i have no shame.

ps if anyone wants to prove that they love me here's my address. i welcome peanut butter and small school supplies!

Virginia Martin

Cuerpo de Paz

Avenida Bolivar 451, Gazcue

Apartado Postal 1412

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

let's play catch up

Or not.

                I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I haven’t had internet, so sue me. In fact, I still don’t have internet, I’m just writing this in the hope that soon Pedro Santana will recover from election immobility and I may be able to get into the CTC (computer lab) soon. Because, yeah, it’s been election times which means a) no one does anything and b) I can’t get to work, because the kids don’t even go to school. they should be back in full swing by Wednesday though (today is Monday fyi) at which point I’m hoping to observe as many classes as I can before the school year ends (technically in june).

                So Danilo is gonna be our next president. We aren’t allowed to have political opinions though, so this is me saying without any emotion whatsoever, “papá lost, and Danilo is gonna be our next president.” You’re wondering how I feel about it aren’t you? You’re all “oh man, I can’t tell if she’s disappointed or not”. The truth is I don’t know enough about the politics here to have an opinion, so I’m actually completely ambivalent about the whole thing. Except that it has prevented me from being able to stuff in my community (that and me being ever so slightly timid). I’m less ambivalent about that.

                So these past few days all I’ve done is walk around town, explore outside of town, study Spanish, read (Harry Potter in Spanish, and West with the Night when I just can’t handle any more Spanish) and eat way too much. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome back all the weight I accidently lost during training. I would also like to take this opportunity to say a less than fond farewell to the “diapation” I’ve been suffering from. Thanks so much for your visit, please don’t come again.

                Is that TMI? I don’t really care. This kind of talk is commonplace among us volunteers. Ps, I have not gotten tired of saying “us volunteers” yet. I may not be doing much of anything in my site yet, and I may be feeling slightly overwhelmed, but at least I can say “yeah, I’m a Peace Corps volunteer. What of it?” with a nonchalant shrug of my shoulders, hands in my pockets, “modestly” downcast eyes, and a casual sniff. The sniff obviously being a side-effect of the gripe I can’t quite kick.

Ok Sudoku break (what was all that I was saying before about being a useless volunteer?)

--Dominican hour later)—

                So I just forced myself out of the house, and decided to sit across the street with my Doña for an hour mas or menos. I played myself some dominoes with some of the dudes sitting nearby after my Doña figured out that I can play…because I told her. I won a few games, got myself some respect, lost a few games, lost myself some of said respect. But hey, a gringa winning a few games? I came out ahead there.  Then I sat and “listened” to some other elders talking for a while. I say “listened” because I still haven’t figured out the accent here entirely and can only sometimes get the gist of what is being said when they aren’t slowing down their speech for the Americana who just stares blankly back at you if you talk to fast at her. Too be fair, it’s the same for me in English. But anyway, I could tell they were chisme-ing (aka gossiping for those of you aren’t as proficient in Spanglish as I am) about family in Santiago, and then about guagua drivers and their cobredors (the guys who handle the money). I am just proud I figured out that much!

                So lesson learned: stop feeling lame and/or sorry for yourself and go sit with neighbors. You will feel better, somehow you will feel productive, and you will no longer be a useless slob. Cool beans!

                So about that catch up: I got back from kreyòl camp on Friday. That was an experience. The camp, and the getting back home fiasco. Let’s start with the getting back home fiasco because it’s a fun little story. Kreyòl camp was in the south of the country in a little place called Batey 9. That means nothing to you, I know, but the important part is that it is in a place I had never been to, traveled through, or nada. Getting there, I had taken the bus from Pedro Santana to Azua where the private bus (full of all the other volunteers who were allowed to meet in Santo Domingo before camp) picked me up. So that was easy. But on the way back I was gonna have that private bus drop me off at a crossroads called Cruz 15 de Azua because that is a common stop for my bus, and when it went through I would definitely see it, whereas my chances of randomly finding it in Azua were close to 0%. But luckily the genius driver dropped me off at a different tiny Cruz 15 a solid 45 kilometers away from anywhere my bus would be even remotely close to (aka the correct Cruz 15). So after several halting conversations with roadside stall owners and one guagua driver we figured out that I was in the wrong spot. Actually those guys had figured it out a bit before me and spent about 8 minutes trying to convince me to get on the driver’s guagua so he could take me to the right spot. 30 minutes later I was finally at the correct crossroads and sat by the road for 4 hours reading West with the Night and journaling. I wasn’t about to whip out my ipod, call me paranoid. Oh and here’s the best part. If the busses were running on time, then I absolutely had to catch the one I saw to my site, because it would be the last one of the day, so if I missed it, I would be royally fucked. Now let’s rewind to elections again: here everyone has to return to where they are registered in order to vote. Like Mary and Joseph. Which means everyone was leaving the big cities to go to the campos where they were born this weekend. And I knew this, so the big fear wasn’t my missing the bus, but rather that I would see it and it would be full. There would almost be no room in the inn for me and my backpack. If the inn was a rundown piece of public transportation. So here’s what went down: I saw the bus and barely flagged it down on time (I was on the phone with my mom and wasn’t paying perfect attention, oops). Was there space? Kind of. I forced my bag under the last fold out seat on which I sat side-saddle because there were a bunch of laundry hampers where my legs were supposed to go. Then the cobredor basically had to sit on me every time he wanted to open or close the door. But I fit! I figured out later that there actually was another bus after that one, simply because all the busses were running so late that day, due to parades for the elections—thank god, I will never have to live through another Dominican election. I mean, never say never, but yeah—never. At 7 I practically fell out of the bus, left butt cheek completely asleep, just thrilled to see a bowl of piping hot vegetable soup waiting for me on the table!

