I was invited to a taller on Human Relations this week and one of the activities was to write down why we want to keep on living and them share them with the group. I really liked this activity so, here are my reasons to live...(and there is no order of importance in this exercise)

To have a great love of my life

To have kids and see them grow up

To give my parents grandbabies and see the pleasure in their eyes.

To have my own grandkids

To travel the world

-I have always wanted to ride a camel to the great Pyramids of Egypt (random I know)

To meet new people

To continue the friendships I have and strengthen them

To learn to dance the latin dances

To learn new things

To have a intellectually satisfying career

To contribute to society

To make a difference in the world (I dream big:)

When makes you desire to keep on living?

The Brigada Verde Paseo, July 20, 2008.

The conditions for the kids to be invited on the trip were that they needed to pick up trash in the community twice a week until we left for the trip (it was about 8-10 weeks). They also had to give a presentation in the school on an environmental topic. They choose to talk about deforestation and noise pollution.

They also had to raise there own transportation money to and from the capital. In order to do so we held a day camp for elementary school kids with my Brigada Verde group leading all the activities. They charged 20 pesos per participant. The led art projects and games, including jump roping and the limbo.

We had a bake sale as another fund raiser. Each of the kids donated an ingredient for them to make an arepa. Arepa is the Dominican equivalent of cake and they bake it on an open fire. I then baked an American style cake and we roamed the streets together selling the two cakes. The American style cake was such a big hit in the community that I was commissioned to bake another the next day and again we hit the streets. Although this time we didn’t even make it up the street as the kids decided that they needed to buy a piece of cake, and then that piece was so good that they had to buy another and take it home to mom. With the money they raised they had enough to make it to and from the capital.

Last Friday I went and visited all the kids in the village and talked with all the parents so that everyone was clear on what was to happen, and what time the kids would be back to their houses. Everyone was a little nervous as the kids had to make it from the campo to the bus stop in the capital all by themselves.

Thankfully the six of them that were able to come, all made it safely. I met them at their bus stop and we went from there to my new apartment. The apartment was a wonder to them. We had a few incidents. They asked me why the toilet water runs, they were amazed that hot water could come out of a faucet and they kept forgetting to turn the water off after they washed their hands. Then while we were outside, the building has a call box, and one of the girls pressed all the buttons and then she turned to me and says “listen, you can hear people!” I had to laugh at that one.

At my apartment we all sat around so they could relax from there stressful bus ride and we played their favorite game UNO. Out of the 3 games we played, I only won once. After the three games of Uno, they all felt rested enough to go back out into the heat, so we headed for the park for some picture taking and a game of Frisbee.

After I had tired them out playing Frisbee we decided it was time for lunch. We went to the Dominos Pizza down the street, which for them is a big treat. We got two large pizzas and two 2 liters of coke. They were in heaven. Only two of them had ever had pizza before. For dessert I had made a cookie crumble pieces with chocolate on top. I don’t think any one of us could have eaten even one more bite. Filled up from lunch we took a walk to the supermarket where there is a instant photo machine. Each one picked out a photo from those we had taken at the park and we printed them. Again, they showed amazement at a machine that printed photos instantly.

Our afternoon entertainment was a trip to 3 underground caves called the Three Eyes, called that because of the three lagoons inside of the caves. It was beautiful. You walk down this steep stone stair case in order to see a series of 3 lagoons. Unfortunately, one of the kids got a little bit of altitude sickness, but he managed to make it to 2 of the three lagoons. Each of the lagoons has the clearest blue water. We saw turtles and fish in the lagoons. There are stalagmites and stalactites in the caves. In the top of the caves live bats. My Spanish was a little strained as I tried my best to explain how stalagmites and stalactites are formed, and how bats fly without seeing.

Leaving the Three Eyes, it was time for the kids to head to the bus stop and head home. They all told me how much fun they had, that it was a day they would remember forever.

Now that my move to the capital is official, I had to tell my village that I would be leaving them sooner than everyone had thought. That was a really rough day:( My boss came out to help me and we had a meeting first with my kids to talk it through with them. They were all really devastated and a few started to cry. I think they all understand my reasons, but since my reason is the way another member of the community has treated me they are a tad bit furious at this guy who is teacher at their school. I had to ask them not to create any problems for him (which would in turn make more problems with me...at least until I leave;) JK. Then we had a meeting with my project parnters (does it say anything about my subconscious that I first typed project problems?) We just told them that there was a compromiso in the city and that I was needed there to fulfill the obligation. Since then people of the community slowly are learning what is happening and are reacting. I have had a lot of time to think about it and for now I am doing okay with it emotionally (I know that I will be a wreak though the day I say goodbye to the kids) It does create a little bit of an awkward situation though when one of my neighbors comes to me crying and I dont shed a tear. You would think I would be over the whole awkward situation thing since almost from the day I got here, there's always something that is culturally awkward for me.

