My Blog List

Hey all! Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know that I've added a blog list to my blog. So if you look on the right side of my blog you will see a few others listed. They are other members of my group and feel free to check them if I haven't updated recently. I should still be able to be in touch because we will have WiFi at the Mansión where we have classes, but...just in case. I will write more soon. Love to all!

Volunteer Visit

So this past Thursday we finally got the chance to venture out of the city and go to visit current volunteers in their communities. All of us went to different communities throughout the country. I went up to the north to a place called Altamira. Well, technically I was in the mountains outside of Altamira. I got to take several motoconcho (motorcycle taxi) rides while I was there. And apparently I didn’t make it clear earlier that I’m not allowed to drive the motoconchos. There are motoconchos throughout the country and you can pay a motoconchista (motorcycle driver) to drive you to almost any location in the country and in some areas it’s the only way to get to and from certain places. I was totally scared of the idea of having to use the motoconchos but I loved it! It’s really fun to be heading up the hill on the back of a bike with the wind in your hair and the drivers are generally very safe drivers particularly since the “roads” are often just dirt, rocks, and full of ruts and often extremely muddy. One of these days I’ll get a picture of myself on one with my casco (helmet). Where I was is definitely the campo. They call it the campo (country) because it’s not an organized town, although there are colmados (the general stores) and schools spread out throughout the area, though they are few and far between. It’s really neat though because it’s such a small community everybody knows everyone so if you’re sitting on your porch or covered patio (which everyone here has) whenever someone comes by they say hi and ask how you are and vice versa. The local kids love Anne and Tim and stop by every day to visit. It rained tons while I was there and was actually pretty cold. Cold enough that I was sleeping in a long sleeve shirt, long pants, and socks and was still cold under my two sheets and a light blanket. You have to remember there’s no central heat here, in fact the walls don’t even touch the roof and there’s no glass in the windows, just wood shutters usually. And the roofs are made of zinc so it is super loud when it’s raining hard. Here’s some pictures of the area I was in.




I stayed with Anne and Tim who are both Environment volunteers and are great people besides. They met during training and got married last August. Here’s a picture of them below squeezing honey out of the honeycomb. (More on that later.)


They have been working on getting water filters for their site which arrived the Friday I was there and we had a meeting and presentation of the filters on Saturday so people could come pick them up. They are also hoping to get funding to build fogones (stoves). The stoves are more fuel efficient and use less wood than the traditional stoves used and have chimneys so the Doña and her family are not inhaling so much wood smoke.

Here’s a picture of Anne’s Doña Milagros, that she lived with her first three months in site and that they still have lunch with every day. To the right is the fogon that she uses to cook on. She is preparing eggplant as part of our lunch for the day. She also makes these beautiful bags using old rice sacks and scraps of cloth for the strap and inside pocket. I got one and I’m so excited about it. I’ll take a picture and post it later. She’s selling them for $200 pesos, a little less than US $6.00. She’s also a domino genius. She almost always wins! She’s really good at counting the dominoes and realizing what everyone has. Much better than I am, although I’m learning slowly but surely.


Leche de Pollo de Abeja

One of the more interesting experiences I had this weekend had to do with the honey I mentioned above. Some people from the neighborhood had brought Doña Milagros a bunch of honeycomb from a hive that had lost it’s queen. Anne, Tim and I were excited at the prospect of fresh honey. We asked her how to do it and she said to just squeeze it out. We were checking out the comb and realized there were still a lot of larvae (pollo) of bees that had not fully developed and were wondering how you got the honey out by squeezing. Come to find out that you squeeze it with the larvae and the white stuff that comes from the larvae is called leche de pollo and supposedly has medicinal value and mixed with the honey makes a great dessert. Anne and Tim braved the squeezing of the honey and leche de pollo until it just got a little too real for us all. Here’s a picture of the honeycomb first and the second is the honey and leche de pollo all mixed up with Tim squeezing some more in.



The Blue Titanic

So I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this bus. Apparently it is used to pick up day laborers from the area and take them to the tobacco farms down the road for work. I don’t know where they came up with the name the Blue Titanic although it seems an unfortunate choice. Although it is an enormous vehicle to be driving up and down the roads of the campo we were in. I certainly wouldn’t want to run into it on the road.


