Walking the Line

Today Luke and I went walking around Jarabacoa. This was our first time getting off campus and doing this on our own. We bought peanut brittle from a Haitian, gave money to a ragged old man, got asked by two different people if we wanted to be taken white water rafting or to the falls-to which we replied, actually, we live in jarabacoa and we work at escuela caribe (in spanish of course), so they wouldnt mistake us for tourists-not to mention that our taxi driver tried to take us to Francis rent-a-car, instead of the restaurant. What the hee.
Anyway its hot here. We both miss home. Not miss it enough to want to go back but we miss it none the less. We just like Canada a lot. And the Soo. Walking 'downtown' or going to the A&P. Stupid simple things.
But now we go and eat rice and beans at the blue restaurant. We drink coca cola from tall glass bottles. We get asked to buy peanuts from baskets on the streets. We sit in the backroom of a sweating little paper store that seems to sell the leftovers of western products (I've found a stack of notepads here that I would swear is from the seventies. The pages have turned yellow) using a cramped internet cafe.
Here we see naked children playing in the river right in town. A woman with a big blue bucket on her head, presumably filled with things to sell.
This world moves differently. You can't even imagine that your home because the landscape would never fool you.
We wish we could show all of you this world.

-becky

Latin American Spanish for Dummies

Hola from the Dominican Republic.
Finally got this blog up and running, but at the moment that is all that it is doing (and it wouldnt even be doing that if it hadnt taken my 30 minutes to figure out how to change the menu from spanish to english-using babel fish to translate everything isnt at productive as you might think). But here we are anyway, in the caribbean, at last.
Although it wasnt the easiest thing, leaving canada and everyone behind us and setting out for an unknown country, we are glad that we are here. First off let me start with some basics about life in the Dominican Republic (and specifically Jarabacoa, which is where we live).
DO NOT pay attention to traffic rules, you're liable to get killed that-a-way. Instead side step every concho barrelling down the street with ease and continue on with your market needs
DO eat dominican foods, its so good you'll want to come back for more. Ice burge lettuce has become a new delicacy for me: GASP! can you imagine! And I doubt you ever knew you liked that little thing called pollo as much as you do now.
DO stomp all the coakroaches that wander through your kitchen, your floor will look like a variation of vimy ridge but its better off in the long run. You dont want those buggers wandering around till all hours of the night.
DO expect that there will be no power and embrace this new constant in your life.
DO NOT drink from taps
DO NOT eat fruit raw unless it is peeled
DO NOT throw toilet paper in the toilet (I debated over putting this one in as I know some might be squeemish, but I have decided to so you get a real texture to life here in the tropics).
DO eat rice and beans and rice and beans and rice and beans

Pictures to follow...