Thursday, June 30: Angela’s boyfriend, Hansel, came to visit. He was in my youth group while we were in Constanza doing training so he and I are good friends. He and Angela came on Thursday June 30th to make lunch. They came in the morning and we went on an adventure to find chicken to make a Locrio (chicken and rice together, possibly my favorite Dominican dish). There was not chicken in Antonci so we walked to La Mina to get it. Then finally we got all the ingredients and let Hansel do the cooking (I tried to pay attention to learn how). We also made juice. It was an amazing lunch and I even had a container full for dinner. After lunch we decided to walk to Don Juan (well we were hoping to get a bola , a free ride, but that didn’t happen), it took about an hour and a half to get there during the hottest par t of the day. While we were reaching the bridge over the Ozama, we heard a sound/song that resembled an ice cream truck. And it was. It was like an oasis, a vision of pure joy and something cold. We each got ice cream, which promptly melted, but was delicious anyway. We finally got to Don Juan and we tested out all of the fans in the store, and found one suitable for me to buy. I even got to carry it home on a motor, very Dominican of me.
4th of July weekend (AKA: Realizing that I had become kind-of lactose intolerant)
Saturday July 2nd: I went to the capital early in the morning to pick up Sarayu to bring her to my site for the holiday weekend. I got there and did some work in the office, and it was rainy all morning (luckily I got in without any trouble), but she got stuck in her site for a little while longer due to the rain. After an adventure of getting copies, we finally made our way to Antonci. But it began raining again so we stayed the night in Yamasa at Miguel and Nuris’s house. It was a good time.
Lunch: Cheese Pizza and Ice Cream
Dinner: Platanos, meat and cheese, more ice cream
Sunday July 3rd: We got back to my site around 10 or 11 so I gave Sarayu a walking tour of part of the community, and we got gifted a pineapple by some old people. We made a late lunch after being pestered by all of my muchachos. While we were making lunch one of my guy friends, Dani, came to visit…well, I didn’t know we were as close as we apparently are. (Background: he is relatives to Gris and Miledi and used to hit on me a lot, but got the hit finally and now has a girlfriend who he is head over heels for..aww…) So he has been working in the capital and he came to ask questions about facebook and how he can find his girlfriend on there (because she is now in Argentina working at her mom’s Salon). Needless to say that brought on a lot of teasing from my part and the mac ‘n cheese was finally finished. Sarayu and I forced him to eat our “strange food” (direct quote) which he enjoyed.
Then it started to rain and rain and rain, with the whole sideways wind and lake out the front of my house. We hung out and talked and watched the muchachos play in the rain.
We started cooking dinner around 8pm. You know how fettuccini comes in little pasta balls, well, we had too much fun putting them in the water, so we ended up making too much food. We also tried to make our own Alfredo sauce, which turned out to be cheesier than normal alfredo. We chopped up halves of red, orange, and yellow bell peppers to put in with the pasta, and broke out the bottle of wine I had my mom bring to me from the states. (it was a delicious dinner). While we were sitting around finishing dinner and the glass of wine. Another friend, William, decided to stop by and say hi. He stayed for a few hours getting into a long discussion about how he is looking for a wife, but wants to wait 3 years before getting married, and other relationship topics with Sarayu…I just stayed out and tried to mediate at times.
Breakfast: Cheese and Bread
Lunch: Chips and Salsa, Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese (the shell type pasta)
Dinner: Fettuccini Alfredo with bell peppers, Merlot (2 glasses each)
Monday July 4th: Happy 4th! We made pancakes, with peanut butter and real syrup and hot chocolate. Then it began to rain. We both started feeling bloated, and sick. Finally realizing that maybe we had eaten too much dairy products. The rain stopped long enough to teach an English class. We had cultural day and taught them about our Independence day and traditions, and played some games. Then it started to rain again. Throughout the day we watched The Producers, Salt, and The Sound of Music (we were on a kind of German/KGB kick). For dinner we ate some pineapple and chips and another glass of wine (because of the antioxidants and we didn’t finish it the night before).
Breakfast: Pancakes, Hot chocolate
Dinner: Pineapple, chips and wine
Tuesday July 5th: Sarayu got better but I just got sicker (I will spare you the details). Angela came over and we made breakfast of eggs, peppers, and oatmeal/peanut butter/chocolate stuff Angela made. I sent the 2 girls off on Motos to their separate destinations and took a 4 hour nap. Then I got my stuff ready to go to camp and checked with my kids and their families to see if they were ready or had any last minute questions.
Camp Superman…
Is AWESOME.
Is a boy’s gender initiative for male youth between the ages of 11 and 13 where you get to camp out with over 40 kids, 16 Peace Corps Volunteers in the middle of nowhere, play games, eat a LOT of food, teach things, and just have fun.
