Reminder and tiny pump movie

Hey guys!

A quick reminder that you need to put your name in the text if you want me to know who is texting me. I have been able to figure out most, with the exception of the person quien sabe Espanol and is in Eugene Orgegon riding their bike around and enjoying life - who was that? :)

Also a quick movie showing that pump I was talking about.
Haha - in Spanish I am trying to say ' This is the pump and it's a project that will make the life a Dona a little easier. It can also be used to wet the little muchachos in your community.'

Text me for free

Well look at this handy dandy little tool I just found. If you would like to send me a text message for free, go to this website and scroll to the bottom of the page until you see a phone. Put in the number 809-723-9938 and write your message and then hit Enviar and type in the pin that pops up and I'll be able to receive a free text! Make sure you write your name otherwise I won't know who it is from. I also won't be able to text you back, but it's still a pretty cool thing.

www.claro.com.do

I am heading back to my site in a bit, currently in the capital and got my packages!!!
Thank you Sanders, Bailey, Nana, Mom, Jwall, Jenny, Matt, and Po. It is just so great. I walked into the volunteer lounge with all my packages and people were like - well somebody is loved. And that is exactly how it makes me feel!!! THANK YOU!

Went to San Fran de Macoris the other night for a regional get-together. I will definitely be going there more based on that visit - it's convenient and much nicer than Nagua from what I saw. I went out in the capital last night with some other volunteers. Mica and her Tennessee friends, Mark, Leeann and Ben and it was one of my favorite nights so far in the country. We went to Rinconcito to watch live Salsa music and then somehow ended up from there into a Merengue festival that was just ridiculously fun. I love dancing. Apparently it is every Sunday and I will take you if you come visit. Then we went back to the Penn where we played a little music. They asked me to go to this beach town with them (since they were visiting from the states) which I would have loved to do since these are all Tennessee folk with southan drawls and good tunes -- but there is this thing called Campo guilt in our training group -- when you leave your site a little too much and feel like you are having too much fun. Hopefully there are other opportunities. I think I want to visit Tennessee now because there is something in the water there that makes the people great.

Ok - off to Castillo to pick up some wood, finish the diagnostic, and then to Santiago next week. I was invited to play an open mic night the day before and I really hope I can get that in there too! They are doing Indian food, that is far beyond incentive.

Love you!

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

Volley Ball Net!

I realized I had 500 pesos left and a trip to the ATM was badly needed. The ATM is located in Nagua – a good 1.5 hr trip and it takes about 250 pesos roundtrip so I don’t want to cut it any closer. I also thought it would take advantage of the free wireless they have at the university and sit uninterrupted and remember how amazing it is to have internet access. Do you realize how valuable of tool the internet is? It is AMAZING. Like I can look up guava jam recipes, how to make a bar stool, the names of common Dominican flowers, get world news, and find out what is going on with my family and friends. Plus I hope I get to skype with Bailey or my parents and maybe they can show me Chester on the videocam. That is just flipping amazing. Hahah.

I finished the volleyball net! Check out pics below! Above is Milagro sewing

It was a great project. I hung out with a Dona named Milagro who taught me how to use her old fashioned Singer Sewing Machine (Yup with a pedal) and I had a great time with that. It was like learning stickshift all over again – but I got it eventually. Milagro sewed the large stretches and I sewed the sides because she is faster than lightning and also very nice. Ok let me tell you the design – I went to visit Meeka at the Colmado in El Firme and asked her for rice sacks and a tarp which she donated for free – although the tarp was sorta torn and dirty. I cut the tarp into 21 ft strips since that was its length – shorter than official net standards but it’ll serve. We cleaned the tarp in the rain with laundry suds and brooms – Milagro was super nice about this, she has what seems like varicose veins but it’s really painful to walk around and yet she was still helping me out a lot. Then I had my muchachos help me collect 100 beer bottle caps. I took them home and nailed a hole thru them all and hammered them flat so they had no sharp edges. Then I went and bought canamo (rice string sac) for 70 pesos which besides labor was the only cost. I took all the stuff to Milagro’s house where we sewed the tarp (A line above for the tension and the caps 6 inches apart – also basically hemmed the bottom part) for all four sides which took 3 days. I sewed all the sides together in a rectangle and then strung the canamo thru all the caps after I took a hot nail to poke thru the plastic. I then proceeded to weave the 6x6 inch squares and got the net as tight as I could and although it’s not perfect – it’s pretty cool! I was also glad to see the community was taking an interest and helping me and I look forward to getting the poles up and playing with the kids. I need to remember the rules. It has been a long time since 8^th grade De Anza Volleyball. (That’s where I met Bailey! The first time I hung out with Bailey was after a vball practice at her beach apt. Her mom had the little dog Sammy and we drove in the brown BMW thru Burger king’s drive thru and got cheeseburgers and these frosted coke drinks. Do u remember that Bay?)

