Look who came to visit...

...my family!

Familiar faces? :) My Mom, Aunt Julie, and Sara were here in the DR for a long weekend. It was a really great visit - hadn’t seen anyone from home in over 6 months (that’s half a year, weird huh?), so I loved it! We packed a lot of traveling (and a lot of espanol) into four and a half days. After reuniting at the Puerta Plata airport, we stayed in Cabarete at a fun hotel on the beach which had a lot to offer - personal favorites being - the AC and a shower with HOT water. It’s the little things in life - except I wouldn't consider either of those to be little things anymore. Anyway, it was a really good time. Photos from Cabarete:

Waiting for everyone in the Puerta Plata airport

A couple of the many animal friends Aunt Julie made in the DR :D

Caught the sunrise one morning!

After a weekend up north, we went back to my site to meet the host family, neighbors and the school. One of the days we had lunch at my host family’s - featuring the bandera: rice, beans, salad, and chicken. Having the families meet was probably one of my favorite parts of the visit. To add to that, my family got to experience a homemade Dominican meal - and lucky them, because Heaven knows my little kitchen will never fully succeed in recreating any of my host mom’s dishes. While they were in town, I brought my family around to meet the neighbors and everyone at the school, too. Photos from visiting Mao:

Ruby with students in computer class

Francisco showing his artwork

Aunt "Julia" and Don Jose

Dona Dominga and Mom

Simon and Sara

Mis Familias Americanas y Dominicanas juntos!

Mom, Lenny, me, Sara, Aunt Julie

Lenny gave one of his paintings to my mom

After a couple days in Mao, we ended our visit at the Santiago airport, at which point we went our separate ways again. My family went alla to Nueva Yol, and eventually everyone made it safely back to Boston. On the other hand, I stayed here and taxied back to Mao with Gustavo, a new friend who shared an abridged version of his life story during the ride and then gave me a pineapple. And so concludes our trip. I wish everyone could have stayed longer.

Gracias, Gustavo.

Another great part of having my family here was being able to hear about how people are doing back home. So, if you’ve seen my mom in the past month, chances are that I got a mini-update on your life. :o) Also thank you for sending warm wishes, gifts and thoughtful cards - it really felt like a surprise Christmas.

Grandma, Grampy, Folkins Family, Supino Family, Kathy, Dennis, Angie - Thank you! :D

Oh! By the way, those are New England-scented candles in the photo. Woohoo - Happy Fall from the Dominican Republic.

Cuidense!

XO

Mi Casa es Su Casa

(Miercoles 9/14/10)

It's almost 7:30 on a Tuesday evening and I’m walking up my front stairs. Tonight is the final evening of the town’s Patronales (sort of comparable to founder’s day - emphasis on sort of), but all is eerily quiet as I rummage around in the dark for my house keys. I had heard Patronales would feature a fiesta-filled, week-long celebration (que bien!), but in my town - absolutely nothing happened. Even still, things are quieter tonight than usual. I wondered what was going on. Then, in an instant, the silence breaks. A series of happy cheers and shouts erupt and fill the streets outside. Neighbors are applauding all at once. “Wow - so exciting!” I thought. This was the kind of Patronales spirit I’d heard so much about! Just as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I wished it hadn’t; and knew I was completely wrong. “Emma, you idiot. You’ve lived in this country how long?” I looked around, and saw light bulbs in the homes around mine start to flicker on and light up. The luz had se fue’d earlier. And now, the electricity was back on, generating a lot of enthusiasm and applause... in addition to confusing the town’s Americana, apparently.

Entonces, I’ve been in my new place for about a week and a half, and the electricty doesn’t go out that much here, which I guess I got used to pretty fast. Things at the new place are going well. It’s tranquilla, and really safe. I’m in a different neighborhood though (no homes were available in my old neighborhood), so I do really miss being close to my host family and neighbors. But I’m back to visit at least once a day - each morning before school for 7:30 coffee with my dona.

