Sunday, August 26, 2007

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!


Hello all! Thanks for all of the comments on my blog! I am currently in the capital and have spent HOURS working on my pictures. I have FINALLY organized most of them..many of which are now from SIX months ago! I have them on snapfish, and they should be accesible to all of you. If interested, send me your email address (Sparke5155@gmail.com) and I will invite you to be a member of my albums. Hopefully they can give a better idea of what life looks like here in the DR!

SWEET dinner parties!






My first "lunch date" in my house was with my host mom, brother, and sister and my project partner (see picture to the right). We really ate like kings--bread, oatmeal juice from a packet, some unrefridgerated pop, and a mango that we stole from my neighbor's tree! My family loves making fun of how much I don't know how to cook! But I am excited because my host mom is an awesome cook and she is going to teach me how to do rice, beans, peas, chicken, ham, asopao, arroz con leche, the works!

The other really fun "dinner parties" that I had involved about 8 of the neighborhood muchachos. They all bring as many little pesos as they can (usually about 5-10), and we buy plantains and salami. Then, THEY were actually "cooking" (all we did is fry everything)!! Granted, there was a lot of wrestling and running around my house, but they were generally well-behaved (to my surprise). They played my board games, read books, and colored so much that I ran out of paper. The only problem--they also went through about 10 plantains, a BOTTLE of ketsup, and THREE packets of juice! I love having them over but they eat me out of house and home! And now I have little muchachos over literally everyday...so I think I might have to start taking some days off =)

Los Montones

Right after my summer camp ended, I had to go to our Three-Month In-Service Training, where we basically had 8 days to learn more about how to raise money for our projects, design and implement work plans, and deal with possible challenges. We also had tons of time to hang out in these AWESOME rocking chairs, eat tons of food, and have "reggaeton dance parties." The site was really beautiful (hopefully I will be getting pictures from Robyn soon)...it was in the mountains so we actually WEREN'T sweating all day! We learned a lot about how to write grant proposals, which will hopefully help me build my library! All in all, it was a great escape from our sites!




ME vs. THEM


Well, I FINALLY got my new apartment! I have been there for about three weeks now, and I completely love it. I thought that I would totally hate living alone, but it is really nice and quiet and I can read and do my crosswords in peace! I have told everyone, however, that I am still determined to acquire two VERY important items: a CAT and a radio! I get a little tired of listening to the merengue that the colmado plays ALL day long, so I would love to be able to blast some of my OWN, american music. And as for the cat, aside from the fact that I loooove animals, I definitely need my own personal cockroach killer. Since I have been in-country, I have woken up with cockroaches crawling on me FOUR times!! Now, this might seem that outrageous at first, but the probloem is that EVERY time, I was using a mosquitero!! I feel like it is officially their MISSION to get in and night and crawl all over me. My new house is definitely an improvement from my former residences, as I clean constantly, but the little devils still get in through the bathroom and I always leave the windows open (that have no screens). Much of my free time, as of late, has been dedicated to keeping these vermin out, or punishing those that enter (see photo). In any case, cockroach poison is high on my wish list!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

I Heart My Babies! Volume 2

This is the veiw of my precious school (taken from the cable car). It´s so huge! You would be able to see my host family´s house, but it is hidden by the trees. Anyway, Dengue made me mad because I had to miss pretty much the first week and 2 days...of our THREE week camp. Plus, I missed the field trip to Ocean World! ¡Què triste! Anyway, I did get to spend the rest of the time working with half of our group-about 12 kids. Though I had very little time to prepare and had NO clue what they had been studying, I threw some stuff together and we worked everyday from 8 until almost noon. We colored a lot, and we had a little reading circle everyday. I was SO thrilled that they loved the books! Even though just about everything else was a bit chaotic, they always sat quietly and attentively for reading time. So thanks for all of the books, mom! Being their teacher was probably one of the most challenging things I have ever done, so I have already learned A LOT. For the most part, however, I had a lot of fun working with them and look forward to similar programs in the next two years! Here they are standing by all of the work that I posted on the wall, and to the right is a group of kid playing one of our homemade reading games.





I Joined the Dengue Club!!!

