Liz vs. Wild...

Liz wins! (admit it, you're surprised...)

Continuing to take advantage of my month of no Mondays....this past weekend was packed with Liz vs. the Wild -type activities (and now I have Monday to recoup!)  I did two day trips with friends this weekend and they couldn't have been more different...

Saturday: Diving trip to Bayahibe with some friends/colleagues from the Embassy
This was a 2 dive excursion that friends organized, with an early (7am eek!) start from the capital.  Leaving SDQ at 7am on a Saturday might mean a tame Friday night, but it also means a peaceful and dominican driver-less trip along the coast.  We got to Bayahibe by 9am and were on the catamaran, ready to dive by 10:30. 

The first dive was a relatively shallow reef dive, relatively ho hum...except that we saw quite a few creatures - moray eels, sting rays, lobster, lion fish, stone fish, etc.  It was pleasant and easy...and a 100x better than the last dive we did in Punta Cana in December! (a horror of a dive with a current that exhausted and a guide that lost us)  The second dive of the day, though....wow!  We went to a shallow shipwreck just off the coast from the resorts. In its "glory days" (this was no Titanic), the boat had been a ferry that took tourists to Catalina Island for the day. At 35m long, it was too big for its shallow mooring and was washed against the reef during a storm and subsequently sank, about a year and a half ago.  Looking at the ship underwater, though, you would have thought it had been there for far longer.  Salt water and currents are not so kind to metal...

The wreck was not safe to go into, but we were able to do a few laps around it to satisfy curiosity.  Parts of the railings and side laid in contorted pieces along the bottom of the sea and you could watch the schools of fish dart in and out of the glass-less windows of the ship. The color of water and the ship, with the errant beams of sunlight that streamed down was breath-taking. Inside the front section, we could see the remains of a hammock, still suspended from the ceiling of the ship...making for an eery image of what had once been... 

The shipwreck made me get excited about diving all over again. Now I want to continue on to the advanced certification, so that I can do more wreck dives as well as night dives, which I hear are amazing!

Sunday:  Saltos de Aguas Blancas (waterfall) and a nice mountain hike
Getting up early for a second day in a row on the weekend was totally worth it with the day that my friend Robert and I had in the mountains of this country.  We grabbed our coffee to-go mugs and headed out of SDQ before 9am on Sunday, with the Constanza valley and the Valle Nuevo national park on our To Do list.  We stopped at Miguelina's bakery in Bonao, then started the winding ascent to Constanza.  It's only a 50km drive, but takes at least an hour to do with the switchbacks and the narrow 2 lane highway.  It's a beautiful drive, though, and we had a full view of the Bonao valley after only 15min of driving.

Constanza is considered the breadbasket of the DR and its residents remind you of that fact with all the fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers they sell on the side of the highway.  Now we're in strawberry season. yum!  We stopped a few times during the day to get strawberries during our trip.  After we got to Constanza, we took the route headed south toward San Jose de Ocoa, which passes through the Valle Nuevo park and passed the Aguas Blancas falls.  The road was touted as being so horrible you needed a tough 4WD vehicle to get by.  Well, I guess Rob's Xterra was tough enough, cause we did just fine.  (we were hoping for a little more mud to give the 4WD an actual workout...) About 45 min into our semi-off-road trip, we reached the waterfalls. 

The waterfalls had a nice little viewing platform at the bottom of the falls, and then there was a rather rough, straight-up-the-hillside hike you could do to get to the top.  Most of the Dominicans we saw stayed on the platform.  Rob and I headed straight for the top.  It was not exactly an easy climb to get up to the top of the 135m waterfall, but it was totally worth it!  The view of the Constanza valley below and the rest of the mountain range in the distance was remarkeable...and totally made us forget that we were actually in the middle of the Caribbean (definitely reminded us both of Colorado).  After resting for a bit and eating our lunch, we decided that the view from the actual top of the mountain must be even better...so we should climb up to it to see. The total lack of any path was a minor detail and we set off to blaze our own. Aside from some scrapes (I look like I lost a fight against a cat), we made it to the top unscathed and in only 20min.  The view was amazing!   I don't know how high we actually were, but the mountains in that area reach up to 2600+ meters above sea level.  Not too shabby for a Sunday afternoon. 