* * *

Still working on it, but here are a few pictures of my house.

The kitchen: Currently living without a fridge, which means I only eat un-refrigerated things. You know, like plantains. Yum.

The lavadora. This machine is half the size of the bathtub, somewhat inefficient, and obviously - I love it. Washing clothes in a tiny washing machine and a series of buckets makes laundry an all-day affair. And yes, it does take this cute little guy at least 5 cycles to wash a week’s worth of clothes. Then of course, there’s the fact that if the electricity and water are out, the lavadora is rendered completely useless... No importa. All this only makes me love it more.

Okay, I think that’s it for now. Hope that life up North (or wherever you’re reading from in the world) is sending all the best things your way. Oh and, ven a visitarme - mi casa es su casa!

cuidense amigos y sigue la lucha,

XO

English & Everything Else

(from Miercoles, 9/8/10 tambien...un poco mas tarde)

I measure the success and worth of a day (at least in small part) by the number of bolas people offer me while walking around town. Yes, I could pay to get where I need to be via moto. But why would I pay when I can walk, carrying my big bright yellow helmet (classy? no, perhaps confusing to the locals - no one wears helmets here), knowing someone will usually offer me a free ride anyway? That sounds horrible, I realize, but maybe other PCV’s can understand. And today its been 3 free rides in the last 3 hours. So with the help of people carting me around, I got things done this morning - straightening out the upcoming English classes with the ayuntamiento (city hall).

English classes will begin next Monday, por fin (finally). Two classes, one for adults one for youth, each meeting twice weekly. English class is starting just in time for me. Since school started, the mornings are busy - all morning IT classes and work at the school until it closes at noon - but in the afternoon there’s too much free time. Its the Dominican culture, I know that - you’re supposed to take it easy in the afternoon, eat lunch with your family, nap, sit down, chat, visit, etc. It’s just as important to spend time on people, confianza and relationships as it is to work. And I do those things, but to be honest, not very well. When visiting and chatting with neighbors, all I do is think “Okay, I’m wasting time. I shouldn’t be here. I’m not getting anything accomplished. I’m not helping anyone sitting in this plastic chair.” It’s going to be, and has been, my biggest struggle here - feeling like conversing and visiting with neighbors isn’t as important as “doing something.” Well, at least there's still 21 months to get over that, for now I'll teach English. :o)

Random things of interest (of interest to maybe my mom, that is):

1. Met a DR neighbor from Lynn, MA.
2. Rode on a moto with 5 people (new personal record).
3. Fixed a leaky sink.
4. Received two offers to prestar (let me borrow and give back later) mini-fridges. Helps me out so much - have never been so excited to refrigerate things! (Note: the cheapest fridge I’ve come across was $8,800RD, and that’s not exactly cheap).
5. Cooked a plantain. Made jugo de limon. Nothing special. Posting a picture so you can know what a cooked plantain and limon juice look like. Not because I’m extremely proud of it or anything... ;)

More September photos:

Ana Maria, Bethania, Simon, and Jose Miguel

Dona Dominga and Don Jose

Taking advantage of free wifi in Santiago

Monument in Santiago

Lots of love!

XO

Septiembre: Mes Seis!

September = 6th Month in Peace Corps!

(from Miercoles, 9/8/10)

School has started, and we’ve been with the students everyday in the computer lab. The past two weeks, Ruby and I have been working one-on-one with the students on evaluations, figuring out what they’re capable of doing on the computer, and making individualized plans based on what they already know and what they can learn this year. There’s about sixty students or so at the school, so we spend 10-20 minutes with each. The youngest student is 3 and the oldest is 20. They are all divided into six classrooms, so we have six different informatica classes, and each class has time twice a week where they all go to the lab together. At this point, we’re just about done with the evaluations of everyone, and the process has definitely helped put into perspective how these informatica classes might go at the school.

