a DR christmas

Santa Georgina with gifts for the kids over her shoulder.

A small part of the Reinoso Duran Family. Gathering to bless the abundance of food.

And then you just dig in!

Enmanuel, Sylvana, Francis, and I

Evony, Lily and I on Christmas Eve

Christmas here isn’t quite like back home. 70 degree weather instead of -20, platanos instead of scalloped potatoes, Christmas merengue instead of jingle bells, raisins, apples and grapes instead endless Christmas cookies, and of course my Dominican family instead of my ND family. I was a trooper, but I can`t say I wasn`t home sick.

Traditions are quite different as well. Christmas Eve is celebrated with enough food to fill a large family of elephants. We had roasted pork, roasted chicken, platanos maduro, boiled green bananas, spaghetti, bread, chicken pastries, beef in a leaf, some eggplant dish, and much more. Sophy mixed up an Alexander cocktail and Georgina pretended to be Santa. Even I got a few gifts, isn´t that special. Normally gifts aren’t given on Christmas but instead el dia de Reyes (Kings day, Jan. 6), but relatives were here from the capital so we had to aprovechar.

Christmas day is spent drinking, chatting and dancing, nothing too out of the ordinary. I was a little under the weather with a mucusy cough so I didn´t partake in the drunken dancing so much. I’ve been served various concoctions of natural foods with a guarantee it will clear up my gripe. Right now, I’m drinking a mixture of honey and aloe plant filling. Tastey.

Thanks giving PCDR style

Enjoying some intermural sports. How sweet.

Charishing some special time together. Good old pals.

Our peace corps doctor´s parrot. Speaks spanish but not today.

Bachata and Merengue dance contest. We got 2nd place in Merengue.

Rebecca y Yo catching some rays

When it rains it pours

When it rains it pours, when it pours it floods, and when it floods, watch out, this little island is in big trouble. It started as any Sunday afternoon shower. Nobody suspected a thing. Then, that shower turned into sheets of rain that continued through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and finally drizzled off Thursday. Half way through this intense tropical storm, every exit from our campo was flooded. Bridges were taken out or had 5 feet of rain over them making it impossible to get to the next campo. Our little campo survived like a champ, but again we are settled on top a hill, allowing all of the rain to flow down into the river below us. For us, it was 4 days of playing cards, reading books, and watching the news. Here in my campo, we bounced back to life as we have always known it, just our relatives and friends in the south were not as fortunate.
Most Dominicans have never received any type of swimming lessons. When we go to the river, they are sure to stay in the shallow part, the water rising no higher than their waste. Now image being in bed and waking up because there is water filling up your bedroom and every hour it keeps getting deeper and deeper. Instant panic would set in for your children, your family, and your home. You can´t swim, so where do you go? UP! Roof tops, tree tops, second floors of homes (a rarity to find). You wait and wait and hope for a rescue boat to pass or a helicopter to lift you up to safety. But what if those roof tops and tree tops aren´t high enough?

This has happened twice in the last month. It’s just unbelievable how much damage rain can cause. Muck muck and more muck. These people here are survivors. They pick up various part s of their house that has been spread about in each direction and start building again. They mourn their loved ones that were taken by the floods and keep pushing onward. Increíble!

Meeeoooww

Gatita o Ratonita, we couldn't decide if I were a better kitty or rat. You decide.

Only three people dressed up for the fiesta: Me, frankenstein, and death. I was the only was who lasted more than five minutes.

Coffins, pumpkins, spider oh my. Dominicans know how to decorate, they only need help spelling out harrowing nihgt.

Not convingly scared enough. Enmanuel looks way to happy to see that giant spider.

Speaking of spiders, Look what I found in my bed one night while putting up my mosquitero. A giant fuzzy cacata.

I have to say, I was impressed with our halloween bash. The jovenes, who have now named themselves "materia gris" got their stuff together and threw a heck of a party. We spent all afternoon putting up cob webs, carving pumpkin like vegetables, hauling coffins, and making signs. The only thing missing was the costumes. I was a loner on that part, but a cute kitty one if I might say.

