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