My first visitor (a play-by-play of events)

This last week, Remi came to visit me. He arrived July 9 and left yesterday, the 20. We had an awesome time, filled with beaches, jugo natural (freshly squeezed juice found on almost every corner of the DR), my DR family, Peace Corps friends and more.

Some highlights: The first three days Remi was here, we went up to Sosua (which is on the north coast close to Puerto Plata) and stayed in an all-inclusive resort. Remi found a great deal through Orbits, and the hotel offered two beaches, food, drinks and ocean gear to entertain us during the day. Remi also brought two fishing rods and snorkeling gear with him from the states, so we were well prepared for all things ocean.
We discovered a reef/rock place, called Three Rocks that we could swim too from our hotel. People staying in the hotels all around Puerto Plata and Sosua paid good money to get on a boat go out to the rocks, so we felt like bandits just being able to swim there. Remi has the sweetest underwater camera, so we got some great pictures of us snorkeling, fishes, coral and such.

We also rented a kayak a couple days and took that out into the ocean to check out our surroundings. Remi brought his fishing rod one time and even though he didn’t catch anything, it was still fun.
After our resort get-away (PS, did I mention that I took about 12 showers in 3 days, because there was HOT water. Heck, there was a functioning shower head, that’s reason enough for excessive showering). Anyway, after our mini-vacation within Remi’s vacation, we came back to my site and Remi got to see firsthand my life here in the DR.

Our first night in my site, we had dinner with my adopted Dominican family and they cooked us a big spaghetti dinner (Dominican spaghetti is something to be desired in my opinion, but Remi didn’t mind it too much) and insisted that Remi learn to dance the meringue and bachata. He and I started to dance, but my meringue and bachata dance skills are still forming, so my family’s neighbor pushed me aside and took Remi and showed him how it’s really done. The best part of the night was after the traditional meringue and bachata dancing, when they put on Michael Jackson and Remi busted out the robot and the moon-walk. They all went crazy –clapping and screaming- and started calling for every person close by, whether they were in their houses or walking down the street, to come watch the gringo dance. It was great, and I knew immediately after Remi’s dance performance, he would be welcomed back whenever he wanted.

We went fishing at the “presa,” which means dam in Spanish. It is the lagoon about five minutes from my house and it is, in my opinion, my town’s hidden treasure. Remi brought two collapsible fishing rods from home (again securing him instant popularity in my site), so we went out to the presa with my family and spent an afternoon fishing. Remi caught a few fish, but let them go. I caught one that was smaller than my palm but also let it go.
We spent the rest of the week in my site, Remi coming with me to my center while I hung out there and worked on some stuff. He taught one of the workers here, who is learning English and does pretty well, some photoshop. On Friday we had a trash clean-up day, to clean up the creek (which used to be a river) that runs through my town. It was good for many reasons, because picking up trash is always a good thing and Remi got to see exactly what I mean when I talk about the trash problems here in the DR. It looks like my center is going to have trash pick-up days every Friday. Now all my future visitors have something to look forward too.

On Saturday we drove out to Monte Cristi, which is the DR’s most north coast city and one of the oldest. It’s a quiet fishing community with a famous cliff beach. We drove out to the beach, searching for jugo natural the entire time, climbed some of the jagged cliffs and enjoyed the day. We ate lunch at a great seafood restaurant on the side of the road. We ordered some food that we had no idea what it was (I didn’t know the Spanish words and I forgot my dictionary), but everything turned out well and our mystery dish turned out to a type of seafood meatball.

After lunch, we went back to the beach and the waves were coming in strong. We spent about an hour body surfing and wave crashing, which has to be one of the most fun things to do in the world, no matter how old you are.
On Sunday we drove into Santiago and met up with some of my Peace Corps friends. I have told my friends here so much about Remi and Remi so much about my Peace Corps friends, that it was great to have them all meet in person. We just passed the day in Santiago, went out to eat for lunch and dinner (a really nice treat), laughed and exchanged stories. Remi and I stayed the night in Santiago, as he left yesterday morning bright and early for home.

All in all it was a wonderful week. I am so grateful he could come so early and see my life and world here. Now when we talk on the phone, and I tell him I went running around my “presa,” he’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. And it also made me excited for future visitors. So really, if you have some time off work and want to see a Caribbean island, there is an extra bed for you here.

Now that my mini-vacation is over and Remi is back at home, I will be working on my diagnostic presentation. My swearing-in group gets together August 4-8, where we all will present what we have been doing for the last 2.5 months in our site and our plans for the year, in Spanish. I have it all figured out, it’s just about sitting down and doing it. I feel like I’m in college again… procrastinating until the last minute, but I have a bit more motivation, because the presentation is in Spanish and in front of our project partners. And just like in college, whether I started with plenty of time or waited until the night before, it will get done. The important stuff always gets done.