9/27/08
The longer my training drones on, the more I wish I could know where I was being placed. I decided I really want to either be in the mountainous region with the lush, fertile, beautiful valley, or maybe up north near the tourist beaches and stuff or on this peninsula that I hear is beautiful. There’s whale watching and stuff there. I told my ACPD (the head health dude who places people) that I need to be somewhere pretty or I’ll get depressed. His answer was NOT promising saying "Everywhere in this country is beautiful." Sorry but, even with the mountains in the backdrop where I am now, it is NOT beautiful. It’s not ugly and I think I could learn to really appreciate it but I’d rather of course have someplace I could really brag about!:)
There are a few places I could be placed; I specifically asked to not be placed in a city though. I want a personal feeling which you can’t get in a large city, and Santo Domingo is really dirty so I don’t want risk it and end up in another really polluted city. So, starting with the smallest type of town here in the DR- a batey is an agricultural sugar cane plantation, often with Haitians. This means they are mostly on the border which is shared with Haiti. Batey’s are generally very poor since there is a lot of racial tension here against Haitians so that the Haitians are not able to be citizens, go to school past something like 6th grade, get a birth certificate if born here… they’re not allowed to do anything. Even people who are born here but have a drop of Hatian in them are shunned. In Santo Domingo there were a few families in my barrio and one of the PCTs stopped to talk to them only to be yelled at by her Dona later not to talk to them. It’s really sad but there are similarities so Mexican immigrants in the US. They’re "illegal" and its’ not uncommon for them to work for a day shy of two weeks (when they’re supposed to get paid) to have their boss call the DR form of border control and have them sent back, unpaid.
So, another type of town is a campo- which are throughout the country, some are in the mountains without electricity or water but as I understand most have water and electricity most of the time. I live in a campo right now in Las Tablas. There is usually water but here, after a large rain there’s a problem getting water since the tubes that supply the town with water are above ground and run over the river. Every single time there’s a heavy rain the river sweeps a part of the tubing away and the people don’t have water. Keep in mind, it’s not drinking water but water to wash clothes, clean the house and to bath with. They have to buy the drinking water and thankfully they can afford to do that.
I think it was Tuesday when it rained so now we’ve been without water for 4 days. My family is lucky and has a large bin in back that they fill with water so we have enough to bath with but I have a ton of laundry and can’t wash it. I think it smells so I’m not too happy but at least I can shower. I need to pick up some detergent but I’m a little low on cash thanks to my cell phone issues to I’ll just have to be stinky till CBT is over- 4 more weeks I think. Other PCTs don’t have families with water one showered in the river yesterday and brought some clothes there to wash them. I’m going to hold out a little longer before I do that. Hopefully they fix the tubes soon.
The electricity here goes out generally once in the afternoon, between 12 and 2, and my Dona says it comes back around 4. Then around 8 pm it goes out until 11- give or take an hour. At least we can expect when it goes out so while it’s a nuisance it’s not too bad. Last night the other volunteers came over to my house and we set my laptop up outside to watch My Best Friend’s Wedding. We made it 75 minutes until my battery died so we popped the DVD into the backup computer another PCT brought. It was a good plan until her computer started malfunctioning and we couldn’t finish the last 20 minutes or so. It was still fun though.
Even smaller than a campo but still bigger than a batey is a campo campo. I’m not sure the difference, I think it’s just got less people. My campo here has a lot of colmados and lottery stands (big here I guess), a clinic (which is not used nearly enough), a school, a community center and a small library. No internet or stores but luckily they’re only about a 15 minute drive away, in Bani.
Now that you know all about campos, the next size up are pueblos which larger towns sometimes with water, electricity, Internet. That’s pretty much all I know about pueblos, sorry. And lastly are ciudads which I thought were just cities but someone else told me were more like suburbs of a large city so I don’t know.
So, with all this information, I hope end up in a campo or in a campo campo. If I was placed in a batey I think it would be especially challenging. I really hope I have access to water and don’t always have to worry about where my next bucket is going to come from like the families here. One PCT here unfortunately got scabies. She had to have all her clothes washed and felt really bad because her family had to buy the water to wash the clothes since they were out of water. (Scabies don’t look the way you would think either. Another health PCT got bedbugs. I’m not looking under my mattress, I’d rather not know.)
So, all in all- wish me luck!! I don’t know when I’m going to find out but the APCD comes this week, on Tuesday or Wednesday so maybe he’ll have some information. If not, that’s ok because I don’t feel like I was able to talk to him much about my preferences and I guess they really try to place you somewhere that will work for you. There are 8 volunteers and 11 sites the APCD said we would help (3 volunteers left remember so I guess 3 places will get dropped) so it’s not like I just get to pick a community and say, "Hey this one looks good, put me there!" but at least it’s a process, the APCD calls it a "negotiation". I’m not sure about that but ok.
This afternoon my fellow PCTs and I are headed to the beach again! Yay!!! I have some pictures up of my whole trip so far on myspace so if you can check those out feel free. If not, I’m trying to persuade someone from home to upload them to a common place you all can see. The connection here is soooooo slow but I find that myspace is the fastest although still really slow. I don’t have the money to pay for internet time and upload them myself somewhere else. Anyways, hopefully soon! Tomorrow it’s back to work on group projects and we’ve got a super busy week ahead of us. I miss home and hope you’re all doing well. Feel free to send me email updates/letters of your lives there, I’m sick of hearing about the DR!!
Love
betsy
A Little Insight
9/26/08 Friday
Ok, so I was just reading a friend of mine’s blog and he had an excerpt written from another person who is living in Thailand. I thought that while it seems a little dramatic to me, it is also very true. Here it is:
A Dose of Reality by Josh Stein (Thailand ESL Teacher)
"Lately, I’ve had the concept of reality on my mind. I think about the concept of reality and how it is all relative based on your experiences. I used to live in Chicago, and before that the suburbs – and no, it wasn’t Schaumburg, thank you! My reality prior to going off to college was the palatial bliss of Palatine, Illinois – home of the fighting Pirates! Upon arriving at college, my reality soon changed. The boundaries of my life had been expanded to include Chicago-proper, and with that I gained new experiences. These new experiences quickly reshaped my sense of reality. Continuing on with my life, each new experience changed my sense of reality. Whether it was graduating from college, landing a new job, moving into a new apartment, a new neighborhood, a new relationship, or loss there of, my sense of reality was constantly changing.During my journey, I was fortunate and blessed to have great mentors and friends help me throughout the various stages of this journey. One such mentor exposed me to so many different experiences and ideas that I have been forever changed. I had the opportunity to go on service trips to remote parts of the United States, as well as within Chicago. I had opportunities to work with individuals who had a drastically different reality-base. Their reality was different because life dealt them a different set of cards to play with -- in some cases, a completely different game. These experiences changed my reality and reshaped my views. When I decided to take this position as an English Teacher in Thailand, I knew this would be another experience that would reshape my reality. This was a chance to change my views and opinions, yet again, and bring with it the awesome responsibility of reshaping someone else’s reality.I realize that not everyone is privileged enough to leave their hometown, explore different worlds, different cultures, different foods, different languages, different traditions, and different people. I also realize that there are people in the world who never want to experience those things – they are completely content with where they’re at in life – their reality. The idea of their reality being changed, well, it scares the hell out of them. But, I started to think more about my presence and how it is shaping the reality of those I interact with; my students, the Thai teachers, my neighbors, the vendors at the market, the woman at the coffee shop who always smiles and personally greets me every time I come in (heck, I’m there nearly every day), or the other Ferang who are from the Western World, but not "my" Western World. I constantly think how I might be altering their reality, about "Americans" (which I always correct to United States – "American" implies two whole continents of people, not just the states).I also think about how I am changing your perception of reality – you, the reader. How has my journal changed the way you view Thailand, or South East Asia, or Asia as a whole? I think about this, and the impact I’m having on molding your sense of reality. Has reading my journal prompted you to leave your house and explore other worlds? Do you get a hankering for Thai food after you finish reading my various escapades? Or, have I managed to instill the opposite reaction? Has my journal reinforced your own biases? Or has it made you want to lock yourself in your house, never to experience anything new? I will say that I bring in humor and sarcasm to my stories (at least I try to) because it is what I know, and these are the emotions I am most comfortable expressing in such a large forum. What I want you to know is that the stories I tell are my reality, and I want you to experience it with me – if you so chose. I want you to be there with me as I try to navigate through the market, or try my hand at driving through the streets of Thailand. I want you to experience my reality, so you can understand that there are different realities in the world. The reality of a family who has to commute to work using a motorbike because that’s all they can afford on 5 Baht a week ($0.15). Or, what about the man who sells Pineapples on the side of the road because he can’t afford a pick-up truck to transport his goods to the market. Or, what about the student who commutes for 2 hours on a motorbike every day, because our school is one of the best in the area and his family wants him to have the best education they can afford. Or, what about the other Thai teachers at school who understand only their culture and therefore our interactions are socially awkward at best. I want to help you understand the realities of these people because my hope is that it will help to reshape your own reality. It will help you think differently about the Pakistan cashier at Wal-Mart, who doesn’t speak very good English; the Latin-American family at the grocery store who shop with their extended family and take up too much room in the aisles while you’re trying to shop too; or the man on the street corner who is simply trying to get back on his feet with a little help from you. These are the realities I want you to think about, and how we’re all connected by something larger. Because once it’s all stripped away, the only thing we have left to cling to is our human dignity. "
Back to Betsy…
Ok, so I think that this could give anyone something to think about. I have found myself many many times thinking about all the people, myself included at times, who think less of people who do not speak English well in the States. I can say now with proof, that it sucks not being able to speak the language of those around you. Just because I speak Spanish like a 3rd grader- and that’s probably on a good day- doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I feel like being a jerk sometimes and yelling , "I have a college degree, I’m not stupid so stop looking at me like I’m retarded!" when people are being rude to me but even that’s impossible since I would say it wrong and sound even more unintelligent. So, I would like you all to try and put yourself in others shoes. Even after I have lived here for 2 years I know I will still sound funny to people. I get so aggravated when I ask something simple like; "Do you have orange juice without sugar?" and I know I said it with all the right words and the person at the desk stares at me and says, "I don’t understand what you’re saying." It’s not that I said the wrong words but that I said it different with an accent of a foreigner, a way they’re not used to and so they don’t get the first few times I try. For those of you who know me well, I am not a patient person and I especially HATE repeating myself so this is a challenge. It reminds me of an immigrant in the store that maybe said something the cashier didn’t understand. You know that she is wrong about something but she seems to not understand and gets really upset and snippety with the sales clerk. Well, I get it now. It’s annoying and frustrating. And even though it’s easy to see people as inferior when they don’t speak correctly or easy to make fun of the Pakistani at 711 who you have to concentrate to understand, it’s wrong. Think about them before you act or say rude things. Try to put yourself in their shoes, it could make a world of difference. Living in a different country is not a piece of cake. The language is just ONE of the million new/different things a person has to deal with every single day.
