As Angelica would say, "Bomb-iting"

I feel like I can't be the only one in existence who has hung their head over a trashcan in a third world country wondering why. As I recall during my 24 bodily rejection of fluids and nutrients in Shanghai, through the haze of illness I pondered what in that communist country could I have consumed to make so ill. Today I had my first Dominican stomach revolt, and I'm happy to say it appears to be short lived. I'm still confused as to what prompted my sickness in the morning (not to be confused with morning sickness), but I'm just going to take it easy and not eat anything for a little bit. I'm hoping this won't permanently ruin bananas and peanut butter (today's breakfast item) permanently for me.

Somewhere in York, PA, my sister is dying a little inside as she reads this...

Off topic, rumor on the streets is that the Brewer/Staats/Fisk house has had 3 mice in a week. I am feeling blessed that nothing else has shown up in my room.

Also, in the Top Ten Things You Don't Want to See On the Side of the Road list, new entry: dead kitten. Just trust me, it's pretty sad.

Since lunch supervision is in about 5 minutes, here is a picture of the river from a spot we like to ride to on our motorcycles! The camera doesn't do it justice.

Christmas!

My mom sent me some small things for my kids for Christmas...and they loved it! Here are two short videos:

Haiti stories

I know you barely have to move your small toe to hear the stories out of Haiti, but I think these are two of the important ones that need to be mentioned.

The first is by Missionary Flights International, the guys that bring us our mail bi-weekly. I hope you watch the video!
http://www.missionaryflights.org/field-reports/148-we-are-bringing-our-babies-home

The second is about a Towson student and Baltimore resident...
http://www.explorebaltimorecounty.com/news/104051/haiti-with-love-hope/

downside of the tropics...

5 inch lizard in my BEDROOM. Picture forthcoming. Thank God for Natalia, catcher of all creepy crawlies in my room.

I am reminded that Cecilia once told me I was the man in the apartment. I believe that excludes situations with creatures.

A way to help the Haitians

I just wanted to let everyone know about a unique, and in my opinion, extremely effective way to help Haiti. There is an American family in my town that distributes water purifiers here in the DR. The company is FilterPureFilters.org, and they make these water filters in needy countries (e.g. Africa, here, Haiti, etc.) that can be given to the Haitians so that they have a renewable source of drinking water, instead of relying on bottled water from relief teams.

To me, this makes more sense than sending bottled water that will, obviously, be used up.

Some people have been asking if I will be going down to help in the relief efforts. Some of us have definitely expressed interest, since we are here on the island already, but right now it's not feasible for a few reasons. The most important one is that it's extremely unsafe in Haiti right now due to the disorganization. The second is that most of the Haitians have no place to go because their shelter has been destroyed, so we would just be a few more bodies needing a place to stay. I think if we were to go it would be more likely in a few months, when things are less chaotic and people know exactly what needs to be done.

I'm trying to upload some videos of my kids, but thus far I am unsuccessful. Try again later!

Second foreign earthquake survived

Hello all, this is just a quick note to let anyone who may be concerned that I am perfectly fine; I didn't feel the earthquake at all. According to my father (I personally haven't looked at a map...), I am about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince. The majority of my students felt the earthquake, as did some of the other teachers. Cecilia was walking in town and saw some of the buildings shaking at the time. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how I end up in these countries with pretty severe earthquakes and don't notice anything. I feel somewhat gypped.

In the meantime, please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers. It is one of, if not the, poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haitians have next to nothing; here in the DR, you can get in more trouble with the law for killing a rooster than a Haitian. At the beach you see many Haitians trying to sell things, shoes, paintings, etc. My understanding is that they will only see a fraction of a percentage of what they make selling these things. The point is, Haiti is a country with a terrible economic infrastructure to begin with, and I cannot imagine that this will help.

Some good pictures of the conditions can be found here:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html

On the Mend

I’m happily writing this without a fever! Thursday afternoon I started feeling a little better, and then after Friday afternoon it was all uphill. (Meaning it got better, not harder.) I still spent most of the weekend relaxing and drinking fluids and eating all of Jenny’s Ricola’s, as the flu has left me with one of those attractive smoker’s lung coughs. It was a delightfully low key time. We watched a good amount of movies…Top Gun, (500) Days of Summer, and 2012. I also finally finished the Curious Case of Benjamin Button today. Oh yeah, I made my lesson plans for this week too. Sometimes I do work.

