Bienvenidos a San Francisco de Macoris

The drive to San Francisco was nice.  We went north, past the airport and out of Santiago.  We spent some time traveling through little villages, past rice paddies and farms, and finally into the smaller city/town of San Francisco de Macoris.  San Francisco is a much smaller town with narrower streets and busy storefronts everywhere, peppered with houses, corner groceries, and repair shops.  We traveled through the small city, eventually finding the Universidad Catolica de Nordoestana in the city center, next to the central park.  We walked in and met Darling Perez, the director of the camp for which we're working.  After dropping our bags in Darling's Mitsubishi, we said adios to the missionary and headed inside to find out what we'd be doing.  Darling does not speak any English, so he explained everything to me in Spanish while I translated the basic information to Cory in English.  We were asked what age group we'd like to take, 5-12 or 13-17.  I chose to work with the older group, focusing on more specific areas like sports competition and English comprehension.  We found out that the camp would be an English immersion experience for the students.  We will be working with the students at the Hotel las Caobas in San Francisco.  We are going to guide them in various activities such as tennis, volleyball, swimming, basketball, music, all the basic camp activities.  The only difference is that most of the students have little to no English experience, so we are going to teach them through these practical and entertaining activities.  We will be grading the kids on their pronunciation, grammar, and comprehension throughout the day but won't actually require them to read, take tests, or do anything with a purely academic appearance.  We discussed these details in Darling's office over Dominican sandwiches and drinks.  We are going to be working from 8:00AM until 6:00PM every day, being paid 100 pesos an hour or 1,000 pesos a day.  That goes very far here, considering I was able to buy a jug of cranberry juice, three small containers of kiwi and strawberry juice, a large bag of pretzels, some water and fruit at La Sirena in what is supposed to be a more expensive city for just over 300 pesos.  We work Monday-Saturday with Sunday being a completely free day.  This Sunday, we are going to try to head to the beach with Johnny, one of the guys who is in charge of marketing for the ULAE camp (and also the drummer for one of the more popular rock bands in the country).  We spent some more time talking to Darling about what were actually going to be doing then headed out to the hotel to see where we'd be working.

Hotel las Caobas is just outside of town, right next to a country club.  The hotel is a small compound that has a swimming pool, tennis court, a basketball court (although one hoop is short a rim, we'll probably have to fix that), volleyball courts, and fields for activities.  Its certainly not the nicest hotel in the world, but it will serve the purpose of our camp very well.  We then drove a minute past the camp to the adjacent baseball training camp and facility where two teams were scrimmaging one another.  I guess it was one of the many Dominican camps where the stars of the MLB are born.  After a quick drive around the compound, we headed to the place where we are supposed to be spending the next month.

Unfortunately, there were issues with the family that was supposed to be housing us, so we were told that we would be staying in a motel with hot water and free TV instead.  Everyone kept saying, be careful when you turn on the TV, everything is free.  They always made sure to emphasize everything.  This definitely seemed strange, but we headed on to the motel or cabaña.  When we got to our destination, we passed the guard gate and traveled inside.  All of the cabañas were round, cement blocks with no windows or doors.  The only entrance was through a garage door and then another locked door.  When I got inside, I began to understand the meaning of the word everything and remembered Johnny saying something about the motels being a place where people go to "have a good time" in a hesitant manner.  There are mirrored pictures of mermaids on the walls, a round couch, table with chairs, one large bed, and an enormous shower.  The place does indeed have hot and cold water as well as a working TV with many of the channels in English and functioning air condition (a rarity in the Dominican).  It also comes equipped with a switch that turns on Bachata music next to the bed and a small, blackroom like spinning door.  When I asked about the door, Darling said that these places are extremely private.  It is a rule that the guards are not supposed to see who goes in and out of the rooms after they've paid.  If you want water, food, or other materials found in the "menu" you call 0 and they are brought to the spinning door, spun around, and a knock comes signaling that your request has arrived.  After getting over the initial shock of our habitación, we started to somewhat reluctantly unpack.  We put several layers of sheets on the bed and the couch.  Afterwards, we headed back to the University.  Here we talked to Johnny some more and went out to a cafeteria for lunch.  We ate chinese chicken and broccoli with a very pronounced Dominican influence.  We hung out and talked about Johnny's band and his time in the US (in Nashville, Baltimore, New York, and Colorado of all places) and about our common interests.  We discussed the Dominican beer, Presidente, some other pointedly Dominican food and cultural items.  After an hour or so we headed back to the office, watched some YouTube videos about our favorite musicians, sharing our music tastes, and waited for Darling.  He had told us we'd be going to the local TV station to film a commercial for the ULAE camp.  After I told Darling my educational background was in politics, he was excited to tell me I can practice going on TV and saying, "Vote for Drew!" We didn't make it to the TV station, instead we ended up going over more of the requirements for the camp.  We were told how we're going to be grading the students, focusing on specific aspects of the English language and grading each one on a scale of 1-5, making notes along the way.  After going over this for a while and drinking the coffee of the local school coffee-making women, we left to drive back to our "motel."  Darling also told us we'd be giving one of the university students a test.  She is a doctor in the local hospital.  We're going to go in with a hidden camera and ask her about a fake sickness that one of the two of us has, testing her English when she is unaware that she is being tested and has no way to speak Spanish with us.  Darling left to go to his 17-year-old son's graduation from high school and we went back to the compound to wait until 6 when he'd come back to pick us up and go to the fiesta celebrating the graduation.  We hopped outside to throw around a baseball for a while (one of the baseballs I brought for the family that didn't end up working out that I'll now use for the camp) and then came back inside to wait for Darling when a serious downpour came out of nowhere.  Taking shelter in the garage, I started talking to one of the guards who thought I was a Spaniard.  He was surprised to learn that I was an American and even more surprised to know that we were staying for more than a night.  After coming back inside, I took a quick shower and we decided that we're going to ask Darling to see if we can move to another sort of establishment.

