My bike! Keep scrolling to see the real blog.

These are just pics of me and my bike, Sasha. First is of us on the way to the museum. The second is of us on the back of a truck hitch hiking back to Heathers house. We have the best times......oh, Sasha.....

Vacaciones!

Just got back from an amazing 2 week vacation...oh yes....2 weeks. It has been a blast. First there was Semana Santa, like i told you guys so everyone in the entire country was off celebrating that. The second week my Aunt and Uncle came to town to visit and put me up at the Barcelo resort with them! Man, was that nice. All you can eat, air conditioned rooms, hot water(most of the time) and comfy beds. It doesnt get much better than that.
So Semana Santa started off by hanging out in Moca. Heather and I rode our bikes 2 hours straight to get to the Hermanas Mirabal Museum. Who are the Hermanas Mirabal you may ask? Well look here! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabal_sisters
It was quite a fight to get there so we decided to hitchhike back to her house. Luckily a truck stopped to give us a ride and they happened to be going right by her neighborhood! so we rode with our bikes in the back of a truck filled with empty chicken crates, haha (hence my facebook pic).
Midway through the week another volunteers(Carly) parents came into town so we all enjoyed a free night out in Santiago, gracias a sus padres.
On Saturday i headed up to another volunteers(Topher) house in the mountains towards puerto plata and hung out with him and another volunteer (Chandler). We hung out in the local river and enjoyed some good tunes and good people. Very chill.
Sunday, I made the trek over to the wonderful Barcelo all-inclusive beach resort to meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. They stayed until Friday and we did all sorts of stuff. We went on a cable car ride up to the top of this small mountain which had amazing views of the country. Then we went and jumped off some 12 waterfalls in Imbert for half of a day, that was fun. We ventured to Santiago to visit my site but i had forgotten my keys so we couldnt get into my apartment. We did manage to rig up a ladder and my 2 cousins and I climbed through the window for a bit, haha. We went to Cabarete the next day to enjoy the beach, and then friday the left. It was a much needed break :) and i was so glad they had a good time. I loved showing them around my little island. Seriously, if anyone wants a free tour guide, im your guy!
Now its back to reality. This weekend is a readjustment period and then i start a new small-business class on Tuesday. Im pretty excited about this one, well see how many kids show up. Also filling out a grant to get cement floors and tin roofs at a neighbor community, and working on helping paint the basketball court in my community.
Oh! we also celebrating my little neighbors ChaCha's 3rd birthday. We went to McDonalds and had chocolate sundaes. Haha she wore this little dress and a crown. It was the cutest thing ever! She doesnt look very happy in the picture with me, but trust me, she loves me, haha.
Good things happening, staying busy, living the life, poor as dirt, haha. Thats about it for now. Hablamos.

Whats happening

Hmmm...whats happened in the past month....instead of going 4 days straight without water.....hard to think of anything other than that haha.
Seriously, that was a while ago, and it really wasn't that bad. There was an "incident" where a few fellow volunteers were staying at my house and one of them was stricken with a variation of intestinal distress, of course, i had no water that day. Theres not much worse than 5 people in one tiny apartment while someone is "going through the motions" in the bathroom with only a bucket to flush. It is a sufficient way to get it all down.....but it doesn't necessarily complete the job, and lets face it, there are a whole lot worse things than that, ha. Gracias a Dios, it wasn't me this time.

Anyways, in related news....we just had our annual bola race! Each year most of the volunteers in the country gather in one location, then are given the name of a destination to get to using only free rides. Basically, we all gathered in Santiago, and were told the morning of the race to hitchhike to Las Terrenas. Rules of the game: You must have a partner of the opposite sex. You must wear a costume. You must assume a character. So, another volunteer, Heather and I dressed up in wedding attire. Full on dress and tux and raced up to LAs Terrenas. Ultimately, we took the wrong route and ended up next to last, BUT it was a blast and a once in a lifetime thing. Who can say they hitchhiked with a bride halfway across the Dominican Republic! Ha! There is my 10 year reunion story, haha. Im not really married though. Dont get your hopes up....or be disappointed in me :)

