The Neighbors

This article should have been written a while ago but I decided to do it now, which is later…

Back in February I moved into the Barbie House. I don’t know if I mentioned that I was moving next door to a widow, Antonia, her youngest daughter, Giselle, and her grandson, Jean Carlos (tenderly known as Yankee). Well, I am dedicating this article about them because they have helped me tremendously since I have moved in.

Antonia has been the most caring person I have met in my community. There are days were I wake up and I do not care to move from my bed. If I don’t appear out of my house by 10 am, she pokes her head in the door to make sure I am all right. I pretty much consider her my second mother here (Mom you will always be Mommy). When I was having issues with my stomach, which later turned out to be a set of parasites and lactose-intolerance, she would make me teas and juices of all sorts to take away the pain.

When I do my laundry and I walk away to do something on my computer, she’ll step in and, if I don’t interrupt, she’d finish it. Now, I am not abusing her. I constantly tell Antonia to stop doing so much and that taking care of one house is quite a lot of work for her. However, she always keeps helping me.

When I moved in, she would make me food all the time!! Let me tell you, I really do suck at cooking and in the middle of summer here, the last thing I want to be doing is standing in my hot kitchen cooking. So I decided that I would take advantage of her need to cook for me and just pay her, that way I don’t feel so bad.

Lastly, she’s always the first one in my house if I find a frog, toad, scorpion, rat, mouse, tarantula, etc… and she always knows it one of those if I begin to scream at the top of my lungs.

Giselle is the girlfriend I joke around with. We watch TV shows together, we paint our nails together, and I help her with her university homework. I always ask her advice about work or general cultural questions. What’s really refreshing is that she doesn’t poke her nose in my business. If I feel like talking about something I’ll ask her about it but she’ll never ask me.

The really impressive thing about Giselle is that she works Monday – Friday from 8:30 to 4pm and then has an hour commute to get to school come rain or shine until 10pm. This semester she doesn’t have Saturday classes but the last two semesters she would get up at the crack of dawn and be in class by 8am. On top of that, her paycheck goes to support her, Antonia, and Yankee. I wish there was a scholarship for her cause she’s a super hard worker.

Jean Carlos, Yankee, Antonia’s grandson is super fun. He loves animals and always plays with my dog Diana. Antonia and I always scream for Yankee when we find a frog, toad, scorpion, tarantula, rat, mouse, etc… Since he is the only “man” between the two houses he’s always thrilled to come to the rescue. By the way, he’s 11 years old. Yankee is extremely intelligent though at one point his grades didn’t reflect it. One of Yankee’s passions is obviously, baseball. Since Yankee lacked the motivation to study I decided that I should help him find the motivation. I made a deal with Yankee that if his next set of grades where straight A’s I would buy him baseball supplies (they are really expensive here in the DR cause it’s all imported). So far he has a glove and I think he’s going to ask for a baseball bat this Christmas.

If anyone would like to help me cover the costs I wouldn’t mind as well cause they are super expensive on my Peace Corps salary! ;)

Now, for all you that think I am completely taking them for granted, I’m not… I give back!

There are a lot of energy black outs cause the electricity companies suck here so I helped them buy an “Inversor” (its basically huge car-like batteries with a charger) so that we could all keep the lights on and watch TV whenever the power was out. It helps Giselle a ton cause she had to do her homework by candlelight when the energy was out and Antonia can listen to music or Catholic sermons while she does housework. I helped them finish a bathroom that they were building with an overhead shower (it still only cold water). We had all been using a latrine before and that just sucks cause there were always cockroaches.

Now I decided that I was going to make up a Christmas list for them and if you would like to contribute I know that they would really appreciate it:

1. I want to build Antonia a simple functional kitchen with running water, very similar to mine (refer to my Barbie house pictures). She doesn’t have a sink or running water in her house. The kitchen would cost around $100 USD depending on the market.
2. Laptop for Giselle (used or new) for her studies.
3. Baseball supplies for Yankee. I think it costs $50 USD.
4. Bicycle (Pink) for Amy (she’s another neighbor that helps me when I clean my house). I haven’t investigated the price actually.
5. Crystal/Glass baking pan for Antonia. This costs around $30.

If you would like to contribute in some way please email me at Nicholesalinger@gmail.com. If you would like to buy a laptop or baseball supplies, my parents are visiting on December 19 so make sure you get it to them by that week so they can pack accordingly.

Thank you for all the kind words about my blog and my recent engagement!