betsy
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Latrines and Chicken Coops
9/24/08
Today after lunch we all got together to build a chicken coop, that’s right- a chicken coop. It was probably about what one would expect, well maybe a little worse since we do things DR style here. When we arrived where we would be building the chicken coop, the men of the house had already built the “frame”. I think it looked pretty good considering it was made out of tree branches nailed together. We then took the wood planks that the technical trainer bought and cut them to size with the dullest saw I have ever used. Which, ok so I haven’t used many saws but if I had I still think this would rank high in the dullness factor. It was like cutting a piece of wood with a freaking piece of floss! (Ok, so you get the idea.) Needless to say, I cut about one full piece and decided my service could be better used elsewhere. So I moved on to other projects like nailing. I found that I’m just not that handy. Nailing didn’t go to bad for my hands at least but as for the nails… good thing they’re long and so it didn’t matter that I mangled the ends of a lot of them. All in all, after about 2 hours we had ourselves a chicken coop and I was lucky enough to come away with even more, I had chicken poop on my knee.
We were supposed to do this project yesterday but with the rains from who knows what storm now, it wasn’t a good idea. It was the first time it really rained while I’ve been at CBT and when it rains, it pours! Of course that made me think of the huge spiders that come into the house when it rains. Not cool. Luckily I haven’t had another encounter with one in my room although I have this reoccurring nightmare that one will get me in the bathroom.
Speaking of bathrooms, I forgot to mention that on my PCV visit I was lucky enough to experience my very first latrine. It could have been a lot worse since my PCV had a new one and it was all to herself. It never floods either, another bonus. So, no joke though, latrines are SICK. Even porter johns are better than these nasty things. Picture this, my PCV’s latrine was about 15 or 20 feet from her house (good thing she doesn’t have a well huh Mary Alice!?!) and it’s made of tin or zinc. I opened the tin door and looked inside (only after I really couldn’t hold it anymore) and there to greet me was the smell first of all and then the concrete block with the hole in the middle for which to give my unwanted digestive goodies. I discovered, after peeing on my pants the first time, that using the latrine is more of an art than anything. It’s hard to get positioned so everything goes just where it’s supposed to since you can’t sit on the concrete thing. I mean you could but it’s where everyone else stands or squats so it’d be bad for your butt. Also, the concrete thingy is super low which would be a pain to get up and off of and the concrete isn’t smooth or anything so it wouldn’t be nice for your butt either. I guess it’s just flat out not made for comfort/sitting. I think I would like to maybe figure out a way to get a higher one and buy a toilet seat!
For those of you who are more visual, picture squatting down balancing with your hands clasped straight out in front of you and doing your thing. That’s the latrine. Our PCV also had a “shower” in her latrine which means that there was a little hole near the base of the concrete butt thingy for water to go down when she stood in there and bucket bathed. I for one, will not be doing this. Unless I build up an amazing immunity to the stench of the latrine, baking all day in the sun in the zinc building, I will shower in my kitchen. I guess it’s not that uncommon for PCVs to just strip down in their kitchens or where ever and bucket bathe then sweep the water outside. I figure this could be a good double use for my water since I could mop with it afterwards!
My PCV’s latrine wasn’t all bad though. There was a palm tree fairly close to it and she had liquid soap!! Some things you don’t realize you miss until you have them again… She also had a soap dish (which was super nice to have!!! ) and a little thingy that hung off of the wood support and held her TP. Not a bad set up. Also, the position one needs to be in is not the best for reading but it’s a good leg workout an “atomically correct” for going number two, so it’s a helper! (Per Nurse Joe) Also, since the latrine belongs exclusively to the PCV, she keeps it really clean and sprays often so when I went at night I didn’t see any roaches or spiders. Although I did see a VERY large dead, deflated spider next to the TP in the morning. Anyways, this is another reason why you don’t want to sit on the hole to the abyss, things could very likely be crawling around and you don’t want them to crawl up to see what’s blocking out the sun. For this reason I have just decided against the toilet seat idea.
Well, I think one of my Dona’s cats just peed under my bed so I need to take a breather and get out of here. I’m sure I’ll have more to write later. Tomorrow we’re going to practice making DR food healthy style (an oxymoron if you ask me) with food from the colomado!! That’s right, PCVs can accomplish the impossible and they’re going to teach us newbies!!
Hasta luego,
Betsy
PS Dad, I am still at CBT in Las Tablas. The post with the suitcases went with the date it had on it, the date I wrote it. So, I'm still here, I haven't moved again. I will be back in the capitol sometime the end of October and thats the next time I move. I'll be there for 2 weeks and then move to my permenant site, where ever that may be. I get mail like once a week if that. So, I recieved a package from Rach and Sar this week, THANKS GUYS!!! but I haven't gotten Aarons. I think it takes somewhere between 5 and 10 days for me to get a package from when it's sent, much longer for letters though. I did get one flashlight in my package from Rach, thank goodness! Its the kind you shake that doesn't need batteries. Hope that covered everything!!
Today after lunch we all got together to build a chicken coop, that’s right- a chicken coop. It was probably about what one would expect, well maybe a little worse since we do things DR style here. When we arrived where we would be building the chicken coop, the men of the house had already built the “frame”. I think it looked pretty good considering it was made out of tree branches nailed together. We then took the wood planks that the technical trainer bought and cut them to size with the dullest saw I have ever used. Which, ok so I haven’t used many saws but if I had I still think this would rank high in the dullness factor. It was like cutting a piece of wood with a freaking piece of floss! (Ok, so you get the idea.) Needless to say, I cut about one full piece and decided my service could be better used elsewhere. So I moved on to other projects like nailing. I found that I’m just not that handy. Nailing didn’t go to bad for my hands at least but as for the nails… good thing they’re long and so it didn’t matter that I mangled the ends of a lot of them. All in all, after about 2 hours we had ourselves a chicken coop and I was lucky enough to come away with even more, I had chicken poop on my knee.
We were supposed to do this project yesterday but with the rains from who knows what storm now, it wasn’t a good idea. It was the first time it really rained while I’ve been at CBT and when it rains, it pours! Of course that made me think of the huge spiders that come into the house when it rains. Not cool. Luckily I haven’t had another encounter with one in my room although I have this reoccurring nightmare that one will get me in the bathroom.
Speaking of bathrooms, I forgot to mention that on my PCV visit I was lucky enough to experience my very first latrine. It could have been a lot worse since my PCV had a new one and it was all to herself. It never floods either, another bonus. So, no joke though, latrines are SICK. Even porter johns are better than these nasty things. Picture this, my PCV’s latrine was about 15 or 20 feet from her house (good thing she doesn’t have a well huh Mary Alice!?!) and it’s made of tin or zinc. I opened the tin door and looked inside (only after I really couldn’t hold it anymore) and there to greet me was the smell first of all and then the concrete block with the hole in the middle for which to give my unwanted digestive goodies. I discovered, after peeing on my pants the first time, that using the latrine is more of an art than anything. It’s hard to get positioned so everything goes just where it’s supposed to since you can’t sit on the concrete thing. I mean you could but it’s where everyone else stands or squats so it’d be bad for your butt. Also, the concrete thingy is super low which would be a pain to get up and off of and the concrete isn’t smooth or anything so it wouldn’t be nice for your butt either. I guess it’s just flat out not made for comfort/sitting. I think I would like to maybe figure out a way to get a higher one and buy a toilet seat!
For those of you who are more visual, picture squatting down balancing with your hands clasped straight out in front of you and doing your thing. That’s the latrine. Our PCV also had a “shower” in her latrine which means that there was a little hole near the base of the concrete butt thingy for water to go down when she stood in there and bucket bathed. I for one, will not be doing this. Unless I build up an amazing immunity to the stench of the latrine, baking all day in the sun in the zinc building, I will shower in my kitchen. I guess it’s not that uncommon for PCVs to just strip down in their kitchens or where ever and bucket bathe then sweep the water outside. I figure this could be a good double use for my water since I could mop with it afterwards!
