I have my own house and I LOVE it.
It´s a small cinder block box with a tin roof, looks a little bit like an insane asylum or something, but it´s MY cinder block box and that´s all I care about. Seriously, it´s so wonderful to have my own space. The Mennonites who lived in it before went to the mountains to cut coffee until March, so I´m using their bed and stove and table. When they come back they are going to take all that stuff back, so Im going to have to find or make my own. But, it´s in a small Mennonite neighborhood, a little boring but definitely safe.
Challenges in the house are the lack of electiricity and cooking. To cook I have this little gas stove, but no oven or refrigerator. Because the people in my community are farmers I can get onions, tomatoes, cilantro, mustard greens, cabbage etc really easily but there´s no cheese and virtually no meat (except for the occasional fish). And nothing comes premade, so I have to cook everything from scratch. I´ve learned how to make tortillas, beans, I eat a lot of eggs, salad, rice.. oh and I learned how to make doughnuts by hand the other day which was pretty cool.
I have no idea how to cook, so if you have recipes for something PLEASE send them to me, im desperate!!! Of course, the women in my community are hella worried that I can´t cook because what will I feed my husband??!!
So, for water most houses have the equivalent of a hose tap outside and this big bathtub thing outside called a Pila. For water during the day they fill the pila. My house came with no water so for 2 weeks I´ve been hauling water in a mop bucket to my house from my neighbors pila for everything, showering, cooking, flushing the toilet, everything. I didn´t realize how heavy water is nor how much I use in a day. The town plumber finally came and put in my tap outside my house but that night I woke up with my house completely flooded. I have a toilet inside my house and they connected my tap outside to the toilet inside so it will flush without just dumping water in it. But, the pipe burst. It was horrible, I was running around in the middle of the night not able to see a thing looking for somehow to turn of the water system and inside was a huge mess. Almost lost my mandolin.
For light at night I use these 18th century looking gas lamps. It reminds me of something out of a Wuthering Heights or some Emily Bronte novel. Romantic, but can be a little creepy at times.
The other volunteer Ashley came down to La Laguna last night to celebrate and I bought and cooked fish. La Laguna is named the lagoon because it randomly has tons of tilapia lagoons. We went to buy the fish and the guy just fished them straight out of the lagoon, killed them, and then I cleaned them. Fish insides are a lot less disgusting than chicken insides. One good thing about the food is that it´s totally organic, haha. The eggs are for sure quote free range because they are from the chikens out back. And the veges they pull out of the ground when I go to buy them, you just have to know who is growing what and when.
Ashley and I also celebrated with this foul liquor they have here, so I have a terrible hangover. And I´m late for a meeting- That´s all for now.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving and Elections
I left my site for Thanksgiving and travelled to a volunteer married couple´s house in Olancho, the eastern part of the country. No one celebrates Thankgiving here, and not that I am a holiday fanatic, but it was going to be quite lonely if I was stuck eating the same beans and corn tortillas. So, it was really nice that they had about 14 of us over to their house. They live in big city, so they have a bigger house, complete with kitchen, running water, refridgerator, electricity, tv, shower.. it blew my mind. I think my favorite part was the shower, HOT shower. Bucket baths just don´t really make a person feel clean. (Picture, mop bucket filled with cold water from the garden hose. Next use small tupperware to pour water from the old bucket over one´s body to wet. Apply shampoo soap etc. Rinse using the same tupperware/mop bucket method) And, now that the weather has cooled off the frigid water from the mountains in the mornings is almost unbearable, so the hot shower was absolutely fantastic.
Oh, and by the way, I heard Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Whats the scoop with that? For what? and when?
Honduras had the highly anticipated elections yesterday.. the blue Nationalista party won the presidency as well as most of the lesser positions. I believe they owe part of their victory to the colossal botch that was the coup detat in June (of which both parties.. the deposed president as well as the interim replacement were red Liberales). A lot of people were expecting lots of violence, especially because many Liberales refuse to acknowledge the elections, presumably because there was still a ¨coup¨ government in place until yesterday. But, I have heard very little about demonstrations in Teguc or San Pedro. Obviously, quiet little La Laguna was tranquil. People were definitely nervous about the turnout and there was general excited electricity in the air, but no blood. I went to San Marcos to see their voting center, much bigger than little Laguna´s single classroom school yard. The government had sent some army and policemen with guns, but again, no serious altercations. Vaguely remembering this from Poli Sci classes, but all voting centers have to be open to public observation if the voting is to be considered fair and just, right? Ruth, Caroline, Morgan?
