Peace Corps: Dominican Republic

Nombre: Jenn
Ubicación: Las Matas de Farfan, Dominican Republic

In May 2005, I graduated from Carroll College with a B.A. in History and a minor in Anthropology. As useful as my majors are, I'm working in Agriculture with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic!

25 febrero 2006

Public Transportation in the DR

Whew, I made it through my first week!! Well, I´m safe and sound. I love it here so far. I´m dedicating this blog to my experience with public transportation in the DR.

To get to and from my home in Los Angeles, I have to take a carro publico for about 10 minutes to get to our school down the highway. Now a carro publico is a shared taxi, so it´s cheaper to take then a real taxi, but you, as the name says, have to share it with others. Imagine a really old, beat up car, put 6 passengers, plus their bags in it, and drive down the highway. Now, my first concern with this is the door is going to fall off, and I´m going to hit the highway at a very high velocity. But our instructors reassured us that the more beat up the car is, the safer it is because it means that it´s been in use for a while, and can be considered reliable. Well, after a week, we´ve finally figured out how to fit 4 people in the back seat comfortably, and can flag one down with ease.

The other option to get around is in a guagua. It´s the DR version of a bus. There is a man (called a cobrador) hanging out the door yelling at people on the side of the street the route of the bus, once again, you flag one down, and squish into the bus like sardines in order to get to your destination. It´s a bit cheaper, and a little more comfortable, but not as regular to catch as a carro publico.

So, Thursday, our classes went downtown for a practical lesson in public transportation and to tour the Peace Corps offices. At one of the busstops, the cobrador exited the bus to find some passengers. He´s a pretty important person to have on the bus. He knows where everyone is going and takes the money from eace passenger. Well, at this particular busstop, the driver left without the cobrador. Everyone either needed to pay or get there change, and there was no cobrador to pay. Fortunately, the cobrador caught up in a carro publico, much to his own humilition. Poor guy.

03 febrero 2006

Home Alone and Bachata

Once again, I have a weekend home alone. It's nice after days of kids, moms, and non-stop go-go-go to have a while to spend with the the cats, dogs, and myself. I can sleep in, eat whenever I want (as long as I can find some food), and just get some good quality alone time. Now, it'd be a good time to spend packing and working on my Spanish, but I find myself playing on the internet and watching T.V. Today that all paid off. Earlier, the internet was down, so I watched T.V. I found some documentary channel that was doing a show on the history of Bachata, a Dominican form of music. I got to watch T.V., practice Spanish, and learn about the DR all at once!

Bachata is a form of music that this documentary compared to the American Blues. It grew out of the poor people of the Dominican Repubic and apparently "Bachata" is derived from street or backyard parties. The common people began to play this particular music. Bachata is music from the heart. It talks about love, suffering, poverty, and so much more. When it first came out, the higher class refused to listen to it because it was associated with the poor, loose women, and farmers. A lot of times, it is associated with the campesinos who were slowly moving to the cities, so you would find this music in seedy, cheap bars and brothels. Today, however, Bachata has become much more mainstream. One Dominican who now lives in New York talked about her relationship with the music. She said that she is able to connect to the people of her home country through Bachata. Also, she believed that if a Dominican isn't moving to Bachata when they hear it, they are not really Dominican. I have read others blogs about the music of the DR, but never really thought about where it had come from.

Running into the documentary made me realize that I am going to the DR for a reason. I mean, really, I would have never found a documentary such as the one on Bachata a year ago! I truly believe that I have made the right decision about where I am going and what I am doing. I have promised myself that I will work hard to do what I need to do in the DR. I won't lie and say that I'm not a little scared and worried, because I am. But, this is a time to get over that fear and learn about the people of the DR, the environment of the DR, and myself.