My wife and I are avid golfers. We started playing golf late in our lives. I took up the game when I was 47 years old and my wife took it up at the ripe age of 50. We play several time a week at our local club and enjoy our time together. Over the past eight years, we have taken several vacations, most of which included playing at least one round of golf, if not more.
We recently returned from an eight day vacation in the Dominican Republic. This is the second consecutive year we participated in a three day golf tournament at Playa Grande Golf Club, located just west of the town of Cabrera. Cabrera is on the north coast of the Dominican Republic and is about sixty miles east of the Puerto Plata airport. The airport is small by American standards but its size allows for easy access and egress. Unlike Atlanta's Hartsfield or Miami International airports, the traveler doesn't experience unusually long delays in the Puerto Plata airport.
The flight to the Dominican Republic is just the beginning of an adventurous journey to Hotel La Catalina. The bus ride from the airport to the hotel is unforgettable. The blacktop highway is fraught with numerous potholes which the bus drivers, from experience, know by heart. Throughout the ride, the bus driver slows to a near crawl as he maneuvers the vehicle through the cratered road.
Most Dominican taxis are simply Mopeds or small motorcycles. There are hundreds of taxi drivers, if that's their proper title. They carry as many as four pasengers on their small vehicles and, when not transporting people, they carry unusual cargo. From a daily load of bread for the numerous small stores to large propane tanks, few items are considered unsuitable for the independent taxi drivers. I've seen a Moped driver with an outboard motor strapped to the back seat of a vehicle! The taxis pose a particular obstacle to the bus driver. As the bus approaches a Moped or scooter, the driver toots the horn and without so much as slowing down, passes to the left of the two-wheeled vehicles. As a bus passenger, it's unnerving to watch a Dominican family squeezed onto the back seat of a Moped as our larger vehicle passes. Worse still is to watch as an oncoming tanker truck or other large vehicle passes the motorcycles. The tanker pulls into our lane and swerves back into the other lane just in time to avoid a head on collision with the bus.
There are other obstacles along the trip such as herdsmen guiding a herd of cattle along the road from one meadow to the next. For safety purposes, one of the herdsmen waves a red rag to alert the driver to expect a delay around the next curve. It's an amazing sight for an American to see: 30 - 40 large cattle commanding a main, if not, rural highway. The closest thing to such an event I've experienced is having to slow down on a highway in north Mississippi as a farmer drove his tractor from one cotton field to the next. But the Dominican Republic is a third world country. It shouldn't come as a surprise to the traveler to expect what would be considered an inconvenience in his own country.
One cannot help but notice the poverty along the way. During our first trip to the Dominican Republic in 2006, I was taken aback by the impoverished areas along the highway. Many of the homes were nothing more than shacks compared to what we are accustomed to. Many roofs were topped with what amounted to sandbags. There did not appear to be running water in many. I tried to picture how a family of three or four can live in such structures, many of which couldn't be more than 400 - 500 square feet. How can a people languish in such poverty, I thought. How can we allow this to exist in the 21st century? My wife and I struggled with our feelings last year. We were torn by guilt and felt as if we were intruding on these wonderful but poor people. We didn't think we belonged there. However, after a couple of days, it occurred to us that by vacationing in the Dominican Republic we were actually helping the people, at least those with whom we came in contact. They benefited directly from our presence. In addition, the local commerce benefited when the hotel staff, caddies, etc., earned money to spend locally. Our guilt was finally assuaged. We were foreigners and although we weren't necessarily wealthy, we had so much material wealth compared to many of the Dominicans.
Despite widespread poverty, we respected the Dominican people. They are warm and courteous. Those with whom we came in contact were hard workers, trying their best earn a living and to support their families. In that respect, they are not unlike us. They awake in the morning as most of us do. They go to work as we do. In the evening or whenever their day's work is over they return home to spouse and children. You can't help but admire them.
© December 2007
William Charles
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