DR Vacation!

At some point last month, I decided that I was going to take Megan on vacation - a REAL vacation. Actually get her away from the chaos of Haiti and the demands of work. And then I commenced the planning of this marvelous trip. We would take a much-needed, girl bonding time, beach, history, adventure, long-weekend in the Dominican Republic. At night, I would pour over Trip Advisor and other such travel sites trying to make this the BEST vacation ever. And finally, after much fretting over perfecting this trip on my part, we left for Santo Domingo last Thursday. Here we go.

Its sometime around 6:30 in the morning and I wake up to the sound of my alarm and practically shoot out of bed. VACATION IS HERE AT LAST! Megan is a little slower on the uptake. She finally gets out of bed after I’ve eaten breakfast and finished up the finer details of packing. We kiss the girls goodbye (which is dramatic) and then hop into the truck with Josh. We take off by 7:30 which gives us plenty of time to catch our 10 o’clock bus from PAP to SD. Josh remarks that I look like a kid on Christmas. I try to deny it, but my goofy grin and excessive early morning energy betray me. As we get into the city though, there is HORRIFIC traffic. At first I am unphased; we have plenty of time to get there right? But time keeps moving, the cars in front of us do not, and we start to get a little panicky. I try to call the bus station and ask if the bus is on time, but of course, we’re in Haiti and the phone number for the bus company doesn’t work… Megan and I are flipping. Will we make it!??!

Eventually we make it to the bus station at 10:07 and FLY out of the car. The bus is still there! We make it on and settle into our seat giggling like kiddies. We’re going on vacation! The bus is actually super nice and pretty empty so Megs and I pig out on snacks that we packed in the special “bus snacks” bag before claiming our own rows of seats and passing out. In no time, we make it to the border.

Megan at the border

Ohhh the border. First of all, the traffic is so jammed up trying to get into the DR, we watch an ENTIRE movie before even getting to customs/immigration. When we finally get there, we are herded off the bus and into this nasty, hot, chaotic, outdoor office thing to get our passports stamped and all that. We change some money and go wait in line to pass. Well right in front of our faces, some Haitian guy pays a bribe to a border officer who promptly escorts him to the front of the line, which happens to be right in front of us. Megan does not accept this and begins yelling at both of them in Creole. I love when this happens. Everyone’s faces around us look all shocked and amazed that this white girl 1) speaks Creole 2) uses it to chew out grown men. Needless to say, he does not get his passport stamped before ours and a couple of people applaud when this happens. Then we make our way back to the bus as several small children hit us up for money or poke us, only stopping to buy several mini-bags of roasted peanuts. (Total time spent at border: ~THREE hours.)

The rest of the bus ride is pretty uneventful. We watch Downton Abby and then feel a little carsick and sleep. Finally about 11 hours later, we make it into SD! I am the HAPPIEST person when we get off the bus and immediately a cab driver out front yells, “Kat!” and waves at me. I was so worried about getting a ride from the bus station to our hotel that is actually outside of the city about 30 minutes in Boca Chica, a cute beach town. After trying to arrange something with our hotel and not working it out (as the bus is really inconsistent timewise), I figured we would just have to catch a random cab. But the same day we are on the bus, we find out Bernard has a driver he has used in the DR who speaks Creole. So Bernard called up Julio who met us at the bus station. When I hear Julio call my name, my anxiety gets put to rest and I know this is going to be a super vacation.

We make it to our hotel safe and sound. We then eat a delicious pizza and fall asleep in our own separate beds in an air-conditioned room. Ah, paradise.

The next day, I have a terrific day of sight-seeing in SD planned out for us. But first we sleep late, have a delicious complimentary breakfast at the hotel, and stroll/lay on the beach for a bit. Then in the afternoon, we catch a bus into the city. A real bus with seats and air-conditioning, like, not a tap-tap. Ah, paradise. The level of development on this side of the island blows our minds. Really I can, and probably should write a whole other post about how mind-blowingly different the two sides of this island are because its jarring. It gave me so much to think about. Sure they have their problems over in the DR, but they also have highways, tourism, real stores (like IKEA!), restaurants everywhere, running water, and the list goes onnnn. But anyway, the bus drops us off at the gates of the old city, in Independence Park.

