Las Matas de Farfan

From Thursday to Sunday I went and stayed with a volunteer named Jenny in Las Matas de Farfan. It was about a 4 hour bus ride but luckily the bus wasn{t cramped and I actually had a whole seat to myself. After I arrived (and asked around for la americana) we hung out, ate lunch with her project partner who is the director of the school, and toured the town. I had the totally awesome experience of getting stared at by own guy for so long and so intensely that I felt super uncomfortable. Jenny finally asked him what he was looking at and he said I had pretty eyes and lips. It was then that I wanted and understood the reason for the burkah. The next day we went to Elias Piñas which is right on the border with Haiti and has a huge market. There sell tons of used clothes with come from the US as donations, I think through Haiti. People need the money more than the clothes, so they cross the border and sell them here. So that{s where you{re clothes go when you donate them. It was also hard to see all the poverty there. There are so many stereotypes about Haitians here because they are usually poorer than Dominicans. We saw one lady who was picking up the outside leaves of lettuces which had been left on the ground and were dirty and somewhat trampled. She was obviously collecting them to eat. We had lunch with a volunteer there and then caught a bola (free ride) back to Las Matas on the back of a pickup truck with tons of food and about 9 people squeezed into the back 3 feet of the truck cab. I saw the school where the computer lab is and was utterly amazed. I don{t think I have ever seen a school in such bad condition. The walls were literally crumbling to the ground. Imagine the ruins you visit in foreign countries- the school was like that. I also saw the famous ¨Matas de farfan¨which used to be a bunch of trees that some guy named farfan would tie his cattle to but of which only one remains. it looks like a regular tree. wowsers. anyways, that night we went out to a colmado near another volunteer´s site and met up with other volunteers and trainees there. It was great to sit around, drink a little beer, and dance some bachata. I also rode my first moto there (i was terrified and they laughed at me when i whipped out my helmet which says ¨tough¨on the front, but i made it in one piece). on friday we went to a bigger city about 1 hour away and met up with even more volunteers and went to a pool there! It was kind of murky water but we didn{t care. We also saw a carnival parade with tons of costumes including the living dead and men dressed up as women. There are also boys who run around and hit people´s buts with inflated pig bladder thigns. OW. It was interesting to hear all the stories of the other volunteers. I returned Sunday to the comforts of my Doña´s house. On Thursday we go to community based training in El Seybo with the other IT people. I{m a little sad about splitting off from the rest of the group because we´re all just starting to feel comfortable with each other and I want to continue getting to know everyone. Oh well, we shall see.

P.S. I ate chaca which is like habichuelas con dulce but made with corn. it was amaazing. i also tried claren which is the haitian bootleg rum which takes like booty.