D.R. [Dos] : Into the Wild

On the morning of the third day, God created...oh wait, wrong story.

We left our beach town, hopped back on the gua-gua, and went back to airport.  Well, we actually got off the gua-gua and had to walk a ways, which I won't go into detail about because my parents are reading this :)  We made it to the airport and then started a wild goose chase to figure out where we needed to go to reclaim baggage.  I'm so thankful that Lindsey is fluent, because without her, I would have been in a bad spot.  You should go to Lindsey's blog and read her account of this adventure because she describes it perfectly.  To make a long story a little shorter, I checked my bag and a sleeping bag I brought for Lindsey.  According to the airlines, one of the bags had made it but they couldn't tell me which one.  I was praying it was my suitcase.  So when we finally figured out where to go, the first thing I saw was the sleeping bag, and my heart sank.  And then I scanned the room, and to my relief, there was my suitcase.  I changed clothes and felt ready to conquer the D.R.  I asked for adventures, and I got them.

Anyways, we made our way into the capital city of Santo Domingo and to the peace corps office there.  By some good fortune, the director of Peace Corps DR invited us and some other volunteers out to lunch, so I got to hear a lot of stories about the P.C. and life as a volunteer.  So cool!

Lindsey and I then set out for her pueblo, Cayetano Germosen, which is about 2 hours ride by bus.  It was neat to see her house and where she has been living and working.  I even got to meet some of her closest friends in town and we sat on their porch for a couple hours talking and laughing.  I was trying to keep up with the Spanish (which I was able to do pretty well!), and we had some laughs over misunderstanding and language barriers.  They are great people, and they love my friend a lot!  Too many words, so here are some pictures...

Lindsey's room

the kitchen/living room/dining room

front door

So in Lindsey's pueblo, they don't have constant electricity.  It goes a couple hours on, a couple hours off.  By the time we were ready to cook dinner, there was no power.  So in the dark with a gas stove, we prepared tortillas with an eggplant/tomato mixture that was quite delicious.  I was proud of our (read: Lindsey's) resourcefulness.

It was reeeally dark

my headlamp was so handy and I used my nalgene as a rolling pin!

they were delicious!

I'm kind of a community development nerd, but Lindsey is an even bigger one, so it was fun hearing from her about her first-hand experience with the ups and downs of working in that area in a developing country.  I can always count on good conversation with her.  The next day we walked around her pueblo a little bit, talking about a wide range of things from politics to hair care, then gathered up our stuff, and continued our journey.  Lots more cars and busses were yet to be ridden.  Next up: visiting another PC volunteer a couple hours away and the end of the trip in Santo Domingo!