My PCV’s latrine wasn’t all bad though. There was a palm tree fairly close to it and she had liquid soap!! Some things you don’t realize you miss until you have them again… She also had a soap dish (which was super nice to have!!! ) and a little thingy that hung off of the wood support and held her TP. Not a bad set up. Also, the position one needs to be in is not the best for reading but it’s a good leg workout an “atomically correct” for going number two, so it’s a helper! (Per Nurse Joe) Also, since the latrine belongs exclusively to the PCV, she keeps it really clean and sprays often so when I went at night I didn’t see any roaches or spiders. Although I did see a VERY large dead, deflated spider next to the TP in the morning. Anyways, this is another reason why you don’t want to sit on the hole to the abyss, things could very likely be crawling around and you don’t want them to crawl up to see what’s blocking out the sun. For this reason I have just decided against the toilet seat idea.
Well, I think one of my Dona’s cats just peed under my bed so I need to take a breather and get out of here. I’m sure I’ll have more to write later. Tomorrow we’re going to practice making DR food healthy style (an oxymoron if you ask me) with food from the colomado!! That’s right, PCVs can accomplish the impossible and they’re going to teach us newbies!!
Hasta luego,
Betsy
PS Dad, I am still at CBT in Las Tablas. The post with the suitcases went with the date it had on it, the date I wrote it. So, I'm still here, I haven't moved again. I will be back in the capitol sometime the end of October and thats the next time I move. I'll be there for 2 weeks and then move to my permenant site, where ever that may be. I get mail like once a week if that. So, I recieved a package from Rach and Sar this week, THANKS GUYS!!! but I haven't gotten Aarons. I think it takes somewhere between 5 and 10 days for me to get a package from when it's sent, much longer for letters though. I did get one flashlight in my package from Rach, thank goodness! Its the kind you shake that doesn't need batteries. Hope that covered everything!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
PCV visit and more
9/23/08
Well this past weekend I was finally able to go on my volunteer visit!! It wasn’t to Puerta Plata but it was nice either way to get away from Las Tablas for a bit. I went with another PCT, Kenzie. We began our trip on Sat morning around 8:30 and walked to the main road with our overnight bags, complete with our mosquito nets. It didn’t seem like it was going to be that long of a walk but in the heat it felt longer than the
We got to the town and drove around and around since we couldn’t find the “bakery” which was an unmarked house that made bread inside… I don’t know how we would have found it. We asked the people in the town where the gringa or Americana lived and they told us. We got great door to door service when the motorcycle dudes dropped us off right in her front yard.
The visit was a good example of how different PCVs service can be. Our volunteer was really nice and we didn’t do too much but visit with people in the town and ask her a million questions. I learned how to make spaghetti with “white sauce” (very plain but good) and also hot cocoa with food stuff from the colmado. Although I tried it out myself the next day in Spanish class and found that I am no Dona, my hot chocolate was chunky with powered milk. Even the Dona didn’t want to drink it (she did though:)
Anyways, on Sunday it was time to leave so we walked together to the “bus stop” again. This time there was a house like structure for us to hang out in. There were two women in it as well as a man. The man was laying down and to our surprise was very openly pleasuring himself. It was a little awkward for us as we stood there about
When we got back to that
Well, I forgot to plug in my lap top last night to charge it and the power is out again so that’s it for now. I’m getting a different cell phone today so give my mom a call or text if you want it. Hope to hear from you all soon. Tomorrow is the day we get our mail I think so I’m looking forward to that! Miss you all!!
Love
Betsy
9/19/08
Today was the day that we had to give our presentations in front of everyone. The presentations were pretty much over whatever we wanted but in essence they needed to be based off of something from our house visits. I decided to do mine over the Dos and Don’ts of interviewing. It went ok, it was all in Spanish and had to be at least 10 minutes. Not bad though. I’m not looking forward to two weeks from now when I will have to do a presentation in front of a women’s group. Hopefully my Spanish somehow gets a LOT better by then so I can understand questions a little better. I noticed it is getting better but it’s no where near where I want it to be. It’s really tiring trying to talk in Spanish all the time. I like it but it wears me out! It doesn’t help either that I have to go to bed by like 9:30 every night so I can function in the morning. It’s because even after a week here I still can’t sleep through the night. I wake up at least 4 times/night. Although, I have to say that after my sheets were washed the ant problem disappeared.
As far as insect issues go, I have been having a terrible time since I got to the campo! I had hardly any mosquito bites by the time I left Santo Domingo and now my freaking legs look like they have the chicken pox!!! Today one of the Dona’s gave me Vicks to put on them. I don’t know if it helps but I did it. I guess that Dona uses Vicks for everything though. There’s a big problem with pink eye here in the campo and that Dona put Vicks in her eye after she got it. Ouch. She still has it too.
Today we all went for a long walk to the river. Some of the girls knew about a shortcut down to the river in the back of one of their houses but we took the long way there instead planning on using that way to get back. Well we walked to the river and through the river and I even sat in the river and then had some problems with our last step- finding the trail back. Some people popped out along the way so we figured that must be the way but I guess it wasn’t. We ended up roughing it on the way back, hiking up some steep terrain littered with some type of poop in our flip flops. I got home and promptly took a shower.
Tomorrow we leave for our volunteer visits, finally! I’m bummed because I don’t get to go to Puerta Plata but I’m glad I get to go somewhere. I don’t have to go alone now either; Kenzie and I are paired up to go to a site that’s only about
Well, I think that’s it for now. Hope you all are doing well and I hope to hear from you soon!
Love
BetsyThursday, September 18, 2008
replies to your comments
Hey everyone. I thought that I should reply to all your comments.
Rach, thanks for the cookie recipie in spanish!! I asked my doña for it and she said her daughter had it but I´m a little scared its gone. Don´t need it now though!! And don´t worry about keeping mom, we were able to talk. I felt kind of bad because I was a little pissy since my phone wouldn´t work. Anyways, thanks for all your support and love. It help soooo much!! I love you!!
Aaron, dude, as you can see I really am in need of a headlamp. My Doña lent me a flashlight but it´s super dull so thanks a LOT!!! Stewy said you were able to get batteries from Brian Gomes? That´s pretty cool. Thanks a lot for the text and I wrote you a reply in myspace. Thanks for the package you guys are working on too!! It´s nice to hear from you, however you´re able. I miss you guys!!
Dad, I like the long messages. I´m going to be gone for so long and I don´t want to be clueless to what´s going on at home. It makes me feel like I´m there so thanks so much!! I´m glad it sounds almost like the school is coming together!! Amazing but you know me, still the skeptic... Thanks for sending me those markers but they don´t really work so if you could find some that do... thanks. Also, I haven´t gotten mail yet this week and I´m hoping they being it out to us next week but the point is, I didn´t get a flashlight yet. But I´ll be looking for it!! Thanks!!
Mom, thanks so much for all of your phone calls and responses!! I´m going to email you a letter I wrote you as well as those numbers. Thanks for your persistence with my obnoxious phone!! love you lots!!
love
betsy
Rach, thanks for the cookie recipie in spanish!! I asked my doña for it and she said her daughter had it but I´m a little scared its gone. Don´t need it now though!! And don´t worry about keeping mom, we were able to talk. I felt kind of bad because I was a little pissy since my phone wouldn´t work. Anyways, thanks for all your support and love. It help soooo much!! I love you!!
Aaron, dude, as you can see I really am in need of a headlamp. My Doña lent me a flashlight but it´s super dull so thanks a LOT!!! Stewy said you were able to get batteries from Brian Gomes? That´s pretty cool. Thanks a lot for the text and I wrote you a reply in myspace. Thanks for the package you guys are working on too!! It´s nice to hear from you, however you´re able. I miss you guys!!
Dad, I like the long messages. I´m going to be gone for so long and I don´t want to be clueless to what´s going on at home. It makes me feel like I´m there so thanks so much!! I´m glad it sounds almost like the school is coming together!! Amazing but you know me, still the skeptic... Thanks for sending me those markers but they don´t really work so if you could find some that do... thanks. Also, I haven´t gotten mail yet this week and I´m hoping they being it out to us next week but the point is, I didn´t get a flashlight yet. But I´ll be looking for it!! Thanks!!
Mom, thanks so much for all of your phone calls and responses!! I´m going to email you a letter I wrote you as well as those numbers. Thanks for your persistence with my obnoxious phone!! love you lots!!
love
betsy
lots of stuff
9/18/08
Four weeks later…
It’s Thursday and we’re going to go again into Bani at 3:30 since today is our one month anniversary. Well, according to the date it’s not but according to the number of weeks it’s the fourth today. Tomorrow I have to give a presentation to the group in Spanish about my findings for the community diagnostic. (That was the house visits I did) I thought that it would be a lot easier to present on my methods of interviewing since I’m pretty sure 90% of what I did was an example of what not to do. I normally love making presentations and such but today it sucked a little. Doing everything in Spanish takes a lot of extra effort so even things that normally come easy to me take a lot more work.
I’m feeling a little intimidated about having to do this whole thing in Spanish (10- 15 min presentation) because there are so really good speakers in my group. The good thing is that out of the 8 people in my group about 5 of us are at the same level more or less. So, I don’t have to feel really bad. This is different from the last few health groups I think since most of them seem to have had a lot more fluent speakers.
