Islands

I met a friend for lunch and after that i made hardly any decisions for myself. i just kinda followed her throughout the day to places she was inviting me to not always completely comprehending everything. She lives in a small she says i have to go help my mom clean and after that we can go to the beach. i say, as usual lately, what the hell. when we get to her house no one is home. with my cultural conditioning looking at the campo i was actually surprised that her house was locked up so well. she broke in by climbing on top of a trashcan unlatching the window with a broom and then climbing through the window. before we knew it one of her like 30 or so cousins comes up on a moto and wants to take us to las galeras. of course, we go. i'm getting pretty used to those things now. grismilda's cousin tells me that i am not going to sleep at my hotel that night i am going to sleep with her en el campo. this confuses me but i Know better than to refuse such an offer after i have been purchasing beers for them all night. they want to do something for me to. we're about halfway back to the house when we stop at a little stand where her mother is drinking beer and i start to become really confused at what is going on. grismilda looks all nervous and is laughing and running away and the cousin sits me down and tells me to drink beer with the mom. i do so and then they tell me to get up they want to talk to me, they want to go to the house and then come back for me i shouold stay with the mom. uhh okay, so i go back and sit down afor no more than a minute and they come back and say come on lets go. at this point i have no idea what is going on and i am just trying so hard to understand them, i mean i understood the words but....
when we went back to the pueblo i am not sure whose house we were at. some family of grismilda's as i swear the whole town is. next thing i know i am sitting completely in the dark near some pool tables and when the candle is lit there are about seven naked children surrounding me and the cousin is pointing them out to me by shining flashlights in there eyes. i was led into one of the little bunk houses and i'm sitting at a table an all seven pairs of eyes are on me and grismilda says wait here with the children. and she keeps coming in and out and every time she leaves the kids start whispering un peso, dame sinco pesos and it is apparent to me that their parents dont want them asking me because they are so secretive about it. it was all so real. this was there home. there home with no lights. their spot behind a wall that is a bathroom. their children crying and screaming and fighting with eachother over one peso. i mean it was reality. this is a poor country. but for the most part people are happy. they are smiling and they are so so very friendly. before i know it one cousin had turned into the other and we are off again back to las galeras. more of the same old stuff. pool. beer. dancing. driving through the dark until we see a little light, the light signifies . your roadside pincha: hot dog, your roadside gasoline: 10 pesos for a grande beer bottle full. and of course, your roadside chicken. back to the house again and i'm feeling strange i dont know how things work there i dont know what is expected of me,...i know nothing. i help put a mosquito net over the bed and wonder why none of the other four beds in the house have one. maybe mosquitos like the gringos better. it's pouring rain and we are woken up in the morning by pigs and cows and the sound of water being poured out of buckets. and a shriek from grismilda as the lizard that is crawiling across the cement wall of the bedroom in one sift move eats a spider twice the size of a quarter. and of course, the chickens. I am offered a huge breakfeast of plantains, and some sort of sea food i think lambi (conch). i notice my serving is larger and i am the only one who has a banana on the plate as well. and as is the usual here we spent the next two hours just sitting on the porch. observing. observing the tubs that are collecting water alongside all the houses, observing the children and adults alike transfering the water into other containers and using the water to shower with. observing bare butt little boys runnning around in the puddles of mud pushing tires with sticks for fun. observing everyone buying ten peso bags of frozed liquid sugar from a guy walking around with an ice chest. obseving mopping and remopping and remopping constantly of all the porches. and of course, the chickens.

Posted by Erin Louis at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I originally intended to leave Samana for Las terrenas which is where I am now but i was continually told that i needed to see Las Galeras, another town close by, so what the hell, i went for it. I spent too much getting there but i learned quick. when i went i started to look for a place to stay and dicsovered that i didnt have enough money on me and there was no back in the town. So i had to return to samana use the bank and then make the trip again only this time i knew how to get there for a good price. there are so many types of transportation in these parts its insane. of course taxis, then motos (motorcycle taxis) motoconchos (the motorscycles with carriages on the back) and my favorite gua-guas. I took a moto yesturday for the frirst time and it wasnt nearly as scary as i thought it would be and less than a dollar for a rountrip across town. A gua-gua is what i took back to las galeras its about 1 dollar for the 28 mile trip. to catch a gua gua you just stand on the side of the road waiting for one to go by in the direction you are going. its kind of like hitch hiking really. you can tell its a guagua if it is a van driving with the sliding door all the way open or if it is a pickup truck with about six or seven people piled in the back. for las galeras it was a van. I loved the town, i stayed a few nights after realizing i liked it so much when my intentions were only to stay one day. its a tiny town on the beach. not really a lot there. i spent most of my time on the beach near the thatch roof bar/restaurant that sells drinks right out of the pineapple or coconut and seafood directly out of the sea. And on the second day i spent a lot of time playing pool on an outdoor table pracitically directly on the beach. trying to get better so I?ll be worthy of the pool cue my grandma gave me. I?ve been feeling really submersed in the culture lately, meeting a lot more locals and talking a lot with them. It?s kinds wierd socializing after spending so much time alone in the city. I?ve been eating at places where generally only the locals frequent. the people are so amazing they are always smiling and dancing and there is music everywhere you go. Most of my trip i have been wishing i had someone here with me but i am beginnning to appreciate being alone as i am seeing all the experiences i am having that i would not have if i wasnt alone. But of course, angelica i hope to see you soon.