                Ok so camp: it was awesome. I can now speak a tiny bit of kreyòl. M’pale kreyòl yon tikras. Boom! Yeah nine of us volunteers (there I go again) hung out in the batey eating delicious Haitian bread called biskwit, and delicious Haitian spicy peanut butter called mamba. It was the best. We had seven hours of class a day, which was not nearly as tedious as it sounds. Two nights Arthur spun fire which was epic! I had never seen anyone spin fire before, so I was as mesmerized as the group of kids who circled around Arthur completely hypnotized by the whirling flames. I may have nerded out a bit. Thanks Brendan. Also, there was a medical mission using the girls dorm when we arrived, which made me nervous that my mattress was gonna be full of germs, but then I felt like a foolish American when we realized that they were really only using the dorm as a pharmacy. Oops. Also you should all know initially I typed farmacy and couldn’t figure out why there was a red squiggly line under it. Sorry English.

there is such a lot of world to see

So honestly i am so tired at this point that the only reason i'm writing this is because it's been so long, and yall deserve a post. but otherwise i would seriously just postpone again. i'm a procrastinator (william and mary taught me well) and clearly that has extended past term papers into life. anywho, i'm sitting here writing while Patty Griffin singing moon river keeps me going. here's my update: I'M A VOLUNTEER!!! we swore in today. may 9th, 2012. today was one of those days that will stick with me forever. It is so weird when you finally achieve something you have wanted for SO long and suddenly, it's over. or, i guess more it's finally beginning. years after deciding to go with the PC route, it's finally the real deal. my service has  officially begun (i know because the ambassador said so). today was just surreal. i had so many emotions and yet felt ecstatic through all of them. even when i got tremendously sad to be leaving all of these wonderful people i've been surrounded by, i still felt so very happy, and so very at peace with it all. And i kept just getting struck by how lucky i am. sorry for getting sappy on you guys, but it's a sappy moment for a sappy day. go with it! There are days when you are straight up allowed to indulge in as many emotions as you need to in order to process and really just embrace the expanse of the whole day. this is one of those days, so bear with me here. He is how the day went: This afternoon we met at the training center at 3:30 in our nice clothes which we promptly sweat through. Jeff and I were lucky because we got a bola for the last third of our walk to the training center so at least my hair didn't soak through with sweat, because jeff's host sister had done my hair for me (remind me to do a post sometime on the salons here by the way). We all moved into the big pavilion and a bunch of people talked, including our country director, Art Flannigan, the american ambassador, a representative for the host families, and then Jim talked as a representative for the volunteers. and his speech choked me up, i'm not gonna lie. (i just caught myself from going all sappy again. you're welcome). We sang the DR's national anthem and then our own. we swore our oaths in english and spanish, and we walked across the stage to get our pins and diplomas and BOOM we are volunteers. 800 pictures later (i'm guilty of probably 758 of them) we went and grabbed beers as a group at a colmado, because let's face it, we deserved it. Today just kicked so much ass.  i honestly don't think i've completely processed the fact that within days i will be living minutes from Haiti, trying to force myself into as many classroom observations as i can! of course, i'm gonna be going to creole training next week in a batey in the south, so that's gonna be a really cool experience. but the classroom observations and such work will have to be postponed. Gosh, there is so much to write about but all i can think about is how ready i am, and yet how much i'm going to miss all my friends. i know that it would seem no where in the DR is that far apart, but that's not exactly true. what with all the mountains and crappy winding roads, i actually feel pretty isolated from everyone in my group. but i'm really lucky because 2 current volunteers are living in a community that is probably 3 kilometers from Pedro Santana, and they are seriously awesome. seriously. Just about everything about my site is awesome really. it's more beautiful than eden (sorry adam and eve, you've been trumped), the kids really do need my help, and are very excited to be working with the new americana in town, the teachers are enthusiastic so far about my presence, and my town seems pretty safe and clean! i don't have constant electricity or water, but that's a sacrifice i'm more than willing to make if i can feel safe and needed. and consequently to feel effective.  crap, i'm gonna have to finish this later. i'm dying of sleepiness.  Also happy birthday mom!!