Would you like to hear something ironic? Today when I came home for lunch my Dona was busy as usual but there were a ton of clothes all around. She told me that they were collecting clothes to give to the church and the church was going to donate them to the poor… in the US. Wow, I wonder how much of that type of stuff goes on. I’m glad to be here and all but it makes me wonder if people poured resources into their countries first and then into others how different things would be.
I would like to give you all an insect update. You’ll be happy to know that I have seen no more monster sized spiders in my house. I have seen several cockroaches and while these are very large, I really don’t care too much about them. I have been pretty lucky. Last night I asked my sister why there weren’t more in their house, I wish I knew what she said. My friend had a ton in her house the other night, they were just spilling out of her dresser I guess. My other friend, I feel so bad for her, she has to use a latrine. She’s the only one that has one in our group. Some people even have running water! I’ve been taking bucket baths the whole time. I have been able to perfect flushing the toilet though, I ‘m proud to say. Anyways, poor Randy has it bad in more than one way. Not only does she have a latrine and have to pee in a bucket in her room at night (the roaches come out at night and she doesn’t want them crawling on her when she’s trying to do her business) but she saw the biggest spider to date. She said it was the size of her whole hand and it was just chilling on her wall!! She ran out and her Dona came in to save the day. Randy couldn’t stay to watch because she was freaking out but I guess her Dona said something about the spider being tranquil and scooped it up with her hands and put it outside!! Holy crap!
Well, that’s all for now my friends. If you have any easy recipes or no bake recipes please send them my way!! I hope I can talk to you all soon!
Love,
betsy
9/16/08 Headlamp desire…
Headlamp headlamp, where can you be?
Headlamp headlamp, now I can’t see!
I wish I thought to buy one…
Cause now it’s just no fun
Oh headlamp headlamp, come take away the night
Headlamp headlamp, can’t you take my fright?
I’m sorry I did you wrong,
Now please, help me get along
Headlamp headlamp, where can you be?
Headlamp headlamp, I wish I could see!
9/15/08 Life in the Campo
Even though I have been in the DR for a while now I still feel like it hasn’t really sunk in. So today I realized I was in the PC when I was just chilling in my house for lunch when I turned around to see a goat walking through the house. He walked right in the front door and right out the back. During another lunch there were about 8 turkeys that wandered in and back out the way they came. I can honestly say, although this is the first time these things have ever happened to me, I didn’t really think it was strange. There are goats, chickens, cows and pigs that walk wherever they want all around the town.
There are tons of poor hungry dogs that flinch when you approach them, obviously from not having good experiences with people. Today I found a puppy and tricked it into letting me hold it- which means it was only about 6 weeks old because by 8 weeks I swear they can’t be tricked- and it was already terrified of people. It’s sad really. I would like to start a program that does something to address this at least a little. I was thinking maybe an awareness program but I have no idea how I would get people to attend. People are awful to animals. This morning on my way to class I walked by a guy who was trying to herd his cows. He did this by whipping rocks at their heads when they went the wrong way. There are sooooo many sickly animals around its overwhelming, where would I even start? I feel bad for my Dona’s cats. Sure, its kind of their fault they’re so skinny since cats are all about mice and such but would you chase something bigger than you? So today I gave them a few of my dog treats and make sure to give them table scraps too. My family gets a big kick out of feeding them the dog treats.
In other news, CBT is keeping me busy! Today we went into Bani to talk with the Director of Health in the health dept. I couldn’t understand what he was saying- not so much because he was talking in Spanish but more because he was trying to speak in English. He would go back and forth but his English was about as good as my Spanish so the accent was so heavy it was hard to tell what was what. Then when he would tell Katie (another trainee) to translate but then he would understand what she was saying and keep talking very loudly over her in Spanish. So, she would stop and then he would, she would start and then he would… it wasn’t good.
But after the confusing conversation we all were let loose in Bani where we used the internet very briefly and were able to run some errands. After that we went home to eat lunch. Lunch is a long break- 2 hours! It’s so we can share with our families and all that good stuff. My family likes to share outside alllll day in the back. It’s hot here so I like to sleep. These things don’t go well together.
Next I went to my three hour Spanish class and right when I got home went with my sister for my three last house visits. These were not nearly as painful this time, thankfully. I generally try to take a shower before the sun goes down but today wasn’t able to do so. I never know what time the lights are going to go out but I know its coming and I don’t want to be in the shower, mid-song when it happens. So, tonight I brought my loaned flashlight (since mine didn’t make it in the bag here somehow) but the lights went out super late- like 8:30- so I didn’t need the light… this time.
After that its time for dinner (which was an apple and a cheese sandwich) and then Spanish homework, jeesh!! I talked on the phone a bit and then hit the hay. It was just about 9:30 but I have to go to bed early since the sleep I get isn’t quality. The ants crawling on me is something I hope to adjust to so it won’t keep waking me up. I’m glad they’re not the biting kind.
My family has the weirdest solutions for things too. They told me the other day that the 50 mosquito bites I have couldn’t be from their house. They said it’s not from my bed (because I use a mosquitero I’m guessing). I hope they’re not from my bed but when my mosquito net keeps mysteriously putting itself up during the day who knows what gets in there. Anyways, it’s clear to my fam that the mosquitoes are not from inside their house but from the street that the house is like
I had a small victory today in Bani though. It began a few days ago when my sister got me hooked on some amazing cookies called “Casino” cookies. I asked her when she went shopping if she could get me some and gave her like two days worth of my money to buy some. She went shopping and got all kinds of food- stuff I know was just for me like mac n cheese and a LOT of hotdogs.. a little intimidating- but I didn’t see any cookies. So, I asked if she was able to get the ones I asked for and she said she was. I went on and on about how I was psyched about that so she got up to show them to me and said, “Oh these have a different name…” Hmm, yeah that’s because they’re NOT Casino cookies but I of course politely said: “Why yes they do, they are different cookies.” So, lesson learned: don’t give money for something specific, just get it yourself. I couldn’t ask for the money back, not after she bought other cookies by mistake and the fridge is full of food for me. Oh yeah, another lesson learned: don’t buy food that tastes weird/bad when it’s old from the colomado. Colomados are not good about rotating their products and the Oreos I bought seemingly as a great substitute were a little funky since they expired in January.
It was ok though because this all lead up to my small victory. I went with Randy, another volunteer to a phone store so she could get a prepaid phone and was pleased to be able to help her. We were able to get what we needed and had no problems really. Then I went, all on my own like a big girl, to the store, happily found my cookies, made very small talk with the people in line with me and left with a renewed sense of independence. No joke, I haven’t felt older than 12 since I’ve been here so this was no small thing for me.
That’s all for now. I hope I hear from you guys soon!
Love
betsy
Monday, September 15, 2008
About my CBT fam and food
Sunday 9/14/08
Hey there everyone:) Hope all is well for you there. I’m happy because I haven’t seen another large spider now in two days although it hasn’t really rained yet. Today my group and I are supposed to go into Bani and go to the internet center so hopefully I’ll be able to post this. After that we’re going to go to a beach which is supposed to be a tourist beach so it should be really nice. The last beach I went to wasn’t bad but it wasn’t super clean.
The food situation here with my family is better than I could have hoped for! They are super cool about trying to get food that’s familiar to me. I tell them that I like everything they’ve made (I haven’t not liked anything they’ve made but I told them right away that I don’t like the boiled banana bit so that helped) and today they made me pancakes for breakfast. I ate all of them (with jelly which was new for me but good) and then my Dona said she knows I liked it because I actually ate it all. Then she told few people that I ate all my food. I asked her if she doesn’t believe me that I like the food unless I eat it all and she said yes! She doesn’t believe me?! The thing is, lunch is like 4 hours after breakfast during the week but on the weekends breakfast is later and lunch isn’t later. So when lunch comes, I’m not even that hungry and then she thinks I don’t like it. Dinner is at 6 or 7 and breakfast is at 7 or 7:30 so I’m generally hungry for those. Last night for dinner they made me mac n cheese and the night before they gave me an apple with peanut butter and a ton of cookies! Awesome! I don’t think I have to worry about losing weight at this house. They gave me fruit and corn flakes for breakfast yesterday:)
As far as my Spanish, well- it’s still the same. We did the map exercise with the kids in the community and let me tell you, I am GLAD I don’t live in a house with kids. They were crazy! They started fighting and drawing on each other with markers, one stole a marker, and they almost tore the map into pieces! Yikes! Now my focus is on my grammar book- studying a lot- and on my house visits I have to do. I have five to finish my Tuesday or Wednesday and let me tell you- they are painful! I have to ask random people questions like, "When was your last pap? How long did you breastfeed? Do you know how a person gets AIDS? Have you had a child die? When?". My Spanish is not that good for one thing- yesterday when I asked my family these questions I just had to write "Did not understand answer" next two a few of them. After you ask a person three times if they’ve have a child die and you still don’t know what they’re long answer is, you stop asking. So, wish me luck on the other 3.
In other news, my sister was nice enough to take my phone into Bani yesterday when she went to get her hair done because my phone broke already! What a piece of crap! The phone place fixed it for me but then this morning it was broken again. That’s annoying. I’m glad PC is giving me a real phone in October. If I knew how to get a countdown feature on here I would have a countdown till when I get my phone! (5 weeks from tomorrow by the way).
