A little bit of everything.

I'm so behind! I realized I have a few days to update you all on... nothing big happened but I figured I'll fill you in just the same :]

Christina con Virginia

On Sunday when we got back from La Romana, we were all hanging out in Alex's room when Olga and Virginia came to get us.  We walked into the living room and there was a cake on fire!  Olga had made Christina a chocolate/coconut cake for her birthday, complete with two ginormous candles shooting sparks.(The picture is only half of the fire...) So cool!   This was birthday celebration #2 (we'd had cake in La Romana for her birthday too), and then on Monday, Danny came to visit us and brought her a cake as well! It was store bought and we expected it to taste like the store-bought cakes here, but it was way richer and fluffier and delicious-er. We're hoping the birthday celebrations continue into a whole birthday week!

Christina, Lauren, Virginia, Alex, Olga, Ryan, Aaron, and me!

When I went into work Monday morning, I was surprised to see everyone sitting at the conference table--turns out they have Creole lessons on Monday and Tuesday mornings! A lot of the people they work with in the bateyes are Haitian and don't speak very much Spanish, so they take lessons so they can interact with them better. I only caught the last ten minutes or so, but it was very very interesting. I wish I could go to more/stay her longer and get a better handle on it, but unfortunately I'll only learn a tidbit. It was a kinda different... lessons for Creole, taught in Spanish :] That'll make your brain work.

The above is where I spend most of my day.  And that's Miriam, the other volunteer from Germany. We spent Friday, Monday, and Tuesday organizing newspapers and putting them in huge binders. It's not super challenging, if anything it's kinda tedious, but we chat the whole time and it goes by pretty quickly.  Today at work we're translating documents from Spanish into English--finally something that makes me feel useful! :] Because you know, I do speak English pretty well.
Like I said, the work in the office isn't incredibly interesting, but it's okay because occasionally we get to go out on trips. Tomorrow, we're going to Los Haitises, mountains on the north side of the island, to see some sort of project they have up there. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what we're doing, all I know is they said to dress like we're going to the jungle, and to be at the office at 5:45 a.m.  Yikes!  Miriam lives a bit far out of the city, so since we have to be here so early tomorrow she's going to come home from work with me and stay with me tonight! Ana is cooking a huge dinner and all of the other kids are going to come, along with her nephew Miguel, who has promised to take us to Jarabacoa on Saturday.  I'm very much looking forward to tonight, it should be a lot of fun!

This is José, he's our driver. He's a little bit crazy, and he insists on speaking in English although I feel like I'd understand his Spanish better... he's so hilarious. I keep trying to take videos of him talking, but even time I pull out my camera he stops being funny... of course. But he always gives us lectures about "In this country? You no have to be on time..." or whatever the topic was that day. He said he lived in New York for a few months, but it stressed him out how Americans are so strict with their schedules and such and he likes it better here.
 José makes up nicknames for all of us, but I think that's just because he can't remember our real names. "The doctors" are the three that work at the hospital, Christina, Lauren and I are often "blondie", and Aaron is usually "the little guy", but today had the bad luck as being referred to as "Peewee." Poor Aaron... :[ 

A little bit about the driving here.... traffic laws seem to be mutual agreements between fellow drivers more than laws.  Like stop signs? Only if you feel like it.  Right-of-way laws are nonexistant. You know how pulling halfway across a road and stopping in the middle would get you tons of angry gestures in the States? Here, if you don't inch forward and cut off one lane of traffic at a time, you're just not gonna get to the other side. I'm incredibly impressed by their depth perception, because they constantly get within a few inches of other cars but never seem to hit them. Oh, and they really like their horns.
They also pack people in cars, children sit on the laps of drivers frecuently, and on the way to La Romana we passed a family of five (three small children) on one motorcycle. Crazy.

Yesterday after work José took us to his pool.  He's a member of a neighborhood club that has a pool, different sports courts, and exercise rooms.  It was pretty nice, there were a lot of children running everywhere in their swim caps :] So cute.  Oh and I'm about a fourth of the way done with Los Juegos del Hambre! En español, por supuesto. I'm going to feel like such a winner when I finish it.



Oh, and on Monday, Ana took me to the supermarket so I could get stuff to take for lunch at work. I got bread, peanut butter, and jelly. Mmmmm :] (However, I did get Goya brand jelly so it'd still have a Latino hint and I wouldn't feel like so much of a sell-out...)  Ana had never heard of a PB&J. I made one when I got home, and when she called Annette, her granddaughter, she told her I had made "a food from Texas!" :] I made another for Annette, who had never had one either. She said you wouldn't expect peanut butter and jelly to go well together, but she liked it!  Look at me sharing American culture... next we'll have to do S'mores or something.

Well I think that's all I have for today! I'm officially caught up. But I have a lot of things planned coming up so there will be lots to tell soon!

LOVE,
Abby