I know, I know.. it’s been over 3 months since I last wrote… that is just under 1/8th of my entire Peace Corps experience combined. Shameful. Yesterday, Matt and I loaded all of our worldly belongings (which fits into 2 hiking backpacks and 4 old brugal rum boxes) and our long-suffering cat Queequeg into the [...]
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As some of you long-time readers may remember, back in August 2010 Matt and I took a trip to our (then) regional capital to outfit our pink shack with the finest in housewares that the Dajabon international market has to offer. Despite living only an hour away (both then and now), I hadn’t returned until [...]
I haven’t written much about our work or life in the Peace Corps lately for several reasons. Our new job, while fascinating to me as a political science major and former employee at the U.S. Senate, does not translate very well into the narrative format necessary for an interesting blog. What little we discover and [...]
What do you get when you combine 11 pounds of red beans, 11 pounds of sugar, 4 gallons of fresh cow’s milk, 6 cans of condensed milk, 2 pounds of white sweet potato, cinnamon, and nutmeg then boil it for 5 hours in a shack and top it with raisins and milk crackers? My host [...]
This is the first blog entry to be composed by hand. After receiving an electric shock from my computer, I have foresworn the use of electronics until the end of the storm. After over two months of drought, the rains have finally returned to our fair hillock on the border. The footpath outside our house [...]
As most of our close friends and family already know, Matthew and I are getting a site change as of May 1st to work full-time in the city of Monte Cristi with the Living Museums of the Sea project. It is difficult if not impossible to sum up in the written word all of feelings [...]
Our worm farm project grant is online! Please help out our work and fund our project!
Map of the DR I painted with the local jovenes BIOSAND FILTER!!!! This is the project that is currently occupying 110% of Matthew’s and my time. We spent last week installing the filters in the town up the mountain from us, meaning an 8 mile hike (uphill both ways, but not in the driving snow) [...]
As those of you who follow politics probably already know, Congress is considering a bill which would eliminate funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service, meaning the end of programs like AmeriCorps, Teach For America, Foster Grandparents, City Year, Senior Companions, Habitat for Humanity, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, YouthBuild and many others. Funding [...]
Well dear readers it certainly has been a while since we’ve written, and as we approach one year in country I feel like an update on our recent activities is long overdue. Our long-awaited water filters have finally arrived in site after nearly two months of struggling to find a way to transport them from [...]
Matt and I returned from a 16 day vacation in Nueva Yol this Saturday, and in a single epic day of traveling, managed to get from the very appropriately named JFK airport in NYC to our site, which in my opinion is the furthest place possible from Santo Domingo in the country, in a mere [...]
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s. In [...]
Yesterday Matt and I were on our way down from giving a workshop on Cholera to the small community in which we work but do not live. It had been a rough morning with our farmers’ group in our primary (residential) village; having had Peace Corps volunteers on and off since the 1960s has instilled [...]
Matt and I were finally released back into the wild as of Sunday the 7th, not a moment too soon as we were starting to feel the adverse affects of hotel buffet food and the $200 peso vouchers for the hotel casino only go so far to provide an evening’s entertainment. I did manage to [...]
So, as many of you probably know, hurricane/tropical storm Tomas (Thomas?) has all us region 3 volunteers holed up in an extremely nice (by PCV standards.. meaning it has hot water and I can eat in bed without it turning into a hive in five minutes) hotel in the middle of the country to wait [...]
We just had our regional Brigada Verde conference and although it was no Slow Foods tour, a delicious and educational time was had by all. This year’s conference took place at the same center run by Plan Sierra (a Dominican environmental NGO) at which I had my 3-month in-service training high up in the mountains, [...]
As inspired by my tech-savvy colleagues in the IT sector, Odisea Dominicana is now available on facebook. Now there is no escaping our pithy musings on the surreal life in Peace Corps, Staten Island regardless of your social networking platform.
