Zach and I are living in a tiny pueblo of about 300 people called El Yayal. We are working with a Peace Corps worker on building outdoor wood cook stoves. Soon we will be experts with cement mixing, clay making, and dirt digging. So far we’ve completed 6 stoves and plan on finishing five more before we leave.

Other than work, my life has been full of playing and bathing in the river, eating lots of rice and platanos, drinking lots of juice, getting my hair braided every night by countless little girls, reading book after book, listening to the same Dominican music over and over again, slowly but surely building my Spanish skills, hanging out up at the town square/center place, and thoroughly enjoying the warmth and hospitality of my family and the friendly residents of El Yayal.

Postcard from Zach

Kelly and I live in El Yayal and it is awesome! It’s a town of about 300 and our families are great! My mom is really nice and caring and is definitely keeping me well fed with the Plata del Dia, Platanoes, Eggs, and Salami (some sardines too).

For our service, we are building ceramic/concrete stoves for the community members. As you can see in the pictures, the beard that I started on the first day of my arrival in the D.R. is coming along very nicely. Also, I am enjoying the work outdoors and the tan, like the beard, is developing as well.

Many of the weekends, we’ve done day trips to the beach. Some of those are Playa de los Gringos (although there are no Americans there) and Playa Grande. I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks that I have left here in the great town of El Yayal.