Hoy

I think I will take this oppurtunity and do what I never thought I'd do. Talk about what I did in a day. I am doing this because my good buddy Will requested that I do so and also because other people often ask me what I do everyday. So here it goes...

I crawled out of my mosquito net today before the sun rose. Randy, a fellow volunteer who lives across the street, and I decided to go to the Perfect Body Gym this morning for some much needed exercise. I've found excerise way too few and far between here. It is hard to go for a jog because the streets are really rocky and it is very likely that I would be hit by a moto. And soccer here is played less then in the states which is very unfortunate. Anyway, I came home dripping in sweet since at 6am it was already about 85 degrees and heading for my favorite thing in the world. The Cold Bucket Shower! I think I'm getting used to it but every time my hand pours those first few drops over my head I still chring. I survived and made it to breakfast.

Breakfast was nothing out of the ordinary. Bread and warm chocolate milk. On to 4 hours of Spanish class were we discussed the rights of children and the subjuncitve tense of verbs. After countless times going over this I can finally say I have it down. Around 10am the sweat started again. Our class is in a tin roofed house and for those who have not experienced the tin roof, it heats up like an oven as soon as the sun comes out.

At 12 I headed home for a lunch of rice, chicken, and some fried corn meal. Pretty standard. My diet here is very different but that was to be expected. Green vegtibles and meat are expensive so rice and different types of roots are eaten at almost every meal. A lot of starch and carbs to fill you up. Afterwords I head across the street for a few rounds of dominos. I don't know if I've mentioned this but dominos is huge here. I swear the old guys across the street play it all day long!

At 2 I headed to my NGO intership and today we presented a talk on AIDS to about 50 people in a small rural community nearby. In the states I didn't really hear AIDS being preach that much and I don't remember when I was taught about AIDS. But here it is a very important issue. People still don't have the facts right and almost every person you talk with can tell you of a family member with AIDS.

I was home by 5. I took my book out to the front patio and read a bit. We are reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Fiere for training right now. It's a critique of the educational system that exists in the US and throughout much of the rest of the world. He basically says this is not allowing peole to fully become human and is keeping them unconscious of the oppresson they are suffering. Its way more indepth then that though.

And that brings me to the present. After I leave here I am headed to work on a leadership workshop we are giving to the youth leaders of the community in Nagua. Then I will crawl back into my mosquito net to rest my tired head on my pillow for a nights rest.

Buenas Noches

¡Se fue la luz!

This has become one of the most common phrases to hear in Nagua. It literally translates as "the light left" but is used when the power goes out which has just happened about 5 times during my current internet session. My fellow Peace Corps'ers and I have learned to have some fun with this phrase saying it randomly and in different tones of voice. Se fue la luz. Or se fue la luz. I just love to say it. It slides so gracefully off the tongue. Se fue la luz. Commical at times. Well maybe not commical but I have made myself laugh at it. It's also fun to hear the neighborhood when the light arrives at night. Everyone cheers.

Hurry. Post. Before la luz se va.

Adios Amigos

Saludos

Just wanted to make it known that I have put up some pictures.

But first this needs some explanation. There are not many pictures of Dominican streets or shacks or people or the other stuff of the nature that would give a wonderful visual of what life is like here. This is for two reasons. The first is selfish in that I don´t want to be flashing my camera around to let everyone know that the Gringo has a machine that looks like a space camera. Mainly to protect my camera from deciding to walk out of its home and not come back.

The second reason being a little more in depth and still something I haven´t quiet figured out how to deal with yet. I´m sure everyone would enjoying seeing what my barrio is like and other pictures of Dominican country side and maybe even the reality of poverty. It´s just that I can´t bring myself to whip out my $300 camera to capture a family sitting on their dirt porch when my camera is worth more then their house. It´s hard to take a picture of a person knowing that they most likely make 1 US dollar a day. Thats almost a years work for them to buy the camera I have in my hand. Or showing pictures on my camera to my host brother whos foremost desire is to get to Puerto Rico, in a raft. This is something that carries a lot more weight then a simple photo and is just one of the thoughts I have been thinking over.

Now I will probably end up getting over this, if its something to get over, and will have more pictures of life here but until then...

Saludos de la Republica Dominicana

My New Digs

It's day 2 in Nagua, my new home for the next 5 weeks. I'll be going through the second phase of training here, which has been dupped "community based training" by the Peace Corps. I'm relieved to get out of the rat race of the capital and the grouling training schedule we had there. Anyway, in an attempt to maximize my 20 pesos for this hour long computer session I share what I wrote in my journal yesterday.

