Last week here! No matter how many times I say it, I still don’t believe it. Maybe when I’m boarding the plane, it will sink it, but in this final week I am going to enjoy my time!
From where I last left off, Anne’s program’s goodbye dinner was at a fairly nice restaurant. None of us (the fam, that is) knew any of the other people there, but the four of us had a really wonderful time together! The next day was our trip to the “poor ferry,” which was on a dam in the Cibao Valley, the same region as us, near a town called Cotui, about 2 hours southeast of Santiago. But in this country, one can never really travel Point A to Point B directly, so as the crow flies, it’s probably much closer. Anyways, we finally got on our way around noon (we were supposed to leave at 10), and then we had to get food in Santiago to take with us, then gas, then we had to stop in La Vega so that Gloria’s boyfriend could measure some office space, and then finally we were on our way! It was the three youngins’ crammed in the back, but we had a grand ole’ time . . . well Anne slept but Lenissa and I had fun. The drive through the valley is always wonderful for me, you can see so far in both cirections because the land is so flat. In that part of the country there is lots of rice and pineapple fields. The highway was pretty bad, if you can call it a highway, more like a straight two-lane country road that at times was paved, at times has gigantic speed bumps every 10 meters, and at times had remnants of burned tires and trees on the road from when they had been protesting a few weeks ago the lack of government maintenance of the road. I guess it hadn’t rained for a while because parts were so dusty that all the houses and cars and plants and trees were COVERED in a half-inch of dust, if not more. We finally get to the dam, which is snuggled amongst small rolling mountains and is just a pristine view of the countryside. The ferry itself was not quite as pristine. It basically was a pontoon boat with hard floor, some supports and a small staircase and then another level, with a little fence around it so people wouldn’t fall off. It had tables, chairs, and, of course, dominoes. We had to wait an hour and a half before we actually took off since we were only 5 and there had to be at least 15 people, but finally a larger group arrived (supposed to arrive at 4, came at 5, Dominican time . . . ) and soon after that we were off, music blasting, drinks and snacks being sold on board, and us puttering around the damn with two motorboat motors to push us along. Needless to say, it was not a thrilling ride, but it was beautiful and the sun was setting so we got some wonderful clouds and light at dusk. After about an hour we were ready to leave, but the other group was still partying, so they got a smaller “ferry” to take us in to shore, and we finally arrived home at about 10pm that night.
Sunday evening my friend Matt, who lived here while I was studying abroad, was in the country at a resort with some friends. On Sunday night I was waiting for a phone call from him, but instead I hear him yelling for me in the street, outside my building. That night his friends and I went to some bars and ended up at a casino playing Black Jack. I knew how to play, but I didn’t know how to bet on that game, but with Matt and his friend advising me, I came out up $300 pesos, or about 10 bucks, which I was proud of for my first time. They all won a hundred dollars, but bet a lot more money than I did. Anyways, they invited me to visit them at their resort that week, which I thought would be pretty fun, and the resort, Riu Mambo, is one of the best on the north coast.
Monday evening was Lenissa, Anne and I’s final dinner together, so we went to get sushi and then the chocolate roll from our favorite Mexican restaurant. It was nice to have sisters-only time. I know that us leaving has been really hard on Lenissa, she has grown really attached to us (and us to her too!) and she says she is always going to compare the other students to us. It’s true that she and Anne and I have been an excellent combination. Anne left on Wednesday and her absence is noted in the house.
So on Tuesday I go to the resort and buy a day pass for $35, which wasn’t cheap, but at the same time, not exorbitant. The only catch was I had to leave by 6pm, and they kept my license. We had a great day there: barbeque lunch on the beach, swim-up bar at the pool, and before we knew it, it was 5pm. Now my friends are pretty creative and I noticed that only the outsiders wore wrist bracelets, not the actual guests. So we realized that if I got my license back at 6pm, I could just take off the bracelet, leave the resort, and walk back in a different part. This resort is actually 3 different resorts in one, so three reception desks, three entrances. So that it what we did, and I spent the rest of the night (up till 4am!) having a great time there, ending the night with champagne on the beach. I had to leave early the next morning so that I could get home in time to take Anne to the airport, after which is started to downpour for hours, so I took a long and well-deserved nap.
Thursday was fairly uneventful, went to Fausto’s neighborhood and spent time with his neighbors and their kids. Friday I went to the beach with Emmanuel, and since it had rained there a bit in the morning, and it is low season right now, there was practically no one else on the beach and the weather was wonderful. I taught Emmanuel how to float (a LOT of Dominicans don’t know how to swim) and we had a nice post-lunch nap in the sun, a very relaxing day. On Saturday I helped give oral exams at work and in the evening Marla came up from the capital. We got coffee with a mutual friend, went to Zokalo for dinner (and had my favorite dessert!) and crashed early since we were both tired. She had to leave early the next morning to get back to her puppies, but it was nice to see her before I left. The rest of the day I did absolutely nothing, and ti was wonderful. In the eveing I went back to Fausto’s neighbors and we made pizza with the kids, this time Hawaiin style, with pineapple and ham. I asked them if they knew where Hawaii was, and Whitman told me “they have one in Haiti.” Regardless, they really liked it, and I am going there next weekend to play dominoes one last time.
So this week I have a fair amount to do, lots of people to see, a few last things to buy. I’m going to Lunes de Jazz tonight with some friends from work, and Friday and Saturday night I have dinner plans. Some time in there I have to pack, and I want to spend as much time with the fam as I can. Tia finally came back from Puerto Rico on Thursday and it’s as if nothing has changed, already cleaning the whole house.
I hope everyone has a great week and I will see you all soon!! And Feliz Cumpleaños to Aunt Judy and Pierre!!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Final Countdown
Happy Passover everyone! Or as they say here, Easter of the Jews. The Spanish word is “Pascua,” which looks to me like a direct translation of “pesach” which is the Hebrew word. So I think it really shouldn’t be Easter of the Jews, because it was our holiday, it’s our word, and so now I say Passover of the Christians instead of Easter . . . I think it could really take off!
As Aunt Judy noted, I know my blogs are few and far between, but the internet that we were stealing in our apt was changed and now has a password on it, so I have to schlep down to the bar where my comp doesn’t always get the signal, or up to the university, but only during the daytime because they turn it off at night. Right now I am sitting in my room writing this and I will upload it later because there is no interent around here since the school is closed and the network at the bar isn’t working. Ah, what I wouldn’t give for my own network!
Anyways, since Mom left, I have had a pretty busy time. My last week of classes went well, it was nice just to have my normal group again and not be subbing in the daycare. A friend who studied abroad last semester came to visit during here spring break, so it was good to catch up. Anne and I took her to our now weekly dinner of sushi from Sushi Ya and then the BEST dessert ever at Zokalo, the Mexican restaurant down the street from there. It’s called a “Chocolate Roll” but it isn’t cakey, neither is it like mousse, it is a little bit crispy, a little but moist, and just utterly amazing.
After she left I went down to the capital for the weekend to visit Marla. Our first meal when we get there? Sushi! Although I prefer it in Santiago because everything is expensive in the capital, like the difference between Baltimore and DC. That evening we went to see a Dominican movie called Megadiva. Now first, let me say that Dominican cinema is not known for it’s quality, in fact it is pretty much mocked by all Dominicans about its lack of quality, but they see all the movies anyways, which isn’t that many, I would say about one every month or two. Imagine a really cheesy grade B movie, and that is typical Dominican cinema. Well apparently, this was one of the best quality movies made, and it wasn’t that bad, but to Ammerican standards, it was pretty terrible, but there were a few chuckles, and I was happy that I could follow the whole thing without getting confused, and that I understood the jokes!
