Punta Cana - Bien lejos - far from here

I really need to go to Punta Cana. Apparently it is where the University of Michigan and alumni vacation. I'll bet you can buy hats with a yellow M on them, although the hats would probably also have some sort of confusing reference to the yankees or new york on them as well. I always wonder how dominicans in the country end up with nice UM apparel - now I know, Punta Cana.

Anyways, as the Title mentions, my life is far from Punta Cana at the moment. If your visiting PC, let me know though - some sort of miracle might allow me the time to visit you there. I've been ridiculously busy since returning from the States in early January, but I'm happy working hard and enjoying my days here which become fewer and fewer much quicker than I'd like. So if you were worried, I have not flown off a mountain road on a motorcycle crashing through the banana trees. Nor have I been kidnapped by a dominican girl in canary yellow high-heeled Converse All-Star Sandals (they exist). Hopefully these will happen someday though, as each sounds like a bit of fun.

Yesterday I ate two lunches and two dinners, with a papaya smoothie after the second dinner. Oddly I didn't feel that full - although certainly would have been happy with less food. The trouble here is that the harder I work - especially when walking around the community, the more people want to feed me. Exercise would have to be the worst plan for trying to lose weight for someone who didn't have a black hole in their stomach like me. for every unit of work one does here, the food on your plate expands exponentially.

So, as the water system nears completion - really, we're close! - my workdays span from 7am to 11:30pm. I don't work the whole time of course - there are a couple hours in there for eating, a couple hours for sitting or lying in my bed exhausted at mid day, and a period in the late afternoon when I see everyone around me sitting around relaxing. During that afternoon period I remember that I am a Peace Corps VOLUNTEER living on a tropical island and should really spend a couple hours relaxing with little brain activity and even less physical movement in good local fashion.

Life is good! So are washing machines. I decided to wash a few things MYSELF and by HAND yesterday afternoon. It's not that hard to do, but certainly takes some time. I needed some snazzy clothing to go to a water project inauguration saturday, the electricity was out, and I didn't want to bother my dominican supermom - Thelma- with washing anything. Anyways, I think I raised a few eyebrows - dude washing his laundry and by hand. here we usually wait for electricity but I couldn't go dirty or poorly dressed to the party! Well, perhaps I will be poorly dressed, but that is for someone else to decide. The funny thing about it was that my family had been washing that day, and I realized they were using a fleet of three "economic, efficient" dominican washing machines. they are portable, like a cell phone. Transportable on a motorcycle like everything else here. Anyways, they are very involved to use, hardly less work than washing by hand. Anyways, I would have to agree with my (real) Mom's comment while visiting that they should just buy a real washing machine! you know, the American kind where you put in clothes, soap and water and it just works. it would have to be cheaper than a fleet of those... porta-washers. I'll try to make a photo album of the clothes washing process here for you. how exciting, right?

I need to get back to my home for a 4pm meeting and to eat lunch (only 1 lunch today). Just wanted you to know that all is well here. I'll try to write something more meaningful next time.