new news
Hello all. Sorry it’s been so long since my last update. I’ve been waiting to get internet in my apartment but it’s taking longer than expected due to a number of cock-ups along the way, as is usually the case in this country. As a result, I’m still waiting for news from my friends at Verizon on that front. Anyway, I’m taking advantage to give you an update now as I’m at Christelle’s with the laptop and wireless internet at my disposal.
On the Friday of my first week back at school, Christelle’s dog gave birth to eleven cute-looking puppies. After running a few errands, I rushed over to see the youngsters but unfortunately they had all popped out by the time I got there. Anyhow, I got some great photos of them (which, once again, I will post when I have my camera and some new batteries).
Last weekend I went quading in the fields with Christelle and co. It all started well but we ran into trouble when the smaller of the two quads was rendered unusable due to a problem with the chain. We stopped for a bite to eat and a swim in the river and set off again for home. Christelle drove the big quad which towed the small one. I was given the job of steering it while the rest of the family followed close behind in the car. Little did I know at the time that Philippe had asked Christelle to purposefully drive through every possible puddle to make my trip home as muddy and uncomfortable as possible (ha-ha-ha…).
The first puddle was all well and good. When we approached the second puddle I started to feel a little anxious. At this point I was covered in mud and thoroughly pissed off, much to the amusement of the others. I told Christelle that if she drove through another puddle I would jump off to save myself from another shower of mud. As we approached the third puddle, I was convinced that she would take me straight through it – this, apparently, is not true as she was simply avoiding a bump in the road. However, I was expecting another drenching and thought that at 20km/hour it would be perfectly safe to make a break for it by jumping. I jumped in quite a controlled and effective way and landed on both feet but because it’s been a while since I’ve had a physics lesson, I forgot that the laws of motion would cause me to keep moving at the same speed as we were going before my leap for safety. Upon landing I was forced forward and forced to run in order to keep my balance. Unfortunately I didn’t run fast enough and fell. I grazed the palms of my hands and my thigh. Apart from that I was fine but not in a good enough state to keep going on the quad. Philippe offered to take the small quad and I drove the car. Five minutes later the small quad had a puncture and we had to pump it up temporarily to get ourselves home. We eventually got home in one piece.
Back at school all is well. Today was “La marcha de Juan Pablo Duarte” (have a look on Wikipedia for his life story). The kids made little speeches and had a sing song to celebrate the occasion. I took lots of photos and everyone had a good time.
Battery life is low, gotta go.
NOTE: Excuse the embarrassing amount of spelling mistakes and typos in the previous version of this post. Here is the new and improved revision.
plane plight
After an enjoyable and relaxing two weeks in Belgium, I’m back in the D.R. It was very nice to see you all again and I’m sorry I couldn’t stay longer or at least leave at a more convenient time. Leaving at 3am on new year’s eve is, to say the least, a pain in the ass.
My flight from Brussels to the D.R. went smoothly until our stopover in Puerto Plata (final destination Punta Cana) where the plane experienced technical difficulties. At first we were allowed to stay on the plane as they tried to solve the problem but after an hour or so they announced that we should get off and wait in the airport terminal while they addressed the as yet unknown technical issue preventing us from taking off again. I can’t say I was surprised by the delay given that it was a cheap Jetair flight and especially after my recent transatlantic travelling troubles.
Following a two hour wait in the airport terminal in which we were given no information whatsoever as to what the problem was and when we might be allowed to board the flight again, they announced that the flight had been cancelled and that we should go downstairs to collect our luggage.
I found my case amongst a swarm of disgruntled Belgian tourists, many of whom had complaining youngsters to deal with. Having collected our luggage we all made a lunge at the Jetair rep dealing with our predicament. The poor woman had no one to help her and spent a good hour dealing with four hundred plus passengers on a case by case basis. Most wanted to go to Punta Cana but a surprising number wanted to go elsewhere (myself included). Those with very young kids were demanding to stay the night in a hotel and travel to Punta Cana the following day. All in all everybody seemed to have a different agenda and the woman was overwhelmed with complaints, requests and accusations as if it was her fault that our flight had been delayed.
After much waiting around I decided to go outside and check how much a cross-country taxi would cost. The sign by the waiting area claimed an exorbitant 8000 pesos but after much negotiation (in my best Spanish) with the woman in charge I got the price down to 6500 pesos. However, i decided this was still a rip-off and went back to the rep for any news on the bus they were trying to arrange that would drive us accross the country to where we wanted to go. I decided to take the bus and we left an hour later. The drive lasted six hours and I finally arrived in La Romana at 11pm.
Today, by pure chance or cosmic coincidence, I came across a Belgian news site that had an article about a delayed flight at Zaventem. As i read, I realised the flight in question sounded strangely like the one I’d been on just a few days earlier. The article describes a delayed Jetair flight coming from the Dominican Republic that got a rabbit stuck in on of its engines. The passengers in Brussels had been waiting two days for their flight to arrive.
I am pretty convinced that the plane described in the article is the one I was on because during my wait in the airport terminal I saw technicians opening up the right-hand jet engine for inspection – suggesting, of course, that there was problem somewhere in there. I also noticed the pilot showing the fight crew something stuck in the engine but at the time I couldn’t tell what that thing was. I have a photo which I will post next time I have my camera with me.
Here is the link to the article.
