TravelStream™ news feed for member kelsianne82 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kelsianne82 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:07:46 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1190146020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1190146020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1190146020/tpod.html Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:07:46 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Hey guys, I know it's been awhile, sorry!  Life starts to get into a routine and everything feels so normal, that I never feel like anything is blog worthy!  These past couple of weeks, another volunteer, Marita, and I have been painting a map mural at the school I work at.  It's been awesome, and even though I have 0 artistic abilities, and the idea of having to draw every continent and country freehand made me a little nauseous, it's turning out really good.  We're hoping to inspire some world knowledge in the lives of the students!  Or at least show them that there is more to the world than the DR and Nueva York, aka, the USA.  My resource room will hopefully be up and running by the end of the month or the beginning of October.  It's a pull-out room working with students who can't read, and I've made a bunch of games and learning materials for it and am really excited to get it going.  It's incredible the things that you think you are going to be doing when you sign up for Peace Corps, and then the things that you actually do on a day-to-day basis.  Completely different. Since I've become a master painter, the other weekend, I helped Jen paint her new house.  It looks awesome, amazing what a little paint can do.  I think I've found my new calling in life.  I'll be moving out of my host families house in the middle of October, which is pretty much the most exciting thing of all time.  Can't wait to have my own place and a little privacy and freedom.  I will be moving to a different town, though, which is a little sad, because I've gotten used to hanging out with my cute kids, but it's close, so I'll be able to visit whenever.  My kids and I have been playing Dominoes a lot lately, and even though they try to cheat like crazy, I love it.  What else, the new group of volunteers came last week, which means that my group is no longer the "newbies".  Two groups come in per year, one in September and one in February.  You know time is going by when groups start coming in, and that's a good feeling!  I hope everyone is enjoying Fall back home!  I miss the seasons!! 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1187982000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1187982000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1187982000/tpod.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:24:20 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

So I realized that I haven't given any real description of the people or life here in the DR, since a part of me feels like you all are living this experience with me and thus already know all of it already!  I'll try to give a somewhat accurate account, even though sometimes I don't even understand the craziness that is the Dominican Republic.  For employment, people in my communities work in the fields(tobacco or plantains), work in the factories in the city, drive taxis or motorcycles for the public transportation, or are housewives.  I'm sure it varies in different parts of the country or in the cities, but that's the majority of people in my area.  Kids are in school for 4 hours a day, and unless you are sending your child to a very good private school in the city, the education is definitely lacking.  Lots of kids work, as well, either selling things in the street or working in the fields, as well.  On every corner, you'll find a Colmado, which is like the general store that sells anything and everything you could ever want, and it all fits into the size of a room like 10 ft by 10 ft.  My favorite part of the country for me are all the fruit vendors!  They sell fruit everywhere, on the street, the corners, wherever, and it's the best stuff, pineapple, mangos, bananas, melon, etc.  It's wonderful and so cheap and convenient.  There is definitely a disparity of wealth everywhere, even in my campo. There are mansions and gorgeous houses on one side of the road, and down the block you'll see the saddest shack of all time, made of random tin sheets.  Water and lights are a big frustration here, because it's so sporadic.  We'll usually have lights and water in the morning, and then the water is out for the rest of the day, and the lights go in and out all day. People store water in huge tanks in their showers, and we take bucket baths everyday, which I have actually really gotten used to, although I definitely savor the times where I get a real shower, and if it's hot...ahh, hallelujah.  People that have money have generators for when the lights go out, but since I am a volunteer, I have no money, which means I have no generator and am usually in bed by 9:00 or 9:30 every night.  The crazy life I lead in the DR :)  All day long you hear "se fue la luz!" or "llego la luz!", which means, the lights went out or the lights are back!  So to hear "llego la luz!"  is always exciting.  As far as culture goes, a couple of things pop into my head.  Baseball, dominoes, and dancing.  Theses are the things that Dominicans love, and all of these include lots of Presidente beer to go along with the activity of choice.  Baseball is starting up here, so I'm getting excited along with all the Dominicans, and since there is a pro stadium in Santiago, I'm hoping to get to a few games.  And of course, there are gorgeous, gorgeous beaches here, with incredible kite surfing, whale watching, snorkeling, etc.  There are also incredible mountain ranges, and the Special Ed. group of girls is planning on climbing Pico Durate(the tallest mt. in the DR) sometime this Jan. or Feb.  The south is more of a desert feel, so the geography here is pretty diverse and all beautiful. Ok, I'm sure there is a ton that I'm missing, but there's a little overview for you.  Even though it's an insane country, with random things happening every day, you gotta love it here.  Most days :)   