Just after remarking on how there was an awesome absence of insects during our adventure, we ran into a tarantula on our descent.  That's right, a tarantula...reality check, we are in the tropics. To be fair, I probably startled him more than he us...especially since I nearly stepped on him.  We were a bit more vigilant for the rest of the descent, however.  I couldn't leave the waterfall without going for a dip...so I took a plunge into one of the pools above the falls on our way out. The water was FREEZING! but oh so refreshing!  And we were the only ones there.  What a fabulous day!  By 3pm we had to get going so that we would avoid the most treacherous of the roads at night.  The return trip was pleasantly uneventful, and we were back in our homes, happy and exhausted by 7pm. 

Next week Liz vs. Wild continues as I take my friends Jesse and Oana (along with friends from SDQ) for a weekend visit to Las Galeras (Samana peninsula).  On the To Do list - cliff jumping, whale watching, yoga, beaches and maybe a lobster dinner....stay tuned
Man vs. Wild, DR

What a difference a bacteria makes...

It's been about 4 months since the first cholera cases started to appear in the Dominican Republic. So much has changed as a result...

When the outbreak of cholera began in Haiti, Dominican health authorities (and my office as well as the CDC) knew that it was just a matter of time before the bacteria found its way over to our side of the island.  The plan was "prepare, prepare, prepare" - for prevention, as well as for diagnosis and treatment to prevent a full-fledged outbreak.  I think is safe to say, mission accomplished.  Whereas in Haiti the cholera outbreak has affected hundreds of thousands and killed over 3,000, there have been only 100s of cases in the DR and no fatalities.  The Dominican government (with the help of international groups) did a great job of educating Dominicans and of expressing the importance of hygiene, prevention and seeking medical attention at the first sign of symptoms. 

Now, 4 months later, authorities have figured out the origin of the bacteria in the DR - the rivers that run along the border between the countries, which are now forbidden for swimming, fishing, washing, etc.  (The same rivers/area where I swam when I visited the border in September!).  The presence of cholera in the country, as far as I understand the situation, is now being "down graded" to an endemic issue instead of a potential outbreak...meaning that we will continue to see cases appear here and there in the hospitals, but we should be out of the danger of seeing what happened in Haiti (unless an outbreak starts).

So, it would appear that the DR got away largely unscathed, right? much ado about nothing in the end....except that the emergence of cholera in the DR has opened wide other wounds that had seemed to be on the mend.  I'm talking about the Haitians. There is a long, complicated history with respect to the Dominican-Haitian relationship...too long to really go into here. Let's just say there is no trust and no love lost between the two.  After the earthquake, though, things had started to change. The DR did an incredible job with their response to the quake, and they've pretty much had an open door policy with respect to Haitians.  Now, though, as we pass the first anniversary and with the presence of cholera, the discrimination against Haitians is back in full effect. Haitians are being  blamed for the crime in communities, and for bringing cholera to this side of the island.  Community groups in the Santiago area have recently mobilized to kick out the Haitians in their neighborhoods (some recent arrivals, others long time residents).  In the middle of the cholera scare, Haitians were purportedly banned from getting on public buses in some parts of the country!  Now the government is rounding up hundreds of illegal Haitians and deporting them back to Haiti. 

I'm not suggesting that the DR continue to have an open door immigration policy, or that all Haitians are innocent of wrong doing in this country...but it is a shame to see how quickly the country can regress out of fear.  I think we're seeing that in many places these days....

Back from Hiatus...

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies here...especially when we are supposed to be on island time! It's been well over a month since the last time I wrote, and my only excuse is that I was traveling for part of that time. As for the rest, well...I guess saying I'll do it "mañana"  means that 6 weeks can fly by before anything is accomplished. (and judging by what I've seen from work in this country, that is definitely the truth)

Anyway, I am back and vowing to be better with the writing. I won't call it my new year's resolution, though, because that will pretty much ensure that I never do it again. I guess to re-start the blog, I should do a bit of a recap.  What has been going on for the past 6 weeks?...

