Back in Washington, Ray Ray shared a house with five other women, four of whom were classmates who began our grad program with us in Bologna. The fifth was a friend of our Bologna classmate, Mike, so, guilt by association. Two of them popped in for a weekend where we attended the annual Marine Ball, explored beaches up north, and came *this* close to adopting a stray dog.
In addition to helping us explore the island (our adventures this time took us to Las Terrenas), our friends attended the annual Marine Ball. Every year around this time, the Marine Corps celebrates its birthday. It’s especially poignant for those of us in embassy communities abroad as the Marines comprise the security guard detachment. In some places, the Dominican Republic among them, it’s not uncommon to have local citizens with dual citizenship that have served as Marines. Having them at this event is a special way to stress the ties between the two countries. Happy birthday, Marine Corps, and ooh-rah!
As I mentioned, we and our guests rented a house in the norther town of Las Terrenas. It’s tucked away in a quiet(er) corner of the coast and has long winding beaches peppered with restaurants and bars along the main east-west road that follows the coastline. The main objective of the weekend: enjoy the beach. Colder weather is steadily moving in up north and our friends wanted another taste of summer. Who can blame them?
During the downtime, we crossed paths with the big fella you see above. Larina and I have talked about adopting a stray dog here and naming it Santo, and possibly making that a tradition of ours wherever we go from here. Before embarking on menagerie building however, I suggested that perhaps this was someone else’s dog. He looks much healthier than 99 percent of street dogs we’ve seen here. The last thing we need is to be accused of kidnapping. Alas, Santo (or whatever its real name is) did not make the trek back to the capitol with us. Maybe next time.
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