The Rest of the D.R.

Our last day on the service trip was comprised on home visits and a trip to the beach. Wes and I woke up a little before 6 am to go on a hike near Tubagua. Basically we wound up walking up and down a very hilly road that stretched towards a river west of Tubagua. We never made it to the river because we had to turn back to make it in time for breakfast, showers and setting out for the day. We were both sad that we had waited until Friday to do the walk as we realized we could have been doing it, and others, all week. Along the way, we passed humble houses, children getting ready for school, dogs barking, and a lot of great vantage points.

By 9 am, the entire group was down in Montellano ready to go our separate ways: Lissa, Ayaz and Laura went to a hospital in Puerto Plata to visit a translator’s sister, Rob went to Cabarete to sit on the beach and try to look at some properties, and the rest of us took motos up to Severet. I rode on the back of a moto with Meg in between the me and the driver. It was awesome! Somehow we rode over huge puddles without getting wet and large rocks without bursting a tire. In Severet we managed to find the barrack where a seven-month-old lived. The child had come in with a fever of 103 or 104 on Tuesday. His mother was surprised to see us and said that he was fine. Meg and Wes listened to him breathe while Nicole and I watched and took photos.

It was really the only time I got an up close look at one of the barracks, called bateyes. Each family gets a room of about 9’x14’ with a door to the right and slats to the left that let air, bugs and smells into the room. Inside the rooms are dark and some have old, rusted bed frames (I could see into a lot of the abandoned barracks). At the back of each barrack are more slats to let air “circulate” although each barrack is up against another one. This means that you can hear and smell everything going on in your neighbor’s home. The mother of the sick child had put up a curtain to divide her barrack and she had a table and chair in the front portion. I think she was in her early twenties and had two children, a two-year-old in addition to the sick child.

The bateyes were put up by the national sugar company for their “temporary” Haitian workforce to use during sugar harvesting season. However, temporary soon became permanent housing as people stopped making the trek back to Haiti. Many of the Haitians do not posses Dominican citizenship and are, therefore, unable to use the clinic in Montellano. The cane factory closed in 2005, yet the people are still living in their homes. There is no running water nor are there bathrooms. Communities like Severet and Negro Melo are up in the hills and surrounded by fields and woods. Pancho Mateo is located just behind Montellano and lacks an area for “bathroom usage.” The people there use the river for everything and a clearing in the woods is their toilet. The land surrounding the communities is still owned by the company and no one is allowed to grow anything on it. The company sends security guards to make sure the land is still unused and cut down any illegal plantings.

In addition to the bateyes, these communities had corrugated metal structures and some cement (well-kept and new) homes. A few have water tanks on their roofs which are filled by trucks that bring in river water. Generally Haitians live in bateyes and Dominicans live in shacks, but this is a gross generalization as things are changing. People even chose to move to communities like Pancho Mateo and build nice houses there, which still baffles me.

After checking up on the child in Severet, we took the motos back down to Pancho Mateo to look in on a mother and her 12-day-old baby. The child had been throwing up after each feeding and the mother had an uncovered C-section wound that was leaking a clear liquid. Both were fine: the child was probably being over-fed and looked healthier on Friday than the day before and the mother did not have an infection yet and needed to maintain a clean scar and cover it. Pancho Mateo was somewhat of a circus because a mayoral candidate was there distributing government handouts: clear bags of food including cans of tuna with labels in English, televisions, fans and a single, red, plastic chair to each family. The army was there to keep the peace. They had blocked most of the road and seemed baffled by our presence. As soon as we got there, children swarmed us asking for pictures, Wes’s wristwatch and soccer balls. We met up with Laura, Ayaz and Lissa, checked on two more patients, and got back in the truck to go to Montellano.

In Montellano, we visited a state-run clinic called Maternidad. It’s meant for children and women to use, but men are allowed there if they have an emergency. However, they are only allowed for a few hours and cannot be kept overnight. They have 11 beds, three of which are in the delivery area. The rest of the beds are in a tight room at the end of a hallway. There are some smaller offices for consults, gynecological visits, lab work and a doctor’s rest room (one doctor stays on-call all night). This is the closest public medical facility for miles. Even so, it’s an hour from Arroyo de Leche, a community we did not visit, but instead had those patients come to Negro Melo. After this, you have to travel to Puerto Plata. The whole place looked like a 1950s movie set, except it was filled with posters telling people to wash their hands, not touch bats and how to diagnose TB. These posters were sponsored by national organizations and international ones like USAID and UNICEF.

