12/15 Thursday: Ouch. You know it’s bad when even your thumbs are sore.
In a nutshell: Yesterday I got the great idea that I would redo my sad little garden. After all, I’m expecting my women to have one; shouldn’t I set an example and do mine the correct way as well? The issue is that my old garden was too small so I literally spent 5 of the 8 hours I worked that day simply leveling out more ground to make it bigger. Thank goodness a 14 year old boy happened over my way about 2 hours in and he helped me the rest of the day. Muchachos here are truly amazing, they work harder and better than any kid I’ve ever seen in the US. Anyways, we were able to cut all the weeds down from my yard (something I wanted to do before my Christmas party), level out more ground, dig the hole for the bed, make the bed, make a walkway to the garden, and put in all the sticks for the fence. I had a slew of helpers during all this; whoever happened to walk by would come and help for a little bit. It was a great group effort. Despite all the help, I still pick axed and machete-ed a LOT and today I am sore. So sore in fact that last night, despite how tired I was, I couldn’t sleep! Even the muscles in my thumbs hurt! Man oh man.
Today, to my surprise, I was still mildly productive. I graded all the Escojo finals and was disappointed to see, after I lowered the passing grade from 70% to 60%, still 6 kids failed. What am I going to do with them?! I also had my meeting with two of the Escojo promoter kids who are in charge of planning the graduation. I broke a piece of a tooth this week so I will have to go to the capital tomorrow to get it fixed meaning that these kids will pretty much be planning the entire graduation themselves. It will be interesting.
I was supposed to have a my women’s group meeting today but 1 of 3 didn’t show up so I told them to enjoy the Christmas break and I set off to check out the 3 women’s houses where they each already made the gardens! I made it kind of a competition telling them the 1st ones done would get a watering can and 1st pick of the seeds. I didn’t expect 3 women to finish it in the 1st day though, wow! I’m going to get them each a watering can and some special seeds because they deserve it. After working all day in my garden yesterday I appreciate how much work that was for them. And how exciting it is that they are actually doing it!
12/14 Tuesday: One. Long. Day.
In a nutshell: Erin and Kenzie showed up at my site ready to work but we were missing one very important thing: the plastic to line the garden beds. We didn’t need it on day one but on day two yes. So Kenzie and I went on a wild goose chase trying to find this plastic. We spent all day in Santiago trying to find it and literally after 6 hours of searching, the last store we went into had the plastic. We bought it and some other last minute necessities that were much easier to get a hold of and went back to my site. Gardens are hard but hopefully worth the sweat.
The Real Blog: Well the garden workshop has been going well, all things considered. I handed out 97 invitations and the 1st day 25 women showed up, the 2nd there were 18 women. I was hoping for at least 10 women without the handouts so the 12 hours of house visits I did paid off. The weather was great and although Kenz and Erin were a little late getting to my site, Dominicans are always really late anyways. Whenever they want to have a meeting or something they purposely say it’s like an hour before hand or if they say the actual time they want to meet up they add “American Time” at the end meaning that’s the time and that’s no joke! For example: “The meeting will be at 3 pm, American time.” Which I think is hilarious since this means they think Americans are always right on time. If they ever got there on time they would realize that I’m (like most Americans) generally about 5- 10 minutes late, ha!
Anyways, back to the point… so everything was going well. The women dug out the 2 garden beds the day before and today they were ready to lay down the plastic, fill the beds in and plant. One problem: no plastic. Erin said she would bring the seeds and the plastic for the project and she showed up empty handed. Luckily Kenzie had some seeds with her and I managed to get a small grant for about $70 USD the week before so I had some money to get the plastic. I figured I would just run out with Kenz the next day to find some in Navarrete. We thought it would be easy since the town closest to Kenzie is super crappy and even they sell plastic in the hardware stores. After an hour of driving around on a motorcycle looking for this stuff in Navarrete the next day we discovered it was harder to get than we thought and just decided to go to Santiago. The giant hardware store there had to have it.
We got to Santiago and it turns out, this plastic is incredibly elusive! No one has it but everyone thinks they know who sells it. And since we had no better ideas, we always followed the advice. We went to about 10 hardware stores, 2 green houses, a farm vet, walked around downtown with some random dude who decided to be our guide for a while without being asked, went to craft stores, decorating stores, we took this carro publico and that carro publico up town and down town… we were beginning to loose hope and were feeling very resentful towards Erin after about 6 hours and 4 or 5 miles of walking and sweating. As a last effort we got the bright idea of going to furniture stores and asking if they would sell us some of the protective plastic they use but no one would sell it. So we asked where they buy it and were given more directions.
We decided, for lack of other options, to keep on this trail and after following the directions, asking 3 other furniture stores and another green house, we found a store (amazingly close to where we began our search that morning in Santiago) that actually makes plastic. Sure it was in a ghetto area and Kenzie kept making comments about how mad she would be if we were robbed but it didn’t matter; when we walked into that store and saw the plastic our hearts so desired- we began yelling happily, hugged and nearly cried! I’m sure we looked completely insane to the workers in the teeny store but who cares?! I wasn’t going to have to go back to my community empty handed! I wasn’t going to have to tell the women to fill in the holes they had just done the day before and do raised bed gardens instead!
We bought the plastic and set out hoping to find some empty rice sacks quickly as we were already going to miss the whole presentation part of the workshop for the day and show up for the digging. Lucky for us we found a guy selling them on the side of the same ghetto road. He wanted to charge me 10 pesos a piece but I told him I would only pay 5 and we had a deal. That was the 2nd person that day who automatically told me 10 pesos 1st and then dropped it to 5. What the guy didn’t know was that I was actually quite tired and desperate at this point so I would have paid the 10 if it meant I didn’t have to walk anymore.
Kenz and I got the plastic and the rice bags (the bags are to nail to the stick fencing, protecting the garden), some Cokes and took off for home. I had asked a motorcycle driver to find me a sack of carbón which is a specific type of burnt wood that we needed as well. While Kenz and I were walking to the bus I called the motor guy and asked about the stuff. What stuff? He wanted to know. The carbon, I told him. Then he said that Carlo (the motorcycle man) wasn’t going to be back until 6 pm. I thought I was talking to Carlo… and 6pm?! I need this stuff by 4, I said to whomever I was talking to. I asked who I was talking to and the guy said he couldn’t tell me! By this point in the day, this really annoyed me and said fine but that if Carlo couldn’t get me the sack of carbon then he needed to give the 500 pesos I paid him to someone else who could get it. Then the guy on the phone told me to calm down and said, “Carlo who?” Are you kidding me? If it was a wrong number don’t you think the guy maybe would have thought to say that to me 5 minutes before since you have to buy a calling card to call anyone in this country and he was just wasting my minutes! I swear, sometimes…
We got back to the entrance of my site and I talked to the real Carlo in person who had gotten my carbón. Kenz and I showed up about 5 minutes after the women finished the presentation with Erin, which was perfect. I gave Kenz the materials and took off to my Escojo class to give the final, Erin had to leave, and Kenz took the women over to assemble the gardens. I delegated the exam to the Escojo promoter group and went back to the gardens. It was great. Sure there were only about 5 women working but they were all learning and they all have interest in this. I wasn’t interested in gardening before but I am so glad I did it. What a great community response! :)
12/13 Sunday: House Visits and Garden Workshop
In a nutshell: I went door to door giving out invites to go to a garden workshop a couple PCVs and I are giving Monday and Tuesday. I’m hoping giving a personal invite to a free something something where they can get free seeds seems intriguing and there will be a big turnout. I also rediscovered how much I enjoy house visits. After day 2 of 6 hours of passing out invites, finished going to nearly every single house in my community and I went to check on the garden area. It was supposed to be clean, and chopped up, ready to plant, and all the sticks needed to make the 2 beds and the fencing were supposed to be along side it. All I found was Earth full of weeds and grass. This is a problem. I talked with some people and tried to convince them to help me. I never even saw Ernesto (he got back late last night and will leave early tomorrow) and he leaves again tomorrow so I guess I can’t ask him. I think it will work out. And anyways, we have until 2 pm tomorrow to figure it out. Wish me luck!
The Real Blog: Yesterday and today I spent about 6 hours visiting each house in my community giving an invitation to go to a garden workshop we’re having in the Women’s Club Monday and Tuesday. Kenzie and Erin are coming to give charlas on this and then after we are going to make a garden. I was a little afraid that no one was going to go to it so I made invitations and walked to nearly all the houses to invite them personally. I have heard this works really well and I hope it pays off. I’ll be embarrassed if no one shows up, like it’s a flashing sign saying I’m not integrated in my community.
I got a lot of positive feed back when visiting each house and rediscovered that I really love visiting houses. It’s so fun here. For instance, yesterday by the time I went to my last house I was really cold. I caught the lady in the street and after doing this all day (with a break in the middle where I stopped at someone’s house with Anne and Tim to make no bake cookies:) I gave her the invite, explained what it was and could have left to go home and make dinner. Instead, we talked, she invited me in, we went in, drank pop (even though I was cold), her dog tried to bite me, and we watched tv together. (a really weird game show about sex) This would have been sooooo awkward in the States! But here, even though I can’t even really remember her name (I believe it is the feminine version of her husbands name though) we can do this. And I love it. I need to take better advantage of it. Today I was given a bag of yellow bananas as a gift from a family after a visit and another told me how appreciative they are of the work I do here, how they can’t count on the government or anything here but they can count on Peace Corps as Kevin came and actually gave them water as promised. It was a great feeling and I finished the day extra exhausted but really satisfied.
After my house visits I went to see how the progress was on the garden. Oney (Ernesto’s best bud) was supposed to clean and level the ground where we are putting the garden and also look for sticks to make each bed and enclose the garden. Mercedes and Santa were supposed to look for palm branches for the fencing and a bag of ash from their stoves. They were all supposed to try and get manure so it was dry by the time we had to use it. Oney got the manure and Santa had the ash and some palm branches. But that was everything. The ground is full of weeds and grass, even fallen a dead tree. We have no branches. I was acting a little nervous for show but really I just wanted to motivate them. I bet they could finish all of it in 1-2 hours. I just need to make sure they do it.
After I got back to my house, I was tired but for some reason decided to make no bake cookies for dinner, not a good idea on my calorie counting diet! I had just settled into bed around 8:30 when there was a knock on the door: Wandi. Strange since I can’t remember the last time he was at my house, the Mistoline fundraiser perhaps? Well we talked and, although he still says the root of the problem is my fault because I was the one who was mad 1st however long ago, he did apologize for how he has been acting and what he did to me in class. He also promised to apologize to the class for being such a jerk. Aside from the fact he took 90 minutes of my sleep time, I’m happy he came to talk. I’m tired. I’m going to sleep!
12/12 Saturday: A Change of Heart
In a nutshell: I need an attitude change. I am negative and feel used. Its hard to change your attitude but I am going to try to go about things in a different way and see where it gets me. For instance, when a motorcycle driver takes me somewhere, normally I get angry when they try to overcharge me but from now on, I’m going to overpay and see if they start treating me better or worse. I figure they may try to take even more advantage of me or they’ll respect me. An experiment. Also, I need stop being so American by measuring my self worth by my accomplishments. If I’m not busy, if I’m not getting results I feel like crap. But that’s so American. Lots of countries actually judge self worth by relationships and trust, rather than achievements and success. I want to do that as well. But that’s HARD. And another thing, when did I get so anal? I used to be so easy going but now I’m so high strung! Having my friend Jay visit me (who is a total hippie dude) made me realize I would make more friends and have more relationships if I just let it all go. But how? It’s so easy to feel that if I were more integrated into my community that they wouldn’t steal from me. If they were all friends with me or at least all respected me, then they would take care of me better and not steal. But is that true? It could be but on the other hand, it is a way to just blame myself? I’m so exhausted from it all. Its time for a change. I’m done complaining about it all and then doing the same old same old. I’m going to try it from a different angle and see where it gets me. May as well try.
12/9- 12/11: Enema, cell phone issues, bed bugs, car sick, downpour, artisan fair… what more is there in life?
In a nutshell: My fingers are too cold to type more. Sorry Deb.
The Real Blog: I am in a bad mood. I am crabby. I am annoyed. This is due to several things but I chose to pin all my problems on one man: Francisco, the front desk man in the Peace Corps office. This is because it is HE who told me he would be back with the phone I have been waiting for since October at 12 then didn’t show up until 2. Thus when I was walking to my bus stop, after passing the entire day simply waiting for him and nothing else, and was caught in a downpour with my super heavy bag- his face came to mind. Then when I got to my bus stop, I was late and missed the bus. The next bus was supposed to leave at 3:45, nearly an hour later, but left at 4:30. It really didn’t matter though since either way- 3:45 or 4:30, I am going to have to beg someone to take me up the mountain now since it will be dark and I will also have to pay double. Thanks Francisco.
Then when Francisco finally did get me the phone, he actually just got the same crappy model that broke on me 3 times before. Newsflash: “upgrade” at least should mean different model. And to top it off, he canceled the memory chip in my old phone so I had to reenter all the contacts in the new one! Then, after it all, he tells me I can just keep the loaner phone Anna gave me last month. The loaner phone he wouldn’t give me in October when mine broke? The loaner phone that will probably break before the end of my service seeing as how it’s more than a year old and thus ancient in the DR phone world? Yep, that one. ERRR! So, now as I sit here on the bus that is notorious for being freezing cold, and I am extra cold because I am still wet from the rain, I think of Francisco and wonder if he knows how much trouble he caused me by taking a 2 hour long lunch today and not giving me the promised phone before hand as promised. I’m sure he doesn’t.
But that was just today. Yesterday I went and talked to Lisette, the PC Doctor and asked about the weird red bites I have been getting all over my body for about two weeks and we determined that they were from bed bugs. Even better, I toted all my dirty laundry 5 hours from my house to the office so I could wash it in there, to save money on laundry this week with Minga and now I am going to have to have her wash all my sheets anyways.
Then Lisette tells me that since I hadn’t gone #2 in 7 days she wants to give me an ENEMA. Sorry dude but I am too young for that. “Is that really the first option that comes to mind?” I asked her. Ok, I convinced her to give me a laxative instead but the thing is, I was going to the Artisan fair downtown and didn’t want to poop my pants! The last time I took a laxative I had a very close call. She assured me I would be ok. I went to the fair with toilet paper in my purse just to be sure, saw some great stuff, and went back to the PC office with some friends later feeling oddly full.
About 10 minutes after I got back to the office it hit me and I bolted for the bathroom to do my business. About 2 minutes in, another PCV burst into the bathroom without knocking. It was awkward but we hugged afterwards to get over the moment quickly. Then I went to the Pen and had awful diarrhea for a few hours and vowed to take the enema next time.
UPDATE: When I got back to my site, my friend Jay was there with his Dominican friend waiting for me. Jay had called me the day before telling me he was at my house but I was in Santo Domingo so I suggested how to break into my house and he and his friend spent the night. I was happy to have him there when I arrived the next day, he also was a big help because he put the mattresses outside to sit in the sun, sprayed them with bug killer and took the sheets to Mingas to have them washed. When I got back, all we had to do was dust the mattresses with the powder Lisette gave me, make the beds with towels (since Minga had all my sheets) and hop in! Thank goodness!
12/8 Tuesday: Escojo gone bad
In a nutshell: Wandi has been a real butthead for what feels like a long time. He’s been ignoring me and being weird. Its been about a week since he came into my house even. So, imagine my surprise when he showed up at the Escojo class this week. Sure he was 20 minutes late but I didn’t even think he would go at all. We were playing Jeopardy to review for the final exam (which I am giving next week- THANK GOODNESS!!) which should be fun right? Long story short, Wandi wasn’t even on a team but freaked out when he thought I wasn’t being fair on a turn. Then the other kids freaked out. I tried to calm the others, with some success, but Wandi was ridiculous. I finally said if it bothered him so much that he couldn’t calm down he could leave. To which he said “Make me.” And this is why I am not a teacher. I was soooo mad. I walked outside and did the best thing I could- I called his dad. But of course, his dad is hours and hours away in a community working on a water system (and has been since July)- yes my project partner which my boss put there- and he has no cell phone service. So I did the craziest thing: I left a message. Dominicans never leave them, I mean NEVER. I have never left one for a Dominican. Ernesto called me back later that night and we talked about it, he promised to talk to Wandi the next day. Er, teaching bites.
12/7 Monday: Cockroach in my cereal, and I still ate the cornflakes.
In a nutshell: I really wanted to eat cornflakes and for once, I actually had some! I prepared my powdered milk and reached for the cereal. I was distraught to discover a large, live roach living in the cereal bag. But, I really wanted cornflakes. After pondering what I should do versus what I wanted, I came to a compromise. I took the bag outside, dumped out the top 2-3 inches of cereal along with Mr. Roach, and picked 1 cup of cereal out (sorting it well 1st in case there were cockroach poopies), and then poured the cereal in with my milk and ate it. It was satisfying but not like it could have been. Stupid roach.
12/3-12/4 Friday- Saturday: Brigada Verde Conference
In a nutshell: These conferences are very different that other conferences I have been to. It’s more like camping. All the kids slept on the floor in sleeping bags and the PCVs slept 2-3 to a bed on mattresses on the floor. There was no water (partly because someone left a tap open draining the water tank of what little water there was) so we all had to walk to the river to bathe each day and had to wash our faces/brush our teeth outside of the rooms with a cup full of water. We did tree planting activities and went on a nature hike. We used all plastic, reusable cups and washed our own dishes. We learned all about organic vs inorganic garbage and how to make art out of trash. It was a really good experience. But there were a few mishaps.
Mishaps: Well, long story short: I was not well informed about this conference at all. When I arrived at the meeting place, no one was there. I called another PCV and she told me it had been moved. So, 4 carro publicos later I finally got to the bus. Then, I also had no idea we were supposed to bring art supplies, sheets, blankets (it was cold), a swim suit or tennis shoes. Needless to say, I was ill prepared. Then there was the nature hike. The nature hike was interesting because I left nearly last with another PCV, three youth and a “guide” who works at the center. We ended up walking about a mile past the entrance to the river without knowing it. After we exhausted ourselves we came upon a person on a horse, coming from the opposite direction, who told us there were no people in front of us. Then the guide said that he knew where the entrance was but the other PCV and I were walking too fast which is what made him miss it. When we finally backtracked to the entrance we noticed the large sign indicating that we had indeed arrived to the entrance of the river.
12/1- 12/3: One year In Service Training.
In a nutshell: What is 1 year IST? It’s when you get together with your sector and talk about the last year; tools and challenges of the year and also when you “plan” for the next year. Well it went ok I suppose. It made me realize just how frustrated with my community I am. Aside from that, its always really fun getting together with everyone from the health and water group. We went to a baseball game (my 1st in country!, Las Aguilas against Las Estrellas) on Wednesday night and Thursday was Jay’s birthday so we had cake and played 2 truths and a lie and night. I don’t feel it necessary to talk about the training sessions because they’re kind of a waste of time. I had to leave early on Friday to get to my Brigada Verde conference but at least I was able to get some cake the night before!
11/28 Saturday: Que peña.
In a nutshell: Last night when I came back from Santo Domingo I stayed with my friend Helen and a Dominican family she knew in Santiago. I was pretty happy to stay somewhere for free, to be able to stay at the Peace Corps office later than I have ever stayed when having to return to site and for the fact that the next day I was able to get back to my site before 9 am still. The day was going well. Then I talked to Minga. She told me that someone stole a pair of my pants from the line while they were drying. Fantastic. I told Minga I thought someone was stealing my clothing a while back when a favorite tank top and sweater went MIA but she reassured me, saying it wasn’t possible. Now she’s sharing stories about how someone stole 2 pairs of her underwear recently and come to think of it, I’m pretty sure they swiped a few of mine as well. It’s always the favorites you know, they can’t steal the stuff with holes or that’s sun faded. But then, I suppose I wouldn’t steal those either.
I feel bad for Minga because she obviously feels very bad about it. She gave me two of her very Dominican pants with pink threading and some sequenced bling, accompanied by a brand new knock off purple Aeropostle shirt she just bought. I tried to say no no no but it just made her feel worse. Minga is now on a mission to find out who did it and of course people think it was the Haitians. There are a ton of people who walk around randomly selling clothing and most of them are Haitians. I could totally see a clothes vendor taking my stuff for obvious reasons but also because it would be immensely stupid for someone to take my shirt and then wear it around the campo. I think it’s safe to say I will never see my pants again, nor will I ever see the sweater or the tank top.
PS: Wandi is annoying.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wow, its been a month... yikes!
11/25 Wednesday : To Santo Domingo, I looooove Thanksgiving!!!!!
In a nutshell: Ah, it’s that time again: Thanksgiving. I looooove Thanksgiving here. It’s fantastic. We all go to this country club and eat real Thanksgiving food, complete with green bean casserole, pies and turkey among other things. Some PCVs begin arriving in SD on Monday if they are lucky enough to be on the Thanksgiving Committee and they cook and cook and cook Monday- Thursday. They stay with an Embassy family for free the entire week. Then on Thanksgiving Day anyone can run in the Turkey Trot (6 K) and then we all go to a country club. The club is supposed to have wireless internet. It has a pool which is amazing! We have domino contests, a dance off and a talent show (which I will be performing in this year). We’re even playing water twister this year!!! It’s beyond fun. I can’t wait! :)
11/20- 22Friday- Sunday: Getting stood up in Cabarete
In a nutshell: I have been in contact with this woman from an organization that invites volunteers from all over the world to come and work here in the DR for something like 6 weeks. I met her last summer and have been trying (passively until recently) to meet up with her and discuss if we can make something happen in my community. Turns out she lives in Cabarete- which is where all the PCVs celebrate New Years- it’s touristy and beautiful. It also turns out that my friend Kenzie was going to be in Cabarete this weekend with her family and I was invited to stay with them. I called the woman from the organization, Andrea, and we set up a meeting Saturday for the morning. I was excited to maybe finally getting somewhere on something tangible. Well, I went out there Friday so I could be there Sat morning and she never called. I called her, left messages, emails and text messaged her. I even stayed an extra day hoping she would get back to me with no luck. Then Sunday I finally shut my phone off since it was about to die. I was pretty disappointed and annoyed. Thank goodness I was able to stay with Kenz’s family for free or else that would have been a HUGE waste of money. Granted I enjoyed myself at the beach, the good food with Kenzie’s family, meeting Kenzie’s family, wireless internet, comfortable bed…. It was nice but I of course still spent some money and had no meeting or headway to show for it. What a bummer.
(Update: Tuesday I checked my email and Andrea had written me telling me that it was no wonder that when she tried to call it wouldn’t go through seeing as my phone had died. The thing is, my phone wasn’t off until Sunday and there were no messages for me when I turned it back on a few hours later. Is it possible that she didn’t get any of my messages and randomly couldn’t reach me either? Why not email me? Then she said she would “make an effort” to come out to my site this week. SHE HAS A CAR!!! It took me over three hours to get home on Sunday. I will not act annoyed. I just want this to work out and want to be able to work together.)
11/19 Thursday: Mistoline is a pain in the butt with lazy kids
In a nutshell: My kids need to fundraise for some shirts that we will be making for an exchange in December in honor of World AIDS Day. (December 1st but we’re celebrating it the 6th) We got together to make something similar to Pine Sol called Mistoline and it was pretty much a disaster. The kids were fighting, refusing to do more than what they thought was their fair share of work and I was left compensation for they’re lack of work. They each worked for about an hour if you include time spent looking for bottles to put the Mistoline in, and cleaning the bottles- whereas I got stuck working for 3 or 4 hours. I’m hoping this trip boosts moral among the group or else I wouldn’t have done it. The kids are really getting on my nerves. I never did like kids….
