our first adventures on our own

It's been a week now since our global corps program ended in Hubli. 3 of us-- me, Dana and Abby have been travelling around southern india in the meantime. Our first stop was Kerala, the most south western state, and also the most developed. Kerala was SO beautiful. It's very, very humid and rainy there, so everything is just the most vibrant green color. We went to a mountain town called Munnar, which was nestled in the tea plantations up in the mountains. It was so beautiful up there, the air was so crisp and at night we actually needed sweatshirts! it was so nice not to be continually sweating. The tea up there was also SUPER delcious. We went to a national park to see endangered mountain goats and do a little hiking. The scenery was just so beautiful. The hills and mountains went on for miles and miles. W e also went on a houseboat through the backwaters, which was amazing. It too, was extremely beautiful and very relaxing. We just sat on the deck watching ricepaddies and houses go by.

Now we're in metropolitan Hydrabad, which is in the state of Andra Pradesh. Today we went to an enormous Buddah statue in the middle of a lake, we also went to a beautiful temple made out of all white marble on the top of a hill overlooking the lake and

party pictures

dana, abby and me

me and renuka

roomies and the girls who tied our saris!

Bengaluru

Hello friends, I know it’s been sometime since my last post. So, let me fill you in. The Global Corps portion of our program ended (thank goodness….let me tell you it’s been a long, long road, especially because we were in hubli for two and a half weeks straight, there was no weekend travel like our internship/service learning portion of the trip). Our project presentation went really well and I was so proud of my group for pulling it all together. It was a crazy last two days, I don’t think any of us slept more than 5 hours trying to work on our final presentation and packet.

Two nights ago we had our huge goodbye party. It was so fun! All the Indian students and American students came. It was at a nice hotel in town by the pool, complete with DJ and Indian buffet. All the girls got dressed up in saris. Saris are serious business, let me tell you. All the Indian girls came over and helped us get our saris on. I have to tell you, I felt like a princess in it. It was a little difficult to walk, so clearly a man invented it, so it would be hard for women to get away. They played all of our favorite American and Bollywood songs and we GOT DOWN.

The next day we got on a plane to Bangalore. We’re here for one more night and then tomorrow about half the students are leaving for America. But of course I’m not. I’m traveling for about 3 weeks after with two girls, Dana and Abby. We are going to have an AMAZING time. Here’s the itinerary:
From Bangalore we’re taking a 15 hour bus (woof) to Kerala (a southern state), where we’ll be stopping in Thiravandum, to see temples and things. Then we’ll get picked up by our driver who’s going to take us to a backwater bamboo boat, that we’ll float on for about 24 hrs. Then driver comes back and sweeps us off to a mountain village, where we’ll stay at tea houses and endangered goat farm. (random right?) Then we go to Cochin for a last day of sightseeing. THEN we take a flight to Hyderabad to eat some birayani and see lots of Mughal ruins. Then we take an obscenely long bus to Mumbai, to stay with our friend Renuka. THEN we’ll go to Varanasi, the holiest city on the Ganges river. THEN we’ll take a train to Jaipur. THEN we’ll go to Delhi for a few days. Fly to Bangalore, fly to Frankfurt, Germany. We extended our layover in Frankfurt for 5 days, so that we’ll have time to explore beautiful Chermany and be around white people. We’re training it up to Kolne, and apparently our train ride will be beautiful! It follows the river and goes through all the mountains with all sorts of castles. All this, and then finally we fly back to Boston. Then I’m in Boston for 48 hours and then I fly home! To beautiful California!!!! J
I’m gonna be exhausted.

TWIST!

This song is all the rage here in India...
It's from some Bollywood movie called Love Aaj Kal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmeL_xuB0I

more research!

Today I had a meeting with Mari, a Deshpande Fellow who works at RAPID. The other day I accidently had lunch with the director of RAPID, and I told her how I wanted to do the same research I had done in the Domincan here in India. RAPID runs a small microcredit program and she said that she would gladly allow me to interview their clients! I am SO excited that I get to continue my research here...because originally I thought that I wouldn't have any time!!! :)

So, sunday, I'm gonna go out to a village outside of Dharwad and have a whirlwind day of interviews. The goal is 20 women... yeah... i know, crazy right? But I'm gonna bring a whole team of people with me (because I don't speak Kannada) and hopefully we'll be able to get it all done. We're also going to split the questions into questions we can ask the whole group and then questions that we can ask individuals, that way we can squeeze more people in. It's actually going to happen!!! :)

I was a little concerned because I just decided that I wanted to do my research a few days ago, and luckily everything is falling into place before we leave!