After the clinic we went for lunch at a cafeteria style restaurant where I ate rice and eggplant. It was a simple and cheap meal, but quite tasty. We stopped at a grocery store to buy gifts. The supermarket was huge and had tons of imported foods from both the US and Europe. There are a lot of expats living on the north coast and they clearly cater to the community. Next, we went to Cabarete to spend the afternoon at the beach. It was hot out and the water felt wonderful. It’s still strange to me to walk into the Atlantic Ocean and have it be so warm. I also think it was saltier here than on Cape Cod. For dinner we went back to Casanova’s (where we ate Sunday) because they have a half-price menu and the food is good. I ate mahi-mahi with mango sauce again. Afterwards, we got ice cream across the street. I ordered vanilla ice cream and papaya sorbet, both of which were fabulous. It was the best vanilla I had ever tasted. I gave everyone a bite, which prompted Rob and Lissa to go inside and order their own.

On our way back to Tubagua, our truck was stopped by two armed men on the side of the road. There is a checkpoint along that highway and they’re supposed to stop suspicious trucks (the kind they can’t see into) or large vehicles which can be dangerous to unsuspecting tourists on the road. They told Emanuel, our driver, our truck was too large for the road. He informed them that he was working and had been going up and down the road all week. He also told them he would not pay them and would sit in the middle of the road until they let him go. The guys were not expecting a response like this and let us pass.

On our final morning at Tubagua, I ate a bunch of fresh bananas that had been ripening on their stalk on the deck. We all took a “field trip” to the other part of Tubagua that is still under construction. Tim is setting it up to have dorms and a public space so it can host groups. He’s constructing houses that will be for sale and dreams of a pool and an organic restaurant to serve foods from his, still unplanted, organic garden. We toured one of the houses which was cleverly done to accommodate different numbers of people at different times yet took advantage of its position in nature.

Then we drove Ayaz to the airport and the group dropped Rob and I at the bus. Back in Santo Domingo, I took a taxi to my hotel because Darleny was busy with a repairman at her apartment. I got a local woman to bargain my ride down to RD$180 from RD$200 (a difference of 50 cents USD), but then paid the full rate as a “tip” anyway. Back in the hostel, I cranked the air conditioner and chilled for a bit. Then Darleny and I went to a café for juice (me) and coffee (her). I had a papaya juice and a melon juice, both of which were blended with ice, water and sugar. We went to the mall so she could get her ear pierced and then to the food store to get dinner. At her apartment we made pasta with fresh tomatoes, oregano and olive oil and boiled over-ripe plantains, which we ate with avocados and “Dutch” cheese, which is really a typical Dominican cheese according to her. From the rooftop terrace we watched bats flutter in the night sky and enjoyed our feast.

Sunday morning I was going to go for a run, but could not drag myself out of bed and into the rain. Instead I ate breakfast on the roof and then got ready for the day. It poured on-and-off all morning and into the afternoon. Darleny picked me up and we went for juice at a patisserie where I helped her translate some documents from Spanish into English. Then we had sushi at a very trendy little restaurant before driving to the airport. There was flash-flooding along the way and we took the road along side the Caribbean, which, we discovered, was under construction and almost impassible due to huge puddles and pot holes.

We had gotten to the airport early, so I dumped my bags and we went to a café so she could get coffee and I could check my email. For an international airport, Las Americas is pretty tiny. I’m not sure there were more than six or eight gates. There was, however, a Hudson News where I bought my $3 USD bottle of water – just like in JFK.

Pancho Mateo Day 2

This morning when we got to Pancho Mateo, there was no electricity again. We set up the room and opened at 9:45. Today, all of the patients were walk-in; there were no appointments. A lot of them came in complaining of the “gripe,” a cold. At times there were tons of kids running around and yelling. Some of them weren’t wearing much clothing. Mothers were as young as 17, many were 18 or 20 with 2-4 year olds. It’s also not taboo to breast feed in public here. I’ve seen a lot of boobs this week.

Again, I worked triage and wound up having to send a lot of women to the pharmacy area so they could get urinary analysis done. Most of these women had urinary track infections, some of which were really bad. One young guy, I think he was 20, came in with a “bump” on his groin. He actually brought a dictionary (I think it was Creole-English) to point to the word bump. It turned out that he didn’t really have anything wrong with him.

One very interesting couple came in today. The man was in his forties and was blind. His wife was 33 and mute. They have to work together to get anything done.

It was swelteringly hot today – absolutely horrible. Finally a little after lunch, the lights (we only used the fans) came on, which helped a lot.

Our day ended early, at around 3:30, because we had run out of medications and patients were dwindling. We were also disgusting by that time because of sweat. Our group took some pictures out in front of the church before leaving and played around with some of the local children.

That night we all came back to Tubagua for dinner, sautéed eggplant, fried plantains, salad and avocado followed by rice pudding. Then the HHI group had an impromptu dance party.

Pancho Mateo

This morning we woke up at 3:30 to a major electric storm. From our perch a top the side of the mountain we could the cloud to surface lightening. The thunder was extremely loud and sounded like it was moving around in a circular motion. It was still raining when we came down the mountain and moved our stuff into Pancho Mateo.