The Real Blog: As I have said, my Escojo class has been a bit of a struggle this go around. So, I decided to invite my Escojo promoters instead of a few kids from class to the exchange for World AIDS day. We’re going to go to my friend Sarah’s site, meeting up with kids from like 10 other communities, and recognize those affected by HIV/AIDS. We decided that each participant should have a red shirt and so in October I made a design for a shirt for my kids. I thought it would be nice for them to have a shirt with something printed on it as opposed to just a plain red shirt; give our group a little pride. The thing is these shirts aren’t cheap to make. I went to SD during Halloween and was quoted about $400 pesos/shirt. So I told me kids they would have to fundraise for it. Maybe I teach in too much of a hands off manner… I’m not sure. But I can tell you, no one was motivated to do anything. I went to Santiago (making a special trip just for this), and got the recipe to make this stuff called Mistoline- which is like a flowery type of Pine Sol. People use it to clean their floors or what have you and to make it smell like perfume as opposed to dirt. (Everything always smells like dirt here) I knew it would be easy to sell and the profit margin is pretty large. I had the ingredients for a few days before I was able to coordinate with the kids to meet up and make it. They were each to bring 20 bottles, cleaned and with the labels taken off. This was an easy enough task since there is no trash pick up in my community and so it’s full of empty pop bottles.
The kids showed up and Yamelissa was refusing to wash the bottles telling me I should have to do it since she had to find the bottles. How rude is that!? Would you talk to your professor like that? Such a lack or respect, I need to stop hanging out with these kids outside of class. I pointed out the work I already had done (I had to prepare the day of, beginning at 8 while they were all about 30- 45 minutes late showing up) and the fact that I was going to use my own money to buy my shirt. Begrudgingly they began cleaning the bottles. Wouldn’t you know it; at the very start Wandi was pissed at me for telling him to shut up while I was trying to explain how to mix the ingredients. He then decided to leave and make it alone at his house. Three of the kids couldn’t come and so we were supposed to make an extra 60 bottles. I figured it was no big deal but it of course was. Vanji and Yamelissa stayed and made an extra 10 each but then just left, without even picking anything up or wiping anything off, leaving my house in disarray. Wandi made 13 and decided it as enough (although no one knew how many he had made until about noon since he was hiding how many he had done). Argeni actually pulled up a chair, making himself more comfortable while staring at Yamelissa and Vanji as they made an extra 10 bottles each and he refused to help. He only made 15. Everyone only worked for about 30 minutes and then they all left. I on the other hand was making stupid Mistoline from 8 am until 12:30. Not to mention there was no water in my water tap so I had to use water from my tank, which was nearly empty as well. I was getting pretty crabby by the whole situation but especially since it looked like I was going to have to bathe with my purchased, bottled water if the water from the aqueduct didn’t come back soon. Thank goodness for the little kids that hang out at my house and are always so helpful, they went and found me the other 47 bottles, cleaned them and took the labels off, helped me make the mixture, and helped clean it up.
After how the group was acting, I wouldn’t have even made the Mistoline but I feel like it will boost moral. I’m hoping this exchange will make the group a little stronger. I could have been a slave driver and argued with them, MAKING them finish but I’m exhausted. I try to motivate them but you have to pick your battles and it’s often easier to do it yourself. If I had had more energy or patience I would have had them stay and learn a little about responsibility and work but I just don’t have it in me.
But, karma strikes again. What the kids don’t realize is that they are going to have to sell all 20 bottles by Tuesday and collect the money. A lot of them I’m sure will sell them on “credit” where the people pay the 20 pesos when they have money. That’s fine but I don’t see how the customers are going to get 20 pesos in 5 days if they don’t have 20 pesos now. Remember, 35 pesos is $1 US. Hopefully it works out because I don’t want to have to front all the money for the shirts until they can gather it themselves.
11/15 Sunday: Miguel wants me to do what?
In a nutshell: When Ernesto came back this week from his job in Coutí, he informed me that him and Miguel talk nearly every day and Miguel wants Ernesto and I to visit 10 communities and invite 3 people from each to have a workshop about how to form Escojo groups in the 10 communities. Apparently Miguel has picked the 1st week in December to do this. Since Ernesto is only here one day a week (thanks to Miguel) he obviously can’t do this so it has been passed to me. I can’t do it the 1st week. I have training, a conference and my own World AIDS day. I’m mad. I don’t want to try and start 10 freaking Escojo groups at the same time and there aren’t grants for them either… so who is going to pay for them? One guess. Plus I’m mad that Miguel always is talking to Ernesto about things he wants US to do. I’m the PCV. I’m the one who will be doing the work. Miguel is my boss and if there is work he wants done, he needs to start talking me to directly. I called Miguel to clarify what it is he wants and he talked to be for less than 5 minutes then cut me off in mid sentence, telling me that he couldn’t continue the conversations. That if I had questions to ask Ernesto. Then he hung up. One of the few times in my life I was speechless. I just stared at my phone. And, I can’t even call Ernesto because where he is now he has no cell service. Thanks Miguel.
11/10 Tuesday: Adios Escojo and good riddance.
In a nutshell: My Escojo group this time around sucks. They don’t listen. We aren’t able to finish the classes because the kids are constantly talking. I have to tell the kids 3-4 times that class is starting to even get them into the classroom and then it still takes about 20 minutes to start. My Escojo promoters group thinks they’re above the rules and instead of setting good examples they huddle together and talk the entire time. During this last class two kids asked me if they could leave early because they live far away and it was getting dark. I said sure and went back to answering questions of some confused little girls. When I looked up, about 2/3 of the class had left. Apparently they were so busy talking with each other and were spending so much time paying attention to other kids that the didn’t realize we were still in class. When they saw the two girls leave they thought class was over and they left. I was pissed! I asked Vanji and Yamelissa if they told the kids they could go and they said no, they still had 2-3 pages of the presentation to go. That was it. I’d had it. I told the kids who were there that I was DONE teaching Escojo and that if there aren’t kids who want to learn, kids who don’t want to be in my class just because it’s the cool thing to do, that I was DONE.
The next day I met with my Escojo promoters and they convinced me not to cancel the class. I told them that I would give a midterm and the kids who didn’t pass weren’t going to be able to continue with the class. So the next class I gave a surprise exam. There were only 17 kids there to take the test and of the 17, 13 passed… a great surprise to me. The 4 that failed were younger and so we decided that we would just give them extra homework each week so they could grasp the concepts better.
Some time in October: Scary things
In a nutshell: There is no “in a nutshell” for this. It just needs to be read.
The Real Blog: Have I been here too long? Are freaky things getting so mundane that I don’t even think to write about them?! I realized the other day that I didn’t write about either of these 2 occurrences and they are ones that should be shared. Enjoy.
Story 1: This is random. One night as I was about to go to sleep, I was in my mosquito net and had just shut my computer down. I heard a mosquito right next to my ear buzzing and then suddenly it was in my ear!!!! I could feel it crawling around- YUCK! I instantly thought of two things: #1-a girl I know here had an awful ear infection it and turns out it was because a mosquito crawled into her ear and died. And #2- I thought of those bugs you hear about on the Discovery Channel or something, those bugs that crawl into your ear and then eat your brain, yikes! I was grossed out and concerned.
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my headlamp (since there was of course no power) and ran to the bathroom. I tried getting it out with tweezers but they didn’t fit. I tried looking into my ear but it was useless in the dark. I pondered my shower for a moment, thinking about trying to flush it as one would if they had something in their eye but I was afraid I would just push it in further!!! Seeing no other option however and feeling the nasty mosquito crawling in my ear, I stuck my head under the PVC tube and let the water fall in my ear, tipping my head a few times to dump the water and then feverishly inspecting the floor with my lamp to see if I could find the dead mosquito. I never saw it. I was tempted to call the PC Doctor but refrained since I was going to SD the next day for a medical checkup.
I went back to bed, made sure to lay with that ear down towards the pillow, made the pillow in the shape of a U so if the bug fell out, it wouldn’t get stuck in my ear, and tried to sleep while the water slowly trickled out of me ear- also feeling like it could be the mosquito leaving. Sick. The next day at the Dr.’s I had her check my ear and FYI: if you ever have a mosquito caught in your ear, rinsing it is the way to go. It was gone. Ya tu sabes.
Story 2: I went to Minga’s house one day, the day after I had brought her my laundry. She informed me that the clothing I had brought her… the clothing which I scooped up with my bare hands from the floor right next to my bed, to put in my laundry basket… that clothing, it had a scorpion in it. She discovered the scorpion when it jumped out as she dumped my pants into the washer. Did I mention that I am TERRIFIED of scorpions? I prefer tarantulas or snakes. And it was BY MY BED!!!! Probably living under it!!! And, I picked the clothing up with my bare hands!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Even Minga was freaked out, and she never freaks out about things that bite or sting. Scary, I told you.
11/5 Thursday: Preparing
In a nutshell: I am maybe going on a trip to Bonao to do an exchange between Ali’s kids and two of mine- Vanji and Wandi (they’re the ones who know how to the different ways to contaminate a river). In other news, one of my women canceled to go to this health promoter conference. It bothers me that out of 30 women in the Women’s Club, not even 3 want to go to this completely free conference where they will get lots of free stuff (although I didn’t tell them they would get free stuff because I don’t want them going because of that). If I can’t even get them to go to this, how am I supposed to get 5-10 of them to be the free working health promoters that Miguel wants?
The Real Blog: My friend Ali called me today and wanted to know if Vanji and Wandi could go to her site in Bonao this Sunday thru Monday to present their presentation on different ways one contaminates water. Turns out that Monday there’s no school so she was seeing if we could go out there Sunday-Monday. I told her I would see but I have the health promoter conference this weekend until Sunday so I would have to come back to my site, drop the women off, get the kids and then leave for Santiago again right away. The problem is that Wandi plays baseball and this weekend is going to be a far trip for his team, one that he was looking forward to. Also, Vanji’s parents are protective so I wasn’t sure if they would be ok with it. Wandi talked with his coach and now he can go so I’m just waiting to hear from Vanji. I hope she can go.
Then, I talked to the women who were supposed to go to the Health Promoter conference and wouldn’t you know it, 1 backed out. I hate working with this women’s group. Out of 30 some women in the group, not even 3 wanted to go. Well, forget that. I’m not going to finagle women into going on a completely free trip which is helping them. Miguel tells me I need to try other methods to get the women interested since one of the three main goals of health PCVs is to get women health promoters but there doesn’t seem to be interest here- which according to my goals, is a problem.
11/3 Tuesday: What a crappy day.
In a nutshell: Tuesday did not go well. I lost my treasured external hard drive (which I had just filled up), was sore from carrying my loaded backpack across the country again, was nearly late for my Escojo class, and Wandi was being as retarded as ever, annoying me by being mad at me for nothing again and acting like a freaking 5 year old. Then when I got to my class it was reaffirmed that my class sucks and I was feeling pretty down about it. Ah, my life sometimes… I tell you. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
The Real Blog: I got back to my site, tired from the long time in SD and from carrying my as always heavy hiking bag but had no time to recoup. I had to get to my Escojo class which was starting in 15 minutes. I would have been there sooner but for some reason the trip from SD to my house took about an hour longer than normal. I got to my class and felt really down. I feel like it’s a sucky Escojo class. The kids don’t listen, they’re too little, they don’t get concepts and I am losing motivation. Today I felt Bad but I booted 5 or 6 kids who were younger than 11. I told them PC told me I had to do it when I was in SD, which was a lie. I want the group to be better but I just don’t have the proper time to invest in it (or the proper motivation to invest the time into it). Is it too late now? Will they fail the final test no matter what? I feel down about my Brigada Verde as well class and want to restart that but how can I? What would I tell the kids? Um, sorry kids but this isn’t going as planned, I would like a do-over.
When I got back to my house after the Escojo class that I wasn’t even able to finish because it got too dark, I found that a tube or something was broken and so I wasn’t able to get any water and had to use the bottled water I buy to wash my face. I also realized I lost my $85 external hard drive in the PC office (hoping my friend Sarah can find it at the office but there has been issues with people just “loosing” them at the office) and my back was hurting me. I was so tired for some reason that I slept nearly the whole way on the bus from SD to Santiago. What’s wrong with me?
To make matters worse, Wandi was at my house driving me insane and of course he was mad at me for something and acting like a 5 year old. This was because I completely forgot that in the morning today we were supposed to meet up with a group of 6 other kids or so and talk to the coffee farmers. I was in SD a day longer than I wanted because my computer had a virus and dumped a presentation I spent two days working on, a presentation that I need for the Health Promoter conference this weekend. Errr, overall It wasn’t a good day.
(UPDATE: My external hard drive was found!!!!!!!! :D)
10/29 Thursday: To Santo Domingo, ick…
In a nutshell: I hate SD. It’s dirty and not safe. I get anxious still every time I’m there. My friend was robbed at gunpoint (the guy held it to HER HEAD!) directly in front of the hotel all us PCVs stay in, the Pen, about a month ago. (It’s the cheapest and closest to the office). The robber was probably staking out the Pen, waiting for a white person walking alone. I’m going to be in SD for a dentist and doctor appt. All PCVs get to go to the dentist once a year (gee, thanks US government, with all the sugar they put in stuff here I’ll be surprised if I don’t have 5 cavities.) and we are all required to get a checkup physical as well once a year (something I could do without). Oh well, at least my day today is going well. I got a free ride all the way to Santiago and saved 95 pesos!!! I used 40 of those frivolously on a 3 Musketeers bar and I’m planning on using 20 of those saved pesos on the Metro which will take me just a few blocks from the Pen. Still 35 pesos ahead! Not all is bad:)
The Real Blog: Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad to be going to Santo Domingo for free (eventually as soon as I get my reimbursement which could take months…) but I really hate SD. Sure, its nice to be around other PCVs, maybe get free lunch from Romeo, go to the Embassy pool when I’m not glued to the free internet in the office, be able to do laundry, have pretty much anything you need be available somewhere in the city… but it’s not safe man! I hate going here. I don’t know if I mentioned this or not but recently (about a month ago) my friend Randi was walking to the Pen (the hotel all PCVs use) from the PC Office and was robbed at gun point during the 3 blocks she was walking alone. Keep in mind that this didn’t go down like it did for me last Dec with some drugged out robber in a dark alley, downtown at 2 am- this happened in a nicer neighborhood at 8 pm where the streets are well lit and we all walk all the time. To make matters even more disturbing is that this happened right outside of the Pen and the guy had a getaway all set up and ready. He was obviously just sitting outside of the Pen waiting for someone to walk up alone. After what happened in Dec to Ry and me, I don’t even feel safe in groups and now it sucks even more not to feel safe on the short walk to the hotel we stay at.
On a better note; its 11:15 am right now and the day has been going very well. I woke up at 6 effort to try to catch a free ride to the bus station in Navarrete early enough to arrive in Santiago and catch the 9:45 bus to SD. Sadly, I woke up to find my water tank completely empty (having a lot of visitors last week really emptied it out fast and there hasn’t been water to refill it) which delayed my morning slightly since I had to find some water to wash dishes and get ready for the day. This delay pretty much squashed my chances of finding a quick bola to Navarrete since I wasn’t actively looking for one from 7am- 8am- the prime hours of bola-ing. Thus I ended up waiting with Minga for over an hour at her house, sitting in a plastic chair we set out along the road. Lucky for me, I did end up getting a bola- all the way to Santiago! Score!!!! And it saved me so much time I still caught the 9:45 bus!!! When I get to SD, I was not looking forward to the mile or so trip with my heavy bag from the bus stop, right past the PC Office to the crappy Pen to check in, and then back to the PC office. Then I remembered- I can get off early and take the Metro!!!!! (This country has like the shortest Metro ever, apparently was a better investment than say… the shotty education system here, and is waaaaaay nicer than any train transportation in Chicago- and for just 20 pesos its almost as good as a deal as the Skim Ice Man’s icy stick thingys (what the heck are those called?) for 5 pesos) The Metro will drop me off blocks from the Pen!! This makes me very happy since my book bag is loaded down with books to return to the office and a ton of stuff for the free box. And now I’m meeting my girl Regina at the Pen to walk together to Provacone, the best chicken place in the DR and for cheap too!!! Yessss! Ahhh, things are looking good. Hopefully my dentist isn’t a hack and today will be a day worth noting down! I have high hopes for this dude since his office actually called me to confirm my appt- the other dentist offices I called didn’t even ask for my number. Wish me luck!
10/28 Wednesday: More money please.
In a nutshell: Minga told me today that she wants me to not only pay her the 200 pesos/load of laundry but that she also wants me to buy the soap and softener (which I’m sure she’d use for the whole family). It is excessive that I am paying $200 pesos/load as it is. Most PCVs have someone offer to wash their clothing for free or they pay about $150 pesos per load (or they wash it themselves, no thank you). Anyways, it is a rip off to pay 200 plus soap! (not to mention she always returns all my clothing to be folded but inside out. Why even fold it?!) Minga got this idea in her head because her daughter washes clothing for one of the two very wealthy families in town and that’s what Margara gets paid. So, in Minga’s mind, that’s what I should pay her as well. Although I would love to give Minga more, I can’t afford to pay that much! I tried to explain this to Minga and she pretty much blew me off as cheap since I’m an American and so I must have money. Ugh, who knew laundry could be such a pain?
The Real Blog: Today I went to Minga’s to use her generator and to pick up my laundry when she dropped a bomb on me. She casually mentioned that she wanted me to buy the laundry softener and the detergent for my clothing on top of the 200 pesos I’m paying from now on! Let me point out that I have been asking around to see check prices of this service and I don’t know of ANY other PCV who is paying 200 pesos/load. But I really like Minga and felt bad about going from paying her $2000/month for lunch and laundry to paying her nothing since I stopped eating there. Plus, I don’t want an issue with her if I was to switch to someone else for laundry. And the other option? HA! please I sure don’t want to do it. Today she told me I need to spray bug killer in my house because when she was washing my pants a freaking scorpion jumped out and nearly stung her!!!! I picked that laundry up off my floor, obviously with my bare hands, and put it in the basket that morning before I brought it to her, ahhhh!!!
Despite the danger, 200 pesos is steep (most PCVs pay between 125-150/load and don’t buy soap) so there is no freaking way I’m buying the soap for the clothing as well. Not to mention, hello I can’t afford to pay so much in laundry. Well, I told Minga that we already decided on the price and I would really like to keep it at that. She said that her daughter washed clothes at the rich dude’s house “up” the mountain and she makes 200 plus soap. And she counts how much clothing constitutes a load. Minga tried doing that to me and I guilted her into NOT doing that to me. Well, I pointed out; rich man up the mountain is rich. I, sadly, am not. Does the word VOLUNTEER mean anything? (And the fact that’s my profession…. whew, sad) To that she rubbed her thumb, pointer and middle fingers together, making the money symbol and rolled her eyes at me as if to say since I’m American I just naturally have money, as simply and as easily as I have white skin, blue eyes and blonde hair. I mean with all that, I have to have money- I just think I don’t.
Fine, I shall go a different route. I told her that my brother from home was giving me money each month (they understand about remittances here of course with is being they’re number one or two source of income) but now his wife has cut him off from it since they just bought a new house. “Minga, now I’m just screwed and well, what can I do?” She seemed ok but I feel like she was mad. She thinks I’m cheap. I am.
Unfortunately, in this country that’s a big insult. I went to the colmado yesterday and said I didn’t want one type of cheese but the other since the 1st costs too much and people actually laughed out loud at me. This is something I’m pretty used to and no longer fazes me but later they made fun of me to my face and called me tacana which means cheap. This is bad to call someone. It should bug me but mostly I just see how it could be an issue with other things, like people not believing me when I tell them I don’t have $1000/month to spend on laundry. *sigh*
10/26 Monday: Back to site, Ernie got married!!!!!
In a nutshell: I was out of my site this weekend, at Kelly’s inaguartation for her library an also doing a Walk for the Cure. When I came back on Monday, I asked Mercedes where Ernestina was because she was selected to interview to be an Escojo regional coordinator! (A BIG deal!) “Ernie got married on Friday.” is what I was told. Are you kidding me.
The Real Blog: Friday was a fun day for me. I was at the waterfalls with my friends. Apparently it was a fun day for Ernie. Her 40-something year old boyfriend (who she has had about a week of personal contact with since July due to the fact he lives somewhere in the States) came back into country for the 2nd time in 25 years to surprise her. And wow, they got married. I’m still not sure what happened. It seems to be that she was visiting his mom’s house and he showed up to surprise her. Then they went to her house here in La Lomota to get some of her clothing so she could spend the night with him. Here, when someone spends the night with their boyfriend it means they’re married. Her mom was pissed. I mean, the dude just shows up here, helps her pack her bag and then takes her to his mother’s house (since he doesn’t have one here obviously).
I was upset. I cried. One minute Ernie was going to go to the interview in SD and the next she’s married. I called her to confirm from her mouth if she thought she was married an also to see if she was still going to the interview. She said she was married and couldn’t go to the meeting. PC has these interviews once a year and next year I’ll be done with my service. Ernie hasn’t even gone to a single meeting though since she got married. Can someone please explain to me what she’s planning on doing? Is she going to live at his mother’s house indefinitely? And they’re not legally married so she can kiss any chance of going to the States goodbye until they sign some documents. I am so upset about this. I feel for her. I feel like she had so much going for her and she just threw it away. She doesn’t need him to make her. She can make a life for herself and be independent. She’s smart and beautiful and determined. The world is hers! And, he has kids OLDER than her! Is this what it feels like when a parent watches their kid make a terrible decision that they can’t do anything about? It’s just so sad.
10/25 Sunday: Walk for the Cure Dominican Style
In a nutshell: I participated in a Walk for the Cure with my friend Kelly and another American who is teaching in Santiago, Lesa. We thought the walk was going to be pretty legit since we paid 600 pesos for transport and got a “free” T shirt but it was actually incredibly unorganized. Despite being in the area of the walk, and earnestly searching for about 3 hours, we were never able to find the entrance to the walk. This may be a let down to normal people but to us, the day over all was interesting and funny. It was a great and typical Dominican experience.
The Real Blog: Yesterday I went to Kelly’s site to support her library inauguration. Sunday morning we left with a group of people from her community and a few surrounding communities to go to SD to participate in a Walk for the Cure. There were a TON of people there. We lost our group pretty much right away but Kelly, Lesa and I managed to at least stick together. We thought the walk was going to be relatively organized since there were so many people and we each also received a T shirt which said things like, Yes You Can!! The issue was that, like everything Dominican, the walk was really unorganized and we couldn’t find the entrance, just the exit. We wandered around, asking and finally just sat down in the shade.
Other people were apparently confused as well. To our amusement, they began climbing this fence in front of us. One larger lady got to the top and began to chicken out. Then some random guy in the crowd climbed up and stuck her butt on his shoulders, like this was somehow helping. Her large rump was just hanging out there, wagging back and forth, with her bright yellow underwear begging for attention. Kelly, Lesa and I quietly stared. The woman seemed like she was going to be stuck there forever. I guess we weren’t the only people taking note because the crowd began chanting- YES YOU CAN!! YES YOU CAN!!! It worked and I guess she just needed a little encouragement. Before we knew it, her butt was up, off of Random Man’s shoulders and she was climbing down the other side. See, she could.
We wandered around looking for the entrance, with people telling us that it was “over there” for about 3 hours. Then we finally found it and we were told, as we were walking it, that the walk was over. It was a little upsetting but also reassuring since we were wondering why so many people were taking breaks along the “walk” at colmados drinking beer.
So, 600 pesos, a free shirt, and 5 hours of driving later we found that we didn’t even get to walk the walk but the day overall was pretty dang humorous and quite the Dominican experience. I was glad I went.
10/23 Friday: 27 Waterfalls: Round TWO!!!
The Real Blog: While the PCVs were in my site for the meeting we decided to plan a trip to the 27 waterfalls. It was a hoot. Because it’s the dry season we weren’t able to do all 27 for lack of water but we did like 25 and it was fun. All of the health PCVs in my group either have a bf from the States or they have at least dated a Dominican, all the Health PCVs of my group that is, except for me. Thanks to this, my girls are constantly trying to set me up with a Dominican, like it’s their mission in life. Right when we were at the beginning of the trip, I fell behind the group because I was tying my shoe and when I caught up, the guide had our group divided into who is married/dating and who is single. Well, walking up last all my friends were like… Ohhhh, she’s single and lives super close! Well, that did it and I had a personal guide the entire trip. Kenzie fell twice, Jess almost fell at least 3 times and Randi fell once or twice but I never fell. That’s because the guide insisted on holding my hand the whole time. And he gave me his number afterwards. No discount though, dang it. (Is that wrong of me?) Fear not, there will be no phone calls made to Jorge.
