My trip to Santo Domingo, I lost my wallet

Kreyol La had a superb performance. It was so nice that my wallet was snatched from me and I didn’t even notice.

It was really amazing.

After the performance I was thirsty and I decided to buy a cervesa (a beer). That’s when I realized that my wallet was missing.

I immediately reached in my pocket to see if I still had my passport and my green card.

Yes! I had them!

So I immediately ran back in the crowd to see if I could find my wallet. Within minutes of searching for my wallet I realized that both my passport and my green card were not in my pocket.

I ran over to Raynald Delerme who was with me at the festival to ask him �"Did I give you my passport and green card to hold?”

�"Pa betize ak bagay serye non Woody!” Raynald Delerme said.

I was right next to him when I realized that my wallet was missing.

Suddenly I find myself in the the Dominican Republic with no green card, no passport, no credit card, no drivers license, no money, nothing to identify myself to the Dominican government as a foreign visitor.

I was officially a �"Haitiano illegal”.

Si-w pa jwen paspo-a,” Raynald Delerme said, �"Ou pa-p ka tounnen ayiti non!

I knew I was in trouble. How I lost the passport and Green Card is beyond me.

Now I had a new mission…

Find that passport and the green card.

I combed through the park trying to find that passport. Imagine everyone jumping up and down and me crawling under them trying to find a blue passport in the dark.

15 minutes later… no passport.

I ran back to Raynald Delerme, �"I can’t find it, I said.” Suddenly it started to rain and the crowd begins to leave the stage area.

�"Now is a good time to look,” Raynald Said, �"You better find that passport or you are stuck here. You understand me? Stuck in the Dominican Republic!

As I run back toward the crowd I hear �"Senior! Senior!”

Then I see two Dominicans running towards me. One said �"I see you looking on the floor everywhere, did you loose something? �"

�"Yes,” I said, �"My passport.”

�"I saw you looking and worried,” he said, �"so I looked around me and found this” he hands me my passport.

I hugged this guy so tight you would think he was my long lost brother.

As I say thank you over and over again, I looked inside the passport and… No Green Card!

I run back to Raynald Delerme and handed him the passport.

As I run back into the crowd I start thinking �"How in God’s name am I going to find a tiny little green card in a huge park with thousands of people in the dark?

Half an hour later, I ran to Mia Lopez, begging her to make an announcement on the loud speaker that I lost my green card and my wallet and if anyone found it to bring it to the podium.

I ran back to the floor lifting every piece of card size paper I could find hoping that one of them is my green card.

About an hour later, I abandon my search to run to the bathroom.

I stop by Raynald Delerme's location to let him know that I still have no luck.

As I walk to the bathroom about 50 feet away from the crowd here is my green card laying flat on the floor all covered in mud in plain sight.

I picked it up, cleaned it up, and brought it back to Raynald.

Once I found the green card I stop looking for the wallet. With $200 US in that wallet in a country where the US dollar is worth so many Dominican Pesos I just didn’t think that I would be so lucky.

Why did I loose my wallet? The answer is simple:

I lost my wallet because of a lack of customer service at the hotel Barcelo Lina in Santo Domingo.

Being a tourist in a foreing country I have to drive around with my passport but I had absolutely no need for my wallet.

I thought about that and I waited for almost 45 minutes for a hotel employee to come open the safe for me at in the hotel room.

We made three phone calls to the front desk.., I even went down to the front desk to ask them to open the safe so we could put my wallet, my iPod and my PDA in the safe before going to the festival.

Every time we called they told me �"2 Minutes Sir!”

While I am upset, I am glad I was able to leave Santo Domingo to return to Haiti.

I didn’t let this tragedy ruin my vacation in Santo Domingo though.

The day after the festival, I decided not to go the carnival in downtown Santo Domingo although Haitian racine group AZOR was a guest at the carnival. Instead I decided to spend the entire day with my sister Nirva, my two nieces and my nephew,

Over my entire trip to Santo Domingo was great. I had a wonderful time before, during, and after the festival.

Take look at all the pictures I took at Santo Domingo Konpa Festival.

I will be sure to let you know once they are online.

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