Blogs from Santiago, Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean

Hoy visitamos mejor museo en la Republica Dominicana! Fue fantastico y maravilloso! Disfrutamos las fotografias y las pinturas. Our first adventure with "unknown" taxi drivers, who took us to what is supposedly the best museum in all of the Dominican Republic. A fairly normal Dominican ride, as they go, of about five minutes. We arrived at a glass fronted, manicured, modern looking building. We found out that to our great good fortune, the museum was free because the had just installed a new exhibition the night before. Quickly we split into several groups and proceeded to go in various directions. The museum contained a variety of pictures, from black and white to full color. Many of the paintings were Picasso-esque, while others portrayed a darker quality. One, a kid with his head stuck in a wall ... read more

Shining, Glistening Landscape. Ramshackle Old Buildings, Beautiful. Warmth, Water, Sun Sweat Couch. Honk! Spanish. Steady Rumble, Radio, Fan. Fried Food, X-Cola. Car Fumes, Jungle Air, Freedom. Calm Excitement, Health, Wholeness. -Ari Fox Vibrant, shiny, smooth, crowded, colorful. honking cars, barking dogs, speaking Spanish, food sizzling, laughing. breeze, heat, water, rough, hot. papaqueso, tasty, different, juicy, sweet. content, awestruck, excited, exhilarated, envious. -Sydney Bobrow Water,jail,art,bright colors, shop UNO!, car horns, spanish, dog whine, rain heat, asphalt, marble, breeze, water, spicy, meat, vegetables, fruit, icecream exhilarating, exciting, happy, envy, tierd -Adam Sawyer Up so high About to land passing through air By and by My feet hit the sand Under water I o... read more

Yo brahhs. Vangeli and Ari, our hero's for the day, are making up some grub. From early morn, when he and Ari grabbed a cart beneath the gun wielding security guard at the supermercado, Vangeli has been our source of entertainment. For brekkie, we feasted on mango and pina and banana and eggs and pan and yogurt....Now (uh oh, dinner is ready), pasta and veggie/tomato sauce, garlic bread, and good home cooking done to perfection. Vangeli looked especially stylish in the kitchen with his muy guapo hair cut-courtesy of Raffie J. Stylo at the barber just down the hill.... read more

6/14/12 Santiago, the capital of the north! This is my 2nd night in the 2nd biggest city of the DR, and as I had heard from many other Dominicans, the city is supposed to be much, much better. And well, I completely agree with all of those opinions; the city is decently clean, located in the mountains, and much safer (at least from my vantage point). In addition, there are around 1 million people in a small area, so the city felt more packed, but was much better maintained. Honestly, it felt like you were back in the US in a regular big city. However, with every new city I visit of course there comes another story. Story time! So after lunch with my group of 7 volunteers at a tourist restaurant, Montezuma, near the gorgeous ... read more

Buenos Tardes, Well, I am back on the road again! Except this time I am responsible for eight 11th graders from The Compass School (the high school I attended.) After a slight travel mishap we arrived in Santiago, Dominican Republic last night. At this very moment, I am feeling incredibly refreshed. I just showered and changed my clothes for the first time in 72 hours. For future reference: DON'T FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES. When I say slight travel mishap, I mean there was a mechanical problem on our first flight which made us miss our flight to Santiago. It only took me singing two bars of West Side Story for the students to excitedly realize where we were headed. We decided to be re-routed to San Juan, Puerto Rico rather then spend the night in Miami. So ... read more

As we entered into the final week of our stay in the DR the taste was very bittersweet. Each of us was in anticipation of graduation, a new job, where we would begin a new stage in our lives, and how to say goodbye to some of the most wonderful patients and people we have ever met. All students at each clinic site were required to prepare and present some sort of educational seminar to the health professionals at their clinic sites...in Spanish. Well we had done it before (with much more assistance) in the campo and now it was time to pull it together on our own. Colie and I decided that we saw a high number of shoulder injuries at the clinic thought the therapists could benefit from a few more "tools" or treatment ... read more

Hopefully my pictures will speak for me throughout this blog but I will do my best to describe this amazing country. After a whirlwind of packing, re-packing, and a long plane ride from Seattle, WA to the Dominican Republic (DR) I finally landed in the tropical and sticky climate of what was to be my new home for the next 5 weeks. It was a site to see 18 "gringos" congregating in the airport attempting to speak their first words of Spanish to each other. We arrived at the ILAC Mission center around 9 p.m. with large amounts of luggage and mosquitos in the air. We quickly became aquainted with the thin mattresses and large mosquito nets. The next morning we arose, earlier than planned, to the farmhouse orchestra of cows, chickens, roosters, and who knows ... read more