Week 25

Reunion is in full swing. I’ve been working from about 8 am until 1 am everyday. I finally got ants in my apartment. I’ve served booze at a Gospel Concert, stage managed a Beauty Pageant and just spent an hour on the phone trying to rent portable toilets (see Week “You just have to tell it like it is” to understand the humor in this). Regardless it is still an amazing time to be here. I’ve met hundreds of Dominicans living abroad and their pride and loyalty to Salisbury is remarkable.

For your Dominican phrase book:

“Say chups” (sounds like “say chewps”) means sucking your teeth. People who have skyped me recently have probably noticed that I have begun “saying chups” a lot. Reunion has made “saying chups” a part of every conversation I have.

Best usage:

My friend and I were talking about her car having problems, a man walked up drinking a beer at 11 am and watching us work.

Man: “You needs a real man in yo’ life, like me.”

Erin: Sucks teeth loudly

Erin’s friend: “Awa (never), you even made the Peace Corps say chups.”

The Miss Salisbury Reunion 2011 Contestants in their evening wear.

The pre-Reunion lyme (party) at the Bar next to my apt, I said chups to a lot of people while bartending that night.

Check out one of the Reunion Songs here (we are making a cd that I will be sure to share!)

Week 24

Hey y’all,

Reunion (the 16 day celebration my organization is planning) begins next week so I don’t have much time to write but I want to share a couple things.

On Sunday night in a meeting I was referred to as “Sister Erin” by several people. It was awesome. Dominicans use the prefix “Teacher”, “Auntie”, “Uncle”, “Sister” and “Brother” when referring to people in the community (or people they are actually related to which is almost everyone). This was my first time being called “Sister Erin” and it has a nice ring to it. Wouldn’t it be a great twist if I became a nun?

I saw 2 night rainbows this weekend! What’s that? Night rainbows can’t exist because science? Wrong. Night rainbows only happen during a full moon and they are much weaker than day rainbows because moonlight (or sun light reflected) is much weaker. This weekend was rainy and there was a full moon. My first night rainbow was coming right out of the sea on Friday night and on Saturday night while I was sitting on my porch a night rainbow came out just three houses below me. I didn’t get to take pictures but I’ve stolen a picture on the interwebs to show you how spectacular they are.

Finally for your Dominican phrase books: “Go to come back”

I just figured out what this means on Friday. My host mom and sisters use is often but I never understood. It means “go quickly”.

Host mom: “I went to town to come back today for bills.”

Erin: “Don’t you always come back from town?”

Erin and Host mom: confused stares

Once I understood:

Host sister: “I’m going for the baby by Dana.”

Erin: “I’m hungry, go to come back.”

And the rum shop under my home is officially a Buffalo Bills Backers Bar- check out the website

Week "You just have to tell it like it is"

I want to tell you about my weekend but I’m pretty sure you are going to think that I’m on vacation and not actually in the Peace Corps. I promise you that I’m also doing plenty of work. It is just not very interesting most of the time. One of my tasks was to get permission from the government to have a monument built for reunion. I have spent 5 weeks writing letters, calling to follow up on the letters, sending new letters, delivering letters and being told to call non-working extensions. I gave a status update at a meeting last week and it was decided that we will just build a monument without getting permission.

On Friday I went into town and stopped at a new restaurant with a group of other PCVs. I don’t cook meat here because it seems too hard (you have to clean the meat yourself) so I was thrilled to order a hamburger. The menu had both ham burgers and beef burgers. When I asked what the difference was the cashier told me the beef burger was “bare” so I ordered the ham burger assuming it had lettuce, tomato, onion, etc. on it. Imagine my surprise when the ham burger came and it was a normal hamburger with a piece of fried boloney on it.

Later that night I was working at the Reunion Fundraising Bar when a Dominican friend came to hang out. Our conversation veered into opinions about homosexuality (his argument involved nature and holes in our bodies). It progressed into a long discussion about biblical law, interracial marriage and the separation of church and state. One of his friends walked up to join us and my friend introduced this young man as his “bum partner” (which sounds more like “bum pardna” and means your closest friend). I laughed a little bit and asked him to repeat himself. Sure enough he repeated that this is one of his three “bum partners”. When people make homophobic comments from now on I’m going to remember that they probably have a couple “bum partners”.

