One week adentro...

Well, I have been in Jarabacoa for a little over a week now, and I have to say that I am really enjoying being out of the city. The houses themselves are not much different- tin roofs, bucket showers, intermittent power- but the environment is much nicer. I am no longer living on an off-ramp, but rather on a perfectly respectable dirt road in the countryside in a little pueblo that is called Catorce, which really means 14, so it could be the name of the road. We are about 15 minutes by car outside of Jarabacoa in a district called Piedra Blanca, and it is really beautiful here. It rains almost everyday, so it is really lush, and the stars are beautiful at night with the clear skies. With the rain come the bugs as well though, which were tough to deal with to be sure. We are all almost out of bug spray, and Jen's ankles are actually swollen and radiating heat at this point. It is not as bad now as it was the first couple of days though, so I hope that we will get used to it. I get up every day and go jogging through the mud at 6 AM because the dogs are still asleep, but the roosters are already up, so sleeping is just not an option anymore. I kind of like having this part of the day for myself too, because I get to get around, and it makes me feel more at home. At 7:30 we make our 30 minute walk to the Forestry School ESNAFOR (Escuela Nacional Foresta) where we meet up with our training director, Eli, who is the cutest 40 year old man that you ever met, and another PC volunteer, Chris, both of whom teach at the forestry school. Chris is probably the most qualified forestry volunteer I have ever met, as he has a degree in it and has worked in forestry before coming to the DR, which is a nice treat. His service is up in 3 weeks, and none of us is qualified enough to take his place at the school, but he has done some great work here. He is moving to Colorado to become a smoke jumper for the forest service, which I think is really cool. Everyday Eli and Chris take the seven of us and teach us various things that we will be able to do in our sites. It is the most useful and applicable instruction we have had since being here, and it is a very welcome change. So far we have learned how to: start a compost site, fertilize the soil for a garden, build a fence for a garden, use our Americana charm to get the local farmers to give us free seedlings for our garden, build a germination bed, plant a garden, use oxen to plow land for a tree farm, transplant plantain and banana trees for our farm, make insecticide and fungicide to eradicate a common plantain tree disease, wield a machete for innumerable purposes including but not limited to cutting bamboo, fern trees, banana trees, making posts for fences, splitting wood, fending off amorous forestry students, etc. I should send a picture, because I look pretty badass with it, I'm not going to lie. We have also visited a number of lumber yards and pine tree farms used for wood production, and we are still planning on learning how to build efficient wood stoves out of clay and make natural soil fertilizer, as well as other things that I haven't even heard about yet. We are busy all day long, and are eating a ton because we are working constantly, and it has been really great. I like being in a smaller group too, because I am really getting to know the people in my group. I live next to my friend Lauren, because our host mothers are sisters, so we basically do everything. She has definitely become my best friend here, and it has been really nice having someone around to vent with. Yesterday was the first time I really started to let the life get to me, and it was great to have her here to put things in perspective for me.
Okay, as a side note, I take back what I said about the houses being relatively the same as in Santo Domingo. In Santo Domingo I didn't have to worry about chickens laying eggs on my bed. In Santo Domingo I didn't have rat poop on my dresser. In Santo Domingo termites didn't leave wood shavings on my pillow. But hey, I guess this is the price we pay for paradise, right? Right.

En espanol, como una Dominicana!

En este ensayo voy a escribir en espanol para que puedes ver como va mi aprende. Estoy empezando en la segunda parte de mi entrenamiento manana y creo que sea muy emocionante. Me voy a ir a Jarabacoa, un pueblo en el centro de la Republica Dominicana. Oi que este parte del pas esta muy linda, y este pueblo es uno de los unicos pueblos en todo el pais que puede ganar dinero en ecoturismo. Este es un gran cosa y algo muy importante para la economia de la RD porque ahora la mas efectivo tipo de ganar dinero en el pais es el turismo, y si puede convencer gente a visitar el centro y las montanas en vez de solo las playas y los gran hoteles, mas gente pueden ganar dinero del turismo. Jarabacoa esta situado a la empieza de un parque nacional que tiene la montana mas alta en, no solamente la isla, pero tambien toda la costa este de las Americas. Se llama Pico Duarte, y es por eso que mucha gente extranjera viene a Jarabacoa. Hay muchos negocios all que ofrecen sus servicios como guias en el parque y turistas solo pueden subir la montana si tienen una guia, y esta regla es que gana dinero por la comunidad alla. Dura tres das para subir Pico Duarte, y este aventura es algo que todos los voluntarios dicen que necesitamos por lo menos una vez durante nuestro servicio. Pero eso es no lo que me voy a estudiar. Tambien en la parque nacional hay una universidad forestal donde el gobierno ensea sus profesionales agroforestal. Este universidad es el lugar donde vamos a aprender sobre los tecnicos de agroforestal y tambien continua con nuestras clases de espanol. No se como ser las acomodaciones alli en las montanas, y no se si puedo usar una computadora alli, pero me voy a ver cuando llegare manana y si puedo, escribir y dar fotos de mi nueva casa y pueblo lindo. Ser emocionante tambien porque en las montanas el clima esta mucho mas fresca, y frio tambien durante el noche. Creo que sea mejor que aqui en Santo Domingo donde tengo mucho calor siempre y esta sucia tambien. Vamos a ver. Hasta luego!(Don't worry, the next one will be in English, Mom)