Raphael & Meg at The First Hospital of America!

We walk around for a minute getting our bearings and admiring the park, when we are approached by a tour guide. Yes, we would like to take a tour. And sure I would like to feel out more tour guides and pick the best, but we’re overly excited and their doesn’t seem to be anyone else around. So Raphael, this short, kind of old dude in a camo hat is our guide for the next several hours. He takes us around the colonial zone, at a very rapid speed. I try to stop and take pictures and then look down the road and see that I am getting very left behind. He knows all the spots but that’s about it. So he walks us to whatever beautiful, cool, historic thing and says, “… The First ________ of America!” The blank was filled in with things like, “cobblestone street, hospital, town hall, cathedral” etc. And when would ask more questions about the first whatever of America we were looking at, he would kinda shrug, and then take off down the street again. So we saw many, many beautiful Firsts of America, but we couldn’t tell you much about them… Thanks Raphael. Oh my gosh, everything in the colonial zone is gorgeous though. We are loving SD!

The cathedral in Christopher Columbus Park

Cool hats, colder margaritas :)

After the tour we are approached by a random new friend of ours who changed money for us earlier so Megan can buy a sweet new fedora. We’re hungry so he tells us how to get to a good restaurant before asking us if we like to dance and inviting us to go salsa with him at the disco. If I had a peso for every time someone asked me to so salsa with them at the disco over the course of this trip, I would have SO MANY pesos. These people love their dancing. And bringing new friends dancing. Anyway, we go have a cheese platter and delicious Italian meal. Man, it is such a sight to see us trying to get around speaking Spanish. My Spanish is extremely limited and Megan’s is completely non-existent, so basically we end up pointing at things and laughing with people who are laughing at us… After mid-afternoon meal,  we browse some shops and meet a friend for happy hour drinks. Post-happy hour we end up at this super fun Mexican restaurant, ah paradise! Then we dance the night away – salsa, bachatta, meringue, excellent freestyling. And not at obnoxious discos, but little hole-in-the-wall legit places. Like old people are dancing there too. In fact, we dance with several cute old men who smell like aftershave and teach us new steps. It is precious, and SO much fun! I am in love with the city, it is so charming and beautiful.

The next morning we sleep in again, fabulous, and then take a beach day. Our hotel is on a gorgeous beach and has a nice private area where we can totally relax and avoid all the people running around trying to sell you annoying stuff. We get massages on the beach, which is 2 parts excellent, 1 part awkward. I conclude that massages probably shouldn’t be given in public. And after spending the day chilling, we go out to a Swiss restaurant in Boca Chica. Yes, Swiss. I LOVE it. We get a bottle of wine, salads, a meat plate, and (drum roll please) cheese fondue!!

Boca Chica

We are scheduled to catch the bus bright and early the next morning, but soon realize that it would be so cruel to make ourselves get up early and then sit on a bus for 10 hours when we just got here and still have so much more fun/relaxation to do! I’m really proud of us for making the choice to stay one more night, aren’t we spontaneous? We make the necessary arrangements and then spend one more day on the beach – sunning, swimming, playing cards, eating cheeseburgers – and at last feel good and ready to head home.

I had SUCH a good time in the DR. And after getting back home, I had a very productive week. Although the power has been out since we returned... irritating. Kyle has finally made it back, which has been super helpful. We also went and played basketball for the first time on a pretty nice court at the soccer stadium in Gressier. I have to mention that because it was a total blast and something we’re definitely going to start doing regularly. I say that, and then remember that I’m only here about two more weeks. I can’t believe that. Time is precious. And vacation was excellent. 

Peaceful Pacing

Megan and I are leaving for a little weekend trip to the DR tomorrow – SO excited – so I thought I’d squeeze in a post before taking off on what will presumably be an epic adventure.

