Playing Catch Up! part 3

June

·         I got to go home in June and it was glorious! I got to see friends and family. The best part about going home this time is that by then I had a grasp on my projects and living in the DR. I no longer felt deprived of anything in the DR so I really got to enjoy going home. Highlights included a trip to the Keys, LMFAO concert, eating Flannigans, Father’s Day at the beach with the dogs, attending a Miami Heat Road Rally, spending time with friends and family, and getting to meet King.

Gregy-poo and me at the Heat Road Rally :)

Fathers Day at the beach with the dogs :)

Napples with my tia and tio and cousins

Cubans and their vaina! Setting up some shade at a sand bar.

Spending time with Julie <3

 LMFAO with Greg! Like my leopard print eyemake up?

July

·         4^th of July – Luckily I returned to our 4^th of July celebration in a small town in Samana. It was great fun and best of I rented out the closest house to the beach where we hold out annual party. Our group decided to take a hike to a nearby beach but Charley and I decided to kayak instead. On our return from that beach we caught caught in a current and it took what felt like forever to get back to the beach where we were staying. We invented yelled obscenities as loud as we could while in the middle of the bay and invented games to stay entertained/motivated. The PCV who lives in the community put together a nice party for us including American food being sold, a bonfire, and fireworks.

·         July 5^th – We had reservations to goto a sweet restaurant overlooking the bay that great food, amazing music and a nice big ol’ 46 foot cliff for cliff diving. Needless to say, it was terrifying looking down but eventually I decided to jump it, afterall it was my third time there and I doubted I’d be back. My buds were cheering, the dog was barking and Tim R had already jumped ahead of me to accompany me, I got the count off and after what seemed like forever, I jumped off! I remember thinking it was taking so long to hit the water and I opened my eyes and looked to my left. I think that’s what threw me off. I landed sideways. Tim bolted towards me but I surfaced. I tried to swim toward one of Dan’s chaco’s that I had borrowed but felt a jelly-fish-like stinging sensation in my legs so after I got the sandal I floated on my back to the ladder. Then I couldn’t climb it! After an afternoon of kayaking the day before, panicking in the water because I couldn’t see or hear anything, and landing sideways, I couldn’t lift my fat butt up the damn ladder! Thankfully, the calming force that is my good friend, Tim, was there to take my worries away. Eventually the chef’s heard about my troubles and yelled for me to sit on the ladder to be hoisted up. My ass and thighs were bruised for days and my legs still have scars from the jagged cliff. Epic FAIL.

OUCH!!!!

·         Courts for Kids – A nearby volunteer an overwhelming project of building her community a basketball court and offered to help toward the end of the week. It was brutal and I wasn’t there for the entire week! We had to fetch water from a nearby irrigation canal and take turns filling wheelbarrows full of cement. The catch: the group of volunteers that came out mainly consisted of high school aged girls supposedly from the richest area in Portland. Whoops. So it was a bit difficult of a court build and the some of the community members were getting fed up with the American’s ways. Luckily, Ekow was in the south with two high school-aged, male exchange students and were able to lend a hand on the last day of the build. Ekow and his boys stayed at my house, unfortunately, however one of the boys became extremely ill and the most inconvienient time as my community was having issues with water and my power cables caught fire so we were also without luz. In the end, everyone survived the batey summer heat and got a court built!

Human chain of awesomeness!

Water gets delivered!

·         Telenovela filming #5 – Filming of discussion questions for course were filmed. We also held an exchange with some leaders of another youth initiative, Escojo Mi Vida, on which the telenovela’s themes were based on. The kids loved the episodes that were screened and gave excellent feedback!

I hope to write soon. I hope you enjoyed some of my most adventurous moments of the past few months. I tried my best to keep the boring/sad things out.

Pe,

Z

END PT. 3



Playing Catch Up part 2

 Continuing on…

April

·         Semana Santa – I spent Holy week helping Chloe prepare for an environmentally themed carnival for the youth groups of the batey PCVs. I’m proud to say that I came up with the carnival games all created with re-used materials the boys found laying around the community. We had a rubber ducky game, where you try to chose the duck that’s been colored red underneath,  except we used bottle caps and painted them all the same color with one piece painted red underneath.  We had a ring toss game where the kids had to try to toss a margarine tub lid with a hole cut out the middle onto jumbo sized Presidente glass bottles with normal sized bottles in the middle. There was a bowling game with 2.5 liter bottles filled about 1/6 of the way with water to act as pins. We also had a pyramid knock down game where the kids had to knock down the pyramid of painted rusted tomato paste cans with a tennis ball.

