Club Residencial Sosua

... guys, who actually lives in New Jersey, offered to go up with him. It was funny, because clearly no one thought he would jump - after he walked away, there was a chorus of, "Look! The gringo is going up to the cliff! Snicker snicker snicker.." Shen is definitely not one to show off, but the poor expectations made it totally necessary, so he did a back flip off a 35-foot cliff. The group made several comments about how the gringos never jump, they had ...

... seen. They almost have a strip-mall feel to them - shop after shop, power cables criss-crossing the street all over the place, and no real center. There's nothing pretty about them. The towns we've seen do have a Plaza Central, but life doesn't seem to revolve around it as it does in many places. I can't seem to find the town's anchor. One thing that does give a sense of character is that everyone is out on ...

... has
changed me, and has offered me a new perspective on what is really important in
life.  Sometimes I wonder if the past two years of struggling through this
doctoral program has been worth it.  So many sacrifices on the part of my
family.  Time away from Ellie--
I know that when she gets older, I will tell her about the kind, selfless people
who live in a different part of the world.  I hope that, if anything, this
Sosua, Dominican Republic lstockwell

Hi everyone,
Just when I thought I had seen what living in destitution represented, I walked into a neighborhood this morning that redefined the word "poor" for me.  It seems that this redefinition is a consistent happening here.
This community lives in squalor, not only in ramshackle "buildings" but in filth.  In fact, their homes are literally built upon a dump. So, you ...

We pray for children
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead.
We pray for those who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world,
Santiago, Dominican Republic lstockwell

Hola Todos-
Have you ever thought of how fortunate you are, just because you were born in a certain geographic location?  We went to a Haitian Batey today.  The Bateys in the DR are kind of like a no-man's land, not recognized by the DR, or by Haiti.  Consequently, the people who live in them are literally without a country.  These people live very poorly, and are rarely allowed out of ...

... that I had with me (and discovered that wearing socks with flip flops doesn't exactly work well). I was happy to be actually awake for this time on the plane and there were actually some half decent movies that they were showing: Ratatouille (which turned out to be really, really good!), and Rush Hour 3 (which was okay, but kind of stupid). I want to talk a bit about Ratatouille, which has now become one of my new favourite films. I can't stop ...

... while I took a few pictures of him. Poor guy. He had a snout and whiskers and big pink ears. I wanted to pet him but that probably wouldn't have been a good idea. They must have really cute rats in the DR if Anthony is representative of his fellow rat brethren here. I really wanted to go swimming, even though it was a red flag still and the waves were still really choppy, but lots of other people were in the ocean. You couldn't really "swim ...

... it for (really expensive) but my dad offered him $6 (the price he bought one for last year) and the guy said no but agreed to $7. My dad said he would look around more to see what other people had first, but he later decided to go back there to get it. $7 is a pretty good price for that - my dad said that when he got back home to Canada with his shell last year, one person offered him $30 for it and another $40! The guy there also had snorkel and mask ...

... concerning prostitution. Sometimes I had the feeling that we four were the only male tourists in the hotel who did not travel for sex to the Dominican Republic. Sosua seemed to me like a giant brothel. There are many things I will never forget like playing tennis with my best friend Christoph, playing volleyball in the water and a night were some people we met stole drinks from the ...