Today we went to the downtown of Santo Domingo. We of course had to have our language professors help us down there, because the directions and buses are all very confusing. We went first to the best hospital in the DR, which is where we are to be treated for all of our medical problems requiring attention from the hospital, even if we live four hours away. The hospital was nice, clean, and had AC (a big plus!). After that we went to the Peace Corps office and met the staff and looked around. The office has been in the same large house for about forty years. It's a house that used to belong to a very rich family during the Trujillo era, but PC now rents it . The offices are great, there are a ton of resources for volunteers, air conditioning, wifi, computers, a lounge with cable, basically a place to go if you need a little piece of the US. All of the staff was so nice, both the PC medical doctor and the PC director gave us hugs just because =), and everybody was emphasizing that they are here to help and support us.
After that we got a bite to eat and went to the “Zona Colonial” which is the touristy part of Santo Domingo, with all the old cathedrals and national buildings. In the cathedral there were a lot of Mausoleums, one that supposedly contained Christopher Colombus's ashes, but I don't quite believe that. We continued to walk around the colonial zone and then made our way back to our barrios. For me, the most fun/interesting thing that happened today was something very normal for most Dominicans: A ride on the “Gua gua”. Gua guas are local public buses that travel certain routes. There are fairly small, smaller than the normal school bus but bigger than our vw van. Despite their size, five people are supposed to sit across each row of seats (technically there are four seats, two on one side, one on the other side and one that folds down to block the aisle). Of course, many people are packed standing in the front where the seats end. My favorite part of the Gua gua is the “cobrador” who is the guy who rides in the doorway, announcing the route to all and any who are listening. To us it seems like every cobrador who passes is trying to convince us to get on, even when we know that is not the route we want. When the bus fills, he leans over everyone, making things very uncomfortable, so that he can collect everyone's money. Our cobrador today packed as many people as he possibly could in the car. Some refused to get on, but he didn't get the hint, and at the next stop he would try to pack more people on.
We were riding with some other volunteers who had to get off before us, they had gotten on first, and were thus in the the very back, but they had to get off before the rest of the people in the front (and there is only one door—in the front). When they announced that they had to get off, everyone started grumbling a bit, people had to get off and lift up their seats, and others had to step out of the gua gua, to let our friends off. Then something so organized happened that it took me by surprise: everybody was yelling that those going to Pina (I'm assuming the last stop) should move to the back, and when we told them where we had to go, they told us to move to the front a bit. There were several ladies looking after us, making sure the cobrador knew when we needed to get off, and telling us where to sit down (we had gotten up and were falling all over people because we were standing while the bus was moving, trying to get to the front). The fact that everybody had their own collective system, without the rules posted or noted anywhere, was something I had never seen in public transportation in other places (In Buenos Aires people would push each other and jump in through windows to get a good seat). I was also touched (though it was probably normal) that some of the older ladies took care of us and made sure we were all right.
No comments:
Post a Comment