2012 Lists

Alana- (I know you follow this and I felt like I needed to say this out loud... so this is for you) I miss you so much Alana!!!  I live my life in my head repeating words that I want to say and wanted to say and will say over and over.  Its like a constant conversation between me, myself, and I. Sometimes its interrupted my reality where I often say the exact opposite of what I want to say so that I know for sure how people will react.  This past year has been the most jumbled up stream of conversation and reality of my life.  Not only is it in Spanglish cause I suck at Spanish but Dominican culture never fails to surprise me.  This makes me think of you Alana of course because you are just neurotic enough to understand how that feels and it makes me love you even more and I'm sure it makes you love me even more.

Ok... so there are other things that have happened in the past year that I have yet to write about because I'm a pretty bad blogger but let me por lo menos write a semi-end of the year blog to share my thoughts and experiences with family and friends. Those of you who know me the best will know that I like lists so I'm going to break this into a number of lists cause it's how my brain focuses...

List 1- Things I accomplished and take pride in for 2012!!
1-I learned spanish!!! I maybe never be the best at it but I understand it and people understand me and that is freaking amazing!
2- I started an environmental youth group and my kids are awesome.
3- I became a pc volunteer, I have lived in the DR for 8 months now and have yet to give up.
4-I have jumped off of a waterfall, I've also jumped off of rocks into natural springs (I do now think I'm scared of heights thou)
5-I've lost 35lbs, and I'm not sickly
6- I'm proud of my work with my women's group (we've mostly just done fundraising, but I think we've bonded and they've learned some things from me... maybe)
7-I have been taking a cake decorating class- I do this to encourage my women to take it but I am also pretty excited to take home and eat a piece of cake every monday.
8-I'm scuba certified
9-I hiked in DR :)
10-I feel like I've made myself a dominican family and group of friends
11-I have cooked arroz con leche and habichulas con dulce (not that I'd be able to do it again)
12-I made a solar oven (it works but i made it late in the year so I haven't had much opportunity to cook with it)
13-I've learned how to travel in the DR on public transport (this I think makes me brave and crazy)
14- This is the longest I've lived on my own and away from home in my life
15- I got a dog

List 2- Things I've missed in 2012.
1- My family!!!! I can't even say how much I've missed my family it makes me want to cry thinking about it and the little things that I've missed in their lives and I haven't been able to share about my life with them.
2- My friends.  I've know for a long time that whatever kind of god there is or power in the universe likes me cause I've been blessed with the best family and friends.  I've missed my pw friends even though from the sounds of it we have scattered throughout the world.  I've missed my eip and gmu crew, when I come home we are all going out to Thai food and $3 movies, and I want to play soccer  (which ends up with me laying in a grassy field with kim and feiven watching clouds in the sky and talking ).  I've missed my bike/hikes with jessica.
3-My bed (my bed was freaking amazing back home (my parents told me in september that they got rid of it and bought me a new one... I don't even know what to say to that.
4-The 2012 elections... This makes it two presidential elections I've been out of the country for... the only two that I've been legally eligible to vote in too.
5- Lots of birthdays... I'm sorry I'm so bad at remembering too!

List 3- Not so good things in 2012
1- I saw a car accident and it really freaked me out (the month of July had way too many funerals in my town it was just depressing)
2- Dominican food- not that it's horrible by any means but it's not really my slice of cake.  Dominican food like any other cultural thing has some really great things that should be cherished but they do not include the use of sopita, salt, parts of the chicken or cow that include the feet... or any of the things that have made me sick.... On the other hand I have gotten over my disgust of cabbage because it's the main part of salad here.
3-Machismo- bad dominican come-ons, the idea that I should have babies and a husband by now, paripos (this goes along with come-ons but it's basically the things men yell out in the streets)
4- I have felt more awkward this year of my life than I have since I was in elementary school.
5-I had the best and I mean best donias in training, especially in cbt in santiago-she made me feel like part of her family and she cooked really great and was so sweet, the only reason this is not so good is cause I feel really guilty for not keeping in touch with her and that makes me a bad person.
6- Chisme (this is the spanish word for gossip)  I hate the gossip that goes on in my town and in my women's group... I don't know how to navigate it.
7- Sometimes I feel inadequate to do my project... this stems mostly out of not knowing really what my project is half the time... and the fact that I've yet to apply for any grants... I guess that's normal for some at my stage and very unnormal for others... but I try.

