Se Fue La Luz

Fun fact of the day: Se fue la luz, literally translates to "the light left" and llego la luz translates to "the light came."

Electricity is not a constant source of power here in the D.R. The electricity comes and goes throughout the day and night. I'm not able to follow the schedule of when the electricity comes and goes; our host family claims there is a schedule. There's usually no light in the bathroom in the morning when I go to take a shower, at night I can't turn the t.v. on (my family has cable t.v. and cell phones) and I haven't used my electric razor yet. Darn. (read sarcasm). We brought a power strip with us and are able to charge the computer, ipod and mini portable stereo throughout the day without blowing the circuits (Our luxuries from the US) . So we really are able to have access to some of the comforts we were not fully expecting during our Peace Corps Service. Although, this is the training portion of the Peace Corps, it appears that our two year here will likely be filled with many of the comforts available in the US, with a few blips along the way. Most Dominicans have refrigerators too!

None of these things really bother me too much. I mean, we have cable t.v. and I got to watch the first half of the Colts game on Monday (It was a replay on ESPN DEPORTES during my lunch hour and I got the first half in before, guess what, se fue la luz). We weren't really expecting to have t.v., we don't even have cable television in the states, so watching anything right now is all about making our Spanish better. Yes, I watched the colts game with dubbed spanish commentators!

As for when the electricity is gone, our family in Santo Domingo had an inversor (basically it's a backup power system of batteries that charge when there is electricity) which allowed the lights and the fans to work throughout the evening hours...We don't need a fan here in Constanza since the temperatures are "uber" cool throughout the evening hours. However, I don't think we'd be able to sleep in Santo Domingo without the fan.

The Dominicans which we have lived with here, for the most part, live fairly comfortable lives. The Peace Corps training team has mentioned that they are easing us into the life of Dominicans. I think Phoebe and I have scored quite awesome living situations, wonderful people to help us with our language acquisition and excellent food at every meal.