A Full Final Day in the DR and Safe Travel Home

 Apologies, Blog followers, for the delay in posting the final chapter in this narrative.  After a full final Friday and a long, long day of travel, (and a busy Sunday morning back at my day job), I am back at the keyboard and eager to chronicle our last two days.

We woke early on Friday and aftrer breakfast checked out of the wonderful Hostal Maria Yobon, filling the bus with all of our luggage and also many, many gifts for our friends at the Centro Educativo Altagracia. We made it to school on time for the opening, and were once again treated to a wonderful special presentation, a preview of the Independence Day celebrations planned for Tuesday.  It's one of the biggest days on the calendar in the DR.  There will be parades and festitivies across the country, and the students, backed by a phalanx of flags, spelled out the name of a revolutionary hero,  and acted out a drama depicting the earliest days of independence. Then came a wonderful speech in English by the son of our great friend Lewis Marte, former teacher and our translator for the week, thanking us for our visit and for our support of the school.  We were all called forward one by one and given personalized key chains, having already been "pinned" with DR flag pins.  Then we all gathered for a final team photo, with everyone sitting together - students, teachers, and DR Projects visitors.  Be sure and look carefully at the photo posted below, with the smiling Americans surrounded by their friends and fans. (And if you look closely, you'll see Lily Smith still receiving more fan mail).  We stood up and formed two receiving lines, and one last time shared high fives and hugs with the stuudents as they filed out of the courtyard to their classes.  Once they were back in their classrooms, we showed the School Director the piles of presents we had brought for the students and teachers.  Then, sadly, it was time to go. Left in our wake is a school where the culture has changed.  It's now cool at Altagracia to learn and use English.  So many of the kids have improved so much.  We can literally foresee this wonderful, aspiring educational community 

We piled onto the bus and began our journey south to Santo Domingo, which took about two hours.  We were soon in the beautiful hilly area full of pineapple fields, and then passed the huge Barrick Gold Mine.  That's the location of the gold that Colombus was trying to find as he began the process that wiped out the indigenous Tiano peoples. We reached the town of Piedra Blanca, where we picked up the main highway that collects Santiago and Santo Domingo.  We shortly pulled over to do some roadside shopping, looking at lovely, colorful rugs offered in this area specifically by roadside vendors.  Back on the bus, we continued the journey, stopping once at a wonderful, clean and well-stocked roadside rest stop and store, where all of us shopped for all sorts of goodies that some of you at home are no doubt enjoying. Then, as we got close to Santo Domingo, on a Friday before a holiday weekend, we hit the predictable traffic.  It was heavy and slow for a while, but before too long we found our way to the historic Colonial Zone in the heart of Santo Domingo, site of the first settlement in the "New World".  The main square, site of the old cathedral and a statue of what's his name, was full of pigeons, tourists, hawkers, and school groups.  We set up shop on a pizza place on the corner with outside seating, ordered a late lunch, and spread out for more shopping.  Maura Smith found her dominos, fueling a new passion learned this week, and severakl of us bought coffee and chocolate at the famous chocolate museum.  As we were finishing our pizza, we had a visit from Juan Valdez, one of the single most important educators in the country.  We met Juan thanks to an early-morning encounter he had with DR Projects stalwart Frank Perotti.  Frank described our organization, and so began a mutual admiration society.  Juan is the leading advocate for English language instruction in the country, and has created a national movement of which we are but a small part.  He is also the leader of the teachers union and a tireless worker on behalf of better public education in the DR. He loved beginning a conversation with not just the teachers in our group but the students as well,  one that we would contiue later in the evening.  We then jumped back on the bus and headed to our final stop, the seaside town of Boca Chica, a resort community righut next to the international airport.

We got to Boca Chica and arrived at the wonderful Pelicano Restaurant, built on a pier that juts right out into the Caribbean.  There are actually several large glass windows in the floor of the covered, open-air restaurant where you can see the fish below.  We set up shop at the long table where we would share supper, and then headed out for walks on the beach and in many instances swimming in the welcoming, clear water.  We then enjoyed a leisurely dinner, and were joined once again by Juan Valdez for more spirited conversation.  Night fell, the moon rose, and we left the restaurant and made the short hike up the hill to a small family hotel that gave s the chance to lay our heads all too briefly before our alarms rang at 1:15 a.m.  It was time to go to the airport.

We knew as we made the short drive to the airport that our flight was delayed, but we had no idea for how long.  It made sense to nevertheless go through the check-in process.  You never know........  But there was no line when we checked our bags and a very easy passage through security and customs.  We made it thoiught to duty-free gauntlet, although the high school crew sampled every possible bottle of cologne and perfume available for that purpose. We got to the gate area and waited.  And waited.  And 90 minutes after were supposed to board, we boarded.  Home free.  But just as were were ready to push back the pilot came on the PA and asked if there were any doctors or nurses on board.  Uh oh. After another 90 minutes, we learned that first First Officer had experienced a medical emergency, and was evacuated.  But amazingly, at that time of day on a Saturday, Jet Blue managed to find a sub.  And finally, finally, we took off.  The rest was easy.  We had a smooth ride, cleverly took our bonus time at Logan and hiked from Gate E to Gate A to maximize out Dartmouth Coach boarding possibilities, hit up Dunkin Donuts, and returned to our beloved, frigid,  Uppder Valley.

Perhaps there will be another essay forthcoming to try and characterize how much this trip accomplished, and how very well our group functioned, and how much we owe to the vision and dedication of DR Projects founder and leader Rita Severinghaus.  We are eager for a reunion on a month or so, and then we'llstart planning for our next trip.  It's an honor to be doing what we've been allowed to do.