sights around town.

i've been pretty slack on the blog in the past few months --- but i swear! i do always keep it in my mind, and i take pictures a lot, thinking that i should update this thing. 

so. here are some of the things i see around town (some on a regular basis, some... yeah, not so much)

in the spring, it rains. and rains. and rains.
this year, we were getting killer rainbows every other day. 

i'm not sure what to point out in the picture. you'll obviously note the men sitting on top of the sacks. there are four total. what i can also point out, is that the truck is completely lopsided. i see this all of the time, and i'm so scared to drive next to trucks like this. this one is small, but they're often huge trucks, loaded up with paja de arroz, rice hay.

this picture was taken on the corner of my house. that big black cloud is the landfill burning about 1.5 miles back -- and just a few "blocks" from our school. the burning is not usually this visible, but it is always present. our students breathe this crap every. single. day.

a few weeks ago, i took the bus to visit the rousculps in san francisco de macoris. it's not a terribly long ride - about an hour - and it is absolutely beautiful rice country. the kids fell asleep, and i just kept clicking my camera to pass the time. 

i snapped this shot by sheer luck -- from a bus window going 60 mph down the highway. 

on my way to work one afternoon, i was slowed down by this. i'm not completely sure what happened - just that that SUV was pulled over and the driver and passengers were told to get out, while about 6 armed soldiers pointed guns at them.

ambulant-merchants are still very common in the dominican republic - even in the cities. people walk around carrying everything from fruits and vegetables to toilet paper on their heads.