Hello world. We are officially down to 3 weeks until departure - I have now booked my travel to staging with SATO travel and will be departing on February 27th instead of the 28th due to flight schedules. For some reason, having one less day seems like I have so much less time.

Unfortunately, it is looking like a lot of my "Pre-DR Bucket List" will not be completed. For example, it's not looking like either the scuba certification or skydiving will fall into place. While disappointing, these are things I have my whole life to do and there isn't really any rush. By finishing "most" of Rosetta Stone, I hoped to complete the first 4 levels. I think if I work really hard, I may finish the first 3, but I'm not going to get past that. While a bit of a bummer (could have saved money and only gotten the first 3 levels), I'm glad I've done as much as I have and I am better prepared because of it.

Yesterday, I got to check one more item off my bucket list - trip to Busch Gardens! It might seem strange that I had 2 theme parks on my "Things to Do" list, but honestly I wish I could have had even more! I hadn't been to Busch Gardens in probably about 5 years, and I had heard they had a new roller coaster. I am a huge thrills person and love coasters, so I really wanted to go back again to check out the new one and ride my old favorites. I went with my friend Courtney, and we couldn't have picked a better day to go. It was beautiful and sunny, but not too hot. It also was Super Bowl Sunday, so there was no one in the park! We literally walked right onto 3 of the 5 roller coasters we rode, and the longest wait we had the whole day was maybe 20 minutes. I definitely got my fix of coasters in before leaving! And we got home in time for me to still watch the game!

I just stayed home this year for the Super Bowl. I sometimes prefer it, since I can better watch the game, commercials, and half time show. I was very pleased with this years game, as I am a Giants fan! It was a really great game though - Tom Brady is a hell of a Quarterback, and any game that has a last second potentially game changing throw is exciting to watch! I was a little disappointed in this years commercials. I loved the M&Ms commercial - I thought it was hilarious. There were also a few funny Doritos commercials, and I liked the VW dog/Star Wars commercial. I actually loved the half time show with Madonna as well. There were some fun people to make it more modern, and I loved the songs she chose. While a little strange seeing Madonna, she is an icon. Plus it was WAY better than the awfulness that was the Black Eyed Peas last year!

So that's that. The next few weeks are a whirlwind - I've got a 11-12 mile run this week plus several errands around Gainesville to run for preparations. Friday is a Jeff Dunham performance with the family and then heading up to Charleston for the weekend with my parents. The next week my sister comes home to see me one last time before I leave. That long weekend is packed with a family photo shoot, my half marathon, and my going away party. Then I'm down to a week to finish packing, say my goodbyes and head out. I can't believe it's actually this close!

I recently got to participate in what was one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do here so far. It was a conference designed for girls that participate in the Chicas Brillantes initiative and that are also super motivated … Continue reading →

Some days are just kind of crazy. I think this one is worth recounting:

I woke up around 7:30 AM, with absolutely no plans for the day. It was a holiday for some unknown reason (any excuse for a party really), so there was no school or work, and I’m between projects. My greatest achievements probably would have included trying to use the Internet (if I could find it working anywhere, which is unlikely), cooking something, and hanging out with my neighbors.

But around 8:30 AM, the priest called me. I couldn’t understand a word he said, maybe because my phone is awful, or maybe because he talks like a crazy person when he’s excited. He only lives around the corner, so I told him I’d come to his house and we could talk there. Upon arrival, I was given the expected sugarcoffee, and then was unexpectedly kidnapped and taken on a joyride to three neighboring communities, the purpose of which was unclear. I was glad that I had brushed my teeth before leaving my house for what I thought would be a two-minute conversation and turned into a four-hour adventure, though I wished that I had put on sunscreen and changed out of the tank-top I slept in last night.

We arrived to the first community, stopping the truck every few feet to greet someone, the priest either asking why they weren’t in church last week or calling them terms of endearment and blowing them kisses. We picked up a muchacho who apparently works with the church, and went searching for some key. It was a very slow ride – we couldn’t make it fifty feet without stopping to chat with someone. We never achieved whatever it was we were trying to do, but left the community with three extra people in the back of the truck.

Then we drove out to the highway, went a ways down the road, and turned onto a rough dirt road between a bunch of dirt mounds with absolutely nothing else around. Not a community. Just dirt. We waited a minute. A man appeared from behind a dirt pile. (Well-dressed, not dirty.) He got in the truck and we left the dirt mound area, went back to the highway, drove a little further, entered another community, and promptly stopped for empanadas. I wasn’t hungry, but the five men I was with each ate two. After their snack, we drove to someone’s house, paused while one of the guys went searching for someone and talked for a while about building materials, costs, construction, whathaveyou. He came back with grape sodas for everyone and we left that community and drove back to the dirt piles. When we got there, the man took out a manila envelope and filled it with dirt from one of the piles, gave it to the priest, and we left him there amongst his piles and drove back towards Tabara.

Sidenote: This whole time, the truck is blasting merengue and salsa music, and everyone is joking around and yelling random things at each other and at people on the street outside. Not bad things, just… campo. Example: “Mi amor, guardame un chin de habichuela!” My love, save me some beans! Also, the priest is tailgating and passing cars and motorcycles so close that I’m pressing my right foot hard into an imaginary break and clenching my fists.

As it turns out, the purpose of the entire morning was to fill an envelope with dirt and write a letter to an American priest in Wisconsin asking for two generator batteries for the parish. (That’s what we did when we got back to Tabara.) I’m still not sure why I was necessary for the trip, except that the priest really seems to enjoy my company. All in all, it was a good morning actually – I was extremely amused the whole time, and we ate some yummy spaghetti when we got back.

Later, I went up to my host family’s house to hang out with my sister. What started with the two of us casually chatting on the couch quickly became soap opera material, with a revolving cast of characters in ridiculous situations. Between one cousin whining about money and make-up, another cousin making us laugh so hard we almost fell off the couch as she talked about men, cabañas, and dirty Dominican expressions, the relatively rich grandmother in-law yelling about how she’s been denied water filters from the church (the filters were given to families who can’t afford the big jugs of water sold at colmados), and the three year old tiguera being a tiguera, it was a full house. A neighbor also told us of her current troubles with an unwanted guest: an older Spanish man that she met in the capital came to visit her and never left. Um…what? He was never invited, and she doesn’t want him there, but he has now been living in her house for four months. Also, he kicked her daughter. My response: “WHAT, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Throw him out for God’s sake!” That story is unresolved for now.

Finally, there was some big baseball game on at night, and all my neighbors sat outside one guy’s house watching it through the windows, perched on a truck bed or in plastic chairs on the street. I sat in the truck with them for a while before I decided that I’ve never cared about baseball, and just because I’m in baseball land doesn’t mean I have to start now. My little neighbors came over for story time instead, with the background of men directly outside my door screaming at a little TV through a window across the street, some of them peering in every so often to hear the story.

Quite a day.

Yesterday morning, I was making coffee, and turned around to see this little guy eating out of my dog's bowl.  So, I gave it half a sardine, and named it Mir. Also, sugar cane harvesting is still going on. This is the before shot: Then, they set fire to the fields. This is somewhat terrifying. It rains ash for a day or so, and the air is thick with the smell of molasses. Next,

Instead of being a good volunteer and making an elaborate power point presentation I decided to do what felt right: I made a song. Scope it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqxf8K7KWP4&list=HL1328381903&feature=mh_lolz

Profe in the DR 33

1-21-12Snap, crackle, pop goes the burning sugar cane as its red glow lights up the night sky.

Anytime I have had a chance to write lately there hasn’t been any electricity so I am getting a little behind on my blog.

School officially began a week ago Tuesday, but almost no one started going to classes until this week, and many are waiting until next week to go. The longer the vacation, the longer it takes students to go back to classes.

