! I will be taking 5 classes at 4 different universities all over the city. One of my classes at Bonó begins tomorrow, but others do not start until much later--classes at la OASD (Universidad Autónima de Santo Domingo) were scheduled to begin this past Monday, but the locals tell us that they will not actually begin for a couple of weeks. (It is a Dominican custom to be fashionably late and to take one's time, even when it comes to academics.) Much more later -- for now I have to go enjoy the sun!