10/22 Thursday: Meeting with Miguel
In a nutshell: My boss, Miguel decided to have a ‘Health Field Day” at my house today. He didn’t tell us what time to meet and so he showed up 4 hours before the rest of the group. I thought he acted very rude to Mercedes who got stuck preparing lunch for 10 people with about 2 hours notice. Then he took a nap on her porch. After that we had our meeting which should have really been a meeting between Miguel and two other PCVs since Randi, Jess and I were sitting there listening and that’s it. It was a weird day.
The Real Blog: What a mess. Miguel asked me in September right before I asked him for a raise if we could have a meeting with a few other PCVs at my house at some point. Sure I said. Later I received an email from his secretary saying that my health group was going having a meeting Oct 22nd at my house. Miguel neglected to mention in the email that we were going to have the meeting at my house (the one person who is furthest from the capital) in the morning, well there was no time listed at all. He has never come to my site in the morning since it’s so far from SD so we all assumed that he was be there in the afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I got back from running, was all sweaty and gross and then discovered Miguel there in the road in front of my house. Carumba!
Since the other PCVs were still in SD, Miguel and I had 4 hours alone together. The first order of business? Lunch. He didn’t talk to Mercedes about lunch or anything but assumed she would make lunch for 10 people. But she wasn’t even home; she was in Santiago for the morning. So poor Ernie got stuck with the job. And Ernie was sick! Her whole upper lip was swollen because of a problem with a front tooth. (Looked like she needed a root canal) Miguel told her to make a grocery list for lunch and then he inspected it. He told her that it just wouldn’t do, we needed at least 2 chickens and we needed avocado and while we were at it, he was hungry now and wanted some eggs- scrambled and with crackers. But if they’re not a certain type of egg don’t bother. I was embarrassed. Thank goodness Mercedes did come back around 10 to help. When her and her family was eating, Mercedes gave him lunch from their lunches so he wouldn’t have to wait. When he was done, he asked for the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot (sounds gross but its actually the treat, its good and crunchy and tastes like popcorn, mmmm:) But Mercedes had already filled the pot with water and more rice, making lunch for the rest of the group that was arriving. Miguel wasn’t happy and wouldn’t drop it. Finally she said that she would give him the con con from the next batch. How rude can a person be!?
I wanted to shower. I was sticky from sweat still. I needed to shower but it would have looked inexcusably horrible if I just left him there and showered. (Even though we weren’t even talking; he was on the phone the ENITRE time and I was just staring off in space) Thank goodness Mark’s project partner randomly showed up, freeing me to shower. After about 10 minutes I noticed I didn’t hear any talking. When I went back out there I saw that Miguel had asked Mercedes for her couch cushions and was sleeping (complete with snoring) on her front porch. Why not?
About 30 minutes into Miguel’s nap, the other PCVs finally showed up. We ate and then went to my house. Miguel gave everyone money for their transportation and then per diem. Then he told us we had to each pay $200 pesos for lunch! I could have eaten a sandwich in my house for free, ugh! After that we had the meeting, which included about 5- 10 minutes with each PCV except Meridith and Kenz, who kind of share projects since they live really close. Miguel pretty much interrogated them. It was annoying. Plus we were only allowed to talk about three specific things; he didn’t want to hear about anything else. Which meant the only thing I could talk that I was doing was Escojo. I am doing other stuff than that but it’s not worth talking about I guess.
After Miguel left I had my Escojo class. I went to it and the other girls went for a run and then began preparing dinner. I have never made so many tostones in my life: THIRTEEN PLANTAINS I peeled cut up and fried. And it was soooo good:)
10/20 Tuesday: New PCV by ME!!!!!
In a nutshell: The 1st 6 months of service are hardest but you adjust and it gets easier. Jenn, the brand new water PCV who lives super close to me, reminds me how I felt a year ago and it makes me glad that time is past me now.
The Real Blog: Man, am I glad my 1st year of service is DONE! I am so glad I went through it but I am happy it’s in the past. It’s easy to forget how crappy I felt during those first 3 months in site until I went to talk with the new PCV, Jenn, who just swore in and lives very close to me. I really like that girl. She is sooo sweet and reminds me a lot of myself when I got to my site. Things suck sooooo bad but you barely say how miserable you are out loud because that would be recognizing it and thus making it worse.
When I visited her I asked how she felt and she slowly and timidly gave me the type of answers I would have given a year ago. Overwhelmed. Tired. Anxious. Walking on egg shells. And a plethora of other similar feelings. I told her not to worry; I swear it WILL get better. In fact, I hardly remembered all emotion until she told me how she was feeling. Her community is much more protective than mine. They wouldn’t even let her go walking to meet me at 6:30 am. This is because they say a Haitian raped a young girl a few years back. The thing is, it is not uncommon that people say Haitians do stuff to them. No one questions it, they just go and find Haitians and take justice into their own hands. I don’t know what happened to the Haitian family but I know that the Dominicans went looking for the accused and his family.
Anyways, the day we were supposed to walk I went to the intersection where we said we would meet and waited, then just walked to her house. That’s when she told me how she felt. Poor girl. To any person who’s thinking of doing PC: the 1st 10 weeks suck because of the strict minute by minute training schedule and overwhelming culture but aren’t so bad because you’re with other PCTs. The 1st 3 months in site are harder because you don’t have your PCV buddies by your side. But, after that you figure it out and it gets better. Keep your head up Jenn and I’m just on the other side of the mountain so I’ll come by often.
10/18 Sunday: Marry for Business, who needs love?
In a nutshell: I have had two people ask me since I’ve been back from the States if I knew someone they could marry “for business” Both of them were married with families. People here think that the streets are gold in the US and if you go there you will get rich and live rich like all the other people. They don’t understand that immigrants who don’t speak English have it very rough in the States. I can’t convince them.
The Real Blog: I would like to talk about an interesting interaction that occurred between me and the Disco Man, Tono. I am not particularly found of this man since when my mom and sister were here for my birthday he charged us double for everything but of course didn’t tell us it would be double until after we had already drank it all. Then when Wandi told him that some of the stuff was his, Tono lowered the price of Wandi’s stuff but kept the high price for my stuff. When Wandi argued with him, Tono said, “What, like these people don’t have money?” I have not been a fan since.
About two days ago I went to Tono’s colmado to get something and he said he wanted to have a serious talk with me. He asked if I knew anyone from the States who would marry him for business. Tolo had approached me about this before as well, trying to marry off his son (who is married with 4 kids) to someone in the States. I told Tono the same thing I told Tolo, I don’t know anyone like that and aren’t you married? Tono told me timidly that he wasn’t married (as his teenage daughter folded laundry behind us). Tono told me he wasn’t making any money with his business (to me it seems that by all Dominican standards he’s doing well for himself) and he wanted to go to Nueba Yorl (how they say New York which is what they call the entire USA) to make the big bucks.
People are so mislead here. They think that if they can get to the States they will make tons of money. For instance when I was on the bus today coming home from Santiago, I was talking to some university student who didn’t believe me when I told him not all American’s are rich. That right now there is the highest unemployment rate in a loooooong time. How can people have money if they don’t have jobs? The guy didn’t believe me. Go figure.
In a nutshell: Ah, it’s that time again: Thanksgiving. I looooove Thanksgiving here. It’s fantastic. We all go to this country club and eat real Thanksgiving food, complete with green bean casserole, pies and turkey among other things. Some PCVs begin arriving in SD on Monday if they are lucky enough to be on the Thanksgiving Committee and they cook and cook and cook Monday- Thursday. They stay with an Embassy family for free the entire week. Then on Thanksgiving Day anyone can run in the Turkey Trot (6 K) and then we all go to a country club. The club is supposed to have wireless internet. It has a pool which is amazing! We have domino contests, a dance off and a talent show (which I will be performing in this year). We’re even playing water twister this year!!! It’s beyond fun. I can’t wait! :)
11/20- 22Friday- Sunday: Getting stood up in Cabarete
In a nutshell: I have been in contact with this woman from an organization that invites volunteers from all over the world to come and work here in the DR for something like 6 weeks. I met her last summer and have been trying (passively until recently) to meet up with her and discuss if we can make something happen in my community. Turns out she lives in Cabarete- which is where all the PCVs celebrate New Years- it’s touristy and beautiful. It also turns out that my friend Kenzie was going to be in Cabarete this weekend with her family and I was invited to stay with them. I called the woman from the organization, Andrea, and we set up a meeting Saturday for the morning. I was excited to maybe finally getting somewhere on something tangible. Well, I went out there Friday so I could be there Sat morning and she never called. I called her, left messages, emails and text messaged her. I even stayed an extra day hoping she would get back to me with no luck. Then Sunday I finally shut my phone off since it was about to die. I was pretty disappointed and annoyed. Thank goodness I was able to stay with Kenz’s family for free or else that would have been a HUGE waste of money. Granted I enjoyed myself at the beach, the good food with Kenzie’s family, meeting Kenzie’s family, wireless internet, comfortable bed…. It was nice but I of course still spent some money and had no meeting or headway to show for it. What a bummer.
(Update: Tuesday I checked my email and Andrea had written me telling me that it was no wonder that when she tried to call it wouldn’t go through seeing as my phone had died. The thing is, my phone wasn’t off until Sunday and there were no messages for me when I turned it back on a few hours later. Is it possible that she didn’t get any of my messages and randomly couldn’t reach me either? Why not email me? Then she said she would “make an effort” to come out to my site this week. SHE HAS A CAR!!! It took me over three hours to get home on Sunday. I will not act annoyed. I just want this to work out and want to be able to work together.)
11/19 Thursday: Mistoline is a pain in the butt with lazy kids
In a nutshell: My kids need to fundraise for some shirts that we will be making for an exchange in December in honor of World AIDS Day. (December 1st but we’re celebrating it the 6th) We got together to make something similar to Pine Sol called Mistoline and it was pretty much a disaster. The kids were fighting, refusing to do more than what they thought was their fair share of work and I was left compensation for they’re lack of work. They each worked for about an hour if you include time spent looking for bottles to put the Mistoline in, and cleaning the bottles- whereas I got stuck working for 3 or 4 hours. I’m hoping this trip boosts moral among the group or else I wouldn’t have done it. The kids are really getting on my nerves. I never did like kids….
The Real Blog: As I have said, my Escojo class has been a bit of a struggle this go around. So, I decided to invite my Escojo promoters instead of a few kids from class to the exchange for World AIDS day. We’re going to go to my friend Sarah’s site, meeting up with kids from like 10 other communities, and recognize those affected by HIV/AIDS. We decided that each participant should have a red shirt and so in October I made a design for a shirt for my kids. I thought it would be nice for them to have a shirt with something printed on it as opposed to just a plain red shirt; give our group a little pride. The thing is these shirts aren’t cheap to make. I went to SD during Halloween and was quoted about $400 pesos/shirt. So I told me kids they would have to fundraise for it. Maybe I teach in too much of a hands off manner… I’m not sure. But I can tell you, no one was motivated to do anything. I went to Santiago (making a special trip just for this), and got the recipe to make this stuff called Mistoline- which is like a flowery type of Pine Sol. People use it to clean their floors or what have you and to make it smell like perfume as opposed to dirt. (Everything always smells like dirt here) I knew it would be easy to sell and the profit margin is pretty large. I had the ingredients for a few days before I was able to coordinate with the kids to meet up and make it. They were each to bring 20 bottles, cleaned and with the labels taken off. This was an easy enough task since there is no trash pick up in my community and so it’s full of empty pop bottles.
The kids showed up and Yamelissa was refusing to wash the bottles telling me I should have to do it since she had to find the bottles. How rude is that!? Would you talk to your professor like that? Such a lack or respect, I need to stop hanging out with these kids outside of class. I pointed out the work I already had done (I had to prepare the day of, beginning at 8 while they were all about 30- 45 minutes late showing up) and the fact that I was going to use my own money to buy my shirt. Begrudgingly they began cleaning the bottles. Wouldn’t you know it; at the very start Wandi was pissed at me for telling him to shut up while I was trying to explain how to mix the ingredients. He then decided to leave and make it alone at his house. Three of the kids couldn’t come and so we were supposed to make an extra 60 bottles. I figured it was no big deal but it of course was. Vanji and Yamelissa stayed and made an extra 10 each but then just left, without even picking anything up or wiping anything off, leaving my house in disarray. Wandi made 13 and decided it as enough (although no one knew how many he had made until about noon since he was hiding how many he had done). Argeni actually pulled up a chair, making himself more comfortable while staring at Yamelissa and Vanji as they made an extra 10 bottles each and he refused to help. He only made 15. Everyone only worked for about 30 minutes and then they all left. I on the other hand was making stupid Mistoline from 8 am until 12:30. Not to mention there was no water in my water tap so I had to use water from my tank, which was nearly empty as well. I was getting pretty crabby by the whole situation but especially since it looked like I was going to have to bathe with my purchased, bottled water if the water from the aqueduct didn’t come back soon. Thank goodness for the little kids that hang out at my house and are always so helpful, they went and found me the other 47 bottles, cleaned them and took the labels off, helped me make the mixture, and helped clean it up.
After how the group was acting, I wouldn’t have even made the Mistoline but I feel like it will boost moral. I’m hoping this exchange will make the group a little stronger. I could have been a slave driver and argued with them, MAKING them finish but I’m exhausted. I try to motivate them but you have to pick your battles and it’s often easier to do it yourself. If I had had more energy or patience I would have had them stay and learn a little about responsibility and work but I just don’t have it in me.
But, karma strikes again. What the kids don’t realize is that they are going to have to sell all 20 bottles by Tuesday and collect the money. A lot of them I’m sure will sell them on “credit” where the people pay the 20 pesos when they have money. That’s fine but I don’t see how the customers are going to get 20 pesos in 5 days if they don’t have 20 pesos now. Remember, 35 pesos is $1 US. Hopefully it works out because I don’t want to have to front all the money for the shirts until they can gather it themselves.
11/15 Sunday: Miguel wants me to do what?
In a nutshell: When Ernesto came back this week from his job in Coutí, he informed me that him and Miguel talk nearly every day and Miguel wants Ernesto and I to visit 10 communities and invite 3 people from each to have a workshop about how to form Escojo groups in the 10 communities. Apparently Miguel has picked the 1st week in December to do this. Since Ernesto is only here one day a week (thanks to Miguel) he obviously can’t do this so it has been passed to me. I can’t do it the 1st week. I have training, a conference and my own World AIDS day. I’m mad. I don’t want to try and start 10 freaking Escojo groups at the same time and there aren’t grants for them either… so who is going to pay for them? One guess. Plus I’m mad that Miguel always is talking to Ernesto about things he wants US to do. I’m the PCV. I’m the one who will be doing the work. Miguel is my boss and if there is work he wants done, he needs to start talking me to directly. I called Miguel to clarify what it is he wants and he talked to be for less than 5 minutes then cut me off in mid sentence, telling me that he couldn’t continue the conversations. That if I had questions to ask Ernesto. Then he hung up. One of the few times in my life I was speechless. I just stared at my phone. And, I can’t even call Ernesto because where he is now he has no cell service. Thanks Miguel.
11/10 Tuesday: Adios Escojo and good riddance.
In a nutshell: My Escojo group this time around sucks. They don’t listen. We aren’t able to finish the classes because the kids are constantly talking. I have to tell the kids 3-4 times that class is starting to even get them into the classroom and then it still takes about 20 minutes to start. My Escojo promoters group thinks they’re above the rules and instead of setting good examples they huddle together and talk the entire time. During this last class two kids asked me if they could leave early because they live far away and it was getting dark. I said sure and went back to answering questions of some confused little girls. When I looked up, about 2/3 of the class had left. Apparently they were so busy talking with each other and were spending so much time paying attention to other kids that the didn’t realize we were still in class. When they saw the two girls leave they thought class was over and they left. I was pissed! I asked Vanji and Yamelissa if they told the kids they could go and they said no, they still had 2-3 pages of the presentation to go. That was it. I’d had it. I told the kids who were there that I was DONE teaching Escojo and that if there aren’t kids who want to learn, kids who don’t want to be in my class just because it’s the cool thing to do, that I was DONE.
The next day I met with my Escojo promoters and they convinced me not to cancel the class. I told them that I would give a midterm and the kids who didn’t pass weren’t going to be able to continue with the class. So the next class I gave a surprise exam. There were only 17 kids there to take the test and of the 17, 13 passed… a great surprise to me. The 4 that failed were younger and so we decided that we would just give them extra homework each week so they could grasp the concepts better.
Some time in October: Scary things
In a nutshell: There is no “in a nutshell” for this. It just needs to be read.
The Real Blog: Have I been here too long? Are freaky things getting so mundane that I don’t even think to write about them?! I realized the other day that I didn’t write about either of these 2 occurrences and they are ones that should be shared. Enjoy.
Story 1: This is random. One night as I was about to go to sleep, I was in my mosquito net and had just shut my computer down. I heard a mosquito right next to my ear buzzing and then suddenly it was in my ear!!!! I could feel it crawling around- YUCK! I instantly thought of two things: #1-a girl I know here had an awful ear infection it and turns out it was because a mosquito crawled into her ear and died. And #2- I thought of those bugs you hear about on the Discovery Channel or something, those bugs that crawl into your ear and then eat your brain, yikes! I was grossed out and concerned.
I jumped out of bed, grabbed my headlamp (since there was of course no power) and ran to the bathroom. I tried getting it out with tweezers but they didn’t fit. I tried looking into my ear but it was useless in the dark. I pondered my shower for a moment, thinking about trying to flush it as one would if they had something in their eye but I was afraid I would just push it in further!!! Seeing no other option however and feeling the nasty mosquito crawling in my ear, I stuck my head under the PVC tube and let the water fall in my ear, tipping my head a few times to dump the water and then feverishly inspecting the floor with my lamp to see if I could find the dead mosquito. I never saw it. I was tempted to call the PC Doctor but refrained since I was going to SD the next day for a medical checkup.
I went back to bed, made sure to lay with that ear down towards the pillow, made the pillow in the shape of a U so if the bug fell out, it wouldn’t get stuck in my ear, and tried to sleep while the water slowly trickled out of me ear- also feeling like it could be the mosquito leaving. Sick. The next day at the Dr.’s I had her check my ear and FYI: if you ever have a mosquito caught in your ear, rinsing it is the way to go. It was gone. Ya tu sabes.
Story 2: I went to Minga’s house one day, the day after I had brought her my laundry. She informed me that the clothing I had brought her… the clothing which I scooped up with my bare hands from the floor right next to my bed, to put in my laundry basket… that clothing, it had a scorpion in it. She discovered the scorpion when it jumped out as she dumped my pants into the washer. Did I mention that I am TERRIFIED of scorpions? I prefer tarantulas or snakes. And it was BY MY BED!!!! Probably living under it!!! And, I picked the clothing up with my bare hands!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Even Minga was freaked out, and she never freaks out about things that bite or sting. Scary, I told you.
11/5 Thursday: Preparing
In a nutshell: I am maybe going on a trip to Bonao to do an exchange between Ali’s kids and two of mine- Vanji and Wandi (they’re the ones who know how to the different ways to contaminate a river). In other news, one of my women canceled to go to this health promoter conference. It bothers me that out of 30 women in the Women’s Club, not even 3 want to go to this completely free conference where they will get lots of free stuff (although I didn’t tell them they would get free stuff because I don’t want them going because of that). If I can’t even get them to go to this, how am I supposed to get 5-10 of them to be the free working health promoters that Miguel wants?
The Real Blog: My friend Ali called me today and wanted to know if Vanji and Wandi could go to her site in Bonao this Sunday thru Monday to present their presentation on different ways one contaminates water. Turns out that Monday there’s no school so she was seeing if we could go out there Sunday-Monday. I told her I would see but I have the health promoter conference this weekend until Sunday so I would have to come back to my site, drop the women off, get the kids and then leave for Santiago again right away. The problem is that Wandi plays baseball and this weekend is going to be a far trip for his team, one that he was looking forward to. Also, Vanji’s parents are protective so I wasn’t sure if they would be ok with it. Wandi talked with his coach and now he can go so I’m just waiting to hear from Vanji. I hope she can go.
Then, I talked to the women who were supposed to go to the Health Promoter conference and wouldn’t you know it, 1 backed out. I hate working with this women’s group. Out of 30 some women in the group, not even 3 wanted to go. Well, forget that. I’m not going to finagle women into going on a completely free trip which is helping them. Miguel tells me I need to try other methods to get the women interested since one of the three main goals of health PCVs is to get women health promoters but there doesn’t seem to be interest here- which according to my goals, is a problem.
11/3 Tuesday: What a crappy day.
In a nutshell: Tuesday did not go well. I lost my treasured external hard drive (which I had just filled up), was sore from carrying my loaded backpack across the country again, was nearly late for my Escojo class, and Wandi was being as retarded as ever, annoying me by being mad at me for nothing again and acting like a freaking 5 year old. Then when I got to my class it was reaffirmed that my class sucks and I was feeling pretty down about it. Ah, my life sometimes… I tell you. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
The Real Blog: I got back to my site, tired from the long time in SD and from carrying my as always heavy hiking bag but had no time to recoup. I had to get to my Escojo class which was starting in 15 minutes. I would have been there sooner but for some reason the trip from SD to my house took about an hour longer than normal. I got to my class and felt really down. I feel like it’s a sucky Escojo class. The kids don’t listen, they’re too little, they don’t get concepts and I am losing motivation. Today I felt Bad but I booted 5 or 6 kids who were younger than 11. I told them PC told me I had to do it when I was in SD, which was a lie. I want the group to be better but I just don’t have the proper time to invest in it (or the proper motivation to invest the time into it). Is it too late now? Will they fail the final test no matter what? I feel down about my Brigada Verde as well class and want to restart that but how can I? What would I tell the kids? Um, sorry kids but this isn’t going as planned, I would like a do-over.
When I got back to my house after the Escojo class that I wasn’t even able to finish because it got too dark, I found that a tube or something was broken and so I wasn’t able to get any water and had to use the bottled water I buy to wash my face. I also realized I lost my $85 external hard drive in the PC office (hoping my friend Sarah can find it at the office but there has been issues with people just “loosing” them at the office) and my back was hurting me. I was so tired for some reason that I slept nearly the whole way on the bus from SD to Santiago. What’s wrong with me?
To make matters worse, Wandi was at my house driving me insane and of course he was mad at me for something and acting like a 5 year old. This was because I completely forgot that in the morning today we were supposed to meet up with a group of 6 other kids or so and talk to the coffee farmers. I was in SD a day longer than I wanted because my computer had a virus and dumped a presentation I spent two days working on, a presentation that I need for the Health Promoter conference this weekend. Errr, overall It wasn’t a good day.