Well, that’s it for now I think. I miss you all tons, and thanks so much again for your encouragement!
Love
Betsy
PS: The longer I’m here the more I realize the necessity of a headlamp so for all you who know where the nearest camping store is and would like to purchase a super bright headlamp… :D
Hey there everyone:) Hope all is well for you there. I’m happy because I haven’t seen another large spider now in two days although it hasn’t really rained yet. Today my group and I are supposed to go into Bani and go to the internet center so hopefully I’ll be able to post this. After that we’re going to go to a beach which is supposed to be a tourist beach so it should be really nice. The last beach I went to wasn’t bad but it wasn’t super clean.
The food situation here with my family is better than I could have hoped for! They are super cool about trying to get food that’s familiar to me. I tell them that I like everything they’ve made (I haven’t not liked anything they’ve made but I told them right away that I don’t like the boiled banana bit so that helped) and today they made me pancakes for breakfast. I ate all of them (with jelly which was new for me but good) and then my Dona said she knows I liked it because I actually ate it all. Then she told few people that I ate all my food. I asked her if she doesn’t believe me that I like the food unless I eat it all and she said yes! She doesn’t believe me?! The thing is, lunch is like 4 hours after breakfast during the week but on the weekends breakfast is later and lunch isn’t later. So when lunch comes, I’m not even that hungry and then she thinks I don’t like it. Dinner is at 6 or 7 and breakfast is at 7 or 7:30 so I’m generally hungry for those. Last night for dinner they made me mac n cheese and the night before they gave me an apple with peanut butter and a ton of cookies! Awesome! I don’t think I have to worry about losing weight at this house. They gave me fruit and corn flakes for breakfast yesterday:)
As far as my Spanish, well- it’s still the same. We did the map exercise with the kids in the community and let me tell you, I am GLAD I don’t live in a house with kids. They were crazy! They started fighting and drawing on each other with markers, one stole a marker, and they almost tore the map into pieces! Yikes! Now my focus is on my grammar book- studying a lot- and on my house visits I have to do. I have five to finish my Tuesday or Wednesday and let me tell you- they are painful! I have to ask random people questions like, "When was your last pap? How long did you breastfeed? Do you know how a person gets AIDS? Have you had a child die? When?". My Spanish is not that good for one thing- yesterday when I asked my family these questions I just had to write "Did not understand answer" next two a few of them. After you ask a person three times if they’ve have a child die and you still don’t know what they’re long answer is, you stop asking. So, wish me luck on the other 3.
In other news, my sister was nice enough to take my phone into Bani yesterday when she went to get her hair done because my phone broke already! What a piece of crap! The phone place fixed it for me but then this morning it was broken again. That’s annoying. I’m glad PC is giving me a real phone in October. If I knew how to get a countdown feature on here I would have a countdown till when I get my phone! (5 weeks from tomorrow by the way).
Well, that’s it for now I think. I miss you all tons, and thanks so much again for your encouragement!
Love
Betsy
PS: The longer I’m here the more I realize the necessity of a headlamp so for all you who know where the nearest camping store is and would like to purchase a super bright headlamp… :D
CBT and adios amigos
Friday 9/12
Wow, its just been two days since I last wrote but it feels like a lot longer than that! Lots has happened since Wednesday. Thursday was an adventure all in itself. I began my day late, sleeping in. I had to pack up my things and take my mosquito net down since I was leaving for CBT. I wolfed down breakfast and said goodbye as I heaved my one suitcase out the door. It was pretty big and very heavy and I had planned to leave about 20 minutes early since I had to drag it out of the barrio to the main road and then to Entrena. I still left early but severely underestimated the time it would take to drag my bag. It rained the night before and there are no sidewalks (there are but the road was a better option) so the gravel, cratered roads were wet and muddy. And of course I had to go up several steep hills with the stupid thing so I stopped like 3 times. In fact, I was almost to the front of the neighborhood after 25 minutes (which is usually how long it takes me to walk the whole way to Entrena from my house) and I just sat on the curb. It was 7:45 in the morning and I was already bright red and dripping sweat. Some random guy walked up to me and asked me if I needed help with my bag. I told him it was heavy but figured he had already gathered that. I have been told not to let people help me that I don’t know since the DR is known for theft but you know what? That bag was kicking my butt, besides I really doubt anyone could run away with it. Although, by that point I don’t know if I would have even chased them. So, I gratefully accepted his offer and walked to the front of the barrio. I was going to walk to Entrena originally but after that walk I knew paying half of a day’s allowance was more than worth a car ride. I was standing there when this random truck pulled up. I tired to wave him off and tell him I didn’t want to hitchhike when I realized it was a technical trainer from Entrena!! AWESOME!! So, he gave me a ride and we picked up 6 other panting volunteers along the way:) The day was off to an awesome start!
Then it went downhill. When I arrived to Entrena I found out that my bud Richie had to leave due to medical problems and about an hour later I found out my friend Kelly had to go home! Then today, I another volunteer and his wife need to head out as well. Seems like we’ve been here for a while but we’ve just been in the country for three weeks today. Of the four people who are leaving three of them are from my little health group:( Now we only have 8 people in our group. I can’t believe it. I have to admit that for some reason all these people going home puts a lot of doubts in my mind as well. I have to work harder to remind myself to stay positive but there is still a lot of reasons to be happy.
For starters, my new host family rocks. Last night we sat down and drew pictures for food I like and I learned some new words. I tired really hard to tell them I couldn’t eat lettuce but I don’t think they bought it. They just told me they cleaned it well and it would be ok for me to eat. They use bleach but I never have been found of lettuce and don’t see it as a risk worth taking. Anyways, my hermana- who is supposed to be my Dona but is just 26 so I feel weird calling her that- is really nice. She’s super sweet and has three cats. Her mom lives with her but her grandparents live next door so her mom sleeps there when I’m here. The Uncle lives on the other side of this house and across the street are the cousins. It’s kind of a bummer that I’m the farthest out from the rest of thevolunteers but even that means I have about a 3 minute walk till I get to the next volunteer’s house and I’m just 10 or 15 minutes away from the center of the town. The name of the town , by the way, is Las Tablas- I thought it was Las Tapas, whoops.
After being in this town I know that I want to live in a campo. The city sucks. It’s dirty, smelly, and impersonal. The time I’ve been here so far I have not had any one "hiss" at me. It’s refreshing that small towns are generally the same; made up of people who are largely related, impossible to keep a secret, and people look out for each other. Tonight over dinner my sister and Dona were telling me what the other volunteers were and were not eating, talk about knowing everything.
I have to say that last night was not pleasant though. I went into my room to get ready for a shower around 6:30 and freaked out when I saw a huge freaking spider just chilling there next to my bed! Needless to say I ran out screaming that I needed my sister to come look and she went in and squished it for me. She swept it out with her shoe to I don’t know where but sadly, there were 3 or 4 legs left that taunted me. I took my shower, cautiously and went and sat with everyone- away from my room. The lights went out around 8 pm and I toughed it out till about 9:30 but was falling asleep. I knew it was time to brave my room. Luckily my Dona gave me a flashlight to use till I get one (still on the wish list by the way, and as I am discovering I need to think about modifying that to a headlamp). So I went to my room, careful to step around the nasty, huge, scattered legs. I was happy to find when I arrived at the house that they already had a mosquito net up so I didn’t need to get out the tank of one PC gave me. Sadly, when I tried to tuck the existing one under my mattress (reaching behind the bed was something I was NOT looking forward to after the monster I found) I discovered that it was not big enough. There was no way I was going to be able to take that down and put mine up in the dark, maybe with a headlamp but no way with a flashlight. So, I tried to sleep with what I had. I was terrified about finding another spider in my bed and with no mosquitero to keep me safe I only slept about 2 hours. On top of that, yesterday was my Aralen day (my anti malaria pill day) and that stuff gives me trippy, vivid dreams. So, the two hours I did sleep were accompanied with nightmares but at least they weren’t about spiders!!!
I woke up about an hour before I needed to this morning but was happy to discover the daylight brought about a sense of bravery and I was able to take a picture of one of the large spider legs for you all to see. If I can get it up here I will if not I’ll put it up on myspace eventually. I even had my wits about me enough to put a quarter next to it. I think it was huge but my family seems to think it gives me comfort to tell me that that spider wasn’t even big. Wow, why doesn’t that make me feel better? Also, they said it was just because of the rain, that it rained the night before (which I remember from the wet road in the morning with my suitcase) and that’s probably why the "small" spider was in my room. So, I guess it’s not good for me that I happened to arrive in the DR during rainy season then. I originally thought I that I would have no problems here in this house since there are three cats but then I realized that all of the cats are really skinny which is not a good sign.
Tomorrow I have to plan an activity with kids (there are none in my house so I have to hunt them out- thankfully. I don’t want to try to tell the kids to leave my stuff alone although they seem to generally be pretty well behaved here). After that I need to interview my Dona and sometime before Wednesday I need to go to five random houses and conduct surveys. This will give me some practice at doing a community diagnostic which is what I will theoretically be doing for the first three months, give or take, at my site. Then on Sunday we’re all going somewhere- either to Bani or the beach. It is unbearably hot here. I have never been one to complain about the heat but today for instance, I tried to take a nap but when the power went out , so did my fan. I couldn’t stand to lay in bed because I was soaking it with my sweat. Last night at 10pm it was still out and I was soooo hot. It came back at 12 thankfully but then so did the light that I didn’t realize was on. I tried to ignore that and stay off of the floor littered with spider legs but eventually I had to give in and turn it off. The point off all this, other than that fact that I need to adjust already, is that I hope we go to the beach. We’re going into town a couple times next week for stuff I think and I think the beach would be cheaper than going to walk around town. So I’m hoping for the beach!! It’s time for me to go meet up with my amigos and have a little goodbye shindig for the guy going home tomorrow. I miss you all.
