monumental museum... and amely.

the tourism-factor is low in santiago. we've got a cultural museum... and a monument.
i'm always at a loss for what to do with visitors. there are some rivers to swim in and some of the scenery outside of the city is gorgeous, but the museum gets old. i've been there ten times since may. and the exhibits haven't changed. and it takes about 30 minutes to see all there is to see.

and the monument used to be fun,but now it's not. the craziness was taken away when the city government decided to spruce the place up and get rid of the riff-raff. the fun nights of merengue dancing in the streets are over, but don't fret! it's been replaced by a museum documenting the restoration of the republic. 

what's that? you ask. i have no idea. really. there are some two or three independence days and i get them confused. this one has something to do with haiti. or france. or spain.

the museum is filled with old-school dioramas and confusing explanations. the stairway to get to the top of the monument is worse than the spiral case in the statue of liberty.  but on the top floor, there are statue-replicas of carnival figures. each character of carnaval tells a cultural story - from the robalagallina woman with children hidden under her skirt to the lechones meant to scare evil away.

amely loves it. and since we don't do carnaval, this is a safe place for her to see her characters.

this woman is marchante or a market-woman. she strolls through the streets selling fruits and vegetables from the basket atop her head, flowers from her basket and beans from her apron. amely thinks that's too much work. 

the lechon wears a different mask in every region of the country. he carries a dried pigs bladder to beat people up with, and a rope whip to make a lot of noise. of course, he's amely's favorite.

the robalagallina is a man, dressed as a woman, with lots of little-ones hidden under the skirt. when they enter the colmados the children steal things - like hens (roba: steal, la gallina: hen). amely thinks it's funny.

call u-haul

this summer we moved. it's the second large move i've had here in the dominican republic - and hopefully the last for a long time. when we moved into our first apartment, we relocated in a mini-pick-up - all we had was a bed, a couch, some plastic bookshelves and our clothes. while i cleaned the new place, amalio and his brother ran around town buying a dining room table (hideous - but we still have it), a stove (since replaced), a refrigerator (in need of replacement), a dominican style washer (sitting outside collecting dust) and an iron (since replaced at least 4 times). 

by the time we moved into our second place, we had two babies and three years of life under our belts and needed something bigger than a pickup to move. luckily amalio's students and some other strapping young men were willing to move us for the promise of lunch. it's not easy to move from one third floor to the next.

this move, however, was easier. we were moving from a third floor to a house. on ground level. and i had purged a ton of unnecessaries from our lives not too long before - so we had less boxes of junk (still, the boys will point out, the same number or more of heavy, heavy books).

luckily we were able to practice the patience needed for a move in this country when my dear friends rebecca and josh moved to san francisco de macoris just days before our big move. somehow, i avoided their packing chaos and made it just in time to witness the most incompetent truck packing i've ever experienced. 

You can read more about this moving hilarity here

see that big piece of furniture going on the roof of that truck? well, the basic consensus amongst the movers was that the big, bulky furniture needed to go in the truck last - despite the fact that it isn't a big space taker - tons of things could have been nested into its open spaces. alas, it took a 1.5 hour drive to san fran and didn't kill anyone.

once it got there however... it didn't fit up the stairs to the new place - so it was cut apart, carried up the stairs and then put back together.

since all of that moving nonsense wasn't enough for us we decided to move into our house without our water connected and without the permission of the owner. i know this sounds sneaky, but we had signed our contract one month prior and were still waiting for this fool to get his act together. ridiculously, he gave amalio the keys to let the alarm guy in one day - we took advantage and called the strapping young men and amalio's students to help us move in the next day. we would have moved in that very very day except i had just helped rebecca move out and was pretty tired. besides, our cistern was empty and i refused to move in to a house with no water at all.

i paid this kid 1,000 pesos (about 25 dollars) to fill up our 2500 gallon water tank so we could survive until the water company resolved their problem.

the following day we were ready. all the boxes were packed (mostly) and the boys were ready to carry heavy things. one of amalio's ex-students had access to a flatbed, and since that would be cheaper than hiring a truck, we loaded things up

of course, it made perfect sense to start loading from the back to the front, right? hence the logical packing in the back and haphazard packing in the little bit of space left to them near the front. it took two trips, and each time 10 boys rode around on the back like kings.