From the day that my kids learned I was leaving, they have taken the very healthy position of aprovecharing the tiempo that we do have together. It's been really great, we went horse back riding, hiking up the loma in search of mangos, and working on our garden. We are also planning our next loqrio at the river that they are looking forward to a lot more than me. Its where they throw everything in the pot to cook together. The rice, the chicken and anything else they could come up with (usually some sort of root plant like yucca). Hopefully we can all continue to have some fun up to the day I have to leave, and the transition goes along smoothly.

Well I was told that some people live vicariously through me so I needed to update my blog. Sorry about that:) I have been busy, busy and things are changing here as well. Quite a lot has been going on here. I was having some problems with

the Dominican project partners that I was assigned too. They think

that I should be doing whatever they want me to do, which wouldnt be a

problem except they want me to basically drop the other things that I

was doing that are going really well to do only what they want. I had

a problem with that and said so to them and it evolved into endless

drama. Well, after I talked with my boss from the Peace Corps about

the situation we talked about me moving to the capital to be the Peace

Corps Volunteer leader for my sector. I think that means I´ll be

moving in July:) I am really excited about it in one way, ´because

then I dont have to deal with my project partners anymore, I will have

running water, electricity and cell phone service. But, on the other

hand I wont see the kids I work with now very often in the future, and

I wont have a gazillion fruit trees in my yard where I can have

passion fruit, pineapple, grapefruit, oranges, star fruit, mangos and

lemons at my desposal. I guess no one can have it all. Right now I

am trying to work out the details of changing jobs, getting a raise

and finding a place to live. I´ll let you all know as things unfold

here in the capital.

Happy V Day to you all! Can't believe that I have now been gone for an entire year. Feels like forever, and yet not at the same time. Wierd. I've been really busy since Kendall left. My youth group and I have started a garden with Basil, Radishes, Cucumbers, and Peas. We are hoping to get some more seeds as well, so we can have tomatoes, egg plant and whatever else we can find. We planted all the seeds individually in starter boxes and soon the hard work will begin when we transplant them to the garden and have to prepare the soil and then water the plants twice daily. Why can't a hose and running water be a common thing here? Well, I guess it'll just make me even stronger now that I have to carry water for me, and then carry it to water the garden which is farther away from my house.

This weekend I am heading up to Sabana de la Mar to visit a special education school. Hopefully I will get some ideas from them on how to deal with kids who have dislexia and other learning problems. And if I am lucky I will be able to go out on the bay and go whale watching. Very exciting:)

Kendall has been visiting me for the past two weeks now and she's been keeping me pretty busy. We went on two scouting trips to the beach together and ate some pretty amazing food. Then after we knew all there was to know about getting to the beach and where to go from there, we wook a group of 6 15 year olds there. They had done a bracelet project with me where we recycled grocery bags and made them into bracelets. I took them back to the states with me and sold them at an elementary school. With the money we made we were able to take our trip to the beach, eat at a pizza hut (which not a single one had been to this beach, nor eaten at pizza hut) and we had birthday cake for one of their birthdays. It was a day that will go down in history for them. They were so excited and happy to be there. And it has drummed up a lot of interest in my projects cause other kids want to be able to take a trip like that as well.

We have also gone to the river quite a few times, we did take our shower there this morning. And were just hanging out and having fun. She has been making me all my food and helping me do all my chores so I really dont want her to leave me!

Well its back to work again after being home for two weeks. Cant really say Im glad to be back...but it'll come. Although, Muñeca sure was glad to see me. Until I ran out of dog food and fed her coconut last night...ooops. Good thing I am going to the store today.

This past week I spent cleaning my house and my lawn, and getting my groups started again. Yesterday 3 kids came to my english class, maybe by wednesday I'll have six! Haha.

Here are some photos. There are lots of new puppies in town. Very cute, I am just working on my saying no to those little puppies.

And here is one for the Bandidas:) My kids got squirt guns for christmas so we had some fun with those.

Well it looks like I have finally sucumbed to Dengue. Yesterday I came down with a chill that I just couldnt shake, and then the headache and all over body ache started up. I came into the capital today for some bloodtests, and I will have to stay here until it runs its course:( Wish me luck.

