El Seibo

Well, im here in el seibo and wow, it is so much better than santo domingo. quiter, cleaner, more interesting. My host family is 10 times better, my host mom here cooks like a pro. for lunch the other day i had spaghettti, chicken, rice, platanos, and beans. it was sooo goood. she makes me oatmeal for breakfast every morning. My room is a lot bigger and i have a fan that works. the water runs here, so i was able to take a shower, fantastic.
Anyways, topic of the day, women. It is incredible the level of degredation here. Women are mere objects for the pleasure of men. Its the closest thing to an unofficial sex trade i have ever seen. Men are taught from a very young age that no means maybe, but women are taught that no means no, so its a very difficult situation here. Women are not respected unless they are super old. Men hiss and say incredibly sexual and degrading things to them as they walk by. It is the way men prove their masculinity. Its is embarresing for all the girls in our group. It would be 10 times more difficult to be a woman here than a man. You know sometimes in the states guys will be a girl a drink. Normally its non chalent and he wonbt force you into bed, But here, if you send a drink to a girl in a bar, and she accepts it, it is culturally understood that you will be having sex with them. We had a 4 hour long meeting about this this morning. Basically men have all the power.
whew, we just completed our basic training woo hoo. I got a 99 on my spanish competency test, which cant be right because i still dont have a clue half the time. Now we move on to core basic training, which has to do with settinbg up computer labs and what not. I actually have to give a presentation about hardware....what? haha, no clue.
Also, this week is semana santa, which is a relgious celebration here that lasts from yesterday till next sunday. People have the whole week off, and they usually go on vacation to the river or beach. By vacation i mean they spend they day there then come back. but we have to work all week, bummer, but we get friday, saturday and sunday off next week, so pumped about that.
alright, i gotta go, love and miss you guys tons!

hola

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First of all,id like to thank my mother for always commenting on my posts, it gives me something tolookforward to, haha.
Secondly,i thought i wouldmention that the mother ofmy hostmom is 105 yearsold!!!!!!!!!! 105!!! If you guys thought gram was in shape,this women looks 50!!!! She has a cane,but walks upand down these poorly paven roads, up and down stairs,she is absolutely a freak of science. I have never seen anything like it in my life.Imgoing totry to take a picture of her.
I really just wanted to blog that,but since im here anyways. Tomorrowimleaving for El Seibo for 5.5 weeks, it will be exciting because it is a UN millenium goal village which means it has 24 hour luz(electricity),and running water!!!!!!! thats right folks, i willfeelthe cool sensation of water running over my body without having a bucket in one hand!!! Not to mention the change of scenery,and family,willbe nice. I beleive its about 2 hours fromhere. This is where we willget all our technical training.
Also, we have all picked up a new game.Its kind of like baseball, put we use a broken broomstick as a bat and bottlecaps as baseballs. Talk about your hand-eye coordination. Have case try that Dad.
Im attaching somepictures, hopefully they go through.This is just a little bit of my life here.

Whew!

So i am back in the capital now. This weekend was exactly what i needed to get back on track. Its been so suffocating living in the city and literally choking on exhuast fumes. i was able to get into the ¨campo¨ or countryside, and see a much more peaceful side of the country. Definitely where i want to live when i get my assignment. Anyways, just got the news today that i am getting a raise!!!! instead of gettin 6,000 us dollars when i return after 2 years, i am getting 7,500!!
Its funny that im so excited to make 1500 more dollars in 2 years, but its really cool.
So i wnnna talk a little bit about kids here. Americans think it is a cardinal sin when someone spanks there baby. Well.....here children are beaten on a regtular basis. Literally, the mothers take the sandals off their feet and beat their children over the head with it if they are bad. There is also punching shoving and other froms of abuse, lol. So wehn someone spanks a baby, thank the Lord, haha. Its totally the norm here to beat your child, its quite shoking to see in person really.
Also, education here is horrible. Out of 127 countries the DR is ranked 124. Haiti has a better education system. Kids go to school for an average of 2.5 hours a day here. Thats one of the main reasons that this country has been unable to rise above. These kids are learning nothing in school. One of the biggest problems is having 20 and 21 year olds in 8th grade. The education we receive in the States is infinitely better, on all levels. This means we have our work cut out for us, lol.
Thursday we leave to go to El Seibo for 5.5 weeks, ha. I will live with a different family for those 5 weeks and then come back here for like another week, and then we graduate from training and are given our permanent assignments. Exciting stuff-
love and miss you guys tons!!

