Monday, August 30, 2010

FACT: Dominicans L-O-V-E Shakira’s “Waka Waka”

I was warned before I came down to the DR by friends that men will whistle at women if they find them attractive. I was also warned that they would hiss at them as well, if they found them attractive. While I have only heard the hissing twice, I am used to whistling now. We hear it all of the time because there are eleven girls in our group, but also because we are Gringos and Americanos. Gringos are white/non-indigenous people and Americanos are Americans. Everyone here believe that white people are Americans and they think that if they speak Spanish, then we have no idea what they are saying. But, little do they know, that we know that they are talking about us when we hear them say Americanos or Gringos. At least kids have the guts to say it straight to our faces and not whisper it while sitting next to us in the guaguas. By the way, I LOVE GUAGUAS. I honestly wish that they existed in the US. It is so easy to just hop on one and tell them where you need to go. No stress, other than having to make sure that you get the correct change back. I have even gotten used to the heat and constantly being sweaty. I am actually shocked when I walk into a building with air conditioning because the ILAC Center does not have air conditioning, so I am used to just air circulating from the fans.

The one thing I am not used to are the mosquitoes. Those silly little bloodsuckers are just awful! I thought I was good to go because the first few days I had zero bites and now I have about 10 bites on my feet and legs. The thing about the mosquitoes is that you can’t feel them biting you, so you won’t know that you have been bitten until later when red bumps start popping up. My Cortizone and Neosporin have definitely become my best friends so far and they will stay that way.

On Friday night, my group, our Residence Director, Karie, and our Program Director and teacher, Mary all went out to dinner at a restaurant near the monument called La Brasa. I had tacos and they were delicious! But, they had a sweet type of ketchup on top, which actually made the tacos even better! I am realizing that everything here is really cheap! My 3 tacos were about $2.50 and a fifteen-minute taxi ride is about $2 to $4 a person, depending on how many people are in the car.

After dinner we all hung out at a couple of bars and clubs since the drinking age is 18 here in the Dominican Republic. Went to a bar that had music videos and sport games on the TVs and it is just a nice place to hang out when it is too early for the clubs. We then ventured over to a discoteca and also just a small bar like the previous one. It was a great first night out on the town!



Saturday we went to a beach for the first time! We went to Playa Grande, which is a small, secluded beach about two hours away. It was gorgeous and blue and just what one would expect a beach to be like in the caribbean! There were not too many people there and the weather was perfect and the water was amazing! A few of us even explored the forests around the area and found little creeks and other little beaches and coves. I thankfully left the beach with only a minor sunburn, which is pretty good since the sun is definitely stronger here than in Omaha.



The most exciting, yet completely nerve-wracking thing that I am dealing with is my Internship. I was originally supposed to work at the ILAC Center Clinic where many of the people speak English and I do not have to include any transportation time into my day. But, things change as they always do and I now have the amazing opportunity to work in the big hospital in Santiago. I basically had an interview on the spot, without any warning with an epidemiologist and another hospital employee. I was told that it was a simply meet and greet, but little did I know, I would be learning about the job and getting tested on my Spanish and what my expectations are. In the end, I apparently did well enough with my Spanish that they want me to start on Wednesday! I will be presented to many of the doctors and personnel in the hospital. I will get a more in depth training session on what I am allowed to do, not to do, what not to eat, where to go, who to come in contact with and which parts of the hospital to avoid. I will be working with a neurosurgeon who is also an administrator for the hospital. I seriously feel as though I am being presented into society. I will be meeting all sorts of people and telling them about myself, what I want to do while I am working and answer any questions. Thankfully I have had confidence boosts from the director here and my Spanish teacher about my Spanish skills, though there is a good chance I will be asking the workers to repeat their questions or I will need to pause and process what was just said to me before answering.

Yesterday we went to La Sirena after our scavenger hunt around Santiago. La Sirena is a Walmart/Target superstore. They have everything from clothes to food to toiletries. After getting notebooks, food and some toiletries, I made my way upstairs to find clothes for my job. When I was packing, I was planning on working at the ILAC Center, where the dress code is pretty relaxed, but since I will be working at a hospital I decided that I should wear something other than khakis everyday. I decided to get black slacks and some black shoes (think of those white nurse’s shoes) since most of the hospital employees wear darker colors and all I had were white shoes and opened toed shoes. This is a prime example of items down here being a lot cheaper. My pants and shoes equaled a total of $25. It was AWESOME and it felt awesome to spend only $50 at the store on the journals, toiletries and clothes.

P.S. Today I went to hospicio (hospice) and attempted to talk and hang out with the men and women there and on the way there, we fit 30 people in the guagua. I just love them so much!

Hasta Luego!


Saturday, August 28, 2010

Experience is what you got by not having it when you need it




I can’t believe that I have been here for a week. I have been going non-stop and it seems like while trying to learn my way around the city, improving my Spanish skills and visiting different service sites. While some days prove to be difficult, I am getting to the point where I feel absolutely comfortable here in the Dominican Republic.

This past week, we have done a lot of reflecting on who we are and what we can do to improve ourselves and figure out who has made us the people we are today. We have also focused on adjusting to change and realizing that this whole experience will be hard on us, but in the end we will feel as though we have accomplished many things.

I have also officially figured out my academics for this semester, which is a huge relief! My internship was set up on Friday and I learned all about my EDP class which focuses on the history, culture, literature and everything related to the Dominican Republic. Spanish classes have already started and I feel as though my Spanish has improved a lot just for the week I have been here. I was never really impressed with the Creighton Spanish Classes because I learned the same things over and over and nothing was ever useful in a real life situation. But here, we are learning phrases and terms that the Dominicans use often so we are able to fit in, understand what people are saying and actually have productive conversations.