Speaking of everyone helping me, it’s actually sort of hard to not get help. Sometimes you just want to do stuff for yourself. I’ve been trying to figure out what I need to do to show my community I am actually a very capable, mildly educated woman, albeit I am still figuring out Spanish. Most of the time though I think even if I spoke Spanish like a Dominican they still would be amazed that I know how to use a hammer. It’s fairly demeaning when the men do this. Yesterday I found a few pieces of wood that I cut into smaller blocks and started to make Mauricio a little table/feeding dish. I knew exactly how I wanted to make it and then my homestay Dad, Chiche, found out what I was doing and basically took over right when it was the fun part and he just nailed all the pieces together! Then he told me, ‘You can tell them back in your country that I taught you how to do this’ and I was in a really great mood yesterday but otherwise that would have pissed me off pretty good. The worst thing is that you can’t really do anything but be submissive for right now. I think that is a huge part of the problem for women here. Today for example, I went up to a different community to visit a sick lady with Mata and a few neighbors and during the short trip I was hissed at by every group we passed. They usually say ‘Rubia!’ and some other stupid novia comment that there is no way they can think makes me feel flattered in reality. There was a gua-gua driver who I find to be a creep who stopped his car in front of our house and hissed at me to come over to him for like a minute straight. They don’t accept no for an answer and that is just like a pet peeve to me now. So I sat there on my porch and said – My name is Sarah, not Rubia, and I’m gonna sit right here and you can tell me what you need. He still insisted on telling me to come over and thinking he had something to give to Mata I finally got up hoping he could tell how much I disliked him – and all he had to say to me was that he heard I played guitar well and he wanted lessons. That was just ridiculous and I envision bailey dropkicking him. I am sick of the way the men here have this completely distorted mindset they have the god given right to treat women, a foreign woman especially, like this. I am also pretty disappointed when I see why they think this – it’s the women who perpetuate it by the way the dress and call for the attention and never do anything when someone is being harassed. To me educating women is the first step. Educating women to respect themselves and have higher aspirations than solely marrying the first guy that hisses at you and then reproduce like rabbits – well it’s a cultural difference but I have a hard time seeing it as anything else but a problem for the women. Anyways – sorry I was just hissed at little too much today. I also have more bug bites than I can count although I wear pants in the blazing sun so you might find this note to be a little less sugar laced (as many of you have been asking me for haha).

Speaking of today – I was actually ordered to go down a steep hill and carry two gallons of river water up to the sick woman I was visiting. I was really surprised by this but excited that they would let me help – like the naïve little goat I can sometimes be. Then I realized how unnatural it was that they (actually only Carmen) asked me to do this and wondered if I had done something wrong. So yeah, I’m still a little confused as to what it really was. I also can’t help but feel a little annoyed in the aftermath at Carmen because not only did I have to go visit a sick person (which I do unfortunately quite often and it is horrible because you sit there and don’t have anything to do or say except look at the person) that was really far away, but then she just orders me to go down a crazy steep hill and lug up water. It was one of the only times I’ve thought that someone in the community might be taking advantage of me being a ‘volunteer’. Needless to say, I’m glad I have other options of landlords instead of just Carmen. I felt like a strong donkey after my trip though. Carry water sucks by the way – have I told you how amazing aqueducts and water systems are? AMAZING! Hahah

Almost done with my pump. Just got the tephlon today (which will hopefully help with air /h20 leaks) and then a wood screw which I wasn’t been able to find in my site. Crossing fingers it works!

Also wanted to say that I heard that my ‘super volunteer’ friend Jared had to be med evac-ed to the States and I’m really hoping you are doing ok and that we’ll see you at IST. He is one of the healthiest creatures I’ve ever met and that news was really baffling. Sending you good thoughts Jared.

Take care

Sooner,

Sarah

Pumping it up









Mauricio with his new food dish!


















Ramon, Manuel y Leo ayudando. Aranas tejiendo.













La Maya! Turned out pretty good!









This little guy fell on top of me while I was doing Yoga.
Take Care!!

Tarantulas

Hi!

This morning in my room I was moving my yoga mat from the corner and saw the figure of a giant tarantula. I specifically learned the word for tarantula in Spanish for when this day came and I was prepared and went to Mata and calmly said, ‘Cacata en mi habitacion’ and she calmly picked up a machete and took my flashlight and promptly killed it. It was huge – like the size of my palm. I was a little scared of it and I’m definitely glad Mata got it so that I’m not thinking about it in my room hiding. Otherwise it was a beautiful spider and I’m sorry things had to end that way.

