First two weeks at site

May 30, 2009

So all of this stuff will probably be a week old by the time you read it because i am in a pueblo now at an internet cafe but the internet is not working, so i´ll have to wait untill another day to send it.

But every has been going pretty well the past two weeks that i have been here in Yabonico. Everyone here gets up around like 5 30 to start working, either milking cows or going out to work in the fields. I don´t get up quite that early, maybe around 7 30, or days when i want to come to the pueblo i have to get up earlier (like today) to catch the truck that leaves at 6 30. My days so far have consisted of pretty much similar things but in different orders. I have either been walking around the community trying to get to know people, which can take up lots of time, usually entire afternoons since my community is rather spread out. In the part i live at there are a little over a hundred houses, and in another part that takes about 40 minutes to walk to there are 30. then there are also 3 other sections that are in between those numbers, but this ones take a little bit longer to get to so i still haven´t walked to them yet. Also, i still have a bunch of other houses i have to go to in the first two sections first. But the people are all really nice for the most part. Most of the Doñas at the houses offer me a cup of coffee, juice, a mango (they are beginning to be in season), or a mint (which everyone loves and always has around here) when i stop by. Sometimes though i just kind of sit there awkardly for 10 minutes or so without haveing much to talk about, which is a little uncomfortable, but at other houses i sometimes am talking for a while which helps my spanish and also helps me learn more about the community. I have also been asking some about the projects people want me to help with here, and lots of them have told me they want a latrines, as many houses are lacking them here. As of now i have no idea of how to make latrines, but i think the Peace Corps is going to teach us in our in service training in two months, or i hope so. If not i´ll need to be looking it up on the internet.

The past Wednesday i actually helped one Doña make a compost pile at her house, which i was really excited about as this was the first project, albeit small, that i have done here. A lot of kids also want me to teach them english, but i think im gonna wait another month before starting that as i still wanna get a little bit better grasp on spanish first, and also im just not ready right now to teach a class. I hang out around the kids a lot too, playing hackey sack, trompo (its a spinning top they make out of wood that they throw/start by using a string, its pretty cool actually), or they like to try playing my guitar even though there is really only one kid who knows how to play anything. He did teach me a little merengue though which was good as the kids are always asking me to play merengue or bachata which i don´t know that well. They do get a kick when i play this one mariachi/flamenco song, they always say ¨play antinio banderas¨ because it sounds like a song he plays in the movie Desperado. It sometimes is a little annoying though because i can´t just sit and try to practice or learn songs by myself as it always attracts a crowd and i have to pass it around to everyone, but they are always sharing with me so i should be sharing as well.

I also go over to one of my negibhors house some nights because when there is electricty they are usually watching some sort of movie. Some of them are american movies, some are ones from here, and they also really like martial arts movies. We watch some Thai movie last night be couldn´t understand anything as they weren´t subtitles or translation from the original language, but there were lots of fighting scenes so i guess you could kinda of understand what was going on.

Other times though, i am just sitting around at my house not really doing anything, or wating for lunch so not wanting to get anywhere but then it takes an hour longer than i thought so i kinda of waste my mornings. But whenever i am sitting for like 2 hours or me i usually eventually just get up and walk around some, even if i don´t visit a house there are some cool trails through the forest and by the river. Yesterday after walking up to that one part of the community 40 minutes away i took the long way home, walking back along the river and enjoying the nature and all of the trees. When i was passing by a mango tree a ripe mango fell to the ground, which i retrieved, and it was probably the best mango i have ever eaten, it was super sweet and perfectly ripe. This is the second time i´ve walked by a mango tree to have one fall right at my feet, i feel like its gotta be a good sign or something.

But i also have attended a few community meetings the past two weeks, and a couple other random things. Today i bought a machete in the market, as they are probably the single most useful tool you can have in the Domincan Republic. The are used to chop wood, cut down trees, sharpen stakes , cut the grass, make toys, and more that i can´t thing of right now. I had to borrow one to cut sticks to the correct length when i was making the ¨fenced¨ area for the compost, but now i have my own for all the compost piles i´ll hopefully be making in the future.

But that is about all for now. I´m sure there are some things i´m forgetting, but hopefully i can touch on some different things the next time i write. Take care all.