·         The carnival - Chloe’s boys put on an environmental sociodrama and the rest of the kids shared a talent. The kids enjoyed the games and went crazy over the prizes. Everyone ate cake that we baked and everyone got a baggie of popcorn with a few hard candies hidden inside.

The pyramid knock down game. 

All the bateyer@s!

·         Telenovela filming #4 – We filmed the final episodes of the telenovela. It was extremely bitter sweet. Post filming wrap up we hit the streets of Santiago where we danced and ran up the hill to the phallic Trujillo monument

Tim and me. You'll read about him in July.

Cast and Crew of Me Toca a Mi! 

May

·         COS –Some of my closest friends finish their service L

·         Prom – but it’s OK because I planned an awesome PC Prom (swearing in celebration/going away party). The theme was Party Rock because I love LMFAO so dearly and it would be easy to put an outfit together – animal print and neon colors are the norm in Dominican fashion. Justin ad Toñin helped me make decorations for the party which included SHUFFLE BOT! Unfortunately, ShuffleBot didn’t last too long since he got left out in the rain. 

Tonin and me working on Prom decor :P Teaching the DR's youth about American culture one kid at a time!

My homies!

·         One year in country celebration – I was able organize a nice group of PCVs from m y training group for our one year celebration. We stayed in Los Patos and paid the stunning Bahia de las Aguilas a visit.

On the back of a Daihatsu to Bahia de las Aguilas

517-11-01!!!

·       One year IST – Our one year In Service Training took place in Jarabacoa. Unfortunately, due to elections we were unable to explore town but we were able to stop at some German pub and throw a PG rated bachelor party for a PCV who was getting hitched. We celebrated out success and karate chopped our failures. All in all it was good fun.

Take that PCDR challenges! 

What may be the only picture of the 517-11-01 Education sector 

·         Snook’s gets fixed – I got together with some pals and we got our girls fixed. Four dogs and a cat all lost their lady bits in hopes to prevent unwanted grandchildren. Snooki didn’t react so well to the anesthesia but she pulled through!

END PT. 2 

Playing Catch Up pt 1

OK I’ll admit it, I’m TERRIBLE at blogging! I blame Facebook. Yes, when something goes to sh!t blame Facebook! So, sorry. Then again, this is Peace Corps and you can’t really expect me to be good at keeping up this thing. Ah, but I’m in the D.R. and I’ve got it make on this island compared to other PC countries. To make up for it, I've added photos :) Anyway here’s a quick-ish rundown of what I’ve been up to. 

February

·         Bday - Celebrated my bday with Chloe and our dogs in Batey 6 rather than the capital because I was called in for a meeting for PCDR’s 50^th anniversary celebration

·         50^th anniversary – My job was to feed all the awesome PCVs whom worked the event

Some PCV buds, Aaron Williams and me

·         RPCV dinner – All the PCVs were paired up with a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and got taken out to dinner.  I, along with other PCVs, got taken out by a lovely group of RPCVs who served with Aaron Williams, at the time the director of PC worldwide, and former senator Chirs Dodd. Made for a real nice time but most importantly I got to eat churrasco and cheesecake!

Our RPCV hosts

·         Reception at the US Embassy – We got to hang mingle with the RPCVs, eat a buffet style dinner and drink from an open bar. When I met the ambassador, I couldn’t think of anything witty to say so I thanked him for allowing PCVs to use his pool and told him it really meant a lot to us. Fail on my part.

Enjoying some good food at the embassy!

·         Breaking my foot! – post US Embassy reception I fractured my 5^th metatarsal.

·         Museum Closing Party – I was able to save organization providing our lunches money on PCV meals  that I along with another PCV were able to get all PCVs who worked on that Friday were invited to the closing party. Hip, hip, hooray! It was really nice. Again, we had another buffet style dinner but since I was now in a cast and crutches I need lots of help that night. Luckily the PC family really pulls through and they all were great at looking out for me. Shout out to Colleen, Tim D, and Phil! I got Aaron Williams to sign my cast too.

