Adventures

I am always going on adventures… some are carefully planned, such as my recent experience whale watching, others just sort of happen, such as the whole suturing thing.

Yes, so I went whale watching. (Those are some pretty cool photos!) The day began in Samana, which is a city located on the Samana Peninsula on the Northeastern part of the country. I went to stay with a friend who lives near the city for 2 nights. She and another volunteer organized the whale watching excursion with a veterinarian from either Canada or the US (we’re not sure which) who now lives in Samana to study the whales and adopts dogs on the side.

Humpback whales! So, we took off on a yacht, and though it rained and the water was quite choppy, quite a few of us from PC turned out (give us a discount on anything and we’ll be there in large numbers). I brought both cameras to get photographs and video from the day, and while I’m so glad to have had my lovely camera, and awesome, big lens, I realized at the end of the day that I really didn’t get to see the whales too much because of my dedication to taking photos of them. I know I’m just a novice, so considering that I did get some pretty cool photos, but nothing that Time or Life magazines will want to buy. Still, it was incredible to see these huge animals so close up, and I get to be the one who took the good photos that day. We saw three whales.

I didn’t get seasick, which made me proud. We were out at sea for about 1.5 hours and then had to go in because of the waves. We got dropped off on an island not far from the city which on any other day would have been like a Caribbean dream. As it turns out, it was incredibly windy, so when we spread out on the beach, we got covered with sand. Instead we opted for the enclosed restaurants towards the center of the island. After a few hours we headed in for the safety of my friend’s house where we braved the rain.

It continued to rain all week, keeping me in Santiago on my way home from Samana. Two people died in a landslide not too far from where I live, and very close to where a few of my friends live. When I finally got back to my site, the sun was out, and I was done travelling, which was a very great feeling. (Sometimes a person just wants to sleep in their own bed with their dog at their side.)

That night my mom called with some very happy news: my grant received another donation in the amount of $1000, leaving me with just $276. Another family friend donated $200, so now there’s just $76 left to be raised before I can get the money to begin construction on the stoves. I cannot begin to tell you how good it feels to be me when I get news like that. It’s like how you feel when you donate to a charity you really believe in, plus how you feel when you’re the one that solicited the donations for this great charity, plus how you feel when you live inside the charity. See how it’s hard to explain?