On the road again

Well we are all back together in Santo domingo again! it is great to see everyone again. we are all looking a bit more ragged (some more than others--Dan didn't shave for all of CBT. respect.) However, it was very sad leaving Dona Agueda. I was alright leaving Bandido behind, but i definitely welled up when i was saying goodbye to my Dona. She is a sweet woman, with such a peaceful spirit and it's always sad, and difficult, to leave someone like that behind. But we have to keep moving because that's how training works! soon though we will all be in our new cites for two years and will cultivate deep relationships with equally amazing people i'm sure. if i can be sad leaving a woman i only knew for 5 weeks, imagine how strong the relationships i have will be after 2 years in my cite. i get excited just thinking about it. But yeah, when i gave Dona Agueda her poem book she got emotional so then i started crying and we hugged and that was it. on the road again. (speaking of, i've been on a willie nelson kick recently. just saying.)
So i finally got my merengue on! the night before we left El Seibo a bunch of volunteers who live nearby came into the city and we met up with them in the park. And they taught us the merengue and the bachata. or, well, they tried to. we are gonna need more practice to get to their levels, but they have a year's head start so i'm not worried. anyway it was really fun, because i love dancing and we haven't really danced much here. i definitely can dance the merengue better than the bachata, but i need to practice because i wanna get good at them, come home, and just put you all in awe of my mad dancing skills. (sure...) 
The youth presentations at the ayuntamiento went really well too! my group did a "night of merengue" presentation and they danced three pretty awesome dances. One of them was a mix of bachata and merengue, which was particularly complicated. We had more of a hand in the getting them to research and write up their speeches and in helping them plan the event. i wish i could say i had anything to do with the dances, but i didn't. that was all them, and they nailed it. the three other groups had videos they had made. one was a documentary about the bullfights in El Seibo. another was a telenovela that i heard described as "the dominican slumdog millionaire without the millionaire" which sounds about right. and the last one was another telenovela about a rebel girl who ended up pregnant. they were all very good, and tastefully touched on some hot topics here in the DR, like the drug problems and delinquencia. 
So tomorrow we all find out where we are going! and by tomorrow, i mean tuesday, so probably today for all of you. i already have an idea of where i'm going (cough, cough haitian border) because the process of elimination worked wonders while i was talking to some volunteers at a teacher training we sat in on. so that's awesome. i get to learn creole! when i told that to me dad, he just said "when are you ever going to use that again?". he so doesn't get the point. haha, sorry dad, love you! 
Also yesterday was a fantastic day. first a bunch of us went to the book fair that's going on in the city right now and i got some children's books that i am very excited about. snow white, pinocchio, sleeping beauty, etc. i hope they aren't too hard for my future kids to be able to read, since i will really be working with the basic levels, but maybe i can just start a book club where i read to them once a week or something. I want to have a little library of kids books to use with my kids because what i have now is a) very basic b) stapled together and c) not varied. so slowly i will try to pick up books here and there. i also bought peter pan for me. it's not a hard read so i think it will be good spanish practice for my level. Then we went to see the avengers, which i don't think is out in the states yet so yeah be jealous because it's awesome. and i'm sure it will be great for all of you who don't have a bunch of dominicans cheering every time the hulk comes on the screen. it was so much fun to go to the movies though! a giant air conditioned room watching iron man and co kick some ass. good times. and after that we went to a merengue concert! we all were on a hill right next to some ruins of a franciscan monastery while we looked down on the show. it was a really fun time, especially because we are all back together again! even if only for a few days, it is just so great to see everyone again. i'm pretty lucky with this crew i came to country with. don't worry, i'm not going all sappy on you guys, i'm just saying that i lucked out. i can't wait until we all know where we are going and what we will be doing!
So one final more somber note before i wrap this up: i had such a cool conversation with Dona Patria yesterday. i feel so lucky that i am able to get by when i talk to her now because she has such cool things to say. she reminds me of kahlil gibran in how she can take profound and important themes and make them seem so simple. we were talking about always living with love and peace in your heart. about how you won't have pain in your heart when you live in love and peace. and the truth is i need to remember that sometimes. i definitely forget sometimes and those are the times i do things that i don't like. that eat me up with guilt for days and make me not like that part of myself. and here my little dona in my seedy little barrio starts talking to me about just living with love for the world inside of you, and it just seems so simple somehow. I am so glad she is my dona. 
and on that note, i'm done! over and out.

