El Castillo de Maico

The ridiculously over-structured (but worthwhile) part of my training is coming to a close. Tomorrow I'll head north a bit to the mountains near San Jose de Ocoa for community based training. This goes til almost the end of october when I'll begin my real service.  In the second part of training we'll be doing more training related to the water and sanitation projects I actually be working on. Of course, we'll keep learning more spanish, etc. Mostly what I know is that it will be colder (good), it's a community of about 200 people, and it's a pretty area. I'll tell you more when I experience it.

This past week I spent thursday through sunday visiting a current water volunteer.   On friday we spent the morning in the trenches digging and placing a water line.  It's really impressive what a crew of 10 men can do in 5 hrs with just pickaxes and shovels (and of course, lots of food).  As usual, I got some wicked blisters on my hands, but they're better now.  Mark (the volunteer I visited -- from Holland, Michigan) has been at site for a year.  Friday was the fourth day of construction, so it was an exciting time to be there.

On saturday, we took a 1 1/2 hr hike through the mountains (sort of like walking in michigan forests -- just with really big leaves, lizards, and bigger climbs).  Anyways, after up down, and down a river we arrived at aguas largas (long waters). It was a site of a previous volunteer who left just weeks ago.  We had to troubleshoot a solar pump that brings water to the higher parts of the community.  As is the case for most good work, we were rewarded with an awesome meal of rice, beans, chicken and an avocado that tasted like butter.  On our hike back, slightly more tired, we stopped at los caraballos, another volunteer community where the spring box (collects water from the spring) had been damaged by a landslide.  Anyways, the hike was beautiful, and it was great to have seen three different possible living and working situations for me over the next couple years.  To put things in perspective, water volunteers, by definition are placed in communities that do not have running water. As this is generally considered basic infrastructure, it is also uncommon for these communities to have electricity or phone service. As such, they may to be some of the prettiest communities with trustworthy and down to earth people.

One thing that was funny, in Pies de los Picos, Mark, who would be called Marco in standard spanish, is referred to as Maico.  Some dominican accents have a tendency to switch the 'r' for an 'i' or 'l' sound.  Anyways, Maico sounds more like michael, so I wasn't even sure at first if Mark was his real name.

Well, I've got to get home and pack for my move tomorrow. We're going to a 'Car Wash' this evening before the volunteer groups go there different ways.  Car Washes have evolved here as social scenes where people have their cars washed by day and dance, drink, and hang out at night. Apparently people even wash cars as the festivities go on, although I haven't seen this. It's a pretty fun concept and an efficient use of space.

I'll leave a couple of pictures from my visit with Mark. I promise to post some eventually of me with host family(s), volunteers, and so on.  later...