Well I’m very aware that this is beyond overdue… sorry America.
I could try to scrape up some excuse for not posting for so long, but they’d
mostly be lies. So I won’t. the truth
is, I’m lazy and whenever I have time to write a post, I do something else
instead. So then when I actually have internet, I have nothing to post. Oops! But
I’m posting now!
So now the question: what to write about? I have been a part
of 2 camps (one mine, one run by the churches and a local environmental lady
named Rosanna), I took some awesome and very much needed R&R in the capital
last weekend, and mango season is over. Yeah I should definitely start with
that.
Mango season is over!! I’m crying inside. I got seriously
spoiled by the fact that I could walk into the backyard and grab a mango off
the ground and eat it. I didn’t even like mangos before I got here, but clearly
that was because I had never eaten a Pedro Santana mango. And now they are
gone! I could cry, but I won’t because I have a seriously awesome silver
lining: avocado season is coming up. BOOM! And life is good again. But I will
mourn the mangos for a while. Mostly because they were such nice little midday
snacks in between my lackluster lunches and disappointing dinners.
Ok so now onto the camps. First I helped out with Rosanna’s
church/environment camp. I use the term “help” loosely because I only actually
led an activity once, when I had an art session with the kids. The rest of the
time I just help keep kids quiet during the charlas and acted as camp
photographer. It was really fun though. We had potato sack races and jump rope
every afternoon, and the mornings were more dedicated to the educational stuff.
It was a great learning experience and the best part was that it helped me
integrate myself into the community more. I got to meet several young leaders
in Pedro Santana and that is a huge asset for me. So that camp lasted a week and averaged out at
about 100 kids per day. Yikes. My camp was the next week, and gracias a dios, I
never really had more than 15 kids at once. To be fair, I also didn’t have a
team of youth helping me. The camp was a huge success I think. Maybe that’s
just me rationalizing it so that the physical and emotional toll it took on me
are justified, but I feel pretty confident in saying the kids loved it. They certainly
made big enough messes every day to suggest they had some good times! To be fair, I’m not sure how I thought
paper-macheing old soda bottles and then painting them the next day would be
anything but messy. Even if I did cover every inch of the table with paper. Those
kids got paint on chairs we weren’t even using! Luckily it was washable paint
on plastic chairs so it came right off of everything. The paper-mache paste was
a bit harder to clean up. We also had origami/paper snowflakes day, which the
kids loved but I didn’t have enough scissors for. And I know that’s poor
grammar, sue me. Anyway by the end of week 1 of my camp my nerves were frayed
bare and it was the perfect time for our R&R in Santo Domingo.
Basically the 5 of us chilled in our hotel rooms, walked all
over the capital, swam in the embassy pool, and just had a grand old time. And I
came back truly rejuvenated and excited to be a volunteer again! It was so
amazing to feel excited again, because I think the experience was starting to
overtake me as opposed to my being in charge of it, and that had become a big
drain on me. But now I feel better and totally appreciate the necessity of
getting away for a weekend to unwind with friends! I even think my Spanish has
started to improve more quickly thanks to my changed mindset.
So then week 2 commenced of my art camp, and it went
awesomely. We made friendship bracelets, watched Tangled in Spanish (I had run
out of materials by this point) and on our last day we just went and played in
the river for hours! It was a blast, we roasted corn on some rocks, I taught a
bunch of the kids how to float, and I’m working on teaching some of them how to
swim. It turns out a lot of the kids here don’t know how to swim and I have
decided that one of my ongoing secondary projects here will be teaching them. If
they are going to go to the river unsupervised, especially after it rains, then
they have to know how to swim.
So yeah that’s my real quick update on my recently mango-less
life here on the fronterra.
Part 2:
So here are a few quick and funny anecdotes from the past
week:
I got up at 2 in the morning on the
3rd to make sure that I didn’t miss the 3 oclock guagua to the
capital. See, all the volunteers meet up in samana for the 4th and I
have an 11 hour travel day to get there. So I wanted to start bright and early,
which I certainly did. Except, despite my
early-rising, the guagua still left me. Zoomed right past me and out of
town actually. Luckily the volunteer who lives about 3 km away got the driver
to turn back around and get me. So that was good news, because I was sitting at
the deserted bus stop listening to some chickens fighting a dog wondering when
the dog was gonna get tired of the chickens. So after a nice 5 hour nap I arrived
in the capital!
