Happy New Year!

The holidays came and went like the breeze.  I celebrated a Dominican Christmas and New Year, one with my host family in Boca Chica and the other with my host family in the capital.  Both involved lots of food, drinking and very little sleep.  To be honest it didn’t really feel like the holidays because I didn’t carry out any of the traditions that I normally do with my own family, but I definitely had a good time despite being far from home. 

As we always do I've made a few resolutions. In the New Year, I hope to be more generous with myself and my time while still maintaining time to myself to be reflective.  I am on the brink of moving into my very own apartment, a first for me, so alone time shouldn’t be as hard to come by as in these last five months.  I was lucky and found a little one bedroom directly across the street from my host family.  While its not as cheap as I had hoped, I’ll be the first tenant living there, and most importantly it's close to my host family and other people who know me.  It has running water (at least when the tinaco, the water storage unit on the roof, is full), tile floors, and mahogany colored doors and cabinets.  By Peace Corps standards, it’s a gem.  Today I spent 4 hours sweeping, mopping and scrubbing splattered cement and paint off the floor and kitchen counter.  In the process, I came across  another cultural difference when asking my host mom if I could borrow her mop.  In our culture we consider it common courtesy to ask someone politely to borrow something or to accompany us in doing something.  However in response to my polite request, my host mother came right out and said “Why do “you all” do that?  If you can see that I’m not mopping, which clearly I’m not, just say, I’m taking the mop!”  A similar situation surpassed with a friend, when I asked if he would come to the grocery story with me.  He responds” why would you ask me if I want to come to the grocery store with you?  That’s offensive…just say come on, we are going to the grocery store."  I suppose since hospitality is such an important part of the culture here, it is already assumed that someone would be willing to lend you their things or accompany you somewhere, so why on earth would you ask them about it?  For me, it’s not been an easy habit to break, but I’m trying to be more forward and tell instead of ask.

Yesterday was “Reyes”, a national celebration of the three kings arriving to visit the baby Jesus.  In this country, Reyes is an even  bigger deal for kids than Christmas, because most of their presents come on this holiday.  The whole country goes into to a frenzy for a few days beforehand with toys being sold by the millions, and culminates in a day of children running around like mad playing with all of their new toys.  At my organization we celebrated Reyes as our belated staff Christmas party (originally cancelled due to a death in the family of one of my co-workers) by spending the day poolside at a country club with free food and drinks.  My boss is very much a proponent of the philosophy “care for the caretakers” and periodically plans events for us to relax, which, I do believe helps tremendously given the stress of the job (especially by Dominican standards).  However, I still am reminded on these types of occasions how a-typical my experience in Peace Corps is when compared to most.  Soon I will have two cell phones, a “flota” (group account) for each of my jobs-- one for work (unlimited minutes with co-workers) and one for Peace Corps (unlimited minutes with PC staff and corps members).  Who would have though that Peace Corps would be my first time to have a “work” phone?

I am down to the wire on my organizational diagnostic, since next week is the time set aside for yearly evaluation and planning at Caminante.  It will be the perfect opportunity to present the findings of my investigation and propose my role within the organization.  I’m looking forward to the opportunity, but it sure did arrive quickly!  I’m sure most people feel that way about 2011 in general.  I know that I have much to be thankful for in the New Year, and much to look forward to.  I hope everyone at home welcomed the new year with happiness and good health.  

Final note--I got a new kitten!  I've never been a big cat person, but she's pretty cute and hopefully she'll keep the rats away.  Her name is Lola (see pic below).