My Trip to the Mountains

So I got back from my volunteer visit yesterday, and I had a really awesome time. The volunteer I visited, Ryan, lives in a place called El Rubio up in the mountains in the region of Santiago. The first day I got there (Thursday) we just ate lunch in San Jose de las Matas, a bigger city near his site, before we continued on to his house in El Rubio. That night I went with him to a meeting he was having with two of his project partners where they discussed some of the plans such as the river clean up with the local school kids they had planned for the next day. After the meeting we went to the store to buy some food and make dinner at his house. He didn’t have any electricity that night, it kinda of comes and goes at will, so we had to cook by lantern light and a candle. It was really good dinner, we made carrots and beets, this wheat rice like stuff, and soya with curry spice and onions. It was nice especially since curry has been the biggest food I’ve missed since I’ve been here.

The next morning we woke up, and it had been raining the whole night before so they had to call of the river clean up that was planned because they feared the river would be too dangerous because of all the extra water that would be fueling the currents due to the large amount of rain; especially since it was with the kids. Instead he took me on a little tour of his town which took quite a while since he knew almost everyone there and we would stop to say hello to everyone we saw on the way. For lunch we went to his “host moms” house where we had rice, beans, and fried eggplant, and then started to go to a couple peoples houses because he had to find a host family for the new volunteer that will be going there after him. At each house we had were offered coffee or juice and at one house this really awesome coconut cake pastry. It was also interesting because in this particular town there are many people who have either lived in the US for a number of years or receive remittances from family members who live in the US. I think this made them especially friendly to Americans and loved just talking about day to day life here and there. We went back to the volunteers house in the evening, it had started raining again, and I took a nap for a little bit.

Later that night we went to one of his neighbor’s house were we just hung out and made plans for the next day. His neighbor was one of the owners of a radio station in a nearby city called Mao and we were going to spend the day with him there. We had a few drinks at his house before returning home to eat dinner and go to bed.

The next day we met up at his neighbors house, his name is Don Percio, and he drove us to Mao which is about an hour and half way from where we were in El Rubio. Part of the reason why it took that long to get there is that for about half the way the road was not paved so it was a pretty bumpy ride. They are actually gonna have a huelga (a strike) this Wednesday to try to get a stretch of road paved. When we got to Mao me and the other volunteer walked around the city a little bit and got some lunch then went back to the radio station where Ryan spoke on the radio a little bit about some environmental issues in his town and the broadcasters actually, on the spot, decided to go to El Rubio the following weekend in order to do a live broadcast about the environmental issues there, which is super cool. After that Don Percio, his brother, the brothers wife, 2 other guys that worked at the station, and me and Ryan went to a little bar where we hung out, drank some beers, and chatted through the afternoon. We left later in the evening and Don Percio took us back to his house where he cooked us dinner, and then we returned home to go to sleep.

When we woke up on Sunday we and walked out of the bedroom we were surprised to see that the rest of his house was covered in an inch or more of water. There was a leak in the ceiling in one of the back rooms and since it had been raining pretty much non-stop all weekend, and the door to that room had been closed, they water was probably building up until it finally went under the door and infiltrated the rest of the house. We spent the next hour or 2 trying to bail out his house. We got a lot of it out but there was still almost an inch of standing water in the back room when I left that he was going to have to continue to build up throughout the day. I was supposed to take a carro publico to get back to San Jose de las Matas but since it was raining everything was shut down so they were not running. I ended up having to take a bola, basically hitchhiking with a random guy that was going in my direction, in order to get to San Jose de las Matas and take the bus back to Santo Domingo. The guy was super nice, and I actually went to mass with him because he was stopping in another town first on the way to go to church, so it was that or not get to where I needed to go. It was actually interesting to see what a mass was like here, I am always interested in different religious practices, and it only took about an hour. After mass we finished driving the rest of the way and he dropped me off by a park and then I walked to the bus stop where I was going to meet my friend who visited a different volunteer in a nearby city so we would travel back to Santo Domingo together. When we met up I wanted to show her the picture of Ryan’s flooded house but when I looked for my camara in my bag it was not there. I realized that it had probably fallen out of my bag when in the car of the guy who gave me a ride because at one point I pulled out my notebook to write something down and wasn’t thinking that this was the pocket my camara was in. Looking back I can just see it happening and I just was clueless, I’m sure its just sitting on the floor of his car, and since this was just a random good sumaritan giving me a ride, there is no way to get in contact with him. But asi es la vida, I’ll just have to try to buy another camara at some point, whenever I have free time which probably won’t be for a few weeks but I’m sure I can bum some pictures from other people.

But on returning to Santo Domingo I just ate dinner, did some of my homework, and then went to bed early. This weekend our group is going to a Brigada Verde regional meeting, they are a youth group here in the DR, and our going to be doing activities with them all weekend then come back to Santo Domingo on Sunday. Then on Monday morning we leave for community based training which is in a smaller campo (town) where we are gonna be for 5 ½ weeks learning some more technical skills for our sector (environment), improving our Spanish, and also integrating with a new host family. I don’t know what my internet situation will be like there but hopefully there will be an internet café or something so I can stay in touch with everyone. But until then hope everyone is doing well. Bye for now.

