tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33136970774741488542024-03-21T16:14:04.994-04:00Adventures de la AmericanaThis is all about my time in the DR as a health PCV. Enjoy:)BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-4358910221731084122010-09-15T17:30:00.001-04:002010-09-15T17:30:37.601-04:00A little about college here...9/14 Tuesday: Book Club!!<br />I began my book club today and I am excited!!! I want to make it a book club/creative writing class. I think this will be as fun as my art class. A few women came to help out and I asked them afterwards if instead of just helping out, if they wanted to form a book club of their own and they seemed really enthusiastic about it!! So this weekend I’m going to research what exactly one does in a book club (aside from read) and buy a few copies of a Harry Potter for the kids and In the Time of the Butterflies for the women, and a dictionary.<br /> <br />What will we do in this club?! This is what I have so far: Class will be once a week for about two hours. We will have homework of reading about 15 pages a week or a chapter. The kids will have to keep a list of characters and their roles. Each time a new character is introduced they have to write it down with a description. Each week they have to sum up what they read and also keep a list of words they didn’t know and we’ll look them up together. They will write down the definitions and maybe we’ll have vocabulary tests every couple weeks? Who knows? I also want them to write little short stories to encourage their creative sides and if anyone has any other creative writing ideas, let me know! They will receive a star each week for completed homework and will earn something after so many stars but I’m still trying to think of what. I was thinking of making it a prestigious thing, like levels of reading and they get a new color name tag or something. We have to make name tags I decided. Big ones that hang around the neck with yarn, because why not?<br /><br />I am excited. I don’t remember if I wrote that Brittany is the one who is going to be in La Coyota but Miguel told me she is and I am sooooo happy!!! She said she’d love to take over my projects (ie any Escojo classes/book club/library organizing). I keep picturing us working together on the book club each week (even if only for a month) when she gets here. Can’t wait! (Can you tell I am STARVED to work with someone? Ha!)<br /><br />9/13 Monday: Noel goes to college<br />Today is a proud day for Noel and for his family. Today is the day that he begins going to the University. While this is a big deal in the States as well, here it is harder to go to school and thus less common, making it a bigger deal on average. Think of this: Noel’s dad died when Noel was 4 (the story behind that is that he was a motor driver like Noel and he was driving in the rain which made his blood cold, giving him a bad case of la gripe which killed him), Noel’s step dad, Tito went to school up to sophomore year in high school and Margara made it up to 7th grade. Nowadays most kids at least finish high school but as recently as 15 years ago it was very common to drop out before finishing. <br /><br />Why is it so hard to go to the university here you ask? Well for one, I have noticed that parents don’t push their kids at all. Noel has been telling me since I got here that he is going to start college one of these days to be an accountant. And I always thought he was kind of a slacker for not just doing it. Then I realized that (A) I am naïve in thinking anyone can get whatever they want, they just have to do it and work for it (a luxury for more developed places) and (B) Noel has no one in his life giving him that little push. So one day mid August, after tiring of listening to him debate with himself when the actual last day to sign up for classes was based on what Fulana said, I said “Why don’t you just go and ask the University yourself?” And he looked taken aback before saying sheepishly, “Alone?” I had no idea that was the issue! I said I would be more than happy to go with him and we picked a date to go. <br /><br />The day before we were supposed to go I casually asked if we were still going and he started to make an excuse to get out of it. I got mad and was like, “Fine!! Don’t go to school and keep on driving a motorcycle your entire life.” No no no! Of course we’re going. He was just joking. Riiiiiight. We went to three colleges the next day together to check out prices, see when school starts and when you have to sign up by. Noel is so timid, once we walked into a registration office, I took a number, looked around and Noel was gone!! So, I decided to just be Dominican and I budged in line to ask my question, I wasn’t registering after all right? Then I went out to the hallway and found him sitting out there. When I asked what happened he was like, I’m not sitting in there!! Then I told him that he doesn’t have to be embarrassed, that room was full of other guys from the campo that were nervous and didn’t know what they were doing either. I told him I was here to support him so he didn’t have to feel alone in this. He didn’t know anything about school, not even what a credit hour was. We decided what to ask based on the brochure I grabbed and when our number came up we were ready. By the end of the day he had picked which school he was going to based on a pro and con list we wrote up together. I think a lot of Dominicans get overwhelmed by the entire process and have no one to turn to for help so they never start it. Also most Dominicans get stuck in the planning stages of anything. They just aren’t taught how to problem solve/organize stuff.<br /><br />Second large reason many Dominicans don’t go to college: banks don’t give school loans. I can understand that, chaos would ensue! They don’t even have home addresses here, how would you find someone who skipped out on their loan? So while the universities aren’t expensive it is difficult for the average Dominican to pay for everything. For instance, Noel has to keep paying 700 pesos/week towards his motorcycle. Now he’s also got to pay 850 pesos/week in transportation, plus the $2000 pesos/month for school and on top of it all he’s working less because he’s at school half the day! So he’s got to come up with an extra $5400 pesos/month to go to school. I know if I suddenly had to pay $5400 RD/month I would have to use money from home; and I make a little over $11,000 RD/month! Imagine someone who makes like $7000 RD/month. And that’s not buying any books or anything. Overall, college here is really cheap as compared to American university prices (ridiculous) but having to pay for it all out of pocket as you go without a decent paying job… no es facíl.<br /><br />Anyways, I feel very proud of him for going to school. And it’s fun to see anyone when they start school because they try to act humble, like its not a big deal but you can hear it in their voices when they find any excuse to say, “I go to the university, yada yada yada.” I just hope that he can find a balance between earning enough money and going to school. I would be so sad to find that he had to stop going to school because he couldn’t afford it, a big reason he never started before Tito go the job as a cobrador in the guagua. (so Tito can help pay if Noel comes up short)BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-54847554467878109562010-09-13T12:30:00.000-04:002010-09-13T12:31:18.790-04:00Aug 23rd (ish) to September 12th9/12 Sunday: So much for the beach…<br />This will be a short but sad entry. Today I was planning on getting away with friends to go to the beach and a stupid tropical depression or something decided to storm in and ruin my plans. Trips to the beach jinx the weather. Boo. <br />9/8 Wednesday: Meeting with Miguel, Ernesto and Community<br />I was pretty worried about this meeting because I was imagining the worst with community members turning on me. While that’s not incredibly common, it happens and it’s obviously very upsetting when it does happen. With everything that has happened with my neighbors, this thief thing is a pretty serious accusation. I was worried that Miguel wouldn’t do anything about it or that he would kind of take their side. After that conference in May I’ve decided I can’t exactly trust his judgment. Today I went to Santiago for our meeting, which was supposed to be at 11. I was running about 30 minutes late (American Time) when Miguel called and said he was running about 30 minutes late too. He met me around 1pm: 2 hours after our original time. (Turns out he was running 30 minutes late Dominican Time) We had our “meeting” while he sat in the front seat of the SUV and I in the back, in a supermarket parking lot and then like that but driving- on the way to my site. I was kind of conflicted because while I am open to criticism and suggestions, he wasn’t putting any of the blame on my neighbors. He was saying that it was my community that was saying all this stuff and that the Ruales wouldn’t be so stupid to say all that. He seemed to have already made up his mind about this. While I sat there thinking about it, I realized that no one in my community tell aside from Margara and Noel had told me about their gossip. I place full trust in her but it doesn’t make for a strong case against them when trying to convince Miguel that his friends are that stupid, rather, not stupid but malicious. I don’t think for a second that she would lie to me but how can I back up what I’m saying when I say that only two people have told me? <br /><br />The meeting with Ernesto went ok. I was a little annoyed that Miguel and Ernesto spoke the entire time, and at the very end Miguel asked my thoughts. I don’t like to interrupt so I let them talk thinking that Miguel would give me my time but, true to form, Miguel was in a hurry to get out of here so I felt very rushed. Unfair since I have been waiting to have this meeting for like two weeks. Ernesto told Miguel that he would never call me a thief and that when I came back from the States it seemed like I was angry with them. (Right because angry people give gifts and cookies) And he said that I had said I was going to have a meeting to talk to him about the receipts and then never went back. This again, was not true. I went to his house and asked him if he wanted to see the receipts and he laughed and said it wasn’t necessary. And now I’m freaking out because I called the grants manager in Peace Corps to check on three packets of receipts that I accidentally turned in early and he found all but the one I really need: the library one. Fantastic. It’s going to look really bad and it’s the only inventory I have of supplies bought. It would be a HORRIBLE thing if I don’t have these receipts. It figures too, 10 grants later and this is the one that goes missing. Another thing that really bothered me was that Ernesto told Miguel that the reason we don’t get along is because I have a new “family” now- Margara’s- and that of her family one likes money a lot (offensively referring to Minga) and the other likes to gossip a lot (referencing Margara here). First of all, it was Ernesto who told Minga to charge me more when I moved out and also it’s <br />Ernesto who has all of his kids working on the library meaning that they are all getting paid and so out of the 6 people working on it daily, 4/6 of that total money is going to Ernesto’s house- $1850 pesos/day. Secondly, Margara is seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met!! When I was angriest and wanted to go tell the Ruales how I felt it was to her that I went to calm me down. I have never heard her say a bad thing about anyone! During this meeting I wasn’t taking notes or anything and Ernesto was going on and on and I forgot to mention everything that he said that was wrong. I told Ernesto that I think the issue here, if he really didn’t call me a thief (highly unlikely), is communication: we have none. Miguel wants us to meet in the women’s club each Monday to talk about the progress of the library so people don’t gossip. He says that whenever people ask about the progress to tell them to go to the meeting with any questions and that’s that. It could be a good idea. <br /><br />Also Miguel told Ernesto to come to my house later that night and Ernesto said “I don’t have a problem with that.” And guess who never came over. I specifically stayed in my house with the door open, and was full of children (so no debating if I was home or not) until the power went out around 8:30 or 9. I was secretly hoping they didn’t come over though. It’s obvious that they don’t want to make this work and that’s fine. I am really bothered by the fact that they are going to keep on working with Peace Corps name and money for the foundation, more or less as the face of Peace Corps. People in charge of that foundation should be good, honest people who are a good representation of Peace Corps: pretty much the opposite of my neighbors. <br /><br />Then we had the community meeting. This went ok, sort of. Miguel was all over the place. He was talking about Satan and having a cold and all kinds of stuff. Then he brought up the thing about meeting every week to talk about the library and everyone was in agreement. I got so lost in all the rambling that I didn’t notice that he never said in the meeting anything about where the project money went and how I’m not a thief! Ugh, great. Just when I don’t think it can get worse... Now people will be wondering why Miguel didn’t mention anything about me being a thief or not. <br /><br />I am upset. I feel the same as before the meeting but at least not stressed that my community will kick me out. Ernesto kept talking about how crappy the family is that I hang out with and Miguel didn’t ask me about it but rather was like, “They are a pretty crappy family Betsy.” How would he know?! <br /><br />Also, I found out that Brittany is the PCV who is going to be placed in La Coyota (site close to me) and there isn’t going to be one placed in Villa Nueva. I’m happy it’s Brit because I feel really close with her already and she has an idea of what’s going on here. But makes me feel protective of her and I want to get this foundation set right so its not something she has to just be dropped into and deal with. <br /><br />What I would like to know is what happened with Miguel? He’s normally so good about picking up on things in Dominican culture but this time I felt he was turning a blind eye to it and telling me it was Margara, Minga and a power struggle within the community instead of placing any responsibility on Ernesto and family. An example of an outright lie: Ernesto told Miguel that he saw me in Santiago (when I was with Brittany) and he said hi to me and I ignored him. The truth is that I saw him because Brit and I were already sitting down and I said “Hi Ernesto” and he responded. Then Brittany asked if that was “The Ernesto” and I said yes and how weird it was that in that moment he acts like nothing is wrong. All this seems so petty but it’s the culture here. Saying hello, not saying hello, the order of saying hello- its all noticed and there’s a wrong and right way to do it. I wrote a 4 page report to Miguel and Romeo before the meeting explaining everything but I feel it didn’t help in Miguel’s case. What to do now? I’m going to call one of the PC doctors, Lissette to get her advice, and I’m going to call the grants man and see if he has my receipts! I’ll do what I can and I guess that’s all I can do. <br /><br />9/6 Monday: The kittens have moved<br /> Kouldbie didn’t seem to like that tarantula at all. She moved her kittens to Ernesto’s house again. Then I sent a kid over to get them and they had already given one away- which I was actually grateful for even though it was rude of them not to ask/inform me. Then Wandi was threatening, loud enough that I could hear, that he was going to kill the kittens and the cat if she brought them back over again. Well guess what, the next day- Kouldbie moved her kittens there again. So take that Wandi. Hopefully she is sleeping under your bed.<br /><br />9/5 Sunday: Setting a meeting with Miguel, Do tarantulas eat baby kitties?<br />It’s Sunday night. I just got back from Santiago. Noel dropped me off at Ernesto’s driveway and we had a debate about equal rights between men and women. This is my doing because one man in the neighborhood was calling a young girl a slut. At first Noel seemed alarmed but then when he realized who was being called a slut he shrugged it off. I said that it was pretty crappy of her dad to be yelling at her at someone else’s house calling her a slut to which Noel responded, “Well Elizabeth, a slut is a slut. It’s a fact. Non debatable. If she’s a slut, then they can call her that.” I asked why she was a slut and he said it was because she had more than one boyfriend. Then I asked if Tolo was a slut- having more than one wife is worse than having more than one girlfriend right? He laughed and said of course he wasn’t a man whore, that it’s different for guys. Men are different from women. His examples of this included how men can walk around without their shirts but women can’t, how men are the ones that work… If people call the woman a whore, its ok but there isn’t even a word that exists that’s so ugly that people use for men. I said that in the States there is more equality than here and he said that’s why there are so many problems there, with divorce and all that!! I laughed. So then I asked about professionals. What about people who are educated and both are making money? He said, if they’re making the same, fine. If she’s making more and she leaves him, it’s kind of his fault and he should get a better job but that she is still a whore. Everyone will think she’s a whore but they’ll think she had a good reason. How messed up is that?! After having further conversations on this, and calling him ancient, he seems to have come around a little bit to my point of view. I find that, once given good reasons and not being rude in the debate, most people come around to a more developed way of thinking here. It’s like they begin the debate with you with the point of view that everyone has always had and they have it because they were never asked to think about it. Once they think about it and are presented with a more rounded fact base, they’re like… ohhhhh, that’s true. I think with time, I can convince Noel that equality is the way to go.<br /><br />After our little debate I went up to my house to shower and get changed. I went into the bathroom to greet the kittens and Kouldbie and then I saw the first huge tarantula ever in my house, right next to them like it was stalking them for dinner! Sure there have been baby ones and one time there was an adolescent but this was a full grown adult. I don’t remember jumping over it to get out of the bathroom but next thing I knew, I was out, trying to plan my next move. I called Noel because I figured if men and women don’t have equal rights here, he should automatically be the one to have to kill this spider. No answer. Diablo. I waited outside and then decided to start making cookies until he showed up. When he arrived back he was disgusted to see that I still hadn’t showered but I asked how in the world can I shower when there is an 8 legged, fanged mammal in my bathroom? One that when it flips onto its back can spring upwards of 6 feet. My bathroom is less than 6 feet wide. Not that it could really hurt me but I swear if it jumped on me and I felt its nasty straw legs crawling around with their stiff little hairs…. SICK! Noel happens to be afraid of tarantulas as well but, like I said… men can walk around without their shirts and all that sooo…. When I showed him the spider he freaked a little. I said I would go and get Minga to kill the spider and he scoffed at me, he is a macho man after all… right? He isn’t afraid of some giant tarantula, who would be scared of that!?! Maybe a wuss, that’s who. While saying this, I think he looked a little panicked. Then, he got it together and said, “Get the machete!” I just stood there and stared at him until realization crept into his face as he remembered that I do not own a machete. (why would I when then I would have to use it?) It was then decided that he would kill it and I would hold the headlamp. I wasn’t really found of this plan as I didn’t want to be close to it but hey, compromise is what relationships are made of. Did I mention there was no power; I was out of candles, my oil lamp had burned the entire wick and my headlamp had stopped working. Fantastic!! Anyways, long story short, I seriously thought about getting Minga (or any other little kid over the age of 7 for that matter) to take care of this for me but then Noel showed up and spared me the walk around the neighborhood, killing the scary spider with my broom. And while he broke the broom I have had my entire service, the spider is dead and I am safe and showered. Whew!<br /><br />9/2 Thursday: I finally get a Volunteer Visit!!!<br />I am super excited because after two years of service I finally am getting a newbie!!! I don’t know if you all remember how excited I was to go on my PCV visit when I was in training? Then a hurricane came and it got canceled and I was super freaking sad. We were able to reschedule the visits but it sucked because Kenzie and I went to visit this business PCV and we didn’t do anything except see an old man masturbating. It was so boring, well apart from that. Then last year this time when I was supposed to get a PTC I was in the States for my friends wedding. Thus I was sooooo happy when I got one this time around. I tried to plan things with her here. We nearly finished painting that mural outside of my house I have been trying to do forever (nearly finished because it was raining a lot while she was here), we were going to do the last stove but it fell through because the family didn’t bring the sand to their house (still), we went dancing, we had my art class, corrected/translated thank you cards, baked cookies... all the important parts of service. She is super fun and hyper. Also her name is Brittany- which no one can say in Spanish (sounds like Bree-tan-neey or Bree-nee)- so we’re going to open a new name up for voting. I think the top four should be (1) FlorLinda aka pretty flower (2) Milagros aka old doña name meaning miracle (3) Shakira aka, hips don’t lie (4) Paloma aka dove. Also I felt it was a huge success because she looooooooooved the visit and it renewed her enthusiasm. She is going to try to be the PCV placed in La Coyota, a community a little higher up the road from me. It made my week that she loved my life so much:)<br /><br /><br />8/31 Tuesday: Meeting with Miguel= failed<br />After I found out my neighbors were still calling me a thief (the amount I supposedly stole to pay for my 4th of July trip and Noel’s motorcycle I guess just wasn’t enough so they doubled it to 100K and it now includes me paying for his college), I called Miguel. I was super mad about all this and he agreed that this couldn’t continue. We set the date for Tuesday of last week to have a meeting but what I didn’t know was that Miguel thought it was for the capital and I was sitting on my porch waiting for him show up to my house. Adding to the badness of the situation, I told my neighbors that Miguel was going to come for a meeting on Tuesday and so they were waiting as well. The day before a milk truck drove through my community ripping down the power lines thus making us without power for 4 days or so until the community paid Oney to fix it (I contributed 50 pesos). The point of this is that my phone was dead so I sat at my house waiting until around 4:30. I was able to call Miguel the next day thanks to the fact that Minga has a generator, and I asked him what happened with the meeting. That’s when I found out that he thought it was in the cap and I thought it was at my house. I figure my neighbors had called him to confirm this meeting because Noel and I saw them leave their house around 1pm and didn’t come back until after I left at 4:30. Did they bother to tell me that Miguel would not be coming? Of course not. Anyways, I have a new meeting with Miguel next Wednesday at 3 pm in the community and we’re supposed to meet beforehand at 11 in Santiago to discuss. Hopefully all goes well.<br /><br />8/27: Friday: Why the rush with my life?<br />So this whole time I have been freaking out about extending. I want to go to med school and that takes forever so I wanted to get started on it STAT. I just kept thinking that my 20s didn’t last nearly long enough! Well, the thing is, once I start med school there will be no traveling for a long time. And then I started thinking: I have to get this library on its feet. I may stay here in the DR be here until the spring to finish it- Who knows?! On top of that, I really would like to extend to another country for a year. I mean, it’d be so neat to compare the different Peace Corps experiences and I think I have learned so much in these two years. Plus think of how my Spanish would get so much better in another year where they say their “s” in their speech! The thing is though; I may be too late to apply for an extension for another country. That little concern aside, where would I like to go you ask? Well, as 3rd year PCVs get a LOT more freedom in picking compared to the newbie PCVs who don’t get any say at all really, I would like to go to (1) Nicaragua (2) Guatemala (3) Ecuador with a big lean towards Nicaragua. I figure that I may as well put off going to med school another year to get another great experience fit into my life. If I get into med school, I’ll be in it for so long, what’s another year?<br />Good news!! I just called Romeo, the Country Director for PCDR and he said there’s still time to extend to another country!! I told him I would like to Central America and he’s going to call me back so we can get the process started :) Ohhh, excitement!! If I go to CA, who’s going to visit me??????? :D<br /><br />8/26: Thursday: A malicious rally conspired by diabolical neighbors.<br />When I left for the camp on Monday I saw Ernesto in the street and I stopped and said hello. His partner in crime, Oney was there and ignored me. I assumed he was mad at me again for one thing or another despite the fact that I haven’t seen him since he randomly came to my house and gave me a hug. I don’t really care if he’s mad at me. I don’t think about it more than noticing it and then I brush it off and don’t even try to understand it. Nor do I care if my neighbors fantasize about ways to kill me each day, which they very well may do. There was a time where it bothered me but I have come to terms with it. Recent news has pushed me past my point finally and I can cheerfully and honestly say that I hate them. I have never hated someone before. I’m pretty sure they hate me as well and their façade of being nice to my face while planning conspiracies behind my back will no longer be effective. I won’t be mean but I won’t put another ounce into being nice. <br />Before I completely felt this way, on this particular Monday morning, when I said hello to Ernesto he said hello back. I asked what they were working on and he answered. I stood there a moment, then realized I had nothing else to say to him at all and walked off. It seemed that maybe there was a residual resentment emanating from him but aside from that, it wasn’t so bad. <br />When I got back from camp on Wednesday I was so tired from sleeping about 5 hours the last three nights that I went to bed at 9:30 pm and slept in late the next day. Noel came over and told me that my creative neighbors had been up to no good while I was at camp and that his mom wanted to talk to me about it. Great I thought. What surprises await me now? <br />It turns out, while I was away, Ernesto went to a part of the community that doesn’t know me very well and told them that I was stealing money. Now he’s telling people that I have stolen $100,000 pesos from the library and I used 50K to pay off Noel’s motorcycle and the other 50K to pay for Noel’s school and our 4th of July trip. (In reality Noel’s school is about 6K pesos/semester- so he’s going to pay a little less than $2000 pesos/month and our trip was about 4k each; he paid most of his part and had to borrow a little from me. He owes me about $1500 pesos or about $35 USD and is paying me back in motor rides.) On one hand, at least they accuse me of sharing the stolen money, so I’m what? A generous thief I suppose. On the other hand, I’m mad. I have been patient. I have turned my cheek. But enough is enough. There is a balance between being tolerant and being a pushover and that line has definitely been crossed, probably a while ago but I like to give the benefit of the doubt when possible. I deserve respect, dang it. I’m a professional. I came here to help, I didn’t think to myself as I was about to finish college with my entire life ahead of me: “Ohhh, let me join the Peace Corps and steal grant money because that’s where it’s at.” <br /> I don’t even want to talk to my neighbors; I don’t want to look at them. And I sure don’t want them to talk to me or try to be my friends. I want to walk in front of their house each time I come home just so they can see me. I want to go out of my to be nice to other people in my community just to make them look even more crazy. There are several things that make me mad about this so why don’t I point them out:<br />1) Noel works really hard to pay his way in life. It really bothers him that people now think he’s taking handouts. I can see where he’s coming from.<br />2) I told Ernesto when I got back from the States what happened with the finances. I offered to let him look at the receipts and he laughed and declined saying there was no need. Then he goes behind my back and tries to rally people?<br />3) He’s trying to get people in the community to turn against me. This isn’t just between us anymore. I don’t want the community remembering/thinking of me as a thief!<br />4) He told some woman who works for the Mayor to tell the Mayor that I am a thief and not to give any money to the library. WTF?!? Does he just NOT want a library?<br />I called Miguel and I told him all of this. We have a meeting set up for Tuesday at 2 pm. I can’t wait. When I called my friends Kelly and Rachele they were both like, “And why do you want to extend again?” Jessica told me she would have said to hell with the library and quit working on it. I thought about doing that but there is no way I’m dropping this project. I have worked too hard on this for too long. I am extending in my site to finish it and if they throw rocks at me at every step along the way as they seem hell bent on doing, bring it on. This library isn’t for them. It’s for the kids that need a place to learn and grow and it’s for the kids that I’m going to do this. Not just throw it together but finish it in a hurry but do it completely and finish it well. Despite the rumors my neighbors start on a weekly basis saying that they’re going to get Miguel to fire me, I ‘m not going anywhere. I talked to Miguel after my COS conference and he told me he would love it if I extended, to revamp Escojo, to plan the Escojo National Conference, to tie up stuff in my site. So there Ernesto and family. Take that. (sticking my tongue out)<br />Oh yeah, another thing. Tonight I noticed that I must not have shut my bedroom window all the way so it locked and someone stole my money box. I’m pretty sure there was just about $100 pesos in it but guess who I think did it? None other than the wonderful, consistent, shameless thief: Geraldo! Who lives with whom? One guess… that’s right! My neighbors!<br />8/25 Wednesday: I love youth camps!!!<br />It’s true. I love youth camps. Like I said, this year it was Rachele, Kelly and I planning this three day camp for 75 people and while at times stressful, I really enjoyed planning it. I like being in charge of stuff I suppose. We plan fun nighttime activities and this year we were lucky to have really interactive presentations from each PCV. I was only bored like 2 times during the entire camp whereas normally I peace out to take a nap several times during conferences. <br />I was really proud of one of the youth I brought, Randi. He’s Noel’s little brother and I was hesitant to bring him at first because he’s at that age where he sometimes listens but other times gives an attitude and walks away. Also I wasn’t sure because Celebrando typically has older participants- like 17 years old. Randi is 12. But seeing as he always calls me Haitian as an insult I figured he could use the diversity camp more than other kids. <br />I also brought a younger girl, Anyi who is 12 as well. I hadn’t ever brought her to a conference, not because she is a bad kid but because her personality bothers me. Rude to say I know. But she makes stuff up when she doesn’t know the answer (such as telling a group of people that I am home, just locked in the house sleeping when I’m actually in Santiago for the day) and she bosses the younger kids around a bit. As this was my 10th conference I was running out of options so I decided to go for it and take them. Randi was super outgoing, a real crowd favorite. All the other PCVs were asking whose he was and saying how cute he was. He won an award for being the best participant in the group (and I didn’t even vote!) and when he accepted his award he did a little Michael Jackson dance in front of the crowd upon request. It was hilarious.<br />Anyi however did not seem to enjoy herself. I realize that to a shy 12 year old 3 days away from mom and dad can seem like an eternity so after I found a note she wrote to her mom the first night saying she missed her and that she was different that everyone else, I asked all the other PCVs who have girls to please have their girls go out of their way to talk to Anyi. This didn’t help. She didn’t try to interact with any of the other girls at all. I felt bad for her but was also annoyed at her lack of effort. I also think that maybe she felt bad that Randi was so popular and she wasn’t. <br />As a last ditch effort for fun, on the way home on the last day we went to the big mall and ate pizza and ice cream in the food court. It was their 2nd time ever having pizza. Then I gave them some money and let them play in the arcade. After that we went into the big grocery store, Jumbo, and looked around. Anyi finally seemed to be enjoying herself once we began to check out the clothing:) <br />Overall, it was one of my favorite conferences. I’m to miss taking kids to something that they would never get to experience if it weren’t for these groups. I doubt either of them will be able to go back to Jarabacoa where the camp was, for several years but I’m sure they will always remember the experience fondly as I will.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-10455999643641409412010-08-30T11:39:00.000-04:002010-08-30T11:40:47.997-04:00Celebrando el Ciabao y otras cosas8/27: Friday: Why the rush with my life?<br />So this whole time I have been freaking out about extending. I want to go to med school and that takes forever so I wanted to get started on it STAT. I just kept thinking that my 20s didn’t last nearly long enough! Well, the thing is, once I start med school there will be no traveling for a long time. And then I started thinking: I have to get this library on its feet. I may stay here in the DR be here until the spring to finish it- Who knows?! On top of that, I really would like to extend to another country for a year. I mean, it’d be so neat to compare the different Peace Corps experiences and I think I have learned so much in these two years. Plus think of how my Spanish would get so much better in another year where they say their “s” in their speech! The thing is though; I may be too late to apply for an extension for another country. That little concern aside, where would I like to go you ask? Well, as 3rd year PCVs get a LOT more freedom in picking compared to the newbie PCVs who don’t get any say at all really, I would like to go to (1) Nicaragua (2) Guatemala (3) Ecuador with a big lean towards Nicaragua. I figure that I may as well put off going to med school another year to get another great experience fit into my life. If I get into med school, I’ll be in it for so long, what’s another year?<br />Good news!! I just called Romeo, the Country Director for PCDR and he said there’s still time to extend to another country!! I told him I would like to Central America and he’s going to call me back so we can get the process started :) Ohhh, excitement!! If I go to CA, who’s going to visit me??????? :D<br /><br />8/26: Thursday: A malicious rally conspired by diabolical neighbors.<br />When I left for the camp on Monday I saw Ernesto in the street and I stopped and said hello. His partner in crime, Oney was there and ignored me. I assumed he was mad at me again for one thing or another despite the fact that I haven’t seen him since he randomly came to my house and gave me a hug. I don’t really care if he’s mad at me. I don’t think about it more than noticing it and then I brush it off and don’t even try to understand it. Nor do I care if my neighbors fantasize about ways to kill me each day, which they very well may do. There was a time where it bothered me but I have come to terms with it. Recent news has pushed me past my point finally and I can cheerfully and honestly say that I hate them. I have never hated someone before. I’m pretty sure they hate me as well and their façade of being nice to my face while planning conspiracies behind my back will no longer be effective. I won’t be mean but I won’t put another ounce into being nice. <br />Before I completely felt this way, on this particular Monday morning, when I said hello to Ernesto he said hello back. I asked what they were working on and he answered. I stood there a moment, then realized I had nothing else to say to him at all and walked off. It seemed that maybe there was a residual resentment emanating from him but aside from that, it wasn’t so bad. <br />When I got back from camp on Wednesday I was so tired from sleeping about 5 hours the last three nights that I went to bed at 9:30 pm and slept in late the next day. Noel came over and told me that my creative neighbors had been up to no good while I was at camp and that his mom wanted to talk to me about it. Great I thought. What surprises await me now? <br />It turns out, while I was away, Ernesto went to a part of the community that doesn’t know me very well and told them that I was stealing money. Now he’s telling people that I have stolen $100,000 pesos from the library and I used 50K to pay off Noel’s motorcycle and the other 50K to pay for Noel’s school and our 4th of July trip. (In reality Noel’s school is about 6K pesos/semester- so he’s going to pay a little less than $2000 pesos/month and our trip was about 4k each; he paid most of his part and had to borrow a little from me. He owes me about $1500 pesos or about $35 USD and is paying me back in motor rides.) On one hand, at least they accuse me of sharing the stolen money, so I’m what? A generous thief I suppose. On the other hand, I’m mad. I have been patient. I have turned my cheek. But enough is enough. There is a balance between being tolerant and being a pushover and that line has definitely been crossed, probably a while ago but I like to give the benefit of the doubt when possible. I deserve respect, dang it. I’m a professional. I came here to help, I didn’t think to myself as I was about to finish college with my entire life ahead of me: “Ohhh, let me join the Peace Corps and steal grant money because that’s where it’s at.” <br /> I don’t even want to talk to my neighbors; I don’t want to look at them. And I sure don’t want them to talk to me or try to be my friends. I want to walk in front of their house each time I come home just so they can see me. I want to go out of my to be nice to other people in my community just to make them look even more crazy. There are several things that make me mad about this so why don’t I point them out:<br />1) Noel works really hard to pay his way in life. It really bothers him that people now think he’s taking handouts. I can see where he’s coming from.<br />2) I told Ernesto when I got back from the States what happened with the finances. I offered to let him look at the receipts and he laughed and declined saying there was no need. Then he goes behind my back and tries to rally people?<br />3) He’s trying to get people in the community to turn against me. This isn’t just between us anymore. I don’t want the community remembering/thinking of me as a thief!<br />4) He told some woman who works for the Mayor to tell the Mayor that I am a thief and not to give any money to the library. WTF?!? Does he just NOT want a library?<br />I called Miguel and I told him all of this. We have a meeting set up for Tuesday at 2 pm. I can’t wait. When I called my friends Kelly and Rachele they were both like, “And why do you want to extend again?” Jessica told me she would have said to hell with the library and quit working on it. I thought about doing that but there is no way I’m dropping this project. I have worked too hard on this for too long. I am extending in my site to finish it and if they throw rocks at me at every step along the way as they seem hell bent on doing, bring it on. This library isn’t for them. It’s for the kids that need a place to learn and grow and it’s for the kids that I’m going to do this. Not just throw it together but finish it in a hurry but do it completely and finish it well. Despite the rumors my neighbors start on a weekly basis saying that they’re going to get Miguel to fire me, I ‘m not going anywhere. I talked to Miguel after my COS conference and he told me he would love it if I extended, to revamp Escojo, to plan the Escojo National Conference, to tie up stuff in my site. So there Ernesto and family. Take that. (sticking my tongue out)<br />Oh yeah, another thing. Tonight I noticed that I must not have shut my bedroom window all the way so it locked and someone stole my money box. I’m pretty sure there was just about $100 pesos in it but guess who I think did it? None other than the wonderful, consistent, shameless thief: Geraldo! Who lives with whom? One guess… that’s right! My neighbors!<br />8/25 Wednesday: I love youth camps!!!<br />It’s true. I love youth camps. Like I said, this year it was Rachele, Kelly and I planning this three day camp for 75 people and while at times stressful, I really enjoyed planning it. I like being in charge of stuff I suppose. We plan fun nighttime activities and this year we were lucky to have really interactive presentations from each PCV. I was only bored like 2 times during the entire camp whereas normally I peace out to take a nap several times during conferences. <br />I was really proud of one of the youth I brought, Randi. He’s Noel’s little brother and I was hesitant to bring him at first because he’s at that age where he sometimes listens but other times gives an attitude and walks away. Also I wasn’t sure because Celebrando typically has older participants- like 17 years old. Randi is 12. But seeing as he always calls me Haitian as an insult I figured he could use the diversity camp more than other kids. <br />I also brought a younger girl, Anyi who is 12 as well. I hadn’t ever brought her to a conference, not because she is a bad kid but because her personality bothers me. Rude to say I know. But she makes stuff up when she doesn’t know the answer (such as telling a group of people that I am home, just locked in the house sleeping when I’m actually in Santiago for the day) and she bosses the younger kids around a bit. As this was my 10th conference I was running out of options so I decided to go for it and take them. Randi was super outgoing, a real crowd favorite. All the other PCVs were asking whose he was and saying how cute he was. He won an award for being the best participant in the group (and I didn’t even vote!) and when he accepted his award he did a little Michael Jackson dance in front of the crowd upon request. It was hilarious.<br />Anyi however did not seem to enjoy herself. I realize that to a shy 12 year old 3 days away from mom and dad can seem like an eternity so after I found a note she wrote to her mom the first night saying she missed her and that she was different that everyone else, I asked all the other PCVs who have girls to please have their girls go out of their way to talk to Anyi. This didn’t help. She didn’t try to interact with any of the other girls at all. I felt bad for her but was also annoyed at her lack of effort. I also think that maybe she felt bad that Randi was so popular and she wasn’t. <br />As a last ditch effort for fun, on the way home on the last day we went to the big mall and ate pizza and ice cream in the food court. It was their 2nd time ever having pizza. Then I gave them some money and let them play in the arcade. After that we went into the big grocery store, Jumbo, and looked around. Anyi finally seemed to be enjoying herself once we began to check out the clothing:) <br />Overall, it was one of my favorite conferences. I’m to miss taking kids to something that they would never get to experience if it weren’t for these groups. I doubt either of them will be able to go back to Jarabacoa where the camp was, for several years but I’m sure they will always remember the experience fondly as will I. <br /><br /><br />8/23 Monday: Celebrando el Cibao<br />Today is the first day of the youth diversity camp we have here in the Cibao. I have been looking forward to this camp for a few months now. Kelly, Rachele and I are the ones planning it. It’s for 27 PCVs and 55 youth. I really like this camp because, (A) I’m sick of Escojo camps, (B) the kids really NEED to learn about diversity because they don’t get it anywhere in their education. It was a struggle getting the school director to let the kids go to this camp. As you know, we do not see eye to eye. He told the kids they couldn’t go because school is important. Which I agree with of course but it’s the lack of consistency on his part. He says no because he’s got power issues; a common problem with school directors in this country. He told the kids that they couldn’t miss 3 days during the 1st real week of school. They actually began school last week but that week doesn’t count as they are only in classes talking about behavior and rules. An entire week of that! Even better, they have so many “holidays” here where there’s no school that even the 1st day of school this year was a holiday and they started on a Tuesday! So when he tells me he values each and every school day it’s hard not to visibly roll my eyes at him and groan. Very difficult indeed. I had to go to the school with one of the kids’s parents and talk to him about it. I pointed out that 55 other kids were going, meaning that 25 other schools in total were letting kids miss three days of school. He didn’t say it was ok that they go but he said it was up to the parents and that if they missed these three days then they couldn’t miss another school day for the rest of the year. Bologna.<br /><br />8/22 Sunday: Broken stuff and out of site!<br />Just as I said I was going to start writing in my blog again I (1) had my COS conference and then went to a resort for two days (2) my computer broke. So much for writing! After getting a new power cord and a new hard drive my computer is almost nearly fixed. I have learned that you have to download drivers for every single thing you can think of after your hard drive dies or else your computer won’t work. As a result, I have no sound/movie driver or whathaveyou I suppose so no Glee watching for me (making this one of the lowest points of my service now, so sad without Glee!!), and no music. Also there are random things like the fact my Microsoft Office is in Spanish as well as my iTunes. Ah well. I’m just glad to have my computer back, although sometimes the new power cord doesn’t work. I have a lot of paper work to do at this point in my service.<br />The question of my life now isn’t “to extend or not to extend?” but rather, “to extend for how long?” Yes sure the last blog I wrote I said how I wasn’t extending but hey, that was a while ago. Also you know me, things change all the time. Also of course when I’m in the States I didn’t want to extend! My neighbors were overwhelming me too. So I want to extend until December for sure and then I was thinking of traveling with some PCV friends of mine through Nicaragua and Costa Rica. But then I’m like, well… I’ve wanted to work with the Haitian population more and I’d love to do a latrine project before I go as well. I need to finish the library and get some community groups formed and strong to keep the library up and running. These aren’t things I can do really if I leave in December. Well I could but it would be very stressful. So I think I’m going to apply for a grant to do latrines and if I get it, I’ll stay till next spring. I also was thinking that I should take a pre calc class in the spring semester and I won’t be able to do that if I stay.<br />Then there’s Noel. So, I know I said I was emotionally unavailable before but I think I’ve changed my mind about that. I like the guy! I can see why the DR is number 1 in number of PCVs who marry host country peeps. They are sweet in their own way. I’ve never had anyone tell me and actually follow through, that they would do anything for me. And, not that I’m looking to get married but I find myself empathizing with many other a volunteer with ending a perfectly good relationship prematurely. It’s sad really. I’m not looking forward to the day.<br /><br />8/2: Monday: Why haven’t I written? A sum up of the last 3 months <br />I know I have been really great about writing in my blog my entire service but I stopped on purpose in June because all I wanted to talk about was my drama with my terrible neighbors. I don’t want to look back at my service and only think of that, so I stopped writing. Although I will now recount some stories about them, it won’t be the focus so that’s good.<br />About Current Events and My Trip Home: First and most excitingly, my COS (close of service) conference is in two days!!!!! This means that I’ve made it guys!!! I did it!! Although my COS date (last day of service) isn’t until the 28th or 29th of October, the COS conference is as good as October. The end is so close. And, while I LOVE my service, I am excited to go home. I feel very mixed about it. I can’t WAIT to be done with my neighbors but I also realized when I went home that my PCV friends aren’t like any other. I didn’t realize how we had changed until I went home and found myself not wanting to tell my best friend stuff but rather wishing I could call my friend Kelly (a PCV) because, even though it was something that happened in the States, I knew my States bestie wouldn’t understand the way my PCV bestie would. A simple example is Chai tea. I bought some and I knew my States friend wouldn’t like it because it has such a distinct, different flavor. And she hated it, like I would have two years ago . I wanted to say, “Wait, just taste it. Really taste it and if you actually don’t like it for the flavor not for the fact that it’s a different flavor, then great.” And I want to say that with lots of things, life in general! I didn’t feel like that last year when I went home. Other differences were that I kept randomly speaking in Spanish and then would be sad that no one was around to understand my spanglish. Also, even on the last day on my trip home I was still stopping myself from tossing the toilet paper in the trashcan! Overall the trip home was fantastic but I missed my PCV friends so much. I felt like I was disrupting the lives of my States friends and was trying really hard not seem rude or imposing but still left feeling like I was selfish by American standards. That part of my trip sucked. Also I noticed that I am a lot more social and need to be around people more than before. That part was fun. I hope that when I get home I don’t have problems making new friends because I realized that there is really only one person I hang out with in Dixon and she’s since gotten married, has two new children and is pregos. So, yeah- that’s not quite the same. I talked with my friend Ali (she COSed in May) and she said that social seclusion is tough after PC. I mean think of it, now I can call up at least 5 different people at any given time to hang out or to talk and odds are, one or two will be down. At home, I went through the one on my list and then would just take a nap or something. Depressing. <br /><br />About Gossip: I was dreading coming back to my community because of my neighbors. While I was gone Noel called me about once a week and told me that Mercedes and Wandi were telling people I had sex with Wandi (GAG!!!!) and Ernesto was saying that I stole 50K pesos from the library project. I was repulsed and amused by the 1st accusation- although that’s a very strong thing to say because really all I have is my rep. If that’s gone, I become ineffective in my community but it’s so out there to say that it made me laugh out of disbelief. The thief thing is super strong to say in this culture and made me incredibly angry. How dare him. I have worked so freaking hard to get funding for this project and then to say I would steal it? I was sooooo mad. People get into machete fights over throwing the T word around!! And, not to mention I was bailing hay, painting and scooping ice cream while I was home because I’m so broke. So if I had stolen roughly $1,389 USD I think I would have lived up my vacay a little more. All I can say is karma karma karma. It’s not my place to punish them but I take comfort knowing it will come one day. <br /><br />About Mild but Sweet Revenge: I came up with a great plan. I baked cookies when I got back to my site and just gave them to Mercedes today, telling her that they’re from my mom. That my mom wanted to send me back with a special treat just for them since she knows how they take care of me. Mercedes was really nice to me today. It was awesome. When I was home I called Ernesto once after I found out he called me a thief. I had been avoiding calling him but I figured that he was snowballing things in his mind so I needed to straighten it out and stop being a child, avoiding the things I didn’t want to do. When I called him from the States to check on things he was not friendly, didn’t ask about my trip (very rude on his part) and then when I asked him to write down my phone number he said no thank you! How rude! Although it’s hard I’m going to try to go out of my way to be nice to them. It’s going to be 100% fake because I detest them but I think it’s the best punishment I can give and strangely satisfying.