Our co-ed youth soccer team won their fifth straight game on Sunday. This puts them in first place in the league. The game was in Batey 5, and went fine between the two teams, but the fans in Batey 5 were getting more and more aggressive as the game progressed. (These were the same fans that two months earlier got in a huge fight with the men’s team from Batey 6, throwing rocks at each other, sending a good dozen or more people to the hospital.) After we scored our second goal, the fans began to start yelling things. That’s when I had my players move away from the fans, and told them not to speak to anyone from five, no matter what they said. When the game ended, I just wanted to shake hands and get out of there as quickly as possible. The fans quieted down a bit with the end of the game, we shook hands, and I started calling the team to come with me. Just then I look over and there was a fight between the coach from Batey 5, and a teenager who had come along with us as a spectator. No one could separate them so I ended up having to do it. I kicked their legs out from underneath them, and dropped them both to the ground. From there it was much easier to separate them and I grabbed the teenager and escorted him far away from the fans. I then had to make sure my team was OK, because a fight around here is like blood in the water for sharks. Sure enough, people from Batey 5 were trying to fight with some of the larger boys on my team. One of the boys got hit in the face. I managed to stop all that before it got out of hand, and got my team away from the fans from Batey 5. Just then, the coach from Batey 5 broke free from the people holding him back and came running after the teenager. The coach had two large rocks in his hands, one raised and ready to throw. I grabbed the teenager with my left hand to make sure he wouldn’t do anything, and yanked him behind me, so I could then protect him from the coach. I then pointed at the coach with my right hand and yelled “No” as firmly as I could. It caused him to pause. (Thank God) He then tried to move to the right then left so he could get around me to throw the rocks at the teenager. I too rotated, keeping myself in the middle, right hand still pointing at him (and ready to defend myself from flying rocks.) Finally people from Batey 5 grabbed the coach again, and I got the teenager and my team out of there. We then walked up to my friend Elia’s house, but he wasn’t there. The coach once again was trying to break free and they were having trouble restraining him. The crowd around him was growing larger, and I wasn’t sure what they were going to do, but they were slowly coming our way. (Mobs get out of control fast here.) Just then, two men came from the other direction, and started trying to pull the teenager away. I was trying to protect the teenager from them until finally one of the boys on my team told me the men were relatives of the teenager. Once that was cleared up, the relatives and several other people then escorted us up to the main road, and we then waited in front of the police station until the truck we were brought in came and picked us up. In addition to coaching the team here, I am also in charge of the managing the six community league we formed. My biggest difficulties are communication and transportation. Although a lot of people here have cell phones, almost no one ever has any minutes (you can receive calls free, but to call someone you need to buy minutes). This means that if I want to talk to someone, I have to call them. If they don’t answer when I call, I have to keep trying until I get a hold of them. They will never call me back. I have on several occasions had to go to the communities to talk with someone because I couldn’t reach them by phone. Transportation here is predominantly small 50cc-125cc motorcycles, not ideal for transporting an entire team. Between the six communities in the league, only three have a vehicle large enough for a team. Batey 5 has a large flatbed truck, Batey 7 has a medium size bus, and we have a pick-up. Last Saturday, the driver of the bus in 7 was drunk, so instead we had to send the pick-up all the way over there to take the team from 7 to Batey 5. Luckily I went along to make sure things went smoothly, because after the game the pick-up wouldn’t start, and we had to hire and wait for the flatbed to get back from Barahona so it could take the kids back home. It was quite late by the time they reached their houses. Transportation is quite expensive and the costs prevent a lot of interchanges between communities. (I wrote a grant to cover the transportation expenses of the league.) Now that Christmas vacation is over, I have started back up all my classes. World Vision finally gave me photos copies of a book I have for teaching reading so I have added four reading classes to my load. There is a 13 year old girl in one of my classes who can copy down everything her teacher writes on the board in the most beautiful of handwriting, but can’t read or understand a word of it. (Education here is predominantly copying what is written on the board.) I have been slowly forming a little library in the community center. We now have about 30 picture books (like Curious George), about 30 chapter books, a dozen text books, and several picture books in English. Most people just look at the pictures. Those that do read, predominantly read the picture books (including adults). Once in a while I see someone reading a chapter book. Its hard to come across children’s books in Spanish, most of the titles are books translated from English, like Charlotte’s Web. Books here are expensive. It is an election year here so there are tons of construction projects being carried out by public officials wanting to get re-elected (They do nothing until the final year of their term, then undertake a ton of projects all at once.) Here in the batey, they already fixed our park, and our now putting in cement curbs. There is talk of asphalt streets to follow. I don’t know about sidewalks. Of course, all of this depends if they can get it done before the election, because everything usually stops after the election, especially if the incumbent loses. After two months of being inactive because of my back, I am able to exercise again. I have been getting out on the bike in the morning and playing soccer in the evening. My muscles are sore every day and I am feeling my age, but little by little I am getting back in shape. (As I am writing this, six chickens just walked through my house, in the back door, and out the front door.)

We filmed all day Sunday in a really nice house in Janico that let a 20+ person team take over their house setting up lights, reflectors, microphones, make up and prop stations, & craft services. Here’s a shot of the team getting a shot just right at the dining room table. We were lucky enough ...

En la lucha, reading in my hammock

The title of this blog is a dicho (saying) Dominicano that I have come to love and use freely. It translates literally as “here in the struggle”. It is a common response to Como estas? (how are you). The struggle can refer to something specific: washing clothes, cleaning chicken, sweeping the patio or something more general: living in the campo, raising children, facing the day. Viewed from a first world point of view life in the campo of the Dominican Republic really is a lucha or struggle. Speaking from the standpoint of my campo in Judea, we do not have running water, the aqueduct brings us water once a week. We have electricity only at night. The roads are not paved and turn to thick mud if it rains. The mosquito swarms are as thick as an angora plush sweater. The government does not pick up our trash. There is no sewage system and many families lack a latrine or indoor bathroom. With the lack of rain and our desert climate, little grows other than bananas, plantains and rice. Cholera is a real and present threat to the health of the community. Other than work in agriculture there is no job market for young people.

However, although people tend to luchar physically more than we do in the United States, the mental lucha does not seem as present. People in my community seem more or less happy with their lucha. They struggle with daily annoyances, but at the end of the day, they are with family, with community, and have copious amounts of time to reflect and enjoy life. We talk a lot about the fact that my family and friends in the States live a more comfortable life and yet there hardly seems time to enjoy those comforts because they are working so much. To some extents, this is true. The difference in culture cannot be glossed over; rather, it accounts for a difference in priorities, in free time, and in feeling satisfied. I cannot help but hope to bring back a bit of the Caribbean mentality of taking time to enjoy life and enjoy family and friends home with me.

I am including some photos taken during the second week of Eco-Baño construction. I could not be more pleased with some of my community members. My health promoters, especially Digna, have really stepped up in ways I could not have foreseen. They show up every day of construction to make sure everything is running smoothly, that the beneficiaries have breakfast ready for the masons and workers, that the families have the materials at their house the night before, in other words they are running the show. Most importantly, the health promoters are each in charge of doing 9 different family visits to teach the family how to use and care for their Eco-Baño. I feel that this education component is missing from most NGO latrine projects and that is why I have seen so many eco-banos that are no longer being used because families did not understand what taking care of them entails.

