What I see...

This is a video I took of my bus ride from Santiago to the entrance of my town. As you can see, the door is wide open and the man standing up is called the "cobrador," he collects the money from the passengers and frequently forgets to leave me at "La Entrada de la Caya." The music you here is typical bachata. On this road, we are traveling west, toward Montecristi. The mountains you see are north, toward Puerto Plata.

A double dose of Thanksgiving

I have decided Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It was a close call between Thanksgiving and Nevada Day (I secretly love the fact that Nevada has chosen not to celebrate Columbus Day, but instead Nevada Day a few weeks later, that Nevada Day is also shared with Halloween, that frequently it’s also on Daylight Savings Time and so you get an extra hour of sleep, and that Nevada is the only state in the union to celebrate its entry into statehood). Despite all of these convincing reasons for Nevada Day to win, Thanksgiving really does take the prize. This year, although it was my first year not spending Thanksgiving with my family, which was hard and a little weird, was one of my best Thanksgivings. Why? Because Thanksgiving 2009 was not limited to November 26, but instead started around 4 p.m. on November 20, 2009.

In August, Francia, my 61-year-old roommate who lived in the states for 30 plus years, told me she wanted to have a Thanksgiving Party so we could eat “comida Americana,” or American food. (A quick aside: I have also decided that Francia is me when I am 61. Or I will be her in 35 years. She’s laid back, she does what she wants when she wants, she doesn’t try to impress anyone (something that is very important here in the DR), she loves to eat good food, but she’s not the first one to cook and she throws a good party). So yes, in August, Francia told me she wanted to have an American Thanksgiving party, and to invite my American friends here to La Caya to eat. Basically, she wanted my friends to come over and cook, so she could enjoy the food- my kind of woman eh?!

My friends started to arrive on Friday the 20, in the afternoon. That night, we made cookies and actually used the oven, which was the first time the oven had been used in my house. Dominican cooking is done on the stovetop, so although nearly everyone has traditional ovens, with a stovetop- people use the oven as storage for bigger pots and pans. After we figured out how to light the oven (first you turn the gas on really high, and then you throw the match into a small hole and back away as quickly as possible- boom, you have yourself a working oven, DR style!), we got to baking delicious chocolate cookies. The only baking pan we actually had was one of those disposable foil-type pans with high sides that are great for parties and was about two-times too big for our small oven. Instead of panicking or calling it quits, we simply got a knife and cut it in half. And then we had TWO baking pans that fit perfectly in the oven. My American friends and I decided that was very Dominican of us- making the situation work, no matter what.

Early that day, I had talked to Francia about getting chicken for the dinner. Out here in the campo (the country) different foods like turkeys are not exactly the easiest thing to come by. So we decided our Thanksgiving would be with chicken. While we were making cookies on Friday night, she went up to town to see if she could buy some chickens (live ones, mind you, that she would kill and skin the next morning). She came back about an hour later with a surprise. She walked into the kitchen holding a live turkey upside down, tied by its feet. She rounded the corner into the kitchen and held out the turkey to show us with a look of pride and happiness, just as the turkey let out a loud squaw and batted its wings from all the commotion. Francia then explained that while she was looking for chicken, someone from town knew she had a bunch of Americans at her house (boy word travels fast) and gifted her the turkey for our dinner. We all cheered and then she set the live turkey down in the kitchen and it sat there, tied up, squawking now and again for the rest of the night as we continued to make turkeys. Eventually she took it outside, and you know… but talk about fresh right?

The next day, the rest of my Peace Corps friends arrived throughout the day, for a total of 11 including myself. Eddy graciously offered us the use of his house and pool, and so we went up there after lunch and enjoyed the craziness of his “mountaintop mansion,” as my friend Geoffrey called it. While some of us swam and enjoyed Eddy’s infinity pool (yes, I said infinity pool), the rest of us started cooking. We cooked all afternoon, in true Thanksgiving style, and had quite an incredible menu when it was all through including: turkey, mashed potatoes, cabbage salad, a garbanzo/vegetable salad, broccoli, bread, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing (homemade and from a box), and an apple and pumpkin pie for dessert. I feel like I’m forgetting things- but really everything was delicious, especially the pies which were made by Amanda and Jean.

