In April, we had a special treat when the Director of Peace Corps worldwide, Aaron Williams (who served in the Dominican Republic and married a Dominican woman) came to visit the Dominican Republic with a group of senators from around the U.S. to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Several of us volunteers were invited to come along with our project partners. Thony came with me and had to borrow a suit and shoes from his brother and friends. I finally had an excuse to wear one of the beautiful dresses that Maw Maw bought me on my trip to the South in November. I must say, I think I looked pretty good. Anyway, we arrived with our invitations to the Embassy all dressed up and there was a cocktail and appetizer hour beforehand as we waited for Director Williams and the senators to arrive. Once they arrived we circled the house and went through the front doors where we were presented to Director Williams and some of the senators as well as the Ambassador and some representatives from the Dominican government. The Dominican Press was in full attendance taking pictures and filming the whole soiree. The Ambassador, Director Williams, one of the senators, our country director Romeo, and one of the volunteers spoke. Afterwards we were treated to a wonderful dinner. It was quite an evening and an honor to be invited and meet this distinguished group of people however briefly.

In March we held the Brigada Verde Sur (the Southern Green Brigade) Conference for all of the volunteers that live in the southwest of the country. It was held near San Juan and I helped plan it, including finding the center where we held the conference. It was a fun-filled and tiring weekend. We had lessons about garbage, the human impact on the environment, HIV/AIDS, recycled art projects, water pollution and cholera, deforestation and tree planting, biodiversity, numerous games and movies and some time spent swimming in the lovely swimming pool. All in all it was a great weekend. I took three of the boys from my Brigada Verde group who live near me in the campo. They are all relatively shy boys who have very rarely left the campo to do anything, so it was great to get to take them to the conference and see them come out of their shells and participate with the other kids that were attending the conference. I had to buy them swimsuits for the conference because none of them owned any. I think they had a good time and I was so proud of how they behaved.

Diego is Thony’s younger sister Deida’s second son. I think he’s just about the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen! Her older son Albert was just a baby when I first met her and now he’s a toddler running around wreaking havoc all the time, although he’s still cute as a button too. Deida is 22 I think. She lives in the capital but comes out a couple of times a year and stays for a couple weeks. Last time I saw her she was pregnant and now she has this big bundle of joy!! He’s going to be a big boy just like his big brother.

In late January Thony and I went up to my friend Ben’s site which is a couple hours from here to teach him and his masons how to make the improved wood stoves. It was a fun week. The first night when we were there, we went down to Ben’s local colmado and hung out and played dominoes with young and old. Ben and I particularly enjoyed it because we were beating the Dominicans pretty regularly. Dominicans are notoriously good at dominoes so whenever you can win it’s exciting.

The next day we were up bright and early to work on the fogon at his doña’s house, which luckily is right next to his little house because they are actually the owners of his house. We had two masons that we were training and Thony leading the training. It worked really well; so much easier to have a Dominican man telling other Dominican men what to do instead of trying to get them to listen to little old me. Don’t get me wrong, some men are very open and willing to work with me and take my instruction but there’s a lot who aren’t. Their machismo gets in the way sometimes. Day 2 we worked over at Ben’s neighbors’ house. It is three boys ages 22, 17, and 14 whose parents died suddenly within a few months of each other since Ben arrived in their site. So the 22-year-old, Freilin, is trying to take care of his little brothers so that they can finish school. Ben is super close with them and they come over to his house every day throughout the day to hang out and visit.

In the evenings, Ben would cook us up some dinner and we’d have a couple beers and relax and enjoy the cool evenings (Ben’s up at a higher elevation so it cools down more there than it does in my site). I actually slept with a sleeping bag on the second and third nights because I was so cold on the first night. Although other than the cool nights and the fact that there’s more hills it’s virtually identical to my site. The same thorn trees and living fences of euphorbia. It was nice to see that at least someone else is living in a similar site to me!

Many of you have heard about the cholera outbreak in Haiti and the increasing number of people who have become sick or died. There have now also been confirmed reports and deaths in the Dominican Republic; some of these cases have been as close as communities around San Juan, the closest city to me. After decades without cholera, Hispaniola is ill prepared to deal with such an epidemic. There are many misconceptions that Dominicans have in general about Haitians and particularly about cholera and the Haitian population. Because there hasn’t been cholera in Hispaniola for so long most Haitians and Dominicans (particularly those from rural areas) didn’t know what it was or where it comes from. The Dominican response, has been to limit Haitians from crossing the border, although this has unfortunately involved sending some Haitians who have lived in the Dominican Republic for years across the border to Haiti. There are a number of problems with this solution. First, it is not a specifically Haitian disease. In fact, it is thought that it was possibly brought to Haiti by international relief workers because some people can be infected and never become sick but can still infect others. Second, it is most easily caught through contaminated water. And in countries like Haiti and the Dominican Republic where water is largely not regulated or treated because most people get water from a community constructed aqueduct or simply from the rivers and creeks that run through their villages the disease can run rampant quickly. In addition to this, most water born illnesses will die when dried out. Cholera is an exception. It can be dried and then as soon as water touches it again it will come back to life. This makes it extremely difficult to eradicate.

Luckily for volunteers, we have the Peace Corps which is ever vigilant in trying to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of all volunteers. As such, we were required to attend a training in the capital at the end of October to learn more about it and how to protect ourselves and educate our communities. During our training we learned about signs and symptoms of cholera, which I will spare all of you from, and we learned ways to protect ourselves. First and foremost, bleach. Bleach in any water we are going to use for washing dishes, for washing any food that we might eat without boiling it first. Although cholera is easily treatable with antibiotics, prevention is the best weapon. A current volunteer down here who was a volunteer in Guatemala several years ago, came up and told us about having cholera and just how miserable it is. It makes parasites sound like nothing more than a nuisance. It can kill a child or an elderly person in 24 hours and a healthy adult in 48-72 hours.

Now that I’ve scared all of you, let me assure you that I’m taking all the precautions I can and as of today, we have no reported cases of cholera in the community.

A few days after cholera training and the robbery we were consolidated to San Juan because of the threat of Hurricane Tomas. Everyone in regions 1 and 2, which means everyone in the southwest of the country, was required to come to a hotel in San Juan until the danger of the hurricane had passed. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and were there until Sunday. Luckily for us, the hurricane moved farther west and we didn’t see much of anything except some light, but steady rain for about 24 hours. We had all seen worse rainstorms in the past. The rest of the time was sunny and beautiful. It was particularly amusing to those of us who live close to San Juan because it felt like we would have been fine in our homes, but Peace Corps has a better safe than sorry policy which is probably a good idea. However, spending 6 days in a hotel, particularly when you aren’t supposed to leave the hotel at all for a couple of those days gets exhausting. In the beginning we were all excited. We had nice air-conditioned rooms, cable TV, free wireless internet, and free meals (admittedly mediocre Dominican food), and San Juan to wander around in when we weren’t required to stay in the hotel. Also, there were a bunch of new volunteers that had just sworn in, so it was fun to get to know them over the course of our stay. However, even with all these perks, six days of hotel living and never being alone takes its toll. I think we were all relieved when we got the okay to return to our sites.

Several months have passed now since this happened, but I still believe it’s affected me a lot and feel that it’s important to share it. As I mentioned in the previous post, I went to the capital for cholera training at the end of October. As I was returning the next day with several other volunteers, I received a call from my friend who takes care of my house, who told me that my house had been broken into the night before when he had left for a couple of hours in the evening. I was shocked. I had never really worried about that happening as I’d already been living in the house for more than a year and on several occasions had gone out at night to compartir (share time with) friends in the community. Also, my house is fairly secure as far as Peace Corps volunteer houses go.

When I arrived at my house it was time to survey the damage. They had broken one of the wooden slats on the window to right of the front door of the house and reached inside and opened the lock. I’m not sure exactly what they were looking for, but they managed to take quite a bit. The worst thing they took was 5000 pesos (about $150 US) that was money community members had given me as part of their contribution for our improved cookstove project. They also took several pairs of pants and shorts, some T-shirts and tank tops, several pairs of shoes, some skirts and a dress, a bunch of paints that Mom had brought me when she came, a backpack, most of my sheets, my towel, and a damaged greca (a stovetop coffee maker).

By the time I arrived home they had three people in custody that had been seen near the house around the time the robbery happened. I had to go down and give a report to the police that evening and then return the next morning where I had to sit and listen while the detectives questioned the men one by one as they sat in a chair next to me. As there was no proof, they were allowed to go. In the end, only one is still suspected of having been involved, although the other two had information they later shared, not with police but with other members of the community which eventually trickled back to me. Another man who is believed to be involved was later arrested on unrelated charges to the robbery and is still in jail.

