You can never be prepared prior to Peace Corps service for how your life as a volunteer will be. You can also never prepare for how your life will be after the Peace Corps. A surprising number of volunteers marry host country nationals. Some stay where they served for a while, or for life. Others contine to travel. Many go home. Home may be the same, but the volunteer never is. It's strange to return and find most people similar or very nearly so to when you left when your own life has been turned upside down. Home has a new meaning because I now have two homes. Life after the Peace Corps is difficult, confusing, a relief, a crushing rock. I am liberated from many of the arbitrary Peace Corps rules but shackled again with other responsibilities. Student loans. Health Insurance. Finding Out What Comes Next. I have some plans in the works but I will admit, it's hard to move on when an enormous part of me is still on an island in the Caribbean. I'm not talking just about my relationship, although that plays a significant factor. It's difficult to describe the feeling if you've never been a volunteer, but I'll give it a shot. Think about going on a retreat or camp. Maybe it's just a weekend trip, maybe a week, or more. Regardless of the length, over the course of the trip you form an indescribable bond with the others on the retreat. Someone you didn't even know before may now feel like family because of the experience. When you go home, the first few days are like withdrawal from the intense emotional experience. That is sort of what being a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer is like, only significantly more complicated. We spent two years with our communities, not a weekend. I don't say this for anyone to feel sorry for me or any other volunteer. No. I'm extremely happy I was a volunteer despite all the struggles before, during and afterwards. I say it because most people cannot relate to the after shock. People we knew before are mostly on the same track in their lives that they were before we left and some think the Peace Corps was like a blip in our tracks, that volunteers veer to the left during their service but after being back abruptly go back to the straight path. Not so. We are changed. Goals are different, possibly still evolving. Picking up the pieces is hard. It is a process. It is life. Stay tuned to see how they fit back together. Expect surprises.

A lot has happened since my last post. We have a new President-Elect. I have finished my Peace Corps service and am in the United States. It is a new year. Needless to say, I have been very busy and haven't had time to blog. Starting from my last post...I was planning on staying in the Peace Corps six more months, until about June, but for various reasons that did not work out. I had already started my plans for it when I found out it was not going to happen so I had a very full last month in the country. As I had begun new projects when I thought I was going to stay, I had a lot to wrap up in Juncalito. The Association got final approval of the USAID grant proposal that my project partner and I spent many hours on. The audit was complete and there were financial earnings. The annual assembly was held my last day in Juncalito and I got a plaque recognizing my service to the organization and the community. Friends and community members threw me a 'surprise' going away party my last week in town- I posted pictures on my photobucket page. It was really nice; we had a dinner with my closer friends and then dancing and a bigger party in the bar. It was emotional to think about leaving and say my goodbyes to all of my friends who I had spent two years with in a small community. After I left Juncalito I spent a week in Santiago with Alberto. Leaving was very difficult but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I loved my Peace Corps service and am confident that I will go back to the Dominican Republic. The relationships I made while I was there were as important a part of my service as the work that I did. If anyone is ever thinking about joining, please feel free to email me. After a few weeks back in the States it still hasn't really hit me yet that I'm here to stay. I haven't been home to Virginia yet because I spent several days in Boston with Maura and Matt before meeting my family in Springfield for Christmas. On our way back I met up with friends in Maryland to spend a few days in Deep Creek at a beautiful cabin, where I am now. Monday I will head down to Virginia Beach. I look forward to seeing everyone I haven't seen yet since I've been back and you are welcome to visit me in Virginia. My time in the Peace Corps was a unique, interesting and special time. I am more aware of the world and the needs of others. I know what it is to live simply and that it is more difficult to accept help from others than it is to give it. I am certain that I made a positive impact on my community but equally certain that they made an even more positive and meaningful impact on my life. This experience has changed me and likely in ways I don't even realize yet. I know more than ever that money does not buy happiness and that relationships are what truly make life worth living. Although the current economic crisis is difficult for many families and individuals, perhaps now is a time to get back to the basics and realize how much of what we have, we don't need; that it is not how many possesions we have that is important, but the quality of the relationships that we have and how we treat others.