So, anyways, Ashley and I sort of said we were international observers and they let me snap a few pics. In truth, I think the guy at the door was more interested in getting the white girls digits than anything about international electoral litigation.
Other than that, some dick stole my debit card number in October and charged a bunch of stuff in New York. Trying to sort that out from here is kind of a pain because of the international calls, faxes, etc that the bank wants. Mom is an angel helping me, but because she does not have my power of attorney (SO stupid of me not to do that before I left) there is only so much she can do. I am in Guaimaca at the moment to try to fax the bank my signature, but the whole country is closed to celebrate the elections yesterday. Lame. P.S. When mom told me the charges, she said H&M was one. I laughed for an hour thinking it was S&M. Stupid, but for a moment I thought it was at least for a humorous cause.
Oh, and by the way, I heard Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Whats the scoop with that? For what? and when?
Honduras had the highly anticipated elections yesterday.. the blue Nationalista party won the presidency as well as most of the lesser positions. I believe they owe part of their victory to the colossal botch that was the coup detat in June (of which both parties.. the deposed president as well as the interim replacement were red Liberales). A lot of people were expecting lots of violence, especially because many Liberales refuse to acknowledge the elections, presumably because there was still a ¨coup¨ government in place until yesterday. But, I have heard very little about demonstrations in Teguc or San Pedro. Obviously, quiet little La Laguna was tranquil. People were definitely nervous about the turnout and there was general excited electricity in the air, but no blood. I went to San Marcos to see their voting center, much bigger than little Laguna´s single classroom school yard. The government had sent some army and policemen with guns, but again, no serious altercations. Vaguely remembering this from Poli Sci classes, but all voting centers have to be open to public observation if the voting is to be considered fair and just, right? Ruth, Caroline, Morgan?
So, anyways, Ashley and I sort of said we were international observers and they let me snap a few pics. In truth, I think the guy at the door was more interested in getting the white girls digits than anything about international electoral litigation.
Other than that, some dick stole my debit card number in October and charged a bunch of stuff in New York. Trying to sort that out from here is kind of a pain because of the international calls, faxes, etc that the bank wants. Mom is an angel helping me, but because she does not have my power of attorney (SO stupid of me not to do that before I left) there is only so much she can do. I am in Guaimaca at the moment to try to fax the bank my signature, but the whole country is closed to celebrate the elections yesterday. Lame. P.S. When mom told me the charges, she said H&M was one. I laughed for an hour thinking it was S&M. Stupid, but for a moment I thought it was at least for a humorous cause.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
La Laguna
I´ve been in my site a little more than a month and a half.. definitely been a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Every week I am becoming more and more comfortable in La Laguna. I´ve made the community leaders my counterparts, and have started a youth group and a girl´s soccer team. The youth group has proved a great way to facilitate community integration. Through the kids I have been able to gain confianza, or trust, with parents and adults who may have otherwise remained a little skeptical. We have led an environmental campaign to clean the one street in La Laguna, clean the cemetary, had several fundraisers in an effort to raise money. We had a big party with a portable disco machine that has its own solar panel (complete with 2 disco balls) last Saturday night. Our girl´s soccer team has been training for weeks now and we played Ashley´s team in San Marcos, losing 2 to 0, challenged them to a rematch the following Sunday and won 2 to 0. -San Marcos is the slightly larger rural town a few miles south and Ashley is the volunteer placed there from my training class, a Youth Development volunteer. I´ve been teaching english classes once a week, not my ideal job but there is a high demand for English so another easily achieved community integration tool.
