I have grey hair.

Hey Ma, What Up?

Happiness on the beach with Julie and Meaghan! This is a leftover New Year’s photo.

HELLLOOO My beauttiful people!!

I’m a pretty happy clam right now, and you want to know why? Things are finally moving and shakin’ over here and I am also starting to feel like my campo is really my home and the people really are my family. It’s a great feeling when you become comfortable enough with people to just hang out for hours, talking and actually having enough information about them to hold a conversation.

It’s a beautiful thing, people. Now instead of people assuming I am not animatedly talking to them because ella no me entiende (she doesn’t understand me) I can actually fire back and say yes, yo entendi but I am not because of the following reasons:

1. Your make absolute no sense in all languages
2. I have no response, probably because of reasons #1
3. There is literally nothing for me to say in response to whatever you just said because probably of reasons #1 or because there really is nothing to say back.

Plus, when this smug man who doesn’t really know me but overhead me talking asked my group of jovenes while slightly laughing, “Did you understand her, because I didn’t.” And they responded, with me now looking smug and happy with incredulous looks on their faces, “Well, yeah of course. She’s speaking Spanish.” I actually high-fived the girl who said it then like a true boss squad, we turned and walked away laughing to get some suckers.

BEHOLD! A motor!

I also had my first successful argument which got nice and heated, but totally playful with some older men who when I first got here could not understand a word they were saying due to their thick accents. I feel accomplished, and I didn’t even realize until all this happened how much I have improved in my Spanish. I always thought learning a language would be a more parallel process. By that I mean I assumed I would learn Spanish and then be able to rapidly translate the words in my head from English to Spanish without noticing. But that’s not what happens; what is actually happening is that I am relearning, in a sense, all these things in the world and sticking in my brain the Spanish word for it in my head. No translation required. So now, when I see a dog, I think “perro” not “dog” then perro. This is why if I learn something first in Spanish and I don’t actually know it in English I have no idea how to say it in English.

I’m not sure if I explained all that well, and I kind of went on a tangent so let’s reverse and get back to what I have been up to these last few weeks.

Cookin’ for the Clan in Boca Chica!

I went to Boca Chica, near the capital with my family to visit the extended family. We had a huge feast and “extended” means en realidad 50 people gathering. I have noticed more and more that everyone in my community is literally related, so I should not have been surprised when I went to “visit the family” and everyone and their second cousin was there. I ate a ton of food, got possibly a little bacteria on the side, threw up for a few days, but all in all worth it. I rocked a few games of dominoes, much to the surprise of the guys, and just hung out with everyone. It was a nice day overall 🙂

Dominoes Game

But actually, really everything that has been going on back home has happened in the last few days. I am working with Julie and another community member to start a girls volleyball team at the high school that will HOPEFULLY travel and compete with the nearby communities. We are trying to create a solid team where the girls can come together and put aside the gossip and differences, and just enjoy their team playing together and develop good relationships with each other. While learning volleyball and helping them maneuver through those trying teen years…we all know about those…

Viveres, anyone?

I have also begun my housing search and after a week of looking I’m exhausted and stressed and frustrated and will not speak more about it.

What else? I am currently preparing for my community presentation and meeting with my Fabulous & Fearless Health Heroes (AKA the Community Health Promoters) to plan the projects and work we will be doing. It looks like latrines, cookstoves, cement floors, and igloo building.

Just joking on the igloo, but we have a lot of projects we want to tackle. We are also trying to work with the local Mayor to fundraise and secure land to build a basketball court and baseball field, something the communities desperately need for the youth. There really is nothing for the youth to do here, so it leads to them getting themselves occasionally into trouble. I really, REALLY, want to build at least one of those for the community while I am here…but we shall see.

For now, I am just trying to focus on getting everyone together, motivated and focused on one thing, and also working to create a Volleyball Team that will dominate!!! Oh, and securing a house. I know I said I wouldn’t talk about the housing, but I will just explain slightly. There are very little options in the four communities, as in nearly no house available. I will probably have to repair a house to live in it, but this is besides the point. There are very few houses, and since for some reason (okay, well for an obvious reason for many), Peace Corps requires we have a bathroom of some sort by the house (letrine or one inside). I am all good without a bathroom (imagination time, people) since honestly it’s not that big of a deal for me, but Peace Corps is a stickler about this one. So while there are two houses, neither have a bathroom, so we are probably going to have to build one. Hence, my frustration.

At least a shower is not required.

SPEAKING OF SHOWERS. Funny story I almost forgot to mention. So, the other day on the very rare occasion I was left in the house alone (read: FIRST TIME), I needed to talk a shower. There I was, going with my bucket into the bathroom to shower and what do I see in the dark there right there IN THE SHOWER? Yes, you guessed it, A TARANTULA. It had the audacity to come into my shower in broad daylight and was not respecting the rules and agreement we have of not invading my space at all. Or at least not in the middle of the day when I’m home alone and just exercised and really have to shower. So, I did what any rational person would do with no one home to kill it–I took my bucket, went into my room and figured out how to shower out of a bucket in a two-foot-square space and not soak everything. I learned a valuable lesson of adaption that day andddd I learned how to shower out of a bucket without getting things around me what.

