Mom and Rachs visit and MORE!!! :)

5/10 Sunday: Happy Mothers Day:)
To all the mothers out there, I would like to wish you all a happy Mothers Day:) I was able to talk to my Mom today which was really nice. Mothers Day in the DR seems like it’s a big to do, I’ll know more when the DR Mother’s Day happens on May 31st. I’ll keep you all who are on the edges of your seats posted with information as I receive it.

Today I finally bucked down and finished drawing my first nutrition charla and what a pain! I wanted to make sure it had a few drawings on each page since the crowd isn’t as educated as my Escojo youth. It took forever and all I can really say about the 11 page feat (normally my charlas are 3 pages) is that I hope drawing out so much crap keeps their interest. Today I went to a woman’s house to help her cook a meal out of my health recipes book. She picked which one she wanted to make and today we cooked it together (for practice) and tomorrow she will cook it on her own and then bring it to class. I think that it turned out really well; I ate a lunch’s worth. Only one of her kids that was there didn’t like it, one out of three isn’t bad for kids. Anyways, I am fortunate that Ernie likes to help out with this stuff because she colored (and enlisted others to color) straight from 10 am until 6 pm. She takes her time sure but she does quality work too. Imagine if I had to draw AND color this. No no no, that would bite.

After Ernie made sure ALL of it was colored (even with her dad and brothers outside waiting for us to go to the discoteca) we headed out. I made sure to look presentable with my aqua blue shirt, matching bracelets, matching earrings, and matching necklace. Sure my belt and shoes weren’t blue but they were a matching white and I had on my bling blig butt DR jeans (Dominicans love their Bedazzler and embroidery) Thank you Santiago Shopping trip with Mom and Rach. Now I don’t look homeless!! I look like una Dominicana. Wandi even told me I look elegant- why, thank you, thank you very much!

During all the cooking, drawing and coloring my little girl Yojedi (the 8 year old, sassy wonder that follows me EVERYWHERE but who I think is super cute and hilarious so I don’t mind) stuck to my side. She went to Margara’s with me to cook. She ate lunch with me there. She ate a second lunch at Mercedes house since Mercedes was saving food for me and I found out today that it is rude to tell her I already ate. (Minga went to a wake today by some beach which is why I didn’t eat with her). Yojedi sat by my side and played in the hammocks while I drew. She disappeared for a while to go home and bathe and when she came back she was all dressed up! She looked adorable in her little white dress. She was going to visit with us while we walked “up” to visit people I guess. Well it didn’t take long before Vangie and Ernie gravitated for the discoteca and so Yojedi went as well with us. We hung out longer than I would have liked, since I thought we should get her home, but it was down pouring for a while. We walked her home and right before we got to her house, Wandi and Ernie told her not to tell that we were at the discoteca! I was so mad! If she isn’t supposed to go there, and you two BOTH knew it, why didn’t you send her home earlier or at least tell me and I would have done it? Teenagers I swear! I feel pretty bad about this, deceitful. I immediately told Yojedi that this would be the first and last time she could go with us on a Sunday. I said that I really liked spending time with her but that she can’t go back with us again since she’s not supposed to. Maybe when I’m 30 and she’s 15… then we will see when I come back to visit (no I am not staying here until I’m 30 for those of you whack jobs that were wondering…)

5/6 Wednesday: A cockroach and some omens?
So today I had my Escojo class and it went pretty well. We talked about La Abstinencia (abstinence) which was a concept that, at the beginning, the kids didn’t get at all but I’m fairly sure they understand it now. That made me pretty proud, I actually taught something! But, that is not what the focus of today’s blog will be. No, today’s focus will be about how I shouldn’t have slept during the night but I have acclimated to the Dominican weirdness I suppose so that normally disturbing things that used to keep me from sleeping now do not disrupt my REM. Let me start at the beginning…

Once upon a time I lived in the United States of America. It was there that I had free, unlimited access to the internet, a wealthy, flowing supply of peanut m & ms, constant power, and privacy among other wondrous things I took for granted. It was during one carefree afternoon, where I was indulging in all the peanut m & ms my heart could desire, while using the free, high speed internet, without worry of se fue la luz that I came across a particularly disturbing blog from a PCV right here in the DR. I’m not sure if I have recounted this story before, I think I have, but it is worth reciting again. Brace yourselves, what you are going to read may give you nightmares.

Picture this: una Voluntaria was sleeping peacefully in her bed when she was awakened by something running across her chest. Fear not, it was just a cockroach… although it was a rather large one, even for the DR. She thought nothing of it and went back to bed. A few minutes later she heard something and thought it was maybe one of the rats that like to visit during the night. She shone her flashlight in the area of the noise and low and behold, there was a spider “the size of my palm” chasing the cockroach that had just been running across her chest, up the wall.

Now that I have lived here in the DR for nearly 9 months I understand more components of this story that used to bother me, like large cockroaches scurrying across ones chest, why the girl felt the need to sleep with a light, rats in a house being a normal thing, etc… but most importantly I was disturbed by two facts: that there were spiders the size of one’s palm (I have fairly large hands) and the fact that they CHASED their prey!!! What was I getting myself into? I was heading to a place where the spiders were confused and thought that they were missiles whose sole purpose was to seek and destroy!!! Holy crap!

While I am lucky that I have never seen a rat in any of the houses I have lived here in the DR, I have seen a LOT of roaches but never larger than a few inches in length. I have only one time been aware of them crawling on me, which is lucky because I would rather not know. I of course sleep with a headlamp each and every single night but that’s mostly because of the power situation in this country, that I don’t have a bedside lamp and generally not because I’m afraid (but sometimes for that too). I have seen large spiders but have gotten to be much better about fearing them. I have never seen one the size of my hand except as road kill where I’m assuming it once was as big as my hand. And I have never seen one chase it’s prey…. That is until last night.

There I was in the bathroom, still having digestive issues but relatively pain-free, when I noticed a cute little bug walking along my shower. All of the sudden, in a flash, a spider (NOT the size of my palm, THANK GOD!) ran from a small hole in the wall I had never noticed, snatched the poor unsuspecting bug, and ran back. I just sat there, open mouthed. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen!! I stood up to try and get a better look at where the spider went but there was no sign of it. I was so startled that when I went to sit back down I missed the toilet! And my bathroom is NOT that big.

I immediately sought the comfort of my cat, trying to see if she could master the skill of seeking and destroying but the concept was lost on her. She waltzed around before plopping her gordita self on the floor, looking up at me with those satisfied-with-life eyes, blissfully unaware of the creature of death lying in wait just inches from where she lay. So much for Seek and Destroy Cat.

Ok, no worries I told myself. I would learn from the mistakes of the other PCV and make sure my mosquito net was tucked in well. The problem was, after I anxiously tucked in the net my eyes began to wander over all the holes the net has acquired since arriving to my house in late January. Thanks to the net being really crappy (the only one I have found that’s round, thus taking up less room, and has a door) and my cat being very mischievous the net leaves a lot to be desired. I can’t sew the holes because, as I discovered, it makes the already too small net smaller and then the door won’t close, creating another problem.

I got in my bed and my cat followed, opening up the door all over again. I was just about to go to sleep when I noticed that she was staring intently across the room. Soon enough she was up, out the door, opening it again, and trying to scale the cement wall by my clothing. I got up out of bed and walked cautiously to her point of interest. I tried to be prepared incase it was a spider the size of my palm. But, no it was the only thing missing from the equation- it was a VERY large roach. I mean it was like 5 inches long. Nasty. Seeing the roach gave me mixed feelings. Was it going to get in my net some how? Was it going to scurry across my chest? Was the spider going to chase it down? I felt like it was too many coincidences in one night! I was nervous but retreated back to my bed, making sure to know exactly where my headlamp was and was thinking about how the cat had opened the door again when she came back to bed when I fell asleep.

I woke up in the morning, not quite with those satisfied-with-life eyes like my cat has but still blissfully unaware if there had been anything crawling on me during the night. There was a time, not very long ago where I would have woken up several times in the night due to fear. I may have even dreamed about it. On the contrary, the morning following this, I slept a little later than normal as the campo was unusually quiet. Yep, I have adjusted in yet another way to life here and now I can proudly say that Missile Spiders that hunt their prey, 5 inch long cockroaches and lots of holes in my net aren’t quite the combo that are going to disrupt my sueños.


5/4-5 Monday and Tuesday: Feeling better, have LOTS of work
I finally feel better. Last night I went up with some kids and Wandi to a high point in the community to look at the other towns lit up at night. You can see Navarrete, Esperanza and then Moa to the right and to the left you can really see Santiago. It’s a hike up there but, on the rare occasion when the kids aren’t being annoying, it is very tranquilo and so worth it. The view is breathtakingly beautiful.

Its nice to go up to the point during the day too. I’ve never been able to sneak up there alone since there is always someone with me or who sees me along the way and follows but its still nice. It helps me to wind down. Right now I feel overwhelmed by everything. I told Wandi I didn’t feel like I had been doing very much and asked what he thought. He agreed with me which could have hurt my feelings but it’s true, I mean I have been only teaching one class. Sure it was because I’m overwhelmed and anxious with all the adjustments that need to be made to live here (and not to mention I haven’t had the desire to be a teacher since momentary insanity in the 4th grade), and I am terribly insecure with my Spanish but is that an excuse? After all, this is my job and I have to push through. I went to the Mother’s Club and we decided we would start our nutrition class on Monday after their meetings. Step one.

Another new project I’ve been tweaking has to do with the Escojo class. Sunday I began working with Wandi and Ernie forming two committees of our Escojo group. I was conflicted as to the attendance policy of the class. Initially I said that they could only miss 2 classes if they wanted to graduate. I want to reward kids who go to all the classes but I don’t want to discourage kids who miss a few classes to drop out completely. I had kids telling me that they had missed a class or two and didn’t want to go back since they thought that they couldn’t graduate. The solution I came up with? There will be an exam at the end of the course (which I will grade of course) and if you pass, you can graduate regardless of the number of classes missed. I will say I had to send the exams to the PC Office in Santo Domingo for official use and then I’ll only pass the kids who went to most of the classes. Then they can’t argue to see them afterwards if they “failed” and it will seem even more official since people in the capitol needed the exams. Although I am pretty sure all the kids who are going to be taking the exam are kids who haven’t missed many classes anyways so I hopefully won’t have to fail anyone.

Wandi is in charge of forming the graduation committee to plan their graduation, a decision in which I’m not sure how much faith I have but we will see. He seems to want more responsibility but then when he has it, he doesn’t know what to do with it. So I’m sure I will be micromanaging since I don’t think he’s planned anything in his life. As long as he’s making the effort I have no problem helping with whatever he needs. Maybe this will give him some confidence in doing more.

Then for the kids who have missed three classes or less, we are planning a trip to the beach. It won’t cost very much and each kid is obligated to sell so many raffle tickets to raise money and also has to be able to being some food for the trip. What are we going to raffle you ask? Well when I was in Santiago the other day I found a mug that says Happy Mothers Day and it was only 20 pesos. I’m going to buy 5 of them and we’re going to raffle them off. No one knows how cheap they were so I figure we can sell the tickets for 20 or 25 pesos each. All the extra money from this will go to the graduation fund.

The other thing I’m beginning this week and next is finally forming the garbage committee. I’m calling a community meeting of my own and I’ve begun to prepare a charla on trash which I’m going to give followed by an invitation to all to our garbage committee meetings on ____________ date. Wish me luck because I’m nervous to talk in front of 40 -50 adults in my Spanish.

So anyways, I have a lot of new stuff on my plate this week. On top of it, Ernesto gave me the budget of the wall and it’s going to be another 19,000 pesos! I’m trying to work something out with the PC office to get an advance on my monthly salary and have them take out 1000 pesos each month but you know how it is working with Money Man…. Wish me luck.

