Let's meet MIKEY!

So if you haven't already caught on, I have a dog. And he's adorable.

I got him about a month ago from the neighbors of another volunteer. He's been loved by me since he was a baby, and I always felt sorry for him because the owners did not treat him very well. His previous life consisted of living in a dark stairwell...all alone...never getting to see the light of day. :o( It broke my heart.

I always joked with the owners that I wanted to take him home with me, and they would always laugh (and kinda look at me suspiciously like they thought I was going to steal him).

Which I had considered, not gonna lie.

So finally one day I had my friend seriously ask them if I could buy him from them. They said yes! After the exchange of RD1000 ($27), I had a new member of my household! They were excited that they didn't have to deal with him anymore and went on a shopping spree, and I had a new child.

8-month-old Mikey (I kept the name they had given him) and I have had a lovely little time together for the past month. He now has all of his shots and has been fixed. Several people in my town tell me that he's feo (ugly), but I STRONGLY disagree. Nobody knows what kinds of dog he is, so we just tell people that he is a biralata bonita (pretty mutt/street dog). Other people tell me,"His face is cute, but his body is really ugly."

One day when I was walking him, a lady yelled, "What an ugly dog!"
I replied,"Stop! He's my son!"
"Well you have an ugly son then!"

So rude.

He's been a lot of work, but everyone has taken to him...eventually. I have heard the advice from other volunteers that it's good to get a dog in this country, and I agree. It's nice to have someone waiting at home (or going to work with you...what?? He LOVES being on the radio!) to cheer you up after a stressful day, and- even though the training is not going super well- he's been really good.

I'm going home in August (YAY! 1st time home in over a year!) and we are trying to figure out how to get Mikey back, too. I think he's going to like the states.

So there's Mikey for ya. My new pride and joy. Besides making me more responsible and patient, he's also making me a huge hypocrite: In the end, I'm going to be giving a Dominican male his VISA.

Semana Santa.

Hope anyone who is reading this had an amazing Easter weekend! Here in the DR we were able to celebrate this over a week-long period called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. And it was great. Although it definitely helped me with procrastinating work-related activities, I had a lot of fun with friends in my community and fellow volunteers. My week consisted of the following:

• Waterfalls
• Beaches
• Rios
• Good food
• Horse bola (reminder: bola = 1.(n)free ride 2.(v)to hitchhike)
• 4-wheeler bola
• Back-of-truck bola
• Motorcycle bola
• Bola with a bike
• More bolas
• Hiking with Mikey (more on him later)
• New cooking adventures in my site
• Visiting new families in my site
• Helping a lady study for her US citizenship exam
• Trying to recreate my mom’s clogged-artery causing Southern casseroles and joyfully succeeding
• Night out in Santiago with the visiting family of another volunteer
• Historical Museum of the Mirabal Sisters
• Over 3 hours on my bike
• Rewarding my hard work on the bike with lots of ice cream
• Modern Art Museum
• Surprise overnight adventure with my Dominican family: “Heather, where are all of your clothes? ….Because we’re not going back until tomorrow!” Classic.
• Mikey’s 1st campo visit
• More good food
• Little to no tangible work…fun fun for this week
• Good Spanish time
• Great English time
• Amazing friends in both languages
• And, of course, food.

Y ya. Ya is the Dominican way of saying “I’m done” or “That’s it.” So once again. Ya.

Hope you had a great week, as well, Mom & Dad. And thanks to anyone else who is still keeping up with this :o) Will try to get the Introduction to Mikey post up quickly!

Celebrando las Chicas!

Hello again! Long time, no see. I swear I'm going to get better at this updating thing if it kills me.

As most of you know, last week marked my 1 year anniversary in the Dominican Republic. I can't believe I've been here over a year! I've had my ups and downs, good Dominican days and bad ones, language difficulties (and a few successes here and there), skin infections, injuries, amazing adventures, new appreciation for regaton and bachata music, new love for coffee and salami, new friends that I couldn't survive without, old friends that show me that our friendships will never change, a birthday, a dog for a day, 5 visitors, 1 mugging, 0 Dominican boyfriends, tons of sunburns, 1 case of bed bugs, lots of alone time, about 500 hours of dancing time, and more emotions than I can count.

