The Basics

I read a few blogs of some fellow volunteers and realized that although I’ve written tons more for you to read, and I really do means tons, there are a few key topics I’ve left off in my little summaries.
1) Public Transportation
The public transportation situation in this country is probably worthy of a novel-worth of description. We’ve got gua-guas, which are more or less mini-buses that sit 4 or 5 to a row. They have a driver and a cobrador, who lists the places the bus is going to potential riders. He also tells you where to sit and collects the bus fares. Then there are the carro publicos, or conchos, which sit 4 or 5 in a back seat and 2 in the passenger seat. They, like the gua-guas, would be the sort of vehicles that those of us in the US might describe as something that shouldn’t be on the road. But after watching what some elastic bands and duct tape can do for a car, to mend broken windshields and keep doors attached, I am convinced we could be getting a lot more use out of our vehicles in the US before putting them down. I’ve already described for you a little about the motoconchos. They are everywhere on this island and are the way to get around where we are now, in the campo. Peace Corps Dominican Republic is one of only 2 Peace Corps sites where volunteers are still allowed to ride motos at all because it would just be impossible to get around here without being able to ride them. (I guess Peace Corps thinks they’re dangerous or something.) Lately, all I want to do is ride on them. There’s something cool about feeling the breeze on your skin while strutting over Caribbean roads, even if you’re the only person in the history of that road to wear a helmet while riding on a moto, and get stared at mercilessly.
2) Bugs
This one, unlike the above which was more relevant back when we were still in the capital, is actually a pretty well timed entry. The bugs and I aren’t getting along as well as we used to. Frankly, I’m a little worried about the future of our relationship. In the capital, they bit, and it itched, but they respected that sometimes I just needed my alone time, and that that time began when I entered my bed net before bed. Here, I’m getting a lot less respect for my needs.
The mosquitoes tend to leave me alone when I 1)wash with local soap, 2) wear long pants, 3) take B-Complex with breakfast and lunch (to help make my sweat stink), and 4) wear my deet. It’s not just that they are more frequent and bite at all hours of the day in the country, but also that they carry dengue, especially in the area where I am doing my training. But the biting ants are more needy. They require more one on one attention and have taken to following me everywhere I go. Thankfully they haven’t started hanging out in my food too often, as they have been with some of the other volunteers, but they do follow me pretty much everywhere else. They especially like to get into bed with me. I can’t say that I blame them, but I also don’t need to take that kind of mistreatment.
Then there are the cockroaches. Us who have lived in DC know that cockroaches are terrible and scary. Well, they are pretty common here too, but with one fundamental difference. They can fly! Seriously. They are also much larger than any I’ve seen in the states. I couldn’t believe it when I first saw one fly into my room the first time. You would have been proud of me. I grabbed a tough-heeled shoe and smacked the crap out of it. It tried to scurry away, and snuck under the door when I had it cornered, but I definitely triumphed over nature that night. I later got to observe my host mom kill one swiftly and fiercely. I feel as though that means I was born with a little Dominican in me.
Although they are not bugs, I feel it is necessary to mention the tarantulas at this point. We were told they couldn’t kill us, but we were not told whether or not they could bite and poison us. I’m thinking that means that they can. Still, I’m not too worried. So far I’ve only seen a handful lying dead at the side of the road (they’re so big, they’re road kill here) and have just heard stories. I haven’t yet seen a living one with my own eyes. I have seen caterpillars the size of a finger, and mice and rats on the rafters of my house. Would you believe me if I said I’d prefer all of that to these stupid, tiny, biting ants?
3) Baseball, Dominoes and Chisme
I’m sure some of you have heard that baseball is big in the DR. Well they weren’t lying to you. It’s huge. The 2 teams in the US are the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Socks. Both teams are from New York, which takes up the entire country. Don’t try to talk to your average-baseball-loving-Dominican about the Chicago White Blah or the Cub-blahs, much less the Colorado Rock-blahs or the Cleveland Indiblahs. Believe me, they just don’t exist. That was a little surprising to me at first. I wanted to talk to my host father in the capital about the Cubbies, and Sammy Sosa or Alfonso Soriano, to give him and his family some perspective on where I’m from. He didn’t really acknowledge that there were teams besides the Red Socks or the Yankees, although he did hear about the Mets once or twice. I thought that was strange at the time, but now I understand that it’s just the way it is. All the Dominicans that go to the US go to New York and some go to Boston. So, those are the games that get broadcasted, and those are the teams that have a Dominican fan base.
I met some boys, one was 14 and the other 16, back in the capital who wanted to play baseball with us one day. We didn’t end up getting to use a baseball field, but we did get to talking. They were both involved in recruitment to US MLB teams. Apparently, and I’m sure I’ll learn more about this with time, the MLB teams have summer baseball camps to train kids and ideally get to recruit them later in life. One of the two was involved with a Phillies camp and the other with another that I can’t remember right now.

Dominoes. It’s not just a crappy pizza company. It’s also a crappy game. No, I’m just kidding. The only reason I say that is because I used to be SO terrible at it. The version of dominoes that is played here is much less difficult to learn than that in the US, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t a quick learner and very recently was taught both versions, and had slightly more success with the Dominican version. The men play it pretty much all the time when they’re not watching baseball or watching white girls walk by. I don’t actually get to play it that often and am probably known to some as the worst white girl at it because of my lack of practice (neither host family ever plays.) But now, I am happy to say, I'm much better at it.

And that just leaves us with chisme. It means gossip and it’s definitely the most appealing of the three pass times. It’s probably more popular with Dominican women of the three, though it shows no gender boundaries. I suppose we are the subject of a fair amount of chisme here, and we probably were in the capital too. But I think where it will really be felt is once we are stationed to our project sites.