Week 77

It’s been a while. At some point all of the bizarre things that happen on a daily basis don’t seem that bizarre anymore which makes it much harder to write a blog. Also Chee Chee is back in jail.

What is constantly interesting to me is how Dominicans view Peace Corps volunteers. Many Dominicans seem to like us. Some don’t- one lady told me I was going to be hung. Most are just confused.

Two weeks ago a man who was raised in England but is Dominican by heritage and now lives here sat next to me at a reading competition. “Erin, I was watching something about the CIA last night on the telly,” he whispered to me in his thick British accent, “and I was thinking, how many of you Peace Corps are CIA?”

I looked up from my book and paused. What a difficult decision. For men who are hitting on me or smoking drugs in front of me I always respond that I do in fact work for the “government” sometimes elaborating to say, “I cannot tell you anymore about it.” For people who ask politely I try to explain that the Peace Corps does not report to the CIA. Now this gentleman frustrates me in general and he had interrupted my reading which I wasn’t thrilled about BUT he also has his own show on the new tv station in Dominica, Collywood. Weighing my options I went with the only reasonable decision; I gave him a little smile, winked and said “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

To be honest though sometimes I’m a little flattered they think I’m in the CIA. It’s a step up from all the people who believe that I am here to act as a personal assistant to the general public. Last week a stay-at-home mom asked me if we were having summer school. I informed her that we were but her daughter, who is 3 years old, is too young to attend. In return she asked me if I could help her out by babysitting a couple days a week then as I didn’t arrange a summer program for toddlers.

Some of the other more interesting requests I’ve received are: to edit the Dominica Green Party manifesto, revise a thesis on the state of credit unions, ask my mom to ship three 64 oz. containers of peanut butter down, put together 150 wedding invitations to a wedding I was not invited and then design a card to be enclosed that reminded guests to only give money, create a website for a gentleman without a computer to start a business of illegally shipping liquor to the US, be a godparent, teach a catechism class and be a Heineken girl (which entails wearing a skimpy green outfit and sparkles and trying to get men to buy Heineken).

If anyone can correctly guess which two of these activities I assisted with I’ll send you a delicious Dominican treat in the mail.

Dominican phrase book:

How to order booze:

-a step-up is a shot of rum topped off with ginger wine, a sweet beverage that is 13% alcohol

-local rum is rum you can breathe fire with

-spice, pueve, noni are all local rums that have been soaked in various herbs for anywhere from 1 day to 1 month

-these are typically chased with a small glass of water

-wine will be sweet wine- manischewitz is a crowd favorite

-the kind of wine that you want is unsweetened wine

-both wines will be served with ice

-if you are a lady your beer will include a straw, don’t use it at your own risk, also beers are approx. 9 oz.

more to come next time!