5/3 Sunday: Still sick, I’m giving the key back
I still felt very sick today. I decided while I was sitting in my house, trying to ignore all the annoying kids around me that I would talk to Ernesto about the key. It just so happened that he showed up at my house alone at night and so I told him I “found” the key but that I wanted to make it clear that it was to be used only for emergencies by ME for when I lock myself out. He agreed and so to be clear that this was not what the key was being used for I cited a story of Geraldo coming into my house while I was sick one time. We’ll see how it goes… again. I really would like to have them have a spare key.

5/2 Saturday: Sicker
Today I pretty much sat in my house and slept. I was still sick with something that gave me an awesome sharp pain in my stomach. I am a little concerned that I may have an ameba or something but I guess we shall see if it comes back in a couple weeks in true parasite fashion.
5/1 Friday: May Day!!!! Kelly moves into a castle. I don’t feel so hot…
Last night Kelly and Rachele were up relatively late talking, enjoying her new place during her “move-in party”. I, being a fun sponge, went to lie down around 8:30 or 9 and accidentally fell fast asleep. They woke up around 7 the next morning, which, to me, signaled the time to put my ear plugs in. I then went back to bed until 9:30. I still was feeling pretty bad in the morning but didn’t want to be a party pooper. We all got ready and went to Santiago for the day. Kelly bought different things she needed for her house and I got some stuff from the hardware store, Ochoa.

Aside from my stomach issues, another disturbing factoid to throw in my current mix of life was shared with me by Ernesto. He called me on Thursday around 6:30 pm (nearly 11 hours after I left that morning) telling me that my front door was open! He asked if he could shut the door and if I had the key since they couldn’t find theirs. I knew where theirs was; I had it! I’m not sure if I want to give it back with all the issues I have had with them having the spare. I was happy that I had the other key during this point since this way I knew that they weren’t in my house, leaving the door open when I wasn’t there. The problem was that I knew I closed the door when I left since it had been left open earlier in the week when Mom and Rach were here. I took extra care to close the door when I left this time to be sure I didn’t leave it open. I should note that my door is a little jacked up and has issues closing. Since I had the only key and was sure I shut the door I began thinking of other alternatives as to why the door was open. Is my door more broken that I thought? Is the lock broken? My bathroom roof was damaged so I began to think that maybe someone was able to get in my house that way and didn’t close the door when they left, what a rude thief! I had my computer with me and my iPod so at least the only thing of great value someone could steal would be my camera, my wonderful camera.

One good thing about the door being open was that I had forgotten my helmet when I left so I asked Ernesto to grab it out of my house before he shut the door. I asked if he could send it down with someone the next day so it was waiting for me at the entrance. When I arrived at the entrance Friday there was no helmet. I called Wandi when I was on the guagua still and he told me something but I couldn’t hear it thanks to the loud music. I was pretty annoyed by the guagua since I felt like I may poop my pants and it was the freaking slowest bus EVER. The dude told me it was an express when I got on it (which means it charges a little more but doesn’t stop to pick up every person it passes in the road) but it DID stop to pick up every person on the road until we got out of the city meaning that it took FOREVER to get out of the city. We even went looking for people! We took side streets and stopped at vendors! It was ridiculous!

Ernesto came through for me and mandar-ed a muchacho to bring me my helmet. Although it wasn’t until after I had been sitting at the entrance for a while. He is pretty forgetful I decided but then that’s the pot calling the kettle back isn’t it? The problem was that, after I had been sitting there for a while, Tito drove by in his car and offered to give me a bola! Ah, the ironies in life. I got in and as we drove we passed the boy with my helmet, on his way to the entrance looking for me. I got out and rode with the motorcycle instead and paid him a little more than normal since he came just to find me. Well on the brightside, at least I didn’t poop my pants.

4/24- 4/30: Mom and Rach’s visit:)

It was soooo nice having visitors, even if it was for a short time. I really loved being able to show Mom and Rach where I live (although Rach was here in Dec) and how the cultures are different. None the less, having visitors is exhausting. Having to translate everything (something which I’m not used to since I’m normally with my Spanglish- loving fellow PCVs) and being responsible for every little thing is tiring but definitely worth the trouble.

4/24 Friday: Time to start the vacay!! Mom and Rach supposed to arrive at 8:35 pm
When Mom and Rach arrived on Friday I decided to take a little risk and arrive at the airport around 8:40, about ten minutes after their plane was supposed to arrive. Normally I’m a little early but since the planes are generally late and then there’s some type of fiasco with the luggage, I’m left waiting with the taxi driver for like an hour. This time the plane was early and so it worked out that I was at the airport for about 5 minutes before Mom and Rach walked out of the doors. It was pretty lucky really that they didn’t get out before me but the airport lost Mom’s only bag so that stalled them a little thankfully.

We loaded everything in the taxi and stopped at a delicious chicken place on the way to the hotel. Mom and Rach were able to indulge in boiled bananas, yucca, moro and chicken on their very first night in the DR! We ate in the hotel lobby before heading to bed. We were all pooped. Despite loosing one bag, Mom and Rach still had a lot of luggage and so we were lucky enough that the hotel let us keep some bags in the downstairs closet since we had a room on the 4th floor.

4/25 Saturday: Watch out Santiago, here we come!
Today was to be our day out in the city. We began the day by eating some banana bread and some fresh, delicious pineapple and mango. Turns out Mom and Rach don’t like mango!!!! Crazy, I know. We left the hotel around 10ish and set out for town. It was pretty fun walking the streets with Mom and Rach. We went to the market and the grocery store. I had to run some errands for my class so we did that and by that time it was time for lunch! We ate lunch at this place called the Crazy Plantain which has sandwiches where they use fried plantains as the bread instead of actual bread. It’s delicious and was a hit with Mom and Rach although a little rough for Mom to chew.

After lunch we went back to the hotel to drop our bags and Mom and Rach took a nap while I caught up on some writing. When Rach woke up we went out to find some veggies from a vendor and got sidetracked into an accessories store. We picked up some cool, super cheap, gaudy Dominican jewelry and I said how I would like to get a new shirt for my birthday and then some jewelry to match. Rach agreed with me and this sent me into a serious shopping spree. This is what happens when I find out I’m getting my tax return back… although I have to say, it is a lot easier to find deals on clothing here than in the States. The most expensive thing I bought was $10.

After Rach and I went back to the hotel to get Mom, we all got in a taxi to take us to this giant hardware store called Ochoa (or 8A). We were all impressed with this store; it was like being home in a Lowe’s or Home Depot. We picked out some paint for the shelves in my house and set off for a mall called Jumbo. We were going to see a movie there but all the movies were lame (sorry Rach but alien movies just don’t grab me) so we spent the time walking the stores. We ate some delicious pizza, had a coffee drink that tasted like it was from home and ate some Yogën Fruz. It was so much fun, a total girls day:)

We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 10:30 and by then we were tired. We pretty much went right to bed. We had to get ready for the next day you know:)

Sunday 4/26: My Birthday and Time to go to the Campo!

The next morning when I came out of the bathroom Rach and Mom had decorated the hotel room with a balloon and a little happy birthday banner for me! It was so nice!:) Rach was sneaky and picked up some stuff the day before when we were in the stores. They sang to me and then we packed up our stuff and went out to look for a touristy shirt for Mom before heading out.

Pretty much everything is closed here on Sundays so it wasn’t very chaotic walking the streets, unlike the day before. We found Mom’s shirt fairly easily and went back to the hotel. The guy at the front desk helped us carry all of our stuff to the bus and soon enough we were on our way to Navarrette.

It had been raining off and on since Mom and Rach arrived and as soon as we got on the bus it began to really downpour. The bus driver did a sign of the cross before taking off and Mom, Rach and I all exchanged worried glances. I had called Tolo while we were walking around Santiago and told him we would be there around 1. I was hoping he would be there for us since it was raining but I wasn’t holding my breath.

When we got to Navarrete it was raining but not too bad. Tolo was there waiting for us and I guess he had been there since 9 am for some reason. He acted like it was ok that he had been there for 4 hours but I have a feeling he was annoyed, who wouldn’t be? I have no idea why he was there so early and also why he didn’t call and tell me he was there waiting. I told him and Minga SEVERAL times that there was no way we would be there before 11 but more than likely would be there after lunch time. But he is like Minga a lot in the sense that he’ll ask a question and then repeat the answer he wanted to hear rather than what I said. We can go though this cycle with him asking the same question and me answering NO and then adding my answer followed by his question… and me responding NO plus the same answer I just said… several times. Just have to do it with a smile on my face though.

Anyways, we waited until it stopped raining a little and then Mom, Tolo’s second wife (remember the Other Woman? She was there, waiting to get a ride to a party on the way) and Tolo all climbed in front with Rach, me, and some random girl in the back. We were joined along the way by a random kid who wanted a free ride. It began to rain on us a little but we didn’t get too wet before we arrived at Minga’s house for lunch.

We ate lunch (which was delicious and very complete with guandules, tostones, repollo, ensalada mezcla, y arroz blanco or beans, fried plantains (kind of like French fries), cabbage, mixed salad which is like potato salad, and white rice) and hung out for a bit before heading to my house.

As we drove up to Ernesto’s house we passed my house and I was really surprised to see that the wall was done! Well, mostly… there still aren’t stairs or a railing but the wall itself is done. Its huge and beautiful. Ernesto told me later that we just need about two more bags of cement to finish it up once and for all.

It was hard to get up the drive to Ernesto’s house since it was so wet and muddy but lucky for us Geraldo was there to help with the bags and Marvey and Randi were there to help us walk. You know it’s slippery when even the Dominicans are falling!

What a great surprise it was when I arrived in my house to find it full of people who were there throwing me a surprise party! They decorated my house and baked me a cake and even bought orange pop! It was so great! It was the only surprise birthday party I’ve ever had (I would say the only surprise party but you know BCHD threw me a sweet surprise going away party which I had no clue about… I’m not sure how they kept that quiet) and it was great! After we were a little more settled in (and I’m saying “settled in” loosely) Rach used Mercedes oven and made me my favorite kind of cake. There were about 20 kids and 6 or 7 adults in my house watching intently while Rach was decorating the cake. They think that she is God’s gift to the Earth since she can bake and color cakes, oooo fancy pansy! Later she helped me paint my house and I thought they were going to drop dead from shock at how talented she is! It was fantastic.

Later that night we headed off to the discoteca. It wasn’t too full of people but it wasn’t dead either. Rach was once again the center of attention as she was asked to dance about twice as often as I was! We both danced, and sat, drinking pop at the table with Mom, Ernie and Wandi. We were really annoyed later when we tried to pay and the discoteca owner overcharged us. I heard him telling Wandi “What you don’t think these guys have money?” I was really pissed at him. I guess I can’t get away from it even in my own small campo.


Monday 4/27: Paint-a-thon!
Today was our day to decorate my house. I still hadn’t opened up any of the gifts Mom and Rach brought since there were always people in my house. I didn’t want to open anything in front of people because: for one, it’s embarrassing and for two, people will think that I have a lot of money and also will expect me to share everything with everyone. Well, let me just say this: thank you sooo much Grandma and Grandpa for your gifts! Who knew a shower curtain with pretty butterfly hooks could make a person so happy?! I guess I didn’t notice how crappy my musty colored, torn shower curtain was… I couldn’t open or close it because there weren’t rings on the “shower bar” (a piece of PVC tube hung from the ceiling with ties) but instead the curtain was tied with some type of wire, thus contributing to the tearing of the curtain and explaining why only about half of it was still hung, the other, torn part left dangling. Anyways, the shower curtain makes a world of difference so thanks a lot:)

And, even though I know you don’t read this Aaron I’m still going to say: THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE HARD DRIVE!!!!! The all PCV conference is soon, May 14th, which means there will hopefully be lots of opportunities to share movies and music (I know someone who has every season of Heroes!!!!!). This is an especially useful gift since the CD drive in my computer has decided to almost never work y entonces, muchas gracias!!!

