Joy & Pain

Photo: Juan Montan

Today is a day for counting our blessings. Especially as I now read about what happened in Jamaica, and what is expected for Mexico, and possibly Texas. The Dominican Republic has not sustained a direct hit from a hurricane since Hurricane George, in 1998, which devastated the island. We really dodged a bullet.

While we here on the island were on hurricane watch, Marcos Diaz, the Dominican swimming world record-holder, swam around Manhattan. TWICE. All for a good cause. The swim was to benefit children with leukemia in the Dominican Republic, at the Robert Reid Cabral Children's Hospital in the capital of Santo Domingo. You can see Marco's final moments in the water here.

Congratulations to Marcos Diaz. He is an amazing athlete.

Now, for the part with pain.

When the hurricane was approaching the DR, many people went down to the Caribbean Sea to see the ferociousness of the waves and surf. When the waves would hit, they would bring up some crabs, who were scurrying about. Many people were scrambling to pick them up. One person, Daniel Sentil, a 16 year-old Haitian kid, was looking for crabs on the rocks, and either fell in, or was swept away into the sea. There is a video of it on YouTube. But be forewarned, it is disturbing.

So again, as I count my blessings, my heart goes out to the family of Daniel Sentil.

There is disagreement about whether something like this should be shown, or not, on YouTube.

You be the judge:

Hurricane Dean

It is 4:42am as I write this, and we have dodged a bullet. Actually, besides a little light rain and the Malecon (seaside boulevard) being closed, you wouldn't know that there was a hurricane passing. Okay, you could tell that the waves were very agitated and strong. Huge rocks were being knocked loose, and sometimes the storm surge would spill in the streets. Otherwise, we have been blessed and spared. Since I have lived here, we have been blessed with not having any direct hits from hurricanes. This time was no different.

I know this will not always be the case.

Hurricane-a-comin

Read on DR1.com that there was no curfew tonight, so I was ready to go shake my shimmy. But someone forgot to tell the business owners, because everything still closed at 2am. Maybe they rescinded the order because a hurricane is a comin.

It is 3:53am as I write this. Not raining, nada. Just checked the warnings, but the eye is passing well below the Dominican Republic. But, this is a category 4 storm, with winds of 150 m.p.h., so we're expecting a lot of rain, and I would guess some wind.

Went to the supermarket, and I'm ready for whatever is coming. Let me go batten down the hatches.

Until soon,
The Monaga Blogger