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.