3/10

I've been here 24 hrs and I've already seen some interesting things. I was sitting in tech training and our trainer calmly tells a group of three of us who are sitting along the wall to stand up and take three steps forward. He then throws his foot into the back of a chair, kicking it against the wall. I guess he missed what he was going for because I seen the biggest spider run across the wall. Possibly a tranchula.

On the way home I pass a guys getting a cast put on that goes from his foot to the mid thigh, with a bed at the knee. Not something you expect to see outside on the corner. I would never go to the guy nextdoor with a broken leg and let him set it in plaster to heal in whichever way he sees fit. But then it may be better to have it set wrong then live without it being set at all. I don't know. A decision I would never have to make in the US.

I was told yesterday that I had "pelo malo" or bad hair by an eight year old. It was because my hair is curly. This is really a sad fact about Dominican culture. While Dominicans are a mix of Spanish colonists and African slaves they refuse to acknowledge their African heritage. They call themselves indo-mezclado and any african traits are seen as wrong or bad. This is where the phrase pelo malo comes from. This also gets into racism against Haitians. I don't know enough yet so I will stop here.

I shaved today without a mirror for the first time every! No mirror or running water in my new house. I was quiet impressed with the results.

arlight my 20 pesos has been stretched to the limit. take care whoever is reading this.

paz y amor

Chicken Dominican Style

I'm sitting in probably the most unlikely place to be using the internet right now. Just about to head back to Santo Domingo after my Volunteer visit and wanted to share a little sumin' sumin'. This is what I wrote in my journal on the 22nd...

I could be really grossed out right now. And actually I guess I should be grossed out right now. See this is what's up. I'm visiting a real life Peace Corps Volunteer this week. Just seeing what life is really like in the PC, all the day to day kind of stuff. All I can say is that this is the Real Deal. I've realized I'm getting pampered at my host families house. I will be living this life of luxgery (well, I guess luxgery it's relative) for the next 2 and a half months until I move to my own site. This visit has just made me much more psyched to get going with my own site and own projects. Between training, my host family, and the fact that I feel about 8 yrs old when I speak Spanish I am ready to grow up and leave the nest. But anyway to the part that should have made me puke.

Me and my real life Peace Corps Volunteer went out to gather up supplies for lunch. We were able to get our hands on some beans, a few vegies, but we needed some chicken. We found some without any problem, its just that the chicken wasn't exactly where I would expect to buy chicken. We walk up to this corner and my rlPCV starts chatting it up with this lady who proceeds to whip out a whole chicken from a bag. This headless chicken had the longest neck I've ever seen. It also still had its feet, toes, and all internal organs. The lady then whips out this huge machete, takes a few full swings and chops up this whole chicken Jujitsu style. Before I knew what to think about the whole ordeal we're off with a bag full of chicken parts, including a huge chicken foot. I guess, this was all fine and dandy and would have been enough for me.

We get back home and have to prepare this chicken. We had to pull out some extra feathers, remove various organs (heart, lungs, liver, etc.), and cut up these ginormous toes into more bit size pieces. After adding the chicken to an amazing beans and rice dish it turned out to be an excellent lunch. Had I been in the states, I would have given up way before we got to the feathers but this is the DR and if I want to survive there are things I just have to not think about. Freshly killed, whole chickens with feathers and toes being one.

Welcome to The DR

I really don´t no where to start or what to even say, so I´ll just start rambling. Maybe that will be the best way to get things out. Lets see...

I can start out by telling you about my shower. I would just like to say this is not your Grandma´s bubble bath! Calling it more of a drip shower or bucket shower would be more accurate. It really consists of a limited amount of cold water that I drip over my head, wash, and drip some more to rinse. I don´t think I have been as awake in the morning as a have after a cold bucket shower. You should try it sometime. This brings me to my second thought.

I don´t think I have stopped sweating since I walked off the plane exactly a week ago. I sweat myself to sleep, wake up and sweat as I walk to training, sweat all day long, and even sweat during my cold bucket shower. It really never stops and it is quite uncomfortable, but I hear it is also great for my skin. All of us in training have all pretty much gotten use to this and are at the point where we don´t even think twice about talking to each other while dripping like a faucet.

Wow, it sounds like I am complaining about being here which is deffiently not the case so I better talk about the things I enjoy here in the DR. #1 is the people. Dominicans are special people. They are very warm and welcoming, and really enjoy to dance! We even have been learning merengue and bachata dancing in our culture classes. You have to know how to dance to survive here. Music is everywhere and Dominicans will break down and dance as soon as they hear it. It´s really great and gives the atmosphere here a wonderful vibe.