·         After spending some nights in the capital my APCD, the boss for education, drove me home. After realizing how unrealistic living on my own would be, I was ordered to stay with other PCVs so I stayed with Aidan and Chloe.

Aaron Williams signing my cast :-p

·         Chica’s Brillante – At the end of the month two of girls traveled and I travelled to San Cristobal for the southern regional conference for Chicas Brillantes. Luckily for me I have the whole mandaring muchach@s down because I really needed their help getting around.

I'm in the lower right. See my pretty cast?

March

·         Airport greeting 517-12-01 – While in the capital for a doctor’s appointment I was able to get to go greet the trainees at the airport when they arrived. I miserably failed at trying to get the trainees to do a dinamica (ice breaker) but, hell, it probably looked like I was some crazy girl in a cast and crutches yelling at them.  Oh well.

·         Cast comes off -  I had my cast for approximately a month. The radiologist initially misread my x-rays and wrote in his report that I didn’t have a fracture. Idiot. Without any x-ray training, I could identify the fracture. I was less than impressed with the orthopedist; he tried to take my cast off after two weeks. Foolishness. He wasn’t very helpful either; he never could identify what type of fracture I had, never explained what to expect or what the healing process was like. Luckily, we have great PCMOs who do wonderful job taking care of us! After I got my cast removed, my PCMO gave me a foot rub, stinky foot and all. She’s the best.

·         MTaM filming #3 - The day after I got my cast removed I headed up to Janico for the third telenovela filming.

HIV/AIDs Charla

Some novela crew members 

·         Ecobaño training – After we wrapped the third filming I headed to glorious Samana for A week long composting latrine training.

·         Site change but no sector change– After careful consideration my APCD and I moved forward with my site change to another community. She had suggested that I change from the education sector to the youth sector but we ultimately decide against it.  I stay in the southern bateyes and move in with Chloe.

END PT. 1

List of things I love about PCDR

Peace Corps is supposed to be “The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love.” So with only 7 months of service left, I want to share some things I love about Peace Corps Dominican Republic in no particular order:

Being able to kill mosquitoes with one hand

My bed

When Snooki shakes for tail for me

Drinking coca cola out of a glass bottle

Making lists and crossing things off them!

Planning events for PCVs

Giving myself one treat every month whether it be a concert, a beach day, or a party. Work hard, party hard!

Having my hair brushed

Limon and queso blanco flavored chips

Carne asada flavored Ruffles

When Alejandrina tells me that I work too hard and orders me to do something for myself

These 300 count thread bed sheets. Thanks for leaving these behind Chloes.

The smell of vanilla air freshner

The humming of my fan

Electricity

Pooping regularly!

Reading to Snooki

Dancing with Snooki

Having warm biskwit delivered to my door

Going to the conuco and eating mangos

Going to the conuco and coming back with 13 avocados in my bag

Feeling like a badass when I kill a mouse

Getting Snooki to kill a mouse on command

Picking limes off my tree

Sitting on my window sill and going over my flota minutes

Singing songs in English in front of Dominicans without any shame

Drinking Planeta Azul water. Tastes so good.

Texting with my brother

Finding Mountain Dew at Nacional!

Hearing the screams of excitement when the electricity returns. The sweet sound of genuine happiness.

Letting out a small scream of excitement myself when the electricity comes back on

Telling kids I’m not their mother and to stop asking me for stuff. My response always seems to confuse them.

Saying things in Kreyol and having people respond as if I just started walking for the first time

The massive trees at the embassy

People telling me that I have pretty hair

Learning to love my body from Dominican women

Washing dishes with running water

The loud humming of my refrigerator

How people know my name without me knowing them

The confusion on people’s faces when I pull out a book and read for four hours non-stop on the capital bus

When cobradores buy a newspaper because they see me reading. It just can’t be a coincidence.

Calling Charley to telling him something really stupid and pointless.

When Charley calls me in a panic

When PCVs visit me!

Fighting/lecturing taxi drivers about how they should be the one to know how to arrive at my destination. They’re lucky I have an excellent sense of direction.

