Tidbits, in no particular order

- On Monday, my dinner was: Three pieces of fried white cheese, an entire boiled plantain and a quarter of an avocado.
- I have almost gone through an entire bottle of bad-ass bug repellent AND I’ve been using my mosquito net, but I have at least ten mosquito bits right now, and probably five of them are from today.
- On Sunday, another volunteer came over to visit. Her dona and my dona are sisters. Anyhow, Don Francisco (my host dad) came home and was out compartiring (visiting) with us on the back porch (terraza). I went to get us some juice and when I came back he had her reading from the bible. I have NO IDEA why, other than the Don and Dona are Evangelical Christians, but really… That was pretty funny.
- The national dish in the DR “La Bandera” is habichuelas, arroz, pollo y vegetales (beans, rice, chicken and veggies). Can I just say “Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit”?!?!?!?!??!?
- I have no idea how it happened, but through some very weird twist of fate I have tested into an advanced Spanish class. I am the least advanced speaker and am concerned about holding my class (of four in total) back, but I think I worked out a system with them and the instructor so that I can stay and keep being challenged – essentially I’m right between two levels and I’d rather be a bit high that be bored. Anyhow, isn’t that crazy? I’ve never even been in a Spanish-speaking country before! Oy ve!
- Today we went into the downtown part of Santo Domingo to learn how to use the public transportation system and find some important places in the city (like the PC office and the medical clinic, etc) and we also had lunch. Would you believe that we had FIVE lunch specials, including tip, and the total was SIXTEEN US DOLLARS, nada mas? We all had La Bandera (rice, beans, chicken, veggies) and it was quite a good amount of food for essentially $4 US per person.

Ok, that’s good for now. There’s too much to write about without making gross omissions or writing a novel, so ask me questions or something until I figure out a good system for this blogging business, okay? Hope you guys are all doing well, send me some news!!!!

I’ll be in touch. There’s an internet café about two blocks away from me here, but I’ll be gone for Thurs-Sun next week and then about a week after that I go to CBT for 5 weeks and might not have internet the whole time I’m there. It’s going to be a little hit and miss until I get to my site in late November, so please bear with me!

Also, the phone number if you guys want to call me at my host family’s house (which is totally fine and free for them to have incoming calls) is: 809-372-6886. You’ll have to do research and find out what comes before the 809 part, but that’s the country code and everyone uses it. When you call, say:
“Hola. Puedo hablar con Kira, por favor?” (but they say my name Keeda here).

Ok, that’s all I got for now!!!
Take care!
Me