Posted by Erin Louis at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have finally left the capitol of santo Domingo and feel much better. Much more free and much calmer. I spent about five unpleasant hours on a bus coming up here to the town of Samana. It's on the edge of a bay in the northern part of the country. the town is famous for its whalewwatching and although it is the season to do so i have chosen not to partake in the looking at whales. why? well, money of course. and of course, there is lots to do here otherwise. Yesturday i went to an islands in the middle of the bay by the name of cayo levantado. I almost got suckered into paying a horrendous price to get there, but i came to my senses and trusted my instincts. a man showed up at my hotel telling me he was taking a bunch of people to the island and would i like to go with him for 500 pesos, each way. i had been told the day before i could get there for only 100 each way. the man at the hotel claimed i had been lied to. of ocurse i wasn't. the deal is that if i want a private boat with other tourists i pay 500 if i want to just get on a normal boat with dominicans it is only 100. so i did just that and i actually didn't have to pay at all on the way back because i got invited on a boat full of kids on some trip by a strange girl who tried to make out with me.

the island was fantastic. the sand white the ocean beautiful blue green and the palm trees grew so close to the water. much closer than the beach i saw in boca chica. i met a man there who told me the other side of the island was better so i followed him there. and as we're walking through the woods we come across massive contruction. they are building a hotel. it was a pretty ugly site though i am happy to see the island before the hotel is there. all these peolel kept trying to tel the man not to continue and he kept assuring me that it was okay because i was with him. when we got to the other side it was completely empty beaches. I felt really lucky to be there, but then a military guy came and said to get the hell out of there. I spent the rest of the day on the other side where are the kids my age were. I had some strange interactions with some of them. and got some interesting reactions to my sexuality. one guy started telling me about god and whatnot another wanted me to get together with his friend who liked girls too. it was all very strange.

Today I went to see Cascada El Limon. a 150 meter tall waterfall and probablly about 75 meters wide. It is about 15 mintues away from Samana and i took a motoconcho there. a motoconcho is a motorcycle with a carriage sort of thing on the back of it. cant say i have ever done that before. the drive was great though. it turns out samana is much bigger than i had though, it stretches out. alongside the road there were a lot of chickens and horses and pigs and cows and children and beyond them were mountains and hills covered almost exclusively by palm trees and beyond that the bay of samana and beyond that the other side of the bay bareally visible through the bluish fog. When we reached the entrance to the trail for el limon i learned that i was only going to get to see the waterfall if i got on a horse to go there. holy shit. those things scare me. i hadnt been on a horse since i was about 8 prbobablly. i recently had a dream that i was coaxed into riding one and it was the most wonderful thing, oh no, they are still just as scary to me as they were when i was six. on the way back the horse ran my leg into a tree. the horse also liked to walk directly towards and very close to drops in the side of the trail and right up alongside barbwire fences. to say the least it freaked me out. more than well worth it though. Even though i was certainly wearing the wrong shoes, my flip flop sandals. what an experience tromping through mountain full of banana and other fruit trees unknown to me. Smelling different plants and feeling different breezes. When we got to the end of the horse part we bagan the hike down to the bottom of the waterfall, down down down, did i already sau i was wearing the wrong shoes?? I can not think of a better use of the word spectaclular than to describe this waterfall that dropped in to a ten foot deep pool of cool water then flowing into a river.

On the way back i got stung by a bee. first time in about nine years. it was, and still is, very unpleasant.

