Kevin in the Dominican Republic

Last Post

2009-12-01T01:52:00.002-04:00

After 27 months in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, my service finally came to an end on November 20th, 2009. It was by far the most incredible experience of my life. Getting to know another culture on such an intimate level has helped me realize so much more about my life, and about life in general.

Sorry for not updating more often, but after a year or so in country, many things just didn't seem blogworthy anymore.

One thing that I don't know how I forgot to post about, but just realized now, was the inauguration of the rural community water supply system. We inaugurated on July 11th, 2009. The aqueduct serves 60 families who now have potable, running water in their homes. In total, the system cost $15,000 US. You can check out some pictures at picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee

Thanks to my family and friends for supporting me throughout this adventure. I could not have done it without you.

To follow me during my current trip in South America I have started a new blog:

Kevin's South American Adventures

I'll update as often as I can.

Peace.

The Ants Go Marching One by One

2009-08-28T11:38:00.003-04:00

Disclaimer: Lisa, do not read this until after your visit.

I don’t know what it is lately, but the ants around here have been completely out of control.

One day, I went to put on my pants, which were hanging on a hook on the wall (and by hook I mean a nail), and they were completely covered in ants. Luckily, I had another clean pair to wear, so I just had to shake the ants out of the dirty ones and give them to Doña to make sure any remaining ants would be dead before I wore them again. Needless to say, I didn’t want ants in my pants.

If there’s one thing I hate more than ants in my pants, it’s when ants (and other creepy crawlers) go to the one place where they know they should not. You may have already guessed where this place is, since it’s the only place that is covered with a protective barrier, warning impending doom to whatever passes through. So yes, ants were in my bed. Now these weren’t just any ants, but ants that bite. Their sting isn’t too bad, a little worse than mosquitoes, but not as long lasting. I would have preferred that a big spider were in my bed rather than ants because spiders are more easily removed. Also, there is no other choice but to kill the ants.

This all occurred when I went down to my room to go to bed. I walked in to my room, and noticed a large, brown, moving mass on my mosquito net. I walked over and saw a ton of ants not only on the mosquito net, but also on the sheets, traipsing along as if it were their territory that I was trespassing on. It seems as though ants are just the right size to fit through the holes in the netting. I would have taken a picture, but this was a serious situation that required immediate attention. There was no time to fiddle around with a camera.

To begin the removal, I needed to think of a way that wouldn’t involve killing the ants one by one with the tip of my finger. Immediately I thought of mosquito repellant. I figured that if mosquito repellant repels mosquitoes, it might also deter ants. At once, I began spraying the ants. They slowed down but they didn’t seem as bothered by the repellant as mosquitoes. Time to think of a new solution.

I had seen a friend do this before, not to kill ants though. This solution would also require mosquito repellant, in addition to a flame. It just so happens that mosquito repellant is highly flammable. These ants had no idea what they were in for by invading my sleeping quarters.

It just so happened that the ants were entering my mosquito net and bed through a light fixture that is closely placed to my bed. There is a small gap between the ceiling and the fixture through which they were passing. I had to deal with this area first, to reduce the amount of ants that were coming in. While using my makeshift torch on this light fixture, I had to be careful not to come to close to the netting, as it is very flammable. In sequence, I would do a torching, then a sweeping. In this process, some of the ants would just be knocked out for a little bit, and in the sweeping stage I would be bitten. After getting rid of the ants on the light fixture, I covered the gap with duct tape (use number 142 I have found for duct tape here). Ant problem solved.

However, there were still some ants on the mosquito net and bed. Not as many as before, but still plenty. This would require the one by one smashing with my finger. After the situation was all clear, I went to sleep, only being bitten by 4 or 5 rogue ants throughout the night.

So even though most of you guys think I’m living the life here, I still have to deal with some pretty nasty shit.

Pictures from the Race

2009-05-27T10:48:00.004-04:00

This was before the race:

And significantly sweatier/dirtier after:

I even got a medal!

10K

2009-05-18T10:23:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I did a 10k, without having practiced or anything. I cannot use the verb "run," because there was little of that going on. Just to prove to everyone that I actually did it, here is the results page:

http://www.allsportcentral.com/results/results.cfm?EventID=21821

If you scroll down way to the bottom, I'm number 1546...yay!!!

Also, I'll be back in Chicago for 3 weeks on June 3rd...only 16 days left!

A Whirlwind Week

2009-04-17T08:37:00.003-04:00

This past week has been quite an experience. It was jam-packed, and one of the best weeks I've had in a really long time.

It all started with Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I ate at least a gallon of habichuelas con dulce. Unfortunately I had to leave my community during the heart of the celebrations, in order to help my friend with a Builders Beyond Borders group who was coming to his site to work. On the bright side, my Dona filled my nalgene up with habichuelas so I got a bunch to go. I stayed at my friend's site helping out from Friday till Monday and we had a lot of fun.

On Monday morning my friend and I got a bola down to my site. I had to change out some things from my backpack in order to prepare for a water conference in the capital. After spending about 1 hour unpacking and packing (and another glass of habichuelas), I was off to the capital.

When I got to the capital we finished editing our presentation that we would be giving the following day. The conference was headed by an NGO called Water for People. They are looking to start work in this country, and they wanted to have a little conference with all the other organizations that work in similar fields in order to get an idea of work that is going on this country. The best thing about this conference: we got a free, 2-night stay at the Hilton. We checked in at about 4, and already took advantage of the pool and hot showers by like 5. Oh yeah, and it wasn't some room on a lower level looking over the parking lot, it was on the 11th floor overlooking the ocean. The room itself was pretty small, but they were some of the nicest accomodations I have ever been in. The evening we checked in there was a meet and greet with all the people who would be attending. Cocktails and appetizers were served. And not just any appetizers...there were fried coconut shrimp, caviar, shishkebobs, and lots of other great things.

The next day was spent listening to presentations by other organizations, talking about their work being done in this country. It was a great experience overall...especially the hot showers. And the group of us 4 Peace Corps Volunteers won US$2000 for our projects. Since two of us there had all our funding, the remaining two volunteers are going to split those funds.

Unfortunately, at 12 on Thursday our time at the Hilton had to come to an end. It was really sad to leave, but we definitely took advantage of everything it had to offer.

On Thursday, I was planning on going back to my community, but when I got to the office, they were taking down names for people who wanted to go to a meet and greet with Hillary Clinton at the United States Embassy. As I'm sure you guessed, I decided I would stay in the capital one more night. The Secretary of State kept us waiting for quite awhile, but it was worth the wait. I was probably about 15 feet away from her while she was giving her speech. She gave a little shout out to the Peace Corps, and then walked around and shook hands. And yes, I got to shake her hand and say nice to meet you. It was very surreal. I think that is the only famous person I have ever had an encounter with.

And as usual, all good things must come to an end. Today I'm heading back up to Santiago, where I will be for the weekend for a little get together with some friends I haven't seen in awhile.

As far as the project goes, we're just doing some final touches, and then we should be done. Projected inauguration date: May 23rd.

Peace and Hugs!

Aqueduct Udpate

2009-03-21T11:41:00.002-04:00

It´s been about 2 months since I last posted an update...sorry about that. The reason is that we´ve been working really hard and we´re almost finished with everything. We did a test in one part of the community the other day and water is successfully arriving. Since we had to turn it off, so as not to be favoring one part of the community over the other, people were filling all their buckets and tanks in order to have water until the next time we could turn it on.

Within a few weeks we should be done, and we should be inaugurating in the middle of May. Everyone is welcome to come. There should be enough beds for everyone. I´ll give more information as it comes to me.

In the meantime, check out some of my construction pictures.

picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee

Inauguration

2009-01-20T17:44:00.001-04:00

The presidential inauguration has brought me to Santiago once again. A group of about 20 volunteers came to watch it. I was debating whether or not to come because it is a work day, bit since tomorrow is a holiday, I decided I'd leave work early and let my community do their thing without me. Hopefully they don't screw things up.

Once again I'm going to keep things short because my computer is still being repaired and I'm writing this on my iPod touch. I hope everyone enjoyed and took to heart the inauguration speech.

Peace.

Update

2009-01-16T15:55:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to give a quick update since it has been so long since I last posted.

Work is going really well and we are moving along a lot faster than I ever expected. We hope to be finished in a few months.

I have to keep this short because I'm writing this on my iPod touch because my computer is currently out of commission. I'm in the city now to hopefully get it fixed if it doesn't cost too much.

Until it is fixed I probably will not be able to post pictures or blog updates as often.

I hope everyone is enjoying the cold weather while I'm here in my shorts and flip flops.

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T11:47:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year. I know it's not actually the new year yet, but it's close enough. Below is a picture of our view from the balcony where we are at. Notice there is no snow and it's not cold. It's the perfect place to ring in the new year.

Pictures from Christmas

2008-12-27T13:21:00.002-04:00

I'm not going to do a whole blog post on Christmas, because it was pretty much the same as last year. If you didn't read my post from last Christmas, go and read it now and you'll know.

On the 23rd we roasted all the pigs that we would be eating on the 24th, La Noche Buena. There were about 17 in total. I couldn't keep track because there were just way too many.

Check out pics from the pig roast here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee/PigRoastDec232008#

On Christmas day, the 25th, a few friends and I went to Santiago to celebrate. We decided on meatloaf since it's affordable. There was also some Carlo Rossi wine. Nothing but high class for us on Christmas. The food tasted a lot better than it actually looks in the pictures. Even in person it didn't look too appetizing. It kind of looks like food you would get in prison, or in those hot lunches in the foil containers from grade school. But it was way tastier. We even had leftovers on the 26th. We also made a gingerbread house, of which there are way too many pictures. I must have had one too many glasses of wine by that point.

Check out pics from Christmas day here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee/HubChristmas2008#

First Weeks of Work

2008-12-27T13:15:00.002-04:00

My last post that I was going to do has changed from “First Week of Work” to “First Weeks of Work.” Unfortunately I became extremely busy after Thanksgiving and didn’t have time to update about only my first week of work, so I’ll just do a summary of my first three weeks of work.

A typical day goes like this:

6:30-7:00 - Wake up

7:00 – Eat Breakfast which usually consists of oatmeal because it’s easily and quickly prepared.

7:30 – Load the truck up with materials and go to the worksite

8:00 – After rounding up the troops and getting everything ready we’re usually off to work. Depending on where the worksite it at, we sometimes have a half hour hike, which involves crossing a river.

8:30-11:30 – Dig trenches. Fortunately, I don’t have to get involved with this physical labor. I could if I really wanted to, but honestly it’s probably better that I didn’t. There are plenty more capable men than I, and they do a way better job with physical labor than I ever could. If I were needed to do this I certainly would, but the fact is, is that it’s just not necessary. My American family has given me a lot of s*@t for that, but oh well. My role here is really as a technical resource, as an engineer, not as a laborer. Don’t get me wrong, when we’re doing our 30 minute hike, I help out in carrying materials and tools, but as far as the digging goes, I’ll leave that to the experts.

11:30-12:00 – Lunch. Usually a lo crio (rice cooked with meat, usually ham or salami) or moro (rice cooked with beans). We get a big plate piled with the stuff, and usually spaghetti or a salad, and since it is avocado season, a slice of avocado or two.

12:00-2:30 – More trench digging and gluing pipes. After the trenches are dug to an acceptable depth, we begin to glue the pipes. This is the part I am more involved in since it’s more technical, but the Dominicans have begun to take charge of this also, under my supervision. After the pipes are laid in the trench, the trenches are then filled back up with the dirt that was taken out.

2:30-3:00 – Finish up everything. Gather all the tools and extra materials. Hike back down.

I then have another 10 minute walk back to my house where I usually arrive exhausted. A nice, cold glass of juice is usually awaiting me, and if I’m hungry, there are always leftovers.

We work Monday thru Thursday. Each day there are brigades of between 16-18 men. If it is raining a lot one day, we’ll make up the day on Friday. The next numbers are estimates since I have taken an official count yet, but I would guess we have installed around 200 pipes thus far. We are halfway done with the main delivery line to the tank. The only work items left are two river crossings, the tank, and the distribution line. I estimate it will probably take 2-3 more months to complete the project. This is provided that the money promised by the local mayor arrives on time and the motivation of the people continues. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Usually once a week I also make a trip to the hardware store in order to purchase materials for the coming week, and to fix stuff up that was missing in the previous week. So the next couple months I’ll be a little busy and probably will not be able to update often, but I’m not going to forget about you guys.

Also, I’m not sure if I mentioned in a previous post, and since I’m not writing this when I’m on the internet I can’t check, but the grant that was online has filled up. I have the money in the bank and it’s just waiting there for my next materials purchase. Thanks to everyone who donated!

Check out some pics from the first day here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee/FirstDayOfWork02#

My First Week of Construction

2008-11-26T01:50:00.002-04:00

Pictures and story coming soon!

Starting Work

2008-11-26T01:49:00.002-04:00

Last Wednesday (which by now it wasn’t actually last Wednesday, but Wednesday, November 12^th…man how time flies) I went to the hardware store to get our first round of materials for the project. It was a rather stressful experience, but everything worked out.

First, I went to the bank to pick up my debit card so I could do the transaction without cash. Unfortunately, the debit card was not ready. There was some miscommunication between the bank and one of my friends who also went there to open up a bank account. Since we are starting work on Monday, I couldn’t wait for the debit card, and had to decide that I would do the transaction in cash. First, I would go to the hardware store to know the amount of money I would have to withdraw.

So, from there I went to the hardware store, without cash, to purchase materials. After finding everything I needed and getting a quote, I went back to the bank to withdraw the money that I needed. Since I was going to have such a large sum of money, I decided to travel from the bank in a taxi; I wasn’t risking public transit.

I then successfully purchased the first bunch of materials, for around RD$107,000, or US$3,060 to get the project going. It would be next day delivery, for about US$25.

Without a flaw, the goods arrived the next day. After a little bit of arguing, we decided where we would store all the materials. I preferred the locked warehouse in a separate part of the community, closer to where we would be working. Other people preferred putting materials out in the open next to a house, where they would be better watched, since stuff had been robbed in the past from the warehouse. Also, a close friend offered the use of his truck for free to transport tubes and materials closer to the worksite every morning. This would come to be a minor problem. I try to let them make most of the decisions themselves, so out in the open next to the house was were we put the materials. Since there are pretty much always people around, and the location next to the house was actually pretty hidden behind shrubs and stuff, I decided it would be ok.

So far, pretty much everything is well and nothing has gotten stolen. We have however decided to begin using the warehouse. This is because the second day of work, the owner of the truck told me that there was no gas, and wanted to know who was going to pay for it. I told him he was because that was what I thought the deal was. I told him I didn’t put money in the budget for it and I couldn’t be using project money for stuff that wasn’t in the budget. I ended up giving a little money, since not only is he transporting pipes, but also helping with some technical masonry and concrete work. I told him in the future I will not pay, and that we would be storing everything the warehouse. Other community members seem to be in agreement with me now. We’ll see what happens. The other day we got a shipment of pipes and it was raining. If the truck went down into the lower part of the community where the warehouse is, it wouldn’t have been able to get back up, so guess where we put them…yep, outside next to someone’s house. Let’s see how long it takes them to get into the warehouse, if ever.

I Love Luxury

2008-11-26T01:19:00.002-04:00

So right now I'm staying at the house of a USAID employee for Thanksgiving. They are a lovely couple and are very welcoming and nice, for letting 6 volunteers stay in their home for the better part of a week.

The reason for this is because I'm part of the Thanksgiving committee. I will be baking desserts with some friends for our Peace Corps Thanksgiving celebration for about 200 or so people. My group is in charge of making 25 pecan pies and countless chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The cookies that I eat as we go along are countless as well.

So, just a small list of the luxurious things I love:

Hot Water - Not only is there hot water in the shower, but also in every sink and faucet in the house. My most frequent encounters with hot water in this country are attachments to the shower head which heaten up the water really quickly as it comes out. Not very efficient, and not very hot. I'm pretty sure I took off a layer of skin in my shower tonight.
Air Conditioning - This is on my list, but I actually haven't used it yet. Temperatures are pretty comfortable right now, but just knowing that it is there in case it gets hot is very comforting.
A kitchen with two sinks - When you're cooking 25 pies and a lot of cookies, two sinks come in handy...even when you have a dishwasher (the machine, not a person) as well.
Reliable electricity - The power never goes out...or at least it hasn't yet.
Good food - Our dinner the first night were these amazing bean-filled taquito things with salsa...I ate 6. The second night: homemade chicken pot pie. I'm not sure if I have ever actually eaten one of these in my life, but it was amazing. I had three slices. Tomorrow is spaghetti and meatballs. I can't wait.
Wifi - Last but certainly not least. Wifi is one of my favorite things in the world.
Security guards - Ok, I must admit I don't think I've ever had this luxury before, and don't know how necessary it really is, but it's nice knowing that if a burglar comes to rob my house and my security system malfunctions, I have a guy with a big gun there to protect me.

Also I would like to inform everyone that I now have less than one year left of my Peace Corps service. November 21st of next year is my tentative last day. I hope that I always think of the above items as luxuries, and not just ordinary, as these things will be making their way back into my regular life. I dare you to just go one day without internet, or hot water, or even a shower. You will appreciate it so much more the next day.

Check out a new post below about the elections. It didn't show up at the top and I don't want you guys to miss it.

Also, I think my fundraising grant that I had up the link for finally filled up. I went to check how much money I still had to raise the other night and it didn't show up online. This usually means that it has been filled. I haven't confirmed it with PC staff yet so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. Your thank you cards will be arriving later, not sooner. I'm going to wait until someone visits me or until I make another visit home since I can't really trust the mail system here. Thanks again and sorry for all the begging!

Hopefully in between my pie baking tomorrow I can get a quick post up about my first week of work.

Sorry for all the grammar mistakes again...I feel like I should proofread this stuff more, but I'm writing it on the fly. It's almost 2 in the morning here and I was shopping for thanksgiving stuff and baking all day.

Peace.

Oh wait...one last thing. I bought myself an early Christmas gift. For our Thanksgiving shopping, we went to this place called Price Mart. Basically like a Sam's Club or Costco. You'll never guess what they had there. Big boxes of goldfish crackers. I bought three. That was the only time I have seen them in this country and I had to take advantage of it. They were US$8.30 a piece, and were worth every peso. Being in the Christmas spirit of giving, I shared one of my boxes with about 10 other volunteers on our way back from the store in the back of the big Jeep. It made me happy knowing that other people were enjoying them just as much as I was. Ok, well probably not as much as I was, but close.

Will Have Full Post Soon

2008-11-15T15:32:00.002-04:00

Sorry...I've been really busy since I received my first chunk of money.

I start construction on the aqueduct on Monday the 17th. Wish me luck.

I will have a more detailed post in about a week or so. Also I will be in the capital for a week during Thanksgiving, so I'll have regular internet access then.

Bye.

Change We Need

2008-11-05T01:31:00.001-04:00

This post is long overdue. I wrote some of it the night of the elections, saved it, and then promptly forgot about it. I finished some stuff up immediately before posting it.

So I think for the first time in my life I can say that I'm proud to be an American. I just watched Barack's speech, and needless to say, it was so inspirational, for all Americans. He is the change we need. For the past eight years the United States has been, well I don't think I need to go into specifics since all of you have lived through it, but it wasn't that good.

From now, and into the future, I think the world will have a different attitude toward the US. I can pinpoint the exact moment where I was losing confidence in our nation, back in 2002-03 or so, but this is a huge change that was necessary, and will not only change the American people's view of America, but also the world's view of America.

I must admit I was a little sad watching Obama's speech in Chicago, from far away in the DR, even though if I had been there, I probably wouldn't have been in Grant Park. It would have just been a little different feel. Although, I must say that being in a foreign country, the whole feeling is completely different.

It's amazing to already feel a different attitude of Dominicans toward me. On plenty of occasions I will have random people come up to me and tell me congratulations. We'll then have a small discussion on who I voted for. I tell them Obama (I'm not gonna lie...I didn't really vote, but for all intensive purposes, my vote went to Obama. I'm from Chicago. My vote wouldn't have counted. Barack was going to win. Please don't scold me) and in somewhat disbelief, they are surprised that a white guy in the states would vote for this black dude to run their country.

So anyways. Yeah, I like Barack. But I must say, in no way whatsoever is the Peace Corps associated with this opinion. This is my opinion, and my opinion only.

Si, se puede.

November...Fall is arriving...but really it's just hot and rainy

2008-11-04T13:44:00.005-04:00

Just wanted to post a little update on how things have been going for the past month that I haven’t posted.

I’ve gotten used to life here again after my little respite in the US. I’ve been comfortably enjoying the undeveloped world with bucket baths and no AC.

On the project front, there is still no physical evidence of work being done, as I’m still in the search/wait for resources. I know I’ve said this before, but I really am on the cusp of getting money. RD$150,000 has been promised from a foundation with which my boss has really close ties. This money should be arriving any day now. With this amount of money I will be able to buy tools, tubes, and other materials to get the project started. Finally, we will be able to start the more physically demanding work that the project entails. In the meantime, I will continue following up on leads for more money. The local government, after going back and forth for a few months, has finally promised money starting in January. Through the grapevine I’ve heard I will be getting a total of RD$300,000 in installments starting then. Also, when my online grant fills up, which I know all you reading this have so graciously donated to, I will receive that US$5,000, or RD$165,000 to buy more project materials.

I know I have been begging for a while now, but please, if you know of anyone that might even be slightly interested, even with $5 or $10, any amount will help. Please send the link out to all of your friends and relatives. If all of you just cooked dinner at home one day instead of going out to eat and donated that difference, this grant would fill up quickly.

Hopefully before the year ends we will be able to get a few weeks of work in. I will be spending almost a week in the capital for Thanksgiving, and another few days in the beginning of December in a conference for 1 year in service training. We will also be taking several weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s as that’s what people who live in the campo here do. But from January onward we will be working hard to complete what I came here to do, which is bring running water to the community.

Beyond my water project, I am also starting a few smaller side projects to help the community out.

I will be starting a youth group to educate those in their early teens to mid-twenties to make healthy decisions. The group is called “Escojo Mi Vida” or “I Choose My Life.” It’s a Peace Corps wide program which aims to educate the youth about HIV/AIDS and other related themes which rarely, if ever, are discussed in school here.

