This was my first time in Santo Domingo. I speak VERY basic Spanish and I didnt really know anyone in the city but I decided to volunteer at an orphanage (Villa Bendicion - VB) after months of research. I did not go through a volunteer agency…I decided to try and do things on my own so I contacted the orphanage directly (using an online English and Spanish translation site!), booked my flight and made my way to SD!
I arrived in SD on February 2nd and was looking forward to my month-long stay. I knew that the trip wouldn’t be as smooth as one would hope and that I would encounter a few challenges along the way and boy, was right
aranoid:! After spending 4 hours at the airport trying to track down my luggage (without success!), I ended up heading to my hotel on El Conde (the Mercure) via a publico, yes a publico :surprised. Fortunately, I knew a local who picked me up from the airport and exposed me to my first taste of SD public transportation. The publico looked like a broken down van that should have been in a junk yard instead of on the road taking 10 people from the airport to the center of the city but it was interesting to say the least!
I arrived on El Conde with my hopes high. I was assured by Delta Air that my luggage would be delivered to my hotel the very next day. I had 2 large suitcases that mostly contained school supplies and clothing that I had brought for the orphanage.The Mercure was a good starting point for me. The location was excellent and though it could get loud in the evenings and I was constantly hassled by street vendors and shoe shine boys, it was a good place to start my first trip to SD and let’s face it, the noise of the city, the vendors and shoe shine boys are all part of the experience!
My next priority was to find an apartment…my intention wasn’t to volunteer at an orphanage for a month and stay at a hotel the whole time! With the help of a friend, I ended up renting an apartment in Bella Vista. It was nothing fancy but it was minutes from the mall and it looked to be in a relatively safe area. After the contract was notarized, cash and keys changed hands and the apartment was mine…or so I thought. Later that same evening (before the ink on the contract had even dried), my friend received a call from the landlady I was renting an apartment from. She asked that he pass along a message to me. The message being that if her boyfriend came by the apartment I was renting, I wasn’t to let him in. I know what you’re thinking…WHAT aranoid:? Why would her boyfriend come to an apartment that I was renting and why would I let him in?? Apparently, her boyfriend had a bit of a gambling problem and may have had some issues in the past with him approaching tenants for money or asking that he get in the apartment to get the TV that needed to be “fixed” (aka pawned).
Needless to stay, as a young female travelling on my own and didn’t feel comfortable living in an apartment where the landlady’s boyfriend might knock on my door or wait for me to come home to extort money or take items in the apartment so I decided not to stay there. Of course, by the time I made that decision, the $700 USD I gave her for rent was already spent and all she had left was my $150 deposit. I may have been just another gullible tourist that got scammed in some way but me feeling safe was way more important to me than $700 so I ended up losing that money and despite the landlady telling me that she would give me half my money back when she rented the apartment again, I (surprisingly) didn’t hear back from her by the time I left :cross-eye
I should also mention that by this time I was in SD for 3 days and still didn’t receive my luggage from the airline despite the fact that they confirmed that it had arrived at SDQ but that they didn’t have time to deliver it :tired: When I called the local Delta Air baggage office, I was told to call back later and when I did no one ever answered!
As you can imagine, being that I was alone in an unfamiliar city and really didn’t know anyone, I was frustrated and feeling pretty vulnerable and I definitely wasn’t in the mood to find another apartment especially since many renters weren’t willing to rent to someone for (at that time) less than a month. Fortunately, the kids at the orphanage kept me going and just when I thought that I was about to give up, I received a call from a couple of guardian angels I met on my second day in the city. Their names were Elizabeth and Eduardo from the Coco Boutique Hotel in the Zona Colonial. They helped me find accomodations and they always took the time watch over me and make sure I was safe…they are amazing people!
So after my accommodations were taken care of and my luggage FINALLY arrived (on my 4th day in SD!) things started to look up. I was able to focus more on the kids at VB and I started teaching basic English to 6-8 year old kids at Biblos school. I loved it!! The kids were amazing, the staff were incredibly patient with me being that I don’t speak Spanish and there is nothing like having kids run up to you every morning with big smiles on their faces and charging at you for hugs. I spent my time teaching, helping with school work, feeding the kids and basically working as a teaching assistant. It was amazing! Being with the kids everyday was the first time in a long time I felt completely content with how I spent my days. I got addicted to how great I felt being around kids that were so happy and always full of energy and smiles. It is incredible to me how some of the orphans had the most wonderful spirits. They always had smiles on their faces and they were always happy just to be at the receiving end of a hug. It helped me realize how spoiled I was when I was growing up (and how spoiled I am now) and how much these kids make the most out of the little they have. These are some truly extraordinary kids!
