La Guagua

Completely romanticized version of my commute to work every day:

More accurate picture (via Google) of my commute to work every day:

The most people I ever rode with was fifteen in one of these! Where I live they're slightly smaller than these pictures so it's normally less than five people at a time. It's always an adventure since the drivers tend to be in a hurry and no one respects traffic laws in this country anyway. In order to let people know where the guagua (Dominican word for bus) is headed, a guy often stands in the doorway (as you can see above) and yells at passers-by to try to convince them to get on. This guy is also the one that keeps track of which passengers have paid. If there is not such a guy on the guagua, sometimes the driver will point towards which direction he's going, or sometimes I just get on and hope for the best!

Signs...

...That I Am Becoming More Dominican:

• I get antsy when rice is not served at a meal, and when it is served I eat most or all of my portion.
• I prefer to eat with a spoon instead of a fork and knife.
• I am a total juice snob. If it was not made today, forget about it.
• Air conditioning makes me chilly.
• I consider traffic laws to be completely optional.
• Things like schedules and time are not important, and there is no such thing as "now."
• I've stopped pronouncing the letter s at the end of words.

...That I Am Still Very Much American

• I am the whitest person in at least a five-mile radius.
• I crave chocolate 24/7.
• I prefer to eat cereal for breakfast.
• I usually can't understand what the heck people are saying.
• I wash my hair every day.
• I still cannot dance or sing.
• I have no immediate plans to get married and have kids.

Out of the Office

This week I was lucky enough to get out of the office in order to help run a summer camp for a local school. The organization that I work for has a partner organization that gives loans to private schools instead of to individuals. Two families associated with this organization came down from the US to put together the camp at one of the schools that happens to be in La Romana where I live. A few people from the capital came to help translate, and since I'm already here I got to come help out too!


The kids were in elementary school and we divided them into three groups by age. I went with the littlest kids because they needed the most assistance with everything. A lot of them turned out to be even younger than we expected but they were a lot of fun. Every day we did three activities: sports, crafts, and English. My favorite moment was the day we played with one of those giant parachutes in sports. I don't think any of the kids had seen anything like that before, and it was mass chaos as we tried to play the usual games with them, but they were so happy and excited that it was impossible not to smile.


Another perk of the week was that I got to stay in the famed Casa de Campo because that's where everyone else was staying. They figured it would be easier for me to just stay with them instead of them having to come pick me up every day. Ever since I found out I would be living in La Romana for the summer I have wanted to see Casa de Campo. If you look at the Google map of the city, you will see that Casa de Campo is almost as large as the entire city of La Romana. "What on earth is in there?" I wanted to know. Now I know! Although there is a resort and several golf courses in there, it is mostly like a large gated neighborhood with ridiculously nice houses that people own or rent. So after every long sweaty day of camp we got to come back and go to the beach.

Also one of the American families was really into volleyball so that happened again haha. Between the camp and Samana, this has probably been my favorite week so far in the DR. All the people I got to work with at the camp were awesome, both those that I knew through work and those visiting from the States. Back to the office next week though! It's hard to believe that not much time remains in my internship.

Samaná

Whenever I ask people where the most beautiful part of the Dominican Republic is, they say Samaná. 

And now I know why. The above photo is the view from another intern's (her name is Lucy too!) host family's house. That's right, this is the view from your average everyday Dominican house in Samaná, not from some resort or after hiking deep into the middle of the jungle. This is normal.

This is Playa Rincón. Someone somewhere rated it as one of the best beaches in the world, so we (the interns) just had to go. Again, no resorts or development, few tourists, and a whole lot of beauty. When we got there initially the beach was practically empty, which is when I took this picture. To get there we braved a rather bumpy ride in the back of a pick-up truck on unpaved roads (my guide book recommends going by boat because driving there requires "patience and will" haha) but despite the bruises it was a fun ride with beautiful scenery along the way.

We spent all of last Saturday at the beach and then on Sunday walked around the more central area of the town. Saturday and Sunday nights were spent dancing Dominican style with Lucy's host brothers. As you may know, dancing is not really my thing, but maybe if enough Dominicans teach me I will suddenly become awesome at it. Maybe.

Long story short: if you plan on taking a vacation in the Dominican Republic, skip the random resorts on every other coast in the country and go straight for Samaná. The entire peninsula has awesome sights and from the two parts I saw I'd say it's well worth it!

Just Another Weekend in the Dominican Republic

This is another post I wrote for our intern blog! No pictures because I didn't want to get my camera soaking wet!

Last weekend was an adventure. We (the interns) had been planning it for weeks, but we still weren’t really sure what to expect. All I knew was that we would be hiking up a mountain in order to jump off some waterfalls on the way back down. I was excited.

At 5am on Saturday morning we took taxis to a random address in Santo Domingo which turned out to be a sort of restaurant/bar. Being gringos, we arrived way before everyone else, wondering if we were really in the right place. While waiting, some of us walked down the street to buy tacos from a stand that for some reason was open at that hour. I can’t say I’ve ever eaten a taco for breakfast before, but at the time it tasted delicious! By the time we walked back a small bus had arrived as well as about a dozen other people going on the excursion with us. I could not wait to get into that bus and fall right asleep for a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, sleeping proved near impossible as soon as our guides started blasting music from the speakers in the bus. I decided to take the opportunity to stare out the windows instead, and got to see some beautiful scenery. We were heading up north to the more mountainous part of the country that I had not seen yet. The lush green hills and valleys were definitely a change from the flat coastline and beaches I was used to seeing near La Romana. Eventually we made it to our destination: the 27 Charcos.

Armed with life jackets and helmets, we started our trek into the woods with our guides. After hiking for a while we came upon our first waterfall where we could jump off a rock into a deep pool. Swimming around in the cold water was such a relief after weeks of Dominican heat! Twenty-six other jumps and slides followed, one of which was tall enough to make most people uncomfortable and some people opted to skip it altogether. There was plenty of time for suspense to build as we squeezed together in a line leading up the cliff to where we would jump. We watched each person before us jump off without really being able to see how high it actually was. Then came the moment of truth as I stepped up to the edge and looked down at the pool below. The guide gave me a countdown and off I went, screaming the whole way down. That one was definitely my favorite!

Doing things like this really makes me marvel at how incredible it is to be here in the Dominican Republic. Before coming here this summer I had no idea that I would be jumping off waterfalls in the middle of the woods, but half the fun is not knowing what to expect. Even though we planned this excursion well in advance, so many things happened that we didn’t plan for. Crazy experiences are around every corner, and I’ve definitely been learning to sit back and take it all in instead of trying to control and prepare for everything. That’s what makes this summer an adventure!