La Laguna is also home to a fairly substantial Mennonite colony, unique to Honduras and our area specifically. It´s pretty bizarre to me. So Mennonites are like Amish but can drive cars and use the internet. In this way they are less stuck in the dark ages, but they have an impressive focus on missionary ¨Spreading the Word to the Natives¨ mentality. There are two gringo families from Missouri that live in La Laguna. I´ve visited with them a few times, and are very nice but largely keep to themselves. They don´t participate in the community and prohibit their Mennonite followers from doing the same. Thus, out of my 500 person community about half is mennonite, leaving about 250 to work with in my projects, such as the youth group and girl´s soccer team. However, the white Mennonites refuse to teach their followers English even though the Honduran Mennonites have been asking for years. I have an impressive Mennonite showing in my English classes.
The neighborhood I am trying to move into in the next month is actually a largely Mennonite neighborhood. I chose it for several reasons, first of all it has the only available vacant house.. and by house it´s a small cinderblock box, of which the cold sterility vaguely resembles something from an insane asylum, haha. No, it´s nice, it already has concrete floors, and a little toilet INSIDE - definite luxury. The tin roof is fairly new, so no leaks, and the wooden windows and doors all have metal latches for locks. I cannot express how excited I am to finally live on my own.. I think about it about 25 times every day, no WAY more. As much as I have enjoyed my host families, and it´s been a great to really get to know the culture, etc etc I have lived with 5 different families for the past 4.5 months and I am HELLA ready for some personal peace and quiet!!! Going from no rules for 4 years in college living with girls my age to living with conservative, loud, rooster owning, baby bearing, church loving, spanish speaking families was definitely an adjustment of which I am glad to be on the tail end. That said, the Honduran Mennonites are some of the nicest people ever. And the neighbohood is completely safe, set away from any other people who may drink, have parties or guns, that sort of thing.
All in all, im adjusting and life is good. We get a few days off for Thanksgiving so I am going to visit some buddies in Olancho, should help ward off homesickness and will provide a much needed step back from my site. And, on the food side the mandarin trees are bearing tons of fruit so i eat about 6 mandarins every day. SO delicious. IF any of you want to send a package, send candy and gum, nasty. good, whatever as long as it´s American. haha, no but seriously kind of. Email me and I will give you my address, or call my mom, or it´s on facebook.
Carmencho
La Laguna is also home to a fairly substantial Mennonite colony, unique to Honduras and our area specifically. It´s pretty bizarre to me. So Mennonites are like Amish but can drive cars and use the internet. In this way they are less stuck in the dark ages, but they have an impressive focus on missionary ¨Spreading the Word to the Natives¨ mentality. There are two gringo families from Missouri that live in La Laguna. I´ve visited with them a few times, and are very nice but largely keep to themselves. They don´t participate in the community and prohibit their Mennonite followers from doing the same. Thus, out of my 500 person community about half is mennonite, leaving about 250 to work with in my projects, such as the youth group and girl´s soccer team. However, the white Mennonites refuse to teach their followers English even though the Honduran Mennonites have been asking for years. I have an impressive Mennonite showing in my English classes.
The neighborhood I am trying to move into in the next month is actually a largely Mennonite neighborhood. I chose it for several reasons, first of all it has the only available vacant house.. and by house it´s a small cinderblock box, of which the cold sterility vaguely resembles something from an insane asylum, haha. No, it´s nice, it already has concrete floors, and a little toilet INSIDE - definite luxury. The tin roof is fairly new, so no leaks, and the wooden windows and doors all have metal latches for locks. I cannot express how excited I am to finally live on my own.. I think about it about 25 times every day, no WAY more. As much as I have enjoyed my host families, and it´s been a great to really get to know the culture, etc etc I have lived with 5 different families for the past 4.5 months and I am HELLA ready for some personal peace and quiet!!! Going from no rules for 4 years in college living with girls my age to living with conservative, loud, rooster owning, baby bearing, church loving, spanish speaking families was definitely an adjustment of which I am glad to be on the tail end. That said, the Honduran Mennonites are some of the nicest people ever. And the neighbohood is completely safe, set away from any other people who may drink, have parties or guns, that sort of thing.