(UPDATE: My external hard drive was found!!!!!!!! :D)
10/29 Thursday: To Santo Domingo, ick…
In a nutshell: I hate SD. It’s dirty and not safe. I get anxious still every time I’m there. My friend was robbed at gunpoint (the guy held it to HER HEAD!) directly in front of the hotel all us PCVs stay in, the Pen, about a month ago. (It’s the cheapest and closest to the office). The robber was probably staking out the Pen, waiting for a white person walking alone. I’m going to be in SD for a dentist and doctor appt. All PCVs get to go to the dentist once a year (gee, thanks US government, with all the sugar they put in stuff here I’ll be surprised if I don’t have 5 cavities.) and we are all required to get a checkup physical as well once a year (something I could do without). Oh well, at least my day today is going well. I got a free ride all the way to Santiago and saved 95 pesos!!! I used 40 of those frivolously on a 3 Musketeers bar and I’m planning on using 20 of those saved pesos on the Metro which will take me just a few blocks from the Pen. Still 35 pesos ahead! Not all is bad:)
The Real Blog: Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad to be going to Santo Domingo for free (eventually as soon as I get my reimbursement which could take months…) but I really hate SD. Sure, its nice to be around other PCVs, maybe get free lunch from Romeo, go to the Embassy pool when I’m not glued to the free internet in the office, be able to do laundry, have pretty much anything you need be available somewhere in the city… but it’s not safe man! I hate going here. I don’t know if I mentioned this or not but recently (about a month ago) my friend Randi was walking to the Pen (the hotel all PCVs use) from the PC Office and was robbed at gun point during the 3 blocks she was walking alone. Keep in mind that this didn’t go down like it did for me last Dec with some drugged out robber in a dark alley, downtown at 2 am- this happened in a nicer neighborhood at 8 pm where the streets are well lit and we all walk all the time. To make matters even more disturbing is that this happened right outside of the Pen and the guy had a getaway all set up and ready. He was obviously just sitting outside of the Pen waiting for someone to walk up alone. After what happened in Dec to Ry and me, I don’t even feel safe in groups and now it sucks even more not to feel safe on the short walk to the hotel we stay at.
On a better note; its 11:15 am right now and the day has been going very well. I woke up at 6 effort to try to catch a free ride to the bus station in Navarrete early enough to arrive in Santiago and catch the 9:45 bus to SD. Sadly, I woke up to find my water tank completely empty (having a lot of visitors last week really emptied it out fast and there hasn’t been water to refill it) which delayed my morning slightly since I had to find some water to wash dishes and get ready for the day. This delay pretty much squashed my chances of finding a quick bola to Navarrete since I wasn’t actively looking for one from 7am- 8am- the prime hours of bola-ing. Thus I ended up waiting with Minga for over an hour at her house, sitting in a plastic chair we set out along the road. Lucky for me, I did end up getting a bola- all the way to Santiago! Score!!!! And it saved me so much time I still caught the 9:45 bus!!! When I get to SD, I was not looking forward to the mile or so trip with my heavy bag from the bus stop, right past the PC Office to the crappy Pen to check in, and then back to the PC office. Then I remembered- I can get off early and take the Metro!!!!! (This country has like the shortest Metro ever, apparently was a better investment than say… the shotty education system here, and is waaaaaay nicer than any train transportation in Chicago- and for just 20 pesos its almost as good as a deal as the Skim Ice Man’s icy stick thingys (what the heck are those called?) for 5 pesos) The Metro will drop me off blocks from the Pen!! This makes me very happy since my book bag is loaded down with books to return to the office and a ton of stuff for the free box. And now I’m meeting my girl Regina at the Pen to walk together to Provacone, the best chicken place in the DR and for cheap too!!! Yessss! Ahhh, things are looking good. Hopefully my dentist isn’t a hack and today will be a day worth noting down! I have high hopes for this dude since his office actually called me to confirm my appt- the other dentist offices I called didn’t even ask for my number. Wish me luck!
10/28 Wednesday: More money please.
In a nutshell: Minga told me today that she wants me to not only pay her the 200 pesos/load of laundry but that she also wants me to buy the soap and softener (which I’m sure she’d use for the whole family). It is excessive that I am paying $200 pesos/load as it is. Most PCVs have someone offer to wash their clothing for free or they pay about $150 pesos per load (or they wash it themselves, no thank you). Anyways, it is a rip off to pay 200 plus soap! (not to mention she always returns all my clothing to be folded but inside out. Why even fold it?!) Minga got this idea in her head because her daughter washes clothing for one of the two very wealthy families in town and that’s what Margara gets paid. So, in Minga’s mind, that’s what I should pay her as well. Although I would love to give Minga more, I can’t afford to pay that much! I tried to explain this to Minga and she pretty much blew me off as cheap since I’m an American and so I must have money. Ugh, who knew laundry could be such a pain?
The Real Blog: Today I went to Minga’s to use her generator and to pick up my laundry when she dropped a bomb on me. She casually mentioned that she wanted me to buy the laundry softener and the detergent for my clothing on top of the 200 pesos I’m paying from now on! Let me point out that I have been asking around to see check prices of this service and I don’t know of ANY other PCV who is paying 200 pesos/load. But I really like Minga and felt bad about going from paying her $2000/month for lunch and laundry to paying her nothing since I stopped eating there. Plus, I don’t want an issue with her if I was to switch to someone else for laundry. And the other option? HA! please I sure don’t want to do it. Today she told me I need to spray bug killer in my house because when she was washing my pants a freaking scorpion jumped out and nearly stung her!!!! I picked that laundry up off my floor, obviously with my bare hands, and put it in the basket that morning before I brought it to her, ahhhh!!!
Despite the danger, 200 pesos is steep (most PCVs pay between 125-150/load and don’t buy soap) so there is no freaking way I’m buying the soap for the clothing as well. Not to mention, hello I can’t afford to pay so much in laundry. Well, I told Minga that we already decided on the price and I would really like to keep it at that. She said that her daughter washed clothes at the rich dude’s house “up” the mountain and she makes 200 plus soap. And she counts how much clothing constitutes a load. Minga tried doing that to me and I guilted her into NOT doing that to me. Well, I pointed out; rich man up the mountain is rich. I, sadly, am not. Does the word VOLUNTEER mean anything? (And the fact that’s my profession…. whew, sad) To that she rubbed her thumb, pointer and middle fingers together, making the money symbol and rolled her eyes at me as if to say since I’m American I just naturally have money, as simply and as easily as I have white skin, blue eyes and blonde hair. I mean with all that, I have to have money- I just think I don’t.
Fine, I shall go a different route. I told her that my brother from home was giving me money each month (they understand about remittances here of course with is being they’re number one or two source of income) but now his wife has cut him off from it since they just bought a new house. “Minga, now I’m just screwed and well, what can I do?” She seemed ok but I feel like she was mad. She thinks I’m cheap. I am.
Unfortunately, in this country that’s a big insult. I went to the colmado yesterday and said I didn’t want one type of cheese but the other since the 1st costs too much and people actually laughed out loud at me. This is something I’m pretty used to and no longer fazes me but later they made fun of me to my face and called me tacana which means cheap. This is bad to call someone. It should bug me but mostly I just see how it could be an issue with other things, like people not believing me when I tell them I don’t have $1000/month to spend on laundry. *sigh*
10/26 Monday: Back to site, Ernie got married!!!!!
In a nutshell: I was out of my site this weekend, at Kelly’s inaguartation for her library an also doing a Walk for the Cure. When I came back on Monday, I asked Mercedes where Ernestina was because she was selected to interview to be an Escojo regional coordinator! (A BIG deal!) “Ernie got married on Friday.” is what I was told. Are you kidding me.
The Real Blog: Friday was a fun day for me. I was at the waterfalls with my friends. Apparently it was a fun day for Ernie. Her 40-something year old boyfriend (who she has had about a week of personal contact with since July due to the fact he lives somewhere in the States) came back into country for the 2nd time in 25 years to surprise her. And wow, they got married. I’m still not sure what happened. It seems to be that she was visiting his mom’s house and he showed up to surprise her. Then they went to her house here in La Lomota to get some of her clothing so she could spend the night with him. Here, when someone spends the night with their boyfriend it means they’re married. Her mom was pissed. I mean, the dude just shows up here, helps her pack her bag and then takes her to his mother’s house (since he doesn’t have one here obviously).
I was upset. I cried. One minute Ernie was going to go to the interview in SD and the next she’s married. I called her to confirm from her mouth if she thought she was married an also to see if she was still going to the interview. She said she was married and couldn’t go to the meeting. PC has these interviews once a year and next year I’ll be done with my service. Ernie hasn’t even gone to a single meeting though since she got married. Can someone please explain to me what she’s planning on doing? Is she going to live at his mother’s house indefinitely? And they’re not legally married so she can kiss any chance of going to the States goodbye until they sign some documents. I am so upset about this. I feel for her. I feel like she had so much going for her and she just threw it away. She doesn’t need him to make her. She can make a life for herself and be independent. She’s smart and beautiful and determined. The world is hers! And, he has kids OLDER than her! Is this what it feels like when a parent watches their kid make a terrible decision that they can’t do anything about? It’s just so sad.
10/25 Sunday: Walk for the Cure Dominican Style
In a nutshell: I participated in a Walk for the Cure with my friend Kelly and another American who is teaching in Santiago, Lesa. We thought the walk was going to be pretty legit since we paid 600 pesos for transport and got a “free” T shirt but it was actually incredibly unorganized. Despite being in the area of the walk, and earnestly searching for about 3 hours, we were never able to find the entrance to the walk. This may be a let down to normal people but to us, the day over all was interesting and funny. It was a great and typical Dominican experience.
The Real Blog: Yesterday I went to Kelly’s site to support her library inauguration. Sunday morning we left with a group of people from her community and a few surrounding communities to go to SD to participate in a Walk for the Cure. There were a TON of people there. We lost our group pretty much right away but Kelly, Lesa and I managed to at least stick together. We thought the walk was going to be relatively organized since there were so many people and we each also received a T shirt which said things like, Yes You Can!! The issue was that, like everything Dominican, the walk was really unorganized and we couldn’t find the entrance, just the exit. We wandered around, asking and finally just sat down in the shade.
Other people were apparently confused as well. To our amusement, they began climbing this fence in front of us. One larger lady got to the top and began to chicken out. Then some random guy in the crowd climbed up and stuck her butt on his shoulders, like this was somehow helping. Her large rump was just hanging out there, wagging back and forth, with her bright yellow underwear begging for attention. Kelly, Lesa and I quietly stared. The woman seemed like she was going to be stuck there forever. I guess we weren’t the only people taking note because the crowd began chanting- YES YOU CAN!! YES YOU CAN!!! It worked and I guess she just needed a little encouragement. Before we knew it, her butt was up, off of Random Man’s shoulders and she was climbing down the other side. See, she could.
We wandered around looking for the entrance, with people telling us that it was “over there” for about 3 hours. Then we finally found it and we were told, as we were walking it, that the walk was over. It was a little upsetting but also reassuring since we were wondering why so many people were taking breaks along the “walk” at colmados drinking beer.
So, 600 pesos, a free shirt, and 5 hours of driving later we found that we didn’t even get to walk the walk but the day overall was pretty dang humorous and quite the Dominican experience. I was glad I went.
10/23 Friday: 27 Waterfalls: Round TWO!!!
The Real Blog: While the PCVs were in my site for the meeting we decided to plan a trip to the 27 waterfalls. It was a hoot. Because it’s the dry season we weren’t able to do all 27 for lack of water but we did like 25 and it was fun. All of the health PCVs in my group either have a bf from the States or they have at least dated a Dominican, all the Health PCVs of my group that is, except for me. Thanks to this, my girls are constantly trying to set me up with a Dominican, like it’s their mission in life. Right when we were at the beginning of the trip, I fell behind the group because I was tying my shoe and when I caught up, the guide had our group divided into who is married/dating and who is single. Well, walking up last all my friends were like… Ohhhh, she’s single and lives super close! Well, that did it and I had a personal guide the entire trip. Kenzie fell twice, Jess almost fell at least 3 times and Randi fell once or twice but I never fell. That’s because the guide insisted on holding my hand the whole time. And he gave me his number afterwards. No discount though, dang it. (Is that wrong of me?) Fear not, there will be no phone calls made to Jorge.
10/22 Thursday: Meeting with Miguel
In a nutshell: My boss, Miguel decided to have a ‘Health Field Day” at my house today. He didn’t tell us what time to meet and so he showed up 4 hours before the rest of the group. I thought he acted very rude to Mercedes who got stuck preparing lunch for 10 people with about 2 hours notice. Then he took a nap on her porch. After that we had our meeting which should have really been a meeting between Miguel and two other PCVs since Randi, Jess and I were sitting there listening and that’s it. It was a weird day.
The Real Blog: What a mess. Miguel asked me in September right before I asked him for a raise if we could have a meeting with a few other PCVs at my house at some point. Sure I said. Later I received an email from his secretary saying that my health group was going having a meeting Oct 22nd at my house. Miguel neglected to mention in the email that we were going to have the meeting at my house (the one person who is furthest from the capital) in the morning, well there was no time listed at all. He has never come to my site in the morning since it’s so far from SD so we all assumed that he was be there in the afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I got back from running, was all sweaty and gross and then discovered Miguel there in the road in front of my house. Carumba!
Since the other PCVs were still in SD, Miguel and I had 4 hours alone together. The first order of business? Lunch. He didn’t talk to Mercedes about lunch or anything but assumed she would make lunch for 10 people. But she wasn’t even home; she was in Santiago for the morning. So poor Ernie got stuck with the job. And Ernie was sick! Her whole upper lip was swollen because of a problem with a front tooth. (Looked like she needed a root canal) Miguel told her to make a grocery list for lunch and then he inspected it. He told her that it just wouldn’t do, we needed at least 2 chickens and we needed avocado and while we were at it, he was hungry now and wanted some eggs- scrambled and with crackers. But if they’re not a certain type of egg don’t bother. I was embarrassed. Thank goodness Mercedes did come back around 10 to help. When her and her family was eating, Mercedes gave him lunch from their lunches so he wouldn’t have to wait. When he was done, he asked for the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot (sounds gross but its actually the treat, its good and crunchy and tastes like popcorn, mmmm:) But Mercedes had already filled the pot with water and more rice, making lunch for the rest of the group that was arriving. Miguel wasn’t happy and wouldn’t drop it. Finally she said that she would give him the con con from the next batch. How rude can a person be!?
I wanted to shower. I was sticky from sweat still. I needed to shower but it would have looked inexcusably horrible if I just left him there and showered. (Even though we weren’t even talking; he was on the phone the ENITRE time and I was just staring off in space) Thank goodness Mark’s project partner randomly showed up, freeing me to shower. After about 10 minutes I noticed I didn’t hear any talking. When I went back out there I saw that Miguel had asked Mercedes for her couch cushions and was sleeping (complete with snoring) on her front porch. Why not?
About 30 minutes into Miguel’s nap, the other PCVs finally showed up. We ate and then went to my house. Miguel gave everyone money for their transportation and then per diem. Then he told us we had to each pay $200 pesos for lunch! I could have eaten a sandwich in my house for free, ugh! After that we had the meeting, which included about 5- 10 minutes with each PCV except Meridith and Kenz, who kind of share projects since they live really close. Miguel pretty much interrogated them. It was annoying. Plus we were only allowed to talk about three specific things; he didn’t want to hear about anything else. Which meant the only thing I could talk that I was doing was Escojo. I am doing other stuff than that but it’s not worth talking about I guess.
After Miguel left I had my Escojo class. I went to it and the other girls went for a run and then began preparing dinner. I have never made so many tostones in my life: THIRTEEN PLANTAINS I peeled cut up and fried. And it was soooo good:)
10/20 Tuesday: New PCV by ME!!!!!
In a nutshell: The 1st 6 months of service are hardest but you adjust and it gets easier. Jenn, the brand new water PCV who lives super close to me, reminds me how I felt a year ago and it makes me glad that time is past me now.
The Real Blog: Man, am I glad my 1st year of service is DONE! I am so glad I went through it but I am happy it’s in the past. It’s easy to forget how crappy I felt during those first 3 months in site until I went to talk with the new PCV, Jenn, who just swore in and lives very close to me. I really like that girl. She is sooo sweet and reminds me a lot of myself when I got to my site. Things suck sooooo bad but you barely say how miserable you are out loud because that would be recognizing it and thus making it worse.
When I visited her I asked how she felt and she slowly and timidly gave me the type of answers I would have given a year ago. Overwhelmed. Tired. Anxious. Walking on egg shells. And a plethora of other similar feelings. I told her not to worry; I swear it WILL get better. In fact, I hardly remembered all emotion until she told me how she was feeling. Her community is much more protective than mine. They wouldn’t even let her go walking to meet me at 6:30 am. This is because they say a Haitian raped a young girl a few years back. The thing is, it is not uncommon that people say Haitians do stuff to them. No one questions it, they just go and find Haitians and take justice into their own hands. I don’t know what happened to the Haitian family but I know that the Dominicans went looking for the accused and his family.
Anyways, the day we were supposed to walk I went to the intersection where we said we would meet and waited, then just walked to her house. That’s when she told me how she felt. Poor girl. To any person who’s thinking of doing PC: the 1st 10 weeks suck because of the strict minute by minute training schedule and overwhelming culture but aren’t so bad because you’re with other PCTs. The 1st 3 months in site are harder because you don’t have your PCV buddies by your side. But, after that you figure it out and it gets better. Keep your head up Jenn and I’m just on the other side of the mountain so I’ll come by often.
10/18 Sunday: Marry for Business, who needs love?
In a nutshell: I have had two people ask me since I’ve been back from the States if I knew someone they could marry “for business” Both of them were married with families. People here think that the streets are gold in the US and if you go there you will get rich and live rich like all the other people. They don’t understand that immigrants who don’t speak English have it very rough in the States. I can’t convince them.
The Real Blog: I would like to talk about an interesting interaction that occurred between me and the Disco Man, Tono. I am not particularly found of this man since when my mom and sister were here for my birthday he charged us double for everything but of course didn’t tell us it would be double until after we had already drank it all. Then when Wandi told him that some of the stuff was his, Tono lowered the price of Wandi’s stuff but kept the high price for my stuff. When Wandi argued with him, Tono said, “What, like these people don’t have money?” I have not been a fan since.
About two days ago I went to Tono’s colmado to get something and he said he wanted to have a serious talk with me. He asked if I knew anyone from the States who would marry him for business. Tolo had approached me about this before as well, trying to marry off his son (who is married with 4 kids) to someone in the States. I told Tono the same thing I told Tolo, I don’t know anyone like that and aren’t you married? Tono told me timidly that he wasn’t married (as his teenage daughter folded laundry behind us). Tono told me he wasn’t making any money with his business (to me it seems that by all Dominican standards he’s doing well for himself) and he wanted to go to Nueba Yorl (how they say New York which is what they call the entire USA) to make the big bucks.
People are so mislead here. They think that if they can get to the States they will make tons of money. For instance when I was on the bus today coming home from Santiago, I was talking to some university student who didn’t believe me when I told him not all American’s are rich. That right now there is the highest unemployment rate in a loooooong time. How can people have money if they don’t have jobs? The guy didn’t believe me. Go figure.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Two days.... two long days
10/16 Friday: The 1 yr Slump?
Is it just me? Am I the only one who doesn’t have the drive to go out into the community and walk around? Am I the only one who, when there is power, stays in her house for a looooooong time watching 11 straight episodes of Entourage? Thankfully, no. I have been talking with other PCVs in my group and while we all feel ok, not depressed or anything, all of us are feeling very blah and have no desire to leave the house. I find that weird since I thought that normally at the 1 year people have a surge of energy and drive. I hope that wasn’t that week I had about two weeks back… I talked with my friend Kelly today and she didn’t leave her house until 12:30. It’s nearly 2:30 now and here I am, still inside. I can somewhat justify it though since I was trying to finish a grant for my stove project. Also, I had plans to go walking this morning but Vanji ditched me. See, I’m doing stuff!
Besides, the 1st step is recognizing the issue right? Another possible issue: should I feel bad when the 8 year old neighbor girl really wants to clean my bathroom? So I let her and give her a few tips too (you missed a spot….) Is that wrong? Something tells me it should be but at the same time, if she wants to do it.
10/14 Thursday: Rudeness
In a nutshell: I have morphed into a rude machine. It’s the culture here!!! You can say things in Spanish that you can’t say in English. When I went home in September I was told by no less than 5 people that I was being rude. I didn’t mean to. It’s just the Dominican coming out in me. When I go home, please have patience and let me know that I’m being rude.
The Real Blog: Dominicans are rude. But then, as I was informed when I went home for my visit, so am I. I was always a blunt person before coming to the DR but the culture here has thrown me over the edge. I was offended when my brother and his fiancé told me I was rude. I felt bad. But, that’s because I know they’re right. I’ve talked with several PCVs about this since and we have come to the collective conclusion: this culture makes you “rude” by all American standards. The problem is that you will not be heard here if you talk like Americans talk, walking on eggs with all the political correctness BS. You know, this lifestyle can for sure be offensive but I have to say I prefer it on some levels. To Americans: can we please drop all the fancy dancing along the words we can’t say and just simply say it like it is? Then, lets not be pissy afterwards because Jane said something blunt, but in reality, completely true. In a past relationship I was accused of being “emotionally challenged”. I still counter that, even more so now. I am emotional. I am sensitive. But I also say it like it is and listen to it being told to me in the same manner. I’m just maybe too extreme for American values now. Take last night for instance.
I was on my front porch when Franklin came by and asked me if I wanted to go down to the continuing wake down at Tolo’s parent’s house (this was a big night since it was night 8 since the death and according to tradition it’s the night that the dead try to wake back up). I hadn’t been out much lately… pretty much since I got back from the States to tell you the truth… so I said sure, let’s party it up at the wake. I walked “down” to it with him and another dude and sat at a table with three guys and Vanji. During the 2 hours or so that we hung out, we had a good time and when I went to leave Franklin was being a baby throwing a little tantrum (that no one thought anything of) since he wanted me and Vanji to stay. It was his 2nd little fit he threw. He’s 20.
On the way back, I began reflecting about our conversations, of which I felt indifferent. During the 120 minutes conversing, I was called lazy, asked if I ever get sick of sleeping, told I didn’t have a real job, told I never leave my “cave”, told it was apparent I wasn’t exercising right now, was at least 6 times pressured to take shots of rum, called a child, called an old lady (an insult here which I think is HILAROUS so it never has the same effect on me as on a Dominican), and called snotty… those being the ones I can think of off of the top of my head. If this was said to me in English I probably would have gone home and cried. But there is something magical about Spanish. You have to be blunt and when people are blunt with you, you just are blunt right back. In English it’s rude. In Spanish it’s normal, don’t take it personal. When I went home to the States, I crossed the line and felt bad about it. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if it weren’t pointed out to me. Imagine the monster I’ll be in even another year after this!!! I can see it now that only my PCV buddies will want to talk to me.
The point of all this: when I go home, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE cut me a lot of slack and tell me politely if speaking in English, or with as little tact as possible if speaking in Spanish, that I was being rude by all American standards. And I’ll work on it. I promise.
10/14 Wednesday: The last two days: Down, Up, Up, Up, Tragic, Drama
In a nutshell: Three girls in my Escojo group bailed mid-class yesterday despite the fact they were supposed to be teaching the class. Rumor has it, they were mad that they were not being giving enough freedom to teach the class. Instead of talking about this with me, they left. Great idea!
I should be getting my water filters soooon from that water training I had in June. Its great news but I have a lot of work to do before then.
Inflation here is MAD!
I love the view here and want to take it home.
A ton of ants go into my peanut butter, surprising me and biting my hands really well before I filled the container up with water and watched them all drown. I then dumped out the water and the ants and made my sandwich. Yum.
Noel is mad at me once again, and ignoring me. This time he’s ignoring me because he thinks I was ignoring him 1st so he’s going to do it back. Only thing is, I’m not ignoring him. I’m getting really annoyed with the level of maturity I encounter daily, or rather the lack of maturity. I mean, I am REALLY sick of it. I think I need to get away for some R&R time.
The Real Blog: Let’s start with the down: yesterday I wanted to kill three girls in my Escojo group. It was their turn to teach the class and when Wandi asked me if he could read something, not remembering that it was the girls who were teaching the class, I said sure. No big deal right? Easy mistake? Well, the three girls, Vanji, Ernie and Jamalissa decided it was a big deal and, without saying ANYTHING to me, they left. Yep, they just up and left the class. I was really mad when I found out. And of course Wandi makes things even more aggravating with his comments like, “They are such bad people, leaving like that. I told them not to go.” Shut up dude. I changed the dates of our meetings together from Fridays to Wednesdays but 4 of the 7 kids in the group won’t know that now. Why is it 4 and not just the 3 girls you ask? Because one of the boys didn’t feel like going yesterday so he didn’t go. Great group huh?
