Tarantulas, Latrines and Chickens: A New Place to Call Home

The past week has been a whirl wind of traveling; three different cities in 4 days.  Talk about culture shock from the nice small town of Constanza, to the big noisy city of Santo Domingo, to rural batey of Antonci.  I finally felt the culture shock that everyone has told me about when I said I would be living and working in the Dominican Republic for the next 2 years – the culture shock from living with the ‘haves’ to the ‘have nots.’  I have been spoiled in Constanza and Santo Domingo having running water, electricity/generators, food variety, cheap and easy transportation, and people who have an idea of the mission/work of Peace Corps volunteers.

Anotonci is a great little community in the region of Monte Plata.  It used to be a batey for sugar cane plantations, but now had turned to different forms of agriculture.  There is about 500-1000 people living there (depending on which literature you read).  There are two dirt roads in the town that form a T and then a lot of little winding foot paths that lead to different houses.  It is very green and sits up on a hill, and in the distance you can see some low mountains.  There is about 1 colmado (corner store), an elementary school 1-8^th grade where students from surrounding communities attend, a small agriculture project funded by BRA (Batey Relief Alliance), and a Panaderia (bread making facility) that has no equipment funded by MOSCTHA.  The community is used to having mission groups from the US and Canada come in for a week or two to give things and money, so it is going to be an interesting time trying to combat this image that has already been formed.  Some people think that I can automatically get new roads and a pump for their water system that doesn’t work, some think that I can fix all of the problems that the youth have, and they all want English classes to have started about two days ago. 

The community is very welcoming and everyone looks out for me.  I live with this woman named Luisa and two of her children, a 13 year old girl and an 8year old boy.  Luisa works at the BRA agriculture project everyday so I eat breakfast and lunch at her mother’s house where more of her family lives (24 year old son and his 6 month old, and another granddaughter).  I have my normal following of young kids following me about and have made friends with some of the girls my age in the community.  I can’t wait to get to know more people. 

My new house: Luisa’s house is down a little dirt path that is lined by flowering and fruit trees.  There is an outside shower (with a dirt floor) when I can bucket bath it and have the chicken watch me.  There is also a squat latrine in the neighbor’s yard that we use…and although it is only about 10 feet away from the house I am not allowed to go there by myself at night without a chaperone…The other night I came back to my room from bathing and found a HUGE tarantula crawling out from under my bed, so Luisa killed it with a stick (the tarantulas here will jump 6 feet and bite you, it was scary and I don’t get scared that easily).

My project partners are interesting and I want to get to know them better.  So far there has been a lot of miscommunication between them and me.  As in who pays for the moto ride, the trip to Yamasa turning into going to the Capital to a bank, and one just talking really quietly and fast no matter how much I ask him to slow down and speak up.  It is a little frustrating and hard at times, but I know that it can only get better from here, especially once I am in my community for more than 4.5 days.

I can’t wait to settle into my community for good and get to know everyone better, because only 4.5 days do not give justice to what this experience will be like.