This weekend, Friday to Sunday, we’re going to a Brigada Verde conference in the Cristobol region.
Then we will return to Santo Domingo on Sunday afternoon only to leave for CBT on Monday morning. CBT training (training in the environmental education and agriculture) will be for the next six weeks (March 30th to May 9th). It is located in the Cibao region, which is up in the mountains. I’m really excited about CBT it should be a lot of fun and I’m so ready for the next step. We’ll get new host families, new environment (the campo instead of the city), and more technical training.
The last week of CBT (starting April 28th) we do come back to Santo Domingo to get more training and get ready for our Project Site Visit.
May 6th- 10th we actually go with our project partner (a person from the community that is well connected and ready to work) to our site and get acquainted with the community.
May 11th and 12th we go back to Santo Domingo for our final Spanish exam and technical exam.
Wednesday May 13th at 4 pm – we Swear-in as Peace Corps volunteers
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
El fin de semana (the weekend)
Over the weekend (Thursday to Sunday) I got a real taste of what it will be like for the next two years. I left Thursday morning to visit Alicia, a current volunteer, in Punta Rucia.
Alicia was already in Santo Domingo so I meet her at the Peace Corps’ offices so that we could travel together. We were still in the capitol for lunch, so Romio (the PC/DR county director) took us and about 6 other volunteers to lunch at the embassy. There is a cafeteria there, along with real American products (Lay’s potato chips, Diet Coke, etc.), and toilets which you can actually flush the toilet paper down! It was really good and fun to converse with other current volunteers. One of the volunteers had just gotten back from climbing Pico Duarte ( the highest mountain in not only the DR, but in the Carribean); she said it took them 3 days, but she should have done it in four. Climbing Pico Duarte is definitely on my list of things to do while here in the DR.
After lunch, we headed on up to the north coast and two bus rides, my first motoconcho (motorcycle taxi), and five hours later we finally arrived. The motoconcho was very cool, at first I was a little scared because I had never even been on a motorcycle before, but it was fun. We didn’t get to Punta Rucia till like 8 o’clock at night and were exhausted. But Alicia’s boyfriend, Mat, had made us Pina Coladas so we stayed up and sipped on those for a while.
Friday, I got to see her town and some of her projects. She’s just wrapping up her projects, so it was really cool to see all of the progress and success. During her time, she had built a library (which the people insisted on naming after her), did a reading hour, had a Girl Scouts team, did Brigada Verde ( an environmental youth club), taught English classes, and got 25 people birth certificates (which is a major problem in the DR). Most importantly, though, she had fully integrated into her community every time the children walked by her house, they could call “Alicia, Alicia.” Also, every time we went to someone’s house to say hi, they were not only welcoming but they kept asking “Can I get ya’ll anything?” “Can ya’ll stay for dinner?” We did get one free meal and some free grapefruit juice (which was REALLY good).
Saturday, we went to the beach, which was like 10 feet from her house. It was beautiful! We laid out on the beach staring out at the blue water and the backdrop of mountains; it was great. While walking down the shoreline we came across a beached sea-urchin. I was the biggest I’ve ever seen! It was still alive, so we put it back in the ocean. That night it rained so we stayed in and watched the movie, Fargo, by the Coen brothers. I would describe it as- good but screwed up; it’s even more screwed up because it’s based on actual events.
Anyway, the motoconcho ride back Sunday morning was…interesting. Because it had rained so much the roads had become mud and we were sliding all over the place! There were times when I thought we were going down for sure, but the driver was really good and we finally made it through. So now here I am again in Santo Domingo, ready for my next adventure.
Alicia was already in Santo Domingo so I meet her at the Peace Corps’ offices so that we could travel together. We were still in the capitol for lunch, so Romio (the PC/DR county director) took us and about 6 other volunteers to lunch at the embassy. There is a cafeteria there, along with real American products (Lay’s potato chips, Diet Coke, etc.), and toilets which you can actually flush the toilet paper down! It was really good and fun to converse with other current volunteers. One of the volunteers had just gotten back from climbing Pico Duarte ( the highest mountain in not only the DR, but in the Carribean); she said it took them 3 days, but she should have done it in four. Climbing Pico Duarte is definitely on my list of things to do while here in the DR.
