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.