I won’t share my secret method with you all and will let you figure it out when you come across a tarantula next time in your shower. I would say thank you to the tarantula for giving me the opportunity, but it’s dead, so I can’t.

Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying that beautiful snow that I miss so much! I am only comforted by the fact that I can finally wear sweatshirts and scarfs at night here.

xoxo

B

 

Pueto Pa’ Mi

These weeks are slowly flying by, that’s for sure. And yes, that oxymoron was on purpose. We are officially passed our 1 Month Until Swear-In Day (October 28th) and man does it seem like its been a lifetime. we have only been in country for a month and a half or so, yet I feel like it’s been eighty years. At the same time, it is all passing in a blur, so its this weird feeling, but I’m sure you all get the idea of what I mean. I am also dreaming of Starbucks chai tea latte’s, oceans, and most often fall time. It’s interesting because here where there is really no change in the seasons, you can almost pretend that it is still summer back in the States and I am not missing out on one of my favorite times of the year. Oh well, I just expect that you all will be sending me cinnamon and sugar pumpkin donuts and apple cider that will arrive in a month nice and stale  just to show me the love 🙂

Veronic,a my host sis, and me at the birthday party of her abuelo! Yes, she filtered this to make me look this pale. I a actually getting too tan here hahaha

But back to life here so I am not going off into dreamland…I have a nasty ear infection since swimming in a questionable clean river (okay let’s be honest, it looked and smelled dirty) can leave bacteria in your ear to cause an infection. Before you go on about how dumb that was of me, you think about the fact that if it was over a hundred degrees, you’re sweating your face off, and there are no other options (and no other water to cool off in a shower), you would have been jumping in with me. Hell, I have even swam in a questionable pool with floating garbage at this point. It was refreshing, just so you know. And so worth it.

No judgment allowed, people. In the scheme of things, I think I will just be feeling perpetually dirty for the rest of my service, because no matter if you scrub with “clean” water and “soap” in the shower, you will immediately get nasty again when you go outside. But its okay, my new body smell is starting to be something I don’t even notice. Think, naturally fresh, with a touch of sweet sweat, and a dash of laundry detergent. That about nails my smell, and everyone else’s for that matter.

No judgment.

On the bright side, I have been acclimating/integrating pretty well with my community. I have been to a massive birthday party for my abuelo (grandpa) that had a five-level cake and free wine and food. I have been to actually four birthday parties or more at this point, and none of them I was invited to before. Fun fact: here in the DR, invitations are not given, they are just inherently assumed to be given if you know someone. This has led to me making plans, only to find out 20 minutes before I leave that my family already expected me to go to X, Y, Z event. No complaints, just makes things sometimes frustrating and confusing.

Pool Party! Check out my super attractive farmer’s tan! The other rubia is Anna (she is awesome AND from Kansas) and the one holding the camera is HectorJohn/Johnathon (Veronica’s boyfriend), and the one in the middle is my cousin Adam. the other is a Francis, a friend.

I also went to a softball game and shopped at La Sirena which is just a supermarket but feels like heaven. hey have this super crappy machine “cappuccino” there, like they have in gas stations, and I swear it was like sweet nectar. I have missed such things…hence the Starbucks dreams haha 😉

I also realized while shopping that my incredibly limited budget makes buying 50 cent soap an internal dilemma of, “do I really need this?” (Answer: yes, it smelled like sweet flowers). I have been to an Evangelical church where I witnessed the most intense sermon ever in my life, AND I went to a pool party at a very, very, VERY nice house, and learned how to bake the moistest (word check?) cake ever (hint: it involves a dozen eggs) for a fellow volunteer’s birthday.

What else? AH YES, I was taken to the capital to see the movie Pueto Pa’ Mi , which is this AWESOME Dominican movie about two aspiring dembo and rap artists (they are actual famous artists here) as they rise through fame. I put the trailer below for you to check out! Yes, it was all in Spanish, no they were no subtitles, Yes, I understood 85% of it, but I am still adjusting to various accents. It was an awesome experience too, and for those of you wondering what the title means, it is slang for “focus on me”. Often it is used for when a guy is speaking to a women and is showing her that his attention is on her and he is interested.

But the best part so far? I MADE CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES FOR DINNER. I nearly blew half my budget on chocolate (no regrets), but my family is OBSESSED with them since they have never had them before. They first thought I was crazy for making something so weird, but now they are hooked. They even showed it off to the neighbors and people got mad at me for not giving them some. I made 25 pancakes and they were gone within three minutes. It was the greatest thing I think we have all tasted.

My new favorite shirt. This is as real as it gets. And yes, it can be done (I have done it with half my water bottle). Peace Corps: how to do everything using nothing.