I have to say, I lost a little bit of faith in my community initially when I found out what happened, and definitely felt less secure in my own house, which is a terrible feeling to have. I still get freaked out every now and again and am very careful about leaving my house unattended. However, things could have been much worse. Had I been here and left the house alone at night, they probably would have stolen my computer and my camera which would have been irreplaceable as they have all of my work information and all of my photos from my time here saved on them. And ultimately, my faith was restored in my community on the night I returned from the capital. It was patronales (kind of like a festival with booths that sell alcohol and dance competitions) and as I mentioned several of my volunteer friends had come back to my site with me so we could go enjoy patronales. So while some people stayed at my house, a few of us went out. When we arrived I was immediately approached by friends in the community, who were concerned about the robbery. They all felt so horrible that it had happened to me. It was a strange feeling. On the one hand, I felt violated and like an outsider because my house had been robbed, and on the other hand I felt so loved and like such a part of the community because all these people were so concerned for me. In the end, I think it may have been a blessing in disguise. The things that were stolen held no sentimental value and could be replaced and my community banded around me.

I feel like I´m more aware of time here. Aware of the time that has passed since I´ve been here and how much the people and the place have changed. There are big things like they´ve paved parts of the road, put in some sidewalks, put in a cell phone tower(that´s still not connected, but it´s there nonetheless), and now they´re putting in light posts all the way past my house on our little road. So instead of having luz (electricity) that´s floja (weak) I will soon have luz fuerte that will run from the wire by the pole that´s 40 feet from my house.

However, the biggest way I notice time passing here is with the muchachitos, and with the pregnancies and births that have happened since I´ve been here. For example, my friend Rosini was pregnant when I got here and now her daughter Yuliana is a year old. They mayor Eddie and his esposa Mayelin just had their second son and Cafe their first is growing like a weed. He was just beginning to talk when I got here and now he´s talking up a storm and inventing stories like Nate did when he was that age. My friend Yafresi just had her secon daughter (which is another story I´ll get too at some later point) and her first who was a year old when I got here is now 2 and a half. And Steven, the grandsom of one of my favorite doñas, La Buena, could barely walk and now he wanders our neighborhood visiting friends and playing.

It´s through these kids and friendships that I measure time here. It´s through them that I realize not only how long I´ve been here but how time moves us along and changes us without us even knowing it. And it´s through them that I realize how time has made me part of this community that I´ve come to love.

At last I’ve begun work on the improved cookstove project. It was pretty much the main reason that I was solicited for my site. After months of planning, trying to have meetings, filling out grants, waiting to receive grant money, getting the community organized, finding materials (some as far away as the capital), getting materials transported to my site, and getting someone down here to train us, work has finally started. I just finished stove number 6. My friend Andrea came down to train my albañil (mason) Jutico and I. Ben came over from his site near here and Elise the volunteer near me came over as well. We had a big crew for the first couple of days. I think the stoves will make a big difference for the people who receive them for a number of reasons. They use way less wood to cook with, which means way fewer trees will be cut down. And, they have a chimney so the women, children, and whomever else is in the kitchen, will not be inhaling smoke all day long.

How do you make an improved cookstove you may be asking yourself? Well, first we had to take a lot of measurements. We checked the size of the cement blocks. We decided the size of the stove based on that. We identified the location of the stove based on space, and where the chimney was going to have to go through the roof. Next, we had to lay down the first and most important layer of cement blocks. Everything must be square and level because we’re building up and the more square and level the stove is the stronger it will be and the longer it will last. Once the first row is laid out we built the second, third, and fourth, leaving openings on the third and fourth in the front to build the mouth of the stove.

After the four layers are done we filled in the stove with soil up to the level of the second block. On top of this we put the clay tiles that make up the fire box and can stand up to heat better than cement. One 8 x 16 tile goes down flat, another buried halfway behind the base block, two more of the same size on the sides. Then you fill in the seams with clay that you’ve mixed with water so it’s super sticky. After these four are stuck together inside and outside a 10 x 10 tile goes on top and gets the same treatment. Next, we filled in the final cement blocks that go over the box and cement a 6 x 6 tile behind the block over the firebox to help protect the block a little more.

Then, we had to fill in more dirt around the fire box until it is level with the top. After that we put in an empty kilogram aluminum can with top and bottom cut out and wrapped in chicken wire behind the fire box to work as the tube that goes between the two burners. Then we put four one foot pieces of rebar into the soil and set the bigger of the two pots on top of them and lowered them until either they hit the aluminum can or were between 7 and 8 centimeters above the edge of the stove. Did I mention the pots have to be level both from side to side and from front to back? Then we filled in around and up to the pot until it is level with the top of the blocks. We repeated this process with the smaller pot in the back, including putting the aluminum can underneath out the back so that it can connect to the chimney, which we also had to make.

To make the chimney we had to cut a piece of smooth zinc in half vertically and then also cut a round about the size of a 5 gallon bucket opening. We had to roll the zinc around a piece of wood and tied it together with wire. After that, we had to punch holes in the zinc with nails and then put screws in to hold the chimney together, after which we cut a hole in one side about the size of the aluminum can, and we made four holes in the top part of the chimney. To make the hat for the chimney we had to cut up to the middle and then pull the parts together so they overlap, then we nailed a hole and put a screw in to hold that together. After that, we punched four holes in the hat for the chimney and we wired the hat to the chimney. Now comes the fun part, my mason had to cut a hole in the zinc right where we wanted the chimney to come down and we had to feed the chimney through the hole and down into place, putting it through a big aluminum can in the process. We had to fit the opening over the top of the aluminum can that was coming out of the back of the second burner and then cement everything except the big can into place.

Following this, we filled in around the burners and chimney as much as we could with dirt. Then we put into place and mold made of 1 x 4 boards that stand 4 centimeters above the top of the block. After that, we filled in the top with cement and leveled it out until it’s smooth. At this point we took out the pots to fill in any holes we may have left and to take out any excess cement that might have fallen into any holes or be stuck on the inside. Finally, we put on some dry cement at the end to make sure it looks nice on top.

The families have to turn the pots every hour or two for the evening and can take them out that night or early the next morning so they won’t stick. They also have to wait 5 days before they use them so that the cement can dry well.

It’s pretty cool to see the finished project after a hard day of work, although now it’s taking two days to do because my mason decided I wasn’t going to pay him enough, even though we had talked about it previously and it’s more than almost any other mason in the country is getting paid to do this project, so Thony is going to be my mason, with some help from me of course. The only problem with that is that he’s not a mason so it’s a slow process to lay block and cement it together well and get everything level. I know he (and I) will get the hang of it soon enough, but for now what could take 5 or 6 hours with a mason is taking us 9 or 10 hours. It’s exhausting, and you’re generally working inside under a zinc roof, which means it’s super hot, so you’re sweating buckets. Furthermore, you’re working with zinc and cement, so my hands are covered with little scrapes and cuts and my skin is peeling. However, working with the families and spending pretty much all day for a day or two at their houses is really fun and I get to know the people of my community a lot better. Plus, seeing a finished stove and the excitement of the doñas makes it all worth it. Six down, 56 to go.

My birthday rolled around again. The second time I’ve celebrated it here in country. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for long enough to celebrate two birthdays. This year Elise came over and my friend Ben came down and we went to this pool that’s at this Italian restaurant in San Juan. Somehow we missed discovering it until just recently and to think of the fun we could have had if we had only known. Luckily, there’s still some months left to enjoy it. It’s this beautiful pool and it has this gazebo which is elevated over the pool and you can swim under. Of course, we had to sit up there. We had some decent Italian food for lunch and swam around for a couple of hours in the water. Something like that makes you forget you’re in the Peace Corps for a little bit, which is actually quite nice on occassion. Then we bought some food and headed back up to my house where we cooked up a taco dinner and drank beer and wine and just hung out and talked and listened to music. Then later that night I talked to Mom, Dad, Nate, and Gretchen, and then I called Kate W at some ungodly hour and we chatted for awhile. It was so good to hear all their voices. Oh, and I got an idea to make a raised bed back behind my kitchen building so I spent an afternoon hauling rocks with some help from the neighbor boy, and then Thony came and helped too and making this little bed. I told Thony that instead of a birthday present he could fill up the raised bed with the sandy soil from the cañada near our house. He surprised me and did it while I was handing out the chicken wire to my women's group. I just planted some seeds in little containers yesterday so that I can plant in my new raised bed. I’m really hoping I’ll have more success than I have in the crappy soil that’s out behind my house. In the end it was a mellow birthday but a good one.