It has been a while and that is due to the combination of inconvenience/cost of leaving my site and being busy with the community diagnostic where I interview community members. I’ve been finding myself really wanting to check my email lately though. Trying to keep up with the news is pretty difficult. Michael Jackson’s death randomly popped up on the TV in between telenovelas and that was really weird. Speaking of which I’d just like to say that Michael Jackson will always be one of my favorite artists, and although he had his share of problems that any pressured child star with a messed up Dad seems bound to encounter, I think a lot of people tended to focus on media warped stories instead of how much he did to try to help children across the world. Therefore – I personally have no problem saying I will always be a huge fan of Michael Jackson because I think underneath it all he was a good guy and an amazing musician. The caliber of talent doesn’t exist in today’s market. My site only knows vaguely who MJ was and therefore it feel sorta surreal that he’s passed away.

Speaking of passing away – I’ve decided that Dominicans die all the time because I’ve been to way too many funerals in the last month. A man told me that there is a fundamental difference between Americans and Dominicans and that is their value of life. Dominicans don’t value their lives as much and therefore don’t protect themselves against accidents or harm. There are points to disagree and agree – but I found this to be an interesting viewpoint. By the way Dominican funerals are horrible if I haven’t said that yet. They have several women who just seem to sit and moan, actually more like scream, the whole time. It is like a specific job maybe. The whole funeral event is very different and much more complex than in the US.

So I’ll be getting my own house I hope in about a month and a half now. One of the Donas in the Mafia group offered me her mom’s house which was the only option for a while (my rent would go towards paying for an expensive heart med for the mom but the exchange was the guilt I’d feel for kicking an older lady out of her house of 30 years plus it was not that nice of house and right next to the billard/bar hang out). Then just this week during an interview visit with one of the wealthier community members, her daughter in law Marta told me – ‘Oh Sarah so I’m moving and I live right here and you should rent it’…which was really weird because it was one of the only houses in the community that I thought, well that one would be really nice because it’s private and new (with the downfall that it’s close to a gallera – where legal cockfights happen). I talked to the landlord who isn’t my favorite guy in the community but I told him my price and he agreed so if all works out I’ll have that house in mid august. The price by the way is 800 pesos or just around $30 a month for the whole house. I was paying nearly $500 month to rent half a room in a fairly crappy apt in La Jolla. Yeah. Ha. This yard isn’t giant but it has cacao trees, café plants, a giant wonderful tamarindo tree, guayaba trees, bean trees, a view, and importantly space for my future herb and veggie garden. The house It is basically a square divided in half with one of the halves partitioned into two rooms. Therefore anytime someone wants to visit, I should be able to offer a living room and a guestroom to sleep at least. I like drawing my ideas for what I want to build and how the house will look in my spare time. Ben and I are very similar in this aspect – we were talking about sofa designs recently and it makes me really excited to compare notes. We like making stuff.
A lot of the volunteers went to Samana for the Fourth of July. Speaking of making stuff – I took the Chinola Jam I made and put it in a little Malta India bottle and made a cork using a machete and it turned out fairly cute. The jam is a little too thick for the shape of the bottle but it still worked. I also brought my chocolate for the other volunteers to try. Ben brought his peanut butter and we were both saying how we need to join super powers to defeat the enemy of reeses craving. His peanut butter was delicious.

Otherwise, Samana was ok but I started to feel a little sad there. The beaches were beautiful but something was just off. I didn’t get to say happy birthday to Jimmy and I love being at home for the fourth especially with my friends and family. We were surrounded by some older volunteers who really like to get their party on and I caught myself feeling very disconnected. It doesn’t help having the freshmen feeling of ‘new volunteer’ whenever you are around older volunteers. I have to say that I have felt much more awkward around American volunteers than around the Dominicans. I got to play music with Mica again this weekend which I was really looking forward to but I felt like I came off too eager and then just felt like that awk new person again haha. I have good reason to be eager though because it is just absolutely wonderful to play music with anyone que sabe, let alone someone who likes the same type of music, plus Mica is just cool and I feel like I’m playing with Patty Griffin. It took me coming to DR to find that so I have a hard time hiding being stoked. I also was a little sad because Jean and I didn’t get to talk much which sucked. In summary, although it was a pretty place, I felt a bit jipped after Samana in a few ways. I left unfortunately a bit sunburned (I did put on the block), my wallet felt a lot lighter, and generally I was really sleepy and wanting to return to my site! Your site is like a safe haven because it’s what you know and it’s nice to have that. I am looking forward to going to Samana with my family though because now I know the area and I have a friend who lives next to the giant waterfall in El Limon that I want to check out.

