NUEVA YOL!

OH HOW I MISS NUEVA YOL (all Dominicans call the U.S. "Nueva Yol" or "Nueba Yorb").

You may ask: how can you miss the states when we're going through such an economic crisis?
my response: I hate having gastro-intestinal problems every 3 weeks and not having a nice flush toilet.
Yeah, I'll spare you the details of my current illness. If you are in a really sick mood or just bored at work, email me or my mom and we can tell you all about it.

Update:

I changed sites (it's been a long time since my last post). I now live in a much bigger site in the same province (San Jose de Ocoa). There is still no phone signal, but we have these nifty pay phones on the main street (sometimes they work). I'll take pictures of my new house soon for ya'll. It's pretty nice for my community....living room, bedroom, kitchen, connected bathroom.
Living room is basically the front room that only has 2 plastic chairs and a calendar. My bedroom has a twin bed and plastic storage shelves (i used to put all my clothes in them, but a mouse was living between my tee shirts). The kitchen has a table with a table top stove, gas tank and some plastic bins to wash dishes. The bathroom sounds cooler than it is...I still take bucket baths and have to bucket flush the toilet. There's no sink. Oh, there's a hornet's nest in the shower (which just means that I get visitors during shower time and needless to really mention, I am a speedy bucket bather----I can wash my hair, body and face before 3 of colbie calliat's songs are over). I have electricity in my house!!!! There's only one lightbulb and outlet, but I'm not complaining.....it's awesome!

I have a youth group that I work with every Tuesday. We talk about self-esteem, personal values, reproductive health and STI/HIV/AIDS. After graduation (yes, we will have a small celebration after my 9 week course), some members will become promotores and help me pass along the information to other youth in the surrounding communities. I'm also hoping they'll participate in various projects like painting murals in the community center and organized marches.

Well, I hope everyone in Nueba Yorb is having an awesome summer. Remember: ride a bike, walk or take public transportation to save your wallet! Thanks to those who have maintained contact via email, snail mail, facebook and my space....I am eternally grateful.

Do me a favor and go eat a Reese's peanut butter cup and smile....that's what i would do if I was in Nueva Yol.

2 posts in one day......DIACHE!!

This is my nine year old best friend. She keeps me sane.

Kids doing handstands on the sidewalk in Ocoa. They were taking a break from their shoe-shining jobs.

These are a little old, but I stole them from somebody. The first one is of all of the PCVs that came with me in September. I believe this was taken a few hours before swearing in. We've lost two since then. The second is of us swearing in. It was pouring. You can see a bit of my forehead on the left.

Home.....i guess

Ok, here are pictures of my current site. From the top: This is my host familia's casita. The small window on the right is for my tiny room. ; My backyard. My host dad had recently planted habichuelas (beans).; This is my latrine. I always had to pass this pig on the way to do my business. I started calling him Easter and sadly, he was killed early Thursday (3/20) for Easter weekend. ; The kitchen. Yes, it's a separate from the house. That's a lechoza (papaya) tree on the left (great for digestion); This is the only faucet we have for the house. Almost every house in the community has one of these outside (the ones who do not have to use a neighbor's or go to the river). The water "comes" for a few hours a day and we have to fill up big trash cans around the house.

Estoy viva!

I'm sorry. It has been over two months since since my last confession er....blog. Sadly, I have nothing interesting to write. I completed interviewing the women of my community and reported the results of my diagnostic at the health and water 3 month in service training. Everyone in my sector presented and thus I was able to compare my site with others. You know how people say ignorance is bliss? That's how I feel about PC sometimes. It's hard to explain, but the 3 month IST just made me depressed about my community. Oh well, I'm talking to my director on Monday. I'll let you all know what conclusions we come up with.

As far as other stuff goes....
I have a lot of mice in my house. They decide to have fiesta time between the hours of 1am-5am and it drives me nuts. Not only that, it grosses me out so much. My don puts out poison in my room, but I swear the mice are just getting fatter. The small mice seem to die easiest. Sometimes, I'll walk into my room in the middle of the day and step on a carcass. Thankfully I always wear shoes in the house. I plan to buy a cat once I move out on my own.

My best friend in my site is 9 years old. We have whistle wars. She comes over wearing some kind of hot pink or electric green conjunto and a 1950s Chrismas caroler hat (it's furry with a feather on the side) and we whistle. It's funny because neither of us can whistle so we're essentially just making funny faces and spitting on each other. She likes to look at the magazines people send me from home. I happen to have an American Cheerleader mag that I thought she would love because there's pictures of girls her age doing cool cheer tricks. I have to admit that she was not impressed. It's cool, I still took pictures of her looking through it. I'll post those some other time.

