guyabana

Guayabana

I thought maybe I should write this entry in the mode of the Dominican-slash-PCV conversation. Some parts will have to be left out to protect the privacy of some individuals.
Holy Dios, its hot here. Hace un calor. Etc etc. I hope it will rain, then it will be cooler. It looks like it might rain. No, I don’t think it will rain. But boy, is it hot. Hot, hot, hot. (Note: even if its not that hot, its still hot.)
Chisme! Chisme is the yente (ie gossip) of the Dominican. For instance, it is rumored that Juan-Pablo has a thing for Marta. It has been confirmed by several sources that Pedro and Mercedes are together, and rumors are swirling around Lisbet and Jorge. Lisbet has a boyfriend already, so that is especially interesting. The above was inspired by true stories. In addition, say these are real people, they would be called by nicknames, or apodos. These include morena, negrito, la flaca, and various other blunt descriptions that may or may not be based in a realm of accuracy. They also seem to be not big fans of Haitians. For another time. Additional chisme includes the fact that a trainee who lives on my block already got dengue fever. She’s a trooper. Apparently dengue is really in right now, 65 PCVs have had it this year.
Anyway, I did manage to go to Yom Kippur services here in the capital. I also fasted, very difficult when my dona is telling me I am too skinny. Speaking of my dona, she just fed me a tropical fruit that grows on the street. Think of all the best parts of a mango, papaya and banana, put it together and multiply that by a high number of your choice, and that is how tasty this fruit is, I think called guayabana. I was too busy taking in its delicious interior to make much sense of what she was saying. Right, so atoning – the synagogue is a small but beautiful building that had snipers on the roof to ward off evil spirits and the like. I think they only come out for the big days. Half of the people there seemed to be local, and the other half expats from the US, Israel, or other American countries. All very nice, though none invited the three of us trainees back for break-fast. Tear.
This weekend, all of us trainees fanned out across the country to visit current volunteers who were so kind as to lead us around for four days. My site visit was in the north of the country, about a half hour from the coast in a town of about 15,000. My volunteer works with an artisan association that makes very detailed and beautiful soapstone and sandstone carvings for what I figure is quite a bargain. He helped organize the association from a bunch of carvers into a more effective, well, association. It was great being out of the big city. I prefer the cooler, friendlier campo. On Saturday, 4 of us trainees and our respective volunteers hiked the “27 charcos” roughly translated as 27 waterfalls. If you are in the DR, you must visit. Absolutely incredible. It is a series of deep pools, waterfalls and rock formations in the jungle. We hiked up to the top, and then jumped our way down off of cliffs or slid down natural rock slides into the successive pools. One of the volunteers works with the guides to the charcos, organized them and received a grant from USAID to improve infrastructure. This is the website: http://www.27charcos.com. If seeing me wasn’t incentive enough to visit, this should be.
This Friday, we will split up into sectors for separate trainings, so I won’t be seeing anyone outside of CED (community economic development, in case you forgot) for almost 6 weeks. On the plus side, I get to learn how to develop communities economically. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Lastly, there was supposed to be a huelga, or strike, today, so we got the day off, as well as my 4 host siblings from school. It seems like there won’t be a strike, but anyway now I get to spend the day with my host siblings playing a surprisingly violent version of monopoly that includes crying, screaming, and flying crayons.
cheers