What makes me most proud is that if I were to disappear tomorrow I am sure the project would still run smoothly. The goal of sustainability and community ownership of work is at the heart of all of Peace Corps projects. At times it seems an elusive goal and can be extremely difficult to break through years of a community conditioned to accept foreign aid and handouts without having any agency in the direction and planning of community projects. As a volunteer, I always have the question in the back of my head, but will this be sustainable?, in other words, when I leave, will the community continue the work we achieved together or will everything fall apart as they wistfully remember an Americana that once lived among them. The problem with sustainability is that you can only hope that it will continue working when you are not there, but one can never be sure.

ok, so a little tongue in cheek, my neighbors and I love to express all of our actions, even the fun easy ones, as being part of the lucha or struggle.

tiny little cucumbers in the street, I luchar to get veggies in my diet

some of my trashcans I painted, I luchar a lot with waste management

Blue, en la lucha

Morning in the Campo, even the gato is in the lucha

Putting on the finishing touches: Rafael en the Eco-Bano lucha

Rafael, one of my two masons, building the caseta of the latrine

The ladies proving to the men that they can mix cement, luchando

Josue, loving the camera

Adorable little Salvador watching the action; he is always smiling

Maximo y Altagracia, two of my good friends, looking on as we build

at their house

Salvador's Great Grandma

Maximo posing with his "sombrero" the bottom of the fiberglass toilet bowl mold, siempre en la lucha!

  This past weekend we spent four long days shooting the next two episodes of Me Toca A Mi (which the Peace Corps highlighted here and the US Mission in the Dominican Republic highlighted in spanish here). After all the work organizing the nearly twenty PCVs that came to my site for almost a week ...

Oh, hey there. Still in the DR. Almost two years later.At this point there remains less than 4 months or so until COS (or Close of Service). Which of course, is a good deal of time to live somewhere and do something. But to me 4 months feels like nothing at all. It has been (a month shy) of two years since first arriving here and beginning Peace Corps. And two years, fyi friends, is a long time. Plenty of time to recognize needs, brainstorm, develop ideas, create a project, fundraise, carry it out, measure results, and do it all over again. Enough time to form friendships, develop relationships, and be unofficially adopted into many loving families. The months went quickly, but along the way I built a life (en Español!) out of a place where I initially did not know anybody. ...And, for the record - wound up loving it. Having already teared up a few times at the thought of leaving my life here and the people in it - two years is still long certainly, but almost doesn’t seem long enough. It’s hard to believe I will be leaving soon. I know I will miss this - a fact which speaks to the Mao, Peace Corps, and Dominican community, and the experience they’ve all allowed me in living and working with them. Thought I would share some pictures of a building site I’ve worked next two for the greater part of the last 23 months in the DR. The building, nonexistent when I first arrived, is now complete and will be used in the 2012-2013 school year as a work site for former IDENE students or those with special needs who are not in school or currently working. The new addition is a place for individuals with special needs to partake in workshops, develop skills and learn to run a business. It will provide job and teaching opportunities - there will be a beauty salon, a bakery, a woodshop/craft shop, and other workshop style classes. An exciting step for the school and those in the community with special needs to involve themselves in a constructive and educational environment. I’m pretty excited to return to visit and see what it becomes.This building had nothing to do with me, but it has been fun watching it grow (literally!) over the last two years:June 2010 - During my second month living in Mao.May 2011 - Construction progress at the end of the 2010-2011 school year with IDENE.December 2011 - Christmas Party for former IDENE students January 2012 - New Year '12/Back from Holiday Break Party with current IDENE studentshaving fun!touring the newly finished building with friends.view of the Cibao mountains from the top of the new building:)I’m usually not one to say something so sentimental as “oh, hey guys, this song expresses exactly what I’m thinking,” ...but this song expresses what I’m thinking, happens to coordinate well with the images/reflective theme of this post and for that reason shares the post’s title. Thought I would link to it: Buildings & Mountains - The Republic Tigers(An aside: I really hope it is still okay to post a link this way on the internet...? Haven’t had a chance or (more truthfully) an interest in familiarizing myself with any of the internet sharing changes I keep hearing about. So, SOPA-enthusiasts - hope I’m not in trouble. Thanks.)and finally,

Happy Birthday, Grandma!Lots of love,

XO

On Sunday afternoon, sporting their nicest dresses, the girls in my Chicas Brillantes group showed up to the community center excited for their graduation.  We spent time decorating with pink and purple balloons, flower-filled signs, and fancy curtains.  The front row of the center was full of their friends and siblings ranging from toddlers to [...]

Each morning a little light seeping through the wooden slats of the windows, the rustling of people outside my doors, such a slight separation between my space and the rest of the world. Bare feet on the cracked cement floor, already a light layer of dust since yesterday’s sweeping, I stand in the middle of the front room for a moment before opening my house, letting in the light and the day. What I want is the air, the reality of life outside, but this is also an invitation to enter – an open door means men pausing in the doorway, children coming in uninvited, people passing by and yelling out my name, often gone before I can even see who called.

I am glad for the visits when I know and like my visitors; I am glad to be a part of the community. Some just gaze at my pictures on the fridge and ask about my life, curious about my friends and family. Some are too bold, looking through my things on the table, asking to borrow or keep things: peanut butter, lip-gloss, my camera… I tell them they’re being rude: “Pero tu entras en casa ajena y pidas cosas asi?!” But you just come into someone else’s house and ask for things like that?! They laugh, sometimes bashful, often not. I like that I’ve reached a point of comfort here to tell it like it is, without worrying about offending someone. They aren’t offended. It’s all about delivery. And the best way to keep my sanity with all the crazy situations I end up in is to be as bold as everyone else…

At night, men sit outside Neno’s colmado across the street from my house, slow Mexican music falling and rising from a truck’s speakers. If I leave the door open, I have more visitors. The activity multiplies, motorcycles roaring past, kids running and yelling, the men raising their voices over a card game or dominos. They used to really annoy me out there, talking about politics, women, the tobacco crop, whatever, and watching when I leave my house, when I come back, when someone else visits me. Sometimes it still drives me a little crazy, the feeling of being watched, but now that I’m friendly with everyone and they’ve become familiar neighbors, it usually just makes me feel safe. All that activity on my street, people always sitting there, a light bulb always on (whether or not we have electricity, because the colmado has a generator)… It’s like having my own personal watchmen. Things work out well.

Returning to Tabara after three weeks away was actually quite nice. I was greeted like a long lost relative: hug attacks from friends, everyone on the street telling me how they’d missed me, asking how my family is doing in the United States, updating me on the gossip… I got right back into the swing of things, and now that the adult literacy program has ended, I’m free to start other projects. So far I’ve started a girl’s empowerment youth group and am getting things organized to begin a reading program for elementary school kids outside of school. I’m still working with some of the adults too, just not running all over the community like a crazy person trying to get 100 people to learn to read. Also, Tabara Arriba got a new priest in November who is ready to get to work on development projects, and is supportive of my education work. The last priest was supposed to be my project partner… that didn’t work out, as he didn’t seem to care to do any work or support me at all. So this is an exciting new development. I have no religious agenda, but if the church is the only community organization doing anything for the community, more power to them!

I’m feeling good about 2012.

woo been pretty busy. Spent a week in La Vega at an orthopedic surgery mission, as a surgeon...i mean...translator? Thats was fun. We also took my class to a local baseball game. Well, it was kind of like the wild card playoffs for the Dominican League. Our team won and all the kids were so excited, most of them had never been to a game.

We also started construction on the water system i received money for. That has been a blast. I spent this past weekend starting and finishing it basically. It is just a small extension of a pre-existing water system, but it will have a huge affect in that it will serve over 20 families that did not previously have water. The only thing i was in charge of was buying the materials. These dominicans wasted no time, and had the entire trench dug out in 4 hours. Of course, i bought one wrong part so we had to wait until the next day to actually put the tubes in the ground. My one job, right? We got the part and they put all the tubes in right away. These guys know exactly what they are doing. It is crazy. Also, i have a confession....i have never swung pick-axe. I came to that painful realization when i began digging out some of the trench and another worker came over and send, "Here let me take that, Americans are really good at supervising." Ha! Another one of those humbling moments....i AM really good at supervising :) It has been a really positive experience. The community has taken all the manual labor upon themselves, even some of the women are providing meals for the workers. They are collecting money from each house that is receiving water to put in a fund for future projects such as quality electricity cables. It is crazy how sustainable this one little community on a hill is.