<br /><br />About Noel: So, he was really sweet when I was home and he called me a lot. I previously we talked like once a week but I think it was more, he definitely called way more than that. I have decided that I am not good at relationships. Maybe I should just be an old maid. He’s all Dominican and says all the “te quiero”, “mucho besos”, “te extraño” yada yada yada and I find myself nearly cringing. I’m just not an emotional person and while I like Noel, I’ve decided that I must be emotionally unavailable. So why did I start dating him? Well, I thought I would grow to like him more. Its not that I don’t like him, I do!- but I don’t think I would have dated someone in the States if I liked them this much. Also, we’ve had our problems and I swear if a Dominican dumps me, I’m hopeless. Here’s what’s going on: he was worried that I would come back from the States changed. I explained that’s ridiculous as I am American and so it’s not like I’d come home thinking I was all cool since I could now speak English. It’s different when an American goes to the States than when a Dominican goes. We hung out the 1st day I got back and then 2nd he only came by for a few minutes. I gave him some crap about it and I think I offended him. He came back and hung out with me while I was with two other PCVs so I wasn’t talking much in Spanish and since then, he’s been cordial to me but not coming by. Actually, today he said hi to me and then changed and went to the river and didn’t even invite me!!! How are you not going to invite me to the river? Man! He and I need to talk but he needs to come over so we can talk! I am starting to get annoyed by it and am trying to tell myself if he doesn’t come over today at a decent time I won’t get mad. Maybe it’s like a junior high break up? Maybe this is his way of breaking up with me? That would be how my Dominican relationship ended! Hopeless! <br /><br />About Dengue: This is just so you all know, dengue is running ramped here. Last I knew there had been 22 deaths in the country from it, 12 of which were in the Santiago area (so by me). If I get dengue I hope first hope it’s not the hemorrhagic type and I second hope it’s the kind that just makes me sleepy. No matter what though there’s that rash… <br /><br />Side note: the kids hanging out at my house are really annoying me lately. Today I hid out from them for 2 hours. They didn’t know I was home, hehe. Right now they’re on the porch and I’m inside at the kitchen table and my front door is shut. They’re just waiting for me to finish the “work” I said I had to finish, basically until my battery dies because there’s no power. Just so you get a picture of my life right now.<br /><br />About Projects: <br />The Foundation SSAMA: The foundation is a freaking joke. To sum it up, Miguel wants each foundation to form 10 new Escojo groups per year. The leaders of each foundation don’t know anything about Escojo and so they throw these crappy classes together (unless they have a PCV to do all their work) and don’t actually teach anything but write down names and get head counts. It’s a blasphemy of Escojo. I am upset because I have worked so hard with it to have its name dirtied so quickly though laziness. I have stopped helping with the foundation stuff because (1) Ernesto is pretty much not talking to me (2) I shouldn’t be doing all their work, I’m leaving in a few months (3) I went to an Escojo “conference” through the foundation and it was a complete disaster. Apparently it’s ok that the kids get drunk at Escojo conferences and stay out till all hours of the night drinking and dancing. The three PCVs that were there put their feet down and Miguel wasn’t in agreement. Romeo, the country director- the head guy in PC-DR had to get involved. I don’t want to be apart of it. It’s a mess and if Miguel sees no problem with it, I’m out. But I do feel bad for my kids teaching Escojo and feel bad for their students. They’re most likely going to fail the final exams.<br /><br />Stoves: The stoves are nearly done. Word is that Ernesto charged a few people and didn’t build their stove so I need to talk to him about that. I have a feeling he’s going to tell me he didn’t take anyone’s money. My poor stove guy, Jimmy, literally has to eat with his mom at her house with his family because the stove project is over and he has no money or work. Ernesto has begun shunning him and remember that Ernesto is in charge of doing the labor on the library. The deal we had was that Oney was going to start the library and Jimmy finish up the stoves. Then Oney told me he couldn’t work in the community any more because he found work outside the community. During this time an opportunity came up for me to take a stove mason to another community to have a stove building workshop. I took Jimmy because he was the only one of the three who told me he was available to work on the stoves. Oney got super jealous and was very disrespectful to me and now Ernesto won’t give Jimmy any work on the library. Another issue that I need to talk to Ernesto about. I love the maturity levels here.<br /><br />Library: I have been working diligently trying to get funding for this library and I feel like the weight of the world is on me! The first grant of $2300 USD miraculously filled in May- which we used right away on materials. Then we received another grant for $5,000 USD and we’ve got about $500 USD left from that. I’m guessing we need another $1500- $2000 USD for materials and the rest I’ll use on books!!! I have one $500 grant for books on its way. Then there’s the $5,000 grant posted online that I have been really trying to “fill” with donations. I did a radio interview, wrote a press release, contacted 9 newspapers, have been in contact with 2 foundations… and when I was home I found out that the $5,000 USD grant I have been trying to get money donated to will be receiving a check to complete the funding- last I checked it was short $1,874 USD still. I was soooo relieved and excited! I literally was singing and jumping up and down. I didn’t realize how stressed I was to get that filled. I had come to terms with the fact I wasn’t going to get the library done. And now we will be able to finish it!! It’s a good thing we’re going to get that grant because despite the fact I told Ernesto NOT to get anything else on credit at the hardware store and despite the fact I told him not to do more than half of the work on the library, he has “bought” things in my name at the hardware store on credit and has done more than half of the labor on the library. Why did I not want him to do this? Because we’re out of money. The Mayor of Navarrete is supposed to donate $150,000 pesos. She said she’d donate half of the money last May and the other half in June... I’m still waiting for anything. Today when I called the treasurer, she said maybe next month (which is what she told me last month) When I told her we were out of money, that we needed at least $40,000 to pay the workers she said the check would be ready for me for $40,000 on Monday. We shall see but I hope so! Then I can pay another installment towards the labor at least. I had just been hitting walls with this project all of May, all of June and half of July. Now I’m hopeful again. It’s true that you have to be persistent, when you get knocked down keep trying. You have to think outside of the box, be resourceful and be able to accept failure to be a PCV. Jeesh.<br /><br />About After Peace Corps: So, I’ve decided to try to get into med school. I’m going to apply to a few post bachelorette programs and cross my fingers. My GPA Is decent but my math/science GPA is not so impressive and it makes me nervous. But that’s what a pb program is for! I had thought I was going to extend my service (was like 95% sure) but then when I went home instead of getting a feeling of sadness on the plane, I got his overwhelming feeling of, yessssss, I’ve paid my dues. I need a break from volunteering. No es facíl dude. Although I recently found out that Miguel is placing two health PCVs on my mountain, two from the group that’s coming in two weeks to the DR. This annoys me on several levels. First, why was I placed here ALONE and now he’s all about grouping? It SUCKED being here alone. I was the only health PCV in the entire north region of the country! Second, Ernesto told me that these girls will be here to help with the foundation. So if Miguel is making Ernesto their project partner I am seriously going to object. To me it’s a slap in the face, like the fact that he’s such a bad person and treated me so poorly doesn’t matter. Miguel is still going to reward him with more PC work. Also, why didn’t Miguel think to mention this to me or ask me to help with site development like he should have? <br /><br />On the other hand, I’m glad that there will be two new girls (even though he’s putting them in the only two communities I did some stoves in outside of my community) because I am sure that they will continue the library. And I am happy for them that they will be able to work together; I think my service would have been exponentially better if I had had a nearby partner in crime. This leads to me think that I need to extend for at least a week since they will be leaving for their communities a day after I am supposed to leave the country. Seems kind of stupid to extend for a week but I think it’s important to talk to them about the library and the foundation so they don’t end up having to repeat groundwork. We’ll see if I extend. I really want to backpack across Central America when I’m done until Christmas but that depends on if my PCV friends (Kelly and Kenz) flake out… lolBeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-64029619014283137892010-08-03T13:54:00.001-04:002010-08-30T11:41:47.923-04:00BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-40572430469885376062010-05-19T15:51:00.000-04:002010-05-19T15:52:05.786-04:00The 18th is the most important post here, digo yo.5/18 Tuesday: Sick, guest speakers, and Ernestina flips out<br />You never know what you’re getting into when the day starts. Or do you? I woke up today with full body aches and a headache to match. Little did I know that it was a foreshadowing of the day to come. It was a bummer being sick today but at least I didn’t have anything to do until Escojo at 4- MY Escojo class:) You know I’m sick because I’m worn out from all these kids and all this EMV stuff!! Today I didn’t get out of bed until 11:30 and then I laid back down again at 1:30. I was concerned because I only had about 60 pesos on my phone and the colmados were all out of calling cards. I needed to get in touch with my guest and also I wasn’t even sure if the kids would be out of school at 4 when we were supposed to have class!! School goes until 5:15 but this week they’re in review sessions for the exams and so they’re generally done early. I was hoping so.<br /> <br />The kids showed up on time but it was a disaster with my guest. He got so lost that he couldn’t tell me where he was each time I called. He just kept saying he was on his way. As I watched the balance of my phone card dwindle, it began to rain and the kids got out from school. It was 4:00, the kids were being bratty about waiting and my guest speaker was lost in the rain somewhere. Urg, and I had a headache. Luckily the kids were actually being bratty about waiting because they had forgotten we were having a guest speaker and when I reminded them they perked up. The speaker showed up around 4:45 and we had a fun class. <br /><br />Nearly at the end of class, Ernestina showed up outside of the Club. I invited her to come in with us and she declined. About 5 minutes later she came in, when the class ended, and she began to talk with the speaker, a Regional Coordinator or RC. I offered her some pop and she declined that as well. As the kids lined up to put their stickers on the attendance sheet, Ernie began to yell something to all the kids about how this 3rd group is terrible. How she is part of the 1st group and no one can pass her up/walk on her. She said she’s a coordinator now and if we have guest speakers she will be informed about them. She said that the 3rd group just wants to work by themselves and she wouldn’t let that happen. Whoa. Can you say “Monster”? Needless to say, the kids all looked petrified. So I told the kids to keep on with the stickers and told Ernie that we would talk after. <br /><br />She is insane. After the class left, it was me, Ernie, the two guest speakers and 4 other youth that are going to teach these next Escojo classes. I was asking each youth whom they wanted to be paired with from a list I had and when I go to Ernie she said she wasn’t in the project and wasn’t going to do it. Ummm… why not? Well, that did it. She went off. She said that I was the one who left her and all the others from the 1st group out of this one, that SHE was the one who formed the 2nd group while I was fooling around in the States- and for how long was I there? THREE WHOLE WEEKS!! (Dominicans come here from the States and generally stay the entire winter to visit with family) I was the reason she wasn’t a Regional Coordinator (RC) last fall because someone told her I was talking about her, she said it was HER that went to training in SD, it was HER that got that position and she doesn’t need help from anyone, nor did she get it. She said that I took out my angry feelings for Wandi on her whole family, she has been my enemy since last fall (which I was not aware of), I have no friends here, she tells people I didn’t come here to work but to live alone on the hill, I don’t visit anyone, I don’t do anything, she tells everyone that the fist PCV who came here was excellent but the 2nd one sucks and that they don’t want to work with Peace Corps anymore, that they don’t ever want another PCV… on and on. <br /><br />Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that we were “talking” I would have maybe preferred somewhere where crowds weren’t gathering (literally) or somewhere in front of the 2 guests. But, so be it….<br /><br />I told her that I never told anyone she shouldn’t be a coordinator last fall. On the contrary, I wanted her to be one, I called her my “Star” but she couldn’t make the interview date because that was the weekend she got married! Also, new rule: RCs are supposed to have at least one year with EMV and she had one class. I didn’t say this but I wish that Miguel had spoken with me about selecting her to be a coordinator for the foundation because I would have suggested against it since she left EMV and has shown no interest in going back. I told her she’s at fault for not being an RC. She needs to change her bad attitude and also she quit EMV last fall. I told her that I’ve tried to fix things with her and her house, I wrote a poem for Mercedes (ok, so I copied it from some website…), I visit, I gave gifts. I tried to talk to Wandi and he ignored me. I tried to talk to Ernie, I even offered her a seat the other day when I found her on my front porch as I was leaving to go run. When I visit I can only visit when Ernesto is there because Mercedes treats me so coldly. What more can I do? Pay them? Don’t think so! I didn’t mention anything about my having no friends or never visiting because I felt it was irreverent to the problem and she apparently wasn’t going to take the high road in problem solving. I didn’t even really feel bad (I felt a teeny bit bad) that she said all that crap to me because I’m used to it from her family!! Ha! In hindsight, I am very happy with the things I said and where this happened. Now everyone can see both sides of the story and I didn’t say anything even remotely bad. Yay for me! <br /><br />Tomorrow I’m either going to call Miguel or I’m going to tell Ernesto that I am not working with the Foundation from this point on until things change with Mercedes and Ernie. If Ernie can/wants to do it all alone, be my guest but I’m still in charge of the current EMV class and will continue teaching it. Miguel would be a good mediator but it’s not like he’s going to come out here tomorrow and I have to go with Ernesto on Thursday to another EMV thing. Not sure what I’m going to do yet, guess we’ll see. Whatever it is, I’m ready. I feel good about the decisions I’ve made. Mercedes needs to put some effort into this too; it’s always Ernesto telling me to go over there. Forget that. It’s got to be from both sides, I’m done being a doormat. And Ernie needs an attitude change. She thinks she’s always right, she’s perfect, and that she has to be in control of everything. She’s a monster. <br /><br />The good side of this is that I told Minga and Margara about it and they both back me up 100%. They make me feel so good. I went to each of their houses tonight for a total of about 5 hours. With them behind me, I can do anything!! Also, it made me feel good because Margara walked past the crowd while Ernie and I were discussing things and she heard them saying how Ernie was saying so many lies (maybe I’m not a friendless looser who joined PC just to live alone on a hill!!). It feels good to think that the community supports me, even if it is silently. After all, if I wasn’t already in the fire, I’d avoid being burned by this family too!<br /><br />5/17 Monday: Escojo takes over Betsy’s life<br />Today I began the day with a run (less sore today) and then had to hurry and get ready to go with Ernesto to Paradero, a town kind of far from us, to give the 1st Escojo class. When Ernesto told me about the foundation starting 10 Escojo classes I said I’d be glad to help but I’m not going to run 10 classes. That would be insane. Well, I kind of ended up running the workshop to start the classes and now I’m giving at least the 1st class to each group. And while Ernesto was with me in the morning, when we did the one in the afternoon, he dropped me off and went to Navarrete. Great. You know, it’s a good thing Escojo doesn’t make me nervous anymore because there were 25 kids in that class and I didn’t know any of them!! The class in the morning had 12 kids. Anyways, it looks like I’ll have the pleasure of giving classes 5 more times this week in addition to my other stuff. Oh boy! I complain but actually, if this works out I think it could be really cool. Also I like that I get to travel to other communities in my mountain and get to teach classes to other youth. Pretty sweet deal! (when they aren’t driving me insane like the afternoon group who wouldn’t shut the heck up) I just hope it works out because I don’t think I can keep this up for more than 2 weeks without loosing it.<br /><br />5/16 Sunday: Elections<br />Elections in this country are insane. Politicians lie in wait outside of the poling areas and pay people for their votes (although many people say that they’ll vote for Fulano, take Fulano’s 100-8,000 pesos and then vote for Pedro). I wanted to see this spectacle but sadly went running super duper far yesterday thus today, the idea of walking .25 miles to the school and back was too much. Instead I stayed in my house the entire day. I was so sore that any ideas of getting out of bed made me ache. Jeesh.<br /><br />5/12-14 Wednesday-Friday: Newbies Swear In, All PCV Conference, Peace Corps Prom<br />Talk about negative. Today I was stuck in my site for like 2 hours because I couldn’t find anyone to take me to Navarrete. I decided to kill time at Minga’s house while waiting for a ride or a hitchhike and her daughter, Margara came over. I always refer to her as Minga’s daughter but let it be known that she is also Noel’s mom (btw, I was sick that Sunday so Noel and I didn’t go on a date, I take that to be a sign) and she’s my best friend. She’s really fantastic and my go to for advice. So, imagine my surprise when she came over today and spent about an hour warning me about how terrible the people are in the community!! She wasn’t saying it in a malicious way but man- an entire hour?! I figure something bad must have happened to her recently.<br />I went to Navarrete finally only to find that the buses were on strike, great. So when I finally got to the capital I missed the meeting by about 2 hours- the meeting I was supposed to be co-running. Then, since I got there so late, I didn’t have time to go to the swearing in of the newbies. Which means I’ll never see a swear in unless I extend (a very likely option). Although, remembering my swear in- they’re boring.<br />That was all on Wednesday. On Thursday I went to my last ever (and 2nd) All Volunteer Conference. It was ok. They’re kind of boring but fun because you get to meet all of the newbies. The conference is at the training center in Pantoja and it’s far from the office which makes it a pain in the butt to get there by 8 am. Nevertheless, the conference is from 8 am until 4 pm. The great thing was that they gave great snacks this year (DONUTS!!!).<br />Something about Entrena that makes the weather crappy- it rained. So we ended up spending 45 minutes in the rain before our taxies arrived. Urg. I was surprised at the punctuality of the PCVs because my group was the 1st to get back to the hotel and we got back at 6:30. Prom began at 8! So, imagine 4 girls trying to share one bathroom, one shower and one mirror to get ready. Not to mention we got locked out of our room. But, we got dressed in prom attire and hit the road. Prom was really fun. What made it prom you ask? While we had it at a regular get together for PCVs we got the happy hour extended 2 whole hours and we had to wear nice clothes. Also, some PCVs got together and drew a picture backdrop!! Happy Prom!!!<br /><br />5/11 Tuesday: Woooo Whoo!!! RAIN DAY!!! <br />I am an old campesina. I went to bed last night at 9:30 and didn’t get out of bed, officially until 9:30 this morning. I say officially because I had to get up 3x to deal with the psycho puppy who peed in my bed the night before and since has been temporarily band from the bed. She doesn’t like this and so, in addition to waking me up to tell me her puppy bladder is full, she wakes me up to show her disapproval of her not in bed with me. Great.<br /><br />Today I was also able to sleep in because it was raining. I was supposed to have an Escojo class but had to move it to Saturday due to the school once again being uncooperative with the schedule we’ve have for nearly 3 months and trying to coordinate the new time with a guest speaker who moved and so was going to send someone else. So I was going to keep working on the mural but- hey it’s raining!! Thus, I took the day off… kind of. I cleaned the house, made some cake, am writing in my blog, talked with Ernesto, and am doing that grant jazz I need to get done. Later I’ll prepare to head out to the cap early tomorrow and hang with the Dona some. I mean, sure there’s no power and there’s a lot of mud everywhere, and my cell phone has been lost for about 3 hours now, but those are the worst things about my day!! Life is so good:)<br /><br />5/10 Monday: A very strange day.<br />So today was a weird day because everything fell into place in a seemingly productive way. Today I was supposed to meet up with Ernesto in Navarrete at 1pm and we were going to buy the wood for the library. We were both late, getting there at 2 pm. We went to the wood shop and ordered the wood, and strangely the wood shop said they could deliver the wood that same day. (I agreed but figured it’d be delivered Wednesday or Thursday). The wood buying went so quickly that Ernesto and I found ourselves with an hour to kill before our meeting with the Mayor at her house at 4. We went to a furniture store to hang out with a friend of Ernesto. A thing to understand is that furniture stores are a dime a dozen around here. They’re on everyone corner along with the same type of clothing stores and colmados. Well, here is where the day gets weird. We were at this store for maybe 20 minutes when the Mayor shows up to buy a mattress. Of all the furniture stores in all the world… Anyways, we had our meeting right there and she agreed to the amount we asked for on the letter- $150, 000. After a long and confusing conversation with Ernesto (because her agreeing to give this money just like that isn’t what happens here… it’s like trying to convince me that pigs really do fly or something) I discovered that this money has to also be approved by a board (which Ernesto is pretty good friends with) and then they generally approve half. Well dang. If I had known that I would have asked for double instead of 1.5 times more. Anyways, we have to wait for them to have the board meeting and then see how it goes I suppose. I’m not holding my breath. I feel like we will get something from the local government but it’s going to be in the stage where we’re buying books and furniture. <br />And the day gets suspiciously better: Ernesto told me he talked with one of the people we spoke with last week about getting all of the sand donated for the project. We went there together last… well, some day last week and dropped off a letter explaining our cause. The guy, to me anyways, seemed completely uninterested and after a 2 minute conversation of Ernesto talking, we left. Does that seem promising? No. Well, Sunday when I was with Ernesto, I called the Mayor and set up a meeting with her (luckily being able to set one up for the next day) and then Ernesto called a friend of his. His friend happened to be with Sand Man and so his friend talked to him about the sand. And Sand Man said he’d donate all the sand we need! It would be available next week and we just need to get it transported up, aside from that it’s free! (not sure how we’re going to get it up here, but hey, one step at a time…) <br /><br />After all this good news, I went to an internet center to write letters to newspapers asking for help in filling the second Peace Corps Community Partnership grant, or PCPP (the one that is posted on the internet and then the funds become available once the grant has reached it’s goal). The letters were going well, I wrote letters to 5 newspapers from my hometown area asking them to write a story about the library we were doing here, and to see if they could run the story on the same day- to see how fast we can fill it. Well, the weirdest thing happened- I wrote a wealthy friend of a friend two months ago about the library and he never responded. Literally 15 minutes after I had finished sending the last letter to the newspapers, the friend of a friend sent me an email asking if I still needed help with the library, how much we needed and where he could send a check!!! Not that I think by any means he’s planning on donating $5K but it’s just another sign of how things that are meant to be always come together. Now I just need to close out the other PCPP (for those interested in this, we spent the entire $2,300 USD from that grant in one trip to the hardware store and still had to use another $1750 USD just to buy the rest of the materials to make the floor of the library and the support columns… so no books, no walls, no electric wiring, no furniture, no paint… we have a long way to go still) and then write up PCPP #2; which I’m doing tomorrow. Today I am so tired. Having a puppy, two kittens and a cat that won’t shut up for the last month and however much more time is making me tired and grumpy.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-40381315439290832232010-05-10T18:06:00.000-04:002010-05-10T18:07:59.308-04:00sorry I didn't proof read this guys...5/9: Sunday: Writing less, working more…<br />For any of you following my blog, you may have noticed that I am writing significantly less and less. This is because I am really super busy. I haven’t even gone to Santiago since my birthday!! Not that I am complaining, I love being busy. Being bored makes me sad. The problem with this is that I say yes to everything and then later realize that I’m actually doing something already that day. Saturday for instance I was supposed to be in 4 places at the same time. Whoops…. I ended up teaching an Escojo workshop. Something I wasn’t expecting. I thought that Ernesto and I were having a meeting for an hour or so with some of the youth from other communities, explaining what Escojo is and all that jazz. Well, nope. There is a super cool guy named Joshua who is PCs Director of Escojo and he was supposed to be here at 9am Saturday to give this workshop. I have never gone to a workshop and wasn’t really sure what it all entailed so I was happy to be there to experience the magic. Well, after waiting for Joshua to show up for an hour, Ernestina and Ernesto looked at me somewhat desperately and asked me to do something. Did I mention there was a full house? Over 70 people from 11 communities. Good thing I’m not shy!! Ha! So, I stalled and rambled and stalled. Until nearly 11 when Joshua arrived. But he was sick. He showed me his agenda and once I had an understanding of what a workshop was exactly I was ok and I took over while he went up to the house to nap. I taught the workshop the rest of the day and the next day he took over again. It great was a success and I felt very satisfied afterwards. We have between 5-7 groups set up to start and we should know who’s serious by next Saturday when I go around with Ernie to collect the lists they’re supposed to make.<br />Speaking of that, I found out that Ernie recently went to training in SD for Escojo Regional Coordinators. I guess she went last March or April and this is the first I’m hearing of it. I was upset. Annoyed. I talked with the PCV health leader last fall about Ernie being a RC for Escojo and Katie told me that each participant needs to have been in Escojo for at least one year and that it didn’t help her case that she was married since that’s not the image that Escojo wants to project. And now, after Ernie left Escojo for 7 months, she talks with Miguel (who never talks to me about anything) and she’s suddenly in training to be an RC? I can’t tell if I’m annoyed that she’s doing this because she didn’t put her time in and has a bit of a big head about it all or if its more personal and I’m mad that she left EMV, ignores me slightly and now can be an RC without my input on it at all. Not sure really but I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I think that she can be a good RC but she should still have had to have put her time in for the job. Ah well, cosas de la vida. <br />Anyways, after the workshop ended today I called the Mayor of Navarrete. I got her cell phone number and I called her up today to talk about getting some financial assistance with this library. Ideally we would like to get about $100-$150,000 pesos from her but vamos a ver. She invited me to her house tomorrow at 4 pm. Not only do I expect her to be super late if we even are able to talk to her but I don’t expect to achieve what we hope to achieve tomorrow. Everything in this country is a fight although with the elections being only a week away, we may have an advantage. <br /><br />Anyways, I’ve been surprised lately how I don’t have much fear about talking in Spanish. Although, Mary Alice you can tell Carmen that if she tries to talk to me in Spanish again when I go home in July I’m going to quedarme callada because I have a ton of vergüenza of my Dominican Spanish to other Spanish speakers. She’d think I had a speech impediment if I can a conversation with her, I know it.<br /><br />5/1 Saturday: Despedida para Ana y Temo<br />Today was Anne and Tim’s farewell party. In a nutshell, it made me realize that my group is the next to go!!! Bummer because I really love it here now. I understand what a PCV was telling me right after I swore in now. She was in the group about to leave and she was complaining how right after you get used to being here it’s time to go. I only have 5 months left and I can’t picture leaving. Urg, I also don’t want to think about applying to grad schools (essays, letters of recommendation (ready for that Mary Alice--- er, I mean Bill?), the GRE and the COLD!!!! We finish the end of October although with this library project I may find a reason to stay until December. All I can say is, la vida no es facíl. <br /><br />4/27 Tuesday: “Maybe I should just go for it and see how it goes?”: when your motorcycle driver asks you on a date.<br />As you all may have read, I have been extremely happy these last two months in my site. Life is good. No, life is great. Sure things aren’t going great but there are always problems in life. For example, today y pa’ ‘lante I have to change my Escojo class to the afternoon because all the teachers decided they don’t like the time I’m having it at. Later today I was at Margara’s house making tostones and spaghetti for dinner with her and her fam, having a great time when Ernestina and Mercedes showed up. Mercedes saw me and wouldn’t even go into the house. She told Margara that she had to go because Ernesto was sick from some juice and then left. Ernie said she was charging her phone and left. In case you didn’t get that, those were both bunk reasons and they were avoiding me. I am going to make this hard for them. I’m going to go to the Club de Madres each Monday from now on and I’m going to go out of my way to hang out at the houses they go to. And we shall see how long they decide to keep trying to ignoring me! Ha! <br /><br />After dinner I went back to my house and there were 3 kids there who I got into a water fight with until nearly 10pm. It was fun because I wasn’t getting wet, just them! I was sitting out under the moonlight writing in my journal when Noel came over to visit. I have suspected that he has a crush on me because lately he’s been acting a little different. Well, last night he was like, “I’m not just saying this because I’m drunk right now but I’ve had a crush on you since we met”- the paraphrased, shorter version of course. This complicates my life. Not just because he is my motor man but also because it’s his mom and his grandma who are my best friends!! I’ve thought about dating him actually. I mean, I’ve wanted to date a Dominican (this may sound weird to people who don’t live here but it makes sense I swear) and he’s not a player, he’s in my site so I’d get to see him all the time, he’s got a motorcycle and works so he’s not a bum, he’s respectful and has never said anything inappropriate like 95% of the other Dominican men… and I love his family. On the other hand, this could end badly and then I’m screwed. I mean, if we date it’d almost have to be until the end of my service and I don’t think I want a commitment like that! (Sure I only have 6 months left but that’s a lot of hours…) Do I like him like that? Not really but Dominican relationships aren’t started based on that. It’s more of convenience and other simple factors. Then maybe something comes from it. So the question is what are the expectations at first really? I don’t know, I mean maybe I should just go for it and see how it goes? But is he the one I should experiment with? This whole entry sounds bad… <br /><br />4/25-26 Sunday and Monday: Happy Birthday!!<br />This weekend was GREAT!!!! There was a regional meeting Sunday and my friend Kelly send out an email to all the PCVs in my region saying that we were going to have a birthday party afterwards for me so people should stay the night. It was the best party I have ever had! The last time I threw a party for myself no one showed up (8th grade graduation, big ego hit) but this time there were like 20- 25 people!! Fun!!! We went to a Mexican food restaurant and I didn’t have to buy any dinner because my little group got there late and ate everyone’s leftovers. So I got to try a bunch of the food there for free!! Then my friend Chris bought me a shot of tequila (which ended up being a double shot) and Mica told the restaurant it was my birthday and she bought me a piece of cheesecake and everyone sang to me when the waiter brought it out!! And they put a huge sombrero on my head. After dinner we went dancing and had a great time. It was so fun!! It was the 25th but close enough to my birthday. Someone was watching the clock in my group because at midnight they played a happy birthday song at the club and everyone clapped for me. It was so nice!!!!<br />I ended up having to sleep on the floor that night without a pillow or sheet or anything but no big deal. At least it was free! The next day I went out with Ali, Kelly and a girl named Mary who is visiting to lunch and then we all bought matching shoes together. I used the internet and talked with my best friend from home, Becky (1st time since September!), and also with my mom (talk with her online all the time:) though Skype. Later that night my sister, Rach, called me and we talked- 1st time since January! When I got to my campo no one had planned anything but that’s because no one knew about it. I didn’t really make a big deal about it to anyone, just mentioned it to the kids who hang out in my house that Friday before. Someone made me habichuela con dulce though which was delicious!! Ah yes, birthdays get better and better each year. It makes me nervous about next year, will I be sad I’m not here in the DR? I’m sure there won’t be a party with even 10 people to go out dancing with… better enjoy this time in my life while I can. And so I will:) <br /><br />4/15- 4/18 Bola Race!!!<br />For those of you reading this who are seriously seriously behind the times and don’t have facebook, Bola Race is essentially hitchhiking across country with a bottle of alcohol in a costume with a partner. Yep, a perfect recipe!!! I wanted to go last year but couldn’t find a male partner (the ratio is ridiculious) so I missed out. This year I considered not going because I’m worn out!! I have been out of my site every weekend and just want to stay in my site and chill. But I went. And it was a hoot. We met up in Hato Mayor Friday and did a white elephant type of alcohol exchange. Then at 9 am the next morning we met up, the destination place was announced and a bunch of oddly dressed, mostly white people began trying to get a bola out of town. The rule is that you have to have an empty bottle before you get to the finish line and you can’t dump it out. Never in my life have I drank that early. I gave a bunch of our bottle to some homeless guy around 9:30 and so I can still say that I have never been drunk before noon. Mine and Andrew’s story was very original. We were newlywed brother and sister who were washed out to sea after a bad storm in LA a few months ago. After 3 days at sea a boat found us and took us to the DR. There is a lawyer at the end destination (a beautiful, calm tourist area called Bayihibe… may have spelled that wrong) who specializes in helping shipwrecked people without passports back to the States. The only part anyone ever double took on was that we were married brother and sister. We placed 7th out of 23 teams:)<br /><br />4/9- 4/11 Escojo Conference:)<br />In a nutshell: Rachele, Ali and I planned this conference by ourselves and it went great. It makes me confident that the youth conference in August that Kelly, Rachele and I are planning will go well. We had a Sundae Bar one night and a Snack Bar another night (who’s idea do you think that was?:) along with a talent show. I know it seems like all I do is have fun here but what can I say? The fun stuff is more fun to write about! (Aside from the entry about someone poking out Kouldbie’s eye of course…)<br />4/7 Wednesday: Someone pokes out Kouldie’s eye.<br />Today I went to my Doña’s house to eat lunch after taking it easy in the morning with an Indiana Jones movie (until the power went out). Before I went to Minga’s I decided to check on my cat, Kouldbie and her two little kittens. I took some pics to post up on facebook for the next time I was online and then set off for some free rice and beans. About 20 minutes into my visit with Minga, a little boy ran up to me telling me that Kouldbie’s eye was outside of her head, giant and had blood all around it. I assumed that maybe something insignificant had happened to her but that he must be exaggerating. I ate some mangoes and headed up to my house, forgetting about the crazy kid. <br />When I got to my front door I was surprised to find Kould waiting for me and even more surprised to see that she indeed had a big problem with her left eye. It was bulging out of the socket and surrounded by red tissue. Well great, fantastic. I had to cancel planning English with Jen, loaded up the cat and the kittens into the carrier and got onto the motorcycle headed to the vet in Navarrete.<br />When I got to town everyone was closed still for the 2 hour lunch break. So we found the vets house and asked him to end his lunch a half hour early. I should have taken it as a sign when the 1st thing the vet did was take out a roll of packing tape and tell me to hold her legs together while he taped them… my jaw dropped and I asked him if he had thought about using some… ohhh I don’t know, anesthesia? Jeesh! He thought about it for a minute and said, oh yeah, I guess we could do that. So he put the tape away and instead of giving her something to put her to sleep he gave her something to dull the pain and tried for the next 45 minutes to force the eye back into the socket while she growled. It made me nauseous as I pet her. Poor thing. I finally convinced the vet that this obviously wasn’t working and so he said that he would give her an anti-inflammatory and maybe the eye would go back in on its own. He said it was important to keep it moist in the meantime and so I had to constantly keep wetting it. The problem was that I wasn’t going to be here this weekend because I have an Escojo conference Friday-Sunday. He offered to keep her until Monday and after weighing the options of taking the cat back on the motorcycle for a day and then bringing her back while I went to the conference, I decided to leave her with the vet. I was worried though, remembering the tap incident and asked him to use pain meds every time he was going to do something that hurt her.<br />Thursday I was really busy with two art classes, English class and stove making in between but Friday on my way to the conference I stopped at the vet and checked on Kouldbie. The vet wasn’t in yet and when he finally got in, he took about 10 minutes to go and look for her… making me wonder what was going on. When I did see her I was upset to see she looked gaunt. The vet said that her eye was still outside of the socket and that if it didn’t go back in by Monday he would have to operate. Ummm, hello…. It’s been over FOURTY hours. If they anti-inflammatory meds didn’t work yet I doubt they’re going to go into overdrive and shrink her eye back into her head. When we took off the little mask he had made her, I saw that the eye had lost all of the original color and was completely black. I’m no doctor but I know anything black on the body generally gets cut off, STAT. Problem was I didn’t have enough money on me to pay the vet and get to the conference and all of the banks were closed due to some computer problem. So I told him I was just taking her back with me so I could take care of her until Monday when we would operate if they eye was the same and I took Kouldbie to Santiago to the vet there. <br />When we got to the vet in Santiago (“we” because during all of this I had my youth with me, a timid 13 year old girl who had only been to Santiago 2 times in her life, ah the things I was showing her!) the vet took one look at the eye and said it was too late to save it. But Kouldbie had a fever from infection so they had to wait a day to operate. Poor cat!! I asked how much it would be and laughed when they said it would be $5000 pesos- more than half of my months salary. I thought about putting her to sleep but after she suffered for 2 days, and if we did that her kittens would die too. Urg…. I’m going to have to figure out how to save up $5000…<br />I left Kouldbie and went to the conference. The conference was really fun and went really well (surprising since I’m one of the head people planning it!). When I picked up Kouldbie the next Wednesday I was happy to find her one happy cat, loving life!! The vet had to sew her eye shut so she looks like a pirate, maybe I should get a patch. Anyways, I’m glad I have her home. She’s one smart cat because there is no way I’m leaving a $6200 (with the vet bill from Navarrete) in the DR!!!BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-33875850426743476402010-04-07T17:59:00.000-04:002010-04-07T18:00:30.886-04:00yay!!!!!!!! 3/29- 4/64/6 Tuesday: So this is what it feels like to finally be adjusted… well, mostly adjusted.<br />Today was the day of the condom races in Escojo. This is the best class ever, something about spinning blindfolded kids around and watching them trying to put a condom on a plantain is great. So great in fact that last year I planned to have this class around my mom and sister’s visit so they could be in the most fun class. I really like my Escojo class this time around. I regret not putting myself in the last class 100% because I think all the classes have potential to be great if they’re lead properly. This class and my first class are great. Sure they fight and argue and say the other team cheated and yada yada yada but that’s a given with these kids- maybe all kids, I really don’t know. But with my kids I expect it. I’m so glad that I have Escojo. Sure I don’t feel like drawing/planning the 4 new topics we’re going to do in the upcoming weeks because drawing the classes takes forever and I am quemada, but I really love my classes. Teaching kids is really fun, something that seriously surprises me. (Remember I am the one who when asked what I wanted from my host fam in CBT I said, “I just don’t want to be in a house with children.”) I’m so grateful that Escojo is my project (or one of them) because I never would have volunteered to teach anything before PC. Now I know I can do it, I understand how to do it and I really enjoy it (although not enough to do it for a career). One great thing about Peace Corps I’m discovering, aside from the friendships and freedom, is that in a very hands-off way it throws you into things you probably would have never done before and makes you do them. I realize I really can do anything. It’s not about being smart or super talented- it’s about determination and motivation. If you stick to anything and have the right attitude you will become good at it. I never wanted to do things before that I wasn’t fairly good at but I embarrass myself alllllll the time here and it’s fine. I am so glad that I am here, that I did this because it’s opened up my world: to food (I ate my 1st and hopefully last, full bowl of boiled bananas the other week because a poor family gave them to me and it was so nice of them), to experiences, to culture, to friendships, to an entire world I never would have experienced simply because I didn’t speak the same language. I can say for certain that I am adjusted to my situation here. Yes I will continue to adjust and to grow but I am comfortable and happy now. I know not everyone likes me and that’s how it’s going to be. I love it here (but am still counting down till I go home!!!) and I appreciate all the opportunities I have been given. I am finally not living being really careful not to become attached because I’m leaving in X number of days. I got a dog for heavens sake! With only 7 months left, who does that?! The main thing I want to do now is work on Dominican relationships. I want a Dominican best friend who is really a best friend. I really love my Doña and her daughter but that’s it. Noel and I are becoming pretty good friends, surprisingly. It’s strange but the last week or two, I have begun seeing my service and Dominicans through different eyes and I really like this new outlook. I’m excited for each day to come and grateful for each that passes. I think I am gaining a better understanding of Peace Corps and what it means to be a Volunteer.<br /><br />Later that day… I went looking for Lucy Loquita (I changed my dog’s name) and ended up sitting and talking with Ernesto for a loooooooong time. How long I will never know as the watch fixer in the community has my watch (hopefully just a dead battery). But it was a nice talk and I’m glad to have Ernesto as a friend to hang out with. I never just hang out with people. I always feel like I’m passing time because I have to and am waiting until I can leave. What a bad attitude. Anyways, I left his house and called the grants coordinator of Peace Corps (who I have been calling a lot lately so my grants for the library move along quickly). I was on the phone with him working out this and that with the grants when he told me that- oh! The money from the PCPP (the grant that was online) was sitting there waiting for me and he just noticed he had forgotten to approve its deposit. And also, oh! The money for the SPA grant has arrived!! Not for me in particular-however, my SPA was written and since I had been calling it moved along quickly and was approved in Washington already which just means that I have to wait for the divining up of the money. That was the one I was really afraid of. SPA can take FOREVER to finally come in for the people who are on the waiting list and Conrado told me that he didn’t know if there would be enough money in the funds (whenever they finally came in) for my project since I was at the end of that waiting list. So I called Miguel last week who told me he would make sure that I was bumped up on the waiting list since I’m in the next group to COS (leave). YAYYYY!!!! The SPA grant is $5000 USD!!!! And the PCPP is $2300 USD!!!! And the other grant I wrote and should hear back from by this Friday is for $2500 which means that potentially by the end of this week I could have gone from having no funds for the library to having everything I requested- $9500!