Our adventures in the DR!!!

Hola mi amigos,

I apologize for being so slow in getting this posted. Our lives have been a whirlwind since we landed in the Dominican Republic (DR) and it has been hard to find time to sit down and write out our experiences. Also, with electricity only 50% of the time and with no secure internet hookup yet, I have just struggled in getting this done.

I am going to try to catch you all up with our adventures in this posting and then will keep up with more frequent postings so I hope you'll check back. I apologize in advance for the formatting of this. I'm just learning how to use this program.

We left Portland, OR on Wednesday, February 5^th with no problems. We checked in with our 4 cats, my sister Peggy and my cousin Jennifer, each of us taking a cat on board and our dog Panda. We had to check our dog Panda into baggage because she's too large to fit under the seat. We had to be at the airport early because getting Panda on was 'first come first serve' basis. We were glad that they let us keep her until one hour before departure. Luckily we had all our paperwork in order and everything went smoothly. My mom was there to see us off along with Dave, a friend of Steve's who drove us to the airport.

We arrived in Dallas Wednesday evening and we had to unload the cats and all our baggage, including Panda, and check into a motel. A nice guy named Andy befriended us and helped us get Panda and call our motel from the airport. We spent the night in Dallas. We woke up early (5:30 am) to go back to the airport. Our friend Andy had offered to help us the night before, even though it was his day off, so we gave him a call. (We tipped him well). Andy made sure we got checked in with the cats and he took extra special care in making sure Panda made it on the flight OK. We flew to Miami and had to change planes again. We only had about 45 minutes between planes in Miami and we were worried about Panda making the connection. Once we got on our new flight we were looking out the window hoping to see her go by. Sure enough we saw them wheel Panda's carrier to the plane. We were relieved to know she had made it!

We arrived in Puerto Plata around 4pm. On our flight from Miami to Puerto Plata, we just happened to be on the same flight with our friend Emma (director and founder of Animal Balance and our new neighbor) who was returning from a trip to New York. It was so great to see her and she was very helpful in getting us through Customs in Puerto Plata. Our friends Monica and Tim were waiting to pick us all up. We had all the animals and our gear so it took 3 cars to get us to Cabrera....our rental car, Emma's truck and Monica and Tim's car. It was raining like crazy so needless to say the stuff in the back of Emma's truck got a little wet.

Once we got to Cabrera Emma had made arrangements for us to stay at the hotel right on the ocean. (the picture above is a 'Welcome to Cabrera' sign. It's a main instersection in town) It was dark so you couldn't see much but you could sure hear the ocean. Our room at the hotel was more like a small apartment. It had a big room with a full kitchen, table and chairs and a small sofa and a big bedroom with 2 queen size beds and a full bath. It was old but nice and clean. It was very stormy the night we arrived. It actually ended up being stormy for about 8 days, which the locals said was unusual for this time of year. Poor Peggy and Jennifer got a taste of the DR weather. We only made it to the beach 1 day while they were here. The day they flew out was beautiful, of course.

The hotel (pictured at left) didn't have any hot water (which we don't have in our house as well).... so we thought. We always noticed a switch in the bathroom with a red bulb and we were always careful not to mess with it. Well, the last day we were there we found out from Tim, who is an electrician, that you turn that button on and it heats up the shower water for you. Needless to say I had 1 semi-hot shower before we left.

We worked on getting our house ready to move in to during the 8 days we were at the hotel. Steve and I felt right off the bat that we had a lot to do. Our hotel room was rented out after our 8 day reservation so we had to get into our house within the week. The house had no electricity hookup and no furniture. Peggy and Jennifer were here until Thursday so they came over and helped us clean. It was great to have them here. I was so sad when they left. It felt like my last piece of home was leaving. Seeing them drive away felt very lonely. They were both so great to help us out by helping bring the cats down!