Time is getting away from me very quickly these days. Between conferences, consolidations and medical stuff I don't think I've been in Juncalito a full week for over a month. That said, despite having to leave a lot, everything is going pretty well lately. The Association got a much needed grant from USAID to build more infrastructure. We have to match the grant from our own funds and/or other sources but it's still an incredible help. The grant is for $75,000 so the project will end up being a $150,000 project in which we will build small coffee processing plants in two more communities and a warehouse in a third community that is hopefully a bit farther down the mountain to store it at a better temperature. We were approved from the initial proposal and now we are working on the final proposal, budget and timelines. I won't be here for the whole project but it's very exciting because this past year we received more coffee from our associates than we could process well with the equiment that we currently have. It's a very busy time at the Association because in addition to working on the grant, we are preparing the audit as our fiscal year ended on September 30th. I insisted that I wouldn't help because it was going to take the usual extremely long time to do because they haven't been using the spreadsheets that I designed for them, however, I had a change of heart. Normally the auditor they use isn't very good and prepares a financial statement from whatever information they throw at him and that's it. This year, the auditor is actually doing a great job. It is taking quite a while but that's because she's actually going through ALL the (very disorganized) information. The great part really is that the board of directors keeps asking her why it's taking so long and she says because they haven't been using what I designed for them. Sweet satisfaction...I see some changes coming. There isn't only one reason they haven't been using some of what I've worked on; it is a number of factors. A large part is that they aren't good at prioritizing and get caught up attending clients but in the office there isn't a set time just to work on administrative things. Soon they are going to establish that from four to six they will be closed to the public for that purpose- I'm sure the associates won't like it at first but in the long run will see the benefits. That's just one of the many issues but, as usual, little by little changes are happening.

The Peace Corps has an emergency action plan (the EAP). The EAP is used in weather, political and other emergency type situations. Stage one is Standfast; you are not allowed to leave the town where you are at. Stage two is Consolidation; the volunteers by region are consolidated in a major city in their region in a hotel. Saturday my region was consolidated. It has barely even rained and Ike has long since passed by the island of Hispaniola yet we are still here in the Hotel Aloha Sol. At least there is air conditioning, free wifi, hot showers and cable but it is completely unneccessary.

Despite my lack of communication throughout most of the summer, I am alive and well. None of the hurricanes, tropical storms, disturbances or whatever you would like to call them has really affected me either; it has been rainy and windy but fortunately we don't get hit too badly in Juncalito because we are in the middle of the country and on a mountain so all the water runs down. What have I been up to? After my last entry, there was a lot going on in my site, however, like all Peace Corps volunteers have happen, several of my projects fell apart or hit road blocks at the same time, which was frustrating. Fortunately, shortly after that happened, I was scheduled to help translate for a medical mission. I spent 8 days with several other volunteers and many nursing students from the University of Southern Maine attending people in campos around Las Lajas, which is in between Santiago and Sosua. Medical missions are great because you can see tangibly that you are doing something helpful so it was a nice uplift after one of the more difficult times with regards to work that I have had in my site. The missions are enjoyable but it is also a lot of work to go between languages so frequently so the last day we were with the nurses we went on a beach trip to Cabarete to unwind after a long week. After the medical mission I went to the capital and took the GRE. I did well enough not to ever want to take it again and now I am starting to get all my information, resume, etc. together to apply for graduate schools. Fortunately I have a lot of time because I'm not planning on going until next fall. On my way back from the capital I got to go on another beach trip; this time to Sosua. I had planned it with friends and youth in my site, some of whom had never been to the beach before. We had a fun time and lucked out that it didn't rain as predicted. There isn't much else going on. I have been trying to resolve some issues with a few of the exporting documents now that both shipments have finally gone out. After being out of site for a while and now knowing that I only have a few months left it is hard to be motivated but I am hoping to get a few more projects done before I finish in December. In two weeks I have my PC Close of Service conference where they talk about ending your service, the future and I imagine get touchy feely. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone but not talking about leaving because I know it will be hard. How do I know I've been in the DR for a long time? I have started to like reggaeton.

This week our first shipping container for export will go out to Japan! After a lot of issues in preparation and logistics we are finally there. Of course, after this one goes out we get to go through it all over again for the second container, but at least with a better understanding of the process. I am in the capital now so I will hopefully be able to check up on how everything goes in the final stages. Yesterday I had a sector meeting with all of the other CED (Community Economic Development) volunteers and our director about improving the project plan for future trainees. I'm not sure it was very productive, especially since we did the same activity at our 1 year training event, but it was nice to see everyone at least. In May CODOCAFE put on the second annual DR Quality Coffee Competition. Again the Association and Juncalito area cleaned up in prizes. The Association won 4th, one of our associates (also VP of the association) won two first prizes and two other farmers from the area won prizes, 2nd and 5th respectively. Out of 11 prizes awarded, 5 were out of the Juncalito region. I am working with the Technology Center on various projects. At the center, I will be leading a youth group based on health issues including, HIV/AIDS, sex ed, self esteem and others and also starting an income generation women's group which will include giving talks on savings and money management as well as creating and marketing a small product (such as floor cleaner or bleach). In addition to these projects with the center, we are working on a grant request for creating scholarships for basic computer classes for children as well as educative weekend camps covering a variety of topics. The grant gets sent through Peace Corps and funded by donors in the states, including friends and family of the volunteer, so you may be receiving letters from me regarding this. For less then $20 a child can take a basic computer course. We are working out the details of the project to decide how many scholarships we are going to include based on the needs of the smaller communities surrounding Juncalito as well as Juncalito itself. I'm excited about this project because a lot of kids really want to learn but come from very poor families and can't afford the classes. They also know that it's incredibly important for them to learn about technology for their futures. Last weekend one of my best friends in my site got married. It was a nice, small wedding and I had a great time although I will miss her in Juncalito because she moved to Santiago with her husband, who lives there. I will post pictures soon. In May Susan and Brandon came down to Punta Cana and I met up with them at the resort for a few days. It was beautiful, relaxing and went by way too fast. It was a lot of fun despite the long trip to get there. I left my site at 7 am and didn't get there until around 9. I spent about 2 hours of that in Santo Domingo waiting for a bus but the rest was all travel time although it was more than worth the trip and I hope they come back again. Hint hint!