We set up in the church and began seeing patients. I spent the entire day in triage except for a moment when I took a girl to do a urinary analysis. It stayed pretty cool throughout the morning, but as the rain stopped in the early afternoon, the heat picked up. The church worked well (from a traffic flow standpoint), but there was no cross breeze because the surrounding buildings were within two feet of the church.

Many of the patients were Creole-speaking, but our translators were too busy working with the doctors so some of the guys from the church helped translate Creole-Spanish. It was pretty tough working with the patients because they don’t answer the questions I ask. I’ll say to a mother, “does your child have any allergies to any medicines?” She’ll tell me, “No. She’s here for an infection. No allergies.” I’ll finish taking a history, which is hard enough to get through with the best patient and she’ll turn to me and say, “Oh, yea. She can’t have penicillin.”

One woman today was almost deaf. It was difficult to take her medical history with three Creole-Spanish translators yelling at her. I let her through after Laura took her blood pressure. Many people come in with “gripe,” the flu or cold symptoms. Most people are just sniffling, but still want medicine. One girl actually did have a fever of 101, but most are really fine.

The last few patients of the day were children whom we let in the door even though we were closing. One had a fungus on his feet, which I diagnosed before sending him to the doctor who confirmed my diagnosis and asked me how I would treat it. I said to use the anti-fungal cream, which was, apparently, the correct treatment.

We finished the day earlier than expected and were on the road by 5 p.m. After dropping Laura, Meg, Nicole, Dr. Hermann (our Haitian/Dominican doctor today) and the translators off, we headed back up to Tubagua for a dinner of pork chops (I did not eat), fried rice, fried bananas, a root veggie stewed in tomato sauce, avocado and salad.

Severet

Tuesday morning we woke up and drove to Severet. Again we picked up our translators, Dr. José, Laura, Nicole and Meg along the way. The church in Severet was up a small hill, which our driver decided to climb. Nothing had really been done in anticipation of our arrival (the local health workers are supposed to hang rope for us to use to divide the space into private consultation rooms.

The guys turned church pews on their sides and hung the strings and curtains. The pharmacy team (Rob and Dr. José) got their meds in order and set up. When we opened for business, there weren’t that many people there. I helped Meg do triage. The only thing I could not do was take patients’ blood pressure. I asked their name, age, contact information, medical history and chief complaint. Then I weighed them. The morning was fairly slow, but we wound up seeing more patients than Monday morning.

After lunch, the pace picked up steadily. I continued to work triage. It seemed like every other person I helped was actually a family (usually a mom with a bunch of kids). They go in together to see the doctor, although one woman (really I think she was younger than I) tried to leave her baby in my arms while she went to see the doctor. I stopped periodically to take photos of what was going on in the clinic.

We closed up shortly after 5:30. Dorka, one of the two cooperadoras de salud (local health workers) had prepared dinner for us. I, along with some of the other volunteers, walked to her house, which was about 10-15 minutes from the church. She made a stew of chicken and root vegetables, which we ate with rice and avocados from a tree in her yard. I used the bathroom at her house, which was an outhouse with two cement holes in the ground. Even under those conditions, I thought I was much cleaner than its Bolivian and Moroccan counterparts. Dinner was delicious and filling. Afterwards, we drove back to Tubagua with a red sunset in the background, followed by lightening out at sea.

Negro Melo

Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and packed up the truck to go to Negro Melo. Along the way we picked up Nicole, Meg, a Dominican doctor (Dr. José) and the translators, Roosevelt and Ricky. To get to Negro Melo, we took the long way up the “better” (aka lessy rocky, but still quite rocky) roads. It’s a small community of about 85 people who basically live along the same street. We were there to serve Negro Melo and Arroyo de Leche, a community which is located 20 minutes further up a hill too steep for trucks to climb.

Once we unloaded into the local church, we started hanging consult room dividers aka bed sheets on strings. The patients who arrived throughout the morning had previously booked appointments. HHI volunteers working in the two towns arranged the appointments based on need: people with hypertension and diabetes were given preference. I worked as an interpreter for Dr. Wes, an ER doctor from Alabama. The first patients we saw had high blood pressure, hernias and seizures. There wasn’t much Dr. Wes could do for them because we don’t have a surgical facility, however he did as much as he could.

Interpreting wasn’t actually as hard as I had imagined it could be, although I did have to explain how a hernia forms and what sinuses are. I had purchased a medical dictionary in Santo Domingo which did come in handy. I only really had trouble understanding the woman who was having seizures, but that’s do to her condition rather than language. After a packed lunch of sandwiches (and a salad bag for me) the clinic held walk-in hours. This was definitely more chaotic as people crowed the doorway trying to get in.

Meg and Laura worked as triage, taking blood pressure and asking medical history. Then the patients moved into one of the three consult rooms and from there to the pharmacy where they were given medicines and then explained how to use them. Throughout the afternoon Dr. Wes saw some children complaining the “gripe” – common cold, patients with anemia, babies who needed vitamins and a girl with a burn on her leg from a motorcycle accident. I explained to them everything he was telling me and relayed their messages back to him. He saw a few women with young babies – mothers my age.