Our rented house (pictured above with our new car, a 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara) had no furniture or appliances. It also had no screens on the windows. We needed screens to keep the cats in and the bugs out. We asked the landlord if he would pay for screens for the windows and he declined so it was up to us to come up with a solution. Steve ingeniously came up with an idea to screen the windows so the big challenge was finding the materials. Hardware stores, and stores in general, are NOT the same here as in the US. We finally managed to find a store that had some screening and we went to work.

We had to shop for everything! You have to be careful here....people can take advantage of gringos. Cabrera is a small town and there are not a lot of shops. We needed everything from toilet paper to wastebaskets to brooms. We literally had nothing. I had fun that day going to the tienda and buying little things we needed. (pictured below left - a row of houses in Cabrera)

The next day, our friend Emma drove me to Nagua, the closest big city, to buy a bed. We knew we had to at least have a bed. I wasn't going to sleep on the floor and we needed a safe place for the cats to hide once we moved in. In order for the bed to be raised up enough for the cats to hide under, we needed to raise it up off the floor (we couldn't afford to buy a frame right away). Steve thought of putting it up on plastic milk crates. I thought that was a brilliant idea. Now, where do we find milk crates??? In Cabrera???? Always an adventure. We visited 3 stores when we finally found Oscar at a local tienda who said he would sell us 6 milk crates. We were so excited we paid for them and took them home to put up our bed. We got them upstairs and laid them out and once we had them all set out, we realized that 2 of them were a different size than the other 4. Back to the store. (Everything here takes 2-3 steps.....nothing is done the first time.) Needless to say, we got the bed setup and made with sheets that I bought in Nagua that are as thin as the cheap shower curtain I bought that is thinner than some toilet paper I've used. :-)) Honestly....

Our house had no electricity so we had to go to the electric company to get it setup. We learned that the person who lived in this house before us skipped out on his bill so the electric company come and literally just ripped everything out. Now it was a mess. It took 3 days to get someone out to look at the wiring. You have to stay on top of things here but at the same time be friendly and respectful if you want anything done. We finally got them out to hook up a temporary line to our house. Who knows how long that will last.

So we were ready to move in. We had a bed and screens.....we were ready to go. We made some hiding places for the cats in the house out of boxes and we loaded everything up. It took 2 trips in our little rental car. (Our total life belongings.....7 suitcases). As we brought things over we unpacked them so once we brought the cats and Panda over things would already be unpacked.

Now it was time to bring the kids over. (Pictured at left me, my cousin Jennifer and Smudgie, Rusty, Wilson and Penny in the hotel room.) The last day we were at the hotel was when the cats decided to come out and feel more comfortable so we felt bad moving them again but we knew this would be their last move for quite awhile so it was OK. Everyone did very well and we spent our first night in our new house, without any electricity. We lit our house with a Coleman lantern powered by batteries. Can you imagine? (Hey Eric Phelps.....I bet you are wishing you were here right now, eh???)

The next day we canvassed the city for comparison costs on a refrigerator, a small stove (table top style, run with propane) and a washer, 3 things we just had to have. We found some prices we were happy with and we bought them all in 1 day. Now we could sleep, eat, cook and wash clothes in our new home. Our friend Monica gave us 2 small tables with 2 chairs and 2 plastic charis so we had something to eat on and could sit down. We could even have 2 people over. :-) We're laughin' now! (Picture below left is of Smudgie helping Steve put our new stove together in our new kitchen.)

We have to tell you about our washer. Here, in the DR, they have these small washers that everyone uses that have a small wash bin and a small centrifuge bin (centrifugado). Full size washers are very expensive. It's kind of a fragile machine. We store it in the house because it will get stolen if we don't. We do the wash outside and then Steve carries it inside when we're done.

We were careful to put in very few clothes to wash the first time. We were warned not to overload it. We had to fill in the water by bucketfuls because there was no hose hookup on the faucet outside. (Now we have a hose setup. We're movin' up in the world). Then you have to run the wash cycle first, then drain it, then fill it back up with water and rinse it. The first time we used it we kept filling it back up with buckets of water but it wouldn't fill up. Come to find out we still had the setting on drenado (drain) so as we were putting the water in, it was just draining out the hose. Duh.....

