Ok, funny story, a little. There’s a Haitian guy working in the house next door, which really is sad because he lives there and works there and they hardly feed him. I could go on about that, but I don’t want to dwell on it as that’s not the story I want to write, nor the mood that I’m in.
He speaks Creole, French, and some English, and some Spanish. Seeing the story-line yet? The communication? Yes, it’s challenging! Because I studied French, but I’m thinking in Spanish, therefore the French se fue, opps, that means it left. YES! I’m thinking in Spanish! Ok, back to the story. We try to talk, but it’s like this:
Me: hola!
Him: hola!
(now I’ll translate, but keep in mind all that follows is a mix of VERY broken Spanish, Creole, French, and English.)
Him: You to school?
Me: Yes
Him: -- lots of pointing and gestures--
Me: --what are you doing??--
Him: You to school?
Me: yes…I back afternoon. (full sentences are of no use. Cut out the crap and the point gets across)
Him: hungry –points to stomach—
Me –pissed at his family for leaving him like that—
Other conversation:
Him: you, phone? (tell me you didn’t just think of ET phone home)
Me: no (my only defense, because the next line is I need your number. Let me say that out of all the phrases he knows, this next part came out the clearest and was the hardest to pretend I didn’t understand because I wanted to laugh. It’s what every man asks for here, apparently not only Dominicans.)
Him: you, number, I need number call you.
Me: no phone
Him: I go Haiti need number to call you.
Me: I school !!!! (haha, my cue that I’m leaving, the only phrase he gets)
Monday, March 12, 2007
Peanut Butter!
For the first time today, I laughed as I actually enjoyed fulfilling a stereotype! I really have a craving for peanut butter! And I wasn’t aware of it, but apparently it’s a stereotype that Americans love peanut butter. So, I went to the supermarket and they didn’t have it (sometimes they do). Then I went to the colmado (like the convenience store) and there were about 5 men there, including the 2 or 3 workers. I asked for peanut butter (in Spanish obviously, but you’d think not from the response I got). I received some blank stares, the owner asked me a few questions and handed me a jar of peanuts, to which I replied, no cream! Butter! Peanut butter! One man understood what I wanted and said, that’s like a staple for you guys isn’t it?
So, I left, sadly, without my peanut butter, my craving unfulfilled. I really wanted some bananas with crunchy peanut butter.
Woh is me. Haha, my doña told me to walk to another supermarket because she knows I like to walk. And she said, if it’s not there, keep walking! There’s another one after that.
But, I have decided against it as I need to get dolled-up for the music festival at the National Theater, hopefully, as I said, the first even out of 4 recently that will actually take place!! I’m excited.
So, I left, sadly, without my peanut butter, my craving unfulfilled. I really wanted some bananas with crunchy peanut butter.
Woh is me. Haha, my doña told me to walk to another supermarket because she knows I like to walk. And she said, if it’s not there, keep walking! There’s another one after that.
But, I have decided against it as I need to get dolled-up for the music festival at the National Theater, hopefully, as I said, the first even out of 4 recently that will actually take place!! I’m excited.
Great Stories, an must read Monday 3/12/07
Well, today was a fun day! Last night I stayed up late against better judgement to watch Godzilla for the first time. Then my alarm on my cell phone screamed: it’s time to wake up! At 6:30. so, I walked to the bathroom bleary-eyed, my host brother saw me and laughed, and I got myself ready. I left for my internship at 7:30 with the intention of getting there at 8:30. This trip entails a few blocks walk to a public car and then waiting for a bus that I usually have to shove into because it’s so full at that point. So, I had my nice morning walk, got in the public car, arrived at the place to catch the bus and waited. And waited. And waited! I waited until I decided that there was a strike of public transportation.
Indicators of a strike (which are unannounced, only happen in the morning, and shut down the whole city):
-too many people waiting at the same place you are
-no buses
-you start to notice pick-up trucks hauling people
-taxis either disappear (you can’t call one by phone) or double as a public car to help people get to work
-random guys decide to make some money (and maybe want to help people get to work out of the goodness of their hearts) and turn their car into public transportation.