Darling came to pick us up around 6:00 and we headed to the high school where his son's graduation was taking place.  We came in towards the end.  24 students started singing a song that they had written in a capella, ending with the customary tossing of the mortar boards.  Darling, his wife, his mother, and two sons took some pictures, eventually inviting us in for a photo as well.  It was if we were a part of the family.  The celebration moved to Darling's house where we took some turns playing pieces of songs on his son's guitar.  His nieces brought us small, hard bread with butter and soft cheese with a soda water that tasted somewhat like sprite. Afterwards, we headed to the local Sirena to grab some dinner (potatos and salchiche).  Over dinner, Darling (who speaks no English despite the ironic fact that he is the director of an English instructional camp) and Cory (who speaks no Spanish) decided that they would agree to only speak to each other in their non-native languages.  We continued to grab some items we would need for the apartment (peanut butter, bread, drinkable water, and of course bleach for the mattress and couch!).  We drank a bit of wine and then left La Sirena for Eros, our motel.  Darling went back to his house where the festivities for his son's graduation would go on late into the night.  Anticipating a very early start to our training tomorrow, Cory and I decided to just stay in, finish the wine and order a few Presidentes that came promptly through the spinning cubby hole.  The price ended up being a bit high, so I decided that tomorrow or the next day I will invest in a small, cheap local phone (I'm told they can be found for around US$3) to communicate with Darling and the camp as well as to be able to call taxis and move around the city at night when its not safe to walk the streets (especially for me who sticks out as un blanco).  We sat outside the motel garage door, chatting with the guard who has become quite friendly and discussing our mutual admiration of jazz and music in general.  The warned us of an upcoming national strike on Monday that could make our small, seedy street a whole lot more active.  This excitement will only add to the pile as I continue to experience the new at an exponentially increasing level. 

I very much look forward to heading to the university in the morning with my laptop (we have TV and food service here but no internet) to add this post to the blog as well as uploading my pictures from the drive.   I also can't wait to get some training from Darling, Johnny, Elizabeth (though Johnny speaks quite well, she is the lone fluent English speaker) and whoever else may show up so that we can have a better idea of how to measure the progress of our students en el campamento.  Hasta mañana, y buenos noches.

Santiago de los Caballeros

Today was my first real day in the Dominican Republic.  We woke up early and made some breakfast: eggs, bagels with pineapple jelly, and fruit juice.  After breakfast, we headed down to the bank to change some US dollars into Dominican pesos.  I changed $80 into a little over 3,000 Dominican pesos.  Leaving the bank, we headed to the Cemetario Municipal.  Dominican cemetaries are very interesting.  Because of the proximity to sea level, many people are buried in cement casing above ground.  After this, another cement casing is placed on top and again more on top of that.  Generally, families are buried together with some stacks reaching seven or eight feet high.  Many of the monuments were grandiose and looked extremely expensive.  There is a day of the dead here, but I'll be gone by that time.  After that, we walked down to La Sirena (The Mermaid) which is a large superstore akin to Wal-mart.  Just like Wal-mart, this store combines low prices with high quantities and has everything from a GNC to a food court, to groceries, flat screen TVs and motorcycles, thus making it extremely difficult for the local small businesses to stay on their feet.  Because of this, La Sirena is also the place to find the largest selection of American products.  Fortunately, we only stayed for a bit to check out the place then headed over to a friend of the missionary's house. 

