The night before I left, I had called my older host sister to ask her taxi driver friend to pick me up at the airport. She said she didn't know if he would be available, but she'd find "someone." I spent the entire 8+ hour plane ride wondering how I'd spot this "someone" at the airport. Luckily enough, my host sister herself drove her car to pick me up. My little sister, and a family friend were also there, and seeing them all just made me burst into tears. My older sister grabbed my arm and walked me to the car, saying, "Bienvendios a tu familia."

On the carride to their house, they asked me if I voted. I told them yes, Obama! and they were super happy. They like him a lot, and seemed very happy/excited/hopeful. To them, the most important thing was that they believe he can end the war finally.

I spent the first night sitting in the living room of my host family's house, watching Disney movies on tv in Spanish, just like before. I handed them the photo album I brought, most of which consisted of me, my little brother and sister goofing off. They enjoyed it, and it was super fun to hear them comment on the pictures like "I remember that!" or "Oh my god, I totally forgot we made guacamole. How do you make that again?"

My host mom made me mangu, my favorite meal, for dinner. I don't know if she remembered that I liked it best, but she gave me two fried eggs and lots of onions which is exactly how I take my mangu. I went to bed not too late after, since the heat and Spanish exahusted me like always. I was actually amazed by how much I understood and was able to speak. It was like I never left. Sleeping in the same bed, in the same room, as I did every day for 3 months last year was a bity strange. I was so emotionally conflicted about the whole thing- it was so familiar and yet so distant at the same time.

The next day I walked around town visiting families that I had met during my time there. Here is a photo of the family that lives on the corner, right next to my old house. The woman to my right was always extremely caring- she gave me her extra plates and bowls, and would give me water when I ran out. The girl to my left was one of the best members of my youth group. I was happy to hear that she still does her homework with my little sister.

This family and all the other families I visited always said the same things. They first mention how much fatter I am, which after clarifying with my little brother, is quite the compliment. One person metioned to another that "you can see it in her face" which I don't think I was supposed to hear. Next they ask how my boyfriend is and if we got married yet. Ohhhh, if only they knew how complicated dating in America can be. I told everyone he's fine and I'm too young to get married. I told my host family the truth though.

On the way to visit one of the other neighbors, my host mom spotted this bench in their yard, and ran over to pose for pictures in the "parque."

The view from my host family's house to my old house hasn't changed much. Apparently now two couples/families live in the house. I peeked inside and the kitchen and living room are still the colors I painted.

Here I am waiting for the bus at Ingrid's house with my little brother and Ingrid's mom/grandma (?). This was the second day of my trip, a Sunday, and like always, I forgot the guaguas don't run on Sundays. I ended up taking a moto to the freeway, running across the lanes, and catching a guagua from another town that was headed towards Santiago. Quite the adventure.

I left to Santiago to meet up with a group of other volunteers. I was happy to travel around a bit, and even made it out to the site of one of the volunteers that I had never visited before. We even got to swim in a real live pool, dance a little bachata, cook mac and cheese, and do all the usual volunteer activities. It was a blast.

My last day there, I took Ingrid and my little sister to the arcades in the mall in Santiago. We played a variety of games from Pacman, to Dance Dance Revolution. They loved it. We had pizza for lunch, and were going to try to watch the Dominican Christmas movie called "Santiclo" but the idea of a matinee doesn't exist there.

On my last night of the trip, with my little sister and brother, we went to Ingrid's house to upload my pictures to her computer. I forgot to mention his voice is changing! After noticing his gold chain necklace, I told him to make sure he doesn't become a tiguere. On one of our walks around town, he pointed out a burning pile of garbage, and said, "Jen, that's bad for the environment!" I said "That's right! You're so smart!" He said he's learning a lot in school, and I was quite proud.

All in all it was a great trip, and I'm so happy I went back. It felt really good to be there in a different mindset than I was when I left. My host family called me early this morning to make sure I arrived alright. My host mom asked me if I'd eaten breakfast yet, and was quite relieved when I told her I was currently chowing down on a bowl of cereal. They passed the phone around the family, and everyone asked when I'd be coming back.

So it's been nearly a full year since I left the Peace Corps. My last day in the DR was October 20th, to be exact. I still remember the late night van ride with Kelsi to the airport. So much has happened since I left, but it doesn't seem so long ago.

I've been asked many times to give a last blog entry, to kind of wrap up my experience and clarify why I left and all that. The truth is, I've never successfully explained it to anyone. Very few people knew about my experience in depth while I was there, and they don't even fully understand my reasonings. What I've been saying to people here is some version of me being unheatlhy/unsafe/unhappy, and thus unable to help anyone or be productive. As a whole though, it was just the right time for me to leave, and really, it was a very difficult but good and needed decision.

So, that aside, life this past year has had it's ups and downs, but I can't imagine not having experienced them, just like I can't imagine having not experienced my time in the DR. I think everything works out just fine in the end.

My last host family has been calling me nearly every month if I don't call them first, and they contintue to share their lives and love with me. I told them a few weeks ago that I would visit them in November, so I guess I should buy tickets! I've already requested time off of work to go, so its almost set. I've also been talking to my other volunteer friends who are still there, and trying to figure out how to best meet up. I'm super excited to go back, which kind of surprised me- I mean, I did choose to leave after all. I know it'll be a little weird at first, but it'll be a great experience to go back with such a different perspective.

