Mas Gordita

After being “standfasted” in the capital for three days, I am finally back in my site after my wonderful American vacation. Standfast is what the Peace Corps calls “lockdown” due to various factors, such as strikes, violence and in most cases, weather. I arrived to Santo Domingo on Thursday morning to a cloudy and drizzly day. Thursday night, I thought God had sent Noah’s Ark once again to save us from the flood.

It was a crazy amount of rain, and because of it, all of us Peace Corps Volunteers who happened to be in the capital were stuck there until Sunday. With intense rain like that, Peace Corps will take no chances of traveling. During the rainy season, streams turn into rivers which turn into lakes which happen to cover a good portion of the highway. What should be a couple hours driving, can literally take days.

Finally, on Sunday the ban was lifted and we could all be on our merry way around the country. After being gone for a month from my site, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I arrived yesterday to find everything pretty much normal. My neighbor painted their house (Dominican peach as I call it) and my Dona, Francia, got a new small flat screen TV. Yes, a flat screen. We are living the high-life here.

I spent most of the day yesterday in my house, cleaning up and unpacking. My neighbor Rosa came over to welcome me home, and insisted I come over and eat leftovers from lunch. It was such a blessing, because I was hungry and didn’t have any food in my house. After dinner, Francia caught me up on all the latest gossip. I went to bed with mosquito bites and sweat dripping down my back, and felt like both were normal.

As I walked up from my house this morning to my center, I ran into the usual characters and as I expected, they all told me the same thing:

“Pero tu eres mas gordita:” You are a little bit fatter. They said, as they grab at my stomach as if to prove it to me.

Normally this comment bothers me, I mean- it would bother any American, let’s be serious. But today, I just smiled and replied with an enthusiastic smile, “Yo se, Yo se!” I know, I know. “Yo comí mucho pa’lla,” I ate a lot over there (over there, referring to America).

I think about how these same conversations used to bother and offend me when I first arrived. In training they told us to expect things like this, but until someone tells you to your face that you are fatter, you never quite know how you will feel about it. Now, I sort of relish in it. I understand now when people tell me I’m fatter; they are not insulting me, but complimenting me. As if to say, “hey girl! Good for you for eating. We are blessed to have food and if you have it, you dang well should eat it!”

This afternoon I am in center just catching up on being gone. After about an hour of sitting here, Mari called me into the office. My coworkers, Mari, Selsy and Fausto, had bought soda, crackers, cheese and salami. This kind of a snack on a regular day really means something big is happening. I looked at them puzzled and said what’s this for? They all turned to me and said, “Because you’re back.”

I gave them each a hug and thought to myself how being fatter has never felt better.