Pintame azul

Close calls with Cholera and other Tourist Hazards

Not sure if I’m in the right mood for writing anything entertaining right now. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed lately by the following series of events. Not sure exactly how many weeks ago this all started but life is approximate at best.

A number of Wednesday’s ago:
My community and I are preparing to start the 5 day uninterrupted process of building a 10,000 gallon water tank.

All the usual – will it rain? Who has a donkey without a lame foot for transporting materials? (No – one – ok, we’ll carry cement on our backs). Can the mayor buy the cement? Oh, it is raining.

The next day we began the uninterruptable process and were initially stalled by the rain. This was OK, since Dominicans are slowly learning thanks to the US Peace Corps, that they won’t actually melt like witches if they get wet while working. Peace Corps then calls me. really they couldn’t call me but I found out through gossip – I am to be ‘consolidated’ in the Capital with all other volunteers on Friday for a training on Cholera awareness and prevention.

I rushed off to the capital Thursday night, drank a few beers, and learned that I really should wash my hands. I returned to my community Friday night. The masons and work brigades had successfully ‘poured’ the tank floor without me – Gracias a Dios.

For the next four days I didn’t really have time to contemplate or discuss much how someday soon Cholera would probably be on the Dominican side of the Island making things less fun. We mixed sixty 100 pound bags of cement with the other ingredients (sand, gravel…) all by hand, yelled at each other a lot, and drank at least a gallon of rum on Sunday to keep the workers happy about losing their day off.

Was it Tuesday?:
Then the Peace Corps decided that Americans might actually melt if we get rained on. (Peace Corps volunteers are generally a bit ‘colder’ than the average Dominican and also make people work a lot, so we could be easily taken for witches.) For fear that we might get stuck in our villages working in the rain as we should, the Peace Corps ordered volunteers in the region to head to a hotel in Santiago to wait out ‘Hurricane (what’s his/her name?)’. Obligated to be in Santiago by 3pm and also obligated to finish the roof on the tank, the community and I said the hell with it and made a great last stand to finish the roof. It was beautiful and chaotic. Women were carrying materials up the muddy hill after five days of rain. A small underestimate of sand and required us to borrow the donkey once again from it’s now drunken but complacent owner at 6 in the evening as night approached. Feeling sort of silly about not having people bring more sand up earlier in the day when it was easy to do, I decided to help remediate by making two trips up the slippery slope with a bag of cement on my back. As I raced the donkey up the hill (I won), the drunk men at the bottom pondered my chances of success – “He’ll never make it!”…. “Hombre!.. Of course he will, he’s a horse”

The masons and I finished the tank as the last light of day disappeared. We headed down the hill covered in mud in near silence – a mixture of outrage and elation in the air. To amend things, I ate a third plated of rice and spaghetti for the day. At home, I packed my bag in 5 minutes and threw a couple buckets of rainwater over me to get rid of the worst of the mud and cement. I got into Santiago on the last bus of the night. Walking into the hotel six hours late, I was surprised that the other volunteers in the lobby were not overly surprised at my nighttime arrival. Not much surprises us though, and the condition of my hair probably explained that I had been working. A hot shower made a good end of the day.

As we waited out the hurricane, I waited for my mom to arrive. She got into the beach town of Puerto Plata Thursday morning as planned. I took the bus from Santiago, picked her up and as the sun shown on a pleasant day explained that we had to head straight back to lockdown in the hotel in Santiago on the interior of the country – There’s a hurricane don’t ya know. We spent a couple nice days in Santiago at the hotel eating more vegetables than I usually get in Dominican dishes. I think my mom liked talking to all the interesting Americans, even if one did intentionally fart for her, thinking that she was just a new volunteer (that would make it ok?).

On Saturday when we finally escaped back to my community, we went out to the street at night to my host brother’s birthday party. The traditional birthday party involved really loud music, beer, and a stew called Asopao prepared at 11pm. We walked about and my mom met my neighbor’s as well as she could without understanding a single word. Just as the stew was about ready, it started to rain – and rain – and rain. We waited out the storm at the general store. The stream by the store is known for flooding. We were moated in by water sitting at the Domino table with the guys. The rain had also caught a crab and a rat by surprised. Washed down the stream, we saw them crawl their way out of the water before being swept into the culvert. We caught the crab and contemplated eating it. I don’t think mom was interested. It was really a great introduction to my life for Mom, especially when three hours later; we decided to just walk home in the rain. When she realized how close we were to my house, Mom just about lost it. She didn’t realize that we had been waiting out the rain simply for fear of getting wet.