There was an application process and there was 40-60 applications and only 16 were chosen. I was soo afraid that I would not get picked, but luck, and a kick-ass application came through for me in the end. I took two of my baseball boys, Ruben and Rancel (Chey). Ruben was always helpful while he was with me but at home and with the other kids he would be a brat. And Rancel is just an all around good and helpful kid, motivated to play ball and learn things, plus he is one of the cutest kids here.
Wednesday July 6th: Woke up before 6am to make sure the boys and I were on the motos by 7 to go to Yamasa. My stomach was still bad, so I took some meds to make sure I would make the travels without any incidences. By 7:15 we were on the motos, my boys with their duffle bags and pillows. We got to Yamasa and we had to find a store that was open so that I could by Rancel some sandals and socks because his mom wasn’t able to make it into Yamasa the day before. We were able to make a successful purchase of the flip-flops, but they were out of socks. We made the bus and got to sit near one of my friends from Yamasa on the bus, who eventually helped me and the kids off at the metro stop. Fun traveling with children and baggage. Ruben fell asleep, but Rancel stayed awake and bright eyed. I think he hasn’t been out of the Yamasa area too much, and it was his first time riding the Metro. When we got to the metro, we waited not even 2 minutes for Angela and her kids to arrive. We herded the 4 children on and off of the Metro and to the office.
About 7 of the volunteers met in the capital and we all took a bus to Moca (with our children of course). It is about a 2 hour ride and many of the kids fell asleep, but Rancel stayed awake and wide eyed the entire time. As we got into Moca, the bus driver had no idea where the restaurant was so we had to ask random people about every 2 minutes. We had lunch and met up with the other volunteers and their kids. We then got divided up into our teams, Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, and Green. My team was the orange (9 kids and 4 volunteers) and the other volunteers and I started boosting moral early into the truck ride up the mountain by chanting and singing team songs. There were five pickup trucks that we all piled into (by teams of course). Most of the baggage was in the front seats and all of the kids and volunteers were riding in the back. It was about a 2 hour trip up the mountain to the camp site.
Once we got to the camp site, the first thing that we did was have the boys set up their tents, then give an introduction to the camp and rules. There were then different teambuilding stations set up for each group to go through to get to know each member of their team and to enforce teamwork. By this time I was not feeling well and followed by boys around but didn’t participate in the games. That night we had a camp fire and I gave a demonstration about tooth brushing. Then during the reflective time with our kids one of my boys said that that was his favorite part of the day (suck up, hehe ), the other one liked getting the soap that we provided because it smelled good. I love how my boys take pleasure in the simple things. Still sick that night, I apparently looked really pale and even my lips. One of the other volunteers gave me some Pepto-Bismol chewable tablets, and when I woke up in the morning I felt like a new woman. Those things are amazing.
Thursday July 7th : Every morning we would wake up at 6am, cause lets face it the kids from the campo are used to being up super early and that way we can do more stuff with them. So at 6:30 every morning we would have morning exercises by playing games and other activities. Then breakfast would normally be at 7, if the team of doñas weren’t running late. While we were waiting around to eat breakfast the boys had some free time, and Rancel ran up behind me and gave me a hug telling me “Gracias!” I am still so happy and grateful for that moment and for that little boy. His life is changing. We separated the boys into 2 groups and went on a nature hike staggering the time of departure about 10 minutes. After that there was snack time of mangos, bananas and water melon. Then there were science activities, a gender presentation and mask making. After lunch we build boats out of recycled materials (cardboard, duct tape, string and sticks). The other volunteers and I left our kids alone to figure out the plan and to build the boat themselves (we were around to supervise and make sure nothing went wrong, like fights). Our Orange Team worked great together and made a rocking boat. We actually won the contest! Meaning we put one of the boys in the boat and floated it down the river and it stayed afloat longer than the others. That night around the camp fire we had story time of reading and acting out “Where the Wild Things Are.” It was an amazing performance by the volunteers. A discussion was lead afterwards to talk about the lessons of the story and what the kids learned and to have them ask questions to “Max” about his feelings when the monsters kicked him out and what he felt when he was mean to his mom and regretted it. I mean these kids got into some really deep questions, it was mind blowing.
Friday July 8th: We started the morning out with teaching the boys the basics of Tae Kwon Do. They loved it. It was a little rough in the beginning with just the stretches and exercises, but then they got to practice some punches and kicks on x-ray paper. Then there was a good sportsmanship charla, which seemed to be good and sink in to the boys. During that charla I went with some of the other volunteers to scope out the area where we would be having the Field Day Competition. We had to cross the twice to get to a beautiful field scattered with trees and the rivers making it like a little island oasis. After lunch, we went to set up field day. After all was set up we had some time to kill before the children came over, so we conveniently “fell” in the river for a little bit to cool off. The Field Day went great. All the teams worked well within themselves and with the others. We did have a bout of pretty much everyone running through biting ant hills so all of our ankles are red and swollen. There were relay races, Alka-Seltzer tag, slip ‘n slide and more. Then at night we watched the movie “Everybody’s Hero.” It was a great movie to show the kids, reinforcing everything that was taught in the good sportsmanship charla, although about half of the boys fell asleep during the movie.