After we open gifts we got to work on my house. Ernesto cut and hung almost all of the shelves for me while I was gone. Almost because while he was using the power drill the power went out so he didn’t get to hang two shelves. Rach and Mom went around and took all the screws out of the ones that were up while I tried to organize all the stuff they had brought me, stuff which I was trying not to let everyone and their mother know I had. It wasn’t until after lunch that we were able to get painting but we painted until around 10 at night. There is a weird Aztec looking design around one door (Rach may kill me but I think I’m going to paint over it in June when I save some money to buy more paint) and the front door is painted along with all the shelves and a cute little mural thingy to put pictures in. Ah, my house is beginning to take on a personality. The only bad thing about it is that we were so busy painting that I completely forgot to take Mom and Rach to the Woman’s Meeting! I felt bad because I wanted them to meet everyone; or rather I wanted everyone to meet them.


Tuesday 4/28: Day at the beach with some bad news and a bola

Today was a good day until around 12. Tolo picked Mom, Rach and I up around 8 am and took us to the entrance in Altamira. Once we arrived he asked me why I didn’t ask him to take us there earlier than yesterday since he was planning on doing something with his son that day. I told him I had talked to Minga about it and he said she had never told him. Then he told me we had to pay him 500 pesos for gas. It annoys me when they tell me that I have to pay afterwards. 500 pesos isn’t much though, it’s less than taking a taxi. We have to take a guagua or taxi since Mom can’t use a motorcycle with her bad back.

When we got to Altamira we waited for a bus and went to a beach I had never been to before, called Cofresí. (Co- fra- sea) It was really nice once we found a part without any rocks. Rach being the fish of the group, was in the water more than Mom or me. I was contently sitting in the shade. We enjoyed ourselves on the beach till 11:30 when we left to get something to eat. It was then that I checked my cell phone to find a message from my bother saying my Dad had been in a bad accident the night before and broken his neck. The doctors were saying he may die. So much for a relaxing day at the beach!

I told Mom and Rach to prepare themselves that something bad had happened at home. I told them what I knew and tried calling Aaron back. Miraculously it didn’t use any of my minutes as he recapped what happened. He was transferred to a bigger hospital in Rockford and about to have an operation. Because of his COPD he had a small risk of not coming out of the anesthesia and thus not making it through the surgery. Due to the location of the shattered vertebra he had a very high risk of being paralyzed afterwards. Needless to say, none of us were in the mood to enjoy the beach after this so we just wanted to get back to my house as soon as possible.

I called Tolo and couldn’t get through. I called Minga and told her what happened and asked if she could get a hold of Tolo and ask him to meet us in Altamira in an hour. Then I called the PC-DR County Director, Romeo, and told him about it. Before I could even finish my story he asked me if I needed to go home. I told him I didn’t know, that I would know more after surgery. He was incredibly supportive. He said that PC would do whatever they could to help and gave me the name of someone to talk to who could get me a plane home and even change the tickets of my mom and sister to the same as mine, which may be a day earlier than Mom and Rach had planned on leaving.

When Mom, Rach and I got to the entrance of the beach, at the highway, I told them that we would look for whatever came first- whether it is a bola or a guagua. I was pleased that a large truck stopped before a bus approached so we all got a free ride in the back of that all the way to Altamira, about a 20 minute drive. Call it hitch hiking if you want. Call it a free ride. I call it a bola. When we got to Altamira Tolo wasn’t there but I knew that he would be. This was a family emergency and Dominican’s take these things very seriously. Within a few minutes he showed up and we were on our way to my house.

We spent the rest of the day at my house, just waiting to hear from Aaron who got stuck with all the responsibility of keeping everyone informed since he was the only one home. He dealt with it like a champ though and around 7:30 he called telling us Dad was out of surgery and was going to be fine. My community was so supportive, with families coming to visit me and see how Dad was, and people walking by yelling up to me to see how he was. Dominican’s have a very strong sense of family which is very comforting.

Wednesday 4/29: Passing time and teaching my Escojo class.
Today it was raining again. It was raining yesterday too but not too bad. Despite the rain, we painted some more and when it was time, we went off to my class. It was a fun and educational class about condoms. I think that it is the most fun of all the classes and specially planned to have it the same week Mom and Rach would be here. Aside from the yelling that broke out at the end when they were competing during the race of putting a condom on a plantain, blindfolded after being spun around in a circle 5 times, the class went off with out a hitch. The fight was due to the fact that someone broke one of the plantains somehow during the commotion. I told them it was a learning experience to handle with care when putting on a condom, after all that would be a tragic accident wouldn’t it?

The class went pretty late, till about 6 or 6:30 so we didn’t get back home until around 7. There was no power and since it was raining, it was already dark. We learned how to make tostones out of the plantains from the class and enjoyed them along with shells n cheese macaroni cooked with salami, a good American-Dominican mixed meal.

Thursday 4/30: Se fueron
We had to wake up early today to make sure we left enough time to get to the airport. You can’t depend on any Dominican transportation. Tolo was here to pick us up at 7:30 and we arrived in Santiago around 9. Mom waited by the luggage while Rach and I walked around a little in Santiago to get some pineapple one last time. When we returned to Mom she was occupied doing some word searches, trying to look busy so people would stop yelling at her, trying to get her to take their taxi. At the last minute Rach threw out the idea to take a carro publico to the airport which would cost 135 pesos total as opposed to a taxi which would cost 400 pesos.

The first car that stopped began putting our bags in the back and I told him we would pay 45 pesos each. He told me we had to pay more since the bags were taking up so much room. I got pretty annoyed and asked if he was planning on putting a passenger in the trunk where the luggage was, if not then we weren’t paying more. We began to argue and right then another car for the same route pulled up. I told the first guy I was going to ask the other driver if he would charge extra for room in the trunk. I think the new guy was a little taken off guard and maybe a little afraid, I asked him if he charges to put people in the trunk and if he was a thief. He looked started and shook his head no, I said “Good, then you won’t charge us to put our luggage in the back right? It is 45 pesos each then and that’s all right?” He agreed with me, which was good because the other driver was already angrily taking our luggage out of his car. Good riddance.

We arrived at the airport and had about an hour until Mom and Rach had to leave. It was sad seeing them go but at least I was able to see the plane fly away. I also found out that there is free internet there which I made the most of. I was planning to go to my friend Kelly’s site for the night and help her move into her house but she lived really close to the airport. I didn’t want to pay 45 pesos to get back to Santiago and then another 50 or so to get to her house later that day. Because of this I spent the entire day in a very uncomfortable chair, using the internet that cut off whenever there were people by a certain widow. I was there until 6:15 at night and by then I was not feeling good at all. I had been having my normal digestive issues so the night before I took the normal dose of 4 teeny leaf pills and drank some laxative out of the bottle. That morning I had the runs but chalked it up to maybe drinking too much laxative. By that night I was beginning to think that I should use a spoon to take the laxative and not measure it in mouthfuls.

I left the airport and was going to walk the 30 minute or so walk to the highway but then it began to rain. Not wanting to get my laptop wet I approached the carro drivers and asked how much they would charge to take me to the highway. The crook told me it would be 50 pesos! “50 pesos!!” I squawked, “You have got to be kidding me!” Too bad it costs 45 to go all the way to Santiago. They guy asked how much I thought I should pay and I said 5 or 10 pesos and nothing more. He told me he could take me all the way to where I was going and then I wouldn’t have to wait for a bus. I asked him if he would take me all the way there for the 15 pesos it was going to cost me with this and the bus ride put together and can you believe it, he called me cheap! I told him that I really didn’t care if he thought I was cheap since I didn’t know him and if it made any difference I thought he was part thief. I explained that I wasn’t a tourist with a ton of money that I was a VOLUNTEER here to help this country. He told me he understood and we talked a little more before I left.

While I was walking towards the highway a man in an SUV told me his friend would be happy to give me a ride for free. I wasn’t sure since it wasn’t the type of bola I liked to take (where I get in the back of a truck) but the driver spoke English and seemed trustable enough. It was raining and I guess I am cheap so I got in and they were nice enough to take me the whole way to the community of my friend Kelly.

Kelly, Rachele and I met up and by this point I was feeling really sick. I was cursing drinking the laxative out of the bottle but was beginning to wonder if it was something else, if I was coming down with something or if maybe I was just sore from sitting for 7 hours. We went to Kelly’s host family’s house and showered then went to her new castle. It is a huge, beautiful house. I would be shocked but then this is the PCV who lived in the host family’s house that has cable tv, and she had her own bathroom with a shower (complete with glass shower doors) a sink and the bathroom is even tiled! It is amazing and so is her new mansion.

4/19- 4/24 Landslide #2, more escojo, preparing the house for Mom and Rach's visit!!!!!!!!!

4/24 Friday: MOM AND RACH HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I woke up at 6 like I planned and I helped Wandi paint his lamp to look like a bumble bee. I made sure to give myself enough time since Tolo was giving me a bola again. I was ready by 7:15 and wouldn’t you know it, he showed up at 7:40- 20 minutes early but I was prepared this time. He said he’s going to pick Rach, Mom and I up in Navarrete on Sunday so we’ll see if he’s early then…

On the way to Navarrete today Tolo and Minga discovered that I still hadn’t met their son, Nolasco. He lives in Ohio but has been here since December. He has to go back to the states this week though until next December so they wanted to make sure I at least met him. This required a detour on the way to the bus stop in Navarrete to his house. So, we stopped by his house for a little bit, then stopped by the bank (so I could get out $5000 RD to pay the workers for my wall… which I don’t think is even all of it:( and then they dropped me off at the park.

When I arrived in Santiago I had two missions: get seeds from the Dept of Ag and get condoms from the Health Dept. I happened to see the Health Dept when I was on the guagua so I knew where to go. I first went to the hotel that Mom, Rach and I would be staying to secure a room for two nights but it was full. Thankfully there was one right across the street that had just one room with two beds left. It was on the 4th floor (no elevators of course) but better than nothing. Luckily the chick at the front desk told me we could leave the majority of the bags in a closet on the first floor. After I paid the $2000 RD for the two nights ($60) I headed off to the health dept for what I thought would be an easy mission.

When I arrived to the health dept I was sent on a goose chase. “Go to this door, go to that door… we can’t help you, go to that office…” Finally I arrived at the door of someone who seemed to have some authority. She asked for the name of the doctor in my clinic and I didn’t know it. She seemed like she was going to help me until that moment and then she said that I wouldn’t be able to get condoms from them, that I need a note from the doctor. I told her I was a PCV but she said that she can’t just give out condoms to anyone off the street, that people would come in, get free condoms and then sell them. Ok, so I need to go back to my campo where there are no condoms, ask the doctor for a note and then come back here? Or they could just cut out the middle mad and give ME the condoms… errr. I was pretty annoyed but the woman stood her ground. Feeling defeated I left.

I was outside, kicking myself for not putting my PC ID tag on while inside to look more official when I decided to try another tactic. I felt a little underhanded, like after one parent says no and then going to ask another, but it was for my community so I justified it. I remembered that there was another girl looking for condoms for a class she was giving and I didn’t see her discarded outside with me. I walked back up there, found the girl and asked if she got condoms. She told me not yet but that she was told to talk to another woman. I found the woman and explained my cause. She said it would be no problem and lead me back to the very first room I had been sent to. She told the woman at the desk to give me the condoms I needed and that it was no problem. Success! I left with my condoms and a little more poise. The fear of my limited Spanish being a handicap is finally going away.

