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