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.