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOT! <br /><br />More good news: I wanted to write a grant for a small latrine project and Conrado kept telling me there were none that were applicable. Then I read about a new one that seemed applicable but Conrado told me it wasn’t. Knowing that he deals with lots of people and wouldn’t remember that it was me that asked him every time we spoke about that grant for latrines I kept asking him if this grant was applicable for latrines. I figured he would double check after “so many people” were asking him about this grant and latrines. It worked and today when I asked him about it again he reread it with me and realized that it can be used for latrines! So now I can write one for that and do a latrine project too if I get approved!! The only two other things I would like to do before I leave in the way of projects are the basketball court and garbage pick up. Well, murals too but that’s just a few days of work and doesn’t involve much planning. The other two involve a lot of harassing. I am so pumped right now!! We are meant to have this library!!! :)<br /><br />4/3 Saturday: Concert at a water park= genius idea<br />I had heard that Santiago and Puerta Plata have water parks but I never had gone to one here. To tell you the truth I was scared to go thinking that I would contract some nasty fungus or disease. I pictured the water in a park like this, in a country with no general regulations for anything, to be cloudy and full of pee- maybe even poop. I vowed that if I went and the smell of chlorine was not in the air then I was absolutely not getting in the water. I also thought it was going to be a joke in size, having one small, crappy pool full of people and maybe having two slides. I was ready for the worst and ended up being pleasantly surprised. The water was pretty clean, the park was waaaaaay bigger that I had expected with multiple slides and pools- it even had a sprinkle area, platforms to jump from into deep water (with Dominicans actually in lines and waiting!) and, my favorite part because I have never used one before: it had a bar in the water!!! The prices to drink were double or triple that of a colmado but I guess that’s to be expected, especially on a day where there was going to be a concert with multiple singers, some really famous.<br /><br />We were mildly concerned that we would miss a singer since they claimed that the concert was going to be from 10 am to 10 pm and, since we had to get ready by going to the salon beforehand, we didn’t get to the park until around 3. Luckily we are in the DR and so they didn’t start singing until around 3:30 or 4. <br /><br />Overall we all had a great time. I haven’t gone to many concerts in my time but I think I prefer Dominican concerts. No one has any shame and so they’re singing and dancing. I must have danced for 3 hours Saturday night. The park closed around 10 or 10:30 and we took a cab home. There was a group of 7 of us and we all went to my friend Kelly’s house because she lives pretty close. If you are ever in the DR and can go to a concert, I recommend that you go!<br /><br />4/1 Thursday: Easter Egg Hunt!!!!!<br />In honor of Semana Santa, today is my only class this week. I canceled all the others for “spring break” but I still wanted to have my art class. I really wanted to have an egg hunt for them and this week is the most appropriate time for that so we had to have art class! The only issue was figuring out a way to dye the eggs. After lots of searching and research I have decided to dye the eggs using the DR version of kool aid. The only sad thing is that we only have red and orange but I was fortunate to come across some actual Kool Aid grape flavored powder on Monday! At least we will have purple which is all that really matters, verdad?<br /><br />I knew today was going to be crazy but fun. I only let 30 kids participate since we had a limited number of eggs and it’s nearly impossible to control more than 30 kids at a time. I bought 120 eggs and Minga hardboiled them on her new stove for me that morning. I set up all the bowls with juice and explained to the kids how to use the crayons and then dye the eggs. Then I told them to collect their eggs and memorize which eggs were theirs before trading eggs with a partner. Then they had to go out and hide their partner’s eggs and after, return to the Club. Of course chaos ensued. All 30 kids went right up next to the side of the Club and hid all three of their eggs TOGETHER in a pile- when they had the entire baseball diamond at their disposal!! This would not do. I herded the kids back into the Club and said they weren’t allowed to hide them next to the Club and they couldn’t be together, that the point was that the person had to really try to find them so they needed to use all the space in the play and put them separate from one another. I saw their light bulbs turn on, now this was going to be fun. The went out and re-hid the eggs and then came in for a lesson on why we have the Easter Bunny in the States and why we do fun stuff with eggs. Then I let them go out to find the eggs before the big dog in the neighborhood found them and ate them, and that was equally funny. Ah, I love my “job”:)<br /><br />3/31 Wednesday: A talk with a neighbor.<br />Today I spoke with Ernesto about Mercedes. I have done everything else. I’ve avoided her, I’ve talked to her, I’ve been super nice, I’m sucked up, I’ve gone to her house to hang out, I tell her when I’m leaving and when I’m back… after 4 months of this, there are no other options aside from talking to Ernesto. And I was a little nervous because if Ernesto decided that I suck as well after this conversation, I would be in a pickle. Surprisingly it went well. I explained my problem, telling him that I wanted to talk to him about this because he randomly told me the day before that if he were in the US and I was his project partner and he had a problem with someone, he would talk to me. I told him how I have really tried to make things better between Mercedes and myself and have not been seeing the fruits of my labor. I told him I care for his whole family and when I first realized she was angry with me, it really upset me. I also told him even other women have approached me telling me that I should talk to her about this because she seems really mad at me. He told me he would talk to her so we shall see how it turns out but, as usual, I’m hopeful.<br /><br />3/29 Monday: This is kind of a boring story but I thought it was funny: A trip to the vet….<br />Last Friday I went to the only vet I knew about near the downtown area where I always go in Santiago. I was nervous that is was going to be one of those agro-veterinarians which are a dime a dozen here and is staffed by people who don’t generally know how to care for a “pet” rather than just shoveling vaccines down farm animal’s throats. Sure I def have a different opinion of them in the States but they’re different here. For instance, I went into one of these shops last week in Puerta Plata. I told the guy behind the counter I needed a deparasite med for my puppy. He didn’t ask how big she was or how old she was, he just gave me a bottle and said to give it all to her. I decided not to buy anything and instead went to a different place. With common sense stuff like that I know it’s no big deal but with actually giving vaccines I need a legit vet. So, I was very happy to find on Friday that VetBoca in Santiago seems very legit. I would prefer that they spoke English but Spanish isn’t really an issue anymore so that ok. I had decided to bring Caramelita into the vet on Monday and wasn’t sure how I was going to go about it still. I have heard many many horror stories about PCV’s animals freaking out on the bus rides, throwing up, defecating or urinating all over everything. I hoped that if I was calm she would be calm. But also I had some errands to run in Santiago and didn’t know about getting her into the stores. <br /><br />Getting out of my site was a piece of cake. I assumed the motorcycle ride would be ok because we had already been on a motor when we went to paint the mural last week. We ended up getting a bola down in a truck with Tolo, went to a lumberyard to buy some wood for the stoves and then waited at the expresso bus stop to Santiago. To my relief she rode on the bus like a champ and slept. We got off at the giant hardware store in Santiago, Ochoa, and I decided to put her in my shoulder bag and see what happened. Success! We got in! I picked out some paint, bought some seeds for the gardens and checked out, all the while with her being a very good girl in my bag. It wasn’t until as I was leaving, I went to pick up the bag I had checked that they saw her. And they didn’t even care!! They thought it was so cute that she was in there the whole time! So, I took her out of my bag and put the harness I had just bought for her on her. Stop at Ochoa to get some stuff: Check.<br /><br />Next we walked for a while… she doesn’t understand how to walk (a) in a place with lots of stuff to distract her (b) on a leash (c) with a harness. So when I say “we” walked I really mean it took her about 15 minutes to walk one block and then I carried her the rest of the way. We went into the next store, her carefully stowed away in my shoulder bag, and I went to the counter to get some tickets to a concert “water park” this weekend. Apparently only one guy can sell tickets and he wasn’t going to be in for another 30 minutes. So I walked around the store, found grape Kool Aid for my egg dying art class on Thursday, tried on some clothes, looked at makeup… a little of this a little of that. An hour later I went back to the counter and the dude still wasn’t there. Not surprising. But there was another store that sold tickets that wasn’t too far from this one so I set out to find that store. All the while Caramelita was zonked out in my bag. Overstimulation can be a good thing sometimes! I went into the next store and bought the tickets without a problem. Buy 7 tickets for this weekend: Check.<br /><br />After that I decided that now would be as good of a time as any to buy some paper for my Escojo class. When I went into this store Caramelita was readjusting and the door checker said, “Let me see what’s in your bag.” I showed her and it was our 1st rejection: she said I couldn’t go into the store with her. So I asked her to get me some paper and glitter for my art class and she stared at me for a minute and then said I could go in. Stop to get supplies for Escojo and art: Check.<br /><br />Now I was really beginning to become loaded down with stuff so we went to the park and played fetch and then went to the vet. She did a good job with the vet and so I left her to go to the normal spot to use internet: the hotel Aloha Sol. They have free wireless for their guests and while I have never stayed there, that’s the hotel PC uses when we need to be consolidated (for hurricanes generally) so they let us use it. <br /><br />When I went to pick Caramelita up she was laying peacefully on her side staring at the wall. I asked if she had been sleeping the whole time and the vet said no it was just the opposite. She had been crying so much that they thought maybe she was hot so they moved her to a different cage on top of all the other cages so that she was closer to the fan, they gave her water and even shut their front door and turned on the AC! What a diva!! I put her in my bag, grabbed all my stuff and walked to my bus stop. She slept for a while but woke up when we were half way home and was standing at attention looking out the window on the way home. Then on the motorcycle she didn’t behave quite as well as the 1st ride but overall she was good.<br />I thought this day was funny. All those stores and only one cared that I had a dog in my bag!! Hopefully when I take her back to the vet for her 2nd vaccine set she still fits in my bag!BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-26863906039980353652010-03-29T14:19:00.001-04:002010-03-29T14:24:47.578-04:00so many things!!! 3/7- 3/293/26 Friday: A trip to the mayor’s office, the public health office, the vet and a miracle!!!!!!!!!!!<br />Yesterday I told Ernesto that I have that letter asking for trash service but wanted someone to go with me to talk to the mayor about it. He immediately volunteered to go with me the next morning, Friday. So, today I really prepared myself. I picked out my nicest blouse, my dress sandals, even scrubbed my feet and pained my nails!! We went to the office after printing out the letter and an envelope only to find out that all the prep was in vain. She is out sick from an operation! What a pain!! So we explained to her secretary and I guess I’ll go back alone sometime after Samana Santa (Easter week) to see if she’s back in. <br /><br />I felt like the day was off to a bad start and Ernesto seemed pretty crabby too. He dropped me off at the bus stop and I headed for Santiago. 1st stop was SESPAS- the department of Public Health- to try and get condoms. For those of you who remember, last year this was a bit of a challenge. I need condoms for my Escojo class and don’t want to use grant money to buy them when I can get them for free. Last year I was in the office for a good 45 minutes trying to get someone to give me condoms, I even left defeated and then went back in, deciding I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I did eventually get some condoms but the experience was not forgotten. This time I went to the clinic in my community and asked the doctor if they had condoms. They didn’t have any but the doctor said he could get some for me the next day. I knew that he would forget so I said I could swing by SESPAS the next day and get them. But, if he would please write me a note with his name on it and the stamp of our clinic my life would be easier. When I went to SESPAS the security guard wasn’t going to let me in because I was wearing my nice blouse still which was sleeveless. I told him I was from far away and couldn’t change so he offered me HIS shirt- a denim button down SESPAS shirt. I said thanks, put it on (sure it was a little big) and walked in like I knew what I was doing. I walked right past the secretary, flashing my SESPAS badge on my shirt and went to the room in the back with the condoms. I asked them to give me condoms and they drilled me- Condoms for who, when do you need them, what’s the name of your organization, what’s the name of this youth group, how many kids are in it, what are you going to do with them, where are you from, what community…. Really? They’re condoms people, not your 1st born son. Then I pulled out the gold: The Note. Almost right away they passed me an entire box of condoms; 144 brand spanking new condoms. Now I think we’ll have enough for our Escojo conference in April as well!! Yippee!<br /><br />After that triumph I went to the find the vet I was recommended to see if it was legit. It was a decent walk in my nice sandals but I made it and the vet was pretty nice. I bought some cute stuff for my little puppy, made an “appointment” for next week and set off to use the internet. <br /><br />Once I was on the internet, I was upset to see that my grant had disappeared! Where did it go? I called Conrado, the grants coordinator and he said if it was gone that meant it was filled! No way dude, as much as I would like to believe that the hours I spent writing emails to friends and family asking for donations (which makes me feel guilty since everyone at home has already given so much) I just don’t see $1500 being donated in 4 days. Conrado said he would check and call me back. He never called back.<br /><br />That night my mom called me to ask me why I didn’t tell her I was interviewed for the Dixon Telegraph and Sauk Valley Newspaper. I told her I must have forgotten to tell her, whoops. I also didn’t know the story was going to be printed today. The reporter wanted to interview me because of a grant I received called Kids to Kids. It’s a great grant where kids from the States raise money for other kids in impoverished countries. The grant is for $500 and it’s what I’m using to do my art class. So when Kids to Kids contacted me asking if I would be willing to interview for my local newspaper to get them some publicity of course I said I would be more than happy to! After all, if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have my most fun project right now- art class. I asked the reporter if she could include a little tidbit about how I’m trying to fill this grant to build a library and she said she didn’t know if she could but she would check. My mom read me the story and I was super happy to find that the reporter was able to include the URL for my grant and so it is VERY possible that my grant was filled that same day!!!!! Can you believe it!??! $1500 filled in ONE DAY!!! I am soo happy!! I did a happy dance in my house when I finished talking with my mom. Amazing the way things always work out and fit together. I was so worried about getting that grant filled and now it’s probably filled, after just a few weeks online!! (I just have to get a hold of Conrado to confirm it is actually filled and not MIA.) Fantastic and thank you soooo much to everyone who donated!!!<br /><br />3/25 Thursday: Don’t procrastinate and your dreams will come true.<br />In hindsight this was wrong of me but after not having anything to do during my 1st three months in site I developed this habit of procrastination. See I thought that I would always try to“save” some things to do for tomorrow so that I would always have something to do. Ever since I saw how the new PCV, Jenn was acting- doing everything as soon as she could, not only was I a little embarrassed about my behavior and impressed by hers but I took note of how she was always busy. Hmmm, maybe this newbie is on to something. Since then I’ve tried to do things right away and, yep my theory has proven true, I have had more to do. The moral of this story is that once again I am very glad to have Jenn living so close to me and that even here with the slower pace of things, you can get more done if you don’t procrastinate. (Genius I know)<br />An example of a typical “workday” for me these days is like today: wake up at 7, take puppy out and clean any messes. Get dressed and find where the stove workers are at the moment. Meet up with them around 8 and stay with them until 9:50 or so. Then find the key to the Club and go have my art class from 10 until 12. From 12- 1 hang out with the Doña and get a free lunch. 1-2 shower if I’m really hot or relax away for a bit. 2-4:00 have second art class. 4:30 head up to the intersection (about 1.5 miles up) to teach English. From 5:30- 7:30 have English and from 7:30- 8:15 walk home. Hang out with the kids who were at my house waiting for me to get back until 9 or 9:30 and then shoo them away so I can grasp at the few strands of sanity I have remaining. <br /><br />3/24 Wednesday: A mural and nice walk.<br />Today as I was preparing for my next English class I received a phone call from Anne asking me to go over to her site to help her paint. As any of you who know me are aware, I love painting and decorating. I don’t like painting alone or painting a wall one boring color but help paint a mural? Yes. Especially since I went to her house last week and helped her design the mural. Caramelita (my new puppy) and I hopped on a motorcycle and went to the mural site (about 4.5 miles away) and had fun painting. We didn’t finish it so I said I would come back Saturday or Sunday to help again. Anne and I discovered that Caramelita likes to eat paint and paint brushes. <br /><br />I told my motor man to come and get me around 6 and by 6:45 it was getting dark and I was still at Anne and Tim’s. So I called him and he said he would leave right then to get me. I told him I would begin walking back so look for me along the road. I was a little freaked out because there are lots of parts of the road where there are no houses and it was foggy. Can you say creepy?! Tito showed up after I had not only walked all the way home in the dark and fog but also had the time to go to Minga’s and then to the colmado to chat. Thanks Tito. He’s Noel’s step dad and I was thinking I would split my business between him and Noel since Tito’s money goes to the family and Noel’s doesn’t but on second thought…. maybe I’ll just call Tito when I’m not creeped out or in a hurry.<br /><br />3/20-22 Saturday- Monday: A legit vacay in Cabarete<br />This weekend was fantastic. Saturday morning I went to the hardware store before skipping town to pick up some supplies and send them up with Noel. I was waiting for them to be prepared when the hardware store owner told me that he would get them ready and send them in about 10 minutes. So far he has been very reliable and so I trusted him. He took down 2 numbers for me, Noel’s and Franklins, and assured me it wouldn’t take long. So I set off for Cabarete! <br /><br />When I got to Cabarete about 3 hours later I met Kenzie’s mom and her godmother. They’re both really nice and we had a great time. They reserved a hotel room which was more like a sweet apartment with a balcony, ocean view, two bedrooms, comfy couch, kitchen with dishwasher… it was great. And the hotel had a pool and a hot tub! The 4 of us along with Kenzie’s host brother and boyfriends spent the rest of Saturday, all of Sunday and part of Monday together before I had to get going. I was planning on picking up my puppy later that day and I needed to get food, a collar and parasite medicine for her. Little Manchita Gallenia Cabrera Espencer was going to have one comfy night ahead of her! <br />When I finally got back to my house I passed by Ernesto. He seemed annoyed. I asked what time the tin and rivet gun arrived on Sat and he said they never came. He finally went to Navarrete on Monday and had to wait until 11 am for the owner of the store to arrive. I guess the owner, Leo, had an emergency with his wife (interesting he’s married since he always hits on me and once last week sent me a love poem text) and that’s why he was late. I’m annoyed because it looked bad on me that I was on a vacay while things here were falling apart. Urg.<br /><br />After I put my stuff down and put some time in with Ernesto and his fam and then I went to pick up my new puppy, Manchita or Little Spot only to find out that she had died on Saturday. And so did one of her sister’s leaving just one sister puppy left. And Manolo, the owner told me that the puppies died dramatically and painfully. Apparently they were whining in pain and then just died. I was sad for them and not sure what to do about the last puppy. If I left her she would probably meet the same fate but then again if I took here would she die in the same manner, leaving me to dispose of a puppy body!? I took her and hoped for the best. I had picked up some de-parasite meds and gave them to her that night. The next day she pooped out a ton of worms and was in considerably higher spirits. Maybe there’s hope for her yet, little Caramelita Yautia Cabrera Espencer.<br /><br />3/19 Friday night: Payday for the men<br />Jimmy, Oney and Ernesto weren’t able to complete any stoves this week since we were missing a rivet gun and tin to make the chimneys. They took the initiative and built 10 stove bottoms, which impressed me and showed their commitment to the project and eagerness to make money. They are supposed to make $500/stove so I was thinking I would give them half since the stoves were half done but that only would have been about $800 pesos or about $24 USD each for the entire week. As they have all done prep work for this going back about two weeks I decided to pay them $1500 or about $43 USD each which was nearly all of the money if they had finished the stoves. I know that they will finish the project and so I figured it was ok. Well, when I was talking with Ernesto, one of my favorite people, we were discussing how many stoves to build. I said we should have enough to do about 60 or 65 stoves. I also want to give at least 5 for “free” (meaning they don’t have to pay the $500 labor) to the poorest families- probably Haitians. The problem with that is most all of the Haitians live in group living, in a house provided by a rich farmer who gives them free living and pays them to farm his field. So the issues with this grand idea are that (1) Dominicans don’t think we should give free stuff to Haitians despite the fact that they may have been born here and should be entitled to the same things as Dominicans (2) Many of the Haitians are migrant workers and so Dominican’s don’t want to put something in the house for them when they’re just going to leave (although many Haitians live here for years and years if not their entire lives) (3) The owner of the home can afford to improve the living conditions but won’t pay for it. What a conundrum! <br /><br />Anyways, back to the point. I was talking with Ernesto and he seems to think that 40 stoves is enough here. I think that’s a huge waste of a perfectly good grant (the money that isn’t used is returned) and so I want to use it all. We have 100 houses here and I’m sure 60 of them would like a stove and the majority of them can pay for one too. If there aren’t 60 that need a stove then we can reach out a little to other surrounding communities. If we have to donate the labor for 10 stoves instead of 5 then we’ll do that. Sure I have to lie to the community and say it was a separate grant I wrote and so I have to give stoves to Haitians or something like that but whatever. The thing is, everyone here thinks they’re entitled to a free stove and that they are dirt poor but that’s not the case. I am sure there will be a little uproar over this but I’m prepared to deal with it because I support it. And, let’s face it; people have been upset with me for less than that here so… why not?! :) <br /><br />Then Ernesto tells me he has 3 houses in mind to donate to. One I agree with completely, one I’m not sure who it is and one is not going to happen. He wants to donate one to his mother in law- who doesn’t even live in the community and I think Ernesto can afford to pay for one! I was annoyed that he suggested it. Not only to see if we could build one there (which I probably would have agreed to since she lives in the neighboring community) but to have her be one of the donated ones? No way dude! Not to mention it looks bad giving him extra perks because he’s my project partner. Since he is a worker, if he wants to work on her stove for free and donate his time that would be ok but I am not going to pay him $500 from the grant to do her stove.<br /><br />Then he tells me that he doesn’t think we should do all the stoves because it’s better to have extra materials rather than not enough. Sure I agree to that but doing 20 less? Not an option. While I’m letting my mind wrap around all this he tells me that doing 40 stoves is the way to go to save money and that we can make up receipts for whatever. Oh great. Just fantastic. I was disappointed. I couldn’t believe my Ernesto was talking like that. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume I misunderstood but then there’s the issue of the change from the hardware store. He went 2xs to buy stuff in the same week and each time I gave him $1000 pesos. I didn’t know how much he had spent but tonight I finally asked and he had spent just $500 pesos. I asked about the $1500 pesos in change 3 times and he never went and got it. I think he spent it. And so I need to figure out a way to get it back without offending him. No matter what, he is still the best person I have here. I just need to watch him more closely I suppose until I figure out something else. <br /><br />Then, a few days later I found out that he asked Jimmy to lend him $1500 from the paid money which Jimmy didn’t have since he gave it to me already (thank goodness) and that Ernesto collected $500 from two houses and wouldn’t give the money to Jimmy to give to me. I mentioned to Ernesto how weird it was that only one new person had requested a stove this week and he said, “Well you know how it is here, everyone wants something for free.” And so he had the chance to tell me, “Oh yeah- by the way Fulana and Bob paid and I collected the money. I’ll give it to you later.” But he didn’t. So, this sucks. It also sucks because I feel like an enabler. I knew when he did my wall that there was no way it cost over $48,000 pesos and the wall still supposedly wasn’t able to be completed. That wall should be done and lined in gold for that amount of money. It’s upsetting for me and now I’m not sure where that leaves me with the library project. The only thing I can say about it is that I’ll have to wait to do that until the summer when all my other projects are done and I can carefully monitor supplies each day. How sad and what a pain.<br /><br />3/18 Thursday: My 1st English class and possibly an offense...<br />The Offense: Today I was in the Club de Madres, attempting to multitask but failing miserably. I was supervising the art class while trying to draw out the papers for the English class Jenn and I were going to give that night, and it wasn’t going well. The kids were insane as usual, the wind kept blowing my large paper away and the guy I sent to buy some materials from the hardware shop came back after buying stuff from the wrong place and not getting something I still need to look the definition up of… something like a rivet gun?? (How did I know he didn’t have it if I didn’t know what it was you ask? Because I am just that great of a detective, what can I say?) Anyways, in the middle of all this confusion that has become my life, some dude walks in and tries to take a water filter. If you remember this project, there were 30 filters delivered to our community in December and it’s been a process getting people to pay for them. So, resisting the urge to simply give them away to get rid of them finally, I have been holding out telling everyone who tells me that they’ll pay later that they have to pay BEFORE and then they can pick up their filter. Imagine my surprise then when this guy shows up to take one and I have no idea who he is. I found out he was picking it up for Minga’s sister. She had given me $300 pesos towards the filter that day or the day before and I was very clear that AFTER she paid the other $250 she could pick up the filter. So I told the guy he would have to come back later to get it and he was a little rude, telling me I was going to have to pay for his gas and time. I asked how much she was paying him (just because I’m nosey, obviously I’m not paying for anything of the sorts) and he said he was just helping her. So I was feeling double annoyed that A) She sent him to get the filter after I told her she had to pay 1st (B) This guy was trying to haggle me, in my community, in my art class, and with my project. I sighed, told him he couldn’t take it right now and went back to trying to draw out my lesson for English. Then Monino walked in, Minga’s sister. When I tried to explain (yet again) that the rule is that EVERYONE has to pay BEFORE she got really mad at me and started yelling and getting all frantic. Then she said, “If you think I can’t pay, I can!! I have your money right here I just have to get change!!” as she began waving a $1000 peso bill around. Before I could say anything she handed the bill to Santa and told her to guard it since I obviously didn’t believe she was good for the money and when she got change for it, she would give it to me. Then she walked over with her rude helper man and took the filter. At this point I would have been fine with her taking the filter and then making change to pay for it. But what a way to go about it. And what drama in my art class. After the class I walked to her house to make sure there were no hard feelings since I’m pretty sure I offended her. We hung out a little bit before I had to leave for English class and I think she’s mad at me. Look, everyone has to pay before, the only people who haven’t paid beforehand are the richer people who live in the weekend homes and that’s because they came and took one after they got my permission to have a filter. I guess I didn’t convey that they had to pay for it first. I’m not concerned though because I don’t think they’ll try to finagle their way out of paying. Monino I think would. She’s asked me for money before, her son is the one who stole from me for months on end and she is one of the types that always says she has no money and is trying to get people to give her stuff for free yet she lives in a pretty sweet house. <br /><br />English Class: On Sunday Jenn called me and asked me if I wanted to participate in teaching an English class with her. I have been avoiding English simply because it’s not like Escojo where there are clear and immediate results and because they aren’t going to be fluent in 16- 90 minute sessions over 4 months but that’s what they think will happen. I guess Jenn is pretty good friends with the pastor of the church there and he wanted her to teach a class. Poor girl is in her digging stage of building the aqueduct which means she leaves her house at 7 am each day, walks 2.5 miles with a pickaxe over her shoulder to the site and digs 3 ft deep trenches until 2-3 each day. Sooooo glad I’m not a water PCV. Needless to say, she is tired. I however am like the Teaching Master now and love working with someone else on projects so I said I would love to! It works out well for both of us: we have a reason to meet up during the week to plan the class, I prepare the class (why not when I already have all the markers and paper?) relieving Jenn of that duty, I get exercise walking the 3 miles round trip to where we have the class or walking the little over 4 miles round trip to her house each week to plan and I feel satisfied that I am going to give an English class, something that I simply feel I should do. Win win. We anticipated having a lot of people in the 1st class and there were a lot of people but it wasn’t out of control. I only told about 6 people from my community so there weren’t many from La Lomota but there were a lot from the other communities. Where we have the class is far for everyone to walk but it’s the most central location and a lot of communities can participate. I think we had about 40 kids there, which was a little crazy but manageable since we have a large space and there are two of us teaching. Other PCVs have had 80 people show up to their 1st classes, thank goodness that didn’t happen since we wouldn’t have gotten anything done. Overall I think it went really well. We talked about the rules, took attendance, did some kind of little drama and played a game with greetings and farewells. We have this electronic manual but I think we’re going to more use that as a reference and do our own thing. I personally like to play at least one game in each class and the manual doesn’t have any games so we’re going to have to get creative. Aside from the fact everyone from my community except my little 12 year old friend, Niña, and I got a free ride back- leaving her and I to walk the 1.5 miles alone in the dark and in the rain, the experience was a good one. Even the walk back was fun. Messy but fun!<br /><br />3/17 Wednesday: Stove Training, new puppy!!<br />Today we were all supposed to go to Ane and Tim’s site to see how a stove is built. Out of the 4 of us working on the stoves (Jimmy, Oney, Ernesto and myself) Ernesto and I are the only ones who really needed to go to this training as we are the ones who have never see a stove built before. That’s why I was a little disappointed when the morning of Ernesto told me he couldn’t go because he had a doctor’s appointment. He had a bad kidney infection last week but I just wish he had mentioned the checkup to me before so I could have made the training for a different day. No matter, at least the guys are getting a 2nd training and I’m getting a 1st. The training went well. The stove is simple enough and right when we got to the part where we’re going to add the mouth (the hardest part) to the stove Ernesto showed up!! He’s so dependable. We made some changes to the design and hopefully each of the two pots will heat up now (it’s a two “burner” stove). <br /><br />Something you should know about Oney and Jimmy is that they think its hilarious to tease me with things such as slamming on the brakes of the motorcycle so I slam into the driver or making up stupid names for me. I’m pretty accustomed to this by now and so what happened today shouldn’t have surprised me. A little background for this story: I have decided to care for a puppy while I’m here. I wasn’t going to but I broke down and now I am getting a puppy with only 7 months of service left! There was this really fuzzy cute one I liked a lot- I walked around with it before returning it to its home and I even named it. It makes all kids of weird noises so I named it Chewbacca. I have it set up so that when I’m out of site and when my service is over a certain family will care for little Chewy. The daughter wanted to name him Beethoven so I decided to be very Dominican and gave him the name…. drum roll… Chewbacca Beethoven Cabrera Espencer with a nickname of Chewy (Dominicans have two last names and nearly everyone has a nickname). Fantastic! Well, Jimmy saw me walking around with this puppy the day before and during our stove training he decided to start calling me Chewbac. I was hoping they would forget about it after a day or so, especially when I bring Chewy home to live. Well, when I got home that day I went to play with the puppy and had he died. Bummer. And Jimmy and Oney still call me Chewbac… oh my. <br /><br />This sounds cruel but since Chewy died (I would have been much sadder in the States but for some reason am more disconnected from animals here… maybe its watching all the chickens die or listening to the pigs get slaughtered) I picked out his sister, a cute and spunky little white thing with brown spots, and not at all furry (sadly). She likes to cuddle and already sleeps on a pillow!! I need to name her something cool that can be pronounced in English and Spanish so if anyone has some ideas… let me know! Thanks! (Just not “Spot”)<br /><br />3/12-3/13: Hellllllooooooo Committee Weekend and Christmas in March!!<br />The reason I had to go to committee weekend was because I am in a co-planner for the Celebrando el Cibao kids camp this summer (a fun 3 day camp on diversity for kids at the end of August, something very important especially considering the level of discrimination against Haitians here) and so I had to hold an informational meeting for PCVs. To my grand surprise, I checked my mailbox and had a package slip. I was sooooo excited because that means that my Christmas package from my mom and sister had arrived:) Imagine my shock to find that I had TWO Christmas packages- one from Mom and Rach and one from the Health Dept!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!!!! For those of you interested in the goodies, Mom and Rach sent me fun yet practical things like a super colorful table clothe and curtains but also included the essential bag of candy- YUM!! Then BCHD gave me two DVDs (Blood Diamond and Pirates of the Caribbean- great choices guys) and the rest was CANDY CANDY CANDY!!! Which as I opened each box I realized that it was everything off of my wish list on my blog- lol!! So, not only do I now know that you do read my blog but I am fat with sweets! Merry Christmas and thanks soo much for thinking of me! :)<br /><br />3/12 Friday: Getting the brick for the stoves…<br />THURSDAY: I received the grant money nearly 2 weeks ago and yet we still don’t have all the materials to make the stoves. This is largely due to the rain. I didn’t want to repeat the same craziness that ensued after/during heavy rains when we had the water filters delivered so I put the brakes on the project and said we had to wait until it had been sunny for at least 2 days. Well, this week the weather finally began to cooperate and on Thursday the hardware store began delivering the supplies. This surprised me since no one mentioned to me that they had spoken with the hardware owner to have the supplies delivered today. Minga was at my house around 8 am calling me, saying that the truck was here and they were waiting for me. I was awake but needed a few minutes to get dressed and by the time I arrived to the park where the truck was waiting about 10 minutes had passed. The annoying guy in my community who speaks English was there, perfectly playing his role of being annoying, acting like he knew what was going on or that he was somehow in charge of the project. When I got past him I was slightly dismayed to find out that none of the workers were around since some family member had died the night before. So I took inventory of what was there and we began looking for spots to unload. The truck had to make 4 trips that day and it took alllll day. I was running back and forth between my art class and driving with the truck, dropping the supplies in different locations. Ernesto was there off and on (thank goodness!) and so he helped with where we would put the supplies. <br /><br />Then on Friday I’m supposed to go to the capital for committee weekend but we really needed these ceramic pieces to make the mouth of the stove (where you load the wood) which means we have to go to Santiago since that’s where the pieces are. Ernesto is a valuable person to have with you because he knows everyone and everyone respects him. People say no to me or tell me a super high price but when Ernesto walks over they say yes and give him a discount. He was able to find us a truck to take us to Santiago for great price. When we got there they didn’t have the right sized pieces and, once again- thank goodness Ernesto was there because he said he could cut the pieces that were too big because he has a saw. We got the brick, loaded it up and Ernesto and the driver headed back while I headed in to Santiago, making my way to the capital.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-82197380584246765332010-03-10T12:25:00.000-05:002010-03-10T12:27:03.383-05:00This and that from 2/19- 3/73/8 Monday: The Carnaval Parade<br />Today was a good day. It was finally sunny but still cold (a high of 70 with a cold breeze is cold here people). I wanted to leave the house but I had a bunch of stuff to get done on the computer and there was power so I stayed in (well on the porch, plugged in) until nearly 4 pm when I went to the Women’s Club for the meeting and after the parade. When I was walking up, a woman who I was surprised to see on that side of town (her and Mercedes hate each other so she stays on her side of the community) approached me and handed me a pamphlet about interfamily abuse. Then she said that I would be the one to present the presentation. Wait, what? I stared at her for a minute and then figured, what the heck. It’s just reading and I think my accent has gotten quite a bit better since I began reading Harry Potter in Spanish aloud. It went over pretty well. After the meeting there were a lot of kids waiting for me, asking about the candies I said I would give. Dominican culture has no order. People don’t say please or thank you. They say, give me. Add that to 25 crazy kids who are hopped up on the idea of a parade and candy and you have a recipe for disaster. They were insane. I wanted to choke them. There were 50 little hands in my face, palms up and wide open, swaying back and forth frantically accompanied by 25 little children’s voices shouting at different octaves GIVE ME CANDY ELIZABETH. Holy crap. There was grabbing, shouting, and shoving. I tried to get them to line up but forget about it, they’re not programmed that since kindergarten like US kids. So I took my baggie of mints and put it in my satchel and we went on the parade candy-less. Not how I had pictured it but aside from the little candy gremlins it went really well. We walked from the Women’s Club to the school (1/4 mile) and back with me taking pictures of them all along the way. I think it was a success!<br /><br />3/7 Sunday: Visit from Jenn!!!<br />I loooooooooove having a neighbor who likes to visit. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Ane and Tim but they’re got each other so they don’t visit. I think in the 16 months I’ve been in my site they’ve come to my house maybe 2 times. I’ve gone to theirs at least 5 or 6 but I don’t feel like that’s very much for being only about 5 miles from each other. Jenn and I were talking last week and she’s going through some hard times in her site so last week I showed up to her new house with some dinner and dessert. It was so nice!! Then yesterday she came over and we talked, made cake and kind of watched a movie. It’s really nice to be able to make someone newer feel comfortable like I thought my neighbors were going to do with me. I’m looking forward to the rest of my service in my site for several reasons, one of which is a great friendship with Jenn:)<br />3/6 Saturday: Escojo Fieldtrip to Marks’ Escojo graduation:<br /> This field trip was fun. I told my kids about it when we started Escojo which was 3 classes before. We had some fundraisers selling raffle tickets and a floor cleaner similar to pine sol. With that money we bought the group a recognition plaque and some pop and cookies. I didn’t even try to find a driver to take us until 3 days beforehand which wasn’t a great idea but thankfully it worked out fine. I asked Tolo if he could do it, actually I invited Minga and got her all excited about it and then she asked Tolo. They agreed and Saturday morning 14 of us piled into Tolo’s truck- two kids less than were originally going to go since it was raining and their parents didn’t want them to get wet. We arrived to Marks and all the kids were pretty excited. To my dismay several of them felt it would be more fun to hang out in someone’s house watching tv instead of participating but kids will be kids I suppose. We stayed for about 3 hours and then most of the kids were antsy to get going since they were all really cold. We headed back without a hitch! Amazing, no breakdowns, we didn’t run out of gas or get lost… the biggest obstacle was the rain! Ha!<br />3/1 Friday: My Quarterly Report…. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that…<br /> So, every 3 months we have to write a report that is basically a number tally but PCDR tries to make it more personal for PCVs by adding little personal sections for our APCDs to read. All of health and water are pretty sure our APCD doesn’t read them but supposedly the APCDs are going to start reading them and giving feedback. I was skeptical but then what wasn’t I skeptical of at the time? Well when I had to write my report I was in the slum of my funk and was pretty negative in my report. For example, on the Success Story section where it asked for me to share a success story I wrote: not applicable. So when I heard that two months later Miguel was beginning to respond to people I was NERVOUS!! I don’t like confrontation and I wasn’t looking forward to what could possibly come from this. Well, Miguel wrote me back March 4th and I was nauseous before opening it. I brought this upon myself. I read it and Miguel was really cool about it all. He told me he understood how much it must suck to have community members steal from you and that having Mercedes not like me must be rough as well. I was shocked and relieved, whew! Yet another thing to be grateful for!<br />2/27-28 Friday and Saturday: Carnaval!!!<br /> Last year I went to La Vega and was the only one in my group that didn’t get wacked really hard by the swinging goat bladders. Sure it was because I ran shamelessly like a huge chicken but hey, I wasn’t sore the next day at least. This year we went back to La Vega but we went with other kids from the new group, the group one year after me. And it was funny!! The newbies were all really drunk and some of them threw themselves in the streets to get the butts kicked by the carnaval men. One of them really deserved it because he bought a souvenir goat bladder and was hitting all the females that walked by! Including me!! He freaking attacked me and I was so surprised I dropped my phone in a NASTY puddle. So, when he got smacked, that’s karma baby. Hehehe. At the end of the day we went to a concert with some band from Puerto Rico and we all danced in the streets to the music. It was really fun. And aside from the PCV, I didn’t get hit at all again this year!<br /> The next day Kelly and I went to Santiago to see their Carnaval. I liked that one better. Maybe it’s because they use whips instead of bladders so they don’t hit you but also because its more like a parade. They throw candy and do little dances. It’s a performance. We were only there for about 15 minutes before it began to DOWNPOUR and we got soaked! We ran to McDonalds for some shelter (and McFlurries) but by the time we got there it had stopped raining and we were soaked and cold. We still ate the ice cream though:) We went home and made soup and it was a good day!<br />2/18 Thursday: Art Class!!<br /> So I had my 1st art classes today. I decided to have two each Thursday that way all ages can participate. I have one at 10 am and one at 2 pm. Today I wanted to make face masks for carnaval with the kids and I wasn’t sure how many kids would go since I didn’t make any official announcements for it. I just told as many kids as were around me when I thought of it and counted on the fact that the 1st class was so cool it would attract more kids. The 10 class had a small but comfortable amount of kids; about 15. Then at 2 pm there were about 35 kids… which was a LOT. And we only had two pairs of scissors. All the kids really struggled with what they were going to do. They have never learned how to be creative so to speak so they were like, “Elizabeth, cut my mask for me because I don’t know how to do it. Glue for me because I don’t know how. Paint for me because I don’t know how. What colors should I use?” And so it went. Well I compromised and cut the mask for them since there were only 2 pairs of scissors and there were so many of them but the rest I made them do. After a while they really seemed to get the hang of it. It was really great to see them blossom into having more confidence. On the 8th we’re going to have a parade with all the kids and their masks which should be fun and interesting. I have no idea what it’s going to entail aside from bribing them with candy to go. But I’m looking forward to it.<br />Random things that happened sometime between Feb 19th and March 5th<br /><br />Money Money Money!!<br /> Well my grants finally came in on the 24th or so. In the past it has always been that you have to go to the PC office in SD to pick up the check which would be in your project partners name and then you have to go to a bank with your project partner to cash it. This time was different though as I discovered when I went to the ATM to withdraw the last few little pesos out of my account for the month. I took the most I could and when I checked my receipt in hopes of seeing an extra 1,000 pesos from some surprise reimbursement, my jaw dropped at the 181,000 pesos that was in my account! I checked the balance again and then was concerned. I don’t want that much money!! So the next day I was relieved to find out that PC is now doing grants different, simply depositing them into your account. Thank goodness!! Also because I was having a nervous breakdown that very day of boredom. I mean I was BORED. I was in near tears to my fellow PCVs asking the normal questions, Why am I here, What am I doing with my time… yada yada yada and let me tell you, being bored does not help. I was pretty much biding my time until my grants arrived, not a great use of time. So, now I have my grants- one for my Escojo class, one for the more efficient wood burning stoves, one for my art class… all in the same week! I am one happy camper.<br />What I’m going to do with all that money!<br />Thanks to all this money I can now repay myself a LOT of money I lent my classes for supplies which is reason to party! Also I can order the supplies for the stoves which people in my community seem to really want. (After the filter fiasco I’m not holding my breath that they’re going to be willing to pay the 500 pesos for the labor but I remain optimistic!) I went to a few hardware stores with Ernesto to recheck the prices to the ones I got back in November. They went up quite a bit so instead of being able to do 80 stoves I think we’ll be able to do more like 70. I think that should be more than enough. <br /> The one thing we need that the hardware store doesn’t have is the special ingredient: ceramic bricks. We have to go to one special place in Santiago to get those which means we need a truck. Well the hardware store dude, Leonardo, seems like a cool guy so I went to his store and asked if we could pay him for transport and go get some bricks. He agreed and then tried to get my number (ugh) and I left without giving my number.<br /> <br />A lesson in Dominican Men from Betsy:<br />The next day I was supposed to go with Ernesto down to the hardware store but it was raining. After the chaos when the filters were delivered I know that I don’t ever want anything delivered when it’s rainy or muddy again if I can help it. So, I called Leo and told him we weren’t going to be able to go until the weather shaped up. He agreed and at the end of the conversation he said how great it was that now he had my number. Oh brother. Later that day he sent me a 4 page love poem text. Gag. I tell you, when I get home I’m going to be upset with myself for not taking advantage of so many options in men but it’s just that I don’t trust Dominican men! They generally cheat, like nearly all of them! Sure they may be great looking, romantic, sweet… but they’re that way with their other 2 girlfriends too. And it’s a sure sign I’m right when every single one I ask tells me they don’t have a girlfriend. All of them, really? Jeesh.