Also, I will be starting to give English classes. This I’m not really looking forward too. All other volunteers have told me that this is one of the least rewarding things that you can do here. I decided against my better judgment after I received more than a few requests for me to do it. Hopefully it will be a little more rewarding for me since a lot of people in my community work in the tourism industry, and even if they know a little English, they will have better opportunities.

Last but not lease I will be working with my local woman’s group in educating them about business and health. I am scheduled to work with them on the 16^th of November, together with my friend, to teach them how to make Mistolin, a floor cleaning product, which they can then sell and make a profit. There will be more activities like that in the future.

That’s it for now. I will have my eyes glued to the television tomorrow tonight watching history be made.

UPDATE:

I called my boss yesterday, the day I wrote the above post, and he said he was on his way to my community to give me the check. This morning I went with my project partner to deposit the RD$150,000 from La Fundacion ADEMI. This Saturday we have a community-wide meeting to inform them about everything that is going on with the project: food, work brigades, what's expected from them, etc. Our tentative start date is November 16th. Wish me luck. After a year of work, I finally get to get down and dirty and really do some work.

This however does not mean that you should stop looking and begging all your friends and relatives for money for me. I just found out recently that a matching gift from the company my brother works for was denied due to some tax reasons. This means that I now have US$1790 left to raise instead of US$490.

www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-263

Peace.

Back in the Dominican Republic

2008-10-08T11:34:00.002-04:00

After two weeks in the States, I made it back to the DR last night. My flight go in at 7:05, I was through customs and everything by 8, and at the Hub by 8:30.

Some observations about the DR after having been gone for a little while:

The hassle of everything. I didn't have my residency card because I went to get it too soon before I left. Instead I got a letter authorized by the Peace Corps saying to waive the reentry fee of $10. I had to go back and forth between these two lines about 5 times and in the end I had to end up paying it. Peace Corps better reimburse me.
People trying to rip you off if you are perceived to be a tourist. I called a reputable cab company as soon as I got out of customs and they told me the fare was RD$400, and the cab was on the way. In the meantime I figured I'd ask some of the airport taxis how much the fare was. They told me RD$600. After seeing that they weren't getting any fares from anyone he told me he would drive me for RD$500. I said a cab was already on it's way for me and I was paying RD$400. He then told me he would take me for RD$400. Why not just tell me the right price in the first place. Sure there is the lure of making more money, but this guy didn't end up making any money, so it was his loss. My cab arrived after about 15 minutes and I was on my merry way, with 200 extra pesos in my pocket.
The dirtiness. I think I had just gotten used to the uncleanliness before I left and didn't even realize it was here. One of my first observations in the States was just how clean everything was. Here it is just dirty. Not intolerably dirty, but dirtier than the US.
People drive crazily. I actually like this aspect of it here most of the time though. Traffic would be so much better in the States if people just grew a pair and didn't leave 3 car lengths between themselves and the car in front of them.
They put ketchup on sandwiches. I had my first sandwich today since being back, and there was ketchup on it. It adds for a lovely flavor. I'm pretty sure though that if you went to Subway in the States and asked for ketchup they would just give you a weird look.
Last, but definitely not least, its so freakin' HOTTT! Luckily my cab had air conditioning. But the Hub does not. I was soaked from head to toe in about 10 minutes. I showered because I was nasty and smelly after a day of carrying bags through airports and whatnot. After about 10 minutes more, I was all full of sweat once again. And this was nighttime. So far today I have been in the AC the whole time. I'm going to try and keep it that way for as long as I can. With that said, I still prefer the heat and humidity to the cold.

All this is just part of life here. A different life from the US, but enjoyable nonetheless. So those are my first few observations after getting back in the country. I'll keep you updated if there is anything else interesting I notice.

The States

2008-10-08T11:11:00.002-04:00

The past two weeks I was in the US for a little respite from the DR. I used some of my annual vacation leave in order to go home and see friends and family, and just to enjoy all the loveliness the States have to offer.

I was picked up at O'Hare airport after a little while thanks to my sister Lisa, even after a little bit of waiting due to some miscommunication, and my lack of a cell phone. For my first meal I chose Portillo's. But instead of getting a beef or hot dog, I opted for the chopped salad. I just really had a taste for it.

Some other highlights of the two weeks included seeing my sister, brother-in-law and their two kids after not seeing them for a year; a little reunion of friends and family the first Sunday I was home; hanging out at my friend Denise's new condo (thanks to her I'm able to be writing this post right now!); a Beck concert at the Aragon (the show itself wasn't that great, but hanging out was); visiting all my old coworkers at CBBEL and finally just enjoying all the great food and hot water that is available (also drinking water that comes out of the faucet).

I should have made a little scorecard for how many times I ate a hot dog, pizza or tacos. Those were pretty much my three main food groups for the trip. I just can't get a good hot dog in the DR like I can in the States, so I had to take advantage.

Things I'm going to miss about being home:
- Family and Friends
- Food
- Cleanliness and being clean
- Hot water
- Constant availability (and reliability) of internet (already during typing this post my internet connection has failed multiple times)
- Personal space

With all that said, I was sad to leave home, but I'm also happy to be back in the DR.

Thanks

2008-09-03T15:50:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far to my project. Even a little bit goes a long way. I'm getting closer and closer to securing more funds so that I will be able to finally start the aqueduct. Once work has started I will be sure to update and have picture on how all the work is going. Without a computer updates might be more infrequent, but I will try my best.

All These Hurricanes

2008-09-03T15:29:00.001-04:00

So right now we're coming into what is the most active part of hurricane season, and man is it really showing. We already had Fay and Gustav pass by us. Where I live it wasn't that bad, just some rain and wind. As I mentioned in the last post, Hanna is throwing some rain and wind our way right now, and I'm stuck in the capital for it. She's supposed to be moving out of our way pretty soon, but man is she huge, her outer bands stretch out super far. If you look at the satellite photos she's like twice the size of Gustav.

After that Ike and Josephine may be coming my way. Wish me luck!

A Lot Has Happened

2008-09-02T17:34:00.003-04:00

So a lot has happened in the past month that I have not blogged.

And the reason I have not blogged is....duh duh duh...I was robbed and my computer was stolen.

So now I am not able to pre-write my blog posts and post them when I'm online, and I feel like anytime I'm online I'm really rushed and I never have time to actually sit and write anything. So if you thought my grammar was bad before, just wait for what's ahead, because I'm writing all this on the fly.

I basically hit a low point after the robbery. I'm fine, I didn't get beat up or hurt in any way, but my computer was stolen. I also lost a cell phone a few pesos in the ordeal, but I have realized that my life is more important than the computer.

Ok...so I have to leave. This post will be continued...

Everything is fine now though and life is sweet, so don't be worried about me in the meantime.

So I'm back. I've gotten "standfasted" in the capital because of all the storms that are here and coming this way. It's kind of ironic because I'm never in the capital, but I was asked to come to give a presentation to the new training group who came in, and now I'm stuck here for a few days. Standfasted basically means I can't travel. So, this means I have to stay in the capital until Peace Corps says we can leave, even though I only brought enough clothes for one day. I really dislike the capital, but I guess I have to make myself enjoy it.

Anyways, back to the robbery. Basically I got in a car to go to the city, and after I was in it for a few seconds they started grabbing at my bags telling me it was to make me more comfortable. I demanded that they let me out, so they stopped the car on the highway where no one was at, and grabbed my computer bag from around my neck and I tried to get it back, but they threatened me with a gun so I let them just take it. I didn't actually see a gun and I really don't think they had one, otherwise they would have gotten everything else on me, but when I had to make that split second decision it wasn't worth risking it. So in the few minutes I was in the car they managed to get my glasses (which were in the front pouch of my backpack), my cell phone, 250 pesos (which is only like $7), and worst of all, my computer. Luckily they didn't manage to steal my other backpack which had my wallet with credit cards and stuff, $100 US cash, and my USB drive will all my stuff backed up, like my design for the aqueduct and everything. So all in all it was good that I didn't get hurt or anything, and now my load is just a little lighter when I travel around.

So yeah, I'm all safe now, but if anyone one wants to donate an old laptop to me I probably wouldn't refuse.

Nothing New

2008-08-04T14:12:00.000-04:00

So I feel like I'm starting every blog entry with a sorry for not having blogged in so long. This one is no different. My days are just all pretty much the same and there's nothing really that exciting to blog about. So, sorry. I'm still looking for funding for the aqueduct (come on you guys...I'm counting on you!)

I actually do have one thing to blog about, and I'm not sure why exactly I haven't until now. I guess in the post-visitor depression I just didn't feel that motivated to write anything. The post-visitor depression wasn't too bad though because I'm coming back to the states pretty soon for a visit, so I knew that I would be seeing them all again fairly soon. 51 days from now to be exact. So now to the story about our nice, week-long gringo vacation.

My mom, dad, my sister Lisa and her boyfriend, my brother, my cousin cheryl, my friend Julie and family friends Cathy and Ed all came to the Dominican Republic to visit me for my 24th birthday. We decided it would be best to stay at an all-inclusive resort since there were so many people coming.

First and foremost, I had to decide whether I would go straight to the hotel where we would be staying or to the airport. I decided on the airport, because that way I would be able to spend an extra hour or so with everyone. I didn't know exactly how I was going to get to the airport (or to Punta Cana for that matter) and my family was a little worried. I told them not to be as I often go to places that I don't know how to get to, yet on the majority of occasions I end up where I need to be, and on time as well. My luck didn't run out that day either, and I arrived there an hour early, and sat like a bum with all my bags waiting for them to arrive. I looked like a bum because the grand majority of the people flying into the Punta Cana airport are all-inclusive travelers, who immediately after landing go right to the air-conditioned bus and get swept away to the hotel. After many emotional hugs and greetings, we went to our bus and were on our way to the hotel.

On the way to the hotel I shared some mandarin oranges (freshly picked the day before) with my family and the tour guide lady. She told us it was the first time that she had ever eaten on a bus bringing people from the airport.

We arrived at the hotel, began check-in, ate lunch, and at 3 pm our rooms were finally ready. I had shared a mandarin orange with our check-in lady, and I'm pretty sure she took that into account when assigning our rooms. It turned out that my brother and I were given a suite with a living room and everything, and my sister and her boyfriend even got a suite with a hot tub and ocean view. Unfortunately, before going to our rooms we did not know anything about the suites, and David and I gave our room to Cheryl and Julie so they could be closer to Lisa and Pat. So now, Cheryl and Julie had the suite and Dave and I were stuck in a regular room. Oh well...'tis life. I'm sure Julie and Cheryl enjoyed the room more than Dave and I would have. The suite also only had 1 king size bed, and I've shared a bed with my brother before, and I would really rather not do that again. Ok...enough of that. Oh yeah...my parents and their friends got stuck in some rooms super far away from us on the top floor. The rooms were more recently constructed though so they were a little nicer.

Now on to some funny things that happened during the week. I probably only can remember a few now since they're the ones that stick out the most, but if you guys remember anything else, please let me know and I'll post it here, or you can post it in the comments yourself.

1. My sister getting pooped on by a bird. We were sitting out in the wide open, not even under any trees or anything. Had that bird decided to poop a few milliseconds later, instead of the poop landing on her chest, it would have landed on her face or head...now that would have been funny.

2. My brother and cousin getting pooped on by a peacock. We were sitting at lunch, and little did we know that there was a peacock up above us in the rafters. All of a sudden we heard a big splash, and the poop splashed up and landed on my brother and cousin. Haha.

3. Bowel issues. I won't mention any names, but I'm pretty sure that our of the 10 people there, only 2 or 3 did not have any loose stools. This made for some funny moments throughout the week, including but not limited to sharts and frantic runs to the bathroom. For one of us, the sharts were the souvenir that kept on giving and followed them back to the states.

4. Again, not mentioning any names, but one of us negotiated a Dominican hooker for a French tourist. It doesn't sound funny right now, but if you knew the whole story you'd definitely be laughing.

5. Zip-lining, and Julie getting stuck in the middle on the first one. Also, the Dominican guide who said, "Don't open your legs or you'll be on our face." Sadly, the entire group started laughing and the Dominican did not understand why. I have unfortunately been on the receiving end of those laughs way to many times as a result of not knowing the language intricacies.

6. Getting beach chairs in *&%^#-City. You can imagine what word is blurred out if you just know that a lot of the tourists at the resort are European, and what the sunbathing and swimming habits are of those Europeans.

I know there were a lot more funny things as we spent the whole week laughing, but I just can't think of them right now. I'll update if I think of more.

Also, many thanks to my friends and family who went out of their way to come visit me for my birthday, and also to those who spent all their money on supporting the poor Peace Corps Volunteer for the week. Thanks, you know who you are!!!

That's it for now...see you all in 50 days.

Aqueduct Funding Link

2008-07-08T14:22:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. Now is the time that I humbly ask everyone for whatever help they can give in order to bring to realization my aqueduct. I need to raise US$5000 from all my friends and family back home. I'm finding another US$20,000 or so from other sources. Please donate whatever you feel comfortable with. Even the smallest amount will help. Also please let other family and friends know

I do not receive any of the money until the complete amount is raised, then the Peace Corps cuts me the check, so it will. I'm still waiting on other funding sources, so I can't start until I have at least a little money to start buying tools and tubes.

This may be the only time in your life that you will directly see results of money you are contributing somewhere. I promise to keep updating my blog with progress and pictures of all the work that is done. Also, the invitation is also open to have visitors if you want to see the project firsthand.

If anyone you know would like to contribute in larger amounts than $5,000, please pass them along my contact information, because once my $5,000 is reached, the project closes and you can no longer donate online.

Thanks in advance for all your help, and I promise to keep updating until the aqueduct is finished.

Here is the funding link:

Donate to Kevin's Project or https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-263

And All That Jazz (Insert Jazz Hands Here)

2008-07-08T11:12:00.002-04:00

So as usual when staying over in Santiago, you only plan on staying one night, but somehow the Hub is a black hole, and it usually sucks you in for at least one more night that you hadn't planned for. In keeping with this tradition, four of us from the previous night decided to stay an extra night, plus Rob (the guy with the cast on his foot) was coming to stay at the Hub since his friend from the States had a flight home early in the morning, so we'd get to celebrate his birthday then too.

We had planned on making fajitas, but we had to run a few errands. Thanks to the owner of the Hub, he gladly drove us around in his cool jeep. He told us about a jazz concert that they have every Monday night at the Gran Teatro del Cibao, and told us if he wanted to go he would take us. We said yes. Time flew by when we were running errands, and it got pretty late and so we did not have the time to make fajitas. We ordered Dominoes pizza instead and ended up paying RD $250, which I thought was not cool since we had a feast the night before for that price. Dominoes was still good and I made guacamole too, so that made it even better.

After dinner it was off to the jazz concert. The place was really good and it was in the little jazzy lounge. The Hub owner all bought a glass of wine. Much thanks goes out to him for his kindness and hospitality to all Peace Corps Volunteers. The jazz was amazing. I forgot how much I love going to little places and listening to live music. They did a few numbers that weren't really jazzy persay, including some Alicia Keys, Vanessa Carlton, Coldplay, and an awesome cover of a Santana song. They also did a really cool jazz version of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. They also had some pretty awesome jam sessions. I'm glad I stayed an extra night at the Hub, otherwise I would have missed out on all this radness.

Only 5 more days until my family and friends come for our week in Punta Cana...Yay gringo vacation!

Peace.

Birthday Party

2008-07-08T11:12:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday we celebrated my birthday, along with my friend Maryam's birthday, at the Hub in Santiago, the hostel where I stay at when I come to Santiago. We were also supposed to be celebrating our friend Rob's birthday too, but unfortunately he tore a ligament or something in his ankle and had to stay an extra day in the capital to get it casted.

Even though my birthday isn't until the 15th and Maryam's the 16th, we (well really, I) decided we should celebrate early since I would be in Punta Cana on my birthday with some family and friends, and having our celebrations before that would pass a few of the days until then a better than having to spend them at my site.

On the menu for dinner was chili, made by me. For RD $250 we all got chili, unlimited beer and cake. It was well worth it.

An awesome time was had by all, and we even played flip cup, with the standard, red, college style solo cups. We may have broke our bank accounts to buy the "official" cups, but it was well worth it. My team's name was called "barrigas afuera" which means bellies outside, or something to that effect. In keeping up with the team name, I had my barriga afuera, and the score was kept on my belly. Pictures should be surfacing shortly. The other team name had a pretty lame name, called the Darkies because they had been to the beach and were tan. Halfway through the game they changed their name because they realized how lame it was. Their new name escapes me right now, but I'm pretty sure it was something just as lame. Oh, and my team won the competition.

After that it was more drinking games. It was one of the most fun nights I have ever had at the Hub, which doesn't surprise me because anytime flip cup is played, it's a guaranteed fun night. Thanks to Maryam for coming up with the idea to play.

Fourth of July

2008-07-08T11:11:00.001-04:00

For 4th of July there was a group of about 70 volunteers going to this deserted beach in the south of the country. For some reason I just wasn't feeling it, and I decided that I wasn't going to go. I really wish I felt like it, because I knew it was going to be a ton of fun. A few people got very close to convincing me on several occasions, but when it came down to it, I ended up not going. When I think deserted beach, I think peace and relaxation, not 70 peace corps volunteers.

Instead of going there, I hung out with a good friend Kira who I have not hung out with awhile. First I accompanied her in running errands around the province because she is doing a birth certificate campaign and she needed to run around to a few different government offices. We also went grocery shopping so we could buy ingredients for our 4th of July "BBQ". What was on the menu you asked? Hamburgers, corn on the cob, and a pico de gallo salsa. All good 4th of July foodstuffs. While I was making the salsa, Kira prepared and cooked the burgers in a frying pan on the stove because unfortunately we did not have a grill. Everything about the 4th was nice and tranquilo for me and I'm glad I decided to not go to the beach. We even saw a really big shooting star which was like our fireworks. Also, the people who went down to the beach didn't get to camp out because it was turtle mating season. They all had fun anyways, and I know I would have had fun if I had went, but I guess I'll have to wait for next year.

Another Day in the Life of Me

2008-06-28T15:49:00.001-04:00

So it's been a long time since I had a real, serious update. I should have updated during my week and a half when I had regular access to internet, but instead I only updated on my Thizz face, which is doing pretty well in the rankings by the way. Now's the time when I'm going to give you another peak at a day in my life...

The other day I went with the treasurer of the water committee collecting the monthly quota of RD $30. This money is used for necessary expenditures of the committee, and so in the future, when something goes wrong with the aqueduct, there is a fund to buy materials to make repairs. The RD$30 is very minimal and is a fairly easy sum of money to acquire, even for the poorer families. It's equivalent to less than US $1. I would have never imagined that getting this monthly money paid would be such a hassle, but apparently it is, and that's why the treasurer wanted my help, because having my presence there would motivate the people to give the money since they are more unless intimidated by having the "ingeniero" (engineer) there. I'm pretty sure it's the only time in my life that I'll ever be intimidating. For that reason, it's not usually advisable that the volunteer helps in collecting the quota, because when the project's over and I leave, I won't be there to intimidate the people, and the people will stop paying the quota. For sustainability purposes, that is a big no no.

Against my better judgment (and my laziness) I said yes for this one time, as it would give me the opportunity to see people I haven't seen in a while and be able to explain to everyone individually what is going on with the project, and that we are on the verge of receiving funding. I already explained to my Doña though that this would probably be the only time that I would do it, and she understood why.

The treasurer and I agreed on a time and date at the water committee meeting earlier in the week, that I would meet him at his house on Saturday the 23rd at 2PM. I'm still learning the difference between American time and Dominican time, and for what occasions which time applies, as it is usually not specified. I tend to always stick to American time, unless I'm feeling especially lazy or tired. So I arrived at the guy's house at 2, and surprisingly he was pretty much ready, although he told me that he wasn't expecting me until 3, since he had just got done with his work in the field and wanted to rest, but that we would go do it anyways. I guess I still have a lot more learning to do about this time difference.

The next few tidbits are going to be random bits of conversations that were had. Two of the major themes that were pretty much discussed at every house were how hot it is and how fat I am.

Dominicans never get tired of talking about the weather. Whether it is cloudy, sunny, cold, drizzling or whatever, Dominicans can go on for a while just talking about the meteorological state of things. Luckily for us it's summer, and even though Dominicans know they live on a Caribbean island where it's hot all year round, summer is especially hot and they love to mention it to everyone they pass by on the street or whoever it is they're talking to. I liken it to us in Chicago talking about how cold it is in the winter, even though we know every winter it gets really cold. Although, in Chicago it makes more sense to me to talk about it because there are actual seasons. Unlike here where it is only hot and hotter. (Save for some nights when I wear my hoodie). Needless to say, one of the first things mentioned at each house we went to was how hot it was.

Then, the second topic of conversation was usually about how fat I got. Let's just say that I'm glad I'm not a girl and don't really care about my figure, and damn it, I'm gonna enjoy my two years here. I'll worry about my figure later. I'll make the Dominicans happy and let them revel in how fat they made me. We'll leave it at that. Wait...no...I have a story to tell. The other day I was in Santiago and I went to this one story, which I would liken to an outlet store like TJ Maxx or Marshall's, but about 50 times messier. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it looked like a herd of cows ran through the store. Anyways, my friend was there to get a pair of flip flops for someone in her community, so I figured I would just look around as well. I miraculously found a really cool pair of jeans I liked, and they were only RD $400 (US$12). I went and got what I though was my size (34) and tried them on. Man was I busting out of these bad boys. Fortunately, I was able to find a size 36 and they fit perfectly. Now I'm just telling myself that I didn't gain two inches on my waist, but that these jeans are in this store because they weren't made correctly since this is the outlet store where all the reject clothes go from the factories here. I'll keep telling myself that for now. Now, we'll leave it at that.

At the first house I went to the people started talking about a guy who was sick in the community. What I got from the conversation was that he had amoebas and he was feeling rather shitty. They were talking amongst themselves, and what they suggested as a remedy was a juice made of garlic and carrots, warm, and preferably with milk too. Now, I'm all about the remedies, but I'm pretty sure that that isn't going to do anything for amoebas. Later on I did find out however that he did go to the doctor, which was good, and they did give him some pills, but they were still fighting on whether or not he should take them because they didn't know if they were the right kind.

