Hasta Luego

The next Sunday I’m in this house, I’ll be packing up all of my belongings and memories from the DR. Tomorrow’s the last day I’ll see anyone from our exchange program, with the exception of Megan, who’s gonna be my resort neighbor in Puerto Plata! 

Now that class is over, I have unbelievable amounts of free time, and have been using it to search for Omaha jobs, spend time with my US and DR families and the girls from ISA (our exchange program). I got to visit “the clinic” with Megan; she had an internship this semester observing a doctor and taking down stats. That was a sweet experience; it was a lot like a job shadow, or maybe even take-your-kid-to-work day. We were welcomed by an adorable old lady who told me that the clinic is my home and she’s everyone’s grandma… A common attitude I’ll really miss once I’m back in the states. We sat off to the side in a small room with a desk and one of those chairs where the patient sits to be examined. Do those have a name? The clinic is public; so all sorts of people come in with all sorts of problems. Four female doctors work there. I think doctors here depend a lot more on their own knowledge to make diagnoses because it’s too expensive to take samples and run lab tests for every little problem.

Megan, Stacy and I spent Friday and Saturday in Dajabon, town right on the Dominican-Haitian border. Almost everything was closed because it was Good Friday, including the Haitian market that’s open every Monday and Friday. On the bus ride there, we met a young man who led us to the (closed) market. We stopped and chatted with some middle-aged Dominicans who gave us free Presidente in exchange for good conversation. Our new friend led us to the border where we stood in awe watching half-naked little kids play in the river for quite a while. After passing some chocolate cake through the border-patrol gate, we headed back into town, bidding our companero adieu. 

River between DR & Haiti

Border

We mostly just walked around the town all day, stopping to chat with a few women at a colmado, pick peppers with Ricardo and his father, finishing the night off with some really strange conversations with two guys a little older than we. 

Pepper farmer dude

We stayed at “Hotel Massacre” who’s slogan is “your second home!) where we were awoken to a huge variety of sounds, ranging from dogs barking, men opening the screechy gate below, a noisy fan, the AC randomly kicking off and on, and a car blasting 70s ballads in the middle of the night. Don’t be freaked out, the between Haiti and the DR is also called Massacre Bridge because it’s where Trujillo ordered the 1937 Massacre in which thousands of Haitians living along the border were violently murdered.

Today’s been a very typical Sunday, complete with lots of R&R and writing this entry. This is the last update in Santiago! After breakfast tomorrow with Stacy, Megan, Charlene, and Hannah, I’m off to the beach to spend a few days with my (actual) parents and then heading to Monte Cristi to volunteer Saturday till Saturday the 7^th. See you in two weeks :) 

Que Vayas Bien...

Bye PUCMM! The Library, where I spent most of Wednesday morning

About 7 pages of essay writing to go and I'm finished with class in the DR! The time flew, my goodness. Last night we had our ISA goodbye dinner. My parents got in Thursday night and seem to be a big hit. I wouldn't say they're readily adopting the culture but my friends and family here have definitely been super warm and welcoming. Fifi made a giant Sancocho soup for them the night they got in, and neighbors and family were here to welcome them to Santiago. I have two days left with my American friends and I just really can't believe it. Something kinda similar to the feeling I had before leaving the US is quickly coming back to me. There is so much to think about; I feel like I don't even have time to sleep because I'm anxious about a million different things!
Definitely looking forward the beach with my family; Lina and Freddy are actually coming with (aka taking us there) tomorrow and staying till Monday too. We're probably going to a Fort where Columbus sailed (or something) in Puerto Plata on Monday. What else what else? NOT looking forward to saying goodbye to my friends and host family here. I've really grown close to them and I know I'll always have a home here. And the people of Santiago definitely have a place in my heart as well. On a more positive note, I'M PUMPED to come home and see all of you! Just thinking about the look on Jose/Timaree/my roomies/ the boys/kimcandaceclare's faces makes me feel like I'm gonna explode with joy.
What's left on my list? Learn to say "See you soon" in creole. Finish papers. Stock up on coffee and suckers to bring home. Take advantage of speaking tons of Spanish while I still can! Volunteer in Monte Cristi in two weeks.
I may update a time or two before I come home, but who really knows! Thanks for reading, I hope you've learned something and enjoyed following my adventures! See you all in three weeks :)

last day of class with haitian friends

hanging out at the ISA office

Lista?

7 days of class left. Very ready to go home, yet very NOT READY to leave. What an internal conflict we have here. Realizing I've been thinking in terms of countdowns lately, which builds exciting anticipation but also fosters negative anticipation. So I hope I'm done with that nonsense for a while.

Our final project for my Dominican-Haitian Relations class has essentially no stipulations. It can be a sculpture, a powerpoint, a collage, 1 page paper, 5 page paper, whatever we want as long as it relates to the class. I'm thinking something that includes interviews from a dominican, haitian, and american... One of our possible test questions is to interview a dominican and/or haitian about their perception of future dominican-haitian relations and tell Professor Santos about it... so I figured why not do my whole final project on the subject? I'm excited. This is going to be lots more fun than practicing chemical mechanisms before finals week.

Our last excursion to Samana (this past weekend) was gorgeous and absolutely boomb sauce. We visited Los Haitises which are a bunch of mini islands near the northern peninsula of the DR and ate some Johnny Cake and Ginger Beer made by an old Cocolo descendent woman (US freed slaves that set up the colony of Samana in the 1800s).

Ginger Beer and Johnny Cake

Drivin the boat back to Samana

please note Mr. Speedo in the background