Ever since Nathaniel left Noah, Thomas and I have been in charge of the water and household maintenance, including the toilets. The water is a constant challenge; our drinking water is deliver in 5 gallon jugs and all other water comes in the water truck. The water truck fills up a cistern, it costs 10 dollars for a truck. We have 4 cisterns. 3 on the ground- 1 collects rain water, 1 is filled up by the truck and the 3rd is connected to the pump and the 4th is on the roof. Apparently they were all once connect to the pump, but currently only one is. So the one that the truck fills up has to be drained in the tank connected to the pump. The pump then has to pump the water to the roof tank so that we have water pressure via gravity. It is the Dominican way, it seems to make things more complicated than necessary. It is also common for the pump not to work. Noah, Thomas and I spent over an hour working on fixing the pump today. A computer guy, chemical engineer and a nutrition major trying to be a plumber. But i feel useful and the knowledge is good to have since I will be here so long this summer.
The toilets are a whole other story- yuck! I have been so humbled by these things. Noah, Thomas and I have had to fix the toilets. Here in the DR one can not flush toilet paper down the toilet, so it is thrown away. Water is precious and expensive so we only flush well... we have a little rhyme "if it is yellow let is be mellow, if it is brown go on and flush it down." So any problem with the toilet is going to be horrifically disgusting. Hopefully a real plumber is coming soon because I have had to fix it at least once a day for the past 3 days- delightful. I just try to keep thinking that knowledge of toilets will be helpful in the future and my stomach has gotten a little stronger.
The boys are as incredible as ever. I worked with them on math a lot today. The tough thing about basic multiplication is it is just memorization. Sometimes they get frustrated, but nothing a few words of affirmation cannot cure.
We got kicked off the concha (basketball court) a couple of times because it is Haitians and gringos. Noah also paid to take us out to lunch yesterday and the restaurant staff was very racist and tried to pull some tricks- luck for us we have some strong willed volunteers. The boys get embarrassed about it but then just love it we, the gringos, stick it to the Dominicans. Not all Dominicans are racist though, we have met plenty of ones who work to help the Haitians. The little boys also stick up for us females when some guy makes a comment. For example, some guy asked Carrie to marry him, Amillio responded she doesn´t want to marry a Dominican she wants to marry a Haitian. We all loved it.
If feel like we are giant family, just with no common blood lines. It is heartwarming and makes up for the less than pleasant toilet adventures.
That´s all for now, love from the Dominican.
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