Good News, Bad News, & On the News

Just a few project-unrelated updates while there's internet within reach:

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1. Most importantly, (well, importance-level may vary depending on who is reading) my dog has a name! Por fin. For the past month, she's been living with multiple names (thank you to Dominican neighbors, family and PC friends for helping!) and name changes (thanks to my hesitancy to commit).  Basically, she's been called a lot of names and responds to all of them, poor thing. I've tested out just about every name from: dog websites, friends' suggestions, family's suggestions... and even went as far as trying tiguere-inspired catcalling names just for fun (more specifically: Rubia, Bonita, Linda, Bella, Mami, Princessa) - but all that felt a little too strange. A month later - her name is Minnie. (pictures of Minnie in the posts below this one).

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2. My camera has mysteriously stopped working. For no particular reason it has quit taking awesome pictures or just regular pictures altogether. Until I fix it find someone in town to fix it, there won't be any recent pictures on here - just a lot of boring words. :)

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3. Tomorrow I'll be on our province's regional news! I was told that you can see it from the States on this website: www.universalcable.com.do at 7:30AM tomorrow. So if by chance you wish to add live Spanish news from northwestern Dominican Republic to your early morning, now you know where to go.

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okay, cuidense! 
XO

March Madness

FYI: The following does not reference basketball brackets in any way, shape, or form. (Claro. Writing a post predicting sports championship playoffs would really make me a changed person).

At this point, we are well into March, and it has been a frightening, and busy month so far. There’s a lot going on, and there’s much to come in the next couple weeks. So welcome to my March Madness post - a recap about the start of this crazy month, a preview of what’s up next, and my last update until the next one.

Things here have been moving quickly. I have English classes four times a week, two youth groups and a community meeting on the weekends. At my primary site, the school, I have been working more with the students and helping the teachers with daily projects while waiting for grants. Most recently these daily projects have been environment and water awareness activities. A couple weeks ago I gave a charla about water for a teacher training event, the goal of which was to provide the teachers with concrete, hands-on activities, then brainstorm ways to teach in their classrooms about the importance of water. It went alright (someday my Spanish will be perfect...si Dios quiere). Overall though, the event served its purpose - after my talk, the teachers were sharing ideas, and selecting activities to teach their students about clean water. 

In general during this month and the last, there have been many fun school-wide activities. Naturally, there's a ton of pictures on this post (even 2 videos if this slow internet cooperates!)

Aside from school, last weekend was the town's Carnaval, and two volunteers visited. Carnaval here had similar elements to last year’s in the Capital, but on a smaller scale. Still fun though! At the end of this week, a new trainee will be here for a Volunteer Visit (remember last year's visit?), which is exciting. Oh yes, and I have been living in the Dominican Republic for over a year! And from day one to a year later, everyone from our original group is still here. Pretty darn awesome. :D

Valentine's Day

The Firefighters' Visit

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Nuestra Identidad event 

trekking through town

park!

neighborhood meeting

birthday wishes from one of my English classes

And lastly, an update on my puppy. She’s really sweet, follows me everywhere, and is excited to meet everyone and everything that moves. She has recently learned to bark, and due to my indecision, she also now responds to a variety of names. Surprisingly, this tiny puppy helps with my street cred, too. No longer am I just “that girl from Nueba Yol who lives alone, wears a helmet on a moto, doesn’t cook rice, and isn’t married.” Well, still a weirdo Americana, of course - now with a puppy in tow. 

thank you for reading & stay well,

XO

Happy (belated) Birthday, Angela!

Happy Birthday to Danielle!

& Happy (early) Birthday, KC!

miss you all <3

Gracias!

Thanks for the birthday wishes - the messages really made it an exciting day. :)

I didn’t tell anyone here in town in an attempt to avoid publicly acknowledging getting older. So I just planned to have a normal class/school day. Apparently, the DR thought differently. 

The school surprised me with a cake and a lot of singing. (they are so nice!) Groups of students ran up for hugs and to yell “Happy Birthday!” (aw.) Later, between school and classes, I discovered a random little store in town that sells clothes with TJMaxx/Marshalls tags. (sweet. even better than the real thing.) Then later a guy in town gave me a puppy. (um, what??!)

All in all, a pleasant day. 

morning run:

 cake from IDENE

thank you for the birthday cards <3

it's the wakefield lake!

The pup needs a name/your prayers. Just joking about the prayers; she’s alright. I sort of know what I’m doing. It really should have a name though. Names are difficult, and (per usual) I can't make up my mind, so if anyone has an idea, tell me! Here's Little Miss No-Name. 

March marks 50 years of Peace Corps! Congrats staff, RPCVs and PCVs worldwide!

& a big WELCOME to the new DR volunteers!

XO

Sunday Funday

Hello! Just sharing a list of Sunday (& Saturday) fun from the past month. Here is a mini-review of recent weekend events, boiled down to a few words and a lot of photos. This is what happens here sometimes:

1. Mark Twain literature comes to life.

My host dad was painting one day and it was so fun that everyone wanted in. (Tom Sawyer reference here). Even a neighbor from down the road joined. Don’t believe that it was fun? Well, this impromptu painting party happened at midday, in the 12 noon sun - in general, hardly anyone works at this hour, let alone wants to work outside in the sun. Pretty strange! And thus - the power of the Tom Sawyer effect, captured in pictures:

neighbor came by, told us we were doing it wrong, and took over. haha 

2. Weekend getaway to the States! 

Lucky that the DR is close enough for this sort of thing. I took a trip home one weekend! (& cue Kanye here: “Welcome to the Good Liii-iife!”). Some pictures from the visit:

Actually, no. Not at all. That is the Santo Domingo IKEA, friends. (hint: price tags everywhere). Still a good time, though!

3. Quality barrio time.

Weekends with Dominican family and friends.

 

 

serving up habichuelas con dulce

4. Neighbor celebrates his 80-something-th birthday. Yay!

Don’t know exactly how old, but I do remember that he’s in his 80’s. Although, at the party he kept telling me he was 28. So bueno, one of the two. 

5. A lot of walking. Claro.

...& taking pictures along the way. Only here in-country for about another 15 months (yikes, time's flying!), and you can never have enough pictures. The following are from a road next to my house.

XO