Dominican Vacation

When most people visit the Dominican Republic, they fly from their home to Miami and then from Miami to Punta Cana or Puerto Plata. When you come from the other side of the island, you do things a little bit differently. 

November 1st and 2nd are recognized as "All Saints' Day" and "All Souls' Day" respectively. I'll be honest, I don't know what those days are really about, but I know we got two extra days off of school and a long weekend. Jill and I needed to get out of the city and rest a few days. Thanks to Groupon, this was possible (if you've never looked at Groupon's getaways, do it now! They're worth it and very easy to use). We found a great deal for a 3 night stay at an All-Inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. We booked the Groupon and began to look at flights. There is a bus you can take, but with such a short amount of time, we chose to fly. We booked on an airline I had heard others use before, TortugAir. I could use this blog as a long and bitter diatribe written against Tortug, but I will try and exercise some self-restraint. Let's just say, for those of you who would live in Haiti and want to fly to the DR (or anywhere else they fly) and are considering using Tortug, don't. There, that's all.

We left on Thursday afternoon and flew from Port-au-Prince to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. I knew the plane would be small, and I thought I had prepared myself for that, but I hadn't. I didn't know that I would be close enough to the pilot to tap him on his shoulder and ask him why certain buttons were flashing red and another screen kept flashing the word "ALERT." (In case you're wondering, I didn't tap the pilot on the shoulder at any point, though I was close enough. I was too busy checking the propellers outside the plane to make sure they were still turning!)

Sweet laminated boarding pass....

Teeny little plane.

What's up pilot?

We landed in Santo Domingo a terrifying mere 45 minutes after takeoff. The airport was nice, but located far outside of town (with this airline you don't fly into the main airport in Santo Domingo). We were ale to share a cab with a nice couple in front of us who were staying in a hotel near ours. The first night of our trip we stayed in the Zona Colonial area of Santo Domingo. This would be considered the historical district as well as the arts district I think. When we walked into our hotel we were greeted with a blast of cool air and a glass of champagne and knew we had made a good choice of hotels. The staff were warm and welcoming and the rooms were great. 

Old church/mission near our hotel in Santo Domingo.

Outdoor patio restaurant things. 

Our next stop though had to be food. We had passed a road a couple blocks from our hotel that was in front of an old church and had restaurant after restaurant lined up, each with an outdoor patio seating area. Our eyes stopped on one particular restaurant and, without discussion, knew we needed to eat there: The Hard Rock Cafe. 

Now, some people will judge us at this point..."you went to another country and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe?!" Absolutely. Try as our cafeteria might, they just can't make a cheeseburger that will compete with an American cheeseburger. We wanted something in English and something that tasted like home. Enter the pulled pork sandwich with french fries and a coke. Delish.

'merican food. 

Still decorated from Halloween the night before. 

Sooooo good. 

After dinner we wandered the neighborhood where an artisan fair was going on with all kinds of crafts from Colombia. When we had seen all we wanted to see we went back to the hotel, sat in the air conditioning, and watched TV. Simple pleasures.

The next morning we needed to catch a bus from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana. I knew the name of the bus-line and the address. We got a taxi from our hotel and were dropped off at a very sketchy building. But, at 6:45 the doors opened and we were inthe right spot. We paid $375 RD (about $10 US) and hopped aboard. The bus left at 7am and as we drove through the streets of Santo Domingo, something just seemed....different. It finally hit me: no walls. There were no walls around the houses, buildings, businesses, nothing! In Haiti, EVERYTHING has a wall around it. The streets are not a mixture of different porches or houses with different paint or different brick. It is all a jumbled mx of different kinds of walls. 

We drove through the countryside on this very nice bus for about 4 hours. No, we weren't exactly sure of where we were supposed to get off. Any Spanish I picked up in high school had been violently shoved out of my brain when I began learning Creole. When we reached the last stop and everyone was getting off, I figured we should to. We were dropped off at a gas station parking lot and immediately swarmed by taxi drivers. We found one, and fifteen minutes later arrived at our resort. 

The next few days involved very little physical activity (aside froma very diverse volleyball game played between Americans, Dominicans, Chileans, Russians, and a Canadian). We ate, sat on the beach, read, ate some more, read some more, and slept. It was great! 

View from our room (semi-blocked by the tree).  

Another shot from our balcony. 

The last day and night we were at the resort both Jill and I were feeling kinda crummy and not entirely looking forward to the trip back. However, the transportation to return to Santo Domingo worked out all right. We arrived in the capital with a few hours to kill so we took advantage of the several American food chains in the area: a bacon cheeseburger at Wendy's and an ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins. There was also a grocery store nearby so we bought a few items that were much cheaper than our local stores here in Haiti. 

On the way back to the airport we attempted to figure out the Metro and did so semi-successfully. We made it back to the airport, had one more fight with Tortug Air, another terrifying fight, and safe arrival in Port-au-Prince. 

