Interesting things happen here

On Easter, our gas stove ran out of gas so for dinner we ate cold leftovers from lunch. Then, we went to the gallera (cock fight). Before any of this, though, someone drowned in the river. I’m still unclear on what happened, but there were other people in the river at the time. I found it upsetting that it appeared nobody tried to help him. News travels fast and before there was time for the medico to show up and remove the body, probably a good hundred-plus people had gathered on the riverbank to gawk. I’m not proud to say I was one of them, but to my credit I didn’t actually figure out what they were going on about until I got there and saw for myself.

I discovered a new unsavory creature recently. Apparently the Dominican Republic has scorpions (or small, scorpion-like creatures). Where did I discover it? On my bare foot, preparing to sink its pincers into me. What did the Dominicans tell me? Cuidate, esa pica duro! (Loosely translated: Careful, that hurts like hell if it bites you!). Thanks, guys.

Plumbing in my community is still fairly unsophisticated. What I mean is that although we have running water from an aqueduct, everything is on a septic system as far as waste water goes. Well, the septic tank for our kitchen sink filled up, oh, two weeks ago, so it doesn’t drain anymore. The solution is build a new septic tank (not drain the existing one), and two weeks later there has been no sign of this work beginning. So, we use the sink and scoop the water out and dump it outside. Super fun. Yesterday, Susa found a little frog playing in the sink. Dominicans aren’t scared of cockroaches, rats, HUGE spiders, but they hate, hate, hate frogs. Hero Kira to the rescue, I scooped the frog and chucked it outside. You would have thought I had saved the house from near destruction, but I was glad to feel useful.

My community has a relatively bustling economy. It is definitely a campo—not a pueblo and definitely not a city—in size, scale, complexity and services, but it is growing in population, quality of life available products and services. They are building constantly. During Semana Santa (week before Easter) a new business opened up, which can most closely be described as a bar—we have colmados and cafeterias here already, but this has more seating, covered seating, a sound system, etc. Also, I learned yesterday that my counterpart (who is already incredibly busy and overworked) is having the guy who owns, well, kindof everything here, build a little shop she can rent and have a little tienda de ropa, or clothing store. This is starkly contrasted to one of my neighbor volunteers who lives a 45 minute walk away (maybe 3 miles) farther into the campo and has one colmado (bodega) and one banca (where you play the lottery) in his whole community.

I saw a frog get tortured and murdered tonight while I was eating dinner. My “host nephew” was having a birthday so his mom did a sopado (a tasty chicken and rice soup with tons of salt and preservatives cooked over, essentially, a campfire in a HUGE pot). You know, cook outside, eat outside. It’s the Dominican equivalent of a backyard bbq. Well, so some kid found a frog and somehow trapped it for a while so he could dig a hole in the ground in which to torture it. Then he puts this frog in the hole, takes a branch out of the fire and pokes the hell out of the poor frog with the red hot end of the stick. When the frog finally escaped and leaped away (and I, sitting innocently nearby almost got clobbered by a mob of Dominican women and their children who have some absurd fear of frogs) they chased it down and clubbed it until it literally exploded its guts all over. This is literally while I’m sitting there with my bowl balanced on my knees eating dinner. Granted, it was a rather large frog, perhaps even a rather large toad, and I wouldn’t have wanted to sit too close to it but it was rather disturbing watching it be tortured and beaten into oblivion.

I had a very, very busy last week and a half or so. The rundown: last weekend I was in Jarabacoa. I got back on Monday and had to help my counterpart with a presentation. Tuesday I had office stuff, and in the afternoon a workshop in the candle fabrica, and then a 2-3 hour impromptu meeting with Dan. Wednesday I had office stuff and then my first English class. Thursday office in the morning. Workshop in the fabrica again. Meeting/dinner/anniversary party in the evening up at Dan’s house for the candle business. Friday in the morning office and a meeting with Dan. In the afternoon birth certificate meeting. In the evening youth group meeting. Saturday in the morning plan English class. In the afternoon/evening produce Mistoline. Sunday am 27 Charcos again and in the afternoon English class. WOW, right?