Meeting Dominicans who have lived in the states but prefer living in the DR

Walking into a bar/club with a group of PCVs and the music playing soon thereafter becomes American music

Dancing salsa with Charley

Getting dress up to go out every once in a while. I’m always dressed like a bum.

The cost of pedicures only being $100RD  <$3USD

The cost of a blow out only being $150RD <$4USD despite all this hair!

Needing to keep polish on my feet only to conceal the true dirtiness of my feet

Having the hook up with Larimar

Lilo the vendor at the parada who’s gifted me cashews in a non-creepy way

The quietness at night in the batey

Seeing so many stars in the batey sky when there is no luz. Seriously it’s like a planetarium

Trading media with PCVs

The fact that I’ve pretty much stopped watching TV

Throwing rocks near my neighbor’s chickens and roosters when they’re in my yard. Dirty little monsters.

The Christmas lights the light up my room because the ceiling light doesn’t work

Talking to Keila, my program assistant 

Getting hugs from Boriana, my PCMO

Talking to Alfredo, the PC office janitor, or just getting a smile from him

The way Alfredo loves PCVs

When I have a good hairday

Pank texting PCVs with Charley

Bermudez rum

Meeting expats

Eating Jell-O in the batey

When PCVs are there for me when I need them most

Calling Julie. She just gets so excited.

Not paying for electricity or water but still getting it. I rather pay and have it all the time, but I can settle for inconvenience at a free rate.

Spending time with PCVs in their sites

When my youth tell me that Americans always smell good

When I can bare the heat better than the PCVs who live on lomas

Giving my schpiel about diabetes

Getting to hear/see American’s reaction the Dominicanisms I’ve become numb to

Overhearing kids tell each other that they’re gonna get cholera for doing x. Ex: playing with dirt

Being blunt with a Dominican

Being awesome at medical translating

The sound of Ekow and Josh’s laughter

Being offered a seat as soon as arrive at a Dominican’s home

Working with young kids

Prom, Homecoming, July 4^th, Thanksgiving, sector pizza parties

Munching on sugar cane

Brushing my teeth after munching on sugar cane

Reading until I fall asleep

My Peace Corps issued mosquito net!

The fascination Dominicans have with pictures of my family that I have posted up

Pizza empanadas

 Not having to pay to see the doctor or for my meds

Endless supply of the silky smooth Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen <3

Not having to pay for insurance of any kind

Paying $1,500 RD ~$39USD for rent of a two bedroom house with a yard

Being my own boss

How overly anxious kids are to work with me

How kids don’t have store bought toys rather they make the toys themselves

How kids take my words as being the ultimate truth

When a youngster tells me they don’t want many children because they see how their family struggles

R & R and accumulating 2 vacation days a month!

No limits as to when you can take your vacation

Hugs from PCVs when I go into the office

How capitaleño Dominicans treat American fast food as fine dining and PCVs stroll in looking like bums

Receiving mail from Barbara

Receiving care packages – it’s like Christmas! So joyful

I’ll try to keep this list going and see what I have by the end of my service :)

Z

Legacy of Healing: The Madness begins! (Day 1 – Screening day)

I’m back with a vengeance! Enjoy.

I woke up this morning to the loveliest of conditions; to begin with, there was luz thus I had the wonderful breeze of two fans gently soothing my body. There was rain lightly tapping my roof. Best of all, I have my softest bed sheets on my bed this week. While I slept I must have gotten chilly because I found myself covered from head to toe with my bed sheet. In AUGUST! As you can image, a Sunday morning like this is not very common in the dirty dry south of the Dominican Republic during the warmest month of the year. But the phone kept going off. I had project partners calling me, PCVs texting me, my dog whining to be let out, I could snooze no longer. I jumped out of bed, opened the front door and let the Snooks out. I started making calls and arrangements for transportation for the community members of my closest PCVs. Then a knock. My jovenes had come to meet with me to get word out that the American doctors had arrived and they needed to be ready to see them at 1pm in Tamayo. I had much trouble finding all the patients who live in the Dominican side but luckily Richard came out and helped finish informing the last few patients. The humidity was causing the heat to now also radiate off the ground. It was like a brutal heat attack from above and below despite it being an overcast day. I was wishing I could have stayed in bed all morning and afternoon long reading some books I had just picked up from the Peace Corps library. I had better luck on the Haitian side however, despite  it  being the side that I live on I just don’t really spend a whole lot of time there. I quickly found all the patients and even got into a few arguments with two unwilling mothers. I ranted about how I didn’t understand how people here can be so nonchalant about their children’s health. My boys simply replied, that’s just how they are. Super frustrating!