After months and months of waiting and planning and waiting some more I finally was able to get the chicken wire for my women’s group. We had lost motivation a little since last fall when we had applied for the grant and it had taken so long to get processed and up on the web site. Then I had training and my trip home in late May and June so I decided it would be best to wait until I got back from the States. Finally, I got the women together, 11 in total, less than what we had started with but a good group nonetheless. I started doing charlas. First about picking a site and planning a garden. Secondly, I did a charla about semilleros (starter beds) and we made some and planted some tomatoes for the women to take home. Then I handed out seeds to the ladies so that they could get started on their semilleros. Finally, I went and bought some more seeds and chicken wire for the ladies and the nephew of the presidenta of my women’s group took me to town to pick it up. We had a meeting that same afternoon and six of the eleven women showed up. We hung out and talked for awhile and I made plans to buy them a couple shovels, hoes, and picks to share that they can use to prepare and care for their gardens. I sent Thony to town to buy those the other day and he delivered them over to Tima’s house. This week I’ll be doing a charla about natural and cheap and easy to make pesticides that we can use to help with insects. And trust me, there are a lot of pests down here. Something about the humidity must breed more insects. It was particularly rewarding to hand out the chicken wire after so many months of waiting and working. I can’t wait to see what the ladies have done with it!

The volunteer who was here before me came to visit in August for a few days before she started grad school. She stayed over a the doña’s house but we hung out quite a bit. We walked around and visited with some of the families she had been close to and she came to a meeting with my women’s group. We also went up to Macoca, my long lost swimming hole. I hadn’t been there in quite a long time and was super disappointed to realize that it had mainly filled in with gravel and sand since the last time I was there. The water was beautiful and clear but my swimming hole had disappeared. It was sad, although the water was still really refreshing. I’m still hoping that it will clear out again if we have a big rain. In fact, it already could have considering how much and how hard it’s been raining recently. Anyways, we went up there with Thony, Elise (the new volunteer near me), and some of the girls that Adrienne was really close to. It was fun. Then Adrienne came over that night and we drank a little wine and chatted some more. It was fun to see her after more than a year and to see just how different our experiences have been in the community. I’m working with way different people than she did, which makes me feel good, cause I feel like I’m reaching a part of the community that she hadn’t, so hopefully I’m spreading the benefits of having a volunteer to more parts of the community.

At the end of July we had a conference here in the south of the country. It was called Celebrando El Sur (celebrating the south). After having been to a few camps here, I know how positive they are for the kids, but can also be very stressful for the volunteers. This camp turned out to be the best camp I’ve done so far in country. My friend Justin planned the whole thing pretty much by himself, handing out different charlas and tasks for the rest of us to do. We had 15 volunteers and 45 kids. It was up outside of this city called Neiba about half an hour on this partially paved, super curvy road, then turned off onto this rock (not gravel, but big rocks) road that leads at a 45 degree angle up this mountain to this camp. It was a pretty small place but had bunk rooms for all our us. Volunteers bunking with the kids because a bunch of Dominican teenagers unsupervised is just generally not a good idea. Heck, I guess that applies to all teenagers, not just Dominican ones.

The theme of the camp was diversity. So we had charlas about gender, ethnicity and immigration, HIV/AIDS and sexual pressures, biodiversity (I did that one), the continents of the world (I did Africa), and a few others I’m not remembering right now. The kids had to present a few times as well. They had to present something that represented their community. My two girls Laury and Germania presented about our holy spirit. They had a photo that they shared with the group while they talked about the holy spirit festival. Each group of kids also had to do a presentation on a different country of the world. We also had a game night where we had a bunch of stations the kids stayed at for 15 minutes each. The favorites were musical chairs and beer pong (with water of course) and flip cup. On the last day, the kids were divided into groups and they were each given a news article about some sort of diversity that they had to turn into a news broadcast. They were hysterical. We all got matching t-shirts and took a group picture on the last day complete with certificates for each of the kids and for each of us volunteers. It was a great weekend with the kids and I was so proud of my girls.

Once every few months we get together with all the volunteers that live in our region for a mini-vac. I can’t remember what mini-vac means anymore, but pretty much what happens is one person is the representative for our region and they go to a meeting in the capital where they talk about what’s going on with Peace Corps, bring up any issues volunteers are having, etc. Then we get together as a group and talk about all that stuff, but also hang out and relax with other volunteers for an evening. It works pretty well here in region two because there are only nine of us. Although it’s hard to make a time that works for everyone. We decided to hold our last mini-vac meeting at my friend Jeff’s house. We call it Hotel de Jefe. We were going to have a chili cook-off but we got standfasted the day before we were supposed to have the meeting so we all made chili and ate it in our sites instead. Luckily the standfast ended the next night so on Sunday instead of Saturday those of us who were able headed out to Jeff’s place. We cooked up a mean dinner and then tried to burn a stump in Jeff’s backyard and sat around listening to music and chatting. It was a great night. Peace Corps is funny in a way. You get so used to just being in your community that you don’t realize that you’re stressed out or just tired of having to integrate all the time until you hang out with another group of volunteers. Number one it’s a nice reminder of the fact that you’re not alone in feeling stressed and tired, but it’s also a chance to vent, and laugh, and share stories, and listen to American music.

There are a few times during Peace Corps service where we get to gather together and celebrate a U.S. holiday and 4th of July is one of the big ones. Which is funny because 4th of July has never been a huge holiday for me, but for many Peace Corps Volunteers it is. I stayed in my site last year but this year I decided it was time to get out of the campo and head to the beach. So I made the trek up to the Samana peninsula. A bus into the capital and then another bus on the “new highway” which only some parts of were new. We went winding through mountain roads on a huge Greyhound looking bus. When we go to the town of Samana we then had to catch a ride in a guagua that wasn’t really a bus but the back of a truck. We were piled in like sardines with all our backpacks and about 6 Dominicans as well with their produce, gas cans, etc. Needless to say it was really cozy. We got dropped off at the grocery store to stock up on supplies and then headed over to meet up with the friends we were bunking with. We went out to dinner and then headed to a party that some of the other volunteers were having and then headed out dancing for the evening to a discoteca. All in all a pretty good evening. Upon waking in the morning on the 4th of July we went and grabbed breakfast and then headed out to catch a boat to the beach we were going to spend the day at. It was beautiful. I mean spectacularly beautiful. We rented chairs that were strategically placed in the shade to hang out around and to stash our stuff. We spent the rest of the day swimming, lying around, munching snack food, and drinking. We headed back in the late afternoon and headed out for dinner and another night of visiting parties at various houses and hotels. We ended up at my friend Sarah’s room playing guitar and singing songs. Not a bad way to spend 4th of July. I may have to change my mind about the holiday, although it helps to be on a tropical island where no one else celebrates the holiday.

Since I talked about the Fiesta del Espíritu Santo I feel like I ought to mention the clothing more in depth. I don’t know the history of it, I wish I did but it’s really pretty cool. So for the procession before the festival and for the noche velas which are pretty much just mini versions of the big festival in someone’s house. They generally have a little shrine building and three blue crosses in the yard. They play palos and sometimes perico ripiao and some serve food as well, depending if it’s one that is going to last overnight or not. Anyway, back to the clothes. The clothes are amazing. They are usually cotton dresses for the women that are brightly colored in general, mainly red, yellow, green, and white. Sometimes they’ll have crosses sewn to the chest or sometimes on the sleeves. For the men, of which I don’t have a good picture unfortunately, they are cotton pants and button up shirts in the same colors as the women’s and with crosses sometimes as well. They make me think of Cuban men’s guayabera shirts (I think that’s the right name) although a lot more colorful.

So the Holy Spirit Festival rolled around once again at the end of May this year. It’s eight weeks after Good Friday. This festival is local to El Batey, think of it as El Batey’s Spring Fest, minus the rides and the dunking booth. I was excited to be here for it again because last year I had just arrived in site and didn’t really understand everything that was going on. I feel like I know a little more this year. Supposedly, the Holy Spirit doll (although you can’t call it a doll in front of the true believers) was left to the community by Taino Indians (the native population of Hispaniola) a long time ago. Although it was definitely not made by the Tainos. My guess is it was probably given to them by the Spanish, assuming the story is even partially true. Many people believe that it really does hold the spirit of the Holy Spirit and believe in its ability to grant wishes and perform miracles.

They start by having eight weeks of practices. The women go to the church in their religious clothes and clean the church and the men play the palos. Then the Saturday before the party, they carry the doll in a glass case through the community, stopping at various houses where they play the palos and do blessings on the house. At some of the houses they even make food for everyone in the procession, which means food for 50 or 60 people, maybe more, I’m bad at estimating numbers of people. They also have some people along who play perico ripiao, another traditional music that is played with a drum, a guira, and an accordion. A guira is a round metal thing that looks kind of like a cheese grater that you play by rubbing a stick on it.