-people just start walking.
The final one was me after all my observations. The line to take the car that got me to that point in my trip was way over 30 people long, so I walked home. It took my like a half an hour.
Got home. Then my doña looked at me like, WHY are you home?? I just said, “Strike.” She rolled her eyes and said, “yeah, it said something about that in the newspaper.” WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME??
See my host dad a few minutes later. He didn’t even realize that I shouldn’t have been home, I should have been having a battle with the rugrats at that point. So I told him I couldn’t get to work because there’s a strike. Again, I thought I had breaking news, and that it wasn’t announced in the paper. NO. He said, “But I thought the strike was only for the buses.” Stop, and think about that statement. Again, that means he knew. And, yes the BUSES are exactly what I take to work.
So, I ask myself, isn’t the fact that there is a strike information that should be shared in the morning before I leave? I think so! But, all is well, I got homework done and took some pictures with my new macro lens. I just got a little angry while I was writing when I realized how ridiculous this was.
Ok, but the story gets better. So, my internship is normally from 8:30-2:30 and then class from 3-5. I took a public car to class. On the way there (well, here) the driver just stopped on the side of the road with a full car load of passengers and said, I’ll be right back. He ran across the street to drop his phone off at a cell phone store! I just burst out laughing. There were 5 women including me just sitting in a public car on the side of the road with no driver. It really cracked me up.
So, after his crazy driving all over the place (and you know it’s bad when it scares the Dominicans) I got out and started to walk to class. I walked real fast! Because I was late. But, it turns out, I arrived and wasn’t late because class was cancelled. Just like the strike, why didn’t anyone tell me? They called my house right after I left! Lol, all I can do is laugh! I had a free day! Just had to do some travelling to find out that I didn’t really need to go anywhere.
So, tonight, I’m supposed to go to a music festival. JEESSH, LAST night I was supposed to go to a play for class, got all dressed up, called a taxi, got there, found out I was an hour early bc my teacher told us the wrong time, waited a long time for people to arrive, and found out that there were only two people in the play and one was sick. So, the play was cancelled too!! Wow. DR madness. So, maybe fourth time’s a charm in this country, and my scheduled event for tonight will actually take place!!
Oh, and ps: I can’t post this because the internet’s not working, but are you really surprised?
End note: I’m not mad or even frustrated, the sad part is this is all kind of normal and doesn’t even surprise me. I’m going to be in for it when I get back to America and things actually run on time and I really have to be somewhere when they tell me to be there.
Indicators of a strike (which are unannounced, only happen in the morning, and shut down the whole city):
-too many people waiting at the same place you are
-no buses
-you start to notice pick-up trucks hauling people
-taxis either disappear (you can’t call one by phone) or double as a public car to help people get to work
-random guys decide to make some money (and maybe want to help people get to work out of the goodness of their hearts) and turn their car into public transportation.
-people just start walking.
The final one was me after all my observations. The line to take the car that got me to that point in my trip was way over 30 people long, so I walked home. It took my like a half an hour.
Got home. Then my doña looked at me like, WHY are you home?? I just said, “Strike.” She rolled her eyes and said, “yeah, it said something about that in the newspaper.” WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME??
See my host dad a few minutes later. He didn’t even realize that I shouldn’t have been home, I should have been having a battle with the rugrats at that point. So I told him I couldn’t get to work because there’s a strike. Again, I thought I had breaking news, and that it wasn’t announced in the paper. NO. He said, “But I thought the strike was only for the buses.” Stop, and think about that statement. Again, that means he knew. And, yes the BUSES are exactly what I take to work.
So, I ask myself, isn’t the fact that there is a strike information that should be shared in the morning before I leave? I think so! But, all is well, I got homework done and took some pictures with my new macro lens. I just got a little angry while I was writing when I realized how ridiculous this was.
