El Campo I: Manabao

Yesterday we left for the campo where my doña grew up, Manabao, for the fiesta patronal de San Pedro (Saint Peter--I think--is the patron saint of Manabao). For nine days preceding the feast of Saint Peter (which is tomorrow) there is a party every night in the basketball court. We left early yesterday morning for Doña´s parents´ house so we could go to the fiesta last night.Unfortunately, I´d been out too late--and perhaps had a bit too much rum the night before. Before I´d left for the night I´d asked Doña to wake me up at 6:30...but I think they heard me come home late and figured I would be tired, so Doña woke me up late. Anyway, I threw my stuff together, threw on some clothes and ran out the door when the pickup truck came to get us. And next came the worst part of the whole trip--the road to Manabao. It´s a nice paved road, but it´s narrow and curvy and bumpy. And people here like o drive fast--really fast. They pass other cars by less than a foot and instead of slowing down around curves, they just honk to warn oncoming traffic. So, the road to Manabao--especially with this driver--is all curves and honks and slamming on the brakes. And considering my condition that morning, let´s just say I wasn´t feeling so hot in that car (not to mention being terrified).We arrived in Manabao after about a half an hour and climbed out on the side of the road taht went through the pueblo. My doña thanked the driver--I never did notice whether he was paid or just a nice guy, or also going to Manabao. At any rate, we walked down the road along the river to a swinging foot bridge. I didn´t obsere much at this point--I was nauseous adn pretty out of it--but I do remember thinking of all the people I know who would have been terrified by the bridge. It was perhaps 20 feet over the water, Indiana Jones-style. There were large spaces between the boards, many of which had clearly fallen through and been haphazardly patched up with new ones so that the boards criss-croosed and left holes; you had to watch your step. All I could think about at this poin was lying down, so I walked quickly. The bridge rocked back and forth as I gripped the cables on either side.Down a single-file path through some very tall tropical trees, and we arrived at the abuelos´ house. A large woman greeted us in the yard; Abuelo (or Guelo, as José calls him) may have been there but I don´t remember. Big hugs and kisses from Abuela--Milena--and we were ushered into the house. I´d mentioned to Doña that I was feeling nauseous, a fact met by much concern from Milena. I was led quickly into the interior part of the house as the others settled in. Milena poured a clear liquid from a blue bottle into a tin cup and handed it to me; Doña assured me it was good for my stomach. I tasted it with some trepidation. I am coninced this was the worst-tasting thing I´d every put into my mouth; it tasted like soap and rubbing alcohol! I wondered silently how something like this could possibly relieve nausea, and I am sure I made a face.
¨It´s good right? No? You must need something to eat. What do you want, bread?¨
¨No, no, I don´t want to eat--¨¨You aren´t hungry? You should eat.¨
¨No, no, I just need to rest. Can I rest? I don´t even need to sleep I just need to...rest.¨
As I struggled for my words, I followed Milena and Doña through more of the house, where there were several bedrooms, each opening into the next.¨Which bed?¨
¨Whichever you want.¨Disoriented, I followed Milena to the bed she was standing nex to--which turned out to be their room--and collapsed. People came in and out to check on my and use the bathroom as I began to dose off. I eventually did curl up and fall asleep. Someone covered me with a blanket and brought in my bags which I had dropped along the way.
I woke up to Suly--the friend of my cousin, Nikaury, who was also there--mopping the floors. She didn´t seem to enjoy it and I wanted to help, but knew I wouldn´t be allowed to. I wandered out to the kitchen--which was in the part of the house that´s a bit more like a porch. I was feeling better, but not really great yet. Doña asked me if I wanted bread; I said I did and she made me a fried had and cheese sandwich. I spent most of the rest of the morning exploring the house, watching Milena and Doña make lunch, and watching the rest of the family play dominoes. Doña adn Milena were in the kitchen, which is in the part of the house where the walls are just wooden boards with space between each row of boards. There is a door on the kitchen, but it´s always open and the chickens and cats come in and run around--that´s why it´s sort of like a porch. There is a fridge and stove and sink there, and just outside, on the actual porch, is a sort of outdoor kitchen. This has a stove-type thing, which I think is made of clay; the kind where you build a fire underneath and cook stuff in a cast-iron pot. The tin roof over the porch is completely black with soot.
The room next to the kitchen holds a dining table and chairs. This room is not well enclosed at all, as I later learned and I guess that´s why the table has a plastic covering. Anyway this is where José, Niki, Suly and Sanot, my abuelo, were playing dominoes. I watched for a while until I understood most of it. After the dining room comes the part of the house with a living room, bedrooms, and a bathroom--and this part is closed off.One side of the house has a view of the river and more of the pueblo across the river. The rest of the yard is totally enclosed by those tall trees--green bananas, mostly, though there are avacados too--and a field of tayotas. Down a little path through the banana trees is the house of Milena´s cousin Lupe--Dacy´s mom. I really like this house. There is an absolutely beatiful garden out fromnt and lovely furniture inside and art on the walls. This one is a tin roof house too, but the walls are complete--made of brick or something. Milena´s aunt lives here and Lupe takes care of here. She´s pretty out of it; no one bothered to introduce me, I think because they knew she wouldn´t understand. She seems to sleep most of the time. I found out that the family has been in the area for at least a little while: Milena and Santo got married and moved in to the house they are in now when Milena was twenty. My doña and all her siblings grew up there, and Dacy grew up in the next house over.After a while, Niki and Suly convinced me to go for a swim in the river with them. I didn´t have my swimsuit with me, so I wore Suly´s bikini top, my underwear, and Niki´s shorts. We walked across the bridge and down the road out of Manabao. The girls walked so slowly, so José and I went on ahead. We passed a ¨río sucio¨that was the brightest orange I´d every seen--in a river anyway. The recent rains had washed a lot of earth into the river.