Unfortunately, I don´t have any cool pictures for this blog entry. I just thought that now, since Dengue is a thing of the past, I thought that I could briefly describe my experiences with it. Basically, I woke up one Sunday morning (the DAY before my summer camp started, no less), with pains all over my body. I thought that they might just be muscle pains but, by noon that day, I had a fever of 103. When I was lying in my bed that night, shivering in 90 degree weather, I was pretty sure that something was wrong with me. The Peace Corps nurse said that it was most likely Dengue (as there is an epidemic running through our group). When I mentioned the word to my host family, they all told me that there was absolutley NO way that it was Dengue, because God would never give me Dengue and I shouldn´t even mention it, blah blah blah. In any case, my directora and the orientadora took me to Caribe Tours so that they could get me en route to the hospital (we volunteers MUST go to clinica abreu in the capital). When we got to the bus stop at 10:45, they said that the 11am bus was full. As I was lying on a park bench with a wet shirt rapped around me head, the directora went around trying to ask if ANYONE could give up his/her seat so that I could get to the hospital. People in this country are jerks! We almost didn´t find anyone! Eventually a mother and her two small children got off and gave us her seats. The orientadora (who is my project partner) rode the bus with me to the capital. The trip normally takes about 4/4 and a half hours...which, with Dengue, is excrutiating. With Dengue, one has severe soreness in the eye sockets, migraines, very high fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diahrea, the works. It is also called "break-bone fever" because it feels as if one´s bones are breaking. Four hours of this on the bus was bad but, to make things worse, we STOPPED in the capital on the middle of the highway because people from the barrios were striking. This means that they burn tires and throw rocks at people to stop traffic until the government does what they want. After THREE hours, we finally started moving again. All in all, it took me about 8 and a half hours to get to the hospital. They took me straight to the emergency room, hooked me up to an I.V. (one of my BIGGEST fears, btw), and started doing all the tests to figure out what I had. I spent a really boring EIGHT days in the hospital, until my platelets and white blood cells were finally at an acceptable level. Surprisingly, I felt tons better as soon as I got home. I had to rest a bit, but I was straight to work at my summer camp and already feel as good as new. My new joy of the DR...a skin fungus that leaves white spots. I am one of a big group who has this as well. To get rid of it...we have to bathe in Selson Blue shampoo...and continue using it until we go back home! The weather is beautiful but the tropics are a breeding ground for grossness!

I Heart Playa Dorada

After all of this time living in Puerto Plata, I FINALLY went to our most popular tourist beach. Kelsi and Jen came up from their sites outside of Santiago to baske with me in the best thing that this country has to offer-the BEACH. A 20 peso guagua ride got us to the entrance of Playa Dorada. We randomly wandered around until we found a pretty spot on the beach, and sat down on the lawn chairs that belong to some resort. We´re pretty sure that we were at some all-inclusive resort area but, since we are gringas, no one bothered us! My host dad said that people are not allowed to eat outside food on the beach (only the resort food)...but, again the gringa thing, we got away with it. My host mom wouldn´t let me leave the house without packing us food, so I´m pretty sure we were the only people on the beach eating mangù (which is mashed plantains) with fried salami and onions. We are SO dominican sometimes. The water was like bath water and, aside from the tiny white crab that bit my toe, there was nothing but clear sand (no seaweed!!). We had an awesome, relaxing day and have vowed to go to Playa Dorada once month! Hopefully, this can actually happen soon (once I get my OWN apartment!).


A Rìo I Actually LIKED!

Normally, when the Dominicans say,"Let´s go the rìo," I shudder with images of dirty, shallow, FREEZING rivers full of Dominicans drinking and bathing. Naturally, then, when I was invited on an end-of-the year teacher trip to the river, I wasn´t exactly thrilled. I mean, we live in Puerto Plata...doesn´t ANYONE like the beach?!?! Anyway, things started to look brighter when we piled up about 20 teachers, BUCKETS full of rice, plantains, etc., TWO coolers of Presidente, about 15 bottles of pop, and rum into a guagua. We drove east along the coast for about an hour, until we got to the river, in a place that I think is called Jamao. I was shocked to discover that the river was GORGEOUS! They actually had garbage cans so the landscape wasn´t covered in trash, and people were actually swimming! The whole day ended up being pretty fun. Although most of the teachers (like all dominicans) don´t know how to swim, this time there were a few who do swim, and we were climbing up rocks and jumping off cliffs. There was even a vine to swing from! (Pictured: A member of our cleaning staff swinging from the rope vine). The food was hilarious-we literally had a BUCKET full of moro (rice mixed with beans), a BUCKET of boiled plantains, two crates full of roasted pork, salad, roasted vegetables, gallons and gallons of homemade juices and, my personal favorite--about 100 mangos. There was swimming, volleyball, cards, dominoes, and drinking. All in all a really fun day, except for when our creepy bus driver started talking to me all about how I could have a boyfriend here and at home. After my attempt to explain to him that I have values didn´t work, I just told him that I wasn´t interested in having either! I still hate being a creepster magnet, but the river was SWEET.