Other news, a few weeks ago we completed the boys science camp we had been anticipating for a while. It was an awesome success. We hosted 32 boys ages 10-14 for a 4-day 3-night camp focused on engineering and becoming a man/proffesional. I gave a presentation to 32 little boys about what it means to be a man.....can you imagine....it was a disaster, i could not have done a worse job. They seemed to take little bits and pieces from it though, so who knows. We did all kinds of science projects. We made cars out of rat traps and raced them (my team came in 3rd), we made boats out of recyclable materials (my team was the only one that could fit a person on and float the boat down a river!) We also did a lot of tiny experiments and a lot of team building educational games. We slept on the ground in a town that is probably the highest elevated town in the DR. At night it got into the low 50's thats cold when your outside, ha. It was awesome to see these kids run around in a camp-like environment. None of these kids had ever been to anything like this. We take summer camps for granted in the US, they loved it!
I was able to bring 2 kids from my community and they both had an absolute blast.

Now, its back to work as usual. Spend a few hours at the school everyday, tending to the needs of the people, lol. This week is Semana Santa, which means Holy Week. It is in observance of what we call Easter. We get a whole week, i dont know what you suckers get! I plan on traveling to see a water system inauguration tomorrow. Another volunteer has finished his water project, which basically provided water to a town that previously had no direct access. How awesome is that? Im gonna spend this week traveling throughout the tri-region area celebrating the Holy Week. LIFE IS TOUGH.

You will all be pleased to know that i am not moving to that shack i showed you in my last post. After much thought I have decided its just better to stay where im at for many reasons. But, i will still be working over there. Yesterday i went through about 25 houses inspecting them for a grant i am writing focused on cement floors and tin roofs. There are a lot of homes, like the one i was gonna rent, that have dirt floors, and a lot of houses that have very damaged tin roofs, which leak heavily when it rains. Im hoping to get this one approved so we can start working over there.

Also, I have been in contact with a teacher from the Carol Morgan School in Santo Domingo. He is going to bring 25 of his advanced AP students (this is an international school where all the students are multi-lingual from very fortunate backgrounds) to my high school for one day on May 26th and show the teachers how to utilize the science lab we have. We have a room labeled Laboratorio de Ciencia but no one ever uses it because there are no instruments. They have offered to leave us with sufficient instruments to run and sustain a science lab!! I'm really excited about this project.

That seems like all for now. I attached a few pictures. Hope you all enjoy! Miss you guys! Excited for my aunt and uncle to get here in a week!

Mucho Tiempo

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!

Update con photos

Well, hello. This is me trying to be more disciplined in this blog, haha.
So, not too much going on here. Staying busy with Medical Mission stuff until March, when i begin my new projects. A little twist is that i am know pairing up with the science teachers at the school to introduce a series of science expiraments. I will be implementing 3 different projects and having the teachers participate so that they will learn the process, and HOPEFULLY continue to do these projects for years to come. I always remember how much fun it was to do team projects in school. All clases here consist of are straight-forward lectures. So, i decided to start this Project while they try and correct the problema with the electricity…..you know…..how it goes out for 6 hour blocks…….

Learned how to make Dominican fried chicken last night, which was cool. My cookbook is expanding rapidly lol. I attached some pictures with this blog.

One of them should be of my classic DR dinner the other night. Fried eggs and cheese, fried solomi, and boiled bananas.

One of a truck is the truck that comes through my community each day with bananas and fruit and veggies. Thats how people get their food for the most part.

One of the Dominican Baseball game we went to a while back. Vendors selling whole bags of popcorn, haha.

One of my little neighbor named Chacha and the Dora doll my Mom got her for Christmas, lol. Shes the cutest little girl ever.
Enjoy the photos. Les extraño!

Im back

Well.......i understand its been a long time since we last spoke. :)

Id like to say ive been way to busy to bother with this blog, but i have just simply forgotten about it, lol. Im gonna try to do better , though.

So my trip home was great, got to see all my friends and family, went to South Carolina, Tampa, Orlando, Mt. Dora, muchas lugares, had my first firehouse sub, tasted the sweet bliss of coal fire grilled steak with twice baked potatoes and milk that was sold....and has been cold. Loved the trip, but was happy to be coming back to my life here as well.