Love
betsy
Wow, its just been two days since I last wrote but it feels like a lot longer than that! Lots has happened since Wednesday. Thursday was an adventure all in itself. I began my day late, sleeping in. I had to pack up my things and take my mosquito net down since I was leaving for CBT. I wolfed down breakfast and said goodbye as I heaved my one suitcase out the door. It was pretty big and very heavy and I had planned to leave about 20 minutes early since I had to drag it out of the barrio to the main road and then to Entrena. I still left early but severely underestimated the time it would take to drag my bag. It rained the night before and there are no sidewalks (there are but the road was a better option) so the gravel, cratered roads were wet and muddy. And of course I had to go up several steep hills with the stupid thing so I stopped like 3 times. In fact, I was almost to the front of the neighborhood after 25 minutes (which is usually how long it takes me to walk the whole way to Entrena from my house) and I just sat on the curb. It was 7:45 in the morning and I was already bright red and dripping sweat. Some random guy walked up to me and asked me if I needed help with my bag. I told him it was heavy but figured he had already gathered that. I have been told not to let people help me that I don’t know since the DR is known for theft but you know what? That bag was kicking my butt, besides I really doubt anyone could run away with it. Although, by that point I don’t know if I would have even chased them. So, I gratefully accepted his offer and walked to the front of the barrio. I was going to walk to Entrena originally but after that walk I knew paying half of a day’s allowance was more than worth a car ride. I was standing there when this random truck pulled up. I tired to wave him off and tell him I didn’t want to hitchhike when I realized it was a technical trainer from Entrena!! AWESOME!! So, he gave me a ride and we picked up 6 other panting volunteers along the way:) The day was off to an awesome start!
Then it went downhill. When I arrived to Entrena I found out that my bud Richie had to leave due to medical problems and about an hour later I found out my friend Kelly had to go home! Then today, I another volunteer and his wife need to head out as well. Seems like we’ve been here for a while but we’ve just been in the country for three weeks today. Of the four people who are leaving three of them are from my little health group:( Now we only have 8 people in our group. I can’t believe it. I have to admit that for some reason all these people going home puts a lot of doubts in my mind as well. I have to work harder to remind myself to stay positive but there is still a lot of reasons to be happy.
For starters, my new host family rocks. Last night we sat down and drew pictures for food I like and I learned some new words. I tired really hard to tell them I couldn’t eat lettuce but I don’t think they bought it. They just told me they cleaned it well and it would be ok for me to eat. They use bleach but I never have been found of lettuce and don’t see it as a risk worth taking. Anyways, my hermana- who is supposed to be my Dona but is just 26 so I feel weird calling her that- is really nice. She’s super sweet and has three cats. Her mom lives with her but her grandparents live next door so her mom sleeps there when I’m here. The Uncle lives on the other side of this house and across the street are the cousins. It’s kind of a bummer that I’m the farthest out from the rest of thevolunteers but even that means I have about a 3 minute walk till I get to the next volunteer’s house and I’m just 10 or 15 minutes away from the center of the town. The name of the town , by the way, is Las Tablas- I thought it was Las Tapas, whoops.
After being in this town I know that I want to live in a campo. The city sucks. It’s dirty, smelly, and impersonal. The time I’ve been here so far I have not had any one "hiss" at me. It’s refreshing that small towns are generally the same; made up of people who are largely related, impossible to keep a secret, and people look out for each other. Tonight over dinner my sister and Dona were telling me what the other volunteers were and were not eating, talk about knowing everything.
I have to say that last night was not pleasant though. I went into my room to get ready for a shower around 6:30 and freaked out when I saw a huge freaking spider just chilling there next to my bed! Needless to say I ran out screaming that I needed my sister to come look and she went in and squished it for me. She swept it out with her shoe to I don’t know where but sadly, there were 3 or 4 legs left that taunted me. I took my shower, cautiously and went and sat with everyone- away from my room. The lights went out around 8 pm and I toughed it out till about 9:30 but was falling asleep. I knew it was time to brave my room. Luckily my Dona gave me a flashlight to use till I get one (still on the wish list by the way, and as I am discovering I need to think about modifying that to a headlamp). So I went to my room, careful to step around the nasty, huge, scattered legs. I was happy to find when I arrived at the house that they already had a mosquito net up so I didn’t need to get out the tank of one PC gave me. Sadly, when I tried to tuck the existing one under my mattress (reaching behind the bed was something I was NOT looking forward to after the monster I found) I discovered that it was not big enough. There was no way I was going to be able to take that down and put mine up in the dark, maybe with a headlamp but no way with a flashlight. So, I tried to sleep with what I had. I was terrified about finding another spider in my bed and with no mosquitero to keep me safe I only slept about 2 hours. On top of that, yesterday was my Aralen day (my anti malaria pill day) and that stuff gives me trippy, vivid dreams. So, the two hours I did sleep were accompanied with nightmares but at least they weren’t about spiders!!!
I woke up about an hour before I needed to this morning but was happy to discover the daylight brought about a sense of bravery and I was able to take a picture of one of the large spider legs for you all to see. If I can get it up here I will if not I’ll put it up on myspace eventually. I even had my wits about me enough to put a quarter next to it. I think it was huge but my family seems to think it gives me comfort to tell me that that spider wasn’t even big. Wow, why doesn’t that make me feel better? Also, they said it was just because of the rain, that it rained the night before (which I remember from the wet road in the morning with my suitcase) and that’s probably why the "small" spider was in my room. So, I guess it’s not good for me that I happened to arrive in the DR during rainy season then. I originally thought I that I would have no problems here in this house since there are three cats but then I realized that all of the cats are really skinny which is not a good sign.
Tomorrow I have to plan an activity with kids (there are none in my house so I have to hunt them out- thankfully. I don’t want to try to tell the kids to leave my stuff alone although they seem to generally be pretty well behaved here). After that I need to interview my Dona and sometime before Wednesday I need to go to five random houses and conduct surveys. This will give me some practice at doing a community diagnostic which is what I will theoretically be doing for the first three months, give or take, at my site. Then on Sunday we’re all going somewhere- either to Bani or the beach. It is unbearably hot here. I have never been one to complain about the heat but today for instance, I tried to take a nap but when the power went out , so did my fan. I couldn’t stand to lay in bed because I was soaking it with my sweat. Last night at 10pm it was still out and I was soooo hot. It came back at 12 thankfully but then so did the light that I didn’t realize was on. I tried to ignore that and stay off of the floor littered with spider legs but eventually I had to give in and turn it off. The point off all this, other than that fact that I need to adjust already, is that I hope we go to the beach. We’re going into town a couple times next week for stuff I think and I think the beach would be cheaper than going to walk around town. So I’m hoping for the beach!! It’s time for me to go meet up with my amigos and have a little goodbye shindig for the guy going home tomorrow. I miss you all.
Love
betsy
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Mostly about my Wednesday- GOOOOODIES FROM HOME!!!
Wednesday 9/10
Today we got to Entrena and we have nothing to do again. There were some PCVs to talk about what it’s like to be a volunteer because, we’re all just measly trainees now you know- so it’s nice to hear. They served us lunch which was waaaay better than spaghetti so I was happy. Plus, one of the girls here has a Dona who makes her 2 pancakes for breakfast each day but she can only eat one. She doesn’t want to hurt her feelings so she had the other with her. I ate it and it was good, who needs syrup? Not me.
The poor girl who had dengue got out of the hospital yesterday. She’s back here with us all so we’re pretty psyched. Poor chick, Dengue sucks. Right now people are gathered around her to take pictures of her legs because the end of Dengue is marked with a bad rash and she has it on her legs. It’s pretty cool looking actually. Sorry, I didn’t bring my camera today:)
I got my test back and was extremely relieved to find I passed!!! I got an 85% which was enough for me to be happy!!! So, I don’t have to worry about retaking the test, whew!
Well, today has consisted of pretty much nothing. I wrote a loooooong blog for yesterday so I don’t have much to say. I think my idea of eating what I want helped cure me because this time yesterday I was miserable. They’re passing out the mail now, I’m hoping I got something!!! The suspense I killing me!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!! I GOT MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rach, you’re going to be mad… my first package was from Dad. Thanks so much for the candle, how did you know my room stunk?!? And great thinking to send me matches and a lighter too!! Thanks so much!!!
WOW!! I got TWO packages!!! Rach, thanks for the slippers!!!!!!!!!!! And it’s amazing you sent me wipes because I spilled juice all over and haven’t been able to get the stickiness away!!! Thanks sooo much!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Love you guys!!
Love
Betsy
Mostly about my Tuesday
Wednesday 9/10
Hey Everyone!!
