Climbing Mountains & Making Candies

(from Lunes - 4/26/10)

Okay, so it certainly wasn’t Pico Duarte, but recently I did climb one of the El Seibo mountains. Two friends and I went on a run in the campo that turned to a spur of the moment 2-3 hour mountain climb because it was “just so close how can we not?” Crouching under barbed wire, wading through rivers and getting a lot of scrapes were a few highlights of the excursion, but none could compare to the view we had by the time we reached the top by early evening/dusk. We could see all of El Seibo, the clouds parting, letting the sun peek through and cast rays down over the town. It was a beautiful view: the surrounding mountains, trees, cane fields skirting the dirt roads, and the few lights of El Seibo in the distance. Picture perfect. ...Or at least it would have been had I remembered my camera. Fortunately, a friend and I are doing one last campo run tomorrow to the mountains to get some photos of the area.

We are wrapping up these last weeks of CBT. By now, we’ve all finished the three technical presentations and our youth group has nearly completed the documentary project. We’ll have a presentation on Wednesday at a Youth Group Fair to showcase to the community the projects everyone has done. In addition to our El Seibo fabricas (factories) documentary, other trainees are leading youth groups in graphic design and newspaper writing. For the documentary, we went out with the kids to film and interview at the candy factory. It was fun to see the group asking their interview questions and filming the Dulceria workers. We also filmed inside the candy factory itself and saw the process of the Dulceria Tula candy making. With the footage, the kids spent the end of last week editing and compiling all the video clips to create the documentary. Here are a few photos from the interviews and tour we had with workers at the Dulceria Tula a week ago.

PC Trainees after our Documentary Meeting

In other news, my Spanish class continues to prepare amazing food. Recently we travelled to visit Haitian families and learn to make a desert in the campo - the more rural, hilly parts of town. Together we learned to make a mani (peanut) desert that is really sugary and delicious. We also got to spend the afternoon in a few homes in the campo. Our host, Dona Marta, equipped with a cooking pot, wire metal frame and hot coals, showed us how to roast the mani and remove the outer later of shell by rubbing the mani through our hands. She combined the mani with a sugary mixture and cooked it over the coals, then when it was ready, formed the mani paste into circles that harden in the air and form the candies.

Overall, much was visually different in the campo: simpler styles of homes, dirt roads, no cars, latrines, etc. And it was strange to remember that this family lives in the same El Seibo that we do. It was a great afternoon that also offered a glimpse into a different level of “roughing it,” and living situations that could be in our futures. We finished off the day with a little bachata and merengue dancing overlooking the beautiful scenery in the town - dancing and the fantastic views are two things that are hard to get away from in this country.

Spanish class & friends with Dona Marta

This marks the last week of CBT, and we’ll be heading back to Santo Domingo on Thursday. I can’t believe how quickly these five weeks have gone by, and how soon we’ll know our site placements (less than a week at this point!). I’m really excited for everyone to find out where they’ll be serving for two years, and pretty nervous to find out for myself, too. I’ve grown really fond of everyone in the group and am going to miss being around friends everyday. The biggest culture shock is probably yet to come when I’m settling in at my new site, without the luxury of speaking English, and not within walking distance of friends all the time. We have a great group here, and I’m really going to miss you all!

More pictures and updates very, very soon. Thank you for reading!

xo,

Emma