Another thing that happened at almost everyone's house is that the people paying wanted to look at the book where it says who has paid, and how many months have been paid by that person. It was funny how everyone would always comment on this one guy who has only paid one month so far. They would also sit and comment about like every person, being like, "oh yeah, he's a good guy, I knew he'd pay a lot...or...he's not good for anything, figures he only paid up till January." Hopefully this will be used for public shaming later so that the people who are behind on their payments will get up to date.

The last funny thing that happened was at one of the last houses that I went to. They were asking how my "girlfriend," was doing, the one I keep around so that they don't hassle me into finding one in the community for me. I got to saying that she was doing pretty well, but that she was in the states right now on vacation. They then asked me what I was going to do in the meantime, and if I had a backup one for this time when she was gone. I told them that she was only gone for two weeks, and that no I did not have another one for while she was gone. They found this unacceptable. I'll now have to remember to never tell people that my "girlfriend" is away.

All in all, it was a good day. I came home with a pineapple, these really cool oranges that were green and yellow striped (don't ask how they got that way), and some mangos. Also, I received several cups of coffee and juice. Sometimes it gets annoying to me how the culture here is relaxed and slow-moving, although be it rarely, but today it was a nice afternoon, spending "un ratico" (a little bit) sitting and talking with the people at each house we visited.

Thizz Face

2008-06-07T16:43:00.005-04:00

So I've been with some of my friends for a few days in Santiago, and we've been using the internet way too much. This leads to us doing really random things and just finding the most random sites.

Anyways, one of my friends asked me if I knew what a thizz face was. She proceeded to explain to me and showed me pictures. No it's not dirty, here is what urbandictionary.com says:

"thizz face is when you make a face like you smell some piss"

So we were bored and my friend Stacey and I made a thizz face. We also posted it on www.ratemythizzface.com

If you're bored and care to rate our thizz face, click here http://www.ratemythizzface.com/rate/687 link and vote.

I also encourage everyone to put their own thizz faces online so I could laugh at you.

When You Comin Home Son I Don't Know When...

2008-05-29T10:58:00.003-04:00

We'll be together then. You know we'll have a good time then.

So I just booked my flight home for my two week whirlwind visit to the states. I'm coming home on September 23rd and will be leaving on October 7th. Mark your calendars.

My reason for coming home then is because it will be over a year since I've seen some of my family and friends. Also, it still won't be freezing cold (although since 60˚F is now cold to me, I'm sure when you see me I will be wearing my gloves, scarf and winter coat.)

Things I'm going to do when I'm home:

1. Take multiple hot showers every day. At least two, but if I'm at home enough, that number could increase to 3 or 4.

2. Go to Potbelly's for a wreck and a cookie. I had a dream about this the other week and I've been craving it ever since.

3. Eat a good steak.

4. Watch high-definition television with surround sound while surfing the internet...in my underwear.

5. Take public transportation and not drive. I figured I made it for a year in a developing country without driving, I for sure could make it in the developed world for two weeks without driving. Not even to mention the cost of gas. Although I wouldn't mind if someone wanted to volunteer to be my personal chofer.

6. Go to Parisi's Drive In and get one of everything on the menu. Well, maybe not everything, but at least a meatball sandwich, an Italian steak, an Italian beef, and a Chicago hot dog.

That's it that I can think of on my list for now...it's kind of trivial, but yeah...that's life.

Aqueduct Update

2008-05-28T20:00:00.004-04:00

So no, I didn't die after the last post once I was out of the hospital. I've been completely healthy ever since. The reality is that my life for the past few weeks hasn't really been that exciting and there really hasn't been anything to blog about...until now.

We got turned down for our latest grant proposal. We waited for about a month on what seemed like a done deal. The lady at the foundation we met with seemed pretty encouraging and confident that we would get the money we needed, but it didn't turn out that way. She called and basically said we don't fit in their budget for this year, but that we could try again next year.

Now I'm in Santiago working on another grant. And guess where the money comes from? Yep, that's right, all my lovely blog readers and friends and family back in the states. I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this as my friends and family already do so much for me and I didn't want to have to beg for money. But, it will probably be one of the only times in your life that you could donate money and actually see the physical results. All of those who donate will be treated to regular updates on my blog about how construction is going (including pictures).

I just finished the grant and I'm submitting it today, so it should take a few weeks until the project is open for donations. When it is I will post the link and feel free to give whatever amount you can.

In total for this grant I need to raise $5000. I won't see any of that money until the complete $5000 is raised. Also, if you know of any rich people or have connections to any foundations or anything that like to support development projects, let me know of contact information that I can send a formal proposal too. In total the project's cost is around US$25,000.

I also filled out another grant to get around US$6,000 through some fund which supports development projects. Next Wednesday I'm going with my boss and some other volunteers to solicit money from the public water works company which has been supportive in the past. Then the week after that I have a meeting with people in charge of the European Funds, which have been given half of project budgets in the past.

So even though I haven't started the actual construction of the aqueduct, I'm still working, which many people in my community don't seem to understand. I constantly get asked when we are going to start, and I can't really give them a firm answer because I have no idea when we are going to get funding. My project partner totally understands the whole process, but he told me that many people were under the impression that I was going to come in and start construction fairly rapidly, which was never the case. But whatever. Peace Corps has completed I think around 50 aqueducts in this country, and this is a pretty normal schedule for the way things are going.

You Haven't Spent Enough Time in a 3rd World Country Until You've Spent Time in One of Their Hospitals...As a Patient

2008-05-09T09:19:00.006-04:00

Since Tuesday afternoon I've been checked into the Clinica Abreu, one of the good hospitals down here. I never told my family, so we'll see how long it takes for me to get a phone call after they read this.

The day after I posted last, when I was feeling fine, I woke up with a fever of 102. I had to go to the lab for some blood tests, and when I got back to the hostel I basically just slept most of the day so that it would go away. It never did, and around 1 pm I called the doctor and she told me she would come visit me. When she came and visited she told me that she had arranged a room at the hospital and that a driver would be coming to get me soon. I was thrilled!

So just to ease all you worries, the doctor even told me, that what I had isn't something that they would probably ever hospitalize me for in the U.S., it's just that it's easier and more comfortable on my part for me to be there (they have cable tv, air, hot water showers, and free wifi!). Also, I wouldn't have to be taking taxis back and forth from the hostel and the lab. So they were doing hemograms every day, sometimes twice a day, and I was hooked up to an IV with fluids to keep me hydrated.

After completing a multitude of tests, all of them came back negative, so no cool tropical sounding disease like malaria or dengue (or thanks to Natania...the dandy fever...I knew I wasn't feeling that dandy). I just had some other weird unnamed tropical disease.

Now I don't want to jinx it like I did last time, but I'm feeling completely fine, and they told me all of my blood levels are really good, and it's been two days since I've felt fine. To celebrate, I'm planning on going to the only Wendy's here in the DR with some friends. Hopefully it doesn't land me back in here with a myocardial infarction or something, because man, after all this hospital food, you know I'm getting a feast.

Apparently though I need to spend a few more days in the capital which I'm not happy about...I'm really ready to get out of here. I had planned a night at the Hub in Santiago with some friends to cook a big dinner this Saturday, but it looks like I probably won't be making it. Sad day. To add to all this, I need to be back in the capital a month from now for another week of language training, which we need since we're at the 6 month volunteer mark. Whatever...the life of a PCV. Well at least I have a good story about being in a hospital in a 3rd world country that I can tell the kids I'm never having someday.

So it's official...I'm leaving the hospital right now!

Things I've done while in the hospital:

1. Become efficient at surfing the internet again. I am not back up to my pre DR efficiency, but it was getting up there.

2. Become acquainted with all the bad reality shows I hate to love, including but not limited to: Next, Made and the Girls Next Door.

3. Watch reruns of old TV shows, including but not limited to: Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince, Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond.

4. Watch the Chicago WGN channel 9 news at 9 for the past 3 nights

5. Eaten really crappy food, except for one morning when I got frosted flakes

Sick - Update 1

2008-05-06T20:09:00.002-04:00

So after feeling like sunshine yesterday, today I unfortunately woke up with 102 fever. I had to go get my blood drawn, so a driver came and brought me to the lab. I really felt like dump today. After I got my blood drawn I went back to the hostel and just slept the rest of the day. Still no word on the Dengue, but the doctor is pretty certain that's what it is.

Right now I'm feeling pretty much back to normal again though. No fever nor aches or pains. I'll let you know if it's Dengue as soon as I do.

Sick

2008-05-05T13:52:00.002-04:00

So I'll preface this post by saying that I feel pretty good now, so don't start worrying when you're reading the rest of the post.

It all started Wednesday night, into Thursday. I felt really warm in bed, like I had a fever, then I would keep getting the chills, and then the sweats, and body aches and stuff. I woke up on Thursday and took my temperature and it was 101˚F. So I popped some motrin, ate some breakfast and went back to bed. I pretty much slept the whole day, save for lunch and dinner, and about an hour or two after dinner. During the night again on Thursday it was more of the chills and sweats and the fever continued. Friday was pretty much a repeat of Thursday with sleeping the whole day and feeling like poop. Saturday I felt a little better, but still not up to par, and my community was getting a little worried about me, so I told them I'd call my doctor. I called her and she told me the symptoms sounded to her like it could be dengue and that I should come into the capital on Sunday to get some blood tests.

So Sunday morning I woke up nice and early after not getting too much sleep, make my way down to the capital, got my blood tests and checked into my private room at the hostel, complete with air conditioning and cable tv, all paid for by the Peace Corps, or more correctly, you guys, the taxpayers. I wish I had brought my camera so I can show you guys a picture of the room I'm in, not to show you how nice it is, but to show you how cheesy it is. It seriously looks it came from the set of a 70's porn film, not that I've actually seen any 70's porn movies, but this is what I'd imagine them to look like. Or it could be some cheesy motel room. Or maybe a 70's porn that was filmed inside a cheesy motel room...yeah that's it. But the real sad thing is how nice this place actually seems to me. My, how standards have dropped. But it is nice that there are no cocks crowing right outside my window or dogs barking. I've pretty much gotten used to all the animal noises at my site, but when you're sick, they're amplified by about 100 and you want to go out there with a machete and kill them all.

So here I am, it's Monday, I'm feeling a lot better. To celebrate feeling better I walked to McDonalds and got a Big Mac Super Value Meal...supersized. The doctor called me and told me that the results of the Dengue test were not in yet, but that my platelet count was low and that that is usually a sign that it could be Dengue. Tomorrow she wants me to go to the lab again to get my blood drawn to see how my platelets are doing, and also the Dengue results should be in tomorrow as well. I'll keep you all updated on how I'm feeling and if I have some weird tropical disease.

The Water Boy

2008-05-04T14:55:00.003-04:00

This story was written by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer in country, and was published in our Peace Corps DR Magazine, The Gringo Grita. The Gringo Grita is a volunteer-run magazine that publishes stories by volunteers, and other random things related to serving as a Volunteer here in the DR. I typed up below the following story which I found very inspiring and I thought that you all would enjoy it. It was actually the first time that I shed a tear hear. Make sure that you have your tissue nearby. Here it goes:

“As much as prospective Peace Corps Volunteers like to read, inquire, and dream about what their service will be like or what they will be able to accomplish, nothing will ever suffice to replicate the feelings and connections Volunteers experience until they learn for themselves.

I have been in a rural campo in the southwest of the Dominican Republic for just over a year, and my efforts as a Health Extension Volunteer have shown little “statistical” success. Though our experiences are truly about personal connections and augmenting self-discovery among the people with whom we work, as well as within ourselves. One of my greatest successes, thus far, has been just that: a relationship that has developed slowly and unexpectedly, one that infused me with a genuine curiosity to learn more about the way people think and feel about themselves and who they are in their world.

I first met Yilo when I was living with my host family and his gravelly, low-toned, monotonous voice gave me a tweak in my neck. How curiously odd he was: always leaning up against the struts of the doorways, listening to familias talk amongst themselves, and nibbling the end of the rope that he uses to secure his waterbucket to his head.

Yilo is stout, extremely dark skinned, and broadfaced. He is my campo’s water boy, a self-fashioned job. He carries water from the river in a five-gallon bucket balanced on his head, with two one-gallon jugs in each of his hands. He makes this trip to houses in the campo about twelve times a day and gets paid five pesos a trip. Yilo was born in the mountains to a single mother of eight children, who has, for the most part, renounced him.

The children are surprised that Yilo and I are such good friends. He is a smart young man full of positive intention and genuine inquisitiveness. He is a good and loyal friend. His pure innocence is bitterly and sweetly heartbreaking. He brings water to my house for five pesos a gallon and waits to eat my left-over oatmeal with raisins at six-thirty in the morning. He has never asked for more than I offer and never expected it either. I am amazed, when I stop to think, how much distance there is between us most of the time. This difference is the driving force behind our curiosity of one another. Often I am pleasantly surprised when he is my first visitor of the day, and I am interested in what he is thinking and feeling, almost always.

No one that I have met thus far in my community is more dedicated, less-intrusive, or more judicious about his work than Yilo: I have never seen him wear shoes; he works during thunderstorms and when it is dark, bearing the same hole-riddled turquoise polo-che and worn jean shorts. He endures constant teasing, which stems from the Dominican cultural distaste for Haitian-like attributes. He is called crazy for his eccentric mannerisms and awkward voice. I believe though, that the community desperately adores him for the work he does, only they do not know how to embrace him.

Yilo has won my full respect. When I began an acta de nacimiento project with my community members I quickly learned more about Yilo’s blind, fierce determination. Even without understanding the true significance of an acta – without which one cannot attend school past eighth grade, participate in the national health care program, nor enroll in the national food program – Yilo immediately realized the importance of getting his own. He recognized it was the ticket to some sort of “freedom” of opportunity, although most of his neighbors and friends mocked him for the desire to want more for himself. After learning the requirements for the acta, Yilo would pass my house daily, carrying his water, asking me how I could help him get to the pueblo to get his own.

Community member began openly discussing the absurdity of his desire to get an acta. “What would Yilo be able to do in the pueblo?” most of them mocked. And when I would ask Yilo how old he was, Yilo would turn to me with a blank face, as if I could decipher his age. Who really knew? That was, and is, trouble. Even though Yilo has made a way for himself here, where people know him and “love” him, would he be able to make a way form himself outside of this world?

We came to the conclusion that Yilo is twenty-six years old. After several weeks of finagling his mother (who was afraid of the white woman) into giving us her cedula in order to make copies, we found his birth date on a tattered old sheet of paper, tucked away in a plastic bag in her house.

Yilo arrived at my house on the arranged day, at the appointed time, with a freshly shaven head (the wrinkles on his head from the pressure of bucket-carrying, now more pronounced), in a clean polo-che, a clean pair of stone-washed jeans, and wearing tennis shoes. I had never seen Yilo in tennis shoes.

We proudly cruised down the mountain on two motors, one trailing the other. I could feel the grin on my face as I watched Yilo brace himself for the trip. Was it fear, excitement? This is something he had anticipated for a long time. After the commotion of the motorcycles zooming past our final destination, paying the motoconchisto, and fending off the hum of the traffic, I heard Yilo mumble to me under his breath in that very predictable monotone, “Adrianna…Adrianna, I have never been here before.”

I was distracted a bit. “What Yilo?”

He said, “I have never been here before.” In that moment, I felt his innocence. I felt his excitement. He looked at me wide-eyed and was grinning, a little nervous.

“Really, Yilo, you have never been here before?”

He said honestly, frankly, without shame, “No Adrianna, this is my first time in the pueblo.” Time stood still for a moment, and I forgot what I had been thinking: errands I must run while with him, who I must contact in the States now that my cell phone had a signal. My energy was focused on him; he hadn’t left the campo in twenty-six years. Imagine that. TODAY was the day.

After all of the hubbub of figuring out how to get him here, I realized why the whole world was making such a big deal about Yilo’s trip to the pueblo. Why hadn’t anyone told me? Why hadn’t anyone else in the community thought to bring Yilo to the pueblo? Was it for lack of resources, or the fact that the others are so focused on their own needs and desires that no one would stop to think about Yilo? During those first moments of his day in the pueblo, I sat thinking: What had I done in the past twenty-five years of my own life? What had I learned? Where had I been? To place myself in his shoes, in that instant, blew my mind.

Perhaps the community members were right: what would Yilo do in the pueblo? But I began to realize, watching Yilo cross the street by himself and looking to me for guidance, that was not what mattered. This is what he had been waiting for – something new, something different. “Today is a very proud day,” I told him. I was beside myself; Yilo was too. How amazing it was to discover the streets of the pueblo, for the very first time, through Yilo. He was attentive to every moment, alive and alert.

Our experience as Peace Corps Volunteers often befuddles so many people back at home. What can one person really do to help a village of hungry people? How can one young person possibly do anything to help change a peoples’ future? On a grand level, I have asked myself those same questions. When the days are slow and projects seem to be failing due to cross-cultural miscommunication or a lack of self-motivation, I do, indeed, question my own desire to help. But then I remember what it is that teaches me to continue to move forward.

Our job as Volunteers is not to save villages of malnourished children. It never was. We are only catalysts for change: intermediaries. When we work to create opportunity for others, the true joy and responsibility of our service comes to life. Yilo came alive the morning he recognized he had moved beyond a world that seemed stagnant to him. Yilo was a voice that needed to be heard. Who would have known his need if no one had been there to recognize him? The impact of our friendship reverberates within those community members who witness our interactions, despite our differences – the color of our skin; our gender; our ever-so-obvious economic disparity; the sounds of our voices. Perhaps this is what will drive him for the rest of his life, whether or not he ever moves beyond the boundaries of the world from which he came. What can we do to ensure that our efforts are productive?

I feel helpless, though, that he is waiting for ME to be the one standing in line to shift all of the right documents through the judge’s hands in the Oficialia, only to hear her accuse him of being illegal, or previously ill-declared, or God only knows.

His dignity and self-value grows among the members of his community every time a child learns to respect him for his work. His hope is renewed every time he moves one step closer to being a fully documented Dominican citizen. Finally, the government will recognize him as an individual. We must be true to ourselves as humans with hearts that are open to connection and understanding. Yilo still does not have his acta de nacimiento; we are still waiting. I am certain that his dreams for his future are strong, much stronger than they were before. Maybe he will never stop carrying water; years from now he may still go barefoot, walking the muddy streets with a bucket on his head, proudly determined. Perhaps when the opportunity presents itself for him to ‘move forward’ he will have realized that his work is too important, his place in his world too special and too valued, despite the constant controversies he faces. I am almost sure of that. But I do know that his story will have echoed in the lives of so many people, inspiring them to work harder, dream bigger, laugh harder and love deeper. Yilo has made my job effortless in this way. My job now is to continue working for him to guarantee that his story will live on.”

-Adrienne Gilbert
Healthy Families
El Batey, San Juan de La Maguana

I will continue to post stories I like that are published in the Gringo Grita. I already have one lined up. Once I get it all typed up I’ll be sure to post it

Rice Shortage

2008-05-04T14:54:00.002-04:00

I wrote this when I was back at my site about 2 weeks ago. Sorry if the rice shortage is over.

No, there is not a rice shortage here, but apparently I heard that there is a rice shortage in the U.S. I saw it on CNN in Spanish, but I'd imagine that most of you guys reading this have not even heard about it. I haven't seen anything about it on CNN in English yet. Apparently though, Sam's Club and Costco have placed limits on the amount of rice any one customer can buy.

My Doña was the person that was telling me about it. It was quite the interesting conversation. She asked me how much prices were going to raise in the colmados. Hmm, how do I explain to her that there are no such things as colmados in the U.S. Also, how do I explain to her that rice isn't really a staple food for everyone like it is here, so it's not as huge of a problem as if there was one here. I told her that I maybe ate rice once a week back in the states and she couldn't believe it, because here we eat it everyday. I also told her that I thought it was more of the minorities that eat rice more often. Gosh, I probably sound really discriminatory and ignorant on this issue, so please forgive me. Also, forgive give me if it is a bigger problem than I'm making it sound. But anyways, just another little tidbit of my life I thought you might enjoy.

Fetching Water

2008-05-04T14:52:00.001-04:00

First of all, let me explain the title a little further, and tell you why I used the word fetch. The word we use here for when people go to get water is "buscar." I don't have my dictionary near me and I don't feel like going to look up the word, but I'm pretty sure the literal translation is "search for." The verb buscar is also used if you are asking someone to get you something, as in "buscame un vaso de jugo," or "fetch me a glass of juice." (The more I look at the word fetch, the more it is not making sense to me anymore, because dogs fetch, but whatever, I'm rolling with it for now.) So anyways, I didn't want to the title the post "searching for water," because we already know where it is located, we just have to go get it. I also didn't think that "getting water" had a nice enough ring to it. Anyways, enough with the thought processes that go on in my head and on to the actual meat and potatoes of the the story.

After lunch I was playing with the little kids that live near me. We were playing tag, frisbee, they took me to the guava tree to pick some fresh fruit. (By the way, when we were playing tag they were amazed at how fast I ran. They were all saying in Spanish: "ay Kelvin, no sabíamos que tú puedes corre tan rápido así," which translates to, "Kevin, we didn't know you could run so fast like that." This is usually because they see me sitting on the porch reading. Now that I think about it, it probably was the first time I really ran ran at my site here. I play frisbee all the time but usually that only involves jogging. Playing tag is another story. You have to run and escape and what not. So yeah, the fat American guy can run.) After I was all wore out from running around, I took a rest on the porch, and after a few minutes, some other older kids and some of the younger ones came back with gallons in their hands and asked me if I wanted to go to the river with them to get water. I figured sure why not. I hadn't been to the river in a long time, nor in that part of the community, and thought it would be a chance to make my appearance down there and say hi to everyone along the way.

