Puercos, piedras, and piernas

Pig-selling and slaughtering time is here. The other day the truck pulled up to help cart the pigs away that my little brother here wanted to sell, and all morning long the pigs were squealing like crazy as they were carried out to the truck. Understandable since some of the guys carried the fat things by the ears. Then today my family went and killed one of the ones they’d kept around to eat tonight at a birthday celebration. I’m glad I’m a vegetarian.

This past week has been an adventure. I was invited to go walk to the much-talked-about Casa de las Piedras, or Virgen de las Piedras. One of the youth motivators in church from the next community over invited me, and he told me there were several other people going along. Most people in my community have been at some point, and I was interested in seeing what all the fuss was about, so I agreed to go. We left at 6:00 am, and it turned out to be only me, the leader guy, and the semi-crazy gardener from the church, Benito. It was actually a really good time, and it turned out to be a 20 km round trip, which is about 13 miles. My butt is still sore from when we came back on steep downhill inclines through the cacao. The place we visited was a church in the middle of nowhere, with some cave-like rocks and a place carved out for a statue of the Virgen Mary. It was in the middle of lots of lush vegetation and really beautiful. We meditated and said a rosary, rested a bit, and found some sweet lemons to snack on before heading back. I had to share my water bottle with the two guys that had not thought to bring water (who doesn’t bring water on a 13 mile hike??), which did not make me happy. But definitely a worthwhile trip.

Last Saturday I tagged along to an English class at one of the institutes that everyone seems to go to in the city. My neighbor was the person that had invited me, but after arriving the director dragged me around to all the classes to have them practice some English with me. After the director found out I had graduated in language education, he asked if I would be interested in doing some teacher training… and I agreed, figuring that it was for the better of education even though for a for-profit organization! Our first session was Friday afternoon, and another American was there who was from Minnesota and visiting her fiancé for a month or so. She studies Spanish in grad school, and it turned out that she had done the Costa Rica study abroad program through KU, and knows several of the same people that went to school with me – Melissa Hartnett, for one. Small world!

This weekend I headed out to help Iris, another IT volunteer. Between her, Laura, and me, we pimped out her lab with some fun games and got it all ready for the grand opening with slide shows of her community and the ads for classes all over. Her site is a good site, but I’ve decided that since Dominicans in general are very likeable and fun people, it would be hard to find a bad site. We danced a little bachata Saturday afternoon in front of her colmado, which I had been craving to do for some reason lately! Like always, it was fun to see other volunteers. Iris did have her little guy friends look for some horses for us to ride down through the cacao and to the river close by her house, and we all had trouble jumping onto the horses – it is hard to get on without stirrups or anything to grab on to. On the ride back in the guagua to Macoris, I was in the same seat of a pickup as 3 very heavy, if not obese, adults, and sat sideways to accomodate them. After 40 minutes or so, my left leg was so asleep that I lost my flip flop as I got out and almost fell over from having no feeling in the leg. But I survived.

Climbing trees and exorcising demons

It was reunion time two weekends ago, when several of us from our group came together in the capital to share stories and check mail! Yes, we are like campers, eagerly anticipating any mail that might have happened to come our way in the last month. My favorites this time were some crossword puzzles cut out of newspapers and sesame sticks. . . although I’m certainly not lacking for anything here at all! (Well, besides clothes that don’t stretch out and get holes in the wash, but nothing a trip to a border market can’t fix.) In the news of everyone, it turns out that one of our friends that had been sick during our swearing-in weekend had been sick with dengue, a rough and not-so-preventable illness you get from mosquitoes.

En route to Santo Domingo, our guagua got a flat tire. We all piled out for the driver and cobrador (money-taker) to fix it. We were on the side of the highway, far from any town and only close to a bunch of trees. Ambrosia, the volunteer really close to me, had had something explode in her bag, and was trying to wash it off with her water bottle, when somebody pointed her to a little path in the woods that led to a llave (faucet of water). How did they know it was there? Other people immediately began to climb trees to get little fruits called limoncillos that they shared with everybody on the bus, and I think some other people found a mango tree that had a couple ripe ones on it. It’s mango season right now; only the beginning here in the north with the little stringy mangos beginning to drop, but going strong in the south with big red sweet mangos already ripening. My friends in the south get presents of huge bags of mangos almost daily! Ambrosia and I from the north bought a couple of the good mangos in the capital, and right now I’m wishing that I had brought a bunch back for the family.