Now, in regards to training, it is coming along. I went up 1.5 levels in Spanish (yay!). Also, I am getting excited to leave CBT and go to my site, but all PCVs keep telling us to enjoy this time immensely, that they loved CBT. I’m sure I will feel that way when I am out of CBT and all alone in my site, but for now I am just tired and over training. The reasons they love it after is because no other time will you be constantly surrounded and with PCVs. I’m trying to enjoy, but I am also getting anxious. Hence my excitement for under one month left!!!

Other than that, nothing to exciting. No encounters with the spawn from hell, no horrible days, and just a crappy ear infection. I am still battling through the food situation here since rice is 80% of the diet and being vegan is INCREDIBLY difficult. But, I am chugging along, and consuming an entire jar of nuts in the process.

This weekend, we are possibly going to the beach (HALLELUJAH!!!) or to the waterfall. Unsure, as with all things related t Dominican planning, that anything is possible and nothing is for sure until it is actually happening. Even then it can still be iffy.

Today, I will be giving a charla with my group to the jovenes on condoms, so must be off to prepare!

xoxo,

B

P.S. I love that shirt above about the glass half full. It made me laugh when I saw it for the first time. It’s the best way to out some days here as a PCT/PCV into actual words.

A How To Guide

My bathroom! And shower, consequently. Left white bucket is for showering (along with the small blue cup) and the right big oil drum thing is for flushing the toilet.

 

You would think that things such as flushing a toilet or taking a shower would be easy, right? I mean, we do them every day, multiple times a day perhaps, for years and years so it should be almost like second nature to us, correct?

No. I don’t know if I mad ethis clear before, but my beautiful house and host family do not have running water, internet (obviously), and very unreliable electricity. There will be an Apagón (black out, I think is the best translation for this) that last for hours with just the slightest breeze or power surge. The best thing I have noticed about all this is that everyone is always together. Without technology and fancy amenities keeping them by themselves (I mentioned in my previous post about how being alone is weird), they are ALWAYS with someone. Families are sitting together, just talking. I spend hours a day just sitting outside, talking and chatting. It really brings everyone together, so its no surprise the community is very strong here.

In order to take a shower, I have to take a Jarrito shower, which is more commonly known in English as a bucket-bath. This is not as easy as it sounds, at all. First of all, as you can see in the picture, my bathroom has one huge oil drum of rain water that has been collected when the ague llegó! (water arrives!). Then there is a smaller bucket to the left that is the “clean” water to use for showering. On top, you may be able to see the smaller blue bucket that is what I use to scoop out the clean water and dump it on me.

Not the easiest feat to do, especially with long hair. If I had shorter hair, I’m sure it would be easier, but as a woman, it is HARD to do this. I am only writing this because, for the first time since I got here, I WASHED ALL THE SHAMPOO OUT!! This seems trivial and ridiculous, huh? But let me tell you in other terms. I read somewhere that the average shower dumps out 20-22 gallons of water PER MINUTE. Take a ten minute shower and 20 gallons/minute, that’s 200 GALLONS of water used for that shower.

You can see, if you have five people in your family taking ten minutes or longer shower how much water you are using a day. It’s insanity and something I never thought about until I got here.  So, you are here reading this maybe wondering, well how much do you use? Fine question, and it might make you understand a few things. I use less than a gallon of water every day to shower.

One gallon.

I have roughly five gallons to use a week, so some days it is a lot less than that when I am getting to the end (which is right now). Here, the water allegedly arrives in our neighborhood every Tuesday for free by the government, but I have yet to see it. In fact, after it rains is when I see the water system flood and the water come through the pipes. When this happens, me and Doña will hook up a garden hose to the shower spicket and fill the oil drum bucket. We are fortunate enough in my family to be able to buy the purified/clean water. Most families buy the water from the trucks on the street, which comes from polluted or unclean river water, etc. and use that to bathe, wash dishes, etc.

As you can see, it would be no surprise that every hour 139 children die of diarrhea. That’s staggering. That’s terrifying. That’s unnecessary. And many people do not even know or realize this unless they are here experiencing it.

I have a toilet in my family. In order to flush, I literally scoop water from the oil drum and dump it in the toilet. Nothing too fancy or anything but it works. A lot of people here outside the city do not have toilets. This is also a huge problem. And both of these things are something people think are just inherently there; we never think about them because we have never not had them. Now, I can’t stop thinking about it.

I didn’t mean to go all long winded about this (okay, let’s be honest I probably did a little) but to be here and seeing it, and knowing when I go to my community I will see it more is making me get all worked up in all the best ways. Before I came, some people would make phrases innocently, “When you get back to the real world” or “When you are once again the real world…” referring to me after service and returning home, I never thought about it.

But, my training manager made this brilliant point yesterday. She goes, “More than 80% of the world lives like we do right now”, as in no running water, electricity, etc.

So, in fact, I am in the real world right now. And it is an incredibly beautiful, happy, and unpredictable.

And so to that, I have only one thing to say to YOU:

Welcome to the real world.

xoxo

B