I invited my family that I eat lunch with everyday and the people who work at my center. Our neighbors came up too and so with my friends- there were probably between 30 and 40 people. Which for Eddy is probably the smallest party he has ever thrown. I was nervous about the Dominicans not liking the food, based mostly on my experience on cooking American spaghetti for them, but they loved it. Especially the pumpkin pie. I was so impressed with my PC friends too. Everyone brought stuff with them from the city or their site. We really ate like Kings and Queens the whole weekend. After the meal, we danced on Eddy's ridiculous outdoor gazebo thing and even went for a late night swim. All in all it was a really lovely evening and it was so nice to share some of American traditions, not only with other Americans, but with my new friends and family here in the DR.

That was the weekend before Thanksgiving. For real Thanksgiving, this last Thursday, I traveled into the capital for the annual Peace Corps Thanksgiving Party.

The day started off with a Turkey Trot (6.5K) around the botanical gardens in the city. It was a great run, but we started around 8:30 a.m., which meant it was already pretty miserably hot. After the race, we went to this posh country club in Santo Domingo that had a large pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, a large dining room, all kinds of good stuff. I spent the morning going off the high dive. It was glorious. I felt like I was a kid again, going to the Moana Pool with Mike and jumping off the high dive as high as many time as possible.

The country club had made a pretty traditional T-Day meal with turkey, mashed and sweet potatoes, salad, broccoli, cranberry sauce and stuffing. A few days before, 10 or more volunteers came early and made 4 types of pies: chocolate mousse, key lime, pecan and pumpkin. All four were my delicious and my favorite part of the meal.

After the meal, we all just hung out and enjoyed the pool. By “we,” I mean most of the PC volunteers in the country- so about 150 people. There was a slide show filled with PC pictures, a talent show and a meringue and bachata dance competition. The day started at 6 a.m. for the run and we didn’t leave the country club until 10 p.m.

Like I said, it was sad and different not to be with my family, but I distracted myself well with the high dive. Francia is already talking about next year’s Thanksgiving party here and how she’s going to buy more turkey. Who knows though, maybe if I spread the word early enough, someone in my town will have a couple of live turkeys to give us when all those crazy gringos come back.

I also posted more pictures of the Thanksgiving at my house. The link is on the right. Check it out of your interested.

Proud Teacher

I am starting to wrap up my computer and English classes for the year, and to be honest I couldn't be more excited about it. My main goal for this Fall was to get classes started at my Center, because when I arrived to La Caya, there were no classes whatsoever being offered. We started in August with the plan to end the first week of December. Part of me can't believe we're already almost there, wile the other part of me thinks four months of the same classes is WAY TOO LONG.

The classes were done successfully, with the help of Fausto and Yuli (the other teachers at my center). Fausto finished with his two computer classes a week ago, and Yuli and I are giving our final exam on Monday. My English classes will finish the 30 of November and the 1 of December.

When I get back from my much anticipated visit home in January, classes will of course start again, but Yuli will be taking over my section of the computer classes (it's all about sustainability), Fausto will continue with his classes and add an Excel Class and a Dreamweaver (web design) class as well. I'm hoping to take a step back from computer classes to concentrate on the youth groups I want to start and getting the Dominican government to come build me a library (seriously, pray for me).

The real reason I wanted to post this blog is because today Yuli and I had our last review day in computer class. The exam is a series of steps we both created for the students to complete with the computer and different programs. For example: "Create a folder on the desktop." "Open Microsoft Word and create a table in Microsoft Word." "Copy an image from the internet and paste it in PowerPoint." "Email a classmate an email with a document attached." And so on and so forth.

