The other day I had a discomforting situation. My friend and I stopped at a woman’s house, she lives with 8 others, and is confined to her home—cleaning and cooking—like the majority of Dominican women. Every time I go by she basically begs for me to come in, clearly lonely and interested in the American volunteers that arrive in this community.
I’ve been helping my friend Auriel look into academic scholarships in the Dominican Republic as well as the States. I guess she got wind of it, because she started wheeling off on a strange tangent.
“When will you come back? You don’t know when you will be able to? You have to come back within this year. We are your friends. Friends help friends. You are helping this friend…so why don’t you help more than him? You will bring him to the states, so what about me? If you ask me to go with you there, I will go with you in a minute! I’ll pack my bags right now. Or you could even send us a little bit of money. She (referring to me, looking at Auriel) doesn’t understand anything I’m saying does she?”
“I understand everything. I’m just not really sure what to say.” I responded.
This situation made me uncomfortable, but with more thought...and more time here…I think I’m beginning to understand it.
More than ½ of the people in this community don’t have jobs, and more than ½ of the people in this community are fed and housed through money sent from family living in the states.
Other than sending checks, these relatives call on occasion, and the lucky ones come back for a visit, adorned with glimmering earrings from the U.S., smiling with more cherub-like cheeks and a larger waist line.
Not only are Dominicans subjected to their families firsthand experiences, but they see an idealized life on American television shows, or read about the luxurious lives of celebrities in Spanish-language US weekly magazines. They realize the difference between themselves and the American volunteers that arrive here, who pull out cash for beverages or leisurely trips to beach with ease.
All of these things subject them to a life that is far different from anything they know, and far different from the one many of them will lead.
The people here face daily realities that are unheard of in the states.
To give a few examples…
A robbery of the nicest old lady in town in the middle of the night, only to have her pay the police to investigate on her behalf and do absolutely nothing. The thief went to jail for 2 days, and is now back in the community sporting a nice new watch and fancy sunglasses that the stolen items helped pay for.
A young man hit by a motorcycle, brought to the hospital in need of an immediate operation and forced to lay on the ground with only his sister’s feet as a pillow for 9 hours because the doctor’s were aware that he was very poor. Part of his fractured skull was later given to his sister to guard in the freezer.
Children who have no idea how old they are or when their birthday is because their parents don’t care enough to retrieve/ or lost their birth certificate.
People sporting “Llego papa” t-shirts (Papa has arrived) in support of a previous ruler who did absolutely nothing for the country, but will likely be the next ruler due to his ability to buy people’s votes. The poor people in this community, desperate for some extra cash, willingly agree and now wear their t-shirts in anticipation for election day, in which they will help put into place a ruler who will do absolutely nothing for them nor their country.
Kids that go to school for 3 hours a day, and graduate without being able to spell or read. I’ve come to realize this while correcting a friend’s English homework, in which I ended up correcting not only English spelling mistakes, but basically every word in Spanish that he wrote down.
It’s through these happenings and realizations through the relationships I’ve developed with Dominicans, that I’ve been able to understand why this woman would have this strange, discomforting, but now a lot more comprehensible conversation with me…
Even though all the things I wrote are real things that have happened here... I dont want you guys to get the wrong impression. Dominican culture is rich and vibrant.. and I've seen a lot of positive things happen in this community that have given me a lot of hope.. for example:
My friend Auriel, who is incredibly devoted to learning English. He studies every night on his own accord. I was troubled because him and his friend Bingo were drinking a beer (which is completely normal/acceptable for a 15 year old here) and after confronting them about it, they explained to me that they would never drink more than one and they plan on it staying that way for the rest of their lives, because they want to have a brighter future and know that drinking can interfere with that...
My friend Miguel--who concerns himself with the issues of the people in his community more than any other person I have met, any is now working to produce an organic chinola farm & will devote 40% of its proceeds to the needs of the community..
The kids that come to the youth groups I run without fail, always bright eyed and willing to learn whatever I throw their way..
Maria dulce.. the woman who was robbed.. nearly 80 and still maintaining an unwitheringly positive attitude and zest for life
The National champion marathon runner who lives in a nearby community who although has gone to faraway places, still returns to train the young potential runners of this town, as well as put on a multi-city marathon that I'll witness in Sept...
