motoconchos y carro publico

September 1, 2008

Well today is the first day that I feel fairly comfortable after almost two weeks of being here. Today during our Spanish class we took a trip to Carrefour, which is basically a Super Target/Best buy, so that we can learn how to buy things and learn about the different types of fruits and vegetables. They sell everything! Well I took the carro public and felt like I knew what I was doing. During our training session, we learn about how race is interpreted in the DR. We watched a video about how black is associated with Haiti which is seen as “bad” and everyone likes to associate with Indio. Historically, however, when the Spaniards came, the enslaved the indios of DR, the Taino, and killed them off. They then brought Africans to be the new slaves. Therefore, most of the Dominicans are mulatos . Therefore when I walk around, I see light Dominicans, dark dominicans, straight hair dominicans, and curly hair dominicans. Unfortunately, no matter how dark a Dominican is he does not associate with being black- because the Haitians are black. Haitians in the Dr are like the Mexicans in the States, a lot of them are undocumented and there are close to 1 million in a country where there are around 10 million people.

After training around 5, I went on the internet and talked David and my dad for about an hour. When I went home to have my usual dinner, (fried platano or potatoes and salami or ham), I had an hour conversation with my Dona Juana about the gastos in the Dr. For my homework assignment, I had to figure out the typical budget of a Dominican family by asking how much my host family pays for the essentials. That conversation led to talking about the cultural differences of Americans and Dominicans and how in the end, we are all striving for the same things in life- to be secure and happy. Being financially secure means that you can now be happy, so once the first one is established the second one comes. Well on Thursday I am going on the PCV visit. This means that I will be traveling 5 hours to visit a Peace Corps volunteer in Puerto Plata to find the “true living scenario” of a fellow volunteer. I feel that this is definitely going to be a great way to learn. Well I am out hommies, until later. Peace.

September 2 2008

Well today is a new day, in fact I am sitting here as the storms continue outside. Because it is hurricane season, we either get the actual impact of the hurricane, or we get the tormentas and it rains all day. Today is one of those days. However, we also get our helmets for the motoconchos (motorcycles) that we will be using on our trips to visit the PCV on Thursday. I basically have to take a four hour bus ride, a guagua, and then a motoconcho to arrive. Motoconcho is a way of public transportation that is used more in the rural areas. Peace Corps policy states that we have to use our helmets when riding them. In fact, we are the only PC country that is allowed to use motocycles and cell phones, pretty sweet.

PS I also included the link to my photo album online. Check it out when you can, XOXO