Saturday July 9th: Around 8 am all of the volunteers and children piled into 2 pickup trucks to hike to a waterfall. It was tight ride but we all made it there safely. The hike was nice and it was some of the boys’ first time seeing a waterfall. For the first time I was able to hang out with the boys without having to worry about planning, so we swam and tossed around a football (a Saints football to exact). There were inner tubes and just all around good time to be had by all. ON the way back, we left in shifts and most of the volunteers left after all of the kids and then it started raining on us. We got back to the camp site and had an amazing lunch of fish and rice. Then it started to rain again. It rained and rained and rained and rained. So while we were doing shifts of mask and plaque painting, the boys were having an epic game of soccer in the mud. Running, sliding, playing, changing colors… Once they kids were all muddy, and wet (well, we never really dried from the waterfall) we let them bathe in the rain because it was too dangerous to let them go to the river (due to warnings of flash floods). Once all the kids were bathed and somewhat dry after the rain stopped, we sent them up to dinner and I stayed back with a few other volunteers to clean the Enremada (Covered area) so that we could make a huge sleeping area for the boys because all of the boy’s tents were soaked. That night there were 40 some boys and some of the male volunteers stayed in there with them. The boys were piled on top of each other like puppies. They had a great time that night.
Sunday July 10th: It rained that night again and in the morning we had to walk up hills to the main road carrying all of our bags, because the trucks could not get up and down due to all the rain. Some of equipment was taken up the hill on horseback, I wish we could have gotten a bola on the horses. We had uneventful rides home and all of the kids fell asleep on the way to the Capital. When we got there my boys passed up the opportunity to eat ice cream one last time to go straight home. It was a great and eventful five days and I slept for more than 12 hours that night. Oh yeah!
Monday July 11th: There was a national protest against the raising prices of gas and food. Here in Antonci participating in the strike meant that the guys have an extra day to party, so the disco was open all day playing loud music, they cooked together and started drinking before noon. Needless to say I stayed in my house and only left to go teach.
Thursday July 14th: Happy Birthday Zach! We, the volunteers in the area (Stacey, Angela, Alicia, Erik, yo and Zach of course), went to Zach’s site, El Caño, in the afternoon to begin celebrating his birthday. The night before I tried to make chocolate chip cookies (cookie bar), but without an oven I made and improvised double boiler to try to cook them. They turned out pretty good, and gooey. Delicious. Angela made tostones and salami which we put bbq sauce on. Delicious. Alicia made chocolate cake. Delicious. And Zach’s friends and youth made dumplings with salami. Delicious (I ate 1.5 plates). We hung out played dominoes, and danced in front of Zach’s house to his neighbor’s car’s speakers. We all spent the night in various arrangements on the bed, blowup mattress, the floor and broken car seats.
Friday July 15th: We had smores for breakfast. We all went on our own ways and Erik came back to see my site. So I made up a real breakfast of eggs and then we took a walk around by batey and visited a lot of people. I think that some of the people in my community like him better than me now. Haha. We got free lunch and some platanos and limes to make juice. He ended up leaving around 3:30 during my English class, and shortly after he left Alicia called me and said that she was coming over to spend the night.
So she got here during the last part of my Construye class. Some of my kids and I took her on a quick tour of my site before it started raining. While we were in my house waiting around for it to be dinner time, I was gifted a big box of corn flakes, a tube of salami, white bread and a thing of shrimp. So for dinner we made fried platanos and salami. Delicious. We were exhausted from the night before so we tried watching a movie, but fell asleep before it ended.
Saturday July 16th: We got up at 6 am and started running. We got to Angela’s site and turned around. Yey for beginning to exercise! Then we made breakfast, finished watching the movie and about 10 it was decided that we should walk to Yamasa to get ice cream. SO we started walking in hopes that we would get a bola, but being the weekend not many people were traveling. We got to the Questa del Jobo when I heard someone calling my name. I knew that voice. It was my host mom. She was getting her hair done, so we took a little break and talked to her and the other ladies for a bit. Then when we were almost arriving to our destination we got a bola with a motoconchista that I know. Alicia was amazed that he knew where to take us without me even saying anything, but the guys here are beginning to know my routine. So we got ice cream from a really nice lady who was working there. Then we got lunch with Miguel and Nuris. I bought some nails at the hardware store and then we started walking back to Antonci. I saw a truck coming and flagged it down to get a ride back with them, and it turned out to be someone from my community, so of course we got a ride back home. Alicia went home around 3pm.
Sunday July 17: Alicia called me in the afternoon, telling me to come over and save her from a Dominican blind date. So once it stopped raining I went over. It ended up being that the guy didn’t’ show up but we made dinner with one of her friends. We had plans to visit Stacey in her site that night because it was patronales there, but by the time dinner was done, it was too dark to walk and all of the motorists were drinking. So we just stayed at her house and got up in the morning to run again.