People's hospitality, you can't walk by a home without having them invite you in and offering you a fresh juice and their complete attention
The connection between families: they never grow apart, because they usually live in the same home or a few doors down for the duration of their lives. They depend on each other heavily, and as a result will do anything for one another...
And of course the list goes on!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Josepha
…Is one of the girls here that I have become close with. She has one of the most complicated, horrible and presently-happening series of family issues than anyone I have heard here, but you would never suspect it. She is one of those people who comes into a room with a vibrant smile and a never-ending supply of energy. There is never a shortage of laughter when she is around, she loves making jokes, running around, just one of those say anything do anything sort of people.
I have been doing an anti-parasite campaign for the last week, and Josepha, Katherine (another fun, fiery teenager) and I headed out apart from the nurses to go door – to – door together distributing the medicine for the campaign. Since its nothing but hills and forest here, we traipsed through it together and it turned out to be one of my funnest mornings here yet. On the way to a house her friend told us we could pick whatever we wanted on his farm. So we filled my backpack to the brim with nearly 30 Chinolas and took tons of pictures. They found this long sugar plant (the plant I’m holding in the picture), I don’t remember what it is called, but the girls had a guy cut off the sides of it with a machete and we just bit into it, sucked on it to retrieve the sugar, and spit it out. So strange and delicious!
Josepha and I made juice later and went running. She is training for a marathon that will take place in the community in a few weeks. I’m so happy she has a positive outlet that might lead to success for her. At the track, I met a national champion who apparently lives in a nearby town and is offering his time to train the kids from this community who are participating in the marathon. Josepha has been in a lot of marathons in the past and has done amazingly well. He said she has plenty of potential to make it here, but she lacks ambition at times. I noticed it that night. She seemed like she had something on her mind and wasn’t running nearly as fast as I have seen before on our jogs together. She mentioned to someone that her mom was returning home that day from a trip to Haiti, so that could very well be the reason…
Another friend of mine here is having a really hard time. His cousin was hit by a motorcycle on Sunday night, a big party night here. He is in intensive care right now and he explained to me what had happened. They took him to the hospital after the incident, and there were no beds and not enough space, so he held his cousin on the floor for nearly 5 hours before he could get help. Now they are having a huge campaign in the street, with a string blocking the road and posters pleading for donations. When accidents like this happen families have to pay directly out of pocket, and unless it’s an operation that needs to be done immediately they refuse treatment until the doctors can see the money in front of their eyes. As much as I have lashed out against the health care policies in the U.S., its nothing like it is here…
I have been doing an anti-parasite campaign for the last week, and Josepha, Katherine (another fun, fiery teenager) and I headed out apart from the nurses to go door – to – door together distributing the medicine for the campaign. Since its nothing but hills and forest here, we traipsed through it together and it turned out to be one of my funnest mornings here yet. On the way to a house her friend told us we could pick whatever we wanted on his farm. So we filled my backpack to the brim with nearly 30 Chinolas and took tons of pictures. They found this long sugar plant (the plant I’m holding in the picture), I don’t remember what it is called, but the girls had a guy cut off the sides of it with a machete and we just bit into it, sucked on it to retrieve the sugar, and spit it out. So strange and delicious!
Josepha and I made juice later and went running. She is training for a marathon that will take place in the community in a few weeks. I’m so happy she has a positive outlet that might lead to success for her. At the track, I met a national champion who apparently lives in a nearby town and is offering his time to train the kids from this community who are participating in the marathon. Josepha has been in a lot of marathons in the past and has done amazingly well. He said she has plenty of potential to make it here, but she lacks ambition at times. I noticed it that night. She seemed like she had something on her mind and wasn’t running nearly as fast as I have seen before on our jogs together. She mentioned to someone that her mom was returning home that day from a trip to Haiti, so that could very well be the reason…
Another friend of mine here is having a really hard time. His cousin was hit by a motorcycle on Sunday night, a big party night here. He is in intensive care right now and he explained to me what had happened. They took him to the hospital after the incident, and there were no beds and not enough space, so he held his cousin on the floor for nearly 5 hours before he could get help. Now they are having a huge campaign in the street, with a string blocking the road and posters pleading for donations. When accidents like this happen families have to pay directly out of pocket, and unless it’s an operation that needs to be done immediately they refuse treatment until the doctors can see the money in front of their eyes. As much as I have lashed out against the health care policies in the U.S., its nothing like it is here…
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Many Pleasures of Third World Living
Hello All!!!
