I'm still on July!

Cabulla - La Vega

My father owns a small piece of land, green and wet, fruitful, blessed. It mainly produces rice and plaintains but on the side it's the neighborhbood kids playground, the place to go to for a plate of food if you're a bit short and mosquitolandia (just in case I didn't mention it last year) hence, I wear long sleeves and pants in the 90 degree weather - but it's all worth while, full of cocunut tree climbing adventures with the kids, yummy fresh food and of course mother nature at full force, especially for the New Yorker who is still struggling with accepting the fact that outside of NY there are roaches the size of her middlefinger.

color and contrast, green and ripe, before and after, present and future...

the crew

Nelson - compadres son (my Dominican fam) working the land

the cutest dynamic duo ever

cocunut tree climbing equals a yummy snack

no sweat for the boys...

rice... a worldwide staple

Summer camp trips...

The beach at La Boca... this is the final destination of our trip. Let's rewind to the beginning...

La Boca (The mouth) where the river meets the beach

Arielle, Warlin, Billy, Christina lounging in the river

Showing off our muscles...

Showing off period...I tried!

So, before we got to the beach, we stopped at a house/zoo where we checked out some local animals and jumped on a lancha down the Yassica river to get to the beach.

Johanny was determined to get her snake on regardless of how much it freaked her out...

Where they keep the snakes, notice the spelling of snake...

On our way to "the mouth" where the ocean and the Yassica river meet.

Homeboy's pet, seriously.

Sea Horse Ranch

Imported pure-bred horses, carefully tended too - multimillion dollar homes - bars - restaurants - $$$$$$$$$$$$. We visited The Sea Horse ranch and received a grand tour... with the hopes of inspiring the young Dominican studens of the DREAM Project towards a career in the tourist/ex-pat infused Cabarete that they belong too. The students pointed to various houses and claimed them as their own as we drove through the grounds in our school bus. Other students would bluntly respond by saying something along the lines of "in your dreams"

kisses being blown at the students...

Yaritza picks up a critter along the way

amigitas...

In the kitchen... luckily those tacos ended up being for us

El Batey
( Housing for sugar cane workers & their families)

Two friends I made that afternoon - we exchanged some words in English and French

El Batey is a prodominately Haitian community where the sugar cane workers of the past live in, mixed with Christian Dominicans and Haitians who have converted and left their native Voodoo practices behind and others who continue their loyalty to their spiritual leader (the town's Voodoo preist). They live together yet separate, for many reasons, yet this poverty strucken community is a prime example of religious & racial discrimination, as well as a place which inspires hope. With the good comes the bad and in a prodominately Christian country who struggles to accept it's African & Indeginous roots at times, the Haitians who have migrated here in search of work, opportunity and basically just a chance at life, have & will struggle. The unfortunate truth has been right in front of my face ever since my arrival.

I'm lightly touching on the subject now mainly because of what happened by the end of this afternoon, but be sure that it will come up again. There is no way that I can be in The Dominican Republic and live amungst this madness and not be affected by it.

Three other friends I made that afternoon

The five friends together (3 Dominican, 2 Haitian)

I asked the Dominican brother and sisters where they lived...they pointed up the hill. I asked the Haitian girls where they lived... they pointed towards the left of the hill. I asked them if they had met before, they all said no; I told them that now they have.

After some mingling the kids decided to get a futbol game going. The kids in the Batey (Haitian) were already playing. When we arrived (a mixed crew of Haitians and Dominicans) a new game got started and all was fine until the end when our crew won and the Batey crew was pretty sore about it. The pushed one of my Haitian students and called him a traitor for playing with our team. You can only imagine what that led too...

Moments before the brawl

We left the Batey unfortunately after a huge brawl between Dominicans and Haitian teenagers and adults almost got severely out of hand. As we pulled off in our school bus, a fist fight in between a Haitian man who was defending us and another local broke out. There were extremely ugly words being exchanged, in and out of the schoolbus...the tension was heavy, the tone was angry overall it sucked. Miraculously a Bachata song that I knew all the students liked came on the radio, so I asked the driver to pump it up full blast, loud enough to wash out their voices and their angry tounges, loud enough to forget momentarily what just happened because this racism is not going to change from one moment to the next.

They all sang in unison, Dominican, Haitian, it didn't matter... music to the rescue...a Bachata saved the day, or at least the ride home.

Pizza Hut

In the kitchen

Regional recipes!

The girls chowing down on the pizzas they topped themselves

Volunteering for Pablito Guzman's Cabarete Classic

(International Windsurf Competition)

Cabarete beach, full of surfers of all ages, kites and sails, surf & sand, locals & tourists,
life & love

And their off!

All of the volunteers for the competion rocked the official Cabarete Classic t-shirt

Warlin, Fraylin & Billy, chillin on the beach

Dinner at Villa Taina for the volunteers and competition participants

The evening event of The Cabarete Classic - The fashion show @ Onnos Bar

local shops showcased their surf/beachware, and the local models showcased their stuff!

Jose Manuel during his fitting at Stone Fish

Partying after the fashion show

Alex out way past his bedtime!

Tonia & I organized the fashion show. It was alot of work but a lot of fun and a wonderful way of getting to know some of the local shop owners & surfers. Many of the child surfers were sponsored by DREAM and in our summer camp.