I kind of wish I could stay longer than a week. I plan on visiting my host family for a couple days, then spending the rest of my time hanging out with the volunteers, tanning, traveling, etc. It would be amazing if I can go up to the mountain and see my other host family, and my puppy Lechoza. I wonder what she looks like now!

Last week on Wednesday I went into the capitol to talk to my jefes about wanting to come back home. Thursday I said goodbye to my host family, which was the hardest thing I've ever done. Friday night a few other volunteers came to the capitol to throw a little going away party, and at 4am the driver came to pick up me and Kelsi, who was also leaving. The plane flew us to Miami at 7am. We had to part ways in Miami, since Kelsi flew to South Dakota and I flew to California.

How do I explain why I left? How do I explain what I was feeling living there, especially to someone who has never been there, or been a volunteer there, or been me in my situation there?

Maybe in a few days I will be able to find an easy-to-give answer to all the same questions that everyone asks.

All I can say for now is, I had a great experience living in the Dominican Republic for the last 8 months. My last host family became a part of my own family and impacted my life in so many ways (I've been home not even 24 hours, and they already called my house phone!). I met a bunch of wonderful volunteers in my group and in past groups, who I know will do great things in the DR and wherever they are.

I can't imagine having never done Peace Corps, or lived in the DR. I grew a lot and learned a lot and it will always be a part of me.

My family came for a visit last week, so I was away from the internet for a while. In total there were 10 of us, and the highlight was definitely having my real family meet my host family. It was good times.

Im about to go buy another cake mix for my little brother. He can't get enough.

Lechoza is currently living on the mountain again with Nicole. My house isn't the same without her, but I'm sure she's having a blast being free.

I'll be heading to the capital on Wednesday for a meeting with my bosses.

I'll keep everyone updated on things.

It was slightly overcast all day , keeping the heat at a manageable 80.5 degrees in my bedroom. Around 3:30 it just started pouring like crazy. I opened up most of my windows to let in the cool breeze and thankfully water doesn't come in through my windows, just under my doors. Also, I haven't been able to "coger" any water since last week to store in my tanks so I've been running pretty low on it for the last 4 or 5 days. When I have hardly any water, I use hardly any water, but I pretty much always need a lot of water. I've cut back to only one shower a day, but I've got dishes piling up and hungry mice and ants that won't let me just leave them lying around. Soooo, with all the free water falling from the sky I decided to put out my buckets and gather myself some old fashioned rainwater- don't worry, I won't be drinking it. It was glorious to flush my toilet and not feel bad for wasting precious water. Also, after my wonderful shower, I was actually able to put on pants, a tshirt, and snuggle up in my sheets without the slightest hint of calor (heat).

Here's a little video of the rain in my backyard. You can hear how loud it gets smashing down on metal rooftops.

All day the streets were pretty quiet, colmados opened only for the morning, and all public transportation was stopped. Nothing was happening at all until about 20 minutes ago when I heard a few explosions. Lechoza has never experienced a national strike before, and is currently shaking in a dark corner in my bedroom or trying to sneak onto my bed for comfort, which she knows is not allowed.

Yesterday I went shopping in Santiago for cake mix, frosting, and mexican food ingredients because I knew today was the strike, and there would be nothing else to do. So, we made a vanilla cake (the one with the rainbow colors inside, Ronit's favorite) with vanilla frosting, guacamole, and quesadilla/tostada thingies. I made the kids do all the work while I supervised, so hopefully they'll remember and be able to make it without me. Here's a million photos.

My little brother couldn't wait the 25 minutes for the cake to bake. He kept asking when he could take the cake out and start decorating it. I always tell him "you need to have paaaaaatieeeeeenceeeee!"

Waiting for the cake. We sat right in front of the stove the entire time.

Me and my little sister with Lechoza.

Me!

The cakes, upside down, cooling.

Putting on the frosting. I got vanilla this time because they don't really like chocolate as much as I do.

He couldn't be happier.

Cutting up the tomato and onion.

Peeling the avocado and smooshing it.

Dumping out the guacamole.

Quesadillas, chips and guacamole, and cake!

I don't think I've ever eaten as much food at once as I did tonight.

Thursday morning I went to the elementary school to color some ducks with a handful of kids. I ended up getting 6 girls, and they were the cutest bunch of kids ever. I drew an example duck with purple polka-dots just to show that it doesn't have to look like a real duck, and what do you know, we ended up with their 6 ducks having polka dots too. We talked about a lot of little stuff, and I was amazed to learn that they all knew I lived in the green house with the puppy. I have never seen these kids before, but they all knew about me already. After the hour or so of coloring was done, I started say goodbye and walk away from the kids and one girl came over and hugged me. Then they all hugged me. It was too sweet.

Thursday afternoon was my youth group meeting, and it was kind of a headache ("kind of" is a major understatement). The main problem was that 5 girls came who sometimes don't come, and they tend to be a handful, whereas these 3 girls that are super well behaved were sick at home. I asked the girls to draw a picture of their family, thinking it'd be a cute idea for them to have something to bring home to mom and dad to say "look what I did!" and be all proud of their work. Little did I know there would be yelling, crying, a lot of pointing and laughing, causing me to be frustrated, mad, and sad. I was ready to give it up right there. To top it off, not being able to communicate clearly in a time of stress was really annoying and just multiplies the frustration. I know exactly what to say in English to kids that are afraid to try something new, but can't seem to find the words in Spanish.