I sat with Rosa, a student, and her and I went through the test together- me reading her the instructions and her following. As I told her to do things and she did them, mostly remembering on her own, or if she didn't- remembering quickly after I gave her a hint... I just couldn't help but feel the pride swell inside me. On the first day of class, Rosa didn't even know how to turn a computer on. Now, she's making tables, changing fonts and text sizes, she's emailing with her email account we created in class and creating PowerPoint presentations.

I know this may seem ordinary to everyone back home, but here it's a big deal. Even if it's only a big deal to Rosa and me. I still don't know how I feel about teaching, and if it's something I would want to continue when I'm back in the states- but on a selfish level, knowing I taught Rosa a skill, does make me feel really good. Four months ago, she didn't know anything with computers and now she does.

It takes time and people willing to teach and learn. Something I think I should remember for the rest of my service.

Encargados del Futuro

Last week was the annual Peace Corps IT sector, "Encargado del Futuro," conference. Which translates basically to "Bosses of the future." Each one of us IT Peace Corps Volunteers were allowed to take two youth from our communities to a three-day conference outside of Santiago.

I took Cristina, 18 and German (pronounced Herman), 19. German is really involved with the radio station at my center, is taking my computer class and is at the center almost everyday just hanging out. Cristina is in my English class and I had no idea she was even interested in computers, but my team at the center picked her because her father is running for mayor (against my Dona's brother), and the people who work at my center are apart of Cristina's dad's political party. There seems to always be another form of motivation to these kinds of things.

Despite this, they are both great kids and I am really glad I took both of them. The conference was held in two places. We stayed and ate a church/missionary place. It was a large, beautiful place with good food and HOT showers. Everyday, we would drive about five minutes to a nearby university campus. I think it was some sort of teacher training university, where people can come and get a degree in teaching.

The days were filled with different computer "charlas," or presentations/talks. Almost all of us volunteers gave a charla alone or with another volunteer on everything from computer programs such as photoshop and publisher, to computer maintenance, to creating a blog, to improving and running your computer lab in you community with more efficiency.

I gave a charla, not on anything with computers, but "What is a Leader?" I showed the kids a picture of Barack, Trujillo (the Dominican dictator who killed countless Dominicans for thirty years before being assassinated by a plot supported by the CIA in the 1960's), Leonel Fernandez (the current Dominican President) and the one-and- only Fidel Castro. We then discussed the differences between good and bad leaders and how men who are good can do bad things and men who are bad can do good things (Trujillo built most of the infrastructure in this country, including schools and roads through the country). We then discussed the differences between visions and goals, and what their visions and goals are for their life, their computer labs an their communities. I had each youth write themselves a letter to be opened five years from now (November 2014). Did you ever do this in school? You write a letter to yourself about all the things you want to do in that amount of time and then you open it 5 years, 10 years later- whatever and see if you actually did it, or what other paths you have taken since then.

I ended the conversation by asking each youth "Who is the leader of their life?" And how no matter what is going on, or who is leading the world or different countries, YOU are the leader of your life. So yes, even in Spanish, I can be the cheesiest person alive. Surprised?

The conference, for the most part, was a huge success. We had a "Casino Night," on the second night. Arya, another volunteer browed a bunch of hand-made carnival type games from a former PC volunteer who lives close to him. We had two bean bag tosses, a balloon-dart throwing game, turtle races and a mini-golf thing. We had tables set up for black-jack and dominoes and Amanda and Katie, had a bracelet making station, which was a huge hit. We bought ice cream and gave away candy and soda the whole night, so everyone was just cracked out on sugar- so of course the kids loved it.

A couple of the boys brought in alcohol and got caught. They were punished and were not allowed to attend the Casino Night festivities. It brought up some interesting points about alcohol and kids. In the US- it would have been such a bigger deal. Parents would have been called, kids would have gone home early. But here, in the DR- where there really is no drinking age (my town tells me kids start drinking when they start asking for it), there are different standards of what is and isn't acceptable. And although youth may start drinking here anywhere between 12 - 15 (what am I talking about, the last event in my town, I saw an 8-year-old with a beer in his hand), these boys knew bringing alcohol to this conference was not the smartest decision.