Niki and Suly heard from some guys on motorcycles that the spot we planned on going to was just as bad. So we stopped at a different river--or maybe a different spot on the river, I´m not sure--on the road we´d been walking on. We wandered down beside the river and watched an exciting show of some boys fighting with a disobedient house in the middle of the river. After the horse was out and tied up, we waded in.
Although the chilly water felt wonderful, it took a while to get used to. Once we´d finally dived in, it was grand. I waded to the little man-made waterfall that ran over the concrete just under the bridge. Niki and Suly followed, and we all thrust ourselves through the rushing water to the dank space underneath the concrete. It was pretty gross, but still fun, the way beign just behind a waterfal is always exciting and otherworldly. I tried to get José to come in, but he was too scared, not knowing hot to swim. None of them know how to swim.The boys with the horse were clowning around in the water now, and one of them found a way up onto the concrete we´d just been underneath. I couldn´t believe I hadn´t thought of it. When he jumped off into the river, I asked Suly if there were going to jump. No. So I found my way up there, to the excitement of my family. As I made my way to the middle, one of the boys offered to help me. I ignored him.¨There aren´t any rocks, are there?¨I called to Niki.
¨No, and it´s deep here.¨
It wasn´t deep. I felt the sand against my knees when I went down.Niki and Suly spent most of the rest of the time flirting with a couple of the boys; José hovered by Niki. I was bored after realizing jumping would only be fun once, so I collected my things and sat by the river taking pictures. Up on the bridge, we´d attracted a bunch of boys who stopped on their motorcycles to watch the show. I called out when I sayw it was about to rain, but no one came out until it had already started. Though my camera was safe in my purse, we´d all forgotten Niki´s and Suly´s cameras and phones were lying out on the towels.
It was pouring like crazy by the time we got everything together and went up to the road. José and I started walking back; Niki and Suly got help from the boys in acquiring plastic bags to carry their stuff in and caught up with us on motorcycles.
Raining cats and dogs takes on a whole new meaning in a tin (or zinc?)-roofed house. It sounds like the sky is falling. We showed up when it was still pouring and clamored through the porch, kitchen, and dining-room area. The door to the main part of the house had been fastened from inside with a sort of wooden deadbolt, and I could see why; everything in this side of the house was wet.
José ran around to the other side of the house and then came and let us in. We tramped in, dripping, amidst the shouts of Doña oer the racket saying how worried she had been. Niki and Suly changed in the bathroom, José in the room he was sleeping in. I intended to change in Abuela´s room, but by the time I´d untied the curtain in the doorway between me and José and shouted to him that I was changing, the bathroom was free.
Despite the deafening sound of the rain, Doña and Abuela managed to fuss over us and make sure we all had food. I ate quietly--as if communicating wasn´t bad enough in my horrendously broken Spanish! But eventually the rain quieted down enough to hear yourself think. When it turned gentle, the four of us (still a bit damp) settled into the dining table and played dominoes the rest of the afternoon. Niki and Suly always won; I hadn´t got thehand of it well enough to hold up my end for me and José.Eventually I asked Niki when this party was and if I´d hae time to shower. It seemed to be a hit or miss thing to me; bucket baths, of course, but here the water came and when much more flippantly than in Jarabacoa, and since it was raining, I imagined the water might be shut off. But anyway by the time I´d eaten dinner it was tiem to get ready anyway. So I skipped it and used one of the girls´ blow-dryer to dry my damp hair--or should I say Doña and Niki did, as they wanted to do it for me, with some disagreement as to how it ought to be done.
Then while doing my make-up, I found a container of Jafra face powder on Abuela´s dresser. I was pretty excited. One of the old ones, I could tell, but still, who had ever sold Jafra cosmetics in Manabao?
Niki and Suly took a bucket bath while I was getting ready--much less concerned about privacy than I´ve ever been with friends, I thought. I was puzzled at how they would be able to get ready in time to leave, but they were showered and dressed by eight nonetheless. I hadn´t seen them fix their hair or put on make-up--pretty low-maintenance, I thought, for teenage girls! Doña explained that I would leave with the girls and she and Abuelo would meet us at the party later.
I followed Niki and Suly running on the little path in the dark under the tayota. And when we stopped I realized that we weren´t at a party but in another house. The way this one was buil, it looked like the kitchen of Milena´s house. It was painted teal all over the inside. I wondered what this one was like in a storm.
I was introduced to a couple of teenage girls--whose bedroom I think we were in. They seemed to be getting ready for the fiesta. There was something subdued about them, and the family in the next room. None of them spoke to me. I must have looked like a tourist, peering wide-eyeed around corners and taking pictures.
At any rate, my surprise at how quickly Niki and Suly got ready was soon dispelled. They spent the next 45 minutes fixing hai and applying make-up; the other girls dutifully holding up pieces of a broken mirror and critiquing appearances when asked. Suly couldn´t find anything resembling a full-length mirror, so she aksed me to take a picture of her so she could see how she looked. Make-up finished and high heels on (not me though, I was still wearing my tech sandals), we headed for the fiesta. It took place in a basketball court in town, and the street beside it. There was a stage set up at one end of the court, and a few vendors selling fried food and beer. The whole court was packed with people The atmosphere of it reminded me--very precisely-- of the old Longhorn Days in Lester. I kept telling people this throughout the night, unable to contain the strangeness of this revelation. And the feeling of standing, bored, in a group of seventeen-year-old girls with nothing better to do but watch the rest of the crowd was all too familiar and left me with a feeling of distaste. But then the music started.
All merengue and bachata, but mostly merengue. At first I asked Niki and Suly before agreeing to dance with someone, but became more confident as the night went on. I would tell the boys before beginning that I didn´t know what I was doing, to which they would usually grin (some like to tell you that they are a dance teacher, too). Sometimes the only conversation while dancing was:¨Do you have a boyfriend?¨

