Thursday the 21st- my 'american christmas'
I took a trip to barahona (also dubbed by me as 'the city') where a friend was waiting with the package that made it to me for christmas. adn It couldnt have been a better package.
the scene- me and 2 other volunteer friends (christina and enrique) are in the chinese restaurant/ fried chicken restaurant eating fried chicken, tostones, and presidente when i open the package from my aunt mary, uncle dave, and cousins. inside is a stocking stuffed with a dozen small wrapped packages. so together we opened round of present after round of presents. your semi traditional american christmas- good food, presents, good drink, and members of my peace corps family. thanks leiker fam!
Dec 24- Noche buena
This is when dominicans celebrate. this day was hyped up for me so much. After looking forward to it all week i wake up that magical 24th morning and wait for the big meal that had been promised. i play with lucy, my 2 yr old niece. noon rolls around- i am served cheetoes and orange juice- its going to be a little longer says my mom. no problem, yet the only evidence i have of this big meal at this time are the two live chickens tied together on my kitchen floor. we have luz i watch soap operas and play with lucymore. 5 oclock. 6 0clock. 7 oclock. 8 oclock. dinner is served. i guess i hadnt realized that the feast was acutally dinner.
spagetti, fried yuca, bread, chicken, ensalada rusa, and of course rice. delicious. simpsons playing in the background as we all sat at the table and ate like a family (this never happens!). it did feel like christmas for a while. then we attended a 4 hour long evangelical church service while everyone else in the town went out dancing and drinking. aye mi madre!
Dec 25- my christmas
I wake up at 7 am and put out little packages i had made. inside paper decorated with crayons in christmas like designs (made by me!) were oreos, chocolates, and other little candies. along with a letter from santa claus. go back to sleep. wake up later.
Josefina (my sister)- "Rebéc! Santa puso! santa puso!" (santa left, santa left)
me- really?
J- yes- did santa leave for you?
me- no hes bored with me after 21 years.
one hour later
J (with a plate of leftover spagetti bread and pop)- Rebéc santa puso para ti tambien! (santa left for you also)
i couldnt help but laugh. it was really sweet and funny. Santa found me in the d.r.
so besides that i spent my christmas dancing with lucy to michael jackson (they love him here) in my room. we took a walk through the sugar cane to the river. and then watched more telenovelas (soap operas).
apparently what is super special about christmas here is that there is luz almost 24hrs a day for the two days straight.
well off to the beach for new years to celebrate the good old american way (no more evangelical church for me for a while).
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
aren´t you lucky
one week later and another update- arent you all lucky!
So here it goes in Batey 3. slow slow slow... i´ve finished two novels in the past week! But in the mean time im learning creole (bonjour, bonsua, bom glo, merci, bom nuet, mue nom Rebeka- at least i think these are correct...), and how to sell items in my family owned colmado- insert photo of my sister selling items in my colmado attached to my house here-
Shes 22, only a little older than me! and my mom here is only 2 months younger than my real mom.
heres a triumphant story of me at my site.
so during my site visit a week before we moved in my overly excited project partner (the one who solicited to have a volunteer in the community and therefore takes on the responciblity of me) was taking me around the batey so i could ¨see the poverty of thier lives¨. well it became a little too real for me. these people are poor. really poor. women would see me and light up with happiness. They would welcome me into their one room wooden houses where 10plus people live and sleep on the dirt floor. theyd tell me how they needed clothes and food to eat. Then they´d hold out their hands for money... heres the thing- this is not exactly along the peace corps philosophy of development, nor do they give us the funding for hand outs. id then say that i do not have money. thats when some would become upset. i understand that in the past to many of them seeing a foreigner in a batey means ´hand oút´since that is how development had been done in the past. so point of story i was kicked out of some houses and one woman spat at my feet as i was leaving.
this made me really upset and i had problems dealing with this when i went back to the capital for swearing in (which was a fabulous week of fun and activities by the way).
Well they other day, im back at my site and im looking for big paper for an activitiy i had planned for my youth group. my 15 yr old friend rosa (who looks more like 12) was taking me around to the different colmados only to find ount noone sells big paper. well then she starts leading me into the part of the batey i had been avoiding. the part where i was not well recieved. i was followed by stares of course but was not my usual happy self greeting them. when we got to the colmado the man behind the counter Roberto, was very friendly heres how our convo went.
R- the whole world is pleased you are here
Me- you know who i am?
R- the whole world knows you
Me, doubtful he knows me- I am Rebecca. I am a peace corps volunteer, I am here to work with the youth. I live here for 2 years.
R- Yes I know. I am grateful. I am at your order. If you need anything ask. Everyone is at your order.
I was so shocked. This was the side that i had been afraid of! Ive been getting that ´at your order´think alot. oh and my youth group meeting went really well. so more photos of my site.
So here it goes in Batey 3. slow slow slow... i´ve finished two novels in the past week! But in the mean time im learning creole (bonjour, bonsua, bom glo, merci, bom nuet, mue nom Rebeka- at least i think these are correct...), and how to sell items in my family owned colmado- insert photo of my sister selling items in my colmado attached to my house here-
Shes 22, only a little older than me! and my mom here is only 2 months younger than my real mom.
heres a triumphant story of me at my site.
so during my site visit a week before we moved in my overly excited project partner (the one who solicited to have a volunteer in the community and therefore takes on the responciblity of me) was taking me around the batey so i could ¨see the poverty of thier lives¨. well it became a little too real for me. these people are poor. really poor. women would see me and light up with happiness. They would welcome me into their one room wooden houses where 10plus people live and sleep on the dirt floor. theyd tell me how they needed clothes and food to eat. Then they´d hold out their hands for money... heres the thing- this is not exactly along the peace corps philosophy of development, nor do they give us the funding for hand outs. id then say that i do not have money. thats when some would become upset. i understand that in the past to many of them seeing a foreigner in a batey means ´hand oút´since that is how development had been done in the past. so point of story i was kicked out of some houses and one woman spat at my feet as i was leaving.
this made me really upset and i had problems dealing with this when i went back to the capital for swearing in (which was a fabulous week of fun and activities by the way).
Well they other day, im back at my site and im looking for big paper for an activitiy i had planned for my youth group. my 15 yr old friend rosa (who looks more like 12) was taking me around to the different colmados only to find ount noone sells big paper. well then she starts leading me into the part of the batey i had been avoiding. the part where i was not well recieved. i was followed by stares of course but was not my usual happy self greeting them. when we got to the colmado the man behind the counter Roberto, was very friendly heres how our convo went.
R- the whole world is pleased you are here
Me- you know who i am?
R- the whole world knows you
Me, doubtful he knows me- I am Rebecca. I am a peace corps volunteer, I am here to work with the youth. I live here for 2 years.
R- Yes I know. I am grateful. I am at your order. If you need anything ask. Everyone is at your order.
I was so shocked. This was the side that i had been afraid of! Ive been getting that ´at your order´think alot. oh and my youth group meeting went really well. so more photos of my site.
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