My two year placement, as I've mentioned, is in Moca, Espaillat. It's a regional hub less than half an hour east of Santiago in the fertile farming region known as the Cibao. Moca is known for its high-quality bananas anc produces more eggs than any other city in the country. Though less remote and larger, it is similar in character to Santa Cruz del Quiche. Just outside of town to the north lie the smaller communities of Juan Lopez and Las Lagunas, both of which host a Peace Corps Volunteer, repectively. Another ten minutes north brings you to San Victor, home to two more volunteers. Three more volunteers can be found up in the Septentrionales another half hour or so north in Los Bueyes and Palma Herrada where I had my volunteer visit.
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| View from the hospital roof facing northeast into town |
My new host family is precious. The patriarch, Don Flor, is 81. He once lived in Boston for 3 years. He and my host mother, Doña Antonia, have nine grown children. One lives in Miami and used to play in a rock and roll band called Los Dedos (The Fingers). Flor and Antonia have a daughter who still lives at home and does housework and a son, Cheche, who drives a taxi downtown and shares the upstairs with me. Hilary, widow to another of their sons, lives in the house as well with her nine-year-old daughter Merelis. Their house is on the far end of a quiet loop in a quiet part of Villa Carolina, one of Moca's nicer neighborhoods. The Scouts clubhouse where I work is right next door.
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| Alvaro addresses the scouts at the clubhouse |
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