home sweet home.

Well hello there my bloggy friends! Sorry it has been so long, but I have been quite the busy girl! Okay hold on to your hats and jackets because I have a LOT to tell you…

On Swearing in: Ok so I officially became a peace corps volunteer October 28^th, 2011. Woot woot! The swearing in ceremony was really nice, and the director of PCDR was sick with dengue so we had the US ambassador swear us in. cool. All of our host families in Santo Domingo were invited and we had a big celebration with cake and everything.

All of our swearing in group with the US ambassador.

On Homecoming: The night after swearing in we had PC “homecoming”. It is a night where all of the “old” volunteers come to the capital and throw a big party for all of the newbies who just swore in. It just so happened that our homecoming fell really close to Halloween so some people dressed up… and yall know me… I HAD to dress up (I mean I am my mothers daughter). Anyways, with my PC salary I was unable to go crazy like I usually do… but I was able to put together a pretty good 80’s costume for $300 pesos (About 8 USD).

My costume.

On My New Home: Ok so my new home is pretty awesome if I do say so myself :). I live in Barrancón, Puerto Plata. It is a small campo (aka rural village), but there are actually some pretty wealthy (and by wealthy I mean “campo” wealthy) families. I live with one such family. My mother is a teacher at the local school, and my father is an ex-military dude = pension. We have a nice little house made out of bloc (I know what your thinking… not wood or zinc! How lucky!) and I live on the roof in a separate little room that they built up there. It is nice because you cant get to it from inside the house so I have my own little stairs. I also have two host brothers around my age, but they both go to university (rare) in Santiago so I don’t see them that often. Lets see… what else… OH! My house is about a 30 second walk from a river (did someone say river bathing? Because that is what happens sometimes). I am also about 3 miles from the beach. Sweeeeet.

River after a big rain... flooded.

My road with my house on the right.

Our cock fighting ring.

the cemetery.

this is pretty much what all of the land looks like in Barrancon.

view from my bathroom

Internet hut.

On Work: Blah. The first three months is the “diagnostic period”. So basically all I am doing right now is visiting all the houses and asking questions about nutrition, hygiene, living conditions, diseases, family health etc. I will then put all of this information together to decide what projects I am going to do in my community. As a health volunteer I have to do Escojo Mi Vida (sex ed for teens) groups and Hogares Saludables (healthy homes for adults), but beyond that I get to do whatever I want/my community needs :). I am really excited because I have already figured out that a lot of people in my community are overweight, have diabetes, have high blood pressure, have high cholesterol, or all of the above (All they eat here are carbs carbs more carbs, sugar, and salt). Anyways, I think it would be awesome to do a DR version of the biggest loser, and incorporate nutrition and exercise classes. Also, a brand new clinic (we didn’t have one before) was just built in our campo, but from what I hear… after they are built it takes multiple years to equip and staff them. Therefore I am going to see if I can get my hands on some basic stuff (blood pressure cuff, scale, etc.) and keep charts on all of the people that participate. I am going to talk to some doctors in the nearest clinic (Luperón) and see what format they use, and if it would even be useful for me to start collecting this info for them. REMEMBER PEEPS, I just came up with this idea so it is very rough around the edges… any suggestions???

On Funny Stories:

1.    1.  I met the Dominican Sarah Palin the other day. No joke.

2.     2. When I was frustrated with my Spanish (or lack thereof) I tried to tell my host mom my cabeza esta rota (my head is broken)… but accidently said my cerveza esta rota (my beer is broken).

3.    3.  I had a baby cacata crawl down the back of my shirt… I freaked out and that made it scurry into my pants… my Doña saw this and smacked my booty to kill it… as I peeled cacata guts off of my rear I realized it bit me… it hurt really bad for a couple of days and one day when two other Doñas were visiting my Doña asked me how it was… I said it still hurt (BAD IDEA) so her and the two other women brought me into a room, pulled down my pants and rubbed menthol and butter on my rear. Awkward.

4.     4. I forgot to mention… menthol is the Dominican equivalent to windex (my big fat greek wedding). No joke. They put it on EVERYTHING!