Last but not least, the festival is on Monday. People come from all over the place by the carloads, truckloads, and busloads to see our little Holy Spirit doll. There are venders selling pictures of the Holy Spirit, candles to light when you pray for your miracles, plastic necklaces with crosses, jewelry, clothes, food from fried yucca to hamburgers to pizza to traditional sancocho (stew) and chen chen (grits), and alcohol mainly beer, whiskey, and rum (Brugal of course), and all the mixers to go with it. Some people will stay in the church all night praying (or sleeping on the benches). Meanwhile, palos are playing in various places outside and sometimes inside the church and people will dance. By the end of the night it’s generally the young people and the very religious who are still standing. The very religious stay at the church and the young people go over to one of the discotecas and dance reggaeton, bachata, and merengue until the wee hours of the morning.

I woke up this morning to hear that my neighbor across the way had died up in the loma. No one knows exactly what happened. They had been harvesting beans and he packed up his mule and started the long trek down yesterday afternoon. This morning a young man found him and came down to let his family know. As I’m writing this, a group of people has gone up into the mountain to bring his body back down. They have cleaned his yard, chopped the weeds around his house, and set up a tent for people to sit under in case it rains. And they have cleaned up his house so that they can lay out his body when the group that went to the mountain arrives with it.

Death is a common theme around here, particularly in a community made up largely of the older generation, as the young adults and people in their 20s and 30s have largely moved away from the campo to the cities. With death comes certain rituals that have been practiced for generations among the people of the Dominican

Republic.

The first part of these traditions is the velorio, which has already started for my neighbor although his body has not yet arrived, and will continue until tomorrow morning. Normally, it begins with the laying out of the body, and then all the close family members (spouses, parents, children, siblings) will sit in a room with the body and wail. People come in to pay their respects, which causes the family to wail even more loudly. After paying their respects people will gather outside in chairs and chit chat or play dominoes on the domino tables that have been brought in. In the normally separate kitchen building, someone is generally making coffee or hot chocolate, which they pass out on trays in little plastic cups usually accompanied by mints. Those who are close relatives of the family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) will stay all night at the velorio, many until they take the body for burial in our little cemetery.

Following this is the novena, which lasts nine days. On these nine nights close family and friends gather and play dominoes, drink coffee, suck on mints, and talk. At the end of each evening they play the palos, which are big bongo like drums and sing.

After the novena comes the rezo. At the rezo, anyone and everyone who was friends with or family with the deceased comes to pay their respects to the family. This means that sometimes as many as four or five buses come from the capital bringing extended family and friends to the campo. The immediate family cooks food for everyone, and I mean everyone. People will come early in the day and leave in the evening to head back to wherever they have come from.

Depending on how religious the family is there are other traditions they will follow as well. Some will not play music or drink for a month or more afterwards. And many will have a cabo de año every year on the anniversary of the person’s death for seven years.

April 2010

Brigada Verde groups were started by Peace Corps Volunteers several years ago to teach environmental responsibility to the youth of the Dominican Republic. This program has since been endorsed and supported by the national government and some NGOs, although Peace Corps and us volunteers are still at the heart of the movement. As such, we try to have several conferences throughout the year including at least three regional conferences and a national conference. We held a national conference in April which I got to attend with a couple of youth from my community. We went to the national aquarium where we watched a video and then were taken on a tour. The following day we spent most of the time in a national parked tucked away in Santo Domingo. We did a nature walk and in addition the kids got to ride bikes or go on a paddle boat ride in the lake in the middle of the park. We also had several charlas (lessons) during the conference led by not only Peace Corps volunteers but also by some of the youth who put together amazing presentations that they gave to their peers. We finished up by presenting certificates and t-shirts to the kids and then took a group picture.

It's not that Dominican food isn't good, it's just that there's about 5 dishes you can make and then repeat. You can have locrio, which is like arroz con pollo, you can have la bandera which is rice, beans, and a piece of meat, you can have viveres, of which yucca is the only one I can stand. You can have moro, which is a mix of rice and beans. And you can have spaghetti. Those are the staples of the Dominican diet and you can generally find one of the five in every house that you walk in to, and they're all pretty much seasoned the same. Needless to say, you get a little tired of eating the same things day after day. So I'm excited to come home and eat good food. So here's my list of the things I hope to eat while I'm there.

Good cheese, i.e. sharp cheddar, mozzarella, brie, bleu, and any other yummy kind anyone can think of.

Sara's bloody Marys

'Leners lasagna

'Leners gumbo

Papi's granola

Papi's chili and cornbread

A big medium-rare Bean Haven steak with a baked potato with butter and sour cream.

Juanita's tortilla chips and Veronica's salsa

'Leners biscuits

A meal cooked by Aubrey

A meal cooked by Stan

Some good wine

Haagen Daz coffee ice cream

Bean Haven burgers

Good dill pickles

Salads

I know there's more...

Rogue Hazelnut Brown beer

Walking Man Raspberry Wheat beer

Some sort of beer from Double Mountain

Onion dip with potato chips

There's still more, I just can't think of it yet...

I'll add it later! I'm just excited to get home for a little while and see everyone. And play ping pong, disc golf, have a bonfire at the stones, and lots of other fun stuff.

Café is my favorite little boy in the campo. He's the mayor's son (the mayor is only 29). And his grandma, Miladi, is one of my favorite doñas. He's just about as cute as they come. He's super precocious and talks up a storm. His grandma and aunt told me a story about him somehow coming up with the idea that he was the father of the neighbor's unborn baby. So he asked his dad for money so that he could go buy clothes for the baby because dads have to buy things for their babies. I asked him about it after that and sure enough he said he was the dad. He actually stopped by to visit the other day by himself. He had come over with his uncle and got bored watching him work so he came to my house and hung out for about an hour playing with the neighbor boys. He's usually running around in his underwear which is actually pretty much the norm for small children around here. Café is 2 years old. I made the mistake of showing him how to take pictures with my camera and now he's hooked, although he has a hard time holding it so he can take pictures of anything other than himself. Every time he sees me he asks if I have my camera and if he can take pictures. Sometimes I lie and say I don't have it, otherwise I have to spend an hour deleting all the photos he's taken of himself.

Here's a photo Café took of himself.

And here's one that I took of him.

Carlo, Café, y Niño

Ruth and Malia came to visit during Semana Santa for a day. We made locrio, and headed down to the river for the afternoon. Then we went out dancing that night. It was fun and Malia had never been to our part of the country so it was a new experience for her to come to the dry southern region of the country because she lives in Constanza, which is way up in the mountains of the Cordillera Central. That's about as opposite as you can get. Up where she lives you have to put on long sleeves and long pants at night for the cold, not for the mosquitos. It evens snows up in Constanza every now and again. Where I live it's so hot and dry. We have thorn trees everywhere. We have cactuses. We have euphorbia that gets used as live fencing because it never gets cold enough for it to be in any danger of dying. It's so hot during the day that being inside the house with a zinc roof between about 10 and 4 is pretty much like sitting in a sauna. I love my community, but I still sometimes wish that I lived in the north, although when I go there and it rains super hard every day and is actually pretty cold, then I appreciate my desert more!

Thony, Goné, Malia, Ruth, and Dari hanging out at the Rio.

For International Women´s Day I really wanted to do something in my community. So I had organized with the director of the biggest school to do a charla (literally chat) for the 7th and 8th graders and also to paint a mural at the school. However. Things always turn out more difficult than one thinks. I was going to head down to Paraiso for the weekend to celebrate that we`d been in the country for a year, but the day before I left I came down with dengue and instead spent the weekend in the capital laying in bed and taking ibuprofen to bring down my fever and stop my body from aching. So needless to say when I got back to my site, I wasn`t feeling up to standing on my feet for several hours to do the charla. Luckily, for me, I had my volunteer visit the next week so she helped me draw the sketch on the wall of the school and the following week we started painting it. We still haven`t finished and now I`m going to try to do another one to celebrate Earth Day. Hopefully I will be able to finish the first one and do the second one next week.

Thony and some of the muchachos helping to paint the mural.

We had a big group so we had to take turns painting. And some people were definitely more skilled than others.

Here`s how the mural looks now. Hopefully it will look even better next week when we finish.

