Guest Post: DR & El Sal Musings

Blog posts are a little weird to me because, unlike essays or short stories or reviews or restaurant menus, they don’t really have a point. The only point is: Hi, I’m Rachel’s sister, and this is my life.

 I dropped $2000 or so on plane tickets and flew out last month to meet my favorite (read: only) sister and our friend Katy in the Dominican Republic. I spent almost all of last semester working on minimum wage to save up money for the vacation. My funds were occasionally dipped into for things like Chipotle sprees, but the saving was worth it. 

It was a fantastic week. Dominican beaches look like postcards or beer commercials: white sand, clear blue water, palm trees, pretty tropical fish, attractive people. We went snorkeling and built sand castles on the beach (Rachel watched and did not participate, because she claims she is not a child, even though Katy and I built a truly amazing sand-Mordor). We went horseback riding out to some equally postcard-worthy waterfalls. We hiked up to other waterfalls and got to slide all the way back down. We went to the Amber Museum that provided the amber piece in Jurassic Park. It was all spectacular. 

I also spent about a quarter of my time there terrified, because Dominican public transportation was one of the scariest experiences of my life. We took the guagua, which works like a public bus but is actually a ten-person van. We crammed nineteen people in there and careened around 2-lane mountain roads at 75mph. One of the guys on it kept getting out to buy more beer, and he came back from one stop with chicken for everyone (it was probably the best chicken I have ever had) and rum for the driver. We did not die, but I appreciate US traffic laws so much more now. The DR was still definitely worth the trip and the driving, and I was sad to leave. 

I have been in El Salvador with Rachel for a month now. It’s been long enough that I don’t actually remember if it is anything like I expected or not, although I do know that my imagination did not do the bugs here justice. I have used more anti-itch cream in the last 25 days than I have in my entire life. Dengue must have turned Rachel’s blood toxic because nothing bothers her, but I am a walking buffet for all the mosquitos, spiders, and ants within a hundred yards of me. If you know of any organization that raises money to set up mosquito nets in third world countries, look up that organization and donate to it right now, because they really do make a huge difference.  

‘World’s highest murder rate’ is not exactly a slogan for a great tourist adventure, so I was a little nervous before I came here. But I think now that El Salvador is an underrated country. It’s incredibly beautiful and extremely cheap. The most threatened I’ve felt was by the scorpion lurking on Rachel’s wall. (She assures me that they aren’t deadly here, but I do not take chances with demon creatures). It’s sad that people don’t want to come here, because it’s a great place to be, especially without being overrun by tourists.

Rachel took me around the country for the first week, which was fun and enlightening. I got to meet her training host family (and eat their excellent food). We went to visit her old boss at the Tamarindo Foundation. We went with the women’s group from there to a yoga retreat at the beach, which involved lentil soup, chasing crabs, and no yoga at all. I wish we had been able to spend more time at the Tamarindo because a) John is awesome and b) they’re clearly doing a ton of work and I wish I could see what all is going on, because I could learn a lot there. 

We went to the 4^th of July Peace Corps party at another beach a few weeks later. All I can say is that Peace Corps parties hard. It was a great group of people, and I wish I could have spent some more time with all of them, too, except that I might have dropped dead of exhaustion. 

I got to spend a few days at another volunteer’s site, as well. It was interesting to see another community, and how it was different from and similar to Rachel’s. It was still rural, but much more accessible than Rachel’s, right along the main road and close to town, with wifi and a big hotel. I also got to see the war museum in town. It’s weird to me that I had never even heard of the Salvadoran civil war before coming here, especially since the US had a big role in it. It made me realize that I actually don’t really know any Latin American history; it was never taught in school, besides incidents with Cuba. Latin America is right there, and the US has a huge population of Latino immigrants. That seems like a pretty big gap in my education. In any case, I learned a lot at the museum, although I am certainly not an expert and any questions should not be directed at me. 

Otherwise, it has been a pretty lazy vacation for me. I’ve just been hanging around at Rachel’s site, not actually doing much. It’s mostly too hot to do much. I like her host family a lot, even though it is really hard for me to understand or speak to them. My Spanish is clearly not as good as I thought it was, even after a month here. I tag along to whatever Rachel happens to be doing that day: baseball or English class or bracelet making or swimming in the river. Otherwise, I read. I have read 22 books in under four weeks, which is more than I read my entire freshman year. I feel weirdly like I should be studying, but there is nothing to study and nowhere to go and no internet, so I hang out with my Kindle and avoid the spiders. I like it. 

I think it will be kind of weird to go back to the US. I love Spanish and it’s great practice for me to be here, but I think English will be a bit of a relief, too. Also, I can contemplate whether I would like to do Peace Corps at some point, too, without being too concerned about the living situation aspect of it. It’s nice to know that I can live without internet and plumbing and Oreos. And it’s nice to know that my sister is being awesome and confident and competent as always, so I don’t have to worry about her all alone here in the wilderness (which she really isn’t anyways. But it’s good to know). 

It’s pretty great here, overall. That in itself is actually a bit weird, because I don’t like bugs/humidity/heat/no paved roads, but I do like being here. The people are nice and the kids are fun and it’s relaxing. Mostly, I think I’ll miss the hammocks. Stationary furniture, how have I put up with you for so long?