Summer!

Well, my neighbors have gotten used to meeting new Americans at this point.  The first few were a novelty, but now they just ask me who’s coming next, where’s my dad, what about that other brother I’ve mentioned?  Is he single?  Can some muchacha mangar her visa?  In the last few months I’ve had 10 different visitors, between other Peace Corps volunteers and visitors from home!  Tabara loves them all.

They especially loved meeting my mom and brother, Steve.  Mom came once before, in October, and it’s interesting to see how my place in the community has evolved since then.   The difference between six months and a year is huge in terms of relationships and comfort.  We hiked to the loma with some of my Dominican family and friends, involving a mule for transport, live chickens (to be killed and cooked upon arrival), mangos falling off the trees and onto our heads in gusts of wind, and the long process of making a huge sancocho over a fire.  We spent some time sitting in the river, and the chicas were pretty excited to teach Steve to dance bachata and take a lot of pictures with him.  They were shocked to learn that he’s only 15:  “Pero Laura… él es un gigante!”  But Laura… he’s a giant!  They all fell in love.  (Pictures to come, at some point.)

  

Mom and Steve were pretty amused by the cast of characters around my house too… Lets just say that my family has now witnessed some of the weirdness of my life, including an enamorado soaping up half-naked in my doorway to go bathe in the rain, and another serenading them on my guitar (which he doesn’t know how to play) with a song he wrote himself… Awkward.  Really.  I think mom got it on video.  I also watched my mother show baby pictures of me to some muchacho I barely know just cause he came over and parked himself in my yard like everyone likes to do… Mostly I was just like, “What is going on here?”  It was an entertaining week.  And, as always, the children can be counted on.  I think mom and Steve each had their own fan clubs of small children.  Adorable.

A few friends came to visit from home too!  First came Liz, who everyone thought was my sister and said was so beautiful.  Then Natalie… who everyone thought was my sister and said was so beautiful (though we had already established that I have no sisters when Liz was here).  This merging of worlds has been pretty great actually.  It’s fun to be the ambassador between Americans and Dominicans, though interpreting is exhausting. 

Me and Natalie at the beach!

Besides acting as a guide to this crazy country for some of my loved ones, the month of June wasn’t all that productive in terms of work, since school’s out.  But I did manage to paint a huge mural of a world map in the school!  Some of my buddies helped me with the painting part, and we’re all quite proud of ourselves... It looks pretty cool. 

The world in our school!

The remainder of the summer will be dedicated to camps, inside and outside of my community.   It’s good to keep busy – with this crazy heat it’s a little too tempting to not move from my house between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM.   Next week I’m taking two of my chicas to camp GLOW (a five-day overnight camp for girls).  Then it’s back to literacy.  I’m planning a reading camp for kids for the month of August, and after that school starts again! …Eventually… when both the teachers and the kids feel like going...