Dominican Republic Part 5

We arrived back and went to help with an AISEIC meeting. Despite not being a member, myself and Mathias (this is the link for his photo website of Dominican Republic by the way www.dominicansights.com) decided to do some recruting and collecting of e-mails for ourselves along the way. We managed to collect 70 odd e-mails for the organisation and a couple for ourselves so it was a job well done. As it was a posh university, so Jose informs me (a lot of very good looking people) we were able to do the selling in English. Afterwards we went to a neighbourhood that was supposedly quite rough (but looked ok) and dropped off a letter for Jose's aunt regarding his hopeful upcoming internship.

The next day I went back to the Passport Office for D-Day 2. It turned out I was still a German, as I was defeated again and the useless fucks still would not give me any more information. So after sorting out my card fraud I phoned the Mexico City UK embassy to find out what was happening. The guy was really efficient (unlike his colleagues) and found out it had been printed 5 days ago (but noone had bothered to post it). Fucking useless. I would then find out they only posted it the next day in the evening once the same guy eventually gave me the DHL tracking number for the parcel. DHL even managed to miss the plane the passport was intended for (fuckwits) and with the wednesday and the following monday bank holidays, it would have to arrive on friday for me to go to Haiti over the weekend. For some reason it missed a plane and then went to Wilmington, Ohio (I thought it was in Delware). What it was doing up there is anyones guess, but it stayed there for a day. Must be a good place to hangout. So after Mexico City took 6 days to post it, DHL missed a plane, got stuck in Ohio and then was scuppered by a bank holiday and a weekend. It would be 13 days now minimum with no guarantees. Good to see DHL took 6 times as long as UPS. I know who I will use from now on. One saved me from starving, the others are fuckwits of the highest order. After sorting this crap I listened to Obama's inauguration speech (which was much better when read than when listened too). I thought it did what it needed to and have been quietly happy with the new administration so far. Just been reading Foreign Policy magazine and they had a special on think tanks. Think I will apply to go and work for one of them at some point in the future. Especially if they have one in a funky US state. I found an English bookstore, but it only sold baby books and sex books. Obviously we have a prolific island expat community. You figure they don't need the latter if they have a need for the former, or maybe the latter has been so successful the former was created as a follow up. We did some more AISEIC work in the evening and then headed to La Venezuela where one of the Colombian dudes was sick after smoking and we did some more drinking before the burger salesman tried to charge me just under 6 quid for a burger. Retard.

I woke up in the afternoon the next day. My days were spent now meandering around town and sorting stuff out and the evenings were spent drinking. Went to the supermarket and picked up a copy of Anna Karenina (reading now) and 4 american classics (includes huck funn which I have already read, but I love Twain so may reread it). We went to a couchsurfer names Alina'a place for drinking and a Mexican themed night. Was a good crowd. Laura had invited me and we clicked well. There was a lot of tequila drinking, philosophy and I ended up in a strong debate on women's rights, immigration and politics with the chef for the evening. It was a good night that flew by in the drinking and debating. Joe turned up, then Alina's sister (who had just been at a poker game with Joe an hour earlier). Alina's other sister had been interviewed by us for AISEIC a few days back as well. Santo Domingo really was a small place.

I popped into the embassy to be told I had no passport again (This was when I got hold of the DHL tracking codes). Also I was having a few problems with the local language. I kept speaking Spanish to the locals and they kept not understanding anything I had said. Very frustrating. We helped out at AISEIC again and then went to Joe's place and had dinner there. Guantanamo to be closed inside a year. Good news. Found an Englishmans blog for getting through the northern border into Haiti as Lonely Planet has nothing on it. Seemed doable and I was only going to have a couple of days left now. Wanted to see the north more than Port Au Prince. The G7 were to discuss the weak pound. Great maybe they can execute Gordon Brown. Since then it has revived from 1.36 to 1.46 as at the time of writing. Come on!!! Its the revival we've all been waiting for. The pound rolling on the ropes like Ali, before it comes back to knock Frazier dollars block off.

The morning came and the parcel was still in Ohio. It would be tuesday now. I had walked into town and was killing time now as I seemed to walk the same road past the same buildings every day. We met Jose's uncles for some drinks and I struggled through with the best Spanish I could muster. In the evening we met Laura for her friends birthday in a posh bar in the middle of town. The beers were 3 pounds each for a small one (London prices) and the bald bouncer would not let me approach the bar (even though everyone else did later). Laura had the thankless task of teaching me merengue (I sucked appropriately) and we stayed drinking before turfing in for the night.

We woke up really late again and headed out to meet Alina and Laura at Nubar but it was shut due to poor plumbing. The bank informed me they want to speak to me. Turns out they won't change my address or sort out the fraud without proof of address, so had to organise that through my dad on the other side of the Atlantic. We grabbed some cheap cocktails in TGI Fridays and then went for some Mexican food, where Juan joined us as well as Alina's Russian friend. Afterwards we all headed for the bar Doubles in the old town. Jose's brother was there as well and treated the crowd to one of the renditions they used to do from the hotel work over in the east. Jose ended up bump and grinding with the Belarussian girl, I danced with Laura with a variety of styles (most of which I was not impressive in) and a few groups of us merged together for a good night of dancing and drinking. On the way back Jose's brother stopped off at a burger place where we grabbed some food before calling it a night.

I made a note of the bands Aventura and Omega as they seemed to play the best of the local Dominican stuff. We woke up late again and piled into a rammed Carro de Publico. We headed out to one of the beachses east of the city to join Alina, Laura and Elena (Alina's sister). We hung out in the water for a while and then went back to Alina's briefly where we played ball with the dog. Then we headed into the city centre for a falafal bar (but I dont really like falafals that much so opted not to eat). Back in Jose's neighbourhood his team had successfully won the baseball championship and so the whole neighbourhood was out celebrating. Music blaring everywhere, people dancing, flags waving and cars and bikes ploughing through the streets with corregated iron slates and oil drums tied to the back for effect. Around the street celebrations we headed to a pool hall. I lost twice to Jose's brothers friend and then between us we cained everyone else we played, because most of the other players sucked. Most of them could pot, but almost noone could position. A fault that Judas used to point out in my game.

In the morning we got up and headed out to a hotel that had its own pool. We played some water volleyball (Dominicans v Colombians/British). We won the first game and were robbed by some dodgy officiating in the second one lol. It was a good time though and then we played many games of UNO in Spanish. In the evening I decided I fucking hated tostados (well didn't like them anyway) and tomorrow would be D-Day 3. Well probably 5 by that point, but only 3 had been officially recognised. Would I finally get a passport?