Teaching in Santo Domingo, a Day in the Park, and Bird Walks

Mostly what I've been doing this month is teaching English and learning Spanish. It's been a busy month. Above I'm seen with my friends Mary Ann on the left and Julie in the middle. Julie treated us to iced lemonade and a sweet at a French pastry shop after our weekly English class at Mercedes Amiama, a school for high school girls. There are five girls in my class and they are second year English students. They are learning the present progressive and together we are building vocabulary. Also they help me out with my Spanish, which I really appreciate.

As one of our early assignments I asked each girl to tear off some toilet paper. Then I asked the girls to write one thing about themselves in English on each segment of toilet tissue. This is a photo which shows the results of one girl's work. You can see that the priorities of young Dominican women include God and family, which is very sweet. Below are two photos of the girls taken in the spring. I'll include more photos from the class as we progress over the winter.

I continue to teach Orange Executives and their families English. One of my clients is the wife of an Orange Executive. She is an advanced intermediate speaker. One week I tutored her 12 year old son, who speaks fluent Spanish and French. I also taught the 9 year old some English. What a delightful (and different!) experience it was to be with these two French children. This family lives in a rather prosperous area in Santo Domingo known as Naco. Below is a photo of their apartment building. I've included some buildings in the surrounding area so you can see what a "good" area in Santo Domingo looks like. You'll notice many people drive new cars in Santo Domingo! This is a city of contrasts.

Below are photos of a Baha'i gathering in Santo Domingo's Mirador Sur Park. We spent Saturday October 20 celebrating the observance of the anniversary of the birth in 1819 of Siyyid, “the Báb,” the prophet-herald of the Bahá’í Faith, in Shíráz, Persia. Viewing these photos I am still surprised that there is such a large Baha'i community in the Dominican Republic. Sometimes I feel as though I were back in Berkeley, California, (I first learned to meditate as a college student in Berkeley!) celebrating a religion having an Eastern origin.

 

Several presentations were given, including one very fine dramatization of the events we were commemorating together. Another group presented a drawing which depicted the birth of the Bab. 

 The audience gave all of their attention to the presentations.

There were sports, of course. 

 And an ice cream vendor came by. All enjoyed a great day in the park!

The month included a great deal of activity out of doors, including bird walks I enjoyed.

Large Caterpillars can be seen shredding the last leaves of this tree. After the bird walk October 13, we went to Alexandra Panehal's house for brunch, which was a real treat:

Yesterday I went on a second bird walk. We had a smaller group this time, as it had been raining heavily throughout the night. Also there was an eclipse of the sun in the morning and many had gone to the Malecon to try and view it, though the clouds prohibited a real look. A German Botanist joined us on yesterday's tour, so our guide, Kate Wallace, focused on the park's plant life as well as the birds.

The tree shown above is a magnet for hummingbirds, and we viewed many of the mango hummingbirds hovering in its blossoms. It was a great joy to view so many young whistling ducks at the Botanical Garden. Kate explained that years ago some of the park employees were known to shoot the ducks as they made a tasty dinner. Currently, however, there is a park administrator who is a botanist and strict about preserving the wild life in the Garden.

 The caterpillars are not as much in evidence yesterday as they were last month. There is just one last small caterpillar remaining on the tree pictured earlier.

 The gourd like fruit of the tree shown above are frequently made into musical instruments or ornaments in the Domincan Republic.

This is the llang llang tree, source of the blossom from which Chanel 5 is made. As mentioned previously,we focused more on the plants in the Botanical Garden yesterday.

The Santo Domingo Botanical Garden, one of the country's finest institutions (and well respected throughout the world), was developed by a botanist named Dr. Rafael Ma. Moscoso.

Now for a completely different subject, the visit of Peace Corps Volunteer Susan Stasney, who came from her site on the Frontera for a visit this month. Below are photos of our reunion:

The last photos of this blog update were taken the evening of November 3, at a birthday party for one of the teachers at the neighborhood school where I volunteer.

 I was captivated by the grace of the young woman in the photo below:

And the last photo shows the teachers together, with Clari, the one celebrating her birthday, all dressed up in black ruffles and jeans. Dominican women love to dress up in feathers and glitter and this birthday event was no exception!

Thank you for taking the time to read the words and view the photos of this blog update. I didn't go away this month so was able to save some money. My idea is that I will keep putting money aside in preparation for a trip of several months throughout South America next year. In the meantime I will keep posting about life in the Dominican Republic. Have a great November!

Rio San Juan!

Now that I've been living in the Dominican Republic for over a year, I have a few favorite places to which I enjoy returning. In the beginning I wanted to explore every part of the island, including places that were hard to get to. One place that has become a favorite is the Hotel Bahia Blanca in Rio San Juan. It's a relief that transportation there is easy. Above I am standing next to the French Canadian proprietor of this establishment. Below you can view a photo of the Bahia Blanca.  