On the way down I had an interesting conversation with some of the boys. The poorer families here still use wood burning stoves as they don't have money to buy the propane. The wood that they use for cooking is called leña. Just like they do with the water, they also have to buscar leña. So the boys were telling me that after we're done with the aqueduct they won't have to buscar water anymore, and that wouldn't it be awesome if we could do a leña project so they don't have to buscar leña anymore either and they would have so much free time. They were even coming up with ideas on how we could go about doing it. We could either go upstream in the river and put all the logs in the river and float them down, or we could build a train-like system. This way, they would only have to go once a month and just cut down a lot of wood at a time, and bring it down through the river or the train, rather than having to do it daily. I could tell they were just joking around, but it was still pretty ingenious of them to be coming up with ideas and stuff.

So we arrived at the river and they filled up their gallons and they were also going to bathe. They asked me if I was going to bathe as well, but I said no, because it had been raining the past couple of days, and the water wasn't that clean looking and I figured that bathing in it was kind of counter productive. I did get my feet wet a little though.

On the way back up we had a discussion about apodos (nicknames) and what mine was. They all know me as Kevin (well really, Kelvin, because that is a more common name here and so they are accustomed to having the L there.) They were all asking me what my other names were. Here in the DR, it is very common to have at least two names. One is your real true name that is on your birth certificate and the other is just the nickname that everyone calls you. I would say that the majority of the times, the nickname is either just another regular name, or something about your appearance. I told them that I didn't have any, but that where I was working back in the states, that people called me K-Sed. Unfortunately, Dominicans can't pronounce that too well, nor do they understand why it's funny because the Dominicans that I live with probably don't even know who Britney Spears is, let alone Kevin Federline. So, I still don't have a nickname here, just Kelvin. I quite certain though that once we start construction on the aqueduct that people will come up with a few.

On the way back I also helped carry some of the water and some of the leña they found along the way. They also knocked down some oranges that aren't exactly ripe yet but were good nonetheless. I showed them how to juggle and they were pretty amazed, though they still haven't learned how to do it with three. They could only do it with two.

So that is your little peak into the lives of the muchachos (younger boys) here.

Still Waiting

2008-04-22T11:39:00.003-04:00

I'm still waiting on funding for the aqueduct. I don't know if I've posted this before and I'm too lazy to go back and check, but the meeting with the local mayor basically fell through. We are now trying to get money through a foundation that is based out of one of the all-inclusive resorts in the area. The money comes from Canada, and the director of the foundation, a lovely Argentinian woman, seemed fairly confident that our grants would be approved. The grant should have arrived in Canada last Friday for review, and a decision would be made in a week or two. If in fact it does get approved, it could take another month after approval till we actually receive the money.

So, things are still pretty slow-going here in the DR with not much to post about. Yesterday I went to the capital to get some vaccinations that I was due for. I spent about 7 hours in transit yesterday just to be in the capital for about 3 hours. Oh well, it was at least on comfortable transportation on a nice big air conditioned bus rather than some crowded car. Now I'm sitting in the BK Lounge (otherwise known as Burger King), surfing on the free wifi which is the fastest I have yet to use in this country. Fast food restaurants in the states should come take a field trip to the fast food restaurants here because here the workers are friendly and the places are always immaculate.

That's it for now.

Kevin´s Family Visits the DR - March 25-31st, 2008

2008-04-19T11:19:00.002-04:00

So here is the long awaited entry written by my mom about their experience visiting me in the DR. It is unedited, save for a few mispellings.

Although we had been to the Dominican twice before, this experience was very different from our prior trips. We had stayed in all-inclusive resorts, which were very nice, but you don't get to really experience the people and the culture that way. This time around, Kevin wanted us to meet his host family and actually get a taste of how he is living. We were excited about the opportunity, and I can honestly say our actual experience for the entire week far exceeded our every expectation. We had such a wonderful, fun time, it was hard to leave when Monday came around. I am going to try to mention some of the most memorable things, and at the same time keep it as brief as possible. (Ya, right!)

First, it was so, so wonderful to see Kevin waving to us through the airport windows. We hadn't seen him for 6 months, and when I finally got to hug him, I just didn't want to let go. I'm sniffling now just remembering that moment.

Very soon after that, we had a taste of transportation in the DR. Yep, there was a car heading in the wrong direction driving down the street head-on right at us. The taxi driver didn't seem to be too bothered by this, so I'm guessing it can't be all that unusual. For the remainder of the week we experienced various form of transportation - each one more fun than the next: guaguas (I just like saying the name), bola rides (hitchhiking on the back of a pick-up - well, there's nothing like it!), and carro publico (no trip to the DR would be complete without this experience - 7 adults squished into a tiny, beat-up car - it doesn't get better than that!) We did not ride on a moto, but that was okay with me. All in all, some crazy driving goes on down there, and that's putting it mildly.

One of the highlights of the week was going to Kevin's site and meeting his host family. They are the most beautiful, generous people we could ever meet. Even with the language barrier, we had a terrific time. Kevin sure got his share of interpreting that day! His host mom Doña Maritza, is a wonderful cook. We all thoroughly enjoyed the delicious meal she prepared for us. A new, mouth-watering experience was habichuelas con dulce (sweet beans) and coffee to die for! As a mom, I left with a sense of comfort knowing that my son is staying with such a wonderful family. I must admit I had a hard time dealing with his decision to join the Peace Corps, but meeting his host family has left me at peace.

The Dominican people, in general, are happy, fun-loving, generous people. Everywhere we went we were greeted with smiles. The people live simply, and I truly felt that "less is more" as we enjoyed the week. What a contrast to the busy, hectic lives we lead "back in the states". I had to throw that line in because it was one of our favorite overused quotes for the week, along with "on a Peace Corps budget", which seemed to be Kevin's favorite line. (haha) And in addition to the Dominican people, the Peace Corp. volunteers are some of the nicest people we have ever met. It was a pleasure to meet some of Kevin's friends - Maryam, Stacey, John, and Rob . . . and Maryam's mom, too!

Some other things that stand out in my mind are the hissing to get your attention, the fingerwagging to say no, and pointing with your lips. I'm glad we had Kevin to explain all of these things to us or we would have been really confused. We also enjoyed the abundance of fresh fruit with my favorites being guayaba and papaya. We enjoyed visiting the HUB and meeting Doug, Molly, and their newborn son. I found the HUB to be a peaceful retreat, and I loved the quotes on the walls.

We spent time at Sosua beach, rode the Teleferico, and became frequent patrons of Yogen Fruz. The most humorous times involved "POWER HOUR" (my first experience - and it actually turned out to be POWER 27 MINUTES because we ran out of beer - but oh, the things you could learn from your children!) and constantly listening to Don (Kevin's dad) talking to everyone in English even thought they didn't have a clue to what he was saying (you'd think he'd catch on, but then again you don't know dad!)

I think the only things I would have a hard time getting used to were - #1 the LITTER everywhere, #2 not flushing toilets, and #3 maggi bites - I ended up with about a dozen on my legs and I thought I could surely scratch with a rake, or even razor blades, and still not feel relief.

I mean this sincerely (and I know I speak for Kevin's dad and sister, Lisa, as well) - this was one of the best weeks of my life. I am grateful to have had this experience in the Dominican Republic. I would not have traded this week for a free week at a resort, and I'm not kidding. I have a lot of respect and admiration for all of the Peace Corps volunteers.

Spider Under My Mosquito Net

2008-04-12T18:53:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty sure everyone that knows me at all knows that I'm not a big fan of spiders. I didn't like them back in the states, and here they are larger and even more scary, therefore increasing my not liking them. The only good thing about them is that they eat mosquitoes and other little pest bugs. Depending on my mood, I will often just let them live in my room undisturbed as they pretty much know their territory and will keep away from me. My leaving them be also has to do with the fact that I hate squashing them, because the ones here are all juicy and big, and I'd almost rather live with the fear of them being in my room, rather than the nasty sound and crunch upon impact of a shoe or whatever the weapon may be.

Ok, now to the story at hand. I was laying there, relaxing under my mosquito net in my bed watching the academy award winning film, No Country for Old Men, when I get a phone call from my family. They called me to tell me that our trip to Punta Cana is pretty much booked, they just have to get a final count and give credit card information and stuff. Well as usual when my family calls, the phone gets passed around to everyone and I talk to everyone for a little bit. I believe I was on the phone with Julie when I suddenly see a large black mass out of the corner of my eye, and at first I couldn't tell whether it was on the inside or the outside of my net. Still talking to Julie, I sat up to took a closer look, and sure enough, the spider was right there, chilling underneath my mosquito net, trespassing in what he knows to be my territory. At this point I just about crapped my pants and got out of my bed faster than I have ever moved in my life. I talked to Julie and my dad for a couple more minutes, but then I had to cut the conversation a little short so that I could deal with this thing.

I ended up shaking the net a little from the outside so that it would crawl to a more convenient spot for me to deal with him. That did the trick, and he crawled right to the most accessible corner of my net. At this point I had one of two options: kill him right then and there or humanely catch him somehow and bring him outside for him to just come back in the next night. Well, I decided on option two and let me tell you why. Had I killed him right there in the corner of my net, his guts would have been splattered right there in my net, forever engraving the memory of this incident in my mind. Option two also had other risky side effects, including possible not capturing him and him accidentally crawling onto my arm or something. So I went and got a plastic cup in order to cover him and then something that I would be able to slip under the cup, effectively trapping him. It all happened without a hitch, and I opened up my door, knocked the cup over, and off he sauntered away, not scurrying like I had expected. After that, I went back to watching the movie (overall I think the movie was pretty good, not sure if it was worthy of the Academy Award since I hadn't seen all the other nominees, but I still haven't made my mind up on whether I liked the ending or not...I think it warrants another viewing), making sure that there were no spots in my mosquito net where any creepy crawly could invade. This also induced spider related dreams. They were a lot bigger and more threatening, but for some reason we laughed at them in the dream rather than being frightened by them.

Let me tell you that this is not the first time time that something has been under my net. Often there are little flies or other little harmless creatures (well the spiders are harmless as well, just scarier). The second worst thing was a little flying cockroach the other week, but it wasn't as eventful as this spider.

Below are some pictures of the spider. There is nothing in the picture to give you a reference to its size, so it will probably either look really small or really big to you all. You be the judge...only I know for real.

Bola Race

2008-04-12T18:52:00.001-04:00

So my mom and sister still haven't emailed me their posts about their visit, so these next two post shall suffice for now.

So the long awaited bola race has finally taken place, that which I have said I would blog about in the past few posts. I will do the best I can to put it into words, but really, it is something which must be experienced first hand in order to truly captivate you.

First things first, the bola (hitchhiking) race I believe was started last year, and if I am not mistaken, I believe this one was the second one that has taken place. It is a volunteer-organized race, since, as you will probably understand as you read the rest of the post, probably would not be sanctioned by the Peace Corps. The race was from the city of Santiago to Las Terrenas in the Samaná Peninsula.

We were all supposed to meet up on Friday night in order to get the official rules and for the distribution of another key item of the race. Unfortunately, my bola race partner, Erica, foolishly scheduled a charla on the Friday afternoon before the race, meaning that she would have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn (actually before) in order to make it to Santiago in time for the start of the race. For that, I decided I would just go to Santiago on Saturday morning as well. This means that neither of us got the official run down of the rules, and weren't allowed a say in the type of beverage which we would have to drink during the race.

The Rules: Get from Santiago to Las Terrenas as fast as possible. You're only allowed one paid ride out of the city, and the rest have to be bolas. You cannot tell any of your bola drivers that you're in a race, you have to come up with a story and stick by it the whole time. Erica and I's story was that we were late for a wedding and we spent our last money in Santiago and therefore had to get bolas the whole way there. Another key element, which makes the race the most fun, is that you have to drink a bottle of alcohol between you and your partner before you get to Las Terrenas. (I neglected to tell my family this when they were here, they seemed upset enough that I would be hitchhiking across the country, so I figured I wouldn't tell them that I would be doing it inebriated.) You are allowed to share the liquor among those who you are hitchhiking with, even the driver if you so please. There were some other random rules which I can't really remember right now, and I'm pretty sure no one really followed them anyways.

So I get to the starting point first, and find out that a bottle of Anise flavored liquor has been chosen for Erica and I. Everyone laughed at us and even I was upset because I had no idea what it really was and was pretty sure that it was going to be really disgusting. Once everyone arrived, everyone got everything prepared and off we went. Erica and I were the first ones out the door and on our way running to find a bola. It is exponentially difficult to find bolas in a large city such as Santiago, which is why one paid ride out of the city on public transit is allowed. Erica and I figured that whatever came first we would get. It turns out that a guagua to Licey, the next biggest town out of Santiago, came first, so we hopped on off we were to Licey. On our way out we passed by a couple other teams and sadly did not pick any of them up. On this guagua ride we also opened up our bottle of Anise, and much to our surprise it was pretty good. It was similar in taste to a bacardi cooler kind of thing, which is not really my favorite, but it actually was tolerable, even without mixing.

About 1 minute after we got off the guagua in Licey, we got a bola in a nice air-conditioned sedan with two refrigerator repairmen for Coca-Cola. Since they were one the job, the turned down the offer for liquor, but were happy to take us to the next town over, Moca. They were very sad that they had to work and told us that if they hadn't been working that they would have taken us all the way to Las Terrenas. We were sad that they were working as well, as that would have been pretty sweet. They dropped us off in Moca, wished us luck, and back we were to searching for bolas. After about 5-10 minutes, another team's bola stopped for us, so we were now joined with Alissa (Hi Mr. Karp....Alissa told me you read my blog), Beth, Bill and Alan. How the three Chicagoans participating in the race ended up together I'll never know. Everything from this point on is a little foggy since it's been about a week since it happened, but I will fill you in on the most exciting Bolas. Oh yeah...also, from this point on, us 6 never separated from each other, which made it a bit harder for getting bolas, but also a little more fun.

The more interesting bolas included: sitting in the back of a pick up truck on a pile of rubber tires, squeezing 6 people in the back of a tiny Diahatsu truck which already had stuff in it, making ourselves comfortable in the back of a big rig truck, which even had a sleeper section (I took a nap), and our last bola sitting on top of a bunch of random iron poles and stuff I don't even know what it was. That last one left us with stains on our clothes and bruises on our behinds.

Erica and I tied for 3rd place with the two other teams we were with. Jessica and Evan came in first place with about a good hour or two in front. Their whole trip consisted of only 4 bolas, all air conditioned. All in all, I think Erica and I's trip was 7 bolas, but I lost count somewhere so that is only a guess.

After that we enjoyed ourselves in the wonderful town of Las Terrenas. It's a little touristy, but overall has a nice relaxed feel, and is freaking gorgeous, with probably the nicest beaches in the country that I have seen thus far. One other point I would like to say is that on the way to Las Terrenas from the town of Sanchez, you have to cross over the mountains on the Peninsula. This was by far the most breath-taking views I have ever seen in my life. There's one point where you can see the Samaná Bay in it's entirety.

As far as pictures go, I did not take any during the actual racing part, but some of my friends did, so I'll try to get a link up as soon as I can. I did however take pictures of the beautiful beach we were near and of the views that I just described above on the trip back from Las Terrenas to Sanchez. Don't be too jealous of me.

The way back is also a story in and of itself. We ended up walking to the guagua station from the hotel we stayed at. It's a good 2 mile walk, or a 30 peso moto ride. Unfortunately, I did not bring my helmet with me, and therefore had to walk it as I refuse to ride any moto without a helmet, not just because if Peace Corps staff catches me I get kicked out and sent back home, but also because I just think you're really stupid if you don't wear one. Unfortunately again, the direct guagua to Santiago from Las Terrenas had already left, and so we had to take a guagua to Sanchez where we would hopefully be able to get a guagua direct to Santiago. Well, it turns out that one had left as well, so we had to take a guagua to Nagua, then another guagua to San Francisco de Marcoris. In San Francisco, we all decided it would just be better off to take a taxi back to Santiago as it was getting a little dark and it would overall just be safer. It was also more expensive, and I had the misfortune of having to ride in the back of the truck along with John and Stacey. We safely arrived at the hostel at around 7:30 or 8 o'clock-ish. Got stuff to eat and we back to chill and watch TV. Most of us also decided to stay an extra night in Santiago in order to watch the final college basketball game between Kansas and Memphis. I'm not usually the one to enjoy sports, but let me tell that it was a pretty freaking awesome game.

So that wraps up my bola race weekend....lots of fun, very exciting, and I can't wait for the next one!

So Sad :(

2008-03-31T13:19:00.002-04:00

So my family just left this morning. We had an excellent week together. They will be emailing me an entry to post on this blog which will probably be ready in a week or two.

I'm uploading their pics right now so check em out. Both albums are kind of similar since each picture we took we had to take one with each camera, but there are some differences.

I'm not going to post anything just yet about the visit. I'm going to wait until I see what they write and then fill in some stuff based upon what they write.

That's it for now!

Anxiously Waiting

2008-03-25T17:31:00.002-04:00

So I'm sitting here in the hotel lobby "aprovecharing" the free wireless internet before I have to leave to go pick up my parents and sister from the airport. I'm super excited to have my first visitors from home. Their flight should be leaving by the time I post this, at 5:40 EST. Their flight arrives here in Santiago a little before 8 PM.

I have an action packed schedule awaiting them from the moment they arrive until the moment their plane leaves on Monday. Actually, I haven't really planned anything, I just kind of have an idea of stuff we want to do. I don't do itineraries, especially in this country. Anyways, stay tuned to the exciting adventures of the Siedlecki family.

Still no money to build the aqueduct yet. I just set up a meeting with the local mayor for next Wednesday, April 2nd, for which I will be preparing whilst my family is here.

¡Maldita Time Change!

2008-03-15T14:14:00.000-04:00

I still don't understand why the U.S. has to change the time twice a year. Sure there's the whole thing about energy savings and stuff which I feel is all a load of bull*!@#. Why does Indiana have to be the state that does things correctly for a change? Anyways, I thought that I wouldn't be affected by it hear in the DR, but alas, it has affected me. No, it didn't change my sleeping schedule or anything like that, it affected my TV schedule.

Every weekday night at 8 PM in the DR, my Doña and I watch a program on Telemundo called 12 Corazones, probably the best dating game show ever invented. Better than Love Connection, Blind Date, or any combination thereof. So the show lasts for an hour, and at 9 PM a Telenovela (read: cheesy soap opera....probably worse than a soap opera actually) at which I will usually retire to my room to read or watch a movie on my computer. So here's where the time change affects me. Since Telemundo is based in the States, and the States just moved an hour ahead, but the show airs at the same time in the States, the show now comes on an hour earlier here. Now this just completely messes up my whole nighttime schedule. Now I have to watch 12 Corazones with my Doña during dinner and don't just get to relax and drink café and comment on the show the whole time. This also means that I have to watch this stupid Telenovela.

If you want to know what I'm going to have to suffer through check out La Traición. It comes on at 7 PM on Telemundo in Chicago, CST. As much as I want to get into liking the Telenovelas I just can't get myself to. I've tried to imagine that they're a reality show on MTV and things like that, but I just can't get into them. I've come to the point where I can pretty much understand everything that is going on in them now....but still...nothing. This one especially bad because it is set in the like 1800s or early 1900s and they are covered up to their necks and never show any skin. If they showed skin every once in a while I might be able to put up with it, but they can't just give me a break now could they. Oh well...it's now the 11th of March and I plan on moving out at the beginning of April, at which time I will sadly no longer have access to cable television, although I will not have to watch the maldita telenovela either. I don't know which is worse.

OK...that's it for my venting for now. I should be appreciating the fact that I actually have a TV and cable here, but no, I'd rather complain about it. Adios!

The Aqueduct

2008-03-15T14:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't been posting lately, but I just haven't felt very motivated, and in all reality, nothing really exciting has been going on. Just the same old trips to Santiago, hanging around my site and what not. In the meantime, though, I have had my first overnight visitors. The first one being Maryam, one of my best friends who lives not too far away, and the other two which were described in the previous post.

Also, I have been working hard, not physically enduring work, as construction on the aqueduct has not begun yet, but technical work. I have completely designed the aqueduct. I also have completed the budget. The grand total comes to RD$1,363,169.06 or US$41,308.15. Fortunately for me, only RD$667,169.06 needs to be raised. The remainder of the project cost is what is contributed through the community working rather than it being a public works project, and from having an engineer from the Peace Corps. What the community is contributing is $396,000.00. This is based on 150 workdays, which includes 10 workers per day and food, which is what the community contributes. That falls under Manos de Obra, or workforce. My dollar (or peso) value in this project is RD$300,000, which unfortunately I do not actually get paid. I get a measly RD$9,000 and some a month, or about US$270, which surprisingly goes a very long way. Wait, I actually just added up what I make for the 27 months that I'm here, and in total, it comes to a little less than $300,000, so that's not too far off. The budget does include a little bit of padding, as I would rather overbudget than underbudget, considering that prices of materials tend to increase, and sometimes significantly.

Now here comes the time that you thought I would start begging for money from you all, but fortunately for you guys I will be soliciting funds from the government here. Elections are in May, and around this time the local governments tend to be a little more generous. Also, in my region there have been many aqueducts built by Peace Corps in the past, so the local government knows we are serious and are usually more willing to donate funds. If we don't get funds from the local government, then we are going higher up in the ranks, and if necessary, we may have to write grants in order to obtain all the funds. So hold on to your wallets for now, as it will not be necessary. If you are itching to get rid of some money, wait for the future as I plan on doing a couple of other projects throughout my service that may or may not require help from you guys. Right now I'm planning on building some latrines and also there is a small youth group here that I would like to get money to buy musical instruments and maybe some sports equipment so that the kids have some more exciting things to do.

Right now I'm just pretty much sitting around waiting to hear from my boss who is setting up a meeting with the local government so the two other volunteers in the area and I can go and do presentations to solicit the money. He said it will be sometime in March, so it could be any day now. It may even be when my parents and sister are here (only 18 more days!!! I can't wait!) so that would be pretty cool if they got to see me do a presentation in Spanish and actually see me work. After that I just have to wait for them to cut the check, and then off we are to constructing. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I hope that sometime in April or May we actually begin digging the trenches and laying the pipeline.

I'm going to try and see if I could somehow upload files for everyone to see, because I feel some people might be interested in seeing the budget as well as my community diagnostic report and presentation.