The next day Marla and I went to this wonderful cave with sulfur pools called Cueva de los Tres Ojos, or three eyes, because there are three distinct pools. It is an open air cavern with stalagmites and stalagtites that grow as much as 2 inches a year. There are turtles and fish and the water glows blue in the sunlight and it is a really beautiful park, except that we had to run across the highway to get to it. We were surprised that it was free, but then we realized that we came in through some back employee entrance and nobody told us to pay! After that we went to the old city, or the Colonial Zone, and walked down the main drag with lots of gift shops and art stores. We stumbled upon a restaurant called “Cibao Café” (Cibao being the region I live in) and we went in and found ourselves in this EXTREMELY luxurious hotel with a pool and garden and huge suites and all wood interior, etc . . . and nobody noticed two outsiders wandering around for a while.
The next week there were no classes, but I was subbing (I know, again) in the daycare for only three days. Unfortunately I was with a different group, 10 3-4 year olds and they are MUCH more difficult than the group I had before. Monday morning started off with a boy peeing his pants before 8 am, and the day went on from there. Anyways, I survived that and I really don’t dislike it THAT much, it is just very difficult at some points and tiring all the time. That first Monday afternoon was March 30th, which is the day of a battle in the revolution, so there was a big parade in Santiago. I went down to see it, but of course, it was supposed to start at 3:30 and I got there at 4:30 and it hadn’t started because the President hadn’t arrived yet. So rather than wait, I just walked backwards along the parade route to see all the folks. Did I mention it was a military parade? Basically the entire armed forces was lined up on the street, and I mean EVERY single branch of any type of military personnel, even the First Aid rescue squad or something like that. They had boats from the coast guard, they had the mounted soldiers, they had everything, so I took a bunch of photos there and saw the parade start on tv about an hour later. I think Santiago was the safest part of the country that afternoon.
The rest of the week I was at New York Center in the morning and the afternoon handing out grades which was pretty uneventful, but Emmanuel and Rodolfo, two of my closest friends there, were with me the whole time, so we were just being paid to hang out.
Then on Saturday Jamie, one of my best friends, and James, her boyfriend, came to visit! We had this whole fantastic trip planned with a few days in Santiago and then off to the beach for 5 days! We had a delicious traditional Dominican lunch the first day they came and then got sushi and Anne and my’s favorite dessert that evening for dinner. On Sunday we went to brunch with Emmanuel at a buffet restaurant that is perched on a hill that overlooks Santiago and part of the valley, it was a really beautiful view (it’s also an equestrian complex, so they had horses walking around practically inside the restaurant!) We then went to the Monument and Centro Leon, two of my favorite places in the city. Sunday night Anne and I made them dinner of fried cheese, fried salami, and tostones (fried green plantains) . . . and we had salad too, to be a bit healthy. The next day we were off to the beach, and to my favorite hotel, Casa Valeria, with the courtyard filled with plants and a swimming pool. We basically spent Monday and Tuesday on the beach and eating at really good restaurants. It was a bit of an adjustment for me since I have basically been doing everything as cheaply as I can here, but since I only had about a month left, I knew I wanted to spend more money when they were here, so it was nice to not really worry about the cost of things and just enjoy the fancier part of vacationing.
So Julia, what did you do? Well we spent two days on the beach in Sosua, then on Wednesday we traveled east to one of the most famous beaches in the country, called Playa Grande, which lives up to its name, it is huge and on each side are cliffs and the waves were extremely calm that day, which is very rare (it’s one of the roughest beaches on the north coast). We even saw a humpback whale cresting far off in the water!! I taught them how to play dominoes and we had piña coladas from a pineapple, and James ordered conch for lunch. Thursday we went west to Puerto Plata to climb the mountain there, called Isabel del Torres (the same Isabel that helped fund Columbus’ trip, he named it after her). The mountain is about a 5 minute gondola ride to the top, and you get just an amazing 360 degree view of the coast and countryside. It was a bit cloudy (and we were inside a cloud at some points) but that made for wonderful breezes that made the walk through their extensive botanical gardens really pleasant. Some Dominicans weren’t having as much fun, I heard one complain “I’m SICK of looking at plants and trees!” That afternoon we paddled around in the pool at our hotel and relaxed for our last evening in Sosua. Friday we checked out of the hotel, bought our bus tickets, and then went to the beach for the day (our bus wasn’t until 6pm). Since it was the first official day off for everyone, all Dominicans came, I had never seen the beach so packed! More vendors, everything was more expensive, but there was no boat traffic allowed near the beach, so it was a little bit quieter. Also, since it was Good Friday, no one was allowed to play music (not even the bars until midnight), so the whole town was quiet (except for everyone on the beach). Dominicans have a traditional beach food which they bring with them: spaghetti. I’m not kidding, I can’t think of anything less beachy, perhaps fondue. They bring it in big pots and eat it with bread, and lots of sand.
When we got to the bus station, there was a minibus there, which I thought was going to take us to Puerto Plata, and from there we would get on a big bus and go to Santiago, but instead, we packed as many people as there were seats, and even had room for a surfboard, and we went straight to Santiago. What happened was the last bus was supposed to be at 3, but the ticket seller made a mistake and sold tickets for the later bus, so they had to provide us some way to get back (and we could bypass Puerto Plata). But we didn’t take the normal highway, we took the old mountain trek (which is ironically called the tourist highway) which is a beautiful climb through the mountains, but you can imagine how well-maintained it is with sprawling stretches without pavement, landslides on either side of the road, and an open sinkhole here and there. Needless to say, Jamie and James got a truly authentic experience of the Dominican!
So now I am in my last three weeks here! Monday and Tuesday I subbed (I know, again) in the daycare for the same 10 kids, and it was just as tiring, but we had fun, or at least I hope they did! All afternoon all this week I am sitting in a chair on the second floor of New York Center handing out grades to latecomers, so really not doing anything, but if they want to pay me, I won’t complain! Friday night is the farewell dinner for Anne’s program, so the whole family is going to a nice buffet dinner with them, Saturday Gloria is taking us to the “poor ferry” as she calls it. It is basically a little ferry boat that meanders around a damn for the afternoon and people bring food and drinks and hang out. I think we are bringing spaghetti, oy vey. Anne leaves next Wednesday, I can’t believe so soon! And after that I only have 10 days left, weird. I know I made the right decision coming home early, though, because although it will be really sad to leave, I am ready to come home. And I won’t be home for very long before I’m off to El Salvador at the end of May to spend the summer there with Fausto. I am REALLY excited for that new adventure!
So for those of you who made it to the end of this long post, here are some photos to enjoy!
As Aunt Judy noted, I know my blogs are few and far between, but the internet that we were stealing in our apt was changed and now has a password on it, so I have to schlep down to the bar where my comp doesn’t always get the signal, or up to the university, but only during the daytime because they turn it off at night. Right now I am sitting in my room writing this and I will upload it later because there is no interent around here since the school is closed and the network at the bar isn’t working. Ah, what I wouldn’t give for my own network!
Anyways, since Mom left, I have had a pretty busy time. My last week of classes went well, it was nice just to have my normal group again and not be subbing in the daycare. A friend who studied abroad last semester came to visit during here spring break, so it was good to catch up. Anne and I took her to our now weekly dinner of sushi from Sushi Ya and then the BEST dessert ever at Zokalo, the Mexican restaurant down the street from there. It’s called a “Chocolate Roll” but it isn’t cakey, neither is it like mousse, it is a little bit crispy, a little but moist, and just utterly amazing.
After she left I went down to the capital for the weekend to visit Marla. Our first meal when we get there? Sushi! Although I prefer it in Santiago because everything is expensive in the capital, like the difference between Baltimore and DC. That evening we went to see a Dominican movie called Megadiva. Now first, let me say that Dominican cinema is not known for it’s quality, in fact it is pretty much mocked by all Dominicans about its lack of quality, but they see all the movies anyways, which isn’t that many, I would say about one every month or two. Imagine a really cheesy grade B movie, and that is typical Dominican cinema. Well apparently, this was one of the best quality movies made, and it wasn’t that bad, but to Ammerican standards, it was pretty terrible, but there were a few chuckles, and I was happy that I could follow the whole thing without getting confused, and that I understood the jokes!
