The "DR" is In...back at it in the Dominican Republic

When I told my Environmental Studies thesis advisor during a meeting a few months ago about the FilterPure NGO in the Dominican Republic that holds trainings on how to make ceramic water filters outside of Santiago in the Domincan Republic she just flat out told me that I should to go there.

My thesis advisor's response went something like,

 "You're a senior! Go for your Spring Break. Take an extra week off. Flights down there are cheap, just do it. The Environmental Program puts money aside for people who do things like this." 

So that's what I did. And now I am here, in the Domincan Republic at the FilterPure ceramic water filtration site in one of their dormitories. Simple as that.

Sort of. 

This is the first travel I have organized completely on my own, unprogrammed, traveling on my lonesome.  I arranged for David Grey, one of the program directors in the DR for FilterPure to pick me up at the airport in Santiago....at 4:15 AM when my flight landed Friday morning. This was the part I got nervous about sitting at my kitchen table in my apartment in Burlington talking with my roommates the night before I left. 

What if David doesn't show up? Will he have an ID so I know it's him? Is this actually a legit FilterPure person? Will I just get murdered? What am I doing? Am I crazy for trying to go to the DR for the first time alone without knowing where I'm even going (Lisa Ballantine, Director of FilterPure assured me that the filter site does not have an address, but it is in Huegericito Moca)?

My roommate's advice? 

Bring Mace. 

Stay at a hotel if I don't feel comfortable. 

I love them because they know the rational stuff I need to hear to calm my nerves. 

But I didn't buy the mace, and sort of just hoped for the best (and got the rates on using my phone for emergencies; remembering of course the oh-so very eventful overage charges I racked up during the Nicaraguan portion of my traveling binge last year). 

.....I interpreted that avoiding all pre-traveling disasters (including previous scenarios of getting pink eye or a scratched cornea or having to get my thumb drained because of paronychia the night before leaving the country) was a sign that all would go well.....

So I left Thursday at 11:00 AM from Burlington and of course, it was one of the only snowy days we have had all year which meant lots of delays. My route to get here involved a MegaBus ride to South Station in Boston, a T ride from South Station to Logan International Airport (where a 6 plus hour delayed flight layover ensued), then a 30 minute plane ride to JFK in New York (where I ran to catch my flight to the DR before all of the security gates closed at 11:30 PM), and a 4 hour flight to Santiago, Dominican Republic. 

There were 3 other Gringos on the plane.  I sat next to two of them and found out 2 things about traveling to the DR:

1. Guys from the US go to the Domincan Republic to hook up with girls. 

2. If you are 30, single and a Jewish Chief Financial Officer for a restaurant in NYC, you're going to have a house in the DR, and you are going to have a lot of Domincan girlfriends. 

The third, drunk Gringo on the plane pulled me aside as we were boarding and gave me some other advice. He told me:

1. I should be very worried about going to this airport as a Lone Female because it is "the worst he has seen and the men are very rowdy and I should be aware and cautious." When I told this guy I've been to the New Delhi airport where cows roam free and there is no sort of organized system or lines for arrivals or departures and I could handle it, he told me he wasn't so sure I could. OK. 

2. This is the craziest flight I will be on and once when he was on this flight from JFK to Santiago, flight attendants had to break up a physical cat fight between two women who had ripped out each other's weaves. 

The third Gringo must've been drunk because although the people on the flight were more animated than any other night flight I've been on, there were no cat fights. And the Santiago airport was beautiful. Very calm at 4:15 AM, and the easiest customs I've ever been through. Got my checked bag no problem and right when I walked out, I recognized David Grey with a sign that read "Erica Goldberg." Totally professional, and I was put at ease immediately. 

David took me to his house in Jarabacoa to rest up before he took me to my dormitory at the FilterPure site. On the drive I learned that he has been doing missionary work here in the Dominican Republic with his church from Ohio for 10 years, and got involved with FilterPure on one of the missions. 

I then found out he has 7 kids. 

I'm in a car with a missionary man with 7 kids.

My inner dialogue:
-Don't Panic.
- "19 Kids and Counting"
-please don't say anything about working for a Population NGO, please don't say anything about working for a population NGO....

All judgments aside, two black, pitbull/lab mixes greeted me at the door of David's house and I immediately fell in love with them, just about as immediately as I was passed out on this stranger's living room couch until the morning. 

Through squinted, blurred eyes (I fell asleep in my contacts), I caught glimpses of some of those 7 children staring at me an hour later when they woke up (to get ready to be home schooled, of course), but that was about it- as I was so exhausted from all the traveling I slept until 10 AM. 

