ando mucho!

Yesterday I was sitting on the Caribe Tours bus, white fleece and SmartWool socks on against the best air conditioning in a sol caribe county, resting my eyes against the strain of 5 days of teenage girls at Camp GLOW, 10 days of friendly visitas by Lisa and Seth, etc, when my nose wrinkled in response to the scent of a pure, golden sunset mango. From my chair, I pretended to sleep, leaving my eyes just open a wink to watch two men peel mangos. And in that moment, I was enamored again with Santo Domingo. Which is good, at this point, I feel like I know how to live here, drunk men grabbing at me in the mornings or constantly being overcharged on account of my accent, but finding happiness is still elusive. I'm fit as a fiddle (gracias a dios), and I've made some wonderful friends, confident as I ever am, and more blessings - but the work, it ain't easy. Also, the coffee addiction is out of hand.


Even though I may have to change my primary project.
I have lots more to explain, but I'm at a lack for a them this post. Let's see, maybe I should just make a little bullet list of things that are current:

• A project success! I took 2 girls to Estrellas de Hoy, a leadership camp for 5 days, after I participated in the planning process for the past 8 months. The girls and I bonded, they learned a ton, and this may lead to a year 1 goal: the formation of a couple of girls groups in Jarabacoa. Pictures soon!
• We may move. I had a tumultuous reporting moment on this June's trimester report which carried over to our sector meeting. I wrote the darn thing, and I'm proud of my work these past months, but dang, it just became obvious that Junta Yaque (my primary project partner) is just bringing me down. My APCD and others agree that a strong step would be to move to Los Dajaos, work with the women's group, the rural health clinic, and the tourism project near there. I still face having to explain this to Romulo, my JY boss. And for that reason, to you, Junta Yaque, I say: "Te castigue por jugar con me amor!"
  Thanks Anthony Santos for giving me the words to explain the anguish of having the whole JY thing fall flat.
  

• Seth came and we all three andar-ed like crazy. In just 8 days we visited the charcos, went horseback riding for 2 days, visited our site, went to a movie (wall-e) in the capital, and dove in Bayahibe. Pictures posted soon.
• Lisa came up for the weekend and we took a day trip to Los Dajaos to see what may become Ben and I's new place, if we move.
• A friend of my passed away after months in a coma. I'm totally ok, as he was in a coma for quite some time. But I feel shaken, a little more sensitive than usual.

I try to make this blog reflective of my thoughts as I move from all-my-life American to the next level. This is a laundry list of sorts of the recent events, and when I get back home, and have to process it, I'll get into these topics and what the sites and sounds were a little more. For now, I'm off to the airport to pick up the Berry's fresh off the plane for a week on the isla de amor.