The next day Marla and I went to this wonderful cave with sulfur pools called Cueva de los Tres Ojos, or three eyes, because there are three distinct pools. It is an open air cavern with stalagmites and stalagtites that grow as much as 2 inches a year. There are turtles and fish and the water glows blue in the sunlight and it is a really beautiful park, except that we had to run across the highway to get to it. We were surprised that it was free, but then we realized that we came in through some back employee entrance and nobody told us to pay! After that we went to the old city, or the Colonial Zone, and walked down the main drag with lots of gift shops and art stores. We stumbled upon a restaurant called “Cibao Café” (Cibao being the region I live in) and we went in and found ourselves in this EXTREMELY luxurious hotel with a pool and garden and huge suites and all wood interior, etc . . . and nobody noticed two outsiders wandering around for a while.
The next week there were no classes, but I was subbing (I know, again) in the daycare for only three days. Unfortunately I was with a different group, 10 3-4 year olds and they are MUCH more difficult than the group I had before. Monday morning started off with a boy peeing his pants before 8 am, and the day went on from there. Anyways, I survived that and I really don’t dislike it THAT much, it is just very difficult at some points and tiring all the time. That first Monday afternoon was March 30th, which is the day of a battle in the revolution, so there was a big parade in Santiago. I went down to see it, but of course, it was supposed to start at 3:30 and I got there at 4:30 and it hadn’t started because the President hadn’t arrived yet. So rather than wait, I just walked backwards along the parade route to see all the folks. Did I mention it was a military parade? Basically the entire armed forces was lined up on the street, and I mean EVERY single branch of any type of military personnel, even the First Aid rescue squad or something like that. They had boats from the coast guard, they had the mounted soldiers, they had everything, so I took a bunch of photos there and saw the parade start on tv about an hour later. I think Santiago was the safest part of the country that afternoon.
The rest of the week I was at New York Center in the morning and the afternoon handing out grades which was pretty uneventful, but Emmanuel and Rodolfo, two of my closest friends there, were with me the whole time, so we were just being paid to hang out.
Then on Saturday Jamie, one of my best friends, and James, her boyfriend, came to visit! We had this whole fantastic trip planned with a few days in Santiago and then off to the beach for 5 days! We had a delicious traditional Dominican lunch the first day they came and then got sushi and Anne and my’s favorite dessert that evening for dinner. On Sunday we went to brunch with Emmanuel at a buffet restaurant that is perched on a hill that overlooks Santiago and part of the valley, it was a really beautiful view (it’s also an equestrian complex, so they had horses walking around practically inside the restaurant!) We then went to the Monument and Centro Leon, two of my favorite places in the city. Sunday night Anne and I made them dinner of fried cheese, fried salami, and tostones (fried green plantains) . . . and we had salad too, to be a bit healthy. The next day we were off to the beach, and to my favorite hotel, Casa Valeria, with the courtyard filled with plants and a swimming pool. We basically spent Monday and Tuesday on the beach and eating at really good restaurants. It was a bit of an adjustment for me since I have basically been doing everything as cheaply as I can here, but since I only had about a month left, I knew I wanted to spend more money when they were here, so it was nice to not really worry about the cost of things and just enjoy the fancier part of vacationing.
So Julia, what did you do? Well we spent two days on the beach in Sosua, then on Wednesday we traveled east to one of the most famous beaches in the country, called Playa Grande, which lives up to its name, it is huge and on each side are cliffs and the waves were extremely calm that day, which is very rare (it’s one of the roughest beaches on the north coast). We even saw a humpback whale cresting far off in the water!! I taught them how to play dominoes and we had piña coladas from a pineapple, and James ordered conch for lunch. Thursday we went west to Puerto Plata to climb the mountain there, called Isabel del Torres (the same Isabel that helped fund Columbus’ trip, he named it after her). The mountain is about a 5 minute gondola ride to the top, and you get just an amazing 360 degree view of the coast and countryside. It was a bit cloudy (and we were inside a cloud at some points) but that made for wonderful breezes that made the walk through their extensive botanical gardens really pleasant. Some Dominicans weren’t having as much fun, I heard one complain “I’m SICK of looking at plants and trees!” That afternoon we paddled around in the pool at our hotel and relaxed for our last evening in Sosua. Friday we checked out of the hotel, bought our bus tickets, and then went to the beach for the day (our bus wasn’t until 6pm). Since it was the first official day off for everyone, all Dominicans came, I had never seen the beach so packed! More vendors, everything was more expensive, but there was no boat traffic allowed near the beach, so it was a little bit quieter. Also, since it was Good Friday, no one was allowed to play music (not even the bars until midnight), so the whole town was quiet (except for everyone on the beach). Dominicans have a traditional beach food which they bring with them: spaghetti. I’m not kidding, I can’t think of anything less beachy, perhaps fondue. They bring it in big pots and eat it with bread, and lots of sand.
When we got to the bus station, there was a minibus there, which I thought was going to take us to Puerto Plata, and from there we would get on a big bus and go to Santiago, but instead, we packed as many people as there were seats, and even had room for a surfboard, and we went straight to Santiago. What happened was the last bus was supposed to be at 3, but the ticket seller made a mistake and sold tickets for the later bus, so they had to provide us some way to get back (and we could bypass Puerto Plata). But we didn’t take the normal highway, we took the old mountain trek (which is ironically called the tourist highway) which is a beautiful climb through the mountains, but you can imagine how well-maintained it is with sprawling stretches without pavement, landslides on either side of the road, and an open sinkhole here and there. Needless to say, Jamie and James got a truly authentic experience of the Dominican!
So now I am in my last three weeks here! Monday and Tuesday I subbed (I know, again) in the daycare for the same 10 kids, and it was just as tiring, but we had fun, or at least I hope they did! All afternoon all this week I am sitting in a chair on the second floor of New York Center handing out grades to latecomers, so really not doing anything, but if they want to pay me, I won’t complain! Friday night is the farewell dinner for Anne’s program, so the whole family is going to a nice buffet dinner with them, Saturday Gloria is taking us to the “poor ferry” as she calls it. It is basically a little ferry boat that meanders around a damn for the afternoon and people bring food and drinks and hang out. I think we are bringing spaghetti, oy vey. Anne leaves next Wednesday, I can’t believe so soon! And after that I only have 10 days left, weird. I know I made the right decision coming home early, though, because although it will be really sad to leave, I am ready to come home. And I won’t be home for very long before I’m off to El Salvador at the end of May to spend the summer there with Fausto. I am REALLY excited for that new adventure!
So for those of you who made it to the end of this long post, here are some photos to enjoy!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Visita de Mom!
Well, Mom’s visit star Ted off before she even got here! I was at work in the afternoon and I get a call from her saying that she got to San Juan fine, but how far was the actual city of San Juan from the airport, and if it was worth her gong, which I told her it was, and she did end up going to Old San Juan which has a lovely square where she at tapas, a huge park with a big fort at the end of it, and she in general had a lovely time!
When I got to the airport, she was just coming out, she got there a bit early, and we spent the first evening just relaxing. The next morning, we got up early, got our rental car, a Mitsubishi Nativa, which was more like a gigantic car-masher, but it worked just fine. We drove out of the city successfully (it is extremely stressful driving down here), and made it to the rest stop about an hour south, where we were meeting my friends. From there we followed them through Bonao, a small “city” about halfway between Santo Domingo and Santiago, and from there over two rivers and up into the mountains. Now this seems easy, and it should have been with the beast that I was driving, but it was all bark and no bite, and as we slowly pulled ourselves up these steep hills and down even steeper ones, we finally got to the hotel, which is part of a huge piece of property where a Federation runs all sorts of eco-friendly and poverty-eliminating projects.
