I feel like every blog post is starting the same. So
here we go again…sorry it’s been so long! Once again, I have no excuse.
So yeah: rats. They’re here. Well, I’ve only seen the
one out of the corner of my eye every night, but I mean, if there’s one, there’s
more. So that’s exciting. It’s not just Inigo and me anymore. We have a (some)
unwanted house guest(s). If I end up getting a cat, that might take care of the
rats. But I’m not sure it’s worth it…I would rather not have any more animals
in the house if that could somehow be an option. The Dominican method for
getting rid of rats is pretty simple:
1)
Get a cat
2)
Starve the cat
3)
Raise it to be a hunter out of necessity
4)
Cat eats the rats and other critters because
it’s so hungry
Needless to say, I’m not sure I agree with this methodology.
You know what else I have? Giant spiders. But as long
as they aren’t tarantulas I’m good. I went to use the bathroom the other night
and there was a giant spider and I debated for a second if it was worth it and
decided that it was. The night before the same thing had happened, but there
was also a giant juicy cockroach on the wall. I held it that night.
Anyway things have changed quite a bit here since my
last post (which I can’t even remember, coincidently). I started English
classes. This is loosely stated because I have yet to get more than 20% of my
students to show up. But it was the first week and I’m hoping for a greater
turnout net Wednesday. But if only 2 come, then you know what? They’re gonna
get a semi-private English class and I get to stress less about it. So that’s
cool. I got facilitators for my literacy program, lost one, and then got two
more. It’s a pretty sad story about why one facilitator had to go. See, these
youth who are helping me are the recipients of scholarships from the Church.
Turns out this 19 year old has an 7 month old illegitimate child with a Haitian
woman who was living in his house in the campo. When he told Father, Father had
to tell him he couldn’t participate in the program anymore. I understand it
all, but it’s really sad. He is a very serious student and was great with the
kids. But I am holding out hope that he can continue with his studies in some
other way. Continuing on: I have made several work schedules to try to
accommodate all the teachers’ wishes (next to impossible btw). It’s pretty
frustrating when you spend forever creating in depth evaluations, giving them
to the students, dividing up the students by their respective levels in four
different categories, and then have the teachers be like “oh yeah, this isn’t
working well for me. Maybe we could try a different way.” And you respect their
wishes because some of their points are valid. So instead of going to your
friend’s birthday party in Santiago, you spend all weekend creating a new
schedule by rearranging ALL 37 students in new groups, taking into
consideration your facilitators’ schedules (which are all different). Then come
Monday you meet with the teachers to show them this new fantastic plan you have
lined up which meets all of their requests and they proceed to say that maybe
we could change it again. Without giving any ideas except one which would never
work because the kids never ever stay for the entire school day. Actually the
teachers don’t even stay for the entire allotted time aka to 6 o’clock. But
that’s a whole different story. So yeah. I basically told them we were gonna
try out this new schedule and if it didn’t work we could change it again. But
if I change it again, they are gonna help me, because I can’t comply to all of
their wishes when it seems they don’t even know what they want. Besides maybe a
magic spell that will teach their children to read. That’d be cool actually.
I’d be down with that. Anyway that’s my bitch-fest. On to better things!
So every town here has its patron saint. The patron
saint of Banica (4 km away) is St. Francis of Assisi. Which is so cool to me,
considering I have the cross of St. Francis tattooed on my foot. It was fate
that I came here and am working with this church. Anyway this week is the
patronales in Banica aka they celebrate all week long. There is this pilgrimage
people make to a cave that is up the nearby hill, and people come from the
capital, Santiago, and even from farther off to climb the hill. So I did it
yesterday, and there were SO MANY people. At times it was hard to walk, and
this was a steep hill at points so I’m surprised some people could make it. Aka
the larger or older ones. But we got to the top and the cave is amazing. There
are gaps in the ceiling where the light just spills in. It was so gorgeous and
filled with candles people have lit in prayer. So the smoke from the candles
mixed with the light from above creates a very ethereal atmosphere. Plus it’s
limestone and the tradition is to hack away at the lime to put the resulting
powder on your face. I think the story is that St. Francis appeared in the cave
and so now there’s a pilgrimage here. Anyway it was a wonderful experience that
I may not repeat next year. I think next time I go up to the caves I will go
when there are fewer people. But this whole week there are parties in town and
on Saturday they are bringing in a singer whose name I can’t remember, so I
want to go. It should be a good time complete with merengue, pizza, and maybe
even, dare I even think it, a beer.
Another big thing is happening tomorrow: I’m finally
getting a fridge! A little dorm fridge. It’s gonna be great. I can finally have
cold water! What a lame problem… but it will be nice to have that cold water.
Plus it will also be nice to store vegetables so they don’t go bad in a day and
a half. Oh snap I just had a genius idea: ICED COFFEE. That’s soooo happening.
It’s not exactly cheap, because I can’t find a second hand fridge to buy, and
they charge me to transport it to my home, but it’s worth it. At first when
they told me it was 500 pesos to take it to my house, I was a bit put off
because that’s more than I pay to go to the capital. But then I realized it’s
somewhere around 13 bucks so decided not to fight that battle.
But
yall wanna know what the biggest news is? My dad’s coming in 9 days!! It’s the
light at the end of my relatively stressful tunnel. What with my ever changing
literacy program, my English classes, my youth group, my annoying enamorados,
and my not so annoying enamorados, and my daily responsibilities, it’s gonna be
absolute bliss to show my dad my site, let him “live” here for a day and then
ship out for a resort. I’ve never been to a resort and I can’t think of a
better time to give it a whirl! Can you say piña colada? I can just see it:
drink in one hand, giant ass salad in the other, lying on the beach somewhere
under an umbrella because I just don’t need to get tanner. (I’d like to take
this opportunity to give a shout out to the Dominican sun that is doing its best
to prematurely destroy my skin.)
Knee deep in the water
somewhere, got the blue sky, breeze blowing wind through my hair. Only worry in
the world: is the tide gonna reach my chair?
Be jealous.