On the last day of the conference, we gave out certificates to each youth and a 2 Gig USB filled with pictures we took over the three days of the conference. You would have thought we gave each of them a new car, they were that excited. Both my youth came up to me and told me how excited they were about the USB's, because they both have always wanted one but could never afford it. That was a really great feeling, to see how grateful they were.

After the conference, my two youth gave me notes saying thank you (I gave them each one too, saying thanks for coming and I was proud of them, etc). German's note was a bit more alarming and surprising, because he told me he was in love with me and that "he hopes to love me for the rest of his life." I mean, come on! At least it's romantic right?! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

To be honest, I was a little nervous about German and this happening, but he's such a good, nice kid and I really wanted to take him to the conference because he deserved it more than anyone else. Part of me kind of thinks he wrote me that note, because he feels like he had to. This whole Dominican man thing of confessing your love to a girl, because they did something nice for you. Or confessing your love to the American because she's American. I don't know. It was a very lovely note, but right now I'm choosing to ignore it (and him for a week or so) and hopefully he'll get the picture. If he doesn't, then I'll have to tell him more directly that there is no chance of a future with me and that loving me for the rest of his life, well would never be worth it.

Other than that, a great few days. I'm already excited for next year's conference.

This weekend, my Dona and I are hosting a "Pre-Thanksgiving Party" for some of my Peace Corps friends. We're having chicken, but we're attempting to make mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, salad... Jean, another volunteer is bringing a homemade pie. It should be a good time. And then for actual Thanksgiving, the Peace Corps hosts a dinner for all the volunteers in the country. And apparently, the food is very much so a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. I couldn't be more excited.

So yes, more updates to come... Happy Pre-Thanksgiving! Make a dinner entirely on your stove top and think of me.

Julio Iglesias

Last night I went to my first Dominican Concert: Julio Iglesias. It was in Santiago and I went with Eddy and his nephew. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of putting myself in a situation of being alone with two Dominican men, but Eddy is my "uncle" and Gracias A Dios- nothing remotely uncomfortable happened.

We left La Caya at about 7:15 to take the hour long drive into Santiago. Eddy had bought "Super VIP" seats, which cost $6000 pesos a piece (which is more than half of my monthly salary, PS). We were on the ground floor, in the second section of seats, about 60 feet away from the stage.

The guy who opened for Julio was a Dominican Meringue singer and he was great. Full of energy and life. He danced across the stage to every song and had the crowd singing, clapping and standing! (a rarity for Dominicans). After his show, I was really excited for Julio. I mean, I know it's Julio Iglesias and I'm about 30 years too young, but I appreciate a man who can sing. Who doesn't?

Well, Julio came on and immediately starting yelling at his band. He spent the next 2.5 hours doing this. He stopped in the middle of 3 songs, because his band wasn't doing what he wanted them to do, and the entire time he kept telling his sound man to turn the volume down. When the crowd would start to sing a song with him, he would do the "shhh" motion- finger to lips action. It was like watching live elevator music. People were having conversations in regular speaking voices, because the music was at that low of a level.

It was... probably one of the worst live concerts I have ever been too. Yes, he had some good moments where he had the crowd laughing and (when he would let them) singing. But I just couldn't get over all his stage directions and dirty looks to his band and his people behind stage. And he gave himself I think 5 or 6 encores. We even cut out early, right before his last one, because it was just too much.

I did some research on ol' Mr. Julio this morning and it turns out he's given over 5,000 concerts worldwide in his life. Someone should tell him he's served his time, his given his gift to society, and now he can just relax and live off the royalties of his some 20+ records. He's not doing anyone any favors anymore by performing live.