Our room was on the second floor and had just the best views of a plunging valley to one side and a rising mountain to the other. Every angle was prettier than the next. We were the only ones at the hotel, so Ramon, our personal guide, showed us around. They have dormitories for work groups to come in, as well as dormitories for the hotel workers and the kids of surrounding communities to live in if they live far away (since most people’s transport is motorcycle, horse, or foot). At that moment the kids who lived there were in a computer science class, where they are learning about all that technology. Normally during the day they are in school and in the afternoon they go to the bamboo workshop and make all sorts of chair and tables and mirror frames, etc. Kelvin, one of the best students, gave us a quick demonstration of how the workshop functions, that their teacher comes everyday and first they learn how to cut a piece straight. Once they can do that, they learn how to make holes, then how to cut an even curve, then how to bend it, and finally they begin to start to make furniture. After Kelvin’s demonstration, he invited me to try to make it, and you can let the picture judge, but I must say I was pretty good. Mom thought she was video-taping a lot of it, but she just had the video function on my camera, but didn’t actually record anything.
After that we saw the organic garden, which will be growing a million tomatoes or something like that, as well as the coffee drying, and the bunnies, which were sold as pets . . . or food. All the bunny droppings are collected and made into compost, which they will use for their organic food. They also have another vegetable garden where they grow all the food that they eat and serve there. In the afternoon, we chugged out big weak monster mobile a little higher up the mountain to see a beautifully slender waterfall with crisp, cold, and extremely clear water. That evening we read on the porch and I taught Mom to play dominoes (the real Dominican national pastime) and we played with the other guides and kids who lived there. I say “played” but really just sat there as they figured out the whole game from just one round and we were really only pawns to put pieces down. But we had a wonderful time anyways. That night it rained harder than I have heard it rain in a looooong time, but the next morning was fresh and cool, and we walked through a path just totally covered with flora, down to the river Blanco, and then up another path through a bamboo forest that they had planted (the same one they use for the workshop). The whole mountainside was just completely covered with a beautiful variety of plants and trees, some really weird looping ones, and palm trees that were 50 feet high!
In the afternoon we came home and relaxed the rest of the day. Monday we went to work, it was my last day at the daycare, and I was really glad that mom got to see it. She was very impressed and just exhausted watching me work, it made me happy to hear what a good teacher she thought I was (boy do I have her fooled). We came home for lunch and in the afternoon walked to work again for my conversation class with the teenagers, which she also liked very much. That evening we had sushi for dinner with sweet plantains in it and a honey sauce that is to die for. Tuesday was our first day to sleep in and boy did we! All the way to 8:30! Haha. We made pancakes for breakfast and spent the morning reading and generally doing nothing. In the afternoon we went with Anne to One Respe (which means Honor Respect in Creole) to see the school she volunteers at, as well as their center. We bought some jewelry, said hi to the kids, and then went to my favorite museum (in the country), Centro Leon. I am sure I have talked about this place before, and their new exhibit is no exception, wonderfully displayed and fascinating in its topic, a Spanish photographer documenting all aspects of Dominican life in the 70s and 80s. Mom really liked it too and loved the museum. That night we all got dressed up and Mom took Anne, Lenissa, Gloria, and me out to Marisco Centro, a very posh seafood restaurant. We had a great time since Anne, Lenissa and I spoke both languages, and Gloria and Mom can understand a fair amount of the other language. It was a really nice time (and the food was a-may-zing!)
Wednesday was another relaxing morning; in the afternoon we went to Fausto’s neighborhood where Mom met Fausto’s mom and his neighbors with the three kids with whom we play dominoes a lot. After that we went to Zokalo, my favorite Mexican restaurant here, where we met up with Emmanuel, my friend from work, and we had Nachos Extreme (which the three of us couldn’t finish) and then my favorite desert, rollo de chocolate (or chocolate roll) which is just the best thing on earth. That evening we relaxed at home, read some, did a crossword puzzle, for old time’s sake, and chatted. She left the next morning.
I had a blast and I think she did too, she said that she felt like she really got to see how I live down here and that was what she wanted. And the trip to the mountains was just out of this world. Check out the new photos of our trip!!
Up next: work ends this week, although next week I will be subbing (for only 2 days) in the daycare and helping to hand out grades. This weekend I’m going to Santo Domingo to visit my friend Marla, and then the week after that my best friend Jamie and her boyfriend are coming to visit for Semana Santa! I can’t wait!
ps. here is the link to the photos
When I got to the airport, she was just coming out, she got there a bit early, and we spent the first evening just relaxing. The next morning, we got up early, got our rental car, a Mitsubishi Nativa, which was more like a gigantic car-masher, but it worked just fine. We drove out of the city successfully (it is extremely stressful driving down here), and made it to the rest stop about an hour south, where we were meeting my friends. From there we followed them through Bonao, a small “city” about halfway between Santo Domingo and Santiago, and from there over two rivers and up into the mountains. Now this seems easy, and it should have been with the beast that I was driving, but it was all bark and no bite, and as we slowly pulled ourselves up these steep hills and down even steeper ones, we finally got to the hotel, which is part of a huge piece of property where a Federation runs all sorts of eco-friendly and poverty-eliminating projects.
Our room was on the second floor and had just the best views of a plunging valley to one side and a rising mountain to the other. Every angle was prettier than the next. We were the only ones at the hotel, so Ramon, our personal guide, showed us around. They have dormitories for work groups to come in, as well as dormitories for the hotel workers and the kids of surrounding communities to live in if they live far away (since most people’s transport is motorcycle, horse, or foot). At that moment the kids who lived there were in a computer science class, where they are learning about all that technology. Normally during the day they are in school and in the afternoon they go to the bamboo workshop and make all sorts of chair and tables and mirror frames, etc. Kelvin, one of the best students, gave us a quick demonstration of how the workshop functions, that their teacher comes everyday and first they learn how to cut a piece straight. Once they can do that, they learn how to make holes, then how to cut an even curve, then how to bend it, and finally they begin to start to make furniture. After Kelvin’s demonstration, he invited me to try to make it, and you can let the picture judge, but I must say I was pretty good. Mom thought she was video-taping a lot of it, but she just had the video function on my camera, but didn’t actually record anything.
After that we saw the organic garden, which will be growing a million tomatoes or something like that, as well as the coffee drying, and the bunnies, which were sold as pets . . . or food. All the bunny droppings are collected and made into compost, which they will use for their organic food. They also have another vegetable garden where they grow all the food that they eat and serve there. In the afternoon, we chugged out big weak monster mobile a little higher up the mountain to see a beautifully slender waterfall with crisp, cold, and extremely clear water. That evening we read on the porch and I taught Mom to play dominoes (the real Dominican national pastime) and we played with the other guides and kids who lived there. I say “played” but really just sat there as they figured out the whole game from just one round and we were really only pawns to put pieces down. But we had a wonderful time anyways. That night it rained harder than I have heard it rain in a looooong time, but the next morning was fresh and cool, and we walked through a path just totally covered with flora, down to the river Blanco, and then up another path through a bamboo forest that they had planted (the same one they use for the workshop). The whole mountainside was just completely covered with a beautiful variety of plants and trees, some really weird looping ones, and palm trees that were 50 feet high!
In the afternoon we came home and relaxed the rest of the day. Monday we went to work, it was my last day at the daycare, and I was really glad that mom got to see it. She was very impressed and just exhausted watching me work, it made me happy to hear what a good teacher she thought I was (boy do I have her fooled). We came home for lunch and in the afternoon walked to work again for my conversation class with the teenagers, which she also liked very much. That evening we had sushi for dinner with sweet plantains in it and a honey sauce that is to die for. Tuesday was our first day to sleep in and boy did we! All the way to 8:30! Haha. We made pancakes for breakfast and spent the morning reading and generally doing nothing. In the afternoon we went with Anne to One Respe (which means Honor Respect in Creole) to see the school she volunteers at, as well as their center. We bought some jewelry, said hi to the kids, and then went to my favorite museum (in the country), Centro Leon. I am sure I have talked about this place before, and their new exhibit is no exception, wonderfully displayed and fascinating in its topic, a Spanish photographer documenting all aspects of Dominican life in the 70s and 80s. Mom really liked it too and loved the museum. That night we all got dressed up and Mom took Anne, Lenissa, Gloria, and me out to Marisco Centro, a very posh seafood restaurant. We had a great time since Anne, Lenissa and I spoke both languages, and Gloria and Mom can understand a fair amount of the other language. It was a really nice time (and the food was a-may-zing!)
