Week 3- Field Trip 1

Los Torrenos

Playa Rincon

Baby whale breaching

Banao

Caving in Bani

Sunday, 2/5/12

Dennis is kinda nuts. I have never been around someone that knows so much, and he shares it ALL. Pretty sure his voice will narrate my thoughts after tomorrow- anything we saw, he gave us the history of it. We went kayaking today and had an hour lesson about the history of kayaking before we even got in the water. Anyways, he gave us a last minute assignment and we were up past midnight finishing it and packing, only to wake up at 4 am to leave. We drove on dirt roads most of the time so it was pretty hard to sleep, even for me. Looking out the windows, I started thinking how much this country reminded me of Sierra Leone. A lot of the land looks similar, with the palm trees, fields, and small mountains- all things green. It’s a beautiful country. People walking in the streets, people peeing on the streets (this was new), crazy drivers on the wrong side of the road, children playing futbol or baseball in their underwear, advertisements for Ford cars in the middle of a shanty town. After five hours we arrived in Samana, which is one of the first cities Columbus claimed in Hispaniola. It was supposed to become the Santo Domingo of the DR, as the bay makes it a prime location for a port city but the trade winds made it hard for people to get there. The Dominican Republic opened Samana as a community for freed Haitian and US slaves during the 1800s, offering them land, rights and full citizenship. We went to the African Episcopal Church, which was the first constructed building and now the only one left from the original colony since Trujillo tore everything else down. The congregation was very welcoming of us and asked us in English to introduce ourselves. We went up and introduced ourselves in Spanish and they all broke into applause, they got a big kick out of that. The music reminded me of church in Sierra Leone, which I loved. At lunch in a little Pica Pollo shack, a little boy approached our table for shoe shining. Dennis paid him and at first I felt uncomfortable sitting there eating as he worked. Dennis asked him how his mother and father were and he said that his mother was sick and his dad had a broken leg- that is why he was shining shoes. I kept catching myself staring at him, he had cuts and scars all over his face and I lost my appetite. When he left, Dennis told us about growing up in Santiago shining shoes and how many people react the same way I do and don’t feel comfortable putting a child to work. He said that they all use cover stories like that, that he himself always said his father had a broken leg. In reality, these kids must go to work and are often beaten if they don’t bring home enough money, which would explain the scars on that little boy’s face.  We also passed some children selling shells they had found on the beach, it broke my heart. From there we went horseback riding in Limon. It was a very poor rural town and was up in the mountains. We got assigned to horses and I got Rambo, a 12 year old with a crooked ear. All of the horses hip bones were sticking out and you could tell they were not in good health. Rambo was the smallest, saddest looking horse I’ve ever seen. Felt really fat when he let out a big wheeze when I sat on him. He was also really slow, we fell so behind the group and the poor guy was huffing and puffing up the mountain and kept tripping on rocks and slipping in mud. We had to go through a river that came up to my knees, he was such a trooper. My guide was deaf and I think mentally handicapped- he was very sweet but kept whacking Rambo with a stick to go faster but he couldn’t. I kept telling him to stop and signaling no. After awhile I felt so bad I got off and led Rambo with one hand and held Orlando’s with the other. I thought of the movie Ice Age, we were a strange threesome. The view at the top of the mountain was well worth the trouble- it was breathtaking and you could see all the way to the ocean. We tied up the horses and hiked the rest of the way to Los Torrenos, the biggest waterfalls I have ever seen. It was used in Jurassic Park. We swam underneath into this big cave. Orlando climbed so far up the waterfall, I was in the cave so I have no idea how he managed to scale that high up a vertical rock. He was standing on his tippy toes clinging to it and just pushed himself off, diving backwards for like 60 feet. It was wild. Shannon, Richard, Ben and I all hiked to the top and the view was incredible. After that we went back to Samana to visit Martha Laticia Timor, the direct 4^th descendant of the founder of the community. It was so cool to meet a living piece of history, hear her family story, and see how African, American, and Spanish roots defined her and the town. She served us homemade Black Sugar and Mabi plant soda, which was the most delicious drink ever. We walked through the town, which is very poor. One of the images that has stuck with me was a boy in a wheelchair, I am fairly certain he had cerebral palsy. He was sitting alone up against a wall of a crumbled building and underneath a sign that said in Spanish, “Jesus lives and is the hope for you. Look for Him.” We got back to our hotel in Samana after dinner. It sits behind this tacky tourist strip mall- the buildings looked like perfect doll houses, all painted pastel colors. We were on the other side, and in the back of the buildings there are stray dogs running around everywhere, naked children roaming around and women carrying water back to their houses. Dennis looked at it from the balcony and said “That right there sums up the Dominican Republic.” We headed downtown to watch the superbowl in this little outdoor tent bar with a mini tv. I Love Samana at night. There are street dancing groups everywhere, salsa music blaring, stray animals that come sit by your feet, guys with wheelbarrows of sugar cane, kids running around, and mostly just everyone sitting around talking. Such a fun atmosphere. We got some ice cream and walked to the harbor. We turned down the block and things got much quieter compared to the loud happy buzz of the main street. There were lots of policemen and families looking out at the water and Dennis asked someone what was going on.  And then we saw the caskets. Turns out, last week an illegal boat of 85 people escaping to Puerto Rico went down. Only 15 survived and they were claiming the dead bodies. It was horrible, didn’t feel much like ice cream anymore.