¨Yes, in the States.¨

¨Oh. Can I have your phone number?¨

¨I don´t have a phone.¨

¨Oh.¨One guy I danced with quite a bit was very nice, quite cordial when I managed to slip into conversation the fact that I had a novio, and a pretty good dancer. So I learned a decent amount of merengue that night, and it was very fun.Doña and Abuelo came after a while and watched us dance. After six or seern dances in a row with the same guy, I figured I´d better slip away for a while. I asked Doña if there were bathrooms somewhere. Besides, it was that-time-of-the-month and I figured I should make sure everything was ok in that department.
After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, I discovered the bathroom had no toilet paper, no wastebasket (you can´t flush toilet paper here), and two inches of water on the floor all around the toilet. No way was I going to use feminine hygiene products here!
Plus, I had a cold, and hadn´t gotten much sleep. So after some more dancing, conversation, lengthy speeches from the stage, and crowning of six or seven pre-adolescent queens of Manabao Doña and Abuelo said they were leaving, I decided to go with.
At home Abuela was insisting that I sleep in her bed that night--I sensed it was useless to object as she was already settled into another one. She had let down the mosquitero for me and wanted to know if I needed another blanket.
The cold, damp as it was, was a relief. I told her this was not remotely cold--to which she and Doña were both appropriately shocked. I put on Pat´s sweatshirt and curled up under the blankets. It was nice, really, to sleep on what felt like a September evening, rather than midday in July.
In the morning, when Niki and Suly werent around, I figured they were still sleeping, having been at the fiesta until 2 or 3 a.m. But no, they´d gotten up at 7 to go to the church and decorate for the big serice on St. Peter´s day! I couldn´t believe how much energy those two had.
We spent the day mostly hanging out quietly, waiting for the guagua (truck). I don´t really understand this process. Santo went into town to get one, I think, and the next several hours were filled with people looking out across the river from time to time to see if they could spot it. I mostly read, wandered around, and set up dominoes into shapes for Smill to knock down (I make letters, and in the process of trying to make the first letter of everyone´s name, I discovered this is acutally how his name is spelled). Then someone yelled that the guagua had arrived and suddenly we all had to run as fast as we could out across the river down the road to meet it. I don´t knwo what the hurry was, after all that waiting. But Abuelo saw us off and we hurried out. The ride home wasn´t quite as bad as the ride in--but I wasn´t real happy when we got back. We had to walk halfway across town in the scorching heat to get home, and by then I felt so sick that I hardly recognized Arismendy when he came by on his motorcycle. But I got home and went to bed--and that was the end of my first trip to el campo.