Dominican Dumplings

What is a Dominican Dumpling, you ask? Well, I will tell you… but all in good time.

The last four days, as you all know, I have been out in another town visiting a current volunteer in my sector. The purpose of the visit is to see the real life situation of a volunteer; to have a chance to ask questions outside of the uber-structured training schedule; to travel to the interior independently using public transportation, and so on.

Well, my visit went splendidly. The volunteer I visited, Alexis, and I did a great blend of activities while I was there. We went to a couple of meetings that were related to her primary project, and a few for some of her secondary projects (like a youth group focusing on self esteem) as well. We did a pretty thorough walking tour of the pueblo, ate pica pollo, drank beer, went to the disco. We visited a couple of (mostly Hatian) bateys, but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me for that, and got seriously stuck in the mud. Today, before I left to come back to the capital, we met up with two other volunteers in the area and their visiting trainees, and we went to the beach! There should be some pictures in the DR Photos link over to the right of the blog. (I also took some pictures of the house where I’m staying here in Santo Domingo, so be sure to check them out.)

OK, now what you’ve all been waiting for!!!

I had my first Dominican Cooking Lesson during my volunteer visit, and we made dumplings! Now, these are probably the least nutritional, most easy thing I could make here, but that is not the point. The point is that this was the first time I was allowed to have anything to do with the preparation of food in this country the whole time I’ve been here. Basically, the dish is: flour, oil, water, salt (made into a dough), balled up and boiled until they float, and then for a while more. Then, a sauce of melted cheese and sautéed green peppers, tomatoes, onions and spicy stuff is poured overtop the dumplings, and voila! Dominican Dumplings.

Okay, I’m really tired. If anyone has topics you’re wondering about, please shoot me an email and I’ll answer them as I get a chance. It’s hard to decide what exactly to write about on here because there’s just so much happening!

Oh yeah, and a word on my itinerary. Like I have been mentioning before, I will be leaving on Thursday, September 4 for my community based training. We’ll be in a campo called Juan Lopez (I think) which is outside the pueblo of Moca, which is near Santiago (if you feel like looking on a map). I’ll be there for 5.5 weeks, and have no idea what my access to internet and the like will be while I’m there. I also don’t know if I’ll have any or regular enough electricity to keep the laptop charged, but I’ll do my best. However, I will be in the capital for three or four days or something the couple days around October 11 for part of our technical training that happens in the capital, so I should (I think) be able to get to an internet place at least once during that time. We’ll see. Please write me though!!!! I look forward to hearing from all of you!!!
Take care!
Kira