Ok...that's it for now. I'll try to update more often. Upcoming events include a Pot Luck festivity at a volunteer's site near me, a friend's birthday in Santiago, my family visiting and a bola race (basically a hitch-hiking race across the country.)

The Haitian Border

2008-03-15T14:12:00.000-04:00

Last week I went on a road trip to the Haitian border with some friends. It all started out as just a trip to Santiago. I was going to meet up with my friend Erica, and one of her friends who was visiting from the states. I also had some business to get done in Santiago, mainly email my 3-month community diagnostic report and a summary of the budget for the aqueduct to my boss. Anyways, after some major begging (actually, I think they just asked once) we were off on our way to Dajabón, one of the major border crossing in the DR. Another person along for the ride was John, someone else who wasn't planning on going, but got dragged in anyways. The main reason I decided to go on this trip was not only to be in the company of friends, but also, Erica's friend had rented a car, and this would probably be one of the only opportunities in my two years here to travel in luxury to the Haitian border, and not have to be cramped in a guagua with a million other people.

So after not even having been in Santiago for 24 hours, off we went after lunch to our destination. All throughout the DR, the type of landscapes and environment change dramatically, and this journey was no exception. We started out in the bustling city of Santiago, looking at lush beautiful mountains, but after the few hours journey, it was a flat, dry, almost desert-like landscape, with cacti and everything. After a couple hours, we ended up at Pam's site, a business volunteer working with bees and honey. She just moved into her own pad, and we were actually her first visitors since she had been at her site. After we dropped off our things, we went on a little walk, where she showed us around Dajabón. For being so remote, the city actually has pretty much everything you would ever need. We stopped and got some ice cream for a snack, and later for dinner some burgers. We also walked up to the border of Haiti, only a couple blocks from her house, and it is literally a stone's throw away. Look at my pics, I have one of John throwing a stone into Haiti. After that we just hung out at her house for the rest of the night.

The next morning we woke up bright and early so that we could make it to the Haitian market. Before hitting the market we went up to the border once again, this time at the official border crossing with customs and everything. Unfortunately, as PCVs we are not permitted to travel into Haiti, so we just stood on the bridge crossing, without actually crossing over to the other side. Once I'm done being a PCV, I am definitely making a trip to Haiti. At the crossing there is an influx of all the Haitians, carrying their wares on their heads to sell at the market. The market is truly indescribable through both words or even pictures. Neither can do it justice, nor describe the smells and odors that fill the air. I didn't buy anything, although there were a few really cool t-shirts that I almost bought. Some of the purchases of my friends included pillows, and pots and pans for the stove. I loved it just for the experience.

That afternoon we left Dajabón with our sights headed back to my site. On the way back there were a few pit stops. The first one being the restaurant La Madonna. Before I had left for the DR, one of my best friends had mailed me (through snail mail) an article clipped out of Gourmet Magazine which had a one-page blurb on this restaurant here in the DR. I wouldn't really even so much call it a restaurant, just a little stop on the highway. I never actually thought that I would make it there, so I'm pretty sure I just threw out the article right after I read it. Fortunately for me, I remembered the name of the place, and that it was on the road between Navarrete and Monte Cristi. So we spotted it and decided that we would eat lunch. The specialty there is goat, since according to the article, oregano bushes grow natively there, and the goats eat the oregano, meaning that they're kind of pre-seasoned. You could choose between two types of goat, horneado (oven-baked) or guisado (stewed). Two of us ordered the horneado and the other two ordered guisado. Both were excellent (not sure if they were Gourmet Magazine worthy), but were good nonetheless, and if I were to go again I would probably choose the guisado. I think we may have been charged gringo prices, as it seemed a little bit more expensive than what I was expecting, but it was still only a little more than US$6 per person for quite a feast, so I shouldn't complain.

The second pit stop was to John's site to drop him off, and so that the two Ericas could see his site. After a little tour around John's community, off we went back to my site. My host mom is always extremely happy to accept visitors, and was elated when I showed up with two unexpected guests. Erica bought some macaroni and cheese at the grocery store and I gave it to my Doña to cook for dinner, as she makes the best mac and cheese ever. I then introduced the Ericas to the dating game show called 12 Corazones. It's my favorite show here and my Doña and I watch it every night. It's on Telemundo back in the states as well, and I recommend that you catch an episode or two.

The next morning we went to 27 Charcos. I have described them in the past so I will not go into much detail. This was my third time and I don't think they will ever get old. It was the both of the Ericas first times, and they loved them just as much as I did. I especially liked them this time because we got in for free, since the PCV who is stationed there made a deal with one of the guides that we would go with a guide up to number 7, and then explore the remaining 20 on our own. I was very proud of Erica that she jumped off the tallest one, and I did it again, even though the last time I did, I swore that I wouldn't do it again.

For lunch we went to a BBQ chicken place in a bigger town near me. I had heard other volunteer sing praises of it, and another volunteer who was with us literally eats lunch there every day since he is really close to it. We each got 1/4 chicken, some sort of rice with beans, salad and a drink. All that for US$2.50 per person. The chicken is incredible and I will definitely be going back there in the future. After that we went back to my site to freshen up. I took the Ericas on a tour of my community and showed them the house that I should be moving to in about a month or so. It was also a chance to parade around the "novia." For dinner, instead of my Doña cooking us food, which she was more than willing to do, we decided we would go out for dinner as well. We went and picked up Todd, the volunteer who is stationed at the Charcos, made a pit stop at his old host family's house and then went for pizza, which I was a little wary of, but it ended up being excellent. This was pretty cheap as well. We got the largest pizza on the menu (with Hawaiian toppings...my favorite) along with two big beers all for less than US$3 per person. During dinner we discussed the idea of going out, so Todd called up one of his Dominican friends for suggestions. He suggested a club that just opened in Puerto Plata in the all-inclusive complex of Playa Dorada. Since we had a car, we figured why not. So we went and picked up his two Dominican friends, one of which would be our designated driver. The rest of the night need not be described, except that we danced the night away, listening to American booty music all night, which was very refreshing as opposed to the Merengue and Bachata of which I have become accustomed.

The next morning, the two Ericas were not looking forward to their long drive back to her site in Samaná, but off they went. I was sad to see them leave as it was awesome hanging out with them for four days. Erica's friend is currently in the process of applying to the Peace Corps and has her interview when she gets back. I hope she got to see everything the Peace Corps has to offer during her two week trip here. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she gets chosen to come here. It's a longshot, but it is a possibility.

Carnaval Vegano

2008-02-19T12:55:00.004-04:00

So I'm writing this on the fly, and haven't had time to think about what I'm going to write, so please excuse my horrible grammar and bad story telling for the moment.

So a group of six of us went to Carnaval the other day. We would be meeting up with a lot of other volunteers who were going as well, but who were coming from different areas of the DR. It all started out at about noon...we needed to find a bus that would take us to La Vega, a city about 1 hour away from Santiago, where the biggest and best Carnaval celebrations take place. So we walked to find a carro publico that would take us to to the area where the buses leave from. Before that we actually went to get beer for the ride there. While we were waiting for a car, a taxi came, and for the six of us, it ended up being just a little bit more than the carro, so we ended up just piling in the taxi. At that point, the driver was trying to convice us to let him take us all the way, but it was also going to be a rip off compared to what we would pay to take a bus there. It was good that we kind of knew where we were going in the city, because he kept trying to turn away from the park we needed to get to, but we kept yelling at him telling him that we didn't want him to take us all the way and that we wanted the bus stop. After that was all settled we arrive and paid $50 RD for the bus ride to La Vega. We successfully finished our beers on the way there and were ready to go when we arrived.

We ended up drinking a little more while we were waiting to meet up with people, and then we entered into the area where the big parades occur. Let me just tell you that it is crazy. The costumes that the people where are so amazing. Moreover, they carry around these big rubber things attached to a string and they basically whip you on your behind if you're not paying attention. I have more than a few friends who have huge bruises all over their behinds. It's really funny. The atmosphere there is awesome and overall it was a great time. Out of the six of us that went, only three of us made it back to Santiago that night, because the other 3 ended up staying with some other people near La Vega. I ended up getting back around 7 or 7:30 that night.

For anyone that wants to visit me next year at this time, it is a lot of fun. Although, if you're going to spend money on a trip you might as well just go all out and make your way to Brazil, as I'm sure that carnaval here has nothing on Brazil's carnaval celebrations. Just an idea I thought I'd throw out there.

Make sure to check out the pics....some of them are up and I'm in the process of uploading them right now, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to post all of them.

Ok...that's all I feel like writing for now. Stay tuned for some updates on results from my community diagnostic which has been completed, and more information about the design and budget for the aqueduct which I'll be working on in the next couple weeks.

Update

2008-02-17T21:20:00.001-04:00

Sorry it has been so long. I uploaded some photos and comments from our 3-month in-service training. I'll blog about it in a day or so. It wasn't really that exciting but I can probably come up with a story for you guys.

Also earlier today I went to a Carnavál celebration in La Vega....it's basically like the big parades they have in Brazil...just on a lot smaller scale. Look forward to photos and a blog about that as well.

Oh So Cold!

2008-02-03T12:22:00.000-04:00

So last night, the night of the 29th here, it was so cold here. After about 5 pm, a cold front must have passed through or something, because I was freezing cold. I put on my hoodie, along with shoes instead of my usual flip flops so that I did not get frostbite. Before I settled down to sleep, I decided I would investigate just how cold it was with the thermometer which is built into my travel alarm clock. I took it out of my room, which is notoriously warmer than outside since I'm surrounded by concrete, and left it out for a little bit while I was getting ready for bed. By the time I was finished, the mercury (or really, the little digital sensor) had dropped to 60.5 ˚F !! Now I know all you folks back in Chicago are probably going, "Geez, I wish it were that warm here!" But let me tell you, when it is in the mid to upper 80's here during the day, and at night it is more than 20 degrees cooler, that is a big temperature difference. Anyways, that has been the talk of the town today. People were saying that they felt like they were in Nueva Yol (that's how they say New York in Spanish, and basically anywhere in the states is considered New York.) Haha...if they only knew the temperature in New York right now. But anyways I play it up a lot and I will go on and on about how cold it was and how I thought it was going to snow and everything. They get a big kick out of it.

Well, for now, I'm glad that my room is about 12 degrees warmer than outside...the temperature was 72˚F last night in my room. Hopefully it does not continue to be that much warmer in my room during the summer, otherwise I'll be in for a real treat. They'll probably be having roasted Kevin for some holiday dinner.

It's now Sunday and I'm posting this finally....and yes it still gets down to 60 at night. And it still feels cold everytime. And have fun shoveling all the snow in Chicago!

My Trip to Samaná

2008-02-03T12:08:00.000-04:00

After riding 507 km (315 miles), I'm back at my site. I went to go visit my friend Erica's site this past weekend, from Friday until Sunday. Included on the agenda was some whale watching and meeting up with some friends who I haven't seen in awhile as their regional meeting was going on at the same time. Here is a map of the route I took:

First I will describe my trip to her site near Samaná. I decided to take the coastal route because I was a little more familiar going that way since I had been to Cabarete for New Year's, which is a stop along the same way. I woke up nice and early at 5:45 am, got ready, and walked to the highway where I arrived at 6:15. I waiting until 6:40 and finally a public car came by. Normally I would wait for the bus since they are a little more safe, but one of my neighbors was with me as she was on her way to work at a hotel in Puerto Plata. We arrived in Puerto Plata at 7:20, where I transferred to another guagua, this one taking me all the way to Rio San Juan. About 20 minutes before we would arrive in Rio San Juan I was the last and only one in the bus besides the driver and fare collector. They decided it would not be worth it to only drive me all the way to Rio San Juan, so they reimbursed part of my fare which would be enough to take a public car all the way. They let me off where I could pick up a car. So I got in the front seat of the car since that's safer because you're only sharing the seat with one other person. Twenty minutes later we arrive in Rio San Juan where I would transfer to another bus that would take me to Nagua. This ride was pretty uneventful. In Nagua I would transfer to a guagua which would take me to Sanchez, and in Sanchez I would transfer to one that would take me to Erica's site, Las Pascualas, which is about a 10 minute ride from Samaná.

Finally, 6 different vehicles, and 6 1/2 hours later, I arrived and Erica was waiting for me on the highway. I was exhausted as I had come down with a cold a few days earlier, so she gave me some medicine, and then we ate lunch that her host mother prepared for us. Erica's host family was very excited to see me, as we are boyfriend/girlfriend to each other here in order to ward off advances from people in our towns. All we have to do is say we have a novio/a and people relax a little bit. I proceeded to tell her host family that my love for her is as deep as the ocean. Also, when we were leaving the house I told them that we were going to chulear en la playa, which means make out on the beach. They found this all very funny. So then Erica and I walked around town holding hands in order to make it appear that we were a couple. I also went on a search with her to help her find a place to live for the next two years. We didn't find anything official, but we got a couple good leads. After that I got a haircut, and then we were off to Samaná to meet up at the hotel with all the other volunteers.

We got to the hotel, I took a nice hot shower, which if I didn't turn on some of the cold water it was actually scalding, which is a rarity here. Now this definitely was not a luxury hotel. It was very bare bones, but the hot water was definitely a bonus. It was only $600-700 RD for a room each night, and with 3 people in each room, for two nights it was only about $7 US/night for each of us. That night ended up being the last game in the finals for baseball here. It is a 9 game series, and it was 4 games to 3 games between the Aguilas and Licey. Las Aguilas are undoubtedly the most popular team here, but for some reason all the people in my town root for Licey, which I guess I have become a fan of by default. I was a little upset that the Aguilas won the game that night, and in turn winning the series, but I was not going to let it get in the way of the festivities. It seemed like everyone in Samaná was out on the streets partying, and the street along the bay was packed with cars and trucks, people hanging out windows and 2o people in backs of trucks , screaming and yelling. It was insane. I would say it seemed similar to when the White Sox won the world series a few years back, but multiplied ten-fold. After we were done, we went back to the hotel and retired to our beds.

Next morning we had to wake up really early because we had to meet our bus driver who was taking us to where we would get our boat to where we would go whale watching. We had to meet the guy at 8:30 a couple minutes away from our hotel. We got our group together pretty well and were only about 10-15 minutes late, which is pretty good for a group of about 18 people. The boat took us to a little island out in the bay which would be our waiting point while other groups were out watching before it was our turn. The island was beautiful, with a magnificent beach and it was nice and relaxing while we were waiting. There was a little confusion with the guy we set up the tour with, but it eventually worked out in the end, and we went out on the boat at 1 pm. It is a bit early in the whale watching season so we only saw a few whales, but it was very cool seeing them in their natural habitat. The speed boat ride was extremely exciting as well. Had it been about mid-February we would have seen tons of whales as that is the high-season. I guess the flip and splash around as this is where the whales end their migration route in order to mate and give birth.

After that we went back to the island for a few more hours, and then we ended up going back to our hotel. Those of us who were staying at the hotel a second night decided to try out this Italian restaurant close to us. Samaná is a very touristy area which receives many European visitors, so they have pretty good restaurants. I wasn't really sure of what to think about going to an Italian restaurant here, but the owner and chef was a real Italian, and the food was by far the best that I have eaten in this country to date. They had excellent pastas, which were cooked perfectly, pizzas which also where very authentic with perfectly crisped crusts, and a tiramisu to die for. It was a little expensive on a Peace Corps budget, but it was definitely worth the splurge. After dinner we went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony overlooking the bay until we went to bed. It was a really good night.

In the morning I had to figure out how I was going to get back to my site. I ended up finding a guagua which goes directly to Santiago from Samaná. I decided I would go this way as it is faster and I wouldn't have to switch cars a bunch of times. It was a very crowded bus, but it only took us four hours to get to Santiago. Even though the interior route it is a little faster and cheaper, I almost prefer the coastal route as there is a little change of scenery every time you need to change vehicles. When we got to Santiago I saw another bus which looked a lot nicer which also goes directly to Samaná, so I am going to have to find out about this one for the next time I go visit Erica. In Santiago I met up with Rob for a little bit and used to internet to check my email. Finally I got on the bus that would take me back to my site. My Doña saved me lunch and this was good because all I had eaten all day was a couple packets of crackers and some gatorade. The food was excellent as always. Even though the food is very similar all the time, I always miss it when I'm away from here for a couple of days since I have to scrounge up some food to make for myself.

In conclusion, I had an excellent time at Erica's regional meeting, which was much better than my regional meeting where we went bowling. Make sure to take a look at the pictures. There are a few good ones of the whales. Enjoy

More Spanish Expressions

2008-01-24T10:10:00.000-04:00

So I was reading my good friend Fran's blog, which you all should be doing too. She moved to Spain in November and is chronicling her life there, which I must say is quite interesting and entertaining (and I'm not just saying this because she gave me a shout out on her blog.) Anytime I go to use the internet I make it a point to read her blog.

So anyways, she has a post about her favorite expression in Spain, and while I posted my favorite Spanish word, I thought I would take this time to post some expressions which I believe have no basis as actual words in Spanish, but nonetheless are quite entertaining when I hear them.

Phrase number one, which I heard for the first time a while back, and which I mistook as not just an expression, but as something I thought someone was actually saying, and as a result I spent a few minutes actually perusing my dictionary trying to find out what it meant. This would be the equivalent of looking up something like "geez" in an English dictionary (Yes, I'm that oblivious.) So the expression is, "Ay, pipa!" This phrase is encountered most frequently whilst watching telenovelas with my Doña. For example, if something like this happened in the episode: "You mean to say that Maria is sleeping with Juana's ex-boyfriend even though she just had sex with the lifeguard at the pool, and just had a baby fathered by her boss...", my Doña's response would be, "AY, PIPA!" It always puts a smile on my face, and is probably the only way that I'm am able to live through watching these shows.

I have 3 more expressions that I can think of right now, and oh how I would love to share them all with you right now, but I believe I have already posted demasiado (too much) for one day, which should provide you with enough reading material until I get to post next time. It will hopefully also leave you waiting at the edge of your seat until the next time I post. (But in all reality it's getting late here and if I didn't go to bed right now I would probably not wake up in time in order to get to the internet to post this all for you guys.)

Something else to keep you at the edge of your seat...I'm going whale watching this weekend...stay tuned.

And finally, I'm not usually not one for all the celebrity gossip and what not, but for some reason since I've been in the DR I've actually enjoyed it, probably because it is something that reminds me of the US:

R.I.P Heath Ledger :(

What Does a Rooster Say?

2008-01-24T10:09:00.002-04:00

This should be under one of the book reviews for David Sedaris, but I thought this story warranted it's own post. It was in Dress You Family in Corduroy and Denim, where Mr. Sedaris talks about how if he is in a new country, in order to start a conversation with a cab driver or whoever he meets, he usually asks them what sound a rooster makes in this country. He goes on to say that for instance in Germany they say, "kik-a-riki," and in Greek they go, "kiri-a-kee," and that in France they crow, "coco-rico."

This got me laughing really hard because I had this conversation in one of my Spanish classes during training. In case you were wondering, Dominican roosters crow, "rik-i-dik-i-dik," or something to that effect. David Sedaris also goes on to say that when he tells someone that an American rooster says, "cock-a-doodle-doo," and I'm quoting directly from the book here, "my hosts look at me with disbelief and pity." I got that exact same reaction out of my Spanish teacher when we told her that's what American roosters say. I remember her face at that moment, like it just happened yesterday, and disbelief and pity are the two exact words I would use to describe it.

Now, it is everyone's job to find out what roosters say in different places. This would be especially easy if you are already living overseas (hmmhmm...Fran...hmmhmm), but also if you have other friends or relatives, would you be so kind as to inquire and then let me know. I find it interesting.

The "Naked" Post

2008-01-24T10:09:00.001-04:00

So yeah, last time I posted I had the entry titled, "Naked," but I accidently posted the entry for my book review a second time. Well not to worry, I've fixed this error and the correct entry is now posted. Don't get your hopes up though, it's not as exciting as the title sounds.

On Wednesday, Jesús said, "Let there be light..." and there was.

2008-01-24T10:04:00.000-04:00

In order to solve the problem of the electricity always going out, people here in the DR buy inversores (I think in English it is called an inverter.) Basically, what this is, is a couple of batteries, usually at least two, which get charged when there is electricity, and when the lights go out, the inversor switches to battery power, and with this, you can run a few lightbulbs and televisions, and my computer, gracias a diós.

Last weekend my family bought one, which they should probably thank me for because I'm providing them with some pretty good extra income. Only the people here who have pretty good money are able to afford them as the one my family bought cost $17000 RD, or $515 US, which is pretty steep for Dominican standards.

Well, it sat around all weekend, and Monday too because it was a holiday, and I'm not sure why the installer guy didn't come on Tuesday, but yesterday, Wednesday, he finally came to install it. It was installed without any problems and now we have light 24/7. Woohoo! I'm very tempted to stay with this family now, if only there wasn't an annoying little 5 year old I would be set.

So, the first time that the power went out I really wanted to ask my host dad, Jesús, to be the first one to flick the light switch, but before doing so to say, "Let there be light!" They probably would not have understood my humor, but I would have really got a kick out of it. Oh well, I'm still smiling just thinking about how it would have played out had I asked him. Maybe when the aqueduct is completed I'll have more courage to ask him to say, "Let there be water!"

Virgen de Altagracia

2008-01-24T09:57:00.002-04:00

So yesterday, Monday the 21st of January, while you were celebrating the death of Martin Luther King Jr. I was celebrating the feast day of the Virgen de Altagracia. It is a big holiday here, with tons of people making a pilgrimage to the Cathedral in the eastern part of the country honoring her. On a previous trip to Punta Cana we passed by the Cathedral and here is a picture of it.

As usual, I was kind of left in the dark as to what we were doing to celebrate it. On Sunday my project partner asked me if I was going to go to church at around 3:30. For once I was actually happy that they told me the plans before hand. So, Monday comes around, and I figured I had the whole morning to relax, but it turns out that at around 11 my project partner comes to get me and tells me there is a vela, which is the word they use for what we call a wake, but it also means just a vigil as well. As always, I was not bathed at this point, but I told just to wait a few minutes for me to get ready, because I thought I would end the streak of always showing up to places all dirty. He ended up going without me, but my host brother waited for me. I've become pretty fast at taking bucket baths. In the beginning they would take forever, but now just a few strategic pours and I'm out of there. I actually find the cold water quite refreshing, but that first pour is always a little shocking.