Conference of the year

I´m sitting there in the guagua on our way back from Santiago, and I`m looking at my muchacho, who´s proudly wearing his new “encargados del futuro” t-shirt, and I’m imagining what must be going through his mind. Maybe he´s taking in the sites and sounds of his first visit to Santiago, or he’s thinking about all the friends he’s made over the last few days at our first ever IT conference. Possibly there’s a girl he’s fancying or maybe just thinking about all the computer skills he’s just learned and which one he’s going to practice first when he gets home to his new computer.

I ask him, “So, what was your favourite part of the conference?”
“Todo”, he says, “Everything was bellísimo.”

And I’m proud. I’m proud to have given him this opportunity, and I’m proud of all the volunteers who pulled their skills together to make it happen.

High school students from all ends of the DR came with their volunteers to learn about youth groups, techi skills, teaching tips, programming, video conferencing, trouble shooting, body surfing, scavenger hunts, casino games, video confessions, dominos pizza, dance contests, auctions, dinamicas, and just what this whole Peace Corps thing is all about.

The muchachos loved it. Next year I’m bringing three.

So now is the real important moment. We are back in our campos and we need to make use of all these new skills we’ve learned and motivate others to hop on our informática train. An IT youth group is my next goal. I want to make computer geeks out of these kids.

Just one little problem. Right now our gas plant, which provides electricity to our computer lab, won’t turn on. It just decided to quite, done, finished. The plant works somewhat like a car. You have to fill it with diesel, check the filters, change the oil, and when it dies, someone else has to fix it. Well we can’t take our lab to a shop, so we have to wait until the mechanic comes to us. And this, this is in the hands of the secretary of education, who controls all of the labs in the entire Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, it might take awhile.

So we cross our fingers and call and call and call everyday until we get our lab back up and running.

But when the lab is ready, we will be as well. Our invitations in hand and jóvenes waiting for the best club our campo has seen yet.

Juegos and Fun

Thanks for all the games, familia, we´re enjoying them to the fullest.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Lavando the First Time

This is the advanced dominican washing machine. Washer and ringer in one. And thank God for it. I would die if I had to wash all my clothes by hand. Imaginate! Raw knuckles, no thank you.

Let me tell you how it goes.

Primero- You haul the lavadora out from the back room to the back yard and connect it to an outlet nearby.

segundo - Connect drain tube to the back of the machine. Make sure the opening of the tube is pointing away from house (very important)

tercero- Fill left side with 3 buckets of water, a shake or two of FAB laudry soap, and throw in a load of whites. Set to 15 minutes.

Cuarto- When 15 minutes are up, pick out wet soapy clothes and throw them in a bucket of water nearby. Plunge an swirl, plunge and swirl until it looks like the soap is out (it never really is).

Quinto- Then haul the wet less soapy clothes up to the ringer (the right side of the machine). Set the timer for 5 minutes. It spins the clothes at an unimaginable speed until most of the water is out.

Sexto- Carry less wet clothes to clothes line to dry in the super dominican sun.

Repeat step 1-6 over and over, changing dirty water when needed. Haul machine back to bedroom when finished.

my pimpin´ pad

Soooooo, when we thought Angela would be living in a mud hut with dirt floor, we were´t exactly getting the complete picture. First all the run down shacks were taken by all the poor families. Second all the run down shacks have zero security, and that wasn´t going to fly with all overly protective family and friends. Even though there are rare occurances of any acts of violence, I had to have the segurist of segure houses in the hood. So what are my options? I could continue to live with my host family, which I love my family but I rarely got a moment of peace and quiet or any privacy, or find a super nice house with bars on the windows and padlocks on all the doors. Sorry Doña, I went with the second route

Water, electricity, inversor when there isn´t electricity, 3 bedrooms, fully furnished, and and an acre full of platanos all for 2.000$ pesos a month (about 60 bucks).

Not quite what I was expecting.

When Alissa and Megan came for a visit their first words were:

¨Holy, this is your house!¨

¨Wow, you have chairs!¨

¨You´re living in America!¨

¨When you go back to the states and are living in a crappy little apartment you´re going to say, ´boy, I wish I was in the Peace Corps again´¨.

This hook up wasn´t all my doing. I have to give much credit to Enmanuel because the house I´m living in is his grandma´s. She lives in the US year round and only visits here a couple weeks out of the summer.
So even though I wanted at one time to have the unforgiving mud hut, I’m happy that I’m living in comfort in my American like home. There is enough stress everyday without having to look for your water every morning or stare at your doo doo in an unflushable hole or toilet.