Upon returning, Heather and I took a little readjustment trip to the southeast of the country. We just wanted to give ourselves a little break from vacation, ya know? We visited Juan Dolio, La Romana, and Bayahibe. We also visited two islands off the coast of Bayahibe that are part of the national park system here in the DR. We visited a tiny deserted island called Catalinita, which is also where the beach fight scene from the second Pirates of the Carribeean movie takes place!!!!! We snorkled in the crystal blue waters for star fish and conch shells, Heather saw a shark, and im glad i didnt because it would have smelt my fear and bitten my legs and arms off letting me fend for myself as human chum. I hate sharks. We went to Isla Saona which has a small indigenous community of only 500 people and 1 Peace Corps volunteer, lol. It was a great trip.

Since then i have been figuring out ideas to implement in my community. My Tentaive plan as of now is to finish all my Medical Mission responsibilities by the end of February, yes i do work. Med. Missions is really crazy this time of year we have 5 happening in Jan. and Feb. By the start of march i will start a Business Plan group, where i will teach a group of kids how to create a business plan and ask for funding. Its a program set up by Peace Corps and every year they have a competition to see which plan sounds the most feasible. The winner can win up to 70,000 pesos to start their small business.

Other things i have planned are an Engineers Club in my detention center. Its basically a series of science experiments that lets kids get hands on experience with science and that sort of thing. I am excited to start that soon. These inmates have never seen anything like this.

Im also planning out my second level english class, because my neighbor wont stop talking about it, lol.

In other news, my best friend and neighbor in my community was just exiled from his house. Thats a little harsh, he still living there, but his wife told him to leave for whatever reason. He wasnt very clear with me, and its a subject that is none of my business. He is moving across the street to the unit below mine, lol. Hes been taking it kinda hard so keep him in your prayers.

I also witnessed a domestic stabbing on my way to work the other day. I was walking and i hurt a bunch of kids get up and start running towards me screaming CORTALO which means cut hiim! in spanish, so you could imagine my paralysis. I accepted my fate at that moment, i was like this is how its gonna end i will be stabbed to death repeatedly with little tiny dull cheap knives so they can steel my cell phone and latest john irving book. They ran right past me though to a disputing young couple. I didnt see how it happened but the man walked away with a stab wound that was bleeding quite well.

On the health front, i have some mystery rash again. Dont know what it is or why i have it, but its there. a million tiny insect bites is what it looks like. Pretty painful, but nothing new, lol. Just gotta wait it out. its all over hands and arms, waist and knees. It keeps spreading.....I have enough lotion to last.

Anyways, thats about it. Ill have to post pictures later because im on the school computers. Adios

Long time!

Sorry again, this blog thing is getting more and more tough. So here is a brief update of what has been going on, bullet point style.

- Brought a student of mine to a youth conference about Information Technology put on by the Peace Corps. It was a 3 day conference with workshops and games to help kids gain the tools required to teach their communities a little about the basics of IT. It was very cool and my student even won a prize. The most participative, lol. He had a really great time and had the opportunity to meat a lot of other dominican youth from around the country. Great experience overall for me and him.

- Finishing up my computer repair class at my high school, and beginning to formulate a plan for next year. The class dealt with small repair basics and formatting of computers, throughout the class we began re-formatting all the computer, and am proud to say that my students will finish formatting the computer lab on tuesday (tomorrow). They will graduate then as well with certificates and cds with a bunch of computer programs. The class was not as successful as i would have liked. We only had electricity maybe 30% of the time, but the kids had fun.

- Trying to figure out what to do at the Detention Center. Computers keep breaking, kids are never interested. Frustrating scene.

- The lady who does my laundry claimed i did not pay her one month ago. When, in fact, i did. I decided to agree to pay her for this lost month to avoid a huge blowout and losing one of the few families that i am close with in my town. I did, however, mention that i did pay and that we will be moving to a receipt system to avoid this kind of problem again. I will be paying here the lost month over the next few months, just to prove to her that i am not made of money and to reinforce the fact that i am poor too, lol. We are on good terms now. Good as normal.

- I had the most amazing tacos last night.

- Med mission stuff is really picking up. Sent out a request for 34 volunteers. Confirmed travel on another 12, and chose participants for another 6. January is going to be a really busy month.

- I am coming home in 9 days!!!!

Well thats about all. Its pretty tranquilo here so no cool news yet. Sorry for the lag but i probably wont be updating until January. Adios y cuidate!