(in no particular order)
1. successful office retreat  results in yours truly designated as the lead on donor coordination, knowledge management, as well as named as the gender expert (all exciting responsibilities! but I still cringe at the idea of being considered "expert" of anything!)

2. Two week  vacation through Argentina with 2 friends from SIPA. The first time I've been back in nearly 5 years. Highlights include: driving 3000km in a week (with me being the only one who could drive manual), horseback riding in the foothills of the Andes, wine tasting bike tours (w/o any crashes!), beach time/Christmas with the Marti family and all of my little nieces and nephews, 48hr whirlwind tour of Chaco, new years eve in Buenos Aires (dancing til 7am and narrowly escaping injury from firecrackers)

3. January - the month of no Mondays!  Work respects Dominican holidays and American holidays...that means 3 Mondays as feriado (work holiday) and 1 Friday as well.  Not too shabby

4. Embassy bowling league starts.  My team just might be the team to beat and I never would have thought just how much fun an adult bowling league could be.  yikes

Where did October go?

I've been in the DR for 5 months now, and it seems like far longer. I guess that's what happens when you lose entire months, I like just did. Honestly, I have no idea where October went; I must have blinked and missed it.

It's been well over a month since the last time I wrote. A lot has happened - too much to write about in one post. Let's see...there was my first return trip to the States (work) and then the 2nd one in quick succession (again, work), the Marine Ball (fun!), and the cholera outbreak (not so fun), and Thanksgiving with a real Butterball turkey (and the best stuffing EVER)...yep, I've been busy.

I also just had another typical Dominican experience today. My friend Nicki took me to get my first blowout at a beauty salon. It's really just a wash and dry, but here curly hair is considered "pelo malo" and straight hair is "pelo bueno", so the hair salon is weekly maintenance for 99% of the women here.  It felt great to have someone wash my hair and massage my scalp, it felt slightly less great to have my scalp seared by a very hot hairdryer as my hair was nearly pulled out of my head with a round brush.  I have to admit though, that it looked amazing afterward and I would totally do it again.  I still love my curls, though, and the thought of returning to the salon 3x week so that I can have straight hair is simply ridiculous to me. Maybe just every now and again...

Hangin' at the Carwash, yeah

Recap of a very Dominican week:
1. Esperanza - el musical (based on the lyrics of Juan Luis Guerra) Some friends and I went to see the opening night of this musical at the national theater. Going to the theater here is a big deal. People get dressed up to the nines and all the photogs come out to shoot for the society pages (yep, I've made it in at least once...) Last time we went to see a Dominican musical, well, we laughed the whole time...This time around, MUCH BETTER! The plot was pretty terrible, but SO Dominican - the obsession with getting a visa to the States, the central (daily) role of the Gomero (the tire guy), and the constant beat of bachata and merengue...  It's hard to say that it was a good musical, but it was great singing and great entertainment - good enough for me!

2. My new empleada - Maria. I finally managed to get myself an empleada to come clean once a week. She came for the first time yesterday, and boy did she have her work cut out for her.  She arrived at 7am, before I left for work, and she was still working away (with the help of her sister) when I came back at1:30. I think Maria and her sister cleaned every single surface of this apartment. They stayed until nearly 4pm!  As ecstatic as I am to have my place be spotless, this is going to take some getting used to.  They put away everything that was still in boxes from my move - great!, but now I don't know where anything is. And they washed, folded and put away the laundry...into whatever drawers they could find room (again, no clue now where things are...). I also got a lesson on which type of mop to buy so that I get the best shine (apparently I get a C in mop purchasing). I don't really need to see myself in my floor, but now I can.  thanks Maria

3. The Carwash Discoteque.  Last night I went out with a bunch of friends for dinner, drinks and dancing. Best place to go dancing in Santo Domingo (so far) - the carwash.  That's right. The carwash.  Carwashes here turn into dance halls at night on the weekends. Logical, right? - big open spaces, lots of dance floor, not stuffy....some even more enterprising carwashes still wash cars when the dance party has started (and they employ buxom, scantily clad women to do the washing). Alas, the carwash we went to last night was dancing only...

