On eating and befriending grandmas

It's been a while!!! I'm still living in the campo but we took an excursion to the beach today (google Playa Juan Dolio to live vicariously through me) and we got a few minutes of Wifi. Here's a short(ish) compilation of my life as a campesina. 

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love the campo. Highlights of the campo life include wide open spaces straight out of a Dixie Chicks song, cows in the middle the road on my way to work (this is 100% like the sheep that stop traffic once or twice a year in my hometown in Idaho but substitute cows for sheep and it happens everyday), chickens, dogs, cats and goats in my backyard,  a patio full of fruit trees, the sounds of crickets instead of 24-hour merengue, the smell of burning trash (okay jk this ones gross!), the tranquility, the sense of community, the avocados continuously gifted to me by neighbors, the donas who send my host mom leftover food because they know I'm around, the first name basis I have with everyone here, the cows I can milk in the morning (see photo evidence), and what's best are the fifty houses that make up my small campo community! Ah, I love it all. 

My host family and host community is amazing- the world's best host family and host neighbors. My mom- warmly known to everyone as Mami, my dad Pedro (called Viji by anyone who has known him more than ten minutes) and my host sister- Ani (who's 25) are the sweetest, funniest, funnest, coolest people in the DR. From the second I set foot in my community of El Portón (don't think you can even google this place it's so small) they made me feel right at home. I stepped off the bus and was greeted by hugs, kisses, cake, coffee and running water! 

What's more is my host mom is trying to fatten me up to fit in with the Dominicans (her words not mine) so I get the best and richest cooking around. Highlights include bollos (cornflower and coconut milk tamales), la bandera (rice, beans, meat), beets (enough said), avocados on avocados on avocados, avena (oatmeal), natilla (chocolate pudding made with real cow's milk), arroz con leche (sweet rice and milk), ayuama con huevos sancochado (pumpkin and eggs), la berenjena frita (fried eggplant), lechosa (papaya), morir soñando (orange juice and milk), and jugos de guayaba, chinola, avena (guava, passion fruit and oatmeal juice). Ahh I could stay here forever (or at least until the heart attack kills me). 

Enough about the food- let's talk about my set up. Nestled in the middle of two small towns off a nice dirt road 45 minutes from Santo Domingo- El Portón consists if one road, two small corner stores, one house that sells hair ties and calling cards from the front porch, two churches (Catholic (90%) and Evangelical (10%)), one dance patio (known fondly by the people  as 4-P (cuatro peh)), one gambling center, and supposedly 58 houses according to an informal census but I have yet to count more than fifteen. We don't have a school or a pharmacy or a restaurant but we've got glits and glam! My backyard even comes equipped with a beautiful outdoor shower shared by six neighbors and characterized by a cement box with a piece of tin roofing that is lifted and placed in front of the opening to serve as the door. Not to mention the outdoor kitchen we've got outback. And the patio of chickens/cats/dogs/lizards we keep. And the house wouldn't be the same without the five fruit bearing trees we tend to and make juice with- coconut tree, orange tree, manzana de oro, naranja agria, and passion fruit! My digs come complete with unreliable "24 hour" electricity and "running" water. It's not actually reliable at all and we seem to have water and light as often as we don't have it but the grid was established by an international development organization which gifted a lifetime of free water and electricity to community members. It's a huge benefit for the community but the electricity often shuts off for hours at a time (in a place where people expect 24 hour electricity this becomes a problem because people aren't ready/prepared in case the lights go). Also the water comes minimally so most people collect, purify (sometimes), and drink rainwater.  

Because I have been gone a while and cant possibly write about it all- Here's a top ten list of musings so far. 

1- Patricia, my host cousin/best friend here gave birth to a baby boy named Adrian. 

I don't really like babies because they frighten me but I have to admit that being a part of Patricia's life during the last few weeks of her pregnancy and the first few weeks of motherhood was amazing! Patricia is only 18 and her mom is only 37 but the two are a dynamic duo. Patricia is the kindest and most mature 18-year old I've ever met and it was awesome to be able to give her nutrition lessons and maternal health information as part of my work here. She really was interested and dedicated to learning about infant health, pregnancy, family planning, and nutrition. 

2- Celebrating Ani's birthday. 

My host sister turned 25 while I was here and it was great to be part of the celebration. She told me in passing that we were going to kill a sheep and I thought she was serious so I went around inviting all our extended family members to her sheep roast. As it turns out there's no sheep roast and apparently not ever family member was invited to the shindig. My family made fun of me for a week asking me what I was going to cook for all the guests I invited. I let them know I'd cook up a pork roast and now they're under the impression I actually have cooking skills. They've been sorely disappointed thus far. 

3- Becoming BFFs with Noelma. 