Ok, but the story gets better. So, my internship is normally from 8:30-2:30 and then class from 3-5. I took a public car to class. On the way there (well, here) the driver just stopped on the side of the road with a full car load of passengers and said, I’ll be right back. He ran across the street to drop his phone off at a cell phone store! I just burst out laughing. There were 5 women including me just sitting in a public car on the side of the road with no driver. It really cracked me up.
So, after his crazy driving all over the place (and you know it’s bad when it scares the Dominicans) I got out and started to walk to class. I walked real fast! Because I was late. But, it turns out, I arrived and wasn’t late because class was cancelled. Just like the strike, why didn’t anyone tell me? They called my house right after I left! Lol, all I can do is laugh! I had a free day! Just had to do some travelling to find out that I didn’t really need to go anywhere.
So, tonight, I’m supposed to go to a music festival. JEESSH, LAST night I was supposed to go to a play for class, got all dressed up, called a taxi, got there, found out I was an hour early bc my teacher told us the wrong time, waited a long time for people to arrive, and found out that there were only two people in the play and one was sick. So, the play was cancelled too!! Wow. DR madness. So, maybe fourth time’s a charm in this country, and my scheduled event for tonight will actually take place!!
Oh, and ps: I can’t post this because the internet’s not working, but are you really surprised?
End note: I’m not mad or even frustrated, the sad part is this is all kind of normal and doesn’t even surprise me. I’m going to be in for it when I get back to America and things actually run on time and I really have to be somewhere when they tell me to be there.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Quick Update Monday March 5
Really quick:
Great weekend. Went BOWLING in the Dominican Republic! While we were there my friend Doron (American) told me that he tried to call before we came and got this message, on his Dominican phone to my Dominican phone IN ENGLISH, “You cannot make this call.” What’s the deal, he was like, “What do you mean I can’t make this call? And was really threw me off was the English!”
Sunday I went to the Domincan “Carnaval.” Like Mardi Gras Dominican style. Amazing!! There were amazing costumes and crazy people. The best part was that there are little kids, and teenagers that dress up (it’s sort like the DR version of Halloween) and have these pillow/football shaped things on a string that they wind up and HIT YOU IN THE BUTT with. They chase down girls that aren’t looking and hit them so hard. So you can imagine at first it was funny, but girls started to get mad by the end of the night. I watched my back, quite literally, and escaped the pain.
Today I went to my internship and tried out my letter project that I mentioned in my previous blog. Didn’t go as planned but they still listened to me for at least a little while and drew pictures and I got them to write the names of what they drew. I don’t think they understood we were trying to learn the letter A, but that’s ok, there was some sort of order and it lasted longer than I expected. That’s all I want. And maybe they learned something?
Also, we always line up outside before school starts and it’s a Catholic organization, so they pray before school. They recite the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish and typically one of my boys laughs at me and the fact that I don’t know it instead of saying it himself. BUT, today, instead of doing that, he told me my Spanish was better! It melted my heart. High for the day.
Also, I played the DR version of checkers and you can attack backwards here. I’m not great at the American version, so it’s a little harder when I don’t even know the crazy rules!! BUT, these kids could make a living at checkers they’re so good. I swear, they’re like 5 moves ahead in their minds, when I look like Tom Hartka playing chess, concentrating on my ONE move and how to not lose. Sooo, after 2 games of them beating me and about 5 boys moving my players and telling me what to do, I WON!! It was awesome. And the boy didn’t let me win either. I quit while I was ahead. Dad and Reid, and Mom (watch, Mom was probably in some Checkers League when she was young, just like bowling, she never told us and whipped out her bowling skills one weekend! I bet she’s good a checkers too!) we’ve got to play some checkers this summer.
Ok, it’s about 7 pm here and I left the house at 7:30 this morning, so I gotta go man the public cars to get home, eat a domincan supper, and sleep!
PS-Did anyone see the lunar eclipse Saturday night? It may be really regional, anyway, there was one here and it was really neat!
