Hotel Villa Italia Santo Domingo

... kb2ic/4/1228163820/library_-_9217.avi/t pod.html) I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the CSA office completing evaluations and sharing my reports with Rigil, the boss, and Antoine, the program coordinator. Everyone is really happy with the work I did and it sounds like some really good stuff can come out of my work. Antoine told me that I did more with in six weeks than most people in Neyba do in a year. That's great for my ego, but incredibly depressing for World ...

... and today he enlisted Santiago and I as his project staff. The contest is in honor of Google's 10th birthday and the company is seeking ideas that will change the world (http://www.project10tothe100.com/). In January, the public gets to vote on the top 100 entries, and the top five finalists will receive funding to turn the idea into reality. Mark's idea is to take plastic waste (the plastics that currently can't be recycled since they are undesirable to turn into ...

... Jews from Curacao, Canary Islanders, Germans, Italians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Lebanese, Syrian, Jewish refugees, Japanese, Hungarians, Chinese and many others. In fact, Chinese immigrants were the second fastest growing immigrant group in the Dominican Republic. I arrive in Zona Colonial, one of the historical districts in Santo Domingo, by taxi and quickly settle into a very cheap hotel that borders El Conde (a popular street for ...

... these parts for having landed here first when discovering the Americas. He was an Italian working for the Spanish. Apparently he left a small party of 25 soldiers here while he went back to Spain for more money, ships, crew etc. He returned a year later to find they had all been killed by the local Taino or Caribe indians. In the years that followed the Spanish wiped out the whole native population either through illness, slavery or massacre. In 30 years the numbers ...

... that is that. Life in general is going pretty well. As I always seem to end up blogging about, time here just flies. They say that Peace Corps will be the longest days and the shortest two years of your life, and it is true indeed. Sometimes the days creeeeep by, but then I look back and am amazed at how far I have come. Hard to believe that when Mom and Dad leave at the end of November I will be at the 5 month countdown. I am planning on ...

... we'll see how much I can get done before the end of school...right now planning a month long literacy camp for 60 students is a little daunting, but I think it will be amazing if I can get it done! So the men here...hmm, they are a little bit of a problem, because I am extremely indirect, whereas they are unbelievably direct. I go for a run every afternoon after school is over, and run to my other community, which is a ...

... picked us some sugar cane for everyone to eat on the way back. Here is how they did it; first they pulled the sugar cane out of the ground, and then to peel it, since they didnīt have a machete, they tore the outside the cane off with their teeth, and we ate the sugar cane stalk. It was so good...such a Dominican experience. CBT time has completely flown by, and this is our last week here. All of our families are asking if we are staying here, and itīs hard because none of us ...

... I also decided to start a documentation project so that the people in my community can obtain a national ID card, or their birth cirtificate if they do not have one all ready. We will see how this project goes as well. I have finally started working on moving into the house that my host mom is letting me use rent free. Currently the yard of the house is occupied by goats, and I am waiting for the construction of a new goat coral, so that these goats can finally move out ...

... encounted terantulas and rats in their house.....luckily my house has been pretty rodent free, except for the HUGE daddy long legs and cockroaches. The only terantula I encounted was on the street when I was walking home one night. Who knows, I still have 4 weeks left here, maybe I'll come home one day and see one lying on my bed! Well, that is all the news I have right now. I hope things are find in the US. Once again give me some news updates!!

... to go the beach yet(Don't know how). Someone is organizing a trip on Sunday. I will definitely be there. Adjusting to the slow pace has been difficult. No one is in a rush to complete anything or be anywhere on time. This can be both positive and negative. I am so use to the American Culture which is run on the sanp of a finger. At noon, some things shut-down for lunch until about 2pm. They go home for a bite to eat and ...