Wednesday was another relaxing morning; in the afternoon we went to Fausto’s neighborhood where Mom met Fausto’s mom and his neighbors with the three kids with whom we play dominoes a lot. After that we went to Zokalo, my favorite Mexican restaurant here, where we met up with Emmanuel, my friend from work, and we had Nachos Extreme (which the three of us couldn’t finish) and then my favorite desert, rollo de chocolate (or chocolate roll) which is just the best thing on earth. That evening we relaxed at home, read some, did a crossword puzzle, for old time’s sake, and chatted. She left the next morning.
I had a blast and I think she did too, she said that she felt like she really got to see how I live down here and that was what she wanted. And the trip to the mountains was just out of this world. Check out the new photos of our trip!!
Up next: work ends this week, although next week I will be subbing (for only 2 days) in the daycare and helping to hand out grades. This weekend I’m going to Santo Domingo to visit my friend Marla, and then the week after that my best friend Jamie and her boyfriend are coming to visit for Semana Santa! I can’t wait!
ps. here is the link to the photos
Friday, March 13, 2009
Mom's visit!!!
Mom should be arriving in just 2 and a half hours! I am suuuuuuuuuuuper excited, as you can imagine. We have plans to go to a rustic hotel in the mountains this weekend, and on Monday she is coming to work with me, to see the daycare and my normal class, and then we have Tuesday and Wednesday to frolic about the city! No beach this time, but I figured, eh, the beaches are beautiful here, but the mountains are just breath-taking, and not as easy to get to if you are a tourist.
I only have one day left in the daycare, which is sad, but more of a relief. I will miss the kids a lot, but not being with them from 7:45am to 12:30pm. The kids I love, well, all but a few, but what I don’t like is the way the daycare is managed. I will give you the perfect example. On Monday, a new boy started with us. Not only is a REALLY late in the school year for him to be starting, but no one had given us ANY notice that he was coming. He arrived at 7:45 am and that was the first time we had heard of him. His mother told us his name, but we didn’t know his age in order to figure out which class he should be in. It was him, through his little tears because he wanted his mother, that told us he was 3. So I go down to the director of New York Center and ask her who he was, when was he registered, and how come nobody had let us know beforehand. And she told me that it wasn’t her, it was Hillary, a subdirector, who is specifically in charge of the daycare, among other things. Okay, fine, Hillary let him in and didn’t tell us. Irresponsible, but that is how things are done at NYC often. But wait! So Hillary is sick for a few days, and so when I see her again on Wednesday, we are talking in the hallway, and she sees the new boy, Samuel, and asks me “Who is that?” I was dumbfounded. “Raphy said that you had registered him. He came on Monday with no warning.” “No,” she said, “I have never heard of him before in my life.” I couldn’t believe it. How did this mystery child arrive?! He even had the uniform. There is no one else that would have registered him, but I suppose it will remain a mystery. And what annoys me more than the disorganization of that whole situation, is that no one seemed worried about how dangerous it is. I mean, I don’t think anyone even knows his last name. What if he got hurt, or he ran out of the school or a myriad of other things. We don’t know his last name, I don’t know if we know how to contact his family, etc. It’s things like that which happen on a regular basis at New York Center, which make me not so sad to be done with the daycare.
Ok, enough kvetching, but I did want to post something since Jack is now trying to outblog me with his adventures in Buenos Aires. Let’s see if he can outblog this next story.
So one of my best friends here from work is Emmanuel, the evangelical Christian who doesn’t drink or even dance. Well the other day we were on one of our regular coffee dates, for lack of a better term, when I was telling him how Anne and I had done yoga the day before and how glad I was to be doing it again. He looked shocked and said, “You can’t do yoga, you’re a Jew!” And said that religion has nothing to do with yoga, it’s a physical exercise, but he said, no, that it was developed by Buddhists, and thus it was like practicing another religion. I thought it was pretty amusing because I had never heard anyone accuse someone of being heretical for doing yoga, but I can always appreciate different points of view. I argued that it was, yes, developed by another religion, but not for religious practice, but self-awareness and inner focus, whether you want to focus on Buddha, Jesus, or even ice cream, that was fine. And his point was that if someone is opening their mind of unknown things, that is the perfect time for Satan to infiltrate. So from now on, when I talk about it with him, I call it “The Devil’s Yoga.” Aside from that, we have had some delicious coffee all over Santiago. Who knew there would be such a variety in a country where coffeehouses don’t really exist.
Well, I leave it at that. It looks like it is going to downpour any second now, a nice welcome for mom. Welcome to the Caribbean, just in time for a tropical downpour!!
I only have one day left in the daycare, which is sad, but more of a relief. I will miss the kids a lot, but not being with them from 7:45am to 12:30pm. The kids I love, well, all but a few, but what I don’t like is the way the daycare is managed. I will give you the perfect example. On Monday, a new boy started with us. Not only is a REALLY late in the school year for him to be starting, but no one had given us ANY notice that he was coming. He arrived at 7:45 am and that was the first time we had heard of him. His mother told us his name, but we didn’t know his age in order to figure out which class he should be in. It was him, through his little tears because he wanted his mother, that told us he was 3. So I go down to the director of New York Center and ask her who he was, when was he registered, and how come nobody had let us know beforehand. And she told me that it wasn’t her, it was Hillary, a subdirector, who is specifically in charge of the daycare, among other things. Okay, fine, Hillary let him in and didn’t tell us. Irresponsible, but that is how things are done at NYC often. But wait! So Hillary is sick for a few days, and so when I see her again on Wednesday, we are talking in the hallway, and she sees the new boy, Samuel, and asks me “Who is that?” I was dumbfounded. “Raphy said that you had registered him. He came on Monday with no warning.” “No,” she said, “I have never heard of him before in my life.” I couldn’t believe it. How did this mystery child arrive?! He even had the uniform. There is no one else that would have registered him, but I suppose it will remain a mystery. And what annoys me more than the disorganization of that whole situation, is that no one seemed worried about how dangerous it is. I mean, I don’t think anyone even knows his last name. What if he got hurt, or he ran out of the school or a myriad of other things. We don’t know his last name, I don’t know if we know how to contact his family, etc. It’s things like that which happen on a regular basis at New York Center, which make me not so sad to be done with the daycare.
Ok, enough kvetching, but I did want to post something since Jack is now trying to outblog me with his adventures in Buenos Aires. Let’s see if he can outblog this next story.
So one of my best friends here from work is Emmanuel, the evangelical Christian who doesn’t drink or even dance. Well the other day we were on one of our regular coffee dates, for lack of a better term, when I was telling him how Anne and I had done yoga the day before and how glad I was to be doing it again. He looked shocked and said, “You can’t do yoga, you’re a Jew!” And said that religion has nothing to do with yoga, it’s a physical exercise, but he said, no, that it was developed by Buddhists, and thus it was like practicing another religion. I thought it was pretty amusing because I had never heard anyone accuse someone of being heretical for doing yoga, but I can always appreciate different points of view. I argued that it was, yes, developed by another religion, but not for religious practice, but self-awareness and inner focus, whether you want to focus on Buddha, Jesus, or even ice cream, that was fine. And his point was that if someone is opening their mind of unknown things, that is the perfect time for Satan to infiltrate. So from now on, when I talk about it with him, I call it “The Devil’s Yoga.” Aside from that, we have had some delicious coffee all over Santiago. Who knew there would be such a variety in a country where coffeehouses don’t really exist.
