A Rainy Springy Suñday

I love days like these. Especially here where cloud cover is few and far between. Dominicans love to say how !este sol pica! They also use the term pica for wasps and ant bites. And it´s not that their vocabulary is weak either. The three truely do feel the same.

Whats been going on? Well this morning my group of muchachos fund raised about 600 pesos for a mural they will be painting. I say fund raise but it was really not. They held a fire hose accross the road and didn´t lower it until people paid up. I guess we pretty much took over the entrance to our town and laid down a toll for a few hours. One passanger hit it right on the head when I overheard her say, bueno eso es como hacky mate (just like check mate). And I agree with her. I didn´t feel totally comfortable with this fundraiser but I brushed it off as a cultural thing. It was the first idea they had and these peajes are very common. We were advised, in not such a friendly manner, there were two happening further up the road from us. Kind of unlucky for both parties.

So about the new house, because I´m psyched about it. Right now it´s outfitted with a 4 burner table stove, a homemade table, 3 plastic chairs, and my bed (which I´m equally psyched about). I´ll explain.

It´s that I´ve finally got my mosquito net to look like they have it on the front of the package. Almost as soon as we got off the plane 6 months ago we were handed our mosquito nets and I instantly fell in love with the lady on the cardboard insert. Her mosquito net was hung high to make it seem like one of those old time beds that have the wooden rail around the top and you have to move the curtains to climb in. And she was wrapped in a light orange sheet, much like my quick dry orange REI towell, with whatever your favorite type of pillow is under one arm. And she was in what seem to be some kind of wooden cabaña, probably extended into the sea and only reachable by boat. And this is saying nothing about ella. She was equally beautiful to match. I still have the cardboard insert somewhere.

And my house doesn´t disscriminate in terms of gender. It is equally painted hot pink and sky blue inside and out, with gender neutral white trim and shutters. It´s a boy-girl house.

About two days into the new place I already had the visitors older PCV´s have warned about. Not the spiders or other critters I won´t bother to mention. But kids who walk in and just watch you. One kid watched me for over two hours while I cooked and ate. He didn´t say anything or respond to many questions either. I was racking my brain for ways to turn it into a great cross cultural learning experience for the both of us, but I as the time went by I was becoming more uncomfortable and just wanted to tell the kid to go to his own house. Living with a family you are protected from things like this but now in my own place I will have to figure out a strategy. I may be the only American these kids will ever know, and I don´t want to get them made at all my friends back home too.

Ok, well I was going to write about what has been going on "work" wise but I got off track somewhere. I think I know where.

That´s all for now

Things have been rolling very well lately. This past week I had a series of conferences back to back. One in the ever tiring and overstimuling capital of Santo Domingo and the other in Jarabacoa, my favorite place in the country as of now (well besides my little pueblo). In the capital I was able to reunite with the Youth crew at our 3 month IST where we all presented our community diagnostics. I was a little worried about the presentation for some reason leading up to it. I guess I was still in the school mentality where all I think about is getting graded. But the presentation went well and to my suprise the diagnostic really wasn´t about the presentation at all. More to help me understand my community a little better and plan for the first year of service. And I did come out of the conference with a plan and a focus, and I feel great about it right now. The second conference went well also and I think got my two muchachos pumped up about starting this Brigada Verde youth group in our town. I know a youth group may sound strange to people back in the states, but they are very common here in the DR. I think its from the fact that generally Dominican youth are cooler then American kids. Don´t take this the wrong way though. I would even group myself, growing up, in the lame American youth culture. To get some type of youth group going in the states, outside of the church, would most likely warren´t a "that sucks, why would I want to do that?" or something to the extent. Maybe becuase kids here really lack any oppurtunities for extra diversion or learning, they are more eager to form youth groups that usually take on a social/community service theme. And this is what I want to take advantage of. A group of organized kids is the perfect forum for some quality out of school and general life skills education.

On another note I´m hopefully going to be moving into my own house this week. It´s been a 6 months of living with host families and it´s time to move out. This will be my first house all to my own, ever, and without a doubt the cheapest rent I´ll ever have in my life. At 800 pesos a month (about $25 us dollars), with a outhouse and tin roof, and about 50 roosters as my neighboring alarm clocks I am all smiles and excitment. I cannot wait to have my own place! It´s basically one room divided into four small sections with the water outside for showers and washing dishes. I have a variety of fruit tress in the back yard: mango, cherries, coconut, and some other fruit that I forget the name of right now.

Thats all for now.