Then you have to hand-ring out your clothes before you move them to the ringer because the ringer can only handle 4-5 pounds of clothes at a time. The first time we used it we must have overloaded it because it was a joke. It didn't spin at all. We wondered why they included the ringer at all! Steve and I had to laugh. We hung our clothes up to dry dripping wet thinking it would take 3 days to dry. (Actually it dried in 1 day.) We finally figured out how to load it and not overload it. Now it's working great! We did 4 loads of wash on Sunday (while the electricity was on) and we're happy!(Pictured is Smudgie on the new washer. She's a photo whore. :-))

The first week we were here we went to La Entrada, a small town close by with a nice beach, and walked Panda. She liked it but she was kind of intimated by the ocean....the big waves and all. There is a river there that runs into the ocean so we walked there to get her some fresh water. On the river was a small shack that sold beer and served food. As we walked toward it we walked by an abandoned building. Inside was a very small perrita (puppy) that was very skinny. We picked her up and took her to the vendor and asked if she belonged to anyone. They laughed and said 'no'. That she was a present to us. I reiterated by saying 'there are many presents here.' We took her home because we couldn't leave her there. We ended up finding a home for her the very next day and now she's happy and cared for. We were told that there were more puppies there at the beach that had been dumped. They tend to dump the female puppies here. They don't want them. Surgery to get them spayed is way too expensive for most of the people here and not readily available. It's very sad.

Over the next week we did find 4 more of the puppies and they have all been spayed and homes found for them. I knew Steve was concerned about me picking up a puppy already in the first few days. But, that is what I am here for. To help the animals. I will respect Steve's wishes not to keep any of them but I cannot turn my back on them.

Emma's 2 week spay/neuter campaign started our 2^nd week here. The first week the campaign was held in Cabrera in the local gymnasium. The 1^st week we were helping out just by running errands, getting water, lunches, etc... We were too busy with all the things we had to do to help full time and they had enough people to help already.

The gymnasium was big and a good location but it had its issues. The building was cement like a lot of the buildings here and old and parts of the ceiling would crash down once in awhile. One day I almost got hit. It was a little scary. Luckily, it never fell in during a surgery. One of the conditions, in order for us to be able to use the gym, was that the gym remain open. So, we had one side of the gym and the gym members had the other side. I think there were only a total of 10 members there the whole 2 weeks we were there. They would hold exercise class during our campaign. (pictured below left). It was so funny. I think there were 4-5 people in the class and it wasn't anything like our classes in the states. It cracked us up! They are actually on a stage.

The 2^nd week of the campaign Emma was shorthanded so we offered to help. We worked from sunup to sundown washing instruments, cleaning cages, working in recovery and doing whatever needed to be done. Steve ran a lot of errands and carted people around in our new car. Two days of that week we were in a small town about 10 miles away called La Entrada. It's a very beautiful, quiet little town. The animals there were in worse shape than in Cabrera.

We setup in the Community Center there. Both days we had audiences of children watching through the open windows, trying to get in the front door, curious about what we were doing. The 2^nd day there, a young boy brought in a puppy whose left rear leg was horribly injured. The boy said he had been hit by a car a month ago. The puppy was soooooo thin I couldn't believe he was alive. The pup had been left at a campo (a farm in the country) and the man there was not feeding him. The pups name was Bobbie.

You can see by the pictures how horrible his injury was. He was loaded with ticks and fleas and had maggots in his wound. I felt so bad for the pup that I told the young boy that if his guardian would let us do surgery on him that I would foster him afterwards to nurse him back to health. We were able to contact the pups guardian (we were told he was the guardian anyway) and he said that we could amputate his leg and that I could foster him until he was better.

We were worried that Bobbie wouldn't survive surgery because of his condition but he did! He's got a will to live. He got neutered and his leg amputated and he's doing fine. We've been fostering him for almost 2 weeks now and he's put on weight and is going for walks with us everyday. Panda does well with him too.

