Last Wednesday marked a year for being in my site. No big celebrations, just mentioned to my host family that I’ve known them now officially for a whole year. Then I bought my stuff in their colmado and I lugged all of it back to my house. Thankfully it was cooler, and so it was not too bad to carry it all. At this time next week I will be moved back into the pueblo, and food shopping will not have to be such an ordeal. I am excited. Yesterday my friend came to pick up Luna, and so I was dog-less last night. I felt bad because I gave her to him right in the middle of her being in heat. I hope he didn't get attacked as he walked back home.
Early this morning I woke up to hear something scratching in my house, scurrying about. I figured it was just Luna until I remembered that she was gone. Great, that could only mean one thing: a rat. I shone my flashlight around (I sleep with a flashlight just in case) which supposedly scares them away, but didn’t see anything. This was probably Luna’s way of getting back at me for giving her up, having nothing to scare the rats away. I tucked in my mosquito net and waited for the sun to come up. I couldn’t wait to get up and be able to look around.
On Thursday, my friend invited me to find grapes. I imagined juicy sweet grapes and was pretty excited. Who knew grapes grew on the beach? We started out on what I thought was going to be a quick trip to the beach, not this two hour rock climbing trek to find grapes that were disgustingly sour and that tasted like the trash that washed up shore nearby. I stopped picking grapes and instead took to taking pictures. The grapes were more like super sour cherries that grew high up on the trees and my friend worked on throwing down. The rest of the group was excited, quickly filling up their bottles to share back home. We walked along the coast, over rocks that were so slippery I had to hold onto Lenin’s hand, or more like I was being carried because I am not used to walking on rocks with flip flops like the rest of them are. Even the pregnant lady was walking effortlessly, as if it were just sand. It was a pretty walk, but by the end I was hating it. It was getting dark, we still had to hike up to the main road and walk all the way back. There was no way I was going to go back the way I came. I would rather take my chances on the dark dirt road than to fall on the rocks. My friend took his time knocking down coconuts, which I have to admit tasted very good and was worth the wait (of course like a good campesino, he had is machete on him). The sand fleas were out in full force and my feet and arms got torn up. I still itch today. I hate those things. Luckily as we started walking down the road, a pickup truck stopped and we all hopped into the back for a quick bola back into our barrio. Check out the pictures.
I told myself I was not going to fall back into the trap of looking for grapes, but yesterday afternoon after my hostfamily closed the colmado, they drove out to my house to pick me up to go pick grapes. Of course, I went. But this time it was a luxurious car ride out to the picking spot, and instead of picking, I sat down on some driftwood with bugspray in hand. Unfortuneately I forgot my camera that time, but someone did bring along some drinks. Much better.
I have attached some pictures of the crazy that is Santo Domingo, where I tried to capture what this certain section of the capitol is like. Just imagine, the loud music, the yelling of the cobradores on the guaguas, the endless honking, and the the smog. I love this city. It reminds me of downtown L.A. but ten times more chaotic. Some pictures are also of a photo shoot as we sat on a street corner in front of a colmado to rest and drink. I am going to miss the nice plastic chairs at colmados. I was in the captiol for a Thanksgiving planning meeting that I am a part of this year. Going to help with the baking, Yay. Then I took a few days to go up to Jarabacoa to visit my friend’s site, where it was a nice escape into the cooler climate. The winding road up the mountain reminded me of Santa Cruz. Unfortuneately the loopy ride up made me a bit guagua-sick and I didn't take any pictures.