Well, I leave it at that. It looks like it is going to downpour any second now, a nice welcome for mom. Welcome to the Caribbean, just in time for a tropical downpour!!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Wow, over a month since I last updated this! And February here has been quite happening, to say the least. First off, check out my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jjjjules to see some new ones.
So first off, two weeks ago, I began substituting in the daycare at my job. I have to get there at 7:45 in the morning, which is early, but most of the kids don’t arrive till 8:15, so I have a few moments of calm to organize for the day. Anyways, I am with them until about 12:30, so it is a long morning, and an even longer day on Mon, Tues, and Thurs, because I have class that afternoon from 3-6. So nowadays if I am in bed at 11 pm, that is too late for me! But aside from it being tiring, I actually am having a really good time with the kids. It is MUCH better organized now, not three teachers with 30 kids, but each teacher has their own age group the whole morning, they are only all together for TV Time and snack time. My kids are the oldest (between 4 and 5) and there are only 8 of them, and they all have been at the school for a few years, so they know the routine and the rules, and they are much easier to communicate with than the littler kids, especially the babies. Last week we went on a field trip with the older half of the kids to see some weird and very poorly produced (but energetically performed) children’s theater production that was something like Alice in Wonderland, but had techno music in it, as well as Disney songs. We couldn’t quite figure it out, but the kids loved it. When we were leaving, we had the youngest kids, and we were trying to get all of them on the bus and count to make sure thy were all there, and we almost left one of the kids on the sidewalk. Needless to say, he pouted most of the way home, not a happy camper.
Fausto and I went to the other project of his friend, Tony, in the mountains, and this was MUCH bigger than the first coffee factory. It was this whole federation, sponsored by the EU, and had a hotel, and dorms for groups to come and help work, it had a bamboo forest that they harvested, and had a workshop where the kids of the villages learned how to make furniture from bamboo. The whole complex was pretty amazing, and in a beautiful mountain range with a plunging valley below. That part of the mountains is called the “Mother of waters” because two of the major rivers in the country originate there, one that goes south to the capital and one north to Santiago and regions north. There are small waterfalls all throughout the valley. When mom comes to visit, we are going to spend a weekend at that hotel, a part of the Dominican that most visitors don’t get to see.
Two weeks ago Fausto and I went down to the capital for 4 days, which was nice to have so much time there since he had about 150 people to see, and I had a few too. We were going to stay with Jenny’s family there, they have an extra apartment, but the day we were supposed to leave, they discovered there was no water. So at the last minute, a good friend of mine from study abroad who lives there now let us stay with her. She lives in this apartment/dormitory that is owned by her job (a bilingual school) and lets the foreign teachers live there. We had a great time with her (and two puppies she had rescued from the street early that week, now named Paco and Murphey) who were only 3 weeks old and just precious. We visited a bunch of Fausto’s friends, and we saw Jenny’s family also, and her nephews are ginormous now. We didn’t do much touristy stuff, which was fine with me, although we did walk on the Malecón, the seaside highway, so it was nice to see the Caribbean Sea (the water on the north coast is technically the Atlantic Ocean). On our way back from Santo Domingo, we stopped in La Vega to see Carnival, the most famous (and infamous) Carnaval in the country, and it certainly lives up to its name. Many of you may remember my epic bruise that a I proudly showed three years ago, and it was also from La Vega, although this time they didn’t hit me as hard. But the place was PACKED and the costumes were stunning, and it was even rumored that Mel Gibson was in the VIP Government Viewing Seats.
On the last Sunday of Carnival, Santiago had it’s parade, which we left after 4 hours and it was still going. Unfortunately, this year’s Carnival has been no different in that many people use the crowds and party atmosphere to commit crimes, and not just petty theft. For example, when we were in La Vega, just an hour and a half after we left, someone was killed right where we were sitting. And when we were at the Carnival in Santiaog last week, someone else was killed about 3 blocks from where we were standing. People have been blaming the crisis for the rise in violence, and ti is true that people are more and more desperate, and there have been more large-scale robberies (and here people get killed a lot more in crimes like that), but a producer at a really famous nightclub was stopped on the highway and killed, and the son of the big rum owner was almost killed last weekend too. Now please don’t worry, I don’t feel any more unsafe here than I did before, but I can’t tell you how disenchanted I feel about the police here more and more every day. The ones that you see on the street carry more of a fearful and menacing presence than one of friendliness and protection. The most common interaction I have with the cops is when they are catcalling me from their patrol cars. Of the two groups of people Fausto said were the most dangerous in the country, the cops were one of them (in that you are most likely to end up dead if they are in a bad mood). And they seem to only enforce traffic laws and give tickets when they want a little kickback. Crimes only get solved if the victim was someone of prominence, otherwise it remains “under investigation” indefinitely. Also, they have these ridiculous motorcycles that look like something batman would have, and they always ride around in twos, and they love to get bribes from Haitians, who are supposed to carry their papers at all times. So a cop will often ask a Haitian for his papers, and if he doesn’t have them, he threatens to arrest him if he doesn’t get a bribe. So the Haitian gives him some money and the cop goes away. But it is kind of an empty threat because if the cop is on a motorcycle, he isn’t really going to arrest the guy, and if the Haitian really has no money, it isn’t worth the cops time to take him down to the station because he gets no money for it. He didn’t want to arrest him in the first place, he just wanted some money.
The level of corruption here is really disgusting, and it’s not as if there isn’t corruption in the States, but it is just so obvious here, and so candid that the corrupt act as if what they were doing was okay, because it is okay here. Who is going to stop them? The cops? The politicians? They are the most openly corrupt of them all.
On the cheerier things. Well, not so cheery, but Fausto left today. He was sad to leave, but also really excited to begin his classes again in El Salvador. Also, for those of you interested in an important and extremely tight election, the presidential elections are next Sunday in El Salvador, and for the first time since the Civil War, the progressive party has a chance of winning. The campaign has been pretty brutal, and the conservative candidate is using fear tactics, such as saying that if the Progressive Candidate wins, then Chavez will be running the country, etc. But apparently, Obama’s election has given some of the people hope that “change” can happen in El Salvador too. So stay tuned!
Well, that is enough for now! I’m uploading some more photos soon! And I finally got my new camera so expect lots of photos from Mom’s visit, etc!
So first off, two weeks ago, I began substituting in the daycare at my job. I have to get there at 7:45 in the morning, which is early, but most of the kids don’t arrive till 8:15, so I have a few moments of calm to organize for the day. Anyways, I am with them until about 12:30, so it is a long morning, and an even longer day on Mon, Tues, and Thurs, because I have class that afternoon from 3-6. So nowadays if I am in bed at 11 pm, that is too late for me! But aside from it being tiring, I actually am having a really good time with the kids. It is MUCH better organized now, not three teachers with 30 kids, but each teacher has their own age group the whole morning, they are only all together for TV Time and snack time. My kids are the oldest (between 4 and 5) and there are only 8 of them, and they all have been at the school for a few years, so they know the routine and the rules, and they are much easier to communicate with than the littler kids, especially the babies. Last week we went on a field trip with the older half of the kids to see some weird and very poorly produced (but energetically performed) children’s theater production that was something like Alice in Wonderland, but had techno music in it, as well as Disney songs. We couldn’t quite figure it out, but the kids loved it. When we were leaving, we had the youngest kids, and we were trying to get all of them on the bus and count to make sure thy were all there, and we almost left one of the kids on the sidewalk. Needless to say, he pouted most of the way home, not a happy camper.
