First Week: Higuey and The Heat

Hello All!

My name is Patricia Daniel and I will be sharing my experience in Dominican Republic as a participant of the MHIRT Program. It’s the end of the first week and we‘re all still trying to get adjusted to the heat …. and the mosquitoes. We all landed on Tuesday afternoon and the Caribbean heat was first to welcome us. From the airport we got into a van that would lead us to the Punta Cana resort which is where the foundation is situated. After we all got settled into our individual rooms (with roommates of course) we were welcomed by other students from Columbia who were sure to let us know that “we were not the only Ivy in town”. With this comment leaving us feeling slightly threatened, we met for our first meeting with whom we could call the program coordinator. He told us of the “few” rules there is and the different things we have access to in the resort. After that a few of the other participants and I chose to take a look around the resort which turned into a trip to the Gym, one the facilities that we have access to in the resort. The next day we started our daily routine which composed of a morning lecture followed by a field trip. The same pattern was repeated after lunch. Our day typically starts at 9:15 am to end around 5 pm. So far we have been spending most of our time going out in the field which is an Ecological Reserve composed of diverse plants. One of the guest professors, a world renowned botanist, has been leading us throughout the forest while pointing out specific trees and plants and their possible medicinal uses. We all found it very impressing how he could quickly identify all of the different families of plants and he can go as far as naming the distinctive genus and species. Saturday was particularly an interesting day because we went out to a village called Higuey to buy certain things that the stores here at the resort would sell at overpriced rates. One of the guest professors came along. After a few misunderstandings of which bus to take we got into a bus in which midway into the trip, the driver had us transfer to another bus. My transfer I mean literally transfer from one bus into the other without even touching the ground in the middle of the road! Anyways we finally got into the village after an unexpected hour and a half and it was quite an experience to see the transition from a fancy resort to a true Dominican way of life. The unbearable heat, the homeless tending their arms by the road, the people rushing by in the street on their motorcycles, the colorful little houses separated by endless canopies of green, and that 460 year old church in the middle of the village all showed us the country unpolished, just Dominican Republic.