The Grass IS Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

I woke up early yesterday and did some last minute packing and had my usual HODR breakfast of cereal and coffee. It turns out there were seven volunteers leaving for the Dominican yesterday so we all took a shuttle to the bus station in Petion-Ville, a town about 20 minutes outside Port-au-Prince. It was $50 but split seven ways wasn’t bad at all. We all get to the bus station, buy our tickets, and sit around for a while. We all got on the bus, which could hold about 50 people but left the terminal with the seven of us and a few Haitians. We all got our own row. The bus was air-conditioned and the seats were actually comfortable so it was pretty luxurious. After two or three hours we got to the Dominican border where we went through a couple of checkpoints. We barely had to lift a finger – a woman on the bus collected all our passports and they were counted, stamped, and returned to us. Once we were on the Dominican side, the ride was really different. First of all, the country is considerably greener. Haiti has huge environmental issues, deforestation being one of those problems. So it was a nicer landscape and there were proper roads (meaning paved with some sort of traffic rules drivers follow). Five or so hours later we drove into Santo Domingo. It was dark at this point but I could tell it was a nice city. It’s very urban, lots of nice looking shops, restaurants – things most big cities have. We arrived at the bus terminal and the seven of us went our separate ways. Jeanene and I hopped in a taxi and got taken to our hotel in Juan Dolio, 30ish miles outside Santo Domingo. Directly upon getting out of the taxi, we knew we had chosen a good place to stay. We checked in and went to the room, which is amazing. There are two huge beds, a television, a balcony, AC, running water, etc. We spent several minutes just laying down, appreciating the softness of a real mattress. Now it’s not like I’ve been in Haiti forever and have lost touch with the real world, but even a month has made me appreciate certain comforts. By the time we got here, all the restaurants were closed but there is a 24-hour snack bar, which was serving hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, and fries. The food was AMAZING. It just tasted so damn good. We got a Presidente, the Dominican beer, and wandered around the “resort” area then shot some pool. I came back up to the room, had a real shower, and we both lounged in our beds, watching TV. For some reason Half Baked was on television (which is a classic, by the way) so we watched that until falling asleep.

I woke up around 9 this morning but didn’t roll out of bed until 10. Sleeping that late felt so good. We went downstairs for a breakfast buffet which was so, so, so good. The highlight of it was probably the fresh-squeezed juices. Now we’re back in the room getting in some quality internet time. Today we’ve got no real plans – head to the beach, walk around town, eat more, and so on.

This environment is such a dramatic change from where we’ve been so it’s a lot to take in and a lot to reflect on but I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to rest and recuperate a bit.

I have pretty consistent internet here so shoot me emails and such, I’d love to hear from you.

Love,

Daniel