I know I´ve mentioned that I`ve been trying to do a vegetable garden project for awhile now. I`ve been waiting for a grant which got lost somewhere in the Peace Corps Office (not by me) to begin with and then it takes awhile to fill up as it is an online donation type grant. Thanks to everyone who donated by the way. So now I have the funds in my account, but I have to set up another account, if the guy in charge of all this will ever send me an e-mail with the amount I need to put in the new account I have to open up. In the meantime I happened to stop by the rural health clinic in my campo and was talking to the nurse there and he suggested that we start a little garden out back of there. It´s a completely enclosed area so no chickens or other animals can get it. I was excited! So Thony and a couple other boys went down and cleared out the area one day and set up little raised beds to plant in. A few days later we went back to plant the seeds. We planted tomato, bell pepper, and eggplant to begin with. Definitely staples in Dominican cooking. And hopefully I will be able to plant carrots, cilantro, lettuce and spinach seeds. All the seeds are from the Secretaria of Agriculture who has a program for community groups who would like to grow vegetables. I was excited to get some seeds planted that will provide food for the community. And I`m hoping to get everything figured out with the grant so that I can use the grant to buy the chicken wire for my women`s group so they can start planting too! Then hopefully I will do some charlas on organic gardening and how to make organic pesticides, which are pretty easy for the most part although you have to apply it more often than the regular ones. But in a relatively small vegetable garden it shouldn`t be too bad.

On another note, I started a little vegetable garden too. I planted Tomatos, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, carrot, cilantro, and basil. However, I think the chickens ate most of the seeds. As of now I have 3 tomatoes, 5 eggplants, a bunch of cilantro that I actually planted in a different spot than the garden. The peppers sprouted, but then it was like something ate them right away. The other stuff never even sprouted so I`m pretty sure the chickens got ahold of it. I`m pretty the chickens ate the seeds of everything else. I guess I´m just going to have to bite the bullet and buy chicken wire. Think I might do so now that I got my return. Thank goodness for working for a couple months in the states before I came down here.

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Here`s the little garden. It`s right behind the health clinic.

Here`s Thony planting some tomato seeds I think.

Here`s our friend Mudo (the mute) up in the coconut tree in the clinic yard throwing us down some coconuts. All the boys and men here climb the trees like monkeys. It`s impressive to watch. Mudo is probbly about 20 or 25 feet up this coconut tree.

About a year ago, when I first got in country I went for a volunteer visit to see Ann and Tim. Now, a year later it was my turn to have a volunteer visit. I remember thinking how much it seemed Ann and Tim knew and trying to imagine that I would feel so knowledgeable a year later and be able to give good advice to a new trainee. Needless to say, I still don´t feel that knowledgeable, but Ann and Tim assured me they didn´t feel very knowledgable by the time I came to visit them either. I wanted my trainee to have a good time so as I had been planning on doing a mural for international women´s day before the dengue hit me, I decided it would be a fun project to do while she was here. So Thursday I went down to the school to start mapping out and drawing the mural I had designed. My volunteer Lauren arrived in the afternoon and I hauled her down to the school and we worked on drawing out the mural to be painted on Friday. However, Friday dawned cool and rainy, which meant no school, so no kids to help us paint, plus it wasn´t ideal weather for painting. So we had a lazy Friday, watched a movie, I made soup for dinner and we played cards and dominoes. Luckily, Saturday morning was sunny and my friend Ruth who is the closest volunteer to me and her trainee Carly (who grew up in Beaverton) came up to visit. We had arranged for some of my friends to take us to the Rio Mijo which is a 20 minute drive or so from my campo. We had a nice lunch of locrio first and then put on our cascos and hopped on the motorcycles of my friends to take us out to the river. We spent a few hours at the rive, enjoying the cool water on a hot day. It was lovely. Then we headed back to my house where we rested for a few hours and I made spaghetti for dinner, then it was time to head out to the discoteca for a little bit of dancing. We went to one and were almost the only one there although luckily my friends saved us and we spent plenty of time dancing and then decided to head over to the other discoteca, which was closed until the owner saw us pass and opened it up for us. So we spent another couple of hours and dancing. It was a great night and I was so happy to be in my campo and see that the girls were having a good time and that my guys were being such gentleman and buying our drinks and dancing with all of us. I knew they were good guys but it made me proud to see how they treated my friends and encouraged them to dance. Here´s some pictures. I will perhaps add more later.

Me, Carly, Madeline (my little neighbor), Ruth, and Lauren.

Dari and Goné hanging out in the hammock whil we waited for lunch.

Martin trying out the hammock de los estados unidos.

Ruth enjoying her locrio.

As snug as three bugs in a rug. Ruth, Lauren, and Carly curling up for a good night´s rest after an action-packed day.

That´s right dengue. I made it almost one year exactly in country and came down with dengue. For those of you who don´t know dengue is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes and there are more cases of dengue than malaria here in the DR. Although mine started a little abornmally. I was on my way to San Juan on a motoconcho and started feeling light-headed and like I was going to pass out so when we got to the stop in San Juan I sat and rested until I felt a little better. Then I proceeded to walk down the street, but only made it about half a block before I got the light-headed feeling again and had to go into a shop and sit down. So I went back to the stop with the intention of going back to my site, but I couldn´t even sit on a motoconcho without feeling light-headed. I called one of the Peace Corps doctors and she said it was probably from the heat, to have a Coca-Cola and water and let her know how I feel. Well, the Coke and water helped well enough for me to make it back to my site. But then, that evening my temperature started went up to 101 and my back and legs started acheing. I took some medicine to make my temperature go down but by the middle of the night it wore off and my body was still all achy. By 6:00 am my temperature was up to 102. I called the doctor and she told me to come in. They sent me for blood tests, gave me some ibuprofen for the fever and aches, told me to drink lots of water, and gave me two options, go to the hospital or get a private room at the little hostel like place we normally stay at. I opted for that rather than being all alone at a hospital. It was a nice relaxing weekend and by Monday I was feeling much better although I had a crazy looking rash all over my body. It was even worse on Tuesday but I felt well enough to go back to my site. The rash lasted a couple days more and was a little itchy going away and I was pretty low energy for the next couple weeks. But I am better and doing well now. Here´s some pictures of my rash.

Here´s the rash on my neck.

Here´s the rash on my elbow and forearm

On February 24 we had a Carnaval celebration in my campo that was organized by some of teachers at the biggest school in the community. The kids from many of the community schools dressed up and paraded from the school to the center of town where they had a stage set up and the kids did some great dances, plays, recitations, etc. Of course the parade started 2 hours late, but overall it was a very fun afternoon and evening. Here's some pictures for you all to enjoy.

One of the girls in a beautiful dress with the Dominican flag painted on her face.

A couple of pretty little indian girls

A very serious witch

I loved these outfits with the raqueta (euphorbia) on top of their heads and these green one pieces suits.

The little boys that were with the little girls with the raqueta on their heads.

Check out this little devil. The best part is he has a bunch of school milk cartons and other garbage pinned on to his clothes as part of the decoration.

A beautiful bride who I didn't realize was a little boy until Thony told me.

This costume was made out of plastic bags (fundas). I want to hope that they were recycled ones but they probably weren't.

A troop of short-skirted baton twirlers showed up from San Juan. What they lacked in skill they made up for in short skirts and white underwear.

A little Catholic doña in the making.

These boys walked down the street cracking their whips, which sounds like a gun-shot going off every time it cracked.

Their outfits are made out of paper strips that were glued onto old clothes.

I loved these boys costumes and their little dance.

Llorona died last night. We carried her down to a place in the cañada where the ground was soft enough to dig a deep enough hole to bury her in. She was wrapped in her towel and in the box we had put her in for the night hoping she would make it until this morning and maybe somehow come out danger; that the poison in her system would work it's way through and she would survive. But that didn't happen. When I went out to check on her last night around 9:30 she was gone. Her little body still holding some of the warmth of life, but her breath and her heartbeat no longer there.

I had thought that we had been lucky. The poisoned meat that had killed some of the neighbor dogs last week had been found and burned or buried. We had somehow escaped and still had our little loca with us. I had a dream during this time that Llorona had found a piece of the poisoned meat and that we were trying to save her. Then yesterday morning around 9:00, the little neighbor boy Llorona always played with yelled out to come see what Llorona had. It was a piece of the poisoned meat. We took it away and buried it and hoped that she hadn't eaten enough to make her really sick. I made her drink as much milk as she could and we waited. About an hour later she started staggering like a drunkard around the yard. I fed her more milk. A little later she vomited, and we hoped she had most of the poison out of her system. She couldn't really walk and her tongue was lolling out of her mouth, but she seemed to get better a little later and was walking more steadily. We watched and waited more. She seemed to be holding steady and we were hopeful. I tried to give her more milk but she didn't want any. So I found a water bottle and put the milk in there and forced her drink some. Then I thought that maybe most of the poison was out of her system probably, so I gave her some water. She was so thirsty. But then they told us not to give her water, because the water helps move the poison through her system. So I switched back to milk; prying her little jaws open to pour in a little at a time. Holding her mouth so she would swallow. Then sitting with her to see if it would stay in her system. But it was too little too late, or she ingested more meat than we thought, I don't know.

