Birthday Boy and a Trip to Playa Sosua

It was the day he looked forward to for such a long time already; his first birthday in the Dominican! Mattais turned 7 on October 17.

We had received a few packages in the mail a few days prior his birthday, which we kept out of sight and hidden until the big day! It's so special to receive a gift from overseas! No wonder he was super excited when he got to open the packages.

A package from Opa and Oma Koster

Wow! Soldiers! How did they know I like playing with soldiers? And 'droppies'. Yum!

Kaelie was pretty excited too, since the package also had a gift in it for her.

And another package from Grandpa and Grandma, Uncle Michael and Auntie Chantelle, Auntie Esther and Uncle Garold! A Playmobil safari jungle set! Kaelie soon found that set contained two "flingos"! (flamingos)

What better 'fun activity' than going to the beach for your birthday party? Of course, we had to wait until the weekend, but over here that is worth waiting for. Mattais and Kaelie love the beach, so we decided that was the best thing to do for the Saturday following Mattais' birthday.

The drive to the beach is absolutely gorgeous. We have driven it several times by now, and every time we enjoy it again. The road leads through the eastern townships of Santiago, through the village of Moca, and then winds its way through the mountains until it hits the ocean road. Along the way there are numerous interesting things that we enjoy every time: people roasting or smoking whole pigs along the road, troops of young guys sitting on their mopeds waiting to give people a ride in downtown Moca, overloaded pick-up trucks full of bananas, groups of ladies with curlers in their hair chatting along the road, roadside stands with local produce, cock-fighting clubs, and the list goes on. We all love it. It's a a cultural and human geography lesson every single time.

 Green and lush landscape around Los Brasos, a small mountain village

 This guy was just smoking up the hill on his moped. And...check it out.....!

 The back of his bike was stacked with crates, stuffed (literally!) with hens, and hanging from the handle bars, many more. They were alive. He gave us this big grin as we passed by and took his picture.

 Then we saw this boy along the road, sitting on his mule, on some kind of errand for his dad possibly. We stopped, said 'hola' and told him that his mule looked very nice, and asked him for his name. Frances, he replied. He looked totally surprised when we gave him a bunch of pesos, and instantly he put his old mule into a fast trot towards the village. We had to laugh. He must have sure thought it was his lucky day: a bunch of 'gringos' take his picture and pay him for it.

 We were awed by the sight of the beach at Playa Sosua. We had not gone to this particular beach before. The water was crystal clear. The scenery stunning. Like stepping into a postcard.

Mattais loved the colourful fish that are swimming around the reef not too far off shore. 'Dori' fish (Nemo's friend) by the dozens. Beautiful. We stuffed some bread crumbs into an small water bottle, topped it up with water, and fed the fish under water by squirting the bread crumbs at them. Boy, they loved us.

 Kaelie always loves the sand and the water too, and is busy for hours scooping sand, carrying water, talking to people that walk by, and laying in the crashing surf.

There was this super cute stray puppy that followed the kids around for a while. Kaelie was thrilled that he wanted to play! She often asks us if God can make her a puppy to play with. This made her day!

 It was a great day, and we stayed as long as possible. A very relaxing and fun family day.



Once Upon a Saturday Afternoon



Tais got his first Birthday Party invite from one of his classmates. Birthday parties are huge celebrations here!

The whole class was invited to a local country club to go swimming and have snacks and dinner there.

He was so excited and had a lot of fun!

Today we decide to go out for a drive, since it is a bit cooler and rain is in the forecast.

(Well, the rain never came, but we had a wonderful day exploring Santiago and some of the local mountain villages.) We all pile into "the Bullet" (for so we have dubbed our '92 caliber Toyota Previa), and we go rattling off.

We drive by our "colmado" (corner store). They deliver our water when we call for more. ("Necessito dos botellons de agua, por favor.") The delivery guy comes by five minutes later on his moped, loudly yells "COLMADO!" outside the gate, and after we open the downstairs door, he carries both 5 gallon bottles up 4 flights of stairs to our front door.

Next we pass a money portal. You see them everywhere, even in the remote mountain villages. They are always nicely tiled with bright shiny colors.

Another "Banca". Some day we'll do a blog post on all the old vehicle models you see around here. Old little Datsuns, Peugeots, Mazdas, and Fiats that we hadn't seen since we were kids, are kept 'alive' here. Very neat.

A common sight, as we are going down the Autopista (highway). This concho was stuffed with at least 15 people. The man in the doorway has to hang on tightly.

We pass a thrift store on wheels. We assume it most likely is an old Mazda. It's hard to tell with all the loose, rusty pieces hanging off it on all sides. We are surprised it still drives!  This collector takes people's unwanted "junk" and sells it to whomever is interested. Not sure who would be interested in these old mattresses!

Real thrift stores do not exist here.

Up ahead: HOMS Hospital. It is a very nice, clean hospital with doctors offices attached. It is only five minutes from our apartment. This has come in handy as Sherilyn has made several visits over the past months. This is where she will go in April when we hope to have a little addition to the family :)

Soon we pass one of the best bakeries in town: Panaderia La Campagna. They have a nice assortment of buns, bread and pastries. Anthony loves snooping around here!

 We drive north and head for the mountains. The drive is beautiful, and as we head up, we feel the temperature dropping. After a ten minute drive up the mountain road, we pull into the parking lot of the Camp David Ranch hotel and restaurant. Stepping out of "the Bullet", we all immediately shiver. "Wow, I'm cold!" Mattais says. No doubt. A fresh mountain breeze keeps the temperature just above 20, much cooler than we have been used to these past months. The view from the restaurant patio is spectacular. Mattais and Kaelie pull out our little binoculars to try spot our aparment.

 

Mattais and Kaelie posing on one of the original cars belonging to the former dictator Trujillo. Two Bel Airs and a Cadillac sit on the parking lot of the Camp David Ranch. Tais thought this one looked like Andy Griffith's police car.

After checking out the sights, we head back home. Then it happens again....After hitting a few too many potholes (which are impossible to avoid) our van shuts down, and Anthony quickly pulls over to the side of the road, ducks under the hood, fiddles around with the battery cables, and off we go again.This has become annoyingly more common the last little while. A few weeks ago this happened in the middle of the busiest intersection downtown. Boy, did we ever get honked at! Luckily today it was on a remote road, at the bottom of the hill, and we didn't hold up traffic. 

Close to our apartment, we stop and buy two pinas. They try charge us the "Gringo" price (one hundred pesos, $2.50), but when they realize that we want the Dominican price (thirty pesos, $1.00), they try sell us five instead! Not sure what we would do with five very ripe pinas. Pinas and avocados are in season now, and taste amazing.

Kaelie back at the apartment with her pineapple.

Back home again! And now for our workout we get several times each day...up four flights of stairs.