Investigation on the Mountaintop

Quick Update: Francia just told me that Eddy, my resident "drug dealer," and her half-brother who is also running for mayor was investigated by the Federal Police to see if he really did have ties with drug dealers.

Apparently, two men from town (who happen to be the head guy of my center and the dad of the family who I eat lunch with) who are both coincidentally named Juan Ramon called the Feds to have Eddy investigated. I mean, I can understand their suspicion, but it also so happens that both Juan Ramon's support the opposite political party from Eddy.

Anyway, they called the police, the police showed up to Eddy's house- the "Mountaintop Mansion," as my Peace Corps friends have called it- and searched Eddy and all his workers high and low. They took a passport from someone (not sure who) and a few other cedulas (which is basically a Dominican ID card).

Francia spent most of the mid-morning and afternoon praying up in her room. I could hear her sort of chanting, but I had no idea what she was really doing. Turns out, she was praying everything went well during the investigation.

Well, God answered because the police did not find anything at Eddy's house. He was cleared and is now currently blasting his own personalized themed meringue campaign song, which translates into something like, "For your neighbors, for your friends, for your family- Eddy is the mayor for everyone."

I mean, I can't say I blame him. If the whole world thought I was a drug dealer and found out I really wasn't, I'd also blast a song telling them to vote for me for mayor.

Chores

Today I thought seriously about moving out on my own. To my own wooden house with cracks in between every plank, a zinc roof, cement floors and a latrine in the backyard. My own Dominican dream house...

I came home this afternoon, after spending the weekend in the capital (Santo Domingo) and Santiago to an empty house. Francia "salio," or left, as my neighbor told me. Who knows when... yesterday? Friday? This morning? 5 minutes before I arrived from my motorcycle taxi ride? Yet the house still seemed to have the air of abandonment.

I walked up the stairs to my room and noticed cat poop and throw-up on the floor, the floor-mat and the bed where the guard sleeps outside of my window. "Well I guess cleaning never hurt anyone," I thought to myself.

I walked back down the stairs, unlocked the downstairs part of the house to the kitchen and found moldy fruit being invaded by a nation of fruit flies in the sink. Dirt and leaves had blown in from the open windows to leave a general cover of grime on the counters and floor. "Well, I guess cleaning the whole house never hurt anyone," I thought to myself now.

I went to do laundry, since we had power and water at the same time, and found the semi-automatic washing machine to also have a nice layer of dirt in the bottom of the machine. I cleaned the washing machine in order to clean my clothes, and then the work began.

Washed a load of clothes, my sheets and a defected floor-mat. Swept and mopped the floors upstairs and downstairs. Disinfected my entire bathroom. Came downstairs and did the same to the kitchen counters and the stove. I was too lazy to clean the downstairs bathroom, but I did scrub the kitchen walls, because as the clouds parted and sun shone through the windows, there was a ridiculous amount of grease splotches on both walls by the stove.

Finished laundry and swept a part of the outside patio. Moved my air-drying clothes to follow the fleeting sun, when all of a sudden the water faucet (where the house is, what's that called?) exploded. It was like the Tivoli Fountain in my front-yard. I ran over and tried to put the PCP pipe back together, which had rocketed off from all the pressure.

I failed miserably. In attempts to put the already jerry-rigged pipe pieces back together, I basically took a shower instead. The entire front of my body got drenched in the downpour. It was hilarious. I tried again and drenched myself even more. I decided I was a fool for trying to do this alone and ran through the water and my yard to my neighbor's house, and with water dripping down my face asked her frantically to come help me.

After a little bit more of a struggle and some more direct facial water shots, together we eventually fixed the water geyser. By this time, the grass and the dirt had become flooded to become a swamp and a mud-pit.

I told my neighbor, Lidia, thank you very much and how sorry I was that she got her clothes wet. She just smiled and said she was going to change anyway so not to worry and she was always there for help. She patted her now wet jeans, laughed and walked away, and I knew that she really did mean that she would always be there to help me.

I decided after this moment, that a dirty house that would never truly by mine was worth a good neighbor who would always be there to help control the floods.

Earthquake

As most of you probably already know there was a catastrophic earthquake in Haiti last night. With a 7.3 magnitude, I can only imagine the kind of real devastation it caused. The pictures in the papers and on the news will never truly show how much real damage these people are dealing with and will continue to deal with for countless years to come.

Here in the DR, I didn’t really feel anything when the quake happened. I was walking around the outside of my house and the tank that the rain water empties into, so we can drink it, started spilling out over the top. I thought it was nearly impossible how water could be spilling out over the top of this 10 foot-high tank, and as I walked over there to examine it, I wondered if an animal had somehow fallen in and was splashing around just to get out.

