Today I woke up before the roosters. I decided to open my windows and let in the fresh air.
There is a ton of stuff to do here in La Terrenas but my inclination is to do none of them.
This morning I am brewing a cup of coffee and I just downloaded a new e-book called “how to raise a modern day night”. It was recommended to me by Jim our sailing buddy who out of the blue asked me if I had read a good book on parenting.
Just a bit into the book I am excited, and I believe the premise is right… That many boys (including myself) go through life without a good definition of what it means to be a man or an indication of when this takes place.
In our culture we have gotten rid of such rituals mostly. For most boys they think the only path to manhood is in the presence of a woman. This is a sad reality.
So here I sit in the Dominican Republic, in Las Terrrenas. It is an odd thought.
Last night I took a swim in the rain and it started to thunder and lightning in the distance. We have had thunder and lightning every night since I have been here. We had some beautiful nights on the rooftop terrace of our hostel in Haiti.
Oddly I have found this little coastal town of Las Terrenas to be ran much more by the almighty dollar. But this is probably because the level of tourism here and the fact that there is a lot of money floating around.
Driving up the coast I saw some of the most beautiful tropical scenery and some great surfing waves. They are far off from where I am right now and as much as I would like to attempt to find them, the amount of effort, money and risk involved probably just doesn’t make it worth it given my limited time.
I will resolve to find solace in this beautiful pool. I was able to swim probably 100 laps last night, in the dark by myself mostly, except for the mere presence of 2 constantly vigilant armed guards who patrolled both the front entrance and the walkway with sawed off shot guns.
This is probably the one difference of traveling in third world and second world countries, if you are OK with this then have no fear.
The bus ride from Santa Domingo was easy once I found my way. People here only speak Spanish and very little English so I can’t tell you how handy it has been to speak just enough Spanish. I don’t think I would have been able to find my way either yesterday or on my border crossing day when I almost got sent back to Haiti.
People have been helpful mostly, they have redirected me several times, saved me from myself by jumping off the bus too early, and then helping me when I got into town.
It was only last night that I met my first “overly friendly” local and got taken for all my small cash in an effort to purchase formula and medicines for his son. I think it was a scam, but I really don’t care, I still had an adventure and rode my first moto! But I did learn a valuable lesson and that is regardless, it may be worthwhile to keep your guard at least partially up.
Prostitution (among many other things) is legal here and there is a girl (or two or three) on every corner whistling at you or propositioning you, there are also many men, who for a bit of money will help you get “anything you want”. Here in Las Terranas French and Italian are as useful as Spanish and I think this crew speaks all three. I was kind of oblivious to this at first and just thought all the local girls found me incredibly attractive. If my wife is reading this she need not worry, first of all I would never even consider doing something like that and for various reasons my libido right now is about that of a 35 year old pre-menopausal woman. Although I won’t lie I have been tempted to take a Cuban cigar back to my room from one of the humidors with some local rum!
From Haiti to this has been a whirlwind. It felt so amazingly good to help so many people, and I know without a doubt that I will be back with Brad next year.
Creating a Haiti budget is what I am working on now, and I have been working the last two days on devising a plan to divert/create an internet revenue stream solely for this purpose.
Most of this will come through specific article writing, and other ideas I have that revolve around the PA profession and international work as a PA.
This is a topic that has little available info. Even things like medicine formularies specific to a region. I will be starting to build this today by posting articles on the PA web site, and then expanding possibly into a site specific to our medical mission in Haiti. Brad and I have been talking about getting non-profit status, which may be possible through his church. This will help as far as a tax write-off, but I am wondering if it may be best to start a social business.
My coffee just finished brewing and I have a lot more writing I want to do this morning. I was going to take a run down to Playa Bonita this morning down the back roads, but I am still not sure if that is a good idea. So I think I will explore a bit this afternoon by foot, grab a moto back and then possibly take a run in the morning.
I miss my wife and children and wish they were here. Today is the first cool day I have had and I have the windows open with palms poking through.
I still wish though I had hot water in the shower. But at least we have power, unlike Haiti and much less mosquitoes cockroaches and big scary spiders!