After a few marvelous days in the ‘campo’ (think Eckerman) eating bananas and salami while painting my house blue and yellow with a professional crew of 5 to 17 year olds who were happy to work for a glass or two of coca cola (beer for the big people), we were ready to see the real Dominican Republic. We got on motorcycles (yes, she did ride a motorcycle taxi not once but twice), and headed for the beach. We checked into a random All-Inclusive outside of Puerto Plata. This was my first time at an All-Inclusive. For those of you familiar with the movie (or the concept) of Sanky Panky, it was pretty much exactly like that – even a dude in a chicken suit.

Fortunately, I was saved from my righteous self, by a group of girls from Toronto that I initially mistook for Dominicans. I was really only sure they were Canadian and not Dominican when one asked for gravy on her french fries. Spent a couple nights dancing to music in English that I am far too detached from to know the words to. On Friday, my Mom and I went on a Catamaran Snorkeling cruise, complete with 15 German couples, American style ground beef tacos, and no wind. We had a good time, I think my Mom and I out-snorkeled the Germans without contest. I’m glad I don’t have an open-bar on my own sailboat – I would have drowned in Lake Superior long ago. During a long walk on the beach Saturday, a realtor offered to sell us property on the only undeveloped stretch of beach around (this was why we wanted to walk there). Not interested in purchasing the Sheldrake River mouth (a close resemblance – Don’t sell it Grandpa), we bought some jewelry from the realtor instead. Yes, he sold beachfront property and fishing line necklaces.

After dropping off my mom at the airport and chilling on the beach some more, I crashed at a volunteer’s house in the city of Puerto Plata. Arriving in my community, I was a bit hung-over from the general excessiveness of two days at an all-inclusive (how does one spend a week there?). I missed my Mom, felt an urge to visit Toronto, and still felt uncomfortable about Germans, but I had work to do.

Monday morning I spent staking out pipeline with my trusty neighbors while the remaining ‘boys’ dug trench. With one day of work at site complete, it was time to leave again. Tuesday morning I headed for the cold mountains of Constanza for a one year in service training with other volunteers. It was cold, which was amazing. We had a fireplace, marshmallows, and pine trees. I was very happy to have long underwear with me (I might freeze solid when I arrive in Detroit on December 18th). We gave each other advice on our projects and did some ‘research and development’ on improved cook stoves. The Peace Corps helps families build stoves that use less firewood and don’t coat your lungs and cookhouse with black soot. The one we were building at the training didn’t get past a lump of clay (see photo album) but I really hope I can work more on this project in my remaining year here.

Anyways, it is Saturday, and I am just happy to have a few days back in Rio Grande. Today’s work was pretty standard – ditch digging and me running around getting tools and materials to cross a small stream. Hopefully I’ll be caught up enough with my job as ‘Engineer’ to go back to digging the trench with pick and shovel along with everyone else (if I don’t get back to manual labor my biceps won’t fill out my Dominican t-shirts).

While writing this, I’ve run out of time to get into town to post this on the Internet – it’ll have to wait till Monday. Until then it’s breathing smoke in the kitchen, a sip of rum, Mass in Spanish, Sunday pork rinds, and catching up on gossip.

Como está usted? ... 'Toy Vivo. (How are you? ... I'm alive) - a common Dominican response.

Today was pretty nice (tal vez chevere nays!).  I got up at 6:20am, put on my cleanest pair of dirty pants and sombrero, went to the neighbor’s house for the ritual cafecito (morning shot of extremely sweetened coffee), called the dog and headed out to work.   I figured the morning would go well as we all arrived around the same time and not I nor anyone else complained about being late, early, hung over, or otherwise incapable of digging. 

