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
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