diarrea

ewwww, hah. Thought i would set the mood. I just had lunch, a dish called sancocho. mom, its like that cassolout we had in carcassone, lol. Its platanos, potatoes, carrots, a bunch of other starchy vegetables, meat and fat. Sounds good right? nooooo, its good for the first 2 bites until you start sweating because your eating hot soup outside in 105 degree weather. long story short, ive accepted diarrea as an integral part of my life now, it is just something that will not ever go away. Its not uncomfortable or anything, its just there when its convenient. It could be, and was, a lot worse in Santo Domingo.
Anyways, now that most of you have thrown up in your mouths, ive been pretty busy over the past couple days so i have not been able to access a computer with internet. A lot has happened since i last blogged. I went to two rivers this weekend. Traveled over uncharted sugarcane fields and gorges to get to these tranquil rippling streams in the middle of mountanous landscapes. small cascades over smooth brown stone. One of those places where you forget that there is any other place in the world. Absolutely beautiful. (side note, i know my spelling is bad on these, but its because im rapid typing to try and squeeze as much as i can into a short period of time).
I also had my first technical presentation in spanish yesterday. It was about 8 minutes long about adult education in information technology. I feel like i dominated it, so no worrys. Now me and two other volunteers are enrolled in an internship at the local Liceo ( high school). We have to inventory the lab and observe classes and ask teachers questions because next week, we will be teaching classes, hahah. Thats right, we will eb teaching spanish students how to use computers in spanish. I never dreamed i would ever be in this position before entering peace corps.
Also, i thought everyone might like to know my allowance here. So, they give us 1,300 domincan pesos for 5.5 weeks, which amounts to around 35 pesos a day which is exactly 1 us dollar per day. $1 dollar! I touched a cell phone for the first time in over a month yesterday to call my mom. ive been on the internet 11 times for 30 minutes each over the course of 1 month. so what do i do in my spare time? dominoes, cards, dominoes, chess, dominoes, read, dominoes, basketball. Dominoes is the national sport here, im getting pretty good at it. We play basketball almost every day. Ive seen a couple MLB baseball players that are playing in the DR league. A few guys from the devil rays, yankees, rockies, etc. I watched TV for the first time the other day. I watched sportscenter. Im pissed that i missed the Duke game last night!
So here Aare some funny domincan gestures. Usually on the weekends we go bachata dancing, yes everyone thats right i dance bachata and merengue, sometimes, and not very well.
When someone didnt hear what you said, they scrunch there nose up.
When pointing, they dont use fingers they pucker their lips in the direction you should go, its quite funny actually
When someone is lying they stick their tounge out and touch it with their index finger, lol.
Living here has been quite an experience, and ive only been here 1 month. Not having all the normal distractions, internet, tv, etc. has really opened my eyes to the beauty all around me. Once you get over the fact that you are in poverty and everyone in the living room can here you poop because the walls dont reach the ceiling, it becomes a whole different place. The beauty starts to reveal itself. its been quite an amazing experience.
until next time, whenver that is, love and miss you guys tons!