 

After a few hours of uneventful trenching, my water committee president showed up to get me to go meet with the mayor.  I was prepared as I had put on my cleanest dirty jeans – now dirtier and with new holes in the knees – and changed into a dry t-shirt.  We strolled into the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) side by side, the president in dress slacks and me sporting the best sweat and mud in town.  Shortly after entering I had to run towards the door and give Loki a weak kick in the rump with my rubber boot.  I don’t think she knew that dogs aren’t allowed to talk to the mayor.  After coffee #2 of the day we were quickly shuffled in to Julio’s office.  The new mayor confirmed the continued support of the project by the government. We agreed that he would buy the cement for our water tank construction coming up at the end of October and that he would also send the government work brigade as requested, starting Monday.  We left with a victory against corrupt government and a bit closer to project completion.

 

I hiked back up the hill to the work site and dug some more, sweating through that second dry shirt.  At mid day we had placed six 3” distribution pipes and the Tee for the connection to the first home in the distribution system.

 

At home I ate some predictably tasty rice, beans, and meat.  Sitting on my porch, the day only got better, as the afternoon rain fizzled into a drizzle.  The dry afternoon allowed us to have our monthly community water project meeting.  It also went surprisingly well. We started on time and discussed, pondered, bickered, and decided on a number of topics.  Afterwards I sat in the little park in front of the general stories and traded insults and jokes with the guys.

 

It is after ten o’clock and I am decidedly happy.  Despite realizing how ridiculously over salted the eggs were for dinner today, I can’t complain – because I’m not complaining, I don’t think I even yelled at anyone today. 

 

It’s hard to be unhappy when I have cookies and snow to look forward to at Christmas!

 

P.S.  for any of you prone to assume that I must be suffering here in the Peace Corps in a ‘developing country’, don’t over think me looking forward to going home.  I think I’m about as bummed about missing the holidays here, as I am excited to go home.  I’ve decided to try getting some Dominican Christmas celebration in early December  -- I will have to eat potato salad and roast pork and go out dancing and drinking rum ‘puro’ before my plane leaves.  I’m sure some Dominicans will help me out as they understand that in the US people have no fun and can’t make noise and can’t break any rules.  This happens to be entirely true – although I disagree entirely.

We're diggin, diggin, diggin, diggin'

In the trenches

I am thankful today that the Dominican Republic is at the very least, a poorly functioning democracy. Tomorrow is August 16th, Inaguaration day for the various politicians who were elected or reelected during the ridiculous month of May. But why am I thankful? It’s a Holiday! The Monday holiday makes a ‘puente’ (bridge) or long weekend. I have had two straight 6-day workweeks with trenches, concrete, hundreds of boiled bananas, and lots of walking uphill in the morning with calculations, organizing, and hurried trips to the city in the afternoons. I have today and tomorrow off. This Sunday morning, I slept in until at least 6:30am, and then read a book for a bit listening to everyone else get up before me. It was great. Tomorrow there is a party after the inauguration – or perhaps more as part of it – of course. The party should be fun, as will starting off fresh again in the trenches on Tuesday laughing at guys working hung over.

Dominican- Y como va el trabajo? Ya empezaron? (How is the project going? Did you start construction?)
Me (yo) - No (No)
Dominican – y cuando, entonces? (when then?)
Me (yo) – Casi casi, ya pronto arrancamos. (almost, soon we’ll start!)

This is the conversation that all ‘water’ volunteers repeat 100s of times during their first 6 months to a year on site. Now it’s really fun to respond something like

‘Ay piipoo, hace mucho! Ya tenemos como dos meses faja’o! Tu no supiste?’
(Whoa, started a long time ago! We’ve got like 2 months of work in. Where were you?)_

So here’s a summary of what we’ve accomplished

1. moved sand and gravel to tank site
2. moved sand, gravel, and cement to intake works site
3. Constructed smaller intake works
4. Constructed larger intake works
5. Connected two sources/ intake works
6. Crossed large streambed with a buried pipeline in concrete
7. Placed 250+/- meters of PVC pipes in trenches buried 1.5 to 3 feet deep
8. Crossed over two temporal streams in the air with galvanized pipes.
9. Gotten Ryan’s clothes really dirty every day

The next kilometer or so to reach the tank site should go much quicker. I think we can get pipes there in about a month at which point we will either start on placing distribution lines or build the tank. Since we have gotten started, a number of families have joined the project (skeptics…), which will make the work go quicker and the benefits greater.