We went up to where they were holding the vigil, and there were probably at least 75 people there, probably more, but my crowd estimating skills are a little shabby. It was just sort of a big family/neighborhood party where everyone makes their appearance, says hi to everyone, does a little small talk and then leaves. My project partner introduced me to one of the people who used to live in our town, moved to the U.S. for about 15 years, and now lives in Santiago. He spoke English pretty well and he is a pretty good contact to have, as he told us he would definitely help us out with the project.

As usual, Dominicans love to feed people, so I ended up having two lunches that day, along with a snack of crackers and juice. As 3:30 was coming around I was wondering if we were going to go to church, but it never happened. So now, people are starting to tell me what the plans are, but they're incorrect. At least we're making a small step forward. So I got out of having to go to church, which I was relieved, although I know it's probably inevitable.

Two More Books

2008-01-24T09:57:00.001-04:00

So I finished reading two more of David Sedaris's books, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. I found both of them excellent, reading them each in about a day. I'm not going to do a full review because they're the same style and format as Naked.

I found these books at a hostel I stayed at in Santiago. They had just been recently donated so I really lucked out. Now hopefully next time I go to the Peace Corps Office I could find Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice.

When I was in Santiago there was a Borders-like store, so I figured I would go and try and find a book that had originally been written in Spanish that looked readable at my level. I also wanted to find one that wasn't too expensive, as books here are pretty expensive for some reason. I found a book by the Chilean author Isabel Allende, of whom I've heard good things. The price tag said $520, but when it rang up as $420, or $13 US, which is pretty reasonable for a book here. The book I picked up is called El plan infinito (or The Infinite Plan). I almost picked up one of her books in English awhile back, but for some reason I didn't. I was successfully able to read the synopsis on the back of the book, so I figured I was good to go. I started reading the first couple pages, and it's not as easy as the back of the book, but I figured I'm going to trudge through it anyways. Hopefully it will build my vocabulary and overall help me with Spanish. Sure, this means that whenever I want to read this book that I'm going to have to lug around a dictionary with me also, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Interview with a Dominican

2008-01-24T09:55:00.000-04:00

So I've done 20 interviews at the time of writing this, on Saturday, January 19th.

I was supposed to start last Thursday, the day after I got back from Santiago, but due to some confusion which should not have been, since I specifically told them that I would be coming back Wednesday, we didn't start the interviews until Friday.

We started the interviews on time, at right about 2, which was surprising. I walked around to the houses in the part of town where I live. Telma, a member of our water committee accompanied me, and in all we did 13 interviews in about 3 hours. After doing the first couple you kind of get an idea of what all the answers will be for the ones who follow. This is because almost everyone where I live buys there water from a truck. Almost everyone will not admit to ever being sick. Although there are the occasional few who will tell you everything in detail, down to when they stubbed their toe (OK, I'm actually making that one up). I'm not a big fan of the whole health aspect of my project, as I have no background in health beyond knowing nursing terms which I learned from my sister (but I doubt that knowing if someone is A&O x 1-3, tachacardic or diaphretic is really going to help me out much here). Sure they should be washing their hands after the browns go to the superbowl (or I guess you could say super "hole" in my case). But, something like hand washing is something that has pretty much already been set in stone, and even if I was a good little volunteer leading by example washing my hands after every time I touched something, it would still have little effect on their hand washing habits.

The interviewing at times is monotonous, but it is refreshing to see just how friendly and caring these people are. Almost every house that I go to offers me something, whether it be coffee or juice, some fruit, or my favorite which was completely unexpected and I only received it at one house: hershey kisses. Those people must have been ballin' because those things aren't cheap here.

So, after we finished around 5pm, Telma told me, if I wanted, that we could start again tomorrow (a Saturday!) at 9am, to finish the couple of houses we didn't get to do around me, and then we would go down to Los Rincones and continue interviewing there. Since I was a little early the previous day and Telma wasn't ready, I figured I would give her a few extra minutes. So I read another chapter in my book, and at 9:30 I went by Telma's house so we could start. So it turned out that Telma had left earlier in the day to go to town, and had left a message with her daughter saying that there would be another Doña waiting for me to help me with the interviews, not giving me a name of who it would be or anything. Now at this point, I probably could have just went back to my house and continued reading and called it a day, but being the proactive person that I'm not, I decided to go down alone to Los Rincones and see if I could figure this out. On my way down some kids that live by me came by on a Donkey, on their way to get water, and they told me they would help me find who I needed. Luckily everyone talks to everyone about everything here. I asked the first people I ran into if there was a woman down here that I was supposed to be interviewing with, and sure enough they told me who she was and where to find her.

The kids on the donkey were passing by her house on the way to get the water, so they kindly showed me where she lived. Surprisingly (in a sarcastic tone), she was not there. So, I decided to just go with the kids to where they get the water. They get it from a little spring on the other side of the river, but fortunately, somebody already built a little system so they don't have to cross the river. Unfortunately, this spring is below all the houses in the community and I can't use it in my project. A few years back, an engineer came in and built a pump system for some of the houses, so there are a lot of people in the lower community who already have running water, but the deal with the pump is that when the electricity is out, there is no water, which is quite frequently. Also, pumps break a lot and they are expensive to fix. So, most of the people who have water from the pump system still want a tapstand with this new gravity-fed aqueduct because water will be available 24 hours a day.

So the kids finished getting the water, and on the way back the woman was there waiting for me. I guess the people that I asked went and found her for me. So a little after 10am we started doing the interviews. I got 7 completed, for a total of 20 so far. Only about 45 or so more to go. On my way back, I passed this woman's house (her nickname is Blanca, or white lady, and I'm not sure why because she's not white, but that's the case with most of the nicknames here) and every time I pass it she always yells, "Entre, entre!," which means enter, or come in. All the previous times I had been working so I was beat and just wanted to get home. This time I figured why not, so I walked up to her house and we had a little conversation with her and her husband. Her husband was a huge motor mouth. I'm pretty sure he probably only took one pause for a breath during the 20 minutes I was there. It was one of those things where I really wanted to leave and I was waiting for a lull in the conversation so that I could politely excuse myself, but unfortunately there were no lulls. So instead of leaving during a lull, I left at the change of topic, which was hard for me to pick up in Spanish. We said our goodbyes, and Blanca seemed especially happy that the white boy came to talk to her. They told me to come back again, and I told them I would be passing by everyday next week. They told me they would be saving some fruit for me to give me when I pass by. Lovely. It's a good thing I'm still living with a family otherwise all this fruit would be going to waste. With all the fruit I've gotten since I've been here I probably could have started a small produce market.

So that was that, this upcoming week I only have 3 days of interviews, since Monday is a Dominican holiday, and Friday I'm going to visit a friend on the Samana Peninsula to do some whale watching.

One of My Favorite Words in Spanish

2008-01-15T16:55:00.000-04:00

I thought I would take the time to tell everyone about one of my favorite words in Spanish. I have many favorites, just as I do in English, but I think this even tops any English word.

The word is: aprovechar

Aprovechar means to take advantage of something. It just has such a better ring to it, rather than having to say "I'm taking advantage of that," I only have to say, "Yo aprovecho."

So next time you're missing me, just aprovechar something, whether it be the fact that you have electricity 24/7, taking a hot shower, or flushing your toilet paper down a toilet.

There are an endless amount of things that you can aprovechar!

Naked

2008-01-15T16:53:00.000-04:00

No, unfortunately this post is not about my naked antics here in the DR, but rather another book review, that of Naked by David Sedaris.

I had always heard about David Sedaris as being a really hilarious writer, but had never gotten a chance to read any of his literature. I heard him several times on This American Life on National Public Radio, but beyond that I only knew that which my friends talked about.

I'm finally glad that I got a chance to read something by him, because he is hilarious. This book is basically a memoir/essays about interesting things that happened in his life. It's not really a story about his life, rather just little tidbits. The stories are hilarious, and I often literally found myself laughing out loud, and then trying to explain to my family in Spanish why I was laughing. They already probably think I'm weird enough, now add this to it and I'm sure they have their minds set.

Hopefully I can find more of his books in the Peace Corps office, otherwise some of you will be bringing them down here when you visit.

The Worst Hard Time

2008-01-15T16:52:00.000-04:00

So I finished up The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. It was an excellent look into the huge drought during the 1930's in the upper midwest; the area known as the Dust Bowl during that period. I liked this book, because unlike John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, it tells the true story of the people that stayed during that period, unlike Steinbeck's work of fiction that tells the story of those who fled.

I think anyone interested in history, especially American history, should pick up this book. I'm not a big history person, and for me at times it was a little bit hard to follow as there are several different families that the author tells the story of at the same time.

Overall though I thought it was a pretty good read, and it goes into great detail on the huge dust storms of that era which were rated by meteorologists as the greatest or most unusual weather phenomenon of the century...maybe even millennium (I don't remember.) The worst of these was called Black Sunday where so much dust was lifted off the ground that during the middle of the day, you could barely see your hand in front of your face. There were a few storms that even carried so much land that dust fell on the East Coast of the U.S. It also goes into the sicknesses that arose from inhaling all the dust, with the most prominent illness being called dust pneumonia, something which doctors had never really encountered before, except with people who worked in coal mines and such, but never with the general public.

Most interesting though is what caused the huge dust storms to take place. You'll have to read to find out.

Rob's Topography

2008-01-15T16:51:00.000-04:00

So I was just going to add to the last post, but I figured that the past two days warranted a post for itself.

So Friday was the day that we decided we would do the topographic survey of Rob's site. Now Rob is way more out in the boondocks than John, so I figured it would be a little interesting going there. John and I decided we would meet at the intersection on the highway, near where I live, as that is the beginning of the route to get to Rob's site. We scheduled to meet at 8:30, so we could meet up with Rob by 9 at the river, but I'm still getting the whole hang of Dominican time, and John didn't get by me until 9:15. It was good though, I was just able to sit and chill and watch the cars go by for 45 minutes. A nice relaxing start to what would end up being a long day.

After John arrived we got some motos and after the 20 minute or so drive through the mountains we met up with Rob at the Boca del Rio Grande, or the mouth or Rio Grande, where Rio Grande feeds into another larger river that runs along and below Rob's site. Luckily for us, Rob found a couple of kids in his community to bring down two mules for us, to make the trip up to his site a bit easier. John and I were on one mule. John was in the back, not on the saddle, and I was in front. Rob and one of the kids from his community were on the other. Immediately at the start of the trip there was already one river that we would need to cross. The mule handled it well and we continued on our way. In all I think we crossed the river 3 or 4 times. At one point the mule started galloping, which under normal conditions would be fine, but on Dominican saddles, it does not feel good on the nether regions, and I can only imagine poor John in the back who wasn't even on the saddle. At another point I nearly fell off, and I have no idea how exactly John and I both stayed on, because I was basically on my side just hanging on, but thankfully one of the kids that was walking along with us sort of caught us.

We finally arrive at Rob's site, maybe around 10 or 10:15, I don't really know though because I don't really wear a watch anymore since time doesn't really matter. It was really funny, when John was dismounting from the mule, he completely fell off and landed right on his rear end. All the people who were watching found it pretty funny. My dismount was not much more graceful, but I didn't completely fall. This was only the second time I have ridden a mule in this country, and I have yet to get the hang of it.

Before we started work we were treated to a glorious ham sandwich (on regular square bread which is a rarity here) because the day before Rob and the colmado owner went to Santiago, and they picked it up while they were there. It was a little stale, but it was a delight nonetheless. We made them Dominican style, with butter on the outside, ketchup, mayo, ham and cheese on the inside (with a little hot sauce added, which is not Dominican) and then pressed and grilled it in what looked like a waffle maker. With the sandwiches we also had a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

After our bellies were full we gathered all the workers and we were off. It was pretty much the same job as we had done at John's site, but Rob's was a little more complicated as we had to survey several routes, since his spring that he was planning on using is below 11 of the houses in his community, and therefore water cannot be brought by gravity to those houses. So we had to survey from a little stream further away that is higher up. During the afternoon the work was a lot more tedious since there was a lot more ground cover and it was a lot harder to site the other pole with the abney level.

Since Rob is way out in the middle of nowhere it is a little more difficult to leave his site and acquire transportation, so at 4:15, I had to decide whether I was going to leave, or help them finish up the survey and stay the night. Even though I had not come prepared (which I should really know to do by now) I decided I would stay, and we finished up the work a little after 5 or so.

After we got back, we hiked down to the river, where we swam for a little bit and also bathed. We hiked back up, and then Rob lent me some clothes to wear since what I was wearing during the day was all muddy and wet from me sweating. I swear, Dominican are the nicest people. The family who owns the store there basically gave John and I their house for the night. There are four people who live there, with 3 beds. John and I only needed two of the beds, and we told them that they could use the other bed, but they would not listen to us, and so I don't even know where all of them went and slept. There is one room in the little store they own, but I don't know how four people could have slept there. Also, they turned on their diesel generator for us so that we could enter some of the data into excel on Rob's computer.

I didn't sleep very well at night, because usually when I'm staying somewhere different for the first time I have a little trouble sleeping, but I got enough shuteye, and I woke up around 8:30. Rob's family then gave us some breakfast, and us three were off to visit another volunteer, Kira, who lives in a community only about a 10 minute or so detour on our trip down. We took a different path down this time, since Rob said it was a little quicker to arrive at Kira's site. We had to cross the river 4 times on this trip. And this time we did not have the lovely help of mules, it was all on foot. The first 3 rivers I crossed uneventfully.

We arrived at the 4th crossing, and it was definitely the widest and there was someone crossing it when we got there, and it came up to a little bit below his waist. (Normally this river is easily crossable, but with the amount of rain in the past week the rivers are a bit swollen.) So, I tightened the straps on my backpack and sandals, and grabbed a hold of my moto helmet, because it was hanging a little bit below my backpack, and I began to cross the river. There were tons of rocks of all different sizes, so I was pretty much just stumbling my way there, hoping that I wouldn't fall. I got to about mid river, and lost my balance a little and pretty much got soaked up to my neck. I'm not exactly sure how, but my backpack remained mostly dry, but the same cannot be said about my helmet.

So now here I am, soaking wet continuing the hike to Kira's house. We made it there around 11am, but alas, Kira had went to town that morning and would be returning in about an hour. We decided we'd stick it out and walk around her town a little bit, as it was John and I's first time there. Also, John wanted to get a pair of sandals as he had been walking around in rubber boots the whole day, that were now filled with water, and he needed a new pair anyways since he had lost one of his the other day. So we walked around for a little while, got John's sandals (I was very tempted to buy a pair of LA Gear flip flops for $75 RD, or about $2.50 US...I don't know why I didn't, but I think that next time I'm at Kira's site I'm returning to the store to get them...they're way to classic to pass up), and then got back to Kira's house at 12:40 and she had still not returned. While we were waiting we were treated to some delicious papaya, and Kira ended up coming around 1 pm. We talked, played dominos, at lunch, and then we were off to get back to our sites around 3 o'clockish.

John and I were super lucky, because while were were waiting to get motos, we ended up getting a bola (basically a free ride by hitchiking.) We hopped into the back of the truck, saving each of us $50 pesos, and I wouldn't have to wear my helmet which had not yet completely dried even though I put it in the sun for a couple hours during the hottest part of the day (yes it was that wet.) To top things off, about halfway through the trip we passed an ice cream truck and the driver stopped to buy some ice cream. I figured that I could use one too, to cool down from the sun beating down on me in the back of the truck, so I decided on my favorite one, the choco choco, which is chocolate ice cream covered in a chocolate shell. They're oh so good, and only $15 pesos, but, being the nice driver that he was, he also treated me to ice cream. A free ride, and free ice cream, I could not have asked for anything better. (One time I got a bola in the back of the actual ice cream truck, but I still had to pay for my ice cream that time.)

John and I hopped off at the intersection on the highway near my town. John would have to get back to his site, which takes at least a half an hour, and I just had to walk the ten minutes to my house.

So that's what happened the past two days. A little spontaneous adventure, and a lot of fun.

John's Topographic Survey

2008-01-15T16:49:00.000-04:00

So today it really felt like I was in the Peace Corps. I went over to John's site to help him with his topographic survey, since we are all helping each other out to have some English speakers around because it makes it a little easier. I woke up a little late, a little before 8 o'clock (I was supposed to be at the highway by 8:15 am. Anyways I got to the highway, picked up a carro publico (a little less safe, since they cram four in the backseat and two in the front...but I ended up riding solo in the front seat), since it came before the Javilla Tours bus (the nice buses that run along the highway with great frequency), then got on a moto (motorcycle) in Altamira and off I was to John's site. When we were about halfway there it started raining, and the moto pulled over so that we weren't driving in the rain. After it calmed down a little bit we continued on our way and I got to John's a little after 9 am, so practically right on time in Dominican terms. Rob on the other hand is completely Dominicanized and arrived at 10 am. After that we had to cross a river to get into John's site, and since it has been raining like crazy here the river is a bit swollen. Mind you, I had my computer in my backpack. We crossed uneventfully and continued to John's house where we had a breakfast of boiled plantains and coffee. This was actually my second breakfast. My first breakfast at 8 was hot chocolate and some bread, one of my favorite breakfasts actually, on a nice crisp winter morning.

After that we gathered everyone up and we hiked up to the source where John's aqueduct will be getting water from. It was probably about a half hour or forty-five minute hike, sometimes on a path, and other times through thick brush. The views at his site are spectacular, so there was never a dull moment on the hike up. We got to the source, talked a little bit about his plan for the obra de toma (intake works) and then we started doing the survey.

I'm going to get into the technical stuff a little bit here, so if you don't want to get bored, you might want to skip this paragraph. Doing the topographic survey consists of using an Abney level, which is used to measure the angle between points, and a long tape measure (100ft), obviously to measure the distance. Knowing the distance and angle, you can figure out the difference in height between the points by multiplying the distance by the sine of the angle (in degrees) (I know all you guys remember your trigonometry). In doing this along the entire route (from the source to the last house that needs water) we get a accurate enough survey to design an aqueduct.

The hike on the way back obviously went a lot slower since we had to stop every 50 ft or so. At times were on extremely steep inclines that were completely muddy since it had been raining. And actually, for a good chunk of time it was a nice downpour and we got soaking wet. Let me tell you in case you wanted to know, that old Abney levels do not work to well under wet conditions. Water leaks into them and fogs up the lenses. So every couple points we had to ask this 80 year old dude if we could use his shirt to clean it off, because he was wearing a jacket which kept his undershirt dry.

As we got nearer to the houses, some of the workers kept dropping one by one, since it was now later in the afternoon, and no one had eaten lunch. After a long and grueling hike back, we were treated to a nice lunch of chicken and moro (rice cooked with the beans). Rob ate everything in his bowl, which was quite a feat to accomplish. He said that he had never been so full since he arrived in the country. It was now about 5 o'clock and Rob and I were both needing to get back to our sites.

John accompanied us out, and when he was crossing the river, it was deeper than he expected (since we crossed at a different point on the way in) and he tripped a little and lost one of his sandals. On the other side of the river was a moto waiting to take me and Rob back to our sites. Yes, three grown men rode on one moto. I have actually only done this once before (but the third person that time was a little old lady whose moto she was riding had broken down), but I guess Rob has done it a lot, so I took the middle, as I really didn't want to fall off the back. It's really not as dangerous as it sounds, and Rob didn't fall off the back. Our moto driver was pretty cautious too, driving at speeds which even I thought were a bit slow for around here. This would also be my first time riding a moto on the highway, as usually I just take the moto to the highway and then get on a bus from there. But this was easier, and I was tired, and I didn't feel as though it was my day to die.

On my way back into my site I stopped at the little supermarket to buy a bottle of hot sauce, since I figured it's about time I spiced up some of the blander food. It was really funny when I brought it out for dinner and the little kid in my house asked me if he could try some. Now most Dominicans are not accustomed to spicy things, my little host brother included. When he put a drop of it on his tongue he just about fainted. It was hilarious. Also at the supermarket I bought my favorite chocolate candy bar, a Crachi (pronounced Crotchy in Spanish). I think I'll post about my obsession with Crachi another day. And yes, in case you were wondering, I did share my Crachi with my host family. They licked it, munched on it a little, and overall, my Crachi was a big hit.

So there you have it, more proof that I actually do work here. By the time I post this, if it is not raining like cats and dogs, we'll have done the topographic survey of Rob's site as well. If anything eventful happens during that, I'll be sure to post it.

Thinking in Spanish

2008-01-15T16:48:00.000-04:00

So after I posted last time, I was on my way back to my site and I noticed something interesting happening. I was thinking in Spanish! It is so weird this transition from thinking in English to Spanish. I never really believed that it would happen, despite what people had told me, but alas it has. I don't think in Spanish all the time, but I have been noticing myself doing it more frequently lately. I most often realize that it is happening at night when I'm falling asleep. You know that time of day when you're going over things in your head about what happened during the day, what you have to do tomorrow, and things like that. It's still the strangest thing to me that I'm now doing that stuff in Spanish. I've even had a few dreams in Spanish. Nothing super vivid yet, and I'm pretty sure that every time I've spoken Spanish in my dreams, it has been with people who also know Spanish. Although, supposedly the time will come when all my dreams are in Spanish and people who don't even know it are speaking it as well. Weird.

When I was on the internet last time I downloaded California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas. I don't know what made me think of it, but I went to play it on my computer the other day and I didn't have it. I thought for sure I had it, but I didn't. So that's what I'm listening to now. I think it's something about that pan flute solo in the middle of the song. Too bad it's less than 3 minutes long.

Kevin's Book Club

2008-01-07T12:50:00.000-04:00

Since I love Oprah so much (sticking finger down my throat), I decided to start my own book club. Since I've been here I've read a few books and I figured I'd give a little review/synopsis of each, and you guys can decide if you want to read them or not. There are two which I highly recommend, the others you could skip, although if you have the time they are still pretty good.