Next stop was the seed shop. I went to the Dept of Ag and found them to be much easier to deal with than the Health Dept thanks to the fact that they are very familiar with PCVs. I introduced myself and didn’t even have to ask for seeds before they got me a chair and set off to get some weird seeds. I asked what the seeds were and they tried to explain what they were but they’re just too bizarre I guess. They didn’t even have pictures of them among the charts of fruits and veggies they had up. I’m not sure how I’m going to do garden projects with only 4 types of seeds (and uncommon ones at that) but it’s a start.

After my productive morning I piddled around. I went to the grocery store and then to use internet for free for a few hours until I headed back to the hotel to watch some tv. Finally 8 pm arrived and I got a taxi to the airport. It was soooooo great seeing Mom and Rach. I though that I would cry when I saw Mom but surprised myself. I am so glad that they are here with me. I wish that they could stay for longer but I will take what I can get gladly! It’s amazing what a difference a year makes; on this day last year I was miserable, getting my wisdom teeth out. And it was cold too! This year for my birthday I won’t be eating Friday’s soup (which I looooove) with a baby spoon but I’ll be partying it up at the discoteca, eating habichuela con dulce!! Yum yum!! Who would have ever thought!? Here I am in the DR!!!! :)


4/23 Thursday: Escojo part2, still preparing the house…

Yesterday I was writing the definitions of the body parts in my class again (since the boys were complaining that they couldn’t read the parts that one of the girls wrote for me) when Wandi came in and asked if I was going to help Ernie. I guess she took it upon herself to straighten out the hammock area. There was a pick ax and a machete. She used the machete and I went to help and used the axe making steps. The pick axe handle was broken at the end and before I noticed what I had done, I had a big, ripped open blister on the palm of my left hand. Fantastic. I was literally dripping sweat by this point so I decided it was as good of a time as any to stop. Later Ernesto saw my hand and when I told him what happened he told me I should have waited, that I knew he was going to have some muchachos do it. I told him they were all busy working on the wall and so I just did it. Not those muchachos, the little ones who are like 8… well I guess that makes a difference.
Today Ernesto had a migraine and so he stayed in bed all day. Poor guy, I would hate to have a migraine here in the DR- the noise is obnoxious when I don’t have a headache! Another bad thing about this is that he was going to put the shelves up today (since I’m a girl I can’t do it you know, and they’re not my tools) and disconnect the tubes from my water tank so I could clean it! So much for that, I just made some marks with chalk where I wanted the shelves and I guess we’ll see about the tank. I haven’t had running water all week though, something I’m not sure how Mom and Rach will respond to when they arrive.

The wall is really coming along. I have faith in this one, although I had faith in the last one as well. Even though they’re working really hard I don’t think that they will be able to get it finished by Sunday. If they do it would be great but on the other hand… that would mean that I have been waiting since Feb 7th for them to finish a wall that could have been completed in 5 ½ days. There are worse things in life I suppose.

In the morning I went to the clinic in my town to get some condoms for my next class. It’s the condom charla and it will be the most fun I think. I was disappointed to find that not only does a person have to go to the doctor and ask for a condom but there were only 22 condoms!! To make it worse, I took 20 of them and of the 20, half expired in 2004!! They were giving those out to people! Aye aye aye! The doctor told me he would stop by the Public Health office on Monday and pick up some more condoms but I’m not sure I want to put the fait of my class in his hands so I’ll stop by there tomorrow when I’m in Santiago. Although I’ll have to find it first.

Later in the day I had my Escojo class which was markedly different from the exact same class the week before. Don’t get me wrong, Wandi still fought a little, Ernie fought a lot and so did Vanji. I thought that if I gave them more responsibility they would act better, not the same. Then, Ernie, Karina and two guys who were there the week before just sat in the corner and talked. I get the feeling that Ernie is getting mad that she doesn’t have the same level of responsibility as when the class started. Aside from that, I didn’t think the class was as fun as this week either. It went well though. I need to rethink it a little is all. Better luck next time maybe.

Even later in the day I told Wandi I would help him with a school project. He made a light out of a gourd shell and I told him I would help him paint it. He tried very hard to just get me to do it but since it was homework I told him I was only there to HELP and lend some of the paint I just bought. Turns out the paint I bought was more like water and sucked really bad. I had a small container of orange so I told him I would help him paint something on it in the morning when the other “paint” dried. Ugh, that means I have to get up at 6 tomorrow!! But, YAY Mom and Rach get here tomorrow!!!!!!!


4/22 Wednesday: Escojo… think positive think positive think positive…

Today’s topic was Family Planning. I think I’m finally really getting used to this whole teaching thing. I’ve gone in stages from terrified to not so terrified but incredibly uncomfortable and kind of a doormat to mostly comfortable to teaching on my own and being stern (well you know, stern for me). Today when I had class only 11 kids were there which is much more manageable anyways. When they were talking amongst themselves I asked them to repeat what was just said. Or towards the end of class I would just announce in class that we had to wait to continue until whoever’s conversation was done. It worked really well. I was proud of myself that I even explained a somewhat complicated game. It took about 5 full minutes of explanation but after they understood they had a lot of fun. Yep, today’s class went really well.

There were 5 students in the class who weren’t in the last one. Since I plan on offering last weeks class again, I told them that I would be having class tomorrow, repeating the topic, since so many people missed it. BUT I said this would be the only time I was going to do this and it is the responsibility of the student to remember to go to class. If school gets out early they need to either wait for class or come back. Then there were a few students (the ones who weren’t at the last class even!) who were throwing a fit saying that the kids who missed today and last week shouldn’t be able to come back due to the attendance policy. I told them they didn’t have to worry themselves with that since it was a decision I would be making. And what do you know but that response worked! I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that. Maybe I’ll stick to it but I always forget to collect the attendance sheet from who was supposed to write it and so I doubt that they’re all still floating around. I told them that there was going to be an exam at the end and the people who don’t go to class will have a harder time with the exam. You have to pass the exam to graduate. Wandi was worried about this. He’s gone to each class but still is worried about failing. I don’t think that will be a problem because guess who is going to be grading the exams? :) Not that I would cheat for someone but I may pull them aside to clarify things. Escojo isn’t a hard topic and it’s not meant to make people feel bad and fail. I want as many people to pass as possible but of course if they completely fail the exam, it will be a problem.

Tomorrow I was supposed to go to the med mission but they ended up not needing me (bummer). It works out though since I’ll be teaching the body parts topic again. This time I have 4 peace keepers, one for each group and I’m not nervous at all. I know I can handle it. I’ve instructed the other students, the peacekeepers, of their jobs. The great thing about this game is that the participants are the ones who stand up in front of the class and read the definition of the parts and what they do. I don’t have to do any of it! Why didn’t I think of this game before so I didn’t have to freak out about the topic so much?!


4/21 Tuesday: Getting ready and doing repairs

Aside from the scramble to work on the wall (Ernesto has other people helping now so there are 8 in total) there are other things to fix up before the visitors arrive. Today I went to the hardware store to get some stuff to move my tinaco on my roof. I am very pleased about this. The problem was that the kids always play behind my house and they break the tubes leading from my tank to my house thus empting out the tank very quickly. This way the tubes won’t be on the ground for the little monsters to break and as an added bonus, the big, black tank will be in the sun where the water may actually heat up! I have to clean the empty tank out today and Ernesto said that we would move it later today.

Another thing we did was hang my newly purchased hammocks. When I went to John’s site, there was a guy who sold hammocks that he made out of rice sacks. Ernesto and Wandi think that 250 pesos a piece was a rip off but I don’t think so. They’re sturdy hammocks! I told Mercedes that I would need to clean up the area where they are and she said that she would have a kid go over there, clean it up, and level out the ground with a pick axe. Sweet, sounds good to me. I’ll wait until the afternoon and if they’re not doing it, I’ll just do it myself which is fine since I have so much practice using a pick axe at John’s site.

Yesterday evening Ernesto cut up the planks I have had in my house for the last few weeks. I bought them to make some shelves and I bought some paint from the hardware store today. I have been collecting seeds since the beginning of the month, end of last month to decorate the edges of the shelves and I think it will be fun to paint and decorate them with Mom and Rach. I want to hang them before Mom and Rach get here so we just have to worry about paint but I’ll see about that tomorrow maybe since we have to move the water tank and hammock-area cleaning today.

So, as you can see, having visitors is a BIG deal here. Ernie made sure I bought special cleaner for my floor and her and Mercedes insist on cleaning my entire house while I’m in Santiago picking up Mom and Rach. I have gotten really lucky here and still haven’t had to mop even once. Despite that my wall crumbled before my eyes, I won’t let that get me down. No one was hurt and the earth my (an under) my house still seems the same. I was a little afraid there for a minute that I was going to lose my house but nope! I am really grateful for that.


4/20 Monday: Encache? Adios…:(



This morning I thought that I would wake up nice and early and do my walking in the morning instead of after school gets out. While I was out I decided to take my sweet time and went really far again. After all, what did I have to get back for? Watching the guys work on the encache? Make them coffee? Buy them breakfast? No thank you, I will take a pass. So, after I had gone about 6 miles of running and walking I decided to take a break and I sat under the comforting shade of a mango tree and watched the clouds move. It was nice. When I got back, I went to Minga’s house in search of her delicious batata y coco flavored ice. It’s like sweet potato kind of and coconut. Delicious!

When I finally got back to my house it was about 11. I was on the porch talking with the guys for a while before finally going inside to shower. While I was picking out my clothes Ernie began yelling my name. I went outside to see what was going on and she pointed to her dad, Ernesto who told me that the wall had just had another little landslide. It looked the same to me but on closer inspection I realized that all the walls had cracks throughout. DANG IT! And they were almost done too. They were on the last wall of the 6. They got the tools out of the way and stood back. I asked if they could fix the cracks on it and Ernie said it didn’t look like it.

About 10 m minutes later, as we were all watching, the earth at the very top of the wall cracked and a big portion of it slid down, knocking the newly built, still wet, wall down. As that one fell, the next one fell and the next one and so on. It was a big bummer but I’m not going to lie, it was really cool looking. I felt bad for the guys working because the moral was really low after that. They said that all that work was just gone. So not true, I pointed out that we still had a LOT of rocks. I had jus been discussing other options for my wall with Mark the day before at his site. They do something here to prevent landslides on the roads where they take chain link fencing and essentially make a large pillar out of it, filling it with rocks. This was something that we had been discussing from the beginning so I thought I would mention it to Ernesto.

Ernesto was really upset about the wall. I feel a teeny bit bad because to get them working on it, I really laid on the guilt about my Mom visiting. I said that she would feel like they weren’t taking care of me if it wasn’t done and that she would be really disappointed. I said that she has a hard time walking since she has a bad back and the nice smooth entrance they were building would help her a lot. But at the same time I don’t feel bad. Ernesto told me that he was working in another town last Thursday and Friday but he came home to work on the wall when I was here. Why was he working in another place when the stupid wall wasn’t done still! So, if this lights a fire under his butt, great. Ernesto made an executive decision that my idea with the fencing and rocks wasn’t as good as building another encache out of the same thing, rocks and cement, but instead of having 6 pieces they would build one huge one. I am no engineer but wouldn’t that be worse because it would put more pressure on one singular wall? I have no idea. He said that the other one fell because as separate pieces they are weaker and it was the space between them that was their demise. I guess we will see won’t we?


4/19 Sunday: Getting back from Mark’s site

Yesterday I spent the night at Mark’s house. It was really nice, I love going to other PCV’s houses to see how they look. Mark has been building his house- that’s right, he built one- for a few months now, since January I think. This weekend he finished it and so this was his moving in party. Iain and I got a free ride from Sosúa to Altamira (from the Builders Beyond Border’s group or B3) where we took motors to the entrance of Mark’s site. Then it was a 10- 15 minute hike uphill on a dirt “road” with the type of mud that you helplessly sink in to as it eats your shoes, never to be seen again. And of course, it was raining when we were making the climb. At least it was a light rain.