First, I want to respond to some of your great comments. Thanks so much for all the feedback, its really nice:) Sarah, I got a prepaid cell phone, you can get the number off of mom or Rach. The phone at my Dona’s house doesn’t work anyway so this is better. Call anytime you’re free though. Call at least 2 or 3 times because sometimes I miss it, and sometimes it just doesn’t go through. Call when you can, I’d rather you try and miss me then not get to talk to you guys, I miss you!! Denise, thanks for the encouraging comments, it’s good to know someone else eats peanut butter on the beach! Karen and Uncle Greg: thanks for your support:) I sent out a letter last week on Labor day so let me know when it gets there. It’s really hard to get stamps here!! One girl asked like 20 people in the super market and they all gave her different answers. In this culture it’s more acceptable to lie and “save face” than to say you don’t know the answer to something. Even my awesome Dona does that to me sometime I find. To Dad: thanks for all the long comments, call sometime would ya!?? Lol. To Aunt Claudia and Drew: thanks for the message, I never know what the weather is here until it’s upon us. I don’t have internet at home or anything and the news is not helpful but my family pretty much is always watching soap operas anyways. It’s nice to know you guys are thinking of me. It takes a LOOOOONG time to upload photos here so I put them all up on myspace because that seems to go the fastest. If you can get to it I have several photos up. Also, to everyone, if you’d like to call me I’d love to hear from you. My mom and Rach have the number like I said earlier so if you can afford it, feel free. I got a prepaid phone to last me until after CBT which starts on Friday. After that on October 20th they give us PC issued phones so my number will be different. Calling cards are expensive so I was talking about looking into global phone plans with my mom and John. If anyone has any info on them please let me know. To everyone else who has been leaving me comments, thanks so much!! I really love reading them!!
Whew! Now that all that is taken care of it’s time to get down to business!! To begin, yesterday was kind of a bummer. We got to Entrena with all of our stuff in hand to go on our trips and we were supposed to be informed by 10 what was going on. In the meantime I figured I should pay a visit to the nurse since I had been having issues with my digestive system since Saturday. I had been trying to eat light, easy foods for my stomach but nothing seemed to be helping. I told the nurse that my Dona made me a cheese sandwich the night before and surprised me with a salami sandwich the next morning, which I ate half of. That was the most food I had really eaten since Friday. Well, the nurse didn’t like the stuff I ate at all! She told me that since I ate that stuff I would have to “start all over” and that I could only eat “white, bland, flavorless food” for a few more days. Then after a few more days I may be able to introduce white rice and after that yogurt. Well, you know what I thought? I thought I had been babying my stomach since Sat and where did it me? Nowhere. I knew we were driving by a McDonalds on the way to my PCV visit and also was holding out hope that they were going to make American food. Nothing was going to stop me from eating that stuff!! So, I humored the nurse and sipped my Gatorade (which costs more than my daily allotment of money) but in my mind I was wondering if I should go to McDs once on the way there and once on the way back or just once total.
We all sat around and talked until 12:30 when they finally were able to let us know what had been decided. Our trips were canceled. We were all really disappointed. We wanted a change of scenery so much! I personally feel like my host family is getting sick of me lately. Not my Dona but the sisters. So, it was going to be nice to get away. So much for that. So much for McDonalds and American food. As a substitute I ate 8 cookies (not the best but good enough) and had some hot chocolate- all a BIG no no (he he he).
None of us wanted to go home after lunch (which I didn’t eat- the spaghetti here is NOT something I chose to partake in) so we hung out at Entrena from 10 am until 5 pm doing nothing really. Thanks to being homeschooled while living in the middle of nowhere with no friends or tv, I have the great ability to never be bored, to endlessly entertain myself. This came in handy yesterday as my counterparts were pretty much all bored. We had dominos tournaments, played a game called Big Booty, and watched a movie (the Bourne Identity, sweet!!! If you would like to send DVDs please feel free since we can watch them on our laptops!! ) I was reading a magazine called Gingo Grita which is put out by PCVs in county. I happened to come across an article about reflections of people’s PCV visits. What are the odds that I was at that time supposed to be on my PCV and instead I was sitting on an couch with stomach pains while it was pouring rain outside? The irony.
We all walked home and when I had to slit with my group and walk alone I realized I was running low on patience. People were doing the normal things; men were staring and making their “hissing” noises (which I decided yesterday sound more like “Tsssssssst”) and some men were testing out their English with words like, Hello Baby, How are you?, and I love you. One guy told me that he spoke English and he loved me. I was tempted to say somethings back to see how well he spoke English. There is one thing particular hand gesture I think is universal but there’s just one way to find out for sure… don’t worry, I didn’t do it!
When I got back I stopped b y my friend’s house to see what they were doing the rest of the day. We ended up having a discussion about all the food we missed. We unanimously decided Taco Bell would be divine right then and one of the Dona’s knew where one was and how to get there. She offered to take us there!!! My dreams were all coming true!!!! So, I ran home and told my Dona I didn’t need dinner that night and gathered my stuff. Kenzie came over and informed me that her Don didn’t have any gas and we weren’t going now. What a bummer. So, I ate a cheese sandwich for dinner.
Needless to say, it’s pretty easy to feel bad for myself here. I was super excited to get a phone call from my mom but we don’t get to talk for very long since it’s pricey for her. I was still feeling pretty sick so I just stayed in my room, contemplating when the best time would be to put my mosquito net back up around my bed and unpack my stuff. I was about to go to bed, feeling defeated when I got a text from my mom telling me she loved me and hoped I felt better. It was just a little thing but it made me feel sooooo much better!! I started thinking about all the things I have to be happy for, and there are a TON! I have a great host family in Los Cocos and I’m in the Caribbean!! I am so lucky to be in the DR, we are the only PCVs who are able to get cell phones. I’m super lucky that I’m not disconnected from everyone at home. So, as I turned off my light and tucked my mosquito net around my bed I was feeling pretty good.
Hope you all are doing well and can't wait to hear from you!!love
Betsy
Monday, September 8, 2008
Thankfulness and Peace of Mind
Sat 9/6
So, here I sit in my bed, as I have been doing all day since I’m a little sick, and I can’t help but think about everything that’s changed in the last couple weeks. I have to say that I am so lucky to be here!! There isn’t a day that goes by though that I don’t feel at least a little out of place as the other trainees seem to be so much more qualified than I. Almost all of them are very good at Spanish or fluent in at least one other language than English, most were straight A students, several have master’s degrees, all but me have been out of the county before, tons have studied abroad for at least a semester but most have been out of the country for several sessions of abroad living. These are people who are in the same decade of their lives as me, many the same age as me or even a year younger.
So, as I sit and think about all the reasons I’m not qualified in this group I’m hit with a realization: if I were so under qualified I wouldn’t be here either. The PC must have seen something I’m not aware of yet but I think it’s not so much about what has been accomplished but about the potential to accomplish. I also think that I am so lucky to be here with so much talent. Everyone has to start somewhere so I guess this is my start. I’m really glad I’m so young and I can get used to the fact that I see my self with little to offer for now since when it’s time to come home I’ll see myself with more to offer.
It’s jus been two weeks and I’ve already been very surprised with how my perceptions are different than I had thought they would be. I’m not even homesick yet!! How is that possible? I know it is because you all are so supportive and also because of all of your prayers. There is not even one day that passes that I don’t feel blessed to be in the DR. This is the only country in the PC that distributes cell phones to their volunteers. This is because they are able to and also because it helps out a lot when there is a need to get in contact with volunteers during times like these, hurricane season. I am grateful everyday when I get to talk to family and when I get to use the internet. Something I don’t take lightly is that I get to charge my computer and sit here in a room with the tv loud in the next room. Sure, this makes me need ear plugs but I was also lucky enough to get a free pair during a training exercise! Everything always works out:) Sure the tv is in Spanish which I don’t pretend to comprehend yet but my point is that, as of now, I’m not washing my clothes in a river or literally only living off of rice and beans. I’m super close to the states and I have the luxury of living in the Caribbean. Yes, it is sooooooo freaking hot right now, well more humid than anything, and my room is pretty much always 90 degrees (thanks for the cool whistle/thermometer/compass guys at BCHD:)but that makes me enjoy the bucket baths! I simply can not find the same appreciation for the ice cold water (which we collect off of the roof and I learned in my med class that there is a certain breed of worm that thrives in water on roofs, ick) after a nice cool day.
Yes, cool days happen here. In fact one day this last week I was downing hot cocoa since I was FREEZING. Rain makes it a lot colder here. So, while there is always some bad that can be focused on, there is way more good in my circumstance! I thank God everyday that he chose me for this and that I am lucky enough to be here. So, feel free to send me the fruit roll ups (tropical tye dye is my fav by the way:) but don’t worry about me- although I never turn down sympathy:)
I feel so taken care of here, the staff is very caring. How many people can say that they really like their boss? (don’t read into that Bill or Molly:) The country director, the highest person in the PC in country, personally greeted us at the airport terminal and helped us get our bags when we arrived! We don’t even need an appointment to see him.
Yesterday I was having an extra super frustrated day and the technical trainer for the health group, who had no idea how I was feeling, just happened to ask me if I had some time to talk to her. She said she was a little worried about me after our last conversation since I don’t like the food and expressed concern about a new host family for CBT (mine is so good now, how can any family really have a fair chance to compare?) as well as concern for the prospect of being homesick during CBT since there are no phones available. So I wouldn’t be able to talk with my family for the 5 weeks of CBT. I thought it was so nice that she noticed all that and took the time to see how I felt a few days later. I noticed that others in my group often just randomly ask each other how they’re doing and it’s not a generic question. They really want to know and offer help if possible. I told Ann (my tech trainer) that I purchased a pre paid cell phone so people can call me if they want, and I already bought a jar of peanut butter to get CBT started. I went through a whole jar last week! But after talking with her I felt so much better!! It’s true I may still get homesick but even though I don’t know all the volunteers well enough yet to picture myself crying to them if I get homesick I feel like Ann is already there for us. It’s a great feeling.