The High Holidays are coming up and I want to go to shul. This is not a good sign. The only other occasion on which I felt the need to sit quietly in a pew in order to feel more Jewish was my freshman year of college… probably the last time I felt anywhere near [...]
Matt, Claire, and I have had the great privilege to get to know an amazing man named Leocardio out here in the boondocks. Leocardio is an incredible font of the traditional knowledge that is quickly being lost in 21st century Hispaniola, where the younger generation is fleeing the campo in search of better economic opportunities [...]
Sometimes I forget that part of doing development work in the Dominican Republic is having your and your colleagues’ opinions and offers of assistance rejected solely because you are female. Today the president of the farmer’s association with which we work most closely announced during our weekly meeting that he wanted Matthew to oversee the [...]
(This post has been delayed a couple weeks due to non-functioning internet during our last visit to the internet center.) Well, as Lydia recently wrote, we are now happily ensconced in our very own pink shack on a foot path above the cool Rio Manatí. Nesting is going well and our new home is really [...]
This supremely meta moment happened on the way down to a game in Dajabon this past weekend. We were riding in the back of a Daihatsu (a red one, unfortunately, therefore lessening the magical meta-ness a bit) with our town’s softball team when we passed this jolly truck-full of musicians. I am fairly certain that [...]
Well dear readers, Matt and I have finally moved into a shack of our very own after nearly six long months of being at the mercy of (albeit well meaning) host families. I am now the proud owner of a 50-pound gas tank, a tabletop range, a blender (liquidoras are CRUCIAL to your well-being here. [...]
Like any border town worth its rough-and-tumble reputation, our regional capital Dajabon is host to a fabulously filthy, chaotic, sprawling, and most importantly cheap market. This is where Matt, Claire (our closest volunteer), our indefatigable host mom Nelis and I spent our Monday trying to outfit our new houses on a PCV budget. Ever wonder [...]
Leaving behind the comforts of home and a familiar culture is the best and surest way to divine what one truly values in life. So, what is it that I most pine for here in the land of irregular electricity and unpotable water? No, not air conditioning, nor my car/the privilege of terror (i.e. motoconcho)-free [...]
Oops. Sorry guys. It’s been a while since I posted, so I’ll try to make this one a whopper lest you mistake this blog as Lydia’s alone. Given the time elapsed, I suppose that I should have a lot to share. In my defense, I tried to post this last week, but the file was [...]
Lest you think the Peace Corps Dominican Republic is all fun and games and helping develop ecotourism enterprises by doing “quality control” at resorts (no, nobody actually gets to do that as their project), I’d like to direct your attention to the efforts of our community’s Brigada Verde. For those of you who aren’t familiar, [...]
No, the title of this posting isn’t proof that I’ve finally fallen off a motoconcho and irreparably damaged the Spanish-speaking portion of my brain, leaving both verbs and syntax lying with my self-respect and battered helmet by the side of the road… it’s just the plural form of “Batey” in Kreyol. The article goes after [...]
After settling affairs at the Peace Corps offices this morning, Lydia and I walked to the US Embassy for cheeseburgers. About the time we received our orders, the sky opened and let loose a torrential downpour. We finished our lunch and decided to wait about 10 minutes for the rain to let up, but when [...]
Well well, faithful readers, it certainly has been an eventful and telecom-free couple of weeks. Our site is truly way, way out there in the wilds of the western DR, however the borderlands (at least up nort) are nothing like what most people make them out to be. La frontera tends to have a reputation [...]
The long awaited day has finally arrived… Matthew and I have at last learned where we are going and what we will be doing, and we are thrilled. I think we are actually going to be getting the hard-core, end of the line, 10 hour donkey ride from civilization Peace Corps experience we wanted all [...]
Due to the lack of internet and electricity in the more campo areas of this country, I’ve been very lax with uploading photos of the DR, which I’m sure is all you guys really care about. Anyway, Matt and I managed to catch a sweet bola down to Santiago and are sitting in a bakery [...]