Ode to Cafe Coffee Day

Café Coffee Day, oh Café Coffee Day. CCD is a wonderful haven of non-Hubli-ness right in the middle of downtown Hubli. The air conditioning is set to 60 degrees, the music is loud, sometimes american and top 40 bollywood hits. The food is pretty tasty and the beverages are phenomenal! Everyone gets the coffee creations and I always get a strawberry milkshake, or a sizzling brownie. Everyone inside is happy, people of the opposite sex are actually sitting by each other, and we don’t really get stared at as much. Everything is just better at Café Coffee Day.

Tonight we went after a long, long day of schlepping around Hubli finding out about water waste and whatever our global corps project is about. I sat with my two favorite girls, Rosie and Allegra, my roomies and my partners in crime. We had a much needed laugh fest, as Rosie is superb at quoting the movie "The Other Sister". That made a long day much brigher.
I also found out that I'm going to be able to do my research here in Hubli! A great organization called RAPID does interest free loans to women in the area, so they're going to let me interview their borrowers! Victory for Danielle on all fronts!

hey MTV, welcome to my crib

I decided to write a post about our guesthouse here, just to give you a peek into the daily life of a northeastern student living in (poopy) hubli

the bathroom, ah the bathroom. basically a closet with tiles, with a shower head, toilet and sink all jammed in. see that bucket? thats actually the shower that we have to fill up because the shower head is so old and dirty that the stream is one trickle. so bucket bathe we shall.

this is our room, b-2 baby, where the party's always at. that's rosie, one of my roommates. the other is allegra (aka leggy-b), we all love each other and get along a little TOO well. we laugh and laugh all night before we go to bed. my bed's the one in the middle. i wish it could zoom in on how tiny and potentially lice filled my pillow is (don't worry i sprayed it with lice killer 1st)and also the sheets on my bed that probably belonged to an 11 year old girl before they found a home on my bed. but I'm greeted by the sunrise each morning through the window and my bed is almost directly underneath the ceiling fan (SCORE!)

here's rosie, master plumber. see, funny thing happened, our toilet bowl disconnected from the tank up top, and every time you flushed the toilet, it was like the water show in front of the bellagio in vegas. we had to flush, run out of the bathroom and shut the door to avoid the spray. one night, rosie got creative and wrapped rags around the toilet pipe. problem solved.

Renuka, girl wonder!

Tonight Renuka, a girl in my Global Corps group showed us around Dharwad, the town right next to Hubli.
Abby and I ventured onto the bus, and got plenty of stares, however we met a nice man who told us the (wrong) stop to get off of. We had to walk for awhile to finally find Renuka, and the bus stop we were supposed to get off at. The first stop on our adventure was eating pani puri. It’s a snack food, that’s basically a crispy cracker bowl, that they fill with this cold soup. The crispy bowl is bite sized too, so you put the whole thing in your mouth and then bite. It was… interesting. The only bad thing was the liquid was cold, which made me feel like… I probably shouldn’t be eating it. It was pretty good, but after about 3 or 4 we had enough. Then Renuka took us to the main street, where it seemed like everyone in the town was out and about. We wandered in and out of shops and stopped at different stands to look at everything that was being sold. Renuka was so cute, she bought us SO many sweets, and fruits, and then, at the end she bought us cake! And she refused to let us pay for anything. She was so, so, kind. She also took us to her temple, where she worships Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, and showed us her university. This weekend we’re going to have a “slumber” at her house, and hang out and watch Bollywood movies.