Thanks again to anyone who donated to the ‘PCPP’ Grant for the project through the Peace Corps site. We have actually received the money now and I am just trying to find time between work and afternoon rainstorms to buy 700+ more 19’ PVC pipes with the money.

Excuse me for lack of communication over the last month or so – being tired and busy – and now rain – makes it hard to get out to use the internet or find phone service. At least I think about calling home every day!

To finish up, here are some things, besides work, that have kept me happy lately –

· Seeing a cool green frog on a big leaf that no one wanted to kill (Dominicans are very afraid of things that jump)

· Other dudes remarking with surprise that my machete is sharp “pero CORTAAA..”

· Ripe bananas

· ‘Swimming’ in the river – it’s not all that deep
· bathing in the stream – nice and cold

· Some of my plants (peppers, oregano..) are actually growing!

· Motorcycle trips on hot days (there’s always a breeze)

The afternoon storm has begun, so I think I will take a nap until the rain passes. Hopefully I can make it into town today to post this blog.

-Ryan

Project progresses despite rains

I had to come to the capital today to get a green card, as my visa was about to expire. It feels good to have fresh, new legal residence in the Dominican Republic. Unlike some fellow volunteers, my ID photo showed that I have not become significantly fatter or skinnier since arriving.

Yesterday, after finishing the intake works for our water system, I asked if it was likely to rain that afternoon. My friend said that it was more sure that it would rain than that I would eat lunch that day (I always eat lunch). Over the past three weeks we have struggled with unpredictable rain that makes the muddy trails up to the water source difficult for animals carrying materials. It also makes working with concrete challenging as rain damages dry cement and can wash away recently placed work. Fortunately we completed the job without any big problems. It just took a little patience. We decided to use a mason from the community to build the intake works (along with me and the rest of the work crew), rather than paying a Dominican friend who regularly helps out volunteers with masonry related to water systems. It was a bit of a hassle bringing the community mason along to see other constructions in other communities to train him, but it saved us money and leaves the community with better trained masons and more ownership and pride in the project.

We took a risk by starting construction with very limited funding, but it has worked out well as this week we learned that we will receive funding from a Dominican donor next week and also that the Peace Corps Partnership Program grant was filled. We should receive that money in a couple weeks. Thanks if you helped by donating to the PCPP!

This funding means that committee members and I will be able to order a good portion of the 1000+ pvc pipes we need within a week. Once those get here, we expect about 4 or 5 months digging pipeline trenches (hopefully 4 rather than 5). I'm pretty excited as digging with a pick and shovel all week long will hopefully turn all those rice and beans I eat into muscles far stronger than a Bowflex could ever gain me.

Once again, thanks for your support if you donated to the project! I need to get back to work today taking advantage of internet in the capital while I can. I hope to leave tomorrow morning so I can get back to my community before a tropical storm or hurricane strands me here. (We have a merengue party on saturday that I don't want to miss.) I'll try to send a more creative blog soon. Check out the link to pictures below.

Vaya con Dios!

-Ryan

Beginning Aqueduct construction - Obra de Toma

Biscochomania

Por fin! It’s here – a new blog entry! - Dogs, Donations, Downpours

Not sure when the last time I wrote something on the blog was. Since elections it has been a bit slow on big news. We keep working away trying to obtain funding for the water project while speculating on whether or not politicians will come through with any money. Talk more about that later.

May is typically a rainy season but May decided to wait until June this year. We’ve had downpours and wind every afternoon for the past week. More exciting, there is also thunder and lightning to go with the rain. As neighbors had said during the drizzle of December, the heavy rains we are experiencing now make far less mud than the light rains. Rather than sitting still, all of the clay and silt is washed down paths, ditches, gutters, and streams into the river. Obviously this has it’s own negative effects – the river looks like hot chocolate, but I’m just happy to be able to walk five minutes from the paved road to my house without accumulating an inch of mud under and around my shoes.