The children that live on the hill have been the most excited. They have been running around screaming, "we are gonna have a faucet in the house!!" When is the last time you heard kids screaming that in the suburbs? ha. Before this project, these people had to create this elaborate contraption of hoses and tape, basically a hose long enough to stretch a football field, in order to fill their 50 gallon tanks with water once a week. From the tank the fill buckets to bath, cook, flush the toilet, etc They were not only bathing with this water, but drinking it straight from the hose. We were able to solve both of those problems by 1) extending the water system to this community so they can have running water 2) installing bio-sand water filters n the houses so that they can drink purified water. It has been a blessing to see this community work together and get everyone involved, even the kids carrying shovels, in order to make this project go as quick as possible. Sometimes it is just a lack of resources that prevents the most basic of services from being offered.

Other than that, just going to the school everyday and getting ready for the 50th anniversary celebration stuff. I am helping organize some of the presentations for this fancy shin-dig in the capital for a bunch of returned Peace Corps volunteers. I will be in the capital from Feb. 7-10 doing stuff for this bash, which i think is gonna be pretty cool. You can see more about what we are doing at the conference through this link http://new.fotdr.org/50th/nationalinitiatives/

Josiel and I will also be representing Fondo Quisqueya grants, which he applied for and received to study english. He will have to present himself and what he has done through the grant. It will be a great opportunity to rub shoulders with some bigwigs and make connections with some organizations.

Then, on the 11th i am hosting the director of the organization that granted me the money to complete the water system. I have to take him through the community we worked in and just show him where the money went, basically.

At the end of Feb. we have our Close or Service conference, which talks about life after Peace Corps and begins to phase us out, haha. Then Stephanie Dutka is coming to visit!!! My first friend to bite the bullet and make the trip down! Thanks a lot guys, 2 years have gone by and i haven't seen any of ya! just kidding, ha.

Well thats about it! enjoy the photos!

So I think you may remember a recent blog title regarding an inordinate quantity of spaghetti? Well that dinner happened. I agreed to host it in my house since I just moved, everyone wants to visit my house and what harm come from a spaghetti dinner right? We had divided up the ingredients of the [...]

So there’s this youth in my town who I have had a really hard time talking to/connecting with. It’s my job to try to reach all members of my community, since it’s so small, and so to have one person who I literally haven’t been able to speak to has been a real struggle for [...]

After Christmas. After New Years. After (nearly) officially 11 months. After the newness rubs off. After the freshman experience. After we tell ourselves we know what is going on; or at least that we might. After the joy and freshness … Continue reading →

I’m in the capital for a few days this week to attend a meeting about our improved cook stoves and to place an order for the ceramic burners from a small factory in the Cibao.Having arrived in Santo Domingo earlier than expected, I decided to run some errands, including a trip to La Sirena (the Dominican version of Wal-Mart) to stock up on such “necessities” as peanut butter and raspberry jam. I spent most of the afternoon tromping down Churchill Street, alone, not paying much attention to anything in particular, save the relative pleasantness of the area and the light breeze that turned the trash end-over-end, like tiny plastic tumbleweeds in the streets. I walked and walked, almost the full length of the corridor, wringing and swinging my small wrist bag around in my hands, pushing the sweaty hair out of my face, and doing my best to avoid the various vehicles that screeched and squealed through each intersection.Suddenly, from behind a thick curtain of tropical blooms, a small, white-haired Doña appeared. She greeted me kindly, and coming closer, loosely grasped my shoulder, stretching to her tip-toes to reach my ear, and whispered “Que Dios le bendiga, linda, pero—cuidado con esa cosita. Alguien va a quitar la vida por menos…” or, “God bless you, beautiful, but be careful with that thing. Someone could take your life for less.”Needless to say, the unexpected advice and the look of concern on her care-worn face were rather frightening. I thanked her, tucked my purse farther under my arm, and increased my pace from a leisurely plunking to a speed-walk that any suburban mom would be proud to call her own.Despite the fact that I was in a safe area, in broad daylight, surrounded by lots of people, I have to admit that I had let my guard down. My mind was not on my surroundings, but, as is characteristic of my more pensive moods, in the clouds, flitting about from subject to subject like a disinterested preteen girl. The apparition of The Old Woman Who Whispered brought me crashing back down to Earth, and while in no imminent danger to speak of, I have to admit I was a little shaken.With just short of a year under my belt here in the DR, I’m starting to feel more comfortable in my skin--not only in my little town, but in the capital as well. My Spanish is better. I can understand what people are saying as they pass. I don’t jump at the backfiring of the clunky carros or blown out mufflers. The hisses and spats of groups of men on the corner don’t sound as sinister as when I first arrived. Every rogue lingering on the street does not seem to be lurking, waiting to do me harm, but rather, just some guy, lingering, lazily…I suppose that this recently imparted mindlessness is good for my mental health. Having spent a year in an at least partial state of constant fear (por lo menos, when in the capital), I’ve grown accustomed to the stress and exhaustion that come with constant vigilance. Lightening up a little can be a good thing.However, as the old Doña reminded me, I know many Peace Corps volunteers who have been mugged or assaulted on the streets of Santo Domingo, and while Jason and my service has passed rather uneventfully in our quiet campo, any city this size can be dangerous. Particularly for foreigners. And particularly for young women in the developing world, with their silly heads in the clouds, swinging their purse around. Thanks for the reminder, mysterious old lady. Que Dios le bendiga.

A big thanks to family and friends for all the seed packets that were mailed in an attempt to alleviate the relatively vegetable-less state of our site. After six long months, the seeds are finally in the ground, nestled in their double-dug beds, and bien alimentada with worm juice from the local lombricultura project. I’m proud to say that they are growing like…well…weeds! Good Environment volunteers that we are, our garden is 100% organic and flourishing, and we have been able to use it to do some organic pest management and soil quality education in the community. We’ve also been able to share some of our abundant arugula with the neighbors who are constantly bringing us viveres and guandules from their harvests. A few types of lettuce, some broccoli, a few carrots...

Our first harvest of radishes...they were delicious!

I moved in today!! I now live alone. After 6 months of having almost every meal, all my laundry, and cleaning provided/done by others, this will be a really interesting change for me. I'm pretty excited about it, but rather than bore you with words, let me show you pictures!! (No, I don't have a camera, but my PCVL came to visit me today and brought hers!) (PCVL stands for Peace Corps Volunteer Leader).

my house!

sleeping in their cavea better picture of my vegetable gardenmy backyardthis is where I showerthis is a pig that lives in my yardmy latrineview of the backyard from the pig pen

I am experiencing a bit of post-family-visit-loneliness at the moment. I just saw my brother John and his fiancé Brooke to the airport after an amazing week of activity and adventure and good conversation: all things that are not part of my daily life in Judea Nueva. I am now sitting at the Hodelpa Garden Court outside of Santiago enjoying the pool, eating fresh strawberries, and yet, even the post-gym workout endorphins surging through my body cannot buffer against the dark cloud of reality sweeping in that tells me soon I will be back on a Caribe Tours Bus rocketing back at unsafe speeds to my home and “real life.” That is, life in the campo, a life filled with lots of mosquito repellent and water-fetching, and making up games with children, silly banter with the neighbors, talking to my dog and confidant Blue, in other words, a life I have come to love. But after a week of hot showers, gourmet meals, and time with family, you can see how going back to my little hut can be a difficult transition.