Renuka is originally from Mumbai, and she’s going to be at home when we go visit Mumbai, so we’ll have someone else to show us around! She’s a very sweet girl, and was so excited to hang out with us. She loves American culture and was asking us so many questions. Her parents marriage story was really cool to, it goes a little something like this:

Both her parents grew up in Mumbai, and her mom and dad went to the same college together. Her dad because a sailor, and so her mom’s crush increased even more. They were friends and liked to hang out, but then, he left for a few months on a sailing assignment. During this time, it was arranged for her to meet a potential match for marriage. Her mom was dreading the day that this guy was going to come over. She opened the door and it was her sailor crush! Her parents had arranged with his parents for the two of them to get married. Apparently her grandparents were really progressive because her mom and her dad are not only from different states but different castes.

It was a cool story to hear, and we’re going to meet her parents this weekend, so I’m excited to hear more about it. Hearing everyone’s marriage story is really fascinating to me, because it’s either a story about arranged marriage, or some epic love marriage tale.

Gooaaaa

This weekend we went to Goa, which is on the southwest coast. Goa was settled by the Portugese back in the 1400 and 1500’s. Goa is so different than Delhi, Mumbai and where we’ve been in Hubli. The architecture is very colonial European, and kind of looks like Cape Town did. There were foreigners EVERYWHERE. It was weird to not be the only white people around. We stayed at a beautiful hotel, complete with soft beds, beautiful WORKING showers and toilets and a rooftop pool. We spent more time in the hotel than in Goa because we all needed a break from our guesthouse here in Goa. While where we live here in Hubli is nice, it’s nicer to have electricity and running water, not to mention american breakfast in bed.

Around Goa we explored the old town, which was filled with old churches from the Portugese back in the day. We also lounged around by the pool and enjoyed the beautiful Goa sun. For as long as we’ve been in hot, sunny India, we are pale. Later we went to this crazy discotec in town, where there was a bunch of foreigners, strobe lights and techno music. We all had a good time showing off our bollywood moves. The next day we went to the beach and spent the whole day there shopping and eating fish curry rice (goan cuisine.) We lounged around the hotel some more and just enjoyed each other’s company.

Halloween was definitely lack luster. Our hotel had a night club in the basement that was having a Halloween party, but when we looked in, it was all Indian teenagers. Woof.

Today was our first day of the global corps training. So, the first part of our program (which was having internships at a non profit and then evaluating their programs) is over for all the other groups but ours is still going. Our project is to create pictoral flipbooks about general health and nutrition for women in a certain village outside of Hubli. Our funds are also paying for 10 demonstration gardens in the community that will teach people how to grow their own vegetables. Many of the farmers that work with BAIF are cash crop farmers, and must buy their own fruits and vegetables, which are more expensive at the market. This is one of the reasons why they don’t get enough vitamins and minerals. Our funds are also going to buy model fruits and vegetables (they’re basically plastic toys) that the community health guides will take around as visual aids to the women they teach in the villages.

There’s been trouble getting our flipcharts printed because we’ve had to get them translated into Kannada and that has taken a lot longer than we originally anticipated. Then, we need to take the digital form of the flip chart to the printer and get it printer. I know we can do it, but with this second program starting up, it just seems like a lot to try and juggle.

We’re all pretty much adjusted to life in India: the traffic, the nose, all the staring, the spitting and urinating in the streets, the heat, the smog, and the line cutting.. I’ve really turned a corner with Indian food too. I didn’t dislike it, and I thought it sounded good, but now I know what everything is on the menu and I crave it. Even when we were in Goa I didn’t want a break from Indian food and kept eating it. I’ve got my salwar kameez on and my head wobble is getting pretty good. Next step: Indian boyfriend? Eh...maybe there’s some experiences I can live without…

Roomies! Allegra, Rosie and I, eating out in Goa!

beautiful old goa

the church where st. francis' body is buried

Sita!

The other day at BAIF (the agricultural organization we are doing our service learning at) Bulla (who is our "boss" there) gave us all indian names. My Indian name is Sita. In Hindu beliefs, Sita is the wife of Rama, which is one of the three main Hindu gods. She is esteemed as the standard of womanly virtues for Hindu women, especially since she endured three different exiles all while maintaining her dignity/womanhood/holiness. Gods are so important to daily life here, on cell phones there is even a mini shrine, where you can choose a god from a menu, and then when you select that god it will show their picture and play a mantra. Really, really interesting.

the taj!

finally! some pictures!

the famous bench everyone must get their picture taken on (it was 6am, excuse the hideous smie, k?)

view from the mosque next to the taj

beautiful saris by the beautiful building

we were so excited to be there

ain't she gorgeous?