I keep trying to search for a reason, for a meaning, for some sort of silver lining, but I've yet to find one. It seems like such a senseless, cold-hearted act. Why? Why would someone do this? What purpose did it serve? Other than to strike pain into the hearts of those of us who had to watch our beloved animals suffer and die. I don't know if I'll ever have an answer.

All I know is there is a weight and pain in my chest that I don't know how to get rid of. And a feeling of having failed to protect a little being in my care. All I can hope is that she knew that I loved her and that her short life was joyful. Que en paz descansa, mi Lloronita. I miss you already.

Just so you don´t all worry about me, I wanted everyone to know that I am safe and sound after the earthquake in Haiti. Didn´t even feel the thing, although everyone else did. I think I was on my way home on a motorcyle. If you would like to help, the best way is to make monetary donations to well-established programs like, CARE, UNICEF, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders. Thanks for all the thoughts and well wishes everyone has sent and thought. My love to all! I hope everyone is safe and happy and hope this new year brings more happiness to all of you. Oh, I will hopefully be home sometime in late May or early June for about 3 weeks so I hope to see most of you then!

This happened a while ago now but I figure better late than never since it was a cool experience. My friend Thony´s brother Marco bought a bunch of freshwater crabs, known here as jaiva, and brought them over to my house to cook up. First we had to find a big caldero (cooking pot) to put them in. Then the crabs had to be cleaned. After that, firewood had to be chopped and the fire started in a traditional outdoor three stone fogon. The little neighbors boys and one neighbor girl came over to watch and enjoy. We cooked them in the caldero for quite a long time with a bunch of sopitas (bouillon cubes) and yucca, and corn and various other veggies and spices. Then we hauled them out one by one and dug in. There´s no crab cruncher things here so it was mainly done by hand. It was delicious although I couldn´t quite bring myself to suck out the innards like the Dominicans did. Supposedly delicious but I was reluctant to believe that. Here´s a few pictures!

Thony chopping firewood for the meal.

Here´s the crab getting cooked up in the pot.

Here´s the neighbor boys Pedro, Carlo, and Niño is the little one.

Men´s haircuts here are a sight to behold. I rather like watching it to be completely honest. If there´s electricity then the people who cut hair use the clippers. This usually takes place out in front of their house, sometimes under a little lean to that they´ve run electricity to from the house. After they buzz whoever is getting their hair cut they whip out a razor blade, universally called Gillette here regardless of the brand name. They then cut these very straight lines along the forehead, down by and up over the ears, all the way to the back. It´s quite unusual. Do people do this in the States? If there isn´t any electricity (luz as they call it here which literally means light) then they pull out a pair of scissors and a comb and cut that way. Here´s some photos. It´s not quite like going to a barber in the states!

My friend Thony getting the lines I was talking about cut straight along his forehead.

Thony cutting Rayito´s hair with the clippers, using my sarong as his drape cloth.

Old guy getting a haircut without luz.

More pictures of my crazy little girl. All she wants to do is play. As soon as I walk out of the house in the morning she attacks my feet. You can hardly pet her because she thinks you want to play with her and starts jumping and nipping at you. She chases the chickens around the yard, and since I don´t have a rubber ball for her, I´ve taken to throwing pop bottles out in the yard which she can´t quite get her mouth around but loves to try and ends up sending them all over the yard. She´s getting adventurous too. At first, she stayed in the yard, but now she´s wandering out and up and down the lane in front of my house, which thank goodness doesn´t have too much traffic other than motorcycles and animals. And she´s chewing everything. She sneaks into the house, she´s not allowed in there, and grabs whatever clothes she can get to. She´s already chewed holes in one of my shirts, two pairs of underwear, and keeps hauling our shoes outside to play with. She´s a terror I tell you. She knows what no means, but is not quick to stop doing something until you literally yell no at her. I think I might need Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer to come train her for me! Anybody got any training tips? But she´s awfully cute, and it seems like she will probably be pretty small which is nice cause dog food is expensive. Here´s a few more pictures of my loca playing.

So my landlord decided to paint the house. He asked me what colors I would like and so I told him I liked the colors the house was. So needless to say he bought this horrendous greenish-yellow color called green apple, although I´ve never seen an apple quite that color. I think it was on sale because I don´t know who would chose that color on purpose. Luckily I talked him into buying a pretty ocean blue color for inside and the edges of doors and windows, and pink for the shutters and some details. And there was this guy at the house four days of the first week of January painting. Luckily he was nice, but it was a process. The days he was painting the outside wasn´t so bad, but the two days he was painting the inside was a pain because we had to move all the furniture in the house around so that he could paint. And we had to feed him breakfast and lunch. At least we didn´t have to pay him. So here are a before and after shot of the house.

Here´s what the house looked like before.

It´s quite bright now isn´t it?

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!! Hello all! I know I´ve been horrible about writing on this thing for quite a long time now so I´m trying to make up for it. Here´s some older pictures to share. I´m doing well, I´ve been a little homesick over the last couple weeks, after Mom and Dad´s visit and then realizing that this is the first Christmas in my 30 years of life that I haven´t spent with Mom, Dad, and Nate. However, things are going well, I´m enjoying a chance to relax in my site since it´s the holidays and nobody´s in school or doing a whole ton of work either. So I´ve been catching up on visits to people, reading a lot of cheesy historical romance novels, watching movies, sleeping a lot, and generally just relaxing for a few. Come January things are going to get busy again so I´m enjoying the down time while I can. All right, time to head out. But best wishes to all!! I´m thinking about all of you and miss you and hoping for some more visitors whenever anyone has some time and doesn´t mind roughing it for a few days.

Here I am!! I know you guys have missed seeing my lovely face so I thought I´d put up a picture, although this is a couple months old, but I think I look roughly the same.

Taking corn of the cob. This is part of the harvest that my friend Thony´s dad, Chelo, brought down from the loma. It´s used to make chen chen (which is grits), and to feed animals, mainly chickens and pigs.

A cool looking little green snake over on a tree in La Peña at Tima´s house. Tima is the president of the women´s group I´ve been working with and just a really cool lady in general. Speaking of my women´s group I finally got vegetable seeds for them to plant. Although, I´m still waiting for the grant approval and for it to get posted on-line.

We have these celebrations all the time in my community that are called Noche Vela. There´s always a procession from the church to the house where the Noche Vela is going to be. Everyone comes by chanting and singing and playing palos (big bongo type drums), carrying flags, pictures of saints, statues of saints, and in their church dresses. There´s a specific type of dress here that pretty much all the Catholic women in my site have and some men too. It´s usually bright colored and has some sort of cross sewn into it.

This is Nino, who is 97, born in 1912 he told me and has lived his whole life in El Batey. I see him walking all over the community, which is spread out over 10 kilometers so it´s not exactly short distances he´s going. He is one of my favorite old men here!

Efrein is one of the community leaders here in El Batey. He lives in the part of the community called Los Cerros.

Two handsome gentlemen hanging out in La Javilla, the center of town. It´s called La Javilla for the big (huge) trees that are there that are known as Javilla trees. Not sure what they are called in English.

This is my friend Thony and his niece, or is it his second cousin, or maybe his third cousin once removed. Man, I don´t know how people down here keep it straight. Pretty much they just call everyone primo or prima. And it seems at this point that most of the people in town are somehow or other related. If there first cousins then they call each other primo hermano or prima hermana and immediate aunts and uncles and godparents are tio and tia. Either way, this is one of the prettiest little bundles of joy I´ve seen!

So this is my new little puppy Llorona. She's called Llorona because she cries a lot and Llorona means the crier. She doesn't cry as much now but she's a handful. Although she won't go to the bathroom on the cement. She stays at the house by herself when I leave. She loves to play and I have a feeling she's going to eat my flip-flops before long. I need to get her some little toys to play with. More on all later. Lots of love to all. And since I may not be on for a bit: Happy Holidays! and Happy New Year!

Mom and Dad came down for 3 weeks in November. It was fun to get to show them around and see their impressions of my life and the culture in the DR. We started with a couple of days in the capital. I took them up to Entrena, the place where we had training at the beginning of our time here. Then we went and visited my first host family, which was really fun because I hadn't seen them since May and it was great to be able to introduce my parents and my dona to each other. We also walked down the Malecon, which is like the boardwalk by the ocean in Santo Domingo and went down to the Colonial Zone and I showed them some of the Columbus era buildings around there.