I have nearly finished construction of the block and concrete kitchen counter in my house (it still needs a drain pipe to the outside). I have been buying odds and ends of kitchen ingredients when I am in the town or city. On my last trip to Santiago I bought my first jar of peanut butter, which is now over half gone without really having done much more than eat it with a fork or knife. I really just want to clean out the jar for ant-proof storage of dry milk powder. Since I don’t have a REAL oven and this country is lacking in REAL baked goods, I bought an ‘Olla de Horno’ a while ago. It’s like a fancy bunt pan that you can put on top of a stove burner that functions just as well as a regular oven (most likely with much less fuel too). Since then I have averaged about two cakes a week including vanilla, banana bread, and chocolate banana. Tomorrow I have been contracted to make a cake at a neighbor’s house. The general lack of good baked goods here makes it pretty easy to please people. I’m going to try making bread soon – since the standard bread here is even worse than the standard cake. Possibilities are limitless, except that any baked invention has to be shaped like a giant Cheerio. I expect that genetically modified baking chickens with a 2” diameter hole in the middle will be available soon.

Looking for ripe bananas to make cakes has had a side benefit – various neighbors and kids are donating me ripe or ripening bananas (and related fruits) much more often. One of my favorites in close competition is the RULO. It is a fatter than a banana, shorter than a plantain, and with a flavor different than either. Quite disgusting boiled green, they are great ripe. The chubby RULO is also rumored to fatten up the CULO. If you aren’t sure what body part the C#L* is, check out the song of the same name by Pitbull and Lil Jon – you might figure it out.

Alright, so that is enough of food… What else is fun in life? Puppies! Despite being in the running for “Peace Corps Volunteer least interested in getting a dog”, I inadvertently acquired a campo doggy a few days ago. After a long morning hiking up in the hills from the spring along the future water line route, I got to my house, unlocked the door and soon found a puppy under a table. I took it outside and asked who’s it was. The Neighbor kid said – “Oh, that’s ours we were wondering where it went.!” Then later “it seems to like you, you can have it if you want!” I made no indication that I wanted it, which I guess meant that I did, because he didn’t take it back and the puppy has no intention of leaving. It’s a great little dog except for a couple things:

1) Had or has worms

2) Ticks in its ears

3) Fleas

4) Whines at night because I won’t let her in the house

5) I mentioned her – it is a she-dog

6) My various neighbors have about ten male dogs collectively. The will be very ‘happy’ err ‘excited’ when she’s older.

But still, she’s pretty cute, seems to be just as healthy and possibly bigger than some of her brothers, and hopefully will follow me fearlessly through the hills as I hack my way down paths with my machete and rubber boots.

**Please see latest PICASA album for pictures of Dog (needs a name), rulo, cake, and kitchen counter. **

Besides cooking, parties, and a puppy, I have really been working too. These rains have yet again shown why the community needs a new water system. The mud I mentioned that washes into the river has been clogging up the pipes lately either making the water dirty or causing it not to arrive at the houses at all. In preparation for buying materials, brigade captains recently helped me organize workers to resurvey the line from the source to the tank – allowing for a final pipe design of that portion. The local mayor is to deliver sand and gravel nearby to the water tank construction site this Wednesday. The following week we will begin brigade work by preparing the spring-source and tank sites as well as places to store materials and mix concrete at these sites. This will give brigades and their captains a chance to organize themselves working on relatively simple tasks of shoveling, loading mules and donkeys, and picking/shoveling flat areas. Following that week, we should receive money from the Dominican Fundación ADEMI, to make a first large parchase of PVC pipes from a manufacturer in the Capital. This will allow us to begin construction of the nearly six kilometers of pipeline that have to be dug by hand to a depth of 1.5 to 3 feet. Depending on what other funding sources come through first, we may also construct the ferrocement water tank and part of the spring intake works in July. Burying all of the pipes will take over four months.

Now that local funding is coming through, beneficiaries are doing a decent job of paying the monthly quota, and we are prepared to work, I would like to invite you to contribute to the project. I have applied for a Peace Corps Partnership Project grant to fund Acueducto para un Futuro Mejor de Rio Grande al Medio. Despite the fancy name, this really means Ryan soliciting donations from family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, or complete strangers who find this project interesting and worthwhile. I have applied for US$5000. This is about a third of the money we need in total (US$16,000) to construct the water system. In the event that the water system is overfunded whether due to lots of success finding other funding sources or due to really great engineering and cost savings during construction, left over materials and funding would be used for equally important projects like latrine or improved cook stove construction.