This month has been pretty busy, thankfully. Last week we had our celebration of Thanksgiving and then an All Volunteer Conference in the capital. I was on the sports committee for Thanksgiving so me and another girl organized a Turkey Trot, Soccer and Basketball games. And don't worry, my soccer team won-and I even helped us out by scoring a goal. Mostly I will give the win to our Columbian ringer. Without him, we didnt have a chance. We were all at a Country Club for the Thanksgiving meal and they made us Turkey, mashed potatoes, salad and then we had committees for stuffing and desserts. (Apparently stuffing is not found in this country, so we devoted a team of 4 volunteers to conseguir stuffing from the states and then make enough for 200 people)

I got back to my site on Saturday, and then Judy came to stay with me on Monday. We were planning our experiments for the Brigada VERDE conference. I dont know if its this country or it is us, but I have never had such a hard time doing simple science experiments. I really hope that they go well this weekend. Two of the kids from my community will be meeting up with me tomorrow morning, and we will all go together to our conference center in San Cristobal. There's about 18 volunteers and 50 some kids ages 12-20. This could be interesting!

I finally went horse back riding this week. Some kids brought over horses (really cabellitos) and one of them actually had a saddle, so we went riding. I was lead for a while until they trusted me to walk the horse on my own. I think I did pretty well for myself. And I even tried the riding while talking on the cell phone-I got better service on the horse than anywhere else! Haha. Kendall get ready! Now I only need to find a waterfall and we are all set for your trip:)

Well my community weathered the storm pretty well in comparison to a lot of other communities. The river rose about 20 feet, but we were lucky that no one lived close enough to get swept away. Our problems were the houses with no floors, or whose houses were poorly made. They spent the whole week wet and now a lot of people are sick. It has continued to rain a lot since Noel, and all the rain is great for mosquitos...which has created a dengue epidemic. And a lot of animals have gotten sick and are now spreading a new virus that is vaguely like meningitis. Some people are now dying from that. It seems like the problems of this country are never ending.

As for me, I am doing okay. I got a puppy this last week. She's pretty adorable and she protects me at night time. I feel a lot safer now with her around. I also found my first tarantula in my house on Monday. (Again its all the rain) But I ran out to my host dad and made him come and kill it. I am really hoping that the rain settles down a little, cause I dont want to find any more tarantulas in my house. One of my friends, he didnt tuck his mosquito net in all the way and a tarantula crawled into bed with him and bit him. Then on his jump out of the bed to grab his camera cause he didnt think anyone would believe him another tarantula bit him. He handled it a lot better than I would have, so I really hope that the tarantulas stay away from me. And my mosquito net is always tucked in tight. I'm not taking any chances.

I am in the capital right now for Thanksgiving. We are all going to a country club and celebrating together with an american style Thanksgiving. I'm excited, and it makes missing Thanksgiving with the family a little more reasonable.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Tropical Storm Noel's center spun slowly across Cuba as the tropical system's outer bands dumped heavy rains on island of Hispaniola, prompting thousands to flee their homes to escape rushing floodwaters and mudslides.

Hardest-hit by the sluggish storm were the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share Hispaniola, where emergency officials on Tuesday reported between 22 and 36 people dead. Death figures varied because of the difficulty of reaching remote parts of the island.

Noel's outer bands were still pounding Hispaniola Tuesday evening even as the storm chugged away from the island, which is made vulnerable to flash floods by its many denuded hillsides.

In the Dominican Republic, almost 12,000 people were driven from their homes and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed, while collapsed bridges and swollen rivers have isolated 36 towns, said Dominican emergency services spokesman Luis Luna Paulino.

Late Tuesday, Luna raised the Dominican death toll upward to at least 30 from 16, did not release specifics of the deaths. Earlier in the day he acknowledged miscalculating a previous toll.

"The rains continue to fall and we fear for several families," said Sergio Vargas, a merengue star and Dominican congressman who represents Villa Altagracia, a small town north of the capital, Santo Domingo.

This Tropical Storm hit at a terrible time. My parents were visiting and they had planned on going to my site in the north of the capital. But...it was not safe to travel so they left today without ever having seen my house:( I am a little concerned when it is finally safe enough to leave in what I am going to find. Wish me and the Dominican Republic luck, we are going to need it.