Restful weekend and another country stamped on my passport. Win. 

Parent's Visit to Haiti

Whew, it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. A lot has been going on: trip to the Dominican, school events, and my parents visiting me!

In the middle of October, my parents flew to Haiti and arrived on Thursday afternoon. I picked them up at the airport and drove us back to the school. What followed was a weekend of running around sight-seeing and trying to let them experience all that my life involves around here. 

On Thursday we walked around the school, watched a bit of a soccer game happening on campus, and then visited the grocery store. We ate a Haitian dinner made by a sweet friend of ours, Madame Josef. We had an early night to rest up for the weekend ahead of us.

Friday morning my parents joined me at our weekly Friday morning staff meeting. They were introduced around and were able to put faces to the names of the people I tell them about. After the meeting we headed out to TeacHaiti. My parents sponsor a little girl in 5^th grade and I know they enjoyed getting to see where she goes to school. We visited a few of the classrooms and got to check out the fabulous jewelry program they have going on there. We then went to another business/ministry called The Apparent Project. This ministry hires parents of children to make crafts, goods, etc so that parents can make money to keep their children instead of giving them up for adoption as some parents feel they must do. We did a little shopping here and got some fun souvenirs. 

View around TeacHaiti.

TeacHaiti classroom.

A student my grandparents sponsor in TeacHaiti. 

Little ones lining up!

Later that afternoon we headed back to campus for lunch. We rested up a bit before heading out again. We drove to Petionville to visit the grocery store, Giant, where we do some of our shopping. After touring through Giant we made our way to a nice hotel, Karibe. After getting caught in nasty traffic on the way there we rested in the cool air and calm environment of Karibe. We ate a nice, early dinner and then came back down the hill to the school. 

Views from around Karibe. 

On Saturday morning we visited a basketball clinic that was being held on our campus and relaxed around the apartment. Around mid-morning our friend John Ackerman picked us up to take us around town. What a blessing this was! John and his wife Jodie have been in Haiti almost 30 years and they know their way around town. John took us downtown to see the ruins of the Presidential Palace. We saw various monuments and the cathedral downtown. My parents were able to see a part of Haiti even I hadn’t seen before. 

Photos of the remains of the palace. 

We got back late afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing and packing.  They flew out early the next morning and had a long trip home. It was great for them to experience my life here and be able to put a picture to some places that I talk about! Thanks for coming, it was great!!

Weekend Respite

I feel like last year all we did was explore. Ok, there was some teaching involved in our lives, but looking back, we spent so many weekends just exploring. First we began to explore the neighorhood in which we live. We then branched out to the neighborhoods surrounding ours, and eventually we decided to explore the rest of the country. We haven’t seen it all, but last year we definitely hit the highlights. 

This year we haven’t done a whole lot of that. I’m not sure why exactly. Lack of motor vehicles is a big factor, but maybe we are just tired. A couple weekends ago though, we got out. The city was just too much for too long. Too much smog. Too much trash. Too much burning trash. Too much dirt and dust and heat. Too much noise. Too much! The school van was working and we wanted to get away. A good friend and fellow teacher offered to let us use her family’s cabin up in the mountains. She said it wasn’t much and, if we were planning on camping, it would be perfect. She definitely downplayed how nice the cabin was. It definitely wasn’t your fancy Colorado style cabins, but it was more than a shack in the woods. 

The cute cabin!

After driving up the mountains and out of the city (and calling our friend several times to clarify directions) we pulled into a cute drive and say a rustic green and white wooden cabin. The caretaker opened the windows for us, brought us some semi-dry wood (it had been raining all afternoon) and then left us to our weekend. We explored and marveled in the cool, damp air. There was greenery….everywhere! And it was cold!! I can’t express the sheer joy of feeling cold. It’s a beautiful feeling. We set up our hammocks in the trees behind the cabin and begin to work on a fire (ok, the boys worked on the fire. Jill and I cut vegetables). 

Fire attempt....Fail.

Tasty dinner even without a campfire. 

After several hours, we realized the wood was just too wet to get a fire going (we had an Eagle scout working on the fire, so we gave it a good try) and used the camp stove instead. After a delicious dinner we sat around talking, resting, and soaking in the cold mountain air. We fell asleep wearing layers of clothing to keep us warm and listened to the sweet sound of silence instead of the car horns and radios we are so used to drowning out in the city.

View from the cabin early in the morning.

The next morning we were able to get a pretty nice fire going. We had a breakfast of smores and eggs; good fuel for our afternoon hike.

Boy Scout.

S'more. (A box of Graham crackers was $10 USD. We went with the $2 sugar cookie things)

Our chefs!