After lunch, we headed on up to the north coast and two bus rides, my first motoconcho (motorcycle taxi), and five hours later we finally arrived. The motoconcho was very cool, at first I was a little scared because I had never even been on a motorcycle before, but it was fun. We didn’t get to Punta Rucia till like 8 o’clock at night and were exhausted. But Alicia’s boyfriend, Mat, had made us Pina Coladas so we stayed up and sipped on those for a while.
Friday, I got to see her town and some of her projects. She’s just wrapping up her projects, so it was really cool to see all of the progress and success. During her time, she had built a library (which the people insisted on naming after her), did a reading hour, had a Girl Scouts team, did Brigada Verde ( an environmental youth club), taught English classes, and got 25 people birth certificates (which is a major problem in the DR). Most importantly, though, she had fully integrated into her community every time the children walked by her house, they could call “Alicia, Alicia.” Also, every time we went to someone’s house to say hi, they were not only welcoming but they kept asking “Can I get ya’ll anything?” “Can ya’ll stay for dinner?” We did get one free meal and some free grapefruit juice (which was REALLY good).
Saturday, we went to the beach, which was like 10 feet from her house. It was beautiful! We laid out on the beach staring out at the blue water and the backdrop of mountains; it was great. While walking down the shoreline we came across a beached sea-urchin. I was the biggest I’ve ever seen! It was still alive, so we put it back in the ocean. That night it rained so we stayed in and watched the movie, Fargo, by the Coen brothers. I would describe it as- good but screwed up; it’s even more screwed up because it’s based on actual events.
Anyway, the motoconcho ride back Sunday morning was…interesting. Because it had rained so much the roads had become mud and we were sliding all over the place! There were times when I thought we were going down for sure, but the driver was really good and we finally made it through. So now here I am again in Santo Domingo, ready for my next adventure.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Mi Camera!
Mi camera! Ok so I know I’ve been really slow at putting pictures up, but I was about to ( I promise). And then the unthinkable happened… I lost my camera. I think that it fell out of my bag as I climbed out of a carro publico (like an informal taxi) and I have come to the fact that I will never see it again. I will miss it a lot, we had some good times together. We had been through many of girl’s night, it went to Germany with me, and even survived a 3-story fall! Goodbye camera, I will miss you.
So until I get a new camera, which I will try to do soon, my blog will go pictureless.
So until I get a new camera, which I will try to do soon, my blog will go pictureless.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Machismo
One potential challenge for me in this country is the presence of machismo. Machismo is the idea that the man is the top of the household, and the woman does all of the cooking and cleaning. Another big part of it is the “cat calls.” In Austin, you got called in the street if you are walking down 6th or certain other places. Here, you get called EVERYWHERE. Apparently, it’s even worse for Americans. Being white, you stick out like a sore thumb and are constantly badgered. Right now, I’m trying to hang out at mi madre’s colmado as much as possible. It is very popular and several young guys from the neighborhood come by for some late night soda, beer, or candy. I sit there and say “Hola, como esta?” to everyone that walks by; hopefully I can make a presence so that they recognize me on the street later on and I am subjected to less machismo and more friendliness.
Update on Machismo:
Yesterday we went over some of the things guys say and how to deal with it. They gave us some translations of some popular cat calls and taken out of context they are just hilarious and cheesy pick-up lines. Enjoy:
Que Dios te guarde y me de la llave. – May God keep you and give me the key.
Mami estas como me la receto de medico. – Mami you’re just what the Dr ordered.
Cuantas curvas y yo sin frenos. – All those curves and I don’t have brakes.
Pareces un Volkswagen, con el motor atras. You’re like a Volkswagen with the motor in back.
Un sancocho, un pote, y contigo que me maten a los diez minutos.-
Dominican stew, a bottle of rum. And with you, they could kill me after 10 minutes.
