After our time at the Lifestyles Resort in Puerto Plata, we made our way back down to the capital, Santo Domingo. Alyson actually had to see the medical people at the PC office because she fell on our little waterfall adventure and she had some other business to take care of. We just kind of hung out this day around the office and hotel, then at Pica Pollo (chinese food/fried chicken and beer) for dinner. The next day, November 2nd, we made our way to Juan Dolio, a beach town near the capital where Alyson's mom let us use her time share. We just laid out and swam in the pool at the hotel, and then cooked ourselves tacos for dinner.
On November 3rd, we made our way to two of Alyson's friends', Phoebe Sunflower and Dan, site in Monte Cristi. We weren't able to go to Alyson's site due to security concerns and really wanted to see real life in the Dominican. Phoebe and Dan (ps they're married) were nice enough to let us come visit their work and home. Dan works at Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, which started in Mexico and also has a place in Guatemala outside Antigua. It is not just an orphanage, but a whole gated-in community situated on many acres of land with a school, office buildings, greenhouse, volunteer living quarters, several houses for the kids, chapel, etc. Dan showed us around and talked about his work he is doing there. He was just finishing his first year, so we got to hear about all the struggles and challenges he's faced, as well as his accomplishments and goals for the next year. My favorite part of the visit to the orphanage was that the house where Dan eats lunch everyday is where 15 boys ranging from 8-11 years old live and eat all of their meals. Dan is considered their mentor of sorts. It was neat they opened their home to us and that we got to share a meal (typical plain rice and meat) and see how these boys live. I took plenty of pictures of them, as well as the whole trip that are in my Picasa album number 4. Check them out to the right of the blog.
After visiting Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, Amber and I went to visit Phoebe back at their house where she spends most of her days. Her primary project is working with the school in her "bate", or small Haitian community. Their community was definitely different than everything else we had seen thus far in our trip. Their community used to rely on sugar cane production for income, but much like the rest of the DR, has suffered from the mechanization of labor and decrease in job opportunities. Their house was a tiny block shack with a door painted blue and a huge sunflower on it, for Phoebe's name. When we got there, several little girls were coloring in the entrance to the house. This is the norm for the Sunflower abode. Her rule is that if the door is open, everyone is welcome over to color and read books. However, she kicked them out though so that we could all go for a walk around down, "dar la vuelta". We visited her school, ate some homemade peanut butter on homemade bread (Haitian staple), and went on a long walk through the sugar cane fields. We of course ate the sugar cane that we chopped down when we got back to her house. Then it was back to the hotel where we were staying. It was awesome to get to see the "real" Dominican Republic and see what great things Peace Corps is doing in another country.
The rain began once we got back to the hotel. It rained on and off all the next day, November 4th. We had plans to meet up with some other volunteers and go to a baseball game in San Pedro. This was high up on my list of stuff to do. However, the day it really stormed was this day and the game got cancelled. Oh well, next time. There are lots of major league baseball camps in the DR though and is a huge part of their culture. We stayed in this night and just watched movies.
November 5th we headed back to the capital. On on trip back, the bus helper or "ayudante" jipped us and overcharged me and Alyson. Our favorite quote from the trip was when Alyson lost her cool and yelled at him, "ESO NO SE HACE!", which just means you can't do that. We still mess with her about that. We walked around the Colonial Zone again and wandered through art galleries and shops. We ate dinner at this awesome barbeque place a block from our hotel. They made awesome burgers and chicken, served with tostones, which are ripe plantains that are partially fried, smashed, and then fried some more. You eat them with ketchup, or as Dominicans say ketchuuuu. I bought a thing to smash the plantains that we call a smashy mashy. The whole trip we really enjoyed hearing the Caribbean accent and little things they would say. This night it poured down raining. That didn't stop me and Amber from hitting up the town though. We went bar hopping that let to us playing instruments in one bar (I was pretty good on the drum), meeting Franzia (who was quite the local character), this big park, and late night food.
November 6th was our last full day in the Dominican Republic. We went to visit Alyson's training host site. Amber, Alyson, and I ended up cooking lunch with the stuff we got at the grocery store with her host Dad because her host mom was busy at the hair salon. Then Amber got her first haircut in a long time, then straightened, and then put up in a local do-rag called a 'toobie'. I think we definitely got some street cred on the cab ride back to the city with Amber in the front seat sporting her toobie. That night we went to an open air concert in front of some ruins in the Colonial Zone. I was so sweaty from the humidity and how fast Alyson and Amber walk. We had a great time eating street food, drinking cold Presidente beers, and dancing to bachata and merengue (which originated in the DR). It was an awesome way to finish out the trip with lots of local flavor.
The next day we just got our stuff ready, dropped Alyson off at the PC office, and took our taxi with Wilson to the airport. It was a long journey home to Guatemala, back through El Salvador again, but definitely worth it.
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