When I was a little girl, I don’t think that I ever believed that Paw-Paw really needed his wheelchair. I remember trying to trick him into “blowing his cover” through a series of investigations every time we came to visit. While everyone sat in the living room after dinner, I pretended to go into the kitchen for a snack and then sneakily crawled on my hands and knees espionage-style until I

Well, for all of you who were enjoying my periodic updates, I apologize for my lack of communication in the last year. In short, I finished my service with the Peace Corps May 2, 2008, and have been preparing to start graduate school at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC this September. Many of you have heard of this plan for some time, which is why

The village of El Yayal and its surrounding communities is located around the Loma Guaconejo Natural Reserve, approximately 30 kilometers outside of the town of Nagua. The population of El Yayal is approximately 300 people, containing roughly 100 homes. The people residing in these communities depend completely on agriculture and animal husbandry as their source of income, farming mainly cocoa,

Dear Friends and Family, As friends and family of a Peace Corps Volunteer, you all knew it was coming. That’s right guys, my first donation solicitation! This is a very grassroots project that some of my closest friends from college have been working hard on for the last two years, and it finally has the opportunity to get off the ground. Or, it would have, if the roof of their library hadn’t

“It’s kind of like camping…”That is what two of my most recent visitors have said about the way that I live. were champs during their visit to El Yayal – my mom shelled beans, used the latrine, ate the soup, and didn’t hear the mice at night! My dad ate everything that was given to him, including the coconut that my friend Eulises climbed up a tree to get for him. Of course, there had to be a pig

First of all, I want to apologize to all of you who have been reading my blog diligently over the last year. It has been far too long since I have kept most of you abreast of what I have been up to. Life has been pretty crazy down here in the DR since late November, that is for sure. I was able to go home for 3 weeks over Christmas, which many of you know because fortunately I was able to see a

My first memory of Grandma was when I was about 5 years old. We were at the beach for Easter, and she had hidden plastic eggs in the backyard filled with $1 in change each. Grandma really had the grandmothering job down pat. Sam had his friend Patrick visiting, and I was so proud to have such a cool grandmother. Of course, we had just entered the “Arcading” phase of our visits to the beach, so I

Since being here, I have always appreciated how quickly one’s needs are simplified to the basics. Food and water. If anyone has been paying attention, you know that I have the water situation under control. And if anyone has seen a picture of me lately, you know that the food situation is a bit out of control. So, we have the two most important things covered. So, what comes next? Once I

Developing country my butt. I would like to inform all of my loved ones back home that El Yayal is moving up in the world. That’s right, my days of carrying five-gallon buckets of water to my house from the river are over, my friends. Because now I’ve got gutters. I know, I know, don’t get too excited. Let me take you through it. I was in Nagua the other day talking to one of my English students

Well, I have reached a new level of understanding of Dominican rural culture in the last week. You have all read my rants and raves about what it is like to live here, so I will spare you a complete description of Geronimo and I sitting in my house in the pouring rain typing on a dying battery because we haven..t had electricity in three days, constantly moving my chair around the house because

Well, I ate ants today. To be fair though, they were boiled. I have been saving this package of Lipton Noodle mix for about two months now, waiting for the right time to break it open. Well, apparently I waited too long. I saw the whole in the package about a month back, and though I knew what that meant, I just ignored it, placed the noodles in a Ziploc and hoped for the best. Now, I am sitting

And now for the announcement you have all been waiting forI am moved into my house! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture, because I just got my camera back, but they will be forthcoming, I promise. I have to give the majority of the credit to my sister too though, because she finally broke the cultural barrier and came to visit me! She was here for a week, and it was wonderful. I took her to the

Well, I havent written in a long time, and I apologize for that. I think that you all were getting spoiled while I was in training though, because, while the amount of free time may have increased, access to the internet has plummeted. On the brighter side, it only costs about $.70 an hour where I live, which is much nicer on my dwindling budget. Now for the update: El Yayal. My opinion of this