Friday morning was much much better. I'm more respected now at the elementary school, whereas before doing art projects with the kids I was treated more like a strange creature in a zoo getting stared at all day. The kids know me by name, and the one's I've worked with always seem to be dying to have conversations with me, whereas the one's I haven't worked with yet are dying to work with me. I had another group of about 5 girls and this time we colored fish. I again was trying to make an example that you can be creative and color the fish however you want. I did mine part polka dot, part with diamonds, part with stars, part with rainbow colors, and huge orange fish lips. Again, all 6 of theirs had similar designs to mine, but that's okay. I was happy that they tried and were super enthusiastic about it. I asked the girls about school, what their favorite subject is, and learned that all 6 of these girls want to go to university and one wants to be a doctor.

Almost forgot to mention that Tuesday there's a national strike scheduled. Last time this happened in June-ish they were lighting tires and everything else on fire in the main road by my host family's house, which unfortunately, my new house is even closer to. I hope the noise doesn't bother Lechoza too much.

Lechoza.

My office. I was busy today working.

The art project I'll be doing with the kids at school tomorrow. I plan on doing a different animal with every group, so that we can put them all together and make a big environmental scene with the heading "Together we can protect the environment" or something along those lines... And yes, the wing and tail are my left hand.

Lechoza and one of her favorite toys.

For some reason this doesn't look like her. She looks kinda horselike.

Today my host mom brought me platanos and eggs to make mangu, my favorite Dominican dish for dinner. It was the first time ever cooking Dominican food completely alone, but it turned out okay- of course it was nowhere as delicious as my host mom makes it. I'm happy I'll be able to bring this skill back to the states and cook it for friends and family. I took this picture halfway through the meal and couldn't finish it all so I gave the leftovers to Lechoza, who also enjoys mangu. As you can see, I prefer my mangu with sauteed onion and two sunny side up eggs. For the record, since moving to this town, I've eaten mangu probably 3 times a week for the last 5 months, and during training on the mountain I would it eat it every single day for breakfast or dinner, and I still love it.

I have ridiculously easy access to internet, for those of you who haven't noticed. This is a good thing for doing research and a bad thing for doing blogs- now I write about the smallest thing on a daily basis rather than bigger scale things on a more weekly basis. Also for those who don't know, I still don't write about many of the negative things, or at least not in depth, most of which occur on a daily basis. On we go...

I slept horrible last night. There was a lightning storm and it kept reflecting off the metal roof and lighting up my house, which would have been amazingly cool at any moment other than when I am trying to sleep. Water dripping on upside down paper plates near the outside of my window created an annoying and strange noise that kept me awake the majority of the beginning of the night. Dogs were barking in the distance and Lechoza woke up growling at one point. The electricity was playing games with the light bulb I didn't know I had left on in the living room, which kept turning on for a split second multiple times during the night. When the electricity finally decided to stay permanently on, I had to haul myself out of bed, through the mosquitero, out of my room, and to the light switch next to the front door to turn off the bright light.

At 9:40 this morning my host mom came to the front of my house and began yelling my name, not taking the hint that a non-response means I'm sleeping. "ARE YOU ASLEEP JEN?" Well, I was. From bed I was able to tell her I wouldn't be eating breakfast at her house, thanks to the gap between my walls and the roof. Normally I shower at 9:55, and walk over to the family's house at 10 for breakfast- not to say I normally wake up at 9:55, sometimes I'm up at 6. The point is, 10 is breakfast time, and any time before that is alone time. I don't know why she was early this morning and acting quite concerned, but such is the life of living by your host family.

I walked over to their house around 11ish, to find a huge truck outside with my host sister's things she had kept in storage at another family member's house. The moving truck man standing on the back of the truck decided it'd be a good thing to tell me how beautiful I am after I merely said "hola." Too early in the day for this, sorry buddy. My host sister told him I do in fact live here, but unfortunately I'm married. I spent the rest of the time until lunch sitting in a plastic chair with my nose in a book, ignoring the comments and stares from the moving truck men.

I awoke in the middle of the night to the noise of my metal spoon clanking against the ceramic bowl I had placed on my dresser after dinner. Immediately I thought Lechoza was being bad, as is always my first instinct when I hear a weird noise, but she was on the floor fast asleep. I grabbed my trusty headlamp that I keep next to my pillow and investigated. A squirmy little mouse ran out of the bowl and behind the dresser. He was licking my spoon! EW! I moved the spoon on top of my plastic stand, and replaced the bowl upside down on the dresser just to tease the mouse. Before going back to sleep, I tucked my mosquitero tighter into my mattress for a false sense of security- as if a mouse can't chew it's way in if it wanted? But I felt safer and was confident the mouse would probably spend the rest of the night trying to figure out how to get inside an upside down bowl instead of crawling in my mosquitero anyways.

Today at lunch I asked my host family about their all inclusive resort trip. Apparently this one was better than the one we went to a couple months ago, and it was also full of my twin sisters. "There were so many Americans that looked like you! No joke! There were also a lot that looked like Nicole!" Well, I have brown hair and Nicole has blond hair, so naturally every female there looked either like me or her. My little brother also proudly showed off a snorkeling mask an "American" gave him at the beach. It reeks of tobacco, but it otherwise seems really nice.