My New Boyfriend

I fell in love up in the campo. I met this really cute, although awfully stinky guy that was just too adorable to resist. His name is Boli. Here he is sitting on my lap.


Here’s another picture of Boli with Lila, Anne and Tim’s puppy. I’m not sure Anne and Tim are going to forgive me because now Boli comes over to their house first thing in the morning and throughout the day because I would hold him and pet him the whole time he was there! In the evenings when we would go inside he would whine at the door for quite awhile before he would go home to go to bed. He was just so cute and tiny that I couldn’t resist picking him up and cuddling him.

Dominican Schools

Dominican Schools

The Dominican school system is quite different than the U.S. school system. Every little area has it’s own primary school so classes are quite small. However, the kids only go to school for about 4 hours a day and we were shown a statistic today that said on average only 2.4 hours of that is educational time. For secondary schools the kids have to travel longer distances which for many is too expensive or they are needed to help work on family farms or in the house so many children don’t go past the 8th grade. Here are some pictures of a couple of schools I visited while we were distributing water filters in the area where Anne and Tim lived.

A rainbow over the basketball court where some of the boys in our group play ball most afternoons. A bunch of the rest of us often go and have a Coke or a beer and watch the game.

My host family

Here’s a picture of my first Dominican host family.
From right to left are: Doña Sol, my host mom; Eduard, my 17-year-old host brother; Carmen, my 16-year-old host cousin, and Abuelita Licela, my 78-year-old host grandma who lives in New York most of the year but has been here visiting since November. The second picture is Eduard and Carmen relaxing in the evening. Carmen is playing a Gameboy and Eduard is listening to bachata music on the radio; which is a typical Dominican style music that comes from the campo and has gained popularity in the last several years. It’s mainly ballads about falling in love or having your heart broken.

Zona Colonial

Las Ruinas de San Nicolas de Bari

This was the continent’s first hospital. It was built in the early 16th century and was one of the first important buildings built by the Spanish during the colonial period. It’s in ruins now and hundreds of pigeons call it home. In the other picture, the little girl under the arch is Amalia, my Spanish teacher Tania’s daughter.


Street and Church

This street where the picture is taken is in the 2nd Godfather movie. The church in the background is called the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia. The church at one time was almost ruined and only one side chapel was left intact so many believe that it has a special power and ability to help alleviate people’s suffering.


Calle de Las Damas

I mainly liked the horse and the cart which you can rent and ride around the Colonial Zone. But I also got the sign for Calle de Las Damas which was the place where Spanish ladies went walking during the colonial period. In that period women were expected to stay in the house most of the day for their “safety” and were only allowed to leave to go to mass and for a paseo (walk) in the afternoons. The richer families even had chapels built into their houses so that the women only had to leave the house for their paseos. The Calle de Las Damas was the first paved road in the Dominican Republic.


Catedral Metropolitana Santa Maria de la Encarnacion

This was the first cathedral to be built in the Americas, however it took the Spanish crown almost two decades to complete. They think construction started in 1523. It is beautiful both inside and out with lots of Gothic architecture. The view you have here is from the front of the church although now only the side entrance from the Parque Colon is used. The front of the church was taken apart and moved closer to the road three times as rich families purchased their own personal areas in the church, until someone mentioned that it would lose its presence if it was moved any closer to the road.


Alcazar de Colon

The Columbus Castle sits on the Ozama River. It was constructed in the mid-16th century, and Diego Columbus, Christopher Columbus’ son lived there. It’s really cool inside because it has furniture, cooking utensils and vessels, and artwork that were used by Diego Columbus and his wife.



I just liked this view. It was so pretty with the balcony with the flowers and the painting.