There's my Dominican week for you.  Next DR experience I'll have to try will be the Dominican blow-out.  For now, I'll let you ponder what that might possibly be. :)

Border Trip

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a work trip out to the border region. The purpose was simply to learn more about the geography of the region and the many challenges it faces economically and politically. It was a grueling 3 days of meetings, new information, tours, welcome meals, and bone-jarring drives down back country "roads". I can't wait to go back!

Our team was inter-agency, so we all brought different perspectives, priorities and understandings of what we saw and heard during the trip.  Hopefully we will be able to build on this successful excursion and continue to work together and learn from each other.

In the border town of Jimani, I learned about immigration issues and the effort to stop the crossing of contraband into the country (drugs, weapons, etc. etc). The customs house is a small building in a constant din of nearly chaos. Outside, merchants sell whatever, travelers wait for their documents to be checked, and military from all different agencies mill around with shot guns. The actual border looks something like a big iron gate that stretches across the causeway (which is being washed out from flooding, but that's another story). On international market days, Haitians line up with their faces and bodies pressed against the gate, like cattle waiting to be let into the food lot.  Market days mean an extra 3-4,000 people milling around the customs house area, trying to make a buck however they can.

the children of batey #41

bags of carbón wait to be taken across the lake to mainland Haiti for sale

While in Jimani, a colleague and I went to the site of the field hospital they used in the aftermath of the earthquake. It was impressive to see as it was empty, even more impressive to imagine the hundreds of doctors, thousands of patients, helicopters taking off, etc.  The new caretaker of the facility, a man from Tennessee, told us that he also worked with a few of the charcoal (carbon) bateys located along the border. He was kind enough to escort us over to one of them, located in a narrow strip of Haitian territory that was surrounded by the DR and the shores of Lake Saumatre. There we met with Pastor Jean, a Haitian pastor who would travel weekly to this lonely strip of land by boat, from his side of the lake in Fond Parisien. Life in these bateys was stark - little vegetation, no sewage, houses made of sticks and mud, and little children running around buck naked and barefoot with the pigs and goats.  The main source of income for these people is the charcoal trade. This means they venture up into the mountainsides of the DR to cut down trees and make charcoal. They sell this charcoal across the lake in Haiti as a household fuel source.  The mountains all along the border are littered with smoking fires from this practice.

Moving on from Jimani, in the nearby town of La Descubierta, we met with an older American couple who run a medical clinic for the region (they also do the same in Kenya and divide their time between the two countries).  Their clinic is small, but they are always taking on volunteer medical teams to come and help out.  The main medical issues they deal with are hypertension, diabetes, and cervical cancer (there is a very high rate of HPV in the DR). There is a lack of education on how to manage diabetes, so as with many other parts of the world, the incidence of the disease is increasing and people don't know what to do with themselves to stay healthy with it.  Also, post earthquake, the couple has seen an influx of Haitians moving in on the outskirts of the town. As this new population begins to use the medical services, the doctors are finding out that the children are not vaccinated for most things, including polio.  They need to do a vaccination campaign before it turns into a health problem, or these people move on to another place.

the border region of DR and Haiti. smoke on the mountains are charcoal fires

On our way to another province, our little group stopped at Lake Enriquillo to check out the iguanas. They have two types that live in the park area, and the animals are so accustomed to people feeding them that they run around without fear, totally ignoring us (except when they ran at us looking for food). (They also have crocodiles in the lake, which, luckily for us, are not so eager to be around people.) The lake is an interesting place environmentally. It's a salt lake, though its salinity has dropped from 90% to 60% in the last 3 years. The lakes on both sides of the border have been rising steadily over the past 3 years, causing serious flooding issues for the region. Though the cause is not known for sure, the experts seem to think it's due to seismic or geological activity that is increasing the amount of water that enters and stays in the lake from underground sources (which would explain the decrease in salinity).

