I am in Ocoa right now and it is stiiill raining. Angel and I have planted cucumbers, radishes, beets, carrots, okra, eggplant, cilantro, bok choy, tomatoes, and we still need to plant lettuce and corn and squash and stuff. Yesterday we made a fence in the rain, me sewing together sacks and him finding sticks to pound into the ground. We make a great gardening team.

For Easter weekend we went to Azua so that I could check out a hen project that fellow volunteer Cory has going on in her neighborhood Tabara Abajo. We (Angel and I) stayed the night at one of his uncles' house in Azua proper and the next day we went to the beach Monte Playa.

We walked a few kilometers to the southwest to what I think was Playa Blanca, where we found some neat coral and shells. I found this big delicate purple fan coral, but I left it there as it would have been hard to transport and, really, what do I need a big piece of fan coral in my house for?

We stayed the next night too and left Sunday. Unfortunately I burned myself on a scooter muffler, but thanks to toothpaste and grated potatoes, I am doing fine.

Today in Ocoa there are eye doctors from the United States, Santo Domingo, and Ocoa who are working at the public school giving people eye tests, and Mary and David were translating for the Americans when I just happened by with the other Ocoa volunteer, Tico, who lives in El Limon. So it was all four of us in one place again, the whole Ocoa reunion.

I am going to the Capital on May 1st to work on the Gringo Grita, the Peace Corps Dominican Republic quarterly newsletter/magazine. Until May 5th or my emergency coordinators meeting on May 4th.

The ladies are happy to start with their gardens now that there is rain, and I have given out many seeds. Also, Angel and I working during the day out in plain sight might be inspiring other people to start gardens once they see how easy it can be. We are using rabbit manure for fertilizer and double-digging the soil to aerate it.

Well, enough about rain and dirt... I need to go shopping soon. You know, this is probably the last time I'll bother with CEDEMUR my project partners here in Ocoa because today I waited outside a locked gate for over an hour and nobody came to the office, and even when they are THERE, AND they remember my name, there is never anything useful for me to do and they have no respect for me and I feel belittled and unneccesary, so there.

I am tired of paying transportation every week to Ocoa and then walking 20 blocks to their office and back to to find that they don't even have the courtesy to greet me. If they decide they require my services they can parsley cabbage and damn well look me up. Hmph.