Moments later, my neighbor came running through the yard asking me if I felt the earth move. I sort of laughed, not knowing how grave the quake really had been and looked back up at the water tank that was now back to its original calm. Within seconds, a herd of people came flooding out of the Catholic Church that is my neighbor. An older woman had fainted when she felt the earthquake and at least 15 people were carrying her to the nearest car to race her up to the clinic in my town. No word today on her progress, but I’m assuming no news is good news right?

Francia and I watched the news repeat itself last night for over an hour. With no correspondents in Haiti, CNN Espanol just kept switching between a computer graphic image of the epicenter of the quake and a distant satellite photo of the area before the quake. Part of me was relieved to not see the real images. I couldn’t help but imagine if this earthquake would have happened in Santo Domingo or Santiago, what it would mean for all of us on the Eastern side of the island. What it means now for all those on the Western side.

Kathy, another Peace Corps Volunteer who is my sector’s leader if you will, called me a few hours later to make sure I was okay and nothing drastic happened. She didn’t feel anything in Santo Domingo. We talked casually about our recent trips back to the states over Christmas.

I hung up the phone feeling so lucky: I went to America for nearly three weeks to see family and friends over the holidays. I came back to a beautiful island where I have a monthly paycheck. No, it’s hardly any money when you convert it to US Dollars, but it’s a paycheck. I have a job, which is something many people my age can’t say right now. I felt an earthquake last night but wondered if it was some kind of animal enjoying a dip in the water tank. I am blessed and I am grateful. Please have your prayers and thoughts with all those in the world who are not nearly as lucky.

Wallet-less and Full.

After a week of language training in the capital, I am back in La Caya, waiting for four days to pass so I can fly to America.

Oh America, the beautiful. Which, were I live in Reno Nevada, is currently covered in snow. People keeping asking me what I want to do while I'm home. The truth is, I don't care, as long as we're eating. We can do whatever everyone wants, as long at some point we will eat something and share the wonder in good food, in variety of food, in the plenty of food.

A frustration: Last night, I got home from the capital at about 7 p.m. I took a bucket bath (with notably colder water- it's "winter" here too now, I guess) and ate dinner. After these tasks, I took out my wallet and counted my money to see if I needed to get some cash out before I left for the states. I had about $1200 pesos (or about $40 US), so no worries.

I woke up this morning, went on my usual run with Francia's dogs. After my run, I went up to my room to get my wallet so I could buy breakfast (eggs and stale bread) from the colmado (store) close to my house. I started to search for my wallet, and ended up searching for the next two hours. The wallet that was in my room last night was not in my room this morning.

After about 2 hours of literally tearing my room apart, with some help from Francia as well, I still am wallet-less. I have no idea if I put it in a great hiding place or if someone seriously came into my room and took it while I was on my run. Both are possible.

After screaming (no joke) I decided to go up to my family's house for lunch. I told them about what happened and of course they were greatly concerned about my lost wallet, but Silvia, the Mom of the house- my other Dona, was much more concerned with my stomach...

Me: When I was done running, I went to my room to get my wallet so I could buy breakfast, but it wasn't there. I looked for two hours and still couldn't find it.

Silvia: Wait, did you ever eat breakfast this morning?

Me: Well no, because I never found my wallet to buy food.

Silvia: Mi amor! And you didn't come up here to my house to eat?! (as she hits me hard on the shoulder)

Me: Well, I couldn't because, like I said, I spent the whole morning looking for my wallet.

Silvia: Ei yi yi, I have already told you, when you are hungry, you need to come to my house and eat here.

Me: I know Dona, I know. But really, I spent the whole morning looking for it, so I wouldn't have eaten anyway.

Silvia: (Shakes her head slowly while making a "tsk tsk" sound). This child needs to eat now. Gracias A Dios (Thanks to God) it is time for lunch.

And then she proceeded to give me the biggest bowl in the house so I could have the biggest share of the soup she had made for lunch. She even took it away when I was about halfway done and refilled it for me. She was right, I was hungry. I ate all of with it no problem.

I'm going to give my entire house one last search tonight to see if my wallet will magically appear. Put some good detective thoughts in the Universe for me. And if it is never found, I hope the money is in the hands of someone who needs it. Maybe my Peace Corps ID will get someone a voyage to the states. Because even though I am angry and annoyed that I lost my wallet with all that money, my bankcard and Peace Corps ID, especially four days before I go home- I'm definitely not hungry. And for that I am thankful.

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.