Day 3: Thursday Janurary 6, 2011: Mangos

As I write this there is a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. Kinda hard to believe that just a few days ago I was getting sunburn.

  Our third day in the Dominican started out pretty much the same, with dogs barking and motorcycles roaring by and of course...who could forget the music that played all day long. We arrived late to breakfast, but just in time to pray and eat. 
  
   I will be completely honest and tell you straight out that I did very little work today. There were so many people working, that I felt just in the way of the people that were more knowledgeable. So I spent the time trying to learn how they do things, and talking to Heather about what it's like living in the DR. She's been married about a year to David's youngest brother Rafael. And she's Chevy's cousin, which means that the Mennonite game was played on this trip, being that pretty much everyone in our group was related somehow. Except me of course.  :)

Mark and his gun show

 We watched the men start digging a hole for the septic at the house we were building. The hole needed to be about 20 feet deep, squared at the top, then circular at the bottom. Usually they dig until they hit ground water, but Kevin wanted to explain that the dirt can be used to filter the water before it hits the ground water if you leave a few feet between. 

One of the things Kevin and Jen told us when we started our trip was that we're here to serve and to help the Dominicans. We're not here to force our ideas and the way we do things onto their way of life.  They cautioned us to remain teachable while working, realizing that we are coming to a place where some technology is 50-100 years behind what we're used to. 

The frame was up for the house, and the next step in construction was putting wire between the poles to act as rebar for the concrete to be poured later. After the wire was in place, the men put up wooden forms to pour concrete for the outside walls. 

Mark and Chevy putting up a form

 The project at Juancito's continued with the job of plastering the walls, both inside and out. The plaster was made out of sifted sand mixed with cement. All mixed by hand, which I found very fascinating to watch. 

Juan Samuel adding water to the plaster mixture

They would pour buckets of water into the middle of the plaster mixture then using shovels, walk around it mixing it together. Basically like a cement mixer. And they NEVER spilled the water!! Next the plaster was spread all over the walls and smoothed out. Then finished by splashing water on it and smoothing it into perfection. 

The human cement mixer

 In the morning, there really wasn't much work for us girls to do, so we took a walk around town with Jen Sheeler to see where everyone in our work group was staying. Our first stop was David and Jewels house where Johnny and Linda stayed. Lara, Linda B. and Linda were in the process of making pineapple juice with Mildred(the lady who made the juice for our meals every day). David and Jewel have a back up generator for when the electric goes off so they pretty much always have lights.
   Our next stop was Kevin and Jen's house, which was the home of Curtis and Linda as well as Chet and Ralph. Kevin and Jen's house is solar powered, so they don't have to pay an electric bill when they're not in the DR. The electric bill usually runs about $200 pesos a month in Los Toros, which is between $5 and $6 US dollars. Not bad, except that the average worker makes about $300 pesos a day, which is approx $8 US dollars. Jen took us down to the "river", which she said we would call a creek because it's about the size of the Conecegege. She explained that the poorer families come down to the river to bathe. The water we use for our showers and toilet comes from springs in the mountains, although no one knows exactly where. The rainy season is hurricane season, so June-November. They can get 12 inches of rain in 48 hours and it erodes like crazy. As our tour continued, we went to Rafael and Heather's house. Heather's parents were staying with them in the small, two bedroom concrete house. Heather told us that the only stipulation she had when finding a house was that it had to have an indoor toilet! 
  Our final stop on this short tour was the home of Coho. Coho isn't his real name, but the Spanish name for cripple. He was born with a club foot. But that didn't stop him for anything! He was right there working with the rest of the crew. Coho's house was home to "The Three Stooges" Mark, Neil and Eric. He had a black tank on top of a concrete tower behind his house...and that was his hot water heater. 

   After lunch, Stephanie, Hannah and me decided to take a nap. Jen informed us that we need not feel obligated to stay around the work crew. If we needed rest...go take a nap. They won't care! We slept for about an hour and were awakened by Henry, one of David and Rafael's brothers, looking for his dad. He opened up the curtain to our room and his face turned to one of shock, surprise and slight embarrassment when he saw Stephanie and I staring at him. "Oh!! Excuse me!" were the words out of his mouth as he quickly dropped the curtain and made for the door. 
That was just too much! Steph and I busted up laughing! The expression on his face was absolutely priceless!!

Samuel and Mark plastering together

We headed over to Juancito's house where the crew was plastering walls. Stephanie and Hannah joined in, much to the amusement of the Dominican boys who stopped working to watch them. Kevin informed me that they were impressed with how good of a job girls could do. :)


The work day was finishing up, and it was almost time for supper when Stephanie leaned her head around the corner and said "Victoria, come here."  My initial thought was that she wanted to throw a handful of plaster in my face so naturally I said, and repeated "NO!"  She was insistent and said that someone wanted me. Slightly confused I walked over only to find that Jamie had picked a mango for each one of us girls. Kevin informed us that there are no mango trees in Los Toros, but that Jamie was in the fields today and must have picked them for us. :) :) :) 

Chevy and me playing pit with some of the boys

Our evening activity was GAME NIGHT!! Tables were brought into the church and chairs set up. Dominoes is like the National activity in the Dominican Republic and every Dominican knows how to play...and play well. My first game experience was learning the game Pit brought down by Linda Horst. Jewel explained the rules in Spanish, while Stephanie explained them to me in English. Pretty simple and easy for a loud mouth like me! I played so long my hand started to hurt! Then Jewel brought me over to learn a game called Can't Stop with Moises, his older brother Danison and a girl who I can't recall her name. It's a strategy game that I wasn't too good at, but it made for laughs. When I lost my 3rd game straight, it was time to switch out and back to Pit! :) The cards were so dirty by the time we finished playing...for 3 hours total! But it was totally worth it. At one point, I was the only American playing...with all boys. And they couldn't shuffle cards very well, so pretty much every time one would try and end up giving them to me to shuffle. And I'm a horrible shuffler! 

playing Can't Stop with Moises and Danison(Chevy's pic)

 Game night ended with...can you guess...?? Connect Four! And they got me to play Jamie again. This time I won the first game, with some help from the crowd and lots of cheering from the boys!  :D

Who will win??

 Game night gave us time to get to know each other better. Even if we couldn't talk to each other we could at least figure out their personalities and such. And share lots of laughs. It was so cute to hear them try to pronounce our names, although mine was the easiest, because it's the Spanish word for victory. Nonetheless I love the way they say it!!!!
  
   I'm starting to feel more comfortable and getting used to the differences, like the electric being off and such. It's not that important really. The people are what matters, not what clothes they wear, how clean they are or whether or not they have indoor plumbing. We can still have fun without the things that seem so common place in America. It's not the things that bring the smiles or the laughs, it's who you're with. Taking time to appreciate the people for THEMSELVES not the stuff they have.



...and with that thought and a smile on my face, I drifted off to sleep.....