It was a long day. We helped everyone who came to the clinic in whatever way we could. After clinic we came back to Tubagua with Laura, Meg and Nicole for dinner (chicken kabobs, rice, beans, salad, avocado, fried corn meal poppers and bananas for dessert).

Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata

Friday morning, Chris and I went to the oldest church in the western world. Then we stopped into the Panteón Nacional where a lot of politicians and famous statesmen are buried. It was set up like a church however half of the tombs were empty and awaiting future use.

Darleny, and her Spanish friend Miguel met us for lunch. We ate meró (I think it’s sea bass) and rice on the plaza by the original cathedral. Then we took a ride on the new metro which is extremely clean and bright. Each station has a guard on each platform and each train has at least one on board. There is only one metro line: we took it all the way to the northern end, which is a poor neighborhood. Up there, we bought some sugar cane and limoncillos (little green fruits which look like mini-limes, but are eaten like lichee).

After returning to the city we had drinks and snacks at a bar in La Zona Colonial. It was a cute, hip place where Chris drew a picture of the three of us on the “wall of fame.”

That night I had dinner with one of the volunteers, Rob. We were the only two who were traveling through Santo Domingo. We went to a restaurant in Gascue called Conuco. He ate goat, but I ate con con (the rice that gets stuck at the bottom of the pot), tostones, yucca with onions and avocado. He’s my parents’ age, had started a wellness business, sold it to WebMD and is now doing philanthropic work.

Saturday morning Darleny and I met for breakfast. We ate mangú (mashed green plantains) with fried eggs and onions. I had a granadilla (a kind of passion fruit, but not as good as chinola) shake with it. Then she took me to the bus station where I met Rob and we got our bus to Puerto Plata.

The bus ride, like most other things in this country, was really loud. We passed many car-repair shops, bodegas and horses. There was a car accident (and armed police men) along the way, but other than that, the ride was basically uneventful. When we got to Puerto Plata we found Laura, Meg and Nicole (the leaders at HHI). We had time before the rest of the people were flying in from the US so we went to the fort and walked around it. Then we went for juice and off to the airport. The airport is half-indoors and half-outdoors. Check-in and the arrivals halls are outside with a large roof overhead. Customs and security were inside.

After picking up Lissa and Ayaz we headed to Tubagua, where we’re staying. Lissa is almost done with her medical residency in Chicago. Ayaz is a family medicine doctor in Storrs, CT. He’s been on an HHI trip before and is serving as our leader.

Tubagua is in the trees located halfway up a mountain. It’s got a great view of the entire area, including Puerto Plata (and the mountain there), Montellano, the airport and the Caribbean. Dinner was sea bass cooked with coconut, guenpan (bread fruit, but really a starch), avocado with basil and garlic, and a tossed salad with chinola (passion fruit) dressing. For dessert we had papaya with cinnamon.

Sunday morning I woke up at 6 am. I’m sleeping on a platform which only has a two walls, so the light and sunrise woke me up. Well, the rooster wasn’t going to let me sleep either. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, fruit and salsa and other jams.

We had an orientation about what we were going to expect in the communities and then two Dominican doctors joined us for lunch. I couldn’t eat most of the food, but the fried plantains were quite yummy.

In the afternoon we went to Pancho Mateo, one of the communities we’re going to be helping. We were given a tour of the Dominican and the Haitian batey sections. The community health worker, Cedric, took us through the area, stopping to tell us about the lack of water, poor sanitary conditions and life in Pancho Mateo. 4,000 people live with no running water and no bathrooms. They can pay Dominicans to truck in water from streams ($.30 for 15 gallons) or $1.25 for 1 gallon of purified water (used for drinking and cooking). People go to the bathroom on the side of town. When the area floods, everything is carried into the town. When there is a draught, the dust from the “bathroom” area is blown through the town. There is a school in the town. It was set up by an organization because the state-run school is too far away. The roads are not paved in the community, and probably won’t be paved until the next political elections. Politicians promise things like roads and waters to the community and carry through with the promise during election time to garner votes.

After Pancho Mateo (we’re going back Wednesday and Thursday) we went to Cabarete to go to the beach. It was a very commercial beach lined with bars. I’m pretty sure you can only get to the beach by going through the restaurants. The water was fabulous, except we started seeing lightening and got out. After dinner on the beach (I had mahi mahi with mango sauce), we came back to Tubagua to sort medicine and chill out.

Santo Domingo!!

I arrived Wednesday afternoon following an uneventful flight. I actually had one of the least painful experiences ever while attempting to pass through immigration and customs. Seriously, no one asked me to further clarify what was on my immigration form (pleasure visit) nor did anyone care about the contents of my bags (OTC medicines to donate).

