Something about a new apt and a river...

Mis panes! Como estan??? Well like always it has been awhile since my last update of life in the DR and like always there is much to report. First, panes as in breads, are also slang for friends, so there is your spanish lesson for the day. Also, as of now there is lots of rain but nothing major...yet. re: Tropical Storms. Hmm, where to begin? I believe as when we last left off I was working on my diagnostic and drinking lots of cafe. Well, my diagnostic has come and went and I presented the finished product with a member of my committee. Originally I thought was going to go sola mission as my project partner is forever "ocupada" with something and while she talks a good talk there is very little time for her to actually work with me...also something about a language barrier...anyhoo, I was sitting on my new galleria (we'll get to this part soon) playing in with my flashlight when Felipe and Leo suprised me with a visit and told me that Felipe would join me manana for the day...they also apparently needed to investigate my new place and be sure to inquire if a)can i cook and b)when will i be having them over for dinner? Well they are going to be quite suprised because I still dont have a stove and I am not cooking rice and beans and carne! Ok, so Monday morning rolled around and after a long weekend of waiting the rain, bargaining with my new landlord and moving! I met Felipe and off we went to IST in GuaGui, La Vega. This is a town close to my site mas o menos, however after the carro publico ride we had to take a taxi up the mountain which was a little bumpy to say the least, but very very beautiful as we looked down on the valley and city below. After pleasantries and many tazitos of cafe later, we commenced with IST and Domingo, my APCD (Director of my sector) introduced IST and asked everyone to BRIEFLY go around and describe their site and project status. Well, being at the beginning of the table I started, stating that Fantino was great blahblah and that we are STILL waiting on computers from the Sec of Education so for the moment we are at a standstill as far as computer class goes...well then Felipe felt the need to pipe in. Chatty Cathy over here went on for 15 minutes about his 21 years in education, blahblah...with all my friends' eyes on me thinking "What is this joker talking about and is he finished yet?" Well after Felipe talked about how bonita PC was he finally signed off. Then onto the diagnostic presentations which were very boring and said the same thing basically each time around...well that is until I went (last) and made the mistake of asking Felipe to give a BRIEF history of Fantino. I even gave him a written out paragraph of exactly what to say. Well chatty cathy over here once again was quite verbose for no reason and took up at least half of my 15 minutes to present! So I was rushed through my presentation which was fine...I bid Felipe adios and went to a friends room to have a long awaited Cuba Libre! As I have referenced I have moved! Por fin! While me and Milagros (my dona) have become pretty good friends and I genuinely feel like she's my family here I was more than excited to get to my own place and have some peace and quite and alone time in a room other than my bedroom! Well, my new casa is in reality an apartment over a colmado. It has water and light (sometimes). But since I am on the second floor there is mas brisa so sleeping sin fan isn't too too bad. When I was looking at the place, my friend who helped me find it and my new landlord assured me that the calle is muy tranquilo. Well, while I am no longer living right next to that blasted moto repair shop the street is not quiet and there are many many gallos that wake me up at all hours of the morning, BUT there are NO screaming kids and no dona looking at me to finish every grain of rice so all is superbien! In an effort to keep this corto, I will depart with this final tale...yet another of my spazzyness that I'm sure will provide comincal relief in yor day (at least thats the goal). So, after my IST I went to Jarabacoa, which is the Swiss Alps mountain town version here in the DR to meet up with the Enviroment kids to go white water rafting. So, Sunday morning we go up and out and off to the place to gear up TK is the enviro trainer and I asked if it was really neccesary to wear the wet suit as it is hot and how cold can the water really be in the middle of August in the Carribean? While I did not don the wet suit, the helmet and life vest were a must. So off we went down the river with Juan as our fearless river guia. All started out well and my friend Anne fell out a few times which was HIGHLARIOUS but apparently a sign of things to come. On one of the big rapids I was on the low side of the boat going down the big rapid. Well I fell out and at first I was thinkng "hey i'm cool, I can swin and Juan will save me" Well, how wrong I was. All of sudden everything went into highgear and the next thing I knew I was pinned in between a rock and the raft watching my friends jump of out of the boat, shouting "Where is she"? Then I was under the boat, in between the boat and rock. Next thing I knew my friend Joel, gracias adios, pulled me up by life jacket and into the boat after I popped back up on the other side. However, as you may recall we were still in the middle of the rapids and once back in, we were still fighting our way to calmer waters. I gave Juan and all my friends a good little rattle and a little while later we stopped for a snack and a rest and TK came up to me to inquire if I was ok. TK: Well, how ya doing?AB: Um, ok I have a big bruise here on the back of shoulder and few others but I'm goodTK: yea, thats why I wear the wetsuit, It protects from that.AB: Uh huh, thanks I'll keep that in mind next time. I didnt know that wetsuits also kept you from falling out of the raft?! But hey what do I know...so along the river we went sin incident. After we disembarked I had a much needed cerveza! Anyway that is the lasted cuenta...tommorow back to site to begin work!

Hope all is well much
love A