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1187557740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1187557740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1187557740/tpod.html Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:22:28 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Hey!  Ok, so all is well, I was not swept away in crazy Hurricane Dean!  Actually, it wasn´t even close to me, but it was still close enough.  I live up in the north of the country, and we just got a lot of rain, but nothing too damaging.  The south part of the country got hit a little harder, and the volunteers down there had to consolidate, but everything is Ok as far as I know.  It´s a little bizarre to know that there was a hurricane looming, but not really have any media access to it, besides what Peace Corps tells you over a text message.  So I was kind of just chilling in my site hoping to not be swept away!  But Peace Corps is on top of the hurricane situations, so no worries to all back home!  We have a system and we´re all in contact, so if anything happens, we all know where to go and what to do, so I´m safe.  But thank you to those of you who called or wrote and were concerned; I appreciate it!  This past week, before all the hurricane madness, we had a camp called Celebrando el Cibao, which is a diversity camp for kids in our area, and it was awesome.  Topics were covered like religion, racism, sexuality, different cultures, and I think it made a lot of the kids really think and open their eyes to different topics and ideas.  We had some really great discussions in my small groups, and from what my progressing Spanish comprehended, I think they took a lot away from it.  School starts up this week, and I´m ready to get something started up!  I´m really nervous for everything to begin, and I´m really hoping that the teachers are willing to work with me and try some new techniques and ideas in their classroom.  I´m still living with my host family and will be until October.  Another volunteer will be leaving then, and I will be moving into her apartment, so as ready as I am to have my own place, it´ll be worth the wait.  The rat situation is still going on and to add to that, there have been tarantulas in my bedroom.  I´m assured that they are not poisonous, but seriously people, rats and tarantulas, for the love, what else is hiding out in there.  Ah, life in the campo. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1186690020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1186690020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1186690020/tpod.html Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:25:28 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

This last Monday, Megan, Kevin, and I took off from Santiago to go climb some waterfalls!  It's a place called 27 Charcos, and it's about 40 mins from where I live, and it's something everyone needs to do if they come down here!  So we get there, get our guide, and get going.  It's a hike through a little river to get up to the falls, but it's absolutely gorgeous.  The guides literally pulled us up through theses waterfalls, and how they did this, I have no idea, because they are not big guys, but all of a sudden, they take your hand, and you're flying through the air, joints slightly out of place, but at least your up and on your way to the next one.  Some of the waterfalls, you climb a rope to get up, others you can climb, and others, you are pulled up by.  A lot of people only go up to the 7th waterfall, but we were going to the top.  After a couple of hours, we did make up it to the last waterfall, and to jump it is optional.  It's optional, because it's completely crazy.  It's about a 40ft jump, into a pool below that is about 5-7 ft wide, and once you're up there all you can see are rocks.  You can only take a "step" off, not a jump, because if you jump, you'll go to far and hit the rocks.  Um, scary!!  I stood up there for a long time, trying to get my heart back down to a normal speed, and then trying to convince myself to do it.  It was quite possibly the scariest thing I have ever done in my life, but I made the jump, and luckily avoided the rocks. It was intense, but worth it!!   The way down the falls was great.  We got to jump down pretty much all of them, and some we were able to slide down.  We swam in the pools and through the canyons, and it was incredible.  I wanted to take my camera, but since it's not waterproof, I opted against it. If you want to check out the site, go to www.27charcos.com. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1186066500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1186066500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1186066500/tpod.html Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:18:46 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Hola!  Well, I´ve been in country 6 months and in my actual site 3 months...woo hoo! :)  We just had our 3 month In Service Training, and our whole group was together again for the first time since we swore-in, so it was pretty exciting.  Our training took place in a gorgeous, gorgeous mountain site, and not only was it gorgeous, but it was also about 20 degrees cooler than where I currently live, and that in itself was bliss.  I actually wore my North Face fleece everyday and slept with a blanket at night; you have no idea how wonderful that was.  It´s summer time here, and it´s hot!  Training was good, and I feel like I have a lot of ideas to start working on for the upcoming school year and ways to fund it all.  