On my walk back to my house, I looked at my grey mud covered feet and all I could think about was how great a bucked shower sounded  and how I needed to make myself presentable for the medical team. Unfortunately and fortunately, however, the documentary crew had gotten to my house minutes before I did. I threw my head back because I knew I wouldn’t be able to bathe. I ran inside, splashed some water on my feet, put the same muddy flip flops back on and threw on a fresh shirt with a new coat of deodorant. I guzzled down a cup of water, tied up my dog to the tree in the back yard and bolted out the front door. I was still wiping sweat off my face and forehead as I closed the van door and off we went.

Once we arrived at the hospital, there was an enormous coach bus parked across the tiny parking lot of the hospital. The documentary crew was disappointed in their missing the team’s arrival. I was stunned to see the huge bus my neck of the woods. We turned the corner and found the medical team feasting themselves, all  sporting the same red shirts that “Dominican Republic Legacy of Healing.” Crap, I have loads of work for Thanksgiving, I was reminded. I met Dr. Schmidt, a plastic surgeon; Gary, the clinic team coordinator; Yanet ,a lovely pediatrician on the clinic team; and Mafi, the surgical team coordinator. They were all very nice and they seemed much more willing to listen to my advice in person than they did with our email correspondence. Guess, there’s no better reality check than getting to the getting to the dirty, dirty south to put things into perspective. They offered me food and, at this point in the day I had only had a hand full of cheese puffs and water to eat, so I fixed myself a plate of La Bandera, despite our tumultuous relationship. When I was done eating, I ran into Courtney, a new volunteer in the area and we engaged in some small talk with the workers. I was pulled aside for my opinion as to the best method to distribute toys but we only could come up with the conclusion that we will play it by ear. They then asked if it would be possible for a PCV team to be present at all the clinics. I told them that two of us had cleared our schedules for the week and that I’d have to check with the other three.

Meanwhile, the volunteers who were coming in with their community members were having a horrible experience with a tyrant of a little man, Joselo. I had specifically told him that each community was to receive a 30 minute window for pick up. The window was to include travel time to the community and the remainder of the time was to wait while the patients to arrive to load the bus. I called Joselo and yelled my little heart out until my phone minutes ran out. Turns out he isn’t the best project partner to Courtney and the people in his own community don’t even like him as much themselves. With this knowledge, I didn’t have any guilt letting him have it for treating the batey people so terribly. A little while later Sean called me to inform me that Joselo was at it again. This time I couldn’t call back myself to raise hell so Sean passed my phone to Joselo. Hell was raised but I pinned the blame on the driver rather than him to ease tension, even though that wasn’t the case. What a child of a man. The worst of all, I will have to work with this awful man again once the school year begins. Que vaina mi vida, indeed! Turns out, he teaches in the school in my batey. Diablo! What terrible luck I have! But, at least, his true colors have shown and I will know how to manage any future situations with him: avoid working with him at all costs.

The team started mobilizing. I decided to follow. When we got to the screening corridor, I felt my stomach drop. Not good. It was complete and utter chaos. Who let all these people inside?! Where is their system of organization? None, yet. It was terrible. And if it didn’t get under control, fast, it was going to get dangerous. The patients were yelling and people were beginning to shove one another. It was muggy inside and the lights weren’t turned on. The Americans all disappeared into the screening rooms, only leaving Nicole, Courtney, a handful of Adventist church volunteers and me to control the crowd. The Adventist volunteers stood by doors and were beginning to take names according to their problems. Patients began attempting to sort themselves and find their corresponding doors to sign up. Patients that were just arriving were beginning to rush in through the entrance. There were some men on the Adventist team that I began to boss around. I suggested they use a bulletin board as a blockade but they didn’t listen…at first. With the arrival of the second busload of patients, I knew the Adventist male volunteers would begin to cooperate quickly. Pshhh Dominican males can be so silly sometimes. Jonathan, the hospital worker who took photographs of patients at sign up, found me and asked me to write down what each room was for to help the workers. We had four rooms: plastic surgery screening for minor scars, poorly healed burn scars, and cleft lip/palate cases; hand, feet and cysts room screening for webbed and extra digits, accidental injury to hands and feet; Hernia screening; and a general surgery room which included circumcisions. The latter grouped together due to the massive amount of hernia patients that presented at the screening.  Once both teams of volunteers figured out our roles, the chaos in the corridors seemed to be a teensy bit calmer. Nicole, Libby and I started working as runners trying to coordinate between the patients in the entrance and the people guarding the lists. Courtney and Sean started working as translators.

