Preparing for Hispaniola

I feel bad.  I haven’t written a blog in about six weeks.  I meant to write about my surfing experience soon after it happened, but instead I let myself become preoccupied with other things.  So here’s an update:

I just moved into a new apartment two weeks ago, and I’m leaving on a work-related trip in about a week.  Yes, those are my excuses for not blogging more regularly.  Could I have found time between moving and trip planning to sit down for 40 minutes and type?  Probably.  But I back-burnered it. 

Now, most of the travel plans are in place and I’m all moved in.  The new place is a little one-bedroom overlooking the water in West Bremerton.  I’m still working on furnishing it and trying to figure out how to hang a painting without using nails.

The upcoming trip, which begins on Halloween night, is a 12-day excursion to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  I’m leading a group of seven other people—mostly writers and photographers—to the areas where the organization I work for conducts its business.  The business is that of development.  Schools, medical clinics, churches, clean water projects, that’s what the good people on the ground in Africa and Hispaniola develop.  I write about it, and edit what others write about it, with the intent of generating more publicity and enthusiasm from the literate public, thus generating more support and further development and helping more people. 

On this particular trip, our group will get a first-person perspective of what our organization is doing in the Caribbean.  I’m looking forward to meeting some of the people we’ve written about and getting to talk directly with sources, rather than going through an intermediary or exchanging emails.  I’m also excited to spend two weeks in a warm climate during the middle of autumn.  And getting to practice my Spanish.  And getting to venture into a crazy, messed-up place like Haiti.  I admit, I’m a little nervous thinking about Haiti. 

This is the first place I’ve gone where I have to take malaria pills.  And I’m more frightened of the pills making me sick than I am of actually contracting malaria.  Or dengue fever.  But, considering the way the mosquitoes in Argentina feasted on me (at one point, sleeping with the window open, I had about 30 bites), I should probably be more afraid of the bugs than the pills. 

Overall, though, I’m excited.  I get to travel, write, and experience two countries I’ve never been to before.  One of which has a lot of traits I’m familiar with, and another that will be completely new, strange, and intriguing.