Casilda greeted us warmly as her niece helped her cook lunch.  Her 9-year-old twins also helped set the table and made us feel very much at home.  We were told the kids were in English class and Casilda was practicing her English as well, however the kids became hilariously shy when asked anything in English.  After chatting for a while and doing my best to get the kids to at least count the plates or name some household objects in English, lunch was served.  We ate a meal that is commonly referred to as the Dominican Flag, due in part to its variety of colors including red and white (I didn't notice anything really blue) and because of its regularity at the typical Dominican table.  First we started with rice which was topped with habichuelas, a type of red, runny bean.  Then we added a green, sweet pea soupy dish.  After this came potatoes cooked with a semi-spicy pepper, spiced chicken, bananas, and fried plantains.  We drank water and fresh orange juice.  Everything mixed together perfectly.  The kids even added some Heinz ketchup to their platanos (something I didn't partake in, but it was nice to see a taste of Pittsburgh all the way down here in the Caribbean).  After dinner, Cory and I went out to play catch with Oscar, one of the very energetic 9-year-old twins.  After a while of throwing around a rubber ball in the street in front of Casilda's house, it seemed that Oscar was tiring down some.  This would soon pass as the cry of "¡Cafe!" came from inside the house.  Oscar went running and I wasn't too far behind.  I had been told that Dominican coffee was very strong, and still very tasty.  It is brewed with a lot of the beans still in the coffee and with nutmeg.  When I said that I didn't take milk or sugar in my coffee, I was looked at with an air of suspicion.  Casilda seemed surprised that anyone would want to drink Dominican coffee without diluting it somehow - she herself doesn't even touch the stuff.  However, I downed it and complemented her on the wonderful taste.  It definitely did have the kick that everyone was talking about.  Full of energy, we headed out to the market in Santiago.

Home to over 2 million people, Santiago de los Caballeros is the second largest city in the Dominican Republic behind only the capital, Santo Domingo.  The streets are narrow and colorful houses and shopfronts line every one, giving it a very Caribbean yet urban feel.  The ubiquitous tooting of car horns was a constant reminder that Dominican traffic laws are some of the most lax in the world.  Red lights are, essentially, suggestions.  Especially at night, if you don't see anyone coming it is perfectly acceptable to go through a red light.  Mopeds, mini-bikes, scooters, and motorcycles seemed to be the most popular mode of transportation in the narrow streets of the city.  They weaved and sped through the rows of cars, some loaded with as many as four people.  Once we got to the market, we traveled through a maze of fruit vendors, street salesman, and traffic.  We walked through the streets looking at the various stalls where vendors had their wares, most of which was your basic tourist attraction type stuff.  Each stall was another opportunity to practice Spanish, each vendor gave me a new opportunity to think of a creative Spanish way to say, "No, I don't want your Che Guevara wallet or an amber necklace for my girlfriend."  After traveling through the streets of Santiago for an hour or so, we headed up to the main monument. 

Monumento de los Heroes

The monument is a giant lighthouse looking structure in the middle of the city.  It is the main point of interest so it attracts many visitors and also acts as a point for which to give directions, "Va al sur del monumento."  The monument was originally built by the self-indulgent dictator Rafael Trujillo.  Trujillo, or El Jefe as he was known during his 31 year reign, was responsible for the death of over 50,000 of his own people as well as vast oppression and the creation of a personality cult.  It is therefore somewhat surprising (considering the mass murdering) that he would built a massive monument to peace in Santiago, but also predictable that he would dedicate it to himself (just another part of the personality cult).  The monument was later rededicated to the war that restored Dominican independence. After it gained its independence for the first time from Spain, it was taken over by Haiti, became independent from Haiti but fell back under Spanish control, then again won its independence from its original colonial ruler.  The story of the revolution and war was told through paintings, sculptures, and scenes on the 5 stories leading up to the observation platform before the tower of the monument rose.  We couldn't go any further up the monument do to a lack of access, so we stopped and took some panoramic views of the city of Santiago.  Those pictures are available on my flickr page that you can view by clicking on the flickr link below the thumbnail photos to the right, or by clicking on any of the thumbnail photos that appear to be Caribbean and not European. 

After this, we came back to the house and took a quick rest before heading down once again to La Sirena for some pasta.  You chose meat, vegetables, and sauce and they sauteed them with your choice of noodles.  It was actually a really good Dominican twist on Italian food.  I had tomato sauce and rotini with sweet corn, peppers, onions, and bacon.  This was followed by a quick stop at the mechanic to check out an issue with the car and then attempt to go bowling.  Unfortunately, the bowling alley was closed so we came back home through the usual maze of Toyotas, Daihatsus, Skodas, Peugots, and a huge number of SUVs.  We played some Wii for a while and then I began to pack up, getting ready for the hour and a half drive to San Francisco de Macoris at about 8:00 tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow I'll find out where I'll be living and what I'll be doing for the next month or so.  More information and photos coming then.