There was quite an interesting dynamic going on between every person present. The PCVs took command over the Dominicans and eventually got fuerte with some Americans. Some Americans seemed afraid of the crowd waiting outside. One woman even commented to a PCV “This place is a zoo.” “A ZOO?” questioned the PCV. “Yes, there’s just so many different kinds of them.” Then the Dominican hospital workers began jumping in line to receive their free surgery despite having nice jobs. Dominican Adventists volunteers were skipping around lists. Especially the Dominican women volunteers, they weren’t even yelling out the names of the patients, they were using their normal voices so to not exert themselves too much. They weren’t informing the patients of the situation or trying to calm them down. And why would they? Most of the patients were morenos, a kind word for Haitians. Libby kept telling me that her entire community got locked outside but I couldn’t quite understand what was happening and I kept getting called away. Once I got close to the gate, I saw it. A group of Haitians had been locked outside. Libby was right her community literally got locked outside! I felt terrible. It looked terrible. They looked like prisoners only locked outside. But they were calm, the sweet people of Batey Cuchilla. I walked up to the gate and took the lock in my hand I then insisted at once that the Dominican volunteers open it immediately. They hesitated and I knew why. I wanted to punch the man in the neck brace. I thought to myself, so much for machismo but when you are faced with a group of Haitians you become scared. Silly men. The man in charge of his group of volunteers asked me if I was sure that I wanted to let them in and I told him of course, it was a relatively small group that arrived with their volunteer, it was going to be fine, I was sure. While we waited I began taking pictures of boys who had no use of their legs to show the doctors so to not keep them waiting. Two of the boys had some kind of mental retardation combined with muscle atrophy of the legs. In the end, there was nothing the surgeons could do for the boys and they were sent home. Once we got the gate open, I let them in one by one directing them to the area where they belonged for screening. They were great, when I had to walk away, they would simply, stay at the gate and calmly wait for my return. Their reality is so helpless. Volunteers often joke, calling the Consorcio Azucareo, the company that owns the sugar cane fields, the slave owners. But when you take a moment to think about these people’s reality they are slaves. I’ll save the rant for another post don’t worry.  I was a great dynamic though. PCVs, will  probably be the only people who will ever understand and truly care for the people of the bateyes. So it was great to see them acting as advocates for their community members. One PCV got upset with the Americans because her community was left for last and nearly missed out on an opportunity for surgery. She made me proud because in the end all her people got screened and those who qualified got their operating times.

Almost forgot, the documentary crew, was another added treat of insanity. The cameras were randomly following patients and doing interviews in the midst of all the chaos. Two members of my community were filmed, Gabriel, a Haitian man who accidentally had his homemade shotgun go off on his while he was guarding a watermelon patch in March and has been out of work since then. The other patients was a sweet 10 month old baby who had her hands burned while the bedding on the bed that she slept on caught on fire after a candle fell over during a power outage. During the interview, the mom began breast feeding, and the crew had to stop filming so I could ask her to stop because breast feeding cannot be shown on PBS. Americans, why do you have your knickers in a knot? Foolish, I say. Then there was a nice little boy from Barahona who had webbed hands. He was a real cutie and we met him the day before. He had a wonderful mother and the loveliest grandmother. They were so pleasant. It’s amazing how a flash of a smile makes you want to help a person so much more. I live a limited-smile area and if you ever came to visit you’d probably y understand why. So I try to greet people by flashing a smile. When I get a smile back, I melt a little inside. But I stray…