As my 2nd week in SD rolled around, I definitely started to feel like I got my bearings in. I slowly made friends and the vendors and shoe shine boys who bugged me relentlessly during my first week stopped. They may have realized that I wasnt a typical (resort) tourist and after that first week, they would often greet me in the morning with “hola” and “buen dia” as I made my way to the orphanage and school each morning. Despite not having luggage for 4 days and losing money on an apartment, I started to feel really good about being in SD on my own. I got used to eating by myself, exploring the city on my own and I even made friends with the people working at the El Conde patio restaurant, the staff at Paco’s, Lucy who works at the billiard hall at Plaza Central, other great locals and 2 gals from the UK who were also volunteering at Biblos.
By my 3rd week…I was absolutely dreading coming home. As much as I missed my family and friends, I loved being in SD. I had bonded with so many of the children and made some great friends within a short period of time. I had grown to enjoy every aspect of living in the Zona Colonial (though Im sure had I lived in another area my experience would have been completely different) and I even got used to the annoying cat calls while walking down El Conde! By my 2nd week I had mastered the art of pretending I didn’t hear them or that I didn’t know what some people were saying. Some days I would just put my sunglasses and ipod on, ignore all the comments, stroll the strip, enjoy and take it all in.
Before I left for my trip, I got a lot of advice from family, friends and fellow DR1’ers (especially bigbird and theforceinme) so THANK YOU! As a young female travelling alone who doesn’t speak the language my best advice is to use your common sense and be smart about where you go and who you go with. The best advice I received was “be nice to everyone but trust no one”aranoid:
By the end of my trip, I realized that had the apartment not fallen through and had my first few days not been as stressful as they were, I would have never met some of the amazing people I did. I also learned that if you are sincere and genuine, people you meet along the way will go out of their way to help you just as you would for them.
THANK YOU to all the wonderful people in Santo Domingo and the kids and staff at VB and Biblos who made my trip so memorable. I have a lifetime of amazing memories!!
Adi?s para ahora!
Sascha
I arrived in SD on February 2nd and was looking forward to my month-long stay. I knew that the trip wouldn’t be as smooth as one would hope and that I would encounter a few challenges along the way and boy, was right
aranoid:! After spending 4 hours at the airport trying to track down my luggage (without success!), I ended up heading to my hotel on El Conde (the Mercure) via a publico, yes a publico :surprised. Fortunately, I knew a local who picked me up from the airport and exposed me to my first taste of SD public transportation. The publico looked like a broken down van that should have been in a junk yard instead of on the road taking 10 people from the airport to the center of the city but it was interesting to say the least!I arrived on El Conde with my hopes high. I was assured by Delta Air that my luggage would be delivered to my hotel the very next day. I had 2 large suitcases that mostly contained school supplies and clothing that I had brought for the orphanage.The Mercure was a good starting point for me. The location was excellent and though it could get loud in the evenings and I was constantly hassled by street vendors and shoe shine boys, it was a good place to start my first trip to SD and let’s face it, the noise of the city, the vendors and shoe shine boys are all part of the experience!
My next priority was to find an apartment…my intention wasn’t to volunteer at an orphanage for a month and stay at a hotel the whole time
! With the help of a friend, I ended up renting an apartment in Bella Vista. It was nothing fancy but it was minutes from the mall and it looked to be in a relatively safe area. After the contract was notarized, cash and keys changed hands and the apartment was mine…or so I thought. Later that same evening (before the ink on the contract had even dried), my friend received a call from the landlady I was renting an apartment from. She asked that he pass along a message to me. The message being that if her boyfriend came by the apartment I was renting, I wasn’t to let him in. I know what you’re thinking…WHAT aranoid:? Why would her boyfriend come to an apartment that I was renting and why would I let him in?? Apparently, her boyfriend had a bit of a gambling problem and may have had some issues in the past with him approaching tenants for money or asking that he get in the apartment to get the TV that needed to be “fixed” (aka pawned). Needless to stay, as a young female travelling on my own and didn’t feel comfortable living in an apartment where the landlady’s boyfriend might knock on my door or wait for me to come home to extort money or take items in the apartment so I decided not to stay there. Of course, by the time I made that decision, the $700 USD I gave her for rent was already spent and all she had left was my $150 deposit. I may have been just another gullible tourist that got scammed in some way but me feeling safe was way more important to me than $700 so I ended up losing that money and despite the landlady telling me that she would give me half my money back when she rented the apartment again, I (surprisingly) didn’t hear back from her by the time I left :cross-eye
I should also mention that by this time I was in SD for 3 days and still didn’t receive my luggage from the airline despite the fact that they confirmed that it had arrived at SDQ but that they didn’t have time to deliver it :tired: When I called the local Delta Air baggage office, I was told to call back later and when I did no one ever answered!