Rainy season is just starting. The past three days have seen heavy afternoon showers so I will be taking my umbrella around with me everywhere. Last year it rained nearly every day in May so this year I am prepared. When Im in my house I love hearing the rain pound the tin roof. It completely drowns out any other noise and gives a great feeling of solitude. Also, now that some very generous people (my parents) donated a laptop to the association I will actually be able to get work done during rainy season if I am stuck at my house and cant go anywhere. The Association is still heavy into the harvest and we have been very busy getting coffee prepared for our exporting contracts. The first shipping container is supposed to go out by the end of this month and the second in May. It has been hard getting all of the coffee dried because of the rain starting up but we are getting there. There is so much involved in the process of exporting and we are working hard and crossing our fingers that there are no major problems. So far just the rain, but our drying tunnels have plastic over them to prevent the coffee from getting wet. Obviously it wont dry as fast in the rain as it does in the sun but at least the workers dont have to run out and cover up the coffee every time it looks like it will rain. The second Quality Coffee Competition is coming up as well so our farmers are getting their coffee ready for that. We got a filing cabinet donated also and I have been wanting to close the office for a day just to organize the immense amount of paper that is in our small office but it has been hard to arrange it because of all the farmers that come in during harvest time. I was playing in a volleyball tournament. My team lost but I enjoyed playing a sport again as it had been quite a while since I had played one. They get really into it…Ive only ever played backyard volleyball after barbeques or at the beach so Im not that good but I was getting better. The tournament is still going on and some of us will probably get together and play some when it is over. Mom and dad came to visit last week and it was a nice visit, although short. We came to Juncalito and they met Alberto (my boyfriend) which was interesting. We had a sancocho (Dominican stew) dinner with a bunch of friends of mine. It was fun but my throat was dry by the end of the night from all the translating as my friends dont speak English and my parents dont speak Spanish. Mom understands more than she lets on though; I am convinced. Everyone remarked on how young my parents are and enjoyed either meeting them for the first time or seeing them again, as it was a year since the last time they were here. After Juncalito we went to the beach in Cabarete and Sosua with Cat, another volunteer. When we went to the beach at Cabarete, we went into a bar for happy hour just in time as it poured buckets about 10 minutes after we sat down. Fortunately we had cards, dominoes and free refill beer for happy hour. What more can you ask for on vacation? We also went to the Centro Leon, which is a museum in Santiago. There was a really well put together exhibit about baseball in the Dominican Republic that had the history of the sport in the country, how to play, information about Dominican street baseball and also about all of the players that have gone and played in the States.

