Travelling and learning about new places

I’m so excited about going to the Domincan Republic. I’m reading everything about its history and culture. I want to know about the island. When I was initially asked to go, I just thought I’d sit on the beach and finish writing the first draft of my novel. But I started ordering books on the country and studying its geography. There are no travel warnings, however there were some safety warnings about traveling around the country. I relegated my vacation to staying at the resort. But after reading the books I got (see below) I have to go travel around and hike and dance the merengue. I want to experience everything there. Rory is a big baseball fan so I suppose we will go see baseball games somewhere. (He can do the research for that)

The two books I’m reading are Why The Cocks Fight; Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola

"Like two roosters in a fighting arena, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are encircled by barriers of geography and poverty. They co-inhabit the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but their histories are as deeply divided as their cultures: one French-speaking and black, one Spanish-speaking and mulatto. …. Wucker addresses are the role of geography as a barrier, European settlement, slave revolts, the role of the sugar industry and the experience of Dominican and Haitian immigrants in the U.S. …"

And

The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph

Twelve-year-old Ana Rosa is a blossoming writer growing up in the Dominican Republic, a country where words are feared. Yet there is so much inspiration all around her -- watching her brother search for a future, learning to dance and to love, and finding out what it means to be part of a community -- that Ana Rosa must write it all down. As she struggles to find her own voice and a way to make it heard, Ana Rosa realizes the power of her words to transform the world around her -- and to transcend the most unthinkable of tragedies