Delhi for Diwali

For the weekend we went to Delhi because pretty much everything was going to be closed in Hubli for Diwali. Diwali is like the Indian New Year. It lasts for two days. We arrived in the Delhi airport and the air was filled with smoke from all of the fireworks. No joke, people were setting off crackers the entire weekend. Our first day in Delhi we had to ourselves, so we went and explored Humayan’s Tomb. He was the second Mughal emperor. The tomb later became the inspiration/basis for the Taj Mahal. It was so beautiful. All of the carvings and architectural details were amazing. Later we went to a couple different markets to look at jewelry and clothes. They have the most beautiful clothes here!!! It’s hard not to buy everything (especially since it is so cheap too.) I bought a Diwali outfit for our celebrations that night. We had dinner at the hotel (this weekend we gorged on non-Indian food) and then walked around and saw people setting off fireworks with their families. It was kind of scary, how many people were lighting fireworks and the air was so thick with smoke it made it hard to see. Allegra (my hotel roomie) and I watched the fireworks from our hotel window. Fireworks shows went on around the city from 6pm until 1 am. We’re talking bigger than the fourth of july fireworks.

The next day we all boarded a bus and took the 4 hour journey to Agra, home of the beautiful Taj Mahal. We ended up arriving a little late, so we saw the Agra Fort instead, which was a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. The fort was built by Akbar and it is HUGE. It also overlooks the Taj Mahal and had really pretty views. There were so many different courtyards and mosques to explore. Our professor’s children came to visit her this weekend (they are 3 and 8) and boy were the Indian people loving them. People would come up and take pictures all over this fort with these two blonde kids from America. It was funny because they wouldn’t even ask, they would just come right up next to them and start taking pictures in their face.

The next day we woke up really early to go see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. It was so beautiful. I can’t think of any other word to describe it, it was just so stunning. When the sun finally came up, it made the whole building golden. It was breathtaking, I could not stop staring at it and taking pictures of it. It’s truly, truly beautiful. It was an amazing morning. It was one of those mornings that I felt so grateful for the life that I have, and that I was fortunate enough to see this beautiful, epic building in the flesh.

After that, we went back to our swanky hotel and relaxed by the pool in the hot, hot, hot Indian sun. Our bus ride back to Delhi was gross--7 hours long because of traffic. Monday we went on a bus tour around the city and went shopping. We went to this great store called Fabindia which has very, very beautiful clothes and fabrics. I bought a couple of outfits. We continued to shop around and found this huge underground bazaar. On the way home, we took the metro and Abby and I got separated from the rest of the group. We got left behind and had to wait for the next train. While we waited, I read aloud to her the book I bought about love marriages in India. All the sudden the train arrived and we were a part of a huge sea of people. We got shoved all the way from the door to getting smashed up against the window on the other side of the car. People are insane here! They just shove and push. To get off at our stop I had to cross my arms across my chest while Abby shoved me out of the car. It was quite the adventure. It doesn’t help too that people are too busy staring at us because we’re white to move out of the way or help us. Oh, adventures in India.

Service learning starts again tomorrow!

Our internet is moving CRAZY slow tonight, I'll post pictures tomorrow!

site visit in the village today!

hey all!
today we got to visit 3 different women who participate in BAIF, and the rotating loan groups in villages outside of hubli. here's a few pictures from our visit:

the oldest daughter in law at one house. she made roti for us. she was so excited to have her picture taken she held my hand.

the entire extended family that let us into their house. they cooked us roti, potatoes, lentils, tea, and gave us fruit. they showed us wedding pictures, boasted of their sons and daughters and sat their grandchildren in our laps. they were so kind and hospitable.

making roti at the family stove

love!

danielle

hubli!

hiiiii!