Now for some good news. I emailed the contact person for the Rotary Club again to check on the water filers and she had some guy call me back about 30 minutes after I sent the email. He said he could get them to me after the 1st of November! That’s waaaaay sooner than I anticipated them. I’m excited but at the same time, dang I have a lot of work to do! I have to change the list of people receiving the filters (long story) and collect the 500 pesos per house/recipient and I also was going to make it a requirement that they go to two or three classes of mine but first I have to make up the classes!!! It’s actually a lot of work.
On top of that, today I went around to get prices for my stove project. I need to write a budget for the grant I’m writing. I was talking to a water PCV friend, Mark, and he told me that prices change so much that when the water PCVs make their budgets they have to use the most expensive price and then add 35% because by the time the money comes in, prices have gone up that much. Inflation here is nuts.
Another “up”, when I was coming back from Navarrete today I was really enjoying the view. It’s so break taking. I wish there was some way to put it in my pocket and save it for when I’m in the States. I also wish that in the States I could always have muchachas to wash my dishes and sweep my house (although I’ll more than likely have carpet so I’ll need them to vacuum). In a perfect world…
Here’s some almost tragic news: When I opened my jar of Peter Pan peanut butter (it was on special, FYI Jiffy is still the best. Jiffy wasn’t on special) I was reminded of why I normally keep it in the fridge: ants. Despite the fact that the lid was screwed on tight, I was assaulted by biting ants when I opened the jar. I was upset but filled it up with some water and drowned the suckers. Some insects last for a long time in water, ants aren’t one of them. I tossed the water and then tossed the ants and proceeded to make my pb & j. It was delicious.
Want some drama? The word on the street is that Noel thinks I’m not talking to him. I have no idea why except that I haven’t been going out of my way to be nice to him or talk to him so now he thinks I’m ignoring him. As a result, he’s ignoring me. How retarded. I’m not going to acknowledge this issue. When we’re around each other and a topic comes up, we’ll talk. Until then, let him think I’m mad. I’m over it.
Is it just me? Am I the only one who doesn’t have the drive to go out into the community and walk around? Am I the only one who, when there is power, stays in her house for a looooooong time watching 11 straight episodes of Entourage? Thankfully, no. I have been talking with other PCVs in my group and while we all feel ok, not depressed or anything, all of us are feeling very blah and have no desire to leave the house. I find that weird since I thought that normally at the 1 year people have a surge of energy and drive. I hope that wasn’t that week I had about two weeks back… I talked with my friend Kelly today and she didn’t leave her house until 12:30. It’s nearly 2:30 now and here I am, still inside. I can somewhat justify it though since I was trying to finish a grant for my stove project. Also, I had plans to go walking this morning but Vanji ditched me. See, I’m doing stuff!
Besides, the 1st step is recognizing the issue right? Another possible issue: should I feel bad when the 8 year old neighbor girl really wants to clean my bathroom? So I let her and give her a few tips too (you missed a spot….) Is that wrong? Something tells me it should be but at the same time, if she wants to do it.
10/14 Thursday: Rudeness
In a nutshell: I have morphed into a rude machine. It’s the culture here!!! You can say things in Spanish that you can’t say in English. When I went home in September I was told by no less than 5 people that I was being rude. I didn’t mean to. It’s just the Dominican coming out in me. When I go home, please have patience and let me know that I’m being rude.
The Real Blog: Dominicans are rude. But then, as I was informed when I went home for my visit, so am I. I was always a blunt person before coming to the DR but the culture here has thrown me over the edge. I was offended when my brother and his fiancé told me I was rude. I felt bad. But, that’s because I know they’re right. I’ve talked with several PCVs about this since and we have come to the collective conclusion: this culture makes you “rude” by all American standards. The problem is that you will not be heard here if you talk like Americans talk, walking on eggs with all the political correctness BS. You know, this lifestyle can for sure be offensive but I have to say I prefer it on some levels. To Americans: can we please drop all the fancy dancing along the words we can’t say and just simply say it like it is? Then, lets not be pissy afterwards because Jane said something blunt, but in reality, completely true. In a past relationship I was accused of being “emotionally challenged”. I still counter that, even more so now. I am emotional. I am sensitive. But I also say it like it is and listen to it being told to me in the same manner. I’m just maybe too extreme for American values now. Take last night for instance.
I was on my front porch when Franklin came by and asked me if I wanted to go down to the continuing wake down at Tolo’s parent’s house (this was a big night since it was night 8 since the death and according to tradition it’s the night that the dead try to wake back up). I hadn’t been out much lately… pretty much since I got back from the States to tell you the truth… so I said sure, let’s party it up at the wake. I walked “down” to it with him and another dude and sat at a table with three guys and Vanji. During the 2 hours or so that we hung out, we had a good time and when I went to leave Franklin was being a baby throwing a little tantrum (that no one thought anything of) since he wanted me and Vanji to stay. It was his 2nd little fit he threw. He’s 20.
On the way back, I began reflecting about our conversations, of which I felt indifferent. During the 120 minutes conversing, I was called lazy, asked if I ever get sick of sleeping, told I didn’t have a real job, told I never leave my “cave”, told it was apparent I wasn’t exercising right now, was at least 6 times pressured to take shots of rum, called a child, called an old lady (an insult here which I think is HILAROUS so it never has the same effect on me as on a Dominican), and called snotty… those being the ones I can think of off of the top of my head. If this was said to me in English I probably would have gone home and cried. But there is something magical about Spanish. You have to be blunt and when people are blunt with you, you just are blunt right back. In English it’s rude. In Spanish it’s normal, don’t take it personal. When I went home to the States, I crossed the line and felt bad about it. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if it weren’t pointed out to me. Imagine the monster I’ll be in even another year after this!!! I can see it now that only my PCV buddies will want to talk to me.
The point of all this: when I go home, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE cut me a lot of slack and tell me politely if speaking in English, or with as little tact as possible if speaking in Spanish, that I was being rude by all American standards. And I’ll work on it. I promise.
10/14 Wednesday: The last two days: Down, Up, Up, Up, Tragic, Drama
In a nutshell: Three girls in my Escojo group bailed mid-class yesterday despite the fact they were supposed to be teaching the class. Rumor has it, they were mad that they were not being giving enough freedom to teach the class. Instead of talking about this with me, they left. Great idea!
I should be getting my water filters soooon from that water training I had in June. Its great news but I have a lot of work to do before then.
Inflation here is MAD!
I love the view here and want to take it home.
A ton of ants go into my peanut butter, surprising me and biting my hands really well before I filled the container up with water and watched them all drown. I then dumped out the water and the ants and made my sandwich. Yum.
Noel is mad at me once again, and ignoring me. This time he’s ignoring me because he thinks I was ignoring him 1st so he’s going to do it back. Only thing is, I’m not ignoring him. I’m getting really annoyed with the level of maturity I encounter daily, or rather the lack of maturity. I mean, I am REALLY sick of it. I think I need to get away for some R&R time.
The Real Blog: Let’s start with the down: yesterday I wanted to kill three girls in my Escojo group. It was their turn to teach the class and when Wandi asked me if he could read something, not remembering that it was the girls who were teaching the class, I said sure. No big deal right? Easy mistake? Well, the three girls, Vanji, Ernie and Jamalissa decided it was a big deal and, without saying ANYTHING to me, they left. Yep, they just up and left the class. I was really mad when I found out. And of course Wandi makes things even more aggravating with his comments like, “They are such bad people, leaving like that. I told them not to go.” Shut up dude. I changed the dates of our meetings together from Fridays to Wednesdays but 4 of the 7 kids in the group won’t know that now. Why is it 4 and not just the 3 girls you ask? Because one of the boys didn’t feel like going yesterday so he didn’t go. Great group huh?
Now for some good news. I emailed the contact person for the Rotary Club again to check on the water filers and she had some guy call me back about 30 minutes after I sent the email. He said he could get them to me after the 1st of November! That’s waaaaay sooner than I anticipated them. I’m excited but at the same time, dang I have a lot of work to do! I have to change the list of people receiving the filters (long story) and collect the 500 pesos per house/recipient and I also was going to make it a requirement that they go to two or three classes of mine but first I have to make up the classes!!! It’s actually a lot of work.
On top of that, today I went around to get prices for my stove project. I need to write a budget for the grant I’m writing. I was talking to a water PCV friend, Mark, and he told me that prices change so much that when the water PCVs make their budgets they have to use the most expensive price and then add 35% because by the time the money comes in, prices have gone up that much. Inflation here is nuts.
Another “up”, when I was coming back from Navarrete today I was really enjoying the view. It’s so break taking. I wish there was some way to put it in my pocket and save it for when I’m in the States. I also wish that in the States I could always have muchachas to wash my dishes and sweep my house (although I’ll more than likely have carpet so I’ll need them to vacuum). In a perfect world…
Here’s some almost tragic news: When I opened my jar of Peter Pan peanut butter (it was on special, FYI Jiffy is still the best. Jiffy wasn’t on special) I was reminded of why I normally keep it in the fridge: ants. Despite the fact that the lid was screwed on tight, I was assaulted by biting ants when I opened the jar. I was upset but filled it up with some water and drowned the suckers. Some insects last for a long time in water, ants aren’t one of them. I tossed the water and then tossed the ants and proceeded to make my pb & j. It was delicious.
Want some drama? The word on the street is that Noel thinks I’m not talking to him. I have no idea why except that I haven’t been going out of my way to be nice to him or talk to him so now he thinks I’m ignoring him. As a result, he’s ignoring me. How retarded. I’m not going to acknowledge this issue. When we’re around each other and a topic comes up, we’ll talk. Until then, let him think I’m mad. I’m over it.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Oct 4th- Oct 9th
10/9 Friday: Escojo National Conference in SD; yeah it’s kind of a BIG deal.
In a nutshell: Today was the day that we had to leave to go to the Capital for the Escojo national conference, something that comes just once a year. We left at 7:01 am- one minute late and it was my fault (the girls showed up at my house 10 minutes early). I would like to note once again that the DR is known for everyone being like 30- 45 minutes late but it’s not the case in my community, they’re generally pretty punctual. It’s weird.
Anyways, we headed for Santiago where we waited for Mark and Sarah with their kids and also my friend Beth’s kid (who I said I could take since she was in SD sick)and then made the hike together on the bus to SD. I loved it because the girls I took, like nearly everyone if not everyone in my Escojo class, have never been to their country’s capital and so they were REALLY excited. Not to mention they are both really poor (one comes from a Haitian family) and unlike the other kids I’ve brought, they each only had a single small book bag with their best clothing and other contents for the next three days. The conference is a great example of how PCVs are able to really impact kids even if for a few days, giving the opportunities that they may not get again.
10/8 Thursday: Brigada Verde elections= FUNNY
In a nutshell: My BV class had elections and so now we’re legit. Wandi bribed the crowd behind my back with my suckers for the class and as a result was successfully elected treasurer aka fundraiser man… hehe, what a crappy job. There was a committee formed during elections and this committee and I will be going to talk to a coffee farmer on Thursday (in the hot hot sun) about ways to not throw the coffee seed-pod thingys into the river which pollute it and make it unusable and stinky. Yay!
Today was the 2nd BV class and I wasn’t sure if we were even going to have a class. The school randomly didn’t have class yesterday or today and so it depended on whether I could get a hold of the key to the school so we even had a place for it and also on whether kids showed up. Last Tuesday when I went to have Escojo class, school had gotten out early and about 1/3 of the kids didn’t stick around the 20 minutes in between. They thought that I wasn’t going to show up so they left. I was annoyed and told them that I wasn’t like that. When I said we were having class, I meant we were having class that we would always have it unless something really bad happened (like serious injury or death). But they’re used to teachers just not showing up so they thought it was no big deal I wasn’t there. Class starts at 5:30 though, not after school which was something I think they were confused about.
Anyways, back to BV… so to my amazement pretty much everyone showed up and we had class. The BV manual is pretty crappy making it difficult to use so, for lack of material, I decided to take up some time and we would have formal elections. I based them off of my experience from when I was an RA in the dorms. I thought it was really funny. It went over well, all things considered. Wandi ended up being the treasurer but I found out it was only because he was being very “Dominican-Politician” and told them if they voted for him he would give them a sucker… one of MY suckers for the class. I wondered how in the world he got them chanting for him in the 5 seconds I was out of the class…
I’m excited because this Thursday the BV Committee and I are going up to the coffee farmers to talk to them about alternative methods of disposal of their coffee seed pods. Right now they leave them in a pile and then when it rains the empty pods flow into the river and rot. It stinks and no one downstream can use the river. I’m not looking forward to the fact we have to walk there at 1 pm in the full sun but I am REALLY excited for the prospect of doing something productive and tangible, motivating my kids as well as myself.
10/6 Tuesday: Tolo’s Dad dies at 92 years old
In a nutshell: It is very awkward when someone dies. VERY. I deliberately waited to go visit Tolo until after my Escojo class (which was about 6 hours after his dad died) and when I got there he was STILL screaming and crying. Not that I’m against that, do whatever you need to do but I mean that’s a real example of stamina. When I walked up to him he hugged me super tight and cried, as he had been doing with every single person who walked in. I felt really bad for Tolo but thanks to my 4 years in the old folks home, I’m used to the dealing with death of the elderly so I wasn’t feeling particularly depressed of this man’s passing. Also, I had never even met his dad since he had been sickly and bedridden since I arrived to my site. Unhealthy and 92; it was time to go, wasn’t it?
The part I feel weird about is that everyone goes there and hangs out all day. It’s like big party where people aren’t supposed to laugh loud. Everyone uses any reason it to get together and chill in this country and so the road was lined with people and cars; even when I got there at 8:30 at night. Then, I’m supposed to say something to the degree of “sharing your pain with you” when I go up to talk to the family of the deceased. To me, its nice but it’s just not me dude. I can’t say that to someone, least of all my Don!!! So, I didn’t say anything, which a lot of the time is just as good or better, right? I do really like the way the community supports one another though. I wonder if it makes it easier or more of a burden since in the following days (the next 9) people come to your house during a specific hour (for Tolo’s mom, its between 5 and 6) and everyone gets juice and a cookie. I feel like I would like the support but a few days later would want to be alone to be depressed for a while, not handing out juice and cookies.
Anyways, when I went there that first night after he died, I felt bad leaving so I hung out for like 3 hours, trying to be supportive. Even though I hate small talk, I’m glad I was there. Despite this, the next day I skipped out on the part when they put the body in the cemetery. Minga took me to one of those on my site visit when I first got to La Lomota and I was horrified. Everyone was crying and screaming. Then Minga, literally in the middle of crying herself, stopped for a minute and introduced me very thoroughly. Yes, life here is different.
10/4 Sunday: Happy birthday Aaron and Ali!
In a nutshell: Can you believe that I saw a tarantula and actually forgot to write about it? I mean, really! What is this world coming to? It would outside of my bathroom at night and Wandi killed it with a rock. Adios, farewell and vaya con Dios. I went to another PCVs house for the weekend to celebrate Ali’s birthday (that’s where she wanted to go). We went to the beach and it turns out there had been an incident with jellyfish stinging people in the past. The only reason I knew this was because I had just learned the word for jellyfish that same week. I was pretty pleased with myself. The beach was nice but there were a lot of mosquitoes since we got caught there at dusk. I was reflecting about how the PCV we were visiting is going to be done with service in about a month and thinking about how she must be feeling. That’ll be me in a year. I think my COS (close of service) date is like the 25th of Oct. We’ll see if I can say goodbye or if I’ll extend for a bit. Time will tell:)
Before I begin about my weekend I would like to say that I must have too much time on the island. I saw a tarantula (a BIG one) and actually FORGOT to write about it till right now, like a week later!!!!! Here’s what happened: It was a peaceful night and I had conned Wandi into watering the garden for the 2nd time that day with me helping minimally. He walked ahead to the small garden area by my house (the tree truck which used to be the seedling bed) and said, hey look! It’s a tarantula. I said, Don’t kill it!!! I want to see it alive 1st! So I booked it over and sure enough, there was the big sucker. Wandi squashed it with a rock and its torso/hind end and some legs went flying. It was kind of sick but I learned something: they sure squish different than I would expect. They’re kind of airy and I bet they’re lighter than they seem. According to Bear Grills (who did an episode in the DR in Feb) the tarantula’s bite here “liquefies flesh”. I bet that would be way sicker than seeing a few tarantula legs and butt go sailing through the air unattached to anything.
On a happier note, what did I do for the weekend? Well, it was my friend, Ali’s, birthday and she wanted to visit a health PVC who is about to finish her service- Beth. So, we went through La Isabella to Beth’s site. Her house is cool. The first day we got there we didn’t do anything but hang out and talk. The next day we were supposed to go to the beach early, or so we thought. It turns out that Beth is building a library/community center and the guy who was taking us to the beach was working in the morning on that. So he said he would be by to get us at 1:30 or 2 and he showed up at 3:30. Typical Dominican time. Sometimes I’m glad my community is on time.
The beach was beautiful. Sorry, I forgot my camera so there will be no pics. We ate fried fish and fried sweet potato which were both delicious. The only issues were (1) the kids were talking about how the last time they were here Beth got something-ed by a medusa. Lucky for me, earlier that same week I learned the word for jellyfish: medusa (thanks Sarah and kids for sending me back with curtains you decorated with tropical creatures that had the Dominicans in my house pointing and playing the “And What’s That?” game.). Apparently, sometimes schools or clans or cults or whatever you want to call the little jellyfish groups hang out at that beach. I was scared. This girl from northern IL has never experienced a jellyfish sting. Ouch!
Another bad thing was that the people we were with ordered food that took forever and we ended up being on the beach at dusk. If there is ever a time to get dengue or malaria, dusk on the beach is it. Even though we were cold, we went into the water to try to avoid the mosquitoes but the little stalkers still followed us out into the water, biting our faces. Bummer.
The way home was so fun. We were in the back of a pick up truck, driving along with the 7 kids or so that were with us singing at least 20 different songs. They were singing them together for about 10 seconds and then when no one knew the words they switched to a new song. I wondered about Beth, thinking that this would probably be the last time she did this with her kids and how she felt about such a transitional time. I’ll be done next October so that will be me a year from now. I think I’ll be really sad about it. I’ve been talking to a lot of people who are about to leave and they told me the last three months are as bad as the 1st three in country; they suck big time. Even if you’re not best buds with people in your community, it’s harder than leaving home because when you left home you knew you would be back in two years. Whereas this even if you visit you won’t have it the same. I mean for instance, when you come back to visit where will you stay? With your old Doña? (Yeah because the 1st time around was such a hoot!) You wouldn’t get the feeling of it again unless you could just hang out for at least a few days and do you want to live with Doña for a few days again? Don’t get me wrong, Beth is ready to go as are the other PCVs. There’s no place like home and we all miss home but it’s hard leaving a stage in your life I suppose. Even one that’s been a rough ride. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with all that right now. I’ll put off thinking about it for another 11 months or so.
In a nutshell: Today was the day that we had to leave to go to the Capital for the Escojo national conference, something that comes just once a year. We left at 7:01 am- one minute late and it was my fault (the girls showed up at my house 10 minutes early). I would like to note once again that the DR is known for everyone being like 30- 45 minutes late but it’s not the case in my community, they’re generally pretty punctual. It’s weird.
Anyways, we headed for Santiago where we waited for Mark and Sarah with their kids and also my friend Beth’s kid (who I said I could take since she was in SD sick)and then made the hike together on the bus to SD. I loved it because the girls I took, like nearly everyone if not everyone in my Escojo class, have never been to their country’s capital and so they were REALLY excited. Not to mention they are both really poor (one comes from a Haitian family) and unlike the other kids I’ve brought, they each only had a single small book bag with their best clothing and other contents for the next three days. The conference is a great example of how PCVs are able to really impact kids even if for a few days, giving the opportunities that they may not get again.
10/8 Thursday: Brigada Verde elections= FUNNY
In a nutshell: My BV class had elections and so now we’re legit. Wandi bribed the crowd behind my back with my suckers for the class and as a result was successfully elected treasurer aka fundraiser man… hehe, what a crappy job. There was a committee formed during elections and this committee and I will be going to talk to a coffee farmer on Thursday (in the hot hot sun) about ways to not throw the coffee seed-pod thingys into the river which pollute it and make it unusable and stinky. Yay!
Today was the 2nd BV class and I wasn’t sure if we were even going to have a class. The school randomly didn’t have class yesterday or today and so it depended on whether I could get a hold of the key to the school so we even had a place for it and also on whether kids showed up. Last Tuesday when I went to have Escojo class, school had gotten out early and about 1/3 of the kids didn’t stick around the 20 minutes in between. They thought that I wasn’t going to show up so they left. I was annoyed and told them that I wasn’t like that. When I said we were having class, I meant we were having class that we would always have it unless something really bad happened (like serious injury or death). But they’re used to teachers just not showing up so they thought it was no big deal I wasn’t there. Class starts at 5:30 though, not after school which was something I think they were confused about.
Anyways, back to BV… so to my amazement pretty much everyone showed up and we had class. The BV manual is pretty crappy making it difficult to use so, for lack of material, I decided to take up some time and we would have formal elections. I based them off of my experience from when I was an RA in the dorms. I thought it was really funny. It went over well, all things considered. Wandi ended up being the treasurer but I found out it was only because he was being very “Dominican-Politician” and told them if they voted for him he would give them a sucker… one of MY suckers for the class. I wondered how in the world he got them chanting for him in the 5 seconds I was out of the class…
I’m excited because this Thursday the BV Committee and I are going up to the coffee farmers to talk to them about alternative methods of disposal of their coffee seed pods. Right now they leave them in a pile and then when it rains the empty pods flow into the river and rot. It stinks and no one downstream can use the river. I’m not looking forward to the fact we have to walk there at 1 pm in the full sun but I am REALLY excited for the prospect of doing something productive and tangible, motivating my kids as well as myself.
10/6 Tuesday: Tolo’s Dad dies at 92 years old
In a nutshell: It is very awkward when someone dies. VERY. I deliberately waited to go visit Tolo until after my Escojo class (which was about 6 hours after his dad died) and when I got there he was STILL screaming and crying. Not that I’m against that, do whatever you need to do but I mean that’s a real example of stamina. When I walked up to him he hugged me super tight and cried, as he had been doing with every single person who walked in. I felt really bad for Tolo but thanks to my 4 years in the old folks home, I’m used to the dealing with death of the elderly so I wasn’t feeling particularly depressed of this man’s passing. Also, I had never even met his dad since he had been sickly and bedridden since I arrived to my site. Unhealthy and 92; it was time to go, wasn’t it?
The part I feel weird about is that everyone goes there and hangs out all day. It’s like big party where people aren’t supposed to laugh loud. Everyone uses any reason it to get together and chill in this country and so the road was lined with people and cars; even when I got there at 8:30 at night. Then, I’m supposed to say something to the degree of “sharing your pain with you” when I go up to talk to the family of the deceased. To me, its nice but it’s just not me dude. I can’t say that to someone, least of all my Don!!! So, I didn’t say anything, which a lot of the time is just as good or better, right? I do really like the way the community supports one another though. I wonder if it makes it easier or more of a burden since in the following days (the next 9) people come to your house during a specific hour (for Tolo’s mom, its between 5 and 6) and everyone gets juice and a cookie. I feel like I would like the support but a few days later would want to be alone to be depressed for a while, not handing out juice and cookies.
Anyways, when I went there that first night after he died, I felt bad leaving so I hung out for like 3 hours, trying to be supportive. Even though I hate small talk, I’m glad I was there. Despite this, the next day I skipped out on the part when they put the body in the cemetery. Minga took me to one of those on my site visit when I first got to La Lomota and I was horrified. Everyone was crying and screaming. Then Minga, literally in the middle of crying herself, stopped for a minute and introduced me very thoroughly. Yes, life here is different.
10/4 Sunday: Happy birthday Aaron and Ali!