So last week and this coming week the health clinic here (that is right next to the preschool where I have volunteered at as well) is being shut down :/ due to lack of funding. So we have been painting, reorganizing, etc, and getting ready to open up an alternative in place of the clinic: an education center. Its going to be a place for the kids here to come after school, to work on homework and also have classes (english, yoga, etc.. depending on current volunteers skills) for the community.
This week I'm going to continue working with the girls clubs (teaching english, multiplation, kootie catchers) as well as work on an anti-parasite campaign. I'm going to go door to door with the help of the kids from the youth clubs handing out pills and information.
My roommate left a week ago, so I've been living alone but everything has been going fine. I have a few consistent friends in the community so I hang out with them in my freetime! I have also taken up a new (and extremely Dominican) hobby... dominoes! It is really fun. Usually I'm realtively disinterested in organized games but I'm starting to become addicted. I played today after lunch, and I think I am starting to get down the rules a little better. It was nice having some time off and being here on a Sunday because I got to frolick around and spend time with people here. It is impossible not to walk down the street and get invited in. If I say hi to someone (usually only if I've met them before, which I've met a lot) they immediately yell ENTRA! and invite me in. The family I was playing dominoes with today are hard-core dominoes players, so they have a big sunday shindig and play all day.
In addition to walking down the street and being invited in, there is never a time when I leave my house and do not come back hopped up on coffee and really full from what people hand out. I had already eaten lunch before going to dominoes and after we played they put a giant plate of food in front of my face, haha. It was a soup with a potato, plaintain pieces, fruit pieces, avocado and rice. I also had juice, coffee, and came home with a bag of bananas from a few other houses that I stopped by,. Ha ha. People are so amazingly generous with their food and drink, and incredibly hospitable. Offering up a seat immediately when you walk in is also very common.
Unfortunately, the food sharing comes with a downside: illness passes QUICK. Right now everyone in the community has "gripe" (the flu)
This might also be due to the fact that water pipes bursted in the area, and there is no running water. There is not going to be water indefitenitly, there is no use bugging Diego and Rita (directors of a Mothers wish) when it will be on because I already know the answer. Nobody knows, and we will be lucky if the government gets on it anytime soon.
another third world 'pleasure'... lack of electricity. It goes in and out every day and when it comes on everyone blasts the music as loud as they can and screams "HAY LUZ!!" (There is light!) and often there is applause. Ha ha. Its interesting thinking about the little fusses we have in the states (complaints about broken dishwashers or heaters, etc) in contrast with what happens here. When I get back there is no doubt that I am going to appreciate how orderly everything is and how lucky we are to have so many ammenities at our fingertips.
I'm excited about the campaign next week so I will let you all know how it goes :)
So last week and this coming week the health clinic here (that is right next to the preschool where I have volunteered at as well) is being shut down :/ due to lack of funding. So we have been painting, reorganizing, etc, and getting ready to open up an alternative in place of the clinic: an education center. Its going to be a place for the kids here to come after school, to work on homework and also have classes (english, yoga, etc.. depending on current volunteers skills) for the community.
This week I'm going to continue working with the girls clubs (teaching english, multiplation, kootie catchers) as well as work on an anti-parasite campaign. I'm going to go door to door with the help of the kids from the youth clubs handing out pills and information.
My roommate left a week ago, so I've been living alone but everything has been going fine. I have a few consistent friends in the community so I hang out with them in my freetime! I have also taken up a new (and extremely Dominican) hobby... dominoes! It is really fun. Usually I'm realtively disinterested in organized games but I'm starting to become addicted. I played today after lunch, and I think I am starting to get down the rules a little better. It was nice having some time off and being here on a Sunday because I got to frolick around and spend time with people here. It is impossible not to walk down the street and get invited in. If I say hi to someone (usually only if I've met them before, which I've met a lot) they immediately yell ENTRA! and invite me in. The family I was playing dominoes with today are hard-core dominoes players, so they have a big sunday shindig and play all day.