As a
side note to this story: I am so lucky to live near not only one, but two other
volunteers. They have both been here a year and are awesome girls. I can tell
they are going to be a huge asset to me here, in terms of mentoring me and as
friends. It’s hard being not only the only American for miles and miles, but
also the only English speaker. And now they are both back from their vacations
to visit their families and I am so happy to have them nearby! In fact, Keeton recently developed a new
model for our literacy-teaching techniques in the schools, where we train
facilitators to help the children, making our efforts much more sustainable
after we are gone. And Sarah has a lot of experience helping Haitians and their
children with their papers, which is another aspect of service here that I want
to work with. So honestly, who better to live close to than those two?? I am
super lucky.
Another
funny story: last night, after I had been in and out of my room several times,
my door decided to freak out on me. See, somehow I managed to lock myself out
of my room. I have no idea how or why my door suddenly switched from unlocked
to locked, but it did. And here’s the trickiest part: it won’t switch back. It’s
permanently locked! But I’m getting ahead of myself. When I first realized my
door was locked I had a small heart attack because there are no other keys. Just
mine. And, of course, it was in my room. Awesome. But then I realized that my
walls don’t all reach the roof so maybe I could climb up the wall and hop over!
Because, you know, I’m capable of that. So I tried but the wall was very flimsy,
and the only thing worse than my doña coming home to me locked out of my room,
would be my doña coming home to me locked out of my room AND a broken wall.
Then I saw a hole in the wall and thought maybe I could stick my arm through it
and reach the door handle. That didn’t work out either. But it took myself bruising
my arm to admit it. Oops. So of course my Doña came home to find me trying to
pick the lock credit card style, but with a flimsy calling card, because, of
course, my cards were all in my room. And she called over a cousin who lives
next door, and guess what he did? HE CLIMBED THE WALL. After all that, I had
the right of way the first time. Of course, that still doesn’t mean I was
actually capable of it. Bottom line I finally got into my room and now I had
just better not shut the door again with the key inside. Because it’s stuck on
locked. My room has become so safe even I sometimes apparently can’t get in. That’s
winning in a big way…
You know what’s frustrating? So I’m working on writing my
novel right? And yet it’s so annoying that I can so easily crank out 1500 words
for a blog post, and yet it takes so many strenuous hours to accomplish the
same when it comes to my novel. Super annoying. Whatever, I’m just gonna keep
drinking my coffee and leave well enough alone.
Ok part 3: HUGE NEWS
I found a house to move into! I may be paying a bit too much
for it, but you just can’t escape the gringo tax here. Even at colmados
sometimes they try to overcharge me and I want to get all red in the face and
make it very clear that I’m a volunteer, as they know, and don’t have more
money than them, as they know. But I don’t. That wouldn’t be cool. But yeah, I found
a house!! Well, they call it a “casita” really because it’s very small. It is 2
rooms (a bedroom and an everything else room). The owner promised to build me a
bathroom out back before August when I move, but that could easily end up being
a latrine. They are also going to install electricity before I move so I will
have luz at least a couple hours a day which is good news. And it already has
water, so I will also hopefully have water at least every other day. Usually it
comes a few hours everyday, but not always. And it changes depending on your
barrio. This house has a giant yard around it, and a couple small banana trees
planted out back. They are too small to produce fruit, but they are cute, and
perfectly sized for my equally small house. I can’t wait to move in and have a
place to call my own. I have realized how much more confidant I am in myself
when I am able to take care of myself, so having my own space and to be in
charge of my own life more is going to be a huge relief. It will be more work,
for sure, but totally worth it. Plus the house comes with a bed, little
desk/table, some chairs, and some shelves. So that really helps with the huge
problem of furnishing a new place. Now the biggest things I have yet to buy are
a stove top, a gas tank for it, and hopefully a real table. Soon after I hope
to be able to afford a fridge. I don’t have luz often, but if I don’t open the
fridge when there isn’t electricity maybe the stuff inside will stay semi-cool.
Plus I met a bunch of the new neighbors
yesterday and they all seem great. Energetic and super excited for me to be
living near them. I can’t wait to move in, make it mine, and maybe even splurge
on a rocking chair. Probably not, but it can’t hurt to fit in! next step: get
Indie!!! Then my life will be completely settled.
PS on my run this morning I ran through a herd of cows, then
got chased by a dog, and then ran through a bunch of goats. Minus the being
chased by a dog with one red eye, I found it awesome! Cows and goats are funny.
Mean dogs aren’t.
