One week left

The first day back from the weekend we had a discussion at ISA about Haitian and Dominican relations. Haitians students who go to PUCUMM came and spoke to us a little about the relations and then they opened up the floor for questions. They were telling us that the Haitians and Dominicans don’t have any beef with each other. I don’t feel that this is true but I assume that they can’t tell us the whole truth. The next day we watched a movie about the Mirabal sisters who were Dominican political dissidents who opposed against dictator Truijllo.

They were assassinated and now have been recognized for what they have done. I really enjoyed this movie and enjoyed learning about them. We went to a museum that recognizes them. The museum is actually their house that was turned into a museum. This would have to be my favorite museum that we went to out of all the ones we visited these past two weeks. Their story caught my attention and I wanted to learn more about them. I’m glad that we had a chance to learn about their history and get an idea of what they did for their country. This is the last week here and it is going by kind of fast. From all the papers and assignments that I have to do before we leave along with going on excursions and having class has left me very exhausted. I am ready to go but then again I’m not. I am ready to go back to own living conditions and I miss my family and friends but I will also miss it here.
 My host family are real cool and I believe I will miss them. I hope we have a good rest of the week before we all have to depart.

end of the first week

The weekend was spent in Santo Domingo which is the capital of the Dominican Republic. This city is so much more of a faster pace than Santiago.

It is a lot going on and feels a lot hotter. Also Santiago is much calmer. I enjoyed taking a tour of the city because it is very beautiful. It’s a big tourist attraction and everywhere we went so many people were trying to sell us all the same things and then there were some who were begging for money. I don’t see this at all in Santiago. Seems like everyone is doing what it takes to make some quick money. They know we are tourist and we are the main target.

What I don't like about that is that they can easily rip us off and take advantage of us and we would have no idea. We took a tour of the city and visited a museum. Learned a little about the history and seen some landmarks. The city of Santo Domingo is a very beautiful city. There were many people who filled the streets of this city and there was a lot going on. It was getting a little annoying when all those people kept following us around begging us to buy things from them. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. All of them were selling the same things and provided different prices. I fell through and bought some jewelry and postcards. After the tour we had the rest of the day to do what we want and relax. I walked around and brought a

few souvenirs then went to eat dinner. We all just walked around going through the stores then went to a nightclub at night. The next day we went to a cave somewhere in Santo Domingo. I enjoyed the cave and it was very beautiful inside. It wasn’t a long tour and we seen the three rivers that was in cave.

After the cave we went to a private beach in Juan Dolio. This beach was very pretty and had nice scenery. It was kind of a boring beach and appeared to be one of those beaches you don’t go to for fun but to relax. I still enjoyed myself though. I enjoyed being in the city of Santo Domingo for the weekend and learning about the history.

Day 5 and 6

This is the end of the first week here in the Dominican Republic. Tomorrow we will be going to Santo Domingo for the weekend. Yesterday went to this place where the little kids in the community go after school for help in their education.  It keeps them off the street and keeps them from dropping out of school. I love kids so I enjoyed seeing them and talking to them with the small amount of Spanish I do know.

After playing games with the kids we took a tour of a community that was down the street. This was a poor community. Walking around you can see how bad their living conditions are. There was trash everywhere and the water didn’t even look clean. They were living in shacks. There were a lot of animals and they looked unhappy. We walked through this community which felt like we were walking for miles. All of the people in this community didn’t look unhappy. Some of them did but some didn’t. It seemed as if they were happy and taking life as it is. Today we went to the dabjon market which was on the border of Haiti. We also went to the bridge which is at the Haitian border. Looking across at Haiti I seen women and children washing clothes in the water and bathing.