I like to stay in one of the corner rooms overlooking the ocean. The owners haven't invested much in the hotel over the last years, so it's a little run down. That keeps costs down, which suits me fine. For $30 a night I can open the windows & enjoy the sound of the ocean's waves all night long. Below is a view from the deck outside of my room.

 Below is the beach alongside the hotel at sunset:

An advantage of staying in Rio San Juan is that some of the country's best beaches are nearby. My favorite is the Playa Grande, which has been featured in this blog previously:

I took a motoconcho to nearby Playa Caleton, not pictured here, but also a wonderful beach, where a delightful lady gave me a terrific massage on the beach for about $8 after a long swim. That was a fabulous day. And the next day I took the guagua to Playa Grande, where I swam and played in the surf for several hours. Now that is my idea of a fabulous weekend. I can hardly wait to return. Rio San Juan itself is low key, which helps make for an enjoyable stay. Below is a photo of a Canadian woman, Marcie, whom I met at the hotel. We enjoyed walking to the colmado and talking together.

 

Above is the path I walked through to get into town. Chickens and a rooster greeted me mornings.

Past a shaded area is the Gri-gri lagoon, which offers boat rides to passengers wishing to view the occasional crocodile or heron. I haven't taken this tour yet enjoy walking past the boats docked there.

The above photo is taken of my favorite French restaurant in town, where I enjoyed big cups of hot coffee with steamed milk at 7 a.m. in the mornings. A small group of ex-patriates convene here. Below are more photos of Estrella Restaurant.

Below, the owner can be seen taking fresh croissants out of the oven.

 And the next photo shows the prawns grilled with garlic I had for lunch:

 

This terrific French restaurant certainly enhances a trip to Rio San Juan. And the pina coladas there are out of sight. The photo below was taken at Estrella in April when my friends Sandy and Jan joined me on a trip to Rio San Juan.

As I mentioned before, it's easy to get to Rio San Juan from Santo Domingo. Caribe Tours goes directly there. The bus travels along the coast toward San Pedro de Macoris, then turns north on the new Samana highway, and cuts over to Nagua, arriving at Rio San Juan three hours after leaving Santo Domingo.  Rio San Juan on the point between Nagua and Cabarete on the map below:

Another  highlight of September was a trip I took to see the shore birds near Bani, which is west of Santo Domingo on the South coast. Below are photos of the bird enthusiasts I went with.

I'm on the right in this photo, and Kate Wallace, our guide, is standing next to me. Maria Paulino, a new friend, and Stephen Johnson, another bird enthusiast, are also seen in this photo. Below is a photo of Maria and her niece, Johanna. Both are accomplished birders and photographers.

I'm seen above with Stephen, a friend of Kate's visiting from Florida.

Other bird enthusiasts were out to view shore birds and as it turned out, they were friends with our guide, Kate Wallace.

 And the flamingos seen at Salinas de Bani are shown below:

Below, a photo of David and his two children, who joined us for the day.

 Lunch, which we enjoyed at the end of our morning of hiking, bird watching and swimming:

Almost forgot to include this photo! A storm chased us nearly all morning; below dark clouds can be seen above the beach in which we enjoyed a swim.

Below is the fruit stand (featuring mangos, avocados and eggplants) at which we stopped outside of Bani. Bani is especially known for its mangos.

This past month I enjoyed coffee at the home of a new friend, Lynette, who is a member of the International Women's Club in Santo Domingo. Lynette's husband is with the Dutch embassy. These photos of her elegant home in the Zona Colonial give ample evidence that some people do live very well in the Dominican Republic.

Another highlight of my month was an all day study group with the Baha'i Community learning songs and stories to teach children. Below are members of my group at the Baha'i Center:

 Kathryn was my teacher that day, and can be seen below. She is seated with my friend Julie.

 Group members are shown below sorting some things out.

 And below is an altar at the Baha'i Center, featuring a photo of Spiritual Leader, Bahá’u’lláh:

Finally, the good news this month is that I continue to help the children at the nearby elementary school read Spanish. I volunteer at the Collegio three mornings a week and those hours are among the most rewarding of my week.

Also, I've begin work as a part-time contract employee of an organization providing English tutoring to Executives at Orange, a French owned internet company with offices in the Dominican Republic.

Below is the colorful building in which the office of the agency for which I work is located. 

 Below are photos of the Orange Building in Santo Domingo.

I've spent the last week being trained by a delightful young American woman, who is returning to the United States after ten years of living in the Dominican Republic. Below is a photo of the lovely Lisa Daugherty, who has helped me so much. It's been such a pleasure to know her this past month!

So what seemed initially like a slow month has actually turned into a time of real change. I am thrilled to be getting around more in Santo Domingo, and for new possibilities.

Thank you for looking at the photos and reading my blog. I will post again next month!