All in all, im adjusting and life is good. We get a few days off for Thanksgiving so I am going to visit some buddies in Olancho, should help ward off homesickness and will provide a much needed step back from my site. And, on the food side the mandarin trees are bearing tons of fruit so i eat about 6 mandarins every day. SO delicious. IF any of you want to send a package, send candy and gum, nasty. good, whatever as long as it´s American. haha, no but seriously kind of. Email me and I will give you my address, or call my mom, or it´s on facebook.
Carmencho
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Finally in Site
We were sworn in by the American Ambassador on Wednesday, and headed to our respective sites the next day. I am indeed in a very rural locale. It´s about an hour and a half away on dirt road from this other big-ish town, comparable to Monteagle TN. The bigger town has electricity, and one internet cafe.. slow but functional. My site is pretty cool. It´s absolutely beautiful, but with no modern amenities. It´s a town of about 300 spread along this one dirt road at the base of some mountains. All the men in the town are Campesino farmers (Campo = country) and the farms are interspersed along the same road. It´s about 70-90 degrees all year round, from what I can gather.. although every farmer has a different story. Everything is incredibly green... tons of fruit trees, and they literally have so many grapefruits, mandarins, etc that they thrown them away or feed them to the chickens. (PS I am SO not in love with roosters)
I live with a host family who are extremely nice and caring. The father grows platanos (a kind of starchy banana) and the mother makes baskets out of pine needles to sell. There are three kids from the ages of 6-18, all very nice. I will live with this family for 2 months, as a Peace Corps rule, and then can move into my own house. Although I am allowed to move I am not sure it will be possible because all the houses in this community are used, they do not just have vacancies. I am going to keep my eyes open though. There is one possibility but it has a dirt floor, outdoor latrine, no glass or bars on the windows, etc. Possibly I could lay concrete inside to fulfill the PC requirements, but will have to talk with the landlord as well as my Project Director.
The one other obstacle is communication. My site has no electricity or internet or cell phone service. There is one place to which I can walk to have service on my Honduras cell phone, but even then it´s a little sketchy. Luckily, my host father DOES have a solar panel so I can recharge my phone. One other volunteer lives nearby, about an hour or two walk, other than her the closest is probably a 3 to 4 hour bus ride.
For the first two months we are just supposed to get to know the community. I have been working with the farmers, sitting around chatting with the women, helping them make tortillas, playing with kids, etc. My Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds now that it is my only method of communication.
I think the internet may shut down soon, basic infrastructure is still a large problem thanks to the Coup détat government among other things. All for now, but I am seriously going to try to post pictures next time. Lots of love, Carmen
I live with a host family who are extremely nice and caring. The father grows platanos (a kind of starchy banana) and the mother makes baskets out of pine needles to sell. There are three kids from the ages of 6-18, all very nice. I will live with this family for 2 months, as a Peace Corps rule, and then can move into my own house. Although I am allowed to move I am not sure it will be possible because all the houses in this community are used, they do not just have vacancies. I am going to keep my eyes open though. There is one possibility but it has a dirt floor, outdoor latrine, no glass or bars on the windows, etc. Possibly I could lay concrete inside to fulfill the PC requirements, but will have to talk with the landlord as well as my Project Director.
The one other obstacle is communication. My site has no electricity or internet or cell phone service. There is one place to which I can walk to have service on my Honduras cell phone, but even then it´s a little sketchy. Luckily, my host father DOES have a solar panel so I can recharge my phone. One other volunteer lives nearby, about an hour or two walk, other than her the closest is probably a 3 to 4 hour bus ride.
For the first two months we are just supposed to get to know the community. I have been working with the farmers, sitting around chatting with the women, helping them make tortillas, playing with kids, etc. My Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds now that it is my only method of communication.
I think the internet may shut down soon, basic infrastructure is still a large problem thanks to the Coup détat government among other things. All for now, but I am seriously going to try to post pictures next time. Lots of love, Carmen
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Honduras
It´s been awhile so I am not sure where to start.. but I have finally made it to Honduras (obviously). We got here at the end of July and went almost immediately to "field based training" in a tiny rural town in the department of Comayagua. For the 7 weeks of field based training we learned technical aspects of our projects.. like building latrines and organic farming practices, etc. as well as intense language classes. You cannot become a volunteer unless you pass a language proficiency test at the end of training. I had mine last week and I PASSED ye-ah.
