Weeks #5, 6, 7 long overdue I know!

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Hello One and All!

I am so sorry this has been so long but the past couple weeks have been quite hectic, and without internet readily available for use, it makes it much harder. I also want to say that fotos will be up in due time, I have so many to show!!

So I think that last time I wrote was mostly about my dona, which I have a new lil story about her. She asked me about a week ago if I could do her eyebrows and of course I enthusiastically agreed. So finally I had a spare hour or two so I told her to sit down and I would retrieve my trusty tweezers. I returned from my room and she was standing there eagerly with a small razor. Now this razor was not any kind of beauty supply, it looks as though it had come from Home Depot. Rather puzzled, I asked what she could possibly do with such an instrument. She claimed that this is what everyone does in the salon and she wanted me to do exactly what they did in the salon. I told her that I have only seen wax and she looked at me with a bewildered expression. Finally I showed her my tweezers and said that I could do a very good job with them and so I started. The first hair I pulled was a nightmare as she screamed bloody murder. I guess she and by she I should say Carolina, had never used a tweezers before. After that first hair, she insisted that I try this blade even though I was not ready for the challenge. After a minute of explanation she convinced me it was not difficult so I tried it. After a few minutes I realized it was not difficult at all and cleaned up both brows. In the end there were a few hairs that needed the tweezers and once again she yelped but her brows were those of a queen and she was very pleased.

This story might not be extremely interesting to many of you but I thought taking a razor to ones face without previous experience was rather bizarre. The confided trust was something that I cherished and truly appreciated as well, I have realized that most of citizens here have a unique amount of trust in others that is usually so hard to find in the states. Dominicans expect things to just work, and if they do not they will somehow make it all work out. This idea transcends all elements of culture, eyebrow shaving at the bottom obviously but things like car rides or building things; something might go wrong but there is no panic because somehow it all works itself out in the end. The concept of improvisation is what much of the culture is based off of and from this I know I will learn so much.

Anyway the past three weeks have been great, the 5th weekend we were in the capital, Santo Domingo where I am potentially attended university there next semester. The capital is large and bustling but has an ancient element that is beautiful. There, we walked around the city a bit and saw the first church ever to be constructed in the Americas! It was huge and beautiful, a friend of mine was wearing a skirt that was a little too short and she was given a large scarf to wrap her legs in. Very different but once again, an element of improv was seen; the tour guide quickly stopped her and told her she could not enter but a nice woman sitting to the side was ready with a sarong to fix the situation.

The next weekend was spent in "el campo" which means the country more or less but a direct translation would be a field. My program sets up 2 work retreats a semester for those who would like to do something within the community as service. So our first retreat was to el campo to a large house owned by a French-Canadian woman. About thirty years ago she moved to the Dominican Republic and within some time here a baby was left on her front steps. The baby was named CheChe and now she has a 7 year old of her own. In this time Paulina, the French-Canadian has adopted close to twenty children and has raised them on a big plot of land complete with a school house. My program went to help build benches for the front entrance for the children. I have many pictures to show, like I said I will get those up as soon as possible! Anyway we stayed in the second story of the school house which was filled with 12 beds ready for our discretion. A quaint little place that did not have any complete walls but only bar type structures that held up the building. So we slept there two nights and I was so pleased to find a cockroach in my bed the next morning, dead and actually the only thing left was a leg so I have no idea what might have happened to the actual corpse. So this retreat was more or less the definition of roughing it, atleast for me because sleeping with torantulas and cockroaches certainly is not my cup of tea. The woman Paulina and her children fed us delicious meals and were rather hospitable. Also, we "showered" in the river, which was a lovely shade of gray-cafe.

The children were beautiful and all in good spirits, they spoke to us eagerly and we did our best to entertain them. Sunday, before we left we had a lil spa day for the kids, which was much needed. The kids run around the property without shoes and yet the land in beautiful and reminded me of a Dominican Swiss family robinson type of place there was much dirt and mud especially because it rains so much. So we gave the children pedicured and manicures and I did hair with another friend. Afterwards the little girls did my hair as well which was very sweet. Again, I have so many pictures so please be patient!

The next week was kind of uneventful other than the fact I ate an interesting specimen. I came home one night from class, famished as usual and I sat down to a plate in front of me. Looking at the dish it assumed to be rice, beef and vegetable; the common diet in a Dominican household. I ate the beef and my mother and dona asked if I like the meat, they did tell me what it was before I ate it but I did not understand and ate it anyway. As I swallowed though I had a funny taste in my mouth but didnt think much of it. Then I asked again what type of beef it was and again they told me. Still confused, I retrieved my translator and realized I had been eating cow liver. I made an awful face and my host mother said I didnt have to finish it. My dona quickly made me french fries and an avocado sandwich- my favorite snack here and I ate in silence thinking about the things I had just digested. Before bed, brushing my teeth I had a bad memory of my dinner and unexpectedly took it out in the sink; when I spit most of my dinner came with it. If that was too gruesome, I apologize.


The next weekend was truly something special as we went to a beach as an entire program and stayed at a resort type of hotel about five strides from the beach. This place was called Samana, with an accent over the a, I am currently using a pc and dont know how to make accents on them. Anyway we got there, ate a lovely lunch and them half of us split up and went to a waterfall and the other half went to speak to an elderly woman. I was one who went tpo speak to this woman, her name was Martha Wilmore and she was a descendent of African American slaves. Her family moved to the Dominican Republic in the 1820s because they were given a large plot of land to work. Many African American slaves moved to the island, they said as many as 6,000 yet I have never read about such a thing, especially being an African American studies minor. So I thought this experience was rather interesting. This woman, Mrs. Wilmore told us about how her family moved to the island long ago and their story. Many of the former slaves were used to teach children English on the island of high society families. There were 33 families that moved to the island throughout the 1800s but Moses was not one of the 33. Mrs. Wilmore knew English very well as it was passed from her great grandparents and was quite a story teller. I believe she was about 72.

After her story she served us ginger beer(non alcoholic) and coconut biscuit type things as well as johnny cake. The johnny cake tasted kind of like black licorice which I did not like at all but the biscuits were delish!

The next day in beautiful Samana we went kayaking cave exploring.... OH NO I must go!! I am at a hotel and check out is sooner than expected. I will finish in due time, hopefully complete with pictures too!!

CIAO FOR NOW!!!

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