Grads, Family, Diving and More!

Hello family and friends,

The last couple of months have been CRAZY. I have been really busy which means BIG blog post… so grab a Gatorade and a powerbar because this one will be a marathon. Here we go…

ON WORK:

First of all my teen sex ed group graduated from the course (Escojo Mi Vida). It was really exciting for them. They did a bunch of fundraisers so that they could get t-shirts made with their slogan and group name on them, and the graduation turned out to be a big production. We had teens from 3 other communities visit, a local news channel, 3 other peace corps volunteers, and a whole bunch of “powerful” leaders in my community. I was very sick, but luckily I had my friend James there to help out. (THANKS JAMES!!!)

            -Amanda moment- I made beautiful certificates for my graduates, and I had 4 people proof read them because lets face it… I have bad luck with that kind of stuff. After I gave them to my teens one of them came up to me to show me a very interesting typo… Under the line that I signed it was supposed to say “Licda. Amanda Appel Voluntaria de Cuerpo de Paz” but instead it said “Licda. Amanda Appel Voluntaria de CUERO de Paz”. Now cuero is a bad slang word in spanish that basically means slut. So I am now the slut of peace. Hahah. Luckily my teens were very supportive about it, but I was sooooo embarrassed. I later went through the entire certificate erasing one letter at a time. It turns out that was the ONLY letter that made another word (let alone a bad word). JUST MY LUCK!!!

My Nutrition and Cooking class also finished their course so we had a big potluck where everyone had to bring one healthy dish and explain to the group why it was healthy and how they cooked it. I also gave each participant a homemade cookbook with healthy recipies!

A woman explaining her dish

Oh and I also went on a Dominican talk show for the second time. I have never had problems with public speaking… but when you have to go on tv and speak in a different language it is a whole different story.

Lastly, I FINALLY got my VAST institutional grant! This means that I have lots of money to start 10 new groups. I will be starting 5 teen sex ed groups and 5 healthy homes groups in the surrounding communities. It is lots of work, but I am very excited about it J

ON DIVING:

I went back to the beautiful Las Galeras, Samana for my Advanced Scuba course. All of my diving buddies were there (the four of us have a diving club called SCUBA CORPS). We had a lot of fun, I love diving, and as always Diane and Paul at The Dive Academy were AMAZING. We did a light salvage dive (moving heavy stuff on the bottom of the ocean), a night dive, a deep dive, and we learned how to do reef checks. Now as most of you know, I am deathly afraid of fish. I have now pinpointed my fear, and I believe I am only afraid of fish when I cannot see them (aka. When I am on top of the water and I cant see what is beneath me). So lets just say the night dive was HORRIBLE. I couldn’t even move the first 10 minutes so my dive buddy Ellen had to pull me around and hold my hand (THANKS ELLEN!!!). After a while I got the hang of it, but I don’t think I will be CHOOSING to go on any more night dives. My favorite of all the dives was the deep dive! We went 40 meters deep, and it was GORGEOUS! I cant wait to do another one! My friend Hillary ran out of air so I had to share mine with her… it was a bonding experience ahahJ

night dive

scuba corps

ON LIFE:

I recently purchased an Olla de Horno (Dutch Oven) and I have been baking a lot of breads etc. My little neighbor, Laisha (5yr.), has decided she likes to help me so we have baking hour a few times a week. I have never been much of a baker…Lets just say we are learning TOGETHER!

I also had a kitten for 3 weeks. His name was Milo (because he looked like Milo from Milo and Otis) but I had to give him to another volunteer because my neighbors believe that if you inhale one cat hair you will die… this was a problem because the little girls wanted to play with the kitten all the time.

baking

baking

milo

ON VACATION:

MY FAMILY CAME TO VISIT ME!! My mom, dad, mike, charlotte, auntie linda, uncle doug, auntie pam, uncle greg, and auntie Kelly, and uncle gary, came to visit! We stayed in villas at a beautiful resort in Puerto plata. I had soooo much fun with them. We jumped off waterfalls at 27 Charcos, went to the top of a mountain on a gondola, swam, drank, partied, and relaxed in the sun. I was in heaven! Plus I had water and electricity for a week straight!! We also spend one day in my campo with my family. We roasted a pig over hot coals and ate lots of food. The American family also brought lots of gifts for me and my Dominican family! Needless to say, I have been very sad since they left, and I cant wait to see everyone in California over Christmas and New Years. THANK YOU AMERICAN FAMILY FOR AN AMAZING WEEK AND LOTS OF GIFTS!!!!

VIP pool

Auntie and I

27 Charcos 

Dancing on stage

VIP party

Mommy, daddy and I

Mommy n' Me

Lunch in my campo

Cooling off in our private pool