Yes it is only 2 months until I come home for Christmas! Of course I'll have to come back here in January, but still very exciting. 2 weeks in the states will be wonderfull. As for the past month, Greg came and visited me for a week. He stayed at my site for a few days and likened it to camping. I can see the comparison as well. Then we went to a resort in Punta Cana and I lived it up for 5 days. I got to take as many hot showers as I wanted and the food was amazing. I even had a massage while I was there. Going back to my site was a little rough once Greg left, especially since somewhere along the way I picked up soemthing that made me violently ill. But, I am feeling so much better now, and today is a very exciting day because my family comes! YEah! I have been counting down to this for quite a while. We will also go to a resort in Punta Cana (soneday I'll have to check out the other beaches in this country). Hopefully all goes well for us! As for those of you who have noticed I am not good with keeping this updated...I am very good at writing back to emails. So if anyone would like more immediate responses/updates ~email me.

This was written up in our volunteer quarterly magazine and I enjoyed it so I thought I would share. It might be one of those things that you have to be there....but I thought I would give it a try. Of course with some additions I made to personalize it.

1. It rains in my bathroom (well since my letrine isn't actually done yet...I wouldn't know. But I do have two tiny leaks in the tin roof of my house)

2. I spent an hour cleaning ants out of my cereal and then thoroughly enjoyed a bowl. (How about crackers and peanut butter? Who knew that ants could get into a tightly closed peanut butter jar?)

3. Beer isnt considered alcohol-it's more like expensive juice (and you have more of a chance finding cold beer anywhere than you would of finding water. These Dominican's sure know their priorities).

4. The only time all year round I need my jacket is on the super air conditioned bus.

5. People don't know how to draw-not even a stick figure, or a star, or a heart.

6. A mail system is just a convenient system for thiefs to hand select their goods. (There most have been some good stuff in some of those packages, but I wouldnt know since I never got them).

7. Roots are considered "yummy"-and there are lots of types.

8. Elementary school kids go on strike for more desks.

9. The schools are have barbed wire, chain link fences, if you arrive late you have to bribe the gatekeeper to let you in.

10. Traffic laws are more like vague guidelines.

11. Traffic signals are unfortunate in a country with unreliable electricity.

12. Even the poorest of the poor are obsessively hospitable.

13. 7 -year old boys run all my errands for me (and 10 year old girls mop my floors and help me hand wash all my clothes).

14. It only cost 75 bucks to completly rewire my house.

15. I get in trouble when visiting people for not having visited more often.

16. They hang the head of the animal slaughtered at the butcher as a guarentee (hopefully this explains to you all why I don't ever eat meat here-I can't stand to look at the head of the pig that I am going to eat. Or even worse have them ask me which chicken it is that I want to eat for dinner as they run around the yard-yuck).

17. If a kid is only wearing a shirt, beware: they are not potty trained (and if they are visiting your house with parents or siblings make sure that the mop and fabuloso are handy for any accidents).

18. Music can never be too loud.

19. Nobody pays electric bills because they dont recieve good service and they dont recieve good service because nobody pays.

20. Their is nothing wierd about a stranger resting their hand on your knee or shoulder.

21. The United States is referred to as "Nueva Yol" (and in my experience that is only if they have actually put together that New York is part of the US and not its own country).

For all of you that actually check my blog I am terribly sorry that I havn't written sooner. A lot has been going on here, which is why I havn't had a lot of time to use the internet. I came back from my three month training and my host family had finished my house! So the next day I went out and for 500 American dollars I managed to get a bed(not the most comfortable one mind you, but I have convinced myself that a bed is a bed...and maybe they have such thing as foam pads in this country:) a table with chairs, an oven, a fridge and a propane gas tank. I think it was a steal. Although they probably think that I am a sucker. So I moved in, and learned a few lessons about electricity in the process. All my outlets are two prong and the holes are the same size. Well my fridge is a three prong. As I looked on in dread, my host dad tried to convince me that the third prong really isnt necessary and proceeded to cut it off. Amazingly enough he was right and the fridge still works. Who would have thought? Then, some of my chargers have the prongs that are two different sizes. Which obviously dont fit in the holes. After being told several times that I was just not pushing hard enough, and that maybe I just didnt understand how to plug something in, my host dad wised up and bought me an extension cord...with the two different size prongs. Again, my doubt kicked in. But he just filed down the edges of the larger prong and voila-it works! I am not sure how safe my house is electricty wise now, but at least it works.

