Cabarete and Beyond

One of the beaches in Cabarete

View From the Hotel Window in Cabarete

I spent last weekend in Cabarete, which is a city along the Northern Coast famed for its windsurfing. It was definitely a tourist town, but the beaches were great, our hotel was super cheap because it’s off-season, and there were lots of things to see. It was also enjoyable to get out of the city for a bit and see another part of the country. Our hotel was right on the beach and had a nice ambiance. The ocean was the perfect temperature and it felt so good to just float in the water. We also got to see loads of people kite-surfing, wind-surfing, and reg surfing, and although none of us had 3 days or $300 to give it a shot ourselves, it was fun to watch. Six of the people from my group went, and I got to know them a bit better but I spoke way too much English! Other highlights from the weekend include playing Frisbee on the beach, replacing my shorts tan with a full-thigh sunburn, and eating dinner at a restaurant on the beach. On our way back, the touristy travel buses were all full at the time we wanted to leave, so we got back to Santiago using gua-guas (this word is used to describe all sorts of public transportation vans/buses, but they have seats that fold up to fit more people and will go wherever you need to get to, at a low cost) which worked out surprisingly well. It was nice to feel more comfortable with the transportation system and it like a more natural way to travel in the D.R.
We got back to Santiago on Sunday and it’s pretty much been a regular week at school since then. Although I’m not sure if I’ve figured out what a “regular” week at school is yet. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do my Independent Research study project on, and I interviewed a woman last night to try to narrow down my options. I am trying to incorporate geographical themes and public health issues and I thought I had a plan involving sexual education programs implemented by schools and NGO’s but after talking to the woman tonight, I can tell I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board. She was very interesting to talk to, but I think this issue is way bigger than I was expecting, because it's deeply tied to the machismo culture. Apparently, in the D.R. the influence of the Catholic church is still so strong that sex education, particularly for girls is incredibly stunted and there are few resources and open lines of communication for girls to talk about issues of puberty, sex, menstruation, etc. One consequence of this is that rates of teen pregnancy are extremely high and the D.R. is one of 5 countries where all abortions are illegal, so there are lots single, uneducated, poor young women.
Another topic the woman I met talked about was how the lifestyle in the D.R. is extremely affected it's island status. She said that it’s this stop off point between businesses in South America and the U.S.--no one comes to stay, and even the Dominicans are always looking to leave. She talked about how this idea is reinforced beginning with the history of the island, which was discovered by Christopher Columbus in the 15th Century, who was looking to get rich easily and leave. That mindset has continued in Dominican lifestyle in that money and material goods are highly valued and people are always talking about leaving for other places. It was very interesting (and a little uncomfortable) to hear a Dominican woman talk about her culture like this, but it helped me make a lot of connections between the things that I’ve experienced and the existent cultural values she pointed out.
Things at home are going pretty well. I more or less taught Perla and Yulissa (I’m learning new things every day, including that I’ve been spelling her name wrong!) how to play Frisbee. It’s slightly terrifying because they like to stand about 5 feet away and throw it, but it’s fun. Dad, you’ll be proud, I taught them the foolproof “crocodile” catching style (boca de cocodrilo) although it’s still a hit or miss situation. My mom’s car got broken into the other night causing some damage to the window and a stolen battery. She took it pretty well, but it was definitely a bummer. However, if nothing else, it was a testament to how deep of a sleeper I am, because my window (which was open) is on the second floor is looks directly over where her car was parked and I didn’t hear a thing.
I have also been trying to get some runs in, but I did something to my Achilles’ tendon which has me side-lined for the moment, particularly because icing isn’t really an option. It's kind of a bummer, because running is one of the only things that I feel comes intuitively here, but hopefully some time off will do the trick. Other than that, things are going smoothly and hopefully our internet will be fixed in the near future so I can put up some photos and be better at responding to e-mails!
Word of the day:
Bigote= mustache/ whiskers (for an animal) It’s the name of the stray cat in the neighborhood that occasionally wanders into the house--more so now that my sisters have been feeding him every night. I’m pretty sure he is probably carrying about 15 highly-transmittable diseases, and every time I come in contact with him I get a little nervous. But he’s super good-natured and the girls play with him and they’re still healthy…