After the show, we met up with some of Eddy's older couple friends and went to a nice posh restaurant in Santiago. We didn't get there until 12:30 AM and when we did, we were some of the first people arriving to the restaurant. By the time we were done with dinner, around 2 AM, the restaurant was still filling up with people eating dinner.

It was a good experience, and something different. I'm grateful for Eddy's generosity and the fact that both him and his nephew were gentlemen. It's nice to be able to do things in this country and not worry about men trying to steal my money, ask me to marry them so they can have a visa or what have you.

But the next time a concert comes along, I think I'll take a rain check, even if we are "Super VIP."

An Exorcism

There is a teenage boy in La Caya who is possessed by a spirit. The spirit possessing the boy is someone who lived and died here in La Caya years ago. When the spirit entered the boy, he told him to walk down the cemetery and go to his grave so everyone would know who the spirit was. The spirit entered the boy about two months ago and has been revealing himself through the boy with more vigor lately.

I have witnessed two separate occasions when the spirit has showed himself through the boy. Both times, the boy was being harassed by his peers. The first time, a bunch of kids were playing basketball at the new court by my center. The boy wasn't playing or wasn't playing well or something, and soon starting going into convulsions. Everyone started screaming and running away from the court. All of us at the center went outside to see the commotion, and there he was- lying on the dirt, convulsing. His arms, legs and neck being raised like a puppet on a string and then let go of carelessly and without consideration.

This lasted about 5 minutes. Then he came to his senses, walked over the center cooly where a few of the kids had stuck around to see the action, and immediately tried to punch another kid in the face.

The second "spirit showing," as I'll call them, was on Tuesday evening. I was at my center waiting for my English class to start, when someone yelled that the boy was at the corner having another episode,if you will. We went to see what was happening, and as we took the short walk to the corner, there was the boy being restrained by 6 or 7 adult men, snarling, drooling, rolling his eyes to the back of his and snapping his body violently in attempts to be set free.

I walked slowly over, standing about 30 feet away from all the commotion. He noticed me out of the corner of his eye. He looked at me, managed to get his left arm free, stuck his tongue out at me and then flipped me off. Pretty clever of the spirit I thought.

At this point, his mom, brother and sister (I think) came over, put their hands together like they were a basketball team in a huddle before starting the first quarter, and started chanting prayers. Eventually this calmed him down and he went limp in the arms of the men restraining him.

Another man watching the commotion called me over and said somebody needed to go to the doctor and get the boy a pill to calm him down, because his Mom wasn't going to do anything about it.

Yesterday after church (services are on Saturday's in my town), was the apparent exorcism. They brought a priest in from somewhere, and after the service, they closed all the windows and who knows what went on. I wasn't there, I just live next to the church, so I could hear the boy's snarling and the strain of the people against the pews as they tried to keep the boy restrained.

I have no idea what happened, or if the exorcism was successful. But I'll let you know if I get flipped off again sometime next week.

Either way, whether this kid really is/was possessed by a spirit or a pill really would help him, it is clear that he needs attention. From his mom, his siblings, the town, whoever. I just hope he finds whatever it is he needs, because this poor kid... I don't even know what to say to be honest.

This week from La Caya...

My friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Alanna, has been visiting me since Wednesday. We've had quite the good and relaxing week, going to my classes at my center, walking and running around my lagoon and town and attending different functions happening in my town.

Most weekends here in La Caya are quite sleepy. They are a great time for me to just catch up on the week, read, relax, try not to melt in the heat, spend four or five hours (not exaggerating) just sitting on a porch saying maybe 30 words to my Dominican family during that time. It's what people do here and I am "integrating," as the Peace Corps preaches to us as our number one goal for our service, especially in the beginning.

Anyway, yesterday the last day of October, Halloween, Nevada Day (Happy Nevada Day!), there were two separate functions in my town. The first was the inauguration of the new basketball court (concha) my town built and the second was a political rally on one of the corners for Eddy.

