aki estoy de nuevo, en mi primer rincón del mundo

current balance: $2

I'm going back as soon as I can.

...que vamooooooo!

Flyer by "La Multitud,"a Dominican youth-driven political activism/consciousness-raising organization. "¡E pa'lante que vamo'!" ("¡Es para adelante que vamos!", or literally "It's forward that we're going!") is the campaign slogan of the DR's current president, Leonel Fernandez. The new metro, an ideal symbol of how prosperous and developed the DR would like to be seen... going "forward" and crashing to its death. Like a lot of people in this country do while the government turns a blind eye. (Get it?... okay it's so much better if you don't need it to be explained, but it only makes sense if you know these things, and I just think it's genius.)

piropo

The best compliments I have received since I've been here:

"Your eyes are like a discoteca!"

"What beautiful eyes! It's like they were made by hand!"

I hate endings.

KIDS GONE WILD

I just got back from SPRING BREAK '09 and I really didn't take any pictures. Other people did, so I can show you some things later, but for now here is a picture of a tree called Trinitaria that has flowers in at least three colors at once, which I took right before I left on monday. 

Now, here are some -lights, both high and low (and just weird).

HIGHLIGHTS

1. I stayed four nights in hotels for $28 total. Nice.

2. Both hotel owners we dealt with were incredibly friendly and kind. If you're in Puerto Plata, I would very much recommend the Atlantic Guest House. Hotel Hogar Ligia Piña in Jarabacoa is kind of like a barn and I wouldn't exactly suggest staying there, but the man who owns it sure is nice. 

3. An adventure called 27 CHARCOS for which we donned swimsuits and helmets and lifejackets and swam/ hiked/ climbed up through 21 or 22 waterfalls and freshwater pools and cavey/canyony bits carved into meters and meters of limestone rock (dig my inconsistent use of the metric system), and then, when we got to the top, proceeded to go back the way we came via natural rock waterslides and good old fashioned jUMPING! I think the tallest jump was around 30 feet, but I'm not positive. It was the coolest. (All this with the help of a couple of super-human guides of infinite strength who I'm pretty sure know how to fly.) I want to do it again... 

http://www.27charcos.com

4. American-style breakfast at Sam's in Puerto Plata: mexican scramble, home fries, toast and coffee. Oh my gosh.

5. Hot Dog/Hamburger stand in Puerto Plata. 30 peso dinner (less than a dollar).

6. Free mamajuana shots after bomb spinach and garlic pizza.

7. 85 peso Presidente Jumbos (33.5 oz for $2.50!)

8. Playing with some city kids on spring break in a park gazebo in Jarabacoa... Courtney daring one of them to run screaming into church with a beer and chica's ensuing imitation of a drunk... priceless. Don't worry, there were no real church interruptions or underage drinking.

9. Putting on swimsuits, helmets and lifejackets AGAIN for river rafting on the Río Yaque del Norte. A fellow called Eduardo picked us up at our hotel at 9 am. Jammed to U2 in his giant SUV. They didn't even charge us for Hali, whose purse was stolen (see lowlights). They fed us scrambled eggs, toast and coffee, and then an hour and a half or so of rollercoaster waterslide fun! Jeremy fell off four times. Our guide purposefully rammed us into rocks and laughed like a maniac. Continuous splashing war with the other 5 or 6 rafts. 8 meter cliff jump (I went twice)! Lunch and beer (included in price) back at the ranch (by the way, the only place I've seen hammocks in this entire country). I want to marry all the river guides and live forever at Rancho Jarabacoa. They apparently don't have a website, but I have the info, and I want you to go there. Please take me with you.

LOWLIGHTS

1. Starting out the trip with 12 people. I don't know how it ever got to be so many. Luckily we were down to 5 by the end.

2. Paying for meals at restaurants with a group of 5-12 is no fun.

3. Discovering that Aly was right about peanut butter in yogen früz: it's just not good.

4. Having incredibly high standards for beaches due to 3 months in the Dominican Republic and Jeremy, Hali, Courtney and Erasmo's tales of their sleepover at Playa Rincón (I so should have gone with them), Playa Costambar in Puerto Plata was just dissapointing.

5. Hali and Caitlin were sitting in the Parque Central of Jarabacoa (the city). Jeremy and Courtney were off playing dominoes and I was in the bathroom. This little teenage thug in a green bandana who'd tried to "borrow" our cameras before came up, asked them some stupid question, snatched Hali's purse and booked it. Hali's flip flops couldn't bring her up to speed. Having just exchanged traveler's checks, her purse contained over $150 and her passport, as well as her camera, phone, keys, wallet and traveling dominoes game. It was the second time she's been robbed big-time and put a huge damper on the whole trip for all of us. It was horrible.