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-83473704775363256112010-02-24T15:13:00.000-05:002010-02-24T15:14:54.591-05:00but overall I am bored out of my mind...2/19 Friday: Filter Charla<br />In a nutshell: I am soooo over dealing with these filters. I made announcements and personally told people about this presentation and only 1 new person showed up. The requirements to get a filter are easy: pay $550 pesos and go to a class. Then you get your water filter and stop getting parasites. $550 isn’t so much that people can’t do it. Every single person in my community could do it if they set aside a little money here and there. Today was the 4th time I gave the same class and out of the 30 original filters we still have 6. People are so freaking lazy! I refuse to just give these away. I think that people think that I will just give them away if they wait long enough. The thing that really annoys me is that I had at least 5 people come up to me and tell me they really wanted a filter and they would be at the class but not one of them was there. There are two houses where the people want filters but they’re just weekend homes and I wanted to give the filters to someone who lived in the house all the time. Sometimes I get so frustrated by the mentality here. A lot of people want stuff but they won’t do anything to get it except complain. Well until they decide to do something about it, those filters are staying in the Women’s Club. People have to put something in for them or they won’t take care of them. I’d rather give them to someone in a different community who will take care of it than give them to someone who doesn’t appreciate it here.<br /><br />2/16 y 2/18: Tuesday and Thursday: Escojo<br />In a nutshell: Tuesday was my 1st Escojo class. It went soooooo well!! My 1st Escojo class I ever had was incredibly boring but this one, with all the promoters there (kids who got at least an 80% on the final exam and didn’t have a lot of absences) went fantastic! I hope this round goes better! I have a feeling it will since my old promoter group had a bad attitude and this time around there are only two from the previous group. Mostly Wandi and Argeni were the worst. Oh, and the time Ernie, Vanji and Yameliza walked out… that was pretty bad. Vaji and Yameliza are still in it but being the only old ones makes them less bad. They’re not the type of girls who are bad on their own but are obnoxious when paired with someone bad. Anyways, the class went great! Afterwards I invited all the promoters to my friend Mark’s Escojo graduation on the 6th of March. I said we should get the other group something as a happy graduation gift. All the kids agreed so we decided to have a raffle and also to make and sell Pine Sol again. I was a teeny bit concerned for the making of the floor cleaner but decided to just roll with it. I was nominated to get something “cool” for the raffle and when I went to Santiago on Wednesday for an Escojo meeting I stopped at a store which is more like a huge garage sale (very disorganized but cheap!) and found the perfect thing: a thermos! Doñas will like it because they will only have to make coffee 1x/day and it will stay warm and men will like it because, well why not? <br />On Thursday the Pine Sol making went soooooo smooth! It was amazing!! I kept having flashbacks of my other promoters sitting and watching while just 2 people worked and then all arguing about the amount of work to be done. We made about 60 bottles in about 90 minutes. That includes looking for the bottles, cleaning them, making the floor cleaner and bottling it. They didn’t help clean up much but I was planning on being there for about 3 hours anyways so I was happy! Now we’ll see how many they can sell. No matter what though we’ll have enough money for the gift. The raffle alone raised enough money as the gift costs about $500. I told them we could use the rest for a party or something.<br /><br />2/15 Monday: The Mother’s Club gift exchange<br />In a nutshell: I wasn’t sure how Mercedes was going to treat me this week since we have since talked about our issues. She was civil and even kind of friendly which was a nice change. I bought the gift for my secret santa to exchange but I also wanted to get a gift for Minga. So, when I was in Santiago today coming back up from the concert, I stopped at a great store called Jumbo. I found a flower pot with little hearts all over it and got it for Minga. Then I went to the counter and had them wrap it (all the stores here will wrap presents for free) and Jumbo takes FOREVER but they do a great job. Minga liked the wrapping job so much she refused to open the gift! I found this hilarious so I took a picture of it. Finally her daughter came by a few days later and opened it for her. Next time I’ll save the money and get a rock wrapped for her!<br /><br />2/13 Saturday: Adventura!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br />In a nutshell: My favorite band is Adventura. They’re great and sing my favorite type of music, bachata. I found out last December that they were going to come to the DR for a concert and definitely wanted to go. Through some miscommunications with friends buying tickets, I didn’t get one in time and unless I wanted to pay 700 pesos more ($20) for better seats, I wasn’t going. Well, I am too cheap to pay 1600 pesos for a ticket so I resolved to not go. Then, a miracle happened: one of my friends had an extra ticket and called me on Thursday to see if I wanted it!!!! So, I went to see Adventura in concert. We got there about an hour late and were really far away but who cares?! The crowd was amazing and we all agreed it was one of the best concerts we had ever seen. Yippee, my 1st concert in the DR!!!!<br /><br />2/12 Friday: A short example of why school here no cive para nada<br />In a nutshell: This entire week I have been trying to go to the school to talk to the director. I’ve been trying to go during the least intrusive time of day so as to not disrupt classes too much but I need to get Escojo started again and have to compile a list of interested kids. I can’t do that if I don’t have permission from the Director, Humberto. Well, to be blunt- school here sucks. I know I have said this before but here is a great example of why it sucks. Every single day this week I was going to go around 5, near the end of school to talk to Humberto and then come back the next day to talk to the students. Every single day my plans were foiled because, after beginning school at 2 pm each day, school was let out no later than 4 every each day this week for reasons such as meetings with other teachers, the school is being remodeled and they’re putting in windows…. I finally just went on Friday in the morning to talk to him but he wasn’t there. So, I sat and had a 20 minute conversation with Violeta, his wife and a school teacher, about Christmas, New York (aka the States) and how everything is so organized (so says her husband who was there for 45 days over Dec and Jan), and other random things. While this was during her class I have decided that it really doesn’t matter if we have a long conversation in the middle of it. She’s more likely to be agreeable if I chit chat with her for a while before getting to the point. Finally we began the topic of Escojo. I made a list of kids who were old enough to participate who have school in the morning and said I would come back in the afternoon to talk to Humberto. I went back later, school once again got out early but I was able to make a list of kids and talk to Humberto. Even though I’m not having class in the school anymore he insisted I write a letter to him about it again before he would agree (agree to what?). So, I wrote the letter and I have a very small class. Only about 10 kids are interested in it as opposed to 40 I had this time last year. That was a little discouraging since I’m sure a few will drop out of it but at least it will be more manageable.<br /><br />2/10 Wednesday: Controlling the situation<br />In a nutshell: It made me very happy today when Pimbi came over. This is the woman who stole my clothing from Minga’s house and gave it to her prego daughter (I still haven’t say anything to her about it). She came to my house to see when I was going to fix her filter and then told me she wanted me to “gift” her one of my shirts. My first reaction was laughing out loud thinking, well, at least she’s ASKING me now! But then I was annoyed not only because its rude even in this culture to ask people for stuff like that but because it was the 2nd time this week people have out right asked me for something. One woman I don’t even hang out with sent a little kid to my house 2x asking for nail polish. Anyways, after the initial shock of this woman’s audacity in asking me for a shirt, I asked her if she knew the story about someone stealing from me. She said she did and I then went on and on about how it made me feel so terrible and sad. I thought the community didn’t like me and after leaving all my family and friends in the States, people here treat me like that… so sad, yada yada yada. She agreed, said of course it wasn’t her (to which I of course agreed) and said her goodbye- without a shirt of mine. Adios mujer!BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-18503706173076152772010-02-14T13:01:00.000-05:002010-02-14T13:03:01.081-05:00first week of feb2/7 Monday: For the love of all things holey, can we PLEASE move past this!?!<br />In a nutshell: Today I confronted Mercedes about our issue as the poem and gifts didn’t have the affect I was hoping. To my surprise, she seemed bursting with things to say and pretty hurt. In a nutshell, she is offended that I don’t tell her when I’m going to eave for days at a time and when I’ll be back. That’s a fair complaint as she is my closest neighbor and one of the two people signed up to take care of me with PC. We talked and we sealed it with a hug. PC told us in training not to be direct here but I’m finding that’s horrible advice. <br /><br />Then I went to Minga’s and had a great talk with her and her daughter, Margara in the kitchen while Margara’s kids played in Mingas house. For some random reason I opened up about everything, I haven’t opened up about everything to anyone here- not even Wandi. But I told them how I was in my house crying for days after Christmas and how awful I felt about the entire situation. They supported me and said that Mercedes gets mad over lots of little things but mostly when she thinks someone messes with her kids. She knew Wandi liked me and that I was really mad at him so then she was mad at me. When I was gone I think it turned into her thinking I must be mad at her and her entire family for whatever I thought Wandi did to me since I didn’t tell her I was leaving or when I was coming back.<br /><br />I also told Maragara and Minga about how it was Geraldo who broke into my house before and that he did it again in December. Then when I went back to my house, I passed my Mercedes house and said hi to Geraldo sitting on the porch and he ignored me. I know he heard me because I walked up to him, kicked his foot and shined my light on him. He wouldn’t even look at me. Then I noticed Margara’s son sitting behind Geraldo. Nuts.<br /><br />The Real Blog: In the 15 hours I since I returned home I had 2 people come up to me and tell me that “someone” is saying I’m mad at Mercedes. This amazes me since I have not been here to be mad at her, which I pointed out to each person who said that to me. Today I must have been feeling surprisingly bold. I went to the Women’s Meeting and unknowingly sat right next to Mercedes. She literally turned her body so her back was to me. It took me a good 30 minutes to notice it was her since I couldn’t see her face and why would I assume someone is purposely putting their back to me? Then, when the meeting was nearly over, I was the only one left to talk, she actually left! More like bee lined it out of there. She is the president and so she’s supposed to stay until the meeting is done and all the women are gone. After this, I decided that I would just talk to her. I’ve tried hiding from her which obviously was not successful. I tried a poem with a gift and that didn’t work. (I thought for sure that would work) So, without other options, I’m going against the advice of not being direct in this culture and I’m talking to her. <br /><br />I walked up to her house and she was there washing clothing. I told her people have been telling me that they heard I’m mad at her and to my complete surprise she said, Of course Elizabeth. That sure opened up conversation. We talked for about 5-10 minutes and she was pretty upset, in fact she talked for at least 8 of those 10 minutes. I actually felt kind of bad. She told me that she knew Wandi supposedly did something horrible to me but that she didn’t think I needed to treat her family bad when they have never done anything to me. I told her I wasn’t mad at Wandi anymore and that even if I was, I would never displace that on anyone else. I told her that her family was very important to me and I never wanted to offend them but that I thought they were mad at me and it made me feel awkward going over to visit. She said they weren’t mad at me either. The main thing she was upset about was that she is my closest neighbor and as my project partner with Ernesto, she’s responsible to PC for my wellbeing and I never tell her when I’m leaving for a few days or when I get back. I personally think she’s embarrassed that when people ask if I’m home or when I’m coming home she has no idea. I guess I didn’t think it was a big deal, didn’t think they cared and I’m not used to having neighbors who care. She said one day she looked in my house in the afternoon to make sure I wasn’t dead in my bed. (See why I felt bad?!) I told her I was sorry and that I would tell her from now on. I gave her a hug and felt very satisfied when I left.<br /><br />Then I went to Minga’s and she and her daughter, Margara, told me I had better talk to Mercedes after how Mercedes was treating me in the Club earlier. I told them I had already talked to her and ended up spilling everything to them. I haven’t ever completely shared how I’m feeling with anyone here, people are such gossips and I’m worried they’ll turn on me. Well, Minga and Margara always defend me and watch out for me so I opened up today, which is weird because I wasn’t even upset today. But it made me feel so much better! Like there are some people who really understand where I’m coming from now, they couldn’t have understood me before since I didn’t tell them the whole story. I need to learn to let Dominicans in. I have a hard time trusting them, which is awful. How can you really make any friends when you don’t trust them? And that’s my problem: I have no Dominican friends and it makes me feel awful. On the other hand, I trusted Mercedes without question and then in May she turned on me and it was devastating. So, I need to trust again but figure out whom to trust. I can think of two other ladies I think I can completely trust- but I’m such a bad judge of character it’s hard to know. I am very ingenuous, way too naive.<br /><br />Minga told me that no one wants to get on the bad side of Mercedes and her family, that they will pick a fight with anyone for anything but especially for messing with one of their kids. Apparently Wandi told them all that I was accusing him of something he didn’t do and of course they believed him. Then they saw me ignore each phone call when he called me 50,000 times on Christmas. So I’m sure I wasn’t imagining them being mad at me in the days after Christmas. I had no idea they were mad at me for Wandi, I thought I offended them for not eating their food! Then when I was gone so much in the following weeks the problem just grew and grew in their imaginations. The problem that I was angry with them grew so much that while the gifts and the poem helped for the time being, I left again and so the problem continued to grow. <br /><br />I’m just hoping that one of Margara’s kids didn’t run off to Mercedes house and tell her everything we said tonight at Mingas. When I got back to my house one of her kids was there and Geraldo wouldn’t look at me or respond to me. I told Minga and Margara tonight how Geraldo was the one who stole from me. It could be bad but if it is I supposed I’ll deal with it as it comes. Today was productive if nothing else, I feel supported by Minga and Margara.<br /><br />1/31- 2/6: Medical Mission<br />In a nutshell: This week was amazing. I kind of fell into an opportunity to translate for a medical mission (medical mission = when a medical group comes to the DR for a week or so do to medical type things and needs people to translate). It was a hernia med mission which had me less than thrilled at first but, as always, things worked out and I loved it. I ended up with two really fantastic doctors, Clayton and Gladys, who incidentally love to teach. Because of this, Justin, Sarah and I (the 3 PCVs on duty) were able to be really hands-on instead of only translating. We were able to make incisions, give stitches, and take gross stuff out of people (cysts and lipomas). It was so fun! <br />The Real Blog: This week was the coolest week ever! Even better than when I went to Jimaní! Let me explain what a medical mission is. Lots of groups of medical-type people (nurses, doctors, med students… you get the idea) come to the DR to help out for a week or so but need translators. So, PCDR has a “med committee” with PCVs who are in charge of coordinating interested PCVs with groups. Spring and Fall are “med mission season” and so there are a lot of opportunities at the moment for PCVs to translate. Generally, PCVs are very interested and so it’s competitive to get a med mission. But since there are so many med missions, most PCVs are able to do at least one before they finish service. I had signed up to do a surgical mission in the cap for a week in Feb but as I’m not in the next group leaving, that group was given preference and that group filled all the spaces. I was annoyed because most people just wanted to do this one since the group of doctors have a rep of really “taking care” of their PCV translators, staying in a niiiiiice hotel, and taking the out to 5 star restaurants, whereas I’m easy to please and just wanted to see some cool surgeries. <br /><br />It turns out there was a different med mission for the 31st until the 6th. Meredith asked me if I could do it, she was kind of scrambling for translators since it was such short notice. At first I thought, How lame… hernia surgeries for an entire week? Boo. But I figured, meh, why not? I still haven’t started any classes in my site and what’s another week. Sign me up.<br /><br />When I got to the center on Sunday I was happy. Sure it was no 5 star hotel with gourmet food promised in the future but I had my own twin bed with mosquito net, a room with a ceiling fan, HOT WATER with pressure, and…. WIRELESS INTERNET!!! Whoot! It turns out there were only 3 of us there to translate, with one person getting there later on Monday. Sunday night, I was in the cafeteria, happily using the internet for several hours when this really tall guy who was in there with me walked by and on his way out said, “Jeesh you’ve been facebook-ing for hours.”- with a total tone to his voice! I was offended. I thought he was rude, I even told my mom about him. I ignored him, flipped back to my facebook tab to keep stalking people, and later went to bed.<br /><br />The next day, Justin (the other PCV there with me) and I were assigned to the consulting side of the operation. We were going to be with 2 doctors evaluating people to see if they actually had hernias and setting them up with appointments. We would be doing this all week. I translated that me an no surgeries for us. To make it worse, one of the doctors we would be with was that tall, rude dude from the night before!! He walked by us and said how he really wanted a Coke and Justin and I looked at each other with horror, just waiting for him to send one of us to get it for him! When he walked away, Justin said, What an egomaniac! To which I said, he was going to Justin’s doctor for the week and Justin of course disagreed and said I was going to be stuck with him. His nametag said he was a pediatrician; I pitied the kids who had to have him as their doctor! About 5 minutes later, Justin headed off down the hall with the other, female doctor and said, see you later Betsy- have fun! My jaw dropped and my eyes narrowed: Justin had officially been placed on my “list”.<br /><br />So, I went into the 1st consult with Clayton and after about 3 minutes realized that once again my 1st impression couldn’t have been further from the truth. This guy was so nice! Really hyper and funny to boot. So I ended up being his little sidekick the entire week with the worst part of it being the fact that he loooooooooves kids so he wanted to be the one to see all of them...yes alllll of them. The 1st one we saw I had to help hold down while he screamed and kicked! (And we all know how I just looooove screaming kids) <br /><br />But, by the end of the 1st day it was evident that people thought this was a clinic that would be taking care of any type of lump or bump people had. Clayton and Gladys noticed that there were a ton of people that had something to be removed and so they began scheduling mini surgeries for the afternoons after all the consulting was done. It turns out; both Clayton and Gladys teach medical students that are doing their residency all the time so they love teaching people stuff! I’m not sure how it happened but, where most doctors say, Stand back and don’t touch anything blue, these guys were like, Scrub in! Fantastic! So, the 1st thing we did was take a lipoma (a fatty cyst) off of the tip of a penis… and I got to hold the penis! I can see that to many this wouldn’t seem like a treat, but it was. The rest of the week passed the same but with Justin, Sarah and I becoming more and more involved. Gladys and Clayton had us giving people stitches, making incisions (I made an incision on the 1st day!) using the skin glue (ok, not really cool but still strangely satisfying), popping huge, nasty cysts (Justin loved this part and consequently was strayed with a TON of pus one day) and I even gave a shot! (Although that was just for practice on Justin but it was still fun!) It was the best week and I was sooooo sad when it was over.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-9033861311508598512010-02-14T12:57:00.000-05:002010-02-14T13:01:03.833-05:00jimaniJimaní: January 20th- January 24th (as written for a magazine by PCVs, for PCVs)<br />When I first heard that PCVs had the opportunity to go to a boarder town to help out medically, I was really excited. I have some experience in health care, am a health PCV, AND people in my community call me Doctora which has to count for something. I, like most PCVs I’m sure, was hoping for the chance to help out in a hands-on, noticeable way. <br />Honestly, when Randi, Kenzie and I arrived to Jimaní Wednesday afternoon we had no clue what to expect. The extent of our knowledge was that there were two hospitals and an orphanage which were all being used as hospitals. Since the public hospital was located right in town and the others were together a hike outside of town, we went to the public hospital first. We walked in and were affronted with complete chaos. There was no one in charge, everyone seemed to be speaking different languages, probably ¾ of the injured had something amputated, people were in mats on the floor, and patients were moaning in pain… it was kind of what one should expect given the situation I suppose. There also seemed to be a lot of people just standing around, not sure what to do. Randi, Kenz and I went on a mission to find someone in charge so we didn’t become bystanders.<br />After some looking, we found someone who seemed important. We followed him to a patient lying on a mat. The man in charge had a handful of little bottles and a sharp. He handed all of it over to a random woman, turned to Randi (who we had already established as “the one who knows stuff”) and told her, “Teach her.” Then he walked away. We all looked at each other and Random Woman, who apparently decided not to loose any time, had begun trying to inject the poor, very awake man with some of the liquids in her hands. Randi, of course, mildly flipped out whereas Kenz and I decided to back off and began surveying the scene. <br />People were everywhere. There weren’t enough IV stands for people so their gravity flow IV bags were on the floor beside them. There weren’t any beds in the area we were, just mats on the ground. A lot of people hadn’t received lunch yet and it was nearly 5 pm. To be brief: this hospital was a hot mess and more patients were arriving by the truckload. <br />Overwhelmed with the situation and not knowing what could be done, we took the sharp from Random Woman and decided to visit what was dubbed as the “American Hospital”, the one on the other side of town. We got a bola in a truck and as we sat in the back we found out was the truck used to take away the bodies all week. (Did I mention I only had one pair of pants to last me the entire week?) While the American Hospital seemed crazy as well, it seemed more of an organized chaos (maybe it was because we were a little more adjusted). <br />Kenz and Randi absorbed their fill of the hospital and went back outside while I remained inside, contemplating the fragility of it all when someone asked me if I was doing anything. No. He asked me if I wanted to change a dressing. Yes. I gave him the warning that I wasn’t a nurse to which he laughed and said it didn’t matter, making me think of Random Woman giving an injection. I followed him over to the patient, a large woman on a mat on the floor with two long, visible rods in her- one in each leg. Lucky for the patient, and for my stomach, this doctor was an anesthesiologist and so he put her to sleep right away. I helped by elevating her leg while the doctor pulled gauze from a hole in her leg, the diameter being the size of a quarter, and judging by how much of the doctor’s finger disappeared while inserting the fresh gauze, it appeared to be at least 2-3” deep. He attended her other wounds and then she woke up. It was a thing of beauty. There was another doctor there, not from the US but not from the DR either. She was complaining that before the US doctors arrived there was more to do but now that they have “Americanized” the hospital, it was too organized and there wasn’t enough to do. What a complaint!<br />In the following days we found out that the second hospital, the “American Hosp.”, wasn’t actually being utalized as a hospital before the earthquake. It was being used to do some eye surgeries here and there but it was never set up to be a hospital. It amazed me to find that doctors from the US (and from other countries as well but mainly from the US) were able to come here and organize an entire hospital that functions relatively well, all things considered, in a matter of days- all while receiving more critical patients! <br />Randi, Kenzie and I ended up working night shifts, 7pm -7am but more like 6:30 pm- 9 am, the rest of our time there. That first night I worked in one of the two critical care trailers with some Dominican doctors. It was great that they were there to help but I hope I never need serious medical care in this country. I found several used needles in patient’s beds that were forgotten. A patient that couldn’t breathe was told it was in his head and was held down when he began to panic. Another woman was having problems with her IV, which was in her neck, and the doctor said it would have to wait until morning because she didn’t know how to change IVs. We couldn’t reposition patients with neck/back injuries unless an American doctor was present because the Dominican doctors didn’t know how to move a person with a spinal injury (imagine lying in the same position for 12 hours) It made me think of all the people receiving “care” in the public hospital and think of how lucky the patients here were that they ended up in the American Hospital.<br />A few times there were aftershocks and all the patients panicked. It was really sad. One man who wasn’t hurt in the earthquake was badly injured when he jumped from the second story because he had been trapped in rubble for 5 days in Haiti. Each time an aftershock happened the patients would scramble outside. One night they slept outside because the aftershock occured at 5:30 pm and another about an hour later at 6:30 so they moved all the beds outside and slept under the stars. I’m not sure how the doctors kept everyone straight. It was really amazing the work they did.<br />By the end of the week we were surprised to find that there were now a lot of empty beds. Despite the overall hesitation on the Dominican hospitals part (a lot of them said they wouldn’t accept Haitian injured), doctors were able to send patients to other, more equipped hospitals throughout the DR. The problem was that no new patients were coming in. Blame it on difficulty getting back and forth to Port au Prince with all the traffic, blame it on boarder control, no one could give an exact answer to the question. One thing is certain though: there were more people somewhere who needed care and were not getting it. <br />Overall, I am very happy I was given the opportunity to serve in Jimaní. It really gave me a new perspective and a new direction in life as I am 100% certain I want to study medicine when I return to the States. In my four days there, I grew prouder and more aware each day of how efficient the American medical system is and more impressed by the dedication and leadership of the American people. We can’t change racial tensions between Haiti and the DR any more than we can convince all of the Doñas of the world to use green leaves in cooking, but we can at least be examples. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the enormity of any situation but feasible make a change one day at a time, one situation at a time. We are American Ambassadors here in our little communities and with each day that comes, comes an opportunity for change. Don’t let yourself get lost in it and let it pass you by. Its two years that pass quicker that you would expect and it’s your two years so make them count.<br /><br />1/18- 1/20: How I ended up in Jimaní, a boarder town<br />In a nutshell: I went down to the capital Monday morning, the 18th, unsure if I should even be going since I had been out of my site so much in January. But, it was for a meeting to coordinate the next regional Escojo conference and so I packed a couple days of clothes, extra undies (because you never know what’s going to happen) and headed out. I went to the meeting that afternoon and later found out that there was an opportunity to help package boxes with USAID or some NGO the next day, aid relief boxes to send to Haiti. As I had only done a mini food drive in my community and wanted to help out, I decided to stay an extra day. After all, I was already here, may as well. <br /><br />The next day we were all waiting around to go and package the boxes when Romeo came down and told us to go up to his office. We sat down and he gave us each a list of 4 places that needed volunteers to help out. One was in Jimaní, one in another boarder town, and two in Santo Domingo. I immediately said I would like to go to Jimaní, and noticing it said it wanted medical personnel I pointed out that I was a nurses aide for several years. Romeo immediately shot the idea down and said gruffly that they were just going to send an RN and an EMT there. The only other place on the list that was ready to receive any volunteers was in Santo Domingo. Then Romeo rudely told us that the meeting was over and we could leave. I definitely got the feeling the entire time that he wanted nothing to do with the aid effort.<br /><br />We all went down to wait for a driver to take us to the warehouse when Randi rushed into the office and grabbed Kenzie. I knew they had some meeting with Romeo and then remembered that Randi is the only PVC who is an RN in PC. When they came back from their meeting I asked if they were going to Jimaní and they were all secretive about it! I was getting really annoyed. The driver was ready to take us to the warehouse but I wanted to go to Jimaní. I was afraid if I went with the driver I would miss my opportunity to go to Jimaní so I stayed behind. <br /><br />Later I was talking to my friend Rachele and she said her APCD, Adel, had INVITED her to go to Jimaní! Rachele has NO health background (but then, neither does Kenzie and she seemed to be going). I went up to Adel’s office, slightly nervous that I would get in trouble for all this after Romeo specifically told me no. I told her that I have a background in health and would really like to help in Jimaní if possible. She said she thought that would be great and she would talk to Romeo. <br /><br />Later that day she called me and said she had spoken with Romeo and convinced him. I was the only other person allowed to go for now and we were to leave in the morning!!! I was so excited!!! It turns out that the EMT in the group is married and she said she would like her husband to go with for support. Because of that, PC said Randi could take one person for support too. She asked Kenzie because she knew Kenz wants to be a nurse after PC. They weren’t supposed to tell anyone because Romeo didn’t want a stampede of PCVs headed for the boarder. I was still annoyed with them for not telling ME for crying out loud but, at least it worked out in the end. The PCVs who went to pack the boxes said that when they showed up, the people weren’t ready for them and they had nothing to do still. So, I made the right decision. Persistence pays off:)BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-27194753838625352022010-01-18T17:57:00.000-05:002010-01-18T17:58:58.655-05:00Earthquake and sucking up.1/14 Thursday: Making amends<br />In a nutshell: I find myself in the usual pickle of not facing my issues. I needed to figure out a way to talk to Mercedes in a Dominican appropriate way that will actually get me somewhere and I needed to fix the situation with Wandi. I haven’t said one word to Wandi since he snooped through my phone. (creeper). I am really proud of Wandi as he began college this week! I felt bad about not even knowing about this big event in his life and guilty as I have been complaining a LOT lately to other PCVs about how much it sucks that Ernesto is out of my site. But, if he didn’t have this job I doubt that he would have had enough money to pay for Wandi’s 1st semester of school. I decided to give Mercedes and Ernesto each a little gift (a flashlight and a necklace) as well as a thank you poem. I gave it to Mercedes and feel like it helped. I still haven’t been able to talk to Wandi. Then there was the normal weirdness that occurs in the colmado. The owner was trying to convince me to get a Dominican man to keep me warm, a guy came in and called me fat and a few minutes later another guy began sniffing my ponytail. Never a dull moment in the DR!<br /><br />The Real Blog: My stress level in my site is insane. I chalk this up completely to my neighbors and my lack of conflict resolution. I still haven’t talked to Wandi about privacy issues, and still haven’t faced Mercedes. With all this rain, I don’t want to keep avoiding their house because the walk down my front yard is slippery! I had the great idea of getting them with kindness. So I found this poem online, wrote it out on paper, and decorated it (with glitter even!). When I was in Santiago I found a necklace/earring set that Mercedes may like (for only 20 pesos!) and I wrapped it, along with a flashlight for Ernesto, and gave it all to Mercedes yesterday. I think it worked! I kind of invited myself in and we sat and talked with her sister for a good hour. <br /><br />I saw Wandi leave for school this afternoon and I felt so proud! He did it! He’s going to the university! And then I felt selfish because he wouldn’t have been able to go to school if it weren’t for Ernesto being in that other community making such good money. I also felt bad that I haven’t been here and didn’t wish him well on his first day, I didn’t even know about it! So, I sent him a message (which I’m not even sure if he got) I said that I was proud of him for going to school and that if he was willing to tell me his side of the story I would like to hear it. But he didn’t get home until really late so maybe tomorrow. <br /><br />Then, later that day I went to the colmado and in the same visit I had someone tell me I’m really fat (not in a complimentary way, but I was wearing a coat, duh of course I look fatter!) and about 2 minutes later, someone else picked up my ponytail and smelled it! What a weirdo, I told him to knock it off! All this happened of course after the colmado owner went through the usual spew, telling me that I need to get a Dominican boyfriend to keep me warm at night. I’m not going to lie, the idea is tempting right now because last night I was so cold I had to get up to put a 3rd blanket on me! <br /><br />Now, it’s only about 60 degrees here at night but keep in mind, with the tin roof there is a constant breeze and there are no heaters to get any relief from the chill. I think I am much more used to this now though as it doesn’t bother me like last year. It’s rained most of this month and I don’t really mind. I remember when I first got to my site in November last year and it had rained 9 days straight, I was freezing (although I didn’t have the warmer clothing that I have now) and I was MISERABLE. This year I don’t mind at all. Ah, how great it is to be well adjusted and have rain boots!<br /><br />1/12 Tuesday: Earthquake<br />In a nutshell: My story of this is not too interesting. I was taking a nap. The earthquake woke me up. I don’t think there were any injuries here in the DR or damages to buildings. <br /><br />The Real Blog: I’m writing about today because I’m sure you guys back home are curious but really it’s not much of a story from the DR. I was at a med mission and we had been out all day in the rain (it has rained 10 days since the 1st here) translating. We got back to the center, which was located in a teeny town called Las Lajas up in the mountains of Santiago. It’s not close to my site by car but looking at it in map its not far, it’s north of Santiago as well but further east. Anyways, I was really tired and was car sick from the drive back so I promptly went to my room, climbed up on the top bunk of the bunk bed and went to sleep. I was woken up a little while later by the bed rocking, at first lightly. My roommate, Regina was on the bottom bunk and as the bed rocked harder I became really annoyed and told her to stop moving for crying out loud! She said she wasn’t moving and so, incensed I figured someone was playing a joke on my napping time and began looking for the culprit. Not wanting to exert too much effort during nap time and not seeing anyone, I went back to bed. Then I heard everyone outside yelling about an earthquake. My bed had stopped moving, I was still tired and now I didn’t have to worry about a jokester in my room. I went back to sleep but was woken up a couple times by the afteshocks.<br />Later Regina (who woke up after she realized there was an earthquake whereas I went back to bed and even slept through dinner) told me how it devastated Haiti. That poor country can’t catch a break. It’s interesting that the night before an elderly man was telling Regina and me about how he felt an earthquake around 230 am. We laughed together and teased him saying it was just a dream.<br />The next day all of the translators left the medical mission (by the way, a med mission is when nurses/doctors or what have you come to the DR for 5-14 days and give medical care/medicines. Some groups then solicit PCVs to translate for them. It’s really fun to be a part of. ) I had to go through Santiago to get home and figured my family was freaking out since I had no cell service on the mountain. So, about 21 hours after it happened, I got online to let everyone know I was ok. Thank you for all your concerns on facebook. Sometimes I feel a little forgotten about down here so it was nice to see that my family was checking up on me. <br />Santiago was a weird site as the streets resembled a Sunday when there are hardly any people- only it was Wednesday! Also, about half of the businesses were closed. I asked about this and was told the obvious answer, people just want to be home with their families. It makes me think of 9/11 and how different our cultures are in their responses. When I try to talk to people about this here (yes I was trying to “interview” people for you Sarah!) no one seems interested in talking about it. Then, yesterday Minga told me that someone on the news was saying that Haiti deserved it because they had a pact with the devil and so it was a punishment from God, and it was Pat Robinson who said that! I hope that was translated wrong or Minga didn’t understand correctly.<br />So, that’s that. As far as I know, there were no fatalities here in the DR or even damages to buildings but you guys could find out better than I. It figures that during the biggest earthquake in the last 200 years, I was taking a nap! Hopefully that’s the only big earthquake I feel in my life.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-18780529934644294292010-01-11T10:08:00.003-05:002010-01-18T17:57:17.393-05:00A month of productivness but still don't feel very fulfilled.1/10 Sunday: Feeling much better and visiting my peeps<br />In a nutshell: Today I feel pretty good. I was given a hose for free so I was able to fill my water tank and not have to ask Mercedes for the hose. I visited some friends and wrote a report for PC, I even nearly caught up writing my blog! <br /><br />I had a gift exchange with the woman who I know has been stealing my clothing from Mingas house. I had to have it; I was signed up for the gift exchange though the Club de Madres and we happened to get each others names. Strangely I didn’t think about how she steals from me, I just wanted her to like her gift. When the gift flopped, I gave her some ugly jewelry I knew she would love (and she did) and I was super pleased with myself for fixing the failed gift. Afterwards I realized how weird the whole thing was. <br /><br />I decided I am being silly about my problems and if old methods aren’t working then I of course need to reevaluate my course of action and react accordingly. Thus, I am going to write Mercedes a Thank you card for the Christmas dinner and to get her and Ernesto a little gift with the secret vendetta of not being weird between us after. <br /><br />I just arrived home last night and I already have to leave again tomorrow for Santiago as I promised to help a desperate friend out with a med mission. So, I’m all packed and ready to head out again but this time in a much better frame of mind. I don’t feel like my old self still but considerably better now.<br /><br />The Real Blog: I got home late last night (well, campo late so around 8 pm) and was relieved to find that I still had water in my tinaco. I was super worried about that since Mercedes was rude to me last time I needed the hose and didn’t want to have to ask her for it again. Not to mention who knows when there will be water in the tap. Well, I was super worried last Monday and Tuesday… but as the days wore on in the mansion I found myself strangely less worried about anything in life:) <br /><br />I woke up today and went for a really slow but super satisfying run and on the way back stopped to talk to one of my favorite people, Juana, about her water filter which is still at the disco. I’m guessing Tono, the disco owner, is probably kind of mad at me for the filters being at his business for so long and I feel bad about it. I was going to go and visit him today but never got around to it. I visited Juana, who always makes me feel fantastic about life. She’s probably in her 50’s, very round, and the sweetest lady EVER. It was her house I went to during Easter to load up on sweet beans because I knew I would hit the jackpot there, and I did- yum! (who knew I had a bean allergy?!) <br /><br />Anyways, we hung out for a good hour and then I was off to Minga’s house. I sat and talked with Minga, then the women who sells lottery numbers (but who’s name I never remember. Its not that I don’t know her; I can tell you this, she lives in the house that never visit because she’s never there and it’s a super steep hill and lets face it, I’m a bit lazy for that type of gamble.), and then I visited with Margara- Mingas daughter. I also stopped and talked to Daniel and Ciero along the way. I was at Minga’s house for about 2 hours just hanging out and mentioned how I needed a hose but was worried about the cost as I also wanted to buy a large bucket (more like a trash can to put water in for when the tank is empty) and that would take like half of the money I have left for the month. It turns out; Minga had a little piece of hose this whole time!! So she gave it to me and now I don’t have to ask Mercedes to borrow hers!!!!! Life is getting better and better!!! I ended up telling Margara how I had been really sad lately because of the whole thing of people stealing from me (I left out the whole Mercedes thing as I avoid gossip at all costs) and Margara made me feel sooooo much better. I don’t know why I don’t visit people more!! <br /><br />Something weird happened today: There was a gift exchange at the Women’s Club on Monday but I wasn’t here. Pimbi (the women who most definitely stole my clothing from Minga’s house) ended up being my exchange partner. She practically stalked me today trying to give me my gift and get hers, which I understand I guess since the exchange was nearly a week ago. When I bought the gift I thought I would spend a little extra on an American gift and I got her some incenses. I showed her how to use them and it was obvious she was not impressed; despite her fake telling me she liked it. I panicked, how could she not like my gift?! After she got me a necklace, two pairs of earrings, bracelets and even wrapped in then suck them in a gift bag?! And I didn’t even have time to wrap hers yet (in my defense, I was going to wrap it but I didn’t know she was going to show up at my door and then insist I didn’t have to wrap it). Not to mention I bought the gift, then thought there wasn’t going to be an exchange so I opened it and used one. Ok, so the gift flopped. She left it at my house for a minute while she ran up to say something to Mercedes and I came up with Plan B: I went into the bag of super ugly jewelry I have that I was going to put in the free box at the office and I picked out a yellow necklace with matching earrings. She loved it. Success. Redemption. In reflection, I realize this was weird since she is the woman who steals from me. But, maybe she won’t steal from me now. Who knows?<br /><br />And I have come to a great solution as to what I should do about my neighbors. I am pretty sure I wasn’t imagining things about Ernesto being mad at me too since today he didn’t come by my house even once (After Minga’s it was time to prioritize so I went home, showered, took a nap, painted my nails, swept and THEN opened my door and was home the rest of the day working on a report for Peace Corps. Point is, he totally could have come over from 3pm on). Now our relationship is just this awkward thing and I find myself avoiding the house at all costs and I’m wondering if they’re doing the same thing. I’m still not sure why Mercedes is mad at me. On a possible separate note, I’m pretty sure she never even talked to Geraldo about stealing my 50 pesos because she also said she’d pay me back and never did. (yum, I just got a craving for Portillos… ah the States.) <br /><br />Anyways, my great solution. It’s very simple and I feel stupid for not doing it sooner. I am going to write her a Thank You card for Christmas dinner and maybe get her and Ernesto a little Christmas gift too! Well, I’m giving Ernesto a flashlight I brought back from the States (people just kept giving me flashlights!) and for Mercedes I have a cheapy ring in mind I’m going to get her from Santiago. Maybe we’ll get matching ones. It doesn’t count as buying someone off if it’s a Christmas gift. And I think maybe she’s feeling underappreciated? Who knows but I’m fairly sure this will work and take away the weirdness between us, at least until the next thing. I used the “kill em with kindness” method on Bertico, a motorcycle driver who was pissed at me because I hadn’t gone with him on his bike for a while. Every time I see him I wave and act all excited, to which he ignores me. Until today. Today he finally smiled and said hi. Victory, ha! I can do this. <br /><br />1/2- 1/9 Monday- Saturday: Staying in a mansion.<br />In a nutshell: Madeline, a PCT who was in our group was kicked out back in CBT. I didn’t know her really well as she was a youth PCV but she seemed really cool. Well, she came back with her family to visit and they rented out this sweet estate in Cabrera (which conveniently is close to Cabarete, where I spent New Years) that has… are you ready for this? It has: a pool table, hot showers, laundry service (with a dryer!), a pool, a hot tub (with HOT water!!!!), we each got our own room with attached FULL bathroom, it has its own private beach, tennis courts, bicycles, horse back riding, maid service, a chef, an open bar, cable, wireless internet, diet coke, a microwave, two dogs that are clean and let you cuddle and kiss them, couches… and I got to stay there from Monday afternoon to Saturday afternoon!!! It was AMAZING!!! And I was even productive as I updated my resume and wrote a cover letter:) It was fantastic and made me feel much more ready to face my site. <br /><br />12/31 Thursday: Happy New Years Eve, to Cabarete!<br />In a nutshell: After basically locking myself in my house since last Saturday, I am finally leaving. You may think it is incredibly pathetic that I locked myself in my house for the last 5 days, not even being able to cry despite how awful I felt… wait that is incredibly pathetic. But, keep in mind that this happens at least once for varying amounts of time to pretty much all PCVs. I’m lucky that today I was able to leave and go hang out on a beautiful beach with other PCVs and hopefully put an end to this sadness. <br /><br />This New Years was so much calmer than last year; it doesn’t compare. Sure the trip there was interesting with issues getting out of my site (my motorcycle driver went MIA, I suddenly had to check/plant the seeds for a garden before I could leave, the free ride I got broke down on the way down the mountain… but I did eventually get to the beach) I had a really fun, really chill NYE. Calm meaning I didn’t even have one swig of a celebratory alcoholic beverage. My mom would be proud. As I said, I was sick on Christmas Eve and on New Years Eve I was mildly sick as well. I wonder if I had an amoeba since those are cyclical. Well, either way I didn’t feel my best and wasn’t in the mood for a repeat of last year. Strangely the few from my group that were there were really chill as well.<br /><br />Seeing as NYE here was old news, I don’t feel like I have much to write about so I suppose that is all. I had a great time and I don’t think any NYE can really compete with one surrounded by great friends and being warm on a beautiful beach while watching fireworks. The only thing I would change about it would be to have someone counting down but that’s for another year I suppose:) I was satisfied.<br /><br />12/26 Saturday: Staying in my house<br />In a nutshell: I feel like the Giving Tree.