My meeting with the elementary school was great. I left at like 4:25 and power walked to the school and arrived all sweaty in my polo shirt and work pants at 4:35, five minutes late, but that's not bad. Although I didn't meet with any teachers, which was the plan, the principal continued to impress me. Starting Thursday morning, I'll pull out five kids from a classroom and together we'll do art projects to put on the walls. The schools don't really do art projects, and aren't really decorated, so I figure this is killing two birds with one stone. I'm excited to get my hands dirty with markers and glue, but a bit nervous with trying to figure out what exactly to do. I want it to be fun, look good, and generally be educational and/or have a positive message. I've been searching online for some classroom wall decorating ideas, and its starting to go well. So, I have the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow to prepare for my first day at the school. I also have my youth group meeting on Thursday afternoon, so I'll be really busy! Finally!

I'm going to be spending today mainly getting ready for a meeting I have tomorrow afternoon with an elementary school principal and teachers. I went last Friday to talk to them about working with the school, but they had the day off until 4pm for a meeting, but that was the time of my youth group. Anyways, the principal seemed really cool. Key phrase of his that I liked: "You can't do this alone, and neither can we, we have to work together." That's right buddy.

My plans for the school are as follows: I would like to paint an environmental mural on the side of the building, and make posters and other decorative but educational things to put on the walls in the classrooms to make it fun and stimulating and less jail-cell like. The class I went inside on Friday had some small things, like an alphabet where every letter was written inside a circle shaped cutout of construction paper, but half the letters were missing. Hmm..

This is what I would like to start out with, and if I can get the teachers to help with making posters and cutouts for the walls, even better. I've started drawing ideas for the mural, but haven't found what I'm looking for yet.

On Tuesday I'll introduce myself to everyone, present my ideas, and ask for more ideas.

I'm sure the mural thing will work out. He said I could do anything, as long as its not political. I told him it'd be more like "protect the environment" themed, so he agreed. As for anything else, I hope I get some projects going with this school. I've been ready to work for a while but haven't found the right people to work with yet.

Here's a ridiculously embarrassing video I made of a tour of my house. I've been up since 6am, its now 10am, and I just made a super quick video cuz all the other videos were too huge to upload! Hope you don't get too dizzy.

My host family went to an all inclusive resort this weekend, leaving me to fend for myself. They asked me to join them, since I went with them two months ago, but this time I just couldn't afford it. Funny huh?

I brought my jovenes (youth) on a walk up to the base of the mountains today. Only 5 kids showed up, probably because we left at 4, so it was super hot and sweaty, but the kids that went said they enjoyed it. It was cool this time cuz the two kids on the left didn't know the 3 kids on the right before last week's meeting, so they're becoming friends awww. Also, I brought Lechoza and one of the girls (my neighbor girl) has a dog that ended up following us the whole way. The dogs were exhausted but luckily it rained yesterday and there was a lot of water at the base of the mountain for them to drink.

Here's some pictures of my little brother decorating the cake. The whole time he kept saying, "Jen, I can't do it! I don't know how! You do it." And I kept saying, "You can do it, just try!" Afterwards, when the family was eating and enjoying the cake, we made sure to point out that he decorated it. He was so proud, it was so cute. The cake turned out really yummy and even though I couldn't find any frosting to write "Feliz Cumpleanos" the M&Ms made it really adorable. I wish I could afford to buy cake mix and frosting more often since it was so fun to bake it but it maybe I can find other fun things to bake that are cheaper.

Thursday, Nicole's parents picked me up in their SUV and we trucked it over to Luperon to pick up Lori and over to Punta Rusia to visit Alicia at her site. It was gorgeous.

Alicia and Nicole in crystal clear water.

Nicole and Lori at the restaurant. Lori was showing off her "claw," her hand swollen due to allergies.

Lori, Nicole, Alicia, Nicole's mom. We were looking for manatees but didn't see any.

Crossing a river. It was fun and slightly scary.

During the night the electricity decided to pop back on, causing all the lights in the house to turn on and wake me up. I forgot to turn off the lights when the electricity was out. Anyways, this is good news, as my phone was about dead and I practically die without a fan.

Yesterday I came home from the city and on the guagua ride I lost my favorite ring. I was slightly mad at myself for not noticing til it was too late. Then, I got home, put my stuff down, and left to go buy some eggs to make a cake. I closed my front door and as I reached my back pocket for my keys to open the front gate, I realized I left my keys in the house! I was thus locked out of my house, but inside the gate. I couldn't leave. I embarrassingly yelled across the street to my host dad to come rescue me. Luckily enough the keys were on a table by the window and with the help of a coat hanger, they were retrieved and I was saved. I then got a little lecture about not leaving my keys in the house, of which I am quite aware already as I have locked myself out of my house in Santa Cruz many a times. The only difference was there was a bathroom window easily break-in-able.

This morning, I awoke at the crack of dawn, fed the dog, filled up my buckets with water, and baked a chocolate cake for my 3 host sisters who's birthdays are in September. The oven temperatures are in celsius, and I have never baked in this country before, but it came out okay. The bottom of the cakes were burned, but I busted out my huge knife and chopped off the black parts. The rest tastes okay. I'll just cover it up with lots of frosting. The only really lame part of this whole cake adventure, was that last night my little sister told me she doesn't like chocolate cake. I bought chocolate cake mix, chocolate frosting, and M&Ms to decorate it. Oops.