In addition to walking down the street and being invited in, there is never a time when I leave my house and do not come back hopped up on coffee and really full from what people hand out. I had already eaten lunch before going to dominoes and after we played they put a giant plate of food in front of my face, haha. It was a soup with a potato, plaintain pieces, fruit pieces, avocado and rice. I also had juice, coffee, and came home with a bag of bananas from a few other houses that I stopped by,. Ha ha. People are so amazingly generous with their food and drink, and incredibly hospitable. Offering up a seat immediately when you walk in is also very common.
Unfortunately, the food sharing comes with a downside: illness passes QUICK. Right now everyone in the community has "gripe" (the flu)
This might also be due to the fact that water pipes bursted in the area, and there is no running water. There is not going to be water indefitenitly, there is no use bugging Diego and Rita (directors of a Mothers wish) when it will be on because I already know the answer. Nobody knows, and we will be lucky if the government gets on it anytime soon.
another third world 'pleasure'... lack of electricity. It goes in and out every day and when it comes on everyone blasts the music as loud as they can and screams "HAY LUZ!!" (There is light!) and often there is applause. Ha ha. Its interesting thinking about the little fusses we have in the states (complaints about broken dishwashers or heaters, etc) in contrast with what happens here. When I get back there is no doubt that I am going to appreciate how orderly everything is and how lucky we are to have so many ammenities at our fingertips.
I'm excited about the campaign next week so I will let you all know how it goes :)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
: )
Hello family and friends!!
I feel like so many things have happened since I last wrote, but every day is so unique and so many things happen that I cant really sum it all up ... so I will just talk about the most recent happenings :)
Friday was awesome! There were about 30 volunteers (mostly sports medicine students and a few peace corp volunteers) who used the Mother's Wish clinic to set up shop and have appointments with a bunch of different people from the community. A lot of the med students did not know Spanish so they asked me to translate. It was really interesting and rewarding to translate the med. students advice and the patient's aliments, and it went a lot smoother than I thought. It was also an interesting realization for me... I remember my professors reiterating to me that only 3% of the world has a college education but I never really understood it firsthand until being here. It was really awesome to see that my undergrad degree and my nowhere-near-fluent knowledge of Spanish was able to make an impact that day.. but it also got me thinking about the complete lack of access to education there is here. Kids only go to school for 3 hours a day here, and a lot of them are too hungry to concentrate. In the girls clubs I've been leading and in the preschool there are definite children that stand out as incredibly intelligent, and a lot of them are just nice, good people and the fact that a lot of them wont be able to use their natural talents to lead a decent life or to be able to further their education is really devastating...
Afterwards I went on a little run and was feeling unmotivated but then I ran into a few girls from the girls club i lead and a few little boys and ended up running with them to a commmunity nearby. One of the girls is so funny, she is one of those people who is always smiling and just a little crazy, confident, and basically willing to do anything. We chatted about the marathons she runs (running is really big here) and how she runs twice a day everyday to train for it. Shes only 13 but she was taking on the role of my running coach, laughing and shouting at me to run faster with her, we raced a few times and of course she beat me haha . It was really fun.
This weekend my roommate and I went to a place with n atural waterslides and waterfalls, it was beautiful but considering my track record with hating cliff jumping Im not really sure why I agreed to it and did not think twice. We also still went along with our plan despite the MASSIVE storm that made it a bit had to climb up all the rocks. Ha ha, but the sliding down the waterfalls was the funnest part and im really happy i went.
I realized that one my favorite aspects of latin american culture is peoples lighthearted humor. People poke fun at everything and everyone, and are always laughing. I feel like coming here I was reminded of how amazing of a mechanism of it is to just laugh off the small, but frightening/irritating/problematic things that happen in your life.
My roommate and I have def. taken this on, we've developed a trend of just instanteously cracking up whenever something goes a bti awry. For example..getting dropped off on the side of a freeway by a bus (we just had to walk a little ways off teh road to get right the waterfalls we were going to, so it ended up fine), or spending an hour trying to kill a 5 inch spider above our bed, we just laughed and laughed and laughed. Today the taxi we were in was having issues and we thought it broke down for a bit, and we just immediately started laughing instead of fretting about it. I honestly feel like as long as the situation is not life threatening or hurtful to someone, theres really no reason not to laugh. Its so much more of a healty way of coping... and I feel like that is exactly why its a trait of dominican culture. a lot of people deal with really harsh realities but the fact that humor never fades is really meaningful.
Anyways, thats all for today, miss and love you all!!