<br />The Real Blog: I was super singey with my guests and highly monitored their water usage while they were here. Then, to make it worse, the colmado ran out of bottled water so if we ran out of water in my tank we couldn’t even use filtered, purchased water! I was stressed. As I waved goodbye to my last guest, I went and checked the water tap again just to see and there was water!! I was so happy so I went to Mercedes’ house and asked to borrow a hose. I kind of was thinking that she had been acting cold to me since before Christmas but this confirmed it. She didn’t look at me and she just stated, “The hose is in use.” I was freaking out inside. The water is only available for about an hour and I didn’t know when that hour began! As she told me that, thank goodness Ernesto heard her and told her to give me the other hose. After all, they have two hoses but only one water tap to fill stuff. I was relieved but when Ernesto came over I was totally getting a bad vibe from him too!<br /><br />That did it. I had it. I felt so awkward, I wished I could crawl into a hole or dissolve so I didn’t take up any space. I filled my tank and went into my house, shutting the door behind me. I am so tired. Why does Mercedes always have something to be angry about with me? The thing that sucks is I worked my butt off this month. It was definitely my busiest month in service. And I got things for the community; we have gardens, we have filters. It just shows me again that no matter how much I work, no matter how much I do, it’s not enough. I understand you can’t please everyone but is anyone satisfied? Part of it is that Mercedes and her family got along with Kevin great. Mainly, Ernesto and Kevin worked together a lot. They became good friends and by association then, Mercedes was very accepting of Kevin. Ernesto is never here and so we never even talk let alone work together. I must offend Mercedes and so she doesn’t take to me. <br /><br />Besides stupid Geraldo stealing from me again (and thus the exhaustion of feeling like I need to be on my toes with my house all the time), and the woman stealing my clothing I feel like the freaking Giving Tree. A book I have never liked due to its injustice. I did not join PC to be a martyr and I feel like my spirit is being slowly stomped out. I feel worse than I have ever felt in my life. It’s not a one time sad feeling, it’s not a deep sadness like when someone dies, it’s a not good enough no matter what and yet I’m still supposed to be here offering more to my community type of feeling. I’m so tired of it. I don’t even know what to do. It shouldn’t be like this. I just feel so heavy and I’m counting the months until October right now. 10.<br /><br />12/25 Friday: Christmas in the DR<br />In a nutshell: The PCVs came to my house and we had a great time. There were 8 of us in all. We hung out at my house the whole time and I had to start nagging them to stop treating me like the doña and try to persuade them to help out a bit. It turns out Wandi is a stalker. He went though my phone at some point, saw that one of my friends texts me a lot, looked up his number and actually called him last night to inquire as to why he texts me so much. I am in shock that he did that. The PCVs and I had a gift exchange which was a hit and then we went to three discos before finding one that was satisfactory but not stellar. All in all, it was a strange Christmas.<br /><br />The Real Blog: Today we didn’t do much. We woke up, said Merry Christmas, and hung out in the house pretty much. We made pasta for lunch and continued to just sit and talk. PCVs are so boring! Just kidding:) I was getting all pissy with them though because I kept telling them I was not their doña as they didn’t ever even put their dirty dishes in the bucket outside for washing nor did most of them wash a single plate while they were here or help make any food! Which that may make me sound like a rude hostess but that’s what PCVs generally do when they’re with other PCVs, they all pitch in. Things aren’t as easy or as quick as in the States and so it’s too much for one person. But instead of helping, I was seriously like the freaking doña and I was going to kill them. Although part of me thought it was funny. We are all so Dominican now! <br /><br />So, as I was washing dishes for the 50th time, my friend Roberto, calls me. He’s an Information Technology PCV in a town relatively close to me, in Dajabon. We just met in October but and have been texting and talking fairly regularly since. Well, he calls me and tells me in so many words that last night he got a phone call from a private number who didn’t want to give his name. The guy was asking Roberto why he was sending so many messages to Elisabet. Roberto was thinking of all the students in his classes and came to the conclusion that he didn’t even know an Elisabet, to which the guy argued that yes he did and why was he texting her so much? They hung up and then Roberto remembered that I have everyone call me Elisabet. So, I of course know that it had to have been Wandi. <br /><br />We were at the disco last Sunday and he finally was being normal with me (he’s been ignoring me since the start of Dec pretty much) but then immediately escalated to him being obnoxious, trying to get me to date him. And it’s not just him saying stuff to me, it’s him trying to do weird stuff like smell my hair, pet my face, or sit really close. Newsflash: if I can smell your breath when you’re talking, you need to back off. That is NOT attractive, gross. And I’m not a dog, don’t pet me or sniff me, freak. So, I decide to do the usual, telling him that I’m not interested, my cat is more mature than he is, we will never date, blah blah blah… but he’s so used to it doesn’t faze him. I feel like the teacher in Charlie Brown for crying out loud! <br /><br />Recognizing that I need to do something drastic, I tell him that I am interested in someone else: something I have never told him before. That had some results. This time he got all annoyed and said he knew who it was: Roberto. I was surprised Roberto’s name even came to his mind since I have never talked about Roberto, Roberto has never visited, I haven’t even had a conversation with Roberto in front of Wandi, where on Earth did he get that name? So I said, “Yep, that’s him.” Later I told Ali about this and she was adamant that Wandi had gone into my phone and come to that conclusion after seening that I have texts from Roberto but I blew it off telling her, “Oh come on, who actually does that?” Well, seeing as Wandi somehow magically got Roberto’s number, whether he wrote it down at some point or memorized it who knows, but I think its safe to safe: Wandi went through my phone. <br /><br />I was so shocked! No one has ever done that to be before! And I let people play games on my phone all the time, its all in English and I didn’t think someone would go stealing numbers and calling people. When I got the phone call Wandi was at my house. I turned around and must have given him a death stare because before got off of the phone with Roberto, Wandi was gone. <br /><br />After all that drama, we had our gift exchange which was really fun, during which Wandi called me non stop from someone’s phone. I ignored the calls and eventually had to shut my phone off. For the gift exchange we were supposed to get either something really cool or really stupid but we weren’t supposed to spend more than $150 pesos ($4) I received a pair of used scrub pants. I gave a really stupid doll. It was a fair exchange, hehe.<br /><br />Then we went with Ernesto to the disco. But it was full. It was too full, there were no tables! And as Dominicans, we could not stand. So we walked up to the other one but it was closed. So we went to the intersection of the communities about 1.5 miles away and it was open. I really like that one but oddly it was dead, which made it kind of boring. So, we stayed for about an hour and then we left. We went home and went to bed. <br /><br />It’s safe to say that was the weirdest Christmas I have ever had. I remember last year thinking how weird it was that people DRINK on Christmas and this year I was like, are we ready? Who’s buying the 1st round?! Hahaha, my how things change in a year! Last year I used to have to “chase” each forced sip of beer with a chip or something and now I don’t mind it. I wouldn’t buy a beer still but I can drink one. See, I’m culturally assimilated! <br /><br />12/24 Thursday: Merry Christmas Eve!!<br />In a nutshell: I baked all day long and enjoyed it but I am never doing that again. I could only bake 9 cookies at a time and I made like 7 different types of cookies. The peppermint brownies were delicious. My friends showed up around 6 and we headed to Ernesto’s to eat with them. It turns out, they already ate. They must not have understood I thought we were going to eat TOGETHER, thus the exchange of food. Instead it was awkward because we show up and they had set the table just for us and sat there and watched us eat our food. Well, I had not been feeling well at all. And my friend Jay didn’t eat much because he had Guardia. I was personally feeling as though something was going to happen… something between vomiting and some action from the other end. I loaded my plate up despite this feeling and just sat and stared at it. I wanted to eat it so bad. After all, I heard these pigs die, the least I could do was not let it go to waste. But I had to make a bolt for it. I went to my bathroom for about 15 uneventful minutes and when I went back to Mercedes house; my friends had finished and were on their way back. I said a thank you to Mercedes and she seemed agitated with me telling me I didn’t eat anything. I felt bad. I went home and went to bed.<br /><br />12/23 Wednesday: YAY!<br />The Real Blog: Today was a pretty good day. The highlight? Was it getting my nails painted in effort to stay in Navarrete so I didn’t have to hear everyone and their mother killing a pig in my community? Nope. I still had to hear 3 pigs die. And the chick at the nail place didn’t understand a word I was saying and painted my nails like a freaking 12 year old. Was it watching in amusement as people chased the truck with the politician though the street because s/he was throwing money into the streets shouting, “VOTE FOR ME, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!” ? Nope. Was it the fact that I baked some spice cookies and people LOVED them? One guy even told me I’m finally good for something, what a compliment! Amazingly, no. Those were not the highlight of my day. Although, those cookies were very delicious. The best thing happened today: I went to town and I purchased an economy sized refrigerator for $207 USD. I HAVE REFRIGERATION IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!! The last time I had a fridge in the house where I was living (that worked) was 14 months ago. Why did I suffer so long?! I put the cookie dough in the fridge to chill and it actually came out cold!!! AMAZING!!!<br /><br />12/21 Monday: Llegaron los filtros. (The filters arrived!)<br />In a nutshell: For those of you who received a Christmas card from me, congratulations. Remember the part in the letter where I said I had a water filter project that I was happy for but would be even happier when it was over? (Some of you I felt it inappropriate to solicit, in which case you didn’t get the letter or some of you I included a hand written a letter in which case I don’t remember if I talked about my filter project) Today cemented that statement. The filters arrived today but not after problem after problem. None of these got me down though, I was so happy to have another tangible project that it didn’t matter that the truck broke down a few times, got stuck in the mud 3 times, backed into a mango tree and was so wedged that we had to axe some of the roots off, and that the driver (who was sick of the mud and the rain… did I mention it had been raining all day long?) decided he wasn’t going to bring the rest of the filters to each house because he wanted to get going so he left them at the disco. But, at the end of the day, I was tired, wet and a little sore but extremely happy. It was a LOT of work but we have our filters. Now all I have to do is install them all. That can wait until after Christmas.<br /><br />12/ 20 Sunday: Escojo Graduation<br />In a nutshell: The graduation went well. I found out that Ernesto was planning on having that Escojo conference the next day; the same day the water filters were supposed to arrive. He failed to tell me that this was happening the same day but on the other hand, I’m not sure if I told him that the filters were going to be delivered that day. Then, after the graduation Josue- a guy from SD who works extensively with Escojo showed up and Ernesto was in Navarrete so I hung out with Josue until Ernesto arrived. He’s a really cool person but I was itching to leave since I wanted to run and had already been there for a few hours. When Ernesto got there, I left to go for a run and everyone tried to convince me to stay, telling me I didn’t need to go for a run… apparently I look great. I know better though; the real reason is that they wanted me to stay and take pictures. People must think I am super amazing and can read minds since no one ever asked me to do this. I asked the coach when the ceremony was going to start and he said not for another 45- 60 minutes. So, I ran and hurried to get back before the ceremony but they finished before I returned about 45 minutes later. But I left my camera with Josue just in case and so he took lots of pics. A good compromise but still Mercedes seemed agitated with me. You can’t please everyone.<br /><br />The Real Blog: I was in Santo Domingo Friday and Saturday but left too late Sat to get back to my site so I spent the night at my friend Rachele’s site in Santiago Sat night. This of course meant that the graduation could be disastrous as I was getting to site the morning of but I decided not to worry about it. What will be will be, right? When I got back to site around 10 am the next day, I was happy to find several kids working diligently on the party and so I stopped in to say hello and then went to my house to unpack. <br /><br />The graduation itself went well. There was no beer selling or dramas like the last graduation so it was short and sweet. I saw Ernie as I was leaving my house and she wasn’t ready at all for the graduation. When I asked her if she was going she replied stiffly, “Although I was not invited, yes I am going.” Got to love the attitude, makes me glad I’m not a teenager anymore. Here’s the thing: I didn’t invite any of the Escojo promoters. If they were in class then they each were invited indirectly. Ernie pretty much hasn’t been going to classes since she got married for one reason or another. Sure the most recent reason was legit: she had to get an ovary taken out, but still, I didn’t think to invite her as I figured someone would let her know. In fact, it never crossed my mind, so shoot me.<br /> <br />After the graduation, the baseball players were going to use the building for their trophy ceremony. I hung out for about 90 minutes after the grad for the sake of socializing and just when I was about to leave, Josue, a guy who works with Escojo shows up. Apparently that conference that Ernesto wanted me to help with so long ago was going to be happening tomorrow- the day the filters are supposed to get here. Perfecto. Which means Ernesto will not be helping with the filters at all, and several of the women who are receiving filters will not be in their house to receive them (as Miguel wants them at the conference to make lunch). Seeing as Ernesto wasn’t home when Josue arrived, I stayed at the Club longer to make him feel comfortable. <br /><br />About 10 minutes after Ernesto showed up, I got up to leave and everyone was like, “Where are you going?!” I told them I wanted to run before it got dark and they all started going off about how good I looked and how I didn’t need to run… (Noel specifically was telling me this and all the while I was having flash backs to a time in July where he was pointing to my arms and saying “You think she’s not fat?! Just take a look at her arms for example! She’s fat!”) Turns out they wanted me to stay and take pictures of the trophy ceremony. I stuck to my guns though, passed my camera to Josue to take pics and left to run. I will not give up some mental and physical health for an evening of being used. If it was something really legit sure I would have stayed. I asked the coach when they would be starting and he told me they wouldn’t be starting for another 45 minutes so I said I would hurry back for it. I got back about 45 minutes later and found that the ceremony was over. Mercedes was annoyed with me for missing it. Let me rephrase that: Mercedes was annoyed with me for not being there to take pictures even though Josue took plenty of pictures. I was a little annoyed by the whole situation.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-12243921723001537172010-01-01T18:48:00.002-05:002010-01-01T18:56:51.504-05:00letter to everyone at BCHD:) (but mostly Mary Alice since she's the one who left the comment)Hi Mary Alice, (and everyone else of course!!:)<br /><br />First thing, I have other posts but I need to catch up on them and am just too busy cogiendlo suave ahora to work on that. So, a different day I will lavish you with more blog:)<br /><br />Anywho, it’s so great to hear from you!!!! Do you have any pics of little Oliver? I would love to see how big he is now:) I’m so sorry about LG, how far along was she? Life bites sometimes. <br /><br />As far as my grant goes, PC has irritated me endlessly about this and hopefully sometime soon the grant will be up (the fact that I turned it in around Thanksgiving and yet it’s still on my APCDs desk shows the productivity of my awesome boss) and I will post something about it when it’s ready. Sorry for all the confusion!<br /><br />I literally clapped out loud when you said you guys mailed me a package again for Christmas!!! THANKS!!!!! The last package I got was in Feb so I am reaaaaallly looking forward to it:D The little daily calendar you all sent me last year has been of GREAT use to me as I have used it as my “poop log” since April; something super important given all my bowel issues. (amazingly, even these have become mundane and so I don't write much about them but I pretty much always have something going wrong involving #2) So, each time I record a movement, I think of all you there at BCHD:) <br /><br />Once upon a time, when I was just a little intern doing HUD inspections, you told me to look for roach poop to identify the presence of roaches. I actually had to ask you what it looked like, imagínatelo! Remembering a time when I DIDN’T know what roach poop looks like seems like so long ago, I mean really, who doesn’t know what it looks like? Of course, each time I get a parasite, beg bug bit or amoeba I think, “Wow, I’m so lucky to be gaining all this experience in public health, and how 'bout those roaches!” And now I just have 10 months left to soak up as much as I can, better get on that…<br /><br />Merry Christmas guys!!!<br /><br />Extrañdoles muchisimo,<br /><br />Betsy<br /><br /><br />PS: Porque sepas, I'm not being a showoff, that little bit ‘o Spanish is just for Carmen, Enseñalalo porfavor:) I generally don't put it in there bc I figure it will annoy/confuse some English speaking folks of mine. So, enjoy Miss.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-64808421071413058952009-12-19T11:54:00.001-05:002009-12-19T11:58:24.679-05:0011/28- 12/15: Artisan Fair, Bed Bugs, Attitude Adjustment, Escojo Final, Gardens.12/15 Thursday: Ouch. You know it’s bad when even your thumbs are sore.<br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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! <br /><br />12/14 Tuesday: One. Long. Day.<br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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! <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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…<br /><br />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! :)<br /><br />12/13 Sunday: House Visits and Garden Workshop<br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br /> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />12/12 Saturday: A Change of Heart<br />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.<br /><br />12/9- 12/11: Enema, cell phone issues, bed bugs, car sick, downpour, artisan fair… what more is there in life?<br />In a nutshell: My fingers are too cold to type more. Sorry Deb.<br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />12/8 Tuesday: Escojo gone bad<br />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.<br /><br />12/7 Monday: Cockroach in my cereal, and I still ate the cornflakes.<br />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.<br /><br />12/3-12/4 Friday- Saturday: Brigada Verde Conference<br />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. <br />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. <br /><br />12/1- 12/3: One year In Service Training.<br />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!<br /><br />11/28 Saturday: Que peña.<br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />PS: Wandi is annoying.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-55749242123861972172009-11-25T23:28:00.001-05:002009-11-25T23:28:29.379-05:00Wow, its been a month... yikes!11/25 Wednesday : To Santo Domingo, I looooove Thanksgiving!!!!!<br /><br />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! :)<br /><br />11/20- 22Friday- Sunday: Getting stood up in Cabarete <br /><br />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.<br /><br />(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.)<br />11/19 Thursday: Mistoline is a pain in the butt with lazy kids<br />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….<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />11/15 Sunday: Miguel wants me to do what?<br />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.<br /><br />11/10 Tuesday: Adios Escojo and good riddance. <br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />Some time in October: Scary things<br />In a nutshell: There is no “in a nutshell” for this. It just needs to be read.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />11/5 Thursday: Preparing<br />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? <br /> <br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />11/3 Tuesday: What a crappy day.<br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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? <br /><br />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.<br /><br />(UPDATE: My external hard drive was found!!!!!!!! :D)<br /><br />10/29 Thursday: To Santo Domingo, ick…<br />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:)<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />10/28 Wednesday: More money please.<br />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?<br /><br />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!!! <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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*<br /><br />10/26 Monday: Back to site, Ernie got married!!!!!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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). <br /><br />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.<br /><br />10/25 Sunday: Walk for the Cure Dominican Style<br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />10/23 Friday: 27 Waterfalls: Round TWO!!!<br />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. <br /><br />10/22 Thursday: Meeting with Miguel<br />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.<br /><br />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! <br /><br />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!? <br /><br />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?<br /> <br />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. <br /><br />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:)<br /><br />10/20 Tuesday: New PCV by ME!!!!! <br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />10/18 Sunday: Marry for Business, who needs love?<br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-91914786835149317372009-10-17T11:18:00.000-04:002009-10-17T11:21:17.137-04:00Two days.... two long days10/16 Friday: The 1 yr Slump?<br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />10/14 Thursday: Rudeness<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />10/14 Wednesday: The last two days: Down, Up, Up, Up, Tragic, Drama<br />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!<br /> 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. <br />Inflation here is MAD! <br />I love the view here and want to take it home. <br />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. <br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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…<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-5324054651559479862009-10-14T10:28:00.000-04:002009-10-14T11:15:29.491-04:00Oct 4th- Oct 9th10/9 Friday: Escojo National Conference in SD; yeah it’s kind of a BIG deal.<br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />10/8 Thursday: Brigada Verde elections= FUNNY<br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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…<br /> <br />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. <br /><br />10/6 Tuesday: Tolo’s Dad dies at 92 years old<br />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?<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />10/4 Sunday: Happy birthday Aaron and Ali!<br />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:)<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /> <br />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.<br /><br />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.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-88332297067928830462009-10-02T11:39:00.000-04:002009-10-02T11:41:43.254-04:00This 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!<br /><br />9/30 Wednesday: No money and no electricity= a big bummer. My Escojo group lets me down.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />9/27 Sunday: Ernesto clears things up, politicians- bite me.<br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />9/26 Saturday: A GOOD DAY!!! :D<br />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;)<br /><br />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).<br /> <br />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. <br /><br />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! <br /><br />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.<br /><br /> 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… <br /><br />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! <br /><br />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.<br /><br />9/25 Friday: Desagradecido (a strong way of saying ungrateful)<br />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. <br /><br />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! <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />9/24 Thursday: Saint Mary’s Day<br />In a nutshell: This one’s short too! Am I getting lazy or writing with you in mind Deb?:)<br />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.<br /><br />9/23 Wednesday: Back to the grind but with a renewed attitude.<br />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. <br /><br />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:)<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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). <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />9/18: Where is my bag?<br />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.<br /><br />9/17 Thursday: Back in the DR, yuck.<br />In a nutshell: This one’s short enough, right?<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br />9/15 Tuesday: A sum up of my trip home<br />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:)<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /> <br />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.<br /><br />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)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />8/24- 8/26: Celebrando el Cibao!!!<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />8/17 Monday: To Ane and Tim’s!! Nuts, do I have dengue???<br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />8/15-16 the Weekend: No dancing but Harry Potter!!!! <br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-20866644093139310202009-08-17T13:36:00.000-04:002009-08-17T13:37:41.662-04:00A little of this, a little of that. Life is stresful but I'm still enjoying it:)8/14 Friday: Visit from Miguel= Site Change??? :(<br />I decided to finally call Jenn Bingham, the Safety and Security Officer for Peace Corps, and tell her how “someone” had been stealing from me and the whole story about Geraldo. She told me that she thinks it is a big deal… a huge deal and so she talked to Romeo about it. Romeo told her that she should go out to my house to show the community that I was supported by Peace Corps or that Miguel should go to my community. I thought that was really nice of them. I mean, I am not confrontational at all but, hey, if someone else is doing it I’d sure watch! I trust Romeo completely and I know that he knows what he’s doing so if he thinks that is the best thing, well then it probably is. I can see this ending badly but I plan on watching and learning. <br /><br />Around 3:30 I was wondering where Miguel was and decided to call him. I called and he was on his way which made me relived because I thought that he had ditched me. He showed up around 4:30 and we talked about everything that had been going on in my site, how Argeni was being a butthead for a few months and ignoring me, how Geraldo came into my house and all that jazz, how Ernesto’s wife didn’t talk to me for two weeks in June due to the spare key… it was a lot to go over. I didn’t mean to tell him all of it but it was all kind of an answer to questions he was asking me. For instance, why didn’t I talk to Mercedes about the neighbor boy coming into my house? Well, after she ignored me and then talked crap about my back for two weeks in May/June I don’t have the same relationship with her and I was afraid how she would react. But she has been completely back to normal now for about 3 weeks and so I felt bad bringing it up to Miguel. I am a -forgive and forget/if it’s not broken, don’t fix it- type of person and so I didn’t want to bring it up and have to deal with it again, even if the issue is there there, hidden under everything. <br /><br />Miguel feels differently. He told me in so many words that he feels really close to this family and had treated them as more than just friends for a long time. He thought that they would take care of me, expected them to take care of me- like leaving your child with a family member- and here they were, the only ones in the community treating me badly. He said that it is completely unacceptable, even in this culture where people share so much, that someone feels they can go into the house of another while that person isn’t there. Then when they get called out on it, to be mad at the person’s house they went into-that’s ridiculous. He seemed to be really hurt and feel really betrayed about it and so I actually felt really guilty about it. He told me that they were so good to Kevin that he thought that they would be fantastic to me as well. To tell you the truth, that made me feel even worse, like what did I do that I screwed things up so much? <br /><br />Now the game plan is that he will come back on Wednesday and talk to Mercedes and Ernesto about all this with me there talking with them. He said that he will see how they react. If they over-react then he will pull me out the community and put me somewhere else!!!! I don’t want to move!!! We both decided that they probably wouldn’t overreact but I’m afraid that to his face they’ll be fine and later Mercedes will be crappy. I’m not even sure how Ernesto will react. Miguel was talking to him on the phone in front of me and he lied right to Miguel and told him that I didn’t talk to him about Geraldo on Sunday! Miguel said that this was probably just because he was embarrassed about it but still… I’m concerned. Can you imagine having to move to who knows where, having to start all over again, having to live with a host family again for at least 3 months, I could be somewhere without water, I could be somewhere hot and have a horrible host family and I almost definitely wouldn’t have an awesome Escojo group, free house or awesome view. Ugh, I get stressed thinking about it. I would hate that. I’m so happy here I don’t see how the grass can be any greener on the other side. I’ve finally gotten adjusted to this community, don’t move me please.<br /><br />When Miguel and I talked about it we decided that probably what would happen during our meeting on Wednesday was that Ernesto and Mercedes wouldn’t overreact but that it would kind of ruin the chance of us having a tight relationship. They would probably distance themselves from me. This makes me feel awkward. I hate the thought of it. After Miguel left I went up and hung out at Mercedes house with her and Ernie for about 2 hours and it was fun. I’m torn because part of me feels like Mercedes isn’t a real friend anyways but on the other hand, good friends are hard to come by no matter where you are. Not saying that it’s better to have fake friends than real ones but is it better to be alone than to hang out with people you wonder will turn on you? That’s the question isn’t it?<br /><br />8/12 Wednesday: The worst day at the beach EVER.<br />I have had a fellow health PCV visiting me since Monday and it has been fun. I hadn’t seen her since May and it was so nice to catch up. She is completely cool with just hanging out and even going to my meetings. She got here Monday night and pretty much entertains herself. I’m super happy because she seems really comfortable here in my house and I LOVE visitors and love the fact that she feels so at home. We were planning on going to the beach tomorrow but had to change our plans since Miguel maybe was coming to my site tomorrow to talk to Geraldo about the “incident” (little punk). <br /><br />Stephanie and I left my house around 10:30 am, after we went to the clinic to get some more anti parasite medicine for me since I have another freaking parasite. Its bad when you start to feel off and recognize it as a parasite since you have gotten so many of them. Anyways, we got to Altamira and sat and waited for a bus to come for what felt like ever (about 45 minutes). Finally a carro publico showed up and charged us the same as a bus. While we were in the car the driver told us that there were no buses running that day because there was a nationwide strike for the entire week. That would have been helpful to know before we left the house. It was too late by that point to turn back; we were more than half way to Puerta Plata but it was a bad omen for what was to come the rest of our day. <br /><br />When we got to Puerta Plata it was no problem getting to the beach. You have to take a motorcycle and Stephanie was on the motor in front. She was getting impatient because for some reason her motor man decided to give her a tour of the waterfront and so my motor followed suit. We had been driving for about 15 minutes and were at the far end of the road when she told him to just let us off. I felt a little weird about where we were since there were like no people. I don’t like getting in the water where there are no people, what if there is a riptide or sharks or piranhas or something?! Where is everyone!? In an effort so avoid sounding how I just did, I kept my mouth shut and let Stephanie lead the way over to some shade. There weren’t a ton of Dominicans but there were a few. There were no tourists though so we stuck out like sore thumbs. Stephanie went into the water first and when she came back I went in. When I got out of the water and walked up to her, she was flaming mad yelling all kinds of stuff at some guys down the way. Turns out, while she was sitting there a group of guys walked by and chucked a cell phone at her crotch. What a bunch of tools. She was really upset and felt violated. We decided to leave that part of the beach and thankfully after we moved to a different part we had no more issues. <br /><br />Stephanie got the number of the motor driver from the morning and when we were ready to leave she gave him a call. I thought it was so weird that he showed up to take us both on just his bike, they NEVER do that. Sure they could make more money packing the people on but motor drivers ALWAYS get another driver if there’s two people. Anyways, we get on his bike and he takes us to the other side of town. I thought that he was showing us a fish restaurant in town but after we reached the main highway where he was supposed to let us out and he kept going I was wondering were we were going. He told me that he wanted to show us the restaurant still but that it was just a little outside of town. He was super friendly, I wasn’t getting my creep-o goose bumps and Stephanie seemed at ease so we just went with it. I figured it’s always helpful to know where a good seafood place is, right? <br /><br />Well, when we FINALLY got there, it was not “a little outside of town” but like 25 minutes out of town. Then he didn’t want to leave until Stephanie and I ate. He said he had to make sure we were on a bus first. We told him we weren’t hungry and he said we should go to his house to meet whomever. Keep in mind, this is not unusual Dominican behavior but I said absolutely not. There was no way I was going to go to this dude’s house. We told him we wanted to get going and I thought he said his brother was a carro driver and could meet us. We sat on the side of the road waiting for a car or bus or something- not necessarily with a member of his family or anything- and then his brother showed up. This dude was something else. He had both ears pierced complete with Air Jordan earrings, gold chains and bracelets, converse shoes… and he had to be pushing 50. Of course he was very confident he could speak English while Stephanie and I exchanged looks during his “conversation” with us. Finally, Stephanie was getting really annoyed and told them they were messing up our chance to get a ride, sending them off. <br /><br />We sat there on that road for about 20 minutes trying to find a car or something but there were no buses and by the time the cars arrived they were already full. It would have been better if we were in Puerta Plata trying to get a car. After a while a red truck pulled over to give us a ride. It wasn’t the type of bola I like to take. It was a regular truck and we had to sit in the cab with the dude. I sat in the back seat because I sat in the middle with the stupid motorcycle driver the entire way and figured I had met my small talk quota for the day. I couldn’t really hear the driver of the truck talking over his music but I heard him say he was American like we were and he tried to talk in English- which was awful. Stephanie was trying to be polite, I was ignoring him. After a while I noticed he was swerving a lot and thought it didn’t seem like the normal –trying to avoid the million potholes in the road- type of swerving but much crazier. About 5 minutes after this thought he pulled a BIG, nearly empty bottle of rum out from under his seat. Well that explains that… I rolled my eyes and began hoping he was just a bad driver and had drunk that bottle a different day or maybe the bottle had a hole it in. <br /><br />We had been in the car for about 20 minutes when I heard Stephanie saying, No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. He had been offering her rum earlier so I wasn’t paying much attention to it until she said, Let us out here. We hadn’t even gotten to Imbert, the town between Altamira and Puerta Plata, and we had a long way to go still. Stephanie wasn’t familiar with the area at all so how does she know where to get off. Immediately I realized he was putting the moves on her and that’s why she had been saying no thank you. I reached up to him and said, My friend just called me and he is going to meet us in Imbert so let us off at the park there please. He kept trying crap with Stephanie and so I said, if you really were an American then you would KNOW with out a doubt that it isn’t ok to force yourself on someone after they tell you know. He asked me what and I told him to turn down his music so he could hear me and then I told him to take it easy and leave Stephanie alone. We got into a mini discussion and Stephanie was reaching back to me and trying to get me to shut up. She was worried I was going to make him mad or that we would get in an accident. Well, I believe in God and I believe everything happens for a reason. If this guy is going to do something, he’s going to do something. The least I’m going to do is tell him to knock it off before hand and if he keeps going, well, I’m sure going to give him a GOOD piece of my mind because someone should. By this point we were in site of the park and I reminded him of our friend awaiting us among the crowd of other motorcyclists. He pulled over and let us out. What a douche bag.<br /><br />Poor Stephanie, this was the 2nd time she got violated in one day. I was feeling pretty bad for her but was under the impression that at least he had only been trying to hold her hand. She said that she felt really scared he wasn’t going to let us out and he could do anything to us. It reminded me of when I was in Santiago and the carro driver wouldn’t let me out of the car because I wouldn’t pay him 100 pesos. I had had my hand on the door, waiting for him to slow down in traffic and I was about to jump out of the car and run. Here with Stephanie we were on a busy highway with no stops, no slowdowns and no where to get out. It could have gone very badly.<br /><br />So there we were, stuck in Imbert with no ride to Altamira, the next town over. All the motor drivers were saying tasteless things to us, to which Stephanie was not handling well. I learned that she is a screamer, which is dramatic- aka: Dominican’s LOOOOOVE it. She was putting on a show for these guys, screaming at them to shut up and leave us alone. I took note that she was upset and decided telling her to try to calm down wasn’t the right approach. There were no women around except for one who was working at the little snack stand so I decided to go over to her and say hello. After that I found some decent motor men that weren’t sleazy and made struck up conversation with them. I told them my friend was really nice but had a bad day and so if they could help us look for a way to Altamira, that would be fantastic. <br /><br />When the brain damaged motorcyclists were still asking us 45 minutes later if they could just drive us to the next town, after we have explained that we don’t have our helmets and CAN’T RIDE ON A MOTORCYCLE WITHOUT A HELMET 50 times, I decided to make it a interactive mind puzzle and talk to them like they were 8. “Now remember, we had this conversation 4 minutes ago, didn’t we? We can’t go with you. Do you remember why? (here’s where I point to my head) That’s riiiiiiiiight, say it out loud to me though. Yep, because we don’t have our H-E-L-M-E-T-S. Now, is that hard to remember? Answer me, is it? No, that’s right it’s not. Now why don’t you help your friend learn, he’s asking me again…” <br /><br />Stephanie and I passed an hour there like that. Not one bus drove by. Three carros but they were full and we even took to looking for bolas again but there were none. Stupid strike. There were taxi drivers but they wanted to charge us 300 or 200 pesos to take us. We didn’t even have that much money on us so we told them to forget it. I figured it should cost about 30 or 40 pesos. One guy had a legit little bus but he wanted to charge us 300 pesos. We told him to get lost. 15 minutes later he wanted to charge us 200 pesos. Still no. Then he said he would charge us 100 total. Ok we decided. We got on the bus and then we sat. He was about to go but then two other woman arrived and they were pitching a stink about how much he wanted to charge. I heard him tell them a different price and they wanted to know why he was charging us more. Because they’re white. I asked one of the women how much they were paying and she said 40. I told the driver that we would not be paying one peso more than 40 ourselves, I didn’t care WHAT color our skin was or how much money he thought we had. We are volunteers here to help this country, HIS county and SHAME ON HIM for wanting to rip us off. Stephanie flipped out. She began yelling at him and said we were getting out. I sat her back down and pointed out that we had been waiting for an hour. We were taking this bus and we would pay 40 pesos. She was afraid he would beat us up or shoot us so I told her to have the other 20 pesos in her pocket in case he got out of hand but that we would pay 80 to begin with. <br />Along the way the driver kept telling me and Stephanie to pay and I calmly told him we would pay when we got there. No one else was paying and neither were we. He got pissed after about 10 minutes of this and threatened to kick us out. Go ahead, I told him, but then you won’t get anything. By this point we could have walked it if he decided to kick us out, even though it would have been a hike. He kept going. I took up conversation with the woman sitting behind us and when we got to our stop I asked her to say it since I was afraid the driver wouldn’t let us out. He stopped, thinking it was to let that lady out and Stephanie and I got out. I walked to the passenger side window and held out my 80 pesos. He tried to trick me into thinking that the other women in front paid 100 pesos. I told him he was full of it, take the 80 pesos, have a good day y Dios te bendiga. And I turned on my heal and walked my happy little butt away as Stephanie called him a thief and shook her fist right back at him. <br /><br />I told Stephanie that when we got to Altamira it would be a sign that our luck was changing if, at the very least the empanada stand I loved was open. They have the best chicken or cheese empanadas. Well, we got there, it was open but it had 4 food items total. Not 4 varieties for food on their menu for the day but 4 items of food: 3 yucca balls and one beef empanada. The idea of a beef empanada has never appealed to me, and the last yucca ball I got wasn’t worth the money so no thank you and good bye. I just wasn’t sure how to interpret our sign… “Open but Empty”<br /><br />The entire day I had been going to snack stands and asking if they had Coke in a glass bottle. Not one person did. There was one last place to look: a cafeteria right at the entrance of the road to my community, And guess what. They had Coke in a bottle. I was so pleased. I asked how much and the guy told me 20 pesos as he opened the bottle. As I handed over 20 Stephanie freaked out. She told him it should cost 15, and began shouting lots of things. I was embarrassed. She was making a scene over 5 pesos and he was charging more because of where his cafeteria was located, right on the highway where no one stays and drinks it so he has to charge for the glass deposit. I tried to tell Stephanie and she was flipping out but it was too late. The guy made fun of us to his friend that he was playing dominoes with and gave me the 5 pesos change to calm Randi down. I sunk my shoulders. I needed to have a talk with Stephanie. I told her I knew she had had a bad day but that she can’t just go yelling at people! That’s when I realized through conversation that the dude in the truck had been reaching for more than her hand. I felt awful. <br /><br />Bertico showed up with Noel and we headed up the mountain. Bertico told me on the way up that he saw Stephanie had been crying the entire way, about 35 minutes. Then when we got to my house she sat outside and cried. I made her a peanut butter and Kelly sandwich, heated up some bath water for her and gave her some space and while I went and ate dinner at Mingas without her. <br /><br /><br />Stephanie seemed to be feeling better the next day and she called one of Peace Corps doctors and talked with her for a while. She talked to her dad who of course tried to get her to quit and come home right away. She is not dealing well in general with Dominican men and their attitude towards women here. She told me she has a lot to think about since she still has a long time left in her service and she doesn’t want to spend it very unhappy, unable to cope with the men here as she is now. I told her she should do whatever she thinks will make her happy. She has put in a great year here so far and if she thinks she’ll be happier at home, she will not be going home empty handed. She has made a difference and has grown as a person. What more can you ask for?<br /><br />8/11 Tuesday: For the first time in 12 months, I’m saying I can’t wait for the weekend.<br />Today I had my Escojo meeting. They have been real crappy since school got out and whenever we meet, someone gets into a fight. Last week Wandi and Vanji got into one. I had to have a talk with each of them on separate occasions and explain how they were responsible for their own actions and can’t control someone else’s actions. I feel like an elementary school teacher. They seem to be the two that are fighting more than anyone which is a real bummer because they are the two that are going to the conference in Jaraboca the 24th- 26th with me and they may kill each other... or me. I don’t want to think about it. <br /><br />I am looking forward to this Saturday when I get to go to Santiago. Sure, I’m going to work on a charla with another PCV for the Celebrando el Cibao presentation so it’s not going to be all fun and games but let me assure you, there will still be fun and games. Saturday I’m going to do some special shopping in Santiago with Kelly and then work a little with Rachele on the charla. Sunday we’re going to go to the pool and then at night to the concert in Rachele’s site, which hopefully means we’ll dance a lot. Monday I’m going to the artisan shop in Kelly’s site to make some gifts for my trip home and then I have to go back to the campo and practice giving the water charla we prepared. We worked on coloring that charla for 4 hours today and I am happy to say that it looks really good. We put extra work in it because it’s going to be presented in front of 50 other kids. I was shocked that Geraldo showed up to the meeting. That kid has some nerve. I would wonder if I should let him participate if it was just Escojo but it’s the promoters group and he not an example. He is a thief. I’m sure Ernesto talked to him because he hasn’t said a word to me since Sunday and he hasn’t visited my house at all. Also Argeni finally was kind of talking to me today. Well, I asked him something and he mumbled a response that I kind of understood. I need to just crack down on that kid. He is getting on my nerves. Anyways, I can’t wait for this weekend. <br /><br />8/10 Monday: Work work work work work work work work work work work <br />Today Anne came over to work on the water presentation we are going to present at the Celebrando el Cibao conference. I told my kids that the kids that go have to present a charla on a country (I was given Italy) and that we had to present another topic of their choice. The second part wasn’t true but I feel like my kids can handle it since they are a really good group (when they’re not fighting during the meetings). I had them “pick” a topic to present at the conference but I rigged the results a little because I wanted them to present on water. That way when I get the water filters I can have them help out and give that charla to the people who will receive water filters.<br /> <br />Anyways, planning a presentation from scratch is time consuming. We had to still narrow it down, what did we want to talk about in relation to water? We decided to talk about the different ways water can be contaminated, or rather some of the common ways here, the effects of that and how the kids can make a change. It took all day to plan it and write it out but it was worth it. Tomorrow in the meeting the kids will color in the pictures and block letters I drew. I’m excited! I love environmental issues, its so interesting and so fun to teach stuff to the kids where they can actually make an impact. <br /><br />Later in the day I went to the Women’s Meeting. You will be happy to know that, as promised, right away I had the woman get into a circle and share what they cooked with the green leaves. I know that some of them lied because I was asking very specific questions to throw them off a bit. Despite this, I was thrilled that they put the effort into lying. Every other week they simply said they didn’t do it and that was that. What type of person doesn’t have any shame when they don’t do their homework!? There were two women who said they didn’t do it, maybe 6 or 7 who lied and I think about 12 that actually did it. I was really happy with that. I’m going to make a point of going to their houses and making them feel guilty about not putting those dang leaves in their meals until it’s a habit for them. It IS possible to change bad habits or to better old habits, you just have to be obnoxious and find methods that work.