Darleny (a friend from my SVA Graphic Design class this summer) picked me up with one her college friends, Chris – a Dominican guy born and raised on Manhattan’s LES. We drove into the city and dumped my things at my hotel before walking around La Zona Colonial (the colonial area) and having drinks and snacks at a café. Then we took Darleny home to her family’s apartment where they have a view of the Caribbean Sea.

Chris and I came back to our hostels (he’s staying up the street) to get ready before heading to Darleny’s concert. She plays second clarinet in the national orchestra and the concert took place at a theater not unlike the one in Lincoln Center (on the left – I forget the name). Afterwards we went out with her friends to a taco place near the hostel.

Thursday morning I woke up and ate a colorful breakfast of papaya, passion fruit, watermelon and cantaloupe on the roof of my hostel. They turn the place into a bar at night (although it’s surprisingly not too loud) and from the roof there is a view of nearby (okay, across the street) church steeples and the surrounding area. You can’t really see the water, but there are trees around it and there’s a nice breeze.

Then I walked around the city heading towards the theater to meet Darleny after her practice. I walked by the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), a nice residential neighborhood and the government buildings which were pretty ugly and reminded me of Government Center in Boston. They were in that same brutalist, almost Soviet, too much concrete style. I went to the bus station to try to buy tickets to Puerto Plata but was told you can’t buy tickets until the day of travel, however I was allowed to reserve (no money transaction) tickets.

While wandering around, I discovered I was near the Museo de Arte Monderno (Modern Art Museum) and decided to go in. I was thrilled to discover they had an exhibit of contemporary, LOCAL art. It’s the first international Caribbean triennial (Dad, this is essentially a “first annual” – I know you are grammatically unhappy with this idea). Artwork was mostly from 2009 and 2010. Artists from all over the Caribbean, including Miami, Colombia and Venezula were represented. The exhibit took over the entire museum was divided by the language spoken on the island – Dutch Caribbean, French, English-speaking and Spanish-speaking. The pieces, most of which were installations and video work, were so current that one was on the theme of the BP oil spill and another was actually a video on an iPod touch inside a shell mounted on the wall. I was really glad to have found this place!

I still had time before meeting Darleny so I did one of my favorite things to do while traveling abroad – I went to the grocery store!!!!!! I’m such a food nerd, which is weird for someone with allergies like mine, but still. Here’s the thing: the Dominican Republic has both Spanish and American influences, which means they get foods from both places! I bought Spanish rice cakes (including dark chocolate and coconut covered ones) and Silk soymilk. How awesome is that?

Darleny and I met up with Chris and his girlfriend for lunch at a little café/buffet place. I ate coleslaw, fish, plantains and a side of mashed yautía – a root vegetable, starchier and not as sweet as sweet potatoes. Then, Darleny and I went to a bookstore – a mini-Barnes and Noble – and two shopping malls. The bookstore was actually called Thesaurus; it had a little café, a decent selection of books in English (and a million copies of Junot Diaz), music, magazines and gifts. The first mall we went to (Acropolis) was similar to Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, but nowhere near as confusing. It used to be the “nice” mall until they stated building Blue Mall – which is still incomplete but has stores like Louis Vouton, and many not-so-high fashion foreign stores like Helly Hanson. It was definitely interesting to see both places and understand the cultural influences from American. I’m staying near a pedestrian street which used to be the big shopping area before these malls were built. Now, people would rather go somewhere that’s air-conditioned. The malls are also in the center of city. We drove around a bit on 27 de Febrero street where there’s a walking mall and huge clock.

Darleny had to go back to practice, so I hung out at the hostel (read: in the A/C) and then walked around La Zona Colonial with Chris. We went to an old café where I got a papaya juice shake (with water/ice) and then an espresso. I could drink these fruit juices on a daily basis without complaint. The espresso was good also, and guess what Joseph? They grind the coffee beans themselves.

Next we went to three art exhibits in the area. The first was a series of photographs done in a confrontational, direct style. The photos were of “the other” which we took to mean at Haitians. What struck me most was being able to see the reflections in people’s eyes. Then we stopped in at a the Silvano Lora Foundation where we saw an exhibit of flat, metal collages. Finally, we went to the Spanish cultural center where they had several photography exhibits up. One was called “taxidermy” and was a series of shots of naked people (probably 100 in total)- head (front and back), torso, side, rear end, etc.- each as separate photos, but organized in columns by person. Another was about sports and athletics in Japan and New York, which included a runner in a Yale sweatshirt in Central Park (we determined she was near the Carousel and the Dairy).

