Catch-Up!

It's been nearly two weeks since I last posted. I can't believe it! There are so many things I want to share - be prepared for a long post.

So I'll start where I left off: The baby is born! His name is Gerald Enmanuel Rosario Pina, but he goes by Enmanuel. He weighed 9 and 1/4 pounds at birth and is a long baby with chubby cheeks and a lot of dark hair. He'll be two weeks old tomorrow, and I just got the chance to take pictures today. (He sleeps ALL the time!) I call this series: Enmanuel Wakes





Notice the single raised eyebrow in that last shot. This baby is suave.

As an added bonus to Enmanuel's birth, Grandma came to stay last week. Grandma is a riot. She comes up to about my shoulder and loves to talk. Grandma taught me the next step in my cross-stitching embroidery. She monitored my evening shower schedule so I would not get la gripe, a general term for colds/respiratory infections. (FYI: Contrary to popular belief, la gripe is caused by germs, not by getting wet.) Grandma force-fed me all week, which was fine with me, though I had to be especially stealthy to avoid the chicken feet in the soup during second and third servings. And now Grandma has invited me to come stay at her house some weekend. Looking forward to it!

At the end of last week, I took two days to do a little sight-seeing with missionaries one town over. We went to La Romana and saw the caves with indigenous drawings, an Italian-style village built by a very rich man for his wife, and spent a day at a beautiful beach in an exclusive, gated community. Being in such beautiful, exclusive places was a little bit of culture shock after the work I do here in San Pedro. I call this series: Wow Is this Different from Villa Faro or What?




But perhaps my favorite part of the trip was trying to get out of the gated community. We made several turns, and were a little uncertain of how to find the exit. So when we found a guard at an intersection, our driver (one of the missionaries from one town over) rolled down the window to ask. "Exito? Exito! Exito?!" she yelled out the window, trying to get a quick point in the right direction and not block traffic. As it turns out, exito means "success" in Spanish. So here's this car-load of Americans frantically yelling "Success?!" out a car window while a puzzled guard looks on. Hahahaha. Finally, the guard figured out what we wanted, provided the correct word ('salida') and directed us out. I laughed pretty hard for a while.

As soon as I got back from that trip, I went to the capital to see my Dad, who was here for a meeting. I took two HOT showers within twelve hours! And he brought Christmas music, pumpkin pie filling, advent calendars... true "necessities". Haha.

Everybody thought we looked exactly alike (a little scary for me.) What do you think?

He left last Tuesday, and so it was back to the clinic for a very busy few days. We have finally raised enough money to get started on the new roof! (We have about 2/3 of the estimated total cost - which has taken years to get - so we're starting with what we have.) The first phase of this project, and what we attacked this week, is cleaning out the unusable upstairs, where we've been storing medicine, equipment, and other stuff. The upstairs is dangerously filled with bat/rat droppings, so everyone has to wear a mask to avoid getting sick. I call this series: Evidence as to Our Dire Need for a New Roof





And then all of a sudden it was Thanksgiving! After a necessary international call to my mother with some questions, I successfully baked three pumpkin pies (one for the family, one for a Tday meal with Americans, and one for the office)! I got a variety of responses to them, though my favorites are as follows: The fourteen-year-old in my family took one bite and said, "This might be my new favorite pastry!" (There's no word for 'pie' here, so we use 'pastry'.) Then, after tasting the pie, two women I work with independently said, "You may get married." Apparently, that's a very high compliment indicating that my cooking is good enough that I can marry and run my own household. (Phew - What a relief! Heehee.)

Since then, I've been snacking on left-over pie, organizing a Health Promoters training on women's health, investigating merengue dance classes, trying to teach English to Enmanuel, and moving furniture in the clinic. I am avoiding cleaning my room as we speak. To close, I'll leave you with my Lost-in-Translation moment for the weekend: The Spanish words for 'piece' (pedaso) and for 'sin' (pecado) are very similar, and I often confuse them. Yesterday, Claribel asked me if I'd like any ice in my glass, and I said, "Yes, I'd like two or three sins please." Whoops....

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone! Have a wonderful last week of November!