<br /><br />8/9 Sunday: A cacophony of things: Beer is a great fundraiser but if only the kids could make change… bake like there’s no tomorrow, dance your butt off, who’s mad now?<br />Today began well and ended well. It was the middle that less than perfect. I went to bed super early yesterday and got a ton of sleep, something surprisingly rare here and started the day off right. I promised a woman in my nutrition class last week that I would bake two types of cake for the class on Monday if she brought me the carrot, squash, and flour for the cakes. I still ended up paying 215 pesos for the other ingredients but it was worth it because I wanted the women to see how you can make something that they initially think will be nasty (because its different and has green leaves) but it turns out delicious. Well, let me tell you, grating two pounds of carrot and squash is no fun nor is it a simple task. Not to mention, in the middle of all this grating, my Escojo group was at the Mother’s Club selling beer as a fundraiser. I wanted to be there with them but couldn’t leave my house with something on the stove, baking (yes ON the stove). I was down in the Mothers Club for a while, grating away and finally the little girls came around and I passed the job on to them. We went to my house and I spent the rest of the day trying to juggle making the bread and helping the Escojo group. <br /><br />When the first of the bread was done and cooling I went back to the Mother’s Club to see how they were fairing. I was a little nervous that they wouldn’t sell all the beer since I was the one who fronted the money for it. But when I arrived they had sold all the beer and were going to the colmado to buy more. I kept asking them how much the colmado was charging per beer but they were so excited to be selling so much beer they didn’t care or know. I was getting annoyed with this, trying to give a crash business 101 course about how they may not be making a profit but no one wanted to listen to me. Fine, eat up the profits with ignorance then and we will have this same discussion afterwards when you have learned the lesson the hard way. I was annoyed. <br /><br />Have I explained why we are doing this fundraiser? We have to raise 1000 pesos to take 2 kids to the conference, Celebrando el Cibao, which is a great deal since it is PRICEY to have this conference. Thank you soooo much to all of you who helped my group out by donating for this trip. I know that Aunt Claudia did specifically, and we really appreciate it. We can raise 1000 pesos with some work but trying to raise nearly 5000 (which is what we would have had to have done) by the beginning of the summer would have been nearly impossible. <br /><br />Anyways, after the fundraiser was over I took all of the money (despite the fact that Wandi was being a child, wanting to hang on to it) and figured out how much we should have made after we paid the colmados. Thank goodness we were still making a profit when we bought beer from the colmados (a whopping 10 pesos a beer) but somehow we were 335 pesos short! We still don’t know why we were so short- Could it be the thief? Could it be that Vanji isn’t great at making change? Could a confusion have happened when Vanji got pissed at Ernie and walked out about 45 minutes before we closed? (and she had how much everyone owed written down in some weird code in a notebook that Antonio and Wandi tried to decipher afterwards when we were collecting the tabs) Who knows but everyone was pretty bummed. I tried to refocus on the fact that we at least made 750 from one day, which is great.<br /><br />After all that commotion I still had to finish the other cake. I popped it in the oven and Ernie invited me to a party up where the roads cross. Hmmm, a party, eh? Count me in!! I showered and got ready and by the time Franklin (Ernie’s cousin) was here to get us, I was all ready and the cake was done. We went to the party (which- crazy- had a 100 peso cover, can you believe that?!) and it was amazing. It was at a large disco at the crossing and it was packed. It had a teeny dance floor in relation to the building and the people were dancing in between the tables as a result. I haven’t danced that much ever in my life I think. I danced every since dance, except the 3 times salsa was playing, straight through from 8:30 until 12! It was so fun but, ooooh when I woke up the next day I just laid there for a minute, feeling every bone in my body. Merengue is not gentle on the body and it was mostly that which was playing. <br /><br />On the way to the party we stopped to ask Ernesto if Ernie could go to the party. I still hadn’t been able to get him alone to talk to him about how his son refuses to talk to me in class, even when I ask him a direct question (a complete lack of respect) and how the other kid living with him tried to steal from me. I pulled him aside and told him everything and he didn’t really seem to acknowledge the fact that Geraldo was trying to steal from me. He said, “Of course it’s not ok that he opened your window and also, if your front window was open he should have called you instead of going inside to close it.” Ummm, what about the fact that he was TRYING TO ROB ME and that it was a load of crap he was going in to close the window?! Ernesto said he would talk to him so I guess I’ll let it lie and see what happens?<br /><br />8/8 Saturday: The Beach and the Store: Day of Adventures, Pizza and Mangoes<br />I want to take this very special moment to inform you all that I was at the beach all day today eating mangoes with my friend Kasey. While on the beach, we bought a ton of mangoes for 5 pesos each and ate until we felt sick and couldn’t possibly fit anymore mango goo between our teeth. The beach was fantastic and beautiful. We got a bola from the beach to Puerta Plata afterwards and went to La Sierna, the new grocery store there where I had to pick up 150 pesos worth of school supplies for my Escojo group. We’re raffling off the stuff for 10 pesos a ticket so we’ll make 850 off of this, a good amount. School starts Monday the 17th. Next, Kasey and I ate Dominoes Pizza (they do Dominoes Pizza here way better than at home) and then headed home. It was a great day. <br /><br />8/6 Thursday: How do you catch a thief? My advice: hide out in your house.<br />Today I was tired. I was trying to work on my charla for the very last Nutrition Class in the Woman’s Club but decided that eating a sandwich would be a better move, followed by a nap. I had just made my sandwich and went into the back room to eat it so no one could bother me before my nap when Geraldo, the neighbor boy who lives with Ernesto, began calling my name from outside of my house. I just ignored him and was pretty dang pleased with myself for having the foresight of eating my sandwich in hiding. All of the sudden the back window slats snapped open and his face was on the other side, peering inside. For some stupid reason, it startled me and I ducked down out of view. As I sat there, squatting I began to wonder what the heck my life had come to. I mean, here I am in the DR, in the back of my own house, squatting down with a sandwich in hand while someone peers in to see if I’m there. After he shut the window I became more and more annoyed. I mean, can’t a person get some privacy? What if I was naked?! Then I looked over and saw him standing by my front, glass window, just standing there. What a weirdo, I thought irritably. I wondered what he could possibly be doing now and then realized that he was opening the window really slowly and climbing inside!! Right when I realized that, he must have seen me because all of the sudden he bolted and shut the window behind him. <br /><br />By this point, I was really mad. I was pretty sure that this meant he was my thief. This made me mad. I mean, I hung out with this kid. He’s 16 or 17 and only in 8th grade so I have tried to help him with his homework. He cheated on his Escojo final but I still let him graduate, just went over the test with him individually… he’s even one of the 6 in my Escojo promoter group! What a sneaky little punk! I could have felt betrayed but instead I was thinking about ways to catch him in the act. I didn’t want ANY doubt. <br /><br />When I walked by the front window about 5 minutes later, still in my bedroom, I saw him there again and I decided that two can be sneaky. I looked around my room for somewhere to hide but couldn’t find anywhere good. I contemplated hiding under my bed for a quick minute but I would only be able to see his feet from there and I needed somewhere I could watch him and catch him red- handed so I went into the bathroom. Almost immediately and without making a sound he was in my bedroom. Sadly, he saw me right away and asked me why I left my front window open. Which window, I wanted to know. He pointed to the window that was messing with earlier. He had shut it behind him but didn’t lock it. I pointed to my shut front door and asked why he was inside and he said it was so he could lock the window. I told him he could leave. <br /><br />Now I’m paranoid about my dang windows. And what a shame because they were really something I was proud of, glass front windows…. how fantastic. I didn’t say anything to anyone about this and I figure I will talk to Ernesto when he comes home on Saturday and see what he says. At least now I know who my thief is.<br /><br />8/5 Wednesday: Am I prego or fat? D: None of the above. So there. <br />Today in the morning as I was hanging out with Wandi he poked my stomach and said, “Dang Elizabeth! Are you prego?” Ok, so maybe I am a little bloated. Maybe I ate one too many packs of cookies yesterday. Maybe my shirt was a little tighter than normal but really? PREGNANT?! I feel like that was an unfortunate word choice. <br /><br />Later that day, I was in Minga’s kitchen with her and a new friend. Her friend was buttering me up, telling me how I really didn’t look that fat and Minga was in total agreement with her, saying that for how long I have here, I’m not that fat. This may not seem exactly like a compliment but I’ll take what I can get here that doesn’t have to do with my “good- hair”, white skin, or blue eyes so I was beaming. Remember, it’s counter intuitive for them to call someone skinny so, in my experience, the best they can do is call someone thin or “not that fat”. Minga’s grandson was in there as well, the 20 year old Noel who enjoys calling me fat. When Lisa was here he called me really fat- TWICE, and not as a compliment (I’ve learned the difference). The first time he just said I was huge and carried on about his business. Then the second time he called me colossal and Wandi tried to stand up for me. He tried to tell him that I wasn’t fat when Noel decided to get more specific, telling him to look at my arms. Wow, were my arms ever fat. All this talking as though I wasn’t sitting a foot from them looking right at them. Thank goodness I haven’t ever had a complex about my arms! So anyways, I felt the need to point out to Noel while we were in the kitchen that the ladies here with me thought that I wasn’t fat and what did he think of that- HA! He turned to the guest and casually said, ‘Hey, sure she is skinny now but that’s only because she runs every day. Before, she was a COW!’ <br /> <br />I was at a loss for words, my jaw involuntarily dropped. DANG IT! I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a reaction but what could I do? It was surprising. He actually compared me to a cow! A COW! But on the up side, at least he said that was before… maybe I’ve lost some weight? I’ll tell you this; after I stopped eating red beans I feel 100 xs better. I’m a new person, so screw you Noel! Ha! <br /><br />8/3Monday: Giving the Mother’s Club a piece of my mind.<br />I never have liked giving classes to the Mothers Club. They don’t participate, they talk over me and they never do their homework. The homework is simple and has been the same every week since June: add green leaves (found from plants in their yards) to your food. But does anyone do it? No. This week I felt just like every other Monday giving the class but when I asked them who did the homework and everyone glanced around and looked at eat each other sheepishly, giggling. That did it. I lost my patience. I said, “Ok then… let me ask you all this: do you think that just listening to this information and then not applying it is helping anything or anyone? Sure it’s great that you sit here and listen (“listen”) but you won’t remember a thing if you don’t use it. Do you think that it’s easy to draw and color these presentations? It takes time and I care about you all so I do it, it’s my homework. How does it make me feel that you don’t take 5 extra minutes a day to toss some leaves in your rice? Next week we are going to sit in a circle and say what we cooked this week that we put leaves in. We are all going to share and if you don’t have anything to say, shame on you for not wanting to improve your family’s nutrition and health.” <br /><br />We shall see if this worked. The women were very clearly shocked I spoke to them this way. Minga has told me several times I need to be sterner and not let people walk on me. Well, no time like the present, eh? After I began the class with that little introduction I felt a little weird just continuing with the day’s lesson but on the other side I felt good about it. It’s a tactic I haven’t tried yet and going the tranquil road isn’t accomplishing much. Hopefully it pays off. Next week is our last meeting.<br /><br />8/2 Sunday: Death by Cow<br />Tonight Wandi and I thought that it would be fun to go up to the hill since we hadn’t gone for a while. It was a rare night; we walked all the way there without any little kids with us. I always just assume someone will end up going with us. Since I’m an old lady now with my campo bedtime, when 8:30 rolled around I was dead and ready to sleep. <br /><br />We left and as we were walking back Wandi jumped and pointed to something. I thought it was something small and stupid, like “Look at the big spider!” since everyone and their mother here knows I’m scared of spiders (although I’m now much better that I was). But no. It was a cow. Now, never in my life have I been afraid of cows, I grew up in northern IL in the country for crying out but when some people here are seemingly scared of an animal, I think it’s probably with some reason, right? So, when he acted freaked out, I got a little freaked out. When I was about to keep walking, he was like, “Sure, keep going if you want to die.” What? He asked if I would be ok spending the night on the hill and the idea did not delight me. I tried to think of any other way down the hill and he said there was none. He said he wasn’t going to keep walking because “Where there’s a cow there’s a bull.” It seemed like a logical statement but I DID NOT want to spend the night on that hill, especially with Wandi, no gracias. I began having visions of things written in the next Peace Corps newsletter about the PCV who was killed by a cow. <br /><br />I was starting to get really scared, really desperate. I wasn’t going to spend the night on that hill. Wandi was insistent that it wasn’t safe but I was weighing the options: possible death by cow or spend the night with Wandi on this stupid hill while mosquitoes and ants feast on us. Nope, that did it. I did the best thing I thought- I threw cow caution to the wind, forgot the cows and power walked my butt out of there, leaving Wandi in my dust. He told me to slow down but, why? So the cow can get us? No way. Tú eres loco. We finally got to the gate at the end of the path and I breathed a sigh of relief. I went to my house and lived through another night. The next day I told Ernie about it and she looked at me like I was nuts. After all, what’s a COW going to do to you?BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-20628605568744046702009-08-01T15:40:00.000-04:002009-08-01T15:43:43.203-04:00Environmental Meeting and 452 pesos for the month7/29 Wednesday: Nightmares of scary things. But I’m not sleeping. Dang.<br />Life has really gotten rough here in the DR in the last month, let me tell you. Summer here is hot (although not where I am thankfully) and I’m learning that summer means a LOT more of your favorite insects, which is really not ok with me. You name it and there are more of them. Examples you ask? Well, how about the community of centipedes living in my shower. Recently I decided to be proactive and take action about this but I didn’t want to make a mess and squish them. So I hosed them with repellant (thank you PCMOs) and that did the trick. Keep in mind that centipedes here are the ones that, if they bite you, the bite supposedly hurts for 3 days. I took the liberty of preventing that experience. <br /><br />The DR is all about survival here right now, let me tell you. Nothing is safe, not even the food in the fridge. A few weeks ago I was dismayed to I find a roach happily taking a stroll through my fridge. I thought I nipped the issue in the bud when I taped over a hole I detected. It turns out there is more than one hole. More tape then. A few more days passed and I figured my food was safe there. I was wrong. I put a peanut butter and honey sandwich in there to eat later (couldn’t eat in front of company) and when I went to eat it later it was covered in ants! The ants here suck by the way. They’re not like the friendly little one from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Noooo, these ants bite, literally. Eat them at your own risk but know that you have to chew them before they chew you. Needless to say, I carefully picked nearly all the ants off (lazily leaving a few because I figured I could eat a couple at least before they bit me) before digging in. <br /><br />Another example of how you have to live to merely survive on this little isle happened about two weeks ago. I was doing my business in my bathroom (not even in a latrine) when a leg of something randomly fell from the ceiling, landing of course on my lap. I’m not sure what it was attached to at one time but I’m guessing from the color it was a roach. <br /><br />Things have a habit of falling from the ceiling in my house. Sunday I was sitting on my porch with two Domincans when a baby spider fell from the ceiling RIGHT next to my foot. You could tell this was no wimpy spider; it was going to really be something. You can tell these things by the way it walks. It was going to be large. I tried to not mess with my Spider Karma and so I flung it into space but it came back. I did this two or three times, each time surprised to discover this spider was not to be deterred; it had the persistence of a true Dominican. I left it alone to see where it would go and found that it was going right for the open window of my house. I finally gave up and smashed it right below the window. Don’t judge; I tried to be diplomatic first, I swear. <br /><br />Last week I was in my room when I noticed a large spider by my window. I was going to ignore it but then I saw that all familiar sack on its back. It was the type that carries its babies in a little round bag on its posterior full of tons of little spiders. Sick. As I looked at it, pondering the best way of how to get it out of my house, it must have seen me eyeing it and it took off hiding in my clothes. I searched but it was too late; the Elusive DR Spider strikes again. About 3 days later I discovered the empty sack in a shoe. <br /><br />Two nights ago as began my normal “cleaning of the bed” ceremony (to make sure there are no ants) I encountered a small spider (about the size of a half dollar) right on my pillow for crying out loud. This spider didn’t have a bad attitude though, you can just tell. I stared at it, willing it to run out of my bed but it seemed to be sleeping. Finally I took my shoe and flung it out of the bed. I haven’t seen it since.<br /><br />The pinnacle? Last night I was in my dinning room, talking to my mom on the phone when I noticed my neighbor’s cat playing with something about a foot from me. There was no power so I bent down trying to get a better look, thinking it was a lizard or something when all of the sudden it walked. It was a gia-normous spider. It was in its adolescence, not yet reaching full potential. I was FREAKED OUT. I shoved out of my chair and ran to the back of my house and the spider followed! It was like it thought it could eat ME. No no no no no! I made a break for the door and the stupid thing turned on its axis’s and made for the door as well. This spider had an ego. It wasn’t the least bit phased by the fact that the cat was batting at it and biting it, it thought it was so cool. Well, it at least followed me outside and so I took off for the neighbor’s. It didn’t matter that it was 11:30 at night. Then I realized that I should just knock on my best friend’s window and wake him up but I didn’t know which window was his. Why does life have to be so complicated? I went back to the house and saw that the spider was giving up the chase, with the cat now in hot pursuit of him. The spider lazily stopped and actually scratched itself with its leg! Have you ever seen a spider scratch itself? No, and so as I watched it meander down my front yard in the night, I decided that it is actually a mammal.<br /><br />To make things even worse, when I went back inside I realized that there is a large gap between the front door and the floor so Senor Spidy can come back whenever he pleases. Great, that’s a comforting thought for bed. Then, when I began to tuck in my net, I discovered a large roach on it. Can’t a girl catch a break, I mean really!<br /><br />So yes, there you have it. My life is becoming WAAAAAY to full of roaches and ants and especially spiders. I’m looking forward to visiting IL and NY where the insects aren’t nearly as large or daring. Less than a month till I’m on base! Until then, they’re “it” and I’m running, trying not to let them tag me, gives me the creeps.<br /><br />7/26 Sunday: Visitors. <br />Today 4 other PCVs came to my house as a break between their sites (all over this country) and tomorrow when they’re going to go to the 27 Waterfalls. I loooooove having guests so I was pumped. I ran out of toilet paper back on Thursday and kind of figured my guests wouldn’t enjoy the “cleaning your butt in the shower” method as opposed to TP so I used some of my few remaining pesos and splurged on a roll. Never a peso spared in the name of hospitality, thats how I roll.<br /><br />I firmly believe in what goes around comes around and wouldn’t you know it, when my guests got here around 5 pm they surprised me with a pack of Oreos! And they brought this corn cream stuff to make for breakfast. What a trade off for a 17 peso roll of TP. It was a fun night. Of course it didn’t go like we thought it would but it was still pleasant. We hung out at my house, eating peanut butter and jelly on crackers (I have no bread left) for dinner before heading out to do a tour of my town. We went to the clinic and the school and the PCVs were really shocked that my little community has this stuff. Brittany told me that her town of 10,000 is still fighting to get a clinic. I have 400 people in my town. <br /><br />On the way back to my house we were going to stop in at the disco since it was to be a big night with it being Fathers Day here in the DR. One woman in my community tried to warm me about something being dangerous by the disco while we were walking back from the school but I thought that she was talking about traffic. Turns out she was talking about a fight that broke out at the disco. People had cleared out of there almost as fast as they run towards the mothers club when they hear there’s going to be free gifts. Meanwhile, we were walking to the disco, still unknowing, and a bunch of people were like, “You can’t go there! There was a fight! Get away quick!” Fights here are a big deal because people like to shoot guns in them. On the brightside, I thought it was so considerate that people were taking care of us and telling us that we shouldn’t go to the disco. You know your community cares about you when they try to protect you and your friends from maybe getting shot. Despite this, I was still a little disappointed since I wanted to show them the disco but I figured it was ok because we went to the hot dog stand instead. That’s when I found out that 2 of the 4 of the PCVs are vegetarians. Whoops. Next we went to my house and had a super small, somewhat lame, dance party (Wandi, Noel and Franklin were no doubt disappointed since it turned out that my female guests didn’t like to dance). We were going to go up to the big hill to look for shooting stars but everyone was too tired so we ended up going to bed around 11. What a night.<br /><br /> 7/25 Saturday: Left out.<br />This morning I woke up nice and early and met up with Wandi and Vanji to go for a run. Normally we got about 4- 4.5 miles but I wanted to run a certain amount for the week so I wanted to go a little further. When we reached the normal goal Wandi and Vanji were horsing around far behind me so I just kept going. When they caught up, I had met the goal and was ready to head back but Vanji wanted to keep going to see some spot she had never seen. Turns out the “close” spot she wanted to see wasn’t close like she said, it was another 1.5 miles away. Needless to say we were gone in the morning for nearly double the normal time and Wandi of course had to act mad about it the whole time. He always acts mad but hardly ever is really mad. He reminds me of someone from a sitcom or something, maybe like a younger version of the dad on Everybody loves Raymond… or maybe just like Oscar the Grouch. <br /><br />Anyways, supposedly Wandi told Vanji before we left to run that he was supposed to go with Ernesto to that morning at 8 and work for the day (something I didn’t find out about until more than half way into our adventure). That wouldn’t have been an issue if we hadn’t trekked the whole west side of the mountain, to which Wandi was acting mad but he never actually stopped and said he didn’t want to continue. When we were walking back to the house, back on the main road finally, a guy named Jimmy passed us on Ernesto’s new motorcycle. We asked where he came from and he said he just dropped Ernesto off in Altamira. He went to work all the way in Altamira? No, he was going to go to a water inauguration. I knew right then that he went to the inauguration that I wanted to go to and he didn’t even tell me about it! And, to make it worse, I had talked with my APCD- Miguel, earlier that week and he told me he was going to the ceremony. I told him I wanted to go and could he please pick me up in Altamira on his way to John’s site. Miguel told me he couldn’t because his car would be full but failed to mention that my project partner was one of the people filling it. On top of that, if Ernesto knew back on the day I talked with Miguel that he was attending the water inauguration in the site where I was for like 5 days in April, a water inauguration for Peace Corps, and that he was getting a bola with my boss… don’t you think that would have been something to share with me? Call me crazy but I would say why, yes it is something worth sharing. <br /><br />I wasn’t mad yet at this point. I was pondering over these facts thinking that I hadn’t told Ernesto I wanted to go either so I guess I can’t really fault him since it was lack of communication on my part as well, and I didn’t ever ask Miguel who he was taking in his car… so can I really be mad? I was feeling kind of offended over the whole thing when Wandi started in saying that this entire situation was my fault. If I hadn’t wanted to run a little further then we would have been back and I could have gone with. I could have smacked him. No one is perfect and everyone has their good and bad qualities but I swear with Wandi, his qualities are so extreme; it’s maddening. Yes, it could maybe be true that if we had gotten back by 7 like normal I could have possibly gone with Ernesto. In reality though, probably not since he left at 7 and I would have gotten back at 7, needing to shower still. I pointed out to Wandi that he didn’t even know about it, thinking that he was going to work with Ernesto that morning and, what, am I supposed to try and make plans around plans that I don’t know? Don’t be ridiculous. I was so pissed at Wandy and his dumb little hang up about getting the last word in always, saying I told you so and just generally making situations worse that I told him to not talk to me for a while but he kept on being obnoxious. So, I snapped. I told him that he was immature and he always had something stupid to say to make things worse. After I was sufficiently rude about it I went straight to the guilt method and told him he must really enjoy making me feel bad. It was true that I was feeling bad about it and then he rubbed salt in the wound. And, besides this whole state of affairs it should be noted that I would have been able to go if someone I trust hadn’t stolen my money and along with it my trip to the ceremony, the rest of my TP for the month and other things. How frustrating.<br /><br />I didn’t talk to Wandi for a while afterward my little blowup since I didn’t want to keep being rude and that was exactly how I felt like being. About an hour later we talked about it and I told him that telling anyone “I told you so” whether warranted or not, is not ok and generally is going to make someone feel negatively. The thing that’s so irritating about this whole thing, aside from the obvious, is that not 12 hours before Wandi and I had a talk about how trying to pin the blame on someone and saying things that are better left unsaid (like “neener neener neener, I told you so”) even if true, just make the situation worse. I suppose it was kind of a good thing since here we had this perfect example applicable to what we were talking about. Live and learn, both of us.<br /><br />Later I talked with Ernesto and after he told me how much fun it was and how the other PCVs were asking about me, I told him I wanted to go to the party but couldn’t since someone stole my money. Ernesto asked if I knew who it was, which I don’t, so then he told me I should keep the little kids out of my house. And that was that. After that a bunch of us hung out on my porch (there was like 9 of us) for a good 4 hours until everyone kind of just got up and left. It was weird. Good timing though because not 20 minutes later I began feeling really sick with awful pains in my abdomen, also really weird. Lucky for me, I went straight to bed and when I woke up 10 hours later I was cured.<br /><br />7/23 Thursday: An unexpected exchange<br />Today I was walking by Noel and he yelled to me to give him some chocolate. He’s generally asking me for something, or rather telling me to give him something- which I find extremely annoying. In this culture it’s ok to tell someone, “Hey, gift this to me!” or “Bring me some tennis shoes when you come back from the states.” Or, “That’s a neat headlamp you have there, give it to me.” Does this really annoy me? Yes. It makes me want to punch someone but do I? No. If there is one thing I have learned here, it is restraint (or more specifically, ignoring people) and never having the last word. <br /><br />So, anyways, when Noel told me to give him some chocolate I shouted back asking what he was going to bring to my house and “gift” me. He asked what I wanted and I said the first thing that came to mind- cake. He told me to make hot chocolate and I said sure, as soon as I had that cake in my hands. Well, at about 9:30 pm, guess who shows up at my house asking where his cocoa was: Noel. I laughed and asked where the cake was and to my absolute shock he pulled a little cake out from behind his back! I was stunned! I thought it was about the funniest thing ever for some reason and told him that tomorrow would have to hold the cake eating activities since I was about to go to bed. Who would have thought that he actually was going to bring me cake?!<br /><br />7/22 Wednesday: Am I really that broke? ¿Y quien tiene la culpa? <br />This month is killing me. I am so penniless it’s painful. I ran out of TP but didn’t want to use any money to buy more so thank God my shower just happens to be right next to my toilet. I’m out of TP but not out of soap and water… How did it come to this? Well, sure I took that trip to the south at the beginning of the month and that used a decent amount of money and sure I went to the beach with Lisa when I took her to the airport- another somewhat pricey day, and sure we went to the 27 waterfalls which cost me 500 pesos… but REALLY? I used money from home already this month but my pockets somehow seem to be extra vacant and lonely. <br /><br />Each time I go to the bathroom I can’t help but think a little extra about my finances. The only month I wasn’t painfully strapped for cash was in May. This is really counterintuitive since I was in the capital (a pricey place) for 11 days... paying for 7 nights in a hostel, paying for however many meals and who knows what for transport. On the other hand, I was away from my house nearly the entire month as well… and thus my cash was away as well. I don’t want to accuse someone of stealing from me but doesn’t this seem fishy? I mean I’m sure someone recently stole the missing 1000 pesos and at least 500 of Lisa’s which’s opens the door of thought on the subject. It’s hard to keep track of money here. <br /><br />Here’s the system that I have: take out 2000 pesos or so at a time (it’s pricey to go to town and back to take out less but more often) then I put all but 500 in a “safe place”. The 500 I use on this and that and when it’s gone I grab another 500 from my stash. Do I keep close track of the 500 pulled out? No, just on what’s left in the bigger pile. It’s easy to lose track of the smaller bills. I go to the colmado and buy 10 pesos of sugar or whatever and break the 500 to smaller change. After that it’s each peso for itself since it’s hard to keep track of 30 pesos here and 20 pesos there. There have been several times that I wondered- “Wow, that money went really fast, did I leave 200 in my pants pocket or something?” But I am amazingly scatterbrained so I didn’t think too much about a crook taking it from under my nose- a crook who would have to be one of my friends or someone I trust. Nearly every person who comes to my house I trust and those that I don’t, I don’t leave alone.<br /><br />So, now I’m in a pickle but at the same time feel like I’m on the verge of relief. Does this mean that it is possible to get by on my measly salary? There are lots of PCVs who do it but they’re generally the ones who either never leave their site or it costs them like 50 pesos to get to the nearest city to use internet or go grocery shopping (it costs me 150 round trip just to leave my site at all, let alone to get a city. That’s the price for living on a mountain though). I feel relieved that I can live a little better maybe (at least buy freaking TP) but then I’m offended by the fact that someone’s been taking from me. I’m no nun or anything but really? Not to pout or anything but to point out the obvious; would YOU steal from someone whose sole purpose is to better your community and your life in any way they can while leaving their entire life- language, culture, friends and family for over two years? Karma is going to come around and bite that person in the butt, hopefully hard. I don’t know ANYONE here that is so hard up for cash it warrants stealing.<br /><br />What shall I do about this predicament? Minga is set on me leaving all my money with her but I’m not really feeling that option. I don’t want to have to go to her house whenever I want to buy some eggs or sugar. So I guess the only thing I can do is hide it in a better place, tell as many people as I can that someone stole from me (try to scare the thief) and try to keep track of nearly every peso. Wish me luck with that because that last part has a dim future.<br /><br />7/21 Tuesday: A meeting and missing cash<br />Today I had my meeting with my Escojo group. I feel like it went really well. I’m trying to change the dynamic of the group a little and make it more informal. The ideal goal is that they will be teaching the next class. They will be in pairs and each pair will have to do like 4-5 classes. I was thinking of rotating the pairs so they work with someone different each time but I’m not sure. They will have to meet once a week to work together on the classes and then another time to present the classes. I feel like this is a good system but we’ll see. There were 7 kids in my class today but two of them who were there I could do without. Not only are they the two that cheated on the test, Argeni (one of them) is the one who was pretty terrible in the last class, refused to participate and now he thinks hes going to give charlas? I just don’t see that happening but I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. The fact that he is now not talking to me again for some reason unbeknownst to me doesn’t help his case.<br /><br />I have one issue and that is that I would like to start an environmental group but how am I going to start it if all the awesome kids are committed to being in my Escojo class 2 times a week. Asking them to have meetings 3 times a week is too much. I need to get others involved but I’m not sure how. I talked with another PCV about having an exchange of kids, to have like 4-5 PCVS each bring 3 kids and present to my kids while my kids present Escojo or some environmental topic. I think that this could be really fantastic but that’s only if I have a good group. With school not in session I’m not sure how to get kids nor am I sure I should have it as only a youth thing (although I am leaning towards that).<br /><br />Anyways, after I got home from my Escojo meeting, a bunch of us hung out for a while drinking juice and eating crackers and whatever unidentified objects were hidden in my fridge. I should be a little more careful with whom I let in my house now but I trust those kids completely. The issue is that I trust everyone and someone stole 1000 from my bag. Also when Lisa was here 500 pesos disappeared. I have been thinking for the last few months that someone has been stealing money from me but have been terrible at keeping track. I just thought that I was going through it fast... super fast but without me buying much. <br /><br />I’m upset about this for a few reasons: Reason 1: I have 452 pesos to get me through the rest of the month which is doable if I don’t plan on leaving. But I was going to go to the water inauguration for the completion of the water system in the community that I helped out with in April (with the high schoolers from the States) and also I have to go to Andrew’s site on the 31st- one day before payday and I need at least 150 pesos for this and that’s including the luck of getting some serious bolas. Now I definitely don’t have enough money to go to the water inauguration, which is a BIG bummer. Not to mention I need to get more cat food and toilet paper (I have already thought of a plan B the TP though). Reason 2: Hello, there is a thief and I have no idea who it could be! Reason 3: Minga knows about it because I went to her house to check my laundry and see if it was in a pocket and she is all riled up about it. Minga knows: aka: everyone knows. Although that could be good, maybe it will freak out a thief and they will stop. Either way, it doesn’t help me for this month. I have to get through 9 days on less than $13. Awesome.<br /><br />7/19 Sunday: A recap of yesterday<br />So, yesterday proved to be a pretty interesting day after all. I thought that I was going to a meeting with some other PCVs and the Director of Environment of the country, Jaime David. Well it turned out that it wasn’t a “meeting” really but a big party in the back yard of some Dominican’s yard- out in the middle of no where. It was different than I thought it would be but soooo much better. They were cooking out and we ate the best meat I have had in a year. It was FANTASTIC. Not to mention that Romeo Massey, the PCDR Country Director was there with our little group along with the APCD for environment, Alberto- some big rollers and so we received super special treatment. Even though there were a ton of people there, we sat at the same table as Jaime David and talked. Ok, so when I say “we” I mean to say that I didn’t talk to him really except for when she asked me questions directly because I still get nervous with my Spanish when it comes to really educated people that I feel the need to impress. <br /><br />Lucky for me, the APCD of Environment, Alberto, is really cool and helped me with the mission I was given by my Ernesto. I was asked by him the night before I left to talk to someone about the issues we have with the river here during coffee season. The farmers throw the shell of the coffee bean in the river; it rots and pollutes the river so no one can use it. Not to mention it stinks something awful. So, I talked to the Alberto and he got the number of the chief of the environmental police (with whom I had talked to a little bit earlier) and talked to him. Now I just have to call the Environmental Police dude whenever and talk to him about it. Maybe this is too optimistic of me but I really feel like this will resolve the issue. I can feel it in my bones.<br /><br />After the party Alberto gave me a ride to Ali’s site (which, by luck, was really close to where we were having this meeting). I arrived to Ali’s site and we hung out before heading around to try and convince some girls to go to a camp with Ali this week. This is mean to say but I’m going to put it out there: poor Ali; her community bites. Why on Earth does she have to beg and CONVINCE girls to go on this trip? They have nothing to do, its all expenses paid and they get to get out of the pueblo for an entire week with 70 other girls their own age. Not to mention there is a POOL! Ali had been trying to get people to go but they all kept backing out- which to me was unbelievable! Good thing I’m not there because I am a lot less persistent than she is and I would say, “Great, if you little jerks don’t want to go then I’m not going to convince you. And, by the way, you suck.” So I’m not the super-encouraging- school-teacher- type of PCV, so sue me. I feel no guilt. And I don’t like kids much anyways, especially ones who think you owe them something. <br /><br />This makes me feel realize once again that my kids are phenomenal and they rock my world. Tuesday this week we are going to have our first meeting since the last one a month ago. Well see how many of them want to be promoters but I’m sure that there are at least 5 really committed ones. To tell you the truth, I would prefer to just chose 6 of them from the entire group that I think would be good and not offer it to the others but I don’t feel like that’s really fair. Plus some of the ones that I may not think are committed may surprise me and I want to give that opportunity to them all. Although, on the other hand, if I make it more of a prestigious thing with invites then maybe I would have better luck. Who knows but of course I took the nicer way because I am a sucker.<br /><br />The main reason I went to Ali’s site was to help out with this dance. Her dance ended up being really good in general but not for her group. It was a flop for her group who didn’t plan anything and so another group pretty much took over and thus took all the earnings from it. I think that’s fair but felt bad for Ali since she gets really stressed out about it. On a good note, the dance was a huge hit. At first there were just little kids there and it was like a junior high school dance. After about an hour though things got better and it started filling up. It was an interesting dance/talent show and went late into the night. I was really tired by the end of it. We didn’t get to bed until like 3 am and at 8 I woke up because it was too hot to sleep. I hate that. I’m so glad that I don’t live in a place where I wake up because I can’t sleep due to the sweat. I would be MISERABLE. Thank God that I live on a mountain, that’s for sure.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-77210820213500831212009-07-18T18:17:00.002-04:002009-07-18T18:22:48.662-04:00The 1st half of July. Celebrating and regaining my sanity. Por fin!!!7/18 Saturday: To Bonao!<br />Today I have a meeting with the Director of Environment of the entire country. How did I get this meeting you wonder? Well, I signed up for this marine interest group back in May at the all PCV conference and it’s actually the group that has the meeting. I was sent a text on Wednesday inviting me and I figured why not? After all, it’s about the contacts you make right? Well, lucky for me, Ali lives in Bonao and her Escojo dance was moved to this Saturday! So, I get to kill two birds with one stone! I’m going to go to the meeting, and visit Ali in her site (finally) while helping her with the dance. This is another example of me not being in my site but still working. Not to mention, I have a laundry list of stuff to get done while I’m out. It’s a pain planning all this stuff. I have to write notes to remember to read notes that I wrote to remember something! I miss the days of efficiency. Ahhh, imagine how nice it was when I was able to type something up, with out the worry of the power going out, use the internet AND print it all within the same 10 minutes! WOW! 5 weeks and 5 days..:)<br />7/17 Friday: “And what a hard worker you are Elizabeth!!” <br />Today I have been sneaky but it was not premeditated. I went to Minga’s with my computer because I am preparing an English class (not super excited about this but figure it has to be better than my nutrition class) and needed the computer and her generator thanks to no power. Well, I did what I needed, talked to Minga and sorted out yesterday and then decided to write in my blog. Only, I didn’t feel like writing in my blog and so I sat, watching episodes of Heroes in secret. Everyone is like, “Wow, what a hard worker you are, sitting there for so long!” and while I nod my head in agreement, I’m eyeing the screen of my favorite television show. I got all my work done, watched three episodes, didn’t bathe, hid out from Wandi all day, and man do I look like a hard worker. The worst part of today is that there are a lot of mosquitoes in Minga’s house that were feasting on me all day. Is it a curse or a blessing that I can’t feel their bites? I’m not sure but if that’s the bulk of my problems, life is pretty good.<br /><br />7/16 Thursday: Veloria and of course, more drama…<br />I find myself always making things more complicated with my indecisiveness. Yesterday I was with Minga and she invited me to go to a vela or a wake. I figured I could go sure but she wanted to leave at 8:30 am and then wait for Tolo to pick us up whenever in the afternoon- aka like 5 pm. Forget that dude, that’s waaay to long to hang out at a wake. So I told her I had some things to do and wouldn’t be able to go that early and that she could go with out me, I could eat a sandwich in my house for lunch. She wouldn’t hear of it though and said she wouldn’t go, which made me feet bad. So at like 10 at night Wandi tells me that Mercedes invited me to go to a vela as well, the same one I assumed which meant that this was no normal wake, this was a big to do. Now I knew I should go or else I would seem antisocial but still didn’t want to go super early and then have to rely on Tolo to pick us up who knows when in the afternoon. Here is where my indecisiveness comes in; I didn’t tell Mercedes yes or no because I figured I should talk to Minga since she invited me first. I thought that maybe I could go with Minga and then leave with Mercedes or something. Since it was late when I found out, I figured I would go to Minga’s the next morning. <br /><br />The next day, I heard a bus was going to come and pick people up from my community and take them to the wake. It was supposed to be here at 8:30. It was 8:15 when I found out and so I went to Minga’s to tell her to go with the bus and I would meet her there around 11. She refused to go without me and said if I was going to go in a motorcycle that she would pay to go in one as well which was sweet but it was bad too. Bad because when I told Mercedes that morning that Minga invited me already she went off, seemingly upset saying something about me going with Minga and being alone… I’m not sure. My Spanish isn’t up to par yet with ranting women and their slang. The issue is that I like Mercedes less and less as more time passes. This is mean but she reminds me of a toxin or poison, you don’t see it coming and then it kills you- BAM! The woman likes to talk about people, which is pretty common here but she does it in a malicious way and can turn on anyone who’s not her family. It’s annoying that people like to talk here but I can deal with it normally. It’s when they do it to cause harm, that’s when it crosses the line. <br /><br />So, as I have said before, she isn’t exactly someone I want mad at me and it seems pretty easy to piss her off. Well, I was hoping that I would just go alone but Minga ruined those plans. I decided the next best thing would be to go to Mercede’s house and to tell her I was going to go later in the day and that Minga wanted to go with me. Mercedes acted like she wasn’t mad but she made sure to repeat at least 3 times that if I “wanted to go with Minga…” it was fine. So much for trying to make things smooth. <br /><br />In June this would have bothered me a lot but now, I’m just like, “Well I guess you can’t make everyone happy.” As long as I do what I think is right I’m not going to feel bad about it. I need to focus on the right choice and not on trying to appease everyone because that’s impossible. I’m not sure if it’s more impossible here where the level of education is so low and people are so unrealistic and irrational or if I’m just more aware of when I offend people here. All this isn’t some type of epiphany or because I have a new sense of clarity. It’s because I had a vacation. I feel so much better after being away from the campo for a week for the 4th. I was tired afterwards and still have that stupid cold but nevertheless I feel refreshed. I realized that I haven’t had a real break from the campo since April and even that was with my mom and sister (which was awesome but not without lots of another type of stress). Really the last time I have had a break, a day off- a true breather, was in January for New Years. No wonder I have been so testy. Peace Corps “gives” two R & R days a month but even when I’m trying to take those I’m still doing some type of work. It costs too much to leave the campo and not do some of the work stacked up that requires resources outside of the campo (like, I don’t know… a printer or internet). <br /><br />So anyways, when I went to leave the wake there was some confusion with Minga and she ended up leaving, seemingly pretty pissed off at me. I heard later that she told someone she wasn’t going to go out with me anymore. The great thing about Minga is that I know all I have to do is talk to her tomorrow and we can sort it out. And, to make things even better, no matter how stressed I get, I know that I have 6 weeks from tomorrow until I’m home for a 3 week vacation!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOT!!!!:) I can take whatever gossip they want to throw at me with that armor. <br /><br />7/14 Tuesday: Dog attack, foot in a bucket and not much more<br />A good indicator that I’ve been here for a while is that I feel like I don’t have anything interesting to write about. Lisa’s visit pointed out that I’m fairly used to life here and the idiosyncrasies of the everyday- which was something I thought would never happen. Today when I went running with Wandi I was bit by a dog. That’s never happened to me before and let me tell you, when someone says they got bit by a dog I swear they never say how it hurt but dude, it stings! It wasn’t even a real bite, nothing to write home about but here I am… Stupid dog. And thanks a whole lot to Wandi who didn’t even stop walking to throw a rock at the dog or anything while it chased after my leg growling. Thankfully there was a woman walking by at the same time and she lobbed a rock at the measly dog. Note to self: don’t depend on Wandi to save my life against a dog attack. Got it.