As we hiked we marveled at the beauty of this country. Why doesn’t CNN show this? Yes there is destruction and unimaginable poverty, but every once in a while take a second and show what Haiti does have! Beautiful land all around. Green lush mountains  covered with a patchwork of terraced farms. The late morning fog rolling in was icing on the beautiful landscape. We walked around a bit and, eventually, returned to the house to rest before driving back down into the city.

The boys contemplating life's meaning.

What a restful, rejuvenating 24 hours to get away from the noise of the city and breathe the fresh, clean, cool air of the mountains. 

Strange Habits

Thoughts on a Thursday night (because I haven't been very diligent about blogging....)

I sometimes wonder if, when I eventually move back to the states, I will be that weird person who lived overseas for a while. I wonder if I have developed certain odd habits that will stick with me for years to come.

--Will I always try to be in bed before 9pm, because that's when the air conditioner turns off and I want to fall asleep before it gets too hot?
--When I want to call my parents will I reach for my computer to Skype instead of my phone?
--Will I still spray bug spray on, even when I live in a less-mosquito infested area?
--Will I feel the need to always have a mosquito net canopy above my head and an oscillating fan blowing on me?
--Will I always have an unhealthy fear of accidentally drinking water from the tap?
--Will I always have an unhealthy lack of fear of rats, because they're just part of life?
--Will I end all of my plans with "if ______________ is working"?  (the _______ being the car, internet, electricity, etc)

Honestly, that's about all I can think of. I'm sure there are dozens of more weird habits I have picked up, that I don't even realize anymore because they are so ingrained into my every day routine. I'm settled in to life here. I've adjusted to the different routines and ways to do things, so much so that they are no longer "different" but are now normal.

Just some thoughts from today. This afternoon a few of us are getting out of town this weekend to go camping in the mountains. We haven't been out of the city at all this semester and it will be fabulous to get into the mountains with the fresh, cool air and relax for a bit.....if the car is working :)

Update

Yikes, I stink at this whole blogging thing lately. Here are the highlights from the past few weeks:

Teaching

I am in my fourth week as the sixth grade teacher hereat QCS. It is exhausting and quite a change from last year. I plan, teach, and grade all subjects (except Science, I switch with the 5^th grade teacher for Science and Social Studies). We are also responsible for our kids at lunch (yep, supervise lunch every day), recess once a week and irregular planning periods while our kids are at specials. We also plan chapel a few times a year in addition to the other responsibilities. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I didn’t realize how exhausting it would be! It made my year teaching in the states (with mandatory planning periods and student-free lunches daily) look a lot easier. 

However, depsite all that (which, really, isn’t that bad) I’m enjoying this year so far. The students are getting into their routines and I am too. We are doing a new reading and writing curriculum which I just LOVE and I enjoy getting to teach Bible to my class each day. That is definitely something I wouldn’t be able to do in an American public school. 

Weather

A few weeks ago Isaac made his run through the Caribbean. We avoided the worst of it here in our neighborhood. Friday night we all got together to hang out and just waited for Isaac to arrive. The day at school had been crazy. Kids on edge and everyone glancing up at the sky seeing if there was any difference from the last time they looked up. The wind picked up significantly around 2pm and that’s when parents came to pick up their kids early. The afternoon was a wash with no one really focused on anything but Isaac. 

Friday night the wind and rain came in and the temperature dropped. I actually had a sweatshirt and sweat pants on and opened the windows to let the cool air in. The wind howled all night long and the rain poured steadily throughout the night and morning. Our faithful gate guard, Pierre, was on duty all night in what we call the “guard-shack,” faithfully serving. Jill took him coffee and eggs the next morning to warm him up. Pierre deserves his own post. That Friday night marked 20 years that he had been working at Quisqueya. Talk about dedication!

Community

Over the summer we had several members of our community leave to other places and adventures and we had a couple of people join us here on campus. The dynamic in the community is different, but just as good. 

The other night our director, who grew up in Japan, had a few of us over for an authentic Japanese meal. Boy, did we feast! We even got to roll the sushi! When I return to Dallas this summer I will be hitting up one of the many Asian markets and attempting this on my own. 

Cats

The cats (Jasper and Max) survived the summer! Jasper is my cat and Max belongs to my roommate. Jasper has been very ill-behaved and might find himself sold on the street soon. He has the gift of being able to escape in a Houdini-like manner from a room with closed doors and windows. We haven’t figured out where and how he is able to get out, but we’re working on it. The cats are, however, exceptionally cute and we have not seen a single mouse, cockroach, or lizard in our house this year so they must be doing their job.

Volleyball

Volleyball is up and running again! I won’t be able to be as involved as last year, but I will hopefully still make it to a practice or two a week. I’m so excited to hang out with these girls and watch them grow as a team and individuals. 

I think that’s about all that is happening right now. Haiti is still Haiti with it’s pros and cons. Hopefully I can be a little more diligent in my blogging in the coming weeks. Thanks for following along!