Dominican Republic June 2008 Week 2

Week 2: Cabarete, Rep. Dom.

The next week we took a bus ride (like our charter buses) up to Cabarete where we stayed at the Coconut Palms resort. This was a view of one of the cities we passed from the bus. Yet another reminder of how fortunate we are to live where we live and have the things that we have. Since we traveled to Cabarete on Saturday, we got up at 6am the next morning to travel to Lise to go to a ward where Rodd had a lot of member friends and baptisms. Their meeting started at 9am. This was great. We had to jump transportation like 6 times to get there. I was riding a motoconcho in my little skirt. Good times... We got there to find they had a brand new church! Yea! As modern as a new church here in the states... Wow! And they are so proud of it... So cool. There we were able to visit a couple of families.

La Familia de la Rosa
(we brought them some pictures, they were so excited...)
Gabi
Marcos y Danelis Breton

Visiting some of the families and areas where Rodd had fond memories, I was able to see a lot of what life in the Dominican Republic was like. It was so humbling to be with the people there. They were all so happy for every little thing they had, which wasn't much, and they were willing to give it all to you! At every house we stopped at we were offered more food than 5 people could eat! These people are in poverty and hardly have enough food to feed their families, yet they are welcoming people into their homes and sharing all that they have with them. Even with us Americans, who have more that they can probably even comprehend. They are such good examples of being Christlike. Here was the kitchen of one of the families that we visited.


If you are familiar with the Hispanic culture, everything is about family. On this one lot, probably about 3/4 acre (maybe), there were 5 houses and one hut for the kitchen. 5 different families share this kitchen!Then again, they are all eating together and sharing one meal, but it's amazing to see how grateful and happy they are. I also had a picture of what they were cooking on the stove, but depending on when you are reading this... I didn't want you to lose your appetite. :)

This is the inside of a typical house. Not much there but a fridge, fan, and a whole bunch of chairs. At every house that we went to, I noticed one major similarity. We sat around and talked. They are a people who truly do thrive on company. It was very relaxing and refreshing compared to our fast-paced lives here in America.

One day, we took la ruta into Sosua, a local beach town with lots of shops, a couple days enjoy local food, walk the beach, and barter for our souvenirs. I'll have to find a better picture...
I wanted to find a Dominican painting that I loved and it took me forever to find one... but I finally did!

While in Cabarete, our resort had it's own private beach (which we practically had all to ourselves because the Americans never leave the resorts here). Down at the beach there was a little Grill where you could order food... I ordered what was called seafood salad one day. Rodd took a bite of shrimp and I asked him what he thought. "It tastes dirty." This was the day we realized that we would never order seafood again. They don't clean anything... :) To this day Rodd still teases me about ordering 'Sea Turd Salad'. (It's the plate in the middle)

I think seeing the animals around was really hard for me... they are so skinny! :( At this beach grill is where we met our little pet friend. We named him Manchi. Our friend Bolivar in the capital is pretty bilingual, so it's fun for him to be able to practice his english with us. His family had a dog named manchi. When he was translating it for us, he translated it as 'stains'. (HA!) It's supposed to be 'spot'. I got such a kick out of that. I told Rodd that if and when we get a dog that his name was going to be Manchi. We fed him the rest of our seafood salad and he played with us the rest of the day.

This is a kitty we found at the beach at Sosua when we were shopping. SO CUTE! Probably the most nourished animal I had seen yet. I'm a real sucker for animals, cats and dogs especially. We stayed at the Coconut Palms Resort and had a lot of fun there, especially with a beach all to ourselves!

No air conditioning... but we did have a fan! The chirping of the bugs at night was so loud I could hardly sleep! but we were right by the ocean... We never used our kitchen here... but having our own fridge was nice. Very Americanized. :)