I had a great time on my trip to Saint Louis for Kim and Jake's wedding. Matt and Maura came out from Boston so I spent most of the time trucking around town with them, getting together last minute wedding details and observing all of the 'interesting' statues that we seemed to run across, and I'm not talking about the arch, although we did visit that too. It hailed one of the days I was there so I got to experience some of the winter weather that I haven't really seen for a number of years. I finally got to meet Jake, who I had been hearing about for two years. He's a great guy and I am very excited for both of them. Congratulations you two. I will post pictures of the trip when I get the chance. I got back to the DR on Monday but I haven't made it back to site yet due to lingering tooth issues. I had a dentist appointment yesterday and I couldn't get a follow up until tomorrow because today is Independence Day and everything is closed, so I am trying to catch up on some emails and research that I've been meaning to do. I can't wait to finally get back to Juncalito and to getting some work done. I got a filing cabinet donated and once it gets to Juncalito I want to have a big spurt of office organization. Other association projects I need to get a move on for are another accounting program (which I found out about thanks to another volunteer and is much better and more easily tailored according to business needs), follow up on grant proposals for our big infrastructure project, and creating marketing materials. I also really want to get another computer (preferably a laptop) for them because the one really isn't sufficient for all of the people that need to use it. My parents are coming to visit in April so if anyone reading this has or knows of someone who has a used but in decent condition laptop that they would consider donating to my association please leave me a comment or email me at kdevinedrv@gmail.com and we could coordinate getting it sent to my folks so that they could bring it down. My English class will be starting up again after a two month break next Wednesday. It was going to start today but as I am stuck in the capital for dental reasons it has been postponed. Classes will be with the same students (+1 who already has some English experience) but will be once a week on Wednesdays and focused on comprehension and pronunciation. I tried to find some helpful materials at Borders in St. Louis for pronunciation which is the most challenging area for them but I didn't find anything that I really liked much. If anyone knows of some good materials, websites or anything for teaching specifically pronunciation I would love to hear from you. We have covered the majority of basic grammar points so, aside from some initial reviewing and covering whatever may come up that we haven't done yet, I want to more get them comfortable talking (talking so that they can be understood, that is). I have a lot of respect for teachers...I enjoy this class because it is all women and am grateful for the experience but thoroughly appreciate that teaching is not for everyone and requires much patience, something which I admit I lack. I may have mentioned that in Juncalito there is a girls' home for girls that go to high school in town but live in farther out campos and have to walk hours each day to go to and from school. The home exists for them to stay there during the week instead because many students don't go to school due to these conditions. There are certain rules of the home as far as the amount of time they are allowed to spend outside of it for activities other than school. I am probably going to start a curriculum with them called 'I Choose My Life,' which includes lessons on self esteem, planning for the future, sex ed, HIV/AIDS and others. Part of the curriculum also encourages the facilitator to teach the youth how to give talks and subsequently share the information with the community. I am excited about this possibility as I miss working with youth and they are very important topics to cover that are certainly not covered in school here. There are also several regional and national conferences in the country which would be nice to go to. I'm also considering trying to do an income generation project with the group but we haven't started anything yet so that would be in the future.

There isn't a lot new since I wrote last but I wanted to say that I have put some new (or relatively new) pictures on my picture site. Go to the link that says 'my pictures' and under the categories of Corys visit, Association, and Juncalito (and under Juncalito 'boys birthday party' and 'English class') there are a number of new pictures. It takes me a while to load them on the site and I am still working on it so keep checking. On Tuesday I go back to the US to St. Louis to go to Kim's wedding. I can't wait to see her, Maura and Matt and finally meet her fiance Jake, but I am sure I will freeze, as noted in Kims comment on my last post. I'm fairly certain we are exporting this year. I can't talk about details until it actually happens, but it's an excellent and very exciting opportunity for my association. I may be going to Carnaval on Sunday before I head to the states but I'm not sure yet...I hear it's a lot of fun and a bit crazy. Should be a good time. Have a great Valentine's Day! (Here it's the day of love AND friendship.)

Since I last wrote I've been through another tropical storm, to and from the US and we have started a new year. I'll start with before Christmas. My Association participated in the Artisan Fair in December again this year but it was much more successful and less stressful for me, mostly because I was working with other volunteers who were also selling coffee and cocoa so the support was much better. We sold a good bit of coffee and I enjoyed the fair overall. 2 days after the fair ended I was still in the capital working on some other things when we got the news that another tropical storm was coming in but this time the Peace Corps wanted to consolidate everyone in Santiago, Santo Domingo and another town in the south. This was just a few days before I was supposed to be going to the States for Christmas. At first I thought I was going to get stuck consolidated in the capital and was worried because my flight was out of Santiago and I thought I wouldn't make it back to my site before I left. I did end up getting to go to Santiago, where we were consolidated for 3 days, but I didn't make it back to Juncalito so I had to buy shoes in Santiago because all I had with me were sandals and I didn't have a lot of clothes packed, but at least I made my flight! I had a really nice time over Christmas. Brian picked me up from the airport and I had a bit of culture shock going to a trendy wine bar for the first place that I ate at, but it was interesting. I got to see Bill, Ashley, Susan and Tom in Maryland which was great. I'm glad mom and dad moved from Texas so that I could visit some friends even though it was brief. The rest of the time I was in Virginia Beach with the folks- it was nice and (mostly) relaxing. I got one of the most useful gifts I've ever receive this year- a battery powered lantern for when the power goes out! Perhaps not so useful but entertaining was the Jack Sparrow action figure that 'Santa' gave me... I made it back to the DR with no problems and had a fun new years here, dancing it in Dominican style until 5 or so in the morning. Since I was out of my site for a full 3 weeks, I spent the first week and a half back mostly catching up with people in my town and having lots of cafecitos as well as hearing about all the good Christmas parties that I missed. Their way of trying to make me feel guilty, that and 'what did you bring me?' I was proud of my association for actually filling out a grant proposal that I had been mentioning for a while before I had left. I would not have necessarily chosen the same projects as priorities, but at least we have got the ball rolling on some more infrastructure for the future as the amount of coffee that we are buying from our members is growing rapidly, as well as interest from foreign buyers. Not so encouraging was the accounting situation (shocking, I know). They had entered the information in the spreadsheet while I was gone (great!) but not balanced it with the cash drawer and check book (not so great). I spent an entire day making a months' work of accounting balance. We are getting there, slowly but surely. If I leave nothing else done when I go, I hope they keep doing that. Laly, the secretary who was on maternity leave, is back, so I am working on teaching her how to do it. It's not hard but I think part of the problem is that they are slow on the computer and know that I can do it much quicker so they try and see if I'm going to do it for them. I must not break down! Still working on that patience and it's coming slowly but surely. During IST (which was before the Artisan Fair) we got to go to a baseball game and that was a lot of fun. My team (Las Aguilas/The Eagles) won the game and they just won the Final Series. The Caribbean series is here this year in Santiago with Venezuela, Mexico and I don't remember who else. I might go to a game on Sunday. I'm in Santo Domingo for committee weekend, which I usually don't come to but because I'm now president of the Coffee Committee I considered it important that I come. Now I just need to figure out what we're going to discuss in the meeting. The other day I went to one of our campos for a meeting with some socios and the roads were so bad that 2 trucks got damaged and we had to walk a while and ended up going the rest of the way on a motorcycle. It was quite a trip- it should have taken a little more than an hour but it took over 3! Good thing for once that the meetings here never start on time anyways, so we only missed a little. It was worth going though- I hadn't been to Cerro Prieto before and it was beautiful. It's about 1380 or so meters above sea level and you can see really far around from the top where we had the meeting. It was definitely chilly up there and when I went back the other day with Roque, our tecnico, it was cold enough to see your breath. I know that's not much for home but that's freezing by Domincan standards.