We were supposed to be sworn in and in our sites by now, but the ex-president who was ousted in the coup (hence the whole Dominican Republic detour) re-entered the country last week. The government instated country wide all day all night curfews for 3 days because of the mass riots that ensued in Tegucigalpa. Even though we are living really close to Tegus right now we are pretty removed from the protests and violence that´s going on. So, the new plan is to be sworn in by the Ambassador on Wednesday and depart for sites on Thursday.
I am really excited about my site.. I am not sure if I can put the name on the internet because the Peace Corps has pretty strict policies about what we are allowed to post and what we are not. So I am not going to to avoid getting in trouble, but in reality it doesnt matter because it´s not on many maps anyways.
BUT it is in the department of Franciso Morazon (central-ish, Tegus is in the same department) close to the department of Olancho. It has 500 people and no electricity, but I think my host family has a solar panel, so at least I will be able to charge my phone and ipod. It is a stone´s throw from my Protected Area, which is SICK so I can probably easily access the park. A lot of other people are located really far from their parks. I will live with this host family for 2 months and then will have the chance to move out on my own, provided I can find a house that meets Peace Corps safety standards. There is another volunteer named Ashley who will live in a site about a 20 minute walk from me. She´s awesome and a Youth Volunteer so hopfully we can collaborate on projects like Environmental Ed etc. Other than Ashley the next closest volunteer is a 2-3 hour bus ride away, provided the buses are running. We are basically not supposed to leave our sites for the first three months.. it is against policy to spend the night away for 3 months, so it will be sad to say goodbye to everyone on Thursday. What that also means is that I will not really be able to celebrate 1.Halloween, 2.Thanksgiving, 3.Christmas, 4.New Years. Not quite the party girl anymore, haha. Drinking in my site is basically prohibited, so healthy here I come!!!
I have posted pics on my Picasa account, but in my stupidity I accidentally downsized them WAY too small on my computer. So, I don´t have the real pics with me to fix it at the moment, but I will work on it soon. Here is the link to the Picasa web photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpresleygrateful/PeaceCorps1#
And, I also forgot how to embed pics in the blog.. if anyone reads this who knows how, would you mind telling me??
I am going to try to post on this a lot more regularly now that crazy training is almost over. I don´t have internet access in my site, but there is a bigger town about an hour or two bus ride north that definitely will have the internet. Hopefully (depending on the buses) I will be able to go there once every week or two to check emails and buy comfort foods like peanut butter or something.
Yea, the food here is pretty good, but a little monotonous. Coffee and beans and fried platanos for breakfast, beans tortillas queso maybe avacado for lunch, and basically the same for dinner. But, I dig beans so it´s alright. I am thinking about becoming a vegetarian because I helped my host sister in Comayagua take a chicken from running around in the backyard to in our soup for lunch. Kill, clean, burn, cook, etc. It was disgusting, and they eat EVERYTHING in the chicken except for the head and intestines. I was determined that I would eat the nasty stuff because if I am going to eat meat I feel like I should be able to eat it all.. kind of holistically or something. It was intense, but cool. So, I kind of feel that if I cannot kill it and eat all of it, I don´t have the right to eat any of it. Don´t worry, I´m not returning to my hippy days, just really was impressed by the process. I can´t IMAGINE what I would have to do to get a steak...
I miss you guys TONS and have occasional bouts of homesickness. But, the other volunteers make it less acute because there is always someone with whom to be able to decompress or to vent. I´m sure that will all change drastically when I get to my site solo, so keep me posted on what´s going on at home!!
lots of love
Oh, and P.S. my name here is Carmen. Kathleen´s really hard to say in Spanish, and I kind of just like Carmen. A few of my other friends have adopted new names.. Josh is Josue¨, I think Jacob is thinking of Diego, occasionally Dimitry is Victorino, it´s funny, but Carmen is definitely the best. Duh.
We were supposed to be sworn in and in our sites by now, but the ex-president who was ousted in the coup (hence the whole Dominican Republic detour) re-entered the country last week. The government instated country wide all day all night curfews for 3 days because of the mass riots that ensued in Tegucigalpa. Even though we are living really close to Tegus right now we are pretty removed from the protests and violence that´s going on. So, the new plan is to be sworn in by the Ambassador on Wednesday and depart for sites on Thursday.