So, only two weeks before I can move into my house! I am very excited, and I think that Geronimo and I are going to get some cats to live with to scare the mice away from his dog food. There are just so many bugs where I live, it is oppressive. Cockroaches, flies, mosquitos, ants, mice, lizards- you name it, it tries to eat everything I own. And the whole in my favorite skirt cant have tasted

Well, for those who were attempting to enter the challenging Call Liz event in the Peace Corps Communication Games, I am sorry to say that all the medals have been awarded. In first place by a landslide we have Trimble, with a considerable lead in the time trials, clocking in a full week before the silver medalist, and receiving extra marks with the judges for one failed call attempt and a short

There have been some problems getting my phone to work in my site, so my phone number has changed, and it will probably change again in the next month, but until then, you can call me at 1-809-723-9787 and it should supposedly work in my site! I am a little bit skeptical still, but we shall see. CALL ME! Trimble broke the ice and won 1st Place, but 2nd is not too shabby either! I think it

Yesterday I was walking with some neighbor girls of mine to fetch water from the cistern down the street and they told me to sing in English, and the only song I would think of was the theme from Lion King. They thought it was pretty funny. Okay, I have a lot of catching up to do. First of all, for those who are keeping track of me (the few and the proud), I finally moved to my site. For the next

Last week in Jarabacoa. We have been here learning about organic coffee, cocoa, fruit tree plantations, vegetable gardening, forest fires, and tree planting. But honestly, we are ready to get out of here. I have loved being out of the capital and being able to go running in the mountains and swimming in the waterfalls, but I want to get started on my project now more than ever. It has been very

Jet Blue is offering $89 one-way tickets from JFK to Santiago, DR. Delta is offering $193 round-trip from National or Dulles in DC into Santo Domingo on Travelocity. These are the flights volunteers are using to get to and from the states these days, and it doesn't get much better than that. I will be at my site in middle of May, so start making plans! If you make plans in advance, you can be

Right now we are in the cockroach phase. Last week was the spider phase, and the week before was the chicken phase. I dont know why, but the animals here, large and small alike, are taking turns making my acquaintance. This is the second cockroach I have found in my bed in two days, and I believe that my leaving the first one dying on the floor for over 12 hours may have angered the second one,

Well, I have been in Jarabacoa for a little over a week now, and I have to say that I am really enjoying being out of the city. The houses themselves are not much different- tin roofs, bucket showers, intermittent power- but the environment is much nicer. I am no longer living on an off-ramp, but rather on a perfectly respectable dirt road in the countryside in a little pueblo that is called

En este ensayo voy a escribir en espanol para que puedes ver como va mi aprende. Estoy empezando en la segunda parte de mi entrenamiento manana y creo que sea muy emocionante. Me voy a ir a Jarabacoa, un pueblo en el centro de la Republica Dominicana. Oi que este parte del pas esta muy linda, y este pueblo es uno de los unicos pueblos en todo el pais que puede ganar dinero en ecoturismo. Este es

Okay, so that first weekend was a little dramatic. But hey, it made a good blog, right? That is what it is all about. I am sure that I am going to get a big talking to from my mom about it though. Things are feeling a bit more normal these days too, so hopefully she won't worry so much. My training is almost over in the capital, which will be nice, because the worst part of this place is the

Well, I am really here. I am finished with a lot of the logistics and I am spending my first weekend with my Dominican family. I live on an off-ramp on the only major highway in the DR, the Autopista Duarte, frontage road, mile 15.5. If you are in the area, you should stop by. It is a nice place to visit if you are in the market for spare sheet metal, radiator repair, or even a little

Well, I will have been in this country for a week starting tomorrow, so I think that is a milestone. I have already had a ton of shots and medicine and eaten a lot of things that the Peace Corps Medical Officer says that I shouldn't, so I guess that I am beginning to get used to it. I can't believe how much I have to say and how little time I have to say it in. Suffice to say, my spanish is

So, today I got into Miami to meet all the new people that I am going to be training with, and I am so excited. My new roomate Lauren is really cool and we had a lot of fun being the silly ones at the meeting. The volunteers run the gamut from meek and shy to crazy and stupid, so there is a little bit of fun for every occasion. Basically it is just a lot of meetings, but there is a lot of bonding