11 May 2007

Another ¨typical¨ day...

With all the visitas and traveling I've done this last month, I've spent very few days in the coffee association's office. Last weekend, I stopped by with my cousin's group to give them a tour. With the best intentions, I told Arelis I would see her Tuesday. So, why is it Thursday and I still haven't set foot in the office? Simple. I'm a volunteer and nothing goes as planned or intended!

On Tuesday, after declaring Jajhaira, I met up with Courtney since she begged me to help her create certificates for a course she's giving. As everything is closed from 12-2 for lunch, I agreed. Halfway thru, it began to pour. We finished up shortly before 2, just as the rain let up. We prayed that it would hold, and we made a run for town to get lunch. Luckily we both found bolas (free rides) fairly easily and got lunch quickly. After running some errands, Courtney was going to head back home and me to the office. But it looked like rain again, and we passed a friend who said the truck was just about to leave. So, although it was early, I headed home also.

Arriving in Manguito, I found people were working on building our computer center, so I hung around doing the only thing I was qualified for... carrying the buckets of mixed cement! Go figure... the rain decided not to return that afternoon. But it was a good thing because we got a lot of work done on the building! (The walls are half up; hopefully we'll be finishing the walls this week.)

Wednesday, I awoke to the dual sounds of my cat crying to be let in... and pouring rain on my zinc roof.... at 5 am. Grudgingly, I let the cat in and went back to bed, hoping that rain would end by the time I woke up. The next thing I knew, it was 9:30... and still dark and rainy out. I knew there was no chance of making it to town, at least not until the afternoon. And sure enough, it rained all day.

So, I did what I do best on rainy days (and hadn't had time for in weeks). I washed and cleaned. Although I pay someone to do my laundry, Dominican culture says each person is generally responsible for his/her own underwear. At least, this is what they told us during training. So I hand wash my underwear and the few hand towels in my house when I have the time. My other favorite stay-at-home activity is mopping. Somehow I managed to grow up without mopping, so this was something I had to learn here. Luckily, over the last year and half, I've managed to perfect my technique. :o) (Naturally, it involves putting on some good music!)

And lastly, to complete my stay-at-home doña day, Hito showed up with some beans that had already been ablandar-ed (the main reason I haven't learned to cook beans... it takes several hours on the stove to soften them before they can be cooked!). He taught me to make moro (...again... maybe I'll try my hand at making it next time). :o) By that time, the rain had cleared, but the day was spent. We passed the rest of the evening playing cards (Dominican 21), and (si Dios quiere), I'll head down to the office tomorrow...!

2 comments:

Krista said...

Oh my gosh you're starting to cook. What is this world coming to???

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica,

I love reading about your adventures over there! I love your new photo montage! That looks really great!

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