Let's NOT walk for cancer

Oh boy. That was not what I expected.

So today was the "Caminantes por la vida" walk for cancer held in Santo Domingo. I believe it was the 3rd annual, and thousands of people showed up. A friend in the Peace Corps was going with a good chunk of the people in

her town nearby, so she invited me to tag along. They were going to be leaving suuuper early on Sunday morning because the walk "started" at 9 (Dominican read: some indefinite time in the morning) so I spent Saturday night with her.

Saturday afternoon she had to be present at the opening of the library in her town, which she played a big role in making happen. I've never been to a serious official ceremony here, so that was interesting to watch. We sang the national anthem and a priest was called on to give a blessing and pour out holy water (which looked pretty much just like a brand new bottle of Dasani from where I was standing). There was an emcee and multiple distinguished guests, all who elaborated on the importance of reading and how this was a significant mom

ent in the history of the town. There were long winded speeches and excessive amounts of applause. The funniest part to me was the emcee who seemed to run out of things to say after a while, and just started reading the library catalogue. "And you can find this book here...and this book here...and this book too!" All the teenage and younger girls choreographed a baton routine, and they looked really good in their coordinated yellow outfits. They definitely did NOT hold auditions, but that was okay because the little ones messing it all up running under legs in the wrong direction at least made up for it in cuteness and laughs.

We surprisingly left on time Sunday morning, and when we got to the capital it was total and utter chaos. We saw the "Salida" sign for the walk, but there was no "Entrada" sign. We figured we should be okay if we just keep following the horde of people pushing forward. A

long the way there were so many walker jams that we just ended up plopping down along the side of the road for an hour here and an hour there because you couldn't move at all. And we had no idea what the hold up was. So we're walking and sitting and sitting and walking. Then we get really confused about where we're supposed to go and if this is even the actual walk itself, because it just looked like a whole bunch of disorganized standing around. Finally I went to ask someone where the Entrada was, because we had tickets to "enter" and had never given them to anybody. The person answered, "Around here" and waved her hand dismissively behind me.

Thank you most unhelpful information booth ever.

We walk around in that general direction and ask a security guy where to go. He finally directs us to the actual walk (what we had been doing earlier had apparently just been milling around). We walk 2 streets and see lots of people chilling drinking Presidente beers at the colmados along the side of the road. We were a little confused by this sight, since it didn't seem like they would've walked a long enough distance by this point to have been so dehydrated and pooped, in desperate need of a break. But we didn't think much of it, since before we had seen people walking and eating empanadas and ice cream and hamburgers and chips that were being sold by vendors making their way through the crowd. So maybe that was just the "way of the walk". An excuse to eat fried food and sit and drink with friends? (Can't find enough of those excuses here already?!) Not really my idea of a healthy "walk against cancer" but hey, different country different ways. We get to the end of the 2nd street and there is a road barricade. We ask the man standing there where to go or turn to keep following the walk path. His response: "But the walk is over". But it's over?!?! When did it start?!?! And more importantly, where did it start?!?! It was just comical really. How did that even happen?! Where was the organization?! 3rd annual means you should've figured it out by now, right?!

In conclusion: I went to Santo Domingo, DR to walk against cancer in honor of my dear neighbor B. A. Parker, and I somehow missed it.

What a fiasco