NEW CAMERA!!

this is fibi slash phoebe. she is getting bigger and bigger, the vet thinks she will get to be about 40 pounds which is a good size i think. there was a med mission of american vets near me this week, so i took her to get spayed. it was free, and they also gave her flea medicine and cut her toenails. i helped them translate. it was good.
this is me, obviously. the picture was taken in cabrera, the closest city to me. it´s nice.
this is my living room, as usual filled with children. they really love to play uno and have filled up about 500 coloring books already. sorry the picture is sideways, i am bad at technology.
this is my house! it needs a paint job and eventually ill get around to scrubbing that black stuff off (its caused by the rain dripping down or something) but its great. my landlady has recently opened her heart and for one reason or another has informed me that i no longer need to pay rent. its amazing. i am getting my rocking chairs fixed so i can have nice seats, and i just traded my neighbor for a tv. i know, so not peace corps, but it was a good deal and i gotta keep up with my telenovelas. hey, they wanted me to integrate into the culture.
this is my kitchen counter and stove. note the very not dangerous placement of gas tank about 4 feet from stove. if you can see i also have NATURE VALLEY granola bars which are a blessing from god. just like the red truck that drives through my town selling vegetables, announcing its presence over a bullhorn that says ¨the red truck has arrived, like a blessing from god¨. i bought a carrot and a cucumber and a pineapple from him the other day. you can see them on the table if you look hard.

ok i have to run but now you can see parts of my life here! look forward to more!

semana santa begins..

well, things are going very well down here in the DR. my new house is lovely, albeit minimalist in its furnishings. i´m working on that though. fibi is growing incredibly quickly and is super cute. the sexual health conference was last weekend for my two youth and it went great... i am so proud of my kids. they learned a lot, made new friends, and got to see a whole new part of the country. this week i am headed to a very touristy part of the island to see some family friends who will be here, which i am very excited for. if only i had a camera. my english class is going well, we are having a little graduation on april 5 which they are all extremely excited for. today i woke up at 2 am to go on this pilgrimage walk to a shrine in the rock about 5 miles away from my village, it was painfully early and i am, you could say, running on empty right now but i´m glad i did it. tomorrow my youth group has a talent show at the local bar/dance hall to raise money for the club, and ithink it will be quite a sight,some of the acts are pretty ridiculous. i have to run, but soon i will be able to post PHOTOS with my entries so you can see where i live!!

'lily

more pictures!

more pictures of fibi! she is getting to be really playful...

lots of things have been going on here. on monday, i have to travel to the capital to present my community diagnostic, the project i have been working on for the past three months. i will be there for about a week, and upon my return i will move into my neW HOUSE! i can´t overemphasize how excited i am to move... my host mom takes care of me and is a good cook, but she also has a mean streak and i can´t wait to eat some food that isn´t cooked in three cups of oil. english class has been going well, they have their first test tomorrow! i´m also baking them a cake to celebrate. in march, there is a conference in the capital for youth health promoters (a really simplified explanation) and i am going to bring 2 kids from my community with me, so today i have to pick 2 out of the 5 that want to go... oh man! the weather has been pretty nice recently, not too hot. wednesday was ash wednesday so i can now say goodbye to meat on fridays for a while... no, i´m not actually catholic but everyone else is so it´s easier just to go along with it. i think that´s about all for now. i miss you all and hope all is well!

big news

so the other puppy didnt work out... but this is my new dog!!! sorr if the pictures arent great, i am under some serious time constraints so i will write more soon. her name is phoebe (fibi in spanish, ha) and she is really cute. not sure how old she is as she was rescued from a farm nearby. i hope all is well and i will talk to yousoon !

Ok, I can't figure out how to turn these pictures the right way so you all are just going to have to turn your heads sideways. The first picture is basically all of the kids under the age of 12 in my village, waiting to be given their presents for Three Kings Day. It was kind of a madhouse, but really fun. The second picture is a dog and her puppies that live near me... I may be getting one of them for myself but that depends on whether the family lowers the price. Right now they want to charge me 1000 pesos for the puppy, but that's really expensive so I'm not sure if it will work out or not. Things are going well here overall; I am getting lots of interviews done for my community diagnostic and starting to work with the youth group here in town. I'm starting to teach an English class this Saturday, which I am nervous for but I think it will work out. I've been working pretty hard on creating a curriculum, although from what I hear from older volunteers it might not end up being of any use. I'm adjusting pretty well to life in my site, excited for some visitors! I will write more later... I'm in the capital now and another volunteer is going to use my computer for a bit.

two more pictures

happy holidays everyone! all is well here in the dominican republic. i don´t have a lot of time, but i wanted to add these two pictures. the first is the coastline that i pass every time i come down to the main city, and the second is a better picture of the view from up the hill in my village.

pictures!

so, tropical storm olga is passing over the island of hispaniola at this very moment and i am at a nice hotel with about 40 other volunteers. PC decided to consolidate us until the storm passes because of threats of flooding and the like. it's nice to be here with electricity, hot water, and internet access, but i was kind of bummed about the timing because i had some important activities planned for this week... i was going to start working on my community diagnostic and talking to some focus groups of students from the local high school. but, such is life and i will be able to pick things up once i get back to my site. i am going to take advantage of the wireless here and try to post some pictures. the first picture is a beach nearby, but since then i have found a prettier, closer beach so i will try to get some more pictures to entice you all to visit me. the second picture is from the road where i live, off in the distance is the coast... it's a beautiful view. the last two pictures are what my village and surrounding areas look like-- lots of green hills and cows. i hope these work...