After a quick shower, Darleny picked us up and we went to eat on the malecón (the closest English translation is boardwalk, but it’s really closer to the Tel Aviv namal than anywhere I’ve been in the US). We went there specifically to eat mofongo – a dish of mashed plantains served with a side of fried pork, which I barely touched because I’m not much of a meat-eater. The restaurant was right on the water and the food was tasty. They served us a broth-like soup first and then the dinner came with avocado. Here, avocados are green rather than black, and they’re HUGE. Chris got tostones with his dinner, so I definitely had some of those. I also had a zapote-passion fruit juice, which was delicious and a bit tangy.

Friday morning I woke up at 6am and went running along the malecón passing the restaurant we had eaten at. It’s pretty hot here, so this was the only time of day I could run. I passed a few people working out – mostly walking. There were also many people on their way to work and lots of trucks driving by. Their drivers all honked and yelled at me, as they do when they see most women (wearing spandex doesn’t make them any quieter). I didn’t bring anything with me, so I had to stop to ask a woman the time and we would up chatting briefly about dogs. She was super-apologetic where her yippy, little things jumped on me, but I explained I had a Labrador and her dogs could do no harm by jumping. I covered five miles (2.5 out and back) before returning to the hostel to shower and sit under the A/C for a bit. I would have a lot of trouble living here and training for the marathon at the same time.

Looking through old photos

So, I'm 17 and Joe is 15....I'm not really sure why he's pushing me around. I think we might be setting up for Cotillion.

Jeux d'Enfants

Watch this movie. It's called "Love Me If You Dare" in English. It's about a French boy and girl who start a game of daring each other. The game continues up through adolescence and adulthood until the dares start getting really crazy - and emotion-filled. It's worth reading the subtitles and getting Edith Piaf stuck in your head - I'm now downloading "La Vie en Rose." Just go watch it. Or come over tomorrow as I will be watching it again.

First Two Weeks in NJ- September

So, I've been home for two weeks now. Most of that time has been spent sitting on the couch. I've send my resume out at least 60 times.....it's getting exhausting/frustrating.....ahhhhhhhh

Most of the time I'm not even sure who is getting my resume, and I feel like I'm sending it into cyber oblivion.....

In happier news/Other things I've done since coming home:

Helped my grandma prepare for Rosh Hashana and found wheat-free challah, which was also nut-free (this was a challenge) and tasted nothing like challah....oh well.

Celebrated the baby bro turning 21!!!!

Saw Vermeer's Milkmaid at the MET - it's on special loan for the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival in NYC. It had been a whole two months since the last time I saw this painting!!!

Got an iPhone. I no longer understand how I used to live. I mean, my Spanish phone was a piece of crap.....and a blackberry without a data plan is just silly. Of course, I don't like getting my emails at 5am because I wake up really excited, roll over and see that it's just BN.com or amazon....

Bought running tights because working out in capri leggings and knee socks got old fast.

Had Starbucks only once....and realized that coffee really does make me NUTS.

Went to Yale and got to have lunch at Claire's!!!!! Joe forgot I was coming and ate with Arsi in the dining hall so we didn't have to go to Caseus!!!! I got a wheat-free cupcake at Claire's (the semi-hippie/veggie/gf-friendly cafe)!!!!!!!!!!! - see image above.

Bought black ballet flats to replace the ones I destroyed in Spain. Of course, I don't actually like the new ones so I have to send them back. I'm just really bad at shopping - somethings will never change.

Fell asleep during E.T. - some things will REALLY never change. My friend told me she would have been shocked and somewhat saddened if I had actually managed to stay awake the whole time.

Picked a color for my room, I think - the paint isn't on the walls yet.

Attempted to clean out some of my crap. Attempted being the operative word here....I still own way too much stuff.

Surprised a friend on her birthday. Probably one of the best b-day presents I've given. There's nothing like being able to ring someone's doorbell and say, "Surprise! I just flew 6,000 miles, Happy Birthday, and, yes, I de-friended you on Facebook because I was afraid you'd find out I was here."

Leaving Israel

My apartment.

So, I finally decided to leave Israel. I had been thinking about it for a while. I wasn't happy at my school, ulpan classes weren't great, and I basically realized that I don't want to be a teacher. Maybe at some point I'll teach college or adults, but I really don't want to teach children. It was okay to teach in Spain for a year, because I knew it would be over in May. After some soul-searching/thinking I realized that staying in Israel was, ultimately, a waste of time and I was just procrastinating joining the real world.

I came to this decision after talking to my parents on Sunday night. Then I realized that I would be illegal in Israel as of Thursday because they screwed up when I entered. I was only given a one-month visa because I was expected to get a student visa asap. So, on Sunday I emailed the program directors, Monday morning I bought a ticket for a flight which left at 12:05 am Wednesday morning. I also canceled my bank account and wrote my roommate an email. He was in Russia on vacation. I sent him a note t

o tell him I was leaving (and, therefore, breaking the contract). His English isn't good so he called his former roommate who called me to tell me he got the email.