At 1 today I went on a motorcycle ride with Brewer and Karyn and it was glorious. Yesterday and today we had sunny, warm weather for the first time all week. I’m glad I went; I had been having lackluster feelings towards being here, especially being sick. The drive reminded me how beautiful this country is, and how wondrous it is to live here. And the phenomenon of 85 degrees in January. I wore my Heap jersey, in the hopes of causing the Dominicans to unconsciously start favoring purple. Speaking of which…

At 2 I watched (well, read about) the Patriots crumble to the mighty birds of prey. It was beautiful. At least, the ESPN gamecast (affectionately known around here as the ‘bar graph’) looked very nice. Once it loaded, that is; today’s internet was the slowest I have ever experience while being here. I would rank it somewhere around dial up speed.

Since we have officially entered rainy season, I purchased some clothesline and clothespins for hanging inside my bedroom. Bring on the miserable weather.

Time to go sleep up for Monday! The first graders will undoubtedly have forgotten anything I managed to teach them before the break, thus I will need extra patience. Due to the aforementioned internet issues, I’m not even going to attempt to upload a picture…

Back to warmer temperatures...

Llegue! At the moment I am currently in bed with a thermometer stuck in my mouth, watching a movie. When I landed Monday I was fairly certain I was too hot, and not from the climate, although it was quite humid that day. I've pretty much been in bed ever since. I had to skip school yesterday, of course, and today. I've been alternating between drenching sweats and feverish shaking beneath my blankets, all accompanied by body aches. Fortunately I have wonderful friends here who bring me orange Gatorade, make me tea, and cook me soup. Today I woke up sans fever, just low energy. The thermometer right now, however, is reporting 99.1. Hopefully it won't continue to increase. Never have I so wanted a hot water bottle for my neck.

Anyway, I was so encouraged to go home and hear from some of you that you have been reading my blog! I thought it was just Mom (I love you!). So, it's my goal to make this more entertaining to read. Currently I am also being inspired by Julie & Julia, which (I had forgotten) is about blogging. And cooking. But I'm not being inspired to cook, shocking I know.

I must admit, being sick is not helping to motivate me for the spring semester. Neither is the cold weather...it's somewhere in the 60s, and rainy...quite chilly!! I would love to go retrieve my motorcycle, go to town to get some groceries, and make dinner! ....Or, I could sit in my bed and drink more fluids. Option B? I think so. Although I do need milk.

I guess if you have to miss a few days of school, this is the week to do it...school started yesterday, and apparently I still don't have a full class. There were only 10 high schoolers, and they left at noon. Yesterday was Three Kings Day, kind of like another Christmas, so I guess that makes sense.

I spoke to the new cleaning woman. She is fairly expressionless, which makes me doubt my Spanish when I talk to her. I apparently said something right, because she showed up today. It's the small victories...

I guess I'm off to make lists of the things I would buy at the grocery store if i could go, and then sit listlessly on my bed. Thus begins round two of my Dominican adventures!

Break!

I'm currently sitting in my basement next to my dad (in his neck brace collar) watching Night at the Museum 2 with my family. It's pretty fantastic, especially after going to DC for New Years Eve, and prowling around some of the museums in this movie. (Side note: Amy Adams is reminding me of Nicole Kidman.)

It's been a wonderful two weeks here at home, although I haven't seen everyone that I would have liked, and it has gone very quickly. I am very ready to go back to my warm and moist climate. I'm also ready to see my friends, and eat what my stomach apparently thinks is normal food now. I'm not ready to see/teach my students...but we'll work on that :)

Plans for this semester:

1) Through my substitute status as a CCPL employee, I'm going to take some online non-credit classes, which I am so excited for!! I miss learning.

2) Figure out my plans for next year. There are so many options! I could stay in the DR another year, I could go teach with my cousins (the Heins) in Cambodia, I could go to another country (India, Morocco) with my cousin (Kaylie), I could go home and pursue my Masters degree.

3) Have adventures. To include, but not be limited to, beach trips with my friends, motorcycle rides through the country, and late night laughter. There's talk of a Tier vacation too, so I hope it comes to fruition!

4) Reflect on purpose, and my purpose, and my life.

Two more days and I'm back to my tropical paradise!