I know, i know , i know. Its been a while, and everyone is dying to hear about my crazy exciting life! I would say i have been to busy to update, but lets face it, the Dominican culture of taking it easy and pushing things back another day has gotten a hold of me.
Lets see. The whole month of Feb was pretty wild for me. I spent about 2 weeks on a med mission i had spent 3 months organizing, so it was nice to see that come to a successful close. This one specialized in Cleft Palates, severe burn scars, and extra toes and fingers. Many women came into the clinic with massive keloids, or built up scar tissue all over their body. These massive burns were due to their abusive boyfriends who got jealous/angry and threw battery acid on them. Its not over there, not only did they throw hot battery acid, they mixed it with honey.......yea.....so it would stick to their skin. Terrifyingly depressing stuff. When i asked a few women what happened, it seemed pretty normal to them. I just dont get it. The final 2 days of the mission were a wash because the electricity went out in the hospital, surprise, and didnt ever come back, lol. We had to cancel the final 2 days of surgeries, ouch. No cool surgery stories this time, because i was the one planning and organizing/supervising and making sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing. So, that was pretty much my February.
March has been pretty slow. Med Mission stuff is not as intense. We have a few this month and next, but i dont have to go to any of them. I have not started any more classes, because we still dont have electricity in the school. Im on strike till they fix it, at least for computer related stuff. I saw my first Carnaval parade. It was pretty cool. Only stayed for about 20 minutes but very interesting. The past 2 weekend i have been hosting a lot of volunteers. This past weekend was out volunteer visit. This means there is a new group of volunteers that just got to the country about 3 weeks ago. They were sent out to visit older volunteers with experience to see how things are really done, as opposed to being stuck in training for 3 months. So i was able host a new volunteer and show him the ropes, how we do things here. I showed him my school, we visited an english institute for an intensive Q&A session, ate lots of dirty street food, haha. Met up with a bunch of Volunteers with their visits on Saturday just to hang out and see Santiago and all that jazz. Other than that, i have just been hanging out and working on some new ideas.
Projects to look forward too:
-MArch 31st-April 3 i will be bringing 2 kids from my community to a Science/Engineer camp in La Cienaga, thanks to help from my Grandparents! Thanks guys! Its a camp focused on team/self-esteem building and using your hands to make something all your own. We will be doing projects like building a raft out of recyclable materials, studying new advances in robotic technology, possible career paths in both science and engineering. It will be a great way to expose some of the youth to ideas outside of their own communities. And it will be a ton of fun! I will also be giving a lecture on what it means to be a man, hahaha laugh your butt off. I have to fill an hour and a half talking about this. Im pretty excited though, it should be a good time.
- Construye tus suenos: This is a new class i will be starting on April 5th. It is a 2 month course on creating a developing a small business idea, with the end goal being to submit the finished business plan to a competition where they can actually earn money to start it! Im really excited about this.
- Alta Gracia! This is a small campo (rural village) right across the canyon from my community. That makes no sense to any of you im sure, but trust me, its there. Anyways, it a very rural tiny village with nothing but wooden houses, tin roofs and dirt roads. I attended a meeting with the leaders of the community to see what i could do to help out in the area. I have a follow up meeting on Sunday to meet the whole community and talk to them a little bit about what i bring to the table. I at least want to develop this site so that another volunteer can be placed here in the future.
- I MAY BE MOVING! Thats right i may be moving to the aforementioned campo. I found a house with help from my buddy Francisco and its mine if i want it for 3000 pesos down payment and 1500 pesos a month. Thats 40 bucks a month! Half what im paying right now. I will attach a photo of the house. Im still seriosuly considering it, nothing is final. Im taking my time with this decision because its a huge change. Right now i have tile floors, cement ceiling, indoor bathroom, 24 hour electricity and pretty good water. I would be moving to dirt floor, scrap wood walls, tin roof, outdoor bathroom, spotty electricity and water. Let me know what you guys think.
Anyways, i think thats about it for now. Oh! i also just bought a bike! Her name is Sasha and she is blue. I ride her to work every day and even to the city. I save at least 40 pesos a day now. I also get some much needed exercise :)
Thats all i have. I will try to write more often. Adios!
