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.