Here are Peace Corps directions for donating to my project:

The easiest way to donate is to use this link,

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-373

, or visit www.peacecorps.gov/donate and search by the project number, 517-373.

Although, the web site is the quickest way to make a donation, you may also make a check payable to Peace Corps Partnership Program and send it to:

Paul D. Coverdell Peace Corps Headquarters

Peace Corps Partnership Program, OPSI

1111 20th Street NW Washington DC 20526

Be sure to indicate the project number, 517-373, on the check so it will be applied to the correct project.

If you donate, I promise to bake you banana bread in my cute little pan while boring you with ‘had to be there’ stories of the Dominican Republic when I return to the US. You are welcome to send me questions via this blog, email, or facebook. If you haven’t yet, visit my PICASA web photo album. There are pictures mixed in specifically related to the water project.

Enjoy the summer wherever you are, and I’ll try to write sooner next time. -Ryan

Some april pictures

April - politics and (very) small scale gardening

Pictures from March

March

Power outages make for a bad wardrobe

I pulled a short sleeve dress shirt off the hanger this morning wanting to look good as I roamed about santiago visiting prestigious hose dealers and hardware stores.  Little did I know it was stained at the bottom. Fortunately though, I think I stand out so much for my skin and hair color here that Its unlikely that many people have noticed the telltale color of spilled beans (or something similar).

Whatever the case, a well dressed white dude who's not dominican, but speaks spanish, has a motorcycle helmet but no motorcycle, getting in and out of public transportation at hose dealerships, and presenting himself as an engineer from a tiny town  -- where? must confuse and amuse a lot of people.  I still enjoy telling the truth of why I have a helmet but no bike, but a friend who's been here longer says he's switched over to extravagant lies about where his motorcycle is.  I'll probably try this soon.

It has been a crazy few weeks.  First, Nina visited for a week on spring break from Houghton.  Although it was ridiculously cold and rainy the first couple days, we had fun taking walks around where I lived, going to the beach for a couple days, and visiting Santiago and the capital.  Her was so amazement/disgust at the amount of sugar in the coffee, has made me consider stopping drinking it in the morning, but people seem to enjoy giving it to me, so its tough.  I think for my teeth though, things will have to change.  When we were in the capital, it so happened that the acting US ambassador to the DR was throwing a barbecue and pool party at his house for peace corps volunteers in town at the time.  So we went to that, the ambassador, his pool, and burgers with good mustard and other toppings were all great.  Nina flew out of the capital that saturday night.  Expecting a sad, hot, boring night in a hotel after she left, I ended up running into some other volunteers and went out to see some live music.  It was a few bands playing Son, the predecessor to salsa (i.e. Buena Vista Social Club).  Although it was too hot to dance, the music was amazing as were the old guys in fancy suits who knew how to dance to it.

I expected to dive back into work the next week, but a call from my mom sent me back to the capital to catch a plane to Detroit for my Grandmother's funeral.  I was in Michigan for a week, and despite being sad that I couldn't actually spend it with grandma, it was really nice seeing so much of my family.  I had sort of hoped that my grandma would have been able to visit me while I was in the Peace Corps. Although she won't be able to now, I think that she's with me here one way or another and will be up in paradise at her cabin with us when I get back in a couple years.

Although I haven't been too stressed out about being away for so long anyways, the trip home made me realize how quick this experience is going by.  I'll probably either be home or have someone visiting me here again within another 6 months.  Sure there's a year left after that, but I'm determined to enjoy it.

this past week I turned in an application for Peace Corps Partnership funds, which once it is approved will be available on the internet.  I will be be contacting friends, family and others in the US to raise $5000, which is roughly a third of the cost of our water project.  We have already been approved for some funding from the local government -which makes me very happy and other dominican funding is on the way.

whenever this water project is finished (perhaps 7 months to a year into the future), I'm looking forward to spending more time on simple things I want to do here like gardening.  Currently I have a good crop of basil, weird variety of cilantro, and some ginger.  When I get ahold of some seeds I like to plant some carrots and tomatoes..  Apparently I can plant lots of flowers just by sticking clippings in the ground.  For how bad these tropical soils are supposed to be, a lot of things do grow with very little effort.