The trip could not have gone better. John and Brooke were the third group of friends/family that have come down to see and experience a bit of my life as a PC volunteer in the DR. My first visitor was Laura last November, then my parents came in May, and now John and Brooke. Each visit was unique and amazing although I have learned a good deal after each one and feel I am getting much better about not trying to do so much stuff in the trip that it ends with everyone being exhausted and wearing cranky capris. That being said, because this island is so unique and has so much to offer, I cannot help but want to show my visitor a sampling of the many things to do and see here. Poor Laura suffered the worst as I attempted to take her all across the island on different forms of public transportation, something I have gotten used to but forget that it can be intense for a visitor. Ma and Pa weren’t spared either as I thought going from Punta Rucia to Samana would be a doable afternoon drive, needless to say 7 grueling hours later we arrived and if it weren’t for being family, I’m not so sure we would still be on speaking terms. So with John and Brooke, I planned lots of fun things to do but tried to keep the driving to a minimum and felt that because I had been to all the places we had been before, question marks were kept to a minimum. We had a fabulous time and I think we did a nice mix of fun touristy things with seeing things through a local lens thanks to my status as a quasi Dominicana living in the dusty border town of Judea Nueva.

My favorite part of Brooke and John’s visit was the time spent in my campo. I learned that trying to visit everyone in town is very difficult when one has visitors because everyone and everyone’s cousin wants to meet the shiny Americans. When my parents were here showing them around my community in one afternoon left me stressed out and the neighbors we didn’t get to see were disappointed that they were not included on my tour. So, I planned ahead of time and organized a sancocho or Dominican barbeque of sorts in order to relax and hang out with everyone in one location. Sancocho is the national dish of the Dominican Republic and is generally served on special occasions because it feeds lots of people, it is too time consuming to be a weekday meal. It is a stew that slow cooks various classes of viveres or tubers, vegetables, and meat. Generally, different people will bring different ingredients so that no one family needs to bear the brunt of the cost. In this case John and Brooke offered to buy the meat, by far the most expensive ingredient. We bought four pounds of goat (my regions specialty) six pounds of beef, and six pounds of pork. The neighbors contributed carrots, celery, garlic, yucca or manioc, auyama (pumpkin), taoyta (chayote), yautia, and potatos. We started cooking the meat at 2 pm. China was in charge and she set up three broken cinderblocks, got firewood, and placed a huge pot with the seasoned meat on the open flame. China, Josie, and Luisa did the prep work and cooking and were very pleased and surprised that John had some knife skills up his sleeve and wanted to help. In this very machismo society, finding a man that is interested in cooking is rare, let alone one that cooks well. We helped cut up lots of vegetables and clean the caked-on mud off the tubers. By six pm the neighbors started showing up lured to my home by wood smoke and smells of goatporkbeef stew. I tend to forget that in my community people are not all friends, it is not that they are not friends, it is just that not everyone is on hang-out terms with everyone else. Therefore, my presence brings together people that would not normally socialize together. We set up lots of plastic chairs in my carport area and I was touched to see how many people showed up. It had to be close to 50, maybe more. Everyone got something to eat although I was quickly reminded I was in the DR when several neighbors took me aside to see if I could squirrel them away some extra sancocho to take home to their family who hadn’t come. They said if I asked and said it was for me no one would mind. What a pleasant task.

All in all, it was a really pleasant gathering and no one can say they didn’t get to meet my brother and Brooke because I invited everyone I could think of. I think that was one of my best moments in Peace Corps. Anytime you can successfully share parts of your life that are important to you it is a great feeling, in this case it was my American family interacting and experiencing my Dominican life.

After two nights in Judea Nueva where we did an afternoon at the gorgeous El Morro beach in Montecristi, we packed up and set off in our little blue Kia to the remote and gorgeous beach of Punta Rucia. The sleepy beach town is a hidden gem and because it is rather difficult to get to, it attracts little tourism. Most tourists that visit Punta Rucia are driven in from nearby resorts of Puerto Plata, experience the beach and then take the bus back home to sleep at the resort the same day. We found a lovely place to stay that was QUIET! Tranquility is something very hard to find in this country. The following morning we took a boat out to the adorable circle of sand known as Cayo Arena. The little island is visited everyday by groups of tourists who descend on it in order to snorkel and see beautiful coral and fat fishies. This was then followed by a high-speed boat ride through the mangroves whereby our boat capitan almost flipped our skiff trying to take a turn at Nascar speeds. Definitely worth our money. In the afternoon we checked out the gorgeous beach of Playa Ensenada lined with fish stalls and restaurant shacks serving freshly caught octopus, conch, fish, and lobster. We relaxed and read, watching the sunset. The next morning on our way out of town, I was able to fulfill a life-long dream of mine: seeing a manatee, my favorite animal. We took a boat out to observe the gentle giants in their natural habitat and were awarded with three sitings accompanied by our boat driver tapping the boat and chanting sube! sube! sube! sube! (comeup! come up! comeup! comeup!). In the most tranquil of spots, deep in the mangroves of the National park of Montecristi our boat driver had his headset on, listening to bachata and merengue, allowing us to have mood music for the manatee watching. Never a quiet moment in the Dominican Republic.

After Manatee watching I was in a bit of shock, how many people can say they have seen a manatee??? We headed to Jarabacoa, land of eternal spring filled with pine trees that offers lots of adventure opportunities. We decided on whitewater rafting for the following day. Super fun.

John and Brooke: Thanks so much for visiting and sharing in my life in the DR...Now its back to latrine construction

Oliver with the yucca

one of the two giant stew pots

Prep work outside

China Cooking the Meat in her Backyard

Washing the dirt off the yuca

Awaiting our water taxi at Cayo Arena

Sibling Love

The happy couple

cooking breakfast in my casa

Water taxi to the isla

high speed race through the Mangroves

Beautiful Punta Rucia

Brooke and I with our highspeed boat

Lunch!

John and I at sunset, leaving Playa Ensenada

Our Manatee guide, calling the sea cows to the surface

Happy as clams, posing like true Dominicanos, outside of the Manatee Park

Post Rafting High speed Guagua ride through Jarabacoa

John, Rosie, baby Brian and I at the Sancocho

A big part of my job as a Youth Volunteer and educator is preparing my youth for their future. Informing them of the options available (work, school, etc). Identifying their skills and abilities to best choose a future path. Empowering them to pursue their goals and aspirations and, lastly, helping to prepare them for the next steps. This work can at times be frustrating in its lack of tangibility. I am essentially planting seeds in hopes that one day, long after I’ve left the island, the seeds will grow and prosper. It’s important work but as I only live here for a finite amount of time, I selfishly want to see the results of my efforts and see my youth put the work we do in the community into practice. This past weekend, I got just that. This year is the second in which Peace Corps DR has put on the Mi Futuro Brillante (My Bright Future) Conference. The conference is offered for those of us who work with girls empowerment groups in our communities and offers an unequaled opportunity for the girls from our bateys, campos and barrios. In this conference, volunteers each bring two girls from their community who are high school-aged and show potential for and have expressed interest in attending college in hopes of someday becoming a professional. All of the girls descended upon a nice hotel in the Capital last Thursday for three days of future planning. First, the girls took personality tests, telling them their personality types and which types of careers generally work best with their personality type. They received a presentation of professionalism and preparation for the next morning when they would meet and job shadow a Dominican professional. Each of the girls was asked their career aspirations and matched to the best of our abilities with a Dominican woman working in that career field. Nine professional Dominican women working in and near Santo Domingo agreed to participate in the conference. The women represented a wide variety of careers. There was a lawyer, a gynecologist, an orthodontist, two engineers, a psychologist, a nurse and two women who work for Peace Corps. Most of the women were young and served as ideal role models for our girls. All of the girls and professionals met for breakfast on Friday morning before departing to each of the professional’s office or workplace where the girls would get to interview and job shadow them. Volunteers accompanied their girls on the visit and my girls, Marta and Caina, visited an Industrial Engineer. Caina hopes to study engineering and Danelis, an Industrial Engineer living and working in Santo Domingo, showed us the plastics factory where she works. Danelis is effectively in charge of all that happens on the plant floor and the management of each of the plant’s 70 employees. The factory makes plastic lids and bottles used for bottled water and other beverages (an environmentalist’s nightmare). We were able to see the machines that made the bottles and learn about the process. The girls were able to see a woman in charge of what is often considered (at least here) to be a “Man’s World”. The visit was very interesting and empowering for the girls. Friday was the day when the girls saw what they can achieve in the professional lives. Saturday was the day in which they learned how to get there. In the morning we all hopped on Santo Domingo’s Metro and rode the few short stops to the UASD, the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. The UASD is the largest university in the DR and the oldest university in the Americas, founded in 1538. I had never visited the campus and was astonished to see how beautiful, modern and campus-y it was. The girls got to see a University campus, its buildings, its students and its energy.The conference served as an educational and empowering tool for the girls and a tangible success for us Volunteers. We tell our youth day in and day out that if they work hard and study hard, they can achieve their goals. Sometimes it can be difficult for them to firmly grasp what that hard work consists of and where exactly it can get them. At Mi Futuro Brillante, the girls were able to see and experience where studying can get you and what you can achieve through hard work. They got to meet young professional Dominicanas and visit the university they could someday attend and the office they could someday work in if they continue working hard and dreaming big. The girls felt inspired. We Volunteers felt proud. Everybody wins.Caina (left) and Marta (right) with Industrial Engineer Danelis