today was our first day at our service learning sites! im working with BAIF, an agricultural support organization. they want us to create educational materials for women in the rural communities about nutrition, caring for children and pre natal care. i'm really excited about it and i think it will be a really good experience. the organization is out in the country. like, the country, country. like, stop the car so a herd of a hundred goats can pass by the road. on thursday we're actually going to interview the women who live on farms and see what their lives are like. im really excited for that. today we got back kind of early, so we rode our first rickshaw to the market and got stared at for a good 2 hrs. every store we went into, the place went silent. hubli doesn't see many tourists, so we're quite the spectacle. the worst part is that the little kids (like toddlers) are scared of us because they've never seen white people before. luckily the older kids like us. we went to a bazaar that featured products made by women who took out microloans.

we also went to dinner with the desphande foundation fellows. they were all indian and we had such a good time at our table. at first it was kind of awkward because even though we all speak english, we dont really speak the same english, so it was a little silent. but as the night went on and us americans got tired and a little loopy, we got pretty silly. pretty soon we were all laughing and goofing around. also, we talked to them about the headwobble. the headwobble, oh the headwobble. most indians, when you're talking to them will wobble their head. hard to explain, but they look kind of like a bobble head doll. it's the non verbal indian version of "um" or "yeah". so they wobble their head to acknowledge the fact that they are listening. also, sometimes it means yes, or okay. very confusing and sometimes very hard not to laugh.

i am loving hubli! mumbai was so dirty and big... not that hubli's not dirty, but i just like it better. it's smaller and the weather is much nicer! it actually gets cool here at night. i think im going to like it alot!

ok enough talking, picture time.

on our way to the agriculture sight. the aggie group! alex, me, uly, shelley, sarah and dana.

the goat roadblock on our way to the countryside

just our neighbors cows and bulls hangin out near the street

muah!

danielle

first days in india!

namaskara!

i am officially in hubli, where i'll be spending the majority of my time for the program. we flew to germany and then mumbai (it was a long 17 hoursssss). our first day in mumbai was a whirlwind! we got up in the morning and took a bus tour around the city. we saw the huge dohbi washing area. Dohbi are the caste that does clothes washing. its huge! they do laundry for everyone in that area of town, which is crazy. and apparently its extremely accurate. our tour guide had never, ever lost any of her laundry by using the dobhi service.

we also went to the gateway to mumbai and elephanta island, where there are stone carvings in a cave from 200 bc. they were REALLY cool. it was a long ferry ride out there though, on a boat that looked like this voyage might be the last.

we also saw gandhi's house and his famous spinning wheel. we're all pretty jetlagged and a little loopy. this morning we got up and flew to hubli. hubli is BEAUTIFUL! i definitely like hubli alot more than mumbai. it's exactly what i thought india would be like. we all piled into a bus, and since the bus couldn't fit all our luggage, they just piled it on the roof, but dont worry a guy sat up there to make sure it wouldn't fall off. we got to our guesthouse that we'll be staying in for the next 6 weeks and its great. we have a kitchen and a living room and a tv and the bedrooms are pretty nice. AND WIFI! woooo internet. we went over to the desphande center for social entrepreneurship and met the indian students we'll be working with. they were really nice and excited to meet us. we did our traditional indian dance we learned a few weeks ago and they were all laughing and taking pictures. its definitely going to be a fun 6 weeks! :)




much love!
danielle

Time to GO!!!!

Hey everyone!

I leave for India! Today! In 8 hours! YAY! I am SO excited. We'll be working at non profits sponsored by the Deshpande Foundation and also doing program assesment. (www.desphandefoundation.org). We'll also be collaborating with students from the IIT in Hubli to come up with our own social enterprise/non profit ideas. It's gonna be amazing! We have to dress really conservatively because we'll be in a rural city and working out in "the sandbox" as it's called.
Basically, for the next 3 months I'm gonna live in salwar kameez. Which is like a tunic top with loose pants underneath. We've been told this is the classic college girl outfit. a little different from the us uniform: a sweatshirt, leggings and uggs but I'm so okay with that. I'm not sure how much I'll have internet, so I might not post alot, but I'll be sure to put up pictures when I can!

love
danielle

im not dead yet!

hi all
i know its been 3 days since i posted. im not dead, the interwebz have just been down. im living happily at a hotel on the beach and enjoying my last 24 hrs in the dominican.

many many pictures to come when i get back to the us!
muah!

the last day!

welcome to el limon, samana.