In a nutshell: Can you believe that I saw a tarantula and actually forgot to write about it? I mean, really! What is this world coming to? It would outside of my bathroom at night and Wandi killed it with a rock. Adios, farewell and vaya con Dios. I went to another PCVs house for the weekend to celebrate Ali’s birthday (that’s where she wanted to go). We went to the beach and it turns out there had been an incident with jellyfish stinging people in the past. The only reason I knew this was because I had just learned the word for jellyfish that same week. I was pretty pleased with myself. The beach was nice but there were a lot of mosquitoes since we got caught there at dusk. I was reflecting about how the PCV we were visiting is going to be done with service in about a month and thinking about how she must be feeling. That’ll be me in a year. I think my COS (close of service) date is like the 25th of Oct. We’ll see if I can say goodbye or if I’ll extend for a bit. Time will tell:)
Before I begin about my weekend I would like to say that I must have too much time on the island. I saw a tarantula (a BIG one) and actually FORGOT to write about it till right now, like a week later!!!!! Here’s what happened: It was a peaceful night and I had conned Wandi into watering the garden for the 2nd time that day with me helping minimally. He walked ahead to the small garden area by my house (the tree truck which used to be the seedling bed) and said, hey look! It’s a tarantula. I said, Don’t kill it!!! I want to see it alive 1st! So I booked it over and sure enough, there was the big sucker. Wandi squashed it with a rock and its torso/hind end and some legs went flying. It was kind of sick but I learned something: they sure squish different than I would expect. They’re kind of airy and I bet they’re lighter than they seem. According to Bear Grills (who did an episode in the DR in Feb) the tarantula’s bite here “liquefies flesh”. I bet that would be way sicker than seeing a few tarantula legs and butt go sailing through the air unattached to anything.
On a happier note, what did I do for the weekend? Well, it was my friend, Ali’s, birthday and she wanted to visit a health PVC who is about to finish her service- Beth. So, we went through La Isabella to Beth’s site. Her house is cool. The first day we got there we didn’t do anything but hang out and talk. The next day we were supposed to go to the beach early, or so we thought. It turns out that Beth is building a library/community center and the guy who was taking us to the beach was working in the morning on that. So he said he would be by to get us at 1:30 or 2 and he showed up at 3:30. Typical Dominican time. Sometimes I’m glad my community is on time.
The beach was beautiful. Sorry, I forgot my camera so there will be no pics. We ate fried fish and fried sweet potato which were both delicious. The only issues were (1) the kids were talking about how the last time they were here Beth got something-ed by a medusa. Lucky for me, earlier that same week I learned the word for jellyfish: medusa (thanks Sarah and kids for sending me back with curtains you decorated with tropical creatures that had the Dominicans in my house pointing and playing the “And What’s That?” game.). Apparently, sometimes schools or clans or cults or whatever you want to call the little jellyfish groups hang out at that beach. I was scared. This girl from northern IL has never experienced a jellyfish sting. Ouch!
Another bad thing was that the people we were with ordered food that took forever and we ended up being on the beach at dusk. If there is ever a time to get dengue or malaria, dusk on the beach is it. Even though we were cold, we went into the water to try to avoid the mosquitoes but the little stalkers still followed us out into the water, biting our faces. Bummer.
The way home was so fun. We were in the back of a pick up truck, driving along with the 7 kids or so that were with us singing at least 20 different songs. They were singing them together for about 10 seconds and then when no one knew the words they switched to a new song. I wondered about Beth, thinking that this would probably be the last time she did this with her kids and how she felt about such a transitional time. I’ll be done next October so that will be me a year from now. I think I’ll be really sad about it. I’ve been talking to a lot of people who are about to leave and they told me the last three months are as bad as the 1st three in country; they suck big time. Even if you’re not best buds with people in your community, it’s harder than leaving home because when you left home you knew you would be back in two years. Whereas this even if you visit you won’t have it the same. I mean for instance, when you come back to visit where will you stay? With your old Doña? (Yeah because the 1st time around was such a hoot!) You wouldn’t get the feeling of it again unless you could just hang out for at least a few days and do you want to live with Doña for a few days again? Don’t get me wrong, Beth is ready to go as are the other PCVs. There’s no place like home and we all miss home but it’s hard leaving a stage in your life I suppose. Even one that’s been a rough ride. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with all that right now. I’ll put off thinking about it for another 11 months or so.
Friday, October 2, 2009
This one is a dooooozy!
Hi everyone. So, I know I haven’t posted in like 2 months but don’t you worry! I have been writing. Its just that while I was in the States Best Buy had my computer the entire time and after that I haven’t been able to post it for some reason. So, here it is. My blog for the rest of August, allll of September and some of October. For those of you who want to keep up but don’t want to read it all, I started my “in a nutshell” part. It doesn’t explain things well but it gives a very quick sum of. Enjoy!
9/30 Wednesday: No money and no electricity= a big bummer. My Escojo group lets me down.
In a nutshell: I am broke. There hasn’t been power. The director of the school made my Escojo class switch to a room with no tables since there’s less stuff to touch. Ernie called the cleaning ladies lazy and liars in front of my class. I had to kick my first kid out of class since he wasn’t being respectful. The class is full of 9 year olds which is weird for me since it’s a SEX ED CLASS!!! They’re supposed to be at least 11 but I feel bad kicking them out after they’ve been participating for 5 weeks. My Escojo promoters decided not to show up for our meeting yesterday for some reason and now I don’t know what they’re going to do for class next week. I plan on laying the guilt trip on thick. I went to Anne’s and got info to get going on a stove project I would like to do here. I put up a bunch of signs advertising my new environmental youth group, Brigada Verde, and now I’m a teeny nervous that the attendance will be more than I can handle. Vamos a ver.
Friday can not come soon enough. Its payday tomorrow but I won’t be going into town until Friday when I go to Santiago for my friend Ali’s birthday. Despite the fact I’ve been keeping plenty busy, the week has never moved so slowly. Let me say that between Monday and Tuesday there was only 4 hours with power; 2 of which I spent at the school giving my Escojo class. So there hasn’t been any blogging or movie watching sadly and it was the first time my phone was dead for about a half day, which may be a good thing since, without the distraction of Harry Potter, I’ve been pretty productive this week as planned.
In my Escojo class Humberto made a new rule that my group wasn’t able to use the classroom we normally use (even though we haven’t had class since he kind of told me that the kids were touching stuff in the other classroom) and we will now have to have class in a room without tables. Then he came into class at the beginning and lectured them about not touching stuff. I agree with that but considering how formal he has been with me about stuff (I had to get a permission from him just to enter the classrooms to ask if I could talk about Brigada Verde- the environmental group I’m starting) I would have expected him to at least tell me that he was planning on doing that. Especially since he had a perfect opportunity when I spoke to him before class that day to get the note to enter the class.
Well, right after his speech, Ernie decided to tell him, in front of the entire class, basically that the cleaning ladies were just lazy and they were lying. That they said we were dirtying stuff in the other Escojo class but really, they just didn’t want to clean it and so they said we made it dirty after they had cleaned. Oh boy.
I had to give the boot to my first student. That’s right, I kicked one out. He was talking a LOT and actually kept leaving the class to talk to his friends and then come back in, how rude! This class isn’t going as smoothly as the last one that’s for sure. I also am aware of the fact that about 1/3 of the class is under the age of 11- which is against an Escojo rule. I’m annoyed that Ernie let these kids in when she confirmed the age rule with me I was in the States, they can join as they are at least 11. So, now I feel bad since I don’t want to just kick them out… I’m going to have to sort them out of the next class and tell them they can be in Brigada Verde or something. It’s not that big of a deal really except that I feel weird teaching a sex ed class to 9 year olds!
Today I was supposed to have a meeting with my Escojo promoters group. Wandi and Argeni showed up. Antonio showed up 30 minutes late. I was pretty dang mad. 1st of all, I was just sitting waiting for them to show up but I needed to go to Anne’s site to get some info on her stove project. I could have gone over there about 2 hours sooner. Also, they are supposed to be the awesome kids and here more than half of them don’t show up?! I was especially surprised with Ernie who was in Navarrete hanging out with her new boyfriend’s family and had her mom so worried sick that Mercedes borrowed the colmado man’s motorcycle and had a friend take her to town to look for Ernie. Well, now Antionio and Jose Luis, who are supposed to present the ONE class that they have to draw out, have nothing to present since they weren’t there! Errrr. We’ll see how this goes. I may just let them present the one I did and pick a topic for them to draw in the future. I know they’re kids but they’re old enough to know better.
Tomorrow I have my 1st Brigada Verde class and I’m not worried about low attendance. On the contrary, I made a bunch of signs (which took forever but I had no money to go to town and print some off so I spent 2 days making them out of construction paper) and I feel like a TON of people are going to be there. I kind of hope not since that’s not exactly the point. I mean I want people to be there but it’s for people who are going to go each week and participate. In hindsight, I should have said not to go unless you can go each week. Or maybe I should have saved the signs for our community service days. Oh well, guess we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
9/27 Sunday: Ernesto clears things up, politicians- bite me.
In a nutshell: Ernesto (my project partner) has been out of town and is only here on the weekends. He is really important to my work since he’s always supportive and well respected in the community. Sunday night he came over and finally sat down to make a list of 30 people who are eligible to receive a water filter while I typed it up. Now the people who weren’t chosen are mad at me since Ernesto’s wife told them that I was the one who made the list. Also on Sunday, my Escojo group and I waited for politicians to show up at the voting polls so we could solicit stuff from them (totally normal to do right before voting here) but they never showed. Jerks.
Ernesto had been out of town since I’d been back in country. He’s working in another PCV’s site, helping finish a water system. Ernesto is my rock. He and I aren’t like best buds or anything but he is super cool. I was going crazy without him here to collaborate with. When I finally got a chance to talk to him, I told him that I needed the list of recipients for the water filters ASAP and I told him about the school director and how difficult I thought he was being. He used computers as an example to explain to me that if we, for instance, get 10 computers and start a computer lab that the government will see that we already have computers and then will take the ones they said they would give, and would sell them. The government already told my community that they would put an internet center here. That means that if I am able to get some computers (something I’m working on with Kenzie) then we would have to put them somewhere other than the school. This is because if there are even computers at the school, the government won’t say, “Hey- wow you got computers; good for you! Let me use this money then to get generators or what have you.” No, they would say, “Oh… computers… well, I guess you can do it yourself and so we’ll just take this money for ourselves.” Then the community doesn’t get the internet center they were promised (although something tells me that was a false promise since we live in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain). Way to reward the resourceful!
As I mentioned, the politicians were supposed to show up today at the school where the elections were being held. There are three principle political groups here in the DR and they are known by colors: red, purple and white. Today the people were voting essentially in the primaries; voting for who they wanted in power for white. The guys running for office were supposed to show up at the polling place (the school) to influence people’s voting. They pay people, they give out random stuff… one year (I think for the presidential election) they flew overhead in planes and dropped salami. It was disastrous since people were fighting and scratching to get their hands on the free tubes. Obviously its wrong that they give this stuff out when people vote; in Kenzie’s site they were “helping” people vote by telling them which ones to pick and then they were paying $150 pesos. Well, sure this is wrong but I’m not voting and I figure if they’re putting themselves in this situation well, may as well use it to our advantage. So, my group and I were ready and waiting with solicitation letters for about 6 hours for the politicians, who said they’d be here at 10. We waited until 4:30 and then I left to make some dinner. So much for that.
Later that night, Ernesto came over with the list of the people who have paid their water bill. I told him I wanted the water committee to pick the people and not one person but since he’s the president and he’s never here now (thanks to the outside work) I didn’t bring it up and just typed up the names. Of course, the next day at the Women’s Meeting people were flaming mad that they didn’t get picked. Hello, there are 30 filters and over 100 houses. Doesn’t take a genius to do that math. One woman stopped me on the street and said how houses can share filters and why did I pick who I picked. Apparently Mercedes told the Woman’s Group that I picked the people. Awesome. So, I told a little lie and said that the water committee picked the names, that I just typed them. After all, I don’t want to throw Ernesto to the wolves but I seriously didn’t pick the names. And, I don’t live here. People turn on you quick and that’s the last thing I need since I’ve got to work here for another year. Anyways, we’ll see how that turns out. I said that they can work it out amongst themselves but ANYONE who wants to receive one, shared or not, HAS to pay any outstanding water bill that they have first and then work out a way to split the $500 pesos they have to pay per filter. (Which really isn’t much, especially if three houses are going to spilt it).
9/26 Saturday: A GOOD DAY!!! :D
In a nutshell: Things always work out. We are having politicians come tomorrow and I’m a liaison for my Escojo group to try to get them to donate money to Escojo thanks to my amaaaaazing letter writing skills I acquired somewhere (right Mary Alice, RIGHT?!). I got a really encouraging letter from a top notch guy at San Diego State University who wants to work with me on sustainability projects here in the DR (again thanks to my fantastic letter writing skills?) He has the same name as my one and only brother. It’s a sign. I am extra excited about it because I was researching grad school programs in environmental sustainability while I was home and would LOVE the opportunity to work with someone on a project like that. It’s possible I may be in trouble with the PCDR Country Director himself, Romeo Massy for trying to solicit funds outside of the Peace Corps before talking with my direct boss, my APCD- Miguel. I believe that if you don’t ask, how will you get anything? Guess I need to think about the order of whom I’m asking is all… I’m trying to get a basketball court built but have no where to put it. (I don’t sweat the small stuff, ha!) STORMS ARE SCARY!!! They’re scarier with an unfinished wall (that has already fallen once) which is supposed to keep my house up. They’re also louder with a tin roof, a lot louder. I am going to start my green group and put those kids to work! We may dig two deep holes to put trash in (organic and inorganic). Sounds like fun doesn’t it? I’m doing a good job of staying positive right now but that’s because I won’t be digging the holes, I’m the supervisor- LIFT WITH THE KNEES; PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!!! Come and visit!!! (bring Luke;)
Yesterday in my Escojo group we were talking about how the new class is going to raise money (since they’re all around 11 I figured I should start thinking about this now) when it was brought to my attention that a bunch of politicians were going to be here tomorrow as tomorrow is an election- something I didn’t know! This meant that I would have to write up a letter soliciting funds from these guys and print them out today. It worked out well since I had to print out some other stuff and also because Humberto told me that before he would let my kids even think about having a mural project (one of the two reasons I went to talk to him yesterday) that I would have to write a formal letter to him asking for permission. That way in case his boss ever asks where the mural came from he can show him the letter. Makes no sense to me but what do I know. It’s ok because I can use the practice wrrriting solicitation letters (and I’m getting a LOT lately).
So I went to town today and printed off a bunch of stuff and decided to use the internet while I was there to check up on some solicitations I had written to outside sources. I told my ride I would be a half hour at the internet center but of course, after he left there were a plethora of issues and I ended up only being able to use the internet for about 20 minutes. No importa, that was just enough time to read my email and copy letters to reply to while at home.
One letter made me a little nervous. I got an email from PCDR’s Country Director, Romeo Massy, because one of the letters I wrote and sent to USAID ended up getting sent to someone he knew who sent it to him. Well, Romeo wanted to know if I had talked to my APCD (my direct boss ) about my projects. The thing is, I have a lot of ideas and there are only so many grants you can get. So, I thought it would be better to take the initiative and seek outside help. Not to mention, I know of some PCVs who have been able to get college or high school groups here to help build whatever is needed during a spring or winter break. And that was more what I was looking for. Actually, what happened was that I had this woman’s name (the one who helps build the basketball courts and libraries) but I forgot the card (or it could be lost but maybe not) and so since I was in the capital I decided to try and find other sources. On one hand, it’s good that Romeo knows that I’m being proactive, right? But on the other… I hope it’s not frowned upon or anything. I guess I’ll find out!
Especially since one letter I got made me super happy! Apparently San Diego State University and the SD Padres (baseball? l think…) teamed up to try and improve the school system in the DR. Initially I thought that I wanted to do something with the school, although that may be harder that I anticipated (I am not deterred, I’m going to talk to the Parents of the School group) so I thought that this would be good. Well, it could turn out better than I thought! I received an email from “the director of diversity in the office of the president” of SDSU who is really enthusiastic to try and work together on something!! I don’t know about you, but I was like, “WHOA!” when I saw that someone high up was contacting me. I didn’t have time to write him back as my motor driver was literally pacing waiting for me (it was lunch time), but I did forward his letter to Romeo (who has internet all the time:) and wrote a response already from my computer. So, I have no idea the process of this or what we can do but, wow, I am sooo excited!!! I can’t wait!!! And I have my fingers crossed that Romeo will be enthusiastic too.
And, to make things even better, although initially I was dismayed that only the 11 year olds wanted to participate in Escojo while I was gone, now I see how it works out well. See, now Escojo is full of kids from the minimum age level (kids who want to be there because they’re actually interested and not because the super amazingly cool fantastic Americana is teaching it) and now there are more kids available of the age group I want to work with for my green group. One could assume that these kids aren’t deserving or aren’t motivated enough but remember, this is a community group. These kids are going to have class but they’re also going to physically work. I plan on beginning the group this week or next and have completely restructured it. Well, truthfully I don’t know how it was structured before but I know that all the PCVs said that Escojo was way better so I’m going to use the charlas provided in my manual for Brigada Verde (the green group) and make the class my own. Like I said, I want to see it more a community service group and so I’m going to try to micromanage a bit and do it on a point system. Each kid gets a point for going to class weekly and also once a month they have to participate in 4 hours of community service. At first I’m going to completely focus it on trash pick up and hole digging. Yes, hole, digging. I need to find a place to dig two holes and one will be for organic garbage and the other for inorganic. I don’t know where the holes are going to be. I have no idea actually. I figure I have a month to figure that out before my first community service day. Details, details…
Speaking of details, now I need to try and figure something out about where I can put a basketball court. Although I have made NO progress on getting this, I have decided to think positive and HOPE that I get one. I have to start somewhere; I may as well start assuming I will get one built right? Think positive!
PS: It’s been raining everyday here for about 30 minutes. I tell you what, I am a chicken. I never used to be afraid of storms but, maybe it’s because I was in houses that didn’t have landslides under their front porches and then the “fixed” wall fell, or houses where the rain still enters the house through the gap of the wall and the tin roof, but STORMS ARE SCARY!!! Everything is louder with a tin roof… I bring this up because it’s about to rain.
9/25 Friday: Desagradecido (a strong way of saying ungrateful)
In a nutshell: This is not very politically correct: I am very annoyed with the school principle and think he sucks and makes my life difficult. He’s stuck in a box of thinking and even though different ways aren’t bad (potentially could get things done better and more efficiently) he does not want to defer from the way things have been done. IE: A bunch of bureaucratic BS that makes people jump through unnecessary hoops until it deters them from what they wanted to do. I don’t get indirect communication which is probably an issue but I couldn’t tell you since I missed the indirect-ness part of the conversation. I am beginning a green youth group (environmental) and I am really excited. When I gave my host mom gifts “from the states” she said thanks but she really just needed a watch.
I was annoyed today as it seemed that being ungrateful was the theme of the day. First I went to the school to talk to the principle or the director as they call him here. That was a total bust. I am no shrink but I decided that the guy has certifiable control issues. I went there and he asked how I was and got me a chair to sit in and acted all nice and normal but in reality he was in a very bad mood. He asked me what projects I was working on now and as I was answering him, about two sentences in, he began talking over me… something about unsupportive kids. I have no clue what he was going off about or what the heck it had to do with me. Does it have something to do with me? I tried to see if he was being indirect and saying something bad about how the kids were acting in my class but I had no clue. I mean for heaven’s sake, I’m freaking clueless in English let alone Spanish!
Anyways, he was still asking me what I wanted to do (in between rants) and so I told him I wanted to try to form an environmental youth group (which I am PUMPED about!!!! :D) and then he cut me short and said surely I must know some medical people in the States. What? Ummmm… yes, I guess I mean I have a friend, a PCV who is a nurse… but what does that have to do with..? A nurse wasn’t what he meant. What he was saying was that there had been two medical missions near our community and he wanted to know when my friends were coming to give out free meds and toys. Well, after I figured that out (which took an embarrassing amount of time) I explained that I could look into some medical missions offered through Peace Corps. In hindsight, I don’t belong to the same church of the group that came so what they heck would I have to do with that? It should be noted that there is a myth that the United States is the size of this campo (and yet magically larger in size) and so I must know everyone who lives in it. This means that I must know the same doctors. Duh. And, I have been checking med mission opportunities and none thus far have been applicable to our community. Furthermore, that dude is JUST as capable as I am (more so since he knew about the med missions when they happened and I was in the States enjoying taco bell, normalcy and houses that have ceilings) to walk his butt over there and see about getting something over here. Ah, hindsight is 20/20. Probably better not to have the school principle hate me anyways.
So then he asks me more about what I want to do. Well, I had already explained the green group and he was giving me the impression that I was falling short of expectations, so against my better judgment, I told him how I was in contact with a woman who has groups come and build libraries and basketball courts. We have a half finished library and I had heard that they wanted to build a half court in the middle of the school yard. I figured it would be perfect. Humberto didn’t share that view. Apparently they just decided to cut one of the classrooms in half and build a wood wall, making the other half the library. My part, as Humberto informed me, was to fill it with books and tables. Great, thanks for informing me of my job. Humberto also told me if we finish the old library they would use it as a bathroom. (The school already has two pretty nice bathrooms).
Then, the basketball court: well, the government is going to build one. Clearly, it looks like they’re on it. Right after they repair the road we have that is. (The last time the road was repaired was about 25 years ago) We don’t know when they are supposedly going to build it, Humberto himself even said they may have to wait years, but hey what are a few more years? So he would rather wait on the super reliable government to build one someday when I’m here possibly trying to hand one over now? Yep, I understood it correctly. This meeting did not go well.
After my Escojo group meeting I went to Miga’s house. I felt like a jerk because I was so busy getting generic gifts to give out to people while I was in the States that I forgot to get something really cool for Minga! So, when I went to the bachelorette party I spent all but my last $500 pesos for the month to get her some total Doña earrings. I also gave her some nail polish (thanks mom!) and a half used bottle of perfume I found in my room. (people “gift” used stuff all the time here) She took it all, liked it and then said, “You should have brought me back a watch. What I really need is a watch.” Ah, cosas de la vida.
9/24 Thursday: Saint Mary’s Day
In a nutshell: This one’s short too! Am I getting lazy or writing with you in mind Deb?:)
Today was jammed packed full of parties. I didn’t go to any of them. I didn’t feel like going. I was being lazy and antisocial. But, I did go for a walk at least to get out of my house. See, after a bunch of guys are at the colmado by my house I get this kind of timidness. I want to go outside but I don’t fell like dealing with them saying stuff to me. Then, the longer I wait, the more show up. Soon I’m contemplating if I can even go to my porch because now there are women there and which is worse?: being inside my house with the door open or being outside on the porch, in plain view of them, clearly not down there. Either way I’m not down there with them and so either way I suppose it’s bad. But which is worse? I have no idea. Well, I was thinking about all this and thinking how stupid it was so I decided since I didn’t know the answer to their question I may as well do what I would like to do. After a few hours I finished sewing all the curtains Sarah sent me back with and promptly went out to sit on my porch and read. A little while later I decided to go for a walk but it began to rain. I waited it out and was about to go when Wandi showed up. We left together but by then it was dark and everyone was drunk. We went about a ¼ mile and saw someone fall off of their motorcycle right next to us (FIY: people get annoyed if you ask if they’re ok) and someone almost hit me in their stupid truck. I mean, really almost hit me. So, we went back to my house and I played solitary until it was time to go to bed. What an eventful day.
9/23 Wednesday: Back to the grind but with a renewed attitude.
In a nutshell: Going home was great, so great I was thinking of finding a way to stay! But, not being able to think of one I have decided to put forth more effort during my time in the DR so I have it to be proud of when I’m done. Easier said than done.