Monday 2/6/12

We woke up at 5 am and drove to Playa Rincon, which is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. The water was so warm and there were actual waves for a change! The beach was completely deserted- we got to watch the sun rise over the mountains. We chilled there for a few hours and had a history lesson. Rincon is said to be the first place that Columbus went in Hispaniola and described it as “heaven on earth”. We reluctantly left, but were excited for whale watching. Humpback whales migrate here every year from Maine to mate. The mothers give birth here and don’t eat for 6 months, they lose one ton of their weight while nursing their calf. It was a perfect day and the captain let our group go sit on the bow of the ship. We got so lucky- we saw two whales and then a mother and her calf got really close to our ship. The mother was teaching the baby how to breach so the baby would jump out once almost every minute. The mom breached one time and it was incredible, made the biggest splash. We left from there to Sosua, a Holocaust refugee community. Out of 32 countries at a conference held by FDR, the Dominican Republic was the only nation to open their doors to oppressed Jewish families. Granted, Trujillo did this to get back on FDR’s good side after slaughtering 50,000 people and thought the Jews would help whiten the Dominican Republic. We went to the Jewish museum there, which gave stories of Holocaust survivors and their new lives in Sosua. Out of the 600 families that came, only 36 remain today, and Sosua is famous for being the capital of prostitution in the Dominican rather than for its Jewish roots. 

Tuesday 2/7/12

I got so sick and was up all night in Sosua. It was rough but I felt better by morning, just totally exhausted. Tuesday was a blur. We headed to Puerto Plata first thing and toured Fort San Felipe. It was built in the 1500s and has been used to defend against pirates all the way to being used as a defensive base in the War of Independence. We walked out back to see the big hole that they threw all of the pirate heads in and climbed around the whole place. On the way out, this little old lady with a donkey asked if we wanted a picture with it. I said no, knowing that she would want money and I didn’t have any. But she shook her head no and said “free, free” and next thing I knew this woman literally picked me up and swung me over the donkey. I was so surprised! She was so old, I don’t even think she was five feet tall. We went from there to the Mirabel Sister museum. It was kind of eerie; they had preserved the towel that they used to clean up the blood after their murder and the sisters’ hair. We drove further into town because the tour guide told us about the town’s personal memorial to the sisters. We were walking through the park and ran into the last living Mirabel sister! It was amazing to talk to her. She said “It is a sad history, but it is our history. There were once four sisters, and now there is only one. But I adopted all nine of their children, so our history continues and my sisters live through their children. When you die in the arms of a grateful nation, you never die. Seeing you studying our story, it is like they are here.” We all gave her hugs before saying goodbye, I still can’t believe we met her. Having three sister myself, I cannot imagine what she went through and it gave me a much deeper sense of appreciation for their sacrifice to the country. We headed to Santiago. It is a big city filled with poverty, but it is also filled with brightly painted building covered in murals, blaring salsa music, and great people. I got really sick again and stayed in with my faithful roommate while the group had dinner and went to the city monuments. Good times. Traveling and exhaustion has definitely brought our group closer together- we are such a family now. Ben gave me the nickname Kibbles and Bits since everyone here calls me KB and also because I hurled so many times. I was not a fan but he succeeded in making it stick- it is my new namesake and Ben loved introducing me to people- "This is Tricia, Christian, Richard, Erika, Shannon, Cat, Sally, Jenna, and KibblesnBits." Everyone would die when they tried to pronounce it and so now it is shortened to just Kibbles. Thanks, Ben. 

