Campo Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
(Termondt Family Pic 2008)














It's been a rollercoaster for the past few weeks. I've been super excited about my parents coming, super busy building the outdoor bathroom and tying up ends, and also unfortunately trying to come to terms with the fact that I won't get the chance to tell Gramps thank you again for the massive loads of chocolate he kept sending me and the advice on resources to tap into for the aqueduct project. He passed away last week unexpectedly and it has been the most difficult thing I've dealt with at my site. I want everyone to know what an incredible guy he was, which you can't accurately put into a little blog post. He was a major influence and inspiration for my doing Peace Corps. I am so lucky to have had him as a grandfather and know that he is proud of me. I'll miss you alot Grandpa.



Here is a quick photo reel of the family up in the campo. We went to a cock fight on Christmas day itself which I wasn't expecting but ended up being quite an event (Roosters don't die and it wasn't as bad as I thought. The most entertaining thing is watching my Dominican guy friends going INSANE.)

Wish I had pics of this too - Mom tried really hard to communicate and got a lesson in Bachata. I love my mom, she's such a gem. We weren't able to make it out to dance but did literally everything else possible in two days. The community LOVED them and I assuredly will come back and be asked for the rest of always 'When is your family coming back Sarah!?' They loved Dad who was handing out cigars as if he'd just had quintuplets.















In the living room with the bearded brother being festive



















Carina! Infront of our 'Usa su propia bulto' 'Don't use plastic bags' poster.
















Bija, Jim, and Dad. That is me talking on the phone in the corner haha.




















Mom, Dad, and Bija infront of the 'Greenhouse'
















Church music on Christmas morning
















Me and Jimmers!
















First SQUASH! SCORE!
















Basil - kicking ass. Tomatos in the background.
















My view with Christmas morning fog



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AUNT JENNA!

Hope you all are doing well and Happy New Year 2010!
Sooner,
Sarah

Scuba Diving in December

This is a Lionfish. He is an exotic species and can sting you.





Today I was a fish. I am taking a scuba diving class to get my certification! I went to a sunken ship wreck at around 60 ft and we saw a bunch of stuff and it was GREAT! I saw the lion fish and shrimp and damselfish and butterfly fishes. I highly recommend getting certified because you have an entirely different experience from snorkeling when you can really get down there with the fishies. They give a discount to PC Volunteers which is great (only 230 bucks for open water dive to 60 ft), and then we will eventually be able to help out with Reef Check – an organization that has locations all over the country that need help with things like fish counts, buoy cleanings, and coral reef checks. I thought this was an awesome opportunity and therefore am aprovecharing (taking advantage). It is really important to take a class – there are basic things you need to know that are easy but don’t come naturally. The dive instructor told me that I appear very comfortable underwater. I liked that alot :)

My parents are coming really soon now! My whole community is really excited to meet them and I’m really excited to show them stuff. I feel like a 4 year old a little bit. I’m also excited to go to Cabarete to vacation. I’m going to read and sleep and eat good food and dance. I also hope I might be able to go diving. We'll see.

Here is an update of the garden! I've 90% finished it beside the fence around. The tomatos are doing great as are the squash. Basil are taking their time. One carrot bed is up and kicking while the other isn't which was confusing. I couldn't get zuchs or lavender or some of my marigolds to germinate which was weird. My mint also isn't doing great. Yet it is still a lot of fun. This week we learned that you can apply a little wood ashes to tomato plant leaves if you have a problem with flea beetles which I definitely did. The kids went and got the ashes from a neighboring Dona's fogon (Wood cook stove), then we sprayed on my garlic spray and gently applied ashes. They seem to be retaining the info from the gardening classes easily which is cool. They know alot already. The literacy club is also going well. I have abotu 5 really dedicated kids, one of which who can't read at all (9 year old) and they really like the books and participating. I really like the club now too because the kids are sweethearts and it is just really fun playing with them. I did get in an argument with a straggler student who came in and was really...well just not very pleasant to work with - and we argued over the existence of witches. Ben tells me, well Sarah, they might have that here. Ben was not helping that day.

I've got to study for my test! I love you all and hope you have a very Very Merry Holiday. I'll post more pics soon of me scuba diving or making faces.

Love,

Sarah