My temporary home (Sosua)

I settled into my daily routine at the hotel and at the church rapidly. At the hotel I translated anything the owners needed. As I like to keep busy I also gave myself the task of cleaning the former restaurant kitchen, and helping the cleaning lady to heighten the standard of the cleanliness of the rooms. As there is not much to see at all in Sosua, apart from the lovely beach, I kept myself busy and useful (well I think I was being useful at least ;) )

I would try to go to the church in the mornings from 08:30-11 to help the kids with their homework. The kids there are so lovely. They are intrigued by me being from so far away, and they always ask me plenty of questions to quench their thirst of curiosity. Kids here are so open, and warm, they hug you, and really do make one feel appreciated. There is especially one girl called Eva. She was my first “student” that I helped. We spent the whole time reading and talking a little English. She is a very smart and warm girl that has so much going for her. I just hope she continues studying hard and that her mind does not get corrupted by her surroundings in Sosua.

After “school/church” I headed straight for the kitchen to get knee deep in grease. The state of the kitchen was atrocious, and I would not even have allowed my dog to eat food made out of there at its current state. My first task was to throw away anything that was too dirty to be cleaned, anything that was broken, or that we didn’t think would be used by the new owners. Just getting rid of all the rubbish, took me a whole day. After getting some more elbow room, I started spraying the ventilator, oven, and any other surface with de greaser. The Grease was just running off everything, the only problem being that it was only taking of the outer layer, and considering there was about 10-15 layers of old grease I figured I would be there for some time.

After a few days I got really ill. I was cramping, I had a fever one minute, and was cold sweating the next, was throwing up, unable to eat or drink. After 3 days of feeling like hell, I finally went to see a doctor. The diagnosis was simple, but extremely funny considering I was in the tropics. As the doctor formed the words on his lips, he looked as confused as I must have looked when I heard what he had to say. HYPOTHERMIA…….. How the hell do you manage to get that in the Caribbean! Well I managed some how, with a combination of dehydration, and gastritis’s. Her gave some meds, and told me to relax for a few days, and in no time I was up and running again 

At the hotel I got to know Nalda (the cleaner), and Anoli (the handyman). Nalda is super sweet, and great to talk to. I often have conversations with her about everything and nothing. Anoli is the handsome typical Dominican man who thinks he knows something about everything. I spent days avoiding to talk to him, as my experience talking to men from this country more then 2 minutes, only means one thing in their head. I got to the stage where we were both working in the kitchen, and after some careful consideration, I assumed it would be safe to strike up a conversation. A couple of days passed, and I am in the kitchen cleaning, when I suddenly feel a cooler breeze on my back, before I have time to react I can feel that my top has been pulled up, and that someone is licking my back! I quickly turn around to find Anoli giving me that look! I ask him what the hell he is doing and he tells me that my sweat tastes great! I have never been given a compliment like that before, a compliment never the less, but one that just made me feels uncomfortable. This made me realise that perhaps I hade been wrong in striking up conversation with Anoli, as he might have got the wrong idea. From this point on I tried to remain pleasant, but no more than that!

One evening I head out for dinner with Dustin. We go to a cheap but great place in town. After a great day, but both having to get up early in the morning we decide to head home early. I got into bed at 22:00 ish and shortly after fell asleep. I was abruptly awoken by someone pounding on my door. My first thought was that I had overslept for going to church to see the kids. I hopped out of bed, looked at my watch, and quickly realised it was only 07:00. I asked who it was, and I heard Anoli’s voice outside. I asked him what he wanted at that time of the morning, and he replied by asking if I had had a good time last night…… His tone of voice was slightly annoyed. He said it must have been a late night since I was sooooooooooo tired……. I told him I was in bed by 10, but that I was still tired. He finally left and when I caught up with him later that day, I asked him why he was acting like the jealous boyfriend. He looked at me a little confused and said “aren’t I?” no I replied and where ever did you get that idea? Anoli answered “but you have been so nice to me and talking to me”. After that conversation we never spoke again.