6. Having to take a 2 hour taxi ride back to the city because Caribe Tours was on a holiday schedule for Good Friday and we missed the last bus (it was cheaper than staying another night, but it sure didn't feel worth it with four in the back at $25 per person).

7. Not having time to get temporary tattoos to commemorate our rafting experience.

8. Coming home yesterday with a 100 degree fever (don't worry, that's not in celsius).

AND THESE THINGS WERE JUST WEIRD

1. Just as we were about to get dinner on wednesday, we were overtaken by an ENOURMOUS, deafeningly loud parade of people led by a big truck blasting hymns (spend some time in the Dominican Republic and you'll notice their penchant for giant, GIANT speakers: these people want to be heard.) It was what appeared to be the entire population of Puerto Plata walking the stations of the cross, singing, praying and listening to bible passages read over megaphone. I've never seen anything like it.

2. Post-robbery, the five of us took our infuriation to the police station. After a silly debriefing with the tourist police boss, we asked if he could take one or some of us around on some kind of vehicle to look for a) Hali's purse, should it be found emptied and discarded by the side of the road, and b) the offending green-bandana boy. This resulted in Jeremy (the only male) and I (one of the three who had gotten a good look at the thief), along with four or five armed officers on motorcycles, zooming around on a nighttime tour of Jarabacoa. I rode with the head officer on his ATV. Everyone we passed stared in disbelief at the weird gang we made, especially around the park where the sidewalks were packed. We didn't find a thing. It was really surreal.

3 Quarters

I am so happy that Dad and Lizzie and Johnny came to visit! They didn't stay long enough. I love them.

Here is a photo of everyone who's anyone in Jarabacoa (a.k.a the mountains). I'm the fourth from the left between Aly and Erasmo.

This is what I wrote to put in CIEE Santo Domingo 2009 Newsletter # 2:

The word "internship" is intimidating. I remember when applying for the CIEE Santo Domingo program how hard it was to imagine being able to do meaningful work in a completely  different cultural world from what I was used to, in a language I have yet to master. Well, it

 turns out my doubts were grounded-- one of the things I learned very quickly from the internship process, in class and at the school where I'm working, is that there is very little that I am actually able to contribute. However, I really believe that the acceptance of that fact has actually been one of the most valuable parts of my months in the DR. In a way, I am being forced to confront reality. "Helping people" can no longer be the vague, abstract concept I've always idealized and thought myself quite capable of. It's really, really hard to look at the little pixels that make up the big, unfair, corrupt picture and feel helpless. It's really hard to look at a courtyard full of shouting, laughing, fighting, singing, bright, resilient girls and acknowledge everything in their lives, past and present, that stands in the way of them ever reaching their potential. Sadly, a true summary of my "pasantía experience" can't reach any comfortable, happy, Hollywood resolutions: Yes, I have realized that I am more capable than I had thought when thrown into a role where language, culture and experience are all obstacles to overcome; yes, I have learned about the process of education; yes, I love Angelina and Jessica and Staci and Yafreisi and Alanda and Joelis and all the little girls who run to hug me every time I arrive and wish I could be each one's mother and father and sister; and yes, I've grown in other, subtler ways that are harder to put into words... but these are all selfish achievements, and although I am thankful for them, I can't be particularly proud. Oh well. I wouldn't trade in the experience at all. It's frustrating, but if you approach it right, it's enlightening, and I try to approach it as rightly as I can. 

-Anna, Lewis & Clark College 

Here is a little taste of my mondays and thursdays (from left, Rosi Morelia Elaine María Me Angelina Staci Frangelie):

I'm not always nearly so pessimistic. Happy Palm Sunday! 

Go Here

Jarabacoa

Museo Folklórico Tomás Morel

Santiago

deja de vaina y ven acá

On March 20, the first day of the spring of 2009, I saw (well, heard, first) a gang of parakeets carousing in the trees where Independencia meets Socorro Sanchez. Green, blue, red and yellow feathers on the same bird, and he ain't got no cage but for the earth's atmosphere. Happy equinox.

 

a few things I looked at fairly recently:

babies in Baní

jeremy demonstrates how we all felt about chilling in an underwater cave (Río San Juan)

the puppy no amount of potential disease/fleas could keep me away from (Mata los Indios)

tiny baby cow born that morning (Mata los Indios)

laguna gri-gri meets the ocean (Río San Juan)

Villa Mella, Nothern Santo Domingo, community of Mata Los Indios

Photos taken for Josefina Tavarez, community leader and resident director of the Museum of the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit (Museo Cofradia Espiritu Santo)

Casimiro plays the congos (he makes them, too). He is 105 years old. (!!!!!)

