Artisan Work

So my recent Peace Corps effort is finding a larger market to sell my Association's products.  I just recently began updating pictures to picassa http://picasaweb.google.com/kconnorsdrv, so check it out!  Also, I have been trying to research free trade organizations, and trying to find access to international markets.  If anyone has any insight into connecting with international buyers or becoming free trade certified or of any good free trade associations please let me know!  More updates about my efforts to come.   

Paint by Numbers

So right now, I’m sitting in one crazy regero (mess).  My apartment has been in the process of being painted for the last week and a half, and I am hoping all the fumes are not doing any permanent damage.  Like the UV rays I have been absorbing, I won’t worry about these effects until the rear their heads in the future where I am sure with our great medical advancements, there will be cures for everything! 

 

So, back to painting as anyone whom has gone through it, you know it’s a process packing up all your things, having strangers in your house, not being able to get to your things.  Take all that trouble times it by a million and add some crazy and that’s what I have been going through here!  First, let me explain… this painting was not my idea.  The owner of my apartment is visiting from Puerto Rico (I still have not met this mystery man), and he decided he wanted to do some improvements meaning paint the whole house!  The first day his sons arrive and paint for a good 45 minutes until they decide that it wasn’t so fun painting in the insane heat that is the summer on a subtropical island (I don’t blame them, what kind of vacation is that?).  So then we are painterless for a few days, so I have some smattering of paint to admire.  Then of course the day I head to the capital for a meeting is the day some people were hired to paint the base for the apartment.  I do not call them painters, because they were not, they must have been some guys with nothing to do that were found on the street.  I come home from the capital, to find o yes the painters had come, and they had moved all my things in the most complicated and inconvenient way possible, putting most of my clothes and necessary items in a room, and then blocking it with my table filled with papers and binders, and other miscellaneous items, so I could not reach anything.  Furthermore, it seemed as if monkeys and entered my house and thrown paint around the apartment.  Literally, everything has white base paint on in now.  I have a matching set of paint splattered dishes, silverware, cups, mugs, shoes, tables, doors, tile.  Even my paintings now have extra paint on them!  I like to match, but this is a little ridiculous.  To top it off, there are beer bottles all over, and they had been using my only nice big knife to file down paint! 

Luckily, today arrived an actual professional painter with just his son.  They are painting over the splatter, with a very pretty yellow cream color.  But, things are even messier now!  Hopefully, tomorrow this delightful paint adventure will end, and I will upload pictures of my new painted house!  Hopefully, the pain will be worth it!

In other news, a pool was just built at the discotecha (club) near my house.  This last Sunday, Rachele and I ventured to the pool party, as it cannot be described any other way.  The pool is actually two pools and a Jacuzzi, fully equipped with a swim up bar with underwater bar stools!  And both of us being rubias (blondes), you know that means free drinks always!  There is also a restaurant, but we snuck in some snacks because we’re poor.  So, this pool is not a quiet lay out and relax pool. There was techno music pumping, and I danced merengue a few times in the pool (Once someone even cut in!)  Around 6 the first band arrived, Krispie, which is a merengue tipico band… I think my favorite Dominican genre of music, mainly because this type of music includes the accordion!  Rachele and I watched the first band from the Jacuzzi, mainly because we were too afraid of being cold and getting out of the water… I don’t know how I’m going to manage Christmas back home.  We used all our bravery and left the Jacuzzi for the second band and danced up by the stage!  These bands all have professional male dancers, whom twirl around and dance with quick succinct steps.  It is incredibly contagious and no matter who you are, you cannot watch and not want to dance with them!   

Fast Forward... its been two weeks and they are still painting!

First, I apologize for the lack of posts so far.  This month has been quite busy to say the least.  My first week I was in the capital for my follow-up language training.  Then I had a lovely visit for a week and a half with my family.  And I just returned yesterday, from an Artisan Fair in the East of the Country (an 8 hour trip if the bus hadn't broke down for 2 hours on the side of the highway, and the driver abandoned us).  

So needless to say, I feel like I have been running around the country.  I am about to leave on Friday, to head down to the South for a 4th of July Celebration.   Myself and 14 other volunteers are trecking out to a desserted and protected to beach on the south west tip of the country.  I have heard that there is little nothing there, so we are coming in the day before to get all food and supplies (toilet paper), before we go.  The beach though, is supposedly breath-taking, and I will surely post- pictures afterwards.

Traveling around has been fun, but I am really looking forward to settle- down in my site for awhile after the fourth of July trip.  This week, I finished my last class of the Youth business course that I have been teaching, and tomorrow I will be having a review and party for the class.  Today, I am in the city to buy materials to make a 4th of July themed cake.  I decided I would make the fiesta also fourth of July themed, to provide some cultural interchange for the kids.  Pretty soon, I will be working with this class to help them write their own business plans, for businesses they want to start in the community.  We are still working on opening our library, I plan on doing some digging tomorrow to help level the land before my class.  I am also working on a Marketing Strategy for my artisans, so I am currently researching Fair Trade Associations to evaluate if this would help us gain more access to markets.  So that is it for now, because the internet is about to turn off.  I will write a more interesting post soon!