Days 1-2

Travel Day

I arrived in Santo Domingo on Saturday evening around 1100 PM.  What a long day of travel for everyone!  Thank god that the time zone difference is only 1 hr.  Upon arrival in the DR, I am happy to find out that everyone's luggage made it to the DR after 3 flights!   Our driver, Elfie, from ILAC where we are staying now, picked us up at the airport and took us to our first bugalow in Santo Domingo.  We all settled into our cramped abode to get ready for the next day!  The place we are staying at is owned by a women named Bettey. 

Day 1

The first day in Santo Domingo was humid as all heck!  We sweat at night as well as during the day. 
Bettey made us breakfast in the morning, very good breads, fruit and coffee.  We started out our day by taking the ILAC bus to Bataye Caracoa.  A Bataye is a community that started by sugar cane workers in the 1500s, many of the residents Haitian's as well as DR residents.  Bataye Caracoa is assisted by a man named Eduardo, whom also works with other Batayes in the area.  His mission work to improve the conditions of the current Batayes is very inspiring!  Caracoa is the first Bataye to be improved, and it includes a brand new school, church, medic building and houses. 

As we pulled into the Bataye, the residents were very curious and welcoming at the same time.  I struggled because I do not speak any Spanish, however, everyone tried to help me understand.  Eduardo gave us a tour and as we are touring many children come running up to us, they want to interact and to play as well.  We were carrying two soccer balls around and brought them as a donation to the Sunday school program.  As the kids approached, we gave them the soccer balls.  I have never seen so many children so happy just to run around a kick a ball.  They really got into it, and continued playing through the rain!

We attended a church service, which was all in Spanish.  As I did not understand everything that was going on, I did understand some things.  Since Church is universal I was able to identify creeds and prayers that are familiar to me as a Lutheran.  An interesting fact about the church is that the structure was build to withstand hurricane winds, the side walls are open, in theory the storm will blow through and there will be less to repair.

After the Bataye, we went to the beach.  I enjoyed my first Dominican Presidente on the beach with my classmates.  I really enjoy getting to know the other girls in my group that I do not know so well!  Funny thing, we had to pay for the use of chairs on the beach. 

The weather here is very humid and very unpredictable.  Its so humid you want to die one minute and the next minute it is storming.  Rain coats are pretty optional here in the rain, for the rain really cools us off!

We did a walking tour of Santo Domingo on the second night there.  I took many pictures of the monuments and buildings (such as Christopher Columbus' house) and the little crazy streets that our ILAC bus is whipping down.  We walked to the ocean and along a popular strip with tons of things going on and did our reflection of the day down there.  We talked about our roses and our thorns.  I stated that my rose is getting to know the doctorate students and how accepting they are of both me and Kelsey into their group and their service project.  My thorn is that I wish I knew Spanish and that its humid.  I know that will get better!  We ended up at a little restaurant by Bettey's, where we finished the evening out.

As a reflection of my first full day I have many emotions! 

Day 2:

We woke up again to have breakfast at Bettey's and then packed our things to move into ILAC.  ILAC is the Institute for Latin American Concern in Santiago.  We drove from our ocean side town of Santo Domingo through the moutains into mainland.  The pictures that I took out of the bus window do no justice to the beauty that I saw.

ILAC is a beautiful place, as you will see in some of my pictures.  We settled into two rooms at the center, enojyed some lunch and then had an orientation to our new home for the next 2 weeks.  After our orientation we exchanged our dollars for paso's and headed out for our first Guagua (bus) ride.  Seriously, they pack people in these things!  There were 27 of us in what appeared to be a 15 passenger van, wow!  Oh did I mention it was HOT and HUMID!  Hahaha.

We took the Guagua more into the heart of Santiago where we split into our service groups (mine is Hospicio) and did a scavenger hunt to learn how to get our way around the city better - learn how to order things in Spanish, get directions, get off at the right Guagua stop, barter for cheaper prices, etc.  Let me just say that this was very nerve wracking for me.  I found myself timid as I was trying to speak the language and Im not quite sure why.  I hope to get over this shyness of speaking Spanish because I am really going to need it with my patients the next coming weeks!

We ended our scavenger hunt by meeting at a little restaurant for a drink and reflected on what we found out from our experiences that day.

After dinner this evening, back at ILAC, we discussed our day tomorrow. 

I am finding that I am drinking tons of water, so much that I think that Im getting sick of it, but know that I need it to survive down here.  More to come soon!

Sara