5.     5. My first day here I was walking down the biggest dirt road (that’s all we got folks) in Barrancón (I like to call it the main streen promenade) when I was confronted with a herd of cattle. Now this happens twice a day… the cowboys take the cows out in the morning and back in the evening (ps. We are a rural village so we’s gots lots o’ cows). Since it was my first day I was not exactly sure what to do. I remembered that when we were driving to Barrancón the day before the cows all just went around the car… so I took the head on approach. It turns out that a lone female does not have the same effect that a giant truck does… I was rubbed up on all sides, pushed around a little, laughed at by the cowboys. But I made it out alive!

the cows

On Weird Dominican-ish:

1.     1. menthol

2.     2. When a woman is on her period she is not allowed to hold a baby because it will hurt the baby.

3.    3.  Mal de ojo: If you say a baby is cute or pretty without attributing it to god the baby will get sick and possibly die, but if you tie a string around the baby’s arm it will ward off the evil spirits.

4.     4. If you open the refrigerator when  you are hot the cold air will make your face freeze in an ugly position, hurt you, or possibly kill you. I find this one exceptionally funny because I sometimes go buy ChocoRica (chocolate milk) at the colmado after I am done excercising (so I am all hot and sweaty). When I do this I like to walk reallllly slow up to the refrigerator so that inevitably someone who is in the colmado will come running to my rescue, step in front of me, get my drink for me, and then explain why I cant do that…. It makes my day when I see the funny/awkward faces they make as they try to tell me how your face will get stuck. Im mean.

5.     5. Silla Caliente- some people believe that if someone with HIV/AIDS sits in a chair and then another person sits in that same chair afterwards (without letting it cool down) they second person will then have HIV/AIDS as well. As far as I can tell this is true for all other viruses as well.

6.     6. A home remedy for UTIs is to pee on a really hot rock so that the vapors go up your whooohaaa and cure the infection… a nice cricket tea is also said to do the trick.

7.     7. Halls throat lozenges are considered candy.

8.       8. The best advice the “old” peace corps volunteers gave us was “never trust a fart in this country”

MORE PICS!!!

my neighbors

rolos/moto

my host parents

my bff. we color a lot.

my host brother and a friend.

some friends

MISS YOU. LOVE YOU. MEAN IT!

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS AN AMAZING T-DAY!

<3 AMANDA MANZANA

The Health Fair: Pros and Cons

Hi Everyone! Sorry it has been so long... but I have been super busy my last couple of weeks in CBT. We had a big health fair in Las Tablas, and it was super stressful. It started out as our "practicum experience" for training, but it turned into somewhat of a nightmare. We split up into four groups, and each group was going to have a booth on a different topic. We had nutrition, reproductive health, chronic diseases (my booth), and hygiene. Ok... so we envisioned a small little fun health fair with the people of the campo. We made little Health Passports with questions from each booth and a place for a sticker from each booth. Once you got all the stickers you could enter into a raffle, and we had fun healthy baskets to raffle off.... WELLL it didnt exactly go that way. We had a doctor from the ministry of health in Bani that wanted to help out with the fair (supply some doctors and some free stuff etc) so we said sure. Especially because at my booth (chronic diseases) we were weighing everyone, taking BP, measuring everyone, and calculating BMI so we definitely could use some help. Ok... so the dude shows up, gives out some trees, takes pictures planting a few, takes pictures with the kids, takes pictures in front of our booths, sets up a video projector, plays a cartoon for five minutes, takes it down, and leaves. He was in and out. This would have been fine except for the fact that all hell broke loose after because everyone wanted to be given free stuff.... because they saw that he had given out free things to other people. Well we got swarmed... a lot more people showed up than expected... there was a riot... spitting... fighting... etc. We shut down the health fair and that was that. The good news is that before all of this happened we definitely talked to a lot of people and I think everyone left with a little bit more health knowledge than they came with...

Our pretty wall at the health fair.

