creepy crawler

has anyone seen this bug before?

it was about the size of my hand and had pincers like a crab coming from it's "head" area. at first we thought it was a flying cockroach, so the ladies tried to kill it with a sandal, but the thing would just.not.die.

reason number #243 why i can't live in the campo full time.

welcome, baby.

this little guy was born last thursday. i missed his birth by one day (live-births, the geeky-parents dream... child-of-the-geeky-parents' nightmare, i 'm sure).

he was all wobbly legged still, but samil and amely were able to "help" him milk, and learned all about milk-production (the breastfeeding mothers guide to milk production... from a cow!)

samil loves to help papa with the animals, but he won't really get too close during the milking process. he helps open the gate and will even run the cows from field to field, but milking freaks him out.

not amely.

my father-in-law will only let her in with this cow because if you'd let her, she'd ride the mama and put the baby on a leash. or take a bath with the milk. or! drink the milk right from the udder.

there are two more calves on the way and we might actually make it to the first birth mid-may.

color del campo

i spent the weekend in the campo with the kids - we didn't really do much besides visit (and i did a lot of reading/planning). i don't have a great camera - in fact, i usually use my blackberry's built-in, but here are some pictures just of the color. i love the countryside and small villages throughout the country. simple lifestyle, laid-back. i couldn't do it full-time, but it's a great break from my "real life".

not boobies, sitll outrageous.

i was in the supermarket just the other day, picking up a few things after work. i almost never really shop in this supermarket, and so i never have any real need to enter into the diaper/baby food/toilet paper/tissue aisle. i usually breeze right past and don't even think twice.


except, i needed some baby wipes to take along on our bus trip to the campo this weekend and turned into the aisle. oh.my.god

remember the outrageous boobies on these mannequins in the city? i guess this store decided they couldn't be shown up by hard nipples on a hot day, and stuff the pants of this geriatric diaper model!

i looked once and thought i was mistaken. afterall, there is no good reason for stuffing the crotch of leak-free panties. but, alas, my eyes were not playing a trick on me. so, then i thought, maybe the diapers bunches poorly in the front? and if that is the case, why would i want to use them? i don't want people to know about my incontinence.

so, me being me, i touched it. and then opened and looked inside, and sure enough the pants were stuffed.

maybe if they stuff it just right, more men will be convinced to buy it thinking it will make them look bigger? i'm not sure. to me it's just a little ridiculous!

the rich and the poor.

i teach at the most expensive university in santiago. my students drive mercedes and bmws. or they have private chauffers who drive range rovers. they wear designer clothes and travel to the USA during vacations.

i walk by this "room" everyday - they
have no running water and their "latrine
is situated in an outhouse behind this
structure.

i live in a neighborhood that is middle class. it's quiet and houses are comfortable and mostly not too intimidating. most of our neighbors send their kids to middle-of-the-line private schools and drive middle-of-the-line SUVs to work everyday.

and i work in a community where most have to worry about where their food is coming from tomorrow. how they can send their kids to even the public school, when they don't have the money to buy a uniform or pay for notebooks.

much like most other places in the world, there is a wide range of incomes, a diversity in lifestyles. there are people who work, and people who don't.

this house is being built brick by brick
every time the family has money, they
add on.

as i search the web for information on different NGOs on the island, i am both excited and disgusted. excited that there are so many people doing so many good things to improve the life of people around them. i'm finding more and more initiatives started and run by local people. i see the spirit of the dominican republic alive and well, the community helping each other to survive. and i even see foreigners offering their skills and gifts to empower others.

This mansion comes complete with a
helicopter landing pad and a swimming
pool.

but i also see pages filled with pictures only of the very poor. of the "success" of projects exhibited in before and after photos, where in the before picture the family or children always look destitute and unhappy. children with the swollen bellies of malnutrition eating bowls of rice gruel in a modern and amazing center. instead of focusing on the positive of the dominican culture, the seedy underside is shown - and painted as the picture of what life is.

there is extreme-poverty here - families living on less than two US dollars a day. families who eat when food appears and when it doesn't, they don't. houses with no electric, no water, no security.

but that is only a small portion of the population.

a house on the hill.

there is poverty here. there are people who work hard, but their salaries just doesn't make ends meet, and desperate times call for desperate measures. delinquency, illiteracy, depression.

and there is an emerging middle class - a broad range of educated workers to retired, dominican-americans or dominican-europeans. who still aren't riding high on the hog, but probably don't worry too much about where their food is coming from.

and there is a social elite. whose children drive beemers and study in the US. who don't realize how bad life can be for their employees that they pay 200 dollars a month and expect to survive and be productive.

 it's hard to not feel bad, feel guilty, be sad when you see those pictures and of course you send the money. but, wouldn't you rather a more accurate picture of life here? success stories that don't assume that a new bathroom will turn frowns upside down, or that rice gruel charity is better than actual love and compassion?

**please forgive the lack of "average" houses in this post, i wanted to illustrate the two extremes that people usually jump to - either dirt poor, or filthy rich. 

shoe fetish.

my shoe closet consists of one pair of blue flats, one pair of black flats, a pair of blue, peep-toe sandals, black work shoes, black pumps, 8 million flip flops and a pair of sneakers.

i am no shoe fashionista. or any kind of fashionista for that manner. i leave that job for amely.

i like shoes. to look at them, admire them. but the thought of stilettos sends me directly to the emergency room with a broken neck. and anything that isn't comfortable to look at is off the list of shoes for me.

i'm even a little judgmental about shoes. mostly because here shoes are a big deal. women wear high-heels all.of.the.time. platform shoes, chunky heels, kitten heels - you name it, it's worn here every.single.day. recently stilettos have become popular - not just any stiletto, but stilettos pair with platforms, also known as stripper shoes.

i think they're great. really. if you're going dancing or on a sexy date. or if you're just getting paid for sex on a date. lovely, these shoes are. but what i can't wrap my mind around is why in the world you'd put on these shoes to go traipsing around the city. to the supermarket, to the park with your kids, to take class in the university.

i just don't get it.

i've been on the look out lately, and luckily (lucky for my judgmental self), i've noticed that they're not really that common in the grand scheme of things. when i go to the fancy supermarkets, there might be one or two ladies in the entire store sporting plastic platforms on her feet, but the supermarkets that cater to a lower socio-economic class have a higher average of spike-heels.

seriously, who goes out in these things? do you? why? let me know.

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!