On the road again

Well we are all back together in Santo domingo again! it is great to see everyone again. we are all looking a bit more ragged (some more than others--Dan didn't shave for all of CBT. respect.) However, it was very sad leaving Dona Agueda. I was alright leaving Bandido behind, but i definitely welled up when i was saying goodbye to my Dona. She is a sweet woman, with such a peaceful spirit and it's always sad, and difficult, to leave someone like that behind. But we have to keep moving because that's how training works! soon though we will all be in our new cites for two years and will cultivate deep relationships with equally amazing people i'm sure. if i can be sad leaving a woman i only knew for 5 weeks, imagine how strong the relationships i have will be after 2 years in my cite. i get excited just thinking about it. But yeah, when i gave Dona Agueda her poem book she got emotional so then i started crying and we hugged and that was it. on the road again. (speaking of, i've been on a willie nelson kick recently. just saying.)
So i finally got my merengue on! the night before we left El Seibo a bunch of volunteers who live nearby came into the city and we met up with them in the park. And they taught us the merengue and the bachata. or, well, they tried to. we are gonna need more practice to get to their levels, but they have a year's head start so i'm not worried. anyway it was really fun, because i love dancing and we haven't really danced much here. i definitely can dance the merengue better than the bachata, but i need to practice because i wanna get good at them, come home, and just put you all in awe of my mad dancing skills. (sure...) 
The youth presentations at the ayuntamiento went really well too! my group did a "night of merengue" presentation and they danced three pretty awesome dances. One of them was a mix of bachata and merengue, which was particularly complicated. We had more of a hand in the getting them to research and write up their speeches and in helping them plan the event. i wish i could say i had anything to do with the dances, but i didn't. that was all them, and they nailed it. the three other groups had videos they had made. one was a documentary about the bullfights in El Seibo. another was a telenovela that i heard described as "the dominican slumdog millionaire without the millionaire" which sounds about right. and the last one was another telenovela about a rebel girl who ended up pregnant. they were all very good, and tastefully touched on some hot topics here in the DR, like the drug problems and delinquencia. 
So tomorrow we all find out where we are going! and by tomorrow, i mean tuesday, so probably today for all of you. i already have an idea of where i'm going (cough, cough haitian border) because the process of elimination worked wonders while i was talking to some volunteers at a teacher training we sat in on. so that's awesome. i get to learn creole! when i told that to me dad, he just said "when are you ever going to use that again?". he so doesn't get the point. haha, sorry dad, love you! 
Also yesterday was a fantastic day. first a bunch of us went to the book fair that's going on in the city right now and i got some children's books that i am very excited about. snow white, pinocchio, sleeping beauty, etc. i hope they aren't too hard for my future kids to be able to read, since i will really be working with the basic levels, but maybe i can just start a book club where i read to them once a week or something. I want to have a little library of kids books to use with my kids because what i have now is a) very basic b) stapled together and c) not varied. so slowly i will try to pick up books here and there. i also bought peter pan for me. it's not a hard read so i think it will be good spanish practice for my level. Then we went to see the avengers, which i don't think is out in the states yet so yeah be jealous because it's awesome. and i'm sure it will be great for all of you who don't have a bunch of dominicans cheering every time the hulk comes on the screen. it was so much fun to go to the movies though! a giant air conditioned room watching iron man and co kick some ass. good times. and after that we went to a merengue concert! we all were on a hill right next to some ruins of a franciscan monastery while we looked down on the show. it was a really fun time, especially because we are all back together again! even if only for a few days, it is just so great to see everyone again. i'm pretty lucky with this crew i came to country with. don't worry, i'm not going all sappy on you guys, i'm just saying that i lucked out. i can't wait until we all know where we are going and what we will be doing!
So one final more somber note before i wrap this up: i had such a cool conversation with Dona Patria yesterday. i feel so lucky that i am able to get by when i talk to her now because she has such cool things to say. she reminds me of kahlil gibran in how she can take profound and important themes and make them seem so simple. we were talking about always living with love and peace in your heart. about how you won't have pain in your heart when you live in love and peace. and the truth is i need to remember that sometimes. i definitely forget sometimes and those are the times i do things that i don't like. that eat me up with guilt for days and make me not like that part of myself. and here my little dona in my seedy little barrio starts talking to me about just living with love for the world inside of you, and it just seems so simple somehow. I am so glad she is my dona. 
and on that note, i'm done! over and out.

