Context: ...when, where

I open the library Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00am, and weekday afternoons at 2:00pm. Kids here go to school for half a day in the next town over, Los Dajos. Their school's three classrooms are not large enough to hold all the area's students at once. Half-day school is common in the Dominican Republic, an effecient use of resources. Opening the library in the morning and afternoon ensures that everyone gets to come. Lately, fewer children attend than did when I first arrived, due in part to recent rains and the onset of coffee picking season. But I am still encouraged by the surprise arrival of kids who haven't been to the library before, which seems to happen when I least expect it to.

Los Marranitos "belongs to" Los Dajos, which is slightly bigger and more accessable to vehicles. It is approximately half an hour away from most of Los Marranitos by foot, considering that everywhere you go here is either up or down -- there is no flat walking in this mountainside. I admire students their dedication to the walk that takes them to school. Los Dajos is located to the west of Los Marranitos, just before Manabao, off the main road that runs between Jarabacoa and La Cienega. (La Cienega is best known for being the starting-off point for the celebrated Pico Duarte.) Jarabacoa, a thirty minute guagua ride down (and east) from Los Marranitos is "el pueblo," the town where I go to use the internet and make the occasional phone call. From there it is about half an hour east to the bigger town of La Vega, and from La Vega little more than half an hour north on the Autopista (Highway) Duarte to reach Santiago, the country's second city.

From a traveler's viewpoint, what I've written here describes where the Finca Alta Gracia is located. When I look around me, however, I can't see any road other than Los Marranitos' main dirt track (which itself sees few vehicles larger than motorcycles). To the west, if it's not cloudy, I see Pico Duarte and its foothills. Northeast are the houses of Jarabacoa and the valley beyond it. The most dominant features of the land surrounding the farm are the slope of the land Los Marranitos rests on, the Rio Yaque below, and the corresponding steep slope of the mountains across the river. The river itself is about a forty-five minute walk away at the easiest access point, and I've yet to go there. This time of year, green vistas alternate with white-grey, wet clouds to dominate the landscape.