The students at the school are all here for different reasons, (autism, hyperactivity, down syndrome, inability to speak, difficulty hearing, behavioral challenges). In general, teaching at the school is individualized, which makes sense - even within classrooms of students with similar skills, not everyone is starting at the same level. So, informatica classes are going to be that way too. There are blocks of time in the schedule for “Informatica Individualizado,” basically a one-on-one chance for advanced students to work on something more challenging or extra time for beginners to practice using the mouse. The school uses three computer programs primarily - a painting program (good for pointing and clicking the mouse, and clicking and dragging), a letter identification game (many students need practice with letters, or just don’t know their letters) and a memory/picture matching game (grouping colors, images, and building memory). Overall, I think it will be great, but it won’t be what I originally expected.

It’s just going to be a matter of measuring success in a different way. And certain things are expected: obviously not all the kids know how to use a mouse or type on a keyboard; that’s why we have computer class. In general though, most students pick up “computer-concepts,” how to click a mouse, open documents and programs, and shut down a computer, pretty easily. But the biggest surprise so far is how many students don’t know their letters or numbers. In the evaluations, I’d pick the first letter of their name, (figuring the first letter of their name would be the one they knew best), write it down, and ask them to locate the letter on the keyboard. Still, few students could do this. Some kids also have trouble counting and recognizing numbers. Another program displays images, asks you to count them, and lists four possible number answers. Many kids can count the images fine, but don’t recognize which number is which. So its been surprising - surprising in that the students are quick to learn (and recall) but surprising in that many kids don’t know fundamental things that I just assumed they would. I’m trying to anticipate how working with the students will go from here. It’ll mean teaching the very basics rather than advanced classes, working one-on-one as opposed to instructing groups, and assessing progress and learning according to how the individual, rather than the class, has progressed. But so far, so good.

So I’ll let this end here. Right now its almost 5:30am, I’ve been awake since 1:19am. Couldn’t sleep so I read a Jorge Luis Borges book, watched a Michael Moore movie, and wrote part of this post. Hmm, a great way to start the day? We’ll see.

XO

No Longer Living Out of Suitcases ...Almost!

(from Viernes 9/3/10)

Today was supposed to be the day that I would leave my host family and make the final move into my house. I’ve been preparing this past week, just getting things ready - painted the entire place (inside and out), bought beds, a mini stove, a washing machine, and I even have furniture - one whole chair! I’m excited. So today, after an environment presentation/course with the school at Banelino (our school’s sponsor), I’d come back, pack up my last bag, say goodbye, and bola across town to my new house. Seemed like a simple enough plan. So simple in fact, that of course I couldn’t make it work. The presentation finished late (and it was 8 hours long!), and then it was raining - two little events that hold the power to alter everything, apparently. But really, it was my dona who had the final say when she handed me a set of sheets, told me to re-hang the mosquitero and stop packing my bag because, “Its late and its raining, and you can’t leave today,” Then she suggested I stay until Sunday. Anyway, I’m here one more night, and its fine. Just one more funny little story of how normal occurrences (namely - darkness and the weather) are now enough to keep me from going places.

What moving-out looked like

So instead of spending the night at my new place, I went to the junta de vecinos meeting, which was time better spent, anyway. (Junta de vecinos is a neighborhood group that meets weekly to discuss what’s going on in the community, and just about every neighborhood has one of these groups). My host dad is Presidente of this group, so sometimes I go to the meetings. Anyway, tonight wasn’t the usual meeting time; the group had called for a special meeting. Something big is happening in the neighborhood tomorrow afternoon - Mao’s new Sindico (town politician, sort of like a mayer, I guess) is visiting our barrio. And why? Because my community needs roads, and has needed this for years. Tomorrow they’ll show the existing dirt roads (some of which you can’t drive on they’re so bad) to the Sindico, and we’ll hear about construction plans. It really is a big deal, the community has put in a lot of effort for his arrival tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed that my neighborhood gets their roads soon!

From the road construction meeting:

More to come (very) soon!

xo