Emma and I went to La Entrada today to talk to his guardian to see if he could care for him and we found out that Bobby is not his dog after all. It seems that Bobby just showed up at Blue Lake, where he works, with his injuries so he sent Bobby to town to get help from us. Looks like we'll be finding Bobby a new home. (Pictured below is Bobby in surgery with Liz (head tech) and Dr. Lew and then after his surgery in our new home recuperating.)

After surgery the animals go to recovery where we trim their nails, put on flea treatment, clean their ears and pick ticks off of them until they are awake enough to go back into their crate. Most of these animals are not used to being handled so it's important timing to make sure they're waking up OK but not so awake that you can't get them back in their crate. It's all in the timing! (pictured left)

In the 2 weeks of the campaign we were able to spay and neuter 389 dogs and cats. That's a record for Animal Balance. Emma should be very proud of what she's accomplished. I can't imagine the planning that is involved in such a project. All the equipment, the medications, the anesthesia machines, the crates, the volunteers, etc.... Makes me tired just thinking about it. Good work Em!

Here are some pictures of our setup. The first is of Dr. Lew doing surgery. The second is the lineup of cages of animals taken in for surgery that day.

This is a picture of our friend Dr. Janiene in surgery (with headband). She lives in Bellingham, WA. We met her at the 2004 Galapagos campaign. It was great to have her in town! It was sad to see her go.

People brought animals to the clinic in every way you can imagine. Sometimes cats would come to the clinic in a gunny sack. This couple took their dog home in a box on their scooter.

We bought a car the end of the 2^nd week we were here. We had to get around and our rental car was very expensive so we felt an urgency to turn it back in. A young man named Alan befriended us in town and he offered to help us find a car. He grew up in Nagua but now lives in New York. He spoke good English and he offered to take us to Nagua where a friend of his had an auto dealership. We ended up finding a really good deal from his friend. It's a 2001 Suzuki Grand Vitara. It's been a good car so far and we've since found out that we did get a good price. Our insurance company valued the car at 70,000 more pesos than we paid for it! We decided to get full coverage insurance on it because the driving here is so crazy and the chance of it getting stolen can be high so now we've got 1 year of insurance coverage, which was another story in itself getting that done. (another posting)

Panda is adjusting very well. She seems to like it here. We take her for walks by the ocean every day. Cabrera is located on the cliffs so there is no beach right in town. There's a great dirt road that runs along the cliffs that we can walk her on. You can see humpback whales there often. We just saw whales a few days ago and one breached in front of us while we were enjoying a cerveza at a little pub on the trail. It was amazing. (cliffs pictured below left)

We have a nice yard for Panda at our house and we're working on getting it fenced in so she's safe. The cars here don't care about dogs and she is not street-wise so we have to be careful with her. We took her to the beach as well and she loves that too. She even went swimming with us......way cool for her!

The cats are adjusting to the new house. Smudgie was comfortable right off the bat as you can see from the photos. It is quite noisy here at our house (scooters, roosters at 3am, dogs barking, kids in the street) so it's an adjustment for us and the animals. I was wearing earplugs at night just to sleep through the roosters but I figured I need to get used to it so I'm doing better now.!

Our plan is to start Spanish classes very soon with a man named Luis who teaches English here in Cabrera. He's Dominican and a very nice man and we are looking forward to getting back to Spanish classes. The locals do not speak much English and it can be quite a challenge for us with our language barrier. Some of the locals have taken English classes from Luis and they speak very highly of him. We want so much to be better at Spanish. I can't really start my humane education classes in the schools without a better knowledge of Spanish so that is my goal right now to study, study, study Spanish.

Below is a picture of a man carrying his belongings on his head.