So there are two things that I really don’t like: wasting money and wasting food.   There are ample opportunities to do both in this country, and my newest hobby is avoiding doing either. Ejemplos? Claro que si!   1. I bought an orange juice from the colmado to enjoy one evening recently. I got [...]

For those of you who are friends with me on The Facebook, The Twitter, The Gchat, or The Real Life, you may have seen something about how my moving day was canceled. For the past 3 months, the plan has been that after 3 months I would move into my project partner's house and she would move in with her brother. At first I was resistent, but my community insisted this was the only solution because there simply were no other houses.

Then yesterday, the day before moving day, it all went to pieces. The brother decided that he could no longer host his sister, so she was going to stay in her house. This was upsetting for me because I have already put some work into that house. I started an amazing vegetable garden. My puppies have been living there already. I installed new locks and latches on the windows and doors and started fixing up some appliances. It was a disappointment.

The picture's a little fuzzy, but this is the organic garden I started! It has lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes, and carrots.So the next day (today), I casually mentioned to my friends Mamani and Niove that I was going to go to Coquito, the community down the road, to see what their housing situation was like. Then I went off to give my puppies a bath. While Rivera was sitting in my lap, shivering away the trauma of becoming clean, a veritable uproar took place. Word had gotten out that I was going to look into moving to Coquito, and everyone had something to say about that. There are thieves! The people there are caliente (hot, technically, but meaning more like... hard partiers to the point of being dangerous for other people? I don't know how to translate this). Coquito had a volunteer a few years ago, but they drove her off!

20 minutes later, I was standing next to this man's house with him and another man from the community. We were marking off where my future casita will be built. They say it will take 10 days. I assume that 10 means more like 30, but regardless, I'm going to have my own house! Success!

So I am finally moving out into my own little casita! It is exciting because I have gone through A LOT to get to this point. However, the house I am moving into needs a few repairs. I bet you never thought you would see me replacing rotting wood with new wood, rewiring electricity (because I have to steal it from my neighbor), washing a house with a broom and laundry detergent, killing mice and cacatas, etc. etc. Anyways, we have done a lot of work on it, and it is almost to a point where I can move in! yay!

On the work front: I am almost done with my diagnostic report and presentation. I am going to Jarabacoa Feb 1-3 with my project partner to present our findings to my boss and the other health volunteers. When I return I will be starting 4 Hogares Saludables groups and 1 Escojo Mi Vida group. I will also be organizing a board of Public Health because my community does not have any kind of unity or organization, and I am hoping that by starting a board of Public Health we will at least be able to be unified in that sector. It will also be very useful to have a group organized and ready when I start projects or have problems. Lastly, I will be attending the PCDR 50th Anniversary in Santo Domingo so that will be a fun networking opportunity :)

Funny Story: My friend Estrella was helping me clean my new house out because it was previously used as somewhat of a storage unit because it was uninhabited. There was a big pile of old clothes in the corner, and neither of us wanted to touch it. We were deathly afraid that there was a giant snake in it (they get HUGE here) so we used brooms to pick up one piece at a time. There was a lot of screaming and running out of the house every time something moved (cacata, random insect, mouse, wasp, etc.) By the time we were done moving all of the clothes we had an audience. Apparently the community found us to be quite funny.

On My Spanish: I am slowly learning Spanish... haha. From what I hear Dominican spanish is the hardest to understand... so that makes me feel better. I am to the point now where I can understand 90% of what is going on but speaking is another story. I am still pretty slow at translating everything in my head, and my vocabulary is somewhat lacking. However I am learning (just keep telling yourself that right? haha). Anyways I feel like this clip sums up how I feel when I try to speak sometimes (the spanish part is about half way through) ...

So after such a crazy adventure in the capital last weekend, I honestly don’t even think I could begin to describe to you how nice it was to come home and sleep in my own bed. So I won’t… I will, however, tell you about how I am realizing, daily, that I don’t need to [...]

So a new group of volunteers arrives in the country twice a year. In August the youth, business, and health volunteers arrive. In the spring there is a group of environment, education, and IT volunteers. The arrival date for the … Continue reading →

A few months back all the Peace Corps Volunteers in the Youth, Family and Community Development program met up for …Continue reading »

Written January 8 I read in Acts 26 about Paul recounting his conversion to King Agrippa. After he had finished, King Agrippa said to him, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” This just had me wondering, “What was it that held King Agrippa back from ‘altogether’ (as Paul worded it) coming to fully … Continue reading »

Luis Angel, 11 and Luis Alberto, 9, are two brothers who live in Batey Las Pajas, a small rural community …Continue reading »

Fast-forward from Cape Town (there are no words to describe...) to my new job in D.C., which has already sent me to several very interesting lectures on topics of interest to the non-profit community.

Last Friday, I attended a forum titled 'PepsiCo. and the World Food Programme (WFP): A Public-Private Partnership to Transform Nutrition Across Africa', and was inspired by the observations made by the representatives from these unlikely partners. As MSME (Micro Small and Medium Enterprise) enthusiasts, non-profit workers might be inclined to mistrust multi-billion dollar corporations, perhaps even more so when they claim to incorporate humanitarian acts into their business model. The forum last week, however, put my former perspective into perspective: perhaps PepsiCo. will be part of the solution instead of the problem.

The non-profit sector is full of do-gooders who can hardly afford to buy a bottle of 3-buck chuck at Trader Joe's, including yours truly, while Pepsi and the like are lining their pockets with currencies from all over the globe. But what if there was a way (and more importantly, a will) to use the incredible resources that companies like Pepsi have at their fingertips to make a serious dent in global hunger? With developed world markets becoming increasingly saturated, the movers and shakers at the top of the capitalist food chain are naturally looking toward new markets, and what better a consumer base than the hungriest people in the world.

In Ethiopia, as in most African nations, a large percent of children do not have consistent access to the nutrients they need to become healthy energetic adolescents and subsequently adults who can participate effectively in global economies. Certain nutrient rich, locally produced foods are already a part of the diet and culture and could be the key to improving nutrition from the ground up. Well aware of this, the World Food Programme (WFP) has recruited one such legume to be the star player in their newest campaign: the humble chickpea. This little nitrogen-fixing plant has begun to make a name for itself around the globe, as dedicated carnivores have found a taste for hummus and Indian food is all the rage in cities, but it's always been important to Ethiopia. This year WFP developed a sweetened chickpea-milk compound packaged individually and targeted at malnourished youth that could not be better suited to local demand, and Ethiopian leaders and farmers are simply ecstatic to start manufacturing and distributing the product locally. This is where Pepsi comes in.

