bloodsuckingflea

My best friend is moving up there to work and a few of my other friends are moving there because of work or have lived there for some time. Plus, I hear it’s beautiful during the fall which is when I plan to go. Keeping my fingers crossed.

See my entry on the Dominican Republic and this takes place right after it.

For those who just want to know about Sosua itself though, read on. Sosua is a tourist destination and with due reason. They have a huge market place with plenty of souvenirs for people to spend money (cause that’s what most people want to do anyway), there is the beautiful beach, and the hotels there are quite amazing with pretty much every amenity you can think of. The water was beautiful. It was so vivid, clear and crsytalline that it seemed surreal. While I was here I had the experience of jumping off a 40 ft. (if memory serves me correctly) inverted cliff while I was there. The water didn’t look deep at all because it was so clear, but I can assure you that it was at least 30 feet deep and probably more so, but I wasn’t going to try and find out. Anyway, on the way out I stepped on a sea urchin because you had to climb up on this rock ledging and there aren’t any good foot holding positions and little did I know that under the ledge was a bunch of those suckers. Well, my foot was in tremendous pain and a local told me I was lucky my foot didn’t swell up. Mrs. Bliss Calvo, who was a nurse, told me because my foot didn’t swell that the needles were going to be in my foot for a while, at least 8 days. Yeah, lucky… Anyway, the place was amazing, the people there were friendly, if only to get your money, but they were friendly nonetheless, and the food was most excellent. Always bring someone who can speak the language and try to bring someone who understands the area and culture. Other than that, have fun! WEEEEEEeeeeeee!

My experience will most likely be vastly different from anyone else’s seeing as I went to this country for a mission’s trip. I will try and remember what I can, but it was quite some time ago (I believe 8 years ago). Anyway, the people I met were very warm and receptive and this may be misleading since I was around mostly christians. We stayed in La Vega to help build a school and so we helped build and form rafters and columns out of concrete and placed steel trusses (which we moved by hand!). It’s probably because I’m a civil engineer that this impresses me, but 30 high schoolers moving a truss onto the top of a school instead of a crane is kind of a gutsy move. Anyway, that’s the third world for you. Anyway, the guys building the school said we put them about 2 years ahead of schedule and we had only helped them out for about 8 days if I remember correctly. My experience with the people of the Dominican Republic stems mainly from one very notable figure to me. His nam is Rafa. He had no thumb on his left hand and a marijuana leaf tatooed on his left peck. I asked how he lost his thumb and he told me that he had lost it in a gang fight. I didn’t (and still don’t) know too much spanish so it took a lot of effort on my part and his in order to communicate with one another, but to this day I still feel it was worth the hours of effort. He had become a christian recently at that point and was trying to get away from the gang life he had become so infused in. Well, anyone knows that you can’t really just up and leave a gang. So, he had been struggling with that and the country is really poor and he was making I believe about $20 to $30 (American) each month. Anyway, I remember about 4 or 5 days into the trip Rafa and I went off the construction site along with a couple other people in the church to help an old lady up in the mountains with laying down cinder blocks for her house walls. We took a break while we were there and Rafa asked me to come with him off the woman’s property. Looking back that’s probably the dumbest thing I could have done, but it was worth it. He showed me a guava tree he spotted while working and we proceeded to a small hut. My gut dropped and a guy came out of the house and started speaking to Rafa. I heard what they were saying and then I understood what they were talking about. He pointed over to a bunch of cages along the side of the house which were filled with a bunch of rabbits. He was getting dinner :-). So, we got a guava on the way back and he shared some of it with me. Man was it delicious. I spent hours talking to Rafa getting to know him, about his life and what he wanted to do with it. The country is very poor and the situation of many people in the country is very bleak. He is more fortunate, which scares me because he is not so well off either. For me it was worth visiting because the trip was very structured, I was around people who knew the area, and about a third of our group spoke fluent spanish as well as the fact that we had such a large group. Anyway, there was one instance where there was a peeping tom looking at the girls on the first floor through the bathroom window, which was kinda freaky, but thankfully Pablo is a big 5’10” 250 lb. pure muscle Guatemalan who had a baseball bat. That’s our youth pastor. Anway, for me the experience was well worth it, but for most anyone else you should think twice about going outside the tourist locations for safety’s sake. I hope that helps.

I’m a mutt by all accounts of cultural heritage. I’m a quarter British, a quarter Irish, and half Filipino (this is how it is spelled, trust me). I was always proud of my Filipino heritage and went to many parties in South Florida (where I was born and raised). Let me tell you one of the most apparent things you will notice about our culture. We love to celebrate. College kids have nothing on the Filipino culture. We love to drink, but we love to eat more than anything else in the world. While I was over there in the Philippines, I noticed that you typically eat meat with your beer instead of the American tradition of potato chips. I had a much more immersed view of the Philippines because I have a lot of family there. By a lot I mean that in Pangasinan, I have an entire neighborhood of relatives. Anyway, the country is relatively poor. I believe while I was there the exchange rate was about 52 pesos to each dollar, so each peso was the equivalent of about 2 cents. Anyway, the big tourist destination in the Philippines is Manila, the metropolitan epicenter of the nation. Many of the tourists will undoubtedly be headed to Fort Bonifacio which looks very similar to many of our modernized cities. If you do head into this area, do not, I mean, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT get a prostitute. HIV is rampant in the area and I’m sure it is spreading. I would never sleep with a prostitute anyway, not even in the U.S., out in Nevada, and especially not in Las Vegas. Anyone who sleeps with a prostitute is asking for STDs, but I digress. You will find that the city is heavily influenced by the West as there are McDonald’s and spin-offs of these stores, you will see American movies in the marketplace. On the other hand, you will see there is a rich cultural heritage as you make your way across the country which I could talk about for hours.

To summarize, this trip is worth taking, but only for culture’s sake. Many people speak English there, however, as in any third world country, they will see Americans coming a mile away and many (probably about a quarter) of them will try anything to separate you from their money. Take someone who speaks the language, understands the area, and be very critical of where your money is since Manila is notorious for pick pocketers. There’s not much in the way of souvenirs, so if that’s what you want you’re going for the wrong reasons. This place is about the people and the way they live. Sorry for how long the entry is, but I love my people. If you want to ask me about anything more in depth feel free to do so.

P.S. San Miguel Beer is the shiznit and there’s no drinking age (even though I’m 21)