There was turkey!

Tis’ the season to reflect on the past year and be thankful. I have played around with how to express the many blessings that have presented themselves to me this year. My family is surely at the top of the list. All the support and love that has been sent to me via phone calls, emails, facebook posts, and their two week visit has been enough to keep me strong while dealing with the challenges of living out of the country and working with my campo. Second - my new family, those other volunteers who came at the same time as I, and my adoptive family here in the community. I have a second mother here in Baitoa and she takes care of me just as my mother would, but with a little less verbal suggestions. My new sisters, the volunteer females who have answered my daily phone calls and talked me through boredom, stress, frustration, and saddens. I thought college is where I’d make lasting friendships, but i feel these women will be in my life forever and I am very grateful to be part of theirs. Oh, yes the friends back in the states too have been encouraging too and as always i am thankful to share their friendship.

In less meaningful, yet very important ways I am thankful for (after living here in the DR) running water and indoor plumbing, 24 hour luz, health conscious living and the stores used to promote it, Kombucha, Stella Atouis, Austin, wireless internet in the home, somewhat well funded education system, teachers who care about their students (like Kay Birdwell), and huevos rancheros.

La Agua

When living in another I country I found that it's the little things that make me smile most. Like turning on the faucet and finding "clean" running water to brush your teeth and then having all barrels and buckets full of said clean water, cause you know it could be a week or more until the next time it comes. Taking a walk by your favorite colmado and the owner giving you the thumbs up 'cause they have your favorite kind of Dulce. Or the group of 10 year old girls that you walk by and they call your name just so they can see the Gringa wave. These are just a few of my favorite things. Again, like walking up to Altagracias house and the three year-old neighbor girl saying in the cutest little voice "hola, helen".. it is music to my ears and never fails to make me smile and feel warm inside.

Nothing sums up my life more than cleaning my underwear in the shower. It comes habitual. The women in this country don't usually put their under garments in with the familial wash. When going through training we were told this, but it never came up for me because my host families were all about cleaning my underwear. However, being in my own apartment now and doing my laundry elsewhere, I thought I would respect the local culture un chin (a little). So daily, after going through the regular process of the shower the last step is washing my underwear from the day before. Standing at my work table that is the cover of the lot-O gallon barrel in my shower I take my beloved Dr.Bronners and scrub away at my ever fading Calvin Kline undies. I've watched the Donas here, I know how they do it. Hell, I've watched my mother my whole life.. but nothing makes me smile more than standing naked in my shower washing my underwear. I think to myself, is this something I'll take back with me when I go back to the states? Part of me hope's so but with out the makeshift work table, who knows.

a few weeks back...

After 3 days of waking up at 6:30 AM I just couldn’t stay in bed on the fourth day, even though I was looking forward to it. This is a complete 180° from last week, where I slept in until 11AM. It’s times like these that I start to feel like I’m turning bi-polar. How is it that my body can just switch my clock to such different extremes? Even after staying in bed trying to go back to sleep this morning, the roosters and chickens were already clucking and the sun strong like it was mid afternoon I surrendered and got up to do some yoga. My old yoga teacher in Asheville Joe Taft had sent me a class on DVD and I finally got around to taking it. It was a good pick me up because his teaching style is uplifting and inspiring.

I didn’t sleep well last night due to a heavy rainstorm and the club across the creek was still kicking so the music was loud. Later a few thug noises woke me up and some tumbles that sounded like it came from my galleria. I was too scared to open my door to see what kinds of animals were making this horrible sound. It sounded like one could be killing the other, and then it dawned on me that they were having sex! It was the most uncomfortable 15 minutes, the whole time trying not to picture huge rats or rodents doing it right out side my door. I hope they were chickens or dogs, nonetheless it made my skin crawl. – After a few days of thinking this event over I’ve decided that they were indeed rats. I am unsure if they were outside my room or up in the attic. It’s even hard to think about it now, just knowing that these ugly dirty things are living with me makes me want to cringe.

After that Sunday morning I headed to Santiago to meet up with some friends and spend the day meeting Stacie’s boyfriend. They had rented a car which made getting around Santiago much more pleasant and fun. Because of my time hanging out with that family friend a few weeks before I was the navigator! We ate at a vegetarian/tea house restaurant for lunch and sushi for dinner. Yummy! The Vegie place was okay, but the tea delicious. The rest of the night was just gals drinking and catching up. Later we, 7 sexy gringas, were walking back to the hotel from the bar a girlfriend was walking just off the sidewalk when a moto drove by and the guy slapped her on her ass! I was walking next to her and we turned to look at one another and both our eyes had the look of astonishment. It caught us both so off guard. That was the first time I’d seen Dominican man cross the line and touch one of us. It was an eye opener for sure.



That was all last week.

This week I’ve been counting down the days to our 3 month In-Service-Training (IST). This is a week long event that includes more specific training and the PCVs presenting the results of our diagnostics.

The river I went to today was like an extension of the green belt in Austin. I felt as though all I was missing was a few tall boys of Lone Star and my dog, Taj. I took the afternoon to sun bathe on the large warm rock in the middle of the river, with my toes dipped in the chilly water to keep me cool. It really made me think hard about my time in Austin. It was a good time for me. I would go to the greenbelt every free afternoon/morning, running into people I knew or making new friends. My last trip to Austin I didn’t get a chance to go to the green belt and I think that is why I didn’t have as much fun. Going to that limestone oasis really makes the body cool for the rest of the day.