As far as food goes...rice and beans are the thing. And seafood, of course. Other things are very expensive like wine...so I've given that up. But veggies and fruits are very cheap so we're lucky! There are piles and piles of fresh fruit and veggies at the markets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday so we go crazy We went to the market today and got 2 avocados, 4 beets, 1 pepper and 1 pineapple for just $2. Avocados are really cheap here! Yeah! We are loving it! There are markets on every corner and you never buy too much at a time because of the electricity. We bought a good fridge so it holds the cold well but you can't plan too far ahead just in case. I found some soymilk one day and was so excited. It spoiled in 2 days because we don't have constant cold in the fridge. Darn! We plan on buying an inverter at some point but it's quite an investment so we'll have to wait a little on that.

The people here are friendly and beautiful. They will take advantage of gringos if you let them so we have to be careful but for the most part they are caring. The animals here are somewhat cared for. Better than Mexico but still not cared for the same way we care for our animals. You just do what you can.

Today we went to buy vegetables at a stand and when we went inside the vendor had a puppy chained up who was only 3 months old. The pup had a huge mass of matted hair between his eyes. As I picked through the matts I saw that he had a big sore underneath it from the matted hair. I asked the vendor if I could take him and bathe him and bring him back. He said that I could so here's a pic of him after his bath and his shaved hair and antibiotic cream on him. I also wormed him and put Frontline on him so he will be better now. The guy was selling the puppy and will hopefully take better care of him now. It's just so hard to see them treated differently than how we treat our animals. We have to accept that that's the way it is here and to try and educate them slowly. He liked that he had a bath. (Negrito is pictured left).

The wiring here is very dangerous. It is all 'mickey moused' wiring. The number one cause of death here is electrocution. You walk down the streets and you can see bundles of wires above you. If you see an electrician working on the wires close to you, you cross the street! It can be very dangerous.

There is no postal service here or addresses. They sell postcards but there is nowhere to mail them. When we signed up for our electric service and our bank account, they put our address down as: 48 El Jamo, Proxima Tony Medina. This means that we live next to Tony Medina. Tony is our neighbor and has lived here forever so everyone knows him. It's so funny that that is how they would record our address. Tony has helped us alot in getting our house setup. He actually built the house so he can help with the wiring, the front gate, etc... He's a great guy and very funny. Doesn't speak alot of English so we have our own way of communicating.

There are street dogs here but most of the dogs do belong to someone. They aren't cared for like our dogs are but most of them are fed. Many of them are ridded with ticks and fleas. They may or may not be friendly. There is a lot of garbage on the streets which is a blessing for the street dogs because otherwise they would have nothing to eat. It's hard to see but it serves a purpose. (Pictured at left are 2 chained dogs that we see when we walk in to town. At least these people care enough about their dogs to keep them home, they're well fed and have shelter. That's better than alot of the dogs have it.)

We don't have internet access setup yet but our friend and neighbor Emma does so to connect we have to take the computer outside to the back porch, try to get connected, and then bring the computer back inside and hopefully it stays connected. We're going to have to fix this soon! We're hoping to boost Emma's signal so we can share her wireless and split the cost of the bill.

The road conditions here are horrible. There are potholes the size of tires. They can really kill your car. You have to drive very carefully and they go so fast here it's ridiculous.

Emma's truck slipped into a ditch on a back road one day when she was driving some of the campaign volunteers home. As you can see from the picture, it's a BIG ditch. We had to jack the back end of her truck up to be level with the road and then lift it onto the road and then do the same with the front. It took 18 people and 2 hours but we did it. Crazy stuff!!! They don't have the tools here we have in the US. Man power!!!!

They advertise things here by driving a small truck around with a huge speaker in the back that blares their advertisement all over town. It's so loud but very effective and very obnoxious. You can hear them from 5 blocks away.....literally. You don't want to have to follow one for very long.

When it rains here it can rain very hard! Most of the driveways have a 'hump' in front of them to keep the street water out. Our house didn't have a hump when we arrived so our friend and neighbor Tony (Tony Medina who is local and everyone knows), who is friends with our landlord and does repairs to our house, built us a 'hump'. We must have the biggest 'hump' in town. Our little rental car could hardly get over it. But, boy does it work. It keeps the rain out and that's what is important. It's made a huge difference when it rains. We can literally get rain to our front door. Thank goodness there's about a 1” lip at the front door.