As we are in Easter week, work has halted until monday.  Yesterday I went to a sandbagged swimming hole on the river -- people create swimming holes for the holiday.  The water was surprisingly fairly clean looking and certainly warm enough.  After that I played my most serious game of baseball here yet.  It was on a real field with many dominicans over the age of 12.  I did pretty bad, but acceptable considering how long it had been since I had played.  If I'm allowed I will probably play more and certainly improve.

The other big event of Easter (besides the same church schedule as in the US), are lots of parties with live music on Holy Saturday.  I'm torn between various events and invitations, but I'm sure whichever I go to will be fun.     Adios

Direct from Colinas Mall!

Just chillin here in an air conditioned mall in Santiago.  It's very strange go to such places in this country when I live in such a different place.  The free internet is worth enduring the suffocating atmosphere.  The atmosphere sort of yells at a volunteer -- "you are too poor to shop here!" "Why do you have mud on your shoes?"  I make ten thousand or so pesos a month (300 some dollars) a tenth of it I could suddenly spend on a few Hanes t-shirts if I were so silly.  Instead I bought a nice green one for about a dollar, and then realized it has two holes in it, but it's still comfy.

I was on a mission to buy a small tabletop stove and gas tank for my house so I can begin cooking again.  No luck today, but maybe I'll make another trip tomorrow.  I think I will enjoy my own food and my host family's food more if I can simply do dinner and breakfast for myself a few times a week.  It will also be fun to make stuff for my neighbors to try.  Side note -- ocassionally my one neighbor sends me hot chocalate with peanuts.  Actually I'm not sure if it has chocolate, but I don't think she even knows how happy you can make an American by giving them a drink that tastes like peanut butter on a spoon without the gagging (it's warm and more liquified) and without the guilt -- it's supposed to be eaten that way.

Anyways, see the link to the pictures on Picasa that I posted (previous post).  thanks to everyone who sent postcards to me with my mom -- they'll be fun to share with people here.  This week I'm busy with chasing politicians and other people here looking for their money.  The community is confident that elections in may are going to turn into more local funding than usual for our water project.  I hope its true!  More than actually completing the water system or improving people's health, I think my own goal here is to simply do these things with a lot of local and national dominican resources.  This means  the community figuring out how to mobilize resources on its own.  On that front, I think we're doing well, but I can see how it is easy for NGOs and development workers to simply do everything themselves. As one of the Professors at MTU told us, you have to play catch with the community (here we say 'parar' -- to stop the ball)...  Sometimes I play catch letting them do something before I do.  Basketball is now more popular here too though, so for me thats a good analogy -- The water committee might make a few passes by talking to some people, then I'll pass by writing and printing a letter, and then someone will shoot by turning it into an office.  We then celebrate by bragging to others about the work we've done without even checking to see if we actually made the basket (i.e. did we get any money...).  Hope this has confused you.

See new pictures!

muchachos y mas

Well, this is my five minute update.  I just finished a three month “In service training conference” in the most likely Amazing and beautiful mountains of Jarabacoa.  We didn’t really see mucho of the landscape since we were working the three days we were there. The city seemed very nice and I had good bread for the first time simce arriving in this country. I also got my shoes cleaned by a kid in the park. They’re so much better at Cleaning my shoes than I am! However, as I walked away, one of the kids apparently squirted soapy water on my clean shoe – destroying its beautiful luster however temporarily.  Before I realizad what had happened they were done Laughing and had dissapeared.  Hopefully I can go back to Jarabacoa some day, it would be a great place to take visitors.

 

Thursday afternoon and Friday morning I spent in the big city of Santiago – this is on my way home.  It was great since I was able to tour around the city some with other volunteers who actually live there and I also got a few different errands done related to my project ( the current price of 1/4inch rebar is 33pesos by the way). I even went to a mall -- in the food court there was burger king, kfc, pizza hut, and dominoes. I ate chinese -- it was actually pretty good.