This guy from my area made a deal with the former administrator of the association about a farm that the association owned that he was going to run it and if there were a certain amount of profits he would get some benefits from it. That is what I (and my project partner and board of directors) have understood. No one is 100% on the details because the administrator no longer works for us and it was a verbal deal. Well, the farm ended up losing money. The guy, who was never actually an employee of the association, later claimed that we owed him money and that the deal was more of him as an employee, which is not true. Because he wanted to get money out of the association, he hired a lawyer. The sum of money really wasn't all that high, but he had no right to it, so the board of directors, mostly influenced by my project partner, ignored the first court date that was sent to us. The second one was sent over the summer while Francis, my project partner, was in the States and so no one went. Finally, a third order is sent for the end of October and they were going to go because it was getting drawn out. Several times other members of the board had tried to come to an accord with the guy and it didn't work out because he is greedy and just wants a lot of money for nothing. The day before the appointment, he and a member of the board supposedly reach an agreement on a sum of money just to get rid of the case and that they don't have to go to the court appointment the next day. The guy shows up anyway and mentions nothing about an agreement. 2 or so weeks later there is a warrant of arrest out for Francis, who is the president and therefore representative of the association, for evading the law by not going to the appointments. This is a Thursday and there is another appointment the following Tuesday. Sitting in jail for the weekend was not really in his plan so he waited over the weekend and then the whole board of directors went to the appointment on Tuesday and straightened out the warrant, however, the guy never showed up so they have another court date for December. Who said life in the campo is boring? I had a fun Thanksgiving. Every year there is a big Peace Corps Thanksgiving event at a country club in Santo Domingo and while not quite the same as at home, the food is really good and it's nice to be with fellow volunteers. Friday we had the annual All Volunteer Conference and today through Wednesday I have my one year IST (in service training) with the other volunteers in my project sector who came in at the same time as me. Because of that (and that we have to be at the office at 8 this morning), I stayed in Santo Domingo all weekend. Otherwise I would have left Saturday morning to come back yesterday afternoon so it wasn't worth it to go home. Yesterday Cat, Laura and I went to the botanical gardents. It was really pretty and refreshing to go there because there are not many green spaces in Santo Domingo and we don't ususally get a chance to do tourist things when we're here because there is often so much going on and so little time. Laura, Cat and I stayed with an Embassy family and it was relaxing and fun. We cooked them dinner on Saturday night and then last night Karen cooked dinner for us. They put up their Christmas tree on Saturday also and that definitely put me in the Christmas mood and made me even more excited to go home. After IST I am going back to Juncalito and we will hopefully have our Assembly on Thursday. Next week I will be back in Santo Domingo for the Artisan fair but it should go much smoother than last year. Should.

