Volunteer Visit

About a year ago, when I first got in country I went for a volunteer visit to see Ann and Tim. Now, a year later it was my turn to have a volunteer visit. I remember thinking how much it seemed Ann and Tim knew and trying to imagine that I would feel so knowledgeable a year later and be able to give good advice to a new trainee. Needless to say, I still don´t feel that knowledgeable, but Ann and Tim assured me they didn´t feel very knowledgable by the time I came to visit them either. I wanted my trainee to have a good time so as I had been planning on doing a mural for international women´s day before the dengue hit me, I decided it would be a fun project to do while she was here. So Thursday I went down to the school to start mapping out and drawing the mural I had designed. My volunteer Lauren arrived in the afternoon and I hauled her down to the school and we worked on drawing out the mural to be painted on Friday. However, Friday dawned cool and rainy, which meant no school, so no kids to help us paint, plus it wasn´t ideal weather for painting. So we had a lazy Friday, watched a movie, I made soup for dinner and we played cards and dominoes. Luckily, Saturday morning was sunny and my friend Ruth who is the closest volunteer to me and her trainee Carly (who grew up in Beaverton) came up to visit. We had arranged for some of my friends to take us to the Rio Mijo which is a 20 minute drive or so from my campo. We had a nice lunch of locrio first and then put on our cascos and hopped on the motorcycles of my friends to take us out to the river. We spent a few hours at the rive, enjoying the cool water on a hot day. It was lovely. Then we headed back to my house where we rested for a few hours and I made spaghetti for dinner, then it was time to head out to the discoteca for a little bit of dancing. We went to one and were almost the only one there although luckily my friends saved us and we spent plenty of time dancing and then decided to head over to the other discoteca, which was closed until the owner saw us pass and opened it up for us. So we spent another couple of hours and dancing. It was a great night and I was so happy to be in my campo and see that the girls were having a good time and that my guys were being such gentleman and buying our drinks and dancing with all of us. I knew they were good guys but it made me proud to see how they treated my friends and encouraged them to dance. Here´s some pictures. I will perhaps add more later.


Me, Carly, Madeline (my little neighbor), Ruth, and Lauren.


Dari and Goné hanging out in the hammock whil we waited for lunch.


Martin trying out the hammock de los estados unidos.


Ruth enjoying her locrio.


As snug as three bugs in a rug. Ruth, Lauren, and Carly curling up for a good night´s rest after an action-packed day.

Dengue

That´s right dengue. I made it almost one year exactly in country and came down with dengue. For those of you who don´t know dengue is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes and there are more cases of dengue than malaria here in the DR. Although mine started a little abornmally. I was on my way to San Juan on a motoconcho and started feeling light-headed and like I was going to pass out so when we got to the stop in San Juan I sat and rested until I felt a little better. Then I proceeded to walk down the street, but only made it about half a block before I got the light-headed feeling again and had to go into a shop and sit down. So I went back to the stop with the intention of going back to my site, but I couldn´t even sit on a motoconcho without feeling light-headed. I called one of the Peace Corps doctors and she said it was probably from the heat, to have a Coca-Cola and water and let her know how I feel. Well, the Coke and water helped well enough for me to make it back to my site. But then, that evening my temperature started went up to 101 and my back and legs started acheing. I took some medicine to make my temperature go down but by the middle of the night it wore off and my body was still all achy. By 6:00 am my temperature was up to 102. I called the doctor and she told me to come in. They sent me for blood tests, gave me some ibuprofen for the fever and aches, told me to drink lots of water, and gave me two options, go to the hospital or get a private room at the little hostel like place we normally stay at. I opted for that rather than being all alone at a hospital. It was a nice relaxing weekend and by Monday I was feeling much better although I had a crazy looking rash all over my body. It was even worse on Tuesday but I felt well enough to go back to my site. The rash lasted a couple days more and was a little itchy going away and I was pretty low energy for the next couple weeks. But I am better and doing well now. Here´s some pictures of my rash.


Here´s the rash on my neck.


Here´s the rash on my elbow and forearm

Carnaval Campo Style

On February 24 we had a Carnaval celebration in my campo that was organized by some of teachers at the biggest school in the community. The kids from many of the community schools dressed up and paraded from the school to the center of town where they had a stage set up and the kids did some great dances, plays, recitations, etc. Of course the parade started 2 hours late, but overall it was a very fun afternoon and evening. Here's some pictures for you all to enjoy.


One of the girls in a beautiful dress with the Dominican flag painted on her face.


A couple of pretty little indian girls


A very serious witch


I loved these outfits with the raqueta (euphorbia) on top of their heads and these green one pieces suits.


The little boys that were with the little girls with the raqueta on their heads.


Check out this little devil. The best part is he has a bunch of school milk cartons and other garbage pinned on to his clothes as part of the decoration.


A beautiful bride who I didn't realize was a little boy until Thony told me.


This costume was made out of plastic bags (fundas). I want to hope that they were recycled ones but they probably weren't.


A troop of short-skirted baton twirlers showed up from San Juan. What they lacked in skill they made up for in short skirts and white underwear.


A little Catholic doña in the making.


These boys walked down the street cracking their whips, which sounds like a gun-shot going off every time it cracked.


Their outfits are made out of paper strips that were glued onto old clothes.


I loved these boys costumes and their little dance.