I feel like so many things have happened since I last wrote, but every day is so unique and so many things happen that I cant really sum it all up ... so I will just talk about the most recent happenings :)
Friday was awesome! There were about 30 volunteers (mostly sports medicine students and a few peace corp volunteers) who used the Mother's Wish clinic to set up shop and have appointments with a bunch of different people from the community. A lot of the med students did not know Spanish so they asked me to translate. It was really interesting and rewarding to translate the med. students advice and the patient's aliments, and it went a lot smoother than I thought. It was also an interesting realization for me... I remember my professors reiterating to me that only 3% of the world has a college education but I never really understood it firsthand until being here. It was really awesome to see that my undergrad degree and my nowhere-near-fluent knowledge of Spanish was able to make an impact that day.. but it also got me thinking about the complete lack of access to education there is here. Kids only go to school for 3 hours a day here, and a lot of them are too hungry to concentrate. In the girls clubs I've been leading and in the preschool there are definite children that stand out as incredibly intelligent, and a lot of them are just nice, good people and the fact that a lot of them wont be able to use their natural talents to lead a decent life or to be able to further their education is really devastating...
Afterwards I went on a little run and was feeling unmotivated but then I ran into a few girls from the girls club i lead and a few little boys and ended up running with them to a commmunity nearby. One of the girls is so funny, she is one of those people who is always smiling and just a little crazy, confident, and basically willing to do anything. We chatted about the marathons she runs (running is really big here) and how she runs twice a day everyday to train for it. Shes only 13 but she was taking on the role of my running coach, laughing and shouting at me to run faster with her, we raced a few times and of course she beat me haha . It was really fun.
This weekend my roommate and I went to a place with n atural waterslides and waterfalls, it was beautiful but considering my track record with hating cliff jumping Im not really sure why I agreed to it and did not think twice. We also still went along with our plan despite the MASSIVE storm that made it a bit had to climb up all the rocks. Ha ha, but the sliding down the waterfalls was the funnest part and im really happy i went.
I realized that one my favorite aspects of latin american culture is peoples lighthearted humor. People poke fun at everything and everyone, and are always laughing. I feel like coming here I was reminded of how amazing of a mechanism of it is to just laugh off the small, but frightening/irritating/problematic things that happen in your life.
My roommate and I have def. taken this on, we've developed a trend of just instanteously cracking up whenever something goes a bti awry. For example..getting dropped off on the side of a freeway by a bus (we just had to walk a little ways off teh road to get right the waterfalls we were going to, so it ended up fine), or spending an hour trying to kill a 5 inch spider above our bed, we just laughed and laughed and laughed. Today the taxi we were in was having issues and we thought it broke down for a bit, and we just immediately started laughing instead of fretting about it. I honestly feel like as long as the situation is not life threatening or hurtful to someone, theres really no reason not to laugh. Its so much more of a healty way of coping... and I feel like that is exactly why its a trait of dominican culture. a lot of people deal with really harsh realities but the fact that humor never fades is really meaningful.
Anyways, thats all for today, miss and love you all!!
Monday, July 11, 2011
This community is nothing like ive ever seen before. people are so social and willing to help me out, but there are also a lot of very sad things that ive been learning.
one thing that i was talking about with my roommate on the way here was the racism towards the haitains. haiti is right next store and i had heard it was a big issue here ... since it is so much poorer haitans arrive here and take the lowest jobs and are maltreated and discriminated against. its noticable here thus far because there is a home near the clinic tht is noticably so much poorer than any other, and no ones talks to the family within it. the walls are crumbliong and theres tons of trash, def. the poorest house ive ever see nin my life. supposedly no one says hi to them and the guys dont whistle at girls like the ones of spanish descent bc they arent seeing as having the right too .
its also sad to see how many people are without jobs... within the tiny community i live in ive come across so many ppl without anything. the economy is incrteddibly down here. a man as explaining the situation to me today in spanbish, it was hard to understand but he was sayng it has a lot to do with the US which i completely understand due to studying the country in the past. a lot of ppl turn to alcohol and drugs... definitly not the majority but a few. one guy who speaks like lil wayne in english to me whenever i walk by is obviously one of the ones who has turned to drugs and my roommate told me today he has 3 kids...
anyways, im really happy im learning so much even though it is sad and volunteering at the preschool today with the 3 and 4 year olds was awesome. they were so cute, i was in charge of a station where we ran around a small track and oplayed red light green light. it was done in the beginning o the day to wear them out and it was a good idea!!! they were a lot easier to handle the rest of the day.
tomorrow ill be helping with them again, latre this week with older kids and with youth groups in the afternoons!! im really excited.