I am really excited about my site.. I am not sure if I can put the name on the internet because the Peace Corps has pretty strict policies about what we are allowed to post and what we are not. So I am not going to to avoid getting in trouble, but in reality it doesnt matter because it´s not on many maps anyways.
BUT it is in the department of Franciso Morazon (central-ish, Tegus is in the same department) close to the department of Olancho. It has 500 people and no electricity, but I think my host family has a solar panel, so at least I will be able to charge my phone and ipod. It is a stone´s throw from my Protected Area, which is SICK so I can probably easily access the park. A lot of other people are located really far from their parks. I will live with this host family for 2 months and then will have the chance to move out on my own, provided I can find a house that meets Peace Corps safety standards. There is another volunteer named Ashley who will live in a site about a 20 minute walk from me. She´s awesome and a Youth Volunteer so hopfully we can collaborate on projects like Environmental Ed etc. Other than Ashley the next closest volunteer is a 2-3 hour bus ride away, provided the buses are running. We are basically not supposed to leave our sites for the first three months.. it is against policy to spend the night away for 3 months, so it will be sad to say goodbye to everyone on Thursday. What that also means is that I will not really be able to celebrate 1.Halloween, 2.Thanksgiving, 3.Christmas, 4.New Years. Not quite the party girl anymore, haha. Drinking in my site is basically prohibited, so healthy here I come!!!
I have posted pics on my Picasa account, but in my stupidity I accidentally downsized them WAY too small on my computer. So, I don´t have the real pics with me to fix it at the moment, but I will work on it soon. Here is the link to the Picasa web photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kpresleygrateful/PeaceCorps1#
And, I also forgot how to embed pics in the blog.. if anyone reads this who knows how, would you mind telling me??
I am going to try to post on this a lot more regularly now that crazy training is almost over. I don´t have internet access in my site, but there is a bigger town about an hour or two bus ride north that definitely will have the internet. Hopefully (depending on the buses) I will be able to go there once every week or two to check emails and buy comfort foods like peanut butter or something.
Yea, the food here is pretty good, but a little monotonous. Coffee and beans and fried platanos for breakfast, beans tortillas queso maybe avacado for lunch, and basically the same for dinner. But, I dig beans so it´s alright. I am thinking about becoming a vegetarian because I helped my host sister in Comayagua take a chicken from running around in the backyard to in our soup for lunch. Kill, clean, burn, cook, etc. It was disgusting, and they eat EVERYTHING in the chicken except for the head and intestines. I was determined that I would eat the nasty stuff because if I am going to eat meat I feel like I should be able to eat it all.. kind of holistically or something. It was intense, but cool. So, I kind of feel that if I cannot kill it and eat all of it, I don´t have the right to eat any of it. Don´t worry, I´m not returning to my hippy days, just really was impressed by the process. I can´t IMAGINE what I would have to do to get a steak...
I miss you guys TONS and have occasional bouts of homesickness. But, the other volunteers make it less acute because there is always someone with whom to be able to decompress or to vent. I´m sure that will all change drastically when I get to my site solo, so keep me posted on what´s going on at home!!
lots of love
Oh, and P.S. my name here is Carmen. Kathleen´s really hard to say in Spanish, and I kind of just like Carmen. A few of my other friends have adopted new names.. Josh is Josue¨, I think Jacob is thinking of Diego, occasionally Dimitry is Victorino, it´s funny, but Carmen is definitely the best. Duh.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Leaving soon
We are heading to honduras soon.. they won´t let us tell anyone when in case word gets out over the internet and the rebels block the airport. (sounds silly, but i guess it makes sense that if they were able to hold up 50 gringos at the airport they could make some serious publicity) So we are just enjoying our last few days in the DR. Im ready to go, field based training sounds AWESOME. my Protected Areas Management group is going to the base of a mountain in the Comayagua wilderness for almost 2 months. We will all be individually living with host families again, but together all the time. Everyone is alittle nervous about gettig sick of each other, but there are some awesome people in our group. Many of us are just VERY different. But, I have made a few really awesome friends with the same sense of humor, etc.