These living conditions were worse than the community we walked through yesterday. This makes me really appreciate what I have and where I leave. I was told that this was going to be a flea market in which we would be able to purchase things. We were also told that this was similar to black Friday shopping but probably worse. When we got there it was nothing that I had expected. As soon as we got off the bus everyone was staring. It was obvious that we were Americans and not from there. The stares never left us the whole time we were there. I was kind of scared walking through everyone because it was crowded and everyone was rushing, pushing, and shoving. I was afraid to get lost and be separated from the group. Walking through we held hands trying to navigate through the crowd. As soon as I got inside I was ready to get back on the bus.

The crowds of people and almost getting hit and ran over was enough for me. We went to the bridge, through the market, and back out. Some of us got separated from each other.  I made sure to stay with a group of people. I didn’t feel safe in that crowd and was ready to leave before anything bad

happened. When we met back up with everyone else we found out that three of our people were mistaken for Haitian and almost didn’t get back to the other side of the border. If that were of happened to me I would have been scared. This was something to experience but nothing I would want to go back to. One time was enough. All of us were ready to leave the market and weren’t too interested in buying anything. After the market we went to the beach in el morro and had a good time.

Our really had flipped around. I went from being scared and not feeling safe to having fun and enjoying myself. It is weird how a day can switch like that so fast.

first week

This week has opened my eyes to a lot of things. The Dominican culture is a lot different than us in way, but there are also some similarities. I have noticed that they are very family oriented. They eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day together with lunch being their biggest meal. Their lunch is like our dinner. Walking around the neighborhood

near the place where I stayed, I noticed young boys working and doing what they can to earn money. I saw young boys working a pizza stand at a corner. Also, by walking around I noticed a lot of stares. In my mind I’m wondering they must be staring cause they never seen us before or we must look America. Walking around and riding through the city I think the city is beautiful. The poor areas are depressing and make me appreciate a lot. Children work to help take care of their families if they can. This is something you don’t see a lot in America. I like how the community is close and just about everyone knows each other. It appears to me that they value relationships with people more than the amount of money they make. Something that I had to get use to with living with a host family is that there hasn’t been a day

where I took a hot shower and to get hot water you have to turn on a switch. Also I had to adjust to being hot all the time and this heat is different from America. I had to adjust to the bugs and the mosquitoes eating me alive. Stray dogs and cats are everywhere and they look stressed and sad. I think it’s because they don’t know when their next meal is. I had to get use to the fact that you are not suppose to flush anything, including toilet paper in the toilets. When I first heard this I  thought it was nasty but then I realized it is because their toilets clog easy. I learned not to judge other cultures because that is what they are use to and there are probably things that us Americans do that they might find weird as well.

The first days in Santiago

This has been my second day in the Dominican Republic and I have been enjoying myself so far. I

was nervous on my way to the airport because I have never flown by myself. I have always had my mom with me so

I figured this was going to be a challenge and I was afraid of things going wrong and getting lost. I managed to get around the airport with no problem. On the first night when I arrived at my host family’s apartment on Saturday night, the mom was very welcoming. I was nervous about staying with a host family but she made me feel very comfortable. Even though there is a language barrier I enjoyed trying to communicate with the mother. Even though I have a little bit of knowledge in Spanish it still can be difficult. She is very sweet which made me feel comfortable about living with a host family. I felt at home. The meals that she has made for us so far have been very good. She always asks us what we like.

She has two sons who know a good amount of English. They are cool and I enjoy talking to them. Yesterday we played cards along with my two roommates. It was really fun. I also enjoyed bonding with the other students in the program. Yesterday we walked around and stopped inside some places. We were trying to communicate with the locals. When we got back my host brothers took my roommates and I around the corner to a pizza stand. We sat there and ate and conversed with the locals. They were friendly to us. I was very nervous coming here but so far the first two days made me feel comfortable about being in this country. There has been things that I had to adjust to. The Yesterday I seen guys walking around with shot guns which freaked me out. I almost panicked because I was not expecting that. On the first day we visited the monument of heroes. I love the city so far. I'm ready to see what the rest of this trip has in store.