I want to say thanks to BCHD again for my Christmas gift last year, I had been saving the foot mask and soak for a special day and today was that day. I boiled some water, put it in a bucket and enjoyed, thinking of you guys while I caught up on some celebrity gossip reading my US weekly magazines from home. Ahhhh, it was niiiiice:)
My trip home was FANTASTIC!!!! I LOVED it!!!!! It was AMAZING!!! WHOOT!!! I just wanted you all to know how I felt about it. Sum up: It was goooood:) I visited pretty much everyone I wanted to before going out there and ate all my favorite foods. I increased my tolerance to alcohol and cleaned my room (though not at the same time) Yep, it was a very eventful trip. My friend’s wedding was beautiful and I humiliated myself by crying very ungracefully in front of everyone at the church. I don’t know why I feel so strongly about it, but don’t you think weddings are such beautiful events? They’re so moving!
So, I got back to the DR on the 16th after 3 layovers and tearful goodbyes. Well, my first tears of the day began when the woman at the airport told me my bags were a total of 15 lbs over. “But… I’m leaving for the Peace Corps…” I whimpered. She grumbled an “ok” and something about how heavy bags means a passenger gets the boot off of the plane. What?! I was emotional and it was early ok?! Besides, this was AFTER they told me I would have to pay $50 for my bags and well, I don’t have that kind of money… I’m broke! I used the Peace Corps card again and got them on for free. (Which technically they are supposed to be free).
By the time I was in Charlotte, I was thinking of ways to stay in the US that wouldn’t shame me. I was thinking maybe I would try to break my foot… but I didn’t do it. I mean, I have to stay here and finish my service! After all, I was voted Most Likely to Quit by my fellow PCVs (only before they got to know me, of course) and I would be soooo disappointed with my service for my ENTIRE LIFE after this if I quit. I mean, what have I done really? An Escojo group, my own personal garden, a failed nutrition class, and nearly got 30 water filters. Wow. Impressive.
As I was contemplating all this, I realized that I am now half way through my service! And you know what? Things take time here, a LOT of time. Dude, I need to get on the ball. I have officially dropped nearly all shame of my Spanish (except when around someone who speaks both Spanish and English well… that’s why I didn’t say more than “muy bien” to you in Spanish Carmen!) I have all these very plausible ideas but the question is: how to get them from ideas to ACTION? Am I capable of planning so much? And planning it completely alone? I like working in groups, I’m better at it. But if my PC service is going to be something I can look back at and be proud of, I need to give it my all. Even if I don’t get any more projects done, I need to know I tried and put in all the effort I could. So, here I go, going to give it my all, try to maintain effort and push forward with as much persistence as I can muster for the next year or so. Wish me luck.
9/18: Where is my bag?
Today is a short entry, so sorry, no sum up Debbie:) I talked to someone at the airport this morning and she said they COULD deliver the bag to me, that she would give the driver my number and he would call me when he got lost- er, there. She said he should be here at 11. He showed up at 2:30. I supposed it wasn’t that far off. The bag, which is Rach’s, was ripped. She may kill me. Maybe not.
9/17 Thursday: Back in the DR, yuck.
In a nutshell: This one’s short enough, right?
Ok, so I’m sure that’s not the right attitude to have but that’s how I feel. Going home was great but leaving really sucked. It sucked so bad that it may have sucked more than going home was great! I realized when I was there how much it bites here. My attitude is bad. I feel depressed. Ugh. I wasn’t ready for this.
I’m sure this will pass as I am generally happy wherever I land. I also have some good things to look forward to. This weekend is Jess’s bachelorette party and I am 98% sure that will turn my nasty outlook right around. Also, my luggage was lost. Now you may see this as a bad thing but in reality I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my backpack and two suitcases up the mountain. I decided to go back to the campo today to get the hellos and all that over with. I don’t like a big deal but on the other hand, if they didn’t do anything I would feel bad too since that’s just their culture. So, the bags. One was lost. Ok, not lost but left in Miami. When the guy told me it would be at the airport the next night I asked him if they were going to compensate me for another night in Santiago and he told me that they would deliver it TO MY HOUSE!!! Yeah right, my house with no address? Ha! I told him I live in the campo and he said it didn’t matter. If it didn’t get lost again this could be a very good thing.
The next day (today) I called the airport when the plane got in and they said that they had the bad there and couldn’t deliver it to me since they needed an address. I was annoyed. I asked to talk to the manager and was told the manager would be in at 11:15 am the next day. Weird I know.
9/15 Tuesday: A sum up of my trip home
In a nutshell: I had a great trip home which included a trip to Chicago, a wedding, a visit to you all at BCHD, my dog rocks (yes, still), 10 days in NY state, corn picking with my nephews and niece, nearly didn’t get my computer repaired and returned to me in time, and loved being home:)
I didn’t realize how much I missed home until I went through customs. The guy stamped my passport and said welcome home. I just stared at him and suddenly I realized how happy I was. I just grinned big and said THANKS! I felt like a moron but I was soooo ecstatic! How great, I’m home!
I spent the 1st half of my trip in Illinois. The 1st two days were in Chicago with Lisa which were really fun. We went out my second night there, and to save money took a couple shots before we left. Ironically we took shots of the Dominican rum, Brugal, which Lisa bought while she was visiting me in the DR. So here I was in the great US of A, drinking Brugal. Ah, life.
On Saturday Becky’s fiancé came all the way to Chicago to pick me up. He was going to just go about an hour and a half away from his house to pick me up but I missed my train so he drove the entire way to Chicago!! It was nice to finally meet my best friend’s soon to be husband (the wedding was why I went home in September and not for Christmas). He is a great guy and I’m glad to see her so happy.
When I got to my Dad’s house finally I was nervous that my dog, Booker, wouldn’t remember me or would favor my Dad over me. When I walked in he barked like I was a stranger for about 3 seconds, paused and then realized it was me and began doing the “happy bark”. He stuck to me like glue and I loved it. In payment, I took him to the groomer. I’m sure he saw it as a treat as all dogs would, like going to the vet. When I had to leave the 6th to go to NY I cried. I love that dog.
One day during the week I went to the health dept where I used to work as Chief Inspector (ok, well… maybe I was an intern sometimes but, I was promoted! And then somehow was an intern again. Who does that anyway?) I loved seeing everyone and at first was a little apprehensive but my fears disappeared right when I walked in to Chris and Debbie. The people who work there are so marvelous and are great to work with or just plain be around.
That week I went to Becky’s bachelorette party and her wedding. Both were fun. The next Saturday, Karen threw me a party at her and my Uncle Greg’s place at Woodhaven Lakes. It was sooo great and the food was wonderful! I loved being able to see my family since I had to fly out the next morning for NY.
When I got to NY my mom and sister, Sarah, were waiting for me. We went out to eat and met up with my other sister, Rachael. Over the week I spent a lot of time with my nephews and niece. We went corn picking which was fun. I helped my mom with some job related stuff, went to Dave and Busters with Mom and Rach, and went running with Sarah. Sarah made me a ton of home made granola and some curtains to hang in my front windows so I actually have some privacy! There was a fiasco with a mystery computer sent to me at my mom’s house that turned out to my one of my PCV friends in the DR. I sent my computer in to be fixed and nearly didn’t get it back in time. (thanks again dad, I would have dropped dead I swear)
Overall, it was a lot of things; fun, sad, happy, depressing, relaxing, strange: complete. Even though I had been gone over a year it felt like I had just left for the weekend and was just going back to life. That’s how you know you have good friends and family. Thanks guys, you don’t know how much you mean to me.
8/24- 8/26: Celebrando el Cibao!!!
Finally, after all the preparation, it is time for camp!!! It was two days of sleepless chaos but I really enjoyed it. Since I am actually writing this afterwards and am a little lazy… I mean, busy I’ll give the highlights and that’s all.
Ernie was able to go. One of the CeC coordinators called me on Friday and asked if I had any extra stellar kids who deserved to go since a few spots opened. Sure Ernie went to the Escojo conference but none of the other kids in my group wanted to CeC and she is fantastic. She went and had an absolute blast. I was glad I brought her.
The place we stayed at had hot water. I feel like it was preparing me for my trip home:) It was hilarious when I told Vanji and Ernie there was hot water, they screamed! In the States it’s opposite: if you tell a teenager (or probably any aged person) that there WASN’T hot water they would scream! HA!
The charla went fantastic. I was really proud of the kids. They really nailed it and didn’t seem too nervous. A job well done. Also, I think they were really proud of our Italy presentation since we had faaar more than each of the other PCVs. Everyone called us overachievers but the truth is that we really didn’t have anything else to do in our Escojo meetings each week. Although it did get a little out of hand since the last week we were scrambling to get it done, meeting twice a day nearly each day. Whoops, my bad.
Wandi was a total flop. He completely embarrassed me. I had to tell all the other PCVs to watch out for him and cut him no slack because he was having such a crappy attitude. Long story short: by the last day I had it and wasn’t going to give him his T shirt that all the other kids get. I didn’t feel he earned it and his mind-set that he deserved it really made me peeved. I told him that if I had cell service I would have called his dad right then. When all the kids were wearing their shirts and he found out there was going to be a picture with everyone together wearing the shirts he was pleading to talk to me about it. I finally sat down with him and we talked about how he could have been better and not given in to peer pressure. After he apologized and promised to be better I gave him his shirt and he was able to take the picture with the group.
I am one of three coordinators for CeC’10. We took notes and made a reservation for the place for next year. Hopefully we can run it as smoothly as it seemed to be this year. I’m excited about it but also dreading the amount of unnecessary stress I know the Dominican culture is going to give me while we try to plan this. Ying and yang I suppose.
8/17 Monday: To Ane and Tim’s!! Nuts, do I have dengue???
This morning I woke up and felt significantly better but still really sore. I was a little worried I had dengue and so I called the PC doctor who told me I should go to the lab in Santiago to get tested. The thing was, I was already booked busy for the day: I had to get my act together because I had an Escojo meeting to lead in the morning and another meeting in the afternoon. I told the doctor that if I felt bad tomorrow still I would go then and she consented.
After that conversation, I went to my morning meeting, late since for some reason I thought they were meeting at my house, and tried to be enthusiastic. We’ve been preparing for our presentation at Celebrando el Cibao where Vanji and Wandi will be giving a charla on different ways rivers are easily contaminated and the group has also been working on the country we are supposed to represent: Italy. Wandi was mopping around at the meeting and when I asked what was wrong he told me he didn’t feel well, that he felt like he had a bone disease or something. I laughed out loud at the description since that’s exactly what I would have described how I felt. Apparently he was really sick the day before as well.
It didn’t help that we had to walk to Ane and Tim’s site to give our charla for practice that afternoon. Wandi objected but I pointed out that I felt sick too but I was still going. Also that Vanji, who had been trying to learn how to drive a motorcycle the weekend before and was tossed off and then somehow run over, was also walking with us. She wasn’t too happy about the idea of it but, I told them it was an obligation (our ONLY time to practice) and so we set off for our 4 mile round trip walk to Ane and Tim’s.
We were all very annoyed to find when we got there that the kids who were supposed to be there at 4 decided it would be a better idea to go to the river. They told Ane that they would be back around 4:30. I told Ane that it really didn’t matter to me if those kids were there or not, that we would wait 15 minutes and give the freaking presentation to her host mom if we had to. There is no reason to wait when those kids KNEW we would be there at 4. I am so glad the kids in my group aren’t buttheads like that.
We gave the charla and it went very well. The kids showed up at 4:30 and we made sure to point out that we walked 2 miles and yet still managed to get there on time, showing our annoyance. Hopefully those kids felt at least a little bad about it. I am sure that my kids will do great at Celebrando.
8/15-16 the Weekend: No dancing but Harry Potter!!!!
Well this weekend didn’t go how I thought it would, there was no pool and no dancing but there were brownies and Harry Potter. Here’s what happened; I went to Santiago on Saturday morning and met Kelly and some friends at a Chinese place for lunch (which was DELICIOUS!!) and then we went to this amazing little bakery place and each got something different to share. After that I went with one girl, Laura, to price out guitars. It was slow going because, as I found out, everything closes Saturday early afternoon and doesn’t open again till Monday. That would have been nice to know before lunch but hey, live and learn.
After not pricing out a single guitar but walking about 3 miles, we met up with Kelly and headed to Kelly’s house. We decided to watch a movie and I got so excited to see that Kelly had one of the Harry Potter movies!!!! She seemed equally excited that I was excited and she came up with the amazing idea that we would go to the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (that’s right, NUMBER 6!!!) the next day! We invited Rachelle but she doesn’t share our enthusiasm for Potter. Go figure.
Sunday Kelly and I woke up and went running. I forgot my running shoes so I borrowed Rachelle’s, thinking that it wouldn’t be an issue. Two miles later I was barefoot and walking back to Kelly’s with a large blister on my right foot, which is apparently larger than the left foot. Kelly and I planned on going to the pool this day but, after making fruit crepes for breakfast, we decided to take a nap. When we woke up it was Harry Potter time and so we headed to the theater. We had to go to two theaters but eventually we found one that had the movie, un-dubbed but with subtitles. It was extremely satisfying and wonderful.
That night, we picked Rachelle and her puppy up in the taxi we had to take home (thanks to public transport ending at 8 on Sundays, a fact we forgot) and headed back to Kelly’s. Kelly made brownies while Rachelle and I worked on a charla that we would have to give at Celebrando el Cibao. We went to bed around 12 and I thought I was going to pass out I was so tired.
The next morning I went to the artesian in Kelly’s site to pick out a few goodies for friends at home. I headed to Santiago to finish what I began on Sat and began pricing out guitars. As the day wore on, and I walked more and more, I began to feel really sore. I went to the hotel where they let me use the internet for free and sat down for a while. I thought that the longer I sat and took a load off, the better I would feel but instead I began feeling worse and worse. I decided to head home and forget the other things I was going to do in Santiago for the day. It was for the best anyways since Anna or Ann or whatever the name was of the storm was supposed to hit the DR. As a result I was supposed to be in my site at 3 pm, along with all the other PCVs in the country.
I got back to my site a little late, at 4 pm and went right to bed. I have never felt so crappy from a cold or whatever I had. And wouldn’t you know it, no one calls me for like three days and all of the sudden people can’t get enough of me! But I felt so awful that I literally had no energy to even sit up and answer the phone. After about 7 hours laying the in guest bed (so I would be hidden from view from any Dominicans who would want to stop by and say hello) I decided to suck it up and brush my teeth at least. I got ready for bed and tucked myself into my normal bed for the night.
9/30 Wednesday: No money and no electricity= a big bummer. My Escojo group lets me down.
In a nutshell: I am broke. There hasn’t been power. The director of the school made my Escojo class switch to a room with no tables since there’s less stuff to touch. Ernie called the cleaning ladies lazy and liars in front of my class. I had to kick my first kid out of class since he wasn’t being respectful. The class is full of 9 year olds which is weird for me since it’s a SEX ED CLASS!!! They’re supposed to be at least 11 but I feel bad kicking them out after they’ve been participating for 5 weeks. My Escojo promoters decided not to show up for our meeting yesterday for some reason and now I don’t know what they’re going to do for class next week. I plan on laying the guilt trip on thick. I went to Anne’s and got info to get going on a stove project I would like to do here. I put up a bunch of signs advertising my new environmental youth group, Brigada Verde, and now I’m a teeny nervous that the attendance will be more than I can handle. Vamos a ver.
Friday can not come soon enough. Its payday tomorrow but I won’t be going into town until Friday when I go to Santiago for my friend Ali’s birthday. Despite the fact I’ve been keeping plenty busy, the week has never moved so slowly. Let me say that between Monday and Tuesday there was only 4 hours with power; 2 of which I spent at the school giving my Escojo class. So there hasn’t been any blogging or movie watching sadly and it was the first time my phone was dead for about a half day, which may be a good thing since, without the distraction of Harry Potter, I’ve been pretty productive this week as planned.
In my Escojo class Humberto made a new rule that my group wasn’t able to use the classroom we normally use (even though we haven’t had class since he kind of told me that the kids were touching stuff in the other classroom) and we will now have to have class in a room without tables. Then he came into class at the beginning and lectured them about not touching stuff. I agree with that but considering how formal he has been with me about stuff (I had to get a permission from him just to enter the classrooms to ask if I could talk about Brigada Verde- the environmental group I’m starting) I would have expected him to at least tell me that he was planning on doing that. Especially since he had a perfect opportunity when I spoke to him before class that day to get the note to enter the class.
Well, right after his speech, Ernie decided to tell him, in front of the entire class, basically that the cleaning ladies were just lazy and they were lying. That they said we were dirtying stuff in the other Escojo class but really, they just didn’t want to clean it and so they said we made it dirty after they had cleaned. Oh boy.
I had to give the boot to my first student. That’s right, I kicked one out. He was talking a LOT and actually kept leaving the class to talk to his friends and then come back in, how rude! This class isn’t going as smoothly as the last one that’s for sure. I also am aware of the fact that about 1/3 of the class is under the age of 11- which is against an Escojo rule. I’m annoyed that Ernie let these kids in when she confirmed the age rule with me I was in the States, they can join as they are at least 11. So, now I feel bad since I don’t want to just kick them out… I’m going to have to sort them out of the next class and tell them they can be in Brigada Verde or something. It’s not that big of a deal really except that I feel weird teaching a sex ed class to 9 year olds!
Today I was supposed to have a meeting with my Escojo promoters group. Wandi and Argeni showed up. Antonio showed up 30 minutes late. I was pretty dang mad. 1st of all, I was just sitting waiting for them to show up but I needed to go to Anne’s site to get some info on her stove project. I could have gone over there about 2 hours sooner. Also, they are supposed to be the awesome kids and here more than half of them don’t show up?! I was especially surprised with Ernie who was in Navarrete hanging out with her new boyfriend’s family and had her mom so worried sick that Mercedes borrowed the colmado man’s motorcycle and had a friend take her to town to look for Ernie. Well, now Antionio and Jose Luis, who are supposed to present the ONE class that they have to draw out, have nothing to present since they weren’t there! Errrr. We’ll see how this goes. I may just let them present the one I did and pick a topic for them to draw in the future. I know they’re kids but they’re old enough to know better.
Tomorrow I have my 1st Brigada Verde class and I’m not worried about low attendance. On the contrary, I made a bunch of signs (which took forever but I had no money to go to town and print some off so I spent 2 days making them out of construction paper) and I feel like a TON of people are going to be there. I kind of hope not since that’s not exactly the point. I mean I want people to be there but it’s for people who are going to go each week and participate. In hindsight, I should have said not to go unless you can go each week. Or maybe I should have saved the signs for our community service days. Oh well, guess we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
9/27 Sunday: Ernesto clears things up, politicians- bite me.
In a nutshell: Ernesto (my project partner) has been out of town and is only here on the weekends. He is really important to my work since he’s always supportive and well respected in the community. Sunday night he came over and finally sat down to make a list of 30 people who are eligible to receive a water filter while I typed it up. Now the people who weren’t chosen are mad at me since Ernesto’s wife told them that I was the one who made the list. Also on Sunday, my Escojo group and I waited for politicians to show up at the voting polls so we could solicit stuff from them (totally normal to do right before voting here) but they never showed. Jerks.
Ernesto had been out of town since I’d been back in country. He’s working in another PCV’s site, helping finish a water system. Ernesto is my rock. He and I aren’t like best buds or anything but he is super cool. I was going crazy without him here to collaborate with. When I finally got a chance to talk to him, I told him that I needed the list of recipients for the water filters ASAP and I told him about the school director and how difficult I thought he was being. He used computers as an example to explain to me that if we, for instance, get 10 computers and start a computer lab that the government will see that we already have computers and then will take the ones they said they would give, and would sell them. The government already told my community that they would put an internet center here. That means that if I am able to get some computers (something I’m working on with Kenzie) then we would have to put them somewhere other than the school. This is because if there are even computers at the school, the government won’t say, “Hey- wow you got computers; good for you! Let me use this money then to get generators or what have you.” No, they would say, “Oh… computers… well, I guess you can do it yourself and so we’ll just take this money for ourselves.” Then the community doesn’t get the internet center they were promised (although something tells me that was a false promise since we live in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain). Way to reward the resourceful!
As I mentioned, the politicians were supposed to show up today at the school where the elections were being held. There are three principle political groups here in the DR and they are known by colors: red, purple and white. Today the people were voting essentially in the primaries; voting for who they wanted in power for white. The guys running for office were supposed to show up at the polling place (the school) to influence people’s voting. They pay people, they give out random stuff… one year (I think for the presidential election) they flew overhead in planes and dropped salami. It was disastrous since people were fighting and scratching to get their hands on the free tubes. Obviously its wrong that they give this stuff out when people vote; in Kenzie’s site they were “helping” people vote by telling them which ones to pick and then they were paying $150 pesos. Well, sure this is wrong but I’m not voting and I figure if they’re putting themselves in this situation well, may as well use it to our advantage. So, my group and I were ready and waiting with solicitation letters for about 6 hours for the politicians, who said they’d be here at 10. We waited until 4:30 and then I left to make some dinner. So much for that.
Later that night, Ernesto came over with the list of the people who have paid their water bill. I told him I wanted the water committee to pick the people and not one person but since he’s the president and he’s never here now (thanks to the outside work) I didn’t bring it up and just typed up the names. Of course, the next day at the Women’s Meeting people were flaming mad that they didn’t get picked. Hello, there are 30 filters and over 100 houses. Doesn’t take a genius to do that math. One woman stopped me on the street and said how houses can share filters and why did I pick who I picked. Apparently Mercedes told the Woman’s Group that I picked the people. Awesome. So, I told a little lie and said that the water committee picked the names, that I just typed them. After all, I don’t want to throw Ernesto to the wolves but I seriously didn’t pick the names. And, I don’t live here. People turn on you quick and that’s the last thing I need since I’ve got to work here for another year. Anyways, we’ll see how that turns out. I said that they can work it out amongst themselves but ANYONE who wants to receive one, shared or not, HAS to pay any outstanding water bill that they have first and then work out a way to split the $500 pesos they have to pay per filter. (Which really isn’t much, especially if three houses are going to spilt it).
9/26 Saturday: A GOOD DAY!!! :D
In a nutshell: Things always work out. We are having politicians come tomorrow and I’m a liaison for my Escojo group to try to get them to donate money to Escojo thanks to my amaaaaazing letter writing skills I acquired somewhere (right Mary Alice, RIGHT?!). I got a really encouraging letter from a top notch guy at San Diego State University who wants to work with me on sustainability projects here in the DR (again thanks to my fantastic letter writing skills?) He has the same name as my one and only brother. It’s a sign. I am extra excited about it because I was researching grad school programs in environmental sustainability while I was home and would LOVE the opportunity to work with someone on a project like that. It’s possible I may be in trouble with the PCDR Country Director himself, Romeo Massy for trying to solicit funds outside of the Peace Corps before talking with my direct boss, my APCD- Miguel. I believe that if you don’t ask, how will you get anything? Guess I need to think about the order of whom I’m asking is all… I’m trying to get a basketball court built but have no where to put it. (I don’t sweat the small stuff, ha!) STORMS ARE SCARY!!! They’re scarier with an unfinished wall (that has already fallen once) which is supposed to keep my house up. They’re also louder with a tin roof, a lot louder. I am going to start my green group and put those kids to work! We may dig two deep holes to put trash in (organic and inorganic). Sounds like fun doesn’t it? I’m doing a good job of staying positive right now but that’s because I won’t be digging the holes, I’m the supervisor- LIFT WITH THE KNEES; PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!!! Come and visit!!! (bring Luke;)
Yesterday in my Escojo group we were talking about how the new class is going to raise money (since they’re all around 11 I figured I should start thinking about this now) when it was brought to my attention that a bunch of politicians were going to be here tomorrow as tomorrow is an election- something I didn’t know! This meant that I would have to write up a letter soliciting funds from these guys and print them out today. It worked out well since I had to print out some other stuff and also because Humberto told me that before he would let my kids even think about having a mural project (one of the two reasons I went to talk to him yesterday) that I would have to write a formal letter to him asking for permission. That way in case his boss ever asks where the mural came from he can show him the letter. Makes no sense to me but what do I know. It’s ok because I can use the practice wrrriting solicitation letters (and I’m getting a LOT lately).