2012 has been a super long and interesting to the least year.  I'm happy the world didn't end on the 12 of December and that my family is coming on the 22nd... so I hope it doesn't end that day either.  I hope next year is as interesting as this year but maybe a little easier but with the hard things often come the greatest and most lasting memories

Sept flew by and here's october

I'm living on my own now :)... I'm pretty sure I'm getting the pc soft experience because I would live in my apartment here in the states if I could...  I have a two bedroom apartment with an indoor bathroom... a real kitchen and tiled (not cement) floors.  Sure it smells a little (there's wetlands behind my house), there's still lots of bugs, and I don't have a fan yet so it's burning up at night...but it's lovely and I'm ready for visitors!!

I got my scuba diving certification last month, and I'm really excited to continue diving in the next two years (in money allows)...  While I was diving I saw an octopus, 3 manta-rays, and lots of other really cool fish.

In my community I'm been doing english classes 3x a week, and a Brigada Verde youth group once a week. I'm still working with my women's group trying to figure out exactly what we're doing... Hopefully soon we'll plan another clean up because the roads are getting a little dirty.

Commentary on Dominican cuisine... they sell juice packets (fruit punch) that come with oatmeal in them... I actually kind of like it... it's a different texture.

More lists

So how is my life… It’s been kind of simple and a little bit difficult.  I’m pretty sure I’m at one of the pretties sites in the country or in the pc world.  My site is on the ocean and it’s mad pretty with views of the national park del Este.  There are a number of beaches but only two that people swim at, playa blanca (which is on the other side of the river in the town over), and Hoyo Sumbador (which is just a sweet swimming hole).  For the first four months I was rather confused about my assignment or purpose… Eventually after visiting other volunteers and going to IST I’ve realized that the majority of the volunteers in my group are in similar positions and that it’s just part of the “process”.  Since then I’ve started doing small projects.  I’ve started an English class that is currently running 3xs a week, and I’m on my second Brigada Verde club and this one looks like it might stick.  I’m going to my women’s group meetings every wed, currently we’re trying to raise funds to replace the roof and put electricity in our building.  I've decided to try to run a Construye su Suenos course with my women to help develop business skills so that we will be able to start a business.  

Things that have driven me a little crazy in the past few months

1) All forms of travel... it's just scary and once I saw  that accident coming back from Mini-vac I've been nervous about the whole thing

2)Dominican Come-ons-  I thought I was going to excape the majority of the come-ons that the other girls were getting because I'm not super white and I don't look exceptionally foreign... but about a month ago they really started to set in and I get told (in that you know you want it to be me way) that I need a husband/boyfriend here to keep me company at night and make sure I'm not cold (as if that could even happen). Or asked if I have children or a husband and then lots of insisting that now is the time to acquire them.  

3) The fact that I have been able to find a place to call me own... Not that I don't love my dona and feel mad lucky to be in the house I'm in... but I want to live in my own space...and cook my own food

4) Ohh when I say a word in spanish and they don't understand it but then when i explain the word they say the exact same word!  

Things I'm happy I've done....

Jumped off a waterfall

Swam in natural spring

Swam in tons of beaches

learned spanish

there's way more but I really must go

5 months and counting

ok so I haven't written in quite a long time...since I've written... so where am I now... I've been in this country for 5 months and Now I'm starting to understand almost everything I hear in spanish and starting to speak and think I know what I'm saying... whether or not they understand what I'm saying is a different thing....

