Hola,
Sorry I haven´t written in forever. I won´t remember everything, but I´ll try to remember the interesting stuff.
We ended up going to Santo Domingo instead of Barahona because a lot of other volunteers were going to be there. We took the uncomfortable bus back on Thursday afternoon and then took a taxi that was more like a carro publico to the Pension (the volunteer hotel where we can stay for the equivalent of just over $5 US a night). But when we got to the door I realized I had left my labtop on the floor of the taxi. I dropped my bag and sprinted after it, but the driver never saw me. He turned the corner and was gone. I went back to the spot where I had picked up the taxi but he was nowhere to be found. In the morning, the hotel desk worker knocked on my door and told me that a taxi driver was here looking for me. I ran into the lobby and gave the guy a hug and a 1000 pesos. Imagine this happening in New York and then imagine that the likelihood of this happening is about 10 times less. I was high all day.
I won´t talk heavily about the rest of the trip because it was mostly just fun with friends I hadn´t seen in the three weeks we were at our sites. We swam at the ambassador´s pool once. I also saw the new Indiana Jones, which a lot of people didn´t like because they thought it was too far out there. Then I had to ask if they even remember the other Indiana Jones. I thought it was great. It was done almost exactly like the other three. On Sunday I went back to my site.
On Monday I developed a survey for students and teachers in Spanish, and then the rest of the week I passed it around at the high school so that I could figure out where knowledge in the community about computers stands. I had already tried to interview some adults who had only told me to ask their kids because they knew nothing about them. Some of them even had computers in their homes but had barely even touched them. A lot of the kids I found knew a good deal, but there were also plenty who knew barely anything. I´m trying to figure out exactly how many classes to have and what to begin to teaching.
On Saturday I went with Che, Gogo, and German (three brothers) to Lago Enriquillo to go fishing. Only thing is it wasn´t what I would call fishing, especially because it didn´t involve beer. We hiked through a mini swamp for 30 minutes in order to reach the lake and then when we got there we took a small wooden boat out with two oars. We didn´t use poles. Instead they had a bunch of nets set up in shallow parts of the lake where fish had gotten stuck. We rowed around to the different nets and someone would hop in the water and pry the fish loose. I stayed in the boats. It´s a lake so the water is still and that means it can have parasites. Plus they told me crocodiles don´t stray into this part of the lake, but I wasn´t taking any chances (any more than I had already taken anyway).
Monday was the last day of school for the students, so on Tuesday I went with the teachers to the pool where all I we did was drink, play dominoes, and swim. They don´t clean their pools with chlorine, so instead every time the pool is used it is emptied and then when its going to be used again it is filled. We ate the fish that we had collected. They cook it in a coconut sauce and it is absolutely delicious. I ate seven.
On Friday I went to Barahona to attend a meeting for volunteers in the south. I didn´t have much interest in the subject of the meeting (an event I can´t participate in do to a mandatory in-service training for the new volunteers at the same time) as much as I just wanted to meet the other volunteers close to me. Afterwards I went to Randy´s place (he´s our volunteer leader in the south) to pick up the packages sent from home (Thank´s mom!). I went with the other volunteers headed back home in my direction to the bus stop but when we got there the last bus was leaving and it was already full. So we ended up staying the night at another volunteer´s place. It was fine except that I got eaten alive by mosquitos at night.
It´s Monday now and I´m trying to organize a meeting of the committee here which is an impossible task really. My education volunteer leader sent me another form I need to have them complete before the secretary will release the equipment for my site. This is all really just a whole lot of bull. I just found out the secretary is waiting for all forms from volunteer sites before it will send out any equipment. Luckily, Iris told me I have the highest priority for equipment since my computers are from the stone age and we don´t even have any inverters for electricity.
Other interesting things, several high school boys are always at my house at night because of the high school boy living at my house. I´ve been giving them 30 minute English lessons every night. They´ve all been inspired by one of they guys whose been taking English classes two days awake in Neiba, the first town to the East. I´ve also finally found a gym a Neiba. I´ve lost nearly 20 pounds since I´ve been here and it was really pissing me off. I went three times last week and the Friday before that. I´m going to buy protein stuff when I head into Santo Domingo. It costs me 100 pesos each time to go, only 20 for the gym, but 80 for a round trip motorcycle taxi ride. Whatever, I haven´t found anything to spend my money on besides this and when I travel. Everytime I go somewhere for a couple days my monthly pay is devoured.
I´m convinced my Spanish has hit a wall and its not getting any better, but several people have told me its improving. I don´t think I have an ear for languages like some people do. Languages just don´t fit into my pattern oriented mind because there is just too much to remember and too many exceptions. It´s kind of like chemistry, and I don´t like chemistry. Too bad Spanish isn´t more like dominoes.
That´s that for now. I´ll try to do this more often. Take care.