11. Yee-Haw

It is about that time again! Here is the latest and the greatest. I am going to separate this into four parts...

1. My work
2. My Community
3. My new friend
4. Other news

1. My work. I feel a little behind because I was in the capital for 2 weeks with pneumonia. During that two weeks, I did nothing other than learn how to spell the word pneumonia, watch KU lose and make many trips to the hospital. That good ol' tax $$$ did put me up in an air-conditioned room though, so thank you! Now that I am back & healthy, I am in the process of re-motivating.
One of my youth and I went to talk to the teachers at the school about doing the HIV/AIDS sports program (Deportes Para la Vida) during gym class or during free time. I thought it would be no sweat, 60% of their school day is free time anyways. They all said it sounded wonderful but I needed to ask and receive permission from the director of all of the schools in the region. That director is located in Hato Mayor so we decided I would make the trip the following morning to go talk to him. We put together a letter describing the program and asking permission, I chat with the moto driver and tell him I need to go to the city early, no later than 8am. I wake up, get ready, go find him & he is not there. He shows up at nine like nothing has happened although I have called him 12 times. Oh well, lets go! We get about 3/4ths the way there and the motorcycle stops, we get off (there were three of us on it) and he tips the moto hoping the gas moves around, get back on & go. About two miles later, we run out of gas for real. I walk to the office of education and wait to talk to the director, nice and sweaty. I give him the letter and explain the program and let him check out the manual. He says it looks great but I need permission from the other director who is not here because he leaves at 10am and it is now 10:30, he is also going to be out of the office for a while. I then get to hear my project partner tell me that I should have come earlier....OH REALLY??? Thank you. We left it at "ok, your number is on here, he will call you next week". I haven't heard from him. The other thing, this past Tuesday the kids came over to my house after school and told me that they have vacation until April 25th. I knew a holiday was coming up but I did not know they would be off school for over a week. Well, this program contains at least 10 classes so even if I got permission tomorrow and did it twice a week in the school, I still wouldn't have enough time. Back to square one. Now, we are in the process of organizing a group BUT it is Samana Santa (holy week) so basically everything is on hold other than drinking and dancing.
My chica's group is going strong. We are on our sixth week and last week we learned about the female reproductive system. I started another group for younger girls ages 7-11. It is not going to be as formal and we are just going to do art activities and play.

Chica's Brillantes

Some of my younger chicas!

Me with a few of my Chica's

English classes are on & off. I worked with three youth in hopes of making it a little more formal and we were supposed to start this week but I don't think it is didn't to go over too well considering it is a holiday weekend.
Lastly, as part of my project, my community has communicated that they would like to build a basketball/volleyball court for the youth to have a place to play. We have discussed it many times and had finally decided on the land that would be used. This week I come to find out that there is this money already available and an engineer is coming to survey the land (he was supposed to come on Friday but didn't show). Now I hear they are going to start this Tuesday, I am still confused and will be curious to see what happens. I am a little skeptical but it would be great if it really happens.

2. My Community. It is crazy to think about, but I have been in my community for about 6 months and I am still learning new things everyday - Who sells milk, who is related to who, who is "medio loco" and of course, who I can trust and work with.
Sometimes I feel like I have opened my own little tienda (store) in Los Vasquez. Here is why:

I wake up around 7:30-8:00 and make myself coffee or tea. I have to do this with my door shut or else I will be providing for the entire community. I read a little and prepare for the day. Come 9:00, I start opening up shop. I first brush my teeth (I need to open my doors for this so I can spit out my front door) and then start opening my windows. The shop is now open. I do a little sweeping and now the customers start coming. If for some reason, my shop isn't open by 10:00, they start banging on my doors or wait outside. They file in, some sit in my plastic chairs and some just stand. They notice my stove is dirty because my greka (thing I use to make coffee) leaks. They monitor me and tell me I am don't know how to sweep and I need to clean my stove. Good thing I have them! Once my daily routine is done, I now have about 4-6 kids in my house and there is dust/mud all over my floor again, we color or talk. They ask if I have water, mentas or lollipops. They stare at my book shelf and visually browse my things. They aren't allowed to touch though! They ask questions about all of the things they see "¿Que es esto?"and just stare. Sometimes I get the occasional customer who is too nervous to enter and just stares through my door, window browsing. I then close up shop for lunch time and after lunch I take an hour or so to relax. Shop opens back up around 1:30. Any later, they start calling. Of course, I have those days where I am not home for longer periods of time, visiting families, going to the river, getting water or meeting with my youth groups. On these days, I get questioned about where I was and what I was doing. I try to close up by 9:30 but sometimes I stay open later. My clientele is a wide range of people but the majority are young boys ages 5-15, the girls visit often but they only stay for a few minutes and stop in on their way to the colmado to buy oil, eggs or other ingredients they need as they are preparing lunch.

 I always wanted to open my own boutique!

Muchachos coloring in my shop.