Great weekend. Went BOWLING in the Dominican Republic! While we were there my friend Doron (American) told me that he tried to call before we came and got this message, on his Dominican phone to my Dominican phone IN ENGLISH, “You cannot make this call.” What’s the deal, he was like, “What do you mean I can’t make this call? And was really threw me off was the English!”
Sunday I went to the Domincan “Carnaval.” Like Mardi Gras Dominican style. Amazing!! There were amazing costumes and crazy people. The best part was that there are little kids, and teenagers that dress up (it’s sort like the DR version of Halloween) and have these pillow/football shaped things on a string that they wind up and HIT YOU IN THE BUTT with. They chase down girls that aren’t looking and hit them so hard. So you can imagine at first it was funny, but girls started to get mad by the end of the night. I watched my back, quite literally, and escaped the pain.
Today I went to my internship and tried out my letter project that I mentioned in my previous blog. Didn’t go as planned but they still listened to me for at least a little while and drew pictures and I got them to write the names of what they drew. I don’t think they understood we were trying to learn the letter A, but that’s ok, there was some sort of order and it lasted longer than I expected. That’s all I want. And maybe they learned something?
Also, we always line up outside before school starts and it’s a Catholic organization, so they pray before school. They recite the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish and typically one of my boys laughs at me and the fact that I don’t know it instead of saying it himself. BUT, today, instead of doing that, he told me my Spanish was better! It melted my heart. High for the day.
Also, I played the DR version of checkers and you can attack backwards here. I’m not great at the American version, so it’s a little harder when I don’t even know the crazy rules!! BUT, these kids could make a living at checkers they’re so good. I swear, they’re like 5 moves ahead in their minds, when I look like Tom Hartka playing chess, concentrating on my ONE move and how to not lose. Sooo, after 2 games of them beating me and about 5 boys moving my players and telling me what to do, I WON!! It was awesome. And the boy didn’t let me win either. I quit while I was ahead. Dad and Reid, and Mom (watch, Mom was probably in some Checkers League when she was young, just like bowling, she never told us and whipped out her bowling skills one weekend! I bet she’s good a checkers too!) we’ve got to play some checkers this summer.
Ok, it’s about 7 pm here and I left the house at 7:30 this morning, so I gotta go man the public cars to get home, eat a domincan supper, and sleep!
PS-Did anyone see the lunar eclipse Saturday night? It may be really regional, anyway, there was one here and it was really neat!
Saturday Morning March 3
So, it’s Saturday morning here, and I apologize for not writing in a LONG time. But you know what that means, I’m about to write a lot.
Biggest news: My big sister Chris is coming to visit in 2 weeks. I’m so excited, and telling everyone, so now you all know too!
Onto a quick blurb of what I’ve been up to, which usually leads me into some story or pensive thought that I decide to share.
Two weekends ago: Got to mix concrete and move some cinderblocks with a mission group that came down for a visit to a town very close to Esperanza, where we have spent a lot of time with St. John’s. Very fun! And I even got to learn a little Creol (the language they speak in Haiti, our neighbor to the west) because the church service was in English to Creol, so you learn a lot that way.
Last Weekend: Went to visit Yasmín and family. Wonderful! Learned how to drive a moped, road in the back of a pickup truck with 30 other people (pretending we were Haitian immigrants with sheets over our head (which were really just to protect us from the sun)), got to visit a potential site for medical clinic this summer, and just enjoyed myself. It’s so nice to get out of the city; they live in a very rural town compared to the Capital. It actually gets cold a night. And you can breathe.
Internship this Week (every week is different, I go to the same place, same kids, but I swear there is no rhythm nor order to that place): No one helped me, the kids went psycho. They all run into the room where I teach and go to the only closet that doesn’t have a lock on it and start raiding it. It has children’s books in it. But the sad thing is, they can’t read them!!! So, I made my best effort to gain control and keep calm. But as I said to my friend Arianna, who I have to check in with weekly to tell her how it’s going, there’s a difference between having patience and letting little psychos rule your classroom.
