The dueling iguanas

Greetings from the Caribbean! I arrived in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and am still trying to adjust to the heat and humidity here. It is quite an adjustment from the mild Pacific Northwest. I have spent the past couple of days meeting with my colleagues in the National Office, in Santo Domingo, and visiting some of our projects in various parts of the country. It has been a great couple of days! It was wonderful to spend time with my colleagues in the DR and to see the amazing work being done in the rural communities. I always return from these trips encouraged by what I see!

Today we visited an ADP, which is World Vision lingo for Area Development Program, located near to the border with Haiti. On our way to the ADP we stoped to stretch our legs at a small nature preserve that protected an area set aside for some of the islands iguanas. Very interesting! Stephanie reads a cleaver book to her students each year called I Wanna Iguana, but after today I think the book should be re-titled to "I Neva Wanna Iguana!" They are not particularly pleasant creatures, at least from my twenty-minute observations. Why do some people keep these things as pets? Some of these iguanas that I saw were at least three to four feet in length and can run faster than me (NOT KIDDING!!). They are very agressive and don't strike me as "pet" material. Maybe the brief clip above will give you an idea. Sorry to all of you iguana lovers out there.

We crossed the border into Haiti this afternoon and made the two hour trip to Port au Prince, where we will spend the next two nights. Tomorrow, I get to sleep in and relax and Monday we will have meetings with the staff in the National Office. Tuesday we are taking a small plane and flying to the north coast to visit an ADP. We have to fly because the roads are too bad.

I have only been in Haiti for about four or five hours now and I can tell you this country is very different than any country I have visited to date. People make comparisons to Africa, but since I have yet to travel to Africa it is hard for me to confirm this comparision. From what I know about Africa, and the pictures I have seen, I would say this is an accurate comparison. It would be hard for me to even put into words how unique this country is in almost every way. I will try to do one more posting, with pictures, before departing on Tuesday. Until then.