Cabarete. Home, Sweet... Home?

I did not have to work the 3rd week of August. Some DREAM volunteers had told me about their visits to a coffee farm near Jarabacoa, a town in the Dominican mountains. I got in touch with the two volunteers who work there and planned to visit during the week. Not yet having traveled in the country, I was excited (and maybe a bit nervous) to travel on my own – thats got to be the best way to learn, eh? My strategy was to get started early so that I would arrive at the farm before dark. So on Tuesday morning I caught a gua-gua to the Caribe Tours bus station in Sosua. Caribe Tours is a bus system that travels to many large cities/towns in the DR. It is very inexpensive for a comfortable (air-conditioned!) ride in a charter-size bus. From Sosua I caught a bus that stopped in Puerto Plata, Santiago and La Vega before I transferred onto another bus that took me to Jarabacoa. It was all smooth sailing until then. Once in Jarabacoa, my directions were to catch a gua-gua up the mountain toward Manabao and get off in El Manguito, from where I would hike up to the office. I thought it would be easy enough.. just ask the locals where to catch a gua-gua. However, this proved harder than I thought. I was expecting the gua-guas to be the same as in Cabarete – old vans. But as I learned after walking myself in circles for about 30 minutes, the gua-guas in Jarabacoa are just trucks. Not only that, but you can only catch them at one spot in town, you don’t just flag them down from the side of the road. In addition (although this may not seem to be a problem at first), I was wearing my t-shirt, running shorts, and flip-flops. While this outfit is completely acceptable in Cabarete – a beach and tourist town – it is definitely NOT in Jarabacoa (as I found out later from Ria, the volunteer at the farm). So there I was, the American in my athletic attire, sticking out like a sore thumb, asking everyone I thought looked nice and willing to help where the gua-gua station is (in my not-so-great Spanish), then wandering around like a lost puppy trying to find it – and yes, I did try to flag down a few vans that I thought were gua-guas. Well I finally gave in and called Ria who explained the gua-guas were trucks and I would just have to throw my stuff in the back of one and wait for the driver to show up and decide it was time to head up the mountain – and it wasn’t until then that I made it up the mountain to El Manguito (which is, by the way, only a 50yd stretch with a colmado – a small roadside stand - on the side of the road and a bamboo school on the other). I started my hike up the mountain just as a truck returning home from work kindly gave me a lift. I left my apartment at 9:30am and arrived at the office of La Finca Altagracia (the coffee farm) in Los Marranitos at 5:30pm, in time for dinner.

La Finca Altagracia is owned by Bill and Julia Alvarez. Julia Alvarez, author and part-time professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, used to be on the Board of Directors for DREAM. While the farm does produce and export coffee, its main purpose is to serve as a research/experimental farm. The farmers test the growth and product of beans that are grown under different trees that provide specific amounts of shade, and growth on different elevations, etc. This research is then evaluated and distributed to other farmers and farming initiatives in the DR through an organization called EDF. Every year, two graduating students from Middlebury are selected to live and serve in Los Marranitos (the community where the farm is located). Eli (one of the volunteers for this year) was not there this week - but he works with the farm and the community on projects that build and strengthen a relationship between the two. The volunteer in his position last year helped two men in the community start a chicken farm that is still operating very successfully. Ria, the second volunteer, is responsible for providing educational and recreational activities for the members of the community. She holds classes with the children, provides some individual instruction, and plans fun activities for them as well. She also plans things for the women, young adults, etc, including English classes for those who are interested.

Los Marranitos is located on the side of a mountain. It is a very poor community that is a far walk away from schools, job opportunities, and recreational activities. Most people in the community do not leave very often, and to get to school (which not all of the children attend) the students must hike up and down very steep hills. Some men work on the farm, some in colmados on the road to Jarabacoa, and others on farms that neighbor La Finca Altagracia. Eli and Ria live in the community in a small house near the top of the mountain. They do not have hot water or a toilet – there is an outhouse out back. But they DO have running water. Ten years ago some Peace Corps volunteers built a water tank and filter at the top of the mountain and trained members of the community to maintain the tank. For 10 years this community has been able to drink clean, safe water from the tap and no one has gotten a water-borne disease. This is basically unheard of in the DR, especially in this area. Pretty amazing.