Spanish is coming along.. I am getting better but still struggling. The largest obstacle is that the DR is not latin america, it is the caRRIBEAN so it sounds like jamaican weird spanish. Apparently it will be much more clear in Honduras. In lieu of trying to immerse in Spanish my english has taken a notiçceable downturn. I think so basically in spanish that now i think that way in english. i guess it just takes time.
I am really hoping to post pics soon, but I just have so little time on the internet that it´s impossible to do right now.
Please let me know what you guys are doing too
Spanish is coming along.. I am getting better but still struggling. The largest obstacle is that the DR is not latin america, it is the caRRIBEAN so it sounds like jamaican weird spanish. Apparently it will be much more clear in Honduras. In lieu of trying to immerse in Spanish my english has taken a notiçceable downturn. I think so basically in spanish that now i think that way in english. i guess it just takes time.
I am really hoping to post pics soon, but I just have so little time on the internet that it´s impossible to do right now.
Please let me know what you guys are doing too
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Entrena
Our training center is called Entrena, in the northern barrios of Santo Domingo. I love in Los Acarrizos with about 12 other volunteers, well we each live with separate families in the same barrio. My family is um.. unteresting. We have learned in cultural classes, etc. that the people, especially the women are SUPER friendly and outgoing and all up yo business all the time. This is the case for most of my friends, but for some reason my family prefers to let me remain super isolated. I eat alone, hang out alone, they don´t want to have a lot to do with me.. whatever. I´m improving tons on the mandolin. Seriously. My spanish is getting better 0 we have language classes every day for 4 to 5 hours. I tested in at ïntermediate low level 0 surprising. But our six person class is going to the colonial district of santo domingo for language class tomorrow. Ill be thinking of you mom.
Other than that, I LOVE my fellow voluinteers. I have fallen in love with all of them. I actually held together my friend´s head as it bled all over the place today. Not kidding. He ran into a roof. The roofs are really low and he´s really freaking tall. Ruth I think you would have fainted. Head wounds bleed a lot and it was disgusting.
For my birthday everyone in my barrio 0 the other volunteers, went to a Carwash. They literally wash cars and have a bar with this really good dominican beer and they brought a cake and balloons. The carwash plays meringue and bachatha and slasa music. We took the dance floor in the epitome of white person can´t dance dominicans got a kick out of it though. Some of these kids grew up in el salvador or have lived in the carribean so they knew how to dance.. funny our Entrena teachers actually gave us a lesson in meringue dancing and dominoes this afternoon.. its part of the DR peace corps training.
ok im about to get kicked off. this is the most poorly written excuse for a blog entry i have ever imagined. my apologies. no time, not much more word on going to honduras but we all have our fingers crossed.
oh, and jacquelyn my host mom said¨oh your sister speaks soanish a little, no
they donñt speak any english and really enjoyed that someone else besides me doesnt understand what they are asaying
ok got to go the keyboard is messing up
Other than that, I LOVE my fellow voluinteers. I have fallen in love with all of them. I actually held together my friend´s head as it bled all over the place today. Not kidding. He ran into a roof. The roofs are really low and he´s really freaking tall. Ruth I think you would have fainted. Head wounds bleed a lot and it was disgusting.
For my birthday everyone in my barrio 0 the other volunteers, went to a Carwash. They literally wash cars and have a bar with this really good dominican beer and they brought a cake and balloons. The carwash plays meringue and bachatha and slasa music. We took the dance floor in the epitome of white person can´t dance dominicans got a kick out of it though. Some of these kids grew up in el salvador or have lived in the carribean so they knew how to dance.. funny our Entrena teachers actually gave us a lesson in meringue dancing and dominoes this afternoon.. its part of the DR peace corps training.
ok im about to get kicked off. this is the most poorly written excuse for a blog entry i have ever imagined. my apologies. no time, not much more word on going to honduras but we all have our fingers crossed.
oh, and jacquelyn my host mom said¨oh your sister speaks soanish a little, no
they donñt speak any english and really enjoyed that someone else besides me doesnt understand what they are asaying
ok got to go the keyboard is messing up
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