Greetings! I am back in San Francisco after a few days on the road with Magale and Nelly and Robert and Nichole and Eva and Doreles and Janelee and Pedro! We visited Magale{s mother and brother and family in a little rural town not even on my Lonely Planet MAP. We stayed in their lovely house. They have a huge farm with guavas, cattle, bananas, plantain, papayas, peppers... of course Magale{s mother had a HUGE feast ready for us. Her beans are the best Ive ever eaten. I just love rice and beans. We picked up a bunch of pork enroute. Same number of people in the car just add STUFF for 10 people. So many mosquitos they would not stop bitingme even even in the middle of the day. so i was coated in OFF the most toxic type i could find.
Probably the highlight of the trip was going to a cock fight training. They train and groom the cocks ¨roosters every day. Yes every day. Magale{s brother has 7 of them at about 5,000 DR dollars or pesos each. divide by 34 so about 150.00 each EACH. they toy with the cocks with another cock and if the trainee gets pecked it gets coated in orange juice . they even give the cocks a type of steroid....amazing. i have photos of all of it. i do plan to go to a cock fight. banned in the USA for good reason. the spurrs are clipped off the cocks and fake ones make of hard plastic or metal are put on about 1 inch long so the birds fight....close to the death. fights are REGULAR occurances every day in fact in the evening and big money is spent on each fight.
I also met a neighbor and her family. her daughter is pregnant, 8 months pregnant at 14 years old. she had a 25 year old boyfriend who promised her...the world and it worked. now she is going to have a baby with no support financially or with a father for the baby and no rules either so no punishment for the man. i visited their basically mud shack next to the river which spilled over within this year and flooded their place. the water was up to their waists. i am going to send Amber a frizbee. we played outside for a longtime and i will try to send her baby girl a present too.
sadly they live in SUCH a rural location that there is NO MAIL. Wow! So I will send it to family in Yonkers, NY to bring when they come.
FinallyI have decided NOT to go to Haiti for a number of reasons but mostly because I am afraid. Usually I do not let fear stop me but I think if and when I do go to Haiti I will go with someone from there OR with an organized trip. Im not keen on organized anything but I dont feel like traveling in fear and the US Govt warning is VERY VERY harsh at the moment and I figured it aint worth it. I thought there would be more families in DR with Haitian workers but much to my dismay there are not.
Take care, Georgie
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