I now know how to write grants and solicite money from a multitude of places :)  The things I would love to start up though is somekind of resource room for students who need extra help, teacher training sessions, and my ultimate dream would be to build a library here.  Reading for pleasure or really, reading for anything is not done here, and it´s such a life necessity for these kids to have.  But we´ll see, the year starts up in a couple of weeks, and I have a feeling life is going to be crazy.  I have been a little frustrated with things in my site these past few days.  I was suppose to be moving out into my own place when I got back, and I thought it was all taken care of, but when I got back from training and went to talk to the woman who I was renting from, she informed me that she had let someone else stay there, but she was sorry.  Right, thanks.  So I went around to some other places that I thought might work, and there is nothing available in my site.  Frustrating.  Even though I love my host family, it is time to move out into my own place, so this little dilema is taking front priority right now.  I´m looking into the community where my other school is and hoping that something is available there.  Anything without rats will do, I¨m not being picky right now. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1184967540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1184967540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1184967540/tpod.html Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:10:41 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Hey, so I´m learning some culture about life in the DR.  First is that never plan or expect anything here.  Time is relevant, things will always change at the last possible minute, and you just have to be ready to roll with it all!  I´m saying all this because last week, I along with Robyn, and Zy were suppose to be doing a week long taller(teacher workshop).  Well, about 3 days before this was all suppose to happen, the teachers had a meeting, and decided to change everything up and have us help them make didactic materials for their classrooms instead.  Ok, not a big deal...I spent a lot of time on my presentations, but I can use those another time for the tallers I give to my teachers.  So, we go to meet with these teachers to help them prepare for their summer camp, and out of 20 teachers that were suppose to show up, 3-5 would show up on a daily basis, and the 3-5 that would show up, they were all an hour to an hour and a half late.  Welcome to the DR, folks.  Key lessons to take away from this: patience, flexibility, and always bringing reading material along for the long waits.  The week was good, though, I got to see my old host family, and all of our friends from back in Sabana de la Mar, so of course there was a lot of dancing going on, too.  Our friend, Bam Bam is determined to teach me how to correctly dance bachata, and he taught me some new turn moves, so I guess the trip wasn´t in vain :)  The hardest part of the trip was that Robyn gave me a bicycle that she wasn´t using, which is so great because I need one, but I wish I had the process on tape of getting that bike across the country on guaguas, taxis, and buses.  It was an ordeal, and this bike will never leave my site again!  So Jen and I have a new ¨best place to be hit on in the DR¨.  Today we were at the mall in Santiago, in the bathroom, drying our hands, and a guy walks by the door, and was like ¨wow, what beautiful girls!¨ We were like, what the heck, we are in the bathroom, gross, go away!  We realize that we are a walking show for the people here and get the most riduculous comments and come-ons of all time, but some places should really be off limits.    On a random side note, last night as I was brushing my teeth, I saw the largest rat in the world crawling up the wall. I don´t know how I kept it together or how I was able to stay in the house that night.  I don´t know how to accurately describe my fear of mice and rats, much less the ginormous rats that live in this country, and it was the first time I actually saw one in my house.  Lord help me...send some rat poison!! :) 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1183992840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1183992840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1183992840/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:35:16 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Happy 4th of July!!  I hope everyone had a great holiday back in the states with some good food and fireworks going on.  I was a little sad to be gone for the 4th, because it´s my favorite holiday, but we had a good time down here.  A bunch of other volunteers and I went to the south of the island to a place called Bahia de las Aguilas.  It´s on the ocean, and it´s a national park, and it´s absolutely gorgeous.  It´s pristine, with sea-green water, and gorgeous beaches.  Since I live in the north, it was a good 12 hour trip, which going down there, we did it in three days, stopping in the capital, and then another town called Pedernales, before hitting the beach.  And since this place is pretty remote, we had to bring all of our supplies with us, food, water, etc, and you have to take a boat to get there.  But it was worth it.  We camped on the beach, and I spent the majority of my time playing in the water...frisbee, football, swimming, and my favorite, snorkeling.  Someone brought their gear with them, and it was incredible.  I saw huge starfish, stingrays, and a variety of gorgeous fish.  It was so beautiful.  The south is definitely a different landscape than the lushness that I´m used to in the north. It´s more of a desert feel, with more bushes and cacti, but I was really glad to be able to see it and explore a different part of the country.  The trip back, we did in one day, which was a little ridiculous.  A boat ride, to a pickup truck, to a guagua(crazy crowded bus), to two more guaguas, and two public cars to get back to my site.  12 hours.  Craziness.  We were pretty exhausted, but it was well worth it. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1182976140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1182976140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1182976140/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:06:23 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