Entrena

Entrena is the name of the company that runs our training while we are in Santo Domingo. It is a beautiful garden like setting with little open air classrooms where we have class. We have some classes with the whole group of 36 of us. Although sometimes we are divided into our technical groups. We have 2 groups that are in training together, my Environment group, and the Technology group. We have 17 people in the Environment program, and 19 in the Technology group. Furthermore, we are divided into Spanish classes that have roughly 4-6 people per group. There are 5 people in my group. We are in the intermediate high group. We eat lunch at Entrena which is made by a woman who Entrena contracts with to make food for the groups that come through. She is joined by family members to help cook often. The food is delicious. She also provides us with coffee and fresh juice for a small price throughout the day.

Below are some pictures from the Entrena training center.

Mi abuelita

Let me tell you about my abuelita. She’s 78 years old now. She lives in Nueba Yol (New York) most of the year, but she’s been here visiting since November and plans to leave in April. I’ve had a lot of time to talk with her and have learned a lot about her and about the DR from her. She’s a pretty cool lady so I want to share with you what I’ve learned about her.

Trujillo came into power when she was 3 months old. She was the second child, she had one older sister. Her mother was a teacher and played the guitar and piano. Her father was a police chief. She met Trujillo when she was 7 years old. He gave them food and clothing and she thought he was very nice. When she was 9 her mother died at the age of 34. She stopped going to school after her mother died. Her father remarried and had 6 children with his second wife who my abuelita says was a bad woman and didn’t treat her and her sister well. She got married at age 15 to a man she thought would let her go back to school but he didn’t treat her well and wouldn’t let her go back to school. She had 6 children with him before they divorced. She remembers when Trujillo was killed. She was 28 years old and she says she cried and cried because he had been nice to her when she met him and she hadn’t heard any of the bad things that he had done. She heard about all those things after his death, and was surprised but came to believe it. She remarried after her divorce and had six more children. Her oldest daughter died in her 50s. 8 of her children still live in the DR and 3 live in New York. At the age of 65 she moved to New York where she ran a daycare from her home for many years. She got her permanent resident status 3 years ago. Since she has her permanent resident status she can only come back and visit the DR for less than 6 months at a time, although she says she would rather be here than in the United States, but she doesn’t want to lose her permanent resident status.

Will be in touch again soon! Lots of love to all!

Las Guaguas y Los Gallos

So we’ve had a busy week this week learning to use public transportation. We’ve taken several guaguas (buses) down to the center of town and back. And by bus I don’t mean anything like a school bus. These things have about 6 rows of seats with seats that can be folded down and can hold at least two people, which means we usually have 5 or 6 people in one aisle. Which doesn’t sound too bad until you see the size of the bus and think about 6 adults sitting shoulder to shoulder. Then there are more seats up in the front right behind the driver. The scariest seat being the one behind the driver but in the middle that folds down. Then there’s two more seats in front beside the driver. And when those fill up you stand or hang out the door if necessary. The door is on the side of the bus in the middle. There’s a cobrador who collects the money for the chofer (driver). It’s really pretty entertaining all around. I definitely feel more confident now that I’ve been on the guaguas a few times.

On another note, I’ve decided I hate gallos (roosters). Now, I know hate is an awfully strong word, but really when you get woken up every morning between 3am and 5am because the roosters are crowing you might hate them too. My family has a bunch of chickens and two roosters. And several people in the neighborhood have roosters as well. I’m not sure what sets them off sometimes, but once one starts crowing they all start crowing. My roosters are in the little yard on the side of my house right next to my room and that’s exactly where the roosters stand when they crow in the morning. Here they call it singing rather than crowing, which in my opinion is not the appropriate word for the sounds produced by roosters. Needless to say my host family and my parents find it hilarious, which I suppose it will be in hindsight. Meanwhile, my friend Jean generously donated two pairs of tapones (ear plugs) to aid in my ability to sleep in until 6:45am.

