Patronales and a mini-vacation!
9-6-10
I really am a riot, I rant and rant and rant about how excited for Patronales I am and I only make it out to Patronales on the very last night. Ha. Well my opinion was that it wasn't as much as it was worked up to be but I also think that since I went on a Tuesday it wasn't meant to be the best night. I did have fun, invited Heather the volunteer from neighboring Juan Lopez out and we enjoyed ourselves even if it was only for a little while. The thing about Patronales is that you really have to want to drink or be in a large crowd to have fun, and since I lacked these two things it was just okay. Patronales appears to be just like a good lo' fair with rides, things to buy, and greasy unhealthy foods except its all DR style. This means that the rides are crazy fast and unsafe and the foods include hot dogs without buns and chimi churris (DR hamburgers). Seriously the ferris wheel goes so fast all my DR friends said they do not get on because of all the people that throw up. Aren't ferris wheels just supposed to casually go in a circle? Also they have a rendition of a pirate ship except there are no seat belts so the people seriously float in the air before they are pulled down by gravity. Needless to say, I did not get on any rides. Ha.
I did impart on a small dance my project partners were throwing for all the social clubs where I got to dance a bit of meringue and bachata with my drunk project partners. Fun. :|
So instead of drinking and dancing every night I did take advantage of the town going on hiatus for these festivities. Since there really was no work to be going on during these days I did use this time to leave my site for a while to check out other neighboring volunteer sites. First was Masa in Jamao which was extremely fun. His doña pretty much has the most beautiful river in Jamao in her backyard so I got to go bathe in the rio then be fed by his awesome doña and don. They love me. :) Afterwards I got to check out Masa's pad which is a sweet upstairs 2 bedroom apartment with running water, electricity and a working shower. Don't think he is suffering much. Love you Masa.
Next I stayed with Magee who lives in Los Bueyes and let me tell you, this was such an adventure! First I had to get in the back of a pick up truck along with loads of animal feed and hold on for nearly an hour through rain and shine on this extremely rocky path. It was fun until Magee told me one of her visitors actually fell off the truck. I held on a little tighter after that. By the time I got to her site I cannot even explain to you the beauty of her site. Everywhere you look there are nothing but beautiful green mountains blending with bright blue skies and theres not a sound of a moto or booming colmado but quiet and serene winds in the fruit trees. Gorgeous! Her site is seriously what I imagined the Peace Corps lifestyle would be. Quiet, serene, isolated yet beautiful. Also because she is out in the middle of nowhere she does not have all those amenities like Masa and I have. She collects rain water, owns a latrine and gracias to her project partners collects electricity from the sun with solar power. Crazy huh? I was so impressed with her beautiful wooden house, it was so big and clean and perfect. I think I liked her site a lot because it really was ideal for me as far as being isolated. I am so anti-social so living where she does makes it so easy to be alone and just be lost in a different part of the world. I think if I stayed for a week I may have gone crazy with all that time to myself but for the 2 days I visited, it was really nice. Also at her site is a gorgeous waterfall and lots of hiking trails. It really was a vacation away from site.
So I went from one extreme to another. Next I got to hang out with Carly and her visiting parents from the states who got a sweet hotel room in Santiago. Wow! We got to have a night out on the town with drinks, dancing and delicious food. Carly's fam were definitely a lot of fun just like Carly and I was glad to come out and welcome them to the DR.
Last trip away was Heather's site next-door to mine so I was a bit closer to home. We met up with other new volunteers so we got to spend some time out in Moca (Coffey!) then stayed in Heather's really cute small house complete with pink flowers and a pink kitchen and bathroom. VERY Heather. The only thing that sucked was all of Heather's neighbors hollering and chanting my name for me to come out of the house to give them my number. I have no idea why this happened because I never even met a lot of Heather's neighbors so this was definitely annoying and made me feel disrespected and frustrated. Mostly on Heather's part because she lived there and I did not want to feel like I couldn't come over anymore. This is still not addressed. To be continued…
So I definitely wouldn't say I missed too much by missing Patronales. There's always next year… :)