On my Doña and me:
Ok so my Doña in Las Tablas loves loves loves me. She keeps telling me I am not allowed to leave because she loves me too much and it will make her sad. She has also given me 3 skirts, a pair of shorts, and a cute pair of red pumps. Unfortunately, the shoes and shorts did not fit... but I did get three new skirts. I was also recently asked by my cousin (22) if I would be the godmother of his baby with his 13 year old wife. Here there is something called "campo married" it is when a girl just doesnt come home one night... and she is not allowed to live in her house anymore... I think they were campo married. Anyways they just had a baby boy, and while I was holding the cutest little 4 day old baby ever they asked me to be the godmother. I wanted to say yes... but there is no way I could have done it. In the DR, godparents are a serious part of the baby's life FOREVER. Luckily, my little host-niece marla stepped in and said "She can't be the godmother. She is going to live far away. DUH"

My Don, Doña, and I.

Marla, Waren, and I.

On Cacatas:
Ok so I had another cacata experience. This time it was in the bathroom when I went in for a wee wiz in the middle of the night. I don't like to do this because it becomes a big process when you have to untuck you mosquito net, find your shoes, find your flashlight, find the bathroom etc. Anyways, I obviously really had to piddle this particular night so I went for it. I found my cacata friend chilling in there... dilemma... pee first and then get my Doña and risk getting cacata-tacked or get my Doña and then pee in private. Now I decided to go with the first because lets face it... I had to pee. It was almost as awkward as the time I popped a squat in the middle of the soccer field. We just stared at each other... and I did not move my flashlight from it.... EVER. I then got my Doña who yelled for my cousin and woke up the whole house. Everyone came in to see the cacata... and then they all laughed because the cacata was "chiquitita" (extremely small). They figured since I (when in reality it was my Doña who woke everyone up) woke the whole house up it must have been at least the size of my head or bigger... but since this one was only the size of my hand... the joke was on the stupid americana.

My pee-pal.

On to bigger and better things:
I am on my way back to Santo Domingo where I will have a few more days of training. Then it is off to Barrancón, Puerto Plata to visit my site for a week with my project partner. Then I come back to Santo Domingo for Swearing in. Then a lot of the current volunteers are having "homecoming" for us... basically it is just a big party in the capital. Then I head back to Barrancón and stay there!

On my site:
Sorry I realized I was just talking about Barrancón and I never told y'all about my site placement. I was originally placed right outside of Santiago which is the second largest city after Santo Domingo. I wasn't too stoked about being in an urban area, but my APCD really wanted to put me there because he thought I could do a lot on more of an administrative level because of all of my experience. Well I talked to him and told him that I thought I would be much happier in a campo (rural area). He then placed me in Barrancón, Puerto Plata. It is just inland of La Isabela, Puerto Plata if you look it up on google maps. I don't really know much about it yet, but I am excited to go visit :)

Until next time....

On Climbing Mountains and Being Famous

Hello Blog Readers!
Ok so a few things have happened since I last blogged... Yesterday I climbed a mountain. Seriously. We had two local boys take us up the mountain, and it was hard. We climbed up boulders that were really steep, and knowing how accident prone I am I feel that I should have been tethered to the mountain in some way. However, I made it safely up and down the mountain with only a few scrapes and some sore muscles to show for it :) The scariest part about climbing the mountain was following a 12 year old boy with an extremely sharp machete. He kept falling and sliding down and playing on the edge of the cliff. It was a miracle that he did not fall and stab himself or cut someone elses leg off. seriously. Parents here kind of just let their kids figure stuff out on their own....

The beginning.

Climbing.

View from the top.

Ok. We also went on a field trip to the Ministry of Health in Bani and we got a lecture about all of the common illnesses/ problems etc. Well while we were there a video camera came in and video taped us and interviewed the doctor who gave our lecture. Later in the week my host sister came home after being in the city all day and she said she saw us all on the news. So that is exciting. 

I dont really know what else to tell you. We have technical training and spanish every day during the week so we dont get to do much else during the week. 