But overall, things are wonderful. My group is great. We’re all starting to feel more comfortable in this beautiful country and getting tan while we’re at it. We’re taking a lot of classes in Spanish, in the culture of the DR, in our technical programs (mine being the Environment), in Peace Corps program methodology, in safety and health, and other things I can’t think of. Our training center is absolutely gorgeous. It’s this quiet garden-like setting that is much appreciated by all of us because the DR in general is not a quiet country. We walk to and from class everyday from our barrios (neighborhoods). Next weekend we go to visit current volunteers in their sites. I’m going up north to a place near Santiago. I’ll have to take my first motoconcho (motorcycle taxi) ride. We get a lesson on how to ride them next Wednesday and then Thursday we head off for our visits. I have a 30 minute motoconcho ride. Now, I’m not a huge fan of motorcycles in general and haven’t been on one in pretty much forever so needless to say I’m a little nervous, particularly because I’ll probably be bumping up a gravel road to the site of the volunteers that I’m visiting. But it’s pretty much impossible here to get around out in the campo (countryside) without using the motoconchos so I guess I’m just going to have to suck it up and learn to love it!

All right, better head to bed. Lots of love from the Caribbean!

Photos

Our Coke ad1


Our local hangout in our barrio. A colmado is a little general store that sells basic supplies. It kind of reminds me of the general store in Trout Lake. We dropped in today for a Coca-Cola and some time to relax after a grueling day of Spanish class and our first trip in the guaguas (buses) to downtown. In this picture are my group members Yeni (sitting on the steps) and from left to right Ben, Alanna, and Arya giving the thumbs up sign. There are seven of us that live in our barrio. You can also call the colmado and they’ll deliver stuff straight to your house.


My house from the front door. The opening to the left is the kitchen. The fridge is outside. There’s a little television to the left of the little blue table that has the fishbowl which holds two turtles named Mickey and Minnie. The door on the right at the back is the bedroom where my grandma, my mom, and my brother sleep and they have their own bathroom back there. The hallway just past the couch on the right leads to the room where their renter lives and to my room and the bathroom that me and the renter share.


View from the front. I’m standing at the fence. I’ll have a picture of the house from the road up here as soon as I can. Just getting brave enough to take my camera out in the streets here. There’s bars on all the windows, although we only lock up the house at night and there’s frequent visitors throughout the day since my host mom sells clothes, chicken and ice cream out of her house.


My bathroom. If you look in the shower stall you can see the bucket and the bottom of the two liter bottle I use to bath myself with cold water every night. It’s refreshing let me tell you!


Another view of my bedroom. It’s just as messy as my one at home, although I did clean last night!


My bedroom

That’s all for now folks! I hope you enjoy these and I’ll include more pretty soon. My world is pretty limited as of now because we’re supposed to be spending lots of time with our families and not go anywhere after dark and we are just now learning to use the public transportation safely and without getting totally lost.

La Comida Dominicana

So I was talking with my mom tonight and she mentioned that I ought to talk about the food here since many of you that may read this are foodies! So far I like the food a lot. For breakfast I’ve been having either juice or hot chocolate and bread and cheese. Many people eat more breakfast than me, but I told my family that I didn’t each much breakfast. Although even then a huge piece of bread toasted with cheese is quite filling. Juice is one of the main drinks here, more so than water because the water from the taps is bad and bottled water is kind of expensive. My favorite juice so far is guayaba (guava). There’s also zapote (some kind of fruit) which tastes kind of like a very sweet yam and my host mom put vanilla in. Also there’s tamarindo (a fruit which grows in pods on a tree). It’s not my favorite as it has a slightly fermented taste kind of like kambucha. For lunch we have la bandera which is arroz (rice) with habichuelas (beans) and a piece of meat (usually chicken, although I beef today). And usually a salad, although a salad here pretty much means a plate of random vegetables, sometimes raw, sometimes cooked. We’re not supposed to eat lettuce or cabbage raw because water can get trapped in them and the water can make us sick. So far the salads we’ve had have been made of papas (potatoes), zanahorias (carrots), pepinos (cucumbers), and col (cooked cabbage). We also had some berenjena (eggplant) mashed up. For dinner we have platanos (plantains) every night. I’ve had them boiled, mashed (called mangú here), and fried (my personal favorite, although probably not the best for me). Also with dinner we have lots of starchy foods. I’ve had yucca which tastes like potatoes, yame which also tastes like potatoes, and batata which is a sweet potato. Also we’ve had some salame (which tastes like hot dogs). My family is very excited that I like the food!

