4~4~18

The fourth of April, two thousand eighteen. Big big big fun filled day starting at eight in the morning and ending at ten forty-five at night. The biggest thing I learned on that day was life. Not the type of tree cocoa grows on, how loud geese can be, Christopher Columbus’ landing, but life. How we live, how others live. How much we have, how little some have. How big a difference we can all make. But rewind a lil bit. Back to eight in the morning.

We arraigned the tour with José several days prior to the actual date. He’s an incredibly kind guy that knows three languages. One of which is English. Everyone in town knows him and as we saw it, everyone likes him. He picked us up at the government dock in a big AIR CONDITIONED van with his driver Billy. In Dominican Republic, driving is a scary task even for those who haven’t traveled more than 10mph in a while. With motorcycles, potholes, donkeys, chickens, dogs, cats, goats, horses, and lots and lots of cows, driving in a car is a lil challenging. Aaaand on top of all that, after all the rain we’ve been getting, many of the dirt roads are flooded and slick. Billy and José however, know these towns like the back of their hand so we didn’t have any troubles. We all piled in and almost automatically went to grab our seatbelts. Well, there were no seatbelts. Or speed limits. Or stop signs. With all of the animals too! We went along a short but very bumpy, ride and stopped at a cow community. No I’m not making that up. We stopped at a cow community. We walked right into a large {pile of yuck and…} number of cows and the bull and watched them hand milk a cow. Pretty neat stuff.

After a twenty minute drive, mostly on paved roads (yayayayay), we stopped at a so called beautiful gathering spot, resort, and beach club. We were told that they take the Carnival cruise passengers to this spot, but it is open to anyone. Anyone can bring food and drink and hangout at this spot. We were let inside and beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent, they are all understatements. It had a beach, many cute tables and huts, stairs right into the ocean, showers, restaurant. It was great. I told Mom I could see myself getting married there. So if that says anything…haha.

Back into the car we went, after checking again for seatbelt, seriously though every time we got into the car. Like we know they aren’t there but our arm just automatically reaches up and haha we looked pretty silly but hey! Safety first kids! We drove for a while and ended up in the city of Isabella, where Columbus set up the first settlement in the new world. But okay let’s hold up for a second here. In my social studies class in so called America, we were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. And this is all true. But what they don’t tell us is that the Domican Republic and Haiti are the America he landed on. I’ve always assumed he washed up in Boston?!?!?! Maybe I’m stupid or wasn’t paying attention or I missed something entirely but seriously did they ever teach us about Columbus in the DR? I don’t think so. So until yesterday I don’t exactly know what I thought but I definitely didn’t think that Columbus discovered the island of Dominican and Haiti. Anyway, the museum was really interesting. It took a lil brain power seeing as it was all in Spanish. Thankfully, José was an amazing tour guide and explained everything in excellent English. We walked around the ruins of the first settlement. It made everything really real to see the very last bits of the house Columbus lived in, see the small cemeteries, and the church. Apparently, the settlement was still up and had more than an outline of large rocks but a lil miscommunication a little while ago ended that. What I understood was the government ordered the space to be cleared, meaning some trees and greenery, but the entire city ended up in the ocean. So I learned a lot a lot of history, the real history.

In Isabella, we also stopped at two very, very, small shops that had hand carved wood animal figures. They were absolutely amazing and really cool to see. We also stopped at the first church that is still up and running. We looked around for a lil bit, there were lots of gorgeous plants and VERY VERY VERY LOUD GEESE. Along with some turkeys, doggos, kitties, were the security geese. Now typically we’ve seen security dogs. Big ferocious sounding mean dogs. And they definitely know how to keep unwanted visitors away. Well, here at this church, the geese are the alarm system. Now you’re probably thinking ‘well duh heidi geese can be loud.’ No guys these birds are screaming, honking, crowing, squawking, like I’ve never seen before. That was definitely a new one for us. Security geese.