Wednesday 2/11/12

We woke up Wednesday morning and enjoyed a delicious breakfast of pancakes and pineapple, I was so happy to be eating again. Afterwards, we headed to the Cultural Center of Santiago, which is a center that offers low cost art, dance and music lessons, and a library for inner city youth. It is also a major performing arts building, and productions from all over the world visit the center.  Our tour guide was such a friendly guy and introduced us to a bunch of the head instructors, my personal favorite being this little old violin teacher. He was adorable. We got to observe some painting, ballet, and piano lessons. I swear, Dennis has some sort of luck charm, we happened into his childhood piano teacher. I loved the sense of the community there, I wanted to stay and paint or play violin with the kids. We departed the Cultural Center for Fernando Valerio’s memorial park. It was a nice respite from the loud noises, craziness, and poverty that makes up the city. We were leaving Santiago and passing through a town on the outskirts of the city when Dennis casually said, “Oh look, that is my uncle and cousin on that motorcycle.” He was dead serious, didn’t think that was unusual at all after we tried explaining that these coincidences don’t happen to anyone else, ever. Our next destination, Banao, was the exact opposite of the city. Banano is a very rural town, tucked away in the mountains. The drive was so scenic and it was interesting to the differences in lifestyles from people who lived in the cities to people who lived off the land. It is interesting, many of the houses are in terrible condition but most are painted pastel colors, making the clusters of shacks look strangely pretty, especially in the midst of the mountains. We pulled into Ranchoooo Wendyyyy, my favorite place in the world. It was similar to a bed and breakfast and the place had such character, allowing us to get a small taste of the setting in which many Dominican families live- we were on a small farm and did not have electricity the majority of the time we were there. After lunch we went hiking. It was beautiful, it felt like we were hiking through the jungle. We crossed this hand made bridge, everyone got really nervous when a motorcycle passed us. We made it to the waterfalls, there were five of varying sizes that cascaded into each other. After dinner we had a bonfire and smores- a concept that our Dominican friends found very bizarre- they thought it was hilarious when the marshmallows would catch on fire and refused to taste such a strange thing. Two people who made a mark on me were Joanna and Ariel, both orphans who were adopted by the family who owns Rancho Wendy. Joanna is currently paying her on way to nursing school and has dreams of becoming a doctor. Her work ethic was so admirable and put things in perspective for me.

Thursday 2/9/12

I was sad to leave Banao and Rancho Wendy for Santo Domingo. It is the capital city, and even crazier than Santiago. We started playing a game of the most ridiculous motorcycles we saw. The craziest one was a man on a bike pulling a horse. The scariest was a mother who had a five year old holding a two year old in her lap. We went to the Faro de Colon. It is a huge monument to Christopher Columbus. It is in the shape of a cross and has thousands of purple lights that shoot a giant cross up into the sky on holidays. It costs millions every time they do it- you can see it from outer space. The idea was that the monument would shoot the cross up to heaven the same way Christopher Columbus brought Christianity to the New World. The entire thing cost 70 million dollars. What a waste of what little government money the country has. It was so backwards- Columbus wiped out both native populations of the Dominican Republic completely and killed millions in the name of Christianity. The paintings made me sick- there was one mural of an Indian getting baptized, with a big halo on Columbus’s head. We toured the Latin American museum inside the monument- Haiti and Jamaica were the only 2 countries to not contribute anything out of protest to what Columbus really stood for. We then went to Bani, a town that was out in the middle of nowhere. We were on dirt roads for 30 minutes. The directions were like “you will eventually see a school bus, turn right there. Sure enough, we saw an old turned over school bus, covered in rust and with no wheels. Then, “When you see the white cow, turn left.” Sure enough, there was a white cow chillin on a corner and we turned. We finally saw the little pink shack! We pulled in and the family had made our delicious lunch over a fire and had a beautiful display out. It is amazing how people who have so little are also the most generous and hospitable. We tried the homemade cassava bread and peanut butter and pepper- it was amazing. We talked to the mother- turns out she has attempted to escape to Puerto Rico three times and every single time she went to jail. Her stories were awesome. Louis took us to the caves. Two of their Chihuahuas followed us throughout the caves, it was hilarious. Hidalgo’s friend, Lynn, discovered these caves and has been doing research on the Taino carvings she has found. Caves were a sacred connection to the underworld and it was crazy to think that people used to live underground. It was awesome and we saw some torch stains and carvings of faces. I loved everything about it except the bats. We returned home around 8:00. We had dinner at La Tortuguita and Daniel gave me a big hug, it made me feel happier to be back- I was not looking forward to returning to the resort after all we had seen. The guards said how much they missed us and I realized how much I love this whole country- I have not been to a place or met someone I don’t like yet! This was a week I will never forget.