<br /><br />Later that day Minga’s 4 year old grandson came walking by my house. The day before he fell on a rock and ripped off one of his toe nails and pulled a good piece of skin back on an adjacent toe. His dad was there and I told him to clean it until it looked clean, put a Band-Aid on it and make sure the kid wears shoes for a few days. Well, surprise surprise, here shows up little D, running by me with no shoes on and no Band-Aids. This is the same little boy that gashed his forehead when I got here and everyone was telling me to stitch it up because I’m a doctor you know. Anyways, I was little annoyed that the dad didn’t listen to a thing I said (especially since I’m a doctor) and I took the kid and cleaned him up. The nail-less hole was so packed with dirt I had to have him soak his foot in a bucket of warm water for a good 20 minutes. I sent his brother to get his shoes and had a talk with his mom on how to care for it. The boy is a trooper, he didn’t even cry. I gave him a sucker and Wandi tried to steal it and still he seemed un-phased. <br /><br />All this I was doing when Rach called me from NY to tell me she’s at this delicious ice cream place that we have here in the DR. “Enjoy your ice cream”, I told her, “I’m sitting here on my porch with a bucket on my lap and a kid soaking his foot in it, performing the great show of the week for the crowd to stare in awe at…” It seems every time we talk we are doing such different things from each other; it’s amazing to think that we pretty much had the same life the last 4 years in college. Although I definitely don’t have enough money in my bank account to get that delicious ice cream this month, I have something to look forward to August 1st- pay day and it just so happens that it’s also a day I will be in a city that has the wonderful ice cream store:) Its meant to be.<br /><br /><br />7/11 Saturday: Sleep… I just want to sleep…<br />This morning, as I sat on my porch, trying to cool off, I took a look at my yard. Yesterday, while I was gone, Argeni and Ernesto worked on the stairs again, doing another 4 (so I now have 7 of which just 3 are finished) and I guess Ernie worked on the landscaping. My yard was looking really ugly before. I went and picked up the trash but that’s all the effort I put in and all the effort I really feel like putting in to tell you the truth. I’m not sure if Ernie made it better or worse. Is it better to have a crazy overgrowth of plants or to have chopped them down to bare numbs and dirt? I’m not sure. She replanted the branches she cut and if they grow then they have the potential to look really good. Not that I mind, it was ugly before with no potential and now its ugly with maybe soon-to-be beauty (or something like beauty… in a maybe abstract way, don’t want to get the hopes up too high), that’s better for sure, right?<br /><br />Today has been a very calm day, which is just what I need. I was supposed to go to Bonao to help Ali with a dance for her Escojo class but it was rescheduled for the 25th so today I spent the day writing my blog and I took a nap. Mono is going around PCVs right now and I’ve got my fingers crossed that I didn’t’ share anything with a sicky. Aside from the skin fungus, bean allergy, a few parasites or what have you, a bout with food poisoning, and a lot of gripe (common cold) I have been really lucky the last 11 months. I have to ask myself, “Do you feel lucky?” Why, as a matter a fact, yep I do. You can’t get me mono, HA!<br /><br />7/1 Wednesday- 7/10 Friday: Lisa’s Visit!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_v7tA0oyD7Qy77xGwOIhs_pifj2IY3l8S8-DY4E2lxlasWusrfW582vCBd7_R5R3vJsBNSq4kScHTgqZ_JEScaM7YfifBkx7YdqFpTJr0RLksBR9AlbHhRV5ZYw8ssCXy38W2IlETvk/s1600-h/DSCN0861.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_v7tA0oyD7Qy77xGwOIhs_pifj2IY3l8S8-DY4E2lxlasWusrfW582vCBd7_R5R3vJsBNSq4kScHTgqZ_JEScaM7YfifBkx7YdqFpTJr0RLksBR9AlbHhRV5ZYw8ssCXy38W2IlETvk/s320/DSCN0861.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359928704939458834" /></a><br /><br />It sure has been a busy 10 days! I had so much fun these past few days and I’m sure my good friend Lisa did as well. It was a great visit. Lis and I have been friends since we were 8 years old. It’s one of those relationships where we can go for a few years even without talking but as soon as we do, we pick up like we were hanging out yesterday. It’s a strange friendship really, we’re pretty much as different as you can be and in the past have not been able to spend more than 3 days together without honestly needing a break from each other. We were interested to see how the 10 days completely together every minute was going to go and, amazingly, it went well. We each had our crabby moments (but of course she had more:) and we never actually needed a break from each other! It was a thing of beauty. Since it has been so long since I last wrote and there was so much action in the last week and a half, I’ll just write about the highlights.<br /><br />Day 1 and 2: This was true Dominica style with my cab driver telling me that he was going to be 30 minutes late to get me and me freaking out about Lisa wandering around the airport lost. Lucky for us, her one giant bag took forever so we ended up waiting for her for about an hour. It was sooo funny when she got to the taxi, she thought it was a real terd of a car but I personally thought that it was kind of nice for a taxi. She actually took pictures of it. <br /><br />For those of you who know me, I generally talk a lot. I like to think that the information I share is of the utmost importance. Lisa seemed to disagree, telling me during the entire trip that I didn’t warn her about this or I never told her about that… beginning that first morning. In my defense we only chatted once before she got here and that was in April. Aside from that, I hadn’t talked to her since July last year and I even tried to help her out and wrote her a suggested packing list (per her request) So anyways, morning one: she went to take a shower. The water was running for a while and after listening for a bit and not hearing any screams I figured that she was fairing ok with the cold water I forgot to tell her about. That was because she hadn’t gotten in yet, whoops. When she did get in, she screamed… a lot. Guess I never told her it doesn’t warm up, in fact it has never even crossed my mind that it would warm up. But really, what do you expect for 175 pesos/night? At least it’s hot here, cold showers are refreshing.<br /><br />She arrived on Wednesday evening so we had all day Thursday to hang at the ever wonderful embassy pool. She stayed there, relaxing while I went with the Safety and Security Officer from PC, Jenn, to file the police report finally on my iPod. The police told us we would have to pay to file the report, which is crap so we left. Jenn called the embassy and tattled on them and she took care of the report for me. I knew the police station would try to screw me over, I could feel it in my bones… I felt bad because Lis and I were supposed to go sightseeing but I was held up at the police station and the medical office until about 5 pm. No police report, two stool samples and a skin fungus diagnosis later, we were off to see downtown at least a little before it got too late. <br />***It should be noted that right when I was diagnosed with the fungus the first thing I asked is if it can grow on the face. That’s really the last thing I need you know. So, lucky for me, I got the kind of fungus that only grows on the feet and hands. When she told me that I remembered a few weeks ago asking Wandi what was on his hand (it was peeling weird) and he said he didn’t know, that he had it forever. Nasty! I got Wandi’s fungus!!!!***<br /><br />Day 3: The next morning Lisa and I woke up really early to try to go downtown to get some sightseeing in before we left for the Dirty South. We had to go to the lab to drop off the samples I had been carrying in my purse since the day before and ended up running really behind schedule thanks to the lab making me take a number before they would let me simply hand them my bag of poop and leave. I tried to be sneaky and hand it off to someone different working like three times but must not be super stealthy at 7 am. But on the other hand, is it possible to be stealthy when trying to pass off a bag with two containers of poop. Anyways, by the time we got back to the Pen (after the fastest sight seeing EVER) we were about to miss our bus. Being a little more accustomed to dragging large, heavy bags long distances than Lisa is, I took her suitcase and booked it to the PC office where all my stuff was still. <br /><br />By the time we got there I was my attractive deep red color, sweating profusely, and panting some too. Lisa had packed her smaller book bag she brought for the weekend trip but I forgot mine and so just stuffed my stuff for the next few days in a plastic bag. Apparently Lisa was impressed with herself for “packing my life for the next 3 days in a book bag” but then was put off by my plastic grocery bag. (which ripped before we even got there, errr) Maybe I’m just used to it but putting all my stuff in a plastic bag for three days doesn’t seem like a big deal although I would of course accept a prize for it, maybe a cookie or a sticker? We were practically running to get to the bus (which is the worst walk ever, even when you’re not in a hurry) and made it just as everyone was getting on. Thank goodness because the next bus wasn’t for another 4 hours. <br /><br />The majority of the PCVs went to Samaná for the 4th, which would have been really fun but New Years was a huge group as well and I have already been to Samaná- twice (VERY beautiful by the way). I’m more of a small-group type of person anyways. I talked to Lisa about it and we opted to go south to Bahía de las Aguilas (Eagle Bay) with a much smaller group of 20. We arrived in Barahona around 1, bought some groceries and toilet paper (should always been prepared when it comes to TP, especially when at a beach in this country, fyi) and waited for the others to show up until 5:30. We killed time by taking pictures with the Skim Ice Man (there is almost always someone selling Skim Ice, delicious little popsicles for the right price of 5 pesos) and drinking beer. <br /><br />When everyone was there we loaded up into a van and headed off to the house we rented. There were 20 people, 1 dog, 1 guitar, a ton of bags and at least 6 helmets packed into the caravan bus. The more the merrier. We arrived to the house and decided to go for a swim at the beach. Lisa and I hung back to search out some filtered water and man were we glad we did since the beach was a loooooong walk and we hopped on a bola to it while the rest of the group walked the whole way. The beach there in San Rafael is beautiful but wow did it mistreat us. After we left, we all felt assaulted in some way. It took my swim suit off twice- once when I tried to get into the water and once when I tried to leave. It was the first time I ever opened my eyes under salt water and that was only because when it pummeled me as I was getting in I opened my eyes as a survival thing in an effort to see where I was going while the water hurled me around as though I was nothing but a piece of sand! After I got myself and my swim suit back together, Marissa and I were enjoying ourselves when we realized we were getting pretty far away. We began swimming back and after about 5 minutes I looked up and asked if we seemed any closer. Nope. Great. I began to have visions of PC sending a helicopter out to find the missing PCV who was floating out in the sea somewhere while wondering how far away I could get before that would happen. I figured I would be beached in Venezuela or Columbia by that time.<br /><br />After we had been sufficiently abused by the ocean we headed back to the house. We realized then the house, while at first seemingly perfect, had some flaws for a group of our size. The first, most noticeable was that there was one bathroom. PCVs can improvise for any situation and so, not to be deterred, in effort to save time and be conscientious, Lisa, Kelly and I showered together in our swim suits. Next, problem number two: no water. While the water at least lasted through our shower it failed for others. We tried to figure out what the issue was since the water tank was full but we were unsuccessful and ended up spending the night in a very unsanitary way. As PCVs, no water is nothing new but we kind of need to know in advance so we can find some buckets and load ‘em up with water to flush the one toilet. This is why latrines really aren’t so bad and can definitely be much more sanitary than a toilet. (Useful fact: I prefer latrines when doing my poop samples. Here’s why: fill the cup, scoop it into the tube with the handy, tiny, pronged spoon supplied in the lid of the tubes and then what’s left in the cup, toss down the latrine. No trying to scrape the cup clean into the toilet or leaving stinkys in the trash can like when using a toilet.) Not to mention that as the night passed, two water PCVs got really sick with wicked diarrhea and violent vomiting. Speaking from experience, puking in a toilet with diarrhea is enough to make even a healthy person want to throw up but its way worse when the toilet is full of other people’s poop- and I really mean full. We began just going outside if we could.<br /><br />The house had 2 sleeping spots on thin, little couches, 3 bedrooms and 6 beds so we had 3 people to a bed. When Lisa and I got there, she thought she was being so clever by picking the room with the best view but it turned out to be the room right across from the bathroom… the bathroom with no water and a toilet full of all kids of nasty things, all this in the house with walls that of course don’t reach up to the ceiling. It was a pleasant night. At 3 am I got up to try and help poor Andrew who was hurting me just listing to him and I honestly was sad that I had to go back to bed for THREE MORE HOURS. I just wanted to be on our way to the beach and out of the house with no water. Not to mention the house began to fill with mosquitoes probably right when Justin made the reservations for it and of course none of us brought our mosquito nets across the country (PC doesn’t exactly supply “travel” mosquito nets). It was an all out feast for a million mosquitoes. I haven’t put bug spray on in months but I got out of bed to do it this time.<br /><br />Day 4: While the house experience sounds pretty bad looking back on it, it really was a pleasant experience. We were lucky that our driver showed up on time at 7 am and so we were off to the beach in the back of a flat bed truck bright and early. I thought that it was like an hour away but it turned out to be like 2-3 hours away. This is a bit of a mystery since it took three hours to get there and about 2 to get back. The two guys who were sick the night before seemed to be doing better and it’s a good thing Lisa and I bought TP because we had to stop along the road a few times for them on the way there. <br /><br />When we arrived to the national park the guys who take people out on the boat to get to the beach were telling us it was 50 pesos a person instead of the normal 20 to “enter the park”- aka, sit on the beach. Being super cheap PCVs we argued and argued until they gave in and charged us each the 93 cents less. My favorite moment of the trip was before we even got to the beach. We all piled on the boat, life jackets buckled, the two dogs gravely looking over the sides of the boat (didn’t like water), and we all began to sing the Star Spangled Banner. One of the PCVs recently came from the States and she brought some little flags with her so we had those up in the air as we sang, our hands hanging over the boat in the crystal clear water, on the way to our own little paradise. Everything was perfect right then and I think that was pretty much how everyone felt. We were away from our families and old friends but here we were, together with new friends in a new place, really enjoying each other, connected with the song we were singing and feeling like there wasn’t a cultural barrier in the world right then. I always have loved the 4th at home, its right up there with Christmas. I love Dixon’s Petunia Festival during the 4th (however cheesy) and I love the rip-off carnival with the fireworks every year. I love the Taste of Chicago and boat rides in the river. Sure there were no fireworks or petunias but this was definitely a fantastic 4th of July that I will always remember and appreciate warmly.<br /> <br />Day 5: After a day at the beach, with some food that Dominicans shared with us (goat and some type of crustacean) we headed back to the truck for the ride back to the San Rafael house which thankfully now had water. The next morning Lisa and I left around 7:15 to go to Justin’s site, where they mine Larimar. This is the only place in the world where Larimar can be mined and Justin’s site is the place to go to get it; it’s cheap there and you can make your own jewelry. We left his site very satisfied and almost missed our bus back to Santo Domingo. Lisa and I decided that we would spend a little time in SD before heading back to my site. I needed to get my plane ticket for my visit home in August. Despite the fact that we tried to go super fast, we found ourselves once again running up the horrible walk to Caribe Tours. This time we weren’t so lucky and we missed the bus. That was a bummer but I figured we could get the next bus. The problem was that by some fluke, there were a ton of people traveling or something and all the tickets were sold out until the 6 pm bus. That would have put us back way after dark which is not ok. So we had to spend another night in SD.<br /><br />To make the most of yet another night in SD, we decided to go out with my friend Chris and it was a good time. We went to the famous Rinconcito where they have a free salsa show to watch every Sunday. Thanks to some rain, we missed the salsa but it was still fun to go. It’s a colmado down in the Colonal Zone, right next to some ruins. Then we went to a different, larger colmado and danced, giving Lisa her first dance class on bachata and merengue. It was a fun night but I was still a little bummed Lisa couldn’t go to my disco in my town that night.<br /><br />Day 6: Monday we got to my site in the afternoon and took it easy. We hung out with some people and walked around a little. We went up to the hill at night but it we couldn’t see the shooting stars because it was cloudy. Normally you can see a lot of shooting stars on any given night. The biggest news I have to share for this day is that the PC doctor called me to tell me that my samples came back and I did indeed have a parasite. I wasn’t concerned until she told me that it was “untreatable”. This is not something a person wants to hear right after they find out that they have a parasite. What she meant to say was that it was self limiting and after it peacefully lives out its life in my intestines it will die. Awesome. How long would that take? Nadie sabe but I was feeling better after a few days so I’m going to guess like 3-4 days, like a fruit fly. I had a fruit fly parasite. <br /><br />Day 7: Tuesday morning I was an opportunist and decided to use the fact that I had Lisa with me to my advantage. There were a couple of guys throwing themselves at her and so I told them that she doesn’t get impressed by talk (also because she doesn’t speak Spanish), that if they want to impress her they should show her what hard workers they are. And this is how I finished my garden. It’s amazing to me that the guys stuck around since Lisa would help for about 5 minutes and then disappear in my house for 20. It took the whole morning but we were about to finish the garden. It got too late to transplant the already planted veggies so we decided we would have to do that the next day. Another motivating factor? I told the guys we would go to the river in the afternoon if and ONLY if we finished the garden in the morning. Oooo, how exciting seeing la Americana in her swim suit! And she doesn’t wear the panteloncitos either, bikini bottoms all the way! Was this wrong of me? Maybe… but Lisa didn’t know what I was saying to them, besides she has no shame anyways. She didn’t care.<br /><br />We finished the garden and so we went to the river in the afternoon, going to a new part I had never been to. I think it’s the best part. Not only does it have a huge rock to throw yourself off of (or throw someone else off of) but it has a giant jungle vine hanging from a tree to swing from. When I first went to jump from the rock I was a little (or a lot) freaked out. I mean, I’m pretty sure I never went off the high dive at the pool I worked at for 4 years for crying out loud, and the high dive generally doesn’t cause bodily harm (belly flops aside) and the level of safety isn’t directly correlated with how much it has rained. Wandi, always there to help, decided to throw me off of the rock, making me jam 4 of my toes on my right foot as it bounced off of the rock on the way down. I guess it was partly my fault, I mean I was taking a long time to gather the courage to jump and once you’re up there you sure can’t turn back and climb back down, that would be way worse than a screaming belly flop. <br /><br />I wasn’t mad that I jammed my toes but- dang it, I just spent like an hour on them making them look so nice! So much for that, now there’s blood under two of the nails. You know it’s the little things in life and my toes are little. Really I haven’t paid that much attention to my nails since I’ve been here but I was just trying to counteract the ugly foot fungus. I guess it doesn’t matter much, my feet are jacked up. I would like to point out that they weren’t perfect before I came here but they were at least 5 times better than they are now. It seems like everything that happens, happens to my right foot. There are 4 cuts, a peely fungus and now 4 jammed toes on my right foot right. I’ll be surprised if I even have right a foot after another year here.<br /><br />Day 8: Jumping off of the rock was good practice because Wednesday, the next day, Lisa and I went to the 27 waterfalls. It was so much fun! It wasn’t what I expected but it was pretty sweet. I think that the waterfalls in my site are bigger than almost all, if not all of the 27 at the 27 waterfalls but I hadn’t jumped off of a waterfall yet by this point. There were two times where Lisa and I thought we may drown since you have to climb up the waterfalls first. 4 people just died there two weeks ago but that was due to a flash flood. We had two guides to help us and also lifejackets and helmets. My helmet was too big so every time I popped up out of the water it was over my eyes but at least my head was safe right? Advice: if you aren’t in any shape at all (can’t pull yourself up out of water), are afraid of jumping off of somewhat high rocks into water, or are afraid of jumping across areas of water from one rock to another, maybe the waterfalls aren’t for you. If you’re ok with this stuff and are going to be in the DR, then I would recommend the waterfalls to everyone. <br /><br />When Lisa and I got back to my site Mercedes had some guests over. I was definitely getting the hate vibes from her again and so I was hesitant to hang out but she was inviting us so we sat down and chilled with them, drinking beer and talking for about 2 hours. Lisa was peer pressured into dancing with someone and one other couple in front of everyone. She won some merengue competition a few years ago and when I told everyone they insisted she dance for them. Ha! I tried to tell them she didn’t remember but Dominicans are pushy and next thing I knew, Lisa was up there shaking her little booty. It was funny. Later that night we had a little dance party in my house with Wandi and Noel and Lisa was able to practice even more.<br /><br />Days 9 and 10: Thursday I said I needed to buckle down and transplant the stuff I planted however long ago in the seed-growing thing (I know the Spanish word for it but the English one has slipped my mind) aka the tree trunk in my yard with stuff growing that Ernesto and I planted. We successfully transplanted and planted new seeds and I have a ton of seeds left. I really hope stuff grows. It looks like the tomatoes already bit the dust which is a big bummer. I’m hoping they come back from the dead.<br /><br />In the afternoon Wandi said he wanted to go to the river again so after lunch Lisa and I got ready to go (although we were both getting a little sick of the river) and to our surprise, we were the only 3 going! We went to the river up the hill and Lisa started it off right by climbing up the rock stairs I still haven’t done and jumping off into the water. After that she went further and jumped off of the waterfall. Not to be outdone, I climbed up with Wandi and, after trembling for a minute from fear, jumped off the waterfall as well, redeeming myself slightly from the other day, the long delay between when I climbed on the rock and when Wandi threw me into the water. I decided I needed to do it twice to get some respect since I hesitated the last time. I climbed up there and while I was there Lisa began signaling something. I thought that she was saying she was going to climb up to take a picture. She went up through the forest and Wandi and I waited for her. About 20 minutes later we began to wonder where she was and decided she must have gone up too far so we began to walk up to meet her. After climbing up more waterfalls (taller ones than in the 27 and with no rope, guides, helmets or life jackets) after jamming yet another toe, this time causing bleeding outside of the nail that broke off (on the left foot for once) and actually bruising the undersides of my feet, Wandi and I said forget this and we climbed up to the road. <br /><br />We ended up at a nasty cow farm and there was poop everywhere. I was feeling a little bad since I had no idea where Lisa went. We sent a little boy up the road to see if he could find her but he was unsuccessful. We began walking back when Ernesto came up and told us that Lisa had been at my house for a long time and he gave us a look like he suspected we had been doing something together while we were alone! Are you kidding me, not to mention Raul (an 8 year old ) was with us the entire time. At least Lisa didn’t lock the key in the house again this time like she did on Tuesday. Lucky too because the spare key is lost at the moment. Wandi had it but after I used it on Tuesday it disappeared. Hopefully it turns up.<br /><br />That night, for the second time, Ernie, Lisa, Me, Wandi and Noel went up to the hill where you can see all the lights from the other towns. It was so pretty. It was a good ending to her time in my campo. The next day we woke up early and Noel and some random guy took us to Alta Mira. Bertico was supposed to take us but he wiped out on his motorcycle the night before and we passed him on the road as he went to the hospital. Don’t worry, he’s ok. <br /><br />It was pretty cute when Lisa said good bye to Noel because he gave her a little gift of two mangoes. She thought it was adorable. Too bad she’s got someone in the States she likes and they don’t speak the same language, it could be something sweet. But, I enjoyed the mangoes anyways.<br /><br />Day 10: Lisa and I spent the day in Cabarrete, where I was for New Years. Lisa loved it and was shocked that since I live so close that I had only been there once. If I’m going to use money to travel I like to go to different places. Besides I would be too tempted to eat at the delicious restaurants there and that is not in my budget. Thanks to my bean allergy the plato del día available in lots of places isn’t so appetizing either. Lisa was set on getting tan so she decided it would be a good idea to not use sun block. Bad move. She was RED by the end of our beach time. At 2 we packed it up and headed to the airport. A guy from Ireland got in the bus with us and turns out he is a volunteer in a student abroad thing and he’ll be here for a month, working with communities all over the country. I thought what they were doing sounded interesting and so I stuck around until I could talk to a leader of the group. I was there from about 2:30 when I dropped Lisa off until 5 but in the end I think it was worth it. I talked to a leader and she told me she had worked with Peace Corps in the past a few times. Her group does things with reforestation and builds things like clinics and libraries. I was thinking how this could be applicable to my community and I think a youth center or finishing the library would be ideal. I have her contact information and hopefully we can work together.<br /><br />I got a bola from the airport to Puerta Plata. The guy dropped me off at the new grocery store which is huge and beautiful. I walked around it for a little while and then decided it was time to head out. Puerta Plata is bigger and more complex than I thought. I got lost and ended up walking around aimlessly for about an hour. I was getting a little nervous because Noel told me he would meet me at 6:30 and I was going to be really late. I was going to try and save some money and bola it back to Alta Mira but was afraid that it would be tough to get a ride since getting the one from the airport to Puerta Plata took a while. Guess the people in that area are too used to white people, dang tourists. Lucky for me Noel was there still waiting for me. I hope that things are better between us now, I feel like they will be. <br /><br />I feel like I learned some things about my time here with Lisa’s visit. I’ve noticed a lot of ways that I am different and I noticed a lot of ways I can change. I need to loosen up and let go a lot more here if I’m going to really reach potential. Lisa just did whatever and while I don’t think I should quite do that, I recognize that I am way too uptight. I have a cool community, I need to open up more.<br /><br />I was so tired on the bus from Puerta Plata to Alta Mira I was doing the head bob, falling asleep. Thankfully I was a little more awake on the motorcycle but when I got home I was pooped. I think that the reason I was getting the hate vibes from Mercedes was because it had been a while since I visited, even though she’s my neighbor. After I chilled at her house with Lisa she seemed a lot better with me. So, when I got home last night, even though I was tired, I hung out there for about an hour and a half before heading back to my house. Wandi of course showed up at my house despite the fact I told them all I was going to bed and to sleep well. I pretty much kicked him out and was in bed asleep earlier than I have been since I lived with Minga- 9:30.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-52362814604865270172009-06-30T16:25:00.001-04:002009-06-30T17:04:42.074-04:00Ah, the ups and downs of my life.6/27 Saturday: Happy Birthday Sarah and happy day at the beach Escojo!!<br /><br /><br />That’s right, there are two birthdays this week in my family, and so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!! It was really nice that I was able to talk to Sarah at night, Mom called me while everyone was singing happy birthday to Sar:) Then we talked while she was out on her porch and I was under the mango tree in the “play” (by the baseball diamond) and we were both looking at the moon. It’s cool to think that even though you are so far away from someone you can both still be looking at the same thing.<br /><br />So, the beach trip that almost didn’t happen. As you faithful blog followers know, on Wednesday our crappy bus driver backed out on us and no one would take us to the beach for any less than $3000 pesos, what thieves! Even the dude who works at the school wouldn’t do it for less than $3 Gs which was a shame because we had exactly $2 Gs. Luckily Xavier has a cousin visiting right now from the States and so his family decided to help out by pitching in half for a bus and all of us going to the beach together. It worked out really well. <br /><br />There was some drama the night before when Joheiry asked Ernie if she could go to the beach with us. This little girl is always with me and generally she is pretty cool but sometimes man, I think she just needs a good spanking. She KNEW I told her she couldn’t go, that it was just something for the Escojo group for all their hard work. Despite this, she asked someone else until she got the affirmative answer she was looking for. <br /><br />There are very few things that I stand firm on but this was one of them. I didn’t want to have to tell 14 kids from my class that they can’t bring their kid sister with them and then let her go. This wasn’t meant to be a family trip and a family trip it will not be. Joheiry came to my house and I told her that despite what Ernie told her, she was still not going. Sorry kid but asking other people if its ok isn’t going to change a thing because ultimately, I am the one in charge. All those kids are MY responsibility when we’re at the beach. I was pretty mad about the whole situation. To make things worse, Joheiry can be a real brat sometimes so after I told her no (again) she ran off in a pissy huff and that was that, or so I thought.<br /><br />Then Ernie came over and I explained why Joheiry couldn’t go with us. I couldn’t hear what she was saying to me though thanks to the stupid colmado having their music so loud that I couldn’t even hear the person sitting next to me at my house. Ernie left and when she came back she said she wasn’t going on the trip. I thought that this was really childish and dumb. She worked harder than anyone else on this and here at the very end, just because she didn’t get her way for one thing she said she wasn’t going to go. I told her that I wished she would change her mind but she is a pretty stubborn person. She left and the next morning she was holding strong to what she said the night before.<br /><br />In the morning people began showing up at my house at 7:30 am despite the fact that we said to meet at 9 (but forgot to mention a specific meeting place). Guess it was understood to meet at my house and to be at least an hour early. Aside from the fact I couldn’t eat breakfast since there were so many people in my house and not enough food to share, I was happy they were there. I was happy that they were excited about their trip. After Ernie began seeing all of her friends all excited and ready to go to the beach, she changed her mind and got ready to go with us. I talked to her, Joheiry, and Mercedes (now I try to make sure I don’t “lose face” to Mercedes and I didn’t want to look like the jerk who didn’t let the little girl go with us) telling them that Joheiry could go to the river with me the next time I go which seemed to suffice everyone. Even Mercedes was supportive, telling me that it was too much responsibility taking a little girl to the beach with us. Whew!<br /><br />When we were about to leave I spied some rum in one of the kid’s bags and had to really lay the law down. I didn’t want alcohol in the first place and so the compromise was no hard alcohol. The kid was surprisingly obedient about it, not even arguing and (after I made sure to tell Mercedes to get her support) the bottle of rum went back to the house of the kid. However, Xavier was not there when we had this discussion and I sure can’t tell his family not to bring rum. Alas, there was still rum with us on the beach. I have a feeling most of the kids were pretty tipsy and none of them know how to swim, a recipe for disaster but, take it easy; no one died. They watch out for each other. We left La Lomota at around 10:15 headed for the beach (over an hour late thanks to the bus) and left the beach around 5 pm. <br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBsCIOZhIY3wYbyqhpWum_K-oJ0UxiGQJ3J5dfvnl2PTHZIaw7stP7eF880UI63tsv0JLHED6BVBbN5hqVnDqeSa57KGAe2kIEhLj7898KQFjCHQUdRL7V8Ln-mhLfjWNGvQOYzhPDNrQ/s1600-h/IMG_3925+-+Copy.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBsCIOZhIY3wYbyqhpWum_K-oJ0UxiGQJ3J5dfvnl2PTHZIaw7stP7eF880UI63tsv0JLHED6BVBbN5hqVnDqeSa57KGAe2kIEhLj7898KQFjCHQUdRL7V8Ln-mhLfjWNGvQOYzhPDNrQ/s320/IMG_3925+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353228834464681714" /></a><br /><br />When we got to the beach I went to a store in search of boy short bottoms to wear instead of the bikini bottoms I have. Apparently it is NOT ok to wear bikini bottoms, also called panties. I would have worn the pajama shorts that I wear to the river over the panties but, nooooo I wear those to the river and the beach is a spectacular event, one should dress like it. Lucky for me the store I found (since we were at a tourist beach) had some bikini shorts that fit ok. I would like to say that I used to work as a lifeguard over the summers and never felt embarrassed to sit there all day in my swim suit but the kids made SUCH a big deal about it to me, I was really embarrassed! I was happy I at least had those boy short bottoms.<br /><br />When we left the beach around 5 everyone seemed really tired. We were about half way home when the bus broke down. For one thing, it was out of gas. The other thing was that it was smoking. I guess it was overheated from lack of water. Luckily this happened here in the northern part of the country so we were able to find some water pretty easily. When I say “we”, I mean Wandi and some other kid.<br /><br />After “we” got the bus up and going, we had the driver drop us off at the river. Wandi and I went to the nearest colmado and bought some shampoo and we all bathed in the unusually ice cold river. Yep, it was a great ending to a great day. This group of kids is awesome. I hope that they keep on with Escojo and the next class I have is as active as they are. <br /><br />6/25 Thursday: Problemitas<br />Well at least I can say for now that these issues are small but bothersome nonetheless. Here is what is plaguing me at this moment in time:<br />1) Small problem 1: Rats. When I woke up this morning there was once again rat poop on my kitchen table. Last night I could hear the rats and I have gotten so used to them that I can say that I honestly was not bothered by them at all. The thing that bothered me was waking up this morning and having to wipe the poop off of my kitchen table. Yuck. Also I have rubbery window clings up from Easter still and there is an actual bite taken out of one of the eggs. Guess Ratatouille wanted a sample. He also got into my suitcase with my candy stash and seems to love to eat the Ziplock bags while only taking a bite or two of some Snickers bars. I still ate the Snickers bars of course, just cut off the gnawed on part. Luckily the inside of the suitcase seems to have been spared of the rat pee.<br /><br />Why do I have at least one rat you ask? That would be because my prego cat was unable to continue pulling her weight in this household by protecting the house to do her impossibly round size. About 10 days ago or so she gave birth to two kittens in her cat carrier. Sure I locked her in there to have them so she wouldn’t have them on my bed (a reoccurring day-mare of mine) but she seemed to enjoy her assigned place of birthing- at least for the first two days until she took her kittens by their necks (not their scruffs)to the neighbor’s house to live under Ernestina’s bed. Yes it is true, my freaking cat moved out. I still feed her so she comes back a few times a day to reap the benefits of that and also when it rains she comes back to sit on my lap as she is afraid of storms. Used by my own stupid cat.<br /><br /><br />2) Small problem 2: Holy mosquito net! I guess the problem isn’t that I have a mosquito net with holes, I have fixed that issue but now am confronted with yet another. Yesterday I went to town and the first store I went into I found mosquito nets that hang from the ceiling, something I have discovered to not be an easy task. I was pretty happy with the luck of finding them at the very first store and figured I would buy one for sure. The guy told me that these were one size fits all so I figured that they were pretty big. The problem? Well, it has no door for one and holy crap is it ugly. It’s yellow and has these UGLY foamy-fabric shapes sewn on it. The shapes include a heart with festive lace around it and then there are some flowery shaped thingys to compliment it. The net itself is hug on a rectangular frame so it’s like sleeping under a box. Then, the dude at the store lied to me or doesn’t know his butt from a hole in the ground because this net is even smaller than my last one. This means that I have to have it hung really low, making the awesome heart and other decorative items right at eye level. Awesome.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJWYo9_AraFSG7zxGY1nzl5TYier9JNBTkoTWw2y_i8TuE4euXiNaslWc55zHlanr-ETffNkZB7aD5L5ryDgaIiGwWuBzOsyh3-o8-ngW_fA5KvtHpvwHhyphenhyphenfvJP8bCV9cLcCKx06ZcS4/s1600-h/IMG_3933.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJWYo9_AraFSG7zxGY1nzl5TYier9JNBTkoTWw2y_i8TuE4euXiNaslWc55zHlanr-ETffNkZB7aD5L5ryDgaIiGwWuBzOsyh3-o8-ngW_fA5KvtHpvwHhyphenhyphenfvJP8bCV9cLcCKx06ZcS4/s320/IMG_3933.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353226494365214002" /></a><br /><br /><br />3) Small problem 3: Dirty water, dirty neighbors. I guess there is this person out by the clinic who dumps their laundry washing water in the road. This is an issue with others since the water is “dirty”. Ernesto asked me last night if I could go over to the clinic and talk to the doctor about this, see if she could talk to the doña house about the health risk. I see a few issues with this. First, no one has talked to the people of the house yet, telling them that they are concerned. Second, why is this an issue? Not to make one issue smaller than reality but hello- there is TRASH everywhere, I’m not sure that throwing some water from the hand washed laundry in the road, in the heat the dries it up before the daily rain, is an issue. And I really I think that if it were me who was throwing my water in the road, that I would feel pretty bad that my neighbors, aka my friends, didn’t talk to me about it first but instead went to the gringa and the doctor and had them talk to me about it. People in this culture don’t like to confront things; I understand that but why send other people that are not from the community to confront the issue? It’s possible that this is a more productive way to get thing done but I asked Vangie about it and she seemed to be in agreement with me. We shall see, I’m going to talk to Ernesto again about it.<br /><br /><br />4) Small problem 4: Beached. Our ride for the beach trip this Saturday backed out yesterday. This doesn’t seem to have a solution yet but I will keep you posted.<br /><br /><br />5) Small Problem 4: Prune Jelly. Yesterday I was on several missions when I went into town. One of which was to buy some jelly. I went to two different stores in search of this sacred item. The first store I found some jelly by a super nasty brand and others which were some unknown flavor by an unknown brand. Jelly here is not cheap. The absolute cheapest is like 95 pesos and it’s not for the biggest jar. 95 pesos is like $2.75 but that’s a big chunk of change for me to spend on something condimental like jelly. The second store didn’t even have jelly but oddly enough, although this store is my store of choice it rarely has peanut butter; today it had a TON of peanut butter. I’m talking like 4 brands, crunchy and creamy, quite the impressive collection, but alas, no jelly. Back to store one. I picked up the two unknown brands and asked for a price check. They were both the same flavor whatever ciruela flavor was. It looked like there were little green apples on the side and so I thought that it was some type of green apple? Who knew but I was in a hurry at this point and a little desperate so I bought the cheaper one. When I got home and took it out of the bag, I was studying it more carefully and realized that it could quite possibly be prune jelly! It was brown, yuck. They like prune stuff here. They put prune jelly stuff on top of pastries like prune is a delicious dessert! Turns out ciruela means plumb but may as well be prune. So, I will be eating toast with prune/plumb jelly and eating pb & js with prune/plumb jelly. Another thing I noticed after purchasing the jelly was the expiration date of November 2008. I ate it last night (and fed it to Wandi too, hehe) and no indigestion today on either of our parts so it looks like I will be eating this jar of jelly in its entirety. It’s not that bad actually, it kind of tastes like a local fruit, tamarindo. The downside, I have never liked that fruit.<br /><br />6/24 Wednesday: Happy birthday Mom!!!<br />Today is my Mom’s birthday and so I wanted to say HAPPY 52nd BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I love you and I wish I was there with you to help eat the cake Rach is going to make… I mean to celebrate this great day with you:) I hope you have a fantastic day and know that I am thinking about you all day.<br /> <br />Talk about changes though, Mom and Rach arrived in New York early Tuesday morning, moving into their new house. A lot has been going on at home that I can’t be apart of due to my being here. My brother Aaron bought a house in March and moved into it (wow!) My Dad was in a devastating accident but, thank God, is recovering amazingly. My very best friend is getting married in September to a guy I don’t even know and I obviously won’t be able to help plan anything which is a HUGE bummer. And now my Mom and sister have now moved from IL to NY... both of whom have lived in IL their entire lives. It’s weird how things happen in life. It’s like nothing has changed really since I was 12 years old and now, after I’ve been gone for just 10 freaking months, there are drastic changes in my life from home. It goes to show you though that choosing to join Peace Corps wasn’t just a decision that affects me but also everyone who I am close with at home. I didn’t think about that when I signed up but I’m still glad I’m here. Everything in life has a negative and a positive side and if those are the biggest problems I have from being in a 3rd world country for a little over two years, then I think life is pretty good.<br /> <br />All morning my house has been full of kids. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary for me but occasionally I get lucky and the little girls take it upon themselves to clean. Today is one suck lucky day. They clean the weirdest things, like my shoes, matching up all the earrings I have or cleaning or the window sills. I will take what I can get though! I never ask them to clean because I don’t feel right about it but I sure wish they would get a bug to mop more… hehe.<br /><br />Today the only plans I have are going to town. I just talked with a reliable motor driver and so I feel confident that today will be the day which is good because I’m all out of jelly. So much for peanut butter and jelly or toast and jam. And the bread I have is weird so it’s nasty to eat with just peanut butter. I also have to try to find a mosquito net that hangs from the ceiling thanks to sitting on mine two days ago and ripping it down from the ceiling, the net is FULL of holes anyways though thanks to my cat. I’ve been sleeping with the crappy net PC gave me which is depressing yet very spacious. Anyways, hopefully it doesn’t rain because a 20 minute motor ride up to my community from town while its pouring down rain is not fun. We shall see how well things go today.<br /><br />6/23 Tuesday: Absolutely nothing<br />That’s what I did today. I was going to go to Navarrete but, after my ride ditched me and I sat and waited another 30 minutes for another ride that never showed, I went in my house and read a little. Reading isn’t as easy as it used to be, let me tell you. It’s really becoming quite impossible to read around here now. I’m not sure if I just ignore people less than I used to or if there are more people trying to talk to me than there used to be but I suspect it’s a little of both. I should have found someone else to take me to town. I decided against it because it looked like it was going to rain soon (and has rained nearly every single afternoon/evening since the last week of April) and I was sleepy. There’s always tomorrow as I have nothing to do.<br /><br />This is the first time since I’ve been here that “nothing” has really been an option. I always had something to do with my Escojo class but now that they have graduated the only things I have to do this week would be better prepare myself for future classes- aka: drawing charlas for either the next nutrition class or my Escojo youth leader classes that will be next month or in August. I’m more of the procrastination type myself though so that knocks that out. <br /><br />Saturday we’re set to go to the beach which will be interesting since my youth group already decided they were going to bring beer. Is this against the law here? Yes. Am I promoting this? No. Am I being as strict as I should be? I guess that depends on your point of view. There is one thing you should know: people here think NOTHING of beer. At the graduation last weekend, Ernesto was giving beer to the 6, 7, and 8 year olds at the table. Ernesto: my morally sound, stable rock here. The shocking thing is that the kids were drinking the beer and liking it. What type of child likes beer? This gives me a little hope for my nutrition class, if they can like beer, they can like green leaves and cucumber peels. <br /><br />Anyways, back to the beer thing: I am going to be watching how much beer they drink because I can tell you now; if I have to try to save some underage drunk person from my YOUTH GROUP in the freaking ocean I am not going to be a happy camper. This is a reward for everyone, not a death sentence. Needless to say, Saturday will be interesting. Drunkenness is not looked upon favorably here and the kids are used to drinking so I don’t think that it will be an issue. I still have a few days till I have to worry about it though. Maybe I’ll make a rule that they can bring beer only, no rum. Until then, I’m not completely sure what I’ll do to keep busy, guess I’ll write in my blog:)<br /><br />6/22 Monday: Mothers Club<br />Even though I had my class for the day long prepared, I wasn’t looking forward to giving the nutrition class to the Women’s Group. Sure when I began Escojo I wasn’t enthused either but that was more because of my Spanish and Xavier being a smart aleck little tiguere. The Women’s Club is just plain old boring. I’ve given three classes so far and this one today was particularly boring. It was about the alimentation of small children. Yawn. Shame on me, this is one of the main goals I’m supposed to be working on here. Don’t get me wrong, there is always something to be learned and thus always something to be taught but it’s not like there is a huge “small child” population in my town. And I just can’t get into it. Sure, I should have the attitude that if one person learns then at least one child will be better fed and the world will go round but hey, what can I say? I guess I just have 0 faith in the fact that the women are doing anything more than politely listening (or talking with their neighbor getting the latest gossip) during the class and then when they leave, they change nothing. This could be due to the fact that when I check to see who did their homework (cooking a new meal or telling me an example of a healthy one, bringing a green leaf to class…) not one person has EVER done it. I feel like I should try to begin my own group and have it once a week. Every 15 days isn’t frequent enough and people forget.