There is so much more and forgive me for getting to only a small part of it. I hope to write more soon. Take care and I miss all of my friends and family.

paz y amor
mateo

Quick Note

Well, I don't have long but I just wanted to do a small post. I'm currently in Miami and have just finished up our orientation into the world of Peace Corps, it remindes me of what I studied in my social psyc class about indoctrination. I am currently beening indoctrinated into the Peace Corps culture and it's not so bad. We are a group of 51. Most are recent college grads and a few a recent grad school grads and its been exciting and odd meeting all these new faces. I'm trying extra hard to learn names because I usually don't get names until about 5 weeks of talking to that person. I thought I better work on changing that. I just thought of this, but tonight is my last night in this country for a while. I will be jumping head first into the DR tomorrow and will be living with my host familiy the next day and everything will take off from there. What exactly everything is I have no idea. I feel this will not be the last time in these next two years that I have no idea what is going on. Guess I better cut it short as there is way to much more to say and I don't have the patience to say it all right now. Just a note, (Mom, Dad, and whoever else is wondering why I haven't been in touch) my gmail account has not been working. It may be a problem with the computers here at the hotel or something else but I'll get in touch with you asap. Alright, peace and love from the MIA.

Hasta Santo Domingo

A DR News Article

I'd like to share a piece of news I came across about the DR. It's not happy news. It's actually rather disturbing, but since I had no idea this type of thing went on I figured it would be good to clue you all in also.

Friday, August 25 Migrant slayings trigger tensions between Haiti and Dominican Republic PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -

Haiti recalled its top diplomat to the Dominican Republic on Thursday after three Haitian migrants were beaten and burned to death in the neighbouring country, an official said. Pierre Willy, Dominique Gilberto and Paul Cinius were attacked Aug. 16 in a small suburb just south of the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, where they worked at a furniture factory, Dominican police said. According to the Dominican Attorney General's Office, the three men, aged 19 to 22, had been drinking alcohol with a group of Dominicans at a neighbourhood store. Later that night, the Dominicans went to a house where the Haitians were staying and demanded money from one of them. After he refused, the group jumped the men, beat them, doused them with a flammable liquid and set them ablaze, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement. The men died days later from burn wounds in a Santo Domingo hospital. In response to the killings, Haiti's interim government recalled its charge d'affaires "for consultation," said Jean Daniel Lafontant, a spokesman for Haiti's Foreign Affairs Ministry. "The Haitian interim government energetically condemns these criminal acts. It deplores that such deeds have occurred at a time when significant efforts are being made to lastingly improve relations between the two countries," a Foreign Ministry statement said. The Dominican National Police said Thursday it had formed a commission to investigate the attack and find the killers. The slayings seemed likely to further inflame growing tensions between the uneasy Caribbean neighbours, which share 390-kilometre border on the island of Hispaniola.

Roll No Rocks!

Longs Peak is a ginormous mountain! It stands well over two miles above the sea, at exactly 14,259 ft....And it was dominated. Being one of the toughest 14ers in Colorado and given its height and susceptibility to afternoon lightening strikes I, along with 9 others, began our ascent at 2:00 AM. The hike begins at a little over 9,000 ft. and it totals a mere 7.5 miles; the first 5.5 miles being relatively easy for an acclimated hiker. This took us about 3 hours (this picture is taken from about this point). The next half a mile you are scrambling from bolder to bolder to reach the key hole. The key hole is were you cross from the face of Longs in this picture, to the back side where you no less then risk you life for two hours pulling, crawling, and tight rope walking the last 1.5 miles. It was at this point that I questioned my motivation for attempting this feat and realized that we were not going to get a helicopter lift off the top or find an easy way down. Cheating death, we summitted at the bright and early hour of 7:30 AM. The summit was literally breath taking and amazing and I could think of nothing better to do then take a nap! Why I climbed 7.5 miles and ascended about 1 mile high to take a nap on the jagged rocks of Longs peak, I have no idea. But that's all I wanted to do. As for the way down, I would have actually preferred to descend by continuing to go up but this was not really possible. We left the summit at roughly 9:00 AM and arrived back at our cars at exactly 1:11 PM, which was 11 hours and 11 minutes after we began. Personally, this was one of the most challenging things I have done and an experience that I think everyone should have just once.

