Lady Laura Boca Chica

So I've been here for a little over a month now, and I figured it might be time to give an update on how things are going in the schools where I am working. I know I mentioned this before, but I still feel it's important to point out how wonderful the students are. Each school has a different feel and a different dynamic, as they are all in different bateyes and are quite separate from one another. However, even with the different dynamics, the ...

... The bathroom was like an add-on extension in the back of the house, with a toilet and a drain in the floor opposite the toilet. The drain is where you stand to take a "shower," which is really pouring water on yourself from a large bucket next to the drain. There is a tap low to the ground for filling the bucket, but water does not always come out of it if the water supply for the day has been used. If this is the case, then water is collected outside ...

... The houses are like out of a storybook. They are all one-level with vaulted ceilings, and the floors are completely covered with ceramic tile. Each house has the same layout, with furniture appropriate to the ages of the children (they are housed by age group and gender). There is a spacious living/play room, large eating area, large kitchen with new appliances and marble counters, and 2 large bedrooms at either end of the hallway. Each ...

... vines, thorns, and humidity didn´t let us down. Neither did the howler monkeys, who where not bothered in the least by us, even as close as ten feet. We took what was supposed to be an hour-long hike the morning we left. Turned out to be almost three hours as we were determined to find a trail that was elusive to the end. So we had to had to crash through the undergrowth and ...

... the mechanic then decided to borrow the car to go to a party where he got completely drunk, on the way home he managed to crash into a parked car and cause significant damage, it has to be said that they do things differently here. The diving occurs at two sets of islands some 30 to 40 km off the coast, it is just me, Cat, the instructor and the driver, there is no one else around. The diving is fantastic as good as ...

... flooded Palo Verde, the town where one PCV is at. I mean the water is goes up to people waste. It really sucks becaues Molly has been evacuated from her site. Just image the water there...it complteley filled up all the latrines with water, and teh river itself is contaminated so that whole town is just flooded with dirty contaminated water full of feces. Luckily it hasn't reached my communities yet. But it is getting close. The little creeks connected to the river have started ...

... ceviche and Juan a fish ceviche. They were excelente and we also got to try our first Presidente, the Dominican beer! It was very refreshing after a long flight from Seattle to Newark to Atlanta to Santo Domingo finally! And not to mention, the humidity was really high and the ice cold cervecita hit just the spot.

... 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 ...

... had one in her front yard, and her host dad grabed a knife and chopped it up into peaces. Hopefully I won´t witness any of that! In community based training I have 4 hours of spanish class everyday, and then four hours of technical training. We are basically learning about different methods we can use to help reach out into the community. We also have to do a mini community diagnostic which involves going to people´s houses and asking them a whole bunch of health ...

... The next weekend, I went to the Capital for a meeting with my boss, and I decided to swing over to my friend, fellow PCV Tilden's site in San Felipe to visit her and see what her project was like for the weekend. It was such an amazing time! Tilden was a volunteer in Haiti before all volunteers were evacuated and the remainder sent to the DR instead. Therefore, she was placed in a Haitian Batey in the DR (a sugar cane field) where many Haitian-Dominicans ...