Posted by Erin Louis at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So the real carnival is actually happening today. It was crazy though no where near as crazy as it is in other latin american countries. what i saw was mostly just a parade of people in costumes. The costumes ranged from troops of kids in dressed in birds to princesses on giant elephants. There were a lot of groups, mostly younger people dressed as Tainos, (the indeginous tribe of the Dominican Republic) Most of the people were dressed in groups with other people wearing matching outfits. Some were original and unique. My favorite was a girl who was wearing a red dress that poofed out in a big bell and was lined with records. The parade in general was incredibly unorganized, none of the groups in the parade had any idea what they were supposed to be doing. the groupd would walk forward guided by security guards and then sometimes they were asked to back up to where they were before and start again. I was only down there for a little of the actually parade then i went back for the aftermath later. I was expecting a lot of live music but so far i have seen hardly any. instead each group in the parade is preceeded by a giant truck with huge speakers blasting music. People were dancing and i got a little on tape. One of my favorites in the parade was a group that was completely covered in clay. Later, I saw an SUV covered in clay to driving around the neighborhood. Luckily I only got smacked in the ass with one of those things once. The streets were packed with people and stands selling corn on the cob, sopapillas, cotton candy and oragne juice. On all the side streets, there were mobs of people walking to and from the malecon. i can hear them from my room running down the street, a lot of the costumes are covered with bells. I've actually become quite accustomed to this jangling and automatically know what it is. People have been running around with parts of these costumes on all month. I never figured out what those gorillas were all about though. didn't see any at the carnival.

Posted by Erin Louis at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So I went to the meeting at the ASA. It was really intense. So much spanish, so fast. I was able to pick up only very little. Some of the comversation was how there is a desire to create an active gay community here and how now not a lot is being done. they talked a little about agentina and brazil as example of places with activist communities. they discussed also the problems with the representation of gays and lesbians here on the television and how it is alwaus very stereotypical, the gays and lesbians on tv are mere charicatures not realistic portrayals. a few people shared there experiences with coming out to their parents and they were all pretty different. the meeting lasted a few hours and that is about all i got out of it. however, i did record most of it and a friend of mine is going to translate it for me. I was really surprised with the group, there were a lot more women there than i expected and most of the people were not people i would guess as gay had i seen them on the street. most everyone seemed pretty comfortable, there were only a few who seemed nervous.

Today i finally went to work with freddy and now in know what working for the water means. he drives a japanese truck around that has a giant water tank in the back and sells five gallon jugs for 15 pesos. about 35 cents. he does this in a part of the city that until today i had not seen. the northern part of santiago. the pueblos, very poor. these urban neighborhoods are very different from the pueblo that i saw last month in the country. i finally sound some grafitti art there. unfortunately i brok my camera lense and my videocamera was dead.. but i might go again next week. i think it is an important part of the city to document. the houses are all made very poorly, shacks and what not. and for some reason there were a lot more naked children. people stared at me a little less there. i dont know i mean everyone knew i was a tourist but people also knew that i wouldnt be there unless in knew somebody dominican. it was interesting. freddy kept hollaring and harassing the women as he drove by them as many men have done to me. it was strange to be on that side of it. completely different perspective. later freddy invited me to his house where he lives with his girlfriend and his parents. its moments like that where the difference in cultural expectations hits me most. the differences in what is expected of a host and a guest. i am so used to empty offers and the inclination to decline so as not to inconvenience my host but it is so different here. if i refuse anything that is offered to me it is an insult to the host. so i have to drink what they offer, let them give up there chair for me etc. he lives on like the fifth floor of this building and when you look down you see nothing but the tops of palm trees and a sea if tin roofs.

at the park near my hotel today there is some sort of demonstration by a revolutionary political group. there is a stage set up though when i was there nothing had begun yet. they were selling, by donation, a bunch of periodicals about the pueblos in haiti and everything that is going on there but mostly things about george bush and the endless blood he is shedding. they had this entire display of signs and political art about the war in iraq and the bloodshed for oil. i was very surprised to see it but very glad. i got some of the literature and took some footage with my video camera. it felt really strange to be there as an american. i wondered whether or not they knew that i am not a supporter of george bush and his occupations and wars. but regardless i felt totally spotlighted, regardless of what those people or i think and regardless of what i believe gerorge bush is still the president of my country, the representitive of my country. i felt really uncomfortable with that at that moment, as i usually do. i dont want to be represented by such terrible things. but it is nice to see first hand that there is opposition to bush's games elsewhere and people trying to do something about it.

