i've been meaning to post for a while, but things have been a little crazy. we spent last week (eight nights) in samana. i was completing a community health survey and milagros was seeing new patients. the trip there took longer than normal (9-10 hours). while there i stayed with a family the whole week. hector and i interviewed about 30-40 families about daily living and their knowledge about hiv/aids. i also spoke with a couple of health promotors, a teacher, and a guy that works with an italian ngo that's been working in that area for a while. i learned that when there's no rain, there's no water except for a natural well a little ways out. milagros called the well the work of God because the people would be in trouble if it wasn't there. i also learned a lot of people drink untreated rain water. the other interesting thing is the most common way to get rid of trash is to burn it. i started running in the country. also, th cool thing was this time of year, it's all the mangos you can eat. everywhere you go people offer you mangos and tell you to eat as many as you want. i helped feed pigs. i hung out. we spent a lot of time talking with my 14 year old friend trying to reinforce to her that she is too young to be married and that she should wait. i made friends with a female pastor there. she, milagros, and the woman of the family that i was staying with and i spent time walking and doing this latin dance exercise video. went to the beach a couple of times. saw another neighborhood further up that is without electricity. went to this smaller island thing. all in all a lot of stuff. we brought home one of the girls from there with us. she's 11 and getting to experience all kinds of firsts: shower, mcdonalds, shopping trips, movie theater, etc. it's really cool to be a part of, and she feels kind of like the little sister i never had. we got back tuesday midafternoon. wednesday after my spanish class we went into santo domingo to see neftali's father who was in the hospital. when we got there we found that he had died fifteen minutes before we got there. it was weird because we found out before the sisters knew and we had to sit with them for a little bit knowing that he had died but that they didn't know it yet. neftali has 12 brothers and sisters. later that night we went to the funeral home for the start of the funeral. around here funerals are 24 hour things. when we arrived around 8:30 there was a large group of people waiting. the body and the family arrived around 9 or 9:30 and it was really sad. i've never seen anything like it. the sisters were yelling and crying "ay ay no mi papi" a large crowd of people followed the casket into a small room. so for a while there was a small room full of people yelling and crying. i left shortly after this, but there were people until 12 or 1 last night. appearently if this would ahve been done at the house people would have stayed all night not sleeping. we went back this morning around 11 and there were again a group of people sitting around. we stayed for an hour or two and i gave condolences to neftali's mother and sister and viewed the body. at one point the room began singing a hymn...then i heard neftali's sister and a few others screaming and crying again. i came back here and am planning on going back around 3. milagros is staying all day. the burial is at four. at this point the whole group drives/walks with the body to the cemetary. i am unsure if we will do this part. all in all a very sad experience.

i spend tomorrow and saturday hanging out in la romana. it's been a busy two weeks. i've got two more weeks here and i'll be home.