OHhhhhhh I know! We went into Santo Domingo so we could go on a tour of Profamilia which is a clinic that focuses on reproductive health and rights. That was really interesting... and we also got to see the american embassy. It has a full restaurant, pool, gym, etc. and as soon as we swear in we are allowed to go there whenever we are in the capitol. So that is pretty cool.  Ok I am just going to provide some photos for yall now...

 OH I forgot to tell you. We learned how to make an organic garden!

Public Transportation!

My Spanish Teacher.

Some PC Peeps!

Climbing the Mountain.

Man with Machete.

The Sanctuary in Las Tablas. Really Pretty.

Dominican Kite.

More Public Transportation.

My Don and Doña. He was very excited to show me his California shirt.

My Doña and I in our colmado.

The Doña Auntie Pam Theory

Hola! Ok so I have officially been in Las Tablas for a whole week. Woot woot. My host family is amazing. My doña is a really old woman and she takes very very good care of me. She told me to make sure to tell my mom that she was feeding me really well. You see… in the DR being called fat (gordita) is a compliment, and the Doñas don’t think they are doing a good job taking care of you if you loose weight. In fact, it is often a bragging point “oh look at my Americana she is has gained weight. I am such a good Doña”. Anyways, I initially lost some weight and that was just NOT ok. So now she feeds me enough food for 8 people (no joke) at every meal, and when I don’t finish it she tells me she will save it for later because I need to eat it haha. Oh but this leads me to my theory… the “Auntie Pam was a Doña in Another Life Theory”. Those of you that know Auntie Pam will appreciate this…. Ok so Doñas are old (and no I am not calling you old Auntie Pam) women who spend all day taking care of everyone in the family. They cook all day, and they love to teach you how to cook but never want any help. They keep giving you more and more food even though you tell them you are full. You cannot sit for two minutes without them bringing you coffee, candy, fruit, juice, snacks, etc. They are constantly cleaning everything, and again they never let you help. They say whatever they are thinking and they let you know when they have a problem with something. They pick at your nails and your hair and are not shy about telling you what you need to do to clean up your appearance. Oh and they loooove to talk about their kids and their Americana. Every Doña in the community knows everything that is going on with everyone. My Doña will tell me things about myself that I didnt even know. Remind you of anyone?

Anyways, community based training is going really well. We have a lot of technical training and a lot of Spanish class. Oh and we are learning how to make and organic garden right now which is pretty cool. Tomorrow we get to go to the beach… yesssssss! However, on Monday I have to give a 10-15 minute presentation on breastfeeding… IN SPANISH. My Spanish still isn’t great so I am really nervous. Ill let you know how it goes!

Miss y’all. Love y’all. Mean it.

Amanda Manzana

Reallllly Quick Now.

Hello Everyone!
I am really sorry I have not been posting more often, but training is CRAZY and I haven't really had too much time...
Last weekend I went to visit a current health volunteer in Santiago Rodriguez. The point of the trip was to get to see what day to day life is like for volunteers. I absolutely loved her site. She lives in a very small campo, and almost everyone works in agriculture. Everything was so wide open and beautiful (wayyyyy different than Santo Domingo). She didn't have electricity or running water, but she did have a latrine in the backyard. Also, the nearest colmado (store) was a 30 min walk from her home. While I was there I learned to build a stove (most dominicans use open fires in a small cooking hut, and this is realllllly bad for the women and children so she was building stoves with small chimneys), I learned about all of the things she has done (womens empowerment groups, HIV/AIDS groups, etc), we went to the beach in Monte Cristi, I saw the Haitian border, I saw a chicken go from running around the yard to on my plate, and I got to meet a lot of the people in her community. The beach we went to was on the Atlantic side of the island, and it was completely isolated/private. Oh one very funny thing was that she had a latrine... which is fine during the day, but at night it was COVERED in creepy crawlies (giant cockroaches, spiders, tarantulas, and centipedes). Needless to say if we had to pee at night we popped a squat in the yard. I also had a very interesting experience with a tarantula. I was showering in her kitchen (she showers there because there is light and the water can drain out of the corner... oh and it is bucket showering of course). Anyways, back to my story. There was a giant tarantula chilling in the corner while I was showering. The problem is if you try to kill them and miss they stand up on their back to legs and make a hissing/screeching noise. Oh and did I mention that they can jump. yeah. awesome. Anyways, I opted for the shower with it present option because we all know how bad my hand eye coordination is and I dont think it would end well if I attempted to kill it... it was the fastest shower I have ever taken.