we've acquired furniture over the years - we have way more than a bed and some shelves nowadays. not too long ago we got this beautiful tv cabinet from a coworker for a really great price. it took a lot of work to get it into the apartment. i even promised the guys who carried it that i wouldn't move for a long time. alas, two months later, we were trying to get the thing out again!

we've been settled in for about two months now - the house still feels like a wreck and the backyard is finally starting to take shape. it's a beautiful place, and a complete blessing that just fell into our laps unexpectedly. i'll be taking some pictures soon of the yard and the house - but of course, friends are always welcome to come see it for themselves!

re-building of a house.

i'm super far behind and crazy backed up on my blog. i know. i'm sorry. but last week i sat down and emptied my little memory chip onto a computer and proceeded to break down the pictures into groups. we're talking photos from july. but, better late than never, right?

right before we moved out of our old place, it was raining. a lot. like every single day. and when it rains like that, streets flood. especially the street we needed to cross to get into our neighborhood. there were many days i was stuck on a kind lady's porch waiting for  the water to subside. mostly because the water wasn't rain water, but overflow from the sewers. gross. i know.

a friend of ours lives on this street. and every single time it rains, her house would flood. this past rainy season was intense, and a few times the house flooded up to the beds. can you imagine your house being inundated with aguas negras?

 

this summer, she was accepted into a new government program that was supposed to rebuild the house in three days. like many governmental programs however, three days turned into 6 weeks. and, like many other not-very-well-planned-out "do-good" projects, the government planned to rebuild the home without actually raising it up out of the danger zone. 

so, three truckloads of debris was ordered in, money was found (somewhere, who knows?) and a bunch of neighbors chipped in to help fill the foundation of the house.

a few days later we stopped by and the floor was laid (simple cement) but the family was still waiting for windows and doors to be installed. (see? larry allen was here this summer! he's there in that picture!)

i'm sure that in the end all of the house-guarding, not being able to leave and living with two grown children and a baby in a small room for six weeks was worth it. the new house is gorgeous, and even more importantly, out of flood danger.

i had pictures of the finished product - doors and windows installed and painted. but i'm following the lead of the government and doing this in installations. look for more pictures of this house at a later date!

celebrate.



if you've read this blog for any length of time, you've probably caught glimpses of my ups and downs in the making of friends. i'm not a terribly social person, but i'm not really a loner, either. most of our friends (as a family) are dominicans - we do, afterall, live and work in the community with dominican people.





when i first moved here, i was isolated from other foreigners - i worked a lot and lived in a not-foreign-friendly area. had it not been for that experience, i'm sure i would still be stumbling along in spanish and culturally offending more often than i do now.


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Deborah, Stephanie and Ada y Ilvania



then i got married and moved to an apartment complex full of americans. but not the kind anyone wants to be friends with - old men looking for love from 20 something women, paying their pension checks to support three kids who aren't theirs and the sex that comes with it.



i made friends with the people around me and for the most part have been content with that.




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dirty martini - that was more like toilet water... complete
with a chunk of ice to keep it cold. nasty.



but in the past year, some of us middle-of-the-line ex-pats have become friends - our kids play together, we hang out and get along really well. i finally feel happy to have met some people i feel okay letting my kids play with, who speak english and are down for anything.



 friday we started my birthday celebration. it was fun. there aren't many pictures. the restaurant service was horrible. the food was good. and we laughed and laughed.

a bunch of us girls are missing. (martine scooted out of every picture!) but don't worry, i've got a whole month left of birthday to celebrate!

thirty, thirty.

on may 12th i will celebrate my 30th birthday.

that's right, 30 years on this beautiful earth. since i've decided to stay 30 for a few years, i also decided to use my total allotment of celebrations.

it's a big year - the year when kids think you're "really" old and when old people think you're still "really" young. i get told all the time what a baby i am. and how old i am. depending on the audience.

the fiesta started friday night- a girl's night out for dinner and it was nice. really nice. i am so blessed to have found friends that are solid and true... and fun! the party continues with some trips to visit friends around the country, then two big barbecues in may.


i have a list of things i want to accomplish in my thirtieth year (that i'll post on my birthday).

