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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ January 28, 2007 }
Hanging out in Santiago
Yesterday was my mini-vac meeting at the 27 charcos...it was awesome! It was a 3 and a half hour hike in total, first hiking up the trail, including up through some of the smaller waterfalls, and then going back down, jumping off of some waterfalls and silding down others. It is something that would probably not be allowed, at leasst in parts, in the states for safety reasons, but I am looking forward to doing it again at some point. The biggest jump that everyone did is about 20 feet, a little less than the big rock we jumped off when we went rafting during CBT. There is one jump that is higher than that, but it is a little more dangerous so I'm saving that for the next time I go. Don't worry mom- they make you wear a helmet.
The Dominican baseball final series just ended on Friday- my team, Las Aguilas (the eagles), won. Miguel Tejada, who plays for the Orioles, also plays for Las Aguilas. I didn't sleep much Friday night because everyone was celebrating. You can see all the way to Santiago (the 2nd biggest city in the DR and home of Las Aguilas, where the game was held at) from Juncalito and we saw the fireworks after they won. They were tiny all the way up in Juncalito but it was cool to see them.
We didn't finish at the falls until about 6 or so, so last night a few other volunteers and I stayed in Santiago. I am staying again tonight because my host family is coming tomorrow to do something with all of the family on the dad's side that lives here and I'm going to meet up with them. There is a house here called the Hub that is owned by some Americans and PCVs and other expats can come and stay for cheap. It's really nice and they have a dvd player, a bunch of books and a really nice kitchen. Feels like home! Adeline (another volunteer who is a good friend of mine) came today to meet up with me and hang out since I didn't have anything going on today. I really like my site but it's nice to get out for a little bit and be with other Americans. Even though people mostly don't bother me when I am in my room, there isn't really anywhere I can go to be alone or just get away so I appreciate when I get out of the site for a bit.
Every week it seems I discover that the organization in the office is worse than I had thought. I discovered that there was really not any accounting done for the office. It is also impossible to do it correctly because there are receipts missing so it won't balance. We are making sure we have the necessary information from here on out but it's going to be challenging trying to get it up to snuff, especially considering I don't really care for accounting, but this is obviously a huge thing they need help with. In February we are going to do an official coffee tasting with some of our socios and an organization called IDIAF, which helps with agriculturalists in the country. Socios will have to bring samples of their coffee and we will sample it and pick out the characteristics of the coffee. I went to one during training but I am looking forward to doing one with the coffee from my region.
I'm going to try and throw in a few cultural notes for you all here and there. Here's one for today: they can sell alcohol pretty much anywhere here, and take it anywhere too. It is sold in most fast food restaurants and other unlikely places. It is not illegal (or if it is, it is not enforced) to drink and drive or to drink in public and have open containers.
Posted by katie on January 28, 2007 03:22 PM | Permalink
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