And I'm still loving it.

Thanks for your prayers and your encouragement through it all. I have no doubt that the next year and 3 months will provide me with more vaina for which to be thankful and, of course, to blog about. Vamos a ver :o)

For now, here are some pictures from an event Sabrina and I planned this past weekend. We won a grant for International Women's Day, so we were able to host a free event for girls in our communities. We meant for the event to be for our 2 girls groups (YES! I started it 2 weeks ago and I'm loving it. The girls are great and haven't even hinted about giving me a makeover yet. Gracias a Dios.) and we had planned on inviting about 15 girls each for a total of 30. We started getting nervous that nobody was going to come and we'd be stuck with tons of snacks, pizza, and art supplies for the 2 of us to take care of; entonces, we started telling a few more girls that we knew about the event.

There ended up being over 65 girls at the event! It was so much fun. Other volunteers that live nearby, Lindsey and Joe, came to help out, too...which saved our lives. It was a great time, and I think the girls had fun and (hopefully) learned a little about self esteem, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, and famous women throughout history. If nothing else, they got out of their houses for an afternoon and got a free t-shirt out of the deal. I'll take it.













Have a good week! And happy (early) Women's Day!

Some videos I've been meaning to post for months...

The internet is too slow to add any more. Hope this counts as a legit update! Things are going well down here. Happy belated Valentine's Day! :o) Oh- and P.S. I bought the bike! Woo hoo! Over and out.

typical weekend in the campo.

overview of my time in the campo...

dancing.






rio.






beach.




and a few extras...pics around her site!




it was a blast! i actually felt like a dominican retreating to the campo for the long weekend. good times.

will update more soon!

back to work.

Things are back to normal in my site. Vacation is over for the most part, so I am ready for the new year! I have started round 2 of English classes, and it's going fairly well so far. Knock on wood...it's been a week. I have 22 students for 2 hours twice a week. I am still doing the Survival English class (sometimes it feels like I'm the one trying to survive the class...but there's always coffee, cookies, and lots of town gossip, so who can complain?), the Advanced English speaking group, and the two community organizations in which I'm slowly learning my place.

Let's see...what else? I am finally starting the girls' youth group in February. I am going to take a few girls from my town to a regional conference, and then try to have them help me get the ball rolling. I have been ecstatic about everything that I want to start, except this one. English classes? Piece of cake. I know English. And I can look like a genius, make fun of myself & be a goofball in class- all at the same time. However, I am almost a little intimidated to start this youth group with a bunch of hormonal Dominicans who I'm sure will make their number 1 goal to give me a makeover. Teach them about self esteem, confidence, with a mixture of sexual health? With my Spanish? This outta be interesting. I used to get an ulcer just thinking about it, but I am slowly getting more excited.

OOH- another update! Last week, I found out that received a US$500 grant from the Kids to Kids organization. I will use it to start an art group in my neighborhood...I'm so excited! Check it out:

http://www.kidstokids.org/projects/project.php?project=663


Hopefully, that is the first of several grants that will help me get things going in my site. I will start applying for more soon, I believe.

I think that's it for now! We have a 4 day weekend, so I am going to the campo (aka boondocks) :o) to visit another volunteer, Carly. Goodbye "city" (aka town with roads) life for a few days. Peace out.

also...

I might buy a bike :o) I'm excited...



My fridge broke. Poor thing...it was from the 1940's, I believe, and had the smell to prove it, but I liked it. Another volunteer had finished her service and offered to sell me her only-slightly-used, non-roach-infested fridge for super cheap. Now I have 2 fridges, the desire/need for a bike, and zero money. If I can fix (as in have someone in my pueblo fix...let's be honest...I haven't changed THAT much since I've been gone)& sell the old one, I will take it as a sign that I should buy the bike.

Or a table that doesn't lean to the ground when you put something on it.

Nah- I'll probably buy the bike.

Here's to hoping.