So, I have a plan now, that she helped me with. As it stands, I spend about 1.5 hours trying to teach them, or less. I only go once a week because it’s an hour away. And I’ve got about 10? weeks left with them. New plan of action: Bring newspapers and start with “letter A.” Get them to cut out words that begin with A, practice writing simple A words, draw pictures of A animals….you get the picture. Exercises that trick them into learning!!! WOOHOO! So, I’ll see how many letters I can do a day. Probably 2 at most, I don’t want to expect too much. I feel better now that I’ve got a plan. But, look at how long I’ve been here. TWO MONTHS. That’s how slowly the DR moves. It took 2 months for it to become obvious that no one was going to help me teach, nor give me teaching materials, nor tell me what I should be doing!
Then, after my try at teaching a few letters, I run away from the crazies to some other crazies who live nextdoor. But, there the only thing I have to do is play soccer for a few hours in the blaring sun. I love it. Great break from banging my head against the wall!!
Stories for the week:
-At my internship where I play soccer, they are always very interested in my skin. Because as most of you know, and it’s second nature and nothing special, when you push on your skin or palm, it goes from pinkish to white, and then returns to normal. (It’s fun to imagine many of you pushing on your palms right now to check it out.) So, just about every kid here is amazed at that and grabs my hand when I arrive to start the amazing, “push on her palm, watch the blood disappear and rush back, tap your neighbor to get his attention, he does it too, and so does his neighbor, and his…” activity.
-Other internship story: They were talking about scars on day, and as boys are, knew exactly who had the worst one and I HAD to see it. They dragged me over to this boy, made him put on shorts so I could see it, and then showed me. Let me just say, I see a lot living in this country, but this was bad. He pretty much had a hole in his thigh about 3-4 inches long and at least ¾ inch wide with the evidence that the Dominican version of stitches was in it at one time to try and close it up. This thing was ugly. I finally worked it out of him what happened: Some guy escaped from jail (I think) and stabbed him with a red-hot knife. No reason, didn’t know the guy. This happened when he was 10. Can you believe it? This little guy is lucky to be alive with the first aid he received.
Public Car Story (as it’s my daily life, you’ll have to indulge me with the opportunity to tell another one): In a public mini van, as we will call them here, you get shoved in, and I mean shoved. The cobrador (guy who takes the money and hangs out the side door) yells at you as you try to sit down comfortably in the second to last row, “Fits 5, Fits 5!!” about the back row, meaning you better get back there. Side note, the back of this type of bus is referred to as the “kitchen,” it’s really hot. Ok, so in this particular instance I got to the back, and only half of the banked seat had a back. Let me digress right here to say that none of the furniture, and yes I consider it furniture because it did NOT come with the car and is some piece of junk from who knows where, is really from a car. It could be a kind of plastic bench, bolted to the floor in the back of the mini bus that I sit on. So, yes, in this case it was. But one part of it had no back. And I was lucky to get the part with a back. But as I looked around, I could see the street moving below me, and I could have sworn that when I pushed on the side of the car, the metal separating me from my comfy plastic bench and sudden doom moved. So did the metal covering the wheel wells, it had kind of rusted off from the floor and the curved part was just kind of flopping around with very pot hole we hit. Oh, and ps: the back door didn’t shut so good luck to the person who sat on the bench with no back; they really could have flown out the back.
My history class: I was researching in English websites because I can’t seem to find many in Spanish, and found one that you guys might find interesting if you’d like to know a little about this country.
http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Dominican-Republic.html
Here’s some stuff I copied:
Symbols of Social Stratification. The symbols of social stratification are similar to those in Western cultures. Many of the growing middle-class population own homes and cars, and enjoy updating them with the latest electronic appliances. Their children graduate from high school, and may go on to college. (this is where I live with my host family). People take pride in their personal appearance and prefer New York fashions and jewelry. However, there is still a large segment of the population which lives in urban slums and poor rural areas without electricity or running water. (this is where we work in the summer)
A voluntary national contributory scheme exists to provide insurance coverage for sickness, unemployment, dental injury, maternity, old age, and death. Only about 42 percent of the population benefits from it.