Update on Machismo:
Yesterday we went over some of the things guys say and how to deal with it. They gave us some translations of some popular cat calls and taken out of context they are just hilarious and cheesy pick-up lines. Enjoy:
Que Dios te guarde y me de la llave. – May God keep you and give me the key.
Mami estas como me la receto de medico. – Mami you’re just what the Dr ordered.
Cuantas curvas y yo sin frenos. – All those curves and I don’t have brakes.
Pareces un Volkswagen, con el motor atras. You’re like a Volkswagen with the motor in back.
Un sancocho, un pote, y contigo que me maten a los diez minutos.-
Dominican stew, a bottle of rum. And with you, they could kill me after 10 minutes.
Familia y Comida
Family is very important in the Dominican Republic. A lot of the time children go from their parent’s house to a married house. Therefore, if a 25 year old is still single, he or she likely still lives at home. Other important things are musica (meringue is the most popular), baseball, and dominoes (mainly played by men).
Las casas: Houses vary greatly here in Santo Domingo, but are usually a small, concrete home. Most families do have a television, computer (sometimes with internet), electricity (but frequently goes out), and running water (but frequently goes out and do not have hot water). My host family has a nice TV (even nicer than mine in the states), a computer and a laptop, electricity and a back-up generator, and running water.
I find that the bathroom and the dining room (the food) have the most differences from the US. The bathroom: When you go to the bathroom, you put your toilet-paper in the trash and never in the toilet. If you go number 1, you don’t flush you just leave it in the toilet. This is to conserve water, and because you never know when there will be an outage. In some of the showers, there is a bucket with water. We were directed that if you found the bucket, that means you are suppose to take a sponge bath. Luckily, I did not have a bucket, so I got to take a regular shower, but with freezing cold water, of course.
The food: Most of the meals contain rice and beans in some way. They also incorporate fruits, eggs, potatoes, or meat (chicken, beef, or pork). Lunch it the biggest meal each day. Breakfast is usually coffee, milk, and bread or something very light. Yesterday for lunch, I had rice topped with fried plantains sided with roasted chicken and beans. Then for supper, I had potatoes topped with cheddar cheese chunks and fried eggs.
With all of these things in mind, I’m starting to see just how good we have it in the states, all of the amenities that we take for granted. However, I am also starting to see that most amenities don’t matter that much, as long as you have family and friends.
Las casas: Houses vary greatly here in Santo Domingo, but are usually a small, concrete home. Most families do have a television, computer (sometimes with internet), electricity (but frequently goes out), and running water (but frequently goes out and do not have hot water). My host family has a nice TV (even nicer than mine in the states), a computer and a laptop, electricity and a back-up generator, and running water.
I find that the bathroom and the dining room (the food) have the most differences from the US. The bathroom: When you go to the bathroom, you put your toilet-paper in the trash and never in the toilet. If you go number 1, you don’t flush you just leave it in the toilet. This is to conserve water, and because you never know when there will be an outage. In some of the showers, there is a bucket with water. We were directed that if you found the bucket, that means you are suppose to take a sponge bath. Luckily, I did not have a bucket, so I got to take a regular shower, but with freezing cold water, of course.
The food: Most of the meals contain rice and beans in some way. They also incorporate fruits, eggs, potatoes, or meat (chicken, beef, or pork). Lunch it the biggest meal each day. Breakfast is usually coffee, milk, and bread or something very light. Yesterday for lunch, I had rice topped with fried plantains sided with roasted chicken and beans. Then for supper, I had potatoes topped with cheddar cheese chunks and fried eggs.
With all of these things in mind, I’m starting to see just how good we have it in the states, all of the amenities that we take for granted. However, I am also starting to see that most amenities don’t matter that much, as long as you have family and friends.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Mi primera semana
I’ve been in Santo Domingo for tres dias now. The vida here is much slower, the traffic is more rapido, but the people are just perfecto!