A small group of us headed out the next day to Bayahibe, a small little beach town near La Romana, and found a great hotel for about 300 pesos each – about $10US. That’s more than we wanted to pay, but it was really nice and included towels to use at the beach, an air conditioning unit, and hot water! I took my first heated shower in four months while we were there, which was pretty nice. The beach was beautiful and there were more waves than some other beaches we’ve visited. We met an Italian at a gelato place, and it turns out that in the next little town over, there’s a big Italian and European population that has settled there. We danced the night away in a disco nearby, and didn’t get home until almost 5 in the morning – later than I’ve stayed out in a long time! And there really were a lot of Europeans there, including a Serbian who tried to talk to me for a while since he didn’t speak any Spanish at all. The weekend was fabulous and a good little break from our sites and going to bed at 10 or earlier every night.

Back in La Joya, school is out for the summer, and everyone got their grades this Friday. This past Thursday was a holiday – Corpus Christi – that we celebrated with a walk at 5:00 am up to the church on the hill, a couple miles worth of walking. I was surprised at how many people showed up.

One of our chickens has decided that she really likes my room, and if I don’t shut my door, I invariably find either her or her egg laid in my zip-up little closet. Even if I almost zip my closet up all the way, she flies onto my bed and from there can sort of undo the closet. She isn’t afraid of me, either, when I shoo her out. Eggs in my clothes are a surprise that I could do without!

Oh, and a week or so ago, a girl was supposedly possessed by demons or the devil. Luckily a big group prayed over her in a little ceremony in her house so the demons have been exorcised. Some have theorized that it could have something to do with the girl’s recent marriage (she’s 14). I asked how everybody knew she was possessed, and everybody sort of skirted my question, saying she was acting weird. It’s just one of those mysteries, I suppose.

And the ants go marching

As some of you know, I'm organizing a weeklong daycamp to be held this July for 10 through 13 year olds. It has to do with the environment and we're going to do normal fun camp stuff too. So I've been handing out the final fliers at the nearby schools, and I included in the information that the kids should wear sneakers and shorts, if possible, since we'll be moving around a lot (not to mention the heat factor). This point has been a big deal! Almost all the little girls have been asking me wide-eyed, "We're supposed to wear SHORTS?" I reassure them that they can in fact wear pants if they don't have shorts. I have actually seen most of those same little girls wearing shorts before; perhaps just around the house, but shorts nonetheless. One father on a motorcycle rode up next to me on my bike the other day when I was en route to my home, asking me specifically about the shorts issue! Who knew it would be such an issue?

The ants have been bothering me just a little lately, some days more than others. They are everywhere! They're on my toothbrush sometimes when I take it out of its holder, they try to get into toothpaste, they're on bread if your host brothers don't tie up the sack tight (a rare occasion), they're on plates that have just been washed, they're on all sorts of things! Sometimes you don't notice them if they aren't on your food until you feel a little tickling on your hand, and realize they're on the way to your plate. At least they're not biting ants. . .

Last night I was hanging out at the grandma's house right down our little road, and there was a group of about four of us playing cards. It's always fun to be out in front of the house, because pretty soon more kids and adults arrive, and we're all sitting around chatting. The funny part is that two of the kids realize they still have homework to do around 9:00 (which is something that is not an everyday event) and so go get it. The assignment for these fifth grade students: to draw a picture of the environment. All of a sudden everybody's asking me to draw it for them! I deferred, telling the boys that it was their homework and they need to do it themselves. Well, the adults and older kids sitting around took up the pencils and crayons and started drawing. I'm not sure I actually saw any of the kids whose homework it was actually do anything at all, except hand colored pencils to some people. I was opposed at first, but when they had me draw some fish and trees, I couldn't say no the second time, and the group effort was pretty enjoyable. We were all sitting around discussing what else should go in, cuddling with the littler kids, and coloring. Morally opposed? Yes. A good time? Yes. I think it sort of depicts the family relations in the country: everyone helps each other with everything -- it's expected and welcome, and can be pretty fun!

One last riddle: How do you change a towel from nice and soft and fuzzy to one that's hard and doesn't really dry your skin well anymore?
Answer: I don't know, but it has something to do with Dominican laundry!