My days in Sosua pass quickly enough, but definitely would have been more pleasant without Dave. Dave is the American man with no teeth who mainly pimps out girls, to get them for free himself. He has been in jail for conning people (con artist), and is the most judgemental person I have met in my whole life. When I first met him he was living next door (another hotel), and he seemed like a funny and nice guy. The new owners befriended him, so he became a constant factor in my every day life, in Sosua. UNFOTUNATELY! My second day in Sosua, the hassling started. He became my bully. He bullied me about everything from my English accent, to my Spanish, to my looks, to my personality, to me being a backpacker, about my work at the church and at the Hotel. Comments like “you are a rich bitch trying to slum it” were frequent, followed by “get rid of that fucking fake English accent of yours”. I know I never did anything to him, and I even asked him, and all he kept saying was that he did not like “my kind”.

As the days passed the bullying got worse! He also moved into
the Coco Hotel, which did not make the situation any better. I started hiding out in the kitchen more and more, just so I would be out of shooting range of Dave. I thought keeping to myself would help, but it only gave him more motivation and ammunition to carry on it seemed. One day we all went out (including Dave), it all got too much. I only had one drink and spent my time talking to Dustin or a really nice elderly English gentleman, and tried to keep out of Dave’s way the best I could. Unfortunately he was not letting me slip under the radar. He would grab every person that came in the bar (Lou’s), and tell them not to talk to me, that I was a rich bitch, a fake backpacker, that I was more pretentious then the queen, and therefore had a plum up my ass ….. None of this might seem so bad, and you think I should just have shrugged if of with a sense of humour, but believe me when I say that was impossible. No one would talk to me, and people were happily joining in with Dave’s bullying. One thing is the English humour of irony and sarcasm, but this was just flat out harassment. The drunker Dave got the worse it got. It got to the point where the owners were having a huge fight, and Dave nicely told me he would run me out, with my tail between my legs, like a scared little puppy. The look in his eyes and the anger in his voice started to scare me. I suddenly felt so alone and vulnerable. I decided that night when walking one of the owners home, it was time to move on.

I got home that night and I immediately started packing my backs. I left that very morning! The hotel has a night guard (Emilio), and he was sleeping when I came downstairs! He was blocking my passage, and I did not want to sneak by a sleeping man with an armed gun! He had told me earlier that evening that he had to catch the bus (gua gua) around that same time, so I thought he should be woken up anyway. I stood by his side calling his name, and prodding him in the shoulder for quite some time. When that did not work, I stood in front of him which was pretty stupid of me looking back at the situation. As his eyes sprung open his fist also awoke, punching me straight in the mouth. As soon as he actually awoke and realised what he had done and whom to, he was the most apologetic man ever….. I told him it was my own fault for prodding an armed man, and went on my way 

Walking through Sosua at 6 in the morning to catch my Gua gua to my next destination did not feel very safe. I suddenly heard some steps behind me, and it startled me, so I started walking faster, and ended up falling over with my bags and spread across the sidewalk. The man’s steps that I had heard came to my rescue, and he even apologized for scaring me, even though I put on a brave face and told him he had not scared me at all, I had just simply not watched my step! He was an elderly local man who worked in one of the hotels in the area, he said I should not be walking around by myself at that time if the day, and therefore decided to accompany me to the bus stop to ensure my safe departure.

Once on the Gua gua a feeling of relief and tranquillity washed over me, and I felt so happy to have left the hotel behind. I did however feel very upset about having left the kids at the church without saying goodbye, but I knew Dustin would do that for me. I called him and explained the situation to him, and he gave me his full understanding.
Lessons learnt;
1. Never tolerate bullies
2. Always try to do your best
3. Give a helping hand whenever you can, 5 minutes of your time is nothing to you, but might make a huge difference in someone else’s life.
4. Never prod armed men, especially when standing in front of them ;) hahahaha
5. Honest and good people are everywhere, and found at all times of the day
6. Always know what men’s culture regarding woman is in the country you are visiting to keep you out of problems.
7. Never loose faith in yourself or humanity

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