Friday morning, Chris and I went to the oldest church in the western world. Then we stopped into the Panteón Nacional where a lot of politicians and famous statesmen are buried. It was set up like a church however half of the tombs were empty and awaiting future use.
Darleny, and her Spanish friend Miguel met us for lunch. We ate meró (I think it’s sea bass) and rice on the plaza by the original cathedral. Then we took a ride on the new metro which is extremely clean and bright. Each station has a guard on each platform and each train has at least one on board. There is only one metro line: we took it all the way to the northern end, which is a poor neighborhood. Up there, we bought some sugar cane and limoncillos (little green fruits which look like mini-limes, but are eaten like lichee).
After returning to the city we had drinks and snacks at a bar in La Zona Colonial. It was a cute, hip place where Chris drew a picture of the three of us on the “wall of fame.”
That night I had dinner with one of the volunteers, Rob. We were the only two who were traveling through Santo Domingo. We went to a restaurant in Gascue called Conuco. He ate goat, but I ate con con (the rice that gets stuck at the bottom of the pot), tostones, yucca with onions and avocado. He’s my parents’ age, had started a wellness business, sold it to WebMD and is now doing philanthropic work.
Saturday morning Darleny and I met for breakfast. We ate mangú (mashed green plantains) with fried eggs and onions. I had a granadilla (a kind of passion fruit, but not as good as chinola) shake with it. Then she took me to the bus station where I met Rob and we got our bus to Puerto Plata.
The bus ride, like most other things in this country, was really loud. We passed many car-repair shops, bodegas and horses. There was a car accident (and armed police men) along the way, but other than that, the ride was basically uneventful. When we got to Puerto Plata we found Laura, Meg and Nicole (the leaders at HHI). We had time before the rest of the people were flying in from the US so we went to the fort and walked around it. Then we went for juice and off to the airport. The airport is half-indoors and half-outdoors. Check-in and the arrivals halls are outside with a large roof overhead. Customs and security were inside.
After picking up Lissa and Ayaz we headed to Tubagua, where we’re staying. Lissa is almost done with her medical residency in Chicago. Ayaz is a family medicine doctor in Storrs, CT. He’s been on an HHI trip before and is serving as our leader.
Tubagua is in the trees located halfway up a mountain. It’s got a great view of the entire area, including Puerto Plata (and the mountain there), Montellano, the airport and the Caribbean. Dinner was sea bass cooked with coconut, guenpan (bread fruit, but really a starch), avocado with basil and garlic, and a tossed salad with chinola (passion fruit) dressing. For dessert we had papaya with cinnamon.
Sunday morning I woke up at 6 am. I’m sleeping on a platform which only has a two walls, so the light and sunrise woke me up. Well, the rooster wasn’t going to let me sleep either. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, fruit and salsa and other jams.
We had an orientation about what we were going to expect in the communities and then two Dominican doctors joined us for lunch. I couldn’t eat most of the food, but the fried plantains were quite yummy.
In the afternoon we went to Pancho Mateo, one of the communities we’re going to be helping. We were given a tour of the Dominican and the Haitian batey sections. The community health worker, Cedric, took us through the area, stopping to tell us about the lack of water, poor sanitary conditions and life in Pancho Mateo. 4,000 people live with no running water and no bathrooms. They can pay Dominicans to truck in water from streams ($.30 for 15 gallons) or $1.25 for 1 gallon of purified water (used for drinking and cooking). People go to the bathroom on the side of town. When the area floods, everything is carried into the town. When there is a draught, the dust from the “bathroom” area is blown through the town. There is a school in the town. It was set up by an organization because the state-run school is too far away. The roads are not paved in the community, and probably won’t be paved until the next political elections. Politicians promise things like roads and waters to the community and carry through with the promise during election time to garner votes.
After Pancho Mateo (we’re going back Wednesday and Thursday) we went to Cabarete to go to the beach. It was a very commercial beach lined with bars. I’m pretty sure you can only get to the beach by going through the restaurants. The water was fabulous, except we started seeing lightening and got out. After dinner on the beach (I had mahi mahi with mango sauce), we came back to Tubagua to sort medicine and chill out.
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