Republica Americana*

*The Dominican Republic in Spanish is la Republica Dominicana.

The other day I was doing some grocery shopping in Santiago at El Cantante (like a WalMart). I was at the spaghetti sauce trying to figure out which one I wanted. Growing up my Mom always made spaghetti from scratch, and I took that habit with me to college. Therefore, this was this was the first time I was buying canned sauce. It took me a while to even read all the labels there were so many different kinds… meat flavoured, Tomato and Garlic, Basil Garlic, Original Recipe, etc.

Then I noticed two female workers that were a couple feet from me were starring at me. ¨Oh come on!¨ I thought, ¨Where am I going to hide canned sauce so I can steal it?¨ So I picked up one and took off down the aisle. As I turned the corner, I looked over my shoulder and saw one of the girls had moved to where I was and picked up one of the cans. I then realized the girls didn´t think that I was going to steal, they were just amazed that I could read the labels!

Imagine going to HEB one day, you have your list in hand and you´re ready to do some quick grocery shopping. You get to the cereal aisle and your mouth drops. All of the boxes are labeled in a foreign language and there must be at least 50 different kinds. Which one do you choose? The one with the friendliest looking character? The one with just corn flakes, it looks the safest, but then again it could be flavored? Dominicans have to do this every time they go shopping. At least until they pick one that is good and stick with it.

Before the spaghetti incident, I was down the breakfast aisle and saw there was a two for one sale on Nature Valley granola bars, which was actually still a little expensive but it was an okay deal. So I debated on it and saw what kinds they had. I left to get all my other stuff, then came back to cave in and splurge a little on the granola bars. A woman was there contemplating on which one to get. While I saw original, oats and honey, or cinnamon, she saw yellow box, blue box, or red box.

Ode to my ¨Pretty Rose¨

¨I feel like a backpacking Paris Hilton!¨ I told fellow PCV (Peace Corps volunteer) Amanda as I tightened my backpack straps and tucked my new perrita chiquita under my arm.

Before I came to the DR, I knew that I wanted a dog. Then, when I found out that they kill female dogs because they don´t want puppies. I knew I wanted to get una hembra (female). Then shortly after arriving, I read the book ¨The Farming of Bones¨ about a young Haitian working in the DR (it´s a great book, but I didn´t care for the ending). There was a character named Rosalinda. Maybe I like the character, maybe I´m just obsessed with roses (my only other dog is named Rosebud), or maybe I just liked the name, but I knew right after I read the name that I would have a female dog named Rosalinda.

So when Amanda told me that a stray dog had had six puppies in an abandoned house at her site, I said absolutely I´ll have one just make sure it´s una hembra!

Therefore at the end of August, I went over to Amanda´s in Imbert to pick her up. She is a cute orange and white (Go Longhorns!), skinny pup, but growing fast. She likes running around aimlessly (when she does this we call her LOCAlinda), digging, chasing chickens, she loves bones and rice, and she likes taking my socks outside to chew on (at least it´s not my underwear!).

Now she is my constant companion and goes almost everywhere I do. When we walk by kids in the street they say, ¨Hola, Rosalinda!¨ And I say where is my hola?

All in all, no matter what the day brings she is always there with a smile on her face ready to play.

7 months

Now I have been living in the Dominican Republic for 7 months (in my site for almost 5 months). While sometimes it feels like it's gone by so fast; other times it feels like it's been forever since I've been on American soil. This is by far the longest time I've been away from friends and family. While I miss everyone SO much and am counting down the days to visit for Christmas, I've been enjoying my two new families.

One is the Peace Corps family. I have many sisters and brothers (the fellow Peace Corps volunteers), even older siblings (the Peace Corps volunteer Leaders). We have the sweet, supporting aunts (doctors), and our hard working uncles (the APCDS, technical bosses). We all work hard, play hard, live hard under Big Papa Romio (the Country Director).

Then, of course, I have my Dominican family. Which is the prime example of organized chaos. Even though there's about 4000 people who live in my town, Estero Hondo, I don't think there's more than 20 main families. Your either someone's primo/a, tio/a, or copadre/comadre, or your married to their hermano/a.



Last Friday I turned in my first grant! It is for the community center roof. The roof is badly damaged and could fall very soon. I'm hoping that it gets approved quickly and I can get the money by the end of October or the first week of November. If I do, I can start construction the second week of November. However, if I don't get the money in time, I'll have to wait till the new year to start construction. I'm afraid that by that time the roof may fall and the damage will be greater so please pray for a speedy approval!!!


Other things I'm doing: a girls' volleyball club and a youth group called Brigada Verde. We gave a "charla" or speech to the schools last Friday about trash and the importance of putting it in the trash can. The kids had fun and the charlas were really sussessful. On October 24th, we are having a "Show de Talento" or Talent Show for the community. The last act will be my kids giving a charla about trash, so I really excited about it. Plus it will be a great fundraiser.


Yesterday I bought my plane ticket to come home for Christmas. I'm so happy it's official. I'm coming home Wednesday December 16th at 2:55pm and leaving the morning of the 30th. See yall soon!!!

Rosalinda

This is a video of Rosalinda one morning. During the night she found a few more toys!!!