Monday and Tuesday I packed and got organized. I said good-bye to people and had breakfast with Sam. My meal came on the largest plate I've ever seen. Two large compartments held salad and eggs, which five small ones held cheese, butter, more cheese, eggplant and tuna salad.

Tuesday evening I took a taxi to the train station and a train to the airport. The flight home was pretty uneventful; I was asleep before take-off.

More adventures in baking

So, I tried to re-make the wheat-free challah, and attempt number two was actually worse than the first one. This time the challah got nice and crunchy on top, but practically burned on the bottom. The inside was still raw. Once again, the dough never rose.

Semi-frustrated, I turned to corn bread, a much simpler bread to bake (when you posses all of the ingredients). Problem: I didn't have baking powder. I had baking soda, but not powder. So, I omitted it. The bread was tasty and did resemble corn bread, but it looked kind of strange when I removed it from the oven......

Jerusalem

Sunday morning we took a mini-bus to Jerusalem. There was traffic on the main road so we took a (wayyyyyy toooooooo long) detour through the windy, steep mountain hill roads, arriving an hour late.

We went first to the Tower of David where we looked down on the old city.

From there we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus is supposedly buried. I had been there before, but was happy to return because the building is incredible. There are so many nooks and crannies, all of which are decorated with mosaics and other designs.

Next, we had a lunch break and then walked to the Western Wall.

Dome of the Rock!!!!

Then we went through water tunnels in the City of David, the oldest part of Jerusalem. These weren't that worthwhile. It was interesting to learn about the history, and, yes, it is important that cities have a water source. However, I don't feel the need to walk through shin-deep water for 45 minutes. Even though it was warm outside, we were underground and after a while the water's chilly temperature started to get to me.

Back outside, we climbed back up to the starting area, changed and got ready for dinner, which was at a board member's house in a residential part of the city.

I had talked to her on the phone to discuss foods, so she has some stuff set aside for me: plain chicken and plain potatoes, etc. The food was tasty. During dinner, different board members sat at our tables so they could get a chance to meet us and afterwards, we had to introduce ourselves to the whole group.

By the time we returned back to Tel Aviv, we had been gone more than 12 hours. It was a really long day and I was pretty tired.

Netanya

Friday I met Lisa and Lindsay at the shuk where we shopped for groceries before taking a city bus to the central bus station to catch an inter-city bus to Netanya where we took a sheruit (shared taxi) to Lisa's family's apartment. They had suitcases, so it was quite a process.

We made shabbat dinner: roasted veggies, quinoa and salad. They bought a challah and I made a wheat-free one, which never rose and was somewhat gummy. It was nice to be out of Tel Aviv. We could see the water from Lisa's apartment and there was a breeze on the balcony, where we ate our dinner.

Saturday we sat by the pool, but it was really hot so we went back inside and turned on the A/C. We returned to Tel Aviv late Saturday night to get ready for our field trip to Jerusalem Sunday.

Last Day at Gretz

I think the straw that broke the camel's (my) back was that my school wanted me to call parents and explain to them why their son/daughter should not be in my class. The parents, of course, want their children to be in the "special," native English-speakers class rather than the regular English classes. I didn't think it was my place to call parents, but figured I'd wait to tell the program directors when I saw them in Jerusalem on Sunday. I did call one parent and she told me that she would "be very disappointed" if her seven-year-old wasn't in my second-grade English class. I pointed out to her that her daughter could not read or write in English while the other kids in the class were bored and wanted to read Harry-Potter-level books. She didn't seem to think this was a problem.

2nd grade know-it-alls

Today wasn't so terrible at school. The secretary had neglected to make my photocopies by the time I needed them. Apparently she has to have everything approved by the principal who didn't do it yesterday and is the only person with the key to the photocopier (I think this actually means code, but the secretary doesn't really speak English). She did them quickly, just as the class was starting. So that worked out.

I also had second grade for the first time. They're going to be my challenge class. One kid just got back from the states where IwenttoRosaParksElementaryinBerkleyCaliforniait'sinthebayareanearSanFrancisco(pause for air)ofcourseIknowhowtoreadI'vereadalltheHarryPotterseventhoughI'mseven.........blah blah blah blah blah. He has a partner in crime in the same class. It's going to be hell. When they left class they told me it was soooooo boring because they didn't get to write anything. They're in second grade! The problem is that half their group can't read or write and these two can do everything. There is another girl who can read and write because her parents are British. I'm going to have to come up with activities to keep the crazies busy while I bring the other kids up to speed.

Limor's solution is to ditch the slower kids and send them back to regular English classes. She's on a bit of a rampage. I'm not sure I'll have any students left by the end of the week. One of our conversations today went like this:

Limor: Who did you see from alef (1st grade).

Me: A girl named Ohr from alef 2.

Limor: Who is she?

Me: You talked to her parents in the hallway about being in native speakers. The other morning (look at Limor questioningly).

Limor: How does she compare?