Welcome to the Dominican Republic

Its my first night in the Dominican Republic.  I hadn't even left Miami airport and the check in man spoke to me entirely in Spanish after I gave him my destination with the slightest of accents.  I dropped my bag off, headed to the terminal and met up with the other guy from Pittsburgh who is working at the camp as well.  After a flight that was delayed by missing seat cushions and the (later found out to be typical) slow, helter-skelter fashion with which Dominican flights are boarded, we took off only slightly late.  The flight to Santiago was pretty smooth.  We landed, collected our bags at the single bag pickup carousel, and passed through customs.  Cory's aunt, a Christian missionary who has spent more than two decades working in the Dominican picked us up and drove us a short distance to her apartment for the night where we found pizza (delivered by Pizza Hut!) and cookies.  We're not expected in San Francisco de Macoris until Wednesday, so we'll spend tonight and tomorrow night here.  Tomorrow we are going to check out Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city in the country and where I'm currently located.  We are going to change some money, buy some food, and have my first Dominican meal (rice, sweet peas, and chicken I'm told).  After that we'll come back to the apartment and make our way Wednesday morning to San Francisco to find out more about what will be my home for the next month.  It was night time and the drive was short.  The weather is in the mid 70's, but still quite warm and humid from the rain.  The drizzle prevented the sights sounds and smells from being absorbed, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to be hit with the intoxicating wave of newness that accompanies the first steps and experiences in a truly foreign country.  For now, I go to sleep with the jubilant sound of loud laughter and patois coming from the Haitian neighbors next door.  Tomorrow I'll be up with the rooster that lives down the way, ready to spend an hour or so trying to put in my new contacts so that I can better see the city that will be giving me my first impression of this island country.  Until then, buenos noches.

4th of July...Last Full Day in America and What A Glorious Day It Is!

The Legend of the Epic Night Ferret

Several hours to kill at the Atlanta airport.  I figure in the sake of killing time, I'll explain the namesake for this blog and corresponding twitter and flickr accounts.  Many years ago, when walking up a dark road in Pittsburgh, PA, it was noticed that several small and mystifying lights emanated from the undergrowth of the woods alongside the road.  At first, simple acknowledgement of the presence of the lights was all that occurred.  However, as we traveled on we realized that the lights were moving too.  It soon became obvious that these glowing orbs were not lights at all, but were the glowing eyes of a group of some unidentifiable woodland creature.  The creatures seemed to be very aware of our presence, noted our every step and taking in our actions.  We too were aware of the existence of the strange creatures, but couldn't identify them for it was dark and they seemed very adept at hiding and nimble when looked for.  We cautiously moved forward towards our destination.  Just before we reached the house to which we were walking, into the spotlight of the glow of the full moon ran one of the creatures.  He was long and thin, cloaked in black ninja-like cloth.  His fangs shined in the moonlight, only diminished by the intense, luminous glow of his eyes.  He let out a deep, guttural snarl and was gone just as quickly as he had appeared.  Thus occurred the first known sighting of the mystic Western Pennsylvania Epic Night Ferret.  We would soon find that the creatures came out very rarely and have since only been witnessed a handful of times.  They are very handy with throwing stars as well as stringed instruments.  They are dexterous and creative, nimble and crafty.  We were lucky that night, for it was later discovered that not every person who witnesses a pack of ENF's lives to tell the tale.  It is because of this event and my reverence for the generosity and mercy shown to us by these mystical woodland creatures that my blog, twitter and flickr accounts, and a band dedicated to perfecting the technological musical prowess of the Epic Night Ferrets, all take the name Epic Night Ferret.

Flickr Photos

Czech [sic] out my pictures from my time abroad in Czech Republic and Europe.  All the photos have short descriptions and are mapped.  You can click the link on the right side of the blog to go to my Flickr page, or just go to http://www.flickr.com/epicnightferret

Soon I'll have some photo updates from Dominican Republic!

Getting Going

I have begun packing for my trip to the Dominican Republic.  I will be working for ULAE, an organization that teaches kids English.  I'll be working at a summer camp at first and staying on afterwards.  I'm not entirely sure what my duties will be, but I eagerly await more information.  I found out about this opportunity just a week ago.  I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow and then catching a plane from Miami to Santiago, DR on Tuesday.  July 4th will appropriately be my last day in the US for an indefinite amount of time.  I will be living with a host family, will be teaching, but don't know much more about the job.  I can't wait to get started and update with what exactly it is that I'll be doing.