Fausto and I went to the other project of his friend, Tony, in the mountains, and this was MUCH bigger than the first coffee factory. It was this whole federation, sponsored by the EU, and had a hotel, and dorms for groups to come and help work, it had a bamboo forest that they harvested, and had a workshop where the kids of the villages learned how to make furniture from bamboo. The whole complex was pretty amazing, and in a beautiful mountain range with a plunging valley below. That part of the mountains is called the “Mother of waters” because two of the major rivers in the country originate there, one that goes south to the capital and one north to Santiago and regions north. There are small waterfalls all throughout the valley. When mom comes to visit, we are going to spend a weekend at that hotel, a part of the Dominican that most visitors don’t get to see.
Two weeks ago Fausto and I went down to the capital for 4 days, which was nice to have so much time there since he had about 150 people to see, and I had a few too. We were going to stay with Jenny’s family there, they have an extra apartment, but the day we were supposed to leave, they discovered there was no water. So at the last minute, a good friend of mine from study abroad who lives there now let us stay with her. She lives in this apartment/dormitory that is owned by her job (a bilingual school) and lets the foreign teachers live there. We had a great time with her (and two puppies she had rescued from the street early that week, now named Paco and Murphey) who were only 3 weeks old and just precious. We visited a bunch of Fausto’s friends, and we saw Jenny’s family also, and her nephews are ginormous now. We didn’t do much touristy stuff, which was fine with me, although we did walk on the Malecón, the seaside highway, so it was nice to see the Caribbean Sea (the water on the north coast is technically the Atlantic Ocean). On our way back from Santo Domingo, we stopped in La Vega to see Carnival, the most famous (and infamous) Carnaval in the country, and it certainly lives up to its name. Many of you may remember my epic bruise that a I proudly showed three years ago, and it was also from La Vega, although this time they didn’t hit me as hard. But the place was PACKED and the costumes were stunning, and it was even rumored that Mel Gibson was in the VIP Government Viewing Seats.
On the last Sunday of Carnival, Santiago had it’s parade, which we left after 4 hours and it was still going. Unfortunately, this year’s Carnival has been no different in that many people use the crowds and party atmosphere to commit crimes, and not just petty theft. For example, when we were in La Vega, just an hour and a half after we left, someone was killed right where we were sitting. And when we were at the Carnival in Santiaog last week, someone else was killed about 3 blocks from where we were standing. People have been blaming the crisis for the rise in violence, and ti is true that people are more and more desperate, and there have been more large-scale robberies (and here people get killed a lot more in crimes like that), but a producer at a really famous nightclub was stopped on the highway and killed, and the son of the big rum owner was almost killed last weekend too. Now please don’t worry, I don’t feel any more unsafe here than I did before, but I can’t tell you how disenchanted I feel about the police here more and more every day. The ones that you see on the street carry more of a fearful and menacing presence than one of friendliness and protection. The most common interaction I have with the cops is when they are catcalling me from their patrol cars. Of the two groups of people Fausto said were the most dangerous in the country, the cops were one of them (in that you are most likely to end up dead if they are in a bad mood). And they seem to only enforce traffic laws and give tickets when they want a little kickback. Crimes only get solved if the victim was someone of prominence, otherwise it remains “under investigation” indefinitely. Also, they have these ridiculous motorcycles that look like something batman would have, and they always ride around in twos, and they love to get bribes from Haitians, who are supposed to carry their papers at all times. So a cop will often ask a Haitian for his papers, and if he doesn’t have them, he threatens to arrest him if he doesn’t get a bribe. So the Haitian gives him some money and the cop goes away. But it is kind of an empty threat because if the cop is on a motorcycle, he isn’t really going to arrest the guy, and if the Haitian really has no money, it isn’t worth the cops time to take him down to the station because he gets no money for it. He didn’t want to arrest him in the first place, he just wanted some money.
The level of corruption here is really disgusting, and it’s not as if there isn’t corruption in the States, but it is just so obvious here, and so candid that the corrupt act as if what they were doing was okay, because it is okay here. Who is going to stop them? The cops? The politicians? They are the most openly corrupt of them all.
On the cheerier things. Well, not so cheery, but Fausto left today. He was sad to leave, but also really excited to begin his classes again in El Salvador. Also, for those of you interested in an important and extremely tight election, the presidential elections are next Sunday in El Salvador, and for the first time since the Civil War, the progressive party has a chance of winning. The campaign has been pretty brutal, and the conservative candidate is using fear tactics, such as saying that if the Progressive Candidate wins, then Chavez will be running the country, etc. But apparently, Obama’s election has given some of the people hope that “change” can happen in El Salvador too. So stay tuned!
Well, that is enough for now! I’m uploading some more photos soon! And I finally got my new camera so expect lots of photos from Mom’s visit, etc!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Jan. 29
Hi everyone!!! Hope all you East-coasters are enjoying the snow this winter! You might think I’m crazy to say this, but I do miss snowy winters, it’s hard to feel the year passing when the weather is pretty much always the same! I’m so used to having 4 seasons, that the other day I realized, wow, we are right in the middle of winter when not much has even changed since I arrived here in September.
So, Julia, if the weather is staying the same, what have you been up to? Why haven’t you blogged in soooo long? Well, Julia, very interesting question, let me fill you in!
Last time I told you about the organic coffee factory that Fausto and I went to, and tomorrow he and I are going to La Vega again to met with Tony again, to go to another tiny mountain village even farther out, where he has a very similar project, but on a much larger scale, so I am looking forward to that.
The day after we went there a few weeks ago, Fausto’s cousin took us up into the mountains again, close in geography, but a world away technology-wise. This town, Jarabacoa, is much more modern, it is more like a little city. Anyways, it is just beautiful (the scenery, the town itself is pretty dirty and polluted like many cities and towns here), in these soaring mountains and plunging valleys. We went to the Jarabacoa River Club, which was built on both sides of a river and had decks and patios and tons of gardens and plants and a rope bridge across the river and pools on both sides and was just a beautiful place to spend the afternoon. It was a little cloudy, but you could see the mountaintops above the clouds and it was just stunning. I took tons of pictures, but unfortunately they were lost because at some point over the next two days, my camera was stolen. It happened when Fausto and I went to the beach for the weekend. We stayed at a beautiful hotel that had a large courtyard and pool and was just totally surrounded by all different types of trees and flowers, you felt you were in another world. But I think it was there that my camera went missing. So it goes, and besides the camera itself, I only lost one day of photos.
Work has been good, and not very often, since right now it’s only 9 hours a week. I know have 9 students, which is much better than 6, and I’ve been having a great time with them. We do weekly compositions, and I have them peer-editing them as well, so I think their writing will improve a lot. On Monday I did a lesson on Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights’ Movement, which coincided perfectly with the inauguration the next day. They were all really interested, and really surprised to learn about the harsh realities of racism in the US at that time, and we talked about the similarities and differences of that time in the US and now in the DR with racism towards Haitians, as well as the racism that many Dominicans experience when they travel to Spain (apparently they suffer a lot of discrimination there). Aunt Judy emailed me a copy of her pamphlet she still had from the March on Washington in ‘63, and I showed that to the students and we read part of “I Have a Dream,” and I was really happy with how involved the students were.
Last Tuesday was extremely memorable, that goes without saying, and Fausto and Anne and I were glued to the television all morning and afternoon until I had to go to class. Throughout the day I called Mom to ask where she was, and at one point she told me “I saw Garrison Keeler and P. Diddy,” to which I asked “Together?” No. I bought a copy of the paper here, in which Obama is on the cover, people here were really excited about his “toma de posesion,” and they understood that it was really important because Obama was the first black president, but at the same time, everyone here is some shade of black, so it wasn’t such a huge stretch for them, probably best put by Fausto’s mom, saying “And they consider him black?!”