last night was a little scary. there has been torrential rain because a tropical depression is passing through the island. we went to nates host brothers restaurant for dinner and we could not find a motoconcho to take us home in the pouring rain. so nates other host brother had to come pick us up on motoconcho. except hes a teenager and drives like a madman. i was clinging on to tess for dear life because i kind of wasnt on the seat. there was lightening and thunder all around and we went up a really muddy hill. he started to swerve and we were about to fall into a barbed wire fence. i was so scared, i just pictured my bare leg getting ripped to shreds. we'd been to a hospital here earlier when tess cut her finger, and let me tell you that is not a place i want to ever go again. luckily we started to swerve the other way, but then we started heading for a wall. tess and i jumped off and we were like, okkkk no no mi amor, we are walking the rest of the way. it was quite the end to our night.

we finished the last 5 interviews today!!! hurray!!! we got 30!!! i am muy proud of us, especially because we only got 7 days for interviews because of weather, cancelled meetings, people not showing up and everything else that delays people in developing countries. WE DID IT!!!!





Here's some pictures of the magic number 30 interview. he was a man who had a meat shop and made soup and sold it. he has done VERY well for himself, he has to kill a cow every 2 days to keep up with the demand. hes been able to add on to his house and buy a shed. certainly a microfinance success story if ive ever seen one.





here's the cow that he proudly informed us will die tomorrow.








he cooks his soup over firewood and uses cinder blocks to keep the bowl out of the fire.










this picture doesnt really do it justice, but it looked really good

its the final countdown!

hello friends

right now im currently in samana, a beautiful coastal town on a peninsula on the north coast.

this is what our bus ride up here looked like. the countryside is so beautiful here.

we're staying with a host family that nate the other intern lives with. that cute little girl is his host brother's daughter estelle. she is quite possibly the cutest dominican child to ever live. she has so much sass and she is such a ham. she mostly just says "mira, mira, mira" which means look! and we're all supposed to look at her adoringly and oooh and ahh. she calls me dia, which means aunt. if we put on music she dances for us, and attempts to break dance, which is hilarious.

we've gotten alot of interviews done, which is great. yesterday was really cool because we saw a traditional stove that they make with clay. apparently it cooks things much faster than gas stoves. that was really cool to see, because ive read so much about traditional technologies and its so cool to actually see it in action. today we visited a restaurant that uses the same type of stove, except it was shaped differently. They were using firewood and the entire shack was filled with smoke, which must be suffocating for the women that work there.

here's a picture of the stove. it is so cool!!! i was so excited to see it!!!

it's made of clay that they dig up when the moon is full, because the clay is supposed to be its strongest during a full moon. then they mix earth and water and "paint" it to solidify it all together.

we've got more interviews slated for this afternoon, and more for tomorrow morning, and then my interviews are done! i think im going to continue my research in india after our program is over.

well that's all for today! muchos besos mi amigos!

dobtrain

last week of research!

hola amigos y amigas!

yesterday, on one last day of enjoyment i went with the esperanza interns to 27 waterfalls, this gorgeous national park that has.... you guessed it 27 waterfalls. some of them have natural waterslides that you can slide down the waterfall or jump off of. it was so beautiful! we had a great time.

right now, im at the esperanza office in samana, which is a peninsula on the north coast. we were able to squeeze in one interview today after our long, long, long bus ride back from jarbacoa, which was great. the next 3 days are going to be intense, with interviews in the morning and afternoon. i know we'll be able to get to 30, which is great. tonight tess & i are staying at the intern stationed here's house. apparently there are tarantulas there. eek.

much love and mangoes!

danielle

weekend update

the format is weird but this ---->
the view from our patio at our weekend place of residence in jabacoa

hell hath no fury like a woman with a machete

this cutie is a wittle haitian baby who came up and sat on my lap during the loan meeting. my heart melted

the picture of the houses are the bateys that are the haitain settlements that are through out the countryside

group loan meeting in the batey

my host family and mi madre dominicana sofia!

the motoconcho ride to the group loan meeting in the batey

weekend update contd...