My first weekend in the house. Nana and Ruth are teaching me how to make Moro (rice, beans, veggie mix). The trick to good rice is if the spoon stands straight up when you put it in the pot, you have the right combo of rice and water.

My acre of platanos. Due to my growing waistline, I´ve sworn off platanos for a year.

Where one would catch a cool breeze.

My beautiful patio.

Enmanuel, a much better house keeper than I will ever be. He, along with many dominicans, is worried about having dead leaves scattered in the front yard. What would the neighbors think!

My bedroom. My Favorite blanky. My mosquito net.

Common visitors. This one in particular likes to watch me fregar the dishes.

A little BIG surprise

Wednesday

Night before I leave for Nueva York i.e. Florida

<Due to english/spanish differences and added humor, translations might not be exact.>

Enmanuel: "What would you like to do for your last night here?"

Angela: "Hmmm, I don't know. Maybe we could get one of those sandwiches from Guanabano that are super delicious. You know the ones where they chop chop chop the veggies and chicken, then grill it all and slap in on a squishy bun."

Enmanuel: "MMMM. Yeah that sounds good, we'll head over there later."

Horita (later) Mabel, Ruth, and Enmanuel are gathered around Enmanuel's moto, talking secretly. Angela wanders up to discuss the sandwich getting agenda.

Angela: "Hey girls whatcha doing?"

Ruth and Mabel: "We're going to head to La Guama (the town next to ours) to run an errand. We can pick up your sandwiches while we're there."

Angela: "Ok great. Here's 100 pesos. Remember the sandwiches where they chop chop chop (Showing with hand motions as well) the chicken and vegetables and then slap it on a squishy bun."

Enmanuel: "And Remember, no veggies for me!"

Angela: "Tell them to put the veggies from his onto mine. MMM I like veggies. Chop Chop Chop."

Mabel tries to start the moto and fails. Enmanuel then pushes Mabel and the moto to the street corner, Mabel starts the moto and Enmanuel jumps on the back to do a circle around the block. Angela heads back to the house. Ruth waits on the street corner in her high heels. -Ain't no way she's runnin after them in those things!

5 minutes later,

Enmanuel arrives on foot.

Enmanuel: "Let's go to the park and chat until they come back with our sandwiches."

We wander the 1 1/2 blocks to the park and continue on until we arrive at his brightly lit Grandmothers house (my future house as of Aug. 27).

Angela: "Hola Donas, how is everyone tonight?"

A hug and a kiss on the cheek is given to everyone. We are immediately offered a plateful of platanos y fried salami. I refuse with my sandwich in mind. Enmanuel welcomes his mama's cooking with open arms.

Angela: "Are you crazy. We have the big Chop Chop Chop sandwich coming. There is no way you're going to be able to down in all."

Enmanuel pats his stomach as if he is the incredible eating machine.

20 minutes later, He finishes eating and we head on back.

Angela y Enmanuel: "Buenas noches. We'll see you in the morning at 5:30 to pick up the little girl. Bye Bye."

We continue to the park.

Angela: "We better head back to the house, I can smell the veggies from my sandwich, they must have arrived by now."

Enmanuel: "No no, they aren't there yet. They'll drive by and let us know when they get back."

We wait in the park and chat about the week to come. (My friends and family in the DR are super paranoid that I will forget all about them once I hit american soil. Silly dominicans.)

10 minutes later a moto cruises by. The second it passes Enmanuel recognizes the sound of his muffler.

He whistles at the moto. Mabel does a U-turn and heads back to the house.

Enmanuel: "Now, The sandwiches are there."

We stroll back with much anticipation for the delicious chop chop chop sandwiches. We arrive at my house and the Donas are sitting outside on the porch enjoying the cool evening breeze while the inside of the house is all dark.

Angela thinking: "Hmm. We must not have electricity."

Ruth: "The sandwiches are in the kitchen on top of the counter."

Angela: "Huh? Where, I can't see anything!"

I enter the kitchen clueless

Everybody: "Surprise!"

Angela: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH"

I scream and laugh for what seems like entirely too long. Once I come to my senses I realize it's a sweet going away party. A banner saying 'Have a good trip, We love you Angela'. Cake, soda, salami, crackers, and neighborhood kids.

We danced, we laughed, and we ate cake.

