Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Jugo, mormones y volibol

10 de Julio de 2008

Greetings and salutations from the DR! As usual I fear it has been quite sometime since I have last written of my daily trials, tribulations, spastic moments and the like. For starters: Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone spent it with a cold cerveza and a beach…or something close. Last we left off, I was being stalked by creepy Pablo and on the brink of beginning my community diagnostic. Well, I can happily relate that as we speak I am working on the finishing touches of my power point presentation of said diagnostic and feel seemingly content with it. What does this diagnostic consist of, well as I explained earlier, I was waiting to andar (walk/visit) with Antonia from the school in various barrios in my town to meet the gente and ask questions about informatica and their opinions…Antonia and I started out late in the afternoon when it was ¨mas fresca¨. Antonia would introduce me: Hola, ella es Arianna, gente de Cuerpo de Paz. Ella va a trabajar con nosotros en la escuela y ella esta haciendo un trabajo. Me: Si, hola. Como esta usted? Mi nombre es Arianna y yo soy una Voluntaria con Cuerpo de Paz, un organización del Gobierno en los EEUU SIN afiliación religiosa y politica. Voy a trabajar en Proyecto Ave con computadoras y informatica. Pero, ademas de informatica yo tengo mucho mas interes en la comunidad enterro and me gustaria hacer otros proyectos sociales. Tiene tiempo por algunos preguntas porque estoy haciendo una encuesta para conocer y entender la gente y Fantino mejor? (Basically, hey I´m with Peace Corps anda m trying to get to the people here and the town better, going to work with comps but wanna work within the community also. Do you have time for a few questions) However, even after this little speech, the EXACT same thing was repeated by my Dominican counterpart as was about every single one of my questions. Pero, after my intial frustrations, I just had to laugh at it and realize that while I feel ridiculous and a little annoyed because I know what I´m saying is in fact in Spanish and is in fact correct, this is the way its gonna go and at least I´m getting to spend time with the people in my community and on occasion get some sweet, free coffee. But on the other side, there were occasions when I was talking with people and was actually, gasp, complimented on my Español and circumvented the parroting. Yet, in the end, I bid almost every household adios with a big hug and an open invitation to return whenever as Dominicans are always ¨A sus ordenes¨ This frase doesn´t really translate perfectly, but the gist is ¨whatever you need¨ This point has in fact been proven to be so true, that I have been asked by at least 3 ladies when I was coming back to tomar café and ellas estaban un poco guapa conmigo (they were a lil mad with me…also guapo/a here means mad) because I hadn´t been back to visit them again! So next week, I need to make my rounds with the ladies who lunch (not really) but to drink café, maybe talk a lil chisme and most likely after the intial pleasantries and bitching about the heat we´ll sit in awkward silence for enough time for my bladder to fill with the said café. On the note of the heat, it is incredible and mas mas fuerte than the heat in good ole SoFla, also in SoFla we have this magical device called A/C or at the very least 24hr electricity and fans. Therefore, it just gets my goat that almost every day I have a conversation similar to this one: Dominican amigo: Ah Arianna, tu estas sudando. (Oh, Arianna, you´re sweating)Me: Si, yo tengo mucho calor y yo llegue a pie. (Yes, I´m hot, I walked here)Dominican amigo: Ah, ya, que calor eh? El sol me pica mucho. (Oh yea, its hot. The sun is really bothering me too.)Me. Si. Siempre. (Yes, always) Yet, they know its effing hot and feel the need to comment on my sweat, yet they appear cool as cucumbers…go figure. What else? I have made a new friend: Julio. Julio has a juice tienda and I have been spending lots of time there as every time I´m there he gives me free, delicious, fresh juice. But even better, I sit there and shoot the shit with him while every other customer that walks in is invariably introduced to me with a nod of the head, lip point and an obligatory ´un amigo´ o ´un primo, tio, etc¨. So therefore, I have been meeting a lot of people and not having to walk in the crazy sun, showing up to their homes like a Mormon with my survey and explaining that, no I am not a Mormon. So, one day while enjoying my jugo de melon and chatting with Julio, un amigo showed up…I was introduced to him and Julio explained that he is some pastor of sorts with the Mormon church. Said pastor and I exchanged pleasantries along with my customary story about PC. Then onto the subject of what iglesia I´m with…I explained that, no I wasn´t with an iglesia, but was in fact a Judea and that no, I didn´t believe in Jesus Christo (pero, claro que is yo tengo mucho respecto por el). I also, then explained that there are many other religions and people in this mundo who do not believe in JC as well…pretty sure I blew his mind. In fact I know I did, because he exclaimed ÁH! Yo no sabia esto, incredible!) Oh, I didn´t know that…incredible! I felt that I had done my part of sharing culture and knowledge about others…I ran into him yesterday and he was intent on making sure we were amigos. I assured him we were and with a firm hand shake, I bid him adios until next time at the juice stand… One last quickie cuenta before I leave, as I´m sure you will all enjoy it. Yesterday, I went over to the cultural center, hoping to find people attending the Brigada Verde meeting and more importantly I was hoping to find the muchacho who had some of my surveys. Well I encountered neither. But I did encounter an ongoing volleyball tournament and un amigo who told me I should play with the muchachas as they were missing players. ME? Seriously? I know I think people here are slightly delusional when they tell me I look Dominican, but surely he can see that I stand a mere 5ft tall (Yes, I said it and let me live in my delusion of 5ft ok!) Well, after much nay saying and fear of embarrassment, I agreed and went home to change. Returned and told myself the whole way there that I need to embrace the awkward and put myself out there, step out of my box. Essentially make an ass out of myself for the greater good?! Well, I warmed up with some of the AWESOME muchachos and actually played ok. Even was asked if I play?! Can you believe it! We lost, I have a pretty sweet bruise on my wrist, but just this moment was told that I´m losing weight, so maybe there is something to this volleyball thing afterall… Ok, I fear at this point, if you´re still reading you´re wondering when it will be over…its over!