His house is cute. I think that it looks like a tree house or something for a boy scout, which I don’t intend in a rude or unpleasant way but still it probably sounds bad so I refrained from verbalizing the comparison. The house is small but very efficient. It’s impressive that he was able to build it and the furniture. He built everything from the house to the mattresses in the bunk bed. (he made the mattresses by using foam and making a cover for them)

Iain and I got to Mark’s site Saturday around 2. We didn’t do anything at all the whole time. Well, that’s not true, at night there was power so we watched the movie Babel which we all found a little confusing. His site is very tranquil. My house, my site is NUTS compared to his. It got me thinking that it would be nice to have a mix between what I have and what he has. Mine is overwhelming but I have been afraid to send people away for fear that they will stay away and I’ll be completely solo in my house all the time. After Marks (even though it was just for a day) I feel like I could deal with that as well. No wonder others PCVs are shocked when they visit me, they’re used to more alone time. Although I have to say, even though it can be annoying, it’s nice to have so many people want to spend time with me all the time. It’s a good compliment.

I didn’t want to get back to my site too early because I wanted to avoid the discoteca so I went to the internet center for a while. I found out that a good friend’s boyfriend proposed to her Saturday night and I wanted to see if I could get a hold of her. My phone didn’t have service at Mark’s site except when it was in a very strategically placed cup which was nailed to the side of his house. But then there was the rain which made the little service available in the cup very hit or miss. I was upset the next day to see that she had called me to tell me about it and I didn’t’ have service! I was online for a while on Sunday seeing if I could catch her online to talk but no such luck.

I was also very disappointed to find that, for the first time in my life, when I checked to see what the top 10 songs were I didn’t know them!!!!! No, I didn’t say that I didn’t know 1 or 2 or the number 1 or even some of them, I said I didn’t know ANY of them! How did that happen? I knew them all in November. Then I tried to listen to the sample of them that iTunes provides but the internet connection I was paying for was so crappy that it couldn’t process them so I still don’t know!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!!!

I maybe would have been dwelling on this but I was quickly distracted to find that one of my very best friends who I haven’t talked at all since I left, was online and I was able to chat with her!!!!! It was great and the best part? She bought a ticket to come out and visit in July!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s going to be so fun!! Now I’m torn between the excitement of Mom and Rach visiting me for my birthday (they’re getting in on Friday) for the medical mission I was asked to help out with Thursday and Friday (as a translator… again, I’m a TRANSLATOR!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEE!) and for Lisa coming in July!!! Ah, life is good when your biggest problem is that you can’t pick what to focus on for being excited. I’m just excited in general:)

4/11- 4/18

4/16- 4/18 Thursday- Saturday: YAAAYYY!!
Today I woke up nice and early with Ali to each head our separate directions. I was to go back to Los Mangos, John’s site and she was heading back to Los Arrozes- her community. When Ali came the day before she happened to get on Noel’s motorcycle and he proceeded to tell her about how he was mad at me still. She told him that no one was perfect, not knowing the story, and that he should really get over it since it wasn’t a big deal. Then he told her that he was already over it and that she should mention that to me. Ali was solving all kinds of problems for me! I have yet to talk to Noel but I feel like it will be a lot less awkward now thanks to Ali.

So, anyways, she went down the mountain with him and I went up and over the other side with Camilo, Ann and Tim’s friend. Camilo is cool because he takes me the whole way to John’s so I don’t have to change motors. It took me about 45 minutes to get to John’s and then another 25 to walk to the aqueduct. I was there with the kids from about 9:30 until 11 working and then we all went up to the aqueduct (a large cement box constructed around a natural spring at the top of the hill) that the kids had done a great job painting and we took some pictures. After that we ate lunch and then headed out to Sosúa where they had reservations at a resort called Sosúa by the Sea. The PCVs who helped were invited and I was really excited I was able to go.

The first day we arrived we didn’t do much. John, Iain and I went to Sosúa to a bar that had free internet while the kids went to the 27 Waterfalls just outside of Altamira. We all met up at the hotel around 7 and stuffed ourselves with the delicious dinner. The hotel is beautiful. Our room has a huge bed in one room, another room with a tv and a bed with one of those pull-out beds-in-a-drawer underneath. I took that room and Iain and John shared the massive bed. We were so tired when we got there that we went to bed pretty early, especially John who fell asleep in his clothes on the bed at 8.

The next day was sooooooo cool. Despite the fact that we brought the PCV plague with us (somehow the water “broke” there was no water in anybody’s room in the morning and in our room there was a problem with the air conditioning so not only did our bathroom flood but the light broke the night before so we had no power in the bathroom) we can’t think any less of the hotel. The service was great and the view was breathtaking. We ate a delicious breakfast by an ocean view and went out on a boat all day. The boat had some really interesting workers who entertained the kids by dancing, singing, doing awkward impressions of other cultures and cross dressing. Dominican humor. We stopped twice to snorkel and the guys on the boat tossed some bread and hard boiled eggs out to the fish. It was awesome because the fish would eat it out of your hands and there were tons of beautiful fish. On the way back we saw some dolphins playing by the boat. It was the coolest boat trip I have ever gone on.

When we got back to the hotel somehow the kids found the energy to hang out at the pool the rest of the day. I went for a walk and bargained a sarong for 300 pesos cheaper than the guy originally told me which made me pretty happy. I walked to the grocery store, which was the most Americanized grocery store I have seen so far, being fully stocked with Doritos, pop in cans and American candy. I found some cheap ground spices and then headed back to the hotel. After a hot shower in a new room (our old room was still flooded) I watched some tv and then went to dinner. I tried to focus and write my blog but I was too tired and too distracted. I went back to the room and read an issue of Cosmo from December while watching music videos in Spanish. Some people may think that is boring but to me it was a relaxing end to a sweet day.

The next morning I loaded up big time on breakfast since I would be skipping lunch. We were all going to meet in the lobby at 11:45 to leave for good. The kids all had to pack up to get ready to go to Santiago where they’ll be spending a day shopping, dropping Iain and I off in Altamira on the way so we can help Mark move into his house finally (poor guy has been living with his host family still since he has been building a house this whole time. His new house is finally done though, yay!) The kids leave tonight to go back home and then Monday they’ll be back to school.

That seems surreal to me, to go back to school in two days after a week like this. I really have to commend this group of kids. I guess the group (Builders Beyond Borders or B3) used to plan two weekends of fun in their trips but the kids would always write on the suggestion sheets at the end of the trip that they would have rather worked longer and played less since they were there to work. Because of that they worked Saturday- Thursday and only had two days very much deserved days of relaxation. They were able to dig enough 2 ½ ft trench line that they put in a little over 100 tubes, with each tube being 19 feet. They dug the trenches, cleaned and glued tubes together, laid the tubes in the trenches and then buried the tubes. Before they left on the last day they were able to put in a tap to a woman’s house and turn the water on. The tap wasn’t completely finished since it still needed to be enclosed in a cement casing but it is usable and now, for the first time in the woman’s life, she has water at her house.

It really is amazing what people can accomplish when they put themselves aside and think of others. These kids are a great example of that and I really hope that they continue to do things like this with their lives. I hope that this made a big impact on each of them they way they will have impacted the lives of the people they have helped.

4/15 Wednesday: Escojo…. Just breathe.
Today was to be the big day: the day that Ali (another PCV who has really great Spanish) was going to come to my site and help me prepare and teach a charla on the reproductive system: something I did not want to talk about at all. She arrived at 12:30, we ate lunch, caught up on things and began to prepare the presentation around 2:30. Normally I have the presentations done a day or two at least a head of time but we were supposed to work on it together so I waited. Vangie had gone to the school the day before to remind the director we were going to have class today at 5. So, imagine my surprise when at 3 Ernie called me from school to tell me that I needed to be at the school by 4. She said I had to have the class early since school was getting out early. That wasn’t going to happen so I asked her to remind the kids that we were going to have class and that I would be there as soon as I could. We had only been working on the thing for 30 minutes, it was nowhere near done! Then, adding to the surprise, at 3:30 Wandi, who should have still been in school still, showed up at my house telling me all the kids had gone for the day so I couldn’t have class. That means that they got out at 3:15! I asked Wandi to tell the kids that I was going to have class at 5 and to have them come back and he said no.

I was getting more and more frustrated since Ali could only help today. She has to leave early tomorrow and so do I since I told John I would be back to help out more on Thursday. Ali and I continued to work on it but were constantly stopped by distraction. Vangie showed up and I asked her if the director had mentioned to her the day before that school was getting out early. She said he did but she forgot to tell me. I guess I should have just gone myself to ask so that was my fault. Then Ernie comes home and starts telling me that I should have been ready because she called me to tell me. Yeah, she called me 15 minutes before hand! Not that it mattered really, I appreciate the effort on her part but the whole blame game is really old. Then Wandi, who for some reason was being AWEFUL starts calling me a procrastinator and says I should have had it done, that the whole thing is my fault. Breathe. I was about to SNAP. Here I was, sitting on the floor in my kitchen/dinning room, drawing a huge penis diagram with 5 people in my house staring at it. I couldn’t even draw the other one in front of them, I had to move to my room. I get too embarrassed about that stuff. And all the while I was in my room I could hear Wandi complaining about how I am a slacker while Ali defended me.

We finished everything and arrived at the school a little after 5. When we were preparing the charla I happened to think of a game where the kids have to match the function with the body part and then have to put up all the names of the body parts on the diagram. It went fairly well but I thought there was going to be a throw down. There were only 9 kids in the class and I thought that they may have killed each other. We made it a competition between the girls, who were in charge of the man-parts and the guys who were in charge of the woman-parts. It seemed like it was going to be fun but they were fighting the whole time about how the other team was cheating. The girls were able to match up what the guy parts and functions were fairly well but the guys had no clue. They didn’t even know where the vagina was. I found out this is because it is largely thought here that the girls are to please the men and should know about their functions but the men aren’t expected to reciprocate. I don’t know how many in my class have had sex but I’m guessing not many of the guys have since they would at least have to know where the vagina was. So, I guess this could either be a good thing or a very disturbing one, explaining why I have a very low pregnancy rate in my community.

During the class Wandi was unbearable. He was angry that I let the girls go first to explain what parts they had and started yelling about how I think men are trash. I know calling him out on this in front of everyone will get me nowhere so I ignored him. He was doing stuff like this the whole time, fueling the negativity of the class. Ernie and Wandi are leaders for sure; people naturally do what they do. Ernie was being very rambunctious on the girl’s side as well. After class Wandi walked up to me with a smile like nothing happened. I wasn’t sure how to respond so I told him I would talk to him after class. I talked to Ali and told her I was planning on choking Wandi later during our talk and thankfully she had another suggestion. She majored in Social Work and her patience shows. She is a really amazing person.