I was invited earlier today to study by Richie (another volunteer from Chicago who speaks Spanish so good that I think my Dona is in love with him) but I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea to be far from a bathroom today since I’m not functioning at my best. A few hours later, after I had been in my room with the lights out pondering how my eyes were able to adjust to the darkness so well, and my Dona knocked at my door to tell me I had some visitors. There were 6 volunteers who heard I wasn’t feeling well and decided to stop by for a visit, how nice is that?!
So, I know this is long and rambling but after my Dad’s comment a couple days ago about rescuing me by plane or boat (by the way Dad, if I want to leave I just have to say so and they’ll fly me home so rest easy.) I figured it was a topic that I should maybe cover more thoroughly. Thank you all for your support because it really means a lot to me. I’m still nervous about this and that and my Spanish pisses me off endlessly but I am my own worse critic. The upside of my Spanish is that people really get a kick out of me so they like to talk to me. Today I was trying to talk to my family about the “art” of flushing the toilet and they were laughing hysterically at me. Turns out I was saying winter when I was trying to say toilet. I could get offended by this but I’m not sure if I’m past that point or perhaps not up to it yet. Getting laughed at, whether by other volunteers because of my “cute” Spanish or my family because of my “I don’t know what they’re saying” Spanish or just by random people who think a poncho is the funniest thing ever, is a very normal part of my day now. Sure, I got laughed at a lot in the states but this is a LOT more for sure. So, thanks to all of you back home who were never shy to laugh at me and helped condition me for it here. Way to think ahead! Talk to you all soon I’m sure.
Love
BetsyFriday, September 5, 2008
Spanish, dengue and more
Hey there everyone :)
Hope you are all well there. We just finished lunch here and the internet isn’t working so I decided to write you all yet another blog. Everyone is sitting at a toilet right now thinking about their pooping habits now vs before. One girl is giving an example of how a person is supposed to poop if one can not go- like how you are supposed to sit. Interesting.
So, Dengue has claimed yet another victim here in the group. This time it was a technical trainer (the people who teach us what to do next week at CBT) and there are just four of them total- one for each sector. So, we hope he gets better soon!!
To answer some questions, the girl who got Dengue is doing better. At first we were all upset about our PCV visits were going to be moved to Tuesday- Thursday but now we’re all pretty happy since that girl won’t be missing her trip. That would be a BIG bummer. She thought she was having symptoms when she was sitting in the lecture the nurse was giving us about Dengue and Malaria but she wasn’t sure if it was just in her head. I guess she had a headache and her eyes were hurting. She said she just didn’t feel well. Poor girl, glad she’s on the recovery now though.
I guess there are 4 strains and once you get one your more prone to get the others. One of them is really bad where your organs hemorrhage, so that’s not good. But, people typically (well PCVs) die or go home or anything due to it.
With all the rain that’s coming I guess this weekend is going to be pretty dull. We’re all talking about going to a car wash to party it up on Sat but not if it’s pouring. (Note, here car washes are transformed into dance partys at night). It may be a good thing though since I have a bunch of tests on Monday. They won’t kick any of us out for not performing well on these. They’re to monitor our progress, and I don’t feel like it’s much so I need to study study study!!!
Yesterday my Spanish group practiced calling realators in the paper. We need to know how to get housing so we thought this would be good practice. The first girl got through the second sentence and then started laughing so hard she hung up on the guy. I went next and did really well till I started reading off of my sheet. Turns out I used too many new and big words so when I tried to pronounce them they had no idea what I was saying. They passed the phone from person to person till finally I started laughing so hard I couldn’t talk. I said I was sorry and meant to say I was sick but accidently said they were sick. I have no idea what she said but it wasn’t nice and then she hung up. Whoops.
The next girl did a good job but the last girl didn’t have good results. She got through a few of the questions and accidentally asked if there was gold in the kitchen instead of an oven. She didn’t know what the guy was saying in between her questions so she just kept asking new ones. Finally he told her she needed to learn how to speak Spanish and he hung up on her. We think she may have had the wrong number anyways.
So, yesterday was fun in my 6 ½ hours of Spanish. We played Monopolio (Spanish monopoly) and got better with our numbers. I thought it was going to suck soooo bad being in Spanish that long but my teacher did a great job keeping it interesting.
Well, that’s all for now. Dad, I don’t need you to come and rescue me but thanks for the offer. It’s seriously not bad here so don’t worry about me. They take care of us here. The worst thing I have to deal with is my own frustration, which was in full swing today. But thanks for all the comments, I love reading them. Sarah, whats the deal with not calling me on Sunday you butthead? Good thing I didn’t stay home from the beach for the call!! If you call and I’m not there just try a few hours later. I’m always home by 8 or 9 but generally by 7.
Ok, hope to hear from you all soon. Miss you tons!!
Love
Betsy
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Dengue Delirium
Hello all:)
Well, it's raining yet again, and I just heard that one of the girls from my group already got Dengue. She lives in my neighborhood so I know those little buggers are buzzing around close! I've heard that while the rain here is common it's pretty excessive lately. The Director said that last year there were just 2 hurricanes or whatever they're called but that this year in the two weeks we've been there there have already been like 6 or we're in line for 6. Jeesh! I'm supposed to go on a trip this week to visit a PCV waaaay up in Puerta Plata and they may not be letting us go. Noooo!!! I wanted to go to the bea- I mean I wanted to see what life was like for a PCV after graduation! We're just sitting around in the training office right now waiting for people to show up. A lot of people are late because when it rains the public transportation stops (seems weird since they get a lot of rain you'd think they'd be used to it but their drainage systems can't handle it) and plus a lot of people's families get kind of crazy about them leaving in the rain. They worry about us a lot. Oop, time to go. Talk to you all soon. Thanks for the comments:)
love
betsy
Well, it's raining yet again, and I just heard that one of the girls from my group already got Dengue. She lives in my neighborhood so I know those little buggers are buzzing around close! I've heard that while the rain here is common it's pretty excessive lately. The Director said that last year there were just 2 hurricanes or whatever they're called but that this year in the two weeks we've been there there have already been like 6 or we're in line for 6. Jeesh! I'm supposed to go on a trip this week to visit a PCV waaaay up in Puerta Plata and they may not be letting us go. Noooo!!! I wanted to go to the bea- I mean I wanted to see what life was like for a PCV after graduation! We're just sitting around in the training office right now waiting for people to show up. A lot of people are late because when it rains the public transportation stops (seems weird since they get a lot of rain you'd think they'd be used to it but their drainage systems can't handle it) and plus a lot of people's families get kind of crazy about them leaving in the rain. They worry about us a lot. Oop, time to go. Talk to you all soon. Thanks for the comments:)
love
betsy
10 Facts
9/1/08
Well, now that I’m at home I thought of something else that happened I feel the need to share. Today in our medical lesson the country nurse, Jo, went over lots of interesting things. You all know how I just love nasty things so I can gross everyone out but this was something even I could have done without. Here are some facts which, against my will, are permanently burned into my memory and hopefully will be in yours as well:
1) Tarantulas can jump up to 6 feet.
a. NOTE: Although mosquito nets are somewhat complicated and annoying, I have to admit I am grateful for the protection they give me from these monsters- forget the mosquitoes. I keep having reoccurring daydreams/nightmares that I wake up to discover a nasty tarantula on my mosquito net but I guess that’s better than waking to one on my face- ok, that made me shiver.
2) There is a great variety of worms a person can acquire here. You can get them simply by putting your nails in your mouth if you have bad timing. Some worms can grow really long and some kinds come out as little white guys flailing around. Others, as Joe put it, may come out some of the way but then “could need some help with the rest of the travel” due to their length.
3) Worm eggs can be around a spot you don’t want to be scratching and you can’t even see them. You just itch.
a. NOTE: Thank you BCHD for the hand-sanitizer. I don’t want to think about this but if it could itch like those mosquito bites I had before I left…
4) We are so lucky here in the DR because we have the kind of Malaria that “generally doesn’t kill” (unless something ruptures)
5) Dengue is also known as “break bone fever” since it is so painful it seems as though every bone is broken. (For those of you who may not know, Dengue is also caused by a mosquito bite. These mosquitoes bit during the day and the malaria one’s at night so they’ve got it covered.)
6) 1/3 of volunteers here get Dengue. Bug spray is my new cell phone, always with me.
7) Soda is better to drink that water when you’ve got the runs. So is broth.
8) There is a kind of worm you can get that lives under your skin and eats your muscles. You can see them moving under your skin.
9) Don’t ever eat lettuce. It’s just as bad (or risky) as the water and like everything else it seems will give you diarrhea or worse.
10) I will never eat uncooked (deli meat) pork here- it’s a possible worm hang out hot spot.
So there you go 10 facts you could have lived without yet kept reading. Like a car wreck- awful but you just can’t turn away. If I get a worm, I may be coming home, not that it would help. It would be an uncomfortable plane ride that’s for sure!
Another interesting note, lots of people here are afraid of frogs. How weird is that?
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