Hi again!

Before I forget – please send me your address if you have moved or just graduated. A special congrats to my GC girls on Michelle, Erika, June and Jess!! Woot!

I have to get down to Castillo for the nearest internet so my posts are becoming few and far between but I’m still kicking. I do love the internet though. I’ve wanted to look up recipes and how to make a volleyball net correctly and other random plant info and Patty Griffin song lyrics for a long while it seems. Also checking my email when it’s not filled with junk is a simple pleasure in life. Even moreso is getting my physical mail and sending letters I’ve realized. Alberto, my program director, came up to visit me today and brought my packages and I got one from Nana, Mom, Jess Wall, and a lovely letter from Erika and the GC girls. Thank you very very very much.

I just ran out of peanut butter and I thought it was an appropriate time to get into Nagua again and stock up. I actually talked to my homestay mom about going into Nagua and buying some of my own food and cooking it – telling her I don’t want to engordar anymore which is actually very true but also because I want to start cooking more for myself and getting a better balanced/varied diet. Almost every day I have hot chocolate, coffee, and a big old chunk of bread for breakfast – fried chicken, rice, beans, fried platanos, often spaghetti and sometimes cucumbers/tomatoes for lunch, and for dinner it’s two slices of cheese and viveres (boiled tiny bananas). The food is really good – it’s just taking its toll. I want to see if the grocery stores in the Pueblos can help.

I’m also going to try and find prices and buy 2 check valves, 15 ft of hose, a rubber cork, and a T-piece to play around with a hand pump for the shower. Also I want to buy some plywood to finish my sea glass table. ALSO I’m trying to weave a volleyball net out of rice sacks and rice sack string which I need 360 ft of I calculated.

There is nothing too much new going on – just been spending time in the community. I’m going to start interviewing individual houses fairly soon. I’m teaching 35 students English on Saturdays in 3 sessions, I play churchy songs on Sundays and the Donas just dig that, and I’ve been hiking around with the kids in my classes getting to know the area better. Here are some pics of the Indian caves we visited. Matt – there is a special bat picture for you and when you, Toby and Lea come visit I’m taking you here for some mistnetting and there is also a waterhole around the bend. You guys would like it I think.

I made a presentation to the women’s club in my community about the need for a playground and court for the kids. I’m making the same presentation to the owner of the land I’m looking at in a few days. He is a very nice older man who apparently already wants to donate a bit of land towards a community project, but his son is making him illusive as was proven today, again, when I was ready to give Por (the owner) the presentation I had made after his son told me I could meet with him on Saturday which turned to Tues where nobody showed up which turned to me chasing down their car on Weds to hand Por a handwritten letter asking him if we could meet to show him my ideas. I’m starting to wonder if the son wants to use the land for something else but he’s irritating me and he also really doesn’t help with my Spanish-esteem. I’m going to think of it as miscommunication until something else comes up though. Make that Dominication because besides Spanish – this culture speaks a whole other language most of the time including respecting appointment dates and times. I was also told today by Luis, one of my least favorite finqueros, that drinking cold water makes you fat. Yet, you learn to start recognizing Americation also though – like not sitting down to finish your cup of coffee and say hello to your neighbors in the morning. Dominicans take the time to greet every single person in a room when they enter usually. We tend to rush past the important parts.
“I have seen that community and a close relationship with the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication” – Norberg-Hodge

Otherwise I’ve been reading which has been really nice. It’s like a little escape into English. I liked ‘In the Time of Butterflies’ and definitely recommend ‘3 cups of Tea’. I am also almost done with ‘Drown’ by Dominican Author Junot Diaz and really want to get a hold of his other novel “The Brief Wonderous life of Oscar Wao” which other Volunteers have recommended. Thanks again Nana!

The cacao harvest is almost over so I think I might be done with making chocolate for now which is a bummer…but coffee is coming up. I just made friends with a woman who has a café grove in her backyard and Mata told me that we can go picking together so that is something to look forward to.

The lightning was intense last night. Not like Penas Blancas in Costa Rica – but closer to that extreme.

I am excited about getting my own house. I showed Alberto the only option I have and he said – yes, with a few repairs that would be a fine house. He said the Peace Corps would cover building a fence and fixing the holes in the zinc walls –although I want to try and ask if I can get the zinc walls completely removed and replaced with a window or wood to cool the place down. It has been really hot and it will get worse I’m told. I dislike zinc roofs (they make it very hot and also SUPER loud during a downpour) but currently I only have this one option in the community.

We also are making plans to head to Samana for 4th of July to celebrate my favorite holiday! It should be really fun and I’m looking forward to seeing the other volunteers and comparing the few notes we’ve started accumulating.
That’s all!
Cuidense!
Love,
Sarah

List of simple pleasures
1. Peanut Butter
2. Getting my mail and putting stamps on outgoing letters
3. Looking at pictures of Maddie, Henry, family and friends in my room
4. Good books
5. Fireflies
6. Hearing Mata sing ‘Hay un chico’ (her favorite part is Hay problema)
7. Sunsets
8. Cold bucket bath in middle of sweaty day
9. Yerba Mate with honey
10. Chinola juice
11. Playing my guitar alone
12. Killing Mosquitoes I find under my mosquitero