Personal space is limited, touching is normal, and crowding, particularly on public transportation, is common. (my life!)
Dominicans point with puckered lips instead of a finger. Men shake hands firmly when they greet and close friends embrace. Most women kiss each other on both cheeks, and a man who trusts a woman will also kiss her. (we kiss cheeks all the time when I meet up with a friend, meet someone new, or get to class and sit near people I know)
There are about one thousand people to each doctor, with over eight hundred people per each hospital bed. Many people still consult native healers, including witch doctors, voodoo practitioners, and herbalists. Parasites and infectious diseases are common. Contaminated water must be boiled in rural areas. Malaria and rabies are still a problem. In spite of this, the life expectancy is sixty-eight for men and seventy-two for women.
Pretty shocking facts huh? But, there’s other interesting stuff to read, that’s not as bad. I was just interested in that, so I decided to copy it.
Well, I’ve written a lot for today. Just quickly I’ll say that yesterday, with my program, we drove about 4 hours to the Haitian border, looked at it (you can’t cross, you might never get back) and came back! It wasn’t really guarded or anything. It was just a place where Dominicans and Haitians crossed back and forth freely with market goods in jacked up pickup trucks that crossed a river. Neat to see.
Biggest news: My big sister Chris is coming to visit in 2 weeks. I’m so excited, and telling everyone, so now you all know too!
Onto a quick blurb of what I’ve been up to, which usually leads me into some story or pensive thought that I decide to share.
Two weekends ago: Got to mix concrete and move some cinderblocks with a mission group that came down for a visit to a town very close to Esperanza, where we have spent a lot of time with St. John’s. Very fun! And I even got to learn a little Creol (the language they speak in Haiti, our neighbor to the west) because the church service was in English to Creol, so you learn a lot that way.
Last Weekend: Went to visit Yasmín and family. Wonderful! Learned how to drive a moped, road in the back of a pickup truck with 30 other people (pretending we were Haitian immigrants with sheets over our head (which were really just to protect us from the sun)), got to visit a potential site for medical clinic this summer, and just enjoyed myself. It’s so nice to get out of the city; they live in a very rural town compared to the Capital. It actually gets cold a night. And you can breathe.
Internship this Week (every week is different, I go to the same place, same kids, but I swear there is no rhythm nor order to that place): No one helped me, the kids went psycho. They all run into the room where I teach and go to the only closet that doesn’t have a lock on it and start raiding it. It has children’s books in it. But the sad thing is, they can’t read them!!! So, I made my best effort to gain control and keep calm. But as I said to my friend Arianna, who I have to check in with weekly to tell her how it’s going, there’s a difference between having patience and letting little psychos rule your classroom.
So, I have a plan now, that she helped me with. As it stands, I spend about 1.5 hours trying to teach them, or less. I only go once a week because it’s an hour away. And I’ve got about 10? weeks left with them. New plan of action: Bring newspapers and start with “letter A.” Get them to cut out words that begin with A, practice writing simple A words, draw pictures of A animals….you get the picture. Exercises that trick them into learning!!! WOOHOO! So, I’ll see how many letters I can do a day. Probably 2 at most, I don’t want to expect too much. I feel better now that I’ve got a plan. But, look at how long I’ve been here. TWO MONTHS. That’s how slowly the DR moves. It took 2 months for it to become obvious that no one was going to help me teach, nor give me teaching materials, nor tell me what I should be doing!
Then, after my try at teaching a few letters, I run away from the crazies to some other crazies who live nextdoor. But, there the only thing I have to do is play soccer for a few hours in the blaring sun. I love it. Great break from banging my head against the wall!!
Stories for the week:
-At my internship where I play soccer, they are always very interested in my skin. Because as most of you know, and it’s second nature and nothing special, when you push on your skin or palm, it goes from pinkish to white, and then returns to normal. (It’s fun to imagine many of you pushing on your palms right now to check it out.) So, just about every kid here is amazed at that and grabs my hand when I arrive to start the amazing, “push on her palm, watch the blood disappear and rush back, tap your neighbor to get his attention, he does it too, and so does his neighbor, and his…” activity.