here's to birthdays to celebrate, family and friends to celebrate with!

the beach. in february. be jealous.

look at that joy. these kids l.o.v.e. the beach. which is a miracle, because not so long ago, samil hated the beach so much that he wouldn't even look at it. 

no exaggeration. he didn't want sand touching his little toes or that dirty water lapping against his legs. and once, i carried him into the ocean - and had this been the united states, every nosy-nelly on the beach would have called the cops to report a murder in progres..

but, oh, he loves the beach. we went in december with friends. at first he sat a watched as everyone else enjoyed this very same beach - until he got so jealous that he stripped down to his little underoos and ran in, too. 

the last weekend in february, the dominican republic celebrates independence day. usually a national holiday means sardines-in-a-can effect at beaches all along the north coast, but since carnaval happens at the same time, it's a pretty nice time to hit the beach. besides. it's the beach. in february.

we've got the little extra that amalio's family lives 20 minutes from two beautiful, kid friendly beaches (not to mention the waterfalls and natural, river swimming holes nearby), so we can go to the beach and not have to pay for a hotel. we often drag (ha!) friends along for the ride. it was only two weeks ago, but i'm already feeling the need for another beach vacation.

santo domingo

if you've been following the past few weeks, you'll know that i'm on the path to acquiring my dominican citizenship, making me a dual citizen just like my kids. it's not a complicated process, but there are some trips to the capital involved.

the capital is not my favorite place in the country. it might not even make it to the top of my fifty favorite places in the world,  but it's where things move here and i can't avoid it. besides, a good friend of mine lives there and she makes it an excellent place to visit. (who doesn't love visiting old friends?)

since i was going to have to run back and forth a few times, i tried to piggyback some other things that i needed to do (like a trip to ikea. need.) and a visit to some of my husband's family. when my friend kate from college emailed me and said she'd be on the island, could we meet up somehow? i was thrilled.

i love visitors.

i especially love catching up with old friends who come to visit (hint).

she was at a resort pretty far from us, but i needed to go to the capital (and i would have met her there even if i didn't) and i figured why not get it done all at once. so, she and her husband went with amely and i to the police station to turn in my paperwork and then we headed downtown to the zona colonial. i never carry a camera, but the blackberry did a decent job (thank you daniel, again, for my lovely phone!)

beautiful arches in the first cathedral in the new world!

chapel #3 - someone is buried in there, don't ask me who.

creepy little cherubim above the door. creepy.

those cherubim are creepy, but not nearly as creepy as these little boy statues lining the building asking for donations for seminary. CREEPY

jonathan standing next to some cannons.

pirates in the carribean (ha! i know, not funny. but i had to)

if you look closely you'll notice that he glasses are on upside down.

view of ozama river from the top of the fort.

looking toward the city from ozama fort.

amely doesn't warm up to people a lot. but she loved her some jonathan.

i'm an illegal immigrant

last week, amely and i packed out day bags and headed to santo domingo to see a friend from college who was honeymooning in punta cana. (man it was a long trip, but so worth it to catch up!) i have been hemming and hawing about my legal status, not really sure what i was going to do about my illegal immigrant status. we finally decided to do the dual citizenship when my employer forced my hand (get something, anything, or you're out of a job). with all the paperwork together, i figured i'd double dip and hit the police department to drop off the papers.

here's where things kind of tilt. i didn't want to do my paperwork because it's such an ordeal. there are lines, and a lot of people who don't know what's going on. wait for hours in line a just to be told to go to line b and line b tells you it's back to line a. i can't handle it. amalio went once to get the information we needed to complete the process, and in the same building they gave him four different papers, all with different requirements for the same thing.

so, i had asked for help. i put out the word of what i was doing and, please, for the love of god, does anyone know who can help me? not a lawyer (because they're the worst), but someone who maybe works in the right office, or even in the right building?

i hit the jackpot and was connected to someone in the right building. it's always a crapshoot because even though people say they can help, it's not always true. let me tell you, this guy came through.

arriving at the correct building (after arguing in the wrong building about my friends' inappropriate clothing), we were met by an assistant, taken to an office, given fresh-squeezed juice. i handed over my packet of papers and the fee (not a bribe) and while some guard ran my errands, i relaxed and caught up with my friend and her new husband.