So this last week or so wasn´t the best week in the DR.  I started feeling pretty crappy last week, with a fever and my body hurt, but I was hoping it was just the flu.  After a couple of days, I decided to call my doctor at the Peace Corps office, who told me to come in to get tested for Dengue.  I was obviously a little too cocky that I was going to avoid the dreaded Dengue for these next two years, and I should have known better, because yeah, I got it.  The Dengue.  It´s pretty awful, and I only had a mild case of it, and it still sucked.  They call it ¨break bone fever¨because your whole body just hurts, even you eyes, and I described it more like how I felt after I ran my marathon...my whole body was just really really sore.  I was exhausted and could hardly walk to my bathroom, that´s how much energy my body was depleting.  It was a pretty awful week, and I had to stay in the capital for about a week and was a little sad, but I feel A LOT better now, even though I´m suppose to be taking it easy because Dengue affects your liver, and I´m not suppose to be doing a whole lot. But you get Dengue from a certain kind of mosquito here, for those who aren´t up on their tropical diseases!  :)  Also, you can get dengue repeatedly, so I´m not immune to it, which would be nice if I just didn´t have to worry about it anymore, but no, I¨m still applying the repellent like it´s my perfume.  I´m quite lovely down here.  On a sad note, a girl from my Special Ed group, Leah, is Early Terminating, and will be leaving back for the States sometime within the next week.  She lives really close to me, so I´m really sad to be losing her, but I´m glad that she´ll be going home and will be happy. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1183408380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1183408380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1183408380/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:04:19 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Un Paseo:  a trip.  I took a paseo with my community to Cabarete, a beach town on the north side of the country, and at first I was really excited to go to the beach with my community, and then that passed, and I was really scared to do a meet and greet all day at the beach.  Little did I know the craziness that was to come.  Here's a diary account of the day:6:45: am-i arrive at the meeting place to catch the bus7:00 am- time the bus is suppose to leave8:30am-200 dominicans(with all their coolers filled with rice, beans, chicken, and drinks) try to squeeze onto one bus so we can finally get going8:45am- 2nd bus comes, so now there is 100 people/bus, which is suppose to fit about 56 or so...use your imagination as to where all these people fit; i still don't know how it was all possible9:30am-en route, a random cow is crossing the major highway, and a car swerves to miss it, causing our bus to crash into the car.  my 1st accident in the DR.  it was a little traumatic, but the dominicans took it in stride, the music and dancing on the bus never ceased, and within 20 mins, we were back on our way to the beach.  thankfully everyone was OK, but the other car was pretty totalled.  9:45-12:00-the crazy ride to the beach continues, with Presidente(the beer of choice) flowing on the bus, with bachata and merengue blaring from the speakers like it's a concert, with people dancing in the isles.  even though there is hardly enough room to breathe, i guess there is always room to dance.  1:00pm-we have settled on the beach, and people start breaking out the rice and beans for lunch.  the great thing about donas is that they make enough food to feed an army, so i never go hungry.  1:30-5:00pm-i enjoy the day chilling on the fabulous Cabarete beach, watching all the kite surfers, swimming, and applying sun screen like it's going out of style.  i have become religious about my sunscreen!  5:30 pm-after a day of HEAVY drinking(not me), everyone smashes back onto the buses, the music starts blaring again, even louder this time, if that could be possible, and the dance party resumes.  8:00pm-i get back to my house, thankful to be alive and still have the ability to hearEven though, it was possibly the craziest thing I have done yet in this country, it was a good day with my community. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1181942820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1181942820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kelsianne82/dr_2007/1181942820/tpod.html Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:32:02 -0400 My experiences in the Dominican Republic!

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Santiago, Dominican Republic

Hey guys!  I got a new mailing account with Mail Boxes Etc, and it's suppose to be really reliable and much faster than normal mail here, and it's in Santiago, which is so much easier to get to than going to the capital to get mail.  It's good for people in the States, because my mailing addresses are to Miami, and then they ship it down to Santiago from there, but you only pay what you would normally pay to send letters or mail within the US.  So it's a good deal.  There are two separate addresses, one for letters, and one for packages.  For Letters:Kelsi NelsonSDQ 8280PO BOX 025725Miami, FL 33102-5725For Packages:Kelsi NelsonSDQ 828011010 N.W. 30th St, STE 104Miami, FL. 33172-5032So feel free to send down goodies of all sorts :)  Take care guys!! 
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