<br /><br />On top of that, the women don’t participate. They actually fight about who is going to have to read stuff. I’m not going to stand up there and read the big sheets of paper I spent hours preparing. The class is boring already yet alone to have me standing up there reading. And, getting volunteers to cook food is like pulling teeth! I can’t even guilt them into it. I tried and I think I am a really good guilter. I also tried specifically picking people but they actually said no! I tried the we’ll-sit-and-wait-till-someone-volunteers method and they didn’t care. They had no where to be and so they used it as a social time. I finally just sat down with the recipe book open and two women began reading it. One of them recognized something she cooks and so she volunteered. Thank goodness there are only 7 classes in this series. But I am really supposed to be training health promoters here? I can’t even get someone to give up time to cook or get a volunteer to read a sentence. <br /><br />I get the feeling that here I won’t have a real “health promoter team” per say but rather classes educating and in turn hopefully that will be a mild type of promoter-ness. The homework in my nutrition book wasn’t really applicable to the women’s enthusiasm and so this week I assigned them the task of sharing what they learned with at least one other person who wasn’t in the class that day. I know that they are interested or else they wouldn’t be there but I need to figure out how to be more interested myself and how to teach in a different way that works with their dynamic. Wish me luck.<br /><br />6/20 Saturday: GRADUATION TIME!!!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6b5wp4cv2HBFXazBXhHqoZbrNrDEOUDnK8-_xjh64S9QND62_v2uP4JCp7jeyF-d0Hgnx1khaB5xjklNAYK8Lw6kIQlpUpx6602ZYMfvKipBvwBKQVPfCYv4B08L_7d_drEPdkqC-vs/s1600-h/IMG_3913.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6b5wp4cv2HBFXazBXhHqoZbrNrDEOUDnK8-_xjh64S9QND62_v2uP4JCp7jeyF-d0Hgnx1khaB5xjklNAYK8Lw6kIQlpUpx6602ZYMfvKipBvwBKQVPfCYv4B08L_7d_drEPdkqC-vs/s320/IMG_3913.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353215735276439522" /></a><br /><br />What a crazy day. After issues with the music, Miguel and Ali (the PCV who lives about two hours from me whom I met at the regional Escojo conference) being over an hour late and some other little issues, we began the ceremony- an hour late. But hey, that was when the crowed showed up. I am so proud of my group, the graduation pulled together perfectly. They did two of the four dramas (two that I picked after the exams, the exams went really well by the way as did the dramas) and a teacher from the school presented the certificates to each person. In the middle of the ceremony, all of them went to the front with their diplomas and I was confused. Ali asked me what they were doing and I told her I didn’t know, I though that it was time to do Drama #2 but it looked like they were going to take a group picture or something. Well, it turns out that they were so secretive with the fundraising money because they used some of it to buy me a plaque, getting it engraved and everything. I was so touched, I almost cried. I wanted to give them all a huge hug but there were 14 of them. After everything that happened this week it really made a huge difference. It was prefect. It was so amazing. It meant so much to me; I really am blessed to have a group like them.<br /><br />After the ceremony the kids set up some tables and sold more beer. This time the money was for Ernesto and Mercedes though, which I thought was tacky of them. Making money off of our group is kind of shameful. No matter, my group has exactly 2000 pesos left which is what our ride to the beach told us he would charge. So, thanks to the work and planning of the leaders in my group, the graduation went really well and now we’re all set for the beach trip. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoM1FgtyrZ1CfcRU2X8DSstD8sg0ENDkwq2XixeG1NzEwd6CHlumA-i7-QcabThG-Ekhpww8ueEaBm7k8c2ambngBl4bSqmyJlMMApkR_JREaJ_7K-sRo9vXjkc6U9E8B0dcVlrMgCMBs/s1600-h/IMG_3917+-+Copy.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoM1FgtyrZ1CfcRU2X8DSstD8sg0ENDkwq2XixeG1NzEwd6CHlumA-i7-QcabThG-Ekhpww8ueEaBm7k8c2ambngBl4bSqmyJlMMApkR_JREaJ_7K-sRo9vXjkc6U9E8B0dcVlrMgCMBs/s320/IMG_3917+-+Copy.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353225282711892530" /></a><br /><br />6/18 Thursday: A Breakdown<br />Man, I have been sooooooo stressed out here lately. Last night I finally reached my point. Here’s what happened:<br /><br />Like everything, it’s a long story but to sum it up a little- Mercedes (my neighbor, project partner’s wife, my best friends mom, the president of the mothers club…) is pissed at me. She hasn’t been visiting, she leaves when I try to visit her house, she ignores me when I talk directly to her and come to find out, she has been saying really stupid, immature things about me to people, actually name calling if you can believe that! I have no idea why I even would come up in conversation but the kids who hang out with me have been coming up to me on separate occasions telling me in confidence things that she has been saying about me, things that I guess I would rather not know. <br /><br />I’m not sure if this is because of what happened when I got back from the water filter training I was at or if it’s from what happened at the mothers club. First, when I got back from Santiago after being at that training for 3 days, I discovered that there was a pan missing from my house. Actually I didn’t notice, Yoheiry noticed almost instantly and asked where it was. I was a little annoyed that someone was in my house AGAIN after I have been more than clear about how I feel about it but more than that, I was annoyed that they were borrowing things on top of it without asking or anything. I know that this has been a long, drawn out issue that seemingly could be solved simply by taking back the spare key but I don’t want to offend anyone. I’m not sure how I would ask for it without making someone mad and I don’t want to offend my neighbors of all people. <br /><br />Wandi came over and I calmly asked him if he knew if someone was in the house. He asked why and I told him I knew someone was in there and I would like to know who. He told me he didn’t know, which I found hard to believe. Then Ernie came over and I asked her. Before she could answer, Wandi started yelling and saying that he was the one who was in the house. With that Ernie left and I asked Wandi why he lied about it. Now I was put off for three things: being in my house when I’m not there, taking stuff like it’s theirs, and then Wandi looking me in the eyes and lying about it! A little while later a boy came up to me with the spare key to the house and said Ernie sent him to give it to me… and I never even asked for the key! Great, now I was wondering if Ernie was mad at me. <br /><br />The next day was Ernie’s birthday and I already bought the ingredients to bake her a cake as a surprise. I figured that if she was mad, really mad, and didn’t want to eat the delicious cake, I would suck it up and take on the responsibility. She visited me in the morning though and wasn’t mad at all. She spent the majority of the morning in the Mothers Club selling beer for the fundraiser and when I surprised her with the somewhat ugly cake she was so sweet and seemed genuinely excited to have it. I thought that this was particularly sweet since someone else bought her this really pretty cake (by Dominican definition) with a giant number 19 on it. Here she already had this pretty cake but she was still excited over my ugly little cake. (ugly but alllll chocolate:) <br /><br />So anyways, back to the spare key issue: later I found out that Wandi was in my house 2 times while I was gone- once to deliver some paint I had Tolo bring up from town and then again to get a frying pan for Mercedes to use. I have no issue lending stuff but people have to ASK. I am always lending/giving stuff to people in my house and I’m fine about it as long as I don’t feel used. People here ask their neighbors for things if they need them and they don’t go into other people’s houses when they’re not there, why am I any different? No, I am absolutely holding my ground about this. That may cause more conflict since I’m not going to change my stance on it and she obviously feels like she has every right to send people in my house when I’m not home and also use whatever she wants. <br /><br />On the upside, she had been sending little boys to my house 3-4 times a week to ask for stuff, which was getting excessive. At first it was once a week or two and it was for a match or a plastic shopping bag- no big deal- but now its- “Oh when you were in your room, Mercedes came over and took a box of matches” two times a week, or it was her asking for an entire onion when it’s a 1 minute walk to the colmado. Why doesn’t she send a little boy to the colmado to get that instead of mooching off of me? Nevertheless, I thought that I would let it go since it’s really not worth being stingy over; until this incident. And, in my defense I wasn’t rude, angry or even aware that it was her that sent Wandi in my house. If I had known it was her I would have talked to her in a direct/non-direct way somehow… the way you seem to have to handle things here.<br /><br />The second thing that happened is absolutely stupid. When politicians are campaigning here they give presents to people. A politician was scheduled to go to the Mother’s Club and give each woman a gift. This has happened before and I purposely stayed home since I don’t feel right about taking a gift. However, on this day I was already there since I had to give my nutrition class. This class was two days after the spare key incident went down and at this point I was unaware that Mercedes was mad at me. She seemed a little ruder but nothing super significant. I suspected things weren’t peachy because of the spare key thing and also because Argeni, her youngest son who is in my Escojo class was apparently telling his parents I was ignoring him in class (this is because everyone in class received a sucker when they participated and some received 2-3 suckers but since he refuses to participate he didn’t get a sucker). So I thought that Mercedes was irritated with me for one of those two reasons. <br /><br />In the Mother’s Club, I tried to avoid being counted when they were seeing how many people to give gifts to. I even went outside but Mercedes saw me and counted me. There were too many women and so the politician said that he would get some more gifts from Navarrete. Later that night a little boy came up to me and gave me an opened gift of three glass cups from the Woman’s Club which I assumed were from Navarrete. Pretty handy too because who doesn’t need glass cups? Especially ones with handles! <br /><br />The problem began a couple days later when Minga told me her sister was upset that she was at the meeting but didn’t get a gift. I figured I already had some glasses and of course didn’t mind not getting a gift so I gave my cups to her sister. I tried to do it discreetly, sending the cups with a little girl, hidden in my laundry basket. I don’t want people thinking that I am going to give away all my stuff or that I have a lot of money because then they bug you ALL the time asking for stuff.<br /><br />Despite my clandestine efforts, Wandi came over the next day really mad asking why I had given my gift away. Turns out that there weren’t enough gifts and so Mercedes gave me hers, which I obviously didn’t know. So now she was really mad at me for giving the cups away… or is it because of the key thing… or is it because she thinks I’m being a jerk to her son? Who knows, all I know is that she is NOT someone I want mad at me. She likes to physically fight with people, she’s all the stuff I already listed (neighbor, wife of project partner, bff’s mom, pres of mothers club…) not to mention I always felt like if everyone here turned on me for some reason I would always at least have that family and Minga. <br /><br />So, for this I was feeling completely and utterly abandoned, discarded. I wanted to confide in someone but whom? Should I really talk to Wandi about issues I’m having with his mom? I felt like I was being stabbed in the back every time one of the little girls told me crap she was saying about me. Stabbed in the back by one of the very few people I completely trusted, someone I thought would be there for me no matter what. I mean, they’re the family who solicited me! They’re supposed to help me and take care of me- not talk crap about me to people and ignore me. <br /><br />I decided that I need at least one person here that I can completely trust. At home everyone has someone, they’re mom or best friend… someone they can tell anything who understands, someone who, no matter what thing you do, they will never turn on you and they will always support you. This, I think, is why so many PCVs have significant others here. A lot of PCVs in this country get married to locals (I forget exactly but out of the 70 some odd countries Peace Corps operates in, the DR is the 1st or 2nd highest for marriage rates of PCVs to Nationals) Also, to me it seems that a lot of PCVs end up dating people they would never date if it were at home. I guess the combo of the campo, culture differences, and loneliness are kind of like beer goggles in that sense. <br /><br />Peace Corps is not what I thought it would be. I didn’t think that I would feel attacked by the people I trusted in my community, especially for something so little. This is the second time someone was so pissed at me they wouldn’t talk to me, and both times I didn’t do anything horrible, I didn’t even know when I was doing something that it was wrong! Ignorance is NOT bliss. Before I left home, I didn’t have a lot of expectations of what I would find in my time here but one thing I did expect was to make life long, lasting friendships. I never thought there would be soooo much drama. I’m not completely sure if that is very normal here in the DR but, after talking with other PCVs, it seems I am in a super dramatic community. I am sick of everything always somehow being blamed on me, even when I wasn’t here when whatever happened. I’m sick of feeling used. I’m sick of backhanded compliments (you have so much pretty clothes, why don’t you ever wear them?) I’m sick of feeling alone in this. <br /><br />So I was having a really low moment, and getting lower and then Wandi came over. I had been in my room crying and talking aloud for about an hour, trying to sort things out but it wasn’t helping. First the little girl came over and, not knowing I was upset, she told me that now it seems like Ernesto is upset with me too. That at first it was just Mercedes who didn’t care about me but now it’s both of them. Great, awesome thing to say. I honestly don’t know what I would do if Ernesto started acting like Mercedes. He is the rock I have of the entire community. We’re not really close but I know he’s there and he will support me and seems like he is always the voice of reason, rationality. After she told me that, all my efforts of cheering myself up went down the drain. <br /><br />After a little while, she left and Wandi showed up. I decided that I would open up to Wandi. I was feeling so bad and it seems things are adding up and getting steadily worse. It’s like, as soon as I confront one issue another one pops up that’s bigger than the one before! I felt bad to burden him with what was weighing on me but he genuinely wanted to know. It was so great to have Wandi there because he actually made me feel better. He told me he would try to see what was going on with his mom. Literally for the first time since I have been here, someone was empathetic. I’m not looking for anyone’s sympathy but I am looking for understanding and he actually gave it to me. We talked about it while I cried and it felt good to finally be able to let me guard down, like the first breath after being under water for so long, it gave me the warm tinglies that you get when you hug someone you really missed, when you hang on to them and let go of all the time in-between.<br /><br />I know that PC has ups and downs, life does in general, but I’m hoping that I’m learning to deal with it so I have less downs and more ups. I talked to another PCV, someone who’s turning out to be a great friend, Ali, and she told me I should write Mercedes a letter apologizing and telling her I never met to offend her. I would rather just go over there and talk to her but that’s not how they roll in this culture. It’s hard to keep my attitude in check and my pride. Tomorrow is the graduation and Miguel is going to be here. I’ve been thinking that maybe I would talk to Miguel about all of this but I don’t want him to think I suck at this and need help with my personal issues. I’ll try the letter first and see. The sucky thing is that even if she’s not mad at me anymore, my confidence in her is gone. Things won’t ever be the same. She said horrible things and now, after this I’ll always be wondering in the back of my mind if she’s going to turn on me again. It’s a terrible feeling.<br /><br />6/15 Monday: TO THE RIVER!!!!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIa8agMddWHPhj4EZxeiTNRYI5xmB_oGwlAvw_9UnmPcqQ54xA21F4KV3z5cIJx4p989nL-45w2xuBqeMqfmwDTh3I7y2YXJhm16NUKYh8jafOG6fCBKfpmJIrMqmG-umBNrTTElQcwVM/s1600-h/La+Pailita+16.6+(27).JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIa8agMddWHPhj4EZxeiTNRYI5xmB_oGwlAvw_9UnmPcqQ54xA21F4KV3z5cIJx4p989nL-45w2xuBqeMqfmwDTh3I7y2YXJhm16NUKYh8jafOG6fCBKfpmJIrMqmG-umBNrTTElQcwVM/s320/La+Pailita+16.6+(27).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353207071509568914" /></a><br /><br />Today we all went to the river, to a part I have never gone to before. It was a long walk to get there but wow, it is amazing. Now I have been to two parts of the river here, one that is “up” from my house, closer but what a pain trying to hike down the hill to it. The other is a hike but easier to get to, although I still need some help. Lucky for me Wandi is as always, attached at the hip and Dominicans are amazingly agile. This is a random fact: when I had some friends over one of them arm wrestled Wandi. It was my friend Mark, who was not so long ago on the swim team in college and is a big guy. Well, Wandi completely kicked his butt- which was a COMPLETE shock. I figured Mark was drunk but he said he wasn’t. So it seems to me that in general Dominicans are uncannily strong. It’s weird. Another weird thing is how talented the group of kids I hang out can learn how to do things. When we went to the river Vanji didn’t know how to swim at all but by the end of the day, and just a few attempts, she was able to stay afloat! Wandi didn’t even know how to dive and all of the sudden he started doing back flips! BACKFLIPS! Its not like that’s not what you start with.<br /><br />All I can say about this is that I love going to the river. It’s getting hotter here and so I feel that once Escojo is over and I have more time, river trips will have to be more common. <br /><br />6/14 Sunday: Cogiendolo suave… for now<br />Yes, that’s right. Today has been the first time in a long time I felt like a kid without tons of homework to do weighing me down. Although I do still have to prepare a few things today, it’s nothing like last week. Gracias a Dios. <br /><br />This week I have to give a review class on Monday. I think it will go pretty well but that’s if I actually get on it and prepare the class. I figure, despite the fact that no one knows what Jeopardy is, I’ll make the class Jeopardy style. Then on Wednesday they have to take their exams. I originally made their exam pretty thorough- it was 5 pages with body diagrams and all that jazz but after giving it some thought, I guess I don’t have that much faith. I don’t want anyone to fail and let’s face it, I bet the easiest test in the States would be like the hardest test here. I don’t want to intimidate them with a long test so I decided to make the test 2 pages plus include a questionnaire. But, not to skimp on actually testing their knowledge, I decided to have them prepare and perform dramas as part of their “grade”. I broke them up into groups based on shyness/participation and assigned them topics like Abstinence, VIH/AIDS, Discrimination, and Alcohol. I wrote a few requirements on the back of each topic, specific things they had to cover in the dramas, told them they should last 5-10 minutes. For motivational purposes, I told them that the group with the most focus, that was the most creative, and where everyone had some part in it, would win. What do the winners receive you may wonder? The best drama will receive the honor of performing in front of everyone at the graduation! This may seem like a punishment to some but not here in this culture, attention is always a great prize. <br /><br />As far as the graduation, well due to a TON of stuff I have had to do, I have been nearly completely hands off with it. The only thing I did was help form the groups, provide fundraising opportunities, and set times to meet in the groups with deadlines to get stuff done. But the kids have planned it all. To tell you the truth, I really have no idea what’s going on with it. Now I know you may be thinking that it is really irresponsible of me but I told them from the start that this was their baby and while I would love it if they had a graduation, it doesn’t reflect poorly on me if they don’t have one. <br /><br />One thing I have been trying to be more hands on with is the money situation. I have been hounding Wandi and Ernie, as they are the treasures, trying to see how much money they have between the two of them that the group raised. I would like them to write down how much they raised from each thing but they keep putting it off. Guess next time I should try to be a little more hands on with this part. And it has not even crossed my mind that they’re pocketing the money, I have complete confidence in my kids. I really feel like I lucked out with my group, even though they drive me insane sometimes.<br /><br />6/8 Monday: Beer as a fundraiser<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsNWOHGqZxRyz8i0pYzlHt-LPhVPmflThSLFLTqLEQ7zAGX-1eHrR8Iu10v1Y1xktT8TNxP-HNDY7ccv2Ojub-sDgDMSLWWPyKcCPT6YrRgLvDr9u6P_CUx_jX32XPCrscdNEwtYoRfng/s1600-h/Escojo+Fundraiser+6.7.09.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsNWOHGqZxRyz8i0pYzlHt-LPhVPmflThSLFLTqLEQ7zAGX-1eHrR8Iu10v1Y1xktT8TNxP-HNDY7ccv2Ojub-sDgDMSLWWPyKcCPT6YrRgLvDr9u6P_CUx_jX32XPCrscdNEwtYoRfng/s320/Escojo+Fundraiser+6.7.09.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353204671137530850" /></a><br /><br />Yesterday was a fun day. It was a good day actually because I was able to start it by watching Heroes:) Let me just say though that I think that season two was lame. Anyways, I went down to the Mother’s Club where kids from my youth group were selling things to raise money. While I was gone in Santiago I guess some dude gave our youth group like 2,000 pesos and so Ernie decided that with that money she would buy 24 bottles of beer. At first I was like, “Ummmm, ok... why did she buy beer with that money?” But then it turns out that she decided to take it upon herself to buy the beers so that she can sell them at the baseball game on Sunday. I thought that it was really funny because here my youth group was on Sunday, at the Mother’s Club, selling beer as a freaking fundraiser. What a cultural difference eh? I guess they were a little worried that they wouldn’t make money off of it because it turns out, the baseball team my community was playing was Evangelical, which is VERY strict here, but they sold all 24 bottles of beer before the game was over. Pretty impressive and I think they made like $500 pesos más o menos. Way to go Escojo.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313697077474148854.post-49395713351026309052009-06-04T21:11:00.000-04:002009-06-04T21:16:08.555-04:00Wow, an entire month of DR happenings! Things are pickin' up!6/4 Friday: A week of real work, no power and confrontations<br />So I have been a slacker and not been writing in my blog very much. Wait, let me correct that, I’ve not been slacking actually- I can’t even blame it on Heroes since I finished season 1 and the realized that the first episode of season two didn’t download right, along with some other episodes. Its better to not ruin the experience I suppose and so once again, I will be patient and wait until I can watch it in order, *sigh*. <br /><br />What have I been doing this last week?, you may ask, aside from neglecting my blog of course. Well my faithful blog followers, I have been very productive in this week. Where to start? Let me give a little background: when I got back from the capital Ernie told me that someone from the local municipality was in our town a few days prior. She talked to them about getting some funding for our graduation on the 20th and apparently they said that they would be able to give the group however much money they wanted as well as provide a live band. Ernie and Ernesto were really pumped about this, I on the other hand was VERY skeptical. The catch? We had to write a letter requesting what we wanted. Except Ernie doesn’t tell me it like that, she tells me I have to write the letter. Whhhoa, I am the professor here, I am not a part of the graduation committee. So, I told her I would not be writing the letter that the kids from the committee should write it. I felt attacked after that because she argued with me about it, along with Wandi and Ernesto even! I totally felt like they thought I was slacking, not doing my job when my job is not to do things for people but guide them along the way of them doing things for themselves. Not to mention, having a graduation is a perk, not a right. I told them if they wrote the letter I would be more than happy to type it up for them to which Ernesto countered that Wandi, Ernie and I could just write it all together. I figured this was an ok compromise. <br /><br />A few days passed with no sign of any progress. Then I find out that Ernie asked her uncle, a teacher at the school to write the letter and he agreed! I was flustered but figured I would let it go. Then on Sunday she came up to me at while I was sitting at a colmado sharing a pop with Minga and Tolo and told me about some dude she just met who told he would like to donate to our group. She was really excited, telling me that we were going to have so much money for our graduation! Then she said, “Miguel (my APCD) is going to be so pleased with the graduation and even though you didn’t do any work, I won’t tell him and you’ll look really good.” I was speechless in English let alone in Spanish. She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything, she thought she was doing me a favor and she really doesn’t think I’m doing anything!!!!!! Does she not know how long it takes to plan a charla? Errr, I was feeling very bombarded since I get the feeling that her entire family, my main supporters, feels that way. <br /><br />On Tuesday Ernie shows up with these two letters to the sindico (municipality) and tells me to sign them. I read the letters, if you even want to call them that, and was not impressed. Aside from the spelling errors, the grammatical errors, and the crazy uses of different types of font, each letter was like 5 sentences long. They basically said, “After I say hello to you all, I would like to tell you that our group, Escojo, needs a band of music (or in the other letter: 7,000 pesos) for our graduation. God bless you”. Then at the bottom it said, “Leader of Group” and left a line for me to sign. It didn’t even have a name on it or explain what Escojo was!!!! While I was thinking there was no way I was going to sign my name to this crappy letter I said, “Wow, this is a really good letter. You know what though? It doesn’t explain what Escojo is or anything. I think we would have a better chance of getting money if we explained a little more.” Ernie insisted that there was no time and we had to turn the letter in the next day. I was frazzled. I didn’t want to write the stupid letter, I wasn’t the one to ask for money in the first place and now, somehow, I ended up the one who was supposed to sign my name to this POS letter. Not to mention, as I have noted, there hadn’t been much power lately so when she showed up at 8 pm, I was trying to make the most of the power by finishing up my lesson for the next day (a day earlier than normal since I had to go to Santiago for some training on bio sand filters… I’ll elaborate more later). For some reason, on top of it all, I had been in the worst mood for a week and her pretty much dumping this responsibility on me when I didn’t want it in the first place, really ticked me off. <br /><br />I cut my lesson plan in half, finished it up and told her I would write the stupid letter. Two hours later I had a sweet freaking letter if I do say so myself and, after Ernie and Wandi proof read it, I felt pretty great about my Spanish writing skills (there were only 2 mistakes!). <br /><br />After Wandi and Ernie left, I felt obligated to use the power more since it was present. So I wrote up my Escojo exam. This took me until 3 am. Go figure but we had power until at least 3 am. The next day, Tuesday, I woke up at 8 to Wandi knocking on my door asking me when I would be ready to go to Navarrete with him to the sindico and drop the letter off. “In 30 minutes.” I told him and then lied about how I was still sleeping when he knocked on my door. I’m not sure what happened but we didn’t leave until 9:30 and spent the entire morning in Navarrete. I figured if I’m paying to go to town I would run a few errands as well. So, we bought some glitter from the paper store, some cat food from the vet, and later went to the hardware store and bought some “melon” colored paint (think cantaloupe) and of course, went to city hall.<br /><br />When we went to the Ayuntimiento or city hall, we ended up talking to some head honcho for quite some time. She annoyed me a little for a few reasons. First, she had our letter in front of her, open but didn’t read it and so was asking us questions directly from the letter. Then, after a lot of wasted time, she tells us that there is no money left for the month. Despite the fact that we went on the first business day of the month (June 2nd), she neglected to tell us three weeks earlier that she would need a letter from us at least 2 months in advance of when we need it. Well then, Wandi and I left and said so much for that.<br /><br />When I got back home, I dropped my paint stuff off at my house and then went to Minga’s for lunch. While I was eating, Noel showed up, obviously unaware I was there since he had been avoiding me since the beginning of April. At first I was just hanging out, talking with Minga outside of the house waiting for him to come out so we could talk but then I decided to be more proactive. I walked inside the house and sat down on the couch right next to him. I took the Dominican way about things and decided to stare shamelessly, right at him until he became uncomfortable and began to laugh. Then I asked him if he was still mad at me. I told him that what happened was a miscommunication and that I didn’t want any “anti-friends” here. It was a little weird to have this conversation with him since his mom was there, laughing and asking if we were anti-friends. Then Minga, his grandma, comes in and says how he is such a proud person, getting mad about nothing, and how its in his blood… how he’s so ridiculous. While that was soooo helpful, I wished that we could just talk alone or something. Despite all that, after we talked he said he wasn’t mad anymore but that I should still go with other motorcycle drivers and not him when I am at the entrance in Navarrete. This to me means he is still mad but as long as we don’t have conflict over it, I’m ok with it.<br /><br />Another problem I faced this week was Wandi’s little brother, Argeni. This kid has been sending me love text messages since March, sometimes mixing it up a little with some tangible love letters left at my house. Well, earlier this week I found one on the floor of my bathroom (probably stuck there through my window) and his grammar is so awful, and his letter so difficult to read that I just read a few lines and tossed it to the side to read when I had more time. Then on Tuesday when I had my class he was being really unruly, it was very disruptive. Two weeks before I had a talk with him about how he wasn’t participating at all in class. He would literally sit in class and do NOTHING. He wouldn’t write anything down, wouldn’t read, he refused to do anything when asked… it was really obnoxious. I told him that he wasn’t giving himself the same opportunities as the other kids since he wasn’t participating. Then the next week, he showed up at the school and then stood outside of the classroom, looking in the windows. I was sick that week and that was the week I was in the awful mood so I let it go. Later I talked to Wandi about it who told me Argeni took our talk before as me telling him he was stupid since he wasn’t participating! Ugh! <br /><br />I tried to talk to him about this before the next class, the one this past Tuesday, but I couldn’t catch him and then he was terrible in class. So, after class I finally talked to him. I told him that while it was great that he was more lively and was participating, walking all around during class, talking constantly over me, and trying to hit other kids with a broom stick or whatever it was incessantly, wasn’t the type of participation I was talking about. Then I told him I had received his text messages and letters and that there was no way we would ever date. I told him he is 15 years old, love does have an age (he told me in the letter left in my bathroom that love has no age so if I didn’t want to date him it was because I had a secret boyfriend) and it’s called being a pedophile, but that if he wanted to hang out that he shouldn’t be afraid to visit. I also told him to talk to me in person instead of sending all those messages. He then told me that he would have talked to me but there are always people at my house and that we wouldn’t be friends because he didn’t want to be friends with me. Well then, quite the hostile one aren’t we? At least I tried to clear it up and at least I talked to him about it so he hopefully won’t do things for attention thinking I’m ignoring him.<br /><br />That all about brings us up to date. Today I am at ISA, a university in Santiago. I arrived yesterday and will leave tomorrow. I’m here to complete training on how to install bio sand filters. It’s a sweet deal through the Rotary Club where if I go to the training, pass the requirements and complete the forms along with a report (which I have to write tonight, ick) then I will receive 25 free filters for my community in the future. The communities have to pay for the transportation but that’s it so they’re making out like bandits. Tomorrow I have to go to Santiago and fill out the police report for my stole iPod which should be interesting. I don’t even know where a police station is but I hope it’s near a photo shop because I have to get some pics developed! That’s all for this update:) Peace.<br /><br />5/29 Friday: Am I just being a crab?<br />Very quick recap since Monday:<br />There was hardly any power at the beginning of this week and so when there was, rather than write in my blog I felt it was a better use of time to catch up watching the greatest tv show ever, Heroes, which I acquired while in the capitol last week. I mean, I have THREE SEASONS to make up! This is serious business…<br /><br />So, due to rainy season it has been… you guessed it, raining. A lot. When I got back on Saturday there wasn’t much I could do to be productive since there wasn’t any power which meant that I had to prepare the entire charla for my nutrition class all on Sunday. So, the whole day Sunday was devoted to drawing the 13 pages for that class. Lucky for me, Ernie colored them all but I can see it is burning her out asking her to color 13 pages in one day. Despite all the preparing, we still couldn’t have class on Monday. I went to the meeting along with about 25 other women but it was raining so hard no one could hear. I caught a cold while in the capital and pretty much had lost my voice from Friday until Sunday. While it was back on Monday, I still couldn’t compete with the rain. We decided we would just have the class next Monday after the normal Woman’s Meeting. <br /><br />Next Monday is the Mother’s Day exchange. I was on a mad hunt in the capitol to get something good for about 100 pesos and I finally found it: a 5 glass bowl set for 123 pesos. I received my first ever Mothers Day gift from Minga. She bought me an alarm clock. I told her I wasn’t a mother so she didn’t have to but she insisted. Now the question, is she trying to tell me something by purchasing an alarm clock for me? <br /><br />Wednesday I had my Escojo class. It was a great class. We talked about discrimination, which like anywhere else in the world, is a big issue here. There was one part in the class where we read a story called The Lottery. I remember reading it when I was in 8th grade; it’s a pretty famous story. It’s about this town that gets together once a year and everyone selects a sheet of paper. If your paper is the one with the X on it, the townspeople stone you to death. We read it, discussed it, and related it to discrimination. Then I told them that I wanted them to really understand it so we were going to reenact it. I had everyone pick a sheet of paper out of a bag and whoever chooses the one with the X was going to have to stand in front of the class and endure one minute of insults from the rest of the class. I told them to be really mean, use all the bad words they could think of. The reaction was absolutely priceless. Jaws dropped and half of the kids didn’t even want to draw a sheet of paper so I picked one and gave it to them. And you should have seen their faces when they saw that their sheet had the X! I drew an X on each and every sheet. It was so funny. And I feel like it really brought home how unfair discrimination is for the person born with whatever quality the X is (being poor, being “crazy”, being black…). I have to give two classes this week since we couldn’t have class the week of the strike. So, today I’m going to have a second class on Sexual Orientation. People here generally seem to be very homophobic so this should be interesting.<br /><br />As far as my personal life, well I am in a better mood than the last time I wrote in the blog but let me say that Wandi is once again, really really annoying me. Last night he pointed out that I don’t really have any friends in my community, which is true. Ernie is great for Escojo but I don’t see her being one of my friends. She’s kind of mean actually. She’s always calling people names and putting people down. Not to mention she is BOSSY, I mean really really bossy. I need to get out more and hang out with people more. It’s a problem because I kind of prefer to try and stay busy hanging out around my house. It’s hard to make myself get out but its time to make the effort... and having seasons 1-3 of Heroes probably doesn’t help… <br /><br />Anyways, back to Mr. Annoying, he’s annoying me for more than just saying rude but true things and also lately always calling me names (joking but anything in excess is unhealthy) and I’m not sure what to do other than tell him we can’t hang out. He’s very extreme. I tell him to back out of my personal space (he’s constantly trying to be literally a few inches from my face, yuck) and so he goes across the room and sits down. So I tell him, not in a mean way, that if he honestly doesn’t understand the balance of where it’s ok to stand then he should stand across the room. (This is not a cultural thing either, he is the only one who is always in my space) Also, he’s always trying to put his arm around me or hold my hand. So, when I tell him not to be in my space he gets all offended and starts asking if everything he does annoys me, since he isn’t supposed to be close to me or touch me at all. Well, if you want the honest answer… Really though, I just don’t get it, no matter how many times I tell him to knock it off he doesn’t care or doesn’t get it. <br /><br />To make things even better, last night he was hanging out with me and the little girl who hangs out with me all the time, Yojeiry (Joe- Hadey). For some reason, when she left, she left with a little attitude. She had been moody all day so I didn’t think anything of it until today when neighbor told me that Yojeiry had been telling people that the night before Wandi kissed me. This is not helping. And it’s so not ok. I’m going to have to start dealing with these issues that are piling up and stop ignoring them. Things are adding up, I can’t get away from it and I’m feeling the stress. Things don’t solve themselves or simply go away. I feel like either I was a lot better at ignoring things in the States or things did just kind of go away there. <br /><br />That reminds me, Noel asked Wandi a few days ago if he could use my headlamp again. I told Wandi no. I’m good enough to ask (or have someone ask me for that matter) to use something of mine but when I asked Noel a question a few weeks ago he wouldn’t even look at me. I’m not sure if its better to let him use it, if saying no is making things more complicated but I said yes before (not fully realizing that he was still mad at me) and that didn’t change anything. Besides, it made me mad that he even asked for it with how he’s been treating me and I feel like telling him no is the right thing to do. This is really exasperating. <br /><br />5/13- 5/23: Ten days in Santo Domingo<br />After I already left my house, while I was heading down the mountain, when I was about 10 minutes by motorcycle away from my house, about half way to Navarrete with my big hiking bag (which was packed for 11 days) on my back… right then, at that moment, was when I realized that I had forgotten my power cord to my computer. There was nothing I could do aside from ask the driver to pull over, let me off, dropped my bag off at someone’s house, walked about an hour back up hill to my house to look for it and then look for another ride later. I was too close to not think about going back but too far to actually go back and get it. So much for all the free internet that I can possibly get my hands on…my battery lasts about 45 minutes. Right then, at that moment, I was sad. It was a dismal moment. <br /><br />Ten days in the capital is a long time to recap, and it would be a recap since I couldn’t write on my computer. So, I’ll list the highlights:<br />All Volunteer Conference: was fun. It was a full day together with the other PCVs and was a good time. We broke up into our sectors and gave each other advice which was really helpful. It was from 8 am until 4 pm. The day before was the swearing in of the new group so we all went out to the car wash the night of the all volunteer conference. It was a really great time and I was excited to meet a new PCV named Helen who told me she used to read my blog all the time; she read ALL of it!!! Vindication, sweet vindication.<br /><br />The weekend that followed a lot of PCVs went to the beach but I, trying to save money, went with Kenzie to her site. It was a lot of fun. During my two days there, a group of boys went to a bee’s nest and got me a huge bottle of honey with amazingly only one boy obtaining a sting, we went to the river on horses (someone thought it would be a good idea to put me and Kenz on a horse together… I’ve ridden a horse maybe 5 times in my life with those few times being in Wisconsin Dells with guides- oh, and saddles. Does an empty rice sack count as a “saddle”?) Another interesting thing was when Kenzie got so sick she honestly thought that she was going to die (her words) while I, sleeping right next to her, managed to sleep through her spell of illness. Sure I was sick myself (I have been sick at least since April 30th) but did that warrant sleeping through her vomiting numerous times, having explosive diarrhea, calling her boyfriend who came over for about 5 hours and having her Doña come over? The next morning her whole community of course knew she was sick and they were all asking where her friend was during it? “Oh, she was sleeping…” What a great friend… not to mention I was embarrassed because my stomach issues apparently give me some hard core gas and during the night, and during the silent night in the campo I had some major releases, calling the attention of Kenz and her boyfriend. Apparently it was sooooo funny with perfect timing because Kenz was actually in the middle of crying she was in so much pain when my stomach decided to put on a show… with two performances. Oh and, due to my strange issues the Peace Corps doctors had given me not one or even two but THREE tubes to fill with stool samples. I happily was able to fulfill my duty but I forgot about them, they were kind of sitting out and so soon people saw them and started commenting on how the tubes looked filled with peanut butter. Yep, and that’s my peanut butter in those tubes… so I guess its no surprise that between my gas and Kenzie’s diarrhea, her boyfriend really wasn’t sure who the tubes belonged too but I wasn’t claiming them.<br /><br />After that interesting weekend at Kenzie’s, we headed back to Santo Domingo for language training or ISLT, complete with 3 full tubes in my purse. I was dreading this as I was going to have to go back and stay with my original host family. Sure they were kind of cool but mostly I felt like they were making fun of me. It turned out to be ok, worse than the first time I was there though. There used to be a generator but now the battery is bad. This means that the room I had, which had no windows, was a great little heat box since there was no fan. The first night I pretty much didn’t sleep but the second I was a little better adjusted. Kenzie and Jess seemed to really like their families now. What a change that from when we first arrived where I was the only one who liked my family. I have to admit though; the house is niiiiiice, nicer than I remember. <br /><br />It was a long week with a lot of rain. When we first got there I asked my friends to look in my bag on my back for my umbrella, which they couldn’t find. I thought that it must have fallen out somewhere so I went the entire week without. It rained everyday… a LOT and we had a 25 minute walk to Entrena each way. Guess what I found on the last day when I was packing my bag to go home? My umbrella. <br /><br />The last day of language training was supposed to be Friday but since it was just a half a day and my fellow PCVs and I needed to get stuff done in the office when the administration is in, Enrena let us out of training a day early. This worked out well since the next day was Randi’s birthday and we wanted to go out that night. <br /><br />We ended up going out to this street with a lot of DR dance clubs, Calle Venezuela. Aside from the creepo taxi driver who ripped us off in the end, it was a great night. It’s so fun going out with my health group. Of course the Americanas were the center of attention, with Kenzie, Randi and Jess doing a sort of a talent show on a sort of stage… it was hilarious. I was sitting at a table watching. The next day we all felt a little sick from the night before but each time Kenzie got a call from some other random dude who I had given her number to the night before, the nausea went away.<br /><br />I ended up staying Friday night even though I could have gone home that afternoon mostly because I was writing my trimester report in the PC office and because I needed to get to the store the next day to look for a gift for the Mothers Club exchange. When I finally got back to my site on Saturday, I was really really grouchy. For one, my iPod was stolen or something sometime during my 11 days there and so I very regrettably no longer have it. Second, I went up the other side of the mountain this time to get to La Lomota in an effort to (a) stop at Ane and Tim’s house and learn how to make a new type of bracelet to sell in a fundraiser, (b) borrow Ane’s iPod until I can get another one, and (c) avoid the entrance to my site on the Navarrete side at all costs since I feel awkward with all the drama from stupid boys. After riding the 30 minutes or so on the amazingly crappy road with Camilo, good friend of Ane and Time and the guy who always hits on me (I was NOT in the mood this time) with my 66 lb backpack (yes I actually weighed it) I was all but grunting by the time we arrived at Ane and Tims, trying to keep myself on the motorcycle. It was ridiculous. Then Camilo, who was being extra annoying by being an extreme know it all, tells me that he can’t take me to my site unless I leave right then. So I didn’t get to do anything I would have liked to except avoid the motors at the other entrance. And it cost me an extra 30 pesos. <br /><br />When I arrived at my house I realized that the huge thing of honey had fallen out of my bag somewhere along the way, but why not? Then there was Wandi who poked my gut and asked me if I was pregnant. Welcome home. The joys of being in the Peace Corps and cultural adaption. <br /><br /><br />5/11- 12: Meetings meeting and more… and getting ready for another still!!<br />Today was my first Nutrition class. I had it after the Women’s Meeting and so we were supposed to begin at 4 pm. I was pretty happy to find out on Friday that FALPO was to have a community meeting today, at the same time, (same day) and in the same place I had planned on calling the community meeting to talk about the trash! It is on the agenda again but this time I have talked to others in the group about saying something about the trash if its not brought up in the meeting again. If they don’t speak up I’ll be ready to this time. I was really happy to see it on their agenda because I was NOT looking forward to holding a community meeting and giving a charla to a group of 50 people. Not my cup of tea, well, not in Spanish anyways.<br /><br />The nutrition class went really well. There were about 35 women there, which you would think would make me nervous but I love the woman’s group here. They’re open and inviting. After my class was the FALPO meeting where they did talk about the trash, yay!! They also talked about having a strike which I thought was supposed to be in Navarrete but I figured out around 11 pm at night that they were talking about having a strike here in La Lomota the very next day! Despite that, when people came to my house throwing the rocks from my wall (the loose rocks, not the ones in the wall already) down into the road at 12 am, I was a little freaked out. I guess I didn’t realize people were going to come in the middle of the night (something I think is a bad idea since people consistently drive without lights on) to throw crap in the road and also I didn’t realize that they were throwing stuff in the road to block it for their strike. <br /><br />The next morning when I woke up, I tried to stay away from the “strike zone”. I did everything possible. I cleaned my house, took a shower, made my bed, did the dishes… this was all before 9! After the press came and went, and after I stared at the plume of smoke from the burning tires in the road I decided it was time to look for Minga. I was maybe going to have a few guests but figured that with the strike they wouldn’t be able to get to my community anyways so I needed to tell Minga not to make lunch for 3. I was looking for her when I saw Noel. I asked him where she was and you know what that little punk did? He ignored me! Can you believe he is still mad at me for like 5 weeks ago when we got in the argument about how Ernie, Karina and I went with another motorcycle driver up the mountain? Rediculious. I was annoyed because he’s still going to be mad at me, be immature enough to ignore me but had the guts to ask to borrow my headlamp like 3 or 4 weeks ago? I was in disbelief and luckily didn’t say anything to make it worse. What a jerk though.<br /><br />About the strike though, my community really worked together on this. They moved huge branches in the road from one end of my community to the other and they had tires burning right by Minga’s house. I understand the point they are trying to make but I feel like it could be more effective. If they’re going to burn things I really feel like they should organize earlier, collect trash from around the community and from their houses and burn that in the road, blocking it. Why burn tires and cut down branches when they can get two birds with one stone? After all, there is an issue with the road and with the garbage. <br /><br />As far as I know, the day went off without a hitch. They had their strike. It was peaceful, nobody was hurt and they are going to give city hall an ultimatum: agree to fix the road (and recognize it is a problem) or they’ll strike in ___________ days. Sounds fine and dandy but what about the freaking garbage issue?!? Ahhh!!! Another bad thing about all these freaking strikes? There was no Escojo class today. Now I have to have two classes in one week to stay on track… errrr.BeTsYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14589822437550268501noreply@blogger.com1