Saturday night I went to a Calypso show with one of the other PCVs (Arianne) and her host family. The show was wonderful and I really enjoy her host family. Dominicans don’t seem to pee very often. I’ve never seen any of the teachers use the bathroom at school. People will spend all night at the Reunion bar (4+ hours) drinking and never go to the bathroom. It was no surprise that for the 400 people at the show there was one port-a-potty. What did surprise me was that when we walked up to use the port-a-potty there was a line- to pee outside the port-a-potty. I went into the port-a-potty and it was pristine but stepping into it was treacherous as upwards of 30 people had been using the port-a-potty as a blocker to use the bathroom.

The show was a competition in which the audience decides the winner. There were 10 performers and at the end they had us cheer to decide the winner. Two of the performers were clearly in the lead but as Arianne’s host sister told us, “you have to tell it like it is.” Eight performers were loudly booed and screamed “NOO” at. It was nothing like America where everyone would just receive various levels positive applause.

Sunday we went to the West Indies v. India cricket test match. I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed watching competitive sports. It was awesome. A test match lasts 5 full days. They start playing at 9:30 am, play until lunch time at 1:00 pm, pick up again at around 1:30 pm, play until tea time(!) at 3:30 pm and then play until the light gets bad. I can’t imagine standing in the sun for 5 days in a row. A lot of the players wear zinc all over their faces to protect them from the sun.

The game ended at around 5 pm because the captains decided that it would most likely end in a draw so they may as well just stop playing; “it’s a gentleman’s game.”

Week 22

My best friend, I’m not sure that he is aware of having this honor, is a 74-year-old man who lives just down the road from me. From the first time Norris invited me up for a rum and coke after I sat through a 45 minute discussion about how to divide into cleaning groups for my cooking class I knew he would be my best friend.

Weekly he and his wife call me up to sit on their porch overlooking the sea, have a drink and share some wisdom with me. I love when people share wisdom with me. Norris loves sharing wisdom. He also loves Johnny Cash, questionable jokes (imagine the second time I visited him he told me what ended up being a rather PG joke about a 40 year-old woman and her vibrator) and telling stories about Dominica in the 1950’s.

On Thursday morning I left school around 11 am because the boy I tutor was absent. On my way home Norris and Velma invited me up to join them for a coffee break. I sat down on the porch and Norris asked if he could fix me something, I said “yes” and was looking forward to a cup of coffee. Then I noticed that both Velma and Norris were drinking rum and cokes. Just like that Norris brought me out a rum and coke and I was drinking hard liquor before noon.

The three of us sat on the porch and Norris gave me one of the best pieces of advice, “When you’re a 20 year-old you can only think like a 20 year-old and when you’re a 50 year-old you can only think like a 50 year-old” in reference to feeling regret about decisions one has made in the past.

Right after this a woman in her 90’s stopped on the road in front of the house and started angrily yelling in patois (kweyol). The porch is perpendicular to the road so we could see her but she didn’t turn to face the porch, she just yelled up the road. Norris responded and it appeared they were having a conversation except that she was yelling as loud as she could but didn’t seem to be angry at Norris. The only words I picked up were “pa twavay” (not working) and “manje” (eat). After about 5 minutes of yelling she left and Norris looked at me and laughed. He then explained that she is in a fight with her niece who lives just behind Norris. She won’t talk to her niece so instead she has loud conversations with Norris to express her anger at her niece who can hear everything she is saying as she yells up the road.

Since that was explained a whole world of loud conversations has begun to make sense to me. Why the woman across the street yells over to the shop below my house to complain about the builders while they can hear. Why people yell out their windows about their neighbors leaving trash out. Why Sheriff stands a foot away from guys and loudly tells me all about them. Culture.

Additionally Norris saw a ripe soursop (a fruit that tastes remarkably similar to juicy fruit gum) 10 feet up in a tree and proceeded to climb up into the tree with his knife and cut it down. I hope I can do that when I’m 74.

A very special thank you to those who have donated to Hands Across the Sea on Salisbury's behalf! When I come home I promise to loudly yell at your neighbors about your generosity.

Understanding Dominica: "God willing" is used here to close any statement about action.

Me: "I'll see you this evening for the disaster preparedness meeting."

Other person: "God willing I'll be there."

Me: "Can you call the Ministry tomorrow?"

Other person: "God willing I'll call tomorrow."

Other person: "Air-een, come awhile."

Me: "Just now, God willing." (That means I'm never going to come- God just wasn't willing it)