After I woke up and got ready, David drove me back toward Santiago to the FilterPure factory site where I will be staying for the next two weeks. 

Driving through parts of Jarabacoa reminded me of Isla de Omatepe in Nicaragua with all of the pink, yellow and orange painted houses with white trim and advertisements and names of shops painted on. I missed seeing banana trees and stray dogs all over and street vendors, too. Oh and the weather is too perfect. Sun shine with a breeze by day- always bearably hot and comfortable in the shade, and it cools down to a comfortable 65-70 degrees at night: Paradise. 

I met Ryhames and his entire family right when I got there, as their home is next to the FilterPure studio. Ryhames and his wife, Maria, have three daughters: Melissa, Rhya and Maria ages 16, 17 and 20. Rayahames' sister, Elena is the one who makes all of my meals as she already does this for father, whose house is right next to Ryhame's. Emmanuel is Elena's son that is always around and hanging out with us. After being checked into the 'dormitory' which is right next to Ryhame's family's home, and after having a day's worth of really delicious meals cooked by Elena, I felt like I was back at a Ghana home stay. 

Ryhames is incredible. He is the master potter of Moca and has a famous sculpture in Santiago of one of the traditional dolls that are made without painted faces to symbolize all of the mixed races of Dominican people. His true dream is to preserve traditional pottery all around the world and in the Dominican Republic and has dreams of uniting all traditional potters to preserve their craft. He believes that traditional potters are the most happy and content when they are practicing their craft and supporting them will bring peace around the world. After exchanging pictures of traditional water pots in the Domincan Republic and in Ghana, we both agreed that you couldn't tell the difference between the two, they look so similar. Could be attributed to the crossing of cultures through the slave trade. 

I toured the factory, which has only 10 workers and is entirely outside with open rooms made of concrete and cement. I got to see all of the fine particles of red, yellow and black clays that are mixed with 4 parts clay to 3 parts finely ground saw dust particles which burn away when they are fired to make the clay porous. I learned about how the FilterPure model differs from the Potters for Peace model because FilterPure bakes the colloidal silver inbetween two clay membranes, and Potters for Peace paints their colloidal silver on, which apparently fades after a year and has to be reapplied- whereas the FilterPure allegedly has a lifespan of 5 plus years. The thing about this colloidal silver though, is that it is the one ingredient to these filters that has to be imported from an outside source from one of the 3 colloidal silver hubs in New York, China or Spain. 

I forgot about how the pace of work goes outside of the US and was reminded of all the 'down time' I had doing research in Ghana. Everyone works extremely hard here, it is just different- punctuality and promptness just aren't as necessary to accomplishing what you have to and I already know that I will be mostly doing informal interviews, as the formality of set questions to ask just seems strange and out of place. So when Ryhames told me to come and see what he was working on after I was finished with my breakfast, I leisurely walked over- only to find out that him and all the other workers had finished for the day and would be off for the weekend. And I thought I had this whole concept of time thing figured out???

Today, David and his family (yes, all 9 of them), invited me to come with them to hike a waterfall, so I squeezed into their van with all of them since no one works on Saturday. The waterfall was beautiful, with lots of potholes that we all were climbing and exploring and I felt really brave conquering great heights of the closest thing to rock climbing I will accomplish in my life. And by the way, after spending a day with 7 kids all under the age of 14----I will never complain about babysitting for two again. 

I came back from the day of hiking and waterfall adventuring just in time for the much anticipated dance party of the evening. After buying much needed supplies (Coca Cola and cookies) we came back to the house to where I found out that the dance party would be held in my room!

We played the radio and Maria, Melissa, Rhya and Emmanuel taught me how to dance like a Dominican with Bachata and Mirengue and I am happy for all of the Colombian exposure I have had to prepare me for this moment! Katie, you really expanded my Latin American music repertoire. And PS, everyone here wants to go to Colombia SO BADLY to dance dance dance and listen to Don Omar and all they do is ask me everything about Colombia. Also, not having you as a safety net for help on Spanish words I don't know has enabled me to only speak Spanish all day and it is awesome! And I am so surprised at how much I was hesitant that I didn't know that I actually do! I may speak like a toddler, but I am able to express most of what I need to!

All for now. Graduate student/Environmental & Civil Engineer, Marc from Virginia comes to stay at the dorm tomorrow to do research---and I find myself not wondering so much if he will be cute, but instead that he better like dancing bachata and mirengue with all of us because we have got a pretty good thing going!!!

And I'm wondering if he's cute.