First of all, hello to Hill's dad and to Hill! Yay for reading my dorky blog.

Anyways, so.. Monday was obviously a horrible day for me, and the week itself was kind of blah until my youth group meeting on Thursday. That, like always, was fun.

Friday night Kelsi came over and we ate some awesome papaya and pineapple and pasta. I used a sauce packet my mom mailed me called "creamy pesto" and my little brother and sister absolutely loved it. They later told me, "It's so much better than that other sauce you make!" That other sauce is regular red tomato sauce with spices- Dominicans typically aren't big on spices. Anyways, so that was fun. We also went on a walk up to the mountains, which is my new favorite activity and much better than the awkward walk through my neighborhood.

Saturday morning I made Kelsi help me paint my house. I could only afford to buy two paint cans (about 400 pesos each for a gallon, expensive to me, cheap to you- about 13 bucks), so I painted the living room and the kitchen, the two most used and seen rooms. It was a sweaty process, but we did it! And it looks quite amazing I must say. It's weird how a little paint can really make a place feel like home. The living room is a light pink (practically off white) and the kitchen is a yellowish color. I wanted a deeper pink and and orange kitchen, but live and learn eh? I've never really had to pick out paint colors before, so I'm just glad the colors were close to what I originally wanted. I have to wait until October 1st to buy the paint for the rest of the house. I want it painted before my parents come on the 6th, but since the oustide isn't that bad looking, I'll do that last and probably much later. My room will be light purple, bathroom baby blue, and second bedroom "grapefruit" and the outside turqoisey. I'm excited.

Kelsi left after painting, and I stayed home to organize my house. Without going into unnecessary details, not shortly after Kelsi left, there was a fight in the street between my house and my host family's house and one of the members of my host family got injured (as an innocent bystander of course). Cops were involved, yadda yadda yadda, I didn't feel comfortable sleeping in my house alone so I left to go stay with Kelsi.

This fight incident and Monday's house of pee incident just emotionally drained me and I was exhausted. Kelsi really helped me get back into feeling better by watching the "wedding planner" movie, and Zak totally helped me by talking on the phone during the whole incident. The next day, I came back to site after staying with Kelsi and spent the day pampering myself. There was TONS of water so I filled up all my buckets, took a real shower, and even bathed the doggy. Then I painted my toenails with pretty daisies and watched some Sex & the City dvd's. It was good times... finally. My nails came out pretty good considering it was my first time drawing designs. I bought like 5 new bottles in hopes of teaching my girls group how to paint nails one day- its really popular here.

The ironic thing about the TONS of water, was that there was NO electricity after about 10am Monday morning. It still hasn't come back and my host mom told me it's "broken," whatever that means. This has never happened in the almost 5 months I've lived in site. So I decided to come to the city today to get some work done. Also, Lechoza has worms so I had to stop by the vet and the medicine only cost 70 pesos (a little over 2 bucks) so I could afford it! yay! The last half of the month I am pretty much always really poor, like scrapping together all my 1 peso coins to pay for the 25 peso guagua ride. It's not that I can't budget.. it's just that I like to buy things. This week I am poorer because I bought 2 cake pans, a box of cake mix, frosting for my sisters' birthdays. All 3 of them had birthdays this week or last week, so I thought it'd be nice.. and yummy. I looked for the icing to decorate and write stuff on the cake, but I couldn't find it anywhere yet.

Here's some kitchen and living room pictures. Better, right?

The water came at 10am this morning so I filled up all my tanques and buckets. It was sweet cuz I wasn't all tired like I am when the water comes at 6am. Plus, there was still water running when my buckets were filled so I could actually take a regular shower, my second time ever in my house. It was quite a refreshing way to start the day.

In case you forgot... here's baby Lechoza. Also, I have no Idea what I've posted before so there might be repeats but she's worth it.

I had a dog Ginger who had perky ears and I used to hold them down so they'd look like this. I always thought it was cuter. Sorry Ginger.

She likes to sit on my lap when its 100 degrees out, and by out, I mean inside my house.

Sleeping on her bed made of two cheap towels.

She always kinda looks worried... or guilty. It's those wrinkles she has.

Chubby puppy.

Sleepy.

Sometimes she has a rat face, but I love her.

Lechoza by candelight. Creepy?

My house at night from the backyard. Creepy again? Left is kitchen then living room. Right is my bedroom, then in the hallway is the bathroom, then second room.

I've been slowly getting back into happy spirits, with the help of friends Kelsi and helado (ice cream). This week I made myself busy by running errands in Santiago, which is one of my favorite cities anywhere by the way. Today was an extra busy day, as it was my second ever youth group meeting!

I woke up at my normal 6:00 time, but didn't go back to sleep. Instead I spent the majority of the morning cleaning the entire house to get ready for the afternoon meeting. I cleaned up all the mouse poo, killed a cockroach, swept the dog hair, mopped the floors, did the dishes and just basically organized all my stuff. My second room is what Nicole referred to as my "walk in closet" cuz that's where I store everything. It's pretty much all my stuff piled on top of a horizontal door sitting on cinder blocks. That's my table.

