The Dominican Republic was awesome. I was in Santo Domingo mostly but took a day trip to Santiago de los Caballeros. Santiago de los Caballeros is about 2.5hrs by bus from Santo Domingo and the city is very rich in Arts and Culture. I visited lots of Arts Exhibitions.

In Santo Domingo, I stayed 10mins walking distance from the zona colonial and again I enjoyed being close to the colonial zone. My host was great and I felt like a part of the family. I didn’t do lots of touristy stuff here; I just hung out with the locals and immersed myself in the culture.

This meant that I attended classes with my host at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), I took the guagua (public transport) and went to a local discoteca.

One of the highlights from this trip was people’s perception of me. A lot of people thought I was Haitian and others thought I was from the Dominican Republic. Below is a glimpse of conversation directed to me on a daily…

On the streets of Santo Domingo:

Man: speaking to me in Haitian Creole

Me: looking dumb because I don’t understand

Man: (in Spanish), why are you pretending you are not Haitian. You should be proud of your country

Me: am not Haitian, Am from NIGERIA.

Man: stop lying! You look like my sister, how can you be from Africa?

Me: hmm am not lying. Am really not from Haiti

————-I was introduced to some groups of kids as a visitor in the country

School girl: How can you be visiting your own country? Oh, you are one of those Dominicans that live in NY who thinks they are Americans?

Me: but am not from here, am from Nigeria.

School girl: I don’t believe you. You just look like you are from here. Look at the way you are dressed, just like you are from here.

………………..This type of experience was an everyday occurrence.

Another highlight was meeting up with a Nigerian in Santo Domingo 🙂