Anticipating the concerns of many audience members at the forum, the WFP representative warned us that there's really no reason to be surprised or alarmed that Pepsi may have motivations beyond the humanitarian for investing in this project as this means they are incentivized to see the project through. Because their investment depends on it, Pepsi worked to ensure that the product stays at price-point so as not to become irrelevant, a safety net that is invaluable to WFP as they begin to promote their product, at first in Ethiopia but potentially to a much wider consumer base. Large companies will have an increasingly important role to play in global nutrition, and transparent arrangements such as this one are trail-blazing the way to a new understanding of the potential of public-private partnerships.

As the WFP representative told us, "there's so much more at stake than compassion". Feeding practices during the first 24 months of life are critical in a child's brain development, and access to this powerful package of sweetened chickpea could go a long way in improving that development. Pepsi's long term goal may be to diversify their own source for chickpeas as global demand soars, but a necessary step toward achieving that goal is supporting smallholder farms which leads to improved incomes. Ethiopian farmers have always cultivated chickpea for small-scale domestic consumption, but with Pepsi's investment and WFP's guidance, the chickpea could have a real impact on child nutrition in Ethiopia and around the world.

These last few months have just flown by, partly because I spent 17 days in America, partly because my work is finally starting to pick up.

Let me start with my trip to America. It was so nice to be back to Iowa to visit my family and friends over the holidays. It'd been 3 years since I'd been home during the winter months and I was more than slightly disappointed by the good weather. I had hoped for some serious snow/ice storms so that I could cozy up in my basement with a book or movie by the fire. Well, no storms meant that the roads were not bad and that made it so that I was able to drive and be extremely busy trying to see as many people as possible in my week in Iowa. I love being home, I love all of you friends and family and seeing you but being home just doesn't feel like vacation to me because to me vacation should be relaxing.

So, knowing the person that I am at home (constantly on the go making plans with back to back and maybe even breaking plans with people because I make too many plans), I knew I needed to make plans for a real vacation which is why I ended up in Denver/Copper Mt. with a few friends from college for the last part of my vacation. Good choice on my part because it really did feel like a vacation, and I wouldn't have even seen snow on my trip if I wouldn't have made these plans. Even if it was man-made snow because there hadn't been any snow, it felt real. Part of my reason for choosing Denver as my vacation spot is because I have always had it in the back of my mind that I would end up there someday.

So that leads me to my current situation. I spoke with a fellow volunteer friend that is back in the States now. Turns out she has an excel sheet with 71+ jobs that she has applied for in the last several months of being home. Only a few interviews and nothing. The good thing is that I know how to live on bare minimum if needed. I know how to not buy things when I don't need them. But....that doesn't mean I don't want a job that I can get some get some new shoes..a ski pass in Denver..and real vacations and this and that and yeah that's my mind telling me it's time to find a real job. Because I deserve those things, I'm a hard worker and 27 months (well I guess 30 something months now) not making enough to even get what I need (sorry Peace Corps..but I can hardly afford to eat what I need and neither can my friends as we have both lost some poundage and LUCKILY you are giving one of my roommates protein powder so we can survive at the end of the month when things are tight). I have friends here that literally things are so tight at the end of the month that they eat oatmeal everyday until pay day 3 meals a day for the last 4-5 days of the month. I shouldn't have to rely on a friends protein powder with a splash of carnation milk to feed myself. Nor should volunteers have to survive on oatmeal for so many days.. And I don't want to live like that anymore. I want a steak and potatoes with a side of brocolli and cauliflower with cheese drizzles over it or something and some birthday cake or something here and there to make me feel human dude. Like a three course meal. I am not saying I need that everyday.. but it'd be nice to feel like I could splurge a little to widen my food options.

So..the job search has begun. I am looking at some teaching fellows in Denver where you can get your teaching certification while teaching elementary Spanish in an under-served community. My heart kind of flutters and it is the first application since my applying to Peace Corps that I actually feel excited about. So I think to myself, am I going to have to feel this way about 71 jobs like my friend or is there someway that I can continue harassing people where I am applying and convince them that yes, I am awesome and will blow you away once you give me the chance to. and the kids will love me. Actually, if I don't get this job or a job like it I think I'd be a good photographer for kids. I always can make them smile for some reason for pictures. That's a skill for my resume, right?

Work here..well, my to-do list is longer than it ever has been. I am excited about my work, but would be more excited if the Appropriate Technology sector wasn't being done away with. My director of AT, Tim, is being let go because of budget cuts to Peace Corps. It makes me sad because I've never seen someone so passionate about their work, so passionate that it has also made me passionate about bathrooms, composting ones at least. So passionate that he took his last week of vacation time that he hadn't use to spend it at the office working. Working because he loves it and working because he knows we need him and he wants to make sure we get everything we need from him before he leaves.

My USAID grant (US$5,200) is finally here. I will be planning 3 training conferences on composting latrines in the Samana peninsula. I already went out to Las Galeras and started planning for our first training conference. My friend Gaby lives out there and has funding to do 20 composting latrines. I am helping her smooth out her budget and figure out where to order her materials to make sure that she will have enough funding for at least her planned project. Her budget is looking great, and it looks like she may have funding to do even more than originally projected.

Budgets don't always work that way I have found out over the last few weeks. My other friend is doing a composting latrine project in Monte Cristi and when I had originally planned for her budget, it was before all of the changes that occurred in our design, and her budget ended up being slightly off. Also prices of materials have gone up even more because her grants were applied for much longer ago than my friend Gaby on the peninsula. She is hoping to score some materials for her project from some politicians, city hall or some local NGO's to balance those miscalculations. It wasn't too terribly off and if she gets a few bags of cement and sand donated the project will be completed. It isn't such a terrible thing after all and it gives opportunity for a little local funding to happen. Afterall, if local people have to step it up to make this happen, maybe after my friend is gone the community could do another small project with the help of politicians/NGO's/ect. Thankfully there are always solutions when things don't go as planned, which is what Peace Corps is all about is learning how to work around problems and find the best solutions to get things done in a most of the time disorganized, running around with my head cut off kind of environment.

Besides helping other volunteers get things off the ground and planning the training conferences, I am still working on perfecting the construction manual and have taken quite a bit of video footage for a video project. I plan to have a mini-video for the AT sector presentation at our 50th anniversary presentation that is coming up in a few weeks. I want to show how this project has grown and developed over the last 3 years. Many Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from the States are coming down to celebrate the 50th and want to hear about each sector.

That is all. =)Ohh..and I may be getting a few more visitors in March--my dearest friend Erin and her boyfriend Gabe are trying to plan a visit. I hope it happens.

Cuidanse mucho!

Since I am here to be a health volunteer, I thought I should tell you about a few of the health myths that pervade my community. I've heard most of these just in casual conversation, although a few came out in my diagnostic survey as well.

"Bell peppers are a cure for anemia." I have been told multiple times that if you have anemia, you need to make a smoothie of guava and bell peppers and you will get better. When I asked where this myth comes from, I was told "the doctors." I think I need to have a conversation with these doctors."Víveres have a lot of vitamins and minerals." They do not. They are carbs and starch, which are a far cry from vitamins and minerals."You need to wear gloves if you're going to touch a dog." My doña actually told me she would stop doing my laundry if she saw me touching dogs anymore. Every time she sees me petting my dogs, she practically cries because she thinks I'm going to get deathly ill. I was also told that HIV comes from animals, so that's just not great."I can't eat spicy food because I have high blood pressure." I tell them that I think they are confusing salty and spicy, but they say, no, their doctors told them they can't have spicy food.The thing that's so frustrating about these conversations is that I walk away feeling completely unbelieved. They know I'm a health promoter, they know I went to school to learn about health. They ask me questions like "do guandules have vitamins in them?" (They don't, really. Their main claim to nutritional fame is protein and healthy carbs). But when I challenge them on something they already think is true, they argue with me. The argument eventually ends with them essentially rolling their eyes and saying, "yeah, ok, Elena, I sure do believe you now."

