Yesterday was my second day off. My spanish is still not great, so I was very nervous about going into town by myself, but really wanted some time away from MJ and the nearly empty house. I asked Lesly to call a taxi for a ride to the beach. He had the day off also, so he said he might meet up with me later. I was nervous about riding into town with a stranger who I can barely communicate with. I have been to Cabarete a few times now, once with my family in December, and then last Saturday night when the whole debacle with the car happened. So I knew I would be more comfortable when I made it there safely.
The taxi driver's english was as good as my spanish, so we were able to use our Spanglish and communicate pretty well. His name was Miguel, and he only had 4 fingers on one hand. He joked about his wife cutting it off when she was mad at him. Haha, was nice to have a few laughs to get rid of my nerves. He dropped me off at the bank in town and asked when I'd like to be picked up. Because I dont have a phone here, I couldnt call for a ride. We agreed he would pick me up around 2 o'clock at the same place.
I got to the beach and had a pancake breakfast. Then parked it on my lounge chair to enjoy the sun! I had my book and sunscreen, I was set!! Was nice to relax, but weird to be on the beach alone. Lesly did come around 1:00, so we sat and talked for a little while! Its tough when neither one of us know much of eachother's language. He speaks Creole, I speak English, and both speak a little Spanish. You have to get creative with hand gestures and word choice thats for sure!
One of the things I'm finding amazing is how quickly the locals pick up on other languages! I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and can barely remember any of it. They'll tell me a word and I can repeat it 5-6 times, and still not remember it very shortly after. If they ask me how to say something, even FULL sentences, I'll tell them once, and they will remember it completely! And many of the zip line guys are Haitan, so they speak Creole, Spanish, English, some of them French and more! Sure makes me feel like a stupid American!!
Anyway, back to the beach! At 2:30, it started to rain so we packed up and headed back to the bank. Miguel, the taxi driver, was there waiting! He gave Lesly a ride back to Sosua and took me back to MJ! The day was great! I showered and laid down for a nap.
When I woke up I went down the apartments to play some Dominoes with the zip line guys! This has become a nightly thing! Not much else to do, so I'm getting pretty good at Dominoes!
Anyway, not much else to share for now!
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