Except for a misadventure here or there, things have been pretty calm around here. I’ve been reflecting on the pace of my life here over the last week; it has been nearly perfect. I’ve gotten to wake up slow in the mornings and take time to study the Bible or play with the girls. My work has been enjoyable – talking with groups, helping to teach English class, brainstorming new directions for programming. I get to enjoy delicious meals with my friends each night. I have space (ok not really, I share the top floor of this house with 7 people), I have time to breathe, I have time to listen to the Lord.

I was walking back through the garden that connects our house to the intern house last night with my American cell phone in hand. It struck me that the only reason I had it was to light up my path. I couldn’t get texts or emails, check my facebook, or tweet about rice and beans or something. I’m not constantly tethered to my phone, checking it every five minutes for hardly any reason at all. Wherever I am, I am present. Whoever I am with, that is who I am with in that moment. It is freeing.

At one point, the flashlight went out for a moment as the phone went to sleep. A glimmer caught my eye. I looked up and saw the most intensely dazzling night sky. It forced me to stop, lay down on the pavement in our front yard, and just marvel at the hugeness of God. I am being so richly blessed with rest right now.  I am taking so much joy in the current pace of life and in the obvious ways God is working around me everywhere.

Wish us luck on our little DR excursion (and send us prayers)! Can’t wait to tell you about it.

Adventures in School Mapping

The first week I was in Gressier, Megan and I discussed a project that she wanted me to take on this summer; a school mapping project. The idea being to map out all of the schools in town and find out some basic information about them in order to have an idea of the education situation in Gressier. I thought this sounded great as I’m prohibited from working on my research project and set to work finding a decent map of Gressier.

Turns out Google maps has a pretty good street map of town. Google blows my mind. They know EVERYTHING about EVERYWHERE, right down to mapping out the streets of some random town in Haiti. I wonder who got the job of making the Gressier map... Anyway, so I sent the map to a friend in the States who would be coming down with the team from BR who blew it up at Kinko’s and brought it to me (shoutout Holly!).

Once I got the map, I had to hit the ground running fast as there was only one official week of school left in the year. So hit the ground running I did. Each morning, I would put on my village explorer outfit (pale orange fishing shirt and khaki shorts) and a lot of sunscreen, grab some gourde for water bags and head out with Sophi to look for schools. Sophi has been an incredible translator and fellow village explorer with me. We’ve had some pretty excellent adventures and found some Gressier hotspots. We now know where the chicken-fighting arena is, all the great river laundry/bathing hotspots, found a well-stocked mini-mart by our old house, checked out the new Gressier community center, and happened upon a great little soccer field right next to the sea amongst other things.

Sophie at the new community center on the other side of town.

And, in addition to the bonus of getting to know our community a little better, we of course found schools. LOTS of schools. We visited an average of 4 per day by just happening upon them, asking people on the streets if schools were nearby, or just following kids in uniforms (not in a creepy way of course :). In a little over a week, we were able to cover most of the map. We found 21 schools and counted over 4,000 students! We also have a pretty good idea of what the average price is to go to school in the area. That is one thing that kept weighing on my mind as we visited schools – every kid in school pays to be there. Pays a considerably high price that bars many children from going. We are SO fortunate to have FREE public education in America. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a flawed system (I could expound upon that for days), but its existence is a huge feat. I’m so thankful for the ministry of Respire Haiti and Respire Haiti Christian School reaching out to children who can’t afford to go to school otherwise with a free education.

And on top of that, Respire offers a free education from solid teachers in appropriate sized classes. The variation in school conditions that we saw in Gressier was interesting. Some schools were in small, one-room churches with kids packed onto worn looking benches. Some schools had pretty nice facilities. My favorite school had classrooms built out of containers that were painted bright colors built by the Digicel Foundation. Some teachers and administrators seemed very engaged and bright, we saw others that I couldn’t help but wonder what they were even doing in a school…

Super School Mappers!

The connections that we made in the community were a great first step in getting to know the culture of education here in Gressier. We’re also hoping in the future to use this information and these connections to bring together educators in the area and facilitate their communication and learning together.