Blog around the world

January 13

Nothing in particular other than having class in the morning.

January 14

Prior to class, my friend and I decided to order food for take-out as it is a lot faster (and cheaper) to get the food. After getting back from class in the afternoon, we had plans for doing laundry but I wound up feeling under the weather (probably due to dehydration since it was an extremely hot day and/or food poisoning), so my friends went and helped take care of the laundry. Thankfully, after a few hours of rest, I managed to recover fully.

We woke up early to have breakfast and then head out to our second community, where we saw similar issues with regards to water. Something that was eventually picked up was the prevalence and reliance on poverty tourism. Kids would follow us around and eventually ask us to check out the stores owned by their parents and to buy their merchandise. We also noticed how the kids gave priority to their parents, as seen when one of my classmates received some water to drink from his water bottle and wound up offering the water instead to his mother.

After heading back to the hotel to relax for a while longer (hanging out at the beach and catching some last photo shots for me), we eventually headed back to the hotel and had dinner.

Early in the morning we had a buffet-style breakfast and caught sight of a double rainbow! I thought that was really cool.

We set out first to another water company, called CORAAPLATA (Corporación del Acueductos y Alcantarillados de Puerto Plata). This company drew some water from the river, purified it, and then let the water back into the river, thus minimalizing the amount of uncleanliness in the water.

Our second stop for the day was to a community under poverty. We noted the issues with water, such as the piping and limited water sources when it did not rain as some of the faucets did not work. There did not seem to be any latrines visible; in fact, people used a man-made river to defecate and urinate. There were also many animals there, including dogs, cats, and chickens. Only public places such as the church had an adequate water piping system, through tanks that were placed on top of the building.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to have lunch and a short lecture before ending the night with karaoke, which was a lot of fun.

After a morning class, we took the bus to ILAC (Institute for Latin American Concern). Over forty years, this place has offered housing to people involved in mission work in the communities in El Cibao, such as house rebuilding and building aqueducts, bridges, and community centers. In addition, there are rooms to treat patients. ILAC Mission hopes to influence the communities, “promot[ing] the integral development of the human being,” according to Radalme Peña, executive manager of the Mission.

Afterwards, we took the bus to the North Coast. Our place of stay was the Sosua by the Sea Boutique Beach Resort. It was a really nice place, boasting a pool, a beach, and buffet meals. We had a lot of fun that day.

Instead of class in the morning as we usually did, we instead had a trip in the morning to CORAASAN (Corporación del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santiago, literally “Water and Sewage Corporation of Santiago“), a company that was in charge of the public water system in Santiago. The president of the company claimed that the water within the company was safe to drink, but outside of the system is questionable because of the quality of the pipes. Additionally, there is a lack of trust in CORAASAN; this can be seen in the community’s attempt to fix broken pipes by their own means instead of waiting for the company to fix them, thus compromising the quality of water. He suggested that one way of cleaning the water was to boil the water for a few minutes to kill off any bacteria.

After a tour around CORAASAN, we had lunch and had the afternoon off to finish our papers. That night, I ate with classmates at Marchena, this time ordering a double hamburger. We were ripped off of a few pesos, so it was slightly frustrating (we did not get back change).

January 7

Nothing in particular happened today; we had breakfast, class, and then had lunch and dinner on our own.

January 8

After breakfast at the hotel and then class at ALPI, I went with some of my classmates to our professor’s place. He opened up his place for us to do laundry for free, so long as we had our own detergent/softener. It was during this time that we got to know him a bit more on a personal level, listening to him tell stories about himself and playing cards with him when the laundry took a really long time and there was not much else to do as there was no Wifi at his place.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, grabbed dinner, and worked on the paper due on Friday.

This day was a holiday, the 3 Kings Day. After class by the hotel, a few of us went to the city to eat at Wendy’s and then went shopping for detergent so we could do laundry. We then, as a class, attended a baseball game. I am not a huge fan of baseball, but I knew some of the lingo regarding baseball, and I was able to ask my friend who was knowledgable about baseball about other technical things. Though I was still not convinced to really enjoy baseball, my respect for it has at least increased.

After the baseball game, we went to the roof to enjoy a barbeque dinner. The food was quite amazing and the time spent with one another was really nice as well!

We set out early in the morning to walk around the city before planning on heading out back home late at night.

A few of my classmates and I woke up early to head out for Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic. The bus ride wound up taking 3 hours for 280 pesos.

I deeply apologize for the delayed posts…

After breakfast at the hotel, we had a three-hour lecture at American Language Partnership International (ALPI). Being the first class of the January semester, we tackled the rudiments of public health/medical anthropology and water in the Carribean. Some things discussed include different perspectives of diseases as well as theoretical approaches. We then had lunch on our own and went back to the hotel.

At around 4pm, we were given a tour of the CIEE offices and the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) campus, which included a tour around the auxiliary gym, the gym, and the library. This was a school that was close to our hotel and we had access to some of the facilities there.

After dinner at El Encanta (another local restaurant), we went back to the hotel to get rest.