Me: Well she's in class with the 2nd grade Belgian girl who went to the English school in France, so Ohr was a bit behind.

Limor: Oh, kick her out of native speakers. Why was she there anyway?

Me: I don't know. You talked to her parents.

Limor: They're Israeli? What did they say?

Me: I don't know. You talked to them the other day.

Limor: But they're not from an English-speaking country. Why is she in native speakers?

Me: I don't know. You talked to her parents and told me to take her.

Limor: Good, get her out of your class.

(The poor little girl is only five years old. She will be pretty confused.)

I also have to kick out a 6th grader, a 3rd grader and a few 2nd graders.

Limor also had me write a letter to the parents of the native speakers. She actually wrote the thing (or tried to) in English, but she's not too good with a computer. So, I polished it and printed it up. Basically it explains that I'm here to teach their kids English, they have to get their kids a binder for my classes and there will eventually be a book to purchase. It also announces my after school English club, for which I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. (The letter says I'll be doing fun and games!)

Yesterday, my principal

wore converse sneakers to school. Seriously. White. Low-tops.

My Day at School

Here's how some of my conversations at school went:

Limor: You need to build your schedule. Talk to the first grade teachers and figure out when you can take their kids out for English. Also, take third grade out from music because it doesn't really matter that much. Okay? Go, do that.

Tzipi (principal): I've finished the master schedule for the school. You and I should sit down with Limor and figure out your schedule. You can't take kids out from music! We should sit down at 12 with Limor.

Limor: Tzipi wants to talk to us? Shouldn't you be in a class now? Have you picked a book?

Me: No, Limor, I haven't even met half the kids yet.

Limor: Well, you need to pick a book. The sooner, the better. But you can't pick a book until after the holidays. But you should pick a book now.

Me: I want to meet the kids first.

Limor: Okay, just pick a book quickly.

later on.....

Tzipi: I think we should start an English club after school.

Me: Okay, that sounds fine. I could play games, show movies and do fun projects. What are your goals for this club?

Tzipi: Goals? I don't know, but you should write a letter to the parents explaining what you are doing.

Me: Umm, okay....(thinking - what????? In what language and I supposed to write this letter - hello?? I don't speak Hebrew).

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I have a schedule. It involves me teaching 5th grade and running the English club for first and second grade at the same time, which probably won't work, but we'll deal with that later.

Yogurt in Tel Aviv

Frozen Yogurt here is amazing. I went to a place on Ben Yehuda and Gordon. The shop actually had swings hanging from the ceiling for customers to sit in. The yogurt was natural flavor - like that of 40 Carrots - although, Joe, I swear this was better. You could then add nearly as many toppings as your heart desired. The limit is basically the cup - once it's full, it's full. After that you can add sauces: whiskey, hazelnut, rose petal, honey, honey/date, maple syrup, and a few berry flavors.

To mine I added: craisins, raisins, coconut, cantaloupe, banana, honey and maple syrup. Sam got a totally different assortment of fruits, nuts, granola and sauces.

We both agreed we'll definitely be going back.

First Shabbat in the New Apartment

Fridays are insane here in Tel Aviv. 1/2 the city has the day off from work and the other half is working in the shops and restaurants that are open until Shabbat begins, which has been around 6:30 the past few weeks.

Yesterday, I went to the big market to buy some fruits and veggies for the week and stuff to prepare dinner for Lindsay and I. We had invited other people, but they were going to family things. I made roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes as well as my version of Cafenetto's Arabic Salad (tomato, cucumber, lemon, mint, coriander, and parsley).

First, I went to Dizzengoff to buy a pan for the veggies and other items. I was on the hunt for xanthum gum because I'm going to attempt to make wheat free challah. I went to the huge grocery store there. The lines were insane. I only had two items, but there were easily 30 people on the express lines. I went to a regular line and got behind a woman who had already started checking out. She was having her stuff delivered, so the checkout woman had to bag and box it all according to refrigeration needs. The shopper, who was a little older, was completely useless and just stood there watching. No one helped bag and the woman behind me was complaining about how useless the rest of the staff was. It took nearly 15 minutes to ring up the 1000 shekels ($250US) grocery order. I wasn't so angered by that because I was amazed at how much stuff this woman was buying.

Next I went to the outdoor market where I bought fruits and veggies for the week. I also got tons of fresh herbs and a 5 kilo bag of rice!

Our dinner was delicious, but I think next week I'll try to make the challah. Instead of xanthum gum, I think I can use gelatin. Alternatively, I might be able to order the gum online. I've already found the flours I need. Those are available around the corner at the Natural Market. I go there everyday and drive the women nuts. I ask questions and most of the time they tell me they don't speak English. So, instead I have them read soy yogurt labels to ensure they're wheat-free. I was able to communicate tapioca starch - it's the same word in Hebrew! Next time I'm going in there with a better prepared list (in Hebrew) because they don't get good wifi and I can't translate while in the store.