Santo Domingo and Santiago

We are staying at a hotel called Bettye's Guest House. She has lots of wonderful art. It is very hostely, 2 rooms with 14 beds and one bathroom and kitchen. It is a little crowded but nice enough, it has tons of art and a lot of fans. Today we are going to visit the first church in the western hemisphere and some other museums and stuff.

The past 2 days we were in Santiago (one night). We as soon as we got there, we met our intern Courtney's friend, Bronwyn. She is a Peace Corps volenteer who is working on health projects in the countryside. We ate lunch at a little rice and beans restaurant and then went to meet her other friend who is volenteering at an organization for boys, ages 10-18, who work or live on the streets. We got a tour of the organization, they provide showers, cheap meals, schooling, games and more for the kids. After that, we took caros (public transportation, little taxis that work like buses) to a barrio (poor community of shacks in the city), where they taught a group of women about values. One activity was putting lots of values in order of importance and it was interesting to see how the women ranked things. I think it's time to go so we will continue this more later. -Manya and Philipe