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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.

Joys of La Cumbre

This past week has been pretty good, besides the fact that they closed down the internet cafe in la cumbre... so it´s a 45 minute walk to the next one.  I made my dona french toast monday... which I´m not sure she liked because she only ate one piece... but she did buy more vinilla so I could make it again wednesday.  I´ve kept up the walking in the morning which is probably the best part of my day because it´s very relaxing and gives me some exercise. My dona made some sort of past alfredo the other day which was pretty good.  This last week all of the spanish goups made a stove.... it was really interesting... Next week we´re going to be doing presentations in the local schools for earth day.  We have three more weeks left in la cumbre before we head back to Santo Domingo and get our assignments.  Its making me insanely nervous, the whole not knowing and then only have like a week of knowing before your there. 

Thursday was the first day I offered to do the dishes for my dona... I started doing them and one slipped out of my hand and broke another one and itself...  I had a little ohh shit moment in my head before I told my dona... but once I told her she was really sweet about it and told me about how when her daughter was young she would do the dishes and when she would break one she would throw it out the window into the back of the house... One day my Dona walked back behind the house and found like 10 broken dishes...
 

In other notes I know that I´m about to miss some birthdays... if I haven´t already... so... Happy Birthday Feiven, Alana, and Jeffy!  I miss you all and I hope all is going well. 

La Cumbre

La Cumbre…

I don’t really remember what I wrote about last time but I think I should try to explain my host family in La Cumbre a little more… and the types of stuff I’ve learned here.   Since I’ve been we’ve done a community diagnostic…. Which helped us get to know the community a lot better and the types of resources it has and doesn’t have…  I’m getting more and more used to the beans and rice… it helps a little that my dona likes rice and peas more… which is the same basic thing but I like it better too.  She figured out that I wasn’t terrible fond of the boiled green bananas that they eat every day, and that I love their fried plantinos and bananas… so I get them with lunch and dinner.  I kind of which I could eat more of the green boiled bananas because I’m trying to develop a taste for them.  For breakfast I usually get crackers, juice, and coffee.  The juice is always fresh, and I think my favorite is Cantaloupe juice.  Lunch is the biggest meal and for lunch I get rice, beans, salad, and fried/boiled Plantinos and a little coffee.  Then for dinner I get something smaller like a plate of cut up salami, or cheese and potatoes.  Yesterday I got fried cheese, which was tasty (but probably not the best for me).    All last week I got up at 5:55 to go running/walking down the mountain with my dona… the hard part is coming back up.   I now have two other volunteers coming with some of the days so we have a little cohort of runners.  I’m pretty sure it makes the rest of my day better.

This week was Semana Santo so it was very active here with celebrations and I’ve spent a lot of time with my dona’s family.   We also started to learn how to make stoves which I think is what a majority of our projects will be.  I’m not sure what I think of that yet… the stove model they’re teaching us now is only about a year old, and is still kind of being tested out.  Also I’m not so sure about the sustainability of the project since while we can train people in our community to make them, they won’t be able to afford to get the internal parts once their volunteer is gone.  Hopefully our group will help to work our some of the kinks.  Also this week we started our gardening project by doing the French double dig method in a garden bed.  This involves removing the first three layers of earth.  Putting the top layer of debri on the bottom and the putting the middle lay back and then the top soil back where it started.  I guess this helps to aerate the soil and create a thicker layer of topsoil.  

The closed down the internet café in La Cumbre… so I don’t really know how often I’ll be able to post anything…