One of the more interesting parts of our trip for me was when we went to the border area called Macasia to see a development project being developed by the military. The general in charge of the project, an agronomist, is designed a self-sustaining, eco-friendly rural agricultural settlement for military families along the border. His inspiration is somewhat kibbutz, somewhat Israeli settlement, but his goal is to develop more of a permanent physical presence of Dominicans along the border - but to do it in a way that is environmentally and economically sustainable. Only the pilot settlement is anywhere near completion, but the plan is to have 18 such settlements along the border with Haiti.  The community has a greenhouse and a nursery for fruit-bearing trees (a source of food and income plus a way to reforest the border area), a rabbit farm and a tilapia farm.  There is a free medical clinic on site, available for use by the Haitians who live across the border (which in this area is just a river). And the general has recently acquired 2 school buses to help the kids in the area get to school. Right now the closest school only goes to 4th grade, and the children typically have to walk 10-20 km to get to class. The general's community includes plans to build a new school that is closer for the children and will go up to 8th grade.

I could go on and on about this project and about the other meetings we had and things we saw, but this has already been a long post.  As you can imagine, there is a lot going on here..and I'm only talking about one little section of the country. 

Seabather's Eruption

Sounds pretty nasty, right?  Well, it is - I've managed to find out first hand.

This is the part of the Cabarete story that I didn't tell before...now it warrants its own post.  Our last night in Cabarete, I thought it would be fun to go for a night swim. I was right, it was lots of fun...except for the bites/stings that we kept feeling every now and again.  Whatever was biting/stinging us, it was only millimeters big, and in the black of the water, we definitely couldn't see anything.  I thought the were bug bites, and though annoying for sure, waved them off as a nuisance, no more. 

The next day, though, as we drove back from Cabarete, I noticed that a rash was starting to form on my shoulders and a little on my forehead.  It didn't itch at first, and I wondered what had managed to irritate my sensitive skin.  By Monday evening, the rash was worse - red and slowly creeping down my back. Luckily, one of my guests is a nurse, and she suggested benadryl and some topical hydro-cortisone cream.  I promptedly headed to the nearest pharmacy to stock up.  Fast forward through a week of regularly smothering myself in hydro-cortisone and calamine lotion, it is now 7 days later and the rash is far worse.  My back now looks like I slept in a patch of poison ivy (and it feels like it too),  my face is swollen and red, and I have pinkeye (apparently, also a symptom of this allergic reaction).  The itch and the pain and the swelling have put me to bed today, feeling rather ill, and seriously considering a trip to the emergency clinic for a dose of whatever they can give me to make it go away.   what luck I have, right?

So, now that you have a rather ugly, vivid picture of a "seabather's eruption", you are probably wondering what it actually is that I managed to get messed up with.  Well, let me tell you.   Seabather's eruption is a highly pruritic (itchy) reaction to the stings of baby thimble jellyfish.  Apparently, I have a hypersensitive reaction to thimble jellyfish toxins.  The babies have nematocysts that fire (sting) at the slightest provocation - like a change in osmotic pressure (like letting the sea water dry on your skin, or rinsing off with freshwater), and even after the little bastard babies are dead, if their nematocysts are still on your skin, you can cause them to sting you posthumously - like by rubbing yourself dry with a towel.  I was probably stung by an entire swarm of the little buggers, repeatedly, and I never even registered it at the time.  So now, apparently I have to let this run it's course for at least 10-12 days...and pray to Neptune that this never happens again. 

SO, there you have it. To make a long story short - Liz got attacked by baby jellyfish last weekend and now she looks and feels like  _______.  I'll just have to add "seabather's eruption" to the growing list of random things that have happened to me over the years.  You'll have to admit, you are not the least bit surprised by this story, are you?