first weeks continued

So to continue… This past Saturday I woke up and went to go do yoga at a church near one of the volunteers house. There are a couple of people here who wanted to do yoga and one of the girls leads us through the exercises. I did yoga the first time last week and Saturday was my second time. It was definitely nice and it should help me with some flexibility and to stretch my back some, as well as just be some good overall exercise. I hope to continue doing it even though I have slacked off the past two days, but I think we are going to have a session this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll get back in the groove. After that me and 3 other people went into the city to a street that a couple music stores on it, and I bought a sweet new guitar! It is a classical guitar so it has vinyl strings which should make it easier to try to learn flamenco style guitar, which I had decided I would attempt to learn a few weeks ago. I have also been trying to grow out the nails on my right hand to aid myself in plucking the strings, which has been somewhat hard since I tend to pick my nails whenever they reach any type of length. But right now they are the longest they have been in a long time so I’m doing alright. The guitar and the case costed 3000 Dominican pesos, which is a little under 90 US dollars so it was a pretty good deal. I could have gotten one for half that price but this one is better quality and has a nice sound, so it was worth paying the price for it. I had also brought a little extra money just for this.

On Sunday we went to the Ciudad Colonial where a professor who lives in the city of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, whose specialty is in the history of the DR took us on a tour around the old city. We walked by the cathedral, the fortress, old houses, the house of the Diego Columbus (casa de Colon), and other old buildings as she told us some of the history of the sites, the city, and the country as a whole. It was nice to learn some more about the history of the city especially with our guide being an expert on the subject. After the tour a couple of us ate at a vegetarian restaurant close by before returning to our barrio where we relaxed and played some dominoes.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days at training, we had Spanish classes and more orientation type things. For example, yesterday we learned some more about the different regions of the country and characteristics of these regions as well as some about the diversity of ecosystems and climates that are found here. We have sunny beaches, mangrove forests, tropical forests, arid land, valleys, mountains (including Pico Duarte, the highest peak east of the Mississippi and above the equator in this part of the world, I think its like 10,000 feet above sea level), and some others I can’t remember at the moment. I am actually going to a city in the mountains tomorrow to visit a volunteer who lives and works there (all of us trainees are visiting a different volunteer) in order to see what life will be like once I am a volunteer. It is apparently somewhat cool up there as I was advised to bring long sleeves or a jacket, but I am really excited to get to see another part of the country. Today we also got issued a motorcycle helmet as I think we are the only country that PeaceCorp is in that are allowed to ride on (not drive) motorcycle taxis because for a lot of sites people work at the only way to reach them is by motorcycle. Needless to say we are required to wear the helmets at all times when riding a motorcycle, or else we get sent home. To reach the place I’m going this weekend I will not need to take a motoconcho (the motorcycle taxis) but am sure I will need to sometime in the future.

But that is about all for now, I’ll try to get up another post next week to talk about my weekend and hopefully to take/put up some pictures. So far I have forgotten to bring my camara to all of the places we’ve been, such as the ciudad colonial, so I don’t have very many pictures. Hope all is well with everyone in the states and elsewhere. Ciao

First weeks

So I finally got around to making a blog today in order to keep everyone updated a little easier instead of trying to write tons of emails. So i arrived in the Dominican Republic on the 5th of this month. The first night we went to a retreat (i think it is usually a place nuns/priests go for a break) and had some orientation information given to us, met our nurse here at the training center, and then blayd a dinamica (ice-breaker) in order to get to know each other a little better. Then next day we all came to the training center here in Santo Domingo which is gorgeous. There is a lot of open space, its nice and quite which lends to the learning atmosphere, and there are lots of fruit trees all around the yard including a giant mango tree in the center. Sadly though they will not be ripe untill june, which is after training will have finished. We have our classes (spanish and more technical type training) in these enramadas ( gazebo like things) outside which is super nice. All the locals here think it has been unusually cold the past two weeks but i think its the perfect temperture right now, i'm defenitly enjoying the more mild tempeture as i know the summer will be extremely hot.

Later in the day on that first friday our host family's came to pick us up from the training center and bring us to our main home for the next 3 months. My Dona is super nice and lives with her niece in a nice little house about a 15 minute walk from training. The niece is in school and works so she isn't at home a lot but one night we did watch "From Dusk Till Dawn" on the spanish movie channel, which is just as good as a movie in spanish. My Dona feeds me huge meals in the evening and mornings and always makes sure i have a cafecito (little coffee) when i get home. Here coffee is drinking in small amounts, about the quantity of an expresso shot, but is very strong and they put in tons of sugar. It defintly has helped me get through the day, i have coffee in the morning, with lunch, and when i get home from training. Two other volunteers live on the houses to either side of me and there are 7 of us total in our barrio. The rest of the volunteers live in other neighboorhoods that aren't too far away either.

A normal day for me is to wake up around 6:30, eat breakfast around 7, leave for class at 7:30 and training starts at 8:00. We have an hour of lunch from 12-1 which is nice to relax and use the computer (the training center has internet!) During the day we have a mix of presentations about various topics, for example development, or dominican culture, as well as spanish class which are nice because we are split up into small groups (4 people and a teacher) so i get lots of practice listening and speaking spanish. after training ends at 5 a couple of us usually walk to our neighboorhood colmado (its like a corner store where people hang out) to get a coca cola and play dominoes, which is my new favorite game. I usually eat dinner around 7 or 7:30 and then go to my room 9ish to read a little/do homework and have been asleep by 10 everynight. The only bad thing so far is that the gallos (roosters) start to go off around 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning and continue to be loud and annoying untill i should be waking up. It doesn't help that there are like 5 or 6 around my house and when one starts they all go off.

But i have to go to class now, i'll continue with another post later today or tomorrow.