A few fun sights in my barrio and some updates:

The other day, while on the porch, there was a man driving a donkey that was pulling a cart with 2 mattresses. So wonderful. People burst into song constantly. You can hear the neighbors singing from their house. People also play music very loudly from their homes, literally for the whole neighborhood. People dance meringue in the street at 8am (no lie). I really think someone should come up with a Domincan musical. I mean people here really do burst into song and dance while they cook, work, plant gardens, and sit on the porch. Its like life really is a musical here.

I am so glad to have a bit of Spanish under my belt. We actually have quite a bit of advanced Spanish speakers here. I am in the “good Spanish but needs to Dominicanizarlo” group. They say that people do not speak Spanish here they speak Dominican. Needless to say, there is much to learn.

We had a volunteer to visit us the other day at training. She is a retired, older woman and lives in a very rural area. Someone asked her if she was able to keep up with the news and I loved her reply. She said that in the states she was addicted to the news, loved to keep up with it. But then, here, she just lost touch with it and has now realized that it doesn’t really matter. If she knows that there is a disaster somewhere, she can’t do anything about it. If something ridiculous is going on in politics, her opinion doesn’t change anything. She commented that there is plenty of news and things to worry about within her own community, things that she has stake in and has the ability to change. On that note, I hate that I am missing out on the elections!

I will work on getting some pictures up, but until I can get to a decent computer and connection it may be a bit difficult.