The Dominican Republic [View Full Entry]

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De afgelopen tijd ben ik voornamelijk in de hoofdstad geweest voor het onderzoek dat ik samen doe met een consultant van IDEAC. Er is weer te veel gebeurd om op te noemen! Ik ben verhuisd, heb kennis gemaakt met mijn nieuwe buren, heb mijn eerste onderzoek afgemaakt en opgestuurd en niet te vergeten, ik ben getrouwd. Ik moest wel met Alexis trouwen om met hem samen te kunnen wonen. Ik heb ook kikkers uit huis gejaagd, een week zonder stromend water overleefd (dank aan buren die hier beter op voorbereid waren), ben gestoken door twee zee-egels en heb een kleine voedselvergiftiging [View Full Entry]

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Y’all, Logan and Adrienne (yes, I know, I am addicted to tag along with them) have hosted me in Santo Domingo in island nation of Dominican Republic. Logan’s old roommate Eliel decided to marry a girl from Florida, and although both of them live in Atlanta, they wanted to conduct a wedding in Eliel’s hometown of Santo Domingo. Onto the second day of our trip, one of the girls from the wedding party got her necklace snatched by two guys in a motorcycle, so it might be a good thing for the rest of us, as we are very cautious for [View Full Entry]

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De dagen vliegen voorbij hier in La Ciénaga. En gelukkig heb ik het gevoel dat ik mijn plekje al wel een beetje gevonden heb hier. Mijn toekomstige huisje is jammergenoeg nog steeds niet af, máar er wordt aan gewerkt…Gister is water en elektriciteit aangesloten en het belangrijkste om te kunnen overleven is dus aanwezig! De rest is bijzaak: de ramen kunnen niet goed dicht, de vloer staat blank na een regenbui, alles moet geschilderd en schoongemaakt worden en een dikke kikker heeft mijn wc-tje tot zijn territorium gemaakt, maar goed als het daar bij blijft…! Ik ben echt al heel b [View Full Entry]

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25-27 May 2007 The sun crept up over the mountains and caught us napping. We were onboard the Caribe Tours bus on the three-and-a-half hour ride back from Barahona to SDQ from where we would connect to Boca Chica. A few minutes ago, a suspicious bus driver had demanded to see Vibert's passport thinking, of course, that he was a Haitian. There is a slight undercurrent between Dominicanos and Haitians. Shanna sharply told the driver that it was not necessary and Vibert quickly relinquished his "Haitiano" status. Back in SDQ we wrangled, pretty efficient this time, and lowered the [View Full Entry]

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24 May 2007 The 415 km bus ride from Rio San Juan to Barahona started at 8 am. It would take us back thru SDQ. At the tiny bus terminal in Rio San Juan, we met the nicest guy - Manny. He helped us store our backpacks and took us to the only open breakfast spot - Pica Pollo Benito - aplace we would have normally bypassed in our search for culinary delights. But Benito seemed to be a local favorite and that morning he served up hot boiled yucca and bacalao with egg (saltfish and egg). Another specialty was deep-fried [View Full Entry]

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We boarded the 8am bus out of Santiago and on to Sosua. We liked Santiago with its big city allure and then not, a kind of big little city feel. The intention was to spend a few hours at Sosua and then gua-gua to Rio San Juan. When we disembarked after two hours, we were met by a taxi driver who attempted to hussle us away from Sosua and on to the ´touristy´areas of Puerto Plata and Cabarete. "Only Dominicanos, nothing to see here", he said. Shanna explained that we were headed to Rio San Juan and since Caribe Tours didn´t [View Full Entry]

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22 May 2007 It was 10.30 pm when the Caribe Tours bus pulled into an empty station in Santiago. We had just wasted four valuable hours in a bus after we missed our stop at La vega. There were two taxis and a gua-gua. We grabbed a taxi and in 15 minutes we were at Hostal del Cibao. Room 10 was reserved. The room was clean, bright and had cable tv. About two feet from the bed, on a raised platform, was the bathroom and toilet. It was unique to say the least but the practicality of it all, and because [View Full Entry]

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The "salvia" had worked again but only half-way this time. Vibert awoke with pain in his right thigh and left calf. He walked like a wounded duck. Shanna was, for the most part, just fine. We had slept deeply on a singing bed, the Pico Duarte adventure behind us. And there was no mistaking where we were as the incessant roar of motorcycle engines indicated that Jarabacoa was already awake. And as much as we liked Jarabacoa, we instantly missed the absolute quiet and peace of the mountains. Breakfast was disappointing. We had opted for hot tea and cheese-and-vegetable pastelitos (or [View Full Entry]

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We want to start this blog with two unusual points - 1. We really do appreciate all your feedback and comments. As a matter of fact we look forward to hearing from you. It´s a validation that we are doing the right thing. And while we cannot, because of time constraints, individually reply to and thank each of you, just know that we´ve seen your message and we deeply appreciate it. Keep them coming. 2. In the last blog we showed Shanna riding a horse being led by Pinto. We understood that Pinto had something like an epileptic attack and fell [View Full Entry]

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