i don't really know how long the process really takes, but i will take my citizenship test on wednesday (6 days after depositing my paperwork!) and will be sworn in when the depositions from the proper international agencies come in and declare me felony free.

me and kate at the ozama fort

i've talked to others who have waited months and months for things to "fall into place." because if yo don't know someone, things here don't work. i've got some studying to do - i still don't know who the first president of the republic was (trick question!) or any of the 87 different independences, but i see the light at the end of the tunnel... i will no longer be the illegal and i'll still have a job.

best christmas present. ever.

 i mean, who else gets elfish slippers from kazakhstan for christmas?

a good old fashioned presidente party

i'm not a big drinker - quiza a glass of wine now and then, or a frias shared with friends and i'm my grandmothers' offspring, because i like hi-balls - but drinking was so college and i think i'm a little too old for so much of that anymore.

however, (and i swear this is the last post about my mountain hike!) after that long walk up the mountain and long walk back down, the "kids" decided it was time for a presidente party. where thy got the energy from, i've got no idea - but they turned on the radio and danced the bus-ride away: bachata, merengue and reggaeton. throw in a few jumbos of presidente beer and it was poppin'.

i love that every thing can be turned into a celebration. and alcohol is not necessary for fun in these parts - just a radio with loud music for dancing and, usually, food to go along with it. even funerals can get a little spicy once the music starts pumping.

decidida.

The view from the top of Pico Quita Espuela, Dominican Republicif you read the blog (amazing! considering how infrequently i've posted this year), you'll know that i've been trying to change my eating and exercise habits.

i've waxed and waned this year - i lost 30 pounds before may, and have more or less just maintained that since i started my new job. we, as a family, have been making more healthy food choices and we recently made a deal to incorporate more active activities into our family-time.

it's not always easy to be active in the ways that i know how to be active with two kids. the hiking trails are hard here, and there are few parks to play in. but we try. playgrounds, riding bikes outside, taking walks.

the last weekend in november we were invited on a field trip with a class of enivronmental science students. we wouldn't be able to take the kids, but since we rarely ever have the chance to take part in things like this, and i didn't need the babysitter that saturday, we signed up for the hike to the top of pico quita espuela.

i'm super out of shape. and not at-all-skinny. i made a goal. i would make it to the half-way house and wait it out. i was sure i would probably be dead before i got there, but i would at least make it there.

i watch biggest loser. a lot. religiously, even. partly because it motivates me, partly because i don't believe that they can actually get those people to do the things they do. i remember watching oprah and maury povich when i was younger and they would have fat people clap their hands and wiggle their hips for 30 minutes a day so they could burn calories. and now? biggest loser has 500 pound men going miles in the first weeks at the ranch.

it was unbelievable to me because i didn't think i had it in me. and if i don't, why should they?

so, i make these half-goals because i don't believe that i can really do the whole-goal.
we got to the midway point. my thighs were burning, i was thirsty and tired. we sat down and... when everyone started getting up to go (and by everyone, i mean everyone except the girls who brought their purses and designer boots along for the hike and a few gentlemen companions) i decided that i needed to do it. i was going to make it to the top.
amalio and i at the caseta de descanso - or midway point
i was fine until we decided to go down the slippery slope to the river-spring to drink. the trees were covered in spines and i slid on my butt most of the way. luckily, there was a lovely young man who helped a few of us girls by digging holes in the mud.

i made it back up and decided, again, to keep going. it hurt. it burned. i felt like i would die. but. three hours later, we made it to the top - and i wasn't even the last one there.
this one kid who helped me down the mountain told me that he admired me because most of the skinny girls stayed back at the rest-stop, and here i was determined to get to the top. (if it wasn't for him, i'd probably still be at the top) gregory, my helper, was as determined as i was to get ME to the top! he kept saying he wouldn't leave anyone behind!

when you've got it inside, you have to pull it out. sometimes we get people who can help motivate us, but in the end it comes down to making a decision and getting on with it. it's not always about losing weight or getting in shape - it's about everything we think we can't do. we can.

just put your mind to, make a decision and go.



amalio and i at the top - a horrible quality photo, but WE MADE IT!

me at the bottom, waiting for the bus. so tired!