4/10/2010
We’re having a great time here in la Cumbre. The weather has been much more reasonable lately and we even get sporadic rain showers every few days (LOTS of rain today). We spend 4-8 hours a day in class with much of our off time consumed by other projects and socializing with our families; though [...]
Last evening Matthew and I were embroiled (totally against our will) in our first and second of what will probably be many touchy, awkward, and potentially perilous political situations while in the Peace Corps.
At about four in the afternoon we were sitting on the stoop alternately trying to read and talking to some [...]
The quest to become más Dominicana led me to attend my first cock fight today, which despite its sordid reputation is a very professional affair. I neglected to bring my camera this time, so nosotros will have to wait until the next fight for all the wonderful and muy tipico latinoamericano photos of the [...]
I always rolled my eyes when people told me that the Peace Corps would be an endless series of ups and downs that would change me utterly… after all I, who suffered from a bipolar disorder when I was a young teenager, am intimately familiar with emotional rollercoasters and I doubted its further transformative effects [...]
22 March 2010
Today was one of those days… no, let’s make it this entire weekend… where I sucked so badly at Spanish I wondered if I had gotten worse at the language since moving to the DR. From struggling with the Cibao accent to totally crashing and burning when attempting to inquire about renting [...]
I am writing this post from an internet cafe in a small pueblo in the Cibao region, because I am YAY! finally seeing another part of the country than the godforsaken barrios of Santo Domingo on my volunteer visit. The chica I am visiting is a volunteer in a small campo (but not campo [...]
Entrena has been progressing at a breakneck pace this week, particularly by Dominican standards. After initially being placed in the second highest Spanish class (with folks who majored in Spanish and lived in Spanish-speaking countries.. mind you I have only had maybe six months of instruction) due to my incredible ability to bullshit en [...]
Two days ago I saw a fight. Well, I’m not sure if you can call it that, but it was muy violent. While walking home after another full day of training, Lydia and I saw a particularly gorda dominicana attacking a man with a piece of rebar. She was battering him rather weakly, but his [...]
Due to my limited internet access (which I have actually found incredibly relaxin), I am posting two days worth of info in one entry. Also, I haven’t learned to backdate yet. These things will come in time…
5 Marzo
Our first two days in the Dominican Republic should have been recorded in full by the Peace Corps [...]
Sorry about the late post everybody. Blogging has definitely fallen by the wayside in the excitement of the past week. Also, I don’t know what Lydia is writing, so there may be some redundancy between our posts. Again, my apologies…
Time is flying by. It’s been almost a week already since we [...]
We’re in D.C. for staging! Lydia and I flew out of Santa Fe this morning and, after a close connection in Dallas, we find ourselves safely ensconced in a Georgetown hotel. It’s funny to think that this is the longest leg of our journey. Our trip to the DR should be faster than our trans-continental [...]
When I was very young and impressionable, my parents made the great mistake of introducing me to the American Southwest. Due to my irrepressible wanderlust and love of dramatic, unpopulated terrain, I was destined to one day drop everything and become a ne’er-do-well desert ski bum with some good looking, rugged midwesterner.
But [...]
Insect shield pants? Check. Ankle gaiters? Check. Incredible dorky yet utterly indispensable sun hat? Check. Knowing that I am really, truly, ready to go?…… uhhh… probably won’t be able to check that one until the end of my 27 months.
Matthew and I have massive fetishes for outdooring equipment, and our assignment [...]
Life has been hectic for Lydia and me since we learned of our posting in the Dominican Republic (henceforth referred to as the DR). The first order of business was to throw together our DR visa and Peace Corps (henceforth referred to as the PC) passport applications. I’m proud to say we had both of these in [...]
After over a year of uncertainty, nail-biting, expensive medical tests, and form-submitting and re-submitting, we finally received our invitation to serve with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.
In lieu of the usual acceptance timeline that many volunteers include on their blogs, I will say only this: Patience is a virtue in the Peace Corps [...]
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