Josefina announces the meeting tomorrow

fíjate que bien...

yesterday a package arrived after two months and 5 days and lost hopes and resignation

the best thing to come out of dominican art history class so far

potentially, ever.

SxSW

• Today I am sick, with what I think is a cold, resfriado in spanish (although Doña Iris calls it la gripe, pronounced 'greepay', which I think is the flu but also seems to be a general term for being sick here). It's not too bad, though, thank goodness. My friend Jenna just got over a sinus infection and had to get antibiotics injected into her behind for some reason-- yikes.

• On friday CIEE took us on a visit to the Haitian border. We had to leave at 5:25 am. The bus ride took approximately five hours, during which we were blasted by air conditioning (it has two settings: on and off) which I feel is partially responsibly for my sickness. At the border we went to one of five main border marketplaces, Elias Piña, where we purchased such traditional artisan goods as jelly shoes, used american clothing and pirated dvds (mine is the Notorious B.I.G. movie). It was crazy and enormous and full of chickens and I felt really invasive taking pictures but I did anyway, as you can see.


• Some (ten) of us didn't feel like letting a free trip across the country go to waste, so while everyone else guagua-ed it back to Santo Domingo, we took a bus to Barahona, a seaside town in the southwest. It's really lovely and I'd recommend it to anybody who finds themself in this country. The whole south coast is refreshingly un-resort-ified. Loopy from lack of sleep we managed to find a good hotel for less than $6 per person (although the rat we spotted run across one room might partially explain the low rates). Friday night we spiked our smoothies with a little Haitian rum and made a fire on the deserted beach, where we threw sticks and paper into the flames and danced around to Aly's pathetically quiet ipod speaker and generally put on a gringo show the Dominicans should be sorry to have missed. It was one of the best times I've had here so far.



• Saturday we visited the most beautiful beach I've ever seen, where we were greeted by a sign reading "Welcome to San Rafael. Don't lose control." There's something about the color of the water meeting the sky meeting the rocky green mountainside that's like magic. The only drawbacks were the lack of fresh fruit juice for sale and the fact that the atlantic waves and riptide were not joking around. I tried once to play in the water and ended up scrambling back to shore with rocks in my ears and my bathing suit halfway off. It was cute.



• Other than this weekend, here are some things I've been doing:
  

1. Seen (for free) the National Theater perform Fiddler on the Roof in Spanish (even the songs!)
   
2. Come to the realization that at least two of my five teachers are not actually teaching anything, but rather occasionally giving us the names of books, texts and vague assignments and presentations to take up the time allotted for class.
3. Kept struggling with my work at Hogar Escuela Doña Chucha. The third graders are unspeakably adorable, the fifth graders are doing their best to give me hell (except the rare few who are timid and quiet, and Jessica, who keeps asking me to take her home for lunch), and I still wish I could actually do something to fix every problem in their lives, but I can't.
4. Done yoga almost every day.
   
   


5. Seen two versions of Carnaval-- La Vega and Santo Domingo. La Vega is the most famous and everyone talks about it. Don't go. It's nothing but a glorified capitalism/alcohol/noise fest devoid of soul, and to top it off, they beat you up (and if you're me/a white american, call you names and laugh as you run away crying). Santo Domingo's was a really fun parade of floats and costumes from all over the country, and while it was clearly a production of a government who exerts effort very selectively and ignores many serious problems, it was still cool to watch.



6. Took a spontaneous trip to Baní, a town west of the capital, where we rode motorcycle taxis through the landscape of dry fields, cactus and RIDICULOUS, gaudy mansions.
7. Eaten a LOT of coconut popsicles.
8. Continued to enjoy my favorite Brazilian telenovela with Doña Iris, Lazos de Familia (family ties). She's always telling me what's going to happen, but I don't even care. It's so good, when I go out at night part of me is secretly wishing I was staying home to watch it. (But of COURSE I'm not about to spend my Study Abroad Experience in front of the TV... although it does improve my spanish comprehension!) Plus they play bomb Brazilian music... with the occasional Shania Twain tune thrown in.
9. Played a fair amount of dominoes.

I'm excited for my Dad and Lizzie and John visit me, and for a potential weekend trip to Río San Juan on the north coast, and for my first taste of a Dominican karaoke bar, and for the travels Caitlin and I are planning for Semana Santa (spring break), and a potential trip to Haiti before I fly home in May, and other unexpected things. I love and miss you, my dear Americans. I hope you're doing well too.

