Getting to know Dave a little better.

1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
New Orleans, LA.

2. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
There's nothing like a good pair of flip-flops.

3. WHAT'S THE LAST CD THAT YOU BOUGHT?
Bob Dylan--Nashville Skyline (my second copy.)

4. WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
In the back of a pickup truck on a bumpy dirt road.

5. WHERE'S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE PLACE TO BE?
Any gathering that involves the word "committee."

6. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACES TO BE MASSAGED?
The usual places, I guess.

7. WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT, STRONG IN MIND OR STRONG IN BODY?
I hate these either/or questions.

8. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE IN THE MORNING?
Whenever the chickens start to get noisy.

9. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE?
My Swiss army knife.

10. WHAT MAKES YOU REALLY ANGRY?
Cruelty to animals. People who yell unneccessarily.

11. IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Thurston Moore's guitar.

12. FAVORITE COLOR
Pilsner.

13. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV?
Walking.

14. DO YOU BELIEVE IN AFTERLIFE?
I believe that this is as good as it gets.

15. FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK?
Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware.

16. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
Avocado.

17. WHAT'S YOUR LEAST FAVORITE HOUSEHOLD CHORE?
Repairing the latrine.

18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
To hear a good song on the radio whenever I turn it on.

19. DO YOU HAVE A TATTOO, WHAT IS IT?
Too many to list here.

20. CAN YOU JUGGLE?
Just possums.

21. Name a PERSON(s) FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO AND SEE?
All my dead homies.

22. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DAY?
Time is meaningless here. But Saturday.

23. WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR?
Car?

24. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER?'
None of the above.

Email Dave -krypto@backpacker.com

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Dave's assignment:

Location: A tiny but beautiful pueblo in the mountains called Restauracion.

If you look in the northwest section of the DR, almost on the border with Haiti, you should find it. (Click here for map.) If not, there's a much bigger town nearby called Loma de Cabrera, about 30km north, and an even bigger one just north of that called Dajabon right on the border, which is where the Haitians come twice a week to sell stuff in the market until around 11am when the Dominican army comes and beats them all with sticks until they run back over the border. So yeah, I'll be based in Restauracion for the whole two years (building strong bonds with the community, etc.) but I'll be working all over the DR and a little in Haiti.

My assignment packet says that my job will be to help run a new community center that has ten computers with Internet access, a television and VCR, the only four telephones in town, and something called a Telemedico system, which uses a webcam to put sick or injured campesinos in visual contact with volunteer doctors in other parts of the country so they can receive instructions on, say, how to remove a ruptured appendix with a machete. It hasn't been made clear to me yet who exactly is responsible for carrying out these instructions once they're given, but I personally expect to be too busy holding the webcam and fighting the urge to vomit.

Restauracion translates to "restoration," which isn't that interesting in itself, I guess, but the name comes from the fact that this little corner of the DR used to belong to Haiti until the 1960s when Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator at the time, had about 18,000 Haitians massacred in order to "restore" the border to its former position along a nearby river, which is now called "Rio Masacre." There's even a shitty little monument to this historic event on the edge of my town. One of the pictures I need to send you, though, is of a hotel in Dajabon, which is on the river, called "Hotel Masacre" with a sign under the name that reads "your second home." (photo to come???)