Cuentos del Caribe: November Medley

Happy Thanksgiving ...plus a few days!

Haven’t updated in a while, and about to remedy that! To start, events from the past month (and then some) can be summed up by the following two photos:

Those are my fellow carro publico passengers standing next to our flat tire one afternoon. In a nonchalant moment, our car broke down, we stopped, the chofer replaced the tire, the passengers looked on, the gringa took a picture of the scene, and then we all went on our way. Pretty ordinary, nothing special. Too busy and unphased at the time to really think too much about being at a dead stop in the middle of a highway (& on the fast lane side?). Really, no big deal. So if that image/event sequence could be compiled into a sentiment - it is essentially how I feel about life in the months of October and November: busy, all over the place, crammed 7 to a sedan, delayed on the highway...still going with it, and oddly still loving it, always.

Enjoy this update! Thinking of you all back home - have a great start to the holidays!

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Several of the following events deserve a longer written reflection, but instead will be short and sweet. This is a list recap of recent moments (big and small) from the last 1.5 months.

Translating at a Medical Mission. This was the same one I attended last year, so it was great to see this team again. It was refreshing to be around Americans who literally changed the lives of hundreds of Dominicans in just a week’s time. Each of the surgeries performed would cost well over $10,000 in the States, and all are free to patients, many of whom have been in need of the procedures for years, often decades. Over the course of 5 busy days, the doctors and nurses saw hundreds of patients, and took care of each with grace and patience. A truly inspirational group, and one of my most memorable weeks in country. Did not take any of my own pictures, so enjoy this one that I borrowed.

Some of our Med Mission group before a night out in Santiago!

Practicing with Montessori materials. Here are a couple of photos of one of the students who has been practicing with the Flags, and Wooden Cylinders. He can match every North and South American flag with the correct country name! I took a video where my project partner showed him a flag, and he correctly named every corresponding country. These students are so impressive! The video wouldn’t upload, but here are some pics.

Communicating with someone in Spanish Sign Language on a bus. (Note: In the DR its really common to talk to strangers seated next to you on public transportation, or if you’re eating food, you share your food with these strangers, too. I ride a lot of buses, so sharing/sometimes even singing on the bus has become completely normal behavior. I tried chatting on the T back home, but no, people don’t seem that into talking to strangers on the subway where I’m from. Give it time though! :) I’m sure it’ll catch on...maybe). So it was just a random bus ride, but I was able to communicate in sign language with the person next to me. He even made jokes and I understood the jokes. In sign language! Random story, but I really enjoy spontaneous occurrences like that so I thought I’d add it to this list.
Attending my first two baseball games! Dominicans are big fans of teams in the States as well as baseball in their own country, too. DR baseball is a year-round sport with professional teams in regions throughout the the country. Recently I saw two games, and each of the home teams won in their respective cities both times! Go Cibao Aguilas y Licey Tigres! They are rival teams, but whatever, rooting for both. :)

Licey game in Santo Domingo

Visiting friends’ sites! From short day trips to weekend campo birthday celebrations, it has been fun to see so many great volunteer homes and communities.
Being a pseudo-professional school photographer. Self-explanatory. This includes a November classroom birthday party for the older students from 3ro y 4to, and a playground construction project by students from 1ro y 2do.

Feliz Cumple!

Making Art from Trash/Unwanted Things! At school we’re having a parade and fair soon to showcase all of the art projects the kids have made...all of which are made from recycled materials. Check out our prep-work for the event!

a lamp from styrofoam cups

a car from cartons

a house from popsicle sticks

fish from plates

glitter cardboard butterfly

an octopus (in the works) from a plastic bottle

melted crayons

Celebrating Thanksgiving. So much fun that it calls for more than one celebration. I went to a nearby volunteer’s site for Pre-Thanksgiving, and I spent the holiday itself with a US embassy family that I have visited a lot over the past year. As the family is relocating to a new post soon, it was wonderful to be able to have one last visit with them and share with their American and Dominican coworkers and friends in the capital.

fruit & marshmallow salad from Pre-Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the Embassy house! Note: pigs in blankets!

Living without running water/Living without water in general (on occasion). That’s just what happens when your neighborhood is in a state of constant construction and looks like this:

Participating in Huelgas aka National Strikes. Whenever there is a National Strike - almost everything shuts down, including all schools. Do not expect to find the reasons behind these strikes written here. Each time I ask my friends here why we are not working, I get “because prices are high,” (specific items frequently mentioned include the price of eggs and price of gas). Granted, there have not been too many national strikes lately, but I still find the concept kind of fruitless - imagine, back home just going on strike because you did not like the price of something? My life would border close to being in a constant state of huelga. ...But no one asked my opinion about going on strike. Had they asked what I want to see happen on the National Strike day, I would have elected to put “tigueres cannot hiss or say innappropriate things to me” on the list of things to occur on this day. But again, no one consulted me how to run a huelga. All that aside, national strikes are a perfect day for photo shoots with your host family.