I realize it has been about 2 months since I have given much of an update. Since then, I've been through 2 visits, a tropical storm and my project partner having an arrest warrant out for him, among other things. I'll start with the first visit. At the end of September Maura, Matt, Andy and Justin (4 friends from USC) came to visit. First we went to Sosua, a beach on the Northern coast in the Puerto Plata region. Aside from Andy gettnig attacked by a sea urchin (it had to be Andy), it was very nice and relaxing. We stayed at a motel run by an American woman which had a pool and great pancakes. I naturally dazzled the crew with my taxi negotiating skills (read- giving lots of attitude and walking away when charged too much). After the beach, we went to Juncalito, where we went on a hike up to the coffee processing plant, the boys bonded with my little neighbor Jeury and we had an all around awesome time. They participated in my English class (which was on Matt's birthday) and learned to dance merengue and bachata. Before I sent them off to Santo Domingo, we stayed one night in Santiago, where Maura and I yet again dominated in Taboo. Fortunately there was no Trivial Pursut or we would likely have reversed our winning streak. I was sad to see them go but it was a very memorable trip. During all of October we were working on preparing for the Annual Assembly of the Association. We had to get all of the year end financial information together for an audit. (Forget all those times I suggested working on this prior to October.) So we did all that hard work and then the day of the Assembly there were less than 50 people total due to Tropical Storm Noel, so it has been rescheduled for November 29th. Aside from that, I gave up on both Quickbooks and Cafelio for various reasons and set up an accounting spreadsheet myself in Excel to start at the beginning of October (our fiscal year) and so far it is going well. My test for it is when I go home for 2 weeks to see if they do it while I'm gone. I'm hopeful though- I think they really see the benefits of keeping up with the information after the struggle to get all the information together for the Assembly. Also in October I helped at a training activity for the new volunteers and one day the Association had an activity at a more advanced coffee plant and toasting factory. It was a lot of fun and the socios really enjoyed it. At the toasting company they did a campo coffee drinks class and taught us how to make cappuccinos, rum coffee drinks and more. I had a great birthday. There was a party at the bar on my birthday with a merengue group and they sang to me. We stayed and danced until 2:30am. My English class had a "surprise" party for me too during one of our classes (they secretly just didn't want to work, although they brought a cake so I was ok with that). On November 3rd Cory came to visit, which was another really fun visit. We came to Juncalito, had a dinner with my English class (with a little dancing, of course), hiked up to the coffee plant and hung out with my friends. Cory got to experience all of my favorite things in Juncalito: walking up the mountain, my friends, coffee, dulce de coco, chulitos, dancing and, of course, dominoes. She was starting to get good too. After Juncalito we had a long travel day (4 busses and 2 taxis) to get to a resort in Bayahibe. It was wonderful! We mostly ate, drank and lounged on the beach from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon. We also went kayaking and saw Grease, Dominican style (not recommended). Then, sadly, she had to leave (even moreso because it was so early in the morning) and now all my friends keep asking when she's coming back. (Hint Cory!) To keep you in suspense, and because this is already really long, I'll save the arrest warrant story for the next post, which should probably be next week.

Just a quick update to let you know I'm ok despite Tropical Storm Noel. From Thursday evening through yesterday afternoon it rained pretty consistently, only stopping a little bit here and there. Then yesterday it stopped raining but was still overcast and has continued to drizzle and it also poured last night in the middle of the night. We don't have flooding problems here because we are so high up the water runs down into the rivers, but in other parts of the country there has been a lot of flooding and several deaths. We have been on standfast, which means I can't leave my site, but other than not being able to do my laundry because it won't dry and the association having to reschedule our assembly, it has been fine. I will update more soon.

