I haven't been home for about two weeks now and I was just thinking how I dread the Dominican welcome I will inevitably get when I head back later on today. They really have a way of making you feel guilty. Me botaste or ya no nos quieres or estabas perdido are just a few of the lines I am prepared to hear. The botar one especially hurts because they use the same word for throwing out trash or spitting a bad tasting food from your mouth. Not exactly what I was thinking of them these past two weeks. And the estabas perdido one still stumps me every time they throw it out there. I just end up mumbling some lame excuse of why I really wasn´t lost just far away. And the far away part usually just leaves them confused and with the same lack of words I had at their intial question. I think maybe because far away isn´t a concept they think about every day. I should try to figure out some whitty reply but my sarcastic humor doesn´t seem to transfer very well here.

So anyway, the first week I was at a youth conference with three of my youth learning all about HIV/AIDS and other sexual health topics. And when I get back we are going to try to replicate all this good info for other kids; the idea being trying to start a big snowball that hopefully wont melt here in the Caribbean sun. Just one note on the conference which I was a little embarrassed/disappointed by. It´s right at the end of the whole thing when we are about to present certificates to all the youth who participated and one of my friends and fellow PCVs calls me over to check out some pics on his camera. Turns out some kids got a hold of his camera the night before and did what Dominicans do with a camera. Pose and growl like a tigers. As if they were shooting for some magazine cover. This may sound like a generalization, and I admit I do generalize a lot, but this is not one of those times. Dominicans are very difficult to photograph because they want to strike some pose like a really bad high school senior photo. But these photos were nothing for a year book. And the star was one of my girls and she was posing in horribly dirty positions that made me want to cringe. After 3 whole days of learning about self esteem, how to combat machismo in their culture, safe sex and some ways to say no to sex one of my girls was objectifying herself and throwing out everything we were trying to teach. Although a bad note it was a snap back to reality for me. It´s easy to think these kids had learned all this good stuff and as a result changed their way of thinking and behaving but really behavior change is not so quick and easy. A youth conference won´t do it. And these were just pictures. Not the most detrimental behavior out there.

That was the first part of my ¨vacation.¨ The second part I was translating for a group of doctors who came down to do clinics in the most isloated and far out campos I have seen yet in this country. This was a great time but I will have to write about it later as I am quickly loosing attention.

Nos vemos.