Daily
Living in Azua, DR
Please,
hop aboard and join with me if you will into the lifestyle of the Dominicans
and the daily living that I have now adjusted myself to….
I cannot
ever walk down the street without older men going “Pssssssssssst, psssssst!” to
us or kids on every corner yelling “Americanos! Americanos!” every time we walk
by.
Bucket
flushing toilets and putting toilet paper in the wastebasket next to the toilet
instead of flushing it down the toilet has become the norm here in the
Dominican Republic. By no means are you ever to flush any type of paper down
the toilet. This makes for sweet aromas coming out of the bathroom, as well as
cleaning the bathroom ten times more fun! ha
Bucket
showers are a luxury because I’m pretty sure once we get to Africa we will be
taking sponge baths with the limited amount of water we will probably have. We
currently have running water and occasional electricity here in the Dominican.
There are about 12 people currently living in the Pastor’s house in which we
are staying and we all fight for 1 bathroom and about 4 outlet plugs to charge
our computers, ipods, batteries, cameras, etc every night.
The
internet is very limited. We are actually fortunate b/c Pastor has his own
computer with internet so the 20 of us share it, which means we each get an
extremely limited amount of time each day/night online. I’ve already learned to
let go of everyone and everything, including communications and ties to people,
places and things back home so this hasn’t been too difficult for me yet. I
just pray and hope that you guys know I am really doing okay out here and
realize that my time online is extremely limited so if you never personally
hear from me and only hear from me through blogs, that would be why. I am
fortunate I even have access at the moment! Who knows what it will be like in
Africa or any other country that I will be travelling to next.
The
bathroom sink doesn’t work so we mostly “wash” our hands with hand sanitizer or
sometimes use the shower water or we just don’t wash them. I never feel clean.
I always for the most part feel dirty, look dirty and smell like roses…dead
ones. lol nahh, it’s not THAT bad but I am always covered in grime.
I wake
up every morning and put on bug spray b/c there are mosquitos everywhere. I
apply bug spray about 3 times throughout my day. Bug spray has become my newest
latest greatest perfume 😉
We have
been hydrating very well. The temperature here is in the high 80s I would say.
Very hot. I drink about 10 cups of water a day..whatever that means. I have a
water bottle that holds 24ounces of water and I usually drink about 3 water
bottles a day. Tonya, my team leader actually set her watch alarm so that it
goes off every half hour and we all drink water. It’s to remind us to
perpetually hydrate. Moms out there would be proud! =) We also drink lots of
soda here too! Kola Real and Red Rock. Soo yummy! The reason we drink a lot of
soda is b/c it is bottled and it is safe! Coke and Pepsi are big out here too.
I drink Pepsi the most b/c it’s my favorite =)
The
food here is muy delicioso!!! Me gusta todo! Lots of beans, rice, pollo
(chicken) and bread. We’ve been having lots of fresh fruit and oatmeal and
coffee and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was so funny bc as soon as I woke up
the other morning I ran outside to the dinner table to see what we were having
for breakfast and I saw 3 bags of cereal and milk sitting out and I ran back in
the house and jumped up and down and told the gurls b/c I love cereal. I could
eat it every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But what was funny was when
we I poured myself a bowl of cocoa puffs and put in some milk that was called
something in Spanish which translated to “the milk of the cow.” The milk was
warm and I took my first big bite and the cereal was stale and the milk was
warm and the look on my face was priceless according to my teammate, Renee.
Lol. Definitely NOT what I had expected! Needless to say I cut a fresh banana up
into tiny pieces and added it to my cereal and ate the whole bowl. Wasn’t too
bad after I added the banana!
Spanish
is the language that is spoken here. However I mostly know the Mexican Spanish
and here their Spanish is a completely different dialect. Makes speaking in
Spanish quite amusing when you use words and get blank stares and confused
looks. Regardless, my Spanish is improving soo much! Who would have thought
that my 4 yrs of Spanish would come back so well!? I’m loving speaking and
understanding this language and communicating and having conversations in
another language b/c this will be the only country that I will have this
luxury. After the Dominican, I will begin my game of scharades as my
communication technique. Can’t wait!
Speaking
of Spanish, I have been teaching English classes to the kids here in Azua. We
teach every morning and afternoon and we also teach sports. I have been on the
“teacher” crew this past week. It has been completely eye opening to teach not
only young kids how to speak English but also grown adults. They are soo eager
to learn. I was having so much fun with my class the other day and it was so
rewarding b/c when I wrapped up the class at the end, all of the students
(mostly the adults) came up to me and said “Thank you!! See you tomorrow!!” in
their broken English. They had such enthusiasm and such a glow about them. They
were soo excited that they were catching on to the English language. It was
awesome!! I never in a million years would have thought I would teach, let
alone teach foreigners!! Because although I am teaching English, I have to know
Spanish pretty well in order to keep their focus and attention and communicate
with them as well throughout the 2 hr classes that I teach. Very humbling,
challenging, rewarding, etc. I love it!
Alright,
well I think that about wraps up the fun stuff for now…
In case
I haven’t mentioned earlier or if you haven’t read it on my teammates blogs, I
am currently in Azua with not only my team (the Gentle Warriors) but with Team
Indelible. Please look them up on the world race team page and read their blogs
as well. Also read my teammates blogs. If you keep up with my teammates blogs
you will get a MUCH better picture of where I am, what I’m doing and how things
are going out here. I highly recommend not just reading my blog b/c we are all
so limited on internet access. You will get the full effect by reading my
teammates blogs as well. Subscribe to them if you’d like or just look for them on the
world race webpage.
Thank
you so much for all of you support, encouragement, prayers and comments. They
mean SO much to me and help keep me going each day. I love you all so very
much!
Love,
Steph