Per her suggestion, I sat Wandi down afterwards and told him that I have higher expectations for him. I said that I felt he is a natural leader and capable of a lot. I told him that I knew other people were behaving poorly in class but that since I have higher expectations for him I was let down by him. I told him I thought that he had the special ability to really influence people around him, an ability that seems to come very naturally to him, something hard to find in people, and that this is why I expect more. I said I wanted to give him more responsibility because of this, and this is why I expect more. I asked if he wanted the responsibility and he said he did. He said he didn’t know when he was acting poorly and so I told him when he told me that I treat men like trash. He didn’t like that the girls got to go first, which I understood but I pointed out that he is always the one telling me, “Ladies first.” Then he said he was really just upset that he didn’t get picked to go to the conference and that I always have Ernie help me with the class. I told him that I would love it if he would like to be a promoter for the new class in the Fall but there are requirements. He would really need to think about things before acting out of emotion, that he needs to be an example. I said that I didn’t bring him to the conference because he hadn’t been setting a very good example during the first few classes we had before the conference. I pointed out that my job is to find leaders who want to be promoters so of course I’m happy that he is interested. The reason I always have Ernie help prepare the course is because he was able to help me with the interviews I had to do during the first three months and I wanted to be able to share my experience with as many people as possible. (Really it’s because she’s the best at coloring of the group) So, I said, this means that if you really want to be a promoter, you need to be a good example to the rest of the course. There are a few other people I have been considering asking at the end of the course if they would like to be promoters and participate in a workshop I’ll have on how to teach and prepare charlas. To my credit, I listed another boy from the class.

All this seemed to really satisfy Wandi and so I am really glad I did it. I have never been one to cater to another’s feelings when they are acting out or acting what I think is overly sensitive. Normally I ignore people, get mad at them or just tell them to suck it up. This is not easy for me but I know that it is the most productive road. I am learning how to look at things differently, trying to be more creative in my solutions and learning how to solve problems doing things another’s way. It’s frustrating and I have to swallow my pride and remind myself to think this way. I think that this will be a very valuable thing for me to take home to the States and well worth the trouble.

4/13 Monday: A Community Meeting
Monday when I left John’s site I was in a big hurry. There was a community meeting scheduled for the afternoon where there were two things on the agenda: the crappy road and the lack of trash pickup service. The meeting seemed like a really big deal since a few people went around on Friday handing out papers announcing the meeting, organization I had never seen from a community in the DR. I was pretty pumped about it, really looking forward to the trash discussion and plan of action so I didn’t want to miss it. The meeting was supposed to be at 4 pm so when I left John’s at 12:30 I thought I was leaving more than enough time because I only live about an hour from him. The problem was that I didn’t leave enough time for the Dominican black hole. I can compare this to when I go to my Dad’s house in the States. It just eats the time somehow and before you know it three hours have passed, and not because you’re having that much fun.

Anyways, I stopped in Altamira to use the internet for a bit and ended up scrambling to get to my site in time. Of course I had to end up on a super crappy motor up the mountain that probably couldn’t go more than 40 miles per hour. Lucky for me, I had just learned how to say that I was in a hurry (thanks to reading the 501 verb book for leisure) and so I relayed this to my driver who dutifully increased velocity to the impressive top speed. I was really dirty from digging at John’s still but I arrived to my house at 4:10 and didn’t have time to shower. I changed my pants at least which were thick with dirt thanks to my rubber boots. When I hurried to the meeting 15 minutes late, I was the 4th one there. I was happy that I didn’t miss anything but thought that it was weird that there were just three women there. Mercedes was one of them and she assured me that the community meeting was still going to happen. While that ended up being true, I wish I had known what everyone else in La Lamota knew: the meeting was going to take place AFTER the Woman’s Meeting. So, I ended up sitting through the Woman’s Meeting but I decided that was ok since I should be going to them anyways.

When the Community Meeting did happen I was very happy to see that there was a fairly large turnout of about 50 people. What was a bummer though was that they were so busy talking about the road and planning strikes for it that the trash issue didn’t even come up. I understand that the state of the road is important but don’t they see how important a trash pick up service is?! People could get sick. It’s horrible for the environment. It attracts rodents. It pollutes water sources. It’s plain old ugly. Sure we can put our trash in the ditches and the rivers and let it be an issue for the people who live at the bottom of the hill but that’s no solution. Not to mention a lot of the community has family at the bottom of the hill. No no no, this is not ok. I obviously need to rethink how to approach this. I don’t think people know how big of an issue it really is so I guess I’ll have to try to get the word out there. I will have to be more proactive in getting people to make the change and move this up on their list of priorities. Hopefully we can have another community meeting talking about the trash issue instead of complaining about how the community closer to Navarrete didn’t help out with the last strike.

4/11- 4/13 Saturday- Monday: A weekend in the shoes of a Water PCV
There is something to be said about being in PC and actually having a tangible project. Educating is a semi tangible project since the students will hopefully graduate and don’t do something demonstrating that they aren’t practicing what they learned- like become pregnant when only being 15 years old. Water PCVs are envied in a way since they are for one treated like Gods for “bringing water to a community” and two, they are the only ones on this little island of PCVs who have a tangible job. They get their assignment, they design a system, get funding, and then put in a system. Easy right? No. I just spent the last 2 ½ days at the site of a water PCV while he was lucky enough to score a group of high schoolers willing to donate their spring break digging trenches to help complete the “put in a system” part of the process. I was supposed to just be a translator but really, what kind of a slacker feels ok just standing there for two days while everyone else is working? So, I was using the pick axe and I was shoveling and getting blisters alongside the 50 kids from Connecticut. The difference was that I was just there for 2 ½ days, they were there for a week and John, the PCV who lives there, does this four days a week! There is something to be said about being able to be a Health PCV. Sure I get blisters but they’re from holding the colored pencils too tight not from digging for 9 hours a day.

The weekend was hard but it was really encouraging too. The kids, as I found out on the first day, had to each raise $2000 to pay for their trip and to largely fund John’s water project. In the short time that I was there nearly all of the kids were working hard and not complaining at all. And these were long days to be digging the whole time. Let me tell you, digging a 2 ½ foot trench in cocoa and coffee fields, or in direct Caribbean sun, or on a steep slope- is NOT easy. It’s especially hard the more days it drags on. We would wake up around 6:30 or 7 after sleeping on a cot which I think was the most uncomfortable sleeping arrangement I have had in country, and then we would go to breakfast. At 7:30 it was off to get the tools (all the picks and shovels) and then we would head up to the worksite where we dug trenches until 12. We ate beans, rice and some variation of meat for lunch that boys brought up for the day so we didn’t have to leave, wasting time, and were able to eat right at the worksite. Then we would return to digging from 12:30 until around 4:30.

The first day when I was pick axing I backed into some barbed wire and cut my hand. The second day I tried to tape it shut and clean it but my whole hand swelled up. Monday, after it was still very swollen, I decided that I would be better Monday if I took it easy and didn’t work too hard. Let me tell you that it was difficult not working that last day but I found a way to do it and successfully only picked up a pick once that day (and that was to pose for a picture).

When I left I went to this dude’s house looking for a hammock. There is a guy who sells them in John’s community for a bargain of 250 pesos. They’re made from rice sacks and a must have for the season you know. I went to his house but he wasn’t there. While I was walking out of John’s site I was lucky enough to pick up a companion along the way, a man who told me it was his responsibility to protect any visitors in the community and he was fulfilling his duty by walking me to the entrance and helping me look for a motor. He also walked with me to the Hammock Man’s house and when the man wasn’t there he told me that he would talk to the man later and get me two hammocks. This will hopefully work out well since I will be back in John’s site on Thursday to help some more. I would like to get the hammocks before my mom and sister get here on the 24th but who knows?

Anyways, the point of this blog is to point out that everything really does happen for a reason. I talked to some other Water PCVs who were there and they were telling me how they would so much rather be doing that work that trying to teach classes to a bunch of kids. Not that I’m a huge fan of teaching classes but I am much less of a fan of digging every day so I guess I’m pretty lucky in that sense. There’s always something to be grateful for isn’t there?

3/27- 4/9

I don't have much time right now (as normal I know) but I read the two comments I had from Lisa and Deb and I wanted to say... YYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY Mary Alice!!!!! That's so exciting!! Could you email me some pics? I'm so happy for her!!!! I wish I could have seen her prego but thats ok, she'll just have to have another one when I'm there! lol. Thanks for the comments, its so nice to know that the blog is being read. As far as packages go, it takes anywhere from 10 days to 4 months to get a package but I think the average is about 6 weeks, so that's not too bad right? Anyways, I hope you all are doing very well and I'll be sure to keep writing!

love
b


4/9 Thursday: Semana Santa
Monday marked the start of Semana Santa or Saint Week. Most people go to the beach or a river during this week to celebrate. Last Sunday was called Domingo de Ramos (literally translates as Sunday of Branches) and this Sunday is the Domingo de la Resurreción, which I think you can figure out the meaning of. While there aren’t many people who left for other towns in my town (or came for that matter) a lot of people in other places go to a relative’s house for a mini vacay. My community doesn’t seem very religious at all but even the people who I have never seen go to church are either planning on going on Sunday or went last Sunday. I apparently am going to violate a rule that pretty much everyone follows which is not working from 12 noon on Thursday until Monday. Unfortunately I already told a water PCV that I would go to his site on Saturday to help out with a group of high schoolers who volunteered to help build his aqueduct. The only thing that makes me sad about the whole situation is that I’ll be missing out on an awful lot of habichuela con dulce which is delicious.
I know, saying that I love a dessert made out of beans is weird coming from me, the girl who detested beans when arriving into country. What is this delicious treat you ask? It is a ingenious mix of beans, coconut, crackers and a pumpkin type of veggie thing along with I’m sure a LOT of sugar and cinnamon and whatever else the person cooking wanted to toss into it. It’s delicious. It’s so good that Minga was going to make me a cake for my birthday (as a gift) and I traded it for the bean dish. Nuts I know.

4/7 Tuesday: Drama, Machetes and Bites- OH MY! (say it 3 or 4 times fast…)
Today I became a Dominican I think. I spent two hours with Wandi cutting my yard with a machete. Lots of people do this here but I don’t recommend it. I recommend letting the yard grow out and having bugs and snakes instead. I now have 6 blisters on my right hand, two of which have explotaron and me duelo mucho (aka they popped and they suck). Tomorrow, si Dios quiere we’re going to dig up the dirt in a nice large square for the garden. What fun.

In other news, I know that I should be a good representation of the great USA but a person needs boundaries right? Well, thanks to those boundaries Noel is pissed at me. I’m not sure what all I have written about this and am too lazy to re-read everything again but long story short he was mad at me last week for not switching to his motorcycle when I was already in town with another kid. Then he took me to Navarrete in the morning on Friday when Ernie, Karina and I had to leave. Ernie and Karnia got on the other motorcycle and I got on his. I paid 70 pesos for me and 140 total for the girls. On Sunday when the three of us were leaving Jarabacoa the girls asked me if we could go shopping in Santiago to which I said sure. I sent Noel a text telling him that we would be in Navarrete around 5 more or less and that he should send me a text if that was ok. He had called me earlier twice but my phone was still on silent from the conference and so I didn’t hear the call. I didn’t have any minutes on my phone to call him so I could just text. When the girls and I arrived in Santiago, the stores were closed so we left earlier than I thought. I sent Noel a message saying that we were on our way from Santiago and we called from Karina’s phone but he didn’t answer. When we arrived at the entrance in Navarrete he wasn’t there and I still hadn’t received a text from him. I wasn’t sure if he was still mad at me from before or if his phone had service and he had received the messages so we just got on a motor each and went up. On the way we passed him and he began yelling “It’s not 5 o’clock!”.

Well, I knew he would be mad at me even though any sensible person could see that’s just not right. I found out he was working at the entrance all day so it’s not like he made a special trip for me or anything either. I figured that it was crappy of him to be mad at me either time, last week or now. If he thinks that I’m just peachy with him being unjustly angry with me, making me feel like I should apologize whenever I go with someone else then forget that. I also think that it’s sucky that he has always charged me more when I make sure to always give him business.