Also, we eat by candlelight many times because the electricity is only on about 50% of the time and there's no schedule to whether it's morning or afternoon or evening. You never know what to expect. So, we do what we have to do. We have flashlights around the house and use our Coleman lantern that runs on batteries when we need to. It's a crap shoot.

As you drive along, you will see small villages along the road. Their houses are so close to the road. It's so crazy. There will be little restaurants and vendors selling things all along the way. We drove our friend Tim to look at a motorcycle one day and we stopped at a small tienda (store). Across the street was a family with a small vegie stand. The woman was cutting up a root she called yama (spelling??) with a machete. I couldn't believe the size of her knife. Their house was next door and there were 2 boys playing in the front yard. Please look at the pictures (below) of this woman and her family and 2 boys. These people survive with very little yet are very happy. She actually asked me if I wanted a banana and she sent her young daughter to go get me some bananas. They are still willing to 'give' when they have so little. We have alot to learn and to be thankful for!!

Scooters are very popular here. Many people cannot afford cars so they ride scooters. They are everywhere. Literally. It's like a school of fish coming at you when you're driving down the road. They will pass you on the right, the left, wherever! They put whole families on scooters. We've seen a mom, a dad, and 3 children on 1 scooter. It's how they get around. We've seen guys with ladders on their heads on their scooters, with lawn mowers on their scooters, pulling wheel barrows behind their scooters. It's crazy. You have to see it to believe it! And.....they drive very fast here. It's crazy! It's actually very dangerous.

Many scooters will wait at street corners soliciting rides. They will give you a ride pretty much anywhere you want to go. They take turns. They are scooter taxis! (pictured below left)

Well, we've been here a month now and we feel like we've accomplished a lot in that short of a time, especially since 2 weeks of it we were tied up with the spay/neuter campaign. It's been a struggle to get to where we are but like my Dad would say 'it builds character'.

Honestly, all of what we're experiencing is hard to put into words. I hope the pictures help tell the story. Every time you leave the house you can expect a new adventure. You ALWAYS bring your camera. Steve and I went to town today to get 2 keys made. We had to go to 2 hardware stores to get it done and at one store it took 1 hour to get one key made.....it took 3 tries. That's just the way it is here.

Our friends Monica and Tim invited us to join them for a concert this weekend in Alto de Chavon. It's Santana!!!! Emma is coming too. It's kind of spendy but we decided to treat ourselves. We've had many upfront expenses since we first arrived here which has made us a little nervous but everything we've bought so far has been a necessity so we figured we deserved a little fun. So, we're headed to Santana this weekend. Check this out www.altosdechavon.com Go to The Village and then scroll down to see the Amphitheater. You will be soooooooooo jealous!!!

We are learning a lot. We are learning patience. We do things so fast in the states. Here, things get done when they get done. If you get one major thing done in a day, you've accomplished a lot. That's hard for me to adjust to being a 'list' person. I'm learning though. It's actually kind of refreshing.

When we first got here we met a lot of new people and went out dancing a couple of times with Emma and Monica and our new friends. They love to dance here and there is music playing everywhere. We've been to several parties and have met a lot of new people. We think we will like it here a lot. We even run into people we know in town already and that makes us feel at home. We feel very welcomed here.

We will be better at staying in touch now. Things have slowed down some and we're settling in. We'd love to hear from you. We are doing well and are adjusting to our new life. We are glad we came and hope that you'll come visit and enjoy our tropical paradise with us sometime in the near future. The beaches are beautiful and the ocean is so blue you can lose yourself in it. The whales are around until late March so keep that in mind. We will welcome any visitors with open arms.

No hot water, maniac drivers, crummy roads, no electricity half the time......

Beautiful beaches, beautiful people, beautiful weather, beautiful ocean, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, no time restraints, good friends, great food, lots of dancing......

Yep, we're building character alright!!!

Please stay in touch. Mucho besos, Connie and Steve

connie.durkee@gmail.com

809-676-1578