As for Peace Corps news and happenings there is none to speak of. Just going through the formalities and paperwork (I have quickly learned it is never ending) that they require. I have also been researching and reading as much as I can about the Dominican Republic. The more I read the more happy I am with my placement and the more excited I get for that September 7th departure date. I'm learning about the geography of the DR which is the most diverse in the Caribbean. There are beaches, mountain ranges, tropical forests, and even desert. I've read about, and am interested in hearing, this type of music called "son" which is Cuban but supposidly from the Dominican originally, although "merengue" and "bachata" are the two most popular music genres in the DR. If your interested in DR news check out www.dr1.com which is an English language site or www.listin.com.do for news if you want to practice your Spanish.

Peace Corps News

Well after 4 months of dreaming of small desearted islands and scuba diving in the South Pacific I've been reassigned. My new assignment will be in the Dominican Republic! A little bit of relief and dissappointment were my first reactions. I was relieved to know that I would be speaking Spanish again (since I somehow came out with a major in it) and maybe this time it will stick. But a little dissappointed because in my mind I had Costa Rica, Equador, and then any other Spanish speaking country as my top 3 list. So I got #3 which is on the top 3 list...I guess I really can't complain. But I am complaining that I got the only hispanic country in the world where futbol isn't the national sport (this will most deffiently be the hardest part of the 27 months!)!! No but after about 6 days to think about this I am getting very excited and I think that the DR will be an amazing experience for me.

My offical job title is Youth Development Promoter and the short job description they gave me is "strengthening margenalized youth, families, and communities." I do know that this is a very new program in the DR and I have a feeling I may be part of the trail blazing group. I don't know what they will mean but I'm preparing myself for the ambiguity that will probably fill my next 27 months. What else can I tell you about this?? Oh, I'm leaving on September 5 or 6 for staging in Miami and then off to the DR on the 7th so things are approaching quickly. Leave some comments or send me some emails if you want more of the greasy details.

Peace (corps)

Mateo

A Little bLog From CO

So, first of all I'm sorry if this doesn't read like it should. For one thing I'm using my roommates laptop, who is French, and the keyboard is really messing with my head. I have to think twice before I type an A or else I'll get a Q; qnd thqt ; zqsnùt supposeded to be q ; but q ,. Get the picture; I ,eqn ?? Anyway, enough about my roommates keyboard and lets talk about me! Well, I mean I would really rather not but I guess that's what you came to hear so I'll give it to ya!

Ok, I'm in Colorado. It's sweet. The food sucks. The mountains rock. That pretty much covers it. Alright see-ya.

No, but really it is awesome here. I never realized that we had this type of geography here in the US. I keep thinking I'm in Spain on the Camino because that was the only place I have seen that could compare to the beauty that is Colorado. There are snow capped mountains in view no matter where I look. It's really awesome feeling being this high and so small and fragile compared to the rock steady mountains. I've been doing some hiking, biking, and gasping for air (more gasping than anything else) and will be going camping and rafting later this week. Do I only play all day you ask?? Ohh, no don't worry, my job deffiently makes up for all the excitement I have the rest of the time. I'm a Professional Lifeguard, which pretty much means I yell at little kids to "GET OFF THE ROPES!!" and "GET OFF HIS SHOULDERS!!" all day long (and they still come back the next day and do the same stuff I told them not to do the day before). Kids shouldn't be allowed to get away with the stuff they do! Its time for them to grow up! Anyway, I that's enough...although it barely covers half of the excitementment that is my life here at Snow Mountain Ranch, but this is my bLog and I say it's time for bed.

Ohh yeah! I went to Telluride to see mi buen amigo Will (with Berg and Laura) this past weekend and we all attended the hugely popular (at least with the pot smoking, hippy crowd) Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I mean no harm to pot smoking hippies, because they do amazing things and are amazing people too. Just read "Blue Like Jazz" for more on this subject. Anyway, lets just say 12 hours of live music makes this little boy :).

Alright, let's see if I can figure out enough French to post this bad boy...

Pictures to come (once I learn more French)

Well here's the link to some pictures....http://community.webshots.com/user/ferndinho

Late Night bLog

It's 1:24. The night before my second final and I'm wide awake. What better time is there to write my first entry? I have to say, I'm really looking forward to putting this new toy of mine to some use. I think it could be really cool. I can put whatever I want on here and you will read it. Ohh, I know you will! But what if it's just really boring and dull (like now perhaps)? Let's just hope I get some more excitment in my life...soon! I have feeling it's just around the corner. I'll let you know...
Goodnight