My life so far

November 21, 2008

I am nearing the end of my first month living in my site, and there is both a lot to say and not much to say. A lot has happened, but my life is also becoming normal here, and doesn’t seem as crazy as it did before. I guess that means I have adjusted. I am realizing that my life here is starting to seem much more real than my life back at home, as it becomes more removed from the present. That is a weird thought. My life still feels far from settled or complete here, but it is moving in that direction.

So, now I will tell you a bit about my new home. My community is called Rincon Hondo, which literally means “deep corner.” It is located in the NE part of the country, in the Septionentral mountain range, and about an hour from the coast. You probably won’t find it on a map, but if you are interested you can look for Pimentel and Castillo, and my road off the carretera is between those two pueblos. Off the main road, my community is about 3 KM up an unpaved road. There is really just one road that most of the houses and all of the businesses are on, there is one other road that crosses it where the colmados are, but it goes to two different little communities on either side of mine. Everyone either lives “alla arriba” (up the road) or “alla abajo” (down the road). It is campo, meaning rural, and there are an estimated 800 people who live here. It is very very green here—there are lots of trees and everywhere is very densely vegetated. It might be as close to jungle as anywhere in this country. There is also a river that is in a little canyon that runs alongside the main road. If you keep going up the main road it continues uphill and at the very top, about 6 km away from my community, is the summit and another little community, El Firme that has 360 degree views all the way to the coast.

January 2, 2009

I gave up on writing for a long time since I have had no internet access so little motivation since I don’t know when anyone will ever get to read what I write. Anyway, I am in the capital for a day and have internet! I notice that this last entry is very incomplete… but as far as describing my community pictures probably do a better job. So, you should all check out my Gmail album, as I have been putting new pictures on there every so often. Anyway, the reason I am in the capital now is to do some business and take my vacation day—both of which had to be put off because of a death in my community. A friend of mine, Madelin, who had been battling cancer for several months, died on Tuesday morning. She was only 23, and her death has definitely shaken the community. When someone dies the whole world comes to a complete stop and everyone gets to work immediately getting everything ready for the velorio, which is the first day of luto, or the nine days of mourning. By 5:30 that morning everyone in the community knew, all of the furniture had been cleared out of the house in preparation for the arrival of the casket, and all of the women had set up fires on the ground of the gallera, which is the cockfighting ring, to start cooking. It is tradition to feed everyone who comes to the house that first day, and the entire world comes. Families are also huge here, and everyone is related. People came from all over, and Madelin’s boyfriend even flew in from New York and was there by the afternoon. Most of the day was spent in the packed house, full of people screaming and wailing, yelling at god, kissing the casket, and occasionally falling on the floor. It is definitely very public and very expressive, but that is the tradition. Overall, it was upsetting and a little scary, and impossible to be in the house and not be crying too being surrounded by so many sobbing people. It was very interesting to realize how much of mourning and expression of feelings is actually cultural. Even the way people cry here is different. That afternoon we had a service in the church, with a priest and the entire community, and then we loaded the casket on the back of a truck and the entire community got into the backs of trucks too and we had a procession of 30 or more trucks all the way down the hill, onto the freeway, and drove 5 mph all the way to the cemetery in Castillo. I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was absolutely incredible, but I didn’t bring my camera because it was pouring and I was in the back of a truck. There we did a lot of praying, and that was when the boyfriend arrived, which was also very intense. And then the mourning continues for 9 days afterwards, with the 9th day just as big and with as many people as the first day. So, I was planning on going to the capital on the 30th and going with a group of volunteers to the beach for New Year’s but obviously I couldn’t leave my site. Apparently it is okay to leave during the 9 days, as long as I am back for the 9th day. Which is good, since I could use a break, as it has been rather intense there. My dona, Isa, was Madelin’s cousin, and she has been spending all day every day at the family’s house doing the cooking and cleaning for them. For example, this morning when I went over there she was scrubbing the entire outside of the house. I’m not sure what makes this a good time to do that, but whatever. New Year’s was very quiet, as no one is allowed to play music during the mourning, and nothing ever happens without music here. Most people actually went to sleep before midnight. I was sitting with my friend’s family in his house that night, almost asleep, when at about 11:30 we heard a crash and went outside to find 3 crates of Presidente beer in the middle of the road, that had apparently fallen off a truck and the truck had drove off. We picked up all the glass, and most of the bottle were unbroken, so we picked some up and hid them in the bushes before the driver came back to find them. We then decided that our good fortune meant that we should go do something fun, so we went on the motor to a neighboring community where there was lots of drinking and some dancing at the colmado. It was a typical colmado scene, which consists of people sitting outside the colmado in plastic chairs drinking rum out of plastic cups, and really really loud merengue and bachata music and a few people dancing in the whatever tiny paved area the colmado has. There were actually only a couple of people from my community there, so it was really nice to be relatively anonymous for a couple of hours.