The New Duct Tape

"Floss It" (excerpted from the Lonely Planet - Dominican Republic and Haiti, 2002 2nd ed.)

For the cost of a crummy cigar, you can buy a vacation-saving item called dental floss. It's cheap, it's light, it's strong, and it's outrageously useful. Got a fishhook but no line? Try green waxed dental floss. Need to secure a mosquito net? Reach for the floss. Forgot to pack a clothesline? String up a line of floss instead. Got a tear in your jeans or a rip in your pack? A little dental floss and a sewing needle and life goes on.
Dental floss comes in 50m and 100m lengths and is sold in nifty little cases complete with built-in cutters. Some say it can even remove decay-causing material from between teeth and under gums! Now in cinnamon, mint and grape flavors.

Wishlist

If any of you have the desire to send a care package, here are some ideas!
NOTE: Mailings in a padded envelope are best, but packages get thru also. Please assume one month for delivery!

Mail to:
Jessica Stearns, PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado 1412
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

• Snack foods (eg. peanuts, Balance bars, granola bars, candy - that won't melt easily!)
• Packaged foods, spices, mixes, etc for cooking (yes, I will be cooking)
• Recipes
• Cheap/used books (books in Spanish are welcome too!)
• Music cds with current American music (burned cds)
• Pictures!!!
• Phone calls (1-809-723-7817 - yes, it's international)
• Letters
• News!
• Any other home comforts you can think of!

Surprise!

"We left your things, but can I move a small bed into your room?" This is how I was greeted after a week away from my house... and faced with walls that were waist high! While gone, they decided to remodel, which means tearing down the house (accomplished this week), and completely rebuilding, this time all block (not wood). Who knows who long it will take! So, I spent a couple days sharing my room (which they left intact!) with the dona and without light since the solar panels have been taken down. We've decided that she's better off in her son's house where her grandson can share the bed with her... and keep her warm I suppose! (I had to be the one to tell her that it wasn't ok with me for her 9 yr old grandson to share the room with us! She took it ok... but she certainly thought I was odd for it!

This surprising turn of events followed on the heels of a good couple days of translating for a medical mission in the capos near Puerto Plaa. They're a group from University Southern Maine that comes every 6 months to these communities. The best part was that my 2 closest friends here came to translate also, and we had time to catch up about the last month. I had the chance to teach several of the med students about coffee. It amazed me how much I have learned already! I'm looking forward to the next medical mission I can translate for (even though health issues give me the willies sometimes!) because it was a great experience, and a welcome chance to see another aspect of the DR.

OH NO!

Today started out as any other day... went to the office, met more important people, went with them to see the roads they've been fixing... typical. But it all changed for the worse with the words "Let's stop here for a picture." (Note: These words WERE NOT spoken by me!) As soon as we opened the doors, the engine exploded, started smoking, and water gushed out from the engine. Naturally we were about an hour up in the hills, in the middle of nowhere. It turns out the radiator had over-heated and exploded. Miguel and I went walking (hiking actually!) to find someone with a truck. So much for getting back to town quickly! An hour laer, we found someone to give us a ride back to the truck, where they had already taken the radiator out. After stowing the truck, we finally headed down to town, only to discover half way that we forgot a part in the truck! Welcome to a luckless day in the DR mountains! The Dominicans have a saying... "Whoever leaves his house takes a journey." Today that saying definitely held true!

Life on $10 a day

So, the math has been done, and the results aren't pretty. We've discovered just how poor volunteers actually are! During training we were allotted a whopping $1/day, and now that we're on our own and covering all our costs, it's been increased to $10/day (300 pesos) - and that's for city living! To put that in perspective... 71 pesos goes to my family for food; a ride to town or home is 50p; one hour at the internet center is 20p; a 5 min phone call is 50p; a bag of chips is 15p; and a Coke (bottled of course!) is 14p. Of course, if I go to the capital, the transportation alone is more than half of my daily allowance! Lucky for me, I don't drink (beer is 40-60 pesos a pop), and I know how to be cheap!