 

This weekend besides a bunch of work I need to do writing reports and funding requests/applications, I’m hoping to make some valentine\s day phone calls and perhaps dance a valentine’s day merengue. The merengue really won’t be that exciting since its what we’d do here for any holiday or random day of partying.  I’m curious to see if people pass out those chalky candy hearts that say BE MINE or LOVE’S 4 EVR on them.  I sure hope they do, but I imagine they would need to have longer and more intricate Dominican cat calls on them.

 

Until next time - & sorry this one wasn\t really very funny or interesting. Haven't been taking many photos lately but maybe I'll put a couple up -- it's tough to get a good enough internet connection to accomplish this.

Letter to grandma

The following is an email I sent to my grandma some time ago. I liked it and didn't want to write more, so I thought I would share it. I don't  think she'll mind.

Hi Grandma,

 

I realized that I haven’t sent you a letter or postcard yet, perhaps in February!  Anyways, I’m going to try to call you today but am not sure if it will work. Hope that you got to try the hot chocolate and coffee I sent.  I’m not sure if the coffee will be all that great.  – It is certainly a very very dark roast. Sometimes it’s really good here and other times I think it’s only enjoyable because they put SO much sugar in it.  Reminds me of Nick and his tea cups, except these are grown adults and Nick’s tea would be considered lacking sugar – or even ‘bitter’.

 

Nina mentioned to me the other day that all I ever write about in my blog is food – at least it’s always mentioned.  But I sort of have to, life is very simple here in that way (which I like). There isn’t a whole lot to think about here besides the heat, the cold, the rain, the mud, and the fruits.  Some volunteers suspect that this is why so many Dominicans spend a good part of their day and pocketbook on lottery tickets. Each day they wait around for signs telling them which numbers to play – it’s simultaneously amusing and sickening to a cheap but romantic guy like me.  Just now I’m watching some lizards make love – they aren’t nearly as funny to watch as the ducks.  We recently finished some rainy cold weather, which reminded me of a rainy day in the summer in the trailer in Paradise. The ducks, which live nowhere near any pond or other body of water really liked it, but I had a constant longing for the ‘walk like an Egyptian’ song, sandy carpeting, ritz crackers, and ‘The Gods must be crazy’.

 

Movies and reading are fun here.  I’ve begun reading at night.  I generally am avoiding reading since it’s probably the most common way for volunteers to avoid their work.  By work I mean sitting around and chilling with the gente (people).  If you can imagine, Dominicans don’t sit around in their living room quietly each reading their own novel.  However, we did sit in the living room this morning watching RAMBO, now that’s America! So anyways, Rambo and Jackie Chan by day, and at night I fall asleep reading about some guy’s adventures in Austrailia living with Aboriginees. It’s really nothing like Crocodile Dundee, a bit like The God’s must be Crazy, and has interesting parallels to my experiences here.

 

            I’ll close with more mention of food. The day before yesterday we picked a couple grapefruit while collecting firewood. I had a desire to eat them as I would at home – cut in half and with a serrated grapefruit spoon.  WE do not have grapefruit spoons here. So I was a bit worried. As the dishes were dirty I couldn’t even find a decent sized regular teaspoon.  I ended up applying the Dominican method for eating an orange (maybe I’ll send pictures later).  After perhaps six months here, my life is changed forever, I will never have to search for a grapefruit spoon again.  I can now enjoy delicious grapefruit with no more than a knife or machete and my own face.

 

However silly, I thought this was a good example of how the Peace Corps is a unique and life changing experience.  There are so many things big and small, good and bad that I will learn here about life, people, grapefruit, and myself that I never could have imagined or planned for.

 

Love,

 

Ryan

Año Nuevo

If you found my last post a downer -- I didn't really mean for it to be, hope this cheers you up. For the new year's my friend Brendan from Petoskey and his sister Christina came to visit. (she;s also my amiga). Here are some fun quotes:

"If I could imagine a place where people make a living by making chocolate it would be like this -- where are the Umpa Lumpas?" - Brendan Carson

"I like the music" -- Standard dominican phrase -- this is the first thing my friend, Bubba, (pronounced Bua) says to an American. If not this, then he would ask:

"YOU like the Women?"

Then brendan decided to teach him a new American phrase -- with an accent of course:

"how much for zee vimen?"

Spose these are more funny if you are actually here. Here's a link to new pictures. No more time for blogging, I'lll write a better one later.

New Year, New Camara