Update

Okay, so that first weekend was a little dramatic. But hey, it made a good blog, right? That is what it is all about. I am sure that I am going to get a big talking to from my mom about it though. Things are feeling a bit more normal these days too, so hopefully she won't worry so much. My training is almost over in the capital, which will be nice, because the worst part of this place is the cities. Poverty is most evident when you are surrounded by trash and pollution and the most pathetic excuses of imitation "Nueva York" that you have ever seen. While the campesinos may have next to nothing in comparison to those in the capital, it is a lot easier to have nothing if you are surrounded by lush green mountains and beautiful flowering trees all the time. This is the new perspective that I have after having gone to visit another volunteer in the Cordillera mountain range last weekend. She lives a very simple life, and I had to walk up a very steep hill on a very small dirt path for over an hour to find her, but it was worth it, because that is what I was hoping for when I dreamed of Peace Corps. She has no electricity of course, but shockingly she does get running water thanks to an aquaduct project a peace corps volunteer started before her. She lives on a ridge in the most fertile and oldest mountain range on the island. Her immediate neighbors are only about 10 families that farm this ridge for cacao, coffee, platanos, guineas (bananas), yucca, cassava, etc., but she works with about 4 other communities that are all over the mountain, but within walking distance. And that is pretty much what she does day to day. Walks. Up and down, from house to house, stopping in to trade a cup of the herbal tea she makes every day from her garden for a cup of strong caf that she saw drying in the yard the day before. The word of the year is "compartir", which means "to share". Because she can't walk by without discussing the weather and the food and music and the local kids with every woman she sees. But that is the way people work here, and they all truly believe that they are her mother and are responsible for her. In this light, it makes sense that they would need to know everything about everything. There is NO sense of personal identity or god forbid personal space. Everyone shares everything, and that is just something that I am going to have to get used to. She has started a youth gardening and environmental awareness project with all the kids at the local school, and is working with all of her mothers on a stove project that will get them to stop building open fires on the floor of there houses and give them a more efficient and healthy way to cook. Spending time with Alison showed me what I have to look forward to, and while I will have to adjust to the pace of life up there, and I know that I will be very lonely at some times, I think that it is going to be an amazing and very valuable experience for me and my community when the time comes. But first I have to learn how to build the stoves. So, this weekend I am moving from Santo Domingo to Jarabacoa in the center of the island close to the highest peak at this longitude to do technical training. We will learn how to use worm farms to enrich the soil, how to combine different crops to increase the efficiency of the crop cycles, and how to build these stoves that have made such a difference for the women in Los Lirios. I hope that I am up to the task, but at the very least I am very excited about moving into this next phase. I will try to keep you all updated.

A copy of my journal: Day 1

Well, I am really here. I am finished with a lot of the logistics and I am spending my first weekend with my Dominican family. I live on an off-ramp on the only major highway in the DR, the Autopista Duarte, frontage road, mile 15.5. If you are in the area, you should stop by. It is a nice place to visit if you are in the market for spare sheet metal, radiator repair, or even a little cockfighting. Dona Isabel is an excellent mother here, and apart from a few minor issues, we should get along just fine. Just to get them out of the way, I will list the less than desirable attributes of my new home:1. Cock fighting on the roof at 6:00 AM (just not very helpful with the jet lag)2. The Dominican idea of a bathroom door is a clear shower curtain. Not as helpful as you might think in certain situations.3. Used syringes sticking out of stuffed animals in the bathroom. I don't know if she is just doing that to freak me out, but it is working.4. The homeless woman that lives under the tree in what could graciously be called the "side yard" is always trying to sit on my lap on the porch. I wouldn't mind, but she really smells terrible.Luckily there are a number of benefits that have the opportunity to balance out some of these minor issues: 1. Freezing cold bucket baths (If I thought that I was going to have a problem feeling awake in the morning, I shouldn't have worried).2. The Red Cross Ambulance and storage trailer is just across the alley from my house. I have never seen it move however, and I think that they use it to store slop for the pigs that live in the dump right next to it.3. Beans and rice. If you ever worried about running low on energy from lack of carbohydrates, you should relocate to the Dominican Republic. Twice a day, every day, always coupled with potatoes, plantains, yucca, or something fried. I think that she would feed it to me for breakfast if I let her.In short, I have absorbed and gotten used to a lot in the last two weeks. The fact that the power only works from 7 PM to 7AM doesn't even bother me anymore. I mean, you don't really need power during the day anyway, right? And running water is way over rated. I will only be here for two weeks more though, and then it is off to the mountains for this Dominicana. And from what I have gathered, as far as amenities go, this is as good as it gets Dominican-style. But the weather is supposed to be really nice there and I have heard it is beautiful, so I think that I will give it the old college try. After all, if you are going to be dirt poor, you might as well do it on the top of a mountain in the Caribbean right? Not too shabby, in my opinion, so don't go feeling sorry for me. I'll be just fine. When I got to Miami, I was worried that everyone would think that I am a stuck-up bitch for bringing so much stuff. I admit it- I brought too much. When I saw three girls walking towards my shuttle at the airport with their one backpack and a guitar case, I knew that I was in trouble. However, I paid my penance in overweight charges at the airport ($200 in total, thanks Mom), so I figure that I should make it worth my while. I won't have to do laundry very often at least, and I won't have to buy much for awhile, so I figure it evens out in the end. Just as long as I don't have to take public transportation to get to my site. Because that just straight up isn't going to happen. If my electric toothbrush turns out to be merely decorative, my parents can always take it back at Christmas. Christmas- that is weird to think about. Almost a year away, and so much is going to happen between now and then. After all, my career with the Peace Corps almost ended in the matter of a few hours when we were in Miami.