The Unheard by Josh (I don't remember his last name)

This book is about a deaf Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Zambia in Africa. If you decide to read this one, just remember that my service does not even compare to what he went through. From what I gathered, it seemed like he was always worried about his safety and constantly on edge, and he was deaf. I can't even think of one time that I felt like I was in danger. This is a good read, highly recommended, although I may be partial since I am a Peace Corps Volunteer.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Believe it or not, but I actually think this one was an Oprah book club selection. I remember a friend reading it it high school and he was always talking about it saying that it was awesome. I never got a chance to read it back then, and when I saw it on the shelf at the Peace Corps office I decided to pick it up and give it a shot. It's pretty good if you're into mindless fiction, just in it for the story kind of book. Sometimes that's what I need down here just to escape and not have to think. It's about this messed-up, dysfunctional family and the problems and consequences they have to endure.

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

A friend picked this one out for me to read. It's basically about this guy who goes on this long journey to discovery himself and what life is really about. There's a lot of references to higher powers, which I'm not a big fan of. Also it deals with the concept of fate a lot , which I'm not very fond of either. I just don't understand how that no matter what path we take, or what actions we perform, the same result ensues. Despite all that, the book still had a good message and I really liked the ending. Mom, I recommend picking this one up, you'll really like it. Also, it's a very short book, readable in a day or so.

Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

This is non-fiction, about Dr. Paul Farmer who started a clinic in Haiti and how he has basically made a huge difference there, and in the entire world. It is an excellent book that makes you realize what potential each and every one of us has inside ourselves. I wish I still had the book so that I could type up the back of it, because my review here is not doing it the slightest bit of justice. Of all the books I'm writing about here, this one comes in an extremely close 2nd place, practically tied with my number 1 pick.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

This one was a struggle to get through, not because of content, but because of length. It was well over a thousand pages, with teeny-tiny print. From the beginning I was immediately drawn in and could not put it down. If you're familiar with Ayn Rand you'll know all about her objectivism and her egoism. She's very into herself and thinks that everyone else should be as well. This is basically her philosophy and if you know me well enough you'd know why I enjoyed this book. Ok, this is coming straight from the back of the book, "The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world-and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in suspense, Atlas Shrugged is unlike any other book you have ever read. It is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder-and rebirth-of a man's spirit." If you have got the time on your hands, pick this one up.

Night by Elie Wiesel

This is my top recommendation for all of you. It is extremely readable (I read it in less than a day.) It's only about 100 pages. It is a work of non-fiction. The author received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1985 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. It is a memoir of the time he spent in the concentration camps during World War II. Now you might be thinking, "oh geez, another book about the Nazis and Jews," but of everything I've read on this topic, this book tops them all. It's so very short and sweet, depicting the horror and misery like nothing else I've read (or even watched for that matter.) How something like that could have happened a little over half a century ago, a little over a decade ago in Rwanda, and is now going on in Sudan, is beyond me.

I also finished up the final book in the Harry Potter series. I left home with about 2-300 pages left. It was hell to leave it back at home, but due to luggage restrictions I had to. Well I got my hands on a copy and let me tell you it was good. I'm not going to do a review of it because if you wanted to read it you would have done so by now.

Alright, now if you're only going to pick up one of these books make it be Night. But, I really think you should go pick up two, and make the second one be Mountains beyond Mountains.

That's it for now, I'm just about to start reading The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, "The untold story of those who survived the great American dust bowl." Stay tuned for a review.

If you've read any books lately that you'd like to recommend to me, please go ahead and leave a comment or email me, and I'll see if I could pick it up in the Peace Corps office.

Random Thoughts

2008-01-07T12:49:00.000-04:00

This was written Saturday, January 5th

So I'm sitting here typing this in my room and it has been raining since Thursday night (it's now Saturday afternoon.) There was a few moments of sunshine at noon today, but that didn't last long. Today I was supposed to go to Santiago in the morning to make copies of my community diagnostic so I could get going on that, and I was going to go to the mall there that has free wireless internet (yes...I really am in the Peace Corps.) But I guess I'm becoming too Dominican because when it's raining I don't do anything. It's not like I don't have an umbrella or anything, it's just that I don't feel like leaving the house. The road out of my town is all muddy and I really didn't feel like getting muddy today.

We were also supposed to have a water committee meeting today at 2pm, but alas that got cancelled as well since nobody does anything when it's raining. Since I knew I wasn't going to be doing anything today I didn't wake up until 10. I then had breakfast of bread and juice and coffee. I'm now getting my coffee black, the way I like it. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I like it that way, as it is considered very weird, but I told them that when I was in Cabarete I tried it that way and it was my favorite. They still thought it was pretty weird, but whatever because now I get a lovely glass of black coffee every morning, and usually at night too. I then watched TV until 12, when I had lunch. I then took a bucket bath and have been on my computer ever since. (It's now 4pm.) In that time I have written these lovely blog entries for you all, made updates to my community map, community diagnostic, wrote a rather lengthy email to my sister about places to stay when my family visits in March. I have a countdown calendar on my computer...it's only 82 days until they come. I'm sure that is going to fly by.

I would like to congratulate (that word does not look right) my friend on her recent (oh look...here come more sunshine) getting of internet in her place (you know who you are.) Now I get to receive text messages from her all the time...woohoo! Oh yeah...and all of you people better get moving on sending text messages with that website below. And don't use the excuse that the webpage is in Spanish. There is a big picture of a phone...if you can't figure it out I probably don't want text messages from you anyways.

I want to talk a little bit more about my rad visit to Cabarete last week. I had a bottle of one of my two favorite beers, Duvel, complete with Duvel glass and everything. It cost $290 DR, which is about $9 US, but it was well worth it. Sadly they did not have Tripel Karmeliet. Also, I got to have a video conference with my family through Skype. It was really nice to see all their lovely faces.

Words cannot even describe how excellent sour patch kids and dark chocolate peanut M&Ms are. Thanks to my fam who sent them to me for Christmas. What a lovely Christmas present. Who would have ever thought that such a simple Christmas gift could go so far. Also, thanks to my bro for sending my my computer and the lovely new case he bought for it. Yeah, if you feel like sending any care packages definitely put those things in it.

Ok...that's it for now, sorry for all the parentheses and my random babbling thoughts, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Now it's Sunday, I was going to go to Santiago today, but it's still raining on and off, and I found out yesterday that nothing is open on Sundays, so I'm going to try and make it there tomorrow (Monday).

My Work

2008-01-07T12:45:00.001-04:00

So yeah...I actually have been working down here, although I'm sure to most people it seems that I'm just sort of on a vacation, which I guess at times it pretty much feels like I am, because I love what I'm doing here. Anyways, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but I did the topographic survey of where we are going to be laying the pipeline with another volunteer a little over 2 weeks ago. There are a few hurdles I am going to need to engineer out of the way, but overall I was happy with the results I got from the topography. I'm going to try and see if I can get the excel spreadsheet up here so you guys can see the lay of the land. I also made a digital copy of my community map which I'll try and get up here too.

In these last few weeks of January, and maybe the first couple weeks of February, I have to make a visit to each house in the community for an little interview about their water usage and health problems. The interviews will be conducted with the Doñas (or woman of the house) of the houses, as they are the ones who are home during the day and they are the ones who give the most reliable answers. Here are all the questions I will be asking:

General Questions

1. What's your complete name, including any nicknames. (Most people here never go by their real name, they only go by their nicknames...for example, my host mom's real name is Máxima, but everyone calls her Maritza. I think maybe only one time I've heard her called Máxima. Also my project partner is called Zenón, but everone calls him Papi.)

2. How many people sleep here and what are their names, ages, and sex? (In order to get a more accurate population estimate we ask how many people sleep there as opposed to how many people live there. This gets away some of the confusion of "living" as many people will consider themselves as living somewhere even though they don't sleep there.)

Finances

3. What is your family's occupation, or how do you earn a living? (The majority of people in my community are farmers, with a few teacher and other odd jobs. There are a few people who receive money from people living in the states. Believe it or not this is actually one of the top three sources of income in the DR.)

4. If you are a farmer what do you grow? (The people in my community are very big Cacao farmers, where chocolate comes from)

5. Do you have any other sources of income?

Health

6. Who has been sick in the last 3 months? (Instead of asking, "Has anyone been sick in the last 3 months?" we ask "who" has been sick, because if we asked it the other way they would automatically just say no. It's still very likely that they will say no one has been sick because they don't want to look bad in front of you."

7. What have they been sick with? (If they do admit to anything, they will say Gripe, which can range from a cough/cold to the flu.)

8. Has any child 5 or younger had the cold or diarrhea in the pas 15 days. (This question is targeted at children 5 and under, as this is the crucial age range where serious health problems occur and is where we are trying to get the most improvement.)

Environment and Sanitation

9. Where does the water that you use in your house come from? (A lot of people get their water from the nearby river, others buy it from a truck that they call)

10. If it comes from a truck, how much do you pay per month? (Since a lot of people pay for the water I added this question to find out how much money they would be saving once the aqueduct is built)

11. How many hours do you take each day to get water?

12. How much water do you carry in one trip?

13. Is the water that you drink different from the water that you go and find? (I added this one in there because a lot of people in my community buy bottled water for drinking.)

14. Do you purify the water before you drink it? (This is for people who don't buy bottle water.)

15. What method do you use to purify it? (Common methods are adding bleach, boiling it, and more rarely, filtering.)

16. What do you do with your garbage? (Most people just throw it out their backdoor, others burn it. There are some communities that a truck comes around, but I have yet to see one in mine. This is something that still really bothers me and is going to be the hardest to change. People here just don't see the impact that littering and polluting has.)

17. How often do you wash your hands? (Most people will attest that they are always washing they're hands since they do dishes and laundry, but through observation, rarely do people wash their hands after going to the bathroom and before eating.)

18. Do you have a latrine? (It seems as though most people in my community have latrines, some even have bathrooms in their house)

19. Is it in good or bad condition? (This is so I can get a rough estimate of how many latrine I may or may not need to build in the future.)

20. In your opinion, what are the basic problems related to health and sanitation in the community? (This should be the most interesting since it is very open-ended.)

Observations

21. Is the floor made of dirt, cement or something else? (From my few visits so far, it seems that most people have cement floors.)

22. Is the roof made of concrete, zinc or wood? (I would say the majority here have zinc, with concrete coming in second, and wood being third. We'll see if I'm right.)

23. Is the kitchen in the house or separate? (From what I've seen so far the majority of people have kitchens in their houses, although there are still plenty that cook on a fire outside their house.)

24. How many rooms are there for sleeping? (This is to get an idea of how crowded the living situation is.)

Ok...well there you have it, I actually do work here! Stay tuned for the results of the community diagnostic, in a few months or so.

My Community Map

My Topography

Yeah and that was done old school with an abney level...we don't have GPS or lovely digital instruments here.

And the elevations on the topography more or less coincide with the distance on the community map.

Next I get to design the aqueduct, which should be interesting.

Send Me Text Messages for Free

2008-01-02T00:50:00.000-04:00

OK...so I found out that everyone can send me text messages for free from my cell phone company's website.

The website is: www.claro.com.do

The page is in Spanish but it's pretty much self explanatory...if you can't figure it out have google translate the page for you or go find someone that speaks Spanish.

I'm expecting messages from everyone, so start sending away. Make sure you put your name at the end, because otherwise I have no way of knowing who sent it. I'll try to respond to as many as I can but I only get 20 free texts a month.

If you want my phone number, email me or talk to someone who knows it, because I don't want to post it online.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T21:49:00.000-04:00

So I have had a wonderful little New Year's vacation here in the DR. Since Sunday I have been staying at a condo that 5 other volunteers and I rented for 4 days/3 nights. It's super awesome...flat screen TVs and wireless internet...and it was cheap too...only like $70 US per person. So yeah...I have been living it up here on the beach. We're at a little tourist town on the north coast called Cabarete. It's pretty much a very active place known for it's windsurfing and kiteboarding...so all you adventure seekers coming to visit me put that on your list of things to do.

We rang in the New Year at midnight by taking a dip in the ocean. It was a lot of fun. Hope you guys had an awesome New Year's Eve. I'll be updating in the next couple weeks with some details about my project, because I'm pretty sure that no one believes that I actually do work down here...but alas I do.

La Noche Buena

2007-12-27T18:38:00.000-04:00

The next day, Christmas Eve, is the big celebration day, not Christmas day. At about 10 am my project partner came to get me so that I could eat some of the pork that they had roasted the day before. So I get a big hunk of pork on a plate that he basically just tore right off the pig. They serve it with pan de casabe, which is sort of like a cracker/wafer, similar to Wasa Crackers, if you know what those are. Oh yeah, and no utensils. So I stuffed my face until I was ready to explode. After that is when I began drinking, switching off between rum and scotch, because that’s how they do things here. At about 12 came lunch when I had to eat more, even though I was full.

Then at about 2:30 I had to go home because the pork that my family cooked was ready, yeah more eating. After that I had to take a nap so I slept til about 5. I woke up, showered, drank some more and at 7 was dinner with the whole family. It consisted of pork, a potato salad type dish, salad, rice/beans, pan de casabe, apples and grapes and probably other stuff which I’m forgetting. I swear I was about ready to vomit all over the table from all that food.

At 8:30 we left, I thought to go to a party, but no, it was to a family friend’s house to eat yet another dinner. When we got there I saw that the table was all set and I thought it was some sort of joke, but it wasn’t. I barely ate a thing or I definitely would have vomited all over the place. They seemed kind of upset with me since I wasn’t eating and I got some dirty looks…but that’s how they roll here.

After that we went to drink some more, at first outside under some tents, and at about 12am we went back to the friend’s house where we partied it up til 3:30 or so. Before we left we all got served more food, which at that point I was hungry again because it had been about 6 hours or so, and I was used to eating ever other hour. No wonder they call the night before Christmas, “La Noche Buena,” or the good night, because it was very good.

The next morning I woke up around 10:30 or so, ate breakfast and went to a cockfight with my host dad. After watching the pig get slaughtered, this didn’t even phase me. I have a video of it and I’m trying to figure out how to upload it, as it is too big to upload to the blog.

Pig Slaughter and Roast

2007-12-27T17:51:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, two days prior to Christmas was the day for slaughtering pigs. All throughout the day cries of pigs dying could be heard. I witnessed one pig being put to death, the one that I would be eating the following day. It is very graphic and I don't wish to watch another one die. They take a large knife and stab it and wait for it to bleed to death. After that they put it on a slab where they pour boiling water on it to loosen the hairs so that it is easier to remove the hair. Well, the one I watched hadn't yet died before they began to pour water on it. It was not very pleasurable to watch this occur.

Later that same day I got to try mondongo, which is the intestines of the pig. Needless to say, I did not like it, as they do taste like there had been poo in them a few hours earlier. Unfortunately, it was the first time I had to tell my Dona that I didn't like something.

Even later that same day they began the pig roast, which is a tradition for them every year. Nine pigs were lined up in a row all on their sticks, roasting from about 7 pm til about 4 or 5 am the next morning. This was all taking place about 20 feet outside my bedroom door, so now everything in my room smells like smoke, but it was definitely worth it to see that many pigs roasting at one time...definitely not like Christmas back in the states.

Below are 2 videos of the pigs being slaughtered, if you have a week stomach please do not press play as you will probably vomit. They are very graphic. Enjoy...there are also some still photos that I uploaded to my photos.

Tropical Storm Olga

2007-12-12T18:15:00.000-04:00

So it's been 3 months and I'm already on my second tropical storm. Not too good of odds so far. Peace Corps consolidated us, so right now all the volunteers in my region are staying at a nice hotel in Santiago, complete with hot showers, air conditioning, wireless internet and cable TV with English channels. There is even WGN news from Chicago!

This region of the DR got hit pretty bad by the storm. The big problem was that last night during the night, the government opened the floodgates to prevent a dam from overtopping, and they did not give any warning to the people in the area, so 7 people died that should not have, had there been a warning. They said about 5,000 cubic meters per second was flowing from the floodgates...that's a lot of water.

Not much to report on otherwise. Things are going well at my site and I'll probably be going back tomorrow after we get the go ahead from PC.

Vaya con Dios! (Everyone here says that when you're leaving, it means, "Go with God."

One Week Down...and Plenty More To Go

2007-12-01T10:25:00.000-04:00

So I´ve been at my site for a week and things could not be going any better. Life is pretty boring for the time being. Here´s what my typical day looks like:

9am - Wake Up, Eat Breakfast (some sort of bread and milk drink), Bucket Bathe

10 or 10:30 - Read or go visit people and talk until lunchtime

12pm - Lunch (usually rice, beans, meat and some sort of salad)

1pm - More reading or going to talk to people until dinner time

6 or 7 - Dinnertime - Usually plantains or yucca, some fried salami

Then I either play cards or watch TV until about 10 or 11 and then go to bed.

Some interesting stuff that has happened in the past week:

I witnessed a motorcycle crash last night in front of my house. Everyone was ok. The passenger probably slid 10 or 15 feet from where it crashed. After everyone knew the people were ok they were basically just laughing about it. Interesting.

I went to a double header baseball game in the town of Altamira. If any of you are into baseball, Bartolo Colon is from the town of Altamira here and he built a huge stadium, bigger than necessary for the town. Anyways, both of my host brothers are on a team and they had a double header. For as much as I think baseball is boring I still had a great time and am actually going to another double header tomorrow.

I went to Puerto Plata yesterday. There are some Riu resorts there, which I know they are a pretty reputable chain of resorts. So if you want to live it up tourist style you can go there and you are only about 40 minutes away from me.

Tonight there is some big party in my town as a benefit for the old people. It starts at 8 and then goes til the wee hours of the morning.

I still haven´t taken any pictures, but when I do I promise I´ll post them.

Thanksgiving was glorious. Tons of foods and dessert. Three magnificent hot showers...it practically burned my skin off.

Ok...this internet is really slow and I don´t feel like typing anymore. I´m going to try to get into Santiago in the coming weeks and the internet is supposed to be faster, so I´ll be able to upload pictures and what not.

My Site

2007-11-19T20:56:00.000-04:00

So last week I finally found out where I'm going to be living for the next two years. It's a small town outside of Altamira, about 40 minutes away from the big tourist area of Puerto Plata (just in case you wanted to look at a map of the DR.) I don't have time to go into detail and I didn't take any pictures of it yet (I figure I have 2 years to take pics)

Anyways, there are about 70 houses and about 270 people living there, nicely nestled in some large hills/small mountains. Everyone there seems surprisingly well-off and I'm not exactly sure where they acquire their money, but they definitely have it. I'm only a 10 minute walk off one of the major highways, therefore it is a relatively well-developed community. We have electricity, and a significant number of people even have running water in their houses, complete with flushing toilets and showers. These people buy their water from a truck that occasionally comes around to fill the tanks on their roofs.

Unfortunately the host family that I'm living with does not let me use their bathroom inside; I need to use the latrine and take bucket baths, but alas, I'm in the Peace Corps so I shouldn't have expected differently. I'm currently living in what I guess would be called a basement, although it's not really so much a basement as it is just one room on a lower level which you need to go outside to access. As a result of this "basement," when I stand up in my room my head is about an inch away from the ceiling. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I banged my head against the light fixture in my room. Also, there is only one small window which provides for no ventilation whatsoever, and my room smells faintly of mold. Luckily, the longest I'll have to live there is 3 months, although I'm hoping to move out in 1.5 or 2.

When I went around on my community tour they pointed out a house to me which is currently vacant, and which we would be discussing renting options in the future. The house looked really beatiful, even by some U.S. standards. It's a concrete structure which appeared to be completely furnished, which I'm hoping stays furnished when I rent it. It's about 100 yards away from a river which is really nice because I could then just bathe in the river instead of taking bucket baths. Also, I didn't go inside, but it looked big enough to have 2 bedrooms, so I could have visitors stay with me, so start looking for flights now.

Last Wednesday I had my first community meeting with the water committee and about 50 members of the community. The water committe pretty much ran the whole thing, but I should have arrived knowing that they would probably want me to speak a little, but I really didn't feel like preparing anything, so I went with just a blank notepad, and some Peace Corps handouts that were given to me earlier in the week. Right before the meeting started, the committee president (also my project partner, who is really cool by the way...more to come about him in a future post) came up to me and told me that after he introduced me that he wanted me to talk a little about the philosophy and goals of the Peace Corps...Yikes! Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm not really good at winging things, add to that a foreign language, and yeah...enough said. So I nicely stumbled through a couple minutes of senseless blabber, but everyone applauded me at the end, probably out of pity.

A little about my host family for the next 3 months: they are surprisingly similar to my family back in the states, except with darker skin. The mom and dad are 51 and 53, respectively, very close to my parents' ages. I have an older brother who is 29 who is on a baseball team, and is apparently pretty good because he has traveled to the states a couple times with the team. They have another daughter around 26 who has moved away from home to a nearby pueblo. I have a brother who is my age at 23, and then the youngest is my sister, who is 21. So, two boys and two girls, just like my family, and in similar age ranges too. It's really weird that it turned out that way, but it's comforting.

Also, we went to visit the water source that will feed my gravity-fed aqueduct. I found out that there is already a spring box there which was built back in 1986 with a small aqueduct in place which reaches about 7 or 8 houses. Apparently my community is in agreement with this other community to share this source, although I definitely anticipate some problems with this in the future. It is nice, however, to know that my community is really well-organized and well-educated, and has technical skill with respect to both design and construction. Hopefully this will make my job a little less stressfull, but we'll see. I'm a little intimidated at the moment with the prospect of designing this water system, but plenty of people have constructed theirs before me, in probably much worse off situations, so I know that I can do it too.

There are 5 other volunteers from my group that are within an hour or so of me. One of them is about a 10 minute ride down the highway, so that is pretty nice. There are also probably about 10 or so others from previous volunteer groups that are stationed around there.

Hopefully next time I'll have some pictures for you all, but for now you will just have to anxiously await them.

I officially swear-in and become a volunteer on Wednesday. Today I had the last of all my Spanish testing and a bunch of other random tests and I passed them all. Woohoo!

Also, on random note, there seems to be a bought of scabies in our group. Three people apparently have it, and although I haven't been in close contact with any of them, I'm feeling awfully itchy.

