cold weather and international women's day

It's cold here!

OK, so not really, but it's much colder than one would expect living in the Caribbean... I sleep zipped into a sleeping bag at night! I don't have a thermometer, but I think it gets down into the 50s sometimes. I know, that's nothing compared to the March snowstorm some of you East-coasters just went through, but it's still cold, especially since my house is definitely not insulated.

On Sunday my Escojo group (7 youth who did a course with me on life skills, sex ed, and AIDS prevention) and I hosted a celebration for International Women's Day. We had a march through the community; my kids gave a small talk about three women who were killed by Trujillo, the former dictator, here in the DR; I gave a talk about women around the world; and then we awarded certificates to 10 women for work they have done for the benefit of their communities. My project partner, who is usually a non-entity at any event or project I plan, not only showed up but really helped me out by providing a lot of energy and musical entertainment. I think we had about 100 people show up, including the 20-ish that my closest PC volunteer neighbor Lauren brought over from her site. I think the event went very well-- good attendance, not too boring, and with a positive message. Here are a few pictures:

this is me and my dominican doña, teresa, when she received her award

the musical entertainment: thanks to my project partner, the man with the guitar, and his makeshirt choir.

getting ready for the march

I have to head into the capital later this week, which is both good and bad... If I decide to shlep all my dirty laundry to the capital, I do get to use an actual washing machine and dryer and save myself at least a day's worth of scrubbing and wringing out and hanging up to dry. I also get to revel in the magic of running water, cell phone signal, and wireless internet, but I always spend wayyy too much money in the capital, and that can be very dangerous for someone whose w-2 from last year reported yearly income as $2700. No, I didn't forget to type a zero.

I've been wasting valuable internet time recently looking at job postings on idealist.org, even though I still have 8 more months of service. I guess I just want to get an idea of what kinds of jobs I'd be interested in when that time rolls around, and what kinds of jobs I am even qualified to do. In completely unrelated news, a motorcycle just drove by with a washing machine tied onto the back. Impressive.