3. My new friend. As some of you know, I finally bought myself a pet. This has been a lengthy process but the damage is done. I bought a horse. I had spent a lot of time thinking about whether I wanted a horse or donkey. I had made lists of pros and cons and talked with many people in my community about it. I FINALLY decided I wanted to buy a donkey. The main reason I wanted a donkey was because I do not know the first thing about caring for horses and they seem to be a lot more work. Donkeys can eat trash, they are smaller and when I would try them out here, my feet would drag on the floor...nothing to be afraid of, I could just step off if I needed to. They could help me carry my water (the main reason I was in the market for a pet anyways) and they don't really run. I have never seen a Donkey kick someone off its back nor wear a saddle. Sounded like just what I was in the market for. There are donkeys everywhere around here but I couldn't find one to buy. So I got a horse.

I bought him from Tibo who lives down the street. He cost me RD $2,000. That is USD $53.29 to be exact.
I have a 14 year old boy, Cariño, helping me out. He has two horses of his own so he knows how to care for him. Good thing. My Doña doesn't want him staying at my house because he will eat everything, including the Papaya, mangoes etc. that they sell for their income. He usually spends a few hours at my house grazing but we tie him up in places where he can reach the valuable things. Three times a week, Cariño takes him to his land (they have a lot) with the other horses to graze, he usually sleeps at Cariño's yard which is just around the corner from me.
I have named him Señor Eduardo (Mr. Ed).

Señor Eduardo

Giving rides. 

Cariño & Señor Ed helping me w/ water

I have only ridden horses a few times in my life so Cariño is teaching me. It is a little nerve-wracking especially because he does not wear a saddle, just a pretty grass skirt! Yesterday the both of us rode Señor Eduardo, Cariño was driving and I was on back. I have seen Cariño fly down my street on many different horses so I had to constantly remind him that I didn't want Señor Eduardo to run with me yet. We did trot a little and it was fun. Once we reached the river, we switched and I drove (I don't know the lingo yet, sorry). Señor Eduardo went SOOO slow when I was driving. I would make the same noises Cariño makes, kick him but he wouldn't do anything but a SLOW walk. Cariño thought it was a riot.
I did a little internet research and read that horses like carrots and apples. I told Cariño that I was going to buy him some and he looked at me like I was insane. I didn't fully catch what he said but something about how carrots and apples are expensive and I should feed them to him, not the horse.

Isn't he cute?

4. Other News.
CampSuperman. Next weekend, I am going to Camp Superman. It is a regional camp so about 10 volunteers are bringing two boys and we are going into the mountains in El Seibo. We are going to camp out, play in the river and teach these muchachos a thing or two.
One of the boys I had in mind, whom I do not know too well, always waves to me and is really shy when I talk to him. I thought he would be the perfect little guy to bring, he is always helping his grandfather with their horses (He lives with them, I am not sure where his parents are), working in their land and always seems rather polite. So while talking with some women in my community I mentioned I wanted to bring him. They said "No, you can't bring him. He is bad. They call him gasolino because he is always going." Sounds good to me, don't all 11 year boys go and go? Then walks up his grandfather. They call him over and I explain the camp and how I want to bring his grandson. He said "thank you but this boy is dangerous". I couldn't help but laugh. Dangerous? Really? He said "he moves around too much and puts his hands on everything" I explained that it could be a good opportunity and explained more about that camp but the final answer was no. Off to ask more boys!

Bola Race. Bola Race is a Peace Corps, Dominican Republic, tradition. A bola is an unpaid ride, similar to hitch-hiking in the states. You basically flag down a car and jump in, tell them where you are headed and they let you off when they are no longer headed in your direction. Many times they are in the back of a truck. Anyways, all the willing volunteers meet in a given location, this year, Santiago. Some of the rules of the Bola Race are:
Teams of at least two, one needs to be a male.
You can not say you are a Peace Corps Volunteer.
You can not pay for a ride.
Be in costume. This is supposed to help you get a ride and gives you a story as to why you need a Bola.
The following morning, we all meet up and are told the surprise location and the race begins. This year, the ending location was Las Terrenas (the same place I went for my family vacation).

The group before take off. 

Sarita & I!

We set off at 9am. Las Terrrenas is at least four hours away from Santiago if driving straight there. I believe the winning team got there in just over four hours and the losing team did not show up until about 7pm that night. My team took 11 bolas and it took us just over 6 hours. Most of our Bolas were in the back of empty fruit trucks but one was sitting on bags and bags of flour and another was a cozy ride in an air conditioned Mercedes. It was a gorgeous drive to Las Terrenas and really is fascinating the amount of people that are willing to stop and pick up gringos.

My Bola Team!

Back of a truck! 

Below is Frailin. They now call him my hijo (son). He is gone for Semana Santa and I miss the little guy so much!

I think that about wraps it up! I keep telling myself that I am going to write more often so they are more frequent and shorter. I'll see what I can do! I miss you all as always! xoxo

Frailin w/ Caña (Sugar Cane)