 The House I stayed in over the weekend.

 The patio of the house I stayed in over the weekend.

 The backyard of the house I stayed in over the weekend.

The Peace Corps Training Center. These are the little huts that we have class in.

 Peace Corps Training Center.

The beach in Monte Cristi.

On Transportation:
Ok so public transportation here is interesting. There are carro publicos which look like old hondas from the 80s with doors and bumpers falling off. etc. Anyways, they drive up and down streets but i can never really figure out the routes. You have to fit four people in the back seat and two people in the front seat plus the driver. its cozy. There are also gua guas which are small bus type vehicles. You basically just shove as many people as possible into the guaguas and the cobrador is usually hanging out the side. You can also take taxis but we usually dont do that. Oh and there are moto conchos which are motorcycle taxis. You usually have to take these to the rural areas so I had to take one to my volunteer visit.
OK. So this weekend we are headed to Community Based Training. I will be living in Las Tablas de Bani for 5 weeks with all of the health volunteers. I am not sure what the internet situation will be, but I will do my best to keep yall in the loop.

I'm Here!

Hola!

I love the Dominican Republic! I am really sorry but this is going to be a long post because I have a lot to say, and I don’t know when I will have internet again.

On Life:

We arrived Thursday the 18^th around noon on a red eye (I think I slept about 30 mins). A large group of current PC volunteers were at the airport with signs cheering for us, and we all piled into a tiny van. We then headed to a monastery where we had orientation, were vaccinated, signed a ton of paperwork, got our malaria pills, and then had to take our ID pictures (I cant even begin to describe how homely/tired I look in that picture haha). The next day we had a full day of training where they told us about all of the fun illnesses and diseases we might get, that 10% of PC volunteers in the DR get engaged while serving, all of the cultural differences, and survival Spanish. Later, we were sent home with our training host families. 

The first night with my host family was probably one of the hardest (not in a bad way) nights of my life. I speak very little Spanish, and nobody in my host family speaks any English. It was very difficult to be in a new place, with people you don’t know, who speak a language you don’t know, have completely different customs and values than you, and have to cohabitate.  However, I love my host family. My mom is a young woman named Yojaira, and I have a little sister named Anna liz. We live across the “street” from my grandma and aunt (who are also hosting volunteers).  Oh, and the name of our barrio (neighborhood) is Los Cocos, and it is right on the edge of Santo Domingo.

A typical day in Los Cocos consists of a lot of what Americans would call nothing, but the Dominicans truly love. We hang out at the local colmado (a colmado is a small, closet sized store that sells the essentials, and often doubles as a bar) or on our porch and just sit and compartir (the Dominican word for share/bond). I really enjoy the fact that two other volunteers live so close because they also hang out at the colmado, and it is nice to be able to speak English every once and a while.

Saturday we sat outside all day, and we were invited to a baby shower at night. The baby shower was just a normal party with food, booze, hanging out, and dancing. I have made friends with a local guy named Mika, and he taught me how to bachata and merengue (two local dances). I had a ton of fun, and we didn’t go home until a fight broke out at about 2am. The best part about the fight was that my grandma was the one that broke it up!

Sunday was spent practicing Spanish, sitting around, and playing soccer and volleyball with the neighborhood kids.