I just keep telling myself that these conversations are laying the groundwork for my Hogares Saludables class that I'm starting for the women in my community next month. By the time they finish the class, at least some of them are bound to realize that spinach is a better source of iron than bell peppers, right?

So I am working on sharing what my days actually look like here in the D.R. I just posted some photos on facebook too so check those out.

Last week, I headed down to the capital because the tendonitis in my hand started swelling up again. Once again I must say that the med staff of PCDR is amazing, they truly look out for me. I was able to see a specialist and have a treatment all in the same day. I am not supposed to wear my cast for the next week so hopefully when I try to write (aka study Spanish) I will experience no pain!

I live pretty far up north and while I'm def around some amazing people, all of my girls live around the capital so I def tried to take advantage of being down there. So I was able to eat lunch with my girls (and despite all the chicken and rice I get in my site, I still ordered fried chicken and rice smh) catch up on life in their sites and express some of my thoughts and feelings about some upcoming projects. This Peace Corps experience is so much more gratifying and rewarding knowing that I have the support of amazing people who are going through the same emotions as me.

This past weekend there was a huge celebration (of the patronales) in Monte Plata where youth volunteers had CBT. Of course, I loved my host family so it was only right to head back to Monte Plata for the celebrations and spend a little quality time with the fam. It was absolutely everything I could have hoped for. The first day that I arrived, we had a huge spread of my favorite foods and they have Gatorade uva and peanut butter waiting for me. (my peanut butter cravings in this country are starting to get out of hand). I got to catch up with my family; sit, reflect, and unwind on my favorite porch in the D.R.; and spend time with my abuela (who lost her mother in December) so it was nice to just hug her and listen to her because she is still dealing with her loss.

In the afternoon, we headed to the park to check out the horse races. While I'm not sure if there was ever supposed to be a horse race, we did see a presidential candidate ride by in a carriage several times. It was fun to see my brother and sister, as well as other youth we worked with in Monte Plata riding horses and enjoying the day. Maybe next year I will actually ride a horse, I couldn't work up the nerve this time around.

The next day Danny, Malika, Hillary and me walked around to visit all of our youth group's doñas so that everyone felt the love. Making rounds in this country is long and tiring but always well worth it. Also, my favorite Peace Corps employee ever, Veronica, came in the afternoon and it was great to catch up with her.

We left Monte Plata and headed over to Sabana Grande de Boya to check out Kali and Dustin's site. The ride from Monte Plata to their site was breathtaking. Beautiful valleys and mountains literally untouched and very clean! It only inspired me to make sure to visit as many volunteer sites as possible. It was wonderful to see them in their element and share their world. We got to check out some of the baseball leagues, we walked around their entire pueblo, checked out Dustin's new home, and had a huge feast at Kali's house compliments of Doña Lydia. It was great!

Another plus to checking out my friends' sites is that it is a good tool for me to continue to gain confidence in my Spanish is to continue to travel and talk to people in different regions as they all have different accents and lingo so I'm excited for the upcoming opportunities.

We have our 3 month in site training at the end of January. At this training, we have to bring a project partner, present the results of our 3 month community and institutional diagnostics, and learn more about DR youth projects and grant opportunities through various presentations. After this training, we are like officially official volunteers and can jump into any projects we want to start in our respective communities. After that I am helping out with the Peace Corps D.R. 50th Anny and then taking 2 of my girls to the Northern Chicas Brillantes Regional Conference. I am really blessed to have the opportunity to be at the 50th Anny and I am so excited to take some of my girls to a conference because neither of them have done a lot of travelling. So the next 3 weeks will be extremely busy, exciting and rewarding, I'll be sure to take pictures so that you can experience it all with me.

I’ve neglected the blog lately, but now I’m back! A lot has happened in the past two months – Thanksgiving, friends came to visit, I wrapped up my first English class, went home to America for almost three weeks, and came back to the DR. I’m going to break this down over the next few ...

Say what? I remember reading in one of the Peace Corps publications something about “learning a new way to communicate.” That sounds so pretty, doesn’t it? But it can be really hard and very frustrating when you’re accustomed to being able to communicate in one way, and now have to in a completely different one. … Continue reading »

This weekend was a jam-packed one. After a few weeks of not leaving my site, spending time settling into my new house and working with my various youth groups, I managed to steal a few days in the capital. I had a few things to do in the Peace Corps office as I haven’t been [...]

At 5 am the night sky drapes over the cane, a heavy blanket covering the land. All is dark and …Continue reading »

After a wonderful “winter” break full of visitors, traveling, and exciting new year’s and birthday celebrations, I finally got my groups back up and running this past week.  My little engineers made amazing newspaper towers, which we had fun lighting on fire at the end (not part of the original plan).  My 8th graders played [...]

I have seen a lot of people post this video on various forms of social media. I finally got a chance to watch it (as I’m in the capital using internet that doesn’t cost me money…whattuuuuup!). I don’t consider myself much of an activist, in fact I often find myself doing more listening to than [...]

Sometimes I wish they’d given a catchy title to our training manual. If we were to have a title here in PCDR (and I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes the same for Peace Corps Worldwide) is: “Expect the Unexpected,” subtitle: “And do your damndest to make it look like you’re ready for anything even [...]

Like most things Dominican, my first 24 hours of homeownership can easily be boiled down to food. Let me take you on a journey through my first 24 hours of solitude via mi alimentacion. The first activity post move in was to be dragged by the ‘muchachos’ of La Culata to El Rio (about a [...]

       I write this to you from my very own house.  I have officially moved into my own digs and have a great new burst of independence (whether that’s actually a good thing or not). The move was easy-peasy because about 6 small children showed up at my Host Family’s home to help [...]

A lot of our Health training was focused on Behavior Change and how to work effectively against the poor habits that many members of our future communities would have developed. We talked a lot about the barriers that exist between healthy habits and the people that we’re working with. While there are some pretty stereotypical [...]

Thank you for the post. Keep up the good work. I was a PCV in SFM in the late 80's and wondered what did David do while he was there and who did he work with? I married someone from the area and continue to make yearly trips.

As always, Steph, your thoughtful description of physical and emotional events in your surroundings help those of us not there to understand the situation better. Love you bunches, Mom

[...] up working with Plan International, which was coordinating a huge shipment of emergency supplies, and he coordinated hundreds of volunteers for a week to send kits with food and other necessities li.... Peace Corps finally sent waves of volunteers with Creole training to translate and handle [...]

There appears to be a theme in my life. It is, “What will James find in his mosquitero today?” Honestly, I don’t understand my luck. Mosquiteros are made to keep animals and monsters out of your bed while you sleep. Every night I check to make sure it’s properly tucked in, and every morning I [...]

So how do you feel about bread with ketchup and a milky-white substance with no flavor in a glass for breakfast? Yeah, those are my thoughts exactly. ****** I’m going to start with the punch line of this story first because it’s just too good. “We decided to raffle off a chicken in order to [...]

Tomorrow is my official swearing in ceremony as a volunteer. Throughout training I have had my trusty Moleskine notebook by my side. I have taken pages upon pages of notes, but occasionally I’ll hear something that seems extra important, makes me laugh, scares me, seems notable, and a lot of times I doodle as well. [...]

Some things happened recently, that upon reflecting, made me realize I’ve been here a while and maybe, JUST maybe, am acclimating a bit more: #1: It wasn’t until my Dona hissed and swatted at a baby pig to get it out of the kitchen, that I even realized the pig was sitting by my feet [...]