The other big thing that happened was Hurricane Dean...or I guess I could say not so big thing;) We got called in on Friday and had to be in the capital by 6:00 that night. It was a category 4 by the time it reached here, and it was said that although it was 100 miles south of us, that the arms of the storm were reaching out over 200 miles. Obviously there was a little bit of concern. So they put all the volunteers from this side of the island in the Barcelo hotel in Santo Domingo. Which has a pool, air conditioning, a casino, gym, three meals a day and most importantly hot showers. It was not a hardship. Although Peace Corps kept apologizing that we couldnt leave the hotel and that is was such an inconvience for us. I was just thinking-oh my god, how long do you think I can stay. When they kicked us out yesterday at 3 I was a little devastated (apparently there is such a thing as a dry hurricane and it barely even rained here). I wasnt ready yet to go back to the campo. So I checked myself into a hostal here. I decided that I am easing myslefy back into the campo life since the hostal doesnt have hot water or air conditioning. Hopefully now it wont be such a big shock going back today.

The pool, and thats the humidity foggy up the photo.

Pool bar during a bout of rainpoor.

The casino at the hotel-a little small. Only had Blackjack, poker, roulette and slots:( But I really shouldn't complain

Hanging out at the Barcelo pool:)

Joe, Stephanie me and Kevin at Pizza Hut

My new house, this is my study.

And my kitchen. Anyone who has a blog have any idea how to turn the photos around? I havnt quite figured that out yet. Sorry

This is the ceramic cook stove that we all built during our three month In- Service -Training. It's supposed to cook cleaner and use less wood. But it also takes about 2 and a half days to build and is a little complicated. I'm thinking I might research the easier to make, and cheaper solar stoves.

More drama occured over this past two weeks...the police came. And I was unlucky enough to be visiting the house they went to. I was visiting this little girl, Dulce, and they came searching for her brother and some of his friends with their big shot guns and pistols. Of course, her mother wasn't there nor was the brother and I was the oldest one. So I just kept telling them "I don't live here and I don't know where he is!" They ended up arresting about 4 people. For robbery, drug dealing and one for murder. Made me feel really safe finding that out. Apparently this guy (not the brother of Dulce) was robbing someone in Villa Mella-nearest big city to me-when something went wrong and someone died. Someone who was related to a police officer. So off he went (the murderer) to the campo-Buenos Aires- to his grandmother's house with the police chasing after him. They got him, which is good for me but bad for him. Cause apparently when the police are pissed here...nobody thinks he will make it a very long time in prison.

What else has happened~I have finally motivated this group of about 5 kids to work for the enviornment. We went collecting trash along the river this past Thursday (and then burned it, but I am thinking one battle at a time:) And of course we had to collect Chinola along the way to make juice, and then it was really hot so we had to jump in. Really I think we all had a great time, and I am hoping they will go with me again this Thursday.

I have also been doing a lot of visiting of the families. Yesterday I visited the Haitian. It was interesting because he will intermix Kreyole and French with his spanish. So basically he talks for awhile and I say si, and then I talk for awhile and then he tells me si. But really I dont think either one of us understands the other. I cant even get the hang of his name, but hey we had a good time. We ate some sugar cane, then he gave me some mangos to eat and he picked me some fruit bread to boil. Don't really know what this fruit bread is, but I am always up for trying new things...as long as it doesnt look to scary and this looks relatively harmless.

Oh, and of course, the really good news is that the concrete floor was poured for my house! Now it only needs paint (pink of course...and I didn't even pick the color) two doors, and electricity. And ya~ all ready to move in! I am thinking right now that it looks like the begining of August. Very exciting!

So the new drama in town is the stolen cows. Somebody, and presumably this someone is from my community, is stealing cows and butchering them in the middle of night to sell the best cuts of meat in market. Then they leave the rest of the cow to be found in the morning, which by that time the meat has spoiled and there is nothing that the owner can do. This week we didnt lose any cows, but last week we lost 5. We have no police in town (not that having police is very effective in a country where bribes are very common) and people dont have things like cow insurance. So they are just plum out of luck. It makes for a little bit of a tense situation when cows are some peoples livelihood. My family also has a cow, she is how I get milk every morning. (which by the way, what do they do to milk in the states? Because here it never quite tastes the same, at all) So to keep her safe, and our little calf we have them sleep in our front yard and our scary dog Bolito sleeps next to them. People don't mess with Bolito so I think our cows are safe. But, yesterday the cow was in the yard and her knot to the tree came undone and she started running around like a crazy cow and her calf was freaking out cause the mom was charging people. All the kids were running away, which just made her chase them and I just sat in my little chair in the lawn praying to god that she wouldnt notice me since I wasnt moving. Luckily, Paco came in time to take control of the sitaution. He just kicks the cow when she doesnt want to cooperate so she usually listens to him. And I am still in one piece-she never noticed me!