La Llegada/The Arrival

I'm in Los Alcarrizos, por fin! For most of my time here so far we've been getting acostumbrada to the way of life, house, and community. And there's definitely plenty to get used to. It's definitely hot here with no escape, but as long as you don't mind being sweaty it's not oppressive. We don't have running water, but I don't mind the bucket showers--the cool water is definitely refreshing. Whenever they turn the water on, which may just be once a week, we rush to fill our big tubs of water. The electricity here is constantly in and out without any sort of pattern--so sometimes it'll be on all night (my favorite because that way we have fans while we sleep) and not on at all during the day, or sometimes it goes back and forth. It's kind of fun at times--I've brushed my teeth and showered by candlelight. When I saw that they had put a head lamp on our list I laughed, but now I see how useful it is! The biggest adjustment has probably been housemates (and not the sisters or the volunteers who are awesome, by the way). I'm talking BUGS. I've become an experta with the cucarachas--two of my roommates are pretty afraid of them so I've been killing them left and right. Mosquitoes are everywhere but we sleep with nets so it's not too bad. Our worst--and funniest--episode has been with a giant rat. One of the volunteers felt something brush past her legs, she screamed and fell backwards in her chair. Then we found a dead rat on the other side of the table. How this happened I have no idea--we're thinking either she crushed him with her chair and flung him across the room or he died of susto after trying to run away. I'm sure I'll be able to write a book about this stuff after the year is through.

Our barrio is considered (according to the person next to me on the plane) to be a horrible neighborhood--definitely one of the poorest--but I'm enjoying life here. Our neighbors are so friendly--tons of kids--and we buy our groceries at the little corner stores--we have to go into the city (about a 45 minute ride) to go to a real grocery store. It's VERY loud here--you can always hear music, kids, roosters--but it's not obnoxious. Although in many ways we're living like the people here, we still are so privileged in comparison. We live in three houses side by side that are connected--the houses are small, so put all together it's as if we lived in one regular-large house (and there are 7 of us), but the Dominicans live one extended family PER little house. We also have wireless internet (which feel really strange to me), but it's important for the sister's work that they keep in touch with their home base, so I think that's pretty fair. Anyhow, we're doing our best to live in solidarity with the community.

Yesterday was our first day at the batey and the school we'll be working in. The next two weeks, before school starts on Aug. 24, we'll just be learning the ropes. Our staff is almost twenty people--so our principal is a sister we live with, we're four volunteers, and the rest are Dominican teachers, most of whom are mas o menos our age. The school is pretty well-equipped and nice, a noticeable difference from the community it's in. We haven't had the chance to get out into the community (aside from the school) yet, but from what I've seen so far the people are very friendly. They live in tiny shacks and kids are running around dirty and naked everywhere. They are so beautiful--they run straight up to you and hold your hand and hug you. I can't wait to teach them. Today I blew a kiss at one of the little toddlers who was smiling at me and a man nearby was asking if I blew it to him haha. Today we also had a man kneel down and start proclaiming his love to us. Oh, brother haha.

I'll keep you posted on the rest of my training/school soon. The internet only works when we have elecricity, but I'll try to keep this up regularly. I miss you all very much! Rest assured that I'm very happy here!

Con mucho carinio,

Laura (oh yeah, they've changed my name b/c mine's hard to pronounce)