Paz, Kelly
one thing that i was talking about with my roommate on the way here was the racism towards the haitains. haiti is right next store and i had heard it was a big issue here ... since it is so much poorer haitans arrive here and take the lowest jobs and are maltreated and discriminated against. its noticable here thus far because there is a home near the clinic tht is noticably so much poorer than any other, and no ones talks to the family within it. the walls are crumbliong and theres tons of trash, def. the poorest house ive ever see nin my life. supposedly no one says hi to them and the guys dont whistle at girls like the ones of spanish descent bc they arent seeing as having the right too .
its also sad to see how many people are without jobs... within the tiny community i live in ive come across so many ppl without anything. the economy is incrteddibly down here. a man as explaining the situation to me today in spanbish, it was hard to understand but he was sayng it has a lot to do with the US which i completely understand due to studying the country in the past. a lot of ppl turn to alcohol and drugs... definitly not the majority but a few. one guy who speaks like lil wayne in english to me whenever i walk by is obviously one of the ones who has turned to drugs and my roommate told me today he has 3 kids...
anyways, im really happy im learning so much even though it is sad and volunteering at the preschool today with the 3 and 4 year olds was awesome. they were so cute, i was in charge of a station where we ran around a small track and oplayed red light green light. it was done in the beginning o the day to wear them out and it was a good idea!!! they were a lot easier to handle the rest of the day.
tomorrow ill be helping with them again, latre this week with older kids and with youth groups in the afternoons!! im really excited.
Paz, Kelly
Sunday, July 10, 2011
my first day
Well today was quite the day!
After a 2.5 hour drive to SFO, 3.5 hours waiting in the airport for my flight, 5.5 hour flight, 6 hour layover blurry eyed at 2 am in Miami, airplane delay and another 2 hour flight…..I made it to the DR safely! Y estoy muy contenta (and I am very content).
Everything went really well all day (except for a hilarious mishap just now, which I will get to at the end)…I got through customs without any problems, found Diego and his son immediately, got a nice tour of the clinic and meeting my housemom and her pals went well. My house mom is named Maria Dulce (dulce=sweet in Spanish, and was a nickname given to her because she is a really nice person.) I was happy she liked the necklace and chocolates I got her, and conversing with her neighbors/friends was fun.
Its so amazing to be able to communicate with my housemom and some others right off the bat. Its still not to a level of being able to understand all (just much better than my past experience in CR), because those that told me that Dominicans speak faster than most other Spanish speakers were VERY right. I was talking to un vecino (a neighbor) and even though I was giving him my full attention and trying really hard, it was so hard to follow his numerous stories and when he started directing them toward me there were definitetly times where I just pretended to understand and giggled or smiled, paying attention to his facial expressions and subtle cues hoping that I was not giggling at the death of his mother or some other mala cosa (bad thing…)
It was interesting talking to Diego about all of the problems and corruption of this country on the drive in.. he told me one politicna built a metro in Santo Domingo deeming it fully “necessary” when the money is much more needed for things like feeding its population / investing in electricity.
I knew about the electricity situation before getting here, and was wondering when the first blackout would happen…and it did when I was in the shower! Ha ha. Luckily my host mom came to help me with a flashlight so it was fine!
The surroundings of the house I am living in is GORGEOUS, Maria has a huge garden, and everything is so lush and green. There are tons of succulents and various other plants. And chickens! I was expecting extreme heat too…but the location in the mountains means a wonderful cool down at night. It’s the perfect temperature right now, and I’m excited because I might be able to start up a running club that Debbie (my cousin who came here before) told me about, or just find a few pals to run with!
So anyways, now on to the funny story. I was getting ready for bed and I noticed a HUGE spider on the wall. I’m not much of an aracanaphobe and have no problem killing spiders I’ve come across before, but this one was SCARY. It looked venomous with little pinchers. I got some toilet paper and my heart was beginning to race. I decided a shoe would be a better bet since it seemed to large to attack with toilet paper. I grabbed my shoe, garnered all the courage I could, and SLAM. Hit the spider, (killed it.. I think)…. And…. broke the wall. Yep, definitly should have made sure the wall was not as thin as it was beforehand…at this point I was standing back in shock peering at this giant gaping 1 foot crack I had lodged in this beautiful green wall. Dammit!