By the end of the day I had an awful headache, probably brought on by dehydration, lack of food and my PCMO would throw stress into the mix. We finished screening all the patients sometime after 7:30pm. The day did not end without another nasty exchange with Joselo however. All because he didn’t want to transport a woman with two children home Batey 1, which is 3kms off the main highway. I got my way in the end. I wrote down some of the operating times from patients from my community and I will go over the pre-op instructions once more the night before surgery. I’ve copied their OR times on my dry erase board as a better reminder. Tomorrow, we will start clinic in the bateyes starting in Batey 4. I am bit worried about the organization in that community since there no longer is a volunteer in that site. So Libby and I will be waking up bright and early to arrive before the team to find the keys to the school or an alternative in necessary. Don’t want this to reflect poorly amongst the PCVs even though this means Ill be losing sleep.  It was really great making the connection with all the patients. Hopefully I’ll get more smiles! I’m excited that they will be receiving, potentially life changing surgery all thanks to this medical group.

I now find myself in the dark in my comfy bed blogging my heart out to you because I’d like to remember this day. Also, because, my dog is being a huge pain. I made the mistake of letting her out at night and now she doesn’t want to enter. At one point I stood at my porch and, in good ol’ Dominican fashion, I started flinging rocks by her side so she’d stop barking. Good thing she’s not in America right now because American will not stand for noisy neighbors or breastfeeding, apparently:-p.

<3

Z

Mi casita

TADA! A month late but here is the video of my 4th and final home.

Snooki, the demon dog from batey hell

From dr

Don't let those big ears and big eyes fool you!

This dog is a total jerk. Maybe it’s my fault. When I first got her she was this frail, pathetic looking dog, shivering in my arms. I, honestly, thought that I was not going to be able to keep her alive. A trip to the vet in Santo Domingo (for de-worming) and lots of dog food, eggs and milk later, Snooki is now double the size of her siblings. She looks much healthier now that she is parasite free. I think it also helps that I only give her agua buena(good water) from the botellon(5 gallon jug) and my community thinks I’m crazy for doing so. I knew I had to get her healthy and toughen her up. I’ve accomplished both but she’s a little too tough. She attacks me. She is mean. And she’s becoming rebellious.

I admit it was a bad idea to get a dog at this stage in my service considering the amount of travel I do and the upcoming holidays. Lately, Snookers has taken to loving the sitter, Milinda, more than me. Now every time she cries to be let out, she runs away to the church where Milinda lives. I’ve had countless people bring me my dog and I joke “she thinks she’s evangelical.” But I know the truth she loves Milinda and not me. It breaks my heart… sort of. I’m not sure Snooki and I have truly bonded. I don’t hug her and kiss like I do with my American dogs. I don’t let her sleep on my bed either. Maybe it’s because she’s a viralata (street dog meaning dog who knocks over garbage cans). Or maybe it’s because she’s not black! I love me a black dog; all my dogs in the states have been beautiful black mutts. Yes, Negra was beautiful in her own way. But I think the problem really is that Snooki is mean and refuses to learn the American way.

In my attempts to Amerianize the demon dog, I’ve been training her with positive reinforcement using cheese as the reward. She was house trained up until I took her to the vet, where they caged for days and ruined all of our progress. The night is the worst, I can’t let her out on her own anymore because she runs away and I can’t leave my house because the people in my community say it’s not even safe for me to open my door at night. So there goes house training. The good news is that she’s getting bigger so she’s able to hold it until the morning. I guess I’ll have to start taking her for walks. When she does something wrong, she usually responds to a finger snap and a stern “No!” accompanied with my index finger pointing at her. But her rebellious nature has taken over and now she shows her teeth to my index finger and sometimes will try to bite it. I think she’s old enough to learn “Sit” now so we’ve been working on that. Since the luz schedule is so awful, I can foresee Snooki learning some awesome tricks in the future to entertain myself.

If she doesn’t wisen up soon and accept the American way, I will let her run away and live at the church. She better watch herself because there are plenty of people trying to pawn off their puppies on me and I might just take them up if a nice, sweet, black puppy crosses my path. Consider yourself warned Snooki!

Z