Then we headed out to the campo for 10 days. It happened to be the first ever patronales in my campo, which is usually associated with some kind of saint. However, being called El Batey we don't really have a saint associated with us so it was really just a big party all week long until midnight every night. Unfortunately, Mom and Dad, and later I came down with gripe (flu), but we still managed to do some wandering around. We went up to Elias Piña on the border to go to the Haitian market, which was huge, but pretty neat. It had everything under the sun from vegetables, to little barbecues, to blankets.

Also, the little neighbor kids stopped by every day to hang out with Mom and Dad. Here's the kids with Dad, Madelin, Cristofer, and Carlo.

And we went and visited my friends and neighbors. Here's 'Leners with one of my favorite doña, Miladi.

Also, Dad worked on some projects. He made a path with cement and rocks that leads from my back step to the letrine, which is so nice because before when it rained it was a muddy mess. He also made a dry well around my water spigot that looks great and again, keeps it from being a muddy mess. Mom took lots of pictures and videos, played the guitar, did some cooking. They both did a lot of reading which you can see from the picture below. I think my favorite 'Leners quote from the time was, "It's kind of like camping." Which I'd never really thought of before, but I guess is kind of true. I got cold water from the spigot outside for washing, bathing, dish washing etc., a nice latrine out in the back, although I do have a nice comfy bed and tables and chairs and a cement floor and a roof, even if the walls don't reach the ceiling.

After hanging out in the campo we went to the beach for a few days. We checked out the rocky beach at Los Patos and stayed at a little Italian run hotel/restaurant and had some great pizza for dinner, then we moved to a very pretty resort called Playazul which had a pool, private beach, a yummy French-inspired restaurant. It was great! Much nicer than the digs I usually stay in when I'm traveling around the country.

Hanging out drinking coconut milk straight from the coconut at Playazul.

Mom and Dad walking down the beach in Los Patos.

It was a great visit and so good to get to show Mom and Dad what my daily life is like here in the DR and to get a little vacation to the beach as well. Thanks Mom and Dad!! Miss you!!

I love my house!! It's sweet, it's off the main road so it's quiet and friends come and stop by to visit quite a bit. Here's some photos from the first couple months in my house.

A couple little friends Buche and Dabin road over from the other side of town on a horse to visit. They entertained me by singing reggaeton and bachata songs.

Francisco, Pedro, Andrioli and Niño hanging out at the house listening to songs.

Here's a picture of my kitchen/dining/living room. It's a little messy, but it usually is.

Mayra and Thony looking at my photo album with pictures from home.

My friend Francisco in a Blazers jacket.

Andrioli, Miguelito and I hanging out on the porch.

My neighbor Lidia helping me make a broom to brush the leaves off the dirt in front of my house.

A tarantula. There have been 6 in my house.

This is what it looks like in my house when there's no electricity in the evenings.

Sunset looking out my back door.

One of the many frogs that has been in the house. I tried taking them out of the house but they just keep coming back so I've decided they're my friends.

My friend Thony and the neighbor boy Niño hoeing the weeds in my back yard.

Sunset up on the loma (hill) talking to Mom and Dad.

My friend and favorite motoconcho driver Papito.

One of my favorite farmers, Cadito and I in front of his house.

Actually this is a good story. I was on my way back from the capital and arrived in San Juan at 5 pm, which is pretty late when you're trying to get home by dark, but what I almost always do because then I can sleep in a little bit. I arrived at 5 and walked to the motoconcho stop to wait. Meanwhile storm clouds were threatening from the north, which is where I live. Luckily a friend of mine showed up right after I got there. So I strapped my casco on my head and hopped on and another friend hopped on behind me since it was the only motorcyle likely to pass for quite a while. We started heading up the road and saw a friend heading down in his truck. He stopped and told us it was a huge storm up in El Batey and we should stop at so and so's house on the way and wait for him. We continued on heading to so and so's house, however, before we had gone far, it started pouring rain, the thunder was so loud the ground felt like it was shaking, and lightning strikes were landing decidedly too close for comfort. We arrived at so and so's house (I just don't know the guy's name, thus why he's so and so) and got us and the motorcycle under cover and waited for our friend with the truck. About half an hour later he showed up and we loaded the motorcycle in the back of the truck and we all hopped in. We got back to El Batey, but unfortunately, the river had come down. This happens when it rains really hard up in the mountains and comes pretty much like a flash flood. Needless to say, I live on the other side of the river. Pretty soon we had a crowd gathered there waiting for the water to go down. About 45 minutes later my friend Coco decided to try to wade across to see if the water was low enough for us to cross in the truck. Coco stripped to his underwear and crossed the river which was up to about his waist without too much trouble so we decided we would probably be okay. We started out as far up as possible on the upstream side. We almost got stuck in the middle, water was coming into the cab, and when we made it to the other side we were as far downstream as we could be and still be able to get onto the road.

My friend Thony's mom, Marina came from the capital to visit in September. I went over to meet her and hang out with the family.

Here I am with Thony's sister Dori and mom Marina.

Thony and his dad Chelo grinding corn to make chen chen, which is pretty much grits. They are grinding by hand, no motorized flour grinder like we have at the farm, although it's practically the same grinder that we have.

Here's Marina sifting the ground corn to get the fine flour out.

I'm a bit behind in updating this thing. Thus why I'm going to tell you about something that took place in mid-August when I moved into my new house. I moved into my house on August 17 after 2 other houses fell through. My landlord had constructed walls for the latrine and finished the cement walls on the house. He, however, had not paid the neighbor for the light in several months so she had cut the wires. So the first week I was in my place there was no light while my neighbor waited for my landlord to pay. A week of candlelit dinners later my landlord finally paid my neighbor so we could finally get the light hooked up.

My friend Thony connecting the wires close to the house.

My neighbor Goné connecting the wires that are in the tree.

The chicken that was sacrificed to provide sustenance to my friends who came to celebrate my birthday with me.

Scalding and taking the feathers off the chicken. No easy task let me tell you, thus why I left it to professionals like Papote and Cristian.

We made our own fogon with rocks we found around the house. Here Thony and Chichito are chopping wood and getting the fire started.

Cutting the chicken turned out to be the process that involved 3 people. Andrioli, Chichito and Thony finally got through it all though.

Mmmm...look at that well-seasoned chicken cooking. Not sure if I´ve ever mentioned it before but they love these things called Sopitos, which are like buillon cubes. The first two ingredients are salt and MSG. If I don´t have high blood pressure by the time I leave here it will be a miracle.

Now all rice here must be picked through and rocks, etc. picked out before it can be washed and eventually cooked.

Papote throwing in the rice. It seems to always end up being his job, not quite sure why.

El chef, Chichito

El Chef taking a break from his cooking duties to dance a bachata with my neighbor and friend Mayra.

Hanging out and chatting and eating under the mango trees. What could be nicer than this!

I even hauled out the guitar and played a couple of songs for my friends. I translated one into Spanish and now they´re waiting for the other ones. Someday I´ll get around to it.

Here´s what the food looked like. It´s called locrio and one of my personal favorites. Especially with fresh avocados since we were and still are in the middle of avocado season.

Miguelito and Milvio

Old guy, can´t remember his name.

Yanco (short for Jean Carlos) and Rafaelo.

Old lady in a pastora (that´s what they call the hats).

Me dancing with Bienvenidos, the leader of the Catholic Church and all around fun person to be around.

My friend Thony with his little sister Marchelis. She just got her hair done so that´s why it´s in curlers. Nobody wants to have curly hair here. They all want it to be straight.

Yamily, the daughter of my 15 year-old friend Yafresi.

One of Doña Maria´s 8 children, all about a year apart.

This is the youngest of Maria´s children.

Cafe, just about the cutest little boy you can think of and you should hear him talk, it´s so cute. It´s what I think Nate was probably like when he was little.

I´m not sure how much I´ve mentioned Silvia, Juana, and Bolivar. If not, I should have, because they have been my friends and confidantes since practically day one. Silvia (a man) and his wife Juana own the colmado up the street from my house. Bolivar is Silvia´s dad that lives in a little house behind theirs. I would head up there most days to buy a refresco (pop or soda for you east coasters) or a bolon (lollipop) and just get out of my house particularly in the evenings before the house cooled down because it was hot!! Silvia is forever trying to get me to fall in love with one or the other of the boys in our campo and take them back to the States with me. He´s always giving me advice that makes me giggle. Juana is like a mom and gives me advice about things that I don´t understand. And Bolivar is just the nicest old man you´ve ever met. He always has something nice to say and is encouraging and always happy to see you. I´ve spent many evenings sitting and chatting with them and whoever else stops by in the evening, sometimes sharing a beer with Silvia. I don´t have a picture of Juana because she refuses to have her picture taken unless she´s all made up, although I may try to sneak one because she´s a beautiful lady and doesn´t need to be all made up.

