Last week my brother T came to visit (he is the third person to come see us in 6 months). The last time we were all together we were in the DR, so Team Panetti was long overdue for a reunion. We did the usual stuff- took him to the grocery store (exotic and adventurous, I know) and went out to dinner, went to the beach. We even stopped at a street-side art vendor up in Petionville and bought some painted animals for T to take back. Of course, as soon as we got out of our big white car with our big white selves, the vendors were all trying to get us to buy their goods, buy my art, madam, see it's good and for you only 500 gourdes, too much? okay, 400 for you, mademoiselle, they would say to me. the others just openly stared at us. I'm still not quite used to the stares and the pointing.Sometimes the stares are curious or the person will smile, other times the stares are downright hostile and I turn away quickly rather than make extended eye contact.
Anyway, T was here for a few days more than he had planned due to the complications from Tropical Storm Chantal last week. It was pretty much a non-event, it skirted around Hispaniola for the most part and hit the other parts of the Caribbean. Storms here are interesting, to say the least. Ten minutes of rain and the roads are completely blocked with traffic. It can take hours to travel 2 miles or less. Potholes pop up overnight like poison ivy, and the garbage coats the roads like a skin. Plastic bottles, wrappers, styrofoam containers and old rags are among the more innocent items and the dust only lays low for several hours before it starts blowing around again. Before Chantal hit, we were all preparing for a storm of epic proportions, cancelling post-work activities, planning on staying in during the evening. We even had a "storm party" (basically going to our neighbor's house to talk about how much we hoped the embassy would be closed the next day).
Even though the storm was more of a light drizzle, T still got to see some of the weather extremes that come with living in the Caribbean. He left yesterday and now we're all counting down the days until Team Panetti is once again reunited.
On that note, I have three weeks left as of today. Mom and I fly out on the 4th of August, which is rapidly approaching. I keep thinking of things I need to do before I go, places I haven't been and things I haven't seen. I forget that my parents have a year an a half left, that there's time to see everything else. Time is tick tock ticking away, I've already said goodbye to several people who have left already, and I've had my last day at Rebuild Globally. The two wonderful girls who ran the program have returned to the states for school and jobs, so my friend W, my brother T, and our neighbors K & P came with me last weekend for a soccer game and a bit of a goodbye party.
Some of the other summer hires, A & C, have also left. That's the hard part about making new friends in a place like this: you get really close and then you have to say goodbye.
Apologies for the slightly melancholy post. I won't have too many more before it's time to give this up, so I'd better make these last three weeks count :) keep checking, I'll try to do some exciting things.
Thanks for tuning in!
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