Yes, my town is that small, a specific corner is the happening place and where all kinds of social functions occur: political rallies, birthday parties, wedding receptions, or just hanging out on a Saturday night.

Alanna and I went to the inauguration first. We were 45 minutes late and right on time for the actual inauguration to begin. It was the typical Dominican style event, with a head table filled with important people, a small pick-up holding 4 over-sized speakers, the crowd not really paying attention with cell phones ringing and people talking...

The most annoying thing about Dominican style meetings is the formality. First, all the important people at the table have to be introduced with their title, and then whenever a person comes to speak, each speaker has to acknowledge every person at the table. So every time a different speaker comes to the microphone, he/she has to first say "Buenos tardes A Senior Felix, "Good afternoon Pablo Cruz, Mayor of La Caya." etc, etc. Every single person! Like we haven't figured out who the heck is sitting at the table by now. Drives me crazy.

After the formal speeches, where each person talked about how great the new court is and how great they are for making it happen, everyone went to the middle of the court where a ribbon was hanging from a volleyball net (the basketball court will double as a volleyball court). At this point, I am taking pictures of everything and Juan Ramon, the President of my center, calls my name to hold the other end of the ribbon so the mayor can cut it. I get pushed through the crowd where I hold the red, white and blue ribbon (coincidentally the Dominican flag colors as well), the mayor cuts it and gives Alanna and I both a piece of it. Later, another man brought me the center bow of the ribbon, which I in turn gave to my "grandma" here, who gave me a big hug and a kiss for bringing her something so pretty.

Soon after the ribbon cutting, someone brought out the obligatory "refrescos," or small plastic cups of soda for the entire crowd. I'm always amazed when this happens, because it seems like no matter how many people are there, everyone will have a refresco. And everyone will, disappointingly, most likely, throw their plastic cup on the ground instead of in a trash can.

After the inauguration, Alanna and I went to my family's house to wait for Angi and Yulisia (my Dominican cousins, I guess you could call them). Alanna and I were slightly dressed up for the occasion. I mean, the event was happening on the corner- we couldn't just wear rags out of the house. But we were in no way near dressed up to Angi and Yulisia. Sometimes I just have to laugh at how different cultures are, and also how the people here must think my clothes are so strange and casual.

Eventually, we drove up to the corner, even though it's a five minute walk, and waited. The event was for Eddy's campaign, and he too also had the obligatory small pick-up with 4 over-sized speakers which successfully accomplish, "Dominican loud," which in comparison is like standing next to a giant speaker at some kind of sporting event and having the announcer yell into the microphone and play all the music at full-blast through the speakers.

Angi and Yulisia are part of the purple party, the PLD, and Eddy belongs to the White Party, the PRD, and so they were just there to make appearances, not to support any festivities. We hung out for a while, listening once more to men talk about how great they are, were eventually fed some more of that infamous "Dominican spaghetti," Eddy gave away 100 free bottles of beer to whoever could get one first, and then everything seemed to be over as quickly as it started.

Dona Francia was at the event and Alanna and I caught a ride home with her once everything was dying down. When we got back to the house, there was a huge frog jumping around in the kitchen, one of the biggest butterflies I've ever seen resting on a lampshade, three dogs following Francia and the two cats wanting to see the commotion. Francia, Alanna and I all screamed when we first saw the frog high on the ceiling. "Tenemos un zoológico aquí!" Francia said. -We have a zoo here! As we all screamed a few more times, as it jumped from the floor to the ceiling, back to the floor, back to the ceiling and eventually out an open door (Gracias A Dios). We decided to wait until morning to get the butterfly out.

An hour later or so when Alanna and I were calling it a night, we saw the mouse that has been living in the cupboard scuttle across the floor. And even though normally, I would scream and jump on a chair out of disgust and fear, last night I just sort of shrugged and thought- well if we really have a zoo here, we might as well add a mouse.