Posted by Erin Louis at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had my meeting today with Leo Sanchez the manager and co-founder of the ASA and it couldn't have gone better. He told me a lot about the organization, and about the gay community here in the Dominican Republic. He also informed me of some events that I will soon be able to attend. This Wednesday the ASA is having one of their weekly meetings but this week there will be a speaker there who is a Lesbian and she will be discussing the History of LGBT life in the Dominican Republic. He also told me that the one Lesbian bar in town, the one I have mentioned before apparently holds poetry reading/ open mic on Sundays. He also gave me the phone number of an organization called COIN that works with women, specifically poor women and sex-workers.

So here it is.
The ASA is an NGO working primarily with AIDS prevention and education working specifically with gay men. They do not work with the lesbian community though they do offer spaces for discussion groups that include women. The ASA has been running for 15 years and was originally created out of hoped to educate about the AIDS epidemic. When it was created in 1989 no one knew a thing about AIDS and people were convinced that in no time at all every homosexual would have it. It is the only organization of its kind in the entire country.

Workers and volunteers from the ASA have put together an outreach team which is how they get participants for their services. This team goes to bars clubs, parks, all the places where gays are known to hangout and invites people to participate in their two main activities. The first is simply an informal meeting or conversation group that discusses AIDS mostly. After this initial meeting there are four further meetings once a week. In these meetings the groups discuss self-esteem, construction of sexual identity, safe-sex, STD's, alcohol and drugs and sexuality in general. After the four educational sessions the participants are invited to make a commitment to help in some way with the AIDS epidemic. The participants become members and often continue to help those afflicted, do office work, or participate in outreach. Members are welcome to continue participating in these weekly meetings but Leo has found that after a 9 months to a year members lose interest.

In response to this they have developed a separate discussion group which is larger 25 to 30 people as opposed to only 15. This group has monthly topics, or sometimes one topic for every two months. The primary difference in the two groups is that in the second larger one the topics are decided by the participants, it is much more self guided.

In addition to the discussion groups the ASA provides reading materials, condoms, HIV tests, One on one family and couple conseliing and referrals to an STD clinic.

I asked Leo how the community was treated by the public and he said that these things are simply just not talked about in public. He feels that because of this the gays and lesbians in the Dominican Republic are not actually a community only people. One of his main goals right now is to work on getting these issues talked about. There are elections going on very soon here and he has been pressing political candidates to talk about gays.

Three years ago there was a gay rights parade in Santo Domingo, the first one. When I asked him how it went he simply replied, "well, we did it" Since that year, every year the ASA has been trying to get permission to hold another pride march and has been refused repeatedly.

I asked Leo if he thought there would ever be legal gay marriages here he laughed and said no. If so, not even in the next 10 years. He says this is due to the strong catholic influence on the country.

When I asked where transgender people fit into all of this he had a lot to say. Men who dress like women are very common in this country and they are still considered men in every way. He feels that the Dominican Republic is very behind on learning about transgender issues and that is something he wants to work on. He believes that most of the men here who dress like women are not people who want to actually physically become women. He believes it is a learned behavior involviong socialization. He feels that a lot of gay men here are socialized to believe that to be gay you must be part of a clandestine society and this is where many men feel pressured to ress like women.

Upon leaving Leo gave me a packet of samples of their educational materials and monthly bulletins which I am working to translate now. In this packet is a brochure on homosexuality that was created by the ASA and was the first of its kind in all of Latin America. His last words to me were "I'm gay free and happy"

well i feel better.

Posted by Erin Louis at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finally walked on the other side of the Malecon today, the water side. the malecon is like "the strip" in Santo Domingo. I found a spot and sat down to just kinds watch the ocean. There were lizards everywhere I looked it was pretty cool. I needed that. I've needed nature in my life lately. The city is beginning to get to me, I am beccoming antsy to go to new towns. Watching the water gush around was actually really soothing. Watching it come up in gigantic spurts hitting the rocks and then gushing back down in waterfalls. It didn't last that long before the little boys came up trying to ask for money. There were two, a younger one and and an older. The younger one had a scab on his eye, he pointed to it and then asked for money. The older boy had some sort of scab on his chest too I think. The younger one tried to show it to me by pulling the older boys shirt aside but the older kid smacked his hand and turned away.

I found the closest thing to a bech that I have seen so far in Santo Domingo. Well, I guess it is a beach. Just not what you imagine when you think of tropical islands. When you think of tropical islands you think of palm trees and cocktails and white sand. Those are the tourist beaches, the resort beaches. Not the city beaches. That water isn't crystal blue it's brown green. there is no white sand only red mud and there are no cocktails only mountains of trash. really, mountains. and there are no tourists only los pobres. But they are having fun, thrashing about in the waves.