When I saw him today we got into an argument. I didn’t intend to get in an argument; I just wanted to stand up for myself without apology. On Friday when he took me down the mountain I apologized for any misunderstanding and he was still pissy with me. This time I thought I would try a different route. I said hello to him and he asked what happened on Sunday. I said, “Yeah, what did happen on Sunday? Why didn’t you answer your phone or text me back?” He said he didn’t have any minutes on his phone. I said he called me twice on Sunday though. He said that I shouldn’t have told him 5 and then showed up at 3:30. Then he said that it was him that looked for me at 6 am on the day that I left (which, by the way it was 7:30) and that he should have been the one to have two passengers not the other guy so he was mad about that. That took me off guard. I told him that I can’t control other people and it’s his job not mine to get people on his bike. If he wanted two passengers he should have said something. Obviously I wasn’t going to pay him for taking two people when he took one person and pay the other dude for one person when he took two. Duh. (although I’m not sure how that translates) To that he told me that he wasn’t going to look for me anymore and I would have to find someone else. Like that’s going to be hard; there are like 10 dudes working at a time at the entrance. I almost said great because it would save me money to go with someone else but instead I just said that was fine with me.

And so, I wasn’t exactly being a representative but I’m glad I’m not being a doormat. I think maybe I could have handled it better but maybe being stern about it will help me. If he only wants to be friends with me to get my money or my cakes when I bake them then good riddance. Although this is a little concerning since now I can’t go with Franklin, Noel or Neno (I can with the other two but I feel weird). Plus I have this little paranoia that once one person doesn’t like me here a bunch of people won’t. Although, who knows? Maybe he’ll get over it.

Another fun story would be Wandi’s little brother, Argeni. I continue to get texts from him and looking back at some of the first texts, they’re a little disturbing. Of course when I read (that’s past tense) the first ones I thought they were a joke from someone so I didn’t think anything of it but now…. Ick! Let me give you an example of these texts:

“Betsi, I would like to tell you that I am very happy (happy written in English even) to, see you, to know you, and to be able to look at those eyes and those lips which are so lovely. I would like to be your friend. Many kisses for you forever, ~Argeni”

Or then there’s this one:

“Although you don’t think Betsi that I love you with all of my heart, I love you like no one else. Although not right now, I would like to give you a kiss. Please think in how I love you. ~ Argeni”

Pretty deep for a 14 year old right? Well, he did just turn 15 on Saturday maybe its not that impressive. I’m not sure how many I have received from him but I’m guessing like 20 or so. I can tell you one thing; I think that Wandi thinks that we are in some type of weird-dating relationship. Last night he even tried to brush my hair! What a weirdo!!! What the heck am I supposed to do with that? Ugh. He’s been staying home from work the last two days (which he has also had off of school) due to a “stomach ache” and today Argeni stayed home due to a “sore arm”. Wonder where they were most of the day? On my porch with me making bracelets.

Ah, bracelets. That’s another short story. Yesterday Ernie wanted to walk to Ann and Tim’s house to learn how to make bracelets since Ann knows how to make really cool ones. I have never made a bracelet in my life. I missed that phase in my teenage years. Was it because I never went to camp? Was it because I was homeschooled in 7th and 8th grade? Who knows? I didn’t know how to make them and Ernie wanted to learn so we can sell them for our Escojo class. So, we walked an hour and a half to Ann and Tim’s house and learned two ways to make bracelets. When we get good at these we’ll walk back again and learn a more complicated way. I’m not sure what we’ll be fundraising for but I guess it’s better to be prepared right?

Well, the power has gone once again so I guess that’s all for this letter today. This may have been a slightly negative letter so I would like to throw something good in there. When I got back from Jarabacoa I noticed that the water in my bathroom doesn’t smell like beach so maybe someone filled it while I was gone! I just hope that they put the lid back on tight so nothing gets in there and dies again. Maybe I should check that…

One more thing back to the negative, I am covered in mosquito bites and these other nasty bites where the bug bites you, leaves a tiny blood spot, and then the exaggeratedly large red spots itch incredibly the next day. All from playing in the “grass” today. So, if it’s cold there and you all are miserable just think: at least you’re not wondering if something has died in your bathing/brushing teeth source, not covered in 50 weird bites that itch a LOT, aren’t getting creepy love letters from the 15 year old next door neighbor, DO have power all the time, don’t have a 17 year old boy trying to brush your hair, don’t have several blisters on one hand from cutting the grass in your yard with a machete and don’t have the great privilege of looking forward to more blister-forming work tomorrow shoveling up the yard which is actually a steep hill. At least I have a toilet (yes I know you do too but at least I have a toilet). Ah, life in the Peace Corps; it’s a beautiful thing.

4/3- 4/5 Friday- Sunday: Escojo Conference Weekend.
This weekend was the weekend of the Escojo Conference in the Ciabo, the region where I live. Let me take a minute to explain what Escojo is exactly first since I don’t think I’ve explained it well enough. It is a “movement” started by a PCV just 5 years ago. It’s a class/course for youth between the ages of 12- 25 that lasts anywhere from 12- 14 weeks generally. A PVC begins the course teaching from a manual created by the PCV who began the course 5 years ago. The manual is modified each year and updated by a committee of PCVs. There are a lot of chapters in the book which are focused on HIV/AIDS/STDs and pregnancy prevention but also have chapters on drugs, alcohol, making healthy decisions, discrimination, gender equality, body parts, abstinence, how to use a condom correctly… ect. There are about 24 chapters in the book and the course should cover at least 12 of the topics. I have the class once a week and it generally lasts for about an hour and a half but I would like to extend that to two hours. The idea is that the PCV has the first course and then graduates whoever met the requirements of the course. After that, if there were outstanding students, the PCV picks a few to help teach the next course. Then the course after that they teach with less help from the PCV. After a little while the student leaders or promoters should be able to teach completely alone. Then they will begin they cycle of picking leaders and teaching them how to teach thus making the project sustainable since the youth themselves will probably leave when they get older. In theory it sounds great but it is a lot of responsibility and a lot of times the course ends up falling through after the PCV leaves. In a perfect world it would work and sometimes it does. PCVs do what they can while they’re here and try to be positive about it.

This weekend I took Karina and Ernie with me to Jarabacoa, the town where we had our training. We were in a center and the kids weren’t allowed to leave so they didn’t get to see the town but there wasn’t time anyways. We began the days with breakfast at 7:30 and had activities until 10 pm at night. We arrived on Friday around 11 am and left Sunday at 1 pm. I am really excited about the whole experience because I feel like my girls were really empowered by it. They’re really enthusiastic and motivated now. One thing that I really love about this course is that the majority of the students really want to learn, there’s just a lack of information which the course helps to pacify. Most of them are sponges for the knowledge. Ernie often sits in my house for hours and pours herself over a book I have which is called Where There is no Doctor (about how to treat things in an extremely simple way for people who live in areas without care).

As you all know, it’s not perfect in my course. There are just a few who are in my course because somehow it became cool to be in my course and they want to be cool I guess. They’re annoying but I’m trying to deal with it. I think that when I switch the place to the Mother’s Club on Saturdays and people have to make an effort to get there it will weed out the slackers, or so I hope.

There is such a lack of education here about sex it’s shocking. A lot of people think that if a girl urinates after sex she won’t get pregnant. They don’t know that the vagina is a separate entity from the urethra so they believe urinating will flush out semen. I asked Ernie and Wandi last week if they thought a woman could get pregnant if she urinated and one said no the other wasn’t sure before saying yes. Wandi and Ernie also told me last week that a teacher was teaching that if a woman uses a towel after a man used it and didn’t clean it first, she’ll get pregnant. I didn’t say anything about it since I didn’t want to devalue the teacher but I will mention things in my class about it and let the kids form their opinions about it after they have proper information.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was Saturday night when we had a talent show. Two acts that stood out to me among the joke telling, dancing, and singing were when a PCV and her youth sang a song. First the youth went, singing the song in Spanish. Then the PCV sang the same song in English. Then they sang it together, each in their native language. It was such a great example of what we are doing here. We’re mixing with the culture, bringing our own, not changing ours or theirs much but adapting together and learning together. When the two cultures are together, accepting differences and mixing well it can be a great and beautiful thing.

The other thing that I really liked was when a group of about 6 people, 5 youth and 1 PCV did an African dance. The DR is a mix of culture from Spain (the conquistadores) and Africa (the slaves) and as I have mentioned before, the culture here generally wants to “purify” themselves back to the Spaniards and have lighter skin. Seeing that the group knew the dance already (the talent show wasn’t announced until Friday when we arrived) and that they embraced it was really great. It showed me that Escojo really is having an impact on youth and their views and ideas. The dance was so well received that the crowed began to chant that they wanted an encore. The performers got ready to do the tiring dance again and about half of the crowd ran up to the front where we had the “stage” to learn how to do it and participate. It was really great.

During the weekend we played a LOT of games, or dinamicas. I told Ernie and Karina right away that they were going to be in charge of leading a game or two in each of our courses so they should write them all down this weekend. They loved the responsibility of it and I loved that I wouldn’t have to try to learn all these songs in Spanish in two days! Not to mention that now I don’t have to try to be all enthusiastic, looking like a freaking weirdo leading these games. What a relief.

One other great thing about this conference is that I was able to meet the regional coordinators. Every one in a while there is a youth that is outstanding and so is nominated to be a regional coordinator. These youth are invited to give presentations at conferences and when PCVs need help they can call these youth and invite them to go to their communities to give presentations, lead games or just give advice. I think that it was inspirational for my girls to see youth, the same as them, given this responsibility and gave my girls something to shot for. One coordinator that seemed especially good to me is a guy named Wilkin. Lucky for me, although he moved to Santo Domingo recently, he used to live in Altamira- which is about 30 minutes from me. So I asked him if when he is visiting his family if he could let me know and come by to help out. He said he would be more than happy to and that I should call him for anything I need. Sweet.

Last December I wrote a grant for a coordinator who lives close to me. A small problem with sustainability is that when the PCV goes, so does the money and these groups need money. Fundraising can only go so far and it’s hard to motivate people to do as well. So, I was assigned a girl who has a PCV still but her PCV is done with her service later this month. The girl’s name is Maribelis and she’s just 13. She is in charge of her group completely and seems pretty cool. We set up a date that I’m going to take either Karina or Ernie and go to her town to give a presentation in her course. We also tried to set a tentative date when she or one of the two other girls who were with her could come to my community to give one. Maribelis leaves each summer for Santo Domingo to stay with family so we’ll have to work around that. Although I still don’t know if I’ll be having my group meet during the summer since I’ve heard from other PCVs it’s very hard to continue in the summers with so many kids gone. Ernie told me not many people leave La Lomota for the summers though so we’ll see. When Maribelis needs money we’re supposed to meet up and she has to submit a report along with a budget (or receipts if it’s a reimbursement) to me, which I review before giving the money. I hope that this will work out well but we’ll see. Now that I know her, I’m not nervous about talking to her on the phone like I was before. Talking on the phone is Spanish is tough.

So, anyways, that was the weekend. I was sick the whole time with digestive issues and almost had to go to the capital but aside from that it was good. I’m really looking forward to the next conference, Celebrando el Ciabo in August.


4/1 Wednesday: Happy April!!! So much to be happy about!
Happy April Fools Day!! I have been thinking a lot lately and I decided I have a lot going for me here right now. First of all, I have my 4th Escojo class today and I am feeling so much more comfortable with these classes. I also talked to another PCV who lives by me and she’s coming to visit me on the 15th to help me with the body parts class. I talked to Idonnah (the PCVL) about getting an Environmental Manual to help me teach an Environmental class. I think its soooo important and I really love issues with the environment so I’m excited for it. Idonnah suggested I do it in my Escojo class but that class already has a very full schedule. I figure that I’ll have it open to whoever wants to do it (at least 12 years old) and if the people in my Escojo class don’t want to go to two meetings a week (one for Escojo and one for this) they don’t have to.