19,002 words

seven weeks

Dominicanidad

The Dominican economy is two things: corrupt, and unstable.

I'm not going to go google any statistics for you, but way too many people are poor, nobody makes enough money, lots of things are too expensive and lots of things are really horribly low quality (healthcare. education. to name a few.)

It's not that they don't have enough money. They just finished, for example, the first subway line in Santo Domingo. Today I rode it down and back (it goes N-S, they're working on an E-W one for sometime in the next century), and it is FAN-CY. It's very nice. Smooth, modern, clean, efficient (seeming). One glistening piece of evidence that the government has got some $$$. And although the specific ways and people are so hidden and complicated that I believe there are few people who have a great depth of knowledge on the subject, COR-RUP-TION is decidedly a big presence in the network of those who decide the fate of the country. How infuriating is that?

Secondly, the country is financially resting on three rickety, ridiculous stilts, and these are

1. tourism!
2. free trade zones (zonas francas)
3. remesas

I think tourism is pretty self explanatory-- but development for the sake of attracting tourists often ignores the needs (and/or the existence) of the people who live in the country, and also of that thing we like to call "the environment." 

Free trade zones are bad news, you may or may not understand them better than I do but for some reason or another large sections of the country are available for everyone and their mother's corporation to build giant factories, also known as sweatshops, and be exempt to some degree from taxes and other annoying expenses. So Nike may be like "i'm going to build a shoe factory in the DR," and lots of people (many of them women, many of them single mothers) will work there in the usual sweatshop way of long hours horrible conditions and low wages. And then one day Nike will go, "why would I pay women $1 a week to make shoes for me in the DR when women in Indonesia will make them for 50¢? See ya!" and the jobs will disappear, etc. Who benefits from this situation besides the corporations is pretty unclear.

Remesas, the third pillar of the Dominican Economy, are-- get this-- money sent to people here by relatives who have emigrated to the U.S. !!! This is not a very good situation for anyone. But the pay here, as they say, no rinde... it doesn't get you very far.

I learned all these things in my favorite class, which is the compliment class to the "volunteer internship" part of the program. In this class we get real information which immediately helps us understand where we are and what the deal is and how someone someday might be able to theoretically help with some of the country's (and the world's) problems. 

The actual "internship" that I am doing is working in a home/ school for girls between the ages of 6 and 14. The work that I am doing is mostly teaching english to the third and fifth grade classes. I also spend time hanging out with the girls at recess and planning friday afternoon activities for the kids who don't have families to go visit on the weekend. It's a really lovely place, getting to know the kids is so much fun, and trying to teach english with no experience or training is definitely a valuable experience for me. But I have also realized, from talking to the internship coordinator and other students, from reading an interesting, controversial speech by Ivan Illich called "To Hell With Good Intentions", and from my own thinking, how hard it is to actually do valuable "service work"-- just how much is required, and how much further I have to go. You first need to know where and what you want to help with, you then need extensive knowledge of and experience with the context you will be working in, and training with people who have done what you want to do, and even then I believe the process will be a learning experience in itself. These things-- the specific goal(s), the extensive knowledge and research, and the training-- are things that I simply do not have. Thus, although I may supposedly be doing "volunteer work," all I am really doing this semester in Santo Domingo is learning, learning, learning. And that is alright with me-- great, actually. You got to be a sponge.

These things are amazing:

• $2 assortment of fruit from the vendor a block down from CIEE: pineapple, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, watermelon and more
• Helados Bon frozen yogurt bar
• 75¢ made-to-order empanadas with hot sauce and ketchup
• Parque de los Haitises:  1600 km of prehistoric looking coastal tropical rainforest wilderness. Arguably the best-kept secret and the coolest attraction this country has to offer.

More later! And no more economics lectures! I mean who do I think I am? Geez.

Your homework is to find the meaning of these phrases:

¡Vaya al Carajo!

¡Coño!

¡Tú ta toda la vaina!

proof

Mima, Daniela and I visiting Daniela's university, Altos de Chavón School of Design. It's a reconstructed medieval tuscan village located inside Casa de Campo, a gated community for the rich and famous. Weird, but really, really pretty.

This is the Chavón river seen from the school. Potentially the most beautiful place I've ever set my eyes on in person.

I was lucky enough to be sitting next to this fellow on the bus (and I wouldn't even have noticed if it wasn't for Caitlin pointing it out).

Two lovely ladies (Aly and Caitlin) admiring the stars at the open air bar/concert venue La Espiral in colonial Santo Domingo.

The legendary Johnny Ventura tears it up at the (free!) outdoor traveling music festival Sol Caribe.