Noelma is my grandma here. She rules. She is Mami's mom and lives 2k away in the town of La Reforma. We have our technical training sessions everyday at a school in La Reforma and whenever I have a break I make sure to head to her house for her big smiles and awesome cooking. Since she knows I love avocados, she usually has a ripe one waiting for me and if not will usually ask the neighbors to gift me one! I made a big effort to get to know Noelma and it paid off. She introduced me to lots of other community members and all the extended relatives in our family. She's also a firecracker ready with sassy comebacks, witty sayings, and all the love a freshly aplatanada Peace Corps Trainee could take! 

4- The three most important issues to work on here pertain to water, environment, and teenage pregnancy. 

We visited a local hospital in the nearest town of Guerra where we met with a bad ass doctora. She walked us through the halls opening every door to every room without shame- exposing us to a pregnancy woman about to give birth, a newborn breast feeding, a child with diarrhea, and a man screaming in the emergency room. After the visit she thanked us for the work we will be doing and emphasized the need in this country for education on how to collect and purify water given that 1/4 Dominicans have diarrhea at any given time. Another huge problem in this country is the fact that everyone burns their trash here leading to respiratory diseases that she sees all the time in her practice. Finally, she lamented the alarmingly high teenage pregnancy rate. 1 in 4 women in the DR have been pregnant before age 20. I though back to my high school days and I knew maybe one or two people who had been pregnant. Here, I already know more than ten. 

5- Women expect men to cheat on them. 

This is definitely one of the hardest things to wrap my head around here. Every woman I talk to - be it a high school student, a teenage mother, an older doña, or an abuela talks openly about the sex their significant other has had with other women. Many even have second families- or another wife and child that they support on the side. As awful as it sounds, I have yet to find one woman who has not been cheated on by her boyfriend or husband. In the less educated areas (aka the campo) the stereotype is that a man can do whatever he wants and the woman must be obedient, available, and faithful. 

6- Gun control doesn't exist here. 

Once when I was in a dance hall- I went to the bathroom only to find a pistol in the sink "in case of a fight breaking out" I later learned. Well good thing because only a few days later during a patron saint dancing festival, someone broke out a gun and opened fire on the dance floor. One police was shot in the leg but thankfully no one else was hurt. 

7- Si Dios quiere. 

This phrase literally means "If God wants it" and Dominicans use it for everything. The response to "See you tomorrow" is always "Si Dios quiere." If you invite someone to a party, instead if saying yes, no or maybe- it's always "Si Dios quiere." This has made it particularly frustrating to plan meetings and events because no one takes accountability and just leaves it up to God's will. I've started retorting some of these with "Oh, Dios quiere" (Trust me, God wants it). Seems to do the trick. 

8- My hair can be done in any number of awesome ways. 

First there was my trip to the salon which was a riot because seven women were all cramped into a 10x10 box waiting for a deep wash, hair rolls and blow dry under the massive salon machines looking like an artifact from the 60s, then a straighten, topped off with a hair wrap and cap. To wash and dry my hair took two hours- not the most efficient thing I did with a Saturday but it was an awesome experience hanging with Dominican ladies and my BFF Patricia (the pregnant one). 

Fast forward a week later and my hair is in corn rows. My neighborhood friend did it for me and took twenty minutes to braid the top. Impressive! 

9- I've been going to church. 

Mostly just to spend time with the neighborhood doñas, I head to church on Sundays. It's usually a nice message that I can learn a lesson from or take away new Spanish vocab and it's a nice way to share time with my host mom and sister. 

10- Everyone has an apodo (nickname). 

Dominicans are born with one name but use another. Most of the bames are completely nuts and without reason (like the guy named Tresnoventa which literally means 390) and others are adopted from a persons physical traits (like my friend people call Flaca or Skinny). Other notable nicknames include Miracielos (Heaven Watcher), Feo (Ugly), Mami (her real name is Juana but she's the oldest child of 12 and aptly named Mommy), Viji (real name = Pedro), Ani (real name = Carmelina), the grown man named Bebe (Baby) and the trio of sisters named Uva, Piña and China (Grape, Pineapple and Orange). Then you've got the names that don't mean anything special like Monchi, Conena, Cirilo, Tatika, Tinita, Wande, etc. I guess even I have an apodo since I go by Bea here. My favorite part of meeting people is figuring out they're nicknames versus given names. I kept telling y grandma about my host dad Pedro and she finally stopped me to ask, "who's Pedro?" I looked at her confused and said, "you're son in law" thinking I was going nuts. "Ohhhh she said, you mean Viji." Gotta be careful with those apodos!

Also, send any notes, updates and noteworthy news from the states- I've been disconnected for quite a bit!