Within the past month I’ve been to Santo Domingo more times than I care to say. I’ve made a personal record of going three times within one week. There is only one thing that could possibly cause me to venture into the heat, humidity and unpleasant bustle of the capital so many times in such a short period of time- that’s right, a medical problem. The first trip was actually for the previously mentioned Coffee Committee meeting, which went well. We have 2 new members from the Agroforestry group, established key areas for the committee and held elections. I’m the new president, although it’s really just a title. A few short days after I headed back to m site, my ear became blocked up and started to hurt, which caused me to ask people more times than normal to repeat themselves. A quick call to the medical office resulted in the decision to go back on Monday. By Thursday there had been no improvement so I called again and went back in on Friday (visit number 3), this time to see a specialist. Here’s where the fun starts. You can’t make an appointment with the PC recommended EENT but have to go to the office in the open time window. The doctor was supposed to arrive at 5:30, which turned out to be closer to 7. I was the second to last person to be attended to, despite having arrived before many other patients. No problem. I just wanted to hear out of my ear. Finally, I went in. After looking at the ear, the doctor retrieved a spray bottle and squirted liquid at my ear. When I asked him what he was doing (it must have just slipped his mind to inform me), he replied that it was anesthesia. Anesthesia?! For what, I’d like to know. Before I had time to inquire, the doc came back and started shoving something, painfully, in my ear. Explanation? No. I responded with some ‘Ows’ and ‘That hurts;’ all I got was ‘Calm down.’ But really, how calm was I supposed to be with someone forcefully shoving an unidentified something into an already painful ear? Once Dr. Pain was satisfied with his work, he told me that it (whatever it is) was supposed to open my ear and that it should come out on its own by Monday, but if it doesn’t, I can just get someone from my campo to take it out with tweezers. (Uh…excuse me?) By the time I left it was dark and almost 9pm. I tried calling several taxi companies but no answer. Erica and a friend walked to come get me. I called a PC doctor the next morning because I was uncomfortable having something shoved down my ear without a satisfactory explanation. She took it out and it had actually helped a lot, however, I certainly hope to never have to go to a DR doctor again. My fourth capital visit within the month was to get the ear checked one last tie last eek. All better, but I just got an email to schedule my dentist appointment in November- something to look forward to. Despite that unforgettable experience, it has been a good month. A former volunteer left me a camping oven- a collapsible square oven that I can use on top of my stove. I’ve already made good use of it, including several birthday cakes, one of which a group of us took to a friends’ house at night when she was asleep to serenade her (don’t worry, it was with a CD; I didn’t sing). I wanted to do something fun with my English class so I assigned them skits with different topics to do in English. They went all out and used costumes and props. One groups’ skit was in a doctor’s office with a crazy patient. They didn’t quite, as I’d hoped, looked up medical vocabulary, however, they worked very hard perfecting the crazy lady and learned important phrases such as ‘Shut up!’ and ‘Go to hell!’ She also tried to light a cigarette during the skit but the fan was on strong and 4 matches blew out before she was able to do so. I haven’t laughed so hard since I’ve been here as I did during that class. With the Association we are getting ready for the annual assembly with all of our associates before the new harvest begins. I want to start working on a grant to get more infrastructure for the association but that will have to be after the assembly. Maura, Matt, Andy and Justin are coming to visit for a week. They will get here this weekend. I can’t wait! I have now been in country for over a year. The time is flying.

August has gone by quickly but, as far as work is concerned, has been pretty slow. Two weeks ago I went to the capital for (another) fair, this one was for FIPA (the investment fund for environmental protection) projects- various organizations received loans to do environmental projects including organic production, renewable energy, water conservation and others. The Association had received a loan to build our ecologic beneficiado where we depulp and process coffee. It was interesting to see other projects and I made some good contacts that will hopefully come in handy at some point in the future. Tomorrow I am making another trip to the capital because there is a coffee committee meeting on Friday and also because I have to get a green card. Fortunately, the Peace Corps takes care of all the paperwork and all I have to do is show up, wait, and get my picture taken. I only need it if I have to leave the country which I don't plan on doing until Christmas, but I may as well get it since I will be in the capital. Sadly Sarah, the woman who works at the Embassy whom I normally stay with in Santo Domingo, is moving to Venezuela. I have been very lucky to have the opportunity to stay with her and get to know her but it is a great opportunity for her to work directly with the Ambassador. No doubt that will be a challenging and interesting assigment. This will be the last time I stay with her before she heads out in September. This past weekend was the first hurricane scare since I've been here. There were warnings from Hurricane Dean, which never touched down here but did send us a good amount of rain. The Peace Corps has a safety system for weather, political unrest, etc. with different levels and regions. I was on stand fast, so I couldn't leave my site but some volunteers in the South and the East had to consolidate in hotels. A friend was going to come visit but unfortunately wasn't able to. I put up some more pictures on my picture site from the wedding I went to, the youth groups' trip and a few other random pictures. Last week I didn't have water for almost three days, then I finally did but the electricity went out for about the same amount of time, then I didn't have water again for almost 2 days. Oh, the joys of living in a developing country!