So what is my project... Not exactly sure yet, but I'm going to explain what I think it could be...
Recycling- I want to start a recycling program in my site to deal with the plastic trash...
English classes-  I want to start english classes, because people who want to work in tourism (they have a much higher chance of getting a job if they can speak english)
Brigada Verde- A club for kids to learn about the environment.
Cleaning- the river and the cave of Bernard, the two main tourist attractions
A Federation of the different associations of boca de yuma to help people to push for more development and get help from their family abroad.
Work to develop to some sort of business with my women's association... we'll see how that goes...

25th Birthday

Today I turn 25 years old... that´s a quarter of a century... I´m not going to lie yesterday I had a little meltdown thinking about my life and where I am and where I could or should be....  I´ve been here for 3 and a half months now...  I´d say my spanish is still pretty intermediate and my english is probably a little be more confused than normal.  I have about 100 bug bites on my legs and a small invasion of ants going on in my bathroom.   My host family is really nice, they own 3 seafood restuarants and work super hard.  I´m pretty sure my main project here will be working on improving the trash situation in the town and in the river... I´m not exactly sure where all the trash from the beach comes from at this point but it´s definitely a combination problem that if not resolved with impact the communities potential to develop anysort of ecotourism project which is the ultimate goal.  My town is really nicely located just outside the national park del East, it has a pretty river, one beach accross the river, and and smaller beach on this side which is kind of isolated from the coast by rocks which make it kind of a inland pool.  We also have caves and I´m pretty sure there is coral to be visited.  Its kind of like the tourist town that got forgotten by time and needs some touch ups.  I´m pretty sure we´re in a drought because it hasn´t really rained since I´ve been here and this is the rainy season... and they say climate change is a hoax...

My first Site Visit

This weekend I visited my site I think for security reasons we´re not supposed to put the name of our sites oup in a blog... My host family is really nice, they have two little girls and the own two restuarants in the town... I´m pretty sure there is a good chance that I might gain back all the weight I´ve lost since I´ve been here if I eat everything they give me... On the other hand I think I´m going to be doing a lot more walking so that´ll help... .

Farewell La Cumbre, Hello new Home

Saturday we left La Cumbre (which made me and my dona cry)  and got back to Santo Domingo  which has made me itch a lot more because the mosquitoes started to swarm.   Saturday I went to la cerena and bought some supplies (yoga mat and sangria)  and hung out with the other volunteers.  Then Sundayy we went to a big book fair in the city and then to the ruins of San Fransico to see a live marengue band and chill out.  This weekend was the most relaxed couple of days I've had in country...
Last night I went to bed around 9 pm... to the sound of the Colmado across the street and rain against my zinc roof... I woke up at 11:45 pm to the sound of the Colmado and the feeling of a wet spot in my bed where I guess I have a hole in my roof right above my bed... I thought about getting up and telling my dona, or putting my raincoat over my mosquitero to block the rain... but instead I just rolled over at went back to sleep.... Today was our first day back in the training center in Pantoja... I got to weigh myself ... and I've lost about 14 llbs since I've been here... and I'm one of the lucky volunteers who has yet to be sick :)... hopefully I don't jinxes myself because I'm going to a new home tomorrow.
So for the past two weeks I've been super anxious and nervous to find out where I'm going to be living for the next two years. Today I found out!!!  I´m going to be living  in the province of Altagracias.  It's a small town of about 2000 ppl by the beach in the eastern part of the country.  I'm going to be working with a womens group doing environmental education and doing some work with the fishermen because they have over-fished their fisheries.... I'm super excited and still very nervous... Tomorrow we'll come in at 7am and go to a place where we will meet our key community contact... this was described by my trainer Tim as the "best blind date ever, because no matter what you know you're going home with them..."  Idk how I feel about that... but I guess I'll see tomorrow.