Spare time! Ha - lets make some stuff!

Ok yeah so I've been having way too much fun playing 'Dominicana Bob the builder'. I also probably appear like a crazy homeless woman because I'm always scavenging for parts (the other day I found a singular shoe while with my homestay family walking and they for sure thought I was batty until I showed them what it was for - the rubber for the pump)

I want to show you guys though, especially the other volunteers reading this because if you like something you see on my blog I can show you how to make it and it might come in handy for your house (ie those of us without showers, sinks, tables) Compartir :)

The pump works! The design is simple (can be found on google) but making/collecting materials takes a bit of time depending on your circumstances.

I'm stoked. The only part I'm looking for now is a spring to cut the work load in half. With ever 36 inch stroke the pump can basically discharge .3 liters of water (36pie(.4)sq=18cub inches or ~30ml) which is pretty cool! I put a soda cap with a nail hole on the outgoing end and turned it into a mini water gun that can shoot water across my street which is bad news for the kids going by on their motos when it's raining (so as not to waste the water). They get a nice blast (although they are already soaked). Haha - it's probably not the most intelligent idea to do this to motorists and I will probably be the first PCV to kill a small Dominican child but I'd say it is worth it. Sometimes I have a crowd to watch me get a passerby. My favorites are the older men who freak out.

More importantly - the pump will be used in the community to help alleviate some serious back straining of carrying water up small hills (and also transporting it around the house in less than 40 trips). It is a prototype as of the moment - but I'm going to teach them how I made it out of materials (carved wooden dowel, goma or shoe rubber, screw, PVC cement and 3/4, nail, teflon, hose found in the community (sans the check valves which are at the hardware store in the nearest city for approx 8 bucks each). The whole thing (including the hose) took me about 20-25 bucks to make.

The next project is a foot pump using the same method for sinks. To have the semblance of running water mainly.

Here is a pic of my shower head. I took a normal plastic soda bottle and cut the top 3rd off. Then I took a sink strainer and nailed even larger holes in it. I wrapped the circle in teflon a few times and stuck it into the bottle. I then took a candle and melted the plastic to secure it in and it works fairly well as of the moment when attached the the pump.




I was in Nagua the other day for my last blog entry and while on my 45 minute walk through the crazy city to the university I can across a fallen broken sign with prime wood and I was on that like a pregnant women craving peanut butter. I ripped off the boards with Dominicans watching and applauding. They are now the frame to this little coffee mesita!
I'm so pleased with it. On the side there you can see I started glueing sea glass that I collected during our Brigada Verde beach trip -- really silly to put it on before you finish hammering by the way. But I was testing out the look and if the superglue held. It is currently lacking the top (superficie) because of an unpleasant incident with one of my gua-gua drivers who I asked to pick my up 12 ft of 3inch wide cedro o caoba wood and long story short is that basically he is not the smartest guy in the world and came back with a huge crate that I totally couldn't use for the table and charged me 150 pesos +50 for his services which I wanted to tell him...you made me wait 8 hours for something i didn't even ask for and that is your service?

Yesterday was actually just a really bad day because of the gua-gua driver not understanding anything, then I had a few English students who are very frustrating and refuse to study but expect their certificates, a student who was cheating during my final English test, and finally and most importantly Mata telling me the Marta was not going to move out of the house I am looking to move into (the one I really have my hopes up for). It was a little much with all that yesterday and I felt like I was starting to get a little short with the kids at my house and so I decided to shut myself in my room and try to get my heart out of the blender. Then Bailey called and it was beautiful. Everyone needs a Bailey.

Then driving out of my site to San Fran de Macoris this morning I stopped by the house and asked Marta when she was moving out (pretending I hadn't heard the Chisme) and she told me the beginning of August so now I'm just really confused and still sorta upset...mainly because she didn't give me an exact date and hadn't started packing anything (Dominicans do this thing where they don't mean what they say sometimes and I'm new at figuring it out). Wish me luck though, I'd really like this house. There is a tamarindo tree for goodness sakes!

That reminds me for some reason. I'm thinking about doing a JAM project for my Donas as an income generation project. The mango and chinola jam were a hit - super easy to teach how to do (Mata and Taga already made a batch of Mango) - and a way to reuse mayonnaise glass bottles. The other volunteers seem to like them so maybe...more to come on that later.

Miss you all. Hoping to get your mail tomorrow in the Capital. Dear me I hope I get it and the Dominicans stop stealing it. Otherwise - hope to catch you online and talk! Take care.

Love,
Sarah