Our Last Full Day in Cotui is a Good One

 When one door closes, another is sure to open.  There was no school on Thursday, but we had a full and at the same time restful day, taking care of a lot of business.  We had the chance to sleep for an extra hour, and after breakfast we had an extra-long team meeting, which gave us the chance to reflect on our week to date. The reflections were insightful and at times emotional. We are so grateful for having had this chance to make a difference, and so pleased that we were able to take full advantage of the opportunity.  We were much more than visitors at the Centro Educativo Altagracia.  We were accepted as partners and friends, and did a lot of teaching and role modeling. Rarely have we heard so many of the participants, particularly our students, talking about returning next year.

 

After breakfast, we left the hotel and walked five blocks in the 88-degree sun to a nearby nursing home and clinic run by the local Lions Club, supported by Lions International, and regularly by the Norwich Lions.  The Director, the daughter of the founder, described the programs for ophthalmology and diabetes screening. They are fully equipped to do cataract surgery, and were thrilled to receive our gift of several cartons of sunglasses, donated by local Lions in NH.  They are exactly what is needed for post-surgical patients, and will relieve the clinic of considerable expense.  The Director then gave us a tour of the nursing home, which has 37 female and male residents, all of them with nowhere else to go and living there free of charge.  One of the notable additions since our last visit is a huge cage filled with dozens of parakeets in a central atrium, with the top open to the sky but of course screened off.  We were told that these colorful birds had a demonstrated positive effect on patients with Alzheimer’s disease. We are already making plans to send a large quantity of adult diapers in storage at the Hanover church to this vital institution. On the way back to the hotel (this time in our bus, which met us there), we met with the son of the founder, a distinguished local physician. His father was also a doctor, an OB-Gyn, and had delivered thousands of children in his long career.  In his spare time, he founded the local Lions, the nursing home, and also UTECO, the local University.  We have visited the University in previous years.  It’s pretty impressive.

 

After lunch and a short siesta, we boarded the bus and headed out of town to the reservoir, which we had seen yesterday from the top of the dam.  Today, with “found time” and soaring temperatures, she had arranged for us to take a cruise on the reservoir on a large catamaran, which no doubt serves as a party barge for some of the groups who rent it. We ran into cool breezes and beautiful water-level views of the surrounding hills on the cruise.  Because of the low water conditions (stay tuned for a rant about the negative effects of the local gold mine), we were not able to get close to one of the major archaeological sites in the DR, lake-level caves containing ancient drawings made 10,000 year by the indigenous Taino people before they were wiped out by the Spanish led by Columbus who “discovered” the island of Hispaniola in 1493. This rant won’t keep.  Columbus was the tip of the spear of the genocidal invasions by Western Europeans that spread throughout the so-called “New World” and killed millions and millions. We will see his statue in the center of Santo Domingo when we visit tomorrow.  I’ll be the one flipping him off. Sorry for the indelicacy.  Sorry not sorry.

 

After the cruise, we gathered at a newly-built and well-appointed lakeside spa for cocktails.  Many of us had soda or tamarind juice, and a few of the grownups had well-earned Presidentes.  We drove back with the sun setting, passing countless folks dining outdoors at small roadside restaurants.  We made a final stop in town to drop off the final donation of clothing and dental supplies with a local friend who knows exactly how to distribute it fairly and effectively.  For the next several months, no child in that urban neighborhood will be able to escape being equipped with a toothbrush and toothpaste, and being inspected for clean teeth regularly. That’s how standards of living get lifted.

 

After supper we reviewed the plan for Friday.  I’ll describe it briefly now, since I may not be able to post tomorrow, given the potential lack of connectivity.  We will load up, check out, and head to school one more time for a curtain call and goodbyes, and then head South and East to Santo Domingo.  We have several shopping opportunities en route, and m ore when we explore the UNESCO Heritage Site that is the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. I’ll be buying coffee and chocolate and visiting the 1495 Cathedral to apologize for giving genocidal racist Columbus the bird.  We’ll head East along the seacoast for 15 minutes and check into a beachside hotel to change, it the beach, and eat dinner with a view of the Caribbean. Then we’ll head to another hotel to get a few hour’s rest before heading to the airport sometime after midnight to check in for our 3:45 a.m. flight.  We should arrive in Boston at breakfast time, and have plenty of chances to catch a Dartmouth Coach to Lebanon. Stay tuned for text updates from your peeps.  Stay tuned for my next blog post, sometime after my full work day on Sunday.  Thanks to all of our friends back home who made this trip possible.  Thanks to 16 dedicated team members. To everyone in the DR:  We love you and we’ll be back!