And the Much anticipated chop chop chop sandwichs sat on the countertop, waiting to to be split up and shared amongst all the party guests.

A breath of cold air

Welcome to Florida where the sun is hot, the building are cold, the grandpas are witty, and the babies are beautiful.

Ok, Florida just might be as hot, or even hotter, than the DR, but nobody would realize it because every single place that humans exist there is A/C. I was never so aware of this. I have spent maybe a total of 1 hr without A/C since I arrived here 4 days ago. From the A/C car to the A/C house to the A/C mall to the A/C restaurant. I'm definitely not complaining. I haven't NOT sweat this much in 6 months.

Also, I'm truelly happy I took this opportunity to spend some time with Patty's family, Grandpa and Leah (my long lost cousin). It's always great to reconnect with your roots.


Patty, Me, and Sweet Baby Grace























Shopping. Way too much shopping. I did find these super cute sketchers. They have all dominican bling bling I need to fit i











Leah, my cousin, who I haven't seen in 15 years.
What an incredible woman. We visited the Venice Beach, had lunch and dinner with grandpa, shopped for laptops and visited her daughters Montessori School.



















Grandpa. Just as Witty and Clever as we could ever remember. After 25 years, I finally sat down and learned how to play Bridge, grandpa's favorite past time.














John, Patty's new husband. Offering a night cap after a night of fine dining, cigar bars, and spin the bottle in downtown Ft. Myers.









Overall, being back has been a real treat. Great food, wonderful hosts, precious baby time, A/C, and free long distance.
It started out being a little awkward being back in the states. Some old ordinary tasks seemed so new and foreign to me. I caught my self wanting to: throw my toilet paper in the waste basket instead of the toilet, turn off the shower in between lathering up and rinsing off, prepare my conversations in my head in spanish before making a phonecall, and hug, kiss, or shake hands with everyone that comes along.
The change of perspective has opened my eyes again. When I'm in my campo, I sometimes feel so wrapped up in everyday life in the DR that I lose focus on the bigger picture, the overall outcome. Taking this step back has allowed me to see the projects that need to get rolling and just how important my role is in keeping them all organized and motivated.

¡Ya, Me Voy!

I´m getting off of this Island for a little American Vaca, that is if Hurricane Dean doesn´t stand in my way. I love my campo, but it is time for my good old funtioning american culture for a while. I leave on Sunday for Florida to visit una muy buena amiga and my grandpa.
I´m dreaming about screens on windows, hot showers (maybe a bath), string cheese, a huge salad, cereal (other than cornflakes), and of coarse all the laughs I´ll have with Patty and her family. Ya, me voy!

Back in Action

We made it back to our sites a week ago and now it´s time to get started on Project.
Our 3 day spent with project partners gave us a chance to actually plan a few events and talk about our goals for this year.
Some activities we have planned.
1. Workshops for teachers- trying to get them to integrate computers into their lesson plans. It is an amazing resource for them, but most aren´t very willing to change their way of teaching. We´re trying to think of methods to reward them. Like a certificate for the teacher who incorporate informática in his/her the most.
2. Fund raisers- A raffle, Movie night, or a Bazar (like a raffle). Right now we are planning a Gran Tarde Infantil (kids day) with two americans who came down with suitcases full of school supplies and who wanted a way of distributing them. What a great little surprise! I suggested a day of fun, What else could be better. Games, dance contests, raffles, soda pop, and 10 pesos at the door to go towards buying gas oil for our computer center.
3. Computer presentation/knowledge Contests within each grade. Trying to motivate the kids to come and explore the computers.
4. Girls Club. Let girls be girls. I want to play too.
5. Bringing in the oldies for all the community groups to give them a chance to see and touch a computer. They all think they´re too old to learn new tricks, but maybe we can change some of their minds.
6. Swing is still a hit. Right now I´m teaching a routine to about fifteen 11 and 12 year old girls to perform for the Mayor. We´re dancing to Mambo #5
7. oh yeah and of coarse I´ve got to do something with all of this garbage. The pickup truck only comes through the main road, so most of the garbage is just thrown in any open area.


After planning we headed to San Jose de las Matas. It was like heaven. Quiet, beautiful, sweat free. Endless rolling hills in every direction. The medicine we all needed. Lots of healing/venting chats.

I also learned a few new techi tricks like,

photoshop, publisher, how to write code, dreamweaver, and websites