Thursday, Nov. 13th. It was a dark stormy night, with a hint of danger in the air. Well it was at least dark. Because my artisans decide to have their meetings at 530pm, which really means 6pm in an outside tiki hut with no lights. So since its nearing winter the days are getting shorter, which my artisans may have forgotten because its still 80 degrees at night. I can't blame them, I don't believe winter really exists either since I still can't walk outside midday without melting. But regardless of our beliefs the sun still knows its winter time and about 15 minutes into our meeting its pitch black. So this meeting involves a lot of fighting, jumping topic to topic, literally jumping and all in very fast spanish. I was in the dark very much literally and figuratively. After all this confusion, I also had to coordinate who of my artisans were coming with me to an art fair in the capital next week and get all their information which I had to pass on to the director of the fair. Luckily, this didn't cause as much trouble as I thought it would, but still doing this all in the dark, especially just writing personal information down correctly with out light was a bit challenging, and interpreting dominican spanish. So needless to say, I left this meeting quite stressed.
I drudge home, in a bit of a bad mood and frustrated with my spanish ability. I rush to my room to shower and relax. I lock the door, and am about to change when I spy with my little eye a massive tarantula on the wall behind the door. Now when I say massive, im not lying (it was mildly smaller than the size of my face)! And it was not intimidated, unlike myself. My spanish mother, knocks on the door telling me my dinner is ready, and I respond in spanish "I have a problem, but I don't know the words." My fear struck me dumb, and I could not for the life of me remember the word for spider. And I couldn't open the door, because was afraid the monster might jump, because apparently they do that. I can handle jumping artisans but not jumping tarantulas. So I frantically flip through my spanish- dictionary and eureka if find the word "arana with a tilda over the n" (just in case you find yourself in the same position). So I scream "Theres a big spider behind my door." My mom responds with "O". And then quickly grabs a key, and rushes into my room, and tells me to leave that she will take care of it. She takes a plank piece from the door, and swiftly tries to impail the spider. But apparently they are inimpailable, but I still took a picture of it being squished because it seemed we had the upper hand at the time (and i figured I could send it to the spider later to bring up painful memories muahaha). Since it wouldn't die though, my mom had to do a heroic and skillful maneuver of "guiding" the tarantula and scooting it out of the house as it was walking. She gave it a last kick, to let it know it wasn't welcome back around these parts. And then all was safe and well. Although, I almost suffered a hear attack, the unwelcomed spider did act as a great stress reliever. My family and I had a great laugh from this episode and proceeded to have an hour of fun insect stories as I enjoyed my dinner of fried salami (which I actually like now, although I am sure my arteries will suffer after 2 years). So I guess moral to the story, if you are feeling stressed just always remember that moody jumping artisans are never as bad as jumping tarantulas, so and at least you dont have to coordinate getting them to a fair.
My other new experience of the week, was a dominican family reunion and trip to the beach. Now my friend Gori has a bunch of family in town, because its the one year anniversary of her uncle's death and they have a really big all day ceremony. So most her family from the states came and are staying for a few weeks. Now her family is a party, literally. Every night they are partying way into the night, and I usually try to only stay for a tiny bit if at all normally because I try not to drink in my community, and some of the NY uncles and cousins can get a little fresh. But the family was nice enough to invite myself and the volunteer, Cati, who I am following up to join their family trip to the beach, Nagua. Now I was a little hesitant because I knew this trip might would be more or less a shit show, but Cati convinced me to come, and she is really sweet and responsible, so I figured a free trip to a beach I haven't to been to, sure why not. And I knew it would at least interesting. Basically, I was not disappointed. First we fit 19 of us and 1 baby snuggly into 1 van! And then of course around 10:30, the wine and the straight rum start flowing in the van. Actually it is quite a skill these people have, of drinking out of small cups, while driving over dominican roads (which is normally much rockier that a thirty year old roller coaster) and not spilling at all! I definitely have not mastered it, but im getting better. Also along with the wine (which is basically liquor because its so strong and in one gallon containers), there was cheese and crackers were going around, which made me quite happy. So basically, as road trips go, it was pretty enjoyable. Then we roll up and pile out into the house of a relative, where there procedes to be more sitting around and drinking until finally make it to the beach. The family at the beach was a blast! Now Cati and I, were I think the only ones with bathing suits, but that didn't stop the family from being in the water, swimming with clothes apparently is the norm. And laying out and relaxing was not the norm. We basically just splashed around and played lots of chicken. I tried to teach one of the brothers to swim, but it didnt go so well. I asked him how dominicans expect to get off the island, if none of them can swim. He didnt answer and just laughed. Anyways the beach was a lot of fun, and then we all had a big dominican style late lunch of rice and chicken and bussled on home like one big happy family. Well we had to carry the grandfather and the aunt into the van, because they were sloshed. The way back was fun, not horribly eventful. The now warm wine and rum started flowing again (i stuck to gatorade), and many fun dominican car games, but I don't have their kind of energy so I took a nap. But then was awaken to a cousin serenading me. All and all it was a good old family fun day with a crazy dominican family. They kept partying into the night, but Cati and I opted for having a pj party with my little sisters, making popcorn, and watching the classic dance drama "Step Up." And then this of course was followed by a dance party.
Well for know thats all from the Caribbean!
<3
Kelly
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