I asked Maria Dulce to come in and profusely apologized, explaining that I had a big accident and should have thought a bit more before lodging the shoe into the wall.
Fortunately, she didn’t really care. She started laughing and said it was no big deal.. My roommate is coming home from a beach trip tomorrow…I’m sure she will get a kick out of the story when she notices the huge break in the wall….
Oh boy oh boy. I still feel pretty bad, but I’m just happy Maria was not upset about it and I suppose it creates some reading entertainment for you all!
I’m excited to explore tomorrow and start the outdoor recreation club // helping out at the preschool // whatever else I will be doing to help out with the nonprofit on Monday!
I’ll keep you all updated. Hope everyones doing well.
Kelly
After a 2.5 hour drive to SFO, 3.5 hours waiting in the airport for my flight, 5.5 hour flight, 6 hour layover blurry eyed at 2 am in Miami, airplane delay and another 2 hour flight…..I made it to the DR safely! Y estoy muy contenta (and I am very content).
Everything went really well all day (except for a hilarious mishap just now, which I will get to at the end)…I got through customs without any problems, found Diego and his son immediately, got a nice tour of the clinic and meeting my housemom and her pals went well. My house mom is named Maria Dulce (dulce=sweet in Spanish, and was a nickname given to her because she is a really nice person.) I was happy she liked the necklace and chocolates I got her, and conversing with her neighbors/friends was fun.
Its so amazing to be able to communicate with my housemom and some others right off the bat. Its still not to a level of being able to understand all (just much better than my past experience in CR), because those that told me that Dominicans speak faster than most other Spanish speakers were VERY right. I was talking to un vecino (a neighbor) and even though I was giving him my full attention and trying really hard, it was so hard to follow his numerous stories and when he started directing them toward me there were definitetly times where I just pretended to understand and giggled or smiled, paying attention to his facial expressions and subtle cues hoping that I was not giggling at the death of his mother or some other mala cosa (bad thing…)
It was interesting talking to Diego about all of the problems and corruption of this country on the drive in.. he told me one politicna built a metro in Santo Domingo deeming it fully “necessary” when the money is much more needed for things like feeding its population / investing in electricity.
I knew about the electricity situation before getting here, and was wondering when the first blackout would happen…and it did when I was in the shower! Ha ha. Luckily my host mom came to help me with a flashlight so it was fine!
The surroundings of the house I am living in is GORGEOUS, Maria has a huge garden, and everything is so lush and green. There are tons of succulents and various other plants. And chickens! I was expecting extreme heat too…but the location in the mountains means a wonderful cool down at night. It’s the perfect temperature right now, and I’m excited because I might be able to start up a running club that Debbie (my cousin who came here before) told me about, or just find a few pals to run with!
So anyways, now on to the funny story. I was getting ready for bed and I noticed a HUGE spider on the wall. I’m not much of an aracanaphobe and have no problem killing spiders I’ve come across before, but this one was SCARY. It looked venomous with little pinchers. I got some toilet paper and my heart was beginning to race. I decided a shoe would be a better bet since it seemed to large to attack with toilet paper. I grabbed my shoe, garnered all the courage I could, and SLAM. Hit the spider, (killed it.. I think)…. And…. broke the wall. Yep, definitly should have made sure the wall was not as thin as it was beforehand…at this point I was standing back in shock peering at this giant gaping 1 foot crack I had lodged in this beautiful green wall. Dammit!
I asked Maria Dulce to come in and profusely apologized, explaining that I had a big accident and should have thought a bit more before lodging the shoe into the wall.
Fortunately, she didn’t really care. She started laughing and said it was no big deal.. My roommate is coming home from a beach trip tomorrow…I’m sure she will get a kick out of the story when she notices the huge break in the wall….
Oh boy oh boy. I still feel pretty bad, but I’m just happy Maria was not upset about it and I suppose it creates some reading entertainment for you all!
I’m excited to explore tomorrow and start the outdoor recreation club // helping out at the preschool // whatever else I will be doing to help out with the nonprofit on Monday!
I’ll keep you all updated. Hope everyones doing well.
Kelly
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