Posted by Erin Louis at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finally got to go to Anthony's club last night. Unfortunately it was kind of a bust. Not enough people showed up so they closed down early. Another chance tonight, more people are expected to show. Last night he had a drag show and strippers hired but they didn't perform, just got payed and left. It has been really interesting to be here while Anthony is putting the club together, to watch the process. Opening there were a lot of people, then not being able to open at all, then having a bad night. The club is nice but definately unfinidshed. Right now it is only one floor and there is another floor that has yet to be remodeled but eventually will be a lesbian lounge where men aren't allowed. It was really interesting to observe the type of people there. Some people were totatlly comfortabela and some you could tell were really nervous. One man I talked to told me he didn't want people to know he was there because he felt it was dangerous. He had heard about an owner of a gay club who got murdered a while back and it made him very nervous. He told me to warn Anthony about it. And when I talked to Anthony he had a different understanding of the situation. He knew the owner, He was from spain, and according to Anthony he treated Dominicans really poorly and Anthony believes this is what got him murdered. Anyway the club opens again tonight so we'll see how it goes.

I've been learning a lot more about the way things work around here. My friend Reimundo has been really helpful. He is always wanting to talk to me about Dominican Culture. I asked him about the police here and how people react to them. He said a lot of people do not like the cops because they think that they do not do a good job. He told a little about the corruption, how if you get stopped by a cop you can get out of most anything by slipping the officer 100 pesos.

He also has been teaching me a lot about the music here. About the different types that there are and how those vary. I have been video taping music and i showed it to him and he was able to tell me what kind of music i recorded. Some of my favorite that i recorded was at the coffee plantation and he told me the type of music was something called son. i didn't even know this existed. He says it is music for old people, but i like it. I also have recorded some merengue but he says it is not traditional merengue it is a kind of pop merengue blend. I am also learning about Bachata, how it is played, how the focus is guitar but the way the strings are played is very specific and how bachata has evolved and changed over the years.

What else?? On Monday, I am finally going to meet with Leo. The president of the ASA. I am not sure what this will lead to. If nothing else I will at least know what exactly it is that they do. luckily Leo speaks english and is very interested in my interests in his organizations. We know some of the same people and they have put in good words for me.

Today I am supposed to go to work with a friend of mine. I am not sure exactly what this consists of. I know he works "for the water" I don't really know what that means, but he is either late or not showing up. We will see.

Posted by Erin Louis at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was again supposed to go the openin party at the gay club that Anthony is opening up but there were prolems with the water so i was unable to go. and since i stayed up latein order to go, i slept a lot of today away.

but never an uninteresting day. I finally decided to explore the heart of the colonial zone. the old building and ruins and stuff. i?ve neve been inside builings that old before. building rumored to be the oldest in the western world. The Dominican Republic was the first stop for Christoper Columbus there is a house of his that is now a museumbut i probabll won?t go because i dont like him. i think he is mean, well was. anyway i got some nice pictures and more importantl i foundout that this center is where they have, brace yourselves, a book fair kind of thing everday. I looked around a bit and there is a very small selection of books in english however for 50 cents i did buy a book called
Chistes de Bill Y Monica. jokes about cliton and lewinsky. good way to practive my spanish. then later i met a little bo named juan carlo. he?s one of those shoe shiner boys but different. he didn?t try to get my money or not leae when it was apparent i didn?t want him there. we were just walking down the same street. he must have been 8 or 9 and he just said hi. asked me how i was. i asked the same. then he gave me a flower. he was so cute. for some reason i didn?t take a picture of him. but i?m sure i will see him again.

the most exciting news of all. I think that i may have been successful in convincing my friend Betsy who is now in Ecuador into coming down to spend about a week here with me. woohooo. one down one to go.

Posted by Erin Louis at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Erin Louis BM 11164
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Posted by Erin Louis at 08:57 PM | Permalink

