Still Alive

I have been too much in culture shock to really write the way I planned on this blog. Also, the unreliable electricity and wi-fi connection have made it tricky as well. I have learned a lot during the last month since I have been here! First let me say that I LOVE AMERICA!!!! This is not meant to say anything negative about the D.R. but I have learned to appreciate what we have in the U.S. more than I ever thought possible. Having never before left the country, this is all incredibly new to me!

I have been very busy over these past weeks learning how to do everything in a different way. It has been an adventure and I have discovered a lot of things about myself that I didn't realize were there! I have learned to do laundry in a very tiny, semi-automatic washing machine and dry it all in a tropical climate "sin una secadora"-withough a dryer! It's the rainy season, and this one task alone has brought out the Laman and Lemuel in me!!! I am learning to grocery shop for a family of 6 with only a double stroller to hold it all in and without saying much "porque no hablo espanol!" The crazy thing is that we cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the store on a road that, when I first witnessed the driving, had me just staring with my mouth wide open! It's amazing! There are no rules of the road here. Everyone does whatever they want. Now, I keep thinking that seeing an American lady pushing a double stroller with 4 kids across the road would be no big deal after everything else that's going on-but I get shouted at a fair amount, so evidently I am an unusual sight! I'm also getting a kick out of how unusual it is to have 4 kids. We get stared at everywhere we go, and people just smile at us (or some of them FROWN) and they ask us "Don't you have a T.V.?" They think that's hilarious here, but it really was funny, because we actually don't have a T.V. that works right now :)

We are living in the city with no car (as you have probably already figured out) so we walk to the kids' school, to the store, and to church. At first this seemed really difficult because we're not used to it, and because it's SOOOOOOOOOOO hot here! But we have toughened up a lot in a month and now we're pros! It's still tricky because people leave garbage, construction debris, large holes, and parked cars on the sidewalks here. One of my favorites things is all the "Ay yay yay, Peligroso!!!" I get to hear as I literally "off road" with my stroller on a daily basis. Again, something that was at first traumatic, but is now all in a day's work. I've learned to just smile, and RUN!

I mop with a rag mop, and cook on a stove that I light with a match and an oven that has no temperature markings on it anywhere. I didn't know what to do with it at first, but I actually figured out how to make dinner rolls without measuring cups and said oven which has been a major accomplishment for me! I say all of this, not to complain, (though I really did a lot of that in my first 3 weeks or so) but to give you an idea of the ways life is so different here. I have a new appreciation for how modern life has made so many of our necessary jobs easier and how this frees women to do other things that would otherwise not make it onto your "to do" list at all!I do laundry every day. I go grocery shopping every other day. I mop everyday-there is no carpeting here. Everything is tile and there is a lot of dust and dirt in the air-you can imagine me in such a situation :) I have three kids at home all day with almost no toys, no T.V., and no back yard. No parks, no safe sidewalks, none of that stuff that you have all over your house that you can use to make things or play with. It has been interesting to set up a temporary house with a family and only the stuff I was able to pack in our suitcases. I am learning how grateful I am for the life I left in America, but also how much I, and I believe all of us, is capable of doing when our situations aren't so easy. Necessity is the mother of invention and I am finding that as we accept the things that are different here and look for the good, we are finding things to do and we are living without things I never thought possible to live without!

I have more to say, but this is already too long. In my next post I want to just put some of my thoughts out there about the social issues I am seeing. Poverty, wealth, racism, etc. Things I never thought as much about. I feel like an infant. I don't know much of anything, but I see a lot of things that are making me ask questions and re-think life at a level that surprises me. I hesitate to even write most of this because I have no idea how it's all going to sound to other people. I see my experience as such a work in progress and I know I'm going to say things one day that I have to re-think another day! So, if you read this blog, realize that I am saying nothing in absolutes! I am throwing out observations as they come to me, and waiting for the day when it can all come together into something useful and cohesive in my mind. I also want to give a little more info. about how each individual in my family is coping with this too.