Motos in the hills

The past week here has been really great. Some really cool experiences last weekend, and am predictably a little late in reporting on it but 'better late....'etc.

After a beautiful morning run last Saturday (weekend mornings are essentially the only time when it's possible to run on the main road - aka the only road, aka the paved road - without feeling like you instantaneously contract some type of lung cancer). The air pollution is pretty much off the charts here, as all motos (small motorcycles - the primary form of transportation here) seem to have major exhaust problems that go unfixed, so it's really a treat to run on the road with minimal traffic. Since there are no sidewalks here it's also a treat to run on the shoulder of the paved road and not worry as much about getting flattened by some unruly (aka any and every) vehicle.

In any case, post-run I traveled with Lindsey, another DREAM volunteer, on the guagua (public transportation...usually a van which may or may not have a functioning door and may or may not have additional passengers hanging out the door. But it lets you out wherever you want so is thus FAR better than any bus system in the US) to the neighboring town, Sosua. We were headed to the town of Nazaret to volunteer at an elementary school's library. Nazaret is way up in the hills just inland from Sosua. Lindsey had been volunteering there every Saturday morning for the past few weeks, managing a Saturday reading program for kids in grades 2-4.

Once in Sosua the fun started...we hopped on motos (helmets on of course!) and headed up a steep and winding dirt road up to Nazaret. Now I had thus far been pretty terrified of motos and will frequently spend the entire duration of my ride considering what the physical consequences to my body would be if I flew off the moto at any given point. Usually my mind calculates somewhere between broken limbs and eminent death...however my helmet IS really legitimate (don't worry Mom) so maybe I'm exaggerating. All fears aside, this trip was amazing. We went really slow, and kept winding up and up this dirt road through what were now pretty rural villages in hills and valleys. Lots of farmland, cows, and amazing views. It was so quiet - a really nice change from the traffic and hustle of Cabarete.

We arrived at the school after about a 15 minute climb to the top of the hill on which the school sits. The school is technically private and was founded by missionaries, but is entirely run by Dominicans, and has an entirely Dominican teaching staff as well. It was truly a beautiful setting, and the school and classrooms were bright and cheery (in stark contrast to the Dominican public school classrooms I have seen at the school in my neighborhood, which are largely dark, dim, sparsely decorated, and fairly depressing).

Shortly after we arrived, there were kids lined up outside waiting to get into the library...kids lined up to read! How cool! They were all various degrees of Completely Adorable, and were very well behaved as well. We worked with 3 different sections in three different class blocks, helping them read when necessary and also helping them create cute name tags.

It was really great to have the opportunity to see yet another school/school model here, and also the community - I certainly never would have ended up at the top of that dirt road in the hills otherwise, and it was wonderful to experience a completely different setting/community than Cabarete. I hope to go back soon!

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing...got some great surfing in, and got a little too much sun (turns to tan, turns to tan)....pretty much par for the course here in Cabarete.

Also had a great week with the kids at DREAM. After devising a behavior incentive system involving earning coconuts on coconut trees, they were more or less angelic. A little less so when a younger student in the morning session on Thursday picked up a giant dead spider he found somewhere in the center and ran around shoving it in the faces of all of us teachers. Sent my arachnophobia level (already fairly high) pretty much through the roof....needless to say there was a major coconut reduction for his class.

After entertaining the idea of heading to Santo Domingo this weekend to see Aventura (the biggest band in the country it seems) live, tickets proved hard to come by at this late stage in the game and I will be hanging in Cabarete after all. So far surfing, as well as traveling east to the town of Nagua to watch the Cabarete futbol team play a game on Sunday are on the agenda...

More soon!

Hasta pronto...
Laura