Para Ser Feliz

We’re in Los Pajones, DR, about 45 minutes outside of Santiago.  It is so beautiful here!  There are mountains, rivers, trees--everything is green as far as you can see!  The weather changes really quickly here!  One minute it’s raining, the next it’s sunny and super hot.  Because of the way the weather is, there are lots of mosquitoes here, which is not cool, but there’s also lots of delicious fruit that we’ve never tasted before, which is awesome!

Wow!  What a trip this has been!  It’s taken awhile to post because we weren’t able to connect to the internet through our computer.  It was tough not being able to communicate with you guys, but you know what?  It’s great to have a break from technology!  I can hardly believe it, but I haven’t watched TV in 10 days!  And I don’t even miss it!  And believe me, that’s really strange for me to say because, I’ll admit it, I watch a lot of TV.  Some houses have TVs around here, but no one watches much for two reasons: one, the electricity doesn’t always work, and two, people here really like talking to each other, so they don’t have much time for TV.  Crazy, right?  Even the kids!  They are always playing, talking, walking, and then playing some more!

We’ve had some great experiences so far.  I walked to a place called the Coffee Mansion!  They grow coffee beans there and teach people about the history of coffee in the Dominican Republic.  Sounds funny, right?  A whole place dedicated to coffee?  But the people here drink coffee like people in the US drink soda or water--all the time!  You have coffee after you eat and when you go to visit friends.  And when I say coffee I don’t mean a Starbucks Frappucino!  I mean straight espresso, with sugar if you like it that way. :-)  If you love coffee like I do, it’s pretty great!  Anyways, I walked to the Coffee Mansion, but once I got there I realized it was closed.  So I snuck in!  I know, that’s bad!  Before you know it, some man is chasing me with a shotgun!  But I explained to him that I just wanted to look around and we became friends.  He ended up showing me around the whole place.  I’ve noticed here that no matter what people are doing they will always take time out of their day to talk to you and make you feel at home, just like this man did.  It was really fun!

This is what a good coffee bean looks like.  Bueno!

This is what a bad coffee bean looks like.  Malo!

The man from the Coffee Mansion, his wife, and his gun.  He was a great tour guide!

Finally, at the end of our tour, he put his gun down on a bed of coffee beans.  :-)  I guess I deserved it for sneaking in!

We’ve met a lot of cool kids at the local schools--Benito Martinez and Liceo Pedro Garcia.  The kids are sooooo sweet and funny and very happy!  I can’t wait for all of you to see the video we make of this trip so you can learn more about them.  You might be surprised to see how similar they are to teenagers in the US!  To have fun they play baseball, play basketball, play music, and dance.  A bunch of them are also part of a running group.  They’ve competed around the region and lots of the kids here have tons of medals!  They don’t have new Nikes--some don’t even have sneakers.  And some of them run in jean shorts because they don’t have money to buy new clothes just for exercising.  But it doesn’t matter because all of them are really fast!

There are some differences between kids here and kids in the US, too, though.  The kids here can’t drink the water that comes out of the faucet because it will make them sick.  And I already told you about the electricity thing--just today we went and had coffee (of course) at a house that didn’t have electricity.  They were preparing dinner with a candle.  Does it make you feel sad to know that these families go without drinking water and electricity?  I felt sad at first.  But the people here aren’t sad, they are very happy!  They don’t mind if they have to boil all their water before they drink it, or if the electricity doesn’t work--they’re used to it.  What makes them happy is being able to spend time with their family, friends, and community.  Pretty cool, right? 

A classroom at la Escuela Benito Martinez.

The girls’ bathroom at Escuela Benito Martinez.

We’re learning a lot from all of our new friends...but we want to learn from you, too!  Here are some questions we have for you--feel free to answer in the comments section!

What is the one thing you think you couldn’t live without and why?  (For example, electricity, TV, Playstation, your family, your friends, etc.)
What do you like to do for fun?
What makes you happy?
Do you have any questions for kids here in the Dominican Republic?  We’ll try to ask them before we leave on Tuesday!