But here´s Silvia!

And here´s Bolivar!

So my new house of course comes with new neighbors and new views. I still don´t have nearly enough pictures of my house to share with you all. I keep forgetting to take pictures when I´m at home. I´ll take care of that shortly so you can see more of my house.

This is me standing at the edge of the rice field at Santico´s house. He is the neighbor across the way and the father of my friend Francisco.

I can´t remember this guys name but he´s always working for Santico, helping him out with planting harvesting, etc. Here he is with a sickle and a handful of rice stalks!

This is the view across the way from my house. This is Santico´s house and you can see the mountains in the background. Pretty spectacular. I´ll take pictures from the front and the back of the house soon so you can see what I see.

These are the little neighbor boys Pedro and Niño, sons of my friend Mayra and her husband Goné. They wander over to visit and see what I´m doing most every day and Pedro is great about being manda´o (mandado or sent) to the colmado to buy whatever you happen to need and just a sweet little boy and Niño is about as cute as they come and always wanders over to talk to me. I have to keep mints on hand to give out to the boys when they visit.

This is Mayra, my neighbor and friend. She is 30 as well, which is nice because many of the people I hang out with are much younger than me. She lives with her husband and 3 sons next door and then her mother, Malega, lives in a little house right there as well. Families tend to stick close around here.

Here's some results from my interviews that I did in my community that have led me to develop a variety of projects that I hope to be able to pull off in the next two years.

72% of women use traditional fogones (three rock stoves) to cook on. Thus why I would like to do a stove project that would provide these beautiful cement cook stoves that still use wood, but much less because the fire attains a hire temperature more quickly and maintains that temperature for a longer period of time. Also, there's a chimney that diverts the smoke out of the kitchen that ought to reduce the respiratory illnesses that are common here.

This is what the traditional stoves look like

90% of families raise some sort of animals. Chickens being the primary animal raised, but pigs, goats, sheep, cows, horses, mules, and burros all ranked in their as well. Also turkeys and guinea hens.

58% of families now have running water from the aqueduct that comes to their houses. This means that now it is a possibility to have a little vegetable garden in the houses for the doñas to grow the vegetables that they use every day like peppers, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, etc. I've already started some compost piles with a couple of the doñas in their houses and we'll be writing a grant soon to get chicken wire to surround our gardens to keep out the chickens and other pests. And we're waiting to get seeds from the Secretary of Agriculture which has a program that provides seeds to groups that hope to diversify the crops they're planting and improve family nutrition.

82% of families have something planted whether in their yards, their fields, or in the mountains. The main crops were corn, beans, and yucca. The majority of these are either fed by rain or by irrigation ditches that run throughout the community. However, in times of dryness, like this time of year, the rains are few and far between in the south where I live due to our location on the west of the mountains and due to the almost complete deforestation in the area which means the rivers and creeks dry up in the summer as well and many crops die due to lack of water. Thus, there's an interest in a reforestation project that in addition to planting much needed trees in the area would also provide an income that would be outside of the traditional agricultural crops that are grown and perhaps bring a higher price in markets both nationally and internationally. Particularly crops such as mangos, avocados, and various other fruit trees.

The river in May

The river in August

47% of the population is below the age of 18, with 72% of that number being under age 12. The reason for this being that many teenagers and young adults have to leave the community have to leave work to study or find work to help support their families because there are few jobs available for youth in the community unless they are helping with the family agriculture which fails to provide much income for the family. Also among those over 18, 37% never went to school and 42% went only to 4th grade or less. Of those between 13 and 17 only 7% never went to school, 12% made it to 4th grade or less and 58% made it to 5th through 8th grade. The information about schooling is still disturbing to me, but at least there is progress being made and a slow recognition of the importance of agriculture. Although, when families need help with harvests and such, the kids still manage to miss quite a bit of school. And in my campo, if it's going to rain they let the kids out early so the teachers can make it back to San Juan. None of the teachers live in the community. There's five schools. Four of them only go until 4th grade and one goes to 8th grade. There's no high school. The kids that want to and can afford to go to high school can either go to San Juan or to Las Zanjas both of which cost 70$ pesos each way and the students are responsible for buying books and uniforms. Thus many youth are excluded because they can't afford the costs of going. The school director has asked that I teach English classes to the 7th and 8th graders which I've agreed to do. In addition, I hope to do an environmental education course in the school. Also, some of my friends want an English class so I may do that for them as well.

After we have been in our sites three months they call all of us back together for a week long training. The first couple of days with our project partners and the second couple of days with just our group learning various new skills that we've found we need since we've been in our sites. We did presentations with our project partners about the interviews we'd done in our sites and our findings and potential projects we hope to be able to do or at least get started in our first year in site. Here's some random pictures from the week. I'll do another post with my results because I think they're pretty interesting and would like to share what I hope to be doing for the next couple of years in my site.

My friend Yeni and I trying to stay out of the sun while we were working on the vivero (nursery).

The shirt my friend Mark made with leaves

The whole group together again!

My friend Jaron's shirt

Malia working on her shirt

My shirt! Isn't it pretty

Leeann putting her artistic skills to work on her shirt

Benjamin chilling in the rocker! He was sick all week and turns out he had dengue although he's feeling much better now.

Cliff after we returned from a day camp that's up the road that works on team-building and communication skills. They painted our faces with a different color when we completed a task.

Lucky for me, my friend Ruth lives about 45 minutes away from me. I've gone down several times to visit with her and hang out and take advantage of the city for the night to go out dancing with her and her friends and decided it was time to return the favor. I invited her and her friends to come up and go to the swimming hole in my river with me and my friends. It was a beautiful Saturday and my friend Chichito cooked up some locrio for all of us and we had cleren (a sugar cane alcohol) and swam and played dominoes and had an all around great afternoon hanging out and visiting.

My two best friends Francisco and Thony (Yes, that's how it's spelled)

Looking goofy and making faces at the camera.

Everyone hanging around waiting for food to be served.

Elena, a Chilean NGO volunteer, me, and Ruth

Playing dominoes. Gabi, Elena, Luis, Thony, Julio, and some dude I don't know

Alberto and Chichito cooking!

Thony, looking like Urkle with his shorts pulled up and sporting my glasses.

Gabi, Ruth, me, and Amaury

me, Julio, and Elena

El Batey is moving up in the world. It's kind of a funny experience for me because it reminds me of when they were paving Snowden in front of my house a few years back. Apparently some guy who is running for Senate owns some sort of development organization and in a bid to win votes in our area he is doing various development projects i.e. paving our road. The road from San Juan is notoriously bad. The first part is kind of paved, as in, it was paved nicely at one point but has not been maintained so there's a ton of potholes and parts where the pavement has worn away entirely. The last half is gravel, well, dirt would probably be a more accurate description. Which isn't too bad when it's dry, but when it's raining it's a mess. Needless to say, everyone in my campo is ecstatic. The thing I must say that I love about my community is their enthusiasm. And another thing I love is the collectivism that Dominicans have. They're all in this together. How this relates to the road is that the organization needed people from the community to help clear the sides of the road so that they can widen it in order to paved it. So most weekdays for the last several weeks a crew of about 20 or so men from my community have been out chopping and clearing away brush and trees. Someone volunteers to cook a late breakfast/early lunch for everybody and they work until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. They're almost done with the clearing part and the dump trucks have started hauling gravel through town to lay on the road to bring the bed up and level it out. Bringing lots of noise and lots of dust along with them. Here's some pictures of the people working on clearing out the brush and cutting trees.

I´ll have more pictures and more info later but wanted to share with you all because I´m excited. It´s super cute. It´s about the size of the Caven at the Haven. If you look on the side on the right you can see my letrine and on the right is a building that usually houses the kitchen, although I don´t think I´ll be using it as such because I`m going to have a gas oven instead of a traditional wood cooking stove. So here`s my little house!!

Oh Coconuts!! I forget how good it is to drink fresh coconut juice from a coconut that is freshly harvested from the tree. There`s nothing much better really! Especially when you get to eat the yummy meat afterwards. My friend Francisco lives with his grandma Pompea (who is one of my favorite ladies ever), and they have just about every kind of tree imaginable that bears some sort of food. I had fresh grapefruit juice and fresh lemonade. But the cocos are the best. It`s so much fun to go knock a coconut down from the tree, take it back up to the house, have Francisco chop it open with the machete (I definitely don`t have the skill), pour it into a glass with ice, and drink up on a hot summer afternoon. I`m going to make passion fruit juice with Pompea today. Life could be a lot worse!

Francisco chopping open the coconut.

Not sure if you can see it well, but this coconut is full of juice.