Last week the East Lake Community Church HS youth group was in the DR for a missions trip in Jarabacoa and a campo outside Jarabacoa called Boma. Getting to spend the whole week with them was so refreshing, not only because I got to speak English and be with awesome people, but also because I have not been communicating with God lately and being around youth enthusiastic about serving the Lord was truly a breath of fresh air for me and my faith. I had a hard time getting in touch with them to meet up due to some cell phone problems but I thought I would do the Peace Corps thing and wing it by jumping on a moto and hoping to find them. How many groups of Americans can possibly be in a small campo at one time? Fortunately it worked out fine and I ran into them on Monday while they were bringing in supplies for the week to the campo. During the week the group worked on various projects including digging a latrine, clearing away and digging out the foundation of a house, clearing rocks from a pathway to make it passable when it rains, hauling sand from the river to mix cement, putting on tin roofs and conducting 2 childrens' services. The kids worked really hard and did an awesome job. Some of them were the youth I was with when I worked with the junior high group and they have grown in every possible way- physically, emotionally and spiritually- and it was so amazing to see them getting their hands dirty and also forming relationships cross-culturally when they don't speak the language. There were also several youth that I didn't know or not very well before and I really enjoyed getting to know them and see how God is working in their lives. Lexi brought me some goodies from Cory (thanks!) and the new Harry Potter book (gracias a Ashley and Bill), which I have already finished. So nice of them, and Lexi for bringing it all! The youth also gave me a bunch of their snacks that they didn't eat on the trip so, all in all, I left with considerably more than what I came with. I was definitely tired when I got home because we all got up at 4 am for them to get to the airport with enough time on Saturday but it was a great trip and I hope they come back while I am here for another trip. Saturday and Sunday after they left I wound down a bit and prepared my talk to the Agroforestry and Environmental volunteers on Monday, which went ok but they were mostly tired from having a good time the night before. I did get to see a pine tree nursery run by Plan Sierra and a beautiful botanical garden in Janico, as well as hang out with one of my favorite Spanish teachers from training. This week has just been busy catching up at the office and doing a lot of work- yesterday we had a visit from CODOCAFE and the French Development Agency, which funds part of PROCA'2, the loan side of CODOCAFE. I talked with the 2 guys from the Development Agency and it was interesting to hear about some of the other countries they have worked in, including Morocco, Chad, Lebanon and others. Right now I am in the technology center while my adult English class takes their exam. Several of the class members did not show up so I will have to decide what to do about that. I'm not overly suprised, although somewhat disappointed. Next in the office is to really get into Cafelio and get the loans all computerized. I know I have talked about that for a while but one computer isn't a lot, especially when there is always something going on that needs to be done. Little by little we are moving forward and I am pleased with how far we have come even though there is always more to do. I am fortunate in that I have people that want to learn and work because just that can be a challenge here sometimes.

I can definitely say things have been quite busy lately. Right now we are working on getting the budget together for next year, including the amount of loans that we are going to solicit from PROCA2 and in which areas we are going to solicit them. In previous years, the association has sent a request without consulting the socios, usually late, for loans and then gotten the loan around January or so, well after the harvest has started. This year we decided that we were going to plan more in advance and also consult the socios to get an idea of how much they will need for the upcoming harvest. Because there are many small campos around Juncalito and we have nearly 200 socios dispersed among them, we are visiting most of the campos and having small meetings with the socios, explaining about the budget and planning and subsequently filling out solicitudes for loans for each socio, which will then be evaluated by the Credit Committee and compiled to create a budget proposal. I'm not giving the meetings but I am helping and it is good to go to some of the communities that I either haven't been to or have only been once or twice, and see the socios where they live. Helping them understand the importance of planning is a challenge, and I'm sure the whole process will need tweaking for next year, but it is a great move in the right direction. Apart from that, we are still working on loan recuperation. There are still many accounts that are unclear, but after a few meetings with several socios, I would say we have cleared up at least half of the cases. I am hoping by the end of the summer/before the next harvest to computerize all the loans with the Cafelio program, but am also working on creating files for each socio on how much coffee they have sold and at what price, as well as how much coffee the association has bought monthly, to get an idea of our capacity and how it has grown and changed since the association has reopened. English classes are going well. I spoke with my adult class and we decided to extend it to be 12 weeks total instead of 6. I won't be extending the kids' class...it is like pulling teeth to get them to participate. I realize that that is a product of how school is conducted in this country, but as I only committed to 6 weeks, I am just going to leave it at that. I had a meeting with a former PCV who now works in specialty coffee in the states yesterday. He just bought a coffee farm at his old site in the DR. We discussed the industry, coffee characteristics, export quality for specialty coffee, etc. At least with my association, we have great potential and since the quality competition we have had several interested buyers but have not had the quantity of export quality coffee available, so working on quality is a big goal for us, especially since our name recognition is growing. A friend from my site got married in Santiago on Saturday. It wasn't a church wedding- they got married with a justice of the peace and then just had a 'presentation' and reception. I will put pictures up soon. Of course, nothing starts on time in this country so the hour was 7 but it didn't start until 9. They had 2 busses come from Juncalito for the wedding and we didn't even leave until almost 5:30, but then ended up waiting a while once we actually got there. It lasted until 2:30...few people have weddings here so it's a pretty good party when they actually do. This week I will be doing more budget work and also getting together a presentation for Agroforestry volunteers who have their 3 month training session coming up. They wanted more training on coffee and their training is only about an hour from my site so in addition to a field session, the trainer asked me to come give a presentation. Next week the East Lakers are coming to the DR for a missions trip so I can't wait to get to see them for that!