Not related to work, but related to fun...

It has been a few weeks since I’ve updated. April has gone quickly and it has helped by having two wonderful visitors from the good ol’ US of A (one of which is still here).

My good friend Kerrie came for her spring break during the last few days of March and into the first few days of April. Kerrie is a sixth grade teacher back home, and also my traveling partner for life. We met while studying abroad in Brighton, England in 2005. Both of us actually went to UNR, but we never knew each other until we met overseas and lived down the hall from each other in our flat.

While Kerrie was here, it was actually Semaña Santa, which basically means “Holy Week.” It’s the week before Easter, and the entire country of the DR has the week off to spend time with family and go to church. Although, some people actually do this, most people spend the week drinking too much and acting crazy. Kerrie and I decided with all of this in mind, the best way to celebrate Semaña Santa and her visit to the DR would be to head to the one and only, Cabarate.

Cabarate is a magical place on the north coast, which is more like America and less like the DR. Imagine a mini version of Miami Beach. Before we got there, I told Kerrie that it “wasn’t real life.” This statement was proven true, as we walked around and saw white people everywhere, went into shops and spoke English with the owners who were ex-pats of some English speaking country, ordered food in English at restaurants and ate generally more American favorites, like gourmet pizza, chicken wings, gelato ice cream and fries than I’ve had since returning home last December.

Joining us was also a few of my Peace Corps friends, which made the week that much more enjoyable. Together, we journey along the North Coast, from Cabarate to Gasper Hernandez, where fellow PCV Alanna lives, to Playa Grande (a beautiful, huge stretch of beach) and back down to Damajugua- where the famous 27 waterfalls are.

Although being in Cabarate, or the north coast in general, wasn’t real life, Kerrie did experience real Dominican life by riding on the “guaguas.” The guaguas are the Dominican term for any kind of vehicle that can hold more than five people. Mostly, however, the term guagua is used for buses and vans. We rode in nice buses with air conditioning, old vans that were literally rusting away and bigger vans that were meant for 15 people or so and crammed 22. There’s nothing like sitting in a two-person seat with five people, one of which is a very large woman holding her young granddaughter, the other an older man, with a sack full of chickens squawking as loud as they can. I’m not saying Kerrie got the enjoyment of squawking chickens, but I am saying it happens.

The second-to-last day Kerrie was here, we stopped off the road to Santiago in Damajugua. Damajugua has the 27 waterfalls, which, FYI, was started by a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 80s (the PCV was actually a Kennedy, yes from the Kennedy family). He turned the 27 waterfalls into a tourist destination, where people can jump down or go down natural waterslides. Since then, the site now offers a full restaurant, a bar, a gift shop and all-inclusive resorts shuttle people in by the hour to enjoy the activities. Peace Corps Volunteers have been returning to the site since the Kennedy volunteer established the business to help with development.

Basically, it’s awesome. And basically, you feel like you’re in a scene from Jurassic Park, climbing waterfalls, jumping down them in a beautiful, majestic Caribbean jungle.

Kerrie left on Easter Sunday, but it was an awesome week filled with friends, good food and adventures- the way Kerrie and I do most of our traveling experiences together.

A few days later, the one-and-only Remi arrived and much to my luck is still here. He’ll actually be here until May 24, and the month of May is literally filled with our adventures. I am excited.

When he arrived, we went straight back to Cabarate and I got to enjoy another weekend of unreality. When I was there with Kerrie, I saw a restaurant on the beach that let you pick out your own lobster and eat it. As cliché as that is, the lobsters were HUGE and it was reason enough for me to want to bring Remi back the weekend he arrived into country.

Remi did in fact very much enjoy the over-sized lobster and after our weekend at the beach, we headed down south to Santo Domingo for a few meetings I had in the Peace Corps office. Remi got to see my world in Santo Domingo, including the Peace Corps office, the restaurants I frequent most when there and he also met more volunteers.

We’ve spent the last couple weeks in my site, enjoying the laid back life of the campo. Two weekends ago, we went back to Damajugua and did the 27 waterfalls again. It was just as good the second time for me, maybe even better, because we had just had a lot of rain, so the water was rushing and the slides were fast.

This week, I’m wrapping up my English classes and some other activities I’ve been doing in my town, like helping one of the teachers in my school a few times a week with her kindergarten and first grade class, because come Saturday, Remi and I will be hiking Pico Duarte.

Pico Duarte is the highest peak in the Caribbean. It will take us 5 days to summit and come back. Although I’m nervous, because I’m out-of-shape, I also can’t wait. I read about Pico Duarte in a traveler’s guide of the DR before I left in March 2009. I brought my bulky hiking boots with me just for this occasion. It's been over a year since I have wanted to do this. I cannot leave this island before hiking Pico Duarte, and I will update you next week, when we are finished and exhausted.

Help me build a Library

Dear Friends and Family,
I write to all of you to humbly ask for a favor. About a month ago, I applied for a grant through the Peace Corps office in Washington D.C. to help turn an unused room in the computer center I work at into a library for my community. Currently, there is no kind of library in my small Dominican town of La Caya. Yes, the school has books, but there is no place that any member of the community (no matter how young or old) can freely read a book.

The Dominican Republic has the second to worst education system in all of Latin America (only Haiti ranks lower). People here know what a book is, but more often than not do not see how much they can benefit their lives. Help me to change this. Help me show my community-- from the four-year-old who is learning the alphabet, to the single mom who loves Spanish romance novels (but has to go into the big cities to get these books), to the 85-year-old woman who wants to read about religion-- that discovering this information through books is as easy as walking to our center.

The Peace Corps grant I applied for is for just over US $4000. My community is donating around US $1000, by fund-raising for 50 books, providing the space and labor to install shelves, paint the walls and transform the now barren room into a one-of-a-kind space for our community.

This project cannot start until ALL of the money has been raised. I know times are tight in America. I understand that donating to a library in the Dominican Republic may not be your first priority, but please help me to do one small thing to better the lives of the people of La Caya, Dominican Republic forever.

If you are interested, copy and paste this link:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-356

-OR- go to www.peacecorps.gov, click on DONATE NOW, type my last name ELIOPULOS into the search bar (you may have to do this twice) and my library will come up.


Thank you so much, and seriously, I do live on an island- COME VISIT!

-Stacie