Then I was thinking about starting an English class soon. There’s been a lot of power today so I was able to look through a CD I have that has a lot of tips for teaching an English class. There is a lot of interest in my community for this or so it seems. These classes cost me money to have, to print things or even to write out stuff on my paper. Because of this, I think I’m going to charge an entrance fee which I think would keep people motivated to go as well.

When I walked to Minga’s today I saw that they are painting the club de Madres building and so I’m going to talk to Idonnah about what types of murals the PC Office has. I need to talk to Mercedes and the Club de Madres as well of course and see if they’re interested. If it’s ok and goes well, I would really like to do one with the community at the school as well.

Another thing I plan on doing is meeting up with Kenzie this month to write a grant together to try and get some computers for the school. I think that it’s really important to have at least a basic knowledge of computers and most people here don’t even know how to turn one on. Depending on how that goes I would really like to find a way to help finish building the library that the school has.

What other projects are there you ask? Well, I could always do nutrition classes (not much of a fan of that though) and I plan on building/planting a garden in my yard as an experiment (also not much of a fan but it could be beneficial). After I learn how to do it a little better I’ll see if there’s interest in the community for it. If so then great. If not, at least there’ll be a garden here for Ernesto and his fam to use.

Yesterday Ernie randomly came over with shovels and said it was time to clean up the yard to make it pretty for when Mom and Rach visit (23 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) They then proceeded to weed the entire yard of the grasses and other stuff growing by shoveling the whole thing. Yes, I said shoveling. One person had a machete and was cutting stuff down with it, two people had shovels, and an 8 year old and I were picking up all the trash. Vanji was sweeping my yard. It was a good idea but shoveling the yard like that made it nearly impossible for me to walk through now with it’s current still-damaged from the landslide state. Ernesto told me that they would start working on the wall this week but now he changed it to the week after Easter. I told him I was worried about pushing it off so much since I wanted it to be done before my Mom got here, something that I thought couldn’t be a problem since it was so far off: wrong. He’s not working on it right now since he’s working on someone else’s house now. He told me he would work during Semana Santa which is next week, a week normally reserved for doing absolutely nothing. We’ll see. I guess if it’s done, it’s done and if not then we’ll just have to walk the long way around to get up to my house. I have to pick what things to be stubborn about and this isn’t one of them.

When I got back on Monday, Ernesto told me that a doctor from Navarrete had visited that day and he had talked with her about the trash issue. I guess she has ties with the municipality somehow and she said it wouldn’t be an issue to get trash pick up here once a week. I found out that the garbage pick up only happens about once a month at the school, not each week like I assumed. I have doubts that this doctor will be coming back to the community since that’s the way things work here so I would still like to get a committee started to monitor the trash pick up.

Aside from all the potential projects, I actually have a lot of compromisos this month. It seems like each month (well, except March) I look at it and I’m like, “Dang, where’s the time to do all this stuff?!” I told a water PCV I’d go to his site for three days to help dig trenches and translate to a group of 30 or 40 high schoolers who are going to be here to help build the water system. I don’t know how much vocab I have with water stuff but I guess we’ll find out! I’ve got another trip planned to SD to work on a grant with Kenz, my mom and sister will be here the last week like I mentioned, and I have an Escojo conference to go to this weekend! I wanted to get in on the bola race really bad but I guess it’s for the better since I don’t really have time for it.

I’m beginning to feel a little more enthusiastic about my Escojo class as well, adding my own little touches and trying to make it more game filled. Today’s topic is about making health decisions and recognizing that there are pros and cons to every story. I initially skipped this one since there was a lot of discussion with it and I was intimidated. Now I’m figure I’ll take a stab at it and if I don’t understand what they’re saying I’ll just nod my head and ask the class what they think about that. That’s what I did in the last class and it worked like a charm. Plus when I feel bad about my Spanish I just stop and think: “Hey! I’m actually teaching a class in Spanish for heaven’s sake! I must know something so don’t get discouraged and keep going.” Ah, the ups and downs of the Peace Corps…

3/27- 3/30 Fri- Tues: My time in La Capital
This past weekend was pretty fun. I arrived in Santo Domingo around 12:30 on Friday, just barely missing my opportunity for a free lunch with Romeo. But I was lucky in the sense that I actually caught my bola with Tolo down the mountain in the morning. He told me to be ready to go by 8 or 8:30 and he “showed up” at my house at 7:30. I was brushing my teeth when I heard a car honking. I went outside to see if it was just someone driving by or it if was Tolo and there was no one there. This is because he honked as he drove past, obviously thinking that I would know that it was him. Despite the fact that I have only had one experience with him where he was early or on time (the last time I was going to get a bola with him), the fact that people drive honking their horns all the time here and the fact that he didn’t even honk and then stick around, I had a scary feeling that it was Tolo who was honking for me and then left without me. I hurried and very soon after the honk Marvey showed up at my door telling me that I had to get to Minga’s. When I showed up, about 10 minutes after the honking, Tolo told me “Oh, you sure like to sleep a lot. You sleep a ton. I went to your house looking for you and you were sleeping.” First of all, no I did not get completely ready and walk to his house from a sleeping state in just 10 minutes and second of all, I explained, that when a person goes to bed 3 or 4 hours after someone and they wake up an hour after them, the person is actually getting less sleep. I don’t think he got it. Ah well, at least I got a free ride.

My first day in the capitol was spent the same as every first day there; on the internet catching up on a month’s worth of stuff. Friday night I did absolutely nothing after the office closed at 8. I was tired. I felt lame. I get out of my site for the first time in a month and I all I do is go to bed! This is what age does to a person…

Saturday Jess, Kenzie and I left for Baní. I guess we were supposed to get there by 11:30 but we missed that memo. There was a Mini Vac meeting we wanted to go to (if you get to them then you get 550 pesos reimbursed to you someday (still waiting on mine from mid Feb) plus transportation costs if it’s in your region) and to make it better; the Mini Vac was on the beach! We took what we thought was the bus to Baní, and it was, but it wasn’t an Express bus so it stopped… a lot. All kinds of vendors got on the bus here and there trying to sell things from sunglasses to apples to pizza. I bought an apple, my first one in country. What was supposed to be just over an hour ride took 2 ½ hours. We arrived to Randi’s house and then all headed off for the beach Palma de Ocoa. We went to this one in CBT and it’s really pretty. After ordering some food and waiting an hour and a half for it we had the meeting with the other PCVs and headed back to Randi’s site. There was to be a beauty pageant at the local discoteca that night so we were pumped to be able to get out and dance.

As a little side note, Randi’s house is very large. It’s got TWO bathrooms (with toilet), a latrine and a kitchen SINK!!!! I couldn’t believe it had a sink, that’s luxury right there. We all got ready and headed over to the discotec around 9:30, which I thought was pretty late since in my community things are winding down or down by that time. I was already being a fun sponge before we left, being the only one laying on the bed half awake while the others split a drink. To our surprise, the pageant didn’t start until 11:30 at night! We left before it was over since we’re all lame-o PCVs and are used to going to bed by 11 or earlier. On the way we stopped and bought some jimmies or street burgers. Being a former food inspector I knew that I should not eat a burger from this place but having eaten one before and being hungry I thought I would take my chances. We all indulged in once very delicious, small burger (I had a burger and slit a hot dog) and the next day Randi and Kenzie were both really sick. 2 out of 7 people isn’t so bad though right?

We were going to visit the host fams from CBT on Sunday but with two of the 5 health PCVs there at the time being sick we decided not to. We were also going to stop in Baní for their Carnaval but didn’t since Jess wanted to get back to her site and Kenz wasn’t feeling so hot. I was pretty dang proud of myself because I single-handedly flagged down a bola for Danny, Jess, Kenz and I to Baní from Randi’s site, saving us each a whopping 25 pesos. It was the first time I actually caught a real bola.

When we got in Baní we walked around looking for the bus stop from the random side street where our bola let us off. When a bus came up it wasn’t an Express but the Cobrador was so dang pushy and then I swear there’s always somehow a random person on the street that is pushy too, so we ended up taking another stupid bus that wasn’t an Express. Luckily it was Sunday so not as many people were traveling and it didn’t take as long to get to SD.

On the way to SD we passed a pretty bad car wreck. People on the bus were yelling that there were kids involved. It must have just happened because there were limp bodies in both of the cars and the people who were awake were still in the cars, just staring off into space. Not a good situation but amazingly only the 2nd or 3rd accident I’ve seen here.

About 5 minutes after the car wreck, our bus had to deal with more drama: Kenzie. She had her head out of the window and was throwing up. There were some dudes sitting behind her who were trying to help. When she began to throw up they were yelling at the one sitting closest to her to do something so the one jumped up and began patting her head while it was hanging out of the window. I was going to tell him not to but then I thought, “Well, I don’t know- maybe she likes it…” she didn’t. Then they were yelling at the bus driver to “give her air” since the bus driver was pissy the window was open and had shut the air conditioner off. The Cobrador had told her earlier to shut the window but she said she was about to vomit. He had a worried/sickened expression and kind of backed away without saying anything. When she did throw up the Cobrador suspected so but to be sure he opened the door of the bus and hung out to the side for a better view. Yep, there was vomit alright.

By the time we got to SD, Kenz was feeling much better. We spent the rest of the evening at the office, working on things we needed for some projects, and then headed off to the Pen. While I was at the office I overheard one PCV, Todd, offering another PCV a bola back to Santiago. The second PCV couldn’t take it so I asked if I could. Todd said sure and that we would be leaving sometime after lunch the next day. Sweet.

The next day, Monday, I went to the office when it opened since I was trying to get a different cell phone and that can take a while. Mine has developed a new problem where people can’t understand what I’m saying now on top of the fact that it hangs up on people all the time. The guy at the front desk told me that I would have to give him at least 3 days to get a new phone. Great, so much for that. Guess it’ll have to do until May when I’m in SD for like 10 days due to language training and some other stuff.

While in the office, I made some SDI (Sexually Transmitted INFECTION- that’s right, they’re not called DISEASES anymore people)- or ITSs as they’re called here- slides for my Escojo class and I had to get them printed and laminated. They took forever to make thanks to PC’s security internet blocks. I wanted graphic stuff to show these kids! I know it’s contradictory since I’m embarrassed to talk about freaking body parts with the kids but for some reason I’ve never been shy with STIs. Hey that could be a song!:

“Don’t be shy,
Check that STI!”

What do you think? Anyways, I took my flash drive to a print/copy store which I discovered to be really busy. It was pretty funny when my power point popped up on the computer screen of the guy helping me: BAM! A big picture of a woman’s vagina covered in huge, red warts/sores. Right away about 4 other people crowed around to look as the man scrolled through the images. As they walked away I heard one girl say to another, “Ya tú sabes…” (now you know). I noticed when the other man was laminating them there were two other guys standing there silently staring. It was hilarious. Expensive too. I hope those slides last for a loooooong time.


I was lucky enough to catch a free lunch with Romeo and some other PCVs around 12. Pretty soon after I sat down with my food Todd called me and told me the bola called and it was on its way meaning it could be there in 10 to 30 minutes. Yikes! I wolfed my food, said thank you and power walked back to the office from the restaurant. The rest of the afternoon the bola kept calling and saying he would be there in 20 minutes but he really showed up at 3:30- over 3 hours after he first called. I wasn’t complaining though, this bola was saving me 255 pesos! I ended up being dropped off even closer than Santiago; they dropped me off in Navarrete! I caught a motor that tried to overcharge me 10 pesos and then was relieved to find motores at the entrance of my street still. It had gotten pretty late since we stopped at a sweets store so I was worried no on would be there. I tried texting Noel but didn’t get a hold of him. I made it up to my house before dark and the whole thing only cost me 90 pesos! What a deal! I got a ton of freebies this time around:)