Rhianna Banana

TV star!

Last week, my friend Megan and I became local TV stars! Megan has been working with a group of blind people in Santo Domingo. The municipal office had decided to give the group some land to build a center where they could hold classes and other activities. The group had planned a little event for the day they were supposed to be given the land. They were going to build a fence to mark off the perimeter and maybe do some other work. Megan invited me to attend, so I showed up, ready to work!

However, things didn’t go according to plan. The land that the city wanted to donate is occupied by a squatter/invader (I don’t know what the correct term is, sorry!) who didn’t want to leave. This family has no written title to the land, but had been living on it for awhile now, which under Ecuadorian law, gives them some right over it. Even though the city had told them two weeks ago that they would need to relocate before the groundbreaking day, they still had not left. So, the leaders for the blind group and the city officials talked with the family for quite some time to resolve the situation. Finally, the city decided to give the family another piece of property in town and gave them another 2 weeks to move, along with a promise of help moving.

Then our work began, though we couldn’t do too much. We did unload a truckload of wood for the fence. I joined the line of people passing the wood from the truck to the lot, and that is when the local tv channel showed up. The camera guy stood right in front of me, so according to Megan, there was a shot of the two of us giggling and smiling and passing the wood. I didn’t actually see the report, but I hope I looked like a hard working Peace Corps volunteer! Megan was interviewed, and she did a great job. Her host family said her Spanish was flawless, and they couldn’t even tell that she was a gringa.

The next day, I went to my friend Miles’ site for his town’s fiestas. I could only stay one day because I had to be back at my site for my Saturday kids’ club. So we tried to pack in a lot of stuff! That night, we had a dance exchange with some of the girls in his site. Katie and Ariana, 12 and 11, love dancing and apparently spend their free time making up dances and then performing them. This is exactly how Sasha and I used to spend our weekends when we were kids. We would make up dances to an entire album, like George Michael’s Faith, and then we would perform them for our family. The girls were a little shy at first, so Miles told them we’d do the Thriller dance for them. We put on the video, and I have to admit, I really need to practice more because I didn’t do a very good job. I know I will never be as good as those Filipino prisoners! Then we tried to do the dances from Black or White. Again, not very successfully, but by making an ass out of myself, the girls felt more comfortable around me. Then the girls finally showed us one of their reggaeton dances (to the song Fanatico) and made Miles and I do it with them. That was pretty fun. After that, we moved on to High School Musical. I really don’t like that movie, but Miles and the girls are big fans. Now those stupid songs are stuck in my head! The girls knew all the moves to Bop to the Top and We're All in This Together, and again, insisted that I do the dances with them. I didn’t do too horribly, considering this was my first time. This reminded me of when I watched Dirty Dancing with Cassie when she was a kid. She made me dance with her during all the dance scenes in the movie, and then when the movie was over, we had to listen to the soundtrack and dance again! Of course, I am always happy to oblige to such requests =)

The next morning, Miles told me he was getting up at 5 am to go jogging with some of the boys in his town. I agreed, though I knew I would be pretty grumpy in the morning (as I always am). We had a pretty good turnout, about 10 kids. I haven’t jogged in over a year, but I was able to keep up with them. Admittedly, we weren’t working too hard. I had forgot how much I enjoy running, and I am looking forward to running with Pierre again when I am in the states. We jogged 3km to the nearest major road and then back to town. On the way back, some of the kids cheated by jumping in the back of passing trucks or hopping on buses. Wily little buggers!

Yesterday we had a little holiday party with just the Santo Domingo volunteers: Trent, Megan, Lindsay and I. I tried to make stuffing for the party, and it was a disaster. But my friends were nice and said it was okay and ate it. It never actually became solid, so it was more like gravy. If anyone has a good stuffing recipe, let me know! But my Christmas cookies and egg nog were good. We had a Secret Santa exchange too. Our price limit was $6. I told some of my Ecuadorian friends that, and they thought it was hilarious. The stereotype here is that gringos are rich and Ecuadorians have less money. That is not necessarily true, however. Some of my Ecuadorian friends definitely have more money than me. I get about $9 a day, and all I have in the states is debt and more debt. (Although I do have a sugar daddy named Pierre.) Anyway, I was at my friend Sonia’s house and they had also gone to the mall that day to buy Christmas presents. Their presents were huge; monster trucks and dolls that cried and laughed and talked. I told them I also had gone to the mall that day to do my Christmas shopping, and I was only allowed to spend $6. Sonia’s mom said “Chiquita!” which means very little. So we got a good laugh out of that and then went back to watching our soap opera “Patito Feo”. (Patito Feo is my current favorite Spanish soap opera. It is kindof like Rebelde, though not as good. But still entertaining and funny.)

My secret santa was Trent. He gave me provolone cheese, because I love it and since it´s expensive here, I rarely ever buy it. He also gave me a giant guanabanana, which is one of my favorite fruits. It´s about the size of a pineapple, green on the outside, white on the inside, and so yummy. It won´t be ready to eat until Friday, so I can share it with Pierre when he gets here! I think this will be the only time in my life that I will receive a guanabanana as a Christmas present. I gave Lindsay a neck pillow, which are great for long bus rides, a box of Cap´n Crunch cereal, because she loves it, and a dvd of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, since she and I are big fans of the book series. After we ate all our delicious dishes, we watched the Sisterhood. Such a good movie! I felt like I was having Christmas at home, with the traditional dishes, a movie, loving friends around, and a Christmas gift exchange. =)

posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, December 18, 2007