I went out today to Los Tres Ojos. These are three open ceiling caves that are in the middle of a giant park in Santo Domingo. They were really beautiful and hot. Of course I decided to go on the hottest day of the week. ah, no importa. So there is one main entrance. It is a staircase carved into the side of the cave wall that descends down into the cave. There was those thingys hanging everwhere. It was unlike any other cave i have been in because there was an incredible amount of plants in it. Green ferns and trees and vines and all kinds of shit. it's calld tres ojos because there are three, well four really i'll explain this, little lakes or ponds or whatever at the bottom hidden away amongst the limestone. the water in these were so blue i was totally amazed. there was fish in one of them and even a few sea turtles. they are so cute!!! So i walked around this maze of cave for a while up and down staircase after staircase until i got to this one pond lake thing where there was a guy and a raft/boat. For ten pesos {50 pesos is a dollar} the man would take you across the lake to another part, hence the fourth lake. It was cheap so i hopped on with some people who were geting a guided tour. I tried the rest of the time to stay away from this. not to into tour guides. anyway we went across the lake. there was a rope hanging just above and we were literally pulled across the lake and back, very cool. I tried to get some good pictures but we'll see. the other side was absolutely magnificent. this lake was much much bigger and surrounds by trees and vines hanging all over the limestone walls that surrounded the lake and then the hole up on top where the sun beat down upon everything. Here i set up the tri pod and took a picture of myself. This trip to the caves has finally convinced me after weeks of going back and forth that the tri pod was indeed a good purchase and it is worth carrying around. hopefully the pictures will turn out well. Oh, also, apparently this water is said to be lucky so all the tourists were filling up their empty film canisters with the water from the bottom of the cave so they could take it to the casinos. hee hee. i find that amusing.

Posted by Erin Louis at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I feel wonderful today. I started out the day kinda bummed and feeling a little lazy but I got up and went out for a long hot walk. I got dehydrated, I got exhausted and I came back to take the best shower I have had the whole trip. Oh yes, the hot water was working. So I went to the plaza de las culturas. This is where the Museo del Hombre Dominicano is, where they have a lot of history about the Taino Indians and a section dedicated to Carnival. The plaza was nothing like I expected it to be. I was expecting a stone courtyard filled with tourists and stands and whatnot. But oh no, it was more parklike. Like a very poorly maintained park. there were giant fire pits everywhere, trash and fallen trees. There were no tourists there only locals, about 5 million catholic school kids, and one man playing a saxaphone. The museum was better than i expected in part. The carnival wing was not nearly as impressive as i thought it was going to be but there were some really nice masks on the walls. i wanted to take pictures but it was too dark in there and i did not have my tripod with me. the rest of the museum was much better. It was mostly just all artifacts. Original stone carvings mostly. There was also some nice jewelry and shells. I was surprised at how much there was. four floors of it. When you walk in it looks like its going to be the shabbiest museum you've ever been to. But it's not. I''ve not seen that many artifacts in any museum in the states, excluding all in Washington D.C. There were lots of vases, mortar and pestles. and an entire wall dedicated to phalloc stone thingymajiggers. After I left I took a taxi by myself for the first time. I mean one off the street, not calling up one of my trustee cab companies. It worked great. He said 120 pesos i said he was silly and that i would only pay 100. he agreed. ha. we saw some kids fighting with a business man in the middle of the street on the way. It was unclear who was hitting whom but someone had a giant wooden stick. they seem to like whipping here.

lesson of the morning: take my sketch book to museums so that i can draw some of the pictures there. or maybe,.....take my sketchbook everywhere.

Posted by Erin Louis at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's been a couple days since I've written and it's because part of me feels that I haven't done much in the last few days. I have been tryin to get to a museum but getting settled in to this hotel is turning out to be a long process. I thought i would move in yesturday early and then pay but i couldn't get in until late into the day and wasn't able to pay until this morning. I hope to get to the Museum today, it has an entire section, dedicated to carnival, but i have to wait around until Anthony goes to his business mail place. Everyone wants to mail me stuff and it turns out that the mail system in this country is absolutely terrible so I have to set up a box in Florida and then a courier will bring me mail like every few days or so. Anyway, of course they dont know when they are going to the office so i kind of just have to wait around so i don't miss them. It's taking some getting used to. how slow things are here. there is a part of me that thinks i have to be out seeing this and that everyday when really its nice to sit around and read sometimes. i have finally gotten started reading my art textbook which hopefully will be helpful to me in the long run. Other than that Really i have just been playing a lot of pool lately and have met a few new people. Still, I am getting a little lonely, I guess this is part of what we were talking about all quarter. But, I am in the process of trying to convince a friend of mine who is now in South America to come over and visit. We'll see.

Posted by Erin Louis at 12:41 PM | Permalink

So i found out a little bit more about carnival yesturday, to see what i already knew read the entry Carnival is Coming. I met this man Gary and he told me a little bit about the costumes that i didn?t know. I guess most of it is about warding odd evil. the things that people run around hitting you with are to get rid of evil as are the frilly costumes. especiallay these mirrors on the costumes and apparently these are so the devil can see itself, get scared and run away. the bells that cover the costume are also supposed to scare the devil. I also found out that they have re scheduled carnival. that?s how this country is. they schedule a national holiday but then say hey lets have it next tuesday instead. I heard this has something to do with some other town havin their carnival the same day.