I spent three nights with Ria in Los Marranitos. The first morning I got a tour of the community, the farm, and the surrounding area. I met some of the families and many of the children. We walked to Los Dejaos, a neighboring community to visit some friends of Ria’s, Don Jose and Dona Nate. They have been married for a long time and both worked in Santo Domingo (the capital of the DR) for years. They retired to this community and help out in whatever ways they can. Don Jose reminded me a lot of Grandbob – I think they would actually make quite good friends. That afternoon we hiked back up the mountain and walked through the village collecting children for a group activity in the library. We made masks and the kids had a lot of fun decorating them. The second morning Ria and I went down to El Manguito to the Bamboo school. This school is a mission funded and run by a group from Taiwan. They taught some men how to make bamboo furniture and they now have a business making and selling their products. They also teach anyone who is interested how to make bamboo furniture. We spent nearly 4 hours that morning learning 3 main techniques. You would be surprised how difficult it is to work with bamboo – a lot harder than it looks. We made it back to the office for lunch just before it started to rain. When it rains in this country, nobody does anything. Kids don’t go to school and people generally don’t venture outside. So we just relaxed and talked for the afternoon until 5 when the rain slowed down a little. Ria was teaching an English class at 5 and only 3 students showed up. So she taught the class in the little library next to the office - the library is the size of a small bedroom or big bathroom by most standards in the US. I mostly watched and helped a little when Ria needed it. At one point during the lesson, I looked around and realized what a funny scene our English class was: The 5 of us are sitting in a small wooden hut library on top of a mountain in the rain in the Dominican Republic. There is an Indian (Ria), an American (me), and three students: a Spaniard (an artist who lives just above Los Marranitos – she moved from Spain to study the ceramic art of the Tainos) and 2 Haitians (one man who works on the farm and a young boy from the community) – no Dominicans.

Life in Los Marranitos is very different from Cabarete in many ways. Life is much slower there. Ria spends time on activities with the community, but she also spends a lot of time visiting with the families, having coffee with them (whenever you enter a home, you are immediately offered a seat and brought a cup of coffee), and getting to know them. She teaches classes sometimes but also spends one-on-one time with kids since she has found that to be more effective. She does not work 8-5 as I do in Cabarete and may not hold class every day, but you could argue then that she is working 24/7 since she lives in the community.

If you ever find yourself headed for the mountains of the Dominican Republic be sure to bring long pants and a light long sleeved shirt. I am sure there are also mosquitos, but what you should be concerned about are the “Magi” bugs. They itch much, MUCH worse than mosquito bites and bleed some too. I have yet to lay eyes on one of the little devils, but they are everywhere. Thankfully Ria had an extra pair of pants for me to wear, but my legs had already been exposed before I could get into them. No need for bug spray, you could shower in it and you still wouldn’t be able to keep them at bay.

Those couple of days in the mountains were wonderful (I love the mountains – definitely one of God’s most beautiful creations in my opinion – and Oh, you should see the Dominican mountains). It made me think of camping trips back home - sleeping in Ria and Eli’s house with a tin roof felt and sounded similar to sleeping in a tent. And each morning around the time the sun rose we were awakened by a chorus of roosters’ cock-a-doodle-doos – the closest one was right across the street about 15 feet from our beds. It serves as a very reliable wake up call.. just one you can’t set yourself.

I spent most of the day on Friday traveling back to Cabarete, sleeping a lot on the bus. Its funny how traveling can make you so tired even if all you are doing is sitting and sleeping. Despite the fact that I really enjoyed my time in Jarabacoa and can’t wait to visit again, when I got back to Cabarete I felt something like relief – like I was returning home after a trip. Not quite like when I am home in Charlotte or Chapel Hill, but it still felt like I was back; back to where I should be. It was an unexpected feeling – one I was very comforted by.

I was also able to go to Santiago for the day on Saturday with some DREAM friends. We got there mid morning and walked around town. I experienced La Sirena for the first time, which quite possibly may have been the highlight of my day. La Sirena (which literally means “The Mermaid” in Spanish) is a large store with a grand selection of items. It is like a Wal-mart, but Dominican style. After being in the DR for a while, visiting La Sirena is a treat (even though we hardly bought anything – just being there is enough). Santiago is very different from Cabarete and Jarabacoa. It is very much a city, and I was surprised by much of it. Santiago has a very large public library (which is top of my list to visit next time I go there) and several branches of Universities. (In the DR universities have branches in different cities.) However, our main purpose in visiting Santiago was to see the Harry Potter movie. The theatre is in a mall and we ate lunch at the food court before the movie. I must admit, it was a day of luxury: Wal-mart, food court, and movie at a theatre.

Whether I am in Cabarete, Santiago, or Jarabacoa – people are often wearing donated clothing with logos and sayings written in English. Some are actually quite funny and usually whoever is wearing the shirt has no idea what it says. In the past week and a half I have run into a Dominican wearing a Tyler Hansbrough jersey (yeah Heels!) and another Dominican wearing a Green Bay Packers t-shirt (lets go Pack!). I felt compelled to share, knowing Dad would appreciate it. =)

And now, I think I should be heading to bed…

Buena Noche!

Lindsey