On Food:

I really enjoy most of the food I have had so far. The coffee is AMAZING, and my host mom makes it for me every morning because she knows I love it. She thinks I am weird because I like it sin azucar y sin leche (Dominicans put tons of sugar in everything). I have also had a ton of plantains, yucca, potatoes, potato-like foods, avocados, mangos, rice, beans, meat, and bread. Every meal is basically carbs, carbs, carbs, more carbs, and some meat. In fact, we volunteers have a daily conversation about how long it has been since our last bowel movement haha. I think my favorite meal so far was on Saturday before the baby shower. We built a fire in the middle of the street, and my grandma brought out her huge pot. All of the neighbors came out and just started chopping up whatever they had and tossing it in the bowl. It ended up being a really good soup, and it was fun (although probably not very sanitary) to have everyone cooking in the street.

On Buckets:

I now have a love-hate relationship with buckets buckets. We do not have running water… so our bucket is my best friend. In our bathroom we have a giant oil drum that is filled with water (usually rain water). I scoop water out of that with an old pampers baby wipes box into a smaller bucket. I have learned to shower with only a half a bucket of water…. And if you think that is amazing… last night the power went out and I showered by the light of one candle! We also have to use buckets to flush the toilet. We have the luxury of having a toilet, but since there is no running water we have to supply it. Now you may be thinking, “that doesn’t sound that difficult”, and I thought the same thing at first. The truth is it is REALLY hard (ok maybe I am just “special” but I think it is difficult). You have to thrust the water in at just the right angle and with just enough force. If you give it too much force and your angle is off you end up soaked in your own urine… or worse. However, if you don’t give it enough force the water doesn’t go down, and you end up just filling the toilet with water (which makes it even harder on your next attempt). I think I have finally perfected the art of the bucket flush, but I wont have a toilet for long. The area I am living in is actually one of the nicer areas. When I get sent to my site I will most likely have a latrine.

On Power:

I am very lucky to be in an area that has electricity, but it comes and goes as it pleases. I think we usually have power a couple hours a night, and during the day we usually never have power.

On Weather:

Hot and Humid.

On Dominicans:

I love the Dominicans. They are the nicest, most generous people I have ever met. They are also very loud and fun (apparently the DR was ranked 2^nd loudest country in the world). I also love their culture, and I feel so blessed to be able to experience it firsthand and be a part of it. The only part that is rough is understanding and adhering to local gender roles. There are a lot of restrictions placed on women, and there are a lot of things that are normal for Americans that are considered scandalous here.

I have so much more to tell y’all, but I have to save some of it for when you come to visit me J

Staging

Hello All!
I am currently in Arlington, Virginia for staging. I arrived late last night, and we started staging today. We basically had a meeting from 12-6 to fill out/turn in paperwork, get to know each other, discuss what to expect, and talk about our upcoming service. We covered everything from excessive diarrhea to uber-super-large sized bugs! Eeeeeek! I just got back to my room (8pm local time), and now i have to shower, pack, and get some sleep. We leave the hotel at 2am tomorrow morning for the DR. Woot woot! Cant wait! So far everyone in my training class is amazing, and I look forward to getting to know them all a lot better! Next stop... DR! Talk to you then!
miss y'all. love y'all. mean it!
Amanda Mae Appel

Preparation

Hi everyone!
Let me preface this post by saying that I am a blog virgin and I apologize if I lack the necessary blogging skills :) Anyways, I will be leaving August 17th for the Dominican Republic. I dont have all of the deets yet but I do know that I will be working as a Health Care Extentionist. I will not find out exactly what I will be doing until I complete my training in the DR (August 18th- October 28th). However, I have been told that I will be working on 1) educating young people to practice safe sex and prevent HIV/AIDS transmission, 2) Improving mothers nutritional practices to reduce malnutrition among children under five, and 3) improving reproductive health practices among women living in small rural villages. I am so excited to work on reproductive health because that is EXACTLY what I wanted! Oh, I also wont find out where exactly in the DR I will be serving until after training. So I will have to keep y'all posted!
In the meantime I am just finishing up my last couple of classes at Tulane, working on my spanish (I speak like suchhhhh a white girl), and figuring out how I am going to pack two years worth of stuff in 80lbs. Lets just say I brought 100lbs home for Christmas... and that was only a month.
Start planning your visits :)
miss you. love you. mean it.
Amanda "Mookie" Mae Appel