Finally, several people before I left inquired as to how I would get my hair cut here in the DR. Apparently these people (I'm not mentioning any names) were not aware that Dominicans do in fact cut their hair. Tonight I went to the barber for the first time and got myselft a nice Dominican hairdo. It's a little different than how it would have been cut in the states, but my Spanish still isn't that great and I wasn't able to communicate to them exactly how I wanted it cut. They have the same hair clippers as they do in the states, complete with different numbered attachments, so I told the barber that I would like a 2 on the sides and a 3 on the top, just like my brother at home had done numerous times in the past. The barber nodded in agreement and proceeded to cut my hair. I did not have my glasses on and as a result, when I put them on at the end it definitely was not cut with a 2 on the sides and 3 on top. Also, my widow's peak was razored off (sorry Denise, I know you really loved that). I'll try to take some pictures tonight so you all can see my lovely new do.

I hope everyone has a glorious Thanksgiving...I will be living it up for 2 nights at the Barcelo Lina in downtown Santo Domingo, complete with a pool and hot showers...what luxury (all for a grand total of $37 US). Thanksgiving dinner is at some ritzy place in a really nice neighborhood and it's all put together and cooked by volunteers. I'm sure it will not even come close to Thanksgiving dinner at home, but gosh darnit I'm going to enjoy it. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to say one thing that I'm thankful for: that it's the end of November here and the temperature is a nice hot and sweaty 85-90 degrees...how lovely. Meanwhile, all you guys back in Chicago will be enjoying a nice high of 35 on Thanksgiving...haha!

Cell Phone

2007-11-12T18:05:00.000-04:00

I just received my cell phone today. I'm not going to post it on here because I don't want telemarketers to get a hold of it, so if you want it, send me an email.

It's free for me to receive calls and text messages, so call and text whenever you want. Apparently you can go to www.callingcards.com and get pretty cheap rates on calling the DR. Also, I think there are some places online where you can make international calls for really cheap, such as Skype. Figure it out and give me a call. I'm supposed to have pretty good service at my site and I have electricity so I'll it should be on all the time.

I found out what my site will be for the next two years. If anyone wants to visit just let me know. You could fly into Santiago or Puerto Plata as they are about the same distance from me. If you want to stay with me lodging and food will practically be free, so the most expensive thing will be the flight.

USAID

2007-11-06T20:48:00.000-04:00

Today turned out to be quite the interesting day. The other 5 trainees and I arrived at the training facility prepared for a long day of Spanish class, but before class began we received a call from our program and training officer (PTO) asking us if we would like to help USAID load helicopters with supplies to assist in the relief effort of the recent storms. We gladly obliged since that would be a lot more exciting than a whole day of Spanish.

We took a taxi to the Peace Corps office in Santo Domingo where we met Richard Goughnour, the mission director of USAID in the Dominican Republic and Jeff Cohen, the program officer. We then went to the Las Americas airport where we had to pass through security in order to get onto the tarmac.

We arrived at the destination and probably waited an hour before we actually began to load stuff. We were loading blankets (why I don't know because it's really hot) and toiletries for the refugees. We loaded up 3 U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and one cargo plane. Most of the time was actually spent making an obstacle course and shelters for shade out of the bags of blankets, because there were hours inbetween each loading. Unfortunately we did not get to take a ride on this helicpoter.

I did not have my camera with me since I wasn't expecting to do anything exciting today, but another volunteer had his, so when he posts his I'll link to it.

Photo Update

2007-11-06T20:40:00.001-04:00

I uploaded all my photos from the last month or so...all 229 of them, so have fun. I'm going to continue to use Google's Picassa as that seems to be the easiest for me to use. I captioned all the photos so you can get an idea of what you're looking at. I also went back and captioned the rest of my photos so take another look at the older ones also. For your viewing pleasure I rotated all the taller photos so you no longer have to strain your neck to view them.

Please comment on them so I have something to read when I'm bored, and comment on this blog too....I like to know what everyone thinks and please give me suggestions on what you want to read about in the future. I'm going to open up the comments so you know longer have to register in order to comment. If things get out of control with spammers leaving comments though I'll close it back up.

Tropical Storm Noel

2007-11-04T11:09:00.000-04:00

Well it has been quite an adventure this past week with Tropical Storm Noel swinging by. The rain started a little bit during the day on Saturday, picking up intensity at night and then basically pouring until about Wednesday, some more drizzling on Thursday, and by Friday it was nice and sunny. I would have never imagined it could rain that much. It was probably a 5000 Year storm event...haha.

The worst part of the storm was during the night on Sunday. The wind was really blowing and the rain was coming down at an insane rate. When I woke up it was horrible outside. Trees were down and further up the road from us half the road had washed away. As gossip spread further throughout the different villages, we would eventually find out that four bridges had washed away and both of the roads out were covered in mudslides.

We had enough food to last until about Sunday, and obviously plenty of water with all the rain that had come down, but it was still really nervewracking at times not knowing exactly how we were going to get out of there. Luckily, one of the tech trainers had a working cell phone so we were always in contact with the peace corps office. Since they knew that we would be low on food on Sunday they wanted us out on Saturday, and they decided we would be evacuated by helicopter.

Friday night we had a small get together with the people from the village to celebrate the month we had spent together. My host mom was very sad that I was leaving because her husband had gone to the hospital right before the storm began and now she would have to spend the nights alone in her house. It was really sad leaving but I reassured her that I would definitely come back and visit since I'm in the country for two years. She even gave me her phone number so that I could call her sometime.

Come Saturday morning we had quite a few spectators come to watch our departure. It would be everyone's first time riding in a helicopter so none of us really knew what to expect. I went in the first group with four people, including myself. We had a lot baggage so we weren't able to take off solely vertically, so we lifted off the ground a little and over a row of trees and descended into the valley below in order to gain velocity. (Sorry for this as most people will not understand, but it felt like we were on a spaceship on our way to planet Endor to visit Wicky.) Apparently, to everyone on the ground it looked like we had crashed, and some people even started crying. They ended up seeing us further in the distance though, so everything was fine. Some of the villagers cut down trees so that it would be easier for the pilot to leave with the next group of people.

So, I´m fine and all the other volunteers and trainees are safe. We are back in the hot, sweaty, polluted Capital a week earlier than expected, which is not that great but I'll deal with it. I'm here til next Tuesday afternoon, when I go to visit what will be my permanent site for two years. I'll be back in Santo Domingo the Sunday after that, for a week, then I will leave for my site for good.

My site is about 45 minutes away from the second largest city of Santiago and about 45 minutes away from the tourist area of Puerto Plata. Anyone who wants to visit can fly into either of those airports, or we could work something else out depending on where you want to go.

I'm in the process of uploading my photos to Snapfish now instead of Google since there is no limit on the amount of photos you can upload using Snapfish. I'm having some trouble with my memory card though so it might be awhile before I get all the pics up. I'll update my pic links in a bit.

My Host Parents can Party Like Rockstars

2007-10-20T14:43:00.000-04:00

Let me tell you a little about my host parents. They are this really old couple, the husband, Miguel Martinez (or Baben, his nickname) is 86, and the wife, Ofelia, can´t be too much younger, maybe 75. They are so sweet. Last Thursday we went out to the colmado nearby to dance, play dominoes and drink a little. Well, we stayed out til 2am, dancing and drinking, and they were still going strong at the end. Ofelia then woke up the next day around 6:30 to cook breakfast. She is quite the trooper. There is a merengue fiesta next Wednesday, and I can´t wait to see them dance again. They are so cute together.

Cough Drops

2007-10-20T14:40:00.000-04:00

One would think that cough drops are for when you have a cough or sore throat, in order to ease the pain a little bit. That is not the case here, however. Anytime you are out at the local colmado, playing dominoes or just hanging out, there are always people who buy you cough drops. They are like mints here. They have a plethora of different flavors in addition to the standard cherry Halls brand. My favorite so far has been the orange cream.

Conversation with a Haitian Man

2007-10-20T14:25:00.000-04:00

Right now at my site the coffee harvest is going and there are a lot of Haitian migrant workers. They are some of the kindest people I have ever met in my life. The other day I had a conversation with one of them, although it was quite limited since my Spanish is still rusty. I was able to get bits and pieces of what he was saying, and what he said has really stuck with me.

He said that there are so many different kinds of people in the world, Haitian, Domincan, African, American, Asian, etc., but that when it comes down to it we are all the same because we all share the same blood. He is seriously one of the nicest, friendliest people I have met in my life. Whether he is on his way back from getting water or coming back from a long day of picking coffee, he always has a smile on his face. I was thinking about it for a long time and I can´t help but think how what he said is so true. We may have different skin color, but we are all human beings when it comes down to it.

Community Based Training

2007-10-20T14:02:00.000-04:00

I´ve been up in the mountains for the past two weeks or so, having an amazing time at the site where I´m learning all the technical skills I will need when I am at my own site. Sorry if there are any typos in the next few entries, but I´m at an internet cafe and I need to be pretty quick.

The site itself is amazing. We are are at an altitude of about 3000 ft, which isn´t extremely high, but compared to flat Chicago, it might as well be Mt. Everest. It gets pretty chilly at night, about mid-60s which is so nice compared to the hot, sweaty capital. I never thought that I would have to wear sweatpants and a hoodie in 60 degree weather. The scenery and landscape is ever-changing because the clouds roll in over the mountains in a different way everyday. It´s awesome. I hope to get some pictures up in a few weeks.

The evening we arrived at the site we met our host families and I was shown my bedroom. My bed is awesome. It is seriously nicer than the bed I had at home. It´s a nice queen, pillow-top mattress. However, it did come with pink satin sheets with flowers and hearts on it. It´s hilarious.

The great thing about the town is that there is always electricity because they get their power from a nearby dam. Most of the country is on a grid that doesn´t have power for about half the day, so we are pretty lucky.

The last two weeks we built two latrines to replace ones that were in bad condition and a spring box, which catches the water that will be used for the small aqueduct system we are building. Yesterday we began construction on the tank that will be used to store the water for the system.

What a week

2007-10-02T17:31:00.000-04:00

I have so much to say about the past week...hopefully I'll be able to remember everything. I added a couple links to the sidebar on the right. One is of all the Peace Corps Dominican Republic blogs. There are a lot of people in my training group that have one, so check them out if you want to see what other people are up to. Also, I added a link to Beth's photos on picasaweb. She takes a lot of photos, and I'm in a couple of them so go look at them. I'm still figuring out how to upload my photos...hopefully I could do it soon because I have a lot of good pics. Now on to the past week...

Last Thursday thru Sunday all the trainees went to visit a current volunteer in their sector to see what volunteer life is actually like. I was visiting a volunteer in a campo (small village) outside Altamira, which is just south of the tourist area of Puerto Plata. In order to get to this village I needed to take a bus into the capital, then a nice, air conditioned tour bus to Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, then a public car to another bus station, then another bus to the city of Altamira, and then a motorcycle to the volunteer's site. On Thursday morning the ground was still wet from the rain the night before, and on my way to catch a bus into the city I completely wiped out in the street. I cut up my hand and had mud all over my pants and backpack. I had nowhere to clean my cut or change clothes because I was already far enough away from my house that I didn't feel like going back. At that moment I really knew I was in the Peace Corps. But that was the only bad thing that happened the whole weekend, and I was even laughing at myself after it happened, so it wasn't all that bad.

The motorcycle ride to the volunteer's site was probably the most amazing drive I have ever been on. It was a little harrowing at times, but words cannot describe the beauty I was surrounded by. The first 20 minutes or so we were driving on a well-paved road, but for the next 30 minutes we were driving on a dirt/gravel/rocky mountain road. I was hanging on for my life as we went up and down 30-40 degree inclines. It was amazing. I got to his site around 1 pm and he showed me around and introduced me to some of the people in his community. I got to see the work he has completed on his aqueduct so far and we pretty much just chilled the whole time. It was very nice to be out of the dirty capital for a change. His site is literally in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. He has no electricity, running water or cell phone service. The temperature at night and in the morning is so comfortable too. It gets down to probably about 70. I drank plenty of unfiltered, untreated water during my stay there, and (knock on wood) I haven't been sick from it. The volunteer there has only been sick twice and both times it wasn't really serious. At around 5 pm that day we hiked down the mountain a bit so we could bathe in the river. That was definitely the first time I did something like that, but I'm pretty sure it will not be the last. Also, I got to poop in a latrine, where according to the volunteer, spiders will bite your butt if you go at night. Needless to say, I did not use it at night. I slept on a futon that he built himself and it was really comfortable.

Friday was a work day for him, so I was able to see how he organized all the workers and how they dig the trenches and lay tubes for the aqueducts. It was nice to see a glimpse of the actual work I will be doing for the next two years. I found out a lot about volunteer life and cannot wait to get out on my own and start my own project.

On Saturday we were supposed to go to the beach in Puerto Plata, but the volunteer we were going to go visit was sick with Dengue fever. Do a google search for it if you don't know what Dengue is. About 1 in 3 volunteers get it at least once while they're down here, so I have something to look forward to. Anyways, instead of going to the beach we went to this awesome natural attraction called 27 charcos. A charco is like a waterfall/spring kind of thing. We went with a few other volunteers and trainees and we got in for free because there is a Peace Corps volunteer stationed there for his job. We hiked and climbed up the 27 charcos, and on the way back down you get to jump off cliffs and slide down some of them. It was incredible. On the last jump I threw my glasses down to somebody so I didn't have to jump with them on. Well without my glases on I threw them pretty poorly and the guy missed and my glasses went to the bottom of the probably 10-15 foot deep spring. It took about 20 minutes for some of the people to retrieve them. For a few minutes I thought I would be traveling back to the capital blindly. Go to http://www.27charcos.com/ to see how awesome it is. I'm so glad we did this instead of going to the beach. Depending on where people stay when you come visit, maybe we could go here.

Saturday night we stayed at this place called the Hub, in Santiago. It was started by a Canadian couple for Peace Corps volunteers and other volunteer organizations as a cheap place to stay. It was only $120 pesos, so about $4 US. It didn't have air conditioning, but it did have nice beds, running water and cable television. We ended up just chilling there, drinking some rum and playing dominos. Sunday morning we left to go back to our host families. It was an awesome weekend.

Last night we had a small party at my host family's house because there was a huelga (strike) today. We did not have training today because of it, so we decided we should take advantage of the situation. There was no sign of a strike going on today, but we still didn't have to go to training. Some people that stayed over ended up going to buy food for an American breakfast. They made pancakes, eggs, bacon and some fried salami. It was the best breakfast I've had since I've been here.

This Thursday we are all heading out to CBT (community based training) where we will be in the campo for five weeks, learning all the technical skills we will need to have in order to complete our projects. The town is in the mountains outside Santo Domingo, and the coffee harvest is going on now, so mayble I'll be able to get some really fresh coffee. I think there is a larger pueblo nearby the campo we are staying in, so hopefully I will be able to get on the internet every once in a while to update everyone. That's it for now.

I think I figured out how to get the pictures up so here are a few as a teaser:

The view of the mountains:

The river I bathed in:

Here is a link to my picture site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee

I'll meet you at the carwash

2007-09-24T14:34:00.000-04:00

Things are still going well here in the DR. We've now been introduced to the public transportation system which consists of guaguas and carros publicos. Guaguas can range anywhere from small vans, to larger buses. They are usually falling apart and I have no idea how they are still running, but they do. You have to sit 5 in one row of the bus, which is really only meant for 3 or 4 people. The carros publicos are also falling apart and you sit 2 passengers in the front, and 4 in the back, making for quite an uncomfortable ride with seven total people in the car. Add to this the 90 degree heat and it gets even better. (DD brown, I don't want to hear anymore complaining about the CTA!) There are a couple good things about the public transportation system, though. It's really cheap and you rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes to catch a bus or car. It is chaotic, but it's organized and I'm starting to get the hang of it. There are no published routes or schedules, so everytime you get on you have to ask if it's going to where you need to go. They also have certain hand signals for each route, but I'm still trying to figure out what they mean, and apparently they change quite frequently.

The other night there was a fire in our barrio. No houses were affected, just some telephone lines. The crazy thing is that no fire department ever showed up and people just kind of watched. One person intervened by pulling the wire down in order for it to be extinguished. Mind you, this could have been a live electrical line but the person didn't seem to care. The cable is still on the ground in the street and has yet to be cleaned up by anyone.

Now, about the title of this post. There are a lot of carwashes along the highway. The cool thing about these carwashes is that they turn into bars at night. Everyone in our barrio went there on Saturday night and it was so much fun. Definitely the most fun I've ever had at a carwash. They mostly played merengue and bachata, but us gringos requested some reggaeton. When it came on, we all went to the dance floor and danced gringo style while being watched by all the Dominican people there. I'm sure we were quite the sight to be seen. On the way home from the bar we were craving some food, so me and my roommate went to the little corner food stand and got some amazing fried chicken and spaghetti, very Dominican...haha, but it only cost about $5 US and was fantastic.

This week should be pretty fun. On Thursday everyone goes to visit another current volunteer to see what everyday volunteer life is like. I'm going to the campo, outside of Altamira, which is in the northwest. It's just south/southwest of the tourist area of Puerto Plata.

Finally, my family makes the best juice ever. My personal favorite is the jugo de chinola, which is passionfruit juice. Everyone knows just how much I love passionfruit. I've had it on constant IV drip ever since I got here. Also, they make some awesome juice out of pineapples which the Dona tried to explain to us how she makes it, but my Spanish isn't good enough yet to understand. The other juice she made was out of these little cherry-like fruits (I have no idea what they are called), and they are very sour. I want to learn how to make all of these so when I get out on my own I can still enjoy them.

That's it for now...I'll try and update after I visit the volunteer this week. Hasta luego!

Saludos!

2007-09-16T12:20:00.000-04:00

Greetings from La Republica Dominica. My first few days in the country have been awesome. I'm now living with my host family. Dona Ramona is the Grandma (my mother) and her daughter Wendy is is another volunteer's mother. There are always kids running in and out and they are a blast. I kind of feel like a kid again as I'm pretty much at the same level Spanish-wise as them, so it's a great learning opportunity. The house I'm living in is pretty sweet. The other volunteer I'm living with has Cable TV in her bedroom! There is always electricity too.

I'm living in the barrio (neighborhood) called Los Angeles. The only similarities between the one in California and the one here is the name. There are chickens and roosters running around in the street that like to wake people up around 5 am. I can see the sunrise out of my bedroom window. I took a few pictures so hopefully I will be able to post them soon. Also, there is always reggaeton, bachata or merengue music blasting. It's like a party all the time, without the drinking.

I know a little bit more about the work I will be doing, but not everythying yet. There are six of us in the water/sanitation program, and from what I've heard so far we will be in extremely rural communities. During out technical training, the first thing we have to do is learn how to construct a bed. Yes, I said "construct" a bed. What this entails I do not know yet, but I'll try to keep you updated. After that we learn how to build latrines and and construct pipelines to bring water to communities. Apparently wat/san volunteers have the most physically demanding work, and everyone know just how much I love manual labor, so that will be an adjustment, but I'm also happy about it as I will get exercise whether I like it or not. My roommate and I are going to start running in the mornings for exercise during training.

Starting October 4th I go to community based training, so I probably will not have access to email or cell phone or anything. I will be there for 5 weeks and then I will be back in Santo Domingo for 2 more weeks. After that I'm officially a volunteer and get to start workin on my own project.

To those of you at CBBEL, the Peace Corps told us that life will be like living in a fishbowl for the next two years. I thought you guys would get a kick out of that. I just got a little bit of a taste of the fishbowl too. A little girl came in here to make copies and while she was waiting, all she did was stare at me. I tried to talk to her in Spanish, but all she did was stare. Interesting.

Tomorrow afternoon we learn how to use the local public transportation systems. I already took it once with a member of the host family and it was quite an interesting experience. Four of us packed into the back seat of a late 80's, early 90's small Nissan car. This is the type of transportation I will be taking to the training center for the next 3 weeks.

The food here has been excellent thus far. My first truly Dominican meal from my host family was a heaping pile of mashed potatoes with onions and two large chunks of cheese on the top. Then for breakfast the next day we had one hard-boiled egg and some bread. For dinner another day we had rice with lentils and some spaghetti with chicken. Today breakfast has been the best so far. We had fried plantains...these are seriously the best things ever. I could definitely live off these. Also there was some fried salami and bread. We had the best juice ever too. I don't know exactly what type of fruit it was, but it tasted like either passionfruit or guava. Or some combination of the two.

If anyone has any specific questions or anything, let me know and I'll post it on here.

It's amazing how cheap the internet is here...I've been on it for about 45 minutes so far and it's only like 20 pesos. That's less than a dollar in the US. And it's pretty fast too.

Until Next time....Peace

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....almost

2007-09-08T14:17:00.001-04:00

I just finished packing my bags this morning. I'm over the limit by quite a bit, but really don't feel like going through everything to get it down to what it needs to be. My biggest rolling suitcase is 76 lbs....yep, that's 26 lbs over the 50 lb limit. My other duffel bag is only 26 lbs, so that one is fine. The biggest suitcase has most of my supplies and other random stuff, not too many clothes...so that is why it is so heavy. I don't mind paying the fees for the overweight baggage, but I'm not so keen on lugging all these bags around the DR, so I might have to get rid of some things.

We're into the single digits

2007-09-03T13:15:00.000-04:00

Time is going by so quickly. One would think that without a job and nothing else to do, that time would move so slowly, but in fact, it is quite the opposite. At times it feels like time is crawling at a snail’s pace, but then I look back and I think how it has already been two weeks since I have been out of work, and that time has flown by.

It’s only 8 days ‘til I leave now, and that can’t come soon enough. While I’m going to miss everything that I’m leaving behind (well not exactly everything) this can’t come soon enough. There will be no more worrying about what I should or shouldn’t pack or thinking about what will or will not happen.

20 Days!!!

2007-08-22T19:12:00.000-04:00

The countdown begins. Only 20 days until I start my service in the Peace Corps and leave for Washington, D.C., where I will spend two days getting to know a little bit about how the Peace Corps works, meeting my fellow volunteers and then I'm off to the Dominican Republic on September 13th. After so much time and effort put into the application process I cannot believe that it is finally happening. I still have so much to do.

I will post my address in the DR on here soon so that everyone knows where to send letters to.