Anyways, I ate a peanut butter sandwich (falta the jelly), and got to work on thinking about what we should do during our meeting today. I skimmed through my little sister's old science book and my girl scout's book I have, and found a cool little activity about rainbows. Basically, I drew a picture of a raindrop and the sun and showed how it acts as a prism to create the colorful rainbow. Then we created a rainbow of our own using a bucket filled with water, a mirror, white paper, and good old sunlight. I was really excited about it, and practiced it myself all morning, but then again I can be pretty nerdy. When the kids did it, I think they liked it too. We also made a list of rules for the group, like don't be late, a list of activities we want to do, and we made a name! We're now officially Las Panteras (the panthers).

I was all ready for the meeting at about 3:00, a little nervous, and couldn't think of anything better to do than read my book since I was all prepared for the meeting already. At 4:00, nobody showed up. I started thinking myself a failure when at 4:01 (the seconds were going by so slowly) my little sister showed up with her friend, and 3 new girls came, and then finally the girl that's always late came. We lost a few girls from last time, and my host brother had to go to afternoon classes instead of morning classes, but we were 7 girls strong (not including myself), so I was happy. Maybe next time I'll go to their houses an hour early to remind them about the meeting...

Anyways, afterwards, I went on a walk up to the mountains with Lechozers, my little sister and her two friends. We walk pretty far and although I'm the only one sweating like usual, it's a good workout for us all. Lechozies usually comes home exhausted, which I love. Anyways, the view from the lookout area we go to is beautiful, and since we leave at 6, its sunset by the time we get up there. We did this walk yesterday and today, and there's talk of doing it again tomorrow. I'll have to bring my camera. I'd love to do this walk everyday, me and Lechoza, but not sure if I should do it on my own. But the walk is WAY better than the little loops I do in my neighborhood where dogs chase us and motorcycles almost kill us. Plus, closer to the mountain, I can let Lechoza off the leash which she just loves.

Speaking of Lechoza, here's my doggywoggy playing with a pink rubber squeaky ball my mom sent through the mail. So cute. It's funny to see the toys she plays with all the time and the toys she won't go near. Her absolute favorite toys are pieces of wood and chunks of cement. She's such a campo dog.

Now that I can easily post videos on here, I'll have to do a walk through tour of my house next. It's cute and everything, but it needs a paint job and that's my project this weekend/week/month. So maybe a before and after.

I meant to put this pic in with the entry about my water situation. Here's the oustide llave (faucet) with two of my buckets.

Here's the tanque (tank) I keep in my kitchen, next to the bottellon (water jug? whats it called?) that is used for drinking water only. Note all food is stored in plastic containers to keep out the killer ants.

My shower! Cute shower curtain huh? I move the blue tanque to the far left corner when it's not filling up with water. I am aware that I need to paint this bathroom pretty badly.

Las Panteras making homemade rainbows. This was out on my front porch.

Trying to get the right angle of the mirror and the sun. It worked a lot easier when I was doing it at noon.

Lo hicimos! We did it!

Las Panteras, as of the second meeting. The paper chain hanging in the back was what we made during the first meeting. And I look really short in this picture because I was squatting...

I've fallen into a bit of a funk lately (as in, the last two days).. and it could be due to a variety of things. It just seems like the small things really get to me here and sometimes I can easily brush it off, and other times I just can't. Last night I came back home after traveling to the capital for work and to Punta Cana for Zoe's birthday and to celebrate the September group's one year. I walked inside my house to find it covered in dog piss, with the windows closed, my bedroom door open, my mosquitero eaten, and my bed pissed on too. My host family had been taking care of her while I was gone, but apparently that only meant feeding her and letting her out a couple times a day. Also, there was mouse poop all over the freaking house. I couldn't even put my cell phone down on my dresser in my room cuz it was covered in mouse poopies. Ew. So, all this at 9 at night was kind of the last straw I could take... grrrr.... But I know I'll be back into my happy normal self in a couple days.

Anyways. I had my youth group meeting last Thursday and it was chaotic but fun. 8 kids showed up and we did a little art project to get to know each other. At the end, I handed out cookies and the kids were like "so next Thursday at 4 right?" and I was like "yup!" so it sounds like they'll come back.

I am planning on starting a second youth group in this small campo community in the mountains, but the transportation there is really difficult. I'll have to talk to my project partner to figure out the best way to get there, and who exactly to talk to.

I'm going to start painting my house soon. I think that'll keep me nice and busy and get me out of this funk.

Oh yeah, I was in Punta Cana with Sarah and we were talking about how our parents read everyone's blogs... anyways, I told her I'd say hi to her parents... so, hi Mr. and Mrs. Parker!

Laundry

How do I do laundry? Well, I'm lucky enough to have an excellent host family that lets me use their washing machine. I bring over my laundry, soap, and cloro (bleach), and get to work. Usually my little brother helps me, and if he's not around my host mom will tell me what to do. It starts by cleaning the dirt out of the washing machine. Then we fill it up with a few bucketfuls of water. Then we dump in the soap and bleach (lots of both). Then we put in the whites, put it on spin, and come back in about 12 minutes. I bring a bucket with me, and wring out the whites above the washing machine so the soapy water falls back in, and put the clothes in the bucket. I bring it over to the sinks outside the "laundry room." There's two sinks filled with clean water and a dash of fabric softener. I hand wash and squeeze the soap out of the clothes in sink #1, then do the same in sink #2. Then I wring out all the water by hand and put them in a bucket and carry it over to the "dryer." The dryer spins the water out for like 5 minutes, but doesn't use any heat like back home. Then I put the clothes back in the bucket, and carry it along with the bag of clothespins and hang them on long wires that are set up around the backyard which stretch from the house to the fence or from one side of the garage to the other. In a few hours the clothes are dry. Usually this takes about 5 loads on average, and all the washing takes probably 3-4 hours. My arms were sore the first time, but now I'm totally used to it. I do this maybe once every other week? Or more? Depends. I usually do it right before I go on a trip. I can also handwash my undies or a shirt or two at my own house if its a clothing emergency.