Friday we went to the bateys, which are the haitain settlements in the countryside. Those were really cool to see and I was so happy to hear Haitain Creole! I could finally talk to people in french! During the meeting the cutest little girl was eyeing me, and slowly moved closer and closer to me and then finally came and sat on my lap. she was adorable, she just nestled right into my chest and sat there staring at the loan meeting. i played with the kids there and we interviewed 6 women, which was great. we've got 16 interviews in the last 3 days, which is amazing, because we'll definitely get 30 interviews, and perhaps even finish ahead of schedule.

This weekend we're in Jabacoa, which is in the west, and its all beautiful green mountains. all the other interns from esperanza are here and they are SUPER nice and welcoming, so its nice. We're staying at a boarding school guest house, so our accomidations are amazing. There is hot water in the showers!!! And we dont have to wash in rain water out of a bucket, SCORE. Today we went canyoning, meaning we repelled down a waterfall into a canyon and followed the river through the canyon by repelling down waterfalls, riding the rapids and ziplining. It was quite the adventure and we are all pretty pooped. The final repel was a 110 ft waterfall which was GORGEOUS! after we ate a tasty meal and longued poolside.

the researchin life is rough, i tell ya.

Thursday!

Today we got 5 interviews again today, which brings our grand total to 10. I interviewed one man today, just to mix things up, even though I''m focusing on women. He runs a barber shop, where all the macho men hang out in town. I did my first microenterprise visit today and it was so cool. It was a woman who opened her own colmado and she had bought a fridge with her microloan. She was so excited to show us all that her store could hold and even gave us a cold drink because it was especially hot today. She also invited us into her home, where we met her 5 ninas and their children. They were all very cute. Dominican babies may win the race for my heart vs the african babies. There were so many cuties that all I could hear in my head was my friend (and fellow foreign baby lover) Esther Chou saying “I want dems!” She talked to us for a long time and explained many things about domincan living. We were outside of the city today in the campo, the countryside. It looks very different than the city center, the houses are much farther apart and made out of corrigated tin like they were in the townships. There are lots of animals: cows, horses (FINALLY my rosetta stone payed off when I could say un cabillo!) dogs, chickens, pigs and goats. We also saw a lot of fruits, some of them, I dont think we have in the US and I certainly dont know the english word for it. But some of the borrowers gave us fresh mangos from their backyard. They were very tasty, but learned the important lesson of washing fruit. Yikessss. We came back to the office and then we went back to Sofia's. Sofia is a wonder woman. She started a pre school for children in the poorer section of town. She saved and built little by little for 5 years to build a school for them. Before that, she held it at her house and in churches. Tess and I can't walk anywhere with her because it takes twice as long, because she knows and loves EVERYONE in the neighborhood and they know and love her right back. All the kids come running up to her amiga! Amiga! And she'll slip them a few pesos so they can go buy a lollipop. So Tess and I went to help clean and organize some things. In the school, Sofia put in a water purification system so that they could use the taps at the school. Because it was more rural, and we had to walk along dirt roads to get there, pure water delivery service is unavailable. So, she sells the pure water to the neighboring community at cost, which is less than the water delvery would cost. HELLO SOCIAL BUSINESS MUCH? Sofia might be my favorite person in the DR right now. Anyway, we cleaned off sewing machines, which was cool because I've been wanting to see what they use out here. They are all foot powered, like the ones I've seen in textbooks from the 1940's. Sofia, because she knows I'm interested in the level of technology, took me by a tailor, which is a profitable business because all school uniforms must be tailored, where they had the same, although newer looking, type of sewing machine. We also met the cutest little boy named Lorlando who was playing by the school. He was very friendly and the funniest thing about him is when he got excited about things he screamed them. He was throwing rocks into a hole and I said como pelota! And he was so tickled by how I said pelota and laughed and said PELOTA, PELOTA. When we said goodbye, he said Adios Daniella Adios Theresa Adios Sofia! Adios Adios! And yelled goodbye to us for a long time. We could still hear him even when we couldn't see him. He was funny. Tonight we're going to hang out at the pizza place, which is like the spot to hangout at night because they play reggaeton music and eat non dominican food. Tomorrow is my last day in Hato Mayor and then we go to the west, for white water rafting, waterfalling and canyoning this weekend!!!

Finally! Some pictures!

mango!!!!




corrogated tin and wood are international building materials






El Seibo



The town of Hato Mayor. It was around noon, so absolutely no one is on the streets because it is so hot outside