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Published: February 15th 2007
Andy Hernandez
Andy (Andres) Hernandez -- First Peace Corps Director in the Dominican Republic -- now 94 years oldIt's early in the morning in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR). Mary is already peeking out our balcony window to see what the birds are that she hears ... so many different calls from the many almond trees and pines near the hotel.
What a night of bad sleeping on the mattress that sucks you to the center of the Earth, compounded by my cough (that's the last I'll mention of it, as it usually lasts a couple of weeks).
Lowell Braxton, his wife Jean, Mary and I gave each other big "abrazos" as we met in the morning for a nice breakfast in the little hotel restaurant.
Then we four walked the three blocks (gloriously struggling through the crowd of shoeshine kids -- we had on tennis shoes, sandals and rough-out boots -- but they kept trying) down to the Hotel Meliá to register for the reunion. Some 150-200 former Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs), staff and present volunteers were there. We signed in and received our bags of souvenirs and updated programs.
Almost immediately I saw people that I knew: Andy Hernandez (the first country Peace Corps Director, now 94 years old and still recognizing everyone,
At Lunch
Mary Miller, Neil McMullen, Lowell and Jean Braxton -- lunch on Hotel Meliá pool deck Jerry Dupuy, Bob Satin, John Evans, Skip Fruytier, Neil Ross, Neil McMullen, Paul Lang, Roger Weiss and others. Former volunteers were here from 25 states and 6 countries).
McMullen, Braxton and Jean, and Mary and I had lunch and Presidente beers (toasting the 15 guys who couldn't come, the ones we could not locate and those that had died) together out on the pool deck. It was great to just talk and laugh about our past experiences and to share what we were now doing. McMullen works periodically in Kabul, Afghanistan in finance. Braxton is retired, but headed up Oil and Gas for the State of Utah. Myself, I am a retired hydrogeologist.
We spotted our first new bird, a Hispaniolan woodpecker. They were so common we later found out.
After lunch we wandered about meeting new folks and old acquaintances. The new PCVs looked so young, but I guess we looked that way in 1963 when we arrive in-country.
Ray and Loraine Duff arrived. They had been at Samana with their daughter and son-in-law Myke.
At the plenary or opening ceremonies there were lots of the usual acknowledgments and thank yous. But the most
woodpecker1
One of the many Hispaniolan woodpeckers. important thing for us, the former well drillers group ... DR-4 ... '62-'64) was the announcement of a special fund established in memory of our good friend Bob Kulstad, who stayed in the DR, married Norma and had 3 wonderful kids. He was here for 42 years, working in water supplies and geologic and hydrogeologic studies for the DR. Bob's fund was set up with contributions from the guys in our well drillers' group and Bob Satin (former Peace Corps deputy director) matched by the Epler Family Fund ... for a grand total of $10,000. One possible use might be with well pumps that are kid-powered. Check out Play Pumps International at http://www.playpumps.org/ to see one option that Satin presented. Administration and selection of the projects will be under Friends of the Dominican Republic (FDR).
In the evening there was a buffet dinner by the pool and a show put on by local dancers -- men wearing campesinos clothes and women dressed in colorful polleras.
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