An American Girl in the Dominican Republic: Showering in the Dark

March 18, 2013

Showering in the Dark

One day last week I came home from training to find no one home. "How wonderful! I have the house to myself. Let me take a shower and enjoy the solitude." I thought is was going to be a great night. I was wrong. As soon as I put shampoo in my hair the power went out. The bathroom became so dark that I couldn't see the floor, nonetheless I continued with my shower. Side note, my family has a backup generator to circumvent the almost daily power outages but it must be manually turned on, which I do not know how to do. Now back to the story, only a few minutes after the power went out my host family starts knocking on the door. I ignore them assuming they have their keys. When I get out of the bathroom I realize they are still outside; they had all forgotten their keys! I try to open the front door in the pitch blackness of the house but the door won't open. I hand my keys through a window to my brothers who try to open the door from the outside under the glow of a cellphone. They can't get it opened either. They hands the keys back to me and I go to the backdoor and, thankfully, I am able to let everyone inside. My brothers then unjammed the front door, my dad turned on the generator, and everything returned to normal.

I keep encountering unexpected situations like the one above here in the DR. I have seen the largest avocado of my life, it was nearly the size of a dinner plate. I have petted the dog my host grandfather keeps on the roof of his house. I have watched my host family freak out during the D.R. - U.S. baseball game; the U.S. lost, I was hugged, and my host mom apologized to me for her happiness about the outcome. Everything here has been so much fun and surprising, I cannot believe I have been here less than two weeks.

I finally was able to upload my photos onto my computer, enjoy!