It's definitely a lot more time consuming than the washer/dryer system back home where the machines do it all and you can just walk away to do other things. So imagine the life of a housewife here, who does laundry for the entire family but still has to find time to cook and clean and do everything else. Everything here just takes so much longer; I'm usually surprised if my host moms have free time.

Water

My water situation is pretty much as follows: I have two faucets (llaves), one that acts as a shower and another that is located in my backyard. There’s water whenever it is turned on, and I’m not sure who exactly turns it on- the city? the government? When I first moved in, I didn’t have water so my neighbor let me borrow her hose and we filled up my two garbage can type things with water. She is apparently connected to water pipes that are “lower” and thus have “more water.” I don’t really know how this works, but she’s pretty much had a lot of water with a lot of pressure quite often. Then the following week I got water in my faucets like four days in a row at 6:30ish in the morning. I had more water than I knew what to do with, and found myself using water quite wastefully. Then I spent a good amount of time with no water, only to learn the great importance of it and every day the level of water stored in my tanks shrank and shrank. I’m taking three showers a day, mopping my floors quite regularly, washing dishes, giving water to my thirsty dog, cooking with it, and using bucketfuls to flush my toilet- so you can see how much it is needed and missed when on short supply. Finally, yesterday the water came (llego!) and I was able to refill my tanks and once again find myself with more water than I know what to do with. So how do I fill up my tanks? I have two large tanks, which I would really call garbage cans. One is in my kitchen, I use mainly for cooking, cleaning, and dog water. The other is inside my shower that I use for bucket baths, flushing the toilet, and mopping if I happen to be closer to it than the kitchen. So, before I go to bed at night I make sure the faucet in the shower is left open so the running water at 6:30 in the morning will wake me up. I get out of bed, and after feeding Lechoza, I scoot the garbage can from one side of the shower to the other so it’s under the shower head (there’s no shower head, just the pipe, but you know). I let that fill up on its own. Then I carry two buckets outside, when the purple normal sized bucket is filled I dump it into the large flat black bucket, replace the purple bucket under the faucet, and carry the black bucket into the kitchen and dump it in there. Repeat. If the kitchen fills up faster than the bathroom, I’ll bring the buckets from outside to the bathroom, or if the bathroom fills up first, I scoop bucketfuls out and dump it in the kitchen. This usually lasts a half hour, and I usually am able to fill up both tanks, and even my 3 little buckets. Oh, also at this time water actually flows into my toilet, so I can flush normally. And, if I have something to do in the morning and don’t go back to sleep after this, I might take a shower under the showerhead while it’s still running. I don’t not like bucket baths, but a regular old shower is nice every once in a while. Not everyone has the same water situation as I do. Many people in my town have these giant black tanks above their roofs for storing water, so during the days that the water didn’t llego they still have plenty of it. I also know a family who lives about a 10-15 minute walk towards the center of town whose llaves seem to never have water so they have to drive their buckets and tanks over to an area where there’s a llave that seems to often have water. Pretty much the water situation can be summed up with a common phrase “no es facil” (it’s not easy). Heat

Today my clock say’s its 96. That’s in my bedroom, in the dark, with the fan on (I just put it outside and it says 103). Growing up in California my summers would often be over 100, and I never remember the heat affecting me as much as it does here. The hours between 12ish to 5ish hit me the hardest and I usually will sit on the floor under the fan in the dark to try to find the coolest spot in my house as possible. I learned this trick by following Lechoza to her nap spots. The main difference us volunteers can say between the heat here and the heat there is that here it is inescapable. Houses open all doors and all windows and if there’s light, the fan might be on- but a fan blowing 95 degree wind into your face isn’t as great of a feeling as the idea of a working fan sounds. So basically all hours of the day are spent in this heat. No air conditioning in the public transportation either, so riding in the guagua or a carro is sometimes just as hot as walking would be, especially being squished with tons of people. The only times I’ve escaped the heat is when I go into the stores in the city. Usually around 5-6 I’ll take my second shower of the day, washing away all the heat and sweat from earlier. After this I am able to spend the rest of the evening quite comfortably- not too hot or sweaty- and only shower a third time before bed so my skin doesn’t feel as sticky/grimy. Amazingly, I’ve realized that because of the August heat my body has kind of gotten used to how things work here, and on days when the temperature falls back to the mid 80’s (which used to feel awfully hot, before I felt the mid 90’s) I don’t sweat as much and don’t feel as exhausted afterwards. So, although thankful for the August heat for that reason, I can’t wait for it to pass and get back to being in the 80’s again. LightLiving without an “inversor” (inverter? generator?) isn’t bad at all. I think I said before that I’m surprised by how much luz (by luz, I mean light, and by light I’m referring to electricity). I’d say I have luz 75% of the day? There was once when I had luz for over 30 hours, and I don’t know how it happened, but I was quite happy. During the day it doesn’t matter as much as at night. It’s nice to be able to play music, charge my phone, watch a movie, or light up the bathroom with a light bulb or whatever, but I can generally get through the daytime without it bothering me too much if there’s no luz. From 7-10pm, it’s definitely better to have luz so I don’t have to cook by headlamp, or spend the time in bed before sleeping in the pitch black. But my host family has an inversor so if there’s no luz I go over to their house to enjoy their luz with them. The fan at night is great, it actually makes me feel cold, and I think I typically have luz most nights for the entire night through, but since I’m asleep, what do I know.