They’re also excited that I speak so much Spanish. Overall, I’m feeling pretty confident about my Spanish. Some people are harder to understand than others but everyone is super friendly and will repeat things for me. My Spanish is stronger than that of many of the people in my group, other than a few people whose first language was Spanish and a few who have spent time abroad more recently than I. The Dominican culture is fun! They are a loud, boisterous group of people, there’s always a TV or music going and people just drop by at all times of the day to visit for a while. My host mom Doña Sol sells clothes, chicken, and ice cream from her house so she’s here most of the day. It’s such a community culture. Everyone knows everyone and they greet each other on the street.

We have seven of us that live in our barrio (neighborhood). There are 4 of us that are super close together and the others aren’t too far away. We have spent the weekend exploring our barrio with the help of one of my group members’ little brother. It’s a cute little neighborhood with lots of colmados (general stores) and farmacias (pharmacies which sell everything), and cute little businesses that I don’t entirely understand, and bancas (little corner bars that we’re not supposed to go to). We sat outside the colmado that is the most central to all of us today and shared a liter of Presidente light beer which has 4.3% alcohol. The regular Presidente beer has over 6%. I bought a cell phone too (for only $6) so if anyone feels like calling, e-mail me and I’ll send you the number. Not sure about the rates from the states but they shouldn’t be too bad from what I hear, although check with your phone company to be sure about that or just buy one of those cards that they have at mini-marts, they usually have good rates.

All right, that’s enough for now! I hope everyone is doing well! I’m going to try to upload some pictures of my house that I took the other day too. Love to all!

I've arrived!!

Buenas tardes de Santo Domingo! I arrived in the Dominican Republic on Thursday afternoon. We immediately drove to a retreat center where we had an orientation and our first round of shots. One of our Spanish teachers stayed up sort of late with us and we were asking about Dominican slang. The next morning we headed to our training center, which is beautiful and full of flowers. All of our classes are outside under little open air huts. At the end of the day our host families came and got us. My host family is adorable. My host mom is super tiny! Then I have a 17 year old host brother Eduard who is very nice, but shy, and very short as well. Also, a niece is living with my family whose name is Carmen and she is 16. And the abuelita is visiting from New York. Now don't get any ideas, she doesn't speak any English so I'm not getting off easy here. Then there's a girl who is renting a room from my family, Cristina who is in her 20s and attending university. My house is very cute and I have my own room with a bed and a table and chair and some shelves for my clothes. It also has a cute little patio out front. We have chickens for egg laying and a couple roosters who start crowing outside my bedroom window at dawn. I can't put toilet paper in the toilet and the water pressure is . I have to drink bottled water and later on may have to purify it myself. My shower last night consisted of a bucket full of cold water and the bottom part of a liter bottle which I had to dump over myself to get myself wet, then soap myself off, then rinse. It took my breath away it was so cold. But I definitely felt better afterwards. And you guys are never going to believe this but I was in bed with the lights off at 9:30 last night. I got the best night's sleep I've gotten since I left home. I was so exhausted from being in so many places over so much time and transitioning to speaking Spanish most of the time. I was certainly glad I was in bed early when the roosters started crowing so early this morning. All right, more e-mails to write. I will post pictures soon. Les mando mucho cariño de Santo Domingo! I send lots of love from Santo Domingo!

I'm in Miami right now. My roommate from Nevada is fast asleep and I'm wide awake. I don't know if it's the time change or nerves or what. Probably all those! Thanks so much to all of you for the wonderful goodbyes and for the many beautiful gifts. And thanks to those of you who made it to my parties. It was a wonderful send off to have so many of the people I love surrounding me. 

I'm doing pretty good. I've met a few people from my group already. They seem nice enough in the brief amount of time I had the chance to chat with them. More than anything right now I'm homesick. I miss my bed, my house, my dog, my farm, my parents, and all of you of course. I've had to say some hard goodbyes in the last two days. It's so weird to know that you're going off for two years and leaving everything and everyone you love, and knowing you made the choice to do it willingly. 

I'm looking forward to meeting my group tomorrow. I hope that will make it all seem a little more real and a little less scary. All right, I got some phone calls to make and then I better try to get some sleep. I know I could use a good night's rest. Love you and miss you all very much.