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Life is slow on the country roads in the Dominican Republic. “There is an assistant for every assistant,” goes the running joke, but little gets done anyway.

Last Tuesday life changed, literally overnight.

I was in the Dominican Republic with my other half for what was supposed to be a week of fun in the sun when the earthquake struck. That day we walked the coastline, oblivious to the destruction unfolding in Haiti, a 10-hour drive away. That evening, though, all eyes were fixed on the television above the bar at Hotel La Catalina as CNN announced the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the area, and broadcast a tsunami alert for the Dominican Republic and other islands.

We sat, in silence at first, stunned by the scenes unfolding on the screen. Laptops and iPhones lined the counter as guests tried for more information and to contact loved ones elsewhere.

The hotel bar quickly morphed into a Haiti relief headquarters; most of the guests contemplated the role they could and should play in the effort. Stephen and Kathryn Stafford, owners of Manoir Hovey in North Hatley, Que., tried to help a Haitian hotel employee call relatives in Port-au-Prince, and took advantage of the Canadian government's promise to match donations. Despite the feeling of utter helplessness, no one wanted to leave – and as no one knew how to administer medical aid, we dismissed the idea of actually travelling into Haiti to offer assistance.

Sylvie, a Canadian living on the two-nation island, felt the earth shake when the quake struck. “I was sitting at the bar and the table moved, the lights swayed,” she said. Sylvie abandoned her seaside home for higher ground that night, and headed straight to city hall in the tiny town of Cabrera in the morning. “I asked them what the plan was to help Haiti. People started to make phone calls, and within a half hour the town's mayor and council members were on board.”

An island torn apart by a bitter history, the Dominican Republic and Haiti were instantly bound by this natural disaster. An all-day radio marathon hit the airwaves the next morning; the mayor banned music for two days. The local colmados , once thriving hotbeds for merengue and socializing, stood deathly silent as crowds gathered around the tin-roofed shops to mourn – the custom here when someone dies. The flags flew at half mast; the beaches were abandoned.

Cabrera lies on the fringes of poverty along the country's north coast. Many children walk barefoot in the town, and medical care is non-existent in the nearby mountain villages. Tim Moller, who runs Hotel La Catalina, and his daughter Ashleigh, 26, operate a non-profit foundation which is now working to rebuild a school for the forgotten mountain children, among them Haitians.

“I'll be off to Haiti in a few days to take relief,” says Ashleigh, a teacher, who brings hotel guests to visit the kids at the dilapidated two-room school up the hill.

Beside her sits Carline Tessier, a Haitian receptionist who has called the Dominican Republic home for the last 11 years.

“My country is in need,” she says. “We cry for our people. Right now I see the history [of conflict between the two nations] is past. The tragedy put us like one person and I appreciate that. I feel that. I love people of the Dominican Republic more than I loved them before.”

Hostility had all but vanished at Cabrera's fire station, where Sylvie and her team were organizing the first caravan, with radio personalities broadcasting live throughout the day, asking locals to make donations to the Red Cross. One motoconcho (motorcycle taxi) after another arrived at the fire station; one man carried just a small bag of fruit.

“It's a country very poor. We have a lot of [volunteers] here now to help Haiti. We want to give them help… . When we have a problem, everybody works together,” radio DJ Juan Carlos says.

Inside the station, volunteers huddle around a table and make a human assembly line packaging rice into smaller, manageable bags.

“These people have nothing and literally are donating the clothes off their backs,” Sylvie says, pointing to the boxes of clothing, non-perishable food and medicine.

At the hospital, nursing mothers who had no money donated bottles of their own breast milk. And by Saturday, 25,000 Dominican Republic pesos (about $725 Canadian) had been collected for medication and for gasoline for the caravan.

We made our own modest donation, and slept easier knowing the hotel we stayed in was collecting for the effort.

It's hard to be on vacation with the enormity of the loss of life next door. Our despair became hope for the earthquake survivors as the warm spirit of generosity all around us – from hotel patrons making donations to the willingness to give by even the poorest of locals – transcended the brutal destruction.

Throughout our week in the Dominican Republic, the clouds never parted once. The beach, though, was the furthest thing from our minds.

Special to The Globe and Mail

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Giving back

As travellers near Haiti organize ad-hoc fundraisers and make donations through relief agencies, travel companies with stakes in the area are offering assistance. A few examples:

Carnival Cruise Lines is donating at least $5-million to UNICEF, the University of Miami's Project Medishare, American Red Cross and Save the Children.

Air Canada donated a dedicated relief flight (and crew) to Port-au-Prince carrying relief supplies and search and rescue technicians.

Aeroplan donated a million miles to the Canadian Red Cross, and another million miles to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). It's also accepting donations of miles from members through its website (www.aeroplan.com).

Royal Caribbean donated $1-million to the relief effort, and made the controversial decision to stop at Labadee Beach, on Haiti's north coast. The cruise line also donated 40 pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water and canned goods, The Guardian reported, and committed to donate another 96 pallets of food.

Marriott pledged $500,000 to the Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund, and designated nearby hotels as staging areas for relief efforts.

Hilton, Marriott and Starwood hotels invited loyalty program members to donate points for relief groups.

Gap Adventures' fundraising arm, Planeterra, has raised more than $11,000 and counting for the Canadian Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts.