Bull Fights and More

Today I saw a bullfight. No, not a normal bullfight with matadors and a stadium and such, but two bulls actually fighting. The downfall was that it was not spontaneous; it is an arranged event here where I live where people put their bulls up against others’ bulls in a huge soccer field and everyone surrounds the bulls until they fight (which apparently is inevitable with time). There is definitely a certain appeal to it, but my better nature wins out and I feel overall that it is an event that is a little cruel since it has nothing to do with the will of the animal and is simply for the pleasure of watching and betting. Although, I feel that it is not the worst thing since neither of the bulls ever seems to get hurt. I was glad that I went overall to get a firsthand glimpse at this cultural event and decide for myself what I thought of it. It was interesting because the scenery was gorgeous. A huge soccer field surrounded by steep, green mountains covered by clouds and hills filled with campo Peruvians and their gigantic hats watching from each opportune vista. These bulls were huge, which is surprising considering the lack of food that the Peruvians who raise them endure.

After getting over a brief sickness, things seem to be looking okay. I think I finally made it through a rough spell of a stomach bacterial infection that lasted about 4 days. Unfortunately, this was coupled with a really difficult night of the flu which amplified the discomfort (engineering word usage for you, Scott and Kelly). Getting sick REALLY SUCKS when you live alone –hope you don’t read this mom-, but Sasha and her family were close by and Sasha checked on me that night to make sure I wasn’t dead. Jay Kay. I’m fine, it was just a hard night. I am really happy that I didn’t quite resort to taking CIPRO.

On a lighter note, my house is pretty awesome. I have a two-room place with more space that I need for the little that I have. The first room from the street I am using for storage and my future kitchen where I will put my gas stove when I buy it. The second room is a little smaller and long which I use as my bedroom where my bed is and my clothes. I have a sweet door near my bed that opens up to a scenic view of a creek and the mountains in back. I am stoked because I love to have space and spread out.
I have a unique case as a volunteer in Peru where I am actually kinda renting from a family rather than having a host family. The Peace Corps in Peru uses host families in almost all cases for many reasons. First of all, it provides safety to be located within a family structure as the family provides protection for the volunteer. Also it helps the volunteer integrate into the culture through becoming part of a Peruvian family and also creates more opportunity to meet others through the family. Therefore, there are definite ups and downs to having my own place, but realizing the downsides helps me to understand the initiatives that I must take to achieve the same benefits. For example, I am currently eating with the host family of Sasha, and am therefore a pseudo-host member of their family as well where I can integrate with them, speak Spanish with them, but go home when I need some freedom. I feel like I get the best of both worlds, but I try not to make things too easy for myself. So like I was saying… my house is super nice and spacious and has an awesome view… but my bathroom and shower situation is not ideal. It is by no meals terrible, but more difficult than I would like. There is a shower and toilet facility behind my house near the river that I can see out my back door near my bed. The toilet now has a door, which is awesome, but the water in the shower doesn’t work and needs a curtain to the outside (actually has a curtain with a big hole). The hard part of the situation is that I have a door in back, but it is located on the 2nd floor and lacks a staircase. So the door is more like a window. To use the bathroom, I go out my front door, walk down the street a bit, unlock another door to an alleyway, walk down the alleyway and through a borage of rosters, hens, etc., and a garden to use the bathroom which until yesterday, I didn’t know how to flush (I know… I know). The flushing is another story, but the jest of it is that it lacked a handle to flush, but the top was open, therefore I knew I just open up the chamber to allow for flow. The problem was that there was no device that I could see outside of the water in the tank to make the chamber open, and with no light and knowledge of super-dirty water in the tank, I thought ‘No way do they stick their hands in the water every time to flush’… but yeah… I found out that is what needs to happen. Luckily the landlord caught the idea of my problem and attached a string to the chamber opening in the water, so now we don’t have to stick our hands in the water. Sorry for the long description, but it could have been worse by incorporating the logistics of when there was not water for a couple days. Oh yeah… and also my sickness and semi-frequent visits to the bathroom with no knowledge of how to flush the toilet is another story not appropriate for blogs.
Another story includes my first ‘bath’ since I got here to Santo Domingo. Considering the aforementioned shower situation, I decided it would be most easy and overall less cold and awkward to try and use wash clothes with water in plastic buckets to bath myself inside my house. I don’t think this was necessarily a bad idea, but it definitely lacked thought. It was a bit of a mess, and took around 1 hour to prepare, wash, and clean up, but I learned a lot from it and laughed a little about how weird it was. I realize that since I will most likely go into the city every 2 or 3 weekends or so, I will bath every 5 – 7 days (on average), and will only have to bath like ~3 times a month, which I think I can do as long as I don’t get too dirty. We’ll see how this works out.
Well these are my recent thoughts. My overall humor lately since coming out of my sickness is pretty good and optimistic. I met a lot of people today and am feeling more and more integrated. I know there are rough days ahead and days where I don’t feel like being social but should be anyways. Right now I am very satisfied with the situation and am amazed at the beauty of the land that I get to call home for the next two years. Don’t be surprised if my next blog sounds totally opposite.