My mom is coming to visit in about 7 weeks! WAHOO! So, which one of you is next? Yes, I will pressure you into visiting. I mean, I live in the Caribbean. That trumps the whole mice issue, right?

Well, I think this is it for now. I'll post some pictures next time and I promise it'll be soon.

random

Here are some pics to hold you all over until I have time to post another blog. The top is of Jessica, Bill and me at a restaurant in the capital. We splurge on junk food at TGIFs (oops). Bill and I are acting classy at the consolidation hotel and drinking out of champagne glasses. Thanks to his mom for sending Mambas from the States. The next picture is of the health PCVs. We had just sworn in. We´re looking up at the only male in our group because he had to deal with all the girl issues during 5 weeks of CBT (Thanks Tod!)

sick

Well, everyone is officially cleared to go back to their sites. However, I will remain in the capital until Monday. The PC Medical Officer has diagnosed me with some kind of bronchial infection and I'm loaded up on meds. Don't worry I get to stay in a private room at the hostel with cable. Please send me lots of funny emails as I will continue to take full advantage of the free internet via the PC office. Love you all.

OLGA la sin verguenza

Timeline of Monday and Tuesdays events:

Monday 12/10 evening: My neighbor announces to the community that there was some ciclon coming towards the country.
*In my community, there is no phone service and no TVs. 2 people own radios and we rely on them for the noticias

Tuesday 12/10 8:30a: I walked outside to clean my "pee pot" and noticed a sky full of clouds. Brief thoughts of packing up essentials and heading into the city to call the PC office to see what was happening ran through my mind. Problem: Only ONE truck heads down from my site into Ocoa. It leaves each morning at 7:30a.
Went about my day.
There were more rumors of a storm coming towards us by 2:00p or 5:00p. Everyone kind of stayed indoors and didn't show much concern.

1:00p The skies continued to darken. I told my host-mom that if the weather gets bad, I'd have to find a way to contact the PC office. She laughed and said "Si Dios quiere".

3:00p An unfamiliar motorcycle driver came looking for la Americana to hand deliver a note. Sure enough the note said for me to head to the capital immediately. My contact in the city received a phone call from the capital advising her to reach me. She sent a moto-driver up to my site (this cost me a pretty penny).
I packed up, grabbed a backpack full of necessities, put on my helmet and hopped on the back of the motorcycle.
*The road (if you can call it that) is really rocky, you have to cross a river at least 5 times, and motorcycles suck. I thought I was going to fall off.
3:30p: On the road, we passed a motorcycle driver was looking for la Americana. We stopped and he handed me a note. A volunteer had written it stating that all PCVs were now in the CONSOLIDATION PHASE and need to report to "safe-houses" (i.e. hotels throughout the country).

4:15p: A man in a truck traveling towards my site flagged us down. You guessed it, he was looking for la Americana. This driver said that he was sent up the mountain to pick me up. I was ecstatic as this meant no more moto ride for me!
The ride down the mountain was really bumpy and became pretty scary once it started to rain. We picked up hitch hikers on the way as many people wanted to head down to the pueblo for a safety. I grew antsy because I knew that the last bus to the capital would leave by 6:00p.

5:56p: The truck driver dropped me off at the bus stop and they were still loading! I boarded and found Katie, but none of the other regional PCVs (there are 5 of us). We headed to Santo Domingo.

8:45p: Katie and I arrived at the assigned hotel SAFELY. We checked in and met up with the other PCVs and gobbled up a delicious (and very free) dinner.

Notes:
I can honestly say that some of my faith in the PC system has been restored. I whole-heartedly appreciate the efforts taken to get me to a safe location during OLGA. You all should know that all PCVs have been accounted for. A couple were unable to leave their sites, but PC has had contact with them. As far as the storm direction, you all in the States probably know more than I do. I believe the eye is passing Haiti, but we're expecting tons of rain as the tail whips over us.

Spoiled American Notes: All consolidated PCVs are happily enjoying our air-conditioning, cable tv, hot showers (REAL SHOWERS) and the yummy hotel buffet thanks to the PC. A few of us made the 5 block trek in the crazy rain to the PC office to retrieve packages. Thanks Tia Vero, Mom, and Danny for all the love.

Back to Reality: We'll be here at least one more night. All of us are dreading leaving and are scared to hear about the damage the storm has caused in our sites. Whatever the results, I'll try to keep you posted. I think my house will be fine. We'll probably just have an increase in rats. Yeah, rats. I'll write about the rats later.

For now, have a great holiday season and good luck with finals UNR!