Hello from the Clinica Abreu

Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm in the Clinica Abreu--the private hospital used by the Peace Corps--visiting my friend Karina, who had her appendix out on Thursday. She's doing better, but still in kind of rough shape, pobrecita. But she's got a gaggle of us keeping her company now. We're all pretty comfortable as visitors--she has a private, air conditioned room.

Right now we're watching Pretty Woman (in English!) on TV and waiting for the doctors to bring Karina a painkiller and for Stephanie to bring Chinese takeout to the rest of us (she's still on a liquid diet).

A quick note on health care for PCVs--we're very well taken care of, with 2 excellent doctors who are always on call for us, and PC sends us to the Clinica Abreu, which is a very good facility (unlike most Dominican public facilities).

Anyway, other than my impromptu trip to the capital, my other big excitement has been that I found a house in my town!! I can move out of my host family's house on August 1st, and I can't wait. They've been very nice to me, but I've been living with strange families for 5 months now and I'm really looking forward to having some privacy again. Not to mention little things like not waking up to 5 dogs barking and being able to make my own food. I can tell you I will definitely make myself fewer rice and beans than I'm currently receiving.

My new house is lovely and I'm very happy about it. It's big--too big, really, with 3 bedrooms for just me!--and has a nice, fenced in backyard, with a chicken coop, a mango tree, a guava tree, and an orange tree. It has a tinaco (a backup water tank system) so I won't be affected when the running water cuts out. And it's in the Barrio de los Profesores (Teachers' Neighborhood), so I live close to most of the teachers at my school, and just 3 blocks from my school.

The only downside is that it's too big and a little more expensive than I was hoping for, but I didn't have much choice. This was actually the only house I've been able to find in my search, and I really didn't want to spend any more time with my host family than I had to. (Again, not that I don't like them... just that I'm ready to live on my own. So ready.)