We headed back to Luperon {our starting spot} for lunch. We had a fantastic rice and beans and chicken and salad at a small local restaurant. All the food we had in Luperon and the DR was awesome. So so good. After we finished we got back into the car and headed for a cocoa plantation. In all honesty, I wasn’t too too excited for this stop but I was pleasantly surprised. It had allllll the trees there. Mangoes, avocados, cocoa, bananas, plantains, paprika, coffee, sopadillo, and many more I can’t either spell or remember. They had magnificent flowers that I loved photographing. And then, probably my favorite part of the plantation, the animals! I automatically was drawn to an adorable kitty that let my pick her up and snuggle and aaah so sososososos cute. They also had geese. Very very loud geese. Haha they had some cows, sheep, goats, they had a baby goat that Sally got to hold for a while. Also adorable. But my favorite animal there, and my favorite animal in general were the ostriches. They are so so funny looking and smile at you and hahaha makes me laugh just thinking about those goofballs. It was overall, a really interesting spot.

After the plantation, we headed off to a poorer section of the Dominican. We brought with us our collection of toothbrushes that so many of you kindly donated to help children in need. I can tell you now that the kids were ecstatic. Beyond happy to receive these small but special gifts. It was a tricky ride there. Many of the streets were flooded which made for a slow, bumpy ride. It was quite the hike to Cambiasso, the town we stopped in. I don’t know if I’d even want to call it a town, more like a community. It was on a white sand, turquoise water beach. Really really pretty. The houses looked like what many of us would call a shack, or shed. The van that we were in was bigger than most of these shelters. Families live together in one room spots. Some kids didn’t have clothes. No one had shoes on their feet. Bathrooms were the middle of the street for some. They depend on people passing by for business. It was real life. I’ve heard about all this stuff before, seen photos, read papers. But I don’t think any of it can really describe what it is like to walk around and see it. Most of the kids were at school when we arrived so we handed out toothbrushes to the younger kiddos. They were speechless. It really meant so so so incredibly much to them. I don’t think I can ever describe the look on these lil guys faces. It’s something you have to experience, you had to be there kinda thing. Something that really struck me hard was when we asked José if we should give the mothers and/or fathers the toothbrushes for the kids that were at school, he said no. They would never get to the kids. Parents would sell them and buy something for themselves instead of give it to their own children. I can’t start to explain how grateful I am for everything that I have. I really do appreciate my toothbrush more now. I don’t know how many kids my age get to see people living like this. I would guess not that many. It was really the greatest learning moment I think I’ve had. Ever. You can go to the best college in the world but what they can’t teach you is life. Real life. It’s out there. It’s really real now. I met a mother of five children. I’m guessing she was no more than two years older than me. It’s really hard for me to imagine having five kids and one room to live in depending on passing by visitors for money. What I also don’t think always comes across is that these people are the smiliest, and friendliest people we’ve met. They were really truly grateful for us coming. They appreciated our company. These aren’t bad people. I can’t say with 100 percent certainty for everyone but these people didn’t do something wrong that put them where they are. They were born with the wrong last name, the wrong storm hit them hard, it is what it is. And they are willing to look past that and make the best out of what they have. And things like this keep me going. I encourage you to tonight, when you go to brush your teeth, with a toothbrush, toothpaste, safe drinking water, take a minute to think about how much you have to be grateful for. There are a lot of things that remind me how truly lucky I am. And all in all, I’ve really been shown that we are all one big family. We’re all human.

By the time we got back to the dock after the ride from Cambiasso it was nearly six in the pm. We quickly got dressed into nicer clothes, regained some of our energy, and met our friends that we met at the marina for dinner. The man who owns the marina that we stayed at also owns the restaurant so it was all really nice. It was so fun to watch Ellana, six years old, Spanish speaking, and sally, ten years old, English speaking become great friends. We ended up spending the next day with them too which was also a blast. By the time we got back home it was way late and after a day full of excitement we fell asleep real quick.

It was truly an incredible experience. The biggest thing I learned on that day was life. Not the type of tree cocoa grows on, how loud geese can be, Christopher Columbus’ landing, but life. How we live, how others live. How much we have, how little some have. How big a difference we can all make. How thankful I am to be where I am. How grateful I am to be sharing this message and story with you. Thank you.

Till next time,
Heidi