Living alone has continued to be quite great. Before doing so I wasn’t sure how it would go, seeing as I’ve never actually lived alone alone, but I really enjoy it. It’s one of the few stress free places here where I can just chill and do my own thing. Also, having Lechoza with me is tons of fun. She’s pretty smart, already knows how to sit. I speak to her in English, so my little brother and sister had to learn how to say “sit” to her.

Here’s an example of a day when I have no meetings, which has been most days this week. It starts from when I go to sleep at night until the next night.

10:00pm Sleep

2:30am Let Lechoza outside to pee

6:30am Feed Lechoza and let her pee, and if the water comes fill up all the buckets

7:00am Go back to sleep

9:00am Wake up, do some stretching/exercising/yoga

9:30am Sweep floor, maybe mop, then shower

10:00am Go to host family’s house for breakfast, hang out afterwards

12:00pm Lunch at host family’s house, hang out for a bit

1:00pm Go home to read/write

3:00pm Nap time!

5:00pm Shower, clean house

5:30pm Take Lechoza for a walk around the neighborhood and say hello to everyone

6:30pm Feed Lechoza and either cook dinner or go to host family’s house for dinner at 8

7:00pm Teach English to my little sister

8:00pm Hang out at host family’s house, usually watching TV

9:00pm Go home to read/write/talk on phone

10:00pm Sleep On Tuesday, I spent the day feeling useless after a meeting with my project partner in which they asked me what I’ve done, and all I could say was “Well, I moved out.” It’s not like I need to have done anything major so far, but I just got this feeling of uselessness after that meeting. Sometimes I think they have unrealistic expectations of what I can do. August was the first month to really start working, but I spent the first half on vacation and the second half so far moving out. Kelsi called me Tuesday afternoon and I totally talked through all my emotions with her, and she really helped me to straighten things out. Then I went and hung out with my little sister in front of my older sister’s store, and I was like “Soooo, I was thinking of starting a youth group and teaching about the environment... but I don’t know...” and she said “Jen, all you have to do is say when and we’ll be there. Let’s go tell my friends right now!” Then we walked through the neighborhood to ask a few of her friends if they’d be interested, which they were. We’re going out again today on my walk with Lechoza to ask other girls in the neighborhood. So basically, I felt like a fool once I realized how easy it was and how eager they were to have an activity to do. It was just really hard for me to take the first step. We’re planning on meeting Thursday afternoons and doing whatever activity I can think of, but that’s not too boring so that they’ll keep coming. My mom ordered me some Girl Scouts books in Spanish so I hope to base my group off that. The kids are around 10-14, and so far we’ve talked to 6 or 7 girls. I wanted it to just be a girl’s group, but my little brother was practically begging me to join so I couldn’t turn him away. Our first meeting will be next week. Also, the girls want to start up a dance group so I think we’ll do that another day during the week.

For more work ideas, I was thinking of offering to help out the science teacher in the elementary school up the road from me and maybe doing an activity once a week with a class. I just haven’t decided if I want to teach or just help out, or teach teachers how to incorporate environmental education. Also, there’s a boy’s community group that helped me with my diagnostic that seem eager to have me join them, and another boys and girls ecological group that would be fun to work with as well. I just have to figure out all the details for that. Also, I’ll continue teaching English to my sisters.

After feeling pretty low when Zak left, the next few days I spent incredibly busy going between Santiago and my town to get supplies for my new house. Before I knew it I was back in the swing of things and feeling much better about being here. I also have Lechoza to keep me company, and she definitely keeps me busy. Today my host mom brought me over to my next door neighbor’s house, where an older woman lives by herself. Sitting on a wooden table outside were four glasses, a plate, a pot, and a water pitcher all covered by a green cloth. My host mom lifted the cloth off and announced these were a gift to me from my neighbor. I can’t describe how it felt to receive such a great gift from a woman who doesn’t even have much to give. Later in the day I took Lechoza on our first walk around my neighborhood. Like most experiences here, it was incredibly awkward, but we survived. A lot of houses have tied up dogs in their yards, all of which barked like crazy at us. Other houses have free roaming dogs in their front yards, all of which were quite intrigued by this new dog in town. Lechoza and I were both slightly nervous but most of these dogs seemed to have a certain area that they roam in, and after following us up to a certain point, they would turn back around. A favorite pastime in this country is to sit out on the front porch and people watch. I tried my best to ignore the random dogs following us, and smile and say hi to the neighbors. At one point Lechoza stopped to poo on the sidewalk, and I had no idea if I should leave it or pick it up or what and to make it worse, people were staring. We just walked away, and I figured the rain would wash the poo off. On one street there was a huge group of probably 30 family members hanging out, drinking, playing dominoes, and here I was, shyly walking by them trying to smile with my little dog on a leash (I’ve only seen one other person in my town who walks their dog on a leash).