So I went to town today and printed off a bunch of stuff and decided to use the internet while I was there to check up on some solicitations I had written to outside sources. I told my ride I would be a half hour at the internet center but of course, after he left there were a plethora of issues and I ended up only being able to use the internet for about 20 minutes. No importa, that was just enough time to read my email and copy letters to reply to while at home.
One letter made me a little nervous. I got an email from PCDR’s Country Director, Romeo Massy, because one of the letters I wrote and sent to USAID ended up getting sent to someone he knew who sent it to him. Well, Romeo wanted to know if I had talked to my APCD (my direct boss ) about my projects. The thing is, I have a lot of ideas and there are only so many grants you can get. So, I thought it would be better to take the initiative and seek outside help. Not to mention, I know of some PCVs who have been able to get college or high school groups here to help build whatever is needed during a spring or winter break. And that was more what I was looking for. Actually, what happened was that I had this woman’s name (the one who helps build the basketball courts and libraries) but I forgot the card (or it could be lost but maybe not) and so since I was in the capital I decided to try and find other sources. On one hand, it’s good that Romeo knows that I’m being proactive, right? But on the other… I hope it’s not frowned upon or anything. I guess I’ll find out!
Especially since one letter I got made me super happy! Apparently San Diego State University and the SD Padres (baseball? l think…) teamed up to try and improve the school system in the DR. Initially I thought that I wanted to do something with the school, although that may be harder that I anticipated (I am not deterred, I’m going to talk to the Parents of the School group) so I thought that this would be good. Well, it could turn out better than I thought! I received an email from “the director of diversity in the office of the president” of SDSU who is really enthusiastic to try and work together on something!! I don’t know about you, but I was like, “WHOA!” when I saw that someone high up was contacting me. I didn’t have time to write him back as my motor driver was literally pacing waiting for me (it was lunch time), but I did forward his letter to Romeo (who has internet all the time:) and wrote a response already from my computer. So, I have no idea the process of this or what we can do but, wow, I am sooo excited!!! I can’t wait!!! And I have my fingers crossed that Romeo will be enthusiastic too.
And, to make things even better, although initially I was dismayed that only the 11 year olds wanted to participate in Escojo while I was gone, now I see how it works out well. See, now Escojo is full of kids from the minimum age level (kids who want to be there because they’re actually interested and not because the super amazingly cool fantastic Americana is teaching it) and now there are more kids available of the age group I want to work with for my green group. One could assume that these kids aren’t deserving or aren’t motivated enough but remember, this is a community group. These kids are going to have class but they’re also going to physically work. I plan on beginning the group this week or next and have completely restructured it. Well, truthfully I don’t know how it was structured before but I know that all the PCVs said that Escojo was way better so I’m going to use the charlas provided in my manual for Brigada Verde (the green group) and make the class my own. Like I said, I want to see it more a community service group and so I’m going to try to micromanage a bit and do it on a point system. Each kid gets a point for going to class weekly and also once a month they have to participate in 4 hours of community service. At first I’m going to completely focus it on trash pick up and hole digging. Yes, hole, digging. I need to find a place to dig two holes and one will be for organic garbage and the other for inorganic. I don’t know where the holes are going to be. I have no idea actually. I figure I have a month to figure that out before my first community service day. Details, details…
Speaking of details, now I need to try and figure something out about where I can put a basketball court. Although I have made NO progress on getting this, I have decided to think positive and HOPE that I get one. I have to start somewhere; I may as well start assuming I will get one built right? Think positive!
PS: It’s been raining everyday here for about 30 minutes. I tell you what, I am a chicken. I never used to be afraid of storms but, maybe it’s because I was in houses that didn’t have landslides under their front porches and then the “fixed” wall fell, or houses where the rain still enters the house through the gap of the wall and the tin roof, but STORMS ARE SCARY!!! Everything is louder with a tin roof… I bring this up because it’s about to rain.
9/25 Friday: Desagradecido (a strong way of saying ungrateful)
In a nutshell: This is not very politically correct: I am very annoyed with the school principle and think he sucks and makes my life difficult. He’s stuck in a box of thinking and even though different ways aren’t bad (potentially could get things done better and more efficiently) he does not want to defer from the way things have been done. IE: A bunch of bureaucratic BS that makes people jump through unnecessary hoops until it deters them from what they wanted to do. I don’t get indirect communication which is probably an issue but I couldn’t tell you since I missed the indirect-ness part of the conversation. I am beginning a green youth group (environmental) and I am really excited. When I gave my host mom gifts “from the states” she said thanks but she really just needed a watch.
I was annoyed today as it seemed that being ungrateful was the theme of the day. First I went to the school to talk to the principle or the director as they call him here. That was a total bust. I am no shrink but I decided that the guy has certifiable control issues. I went there and he asked how I was and got me a chair to sit in and acted all nice and normal but in reality he was in a very bad mood. He asked me what projects I was working on now and as I was answering him, about two sentences in, he began talking over me… something about unsupportive kids. I have no clue what he was going off about or what the heck it had to do with me. Does it have something to do with me? I tried to see if he was being indirect and saying something bad about how the kids were acting in my class but I had no clue. I mean for heaven’s sake, I’m freaking clueless in English let alone Spanish!
Anyways, he was still asking me what I wanted to do (in between rants) and so I told him I wanted to try to form an environmental youth group (which I am PUMPED about!!!! :D) and then he cut me short and said surely I must know some medical people in the States. What? Ummmm… yes, I guess I mean I have a friend, a PCV who is a nurse… but what does that have to do with..? A nurse wasn’t what he meant. What he was saying was that there had been two medical missions near our community and he wanted to know when my friends were coming to give out free meds and toys. Well, after I figured that out (which took an embarrassing amount of time) I explained that I could look into some medical missions offered through Peace Corps. In hindsight, I don’t belong to the same church of the group that came so what they heck would I have to do with that? It should be noted that there is a myth that the United States is the size of this campo (and yet magically larger in size) and so I must know everyone who lives in it. This means that I must know the same doctors. Duh. And, I have been checking med mission opportunities and none thus far have been applicable to our community. Furthermore, that dude is JUST as capable as I am (more so since he knew about the med missions when they happened and I was in the States enjoying taco bell, normalcy and houses that have ceilings) to walk his butt over there and see about getting something over here. Ah, hindsight is 20/20. Probably better not to have the school principle hate me anyways.
So then he asks me more about what I want to do. Well, I had already explained the green group and he was giving me the impression that I was falling short of expectations, so against my better judgment, I told him how I was in contact with a woman who has groups come and build libraries and basketball courts. We have a half finished library and I had heard that they wanted to build a half court in the middle of the school yard. I figured it would be perfect. Humberto didn’t share that view. Apparently they just decided to cut one of the classrooms in half and build a wood wall, making the other half the library. My part, as Humberto informed me, was to fill it with books and tables. Great, thanks for informing me of my job. Humberto also told me if we finish the old library they would use it as a bathroom. (The school already has two pretty nice bathrooms).
Then, the basketball court: well, the government is going to build one. Clearly, it looks like they’re on it. Right after they repair the road we have that is. (The last time the road was repaired was about 25 years ago) We don’t know when they are supposedly going to build it, Humberto himself even said they may have to wait years, but hey what are a few more years? So he would rather wait on the super reliable government to build one someday when I’m here possibly trying to hand one over now? Yep, I understood it correctly. This meeting did not go well.
After my Escojo group meeting I went to Miga’s house. I felt like a jerk because I was so busy getting generic gifts to give out to people while I was in the States that I forgot to get something really cool for Minga! So, when I went to the bachelorette party I spent all but my last $500 pesos for the month to get her some total Doña earrings. I also gave her some nail polish (thanks mom!) and a half used bottle of perfume I found in my room. (people “gift” used stuff all the time here) She took it all, liked it and then said, “You should have brought me back a watch. What I really need is a watch.” Ah, cosas de la vida.
9/24 Thursday: Saint Mary’s Day
In a nutshell: This one’s short too! Am I getting lazy or writing with you in mind Deb?:)
Today was jammed packed full of parties. I didn’t go to any of them. I didn’t feel like going. I was being lazy and antisocial. But, I did go for a walk at least to get out of my house. See, after a bunch of guys are at the colmado by my house I get this kind of timidness. I want to go outside but I don’t fell like dealing with them saying stuff to me. Then, the longer I wait, the more show up. Soon I’m contemplating if I can even go to my porch because now there are women there and which is worse?: being inside my house with the door open or being outside on the porch, in plain view of them, clearly not down there. Either way I’m not down there with them and so either way I suppose it’s bad. But which is worse? I have no idea. Well, I was thinking about all this and thinking how stupid it was so I decided since I didn’t know the answer to their question I may as well do what I would like to do. After a few hours I finished sewing all the curtains Sarah sent me back with and promptly went out to sit on my porch and read. A little while later I decided to go for a walk but it began to rain. I waited it out and was about to go when Wandi showed up. We left together but by then it was dark and everyone was drunk. We went about a ¼ mile and saw someone fall off of their motorcycle right next to us (FIY: people get annoyed if you ask if they’re ok) and someone almost hit me in their stupid truck. I mean, really almost hit me. So, we went back to my house and I played solitary until it was time to go to bed. What an eventful day.
9/23 Wednesday: Back to the grind but with a renewed attitude.
In a nutshell: Going home was great, so great I was thinking of finding a way to stay! But, not being able to think of one I have decided to put forth more effort during my time in the DR so I have it to be proud of when I’m done. Easier said than done.
I want to say thanks to BCHD again for my Christmas gift last year, I had been saving the foot mask and soak for a special day and today was that day. I boiled some water, put it in a bucket and enjoyed, thinking of you guys while I caught up on some celebrity gossip reading my US weekly magazines from home. Ahhhh, it was niiiiice:)
My trip home was FANTASTIC!!!! I LOVED it!!!!! It was AMAZING!!! WHOOT!!! I just wanted you all to know how I felt about it. Sum up: It was goooood:) I visited pretty much everyone I wanted to before going out there and ate all my favorite foods. I increased my tolerance to alcohol and cleaned my room (though not at the same time) Yep, it was a very eventful trip. My friend’s wedding was beautiful and I humiliated myself by crying very ungracefully in front of everyone at the church. I don’t know why I feel so strongly about it, but don’t you think weddings are such beautiful events? They’re so moving!
So, I got back to the DR on the 16th after 3 layovers and tearful goodbyes. Well, my first tears of the day began when the woman at the airport told me my bags were a total of 15 lbs over. “But… I’m leaving for the Peace Corps…” I whimpered. She grumbled an “ok” and something about how heavy bags means a passenger gets the boot off of the plane. What?! I was emotional and it was early ok?! Besides, this was AFTER they told me I would have to pay $50 for my bags and well, I don’t have that kind of money… I’m broke! I used the Peace Corps card again and got them on for free. (Which technically they are supposed to be free).
By the time I was in Charlotte, I was thinking of ways to stay in the US that wouldn’t shame me. I was thinking maybe I would try to break my foot… but I didn’t do it. I mean, I have to stay here and finish my service! After all, I was voted Most Likely to Quit by my fellow PCVs (only before they got to know me, of course) and I would be soooo disappointed with my service for my ENTIRE LIFE after this if I quit. I mean, what have I done really? An Escojo group, my own personal garden, a failed nutrition class, and nearly got 30 water filters. Wow. Impressive.
As I was contemplating all this, I realized that I am now half way through my service! And you know what? Things take time here, a LOT of time. Dude, I need to get on the ball. I have officially dropped nearly all shame of my Spanish (except when around someone who speaks both Spanish and English well… that’s why I didn’t say more than “muy bien” to you in Spanish Carmen!) I have all these very plausible ideas but the question is: how to get them from ideas to ACTION? Am I capable of planning so much? And planning it completely alone? I like working in groups, I’m better at it. But if my PC service is going to be something I can look back at and be proud of, I need to give it my all. Even if I don’t get any more projects done, I need to know I tried and put in all the effort I could. So, here I go, going to give it my all, try to maintain effort and push forward with as much persistence as I can muster for the next year or so. Wish me luck.
9/18: Where is my bag?
Today is a short entry, so sorry, no sum up Debbie:) I talked to someone at the airport this morning and she said they COULD deliver the bag to me, that she would give the driver my number and he would call me when he got lost- er, there. She said he should be here at 11. He showed up at 2:30. I supposed it wasn’t that far off. The bag, which is Rach’s, was ripped. She may kill me. Maybe not.
9/17 Thursday: Back in the DR, yuck.
In a nutshell: This one’s short enough, right?
Ok, so I’m sure that’s not the right attitude to have but that’s how I feel. Going home was great but leaving really sucked. It sucked so bad that it may have sucked more than going home was great! I realized when I was there how much it bites here. My attitude is bad. I feel depressed. Ugh. I wasn’t ready for this.
I’m sure this will pass as I am generally happy wherever I land. I also have some good things to look forward to. This weekend is Jess’s bachelorette party and I am 98% sure that will turn my nasty outlook right around. Also, my luggage was lost. Now you may see this as a bad thing but in reality I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my backpack and two suitcases up the mountain. I decided to go back to the campo today to get the hellos and all that over with. I don’t like a big deal but on the other hand, if they didn’t do anything I would feel bad too since that’s just their culture. So, the bags. One was lost. Ok, not lost but left in Miami. When the guy told me it would be at the airport the next night I asked him if they were going to compensate me for another night in Santiago and he told me that they would deliver it TO MY HOUSE!!! Yeah right, my house with no address? Ha! I told him I live in the campo and he said it didn’t matter. If it didn’t get lost again this could be a very good thing.
The next day (today) I called the airport when the plane got in and they said that they had the bad there and couldn’t deliver it to me since they needed an address. I was annoyed. I asked to talk to the manager and was told the manager would be in at 11:15 am the next day. Weird I know.
9/15 Tuesday: A sum up of my trip home
In a nutshell: I had a great trip home which included a trip to Chicago, a wedding, a visit to you all at BCHD, my dog rocks (yes, still), 10 days in NY state, corn picking with my nephews and niece, nearly didn’t get my computer repaired and returned to me in time, and loved being home:)
I didn’t realize how much I missed home until I went through customs. The guy stamped my passport and said welcome home. I just stared at him and suddenly I realized how happy I was. I just grinned big and said THANKS! I felt like a moron but I was soooo ecstatic! How great, I’m home!
I spent the 1st half of my trip in Illinois. The 1st two days were in Chicago with Lisa which were really fun. We went out my second night there, and to save money took a couple shots before we left. Ironically we took shots of the Dominican rum, Brugal, which Lisa bought while she was visiting me in the DR. So here I was in the great US of A, drinking Brugal. Ah, life.
On Saturday Becky’s fiancé came all the way to Chicago to pick me up. He was going to just go about an hour and a half away from his house to pick me up but I missed my train so he drove the entire way to Chicago!! It was nice to finally meet my best friend’s soon to be husband (the wedding was why I went home in September and not for Christmas). He is a great guy and I’m glad to see her so happy.
When I got to my Dad’s house finally I was nervous that my dog, Booker, wouldn’t remember me or would favor my Dad over me. When I walked in he barked like I was a stranger for about 3 seconds, paused and then realized it was me and began doing the “happy bark”. He stuck to me like glue and I loved it. In payment, I took him to the groomer. I’m sure he saw it as a treat as all dogs would, like going to the vet. When I had to leave the 6th to go to NY I cried. I love that dog.
One day during the week I went to the health dept where I used to work as Chief Inspector (ok, well… maybe I was an intern sometimes but, I was promoted! And then somehow was an intern again. Who does that anyway?) I loved seeing everyone and at first was a little apprehensive but my fears disappeared right when I walked in to Chris and Debbie. The people who work there are so marvelous and are great to work with or just plain be around.
That week I went to Becky’s bachelorette party and her wedding. Both were fun. The next Saturday, Karen threw me a party at her and my Uncle Greg’s place at Woodhaven Lakes. It was sooo great and the food was wonderful! I loved being able to see my family since I had to fly out the next morning for NY.
When I got to NY my mom and sister, Sarah, were waiting for me. We went out to eat and met up with my other sister, Rachael. Over the week I spent a lot of time with my nephews and niece. We went corn picking which was fun. I helped my mom with some job related stuff, went to Dave and Busters with Mom and Rach, and went running with Sarah. Sarah made me a ton of home made granola and some curtains to hang in my front windows so I actually have some privacy! There was a fiasco with a mystery computer sent to me at my mom’s house that turned out to my one of my PCV friends in the DR. I sent my computer in to be fixed and nearly didn’t get it back in time. (thanks again dad, I would have dropped dead I swear)
Overall, it was a lot of things; fun, sad, happy, depressing, relaxing, strange: complete. Even though I had been gone over a year it felt like I had just left for the weekend and was just going back to life. That’s how you know you have good friends and family. Thanks guys, you don’t know how much you mean to me.
8/24- 8/26: Celebrando el Cibao!!!
Finally, after all the preparation, it is time for camp!!! It was two days of sleepless chaos but I really enjoyed it. Since I am actually writing this afterwards and am a little lazy… I mean, busy I’ll give the highlights and that’s all.
Ernie was able to go. One of the CeC coordinators called me on Friday and asked if I had any extra stellar kids who deserved to go since a few spots opened. Sure Ernie went to the Escojo conference but none of the other kids in my group wanted to CeC and she is fantastic. She went and had an absolute blast. I was glad I brought her.
The place we stayed at had hot water. I feel like it was preparing me for my trip home:) It was hilarious when I told Vanji and Ernie there was hot water, they screamed! In the States it’s opposite: if you tell a teenager (or probably any aged person) that there WASN’T hot water they would scream! HA!
The charla went fantastic. I was really proud of the kids. They really nailed it and didn’t seem too nervous. A job well done. Also, I think they were really proud of our Italy presentation since we had faaar more than each of the other PCVs. Everyone called us overachievers but the truth is that we really didn’t have anything else to do in our Escojo meetings each week. Although it did get a little out of hand since the last week we were scrambling to get it done, meeting twice a day nearly each day. Whoops, my bad.
Wandi was a total flop. He completely embarrassed me. I had to tell all the other PCVs to watch out for him and cut him no slack because he was having such a crappy attitude. Long story short: by the last day I had it and wasn’t going to give him his T shirt that all the other kids get. I didn’t feel he earned it and his mind-set that he deserved it really made me peeved. I told him that if I had cell service I would have called his dad right then. When all the kids were wearing their shirts and he found out there was going to be a picture with everyone together wearing the shirts he was pleading to talk to me about it. I finally sat down with him and we talked about how he could have been better and not given in to peer pressure. After he apologized and promised to be better I gave him his shirt and he was able to take the picture with the group.
I am one of three coordinators for CeC’10. We took notes and made a reservation for the place for next year. Hopefully we can run it as smoothly as it seemed to be this year. I’m excited about it but also dreading the amount of unnecessary stress I know the Dominican culture is going to give me while we try to plan this. Ying and yang I suppose.
8/17 Monday: To Ane and Tim’s!! Nuts, do I have dengue???
This morning I woke up and felt significantly better but still really sore. I was a little worried I had dengue and so I called the PC doctor who told me I should go to the lab in Santiago to get tested. The thing was, I was already booked busy for the day: I had to get my act together because I had an Escojo meeting to lead in the morning and another meeting in the afternoon. I told the doctor that if I felt bad tomorrow still I would go then and she consented.
After that conversation, I went to my morning meeting, late since for some reason I thought they were meeting at my house, and tried to be enthusiastic. We’ve been preparing for our presentation at Celebrando el Cibao where Vanji and Wandi will be giving a charla on different ways rivers are easily contaminated and the group has also been working on the country we are supposed to represent: Italy. Wandi was mopping around at the meeting and when I asked what was wrong he told me he didn’t feel well, that he felt like he had a bone disease or something. I laughed out loud at the description since that’s exactly what I would have described how I felt. Apparently he was really sick the day before as well.
It didn’t help that we had to walk to Ane and Tim’s site to give our charla for practice that afternoon. Wandi objected but I pointed out that I felt sick too but I was still going. Also that Vanji, who had been trying to learn how to drive a motorcycle the weekend before and was tossed off and then somehow run over, was also walking with us. She wasn’t too happy about the idea of it but, I told them it was an obligation (our ONLY time to practice) and so we set off for our 4 mile round trip walk to Ane and Tim’s.
We were all very annoyed to find when we got there that the kids who were supposed to be there at 4 decided it would be a better idea to go to the river. They told Ane that they would be back around 4:30. I told Ane that it really didn’t matter to me if those kids were there or not, that we would wait 15 minutes and give the freaking presentation to her host mom if we had to. There is no reason to wait when those kids KNEW we would be there at 4. I am so glad the kids in my group aren’t buttheads like that.
We gave the charla and it went very well. The kids showed up at 4:30 and we made sure to point out that we walked 2 miles and yet still managed to get there on time, showing our annoyance. Hopefully those kids felt at least a little bad about it. I am sure that my kids will do great at Celebrando.
8/15-16 the Weekend: No dancing but Harry Potter!!!!
Well this weekend didn’t go how I thought it would, there was no pool and no dancing but there were brownies and Harry Potter. Here’s what happened; I went to Santiago on Saturday morning and met Kelly and some friends at a Chinese place for lunch (which was DELICIOUS!!) and then we went to this amazing little bakery place and each got something different to share. After that I went with one girl, Laura, to price out guitars. It was slow going because, as I found out, everything closes Saturday early afternoon and doesn’t open again till Monday. That would have been nice to know before lunch but hey, live and learn.
After not pricing out a single guitar but walking about 3 miles, we met up with Kelly and headed to Kelly’s house. We decided to watch a movie and I got so excited to see that Kelly had one of the Harry Potter movies!!!! She seemed equally excited that I was excited and she came up with the amazing idea that we would go to the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (that’s right, NUMBER 6!!!) the next day! We invited Rachelle but she doesn’t share our enthusiasm for Potter. Go figure.
Sunday Kelly and I woke up and went running. I forgot my running shoes so I borrowed Rachelle’s, thinking that it wouldn’t be an issue. Two miles later I was barefoot and walking back to Kelly’s with a large blister on my right foot, which is apparently larger than the left foot. Kelly and I planned on going to the pool this day but, after making fruit crepes for breakfast, we decided to take a nap. When we woke up it was Harry Potter time and so we headed to the theater. We had to go to two theaters but eventually we found one that had the movie, un-dubbed but with subtitles. It was extremely satisfying and wonderful.
That night, we picked Rachelle and her puppy up in the taxi we had to take home (thanks to public transport ending at 8 on Sundays, a fact we forgot) and headed back to Kelly’s. Kelly made brownies while Rachelle and I worked on a charla that we would have to give at Celebrando el Cibao. We went to bed around 12 and I thought I was going to pass out I was so tired.
The next morning I went to the artesian in Kelly’s site to pick out a few goodies for friends at home. I headed to Santiago to finish what I began on Sat and began pricing out guitars. As the day wore on, and I walked more and more, I began to feel really sore. I went to the hotel where they let me use the internet for free and sat down for a while. I thought that the longer I sat and took a load off, the better I would feel but instead I began feeling worse and worse. I decided to head home and forget the other things I was going to do in Santiago for the day. It was for the best anyways since Anna or Ann or whatever the name was of the storm was supposed to hit the DR. As a result I was supposed to be in my site at 3 pm, along with all the other PCVs in the country.
I got back to my site a little late, at 4 pm and went right to bed. I have never felt so crappy from a cold or whatever I had. And wouldn’t you know it, no one calls me for like three days and all of the sudden people can’t get enough of me! But I felt so awful that I literally had no energy to even sit up and answer the phone. After about 7 hours laying the in guest bed (so I would be hidden from view from any Dominicans who would want to stop by and say hello) I decided to suck it up and brush my teeth at least. I got ready for bed and tucked myself into my normal bed for the night.
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