Domino! This is the most important game in the Dominican Republic and a favorite past time of everyone. While I knew the basic rules before coming here, I definitely have learned that this is not a easy game of putting the same domino next to each other. Dominicans take this game seriously and it can become very intense. Because of that, I plan on becoming a pro so I can beat everyone I play, even the people who have been playing their whole lives.

I also learned how to dance the Bachata and the Meringue, which are the popular forms of dancing here in the Dominican Republic. These dances are what people use when they are at clubs, parties or just small gatherings. It is their way of life and it sure is difficult! I thought these dances were going to be pretty easy since I did ballet for many years, but the only way I am able to somewhat look like I know what I am doing is to count the steps and focus completely on what I am doing. This has proven to be difficult because dance partners always want to talk. So, WARNING TO ALL FUTURE DANCE PARTNERS: There are two options for the types of dancing quality you will get from me. The first is that I will be able to stay in rhythym, but my eyes will be looking at your feet the whole time so I can stay on count and I will be saying “uno, dos, tres, uno, dos tres, etc”. The other option is for you and I to have a conversation, with me constantly repeating, “lo siento” every time I get out of step or step in the wrong direction.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this week so far have been visiting the service sites that we can possibly go to for our service sites each week. My favorite site is Hogar Luby, which is a home for disabled children. While it is very depressing, I know that when we arrived there to hang out with the kids, they were so happy that we were going to talk with them and play with them. These kids are dropped off by their families and are basically orphans because, like the Hospicio, the families don’t want to take care of the kids or just cannot. These kids are put into large rooms with multiple beds, walk around in dirty diapers and even tied up to their beds so they do not hurt themselves or others. Just like in Cien Fuegos, these children are attention starved because there are only a few workers for the countless kids that are there. I was actually bitten by one of the children because I was paying attention to another kid instead of playing with the boy and talking to him. Yes, it was startling and shocking and yes, I do have my lovely purple bruise forming on my arm, but it made me want to go back even more to just hang out with these kids and get to know them and attempt to make sure that they have a better life.

This week has also had its fun and memorable moments. One day, we went to Centro Leon and heard the Director of the ILAC Center talk about the program and how it started and the improvements made since it was founded. Centro Leon is a museum in Santiago that is all about the history of the Dominican Republic, which has been extremely helpful because we are learning about the history in one of my classes. We also went to a cigar museum and watched the men make the cigars. I found out that a very wealthy family started the museum and cigar factory and contribute largely to improve Santiago and even donate money to the ILAC Center. This week we have also gone to Helados Bon, which is a delicious ice cream place in Santiago and went to the mall to explore and eat more ice cream!

More to Come!


Monday, August 23, 2010

Veinte Personas




For being here for less than 24 hours, I sure have learned a lot and seen a lot that I would never have experienced in my daily routine.

To begin this trip or “stucation” as one may like to call it (study + vacation = stucation), I woke up at 3:20am Central Time and arrived at 8:40 Eastern Time in Santiago. This day included three flights and sitting on the tarmac in Miami for an hour. We then bought our tourist card and went through customs and then found our bags. I was thrilled because all of them arrived, and earlier that morning I was panicked because I thought I was never going to see them again. We then loaded our bags and got onto the Gringo Bus, which is what we call the bus that the ILAC Center owns and transports everyone in. After about a 20 minute drive down a skinny narrow highway surrounded by houses, we arrived at the ILAC Center.

The ILAC Center is gorgeous and everything is open with very few walls and doors. Many of the areas are opened with big cutouts in the walls that have no windows and our bedroom has two windows with screens and blinds and right in front of our desk, there are four windows with just blinds.

The next morning we woke up at 7:30 and had breakfast at 8am. Breakfast is at 8am everyday and there is fruit with bread. There are eggs and meat and cheese. After breakfast we took an in depth tour of the ILAC Center and learned where our classes are and the offices and looked at all of the lounge areas. We then went to the Spanish Mass after going down to the end of the street to exchange our money from dollars to pesos. The mass was difficult to understand, but it will just take time to understand and pick up on the typical words and phrases.

After mass we had lunch at 12:30 and it consisted of rice, beans, meatballs, chicken with pico de gallo and fruit. Every meal consists of fruit such as pineapples and mango. After lunch, we took the gua guas to Santiago. We walked down to the end of the street and climbed into the gua gua. The gua gua to Santiago had about 18 people. The gua guas are similar to VW vans and they just stuff you in and there are no seatbelts and the windows are open and the sliding door stays open the whole time so dropping people off and jumping out are really quick. There is a man who is in control of driving and another who stands in the door way while holding onto the handle and collects money. It costs 20 pesos each way (about 55 cents) no matter how far you go. We were dropped off on a street corner and walked up to the monument and sat on the steps for a while and people watched and looked at the view of Santiago.

On the way back, our group fit into one gua gua and had 20 people in the van. These drivers speed down the roads, since there are no speed limits and honk at slow motorcycles and cars that are in front of them. I can never imagine driving here and have cars zipping around me and stopping inches away from where I am parked.

Once we got back, we had some time to relax and then ate dinner at 6pm, which included lasagna, salad, fruit and bread. After dinner we had a meeting where we learned all of the rules and learned what to do and what not to do. Later that night, we ran and walked around the track and played card games, such as “Ve Pez” (Go Fish). I can't believe I am here and so far this has been an amazing experience.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Contact Information

As I am preparing to leave, I have realized that it would probably be best to put some contact information on here in case anyone ever needs it.


Email: audreyjensen@creighton.edu


Skype: audrey.l.jensen


Address: ILAC/CESI
Kilometro 7 1/2 Carretera Duarte
Licey al Medio, Santiago de los Caballeros
Republica Dominicana