Update!

Well, I finally got to some internet!

We've had 4 people leave. One because of medical issues and the rest because they didn't like it. It kind of makes you feel better that you're making it.

I had a spider chilling above my bed for a while, so I named him Henry. He was pretty big, naming him made me feel more comfortable with him stalking me. He finally left, and I'm a little sad. I liked having a pet.

We went to the business plan competition in Santo Domingo. It was very inspirational. The kids who won were so excited. They all received money to start their business and make a life for themselves. One guy, who was my favorite, is buying instruments for his musical school on the Haitian border. That's very inspirational because the Haitians here are very marginalized and looked down upon, so it was great to see a Haitian win.

Tonight I am going to test my Spanish skills by trying to get us into a foam party for less than we're supposed to pay. I'm hoping it works out because we are all poor! It's nice to have weekends free to hang out with people even if it gets a little boring at times.

I am going to be giving a charla (kind of like an informal lecture) to the women's group here in Juan Lopez over marketing and other business skills. That should be fun, they are very receptive to us. Then I will be working with a greenhouse, helping them take out a loan to expand their business. It's nice to be able to apply my skills.

Next weekend I am going to visit a volunteer near Santiago for the weekend. That should be a blast but I am going by myself and she didn't give me the greatest directions, so hopefully I find it OK. We will also be doing a eco tourism expedition and going to a folk art/music fair in the next couple weeks. We'll be very busy. Hopefully I'll be able to get down on the internet at some time. Hope you all are doing well!

Juan Lopez

Well, I FINALLY got internet here, for a little bit. It´s SO slow, I won´t write too much or too often. I have pictures because it is BEAUTIFUL here, but you´ll have to wait until I get faster internet. We are up in the mountains, but the mountains are covered in palm trees and plantain trees, it´s gorgeous. I think we may get to walk up one of the mountains on the weekend.

We are actually doing a diagnostic now. We are working with communities (mine is Los Comacho) and I will be helping them do a budget and figure out how much they can take out in a loan and at what percent to help them expand. It´s cool because the entire community is very excited about this. It´s a definate change from the city, but a very good one. Things are cleaner, the people are much more nice, and we are actually able to do hands on things. I am having a great time here.

The Spanish is coming, slowly. My family can understand me, but they have a weird accent up here I´m having trouble picking up on. My Don is super nice and does everything to try and help me learn. He shuffles me around the house and outside to get in on good conversations or to watch the news or a movie in Spanish. He´s incredibly nice.

The down side to here, besides the internet and phone situation, is that the trainees are relatively far from eachother. I like the people I am close to, but I don´t get to see everyone and that´s a big change. I guess that´s how life will be in the campo.

That´s all for now, hopefully I´ll have more exciting things to write in a week. Next week we return to the capital for a bit to help with a business plan competition. Should be interesting!

Change of Plans

Thanks to Hurricane Ike, we are no longer going to our site visit today. Most bridges are washed out and it's still down pouring. Kind of stinks. Instead, we are hanging out here and will *hopefully* leave for Juan Lopez for 5 weeks on Thursday. Stay tuned...

Ike

Well, Ike hit us decently hard last night. Lots of downed trees and flooding. Everything is fine healthwise for us, no one is dead from my group (although there probably are Dominican deaths), but because there was so much flooding and downed trees, the major highways are obstructed and bridges are washed out. That sucks because tomorrow we were supposed to all go our separate ways for three days to basically have fun with another volunteer. Now, that's probably not going to happen. So we are stuck here, which is quite boring.

If we do end up going out tomorrow, I won't have internet until I get back (Thursday night), and then we move Friday to Juan Lopez (a town near Moca) for 5 weeks. I don't know what the internet situation will be like there, so don't expect much. There I will be with just economics volunteers and we will learn and work with local community groups, so I will have lots to talk about then...if I have internet. It will definately be more rural up there and I will have even less electricity and less water and probably no flushing toilet. Welcome to the campo.

On the positive side, today was the first day I walked all the way to work without getting hit on. I think most people were not hanging out outside because the storm. Good for me!

Old Hospital

This is an old hospital run by nuns. Obviously they don't use it anymore, but it used to be a big deal. Now, it's mainly used for wedding pictures and receptions. Cassie, want to move your wedding to the DR?

A few more pictures

An Old Fort
Christopher Columbus
One of two places Columbus could be buried.
The "first" historian
An old Monestary.

We didn't end up going to the carwash, I just stayed in and talked to my "uncle" all night. He's a priest from Puerta Plata and was visiting. He spoke English fairly well and was helping me with Spanish. It was nice to be able to have a conversation in both with someone who understood what it was like to be learning a language.

Gustav, Hannah, and Ike, Oh My!

Well, hurricanes have kind of put a damper on our plans. Instead of going to Enriquillo this weekend (to visit an economics volunteer ON THE BEACH), I will now wait out the rest of Hanna and Ike in Santo Domingo. Hopefully I can get out there the begining of next week. Because of the storms, we are also out of wireless at the training center, so I will have to wait till it comes back to post more pictures (too many bad virus stories from public computers).

Our training class had their first Dengue Fever victim. She´s in the hospital because her fever was getting too high, although she said the pain isn´t THAT bad. I guess they can´t give you pain meds either (not sure why), so you just have to ride it out.

I saw my first giant poisonious cien pies (centipede) yesterday. It was in our classroom! It was probably about 6 inches long and the width of a dry-erase marker. It was hissing at us, very scary. We got a stick and removed it.

This morning my Doña bought bananas from the banana guy for her little store. She unpacked the box and found TWO double bananas, they look like siamese bananas, fused together along the entire length...really cool. She said they are very rare and she´s lucky she got two in one package....weird.

Tonight we are going to a carwash. During the day, car washes are just that, car washes. At night they turn into kind of an outdoor bar area. Hopefully it´ll be so loud people don´t try to talk to me in Spanish.