Last weekend was a 4 day weekend for me (no class on Fridays, and Monday was Duarte Day, the father of their revolution), so Fausto and I went to Las Terrenas, a small tourist town in the North coast of the Peninsula Samaná. It’s a 4 hour drive and we left at 6:30 am, so I slept most of the time, except when we stopped at a small rest stop that is famous for it’s fresh cheese, it was delicious! Samaná is definitely the most tropical-looking part of the country because they haven’t really changed the landscape to farm, most of what they grow is cacao and coffee, which grow in forests, so the mountains that cover the landscape are very wild looking. We had a great time there, when it wasn’t raining cats and dogs, but we ate very well (lots of French tourists, so GREAT bakeries there), including paella, gourmet pizza, lots of cafés con leche, and an olive bread to die for. It had rained so much that one day on the beach, all these Dominicans were gathering, all with some sort of baseball equipment, and it turned out that they were going to have a baseball tournament, but the field was two wet, so they just had it on the beach. On Sunday we went to a small town in the hills called Limón, where you can rent horses and guides and they take you into a National Park and climb up to El Salto Limón, the tallest waterfall in the country. It’s 52 meters high, and because of all the rain from the week before, it was about double the amount of water than normal. It was so immense that you could barely walk up to it from the amount of spray coming off of it, trying to swim below it was just about impossible, but it was so beautiful! The path, however, was a little interesting, with the horses slipping a bit, and having to cross two small rivers, which were pretty high after all the rain. But we made it fine, and had a great time, and on the way out, we passed a stand where a man sells fresh cacao bars, about the freshest chocolate I have ever seen. We made hot chocolate last night with it, and it was AMAAAAAAAZINGLY delicious!
In other news, Fausto and I have been cooking a lot lately, we made cannelloni noodles stuffed with eggplant and cheese, and last night we made bruschetta with tomato-topping and white beans. Besides cooking, we have been playing dominos about 4 times a week with the children of Fausto’s neighbors. They are 8 and 9 and don’t play with any strategy, but they are really fun and we have a running championship going (I play with one kid and Fausto with the other). Byron, my teammate, named us the Lions, and went as far as to print out a picture or a lion and made it into a mask and had his two year old brother put it on as our mascot. So Fausto and Whitman (the other kid) made their own team based on Daddy Yankee, and had New York baseball caps and everything. The game got pretty brutal, but Byron and I lost, as usual, but we always have a good time. If you are wondering about the names, the parents’ deal was the father named the boys and the mother the girls. They had three boys. And the father, Milton, loves English poetry, so the first he named Whitman, the second Byron, and the third John (after John Milton, but the father was already named Milton, and he didn’t want a Jr).
We I have chatted long enough, hope you enjoyed. Send me emails and let me know how you all are doing! Love you all!
So, Julia, if the weather is staying the same, what have you been up to? Why haven’t you blogged in soooo long? Well, Julia, very interesting question, let me fill you in!
Last time I told you about the organic coffee factory that Fausto and I went to, and tomorrow he and I are going to La Vega again to met with Tony again, to go to another tiny mountain village even farther out, where he has a very similar project, but on a much larger scale, so I am looking forward to that.
The day after we went there a few weeks ago, Fausto’s cousin took us up into the mountains again, close in geography, but a world away technology-wise. This town, Jarabacoa, is much more modern, it is more like a little city. Anyways, it is just beautiful (the scenery, the town itself is pretty dirty and polluted like many cities and towns here), in these soaring mountains and plunging valleys. We went to the Jarabacoa River Club, which was built on both sides of a river and had decks and patios and tons of gardens and plants and a rope bridge across the river and pools on both sides and was just a beautiful place to spend the afternoon. It was a little cloudy, but you could see the mountaintops above the clouds and it was just stunning. I took tons of pictures, but unfortunately they were lost because at some point over the next two days, my camera was stolen. It happened when Fausto and I went to the beach for the weekend. We stayed at a beautiful hotel that had a large courtyard and pool and was just totally surrounded by all different types of trees and flowers, you felt you were in another world. But I think it was there that my camera went missing. So it goes, and besides the camera itself, I only lost one day of photos.
Work has been good, and not very often, since right now it’s only 9 hours a week. I know have 9 students, which is much better than 6, and I’ve been having a great time with them. We do weekly compositions, and I have them peer-editing them as well, so I think their writing will improve a lot. On Monday I did a lesson on Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights’ Movement, which coincided perfectly with the inauguration the next day. They were all really interested, and really surprised to learn about the harsh realities of racism in the US at that time, and we talked about the similarities and differences of that time in the US and now in the DR with racism towards Haitians, as well as the racism that many Dominicans experience when they travel to Spain (apparently they suffer a lot of discrimination there). Aunt Judy emailed me a copy of her pamphlet she still had from the March on Washington in ‘63, and I showed that to the students and we read part of “I Have a Dream,” and I was really happy with how involved the students were.
Last Tuesday was extremely memorable, that goes without saying, and Fausto and Anne and I were glued to the television all morning and afternoon until I had to go to class. Throughout the day I called Mom to ask where she was, and at one point she told me “I saw Garrison Keeler and P. Diddy,” to which I asked “Together?” No. I bought a copy of the paper here, in which Obama is on the cover, people here were really excited about his “toma de posesion,” and they understood that it was really important because Obama was the first black president, but at the same time, everyone here is some shade of black, so it wasn’t such a huge stretch for them, probably best put by Fausto’s mom, saying “And they consider him black?!”
Last weekend was a 4 day weekend for me (no class on Fridays, and Monday was Duarte Day, the father of their revolution), so Fausto and I went to Las Terrenas, a small tourist town in the North coast of the Peninsula Samaná. It’s a 4 hour drive and we left at 6:30 am, so I slept most of the time, except when we stopped at a small rest stop that is famous for it’s fresh cheese, it was delicious! Samaná is definitely the most tropical-looking part of the country because they haven’t really changed the landscape to farm, most of what they grow is cacao and coffee, which grow in forests, so the mountains that cover the landscape are very wild looking. We had a great time there, when it wasn’t raining cats and dogs, but we ate very well (lots of French tourists, so GREAT bakeries there), including paella, gourmet pizza, lots of cafés con leche, and an olive bread to die for. It had rained so much that one day on the beach, all these Dominicans were gathering, all with some sort of baseball equipment, and it turned out that they were going to have a baseball tournament, but the field was two wet, so they just had it on the beach. On Sunday we went to a small town in the hills called Limón, where you can rent horses and guides and they take you into a National Park and climb up to El Salto Limón, the tallest waterfall in the country. It’s 52 meters high, and because of all the rain from the week before, it was about double the amount of water than normal. It was so immense that you could barely walk up to it from the amount of spray coming off of it, trying to swim below it was just about impossible, but it was so beautiful! The path, however, was a little interesting, with the horses slipping a bit, and having to cross two small rivers, which were pretty high after all the rain. But we made it fine, and had a great time, and on the way out, we passed a stand where a man sells fresh cacao bars, about the freshest chocolate I have ever seen. We made hot chocolate last night with it, and it was AMAAAAAAAZINGLY delicious!
In other news, Fausto and I have been cooking a lot lately, we made cannelloni noodles stuffed with eggplant and cheese, and last night we made bruschetta with tomato-topping and white beans. Besides cooking, we have been playing dominos about 4 times a week with the children of Fausto’s neighbors. They are 8 and 9 and don’t play with any strategy, but they are really fun and we have a running championship going (I play with one kid and Fausto with the other). Byron, my teammate, named us the Lions, and went as far as to print out a picture or a lion and made it into a mask and had his two year old brother put it on as our mascot. So Fausto and Whitman (the other kid) made their own team based on Daddy Yankee, and had New York baseball caps and everything. The game got pretty brutal, but Byron and I lost, as usual, but we always have a good time. If you are wondering about the names, the parents’ deal was the father named the boys and the mother the girls. They had three boys. And the father, Milton, loves English poetry, so the first he named Whitman, the second Byron, and the third John (after John Milton, but the father was already named Milton, and he didn’t want a Jr).
We I have chatted long enough, hope you enjoyed. Send me emails and let me know how you all are doing! Love you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