Wednesday, I flew into Miami to meet 35 other Peace Corps Volunteer hopefuls and we had orientation from 3-7 pm. After a group of us decided to eat at a restaurant that was suggested to us and we were told that it was in walking distance. 45 minutes we arrived! It was a Cuban restaurant called Versailles; I don’t know if it was worth the trouble but it was very good.
Thursday, we woke up about 6:30 in the morning to get to the airport. The plane left about noon and we arrived in Santo Domingo, la Republica Dominicana about 3:30pm. At the airport we had a welcoming committee of current volunteers and staff members which was very cool.
Then it was off to a retreat at a rented religious center on the other side of Santo Domingo. The center was right by the ocean and was very beautiful. At the center we had another welcoming session and then the first of possibly 11 shots. After we were given mosquito nets and sent to our rooms. The rooms weren’t designed to hang mosquito nets so we strategically and creatively hung them up. Before bed we talked, some people pulled out their guitars, and tried to speak some Spanish with a staff member, Juan.
Friday, we had more orientation stuff and some sessions on safety and rules. Then in the evening we got to go home with our first host familia. My host madre is very nice and owns a colmado next to the house. They have mango trees in the back (like everyone else) and a Chihuahua named Mickey.
A colmado is like a convenient store where pretty much everything is behind the counter and minus the gas pumps. It has normal convenient store food like chips, drinks, candy, etc. but it also has things like fruit and vegetables. Also, some things like sugar, oil, noodles, hamburger buns are bought by how much you want instead of pre-packaged. Another interested thing about un colmado is that you don’t stand in line at a colmado. You usually just come up next to the person already ordering.
Saturday, during the morning and into the early afternoon we spent at the training center. We got a huge medicine/ First Aide kit and two more shots (Three down eight more to go.).
Afterwards, a handful of us walked (for Kiri and me it was like a 45 minute walk) to a baseball diamond. Soon after we got there, a huge group of kids swarmed to the outfield to play a game with a kickball. It was a lot of fun and even more so knowing that baseball (o beisbol) is the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic.
Wednesday, I flew into Miami to meet 35 other Peace Corps Volunteer hopefuls and we had orientation from 3-7 pm. After a group of us decided to eat at a restaurant that was suggested to us and we were told that it was in walking distance. 45 minutes we arrived! It was a Cuban restaurant called Versailles; I don’t know if it was worth the trouble but it was very good.
Thursday, we woke up about 6:30 in the morning to get to the airport. The plane left about noon and we arrived in Santo Domingo, la Republica Dominicana about 3:30pm. At the airport we had a welcoming committee of current volunteers and staff members which was very cool.
Then it was off to a retreat at a rented religious center on the other side of Santo Domingo. The center was right by the ocean and was very beautiful. At the center we had another welcoming session and then the first of possibly 11 shots. After we were given mosquito nets and sent to our rooms. The rooms weren’t designed to hang mosquito nets so we strategically and creatively hung them up. Before bed we talked, some people pulled out their guitars, and tried to speak some Spanish with a staff member, Juan.
Friday, we had more orientation stuff and some sessions on safety and rules. Then in the evening we got to go home with our first host familia. My host madre is very nice and owns a colmado next to the house. They have mango trees in the back (like everyone else) and a Chihuahua named Mickey.
A colmado is like a convenient store where pretty much everything is behind the counter and minus the gas pumps. It has normal convenient store food like chips, drinks, candy, etc. but it also has things like fruit and vegetables. Also, some things like sugar, oil, noodles, hamburger buns are bought by how much you want instead of pre-packaged. Another interested thing about un colmado is that you don’t stand in line at a colmado. You usually just come up next to the person already ordering.
Saturday, during the morning and into the early afternoon we spent at the training center. We got a huge medicine/ First Aide kit and two more shots (Three down eight more to go.).
Afterwards, a handful of us walked (for Kiri and me it was like a 45 minute walk) to a baseball diamond. Soon after we got there, a huge group of kids swarmed to the outfield to play a game with a kickball. It was a lot of fun and even more so knowing that baseball (o beisbol) is the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
