March 23, 2003
Cathy Caproni

Our breakfast of cheese, ham, toast, and fruit begins a little earlier today as we are attending church services. We discuss the watch rooster that patrols the compound to awaken us each morning at 3:30 a.m., and make sure that we have all had a cold shower. Our biggest concern each morning is that somebody might have gotten away with a hot shower. We also discuss the fire alarm whistle that goes off at 6:00 a.m. The Caribbean is not a quiet place, although we have already come to love the warm sunny weather.

We are looking good in our Sunday best and walk to the local Episcopalian Church a block away. The church is the same yellow/beige color that is popular and cool. Dark wooden beams support the walls. The flooring is a cool tile. Dress ranges from flashy to conservative and there is a flurry of activity during the two-hour service. The service is conducted bilingual on our behalf. The members of the congregation are helpful to the point of almost doting. They make me feel that they are honored to have me as a visitor, and not ignorant even though I cannot speak their language. We are given hymnals and Bibles and the pages are pointed out as they are written in Spanish. I can actually feel the faith of the people attending this morning.

I notice the small alter boy that leads the procession into the church. He has a watchful eye on the giant wooden cross he proudly carries. He can barely look around to catch a peek at the visiting Americans because he is too busy with his duties. All during the service I notice his devout attention to his duties. I am amazed at the amount of concentration emitting from this young child. We are surprised to find a visitor from Missouri among us. Unfortunately, we are unable to speak after the service to obtain news from home. One member of our group sings during communion, and a member of the group from Denver also joins her in song. During the meet and greet the members of the congregation make a great effort to meet us and shake our hands. We are also asked to stand and the group is welcomed into their place of worship.

We return home to a lunch of fried chicken and yellow rice with vegetables. Unfortunately, we discover that the rooster is still strutting around the compound. We can expect our early morning alarm clock to continue.

We head for Santa Domingo in two vans. Our van driver is quiet during the trip and we are not sure how well he understands English. He makes no comments or complaints along the trip. His driving is typical of what we have experienced thus far: fast and friendly. By friendly I mean you just give a honk to let others know that you are not planning on stopping. This seems to be common as no one makes comments or gestures.

The drive to the city is typical of Latin-American neighborhoods. A small group of crumbling and faded, but colorful, houses that form a desperate neighborhood is attached to a beautiful home or hotel. The beautiful water forms a stripe of blue on our left, and the collage of neighborhoods forms a multi-color stripe on our right. We pass many goats along the trip, some are tethered and some are running loose. We discuss their purpose, either to provide milk or as a food source. We decide we do not want to know the answer. We also pass a large black and white dairy cow standing beside the highway that does not seem to be tethered at all.

We enter the city on a six-lane highway, the biggest we have travel upon to date. We turn down a one-way street, but are only following the automobiles in front of us. There is also traffic behind us. We are certain we are going in the wrong direction as the arrows we pass our pointing towards us. This must be a common shortcut as it is well traveled. We also experience a loud bump on the trip and discover that a car entering from a side street road has hit us. Our driver does not stop, and we have now discovered the purpose of the brush guards on the front and rear of the vehicle. We are convinced that we are fleeing felons as the driver continues as if nothing has happened. The driver of the automobile that hit us does pull over and we can see him inspecting his car as we drive away, up the hill to enter the city of Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo sits upon the land where Christopher Columbus first established a permanent fortress. It is a thriving city that rings of history. There is a huge cruise ship anchored in the harbor, which offers an interesting contrast of the modern versus history. The guests are also exploring the city. We walk upon stone streets that probably date back to the 1500’s. There are tall walls that wind through the city. There are also black lampposts doting the cobblestone streets, which add a modern flair and give the city a clean look. We visit the old cathedral located in the center square. It welcomes visitors with a large statue of Columbus perched atop a concrete mountain, one arm reaching towards the sky to celebrate the victory of discovery. Unfortunately, this also serves as an excellent perch for the hundreds of huge pigeons that reside in the area.

There is a fiesta in progress this evening. We are treated to meringue dancers and band, some sort of a punch contest, and many street vendors. The streets are narrow and crowded. The sidewalks are high and narrow also. There are maniacal drivers and motorcycles racing through town. There are a few children in the town square playing with fairly new store-bought toys. Most of the children I have seen to date have been playing with toys they have made, or are in the process of being made, or toys that are well used (such as the used plastic lizard thrown at us yesterday).

There is a hodge podge of people visiting this date. The locals are so anxious to make a sale that they will serve as tour guides and offer free drinks in exchange for the presence of a consumer in their stores. This is helpful, but also annoying. There are fewer children on the street begging than in San Pedro. The ones that are spotted tote the same shoeshine kit and offer similar services. It doesn’t matter what type of footwear you are wearing, they will offer to shine them: sneakers, sandals, or loafers are all subject to the brush. There’s no doubt that they would offer to shine your bare feet. It is touching to watch these children beg for work, while children of the same age in our country on a sunny afternoon would be out playing, or possibly inside watching video games. We do pass a park on the way home that is crowded with local children and their parents and this is comforting.

We encounter an entourage of police vehicles escorting a private vehicle on the return to the Center. The President of the country is returning home. We are forced off the main road but continue to drive on the dirt and gravel alongside. There is a line of traffic that jumps from the highway in the other direction to follow the procession. This relates to us driving in the right lane, and opposite direction traffic driving in the left lane on our side of the highway. Our driver is not concerned by the situation and we continue. We have apparently adjusted to Dominican Republic driving and we are not concerned.

We return home safely to San Pedro and are welcomed by a dinner of fried eggs, sausage, bread, and sugarcane. I taste my first sugarcane and find that it starts out similar to mashed potatoes, but then the taste changes to something unpleasant.

I notice that I am now more aware of waste. Half-finished products that I might have thrown away in the States are now preserved for future use. A quarter of a bottle of water might come in handy tomorrow.