LA Vega 2

So im still in La Vega. Yesterday we went to Ortega and another location to visit 2 more current volunteers. It was pretty interesting, one is working on promoting the artisan craft of faceless porcelain dolls. Its a lot cooler than it sounds. Its a Dominican-only tradition. I will try to get a few to bring home or if anyone comes to visit. They are something else. Then the other volunteer is building a basketball court! that is something i could definitely see myself doing. For dinner we ate chicken on the side of the road. Literally a random man with a smoker. I thought for sure i would regret it, but aside from some abdominal discomfort last night, all seems to be well. Today we are going to San Francisco, lol, ya, and tomorrow Santiago, which is supposed to be the greatest city in all the DR. Meeting a couple more volunteers there. Pretty excited.
The volunteer who i am visiting is named Cash, and he has running water! We get electricity maybe 2 hours a day, but i have been able to flush the toilet!!! what a treat!
Well anyways, we are packin up to go to San Fran.
Love and Miss you guys

La Vega

Im here in La Vega!
Wow its so much nicer than Santo Domingo. Given, its all relative, but there is less tras and the pace of life is a lot slower. We went to a government subsidized cafeteria today and got lunch for 5 pesos which is like a penny, lol. It was disgusting. The volunteer here has a pretty sweet setup, there is no electricity but its nice to not live with 37 other people. Im probably goin to have a massive bowel movement tonight because the pork i ate still had hair on it, yeeaaa......
Im here till Sunday and we will be traveling to other sites to visit other volunteers, it should be fun.
Miss everyone

Water!

So this is how the water here works. Twice a week my village gets water. It comes in a big truck and everyone comes and fills millions of buckets and jugs with water. Then they do everything they can with it, like- cleaning the house, washing dishes, clothes, putting some in the toilet, then put the rest in a tinaka, which is a water storage unit on the roof. Dont be confused, its very small and its usually empty the next day. Yesterday there was water, oh it was glorious. I went to the bathroom and flushed the toilet, i took a shower. This is how we get our water.
Tomorrow I am going to La Vega to visit a current PC volunteer. He has been here for over a year, so it will give me the opportunity to find out about what we will actually be doing. It takes 2 hours to get there from here and i have to take a charter bus which costs 200 pesos, around 7 dollars. Im pretty excited about that. I cant wait to get out of Santo Domingo and see the country.
Well times up.
Love and miss you guys like crazy

Wooo

Well, im back on the internet. Apprently there is an internet cafe in my community that i did not know about. Its very scethcy though, and most of the time it is closed. Anyway, its been a good weekend, hung out with the familia and tried to understand what they were saying. Still dont, but it will get better. Also, try having gastrointestinal problems with a toilet that does not flush.......yea.....thanks your good graces you can flush your toilet. It is a luxury i have never wanted as much as i do now. I would pay money to be able to flush the toilet, haha. Went to downtown Santo Domingo today where the First Catherdral, Church, House, School in the Americas are. Its pretty nice in the Center. The focus of this blog is transportation. haha. So if anyone plans 0n visiting, and wants to see my site....plan on hitchhiking. Thats how i get to training every morning. haha, i literally stick my thumb out and wait for a car to come, then ask if hes going to Pantoja, if he is, i get in. Its about 15 pesos one way which is less than .50 cents. They also cram people in these cars. Almost everytime i get in there are 5 or 6 other people in a car the size of a 1980 honda civic. 4 people in the back seet, 3 in the front. Not to mention the cars are all stick shift, makes for a fun ride. Then there are things called guaguas. They are mini vans that cram about 30-50 people in them, depneding on how skinny the people are. There are no formal stops, when you want to get out you say, dejame! which means leave me here, lol. It is extremely uncomfortable, unreliable and disgusting, but its cheap, lol. Transportation is very informal here, so Mom you would probably rather lick a toilet seat than take a ¨car¨ to my site. I also get on the back of motorcycles here, thats another way to hitchike and its like 5 pesos. Its been quite an eye opening experience. Anyways, times up, gotta go. Love and miss everyone! Alot!

Made it

Soooooo....Im here....Thats is all.....haha
Wow. Words cannot even describe this experience. Ok, so i live in a little village. Im actually not allowed to give the name out in a public blog like this, so it will remain unsaid. Anyways, I live in a little house with about 12 other people. Couple kids, couple teens, couple adults, throw some neighbors in and why not the grandparents and cousins too. There is like 7 kids all under the age of 10, which is helpful because they speak very slowly to me. I have my own room, which is a plus, but no running water and i get electricity maybe 50% of the day. How do i bathe, one might ask. Well, in the ¨tub¨there is a 50 gallon oil drum filled with unpurified water. I take a smaller bucket and scoop some water into it. Then i pour it over my body. There is also no doorknob on the bathroom door so i have to stuff toiletpaper in the whole to block people from seeing in. Which brings me to my next topic. Using the toilet. Since there is no running water, obviously i cannot flush. So i take said bucket and dip it into the water jug in the tub. Then i dump it, with force, into the toilet to force the excrement down. Quite incredible really. Then i have to throw the toilet paper into a trashcan. It can smell pretty bad. I sleep in a mosquito net on a descent sized bed. I dont have to much trouble getting to sleep but there are no windows, just holes in the wall, so i can hear all the roosters, dogs and music outside. My family is really really nice though, they cook me great food and talk to me and help me with spanish. Well, this is all for now, my time is up on the internet. I had to travel far for an internet cafe, so i wont be communicating very often. Its all part of the experience.

DC

Sooooo im in our nations fine capital this eve. We are here for a couple days until we leave for the Dominican. I went to the Smithsonian Institute, Natural History Museum, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and White House. Got to see the "Hope Diamond". Apparently its a famous diamond.....its pretty small though. I may purchase one on the way to the airport.

Anyways, registration is tomorrow. I will also receive an H1N1 and Rabies shot....yay. On Thursday we leave at around 3 in the morning, flight is at 8:30, pumped for that......