On the road again

Well we are all back together in Santo domingo again! it is great to see everyone again. we are all looking a bit more ragged (some more than others--Dan didn't shave for all of CBT. respect.) However, it was very sad leaving Dona Agueda. I was alright leaving Bandido behind, but i definitely welled up when i was saying goodbye to my Dona. She is a sweet woman, with such a peaceful spirit and it's always sad, and difficult, to leave someone like that behind. But we have to keep moving because that's how training works! soon though we will all be in our new cites for two years and will cultivate deep relationships with equally amazing people i'm sure. if i can be sad leaving a woman i only knew for 5 weeks, imagine how strong the relationships i have will be after 2 years in my cite. i get excited just thinking about it. But yeah, when i gave Dona Agueda her poem book she got emotional so then i started crying and we hugged and that was it. on the road again. (speaking of, i've been on a willie nelson kick recently. just saying.)
So i finally got my merengue on! the night before we left El Seibo a bunch of volunteers who live nearby came into the city and we met up with them in the park. And they taught us the merengue and the bachata. or, well, they tried to. we are gonna need more practice to get to their levels, but they have a year's head start so i'm not worried. anyway it was really fun, because i love dancing and we haven't really danced much here. i definitely can dance the merengue better than the bachata, but i need to practice because i wanna get good at them, come home, and just put you all in awe of my mad dancing skills. (sure...) 
The youth presentations at the ayuntamiento went really well too! my group did a "night of merengue" presentation and they danced three pretty awesome dances. One of them was a mix of bachata and merengue, which was particularly complicated. We had more of a hand in the getting them to research and write up their speeches and in helping them plan the event. i wish i could say i had anything to do with the dances, but i didn't. that was all them, and they nailed it. the three other groups had videos they had made. one was a documentary about the bullfights in El Seibo. another was a telenovela that i heard described as "the dominican slumdog millionaire without the millionaire" which sounds about right. and the last one was another telenovela about a rebel girl who ended up pregnant. they were all very good, and tastefully touched on some hot topics here in the DR, like the drug problems and delinquencia. 
So tomorrow we all find out where we are going! and by tomorrow, i mean tuesday, so probably today for all of you. i already have an idea of where i'm going (cough, cough haitian border) because the process of elimination worked wonders while i was talking to some volunteers at a teacher training we sat in on. so that's awesome. i get to learn creole! when i told that to me dad, he just said "when are you ever going to use that again?". he so doesn't get the point. haha, sorry dad, love you! 
Also yesterday was a fantastic day. first a bunch of us went to the book fair that's going on in the city right now and i got some children's books that i am very excited about. snow white, pinocchio, sleeping beauty, etc. i hope they aren't too hard for my future kids to be able to read, since i will really be working with the basic levels, but maybe i can just start a book club where i read to them once a week or something. I want to have a little library of kids books to use with my kids because what i have now is a) very basic b) stapled together and c) not varied. so slowly i will try to pick up books here and there. i also bought peter pan for me. it's not a hard read so i think it will be good spanish practice for my level. Then we went to see the avengers, which i don't think is out in the states yet so yeah be jealous because it's awesome. and i'm sure it will be great for all of you who don't have a bunch of dominicans cheering every time the hulk comes on the screen. it was so much fun to go to the movies though! a giant air conditioned room watching iron man and co kick some ass. good times. and after that we went to a merengue concert! we all were on a hill right next to some ruins of a franciscan monastery while we looked down on the show. it was a really fun time, especially because we are all back together again! even if only for a few days, it is just so great to see everyone again. i'm pretty lucky with this crew i came to country with. don't worry, i'm not going all sappy on you guys, i'm just saying that i lucked out. i can't wait until we all know where we are going and what we will be doing!
So one final more somber note before i wrap this up: i had such a cool conversation with Dona Patria yesterday. i feel so lucky that i am able to get by when i talk to her now because she has such cool things to say. she reminds me of kahlil gibran in how she can take profound and important themes and make them seem so simple. we were talking about always living with love and peace in your heart. about how you won't have pain in your heart when you live in love and peace. and the truth is i need to remember that sometimes. i definitely forget sometimes and those are the times i do things that i don't like. that eat me up with guilt for days and make me not like that part of myself. and here my little dona in my seedy little barrio starts talking to me about just living with love for the world inside of you, and it just seems so simple somehow. I am so glad she is my dona. 
and on that note, i'm done! over and out.