My English class is going well – the average on the test was 86% before about 6 kids who avoided the test like the plague came in 4-5 days late and brought that down to something I haven’t calculated yet. The majority know their colors and numbers and basic greetings which I’m jumping for joy about considering how difficult they are to settle down. I’m going to end the beginner class at the end of July and the print their certificates in the capital and have a little graduation ceremony with just the kids in August. I’m thinking about making cookies for them too with the chocolate and jam since that worked out dandy. In terms of the basketball court – I got permission from the owner to use the chunk of land for the court and am currently working out sewing the net (With an old fashioned petal Singer Machine mom!) out of rice sack string and a giant tarp and bottle caps. Otherwise it’s going to be a longer process getting the money for a real court. I told the junto de vecinos club to put up temporary backboards so the community isn’t restless. The kids just have absolutely nothing to do in the summer so I don’t see why we shouldn’t put up temporary hoop right away while I search for funding over the next 6 months. My agenda is basically finish up the useless community interviews (which are all giving me no new information really at this point) and my English class, go to 3 month In Service Training and present diagnostic, settle into house and furnish it while starting gardens, and then start up second English class while looking for grant money for court and aqueduct money. It hasn’t really rained here for over a week and it’s bad. The people have to walk a long way to these spread out wells to carry buckets of water back to their house. Therefore if I can help them get money for any project I’d say the aqueduct is the highest need and the community tends to agree.

There are two sweet little waterfalls near my site. I’d say less than an hour walk. Mark visited and I went with some of my kid friends and it was great. One has a giant tree trunk ladder you jump off of and the other is a ravine you walk through for a bit which is gorgeous and you come upon a small waterfall and swimming hole. It has been so ridiculously hot here that I was thinking about doing it again soon. If you come visit I’ll show you the Indian caves and the little waterfalls!

Ok – so I’m off to Castillo manana to buy a new cell phone charger (somebody took mine! What a jerk thing to take!), to check my email, to buy PVC ¾’’ pipe for my nearly completed shower hand pump, and also to check pricing for planks of wood in the hardware stores and see how much they want to rip me off.

Happy Birthday to Lea! Sorry I wasn’t able to say it sooner.
Miss you!
Love,
Sarah

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

The lizard should be facing the other way and I don't have enough time to figure out how to turn it around. Darn.

Hi!
Mark and I made it up to Nagua today to check out the city, check email, mail some letters and also visit the bank.
This week was the first time I felt really bummed after Mom described to me how lovely Nessa’s wedding was and listed all of my friends who were there. I am so sad that I couldn’t be there. There’s nothing more really to say about that.
I went to my first Dominican Funeral yesterday. Eva warned me about them. I sat for 6 hours in the church with a few moaning (actually more like screaming women) and the casket. I learned a lot though – including how the colors you wear can represent your relationship with the deceased person and more about ‘luto’ which is a grievance period.
Then it started pouring and we were stuck in the church waiting it out. The whole time I was thinking, CRAP, MY CACAO! Because I had just laid my fermented Cacao out to dry in the blazing sun at night! Gargh. I came back to the house and it was in a swimming pool so I’m going to try to dry it out again but it might be ruined. We’ll see.
Grilla is a 16 year old girl in my community who appears to have severe mental disabilities and is also deaf. It is really sad when you see the way this country treats people with special needs sometimes – I’ll spare the stories – but then it is also apparent to me that the whole community accepts and loves Grilla as one of their members. Yesterday was really stressful because Grilla got lost in the Cacao conucos close to the river which is a really bad situation. I was sitting with the Domininans in Mata’s kitchen when we got back from the funeral when we found this out and they were sort of just like – crap. They then proceeded on with what they were doing and I was sort of freaking out thinking – it’s dark out and raining like crazy and it’s super dangerous for the poor little girl. I then asked if we could go look for her and they told me it was way too dangerous for me and sort of laughed – by the way they were like amazed that I could make tea so they seriously doubt I have any capability which I’ve found out from other volunteers is normal and I don’t know why. So I’m sitting there all confused thinking – why in the world aren’t they doing something…and then a bunch of people start showing up to search for her. I was glad that my impression was correct – the community is tightly knit and will take care of its members.
Then Grilla actually managed to find her way home by herself and it was really sad to see how stressed out Taga (her mom) looked. I couldn’t even imagine. I felt like I was going to die when Chester wandered away for a few days let alone my child. So yes, yesterday was something fierce to say the least.
Carmen told me that she had a secret for me a few days ago. Apparently she wants me to move into her mom’s little casita (which I’ve seen and isn’t my first choice but it covers the bases). Her mom is taking an expensive medication and they discussed it and she could use my rent money to help pay for this and have her mom move in with her or her sister Silvia. I can’t help but feel like I’m displacing the mom, but Silvia told me that they basically really could use the money so it’d be helping them out. We’ll see what happens in two more months, but it’s really good that I at least have one option now. It was really a good plan to start thinking about this early.
I do have requests for little stuff now! I wish I would have put this up sooner!
Nails (Small to medium sized), Dryer sheets (they apparently work very well against mosquitoes if you have them in your pocket), scissors, tape and crazy glue!
Love you guys! If you have international minutes call me up.
Love,
Sarah