I walked down to the malecon anyway and people came anyway. It was not as big as i imagine next week to be but there were people in costumes eerywhere. mostl traditional but without masks. the other most common costumes i saw were mobsters and middleeastern style belly dancing outits. Everyone was on a bike or a motorccle and they all know how to ride up on their back wheel alone. their was a lot of music and dancin but not live. all on stereos. i wasn??that impressed i hope for more next week.

this gary man also old me some other things. It turns out he is gay. I am stil amazed at how many gay people i have met here. anyhow, it is his fifth year livingin the dominican republic, he is a doctor and a diplomat working for the US consolate. I asked him how he felt about being gay here and he felt that people were a lot more intolerant than other people have told but, he finds it interesting that this countru recognizes a third sex. a bit of info i did not know. this third sex is men who keep their genitals but grow breasts and try their best to appear as a woman on the outside. Could this be an insight to Lupe, the woman/man from the coffee finca. he didn?t know the name of this third sex, the spanish name i mean. well, if i decide i want to do interviews with people, he is on my list and said he would be willing. great, i?ve got questions for this one.

Tommorrow i finally move into the place i will be for a month and can actually settle. i?ve been holding back on a lot until i settle in. I don?t know why but after i?m all settled i will finall call leo from asa and i?ll get my ass off this pedestrian mall and see some other parts of the city. woo hoo!
chao

Posted by Erin Louis at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I guess carnival isn't quite as big as i thought it was here, but there is a celebration on Sunday near the water. Yesturday was Independence day and i saw bits of what is to come. Most of the men and boys dress up in frilly costumes covered in bells and run around simultaneously blowing whistles and smacking girls on the butt with these kind of oval shaped ball things that they swing on strings. I smacked them away from me but they got sasha a few times. ITs crazy theirs girls running down the street screaming because they dont want to get smacked in the ass. some of the girls seem to like it. the rest of the men are wearing dresses with fake boobs and they travel in packs with other guys who are wearing dresses while they all chant mommy mommy and attempt to give lap dances to outside diners. its crazy. i can't imagine what sunday will be like.

Sasha just left a few hours ago and i'm kind of a mess right now. its so different walking around without her being here. I'm excited to get used to things again. to re adjust. right now i'm too damn teary. are you reading this?? I love you baby.

for those of you who know me well, for shits and giggles i shaved my legs and wore a skirt last night, oh don't worry there's pictures.

Posted by Erin Louis at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And so we left. It took all day to get to Cafe Alta Gracia. We took a bus from Boca Chica back to Santo Domingo then a taxi to the bus station then a bus to a town called Jarabacoa. My directions from there were a little sketch but it worked out. We ended up gettting driven on a four wheeler by a cop through town to the "bus" stop. These are actually pick-up trucks that everyone piles into. from there we drove up a mountain and got dropped off at the bottom of a giant hill which we climbed up with all of our shit. Good thing it was raining....kind of. Sasha fell twice. hee hee. I got pictures.

The Finca was amazing. I am not even sure where to start. I guess form the beginning huh?? So different from the rest of the country i have seen. SOOOO green and lush. banana trees, and coffee plants and one of my new favorite trees, grayumba, which bears no fruit. I took lots of pictures that you all can see someday. And all the people there were fantastic, there was one other lady there from the states who is now here in Santo Domingo. She gave me the name of a lady who i can stay with onthe northern coast. Anyway we got there pretty late and didn't really explore till the next day. We walked all around and saw how to pick the coffee beans, by the house you can smell them being fermented and then see them being dried. I saw the house that julia Alzarez wrote a bunch of her books at. The finca is really great they have a few little bungalows that serve as a school for the small community of about 20 families that live there.

I got listen to a lot of the young men who live ther sing and play bachata music they were really talented it was so much fun. I was aable to record some of it. woo hoo.

The food we got there was great. most vegetables i have seen so far. It was cooked by the caretaker Lupe, whom i am pretty sure is biologically a male. If i find out more about this might factore well into that arena of my project. Anyway i trekked through the mountains with her to her pueblo which has 70 pepole all of two families. Everyone we walked by wanted to say meet me and offer me a cafecito. I was amazed at this little community hard to grip really. Very poor people but also almost self sufficient. Just many luxuries i am used to they do not have. Lupe has invited me to come stay at her(?) house for a week or so in April for free. Maybe. Maybe.