As you can imagine, being that I was alone in an unfamiliar city and really didn’t know anyone, I was frustrated and feeling pretty vulnerable and I definitely wasn’t in the mood to find another apartment especially since many renters weren’t willing to rent to someone for (at that time) less than a month. Fortunately, the kids at the orphanage kept me going and just when I thought that I was about to give up, I received a call from a couple of guardian angels I met on my second day in the city. Their names were Elizabeth and Eduardo from the Coco Boutique Hotel in the Zona Colonial. They helped me find accomodations and they always took the time watch over me and make sure I was safe…they are amazing people!
So after my accommodations were taken care of and my luggage FINALLY arrived (on my 4th day in SD!) things started to look up. I was able to focus more on the kids at VB and I started teaching basic English to 6-8 year old kids at Biblos school. I loved it!! The kids were amazing, the staff were incredibly patient with me being that I don’t speak Spanish and there is nothing like having kids run up to you every morning with big smiles on their faces and charging at you for hugs. I spent my time teaching, helping with school work, feeding the kids and basically working as a teaching assistant. It was amazing! Being with the kids everyday was the first time in a long time I felt completely content with how I spent my days. I got addicted to how great I felt being around kids that were so happy and always full of energy and smiles. It is incredible to me how some of the orphans had the most wonderful spirits. They always had smiles on their faces and they were always happy just to be at the receiving end of a hug. It helped me realize how spoiled I was when I was growing up (and how spoiled I am now
) and how much these kids make the most out of the little they have. These are some truly extraordinary kids!As my 2nd week in SD rolled around, I definitely started to feel like I got my bearings in. I slowly made friends and the vendors and shoe shine boys who bugged me relentlessly during my first week stopped. They may have realized that I wasnt a typical (resort) tourist and after that first week, they would often greet me in the morning with “hola” and “buen dia” as I made my way to the orphanage and school each morning. Despite not having luggage for 4 days and losing money on an apartment, I started to feel really good about being in SD on my own. I got used to eating by myself, exploring the city on my own and I even made friends with the people working at the El Conde patio restaurant, the staff at Paco’s, Lucy who works at the billiard hall at Plaza Central, other great locals and 2 gals from the UK who were also volunteering at Biblos.
By my 3rd week…I was absolutely dreading coming home. As much as I missed my family and friends, I loved being in SD. I had bonded with so many of the children and made some great friends within a short period of time. I had grown to enjoy every aspect of living in the Zona Colonial (though Im sure had I lived in another area my experience would have been completely different) and I even got used to the annoying cat calls while walking down El Conde! By my 2nd week I had mastered the art of pretending I didn’t hear them or that I didn’t know what some people were saying. Some days I would just put my sunglasses and ipod on, ignore all the comments, stroll the strip, enjoy and take it all in.
Before I left for my trip, I got a lot of advice from family, friends and fellow DR1’ers (especially bigbird and theforceinme) so THANK YOU! As a young female travelling alone who doesn’t speak the language my best advice is to use your common sense and be smart about where you go and who you go with. The best advice I received was “be nice to everyone but trust no one”
aranoid: By the end of my trip, I realized that had the apartment not fallen through and had my first few days not been as stressful as they were, I would have never met some of the amazing people I did. I also learned that if you are sincere and genuine, people you meet along the way will go out of their way to help you just as you would for them.
THANK YOU to all the wonderful people in Santo Domingo and the kids and staff at VB and Biblos who made my trip so memorable. I have a lifetime of amazing memories!!
Adi?s para ahora!
Sascha
