A couple of days in the Dominican Republic

It was phenomenal to stay at Marie's brother's place in Santo Domingo. (Marie is the wife of our Haiti director, and I accompanied her back to the Dominican Republic for more medical tests.) It has been great to get to know her better, and this trip I got to spend two nights at her brother Filone's place. The house is in a nice neighborhood but was left unoccupied for some years, so it was stripped of electrical wiring and doesn't have running water. A nice neighbor, Ito, fills buckets with water for Filone. So we took bucket baths via cell phone light in the evenings. Marie's three other brothers and her sister's husband also live in Santo Domingo and the evenings were filled with visitors – including Marie's adorable 16-month-old twin nieces and some of Filone's Dominican neighbors.

Marie with her brother and his twin daughters

Filone took me on a run the last evening. I haven't run for months, so it was awesome. He really should be an athletic trainer – he kept encouraging me to add in all sorts of Rocky-like moves to my run.

Ito supplied a book so that I could help one of Marie's nieces, Franchesca, with her reading. She's been held back in school and so I'd asked Ito if he had any children's books. At first he said no, but then he came back with a manual on aqueducts and water systems! It had some nice cartoon pictures of community meetings and wells, and we actually did use it for a bit.

Franchesca and I played games with letters and then she did some drawings. She made a lovely drawing of the two of us as princesses in a castle, dancing! Marie later told me that after the first night she and her parents visited, Franchesca – who had seemed rather shy – had asked her mother if I “like black people.” The need for her to ask kind of depresses me, but I love that she was apparently satisfied enough with the answer to play with me that second night.

Franchesca with her mom.

There is no kitchen in the house so Ito, the neighbor, provided coffee the first morning that we were there. The second morning we had to get up at 4:15 am to take the bus to Santiago for another medical appointment, so at midnight the night before Ito brought over a thermos of coffee – what a sweetheart!

In the Santiago hospital the next day I was reminded of Dominican manners, which are similar to Haitian ones in some ways. When you walk into a waiting room you say “good morning” to the people already there, and you also greet people when you get on an elevator.  I think I might make some people nervous in the US if I start doing this....

The next day Marie and I went to the bus station so that she could go back home to Haiti. God really provided for us – Genson and Claudia, two acquaintances of mine, were there waiting for the same bus! So she wasn't alone on the trip, and they were able to help her at the border crossing. Also, a mutual friend came to pick up Genson and Claudia from the bus station and also took Marie home. What a blessing!

After seeing Marie off, I got on a bus to go up to the north coast for a few days of vacation. The bus dropped me off in the bigger city down the road, and I was informed by a fellow passenger that a carro would be cheaper than a taxi to get to Cabarete, my final destination. The taxi drivers at the bus drop-off nicely told me where to wait for a carro, and that I should look for one with a blue gorrita (that means ball-cap, but in the DR apparently also means a little plastic sign on top of the car). A van pulled up and I got in – 25 pesos for me and another 25 for my carry-on-sized bag, since it would be taking the space of a person. I got a little over half of my behind on the seat, and held on to the outside of the roof with the sliding side door open beside me. The cobrador – who assigns people to their places, signals the driver when to stop, and takes the fares – was standing in the open doorway. At one point as we were curving sharply he held up his leg to block me from falling out!