-Other internship story: They were talking about scars on day, and as boys are, knew exactly who had the worst one and I HAD to see it. They dragged me over to this boy, made him put on shorts so I could see it, and then showed me. Let me just say, I see a lot living in this country, but this was bad. He pretty much had a hole in his thigh about 3-4 inches long and at least ¾ inch wide with the evidence that the Dominican version of stitches was in it at one time to try and close it up. This thing was ugly. I finally worked it out of him what happened: Some guy escaped from jail (I think) and stabbed him with a red-hot knife. No reason, didn’t know the guy. This happened when he was 10. Can you believe it? This little guy is lucky to be alive with the first aid he received.
Public Car Story (as it’s my daily life, you’ll have to indulge me with the opportunity to tell another one): In a public mini van, as we will call them here, you get shoved in, and I mean shoved. The cobrador (guy who takes the money and hangs out the side door) yells at you as you try to sit down comfortably in the second to last row, “Fits 5, Fits 5!!” about the back row, meaning you better get back there. Side note, the back of this type of bus is referred to as the “kitchen,” it’s really hot. Ok, so in this particular instance I got to the back, and only half of the banked seat had a back. Let me digress right here to say that none of the furniture, and yes I consider it furniture because it did NOT come with the car and is some piece of junk from who knows where, is really from a car. It could be a kind of plastic bench, bolted to the floor in the back of the mini bus that I sit on. So, yes, in this case it was. But one part of it had no back. And I was lucky to get the part with a back. But as I looked around, I could see the street moving below me, and I could have sworn that when I pushed on the side of the car, the metal separating me from my comfy plastic bench and sudden doom moved. So did the metal covering the wheel wells, it had kind of rusted off from the floor and the curved part was just kind of flopping around with very pot hole we hit. Oh, and ps: the back door didn’t shut so good luck to the person who sat on the bench with no back; they really could have flown out the back.
My history class: I was researching in English websites because I can’t seem to find many in Spanish, and found one that you guys might find interesting if you’d like to know a little about this country.
http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Dominican-Republic.html
Here’s some stuff I copied:
Symbols of Social Stratification. The symbols of social stratification are similar to those in Western cultures. Many of the growing middle-class population own homes and cars, and enjoy updating them with the latest electronic appliances. Their children graduate from high school, and may go on to college. (this is where I live with my host family). People take pride in their personal appearance and prefer New York fashions and jewelry. However, there is still a large segment of the population which lives in urban slums and poor rural areas without electricity or running water. (this is where we work in the summer)
A voluntary national contributory scheme exists to provide insurance coverage for sickness, unemployment, dental injury, maternity, old age, and death. Only about 42 percent of the population benefits from it.
Personal space is limited, touching is normal, and crowding, particularly on public transportation, is common. (my life!)
Dominicans point with puckered lips instead of a finger. Men shake hands firmly when they greet and close friends embrace. Most women kiss each other on both cheeks, and a man who trusts a woman will also kiss her. (we kiss cheeks all the time when I meet up with a friend, meet someone new, or get to class and sit near people I know)
There are about one thousand people to each doctor, with over eight hundred people per each hospital bed. Many people still consult native healers, including witch doctors, voodoo practitioners, and herbalists. Parasites and infectious diseases are common. Contaminated water must be boiled in rural areas. Malaria and rabies are still a problem. In spite of this, the life expectancy is sixty-eight for men and seventy-two for women.
Pretty shocking facts huh? But, there’s other interesting stuff to read, that’s not as bad. I was just interested in that, so I decided to copy it.
Well, I’ve written a lot for today. Just quickly I’ll say that yesterday, with my program, we drove about 4 hours to the Haitian border, looked at it (you can’t cross, you might never get back) and came back! It wasn’t really guarded or anything. It was just a place where Dominicans and Haitians crossed back and forth freely with market goods in jacked up pickup trucks that crossed a river. Neat to see.
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