Posted by Erin Louis at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sasha says, Look! I turn my head around and there a shirtless man getting his pants pulled down by another man with a belt in his hand. He begings to whip the now naked man. A crowd begins to gather. as he is whipped and then pushed up against a wall. I guess the guy didn't want to leave and others wanted him too. Thats how the situation was dealt with. the naked man walked down the street a little further. the crowd folowed. He continued to be whipped. There was a police officer there and he seemed in no hurry to resolve things. As more police showed up the crowd finally started to dissipate and I guess the man left. shortly afterwards a guy about my age wearing a god bless america t-shirt came over and proceeded to tell us that in a real democracy this would not happen. He asks where are we from. Estados Unidos? Si. That is a real democrac, there the police don't do that. I guess it's hidden from Dominicans just as much as from some Americans that things like that do happen. Just not in public. The mans shirt and shoe still lie in the Conde and no one notices as if nothing had happened.

There are always people running around in gorilla suits dancing. maybe this has something to do with carnival. carnival is not until sunday.

Posted by Erin Louis at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I'm starting to get used to things here.....kind of. Some things I am loving getting used to, others I hate. The men here,....I have such a love hate relationship with them, they are super friendly and extremely considerate but at the same time they won't let me buy my own drink and they won't leave sasha and I alone. sometimes its too much.

I'm also getting used to Spanish, my spanish is better than I thought it was. People keep telling me it's great and that my accent is good to. to my surprise i was able to take my conversations a little farther than i expected. i was able to have conversations with Moreno about prostitution in the states vs. D.R. and about what it's like for immigrants in the U.s.

I have worked out a deal with Anthony, the owner of Casa de Monaga and I am going to be able to live there for one month. Not until March 2nd. though. It's pretty exciting, it has a lot of good security for my equipment, good showers, air conditioning, friendly people the works. also a geerator which is realy important here. sometime the power will go off for up to 16 hours in one day. For now we are staying in cheap hotels. the last nigh we stayed in a place 7.50 a night. It was pretty shady. but decent enough i guess. Today we are stayin in a diferent city called Boca Chica. there are much more tourists and all-inclusive resorts, all that. the beach is here, its' beautiful we went swimming drank fresh coconut milk, ate the coconut milk drank a pina colada and got sun burnt. tomorrow we leave for the coffee plantation.

Posted by Erin Louis at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow, I was sitting on the plane thinking,...after all this time I am finally going but still I was going it was something I had been saying for months, I am going to the Dominican republic, thought the context was different I was saying the same thing. But soon as those wheels touched the ground, it seemed to be the longest landing in the history of airplanes, I was here. I was here in a country full of unfamiliar people and unfamiliar things yet there was someone in this strange place with a sign with my name on it. Purple and red magic markers. That someone was an 8 year old boy who later I learned was th godson of Anthony the owner of the hotel I am staying in.

I am so happy with the hotel, it's nice it's coolorful it's right in the middle of everything. But I have to say I am even happier with Anthony. He is so friendly so helpful, so gay. I was saying that staying here would be a good oppportunity for me to jump right into the gay community. Didn't know how true that would be or how quickly that would happen. Last night I went out with Sasha and Anthony to O'hara's a lesbian bar only to find out that it is now called thara's and is not lesbian but only "open-minded" .......but anthony's friend Patricia took Sasha and I to different Lesbian bar that was fantastic.
we spent most of our time outside because of course I wouldn't dance. I was so excited to be in this foreign country and see so many other lesbians. The manager there gave me the phone number for Leo Sanchez the ASA man. aaaah

I can't believe how well everything has gone. I am in love with this country already. It happened right away and i am so thankful to have anthony who is telling me everything I need to know, hooking me up with rides. the works.

Today I go search for coffee and an apartment. woo hoo.

Posted by Erin Louis at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

So. . . . . I leave tomorrow morning. It seems like today. I'm not going to sleep. All this anticipation, yet, really, I'm just leaving for Philidelphia. I think about the concept of liminality and this plane trip, the airport and especially my overnight in Philly seem to be "liminal spaces." I used to really like the liminality concept. But now, though it's a useful term. I don't think I buy it. How can I say some moments, some spaces are liminal while others are not. No, I don't think I buy it anymore. Maybe some more than others but in the end. Every moment, every space is transitory. At least they damn well should be.

Posted by Erin Louis at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Everything I face, never ends. And in the end, in any case, I'm glad to have been. This has been an adventure, this has been a challenge, this has been intense, in every sense, and I'm glad to have been. In all these places, I retrace this. All these spaces where change and trust and discomfort have been. surpassed. and I'm glad to have been in stages of stasis, at last.

Posted by Erin Louis at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)