The following are thank you's from my community directed towards those of you who donated. THANK YOU SO MUCH! The project was a HUGE success.

I welcome all of you to take a look at some videos of my campo and life and work in the Dominican Republic. I started this video site to connect with an elementary school in MA - to have a penpal/exchange project that is available through the Peace Corps World Wise Schools.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/LosCerrosDR

Ok so good news, the grant was actually filled this week! I am not sure how because I do not yet have access to the donor list, but a HUGE thank you to everyone!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every once and a while something GREAT happens....so great that you can't believe it has happened. You celebrate, you call your friends..tell them the good news. Something like that happened to me about 2 months ago...my grant was filled..yay! I told my campo that they will finally have those latrines they have been waiting on for the past few years, one day diarrhea would be a thing of the past....or so I thought. Fast forward two months, to today. I DO NOT have the money for the latrine grant that I was assured I had per the people I work for... A donor apparently promised to donate the remainder of the funds but there was never any follow-up with the organization...and I find all this out two months later. Two months after my community have been told they will have latrines, now I have lost two months of fundraising, two months of work, two months....of a lot. Now I have gained two months of problems that I need to fix within the next two weeks before I go back to my campo. I ask you to donate, this money is not for me, this money is for women, men and children who do not have enough money to construct an outside toilet....just think of that. At times you may not have money to buy a latte, an appletini perhaps...but a place to go the bathroom...well that's in another category all together isn't it? And even if you do not care if people have a place to go the bathroom, donate for me. As this is my project, and I am the responsible one and if it is not funded I basically fail, and I fail my community.Just think about it...but remember I do not have 2 months to wait, more like 2 weeks or better yet 2 days...now if you have 20 dollars PLEASE help me out! You can also go to peacecorps.gov and on the right hand side click on the DONATE NOW button, then donate to volunteer project, search by volunteer state or last name (MA and Goode).http://peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-259

the camp was a sucess. In November I´ll start construction and work on a few other projects I have in the works. One, a Diabetes Education Campaign. Two, Fixing the school and adding a library and computer room. Three, getting running water in my community.

I have graduated my Escojo group and Nutrition group and plan on having more classes in January. The after'school program is still running, and a lot of the kids have learned the alphabet and have learned to read. All is good. I felt that with the graduation completed and my latrines funded I deserved a lil break to the old USA, plus I have to help my mother with some stuff for awhile. So off I go in October to Boston for a week then on to Florida with my mums. I´ll also get to see my sister Christine give birth to our first nephew!!!!

So I have decided to stay in my site, I have switched houses to a more secure location. Things are moving along. I've been very busy, I wrote my first grant and I need your help. It's for a latrine project (i.e. a place to go the bathroom) for 25 familes in my community. The project is really important to me and to them so if you can go to peacecorps.gov and on the right hand side hit DONATE NOW, then search by volunteer state or name.... MA and Goode and donate as much as you can, you'd have no idea how much I will appreciate it, I mean it.

http://peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-259

*At the security prompt hit enter.*

The communities of Los Cerros de Aminilla and Barrigon, two small rural villages near the frontier of Haiti, seek to decrease the high rates of diarrheal diseases present in their communities. They wish to do this with the construction of 25 Peace Corps approved VIP latrines, as well as educational workshops in basic hygiene and sanitation practices . In the Dominican Republic one of the leading causes of child mortality is diarrhea. In the communities of Los Cerros de Aminilla and Barrigon diarrhea has been identified as a significant problem. 25 families are in need of new latrines. Out of the 25 families that need new latrines 60% of them suffer from diarrhea or flu-like symptoms once every two months, compared to only 20% of the families whom suffer from these illnesses and have latrines in good condition. Realizing that 34% of the families in their communities lack latrines, and it´s correlation with higher rates of diarrheal diseases and flu-like symptoms, the communities identified a latrine project as a number one priority in both communities. They have taken the initiative and formed a Hygiene committee to help alleviate the prevalence of these illnesses and prevent new occurrences. The communities of Los Cerros de Aminilla and Barrigon are in need of the materials to construct 25 Peace Corps approved VIP latrines. With the addition of these 25 latrines the quality of life for the families will no doubt increase, due to increased education and facilities to fulfill their basic sanitation needs.

Besos,

Yenny

Ok so these past few weeks have been...not fun.

1) I was attacked by bees, escaped by running out of my house half dressed while neighbors killed the bees with one of my good t-shirts. I thought the coast was clear...wrong...I entered the house and stepped right on a waiting bee. My foot swelled up to the point where I couldn't walk, and then I was high on benedryl for about 5 days. I'm ok now..gracias a dios!

2) While working on preparing one of my classes, I take a breather...leave the house - enter the house - only to find a huge tarantula on my ceiling. I scream, once again run out of my house - and have my old lady neighbor come and sweep it off the ceiling and kill it with a stick...the death of the tarantula brought me some satisfaction, but needless to say, I did not sleep very well that night.

3) It's 8pm, I am helping kids with homework, there is no light. I return to my house at 9:15, still no luz. I enter my house to find that my back door was tore down and 1700 pesos was stolen (about 45 dollars..which is a lot when I get 250 a month). I am currently at a lost, I have not been back to my campo in a week because I am feeling A LOT right now, and it's not good things.

The thing is I live in a campo of 103 people, I had the impression that things were going well, then someone enters my personal space (the one place in the world where I need to feel safe) and pretty much changes my trust in the community, makes me doubt my work and really pisses me off. Oh goodness...I have no idea what to do.... but eat cheese and chocolate. My options are to switch sites or accept the fact that one bad seed shouldn't ruin a batch. Right now I have no idea, and am discussing options with the powers that be in the PC office. But I am safe at the moment and that is all that matters.

I am looking forward to some time at the beach in mid June with some friends, and working hard to save some pesos to make this happen. The week before I have language training which I am really excited about and I'll be in the capitol with access to good food and an actual mall. So not all is bad, the truck keeps on trucking.

Miss everyone more than you know! Hope all is well. And send me a package.

Kisses x x x x

Jennifer Goode, PCV Cuerpo de Paz

451 Avenida Bolivar

Apartado 1412

Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic

Try to send packages in padded envelopes, big boxes take longer and seem to get "lost".

Also, batteries, a teapot, a hot water heater (the kind you plug in), a heating pad, granola bars, power bars, notebooks, puzzles, coloring books, and games can be added to the list of things that you can send, that will make me happy. Well actually anything you send will make me happy...

As I sit hit writing this I hear pigs squealing, kids playing baseball, and sweat is literally dripping down my face.....and oddly enough this has all grown pretty much normal for me. Throw in a Doña walking her cow down the street and (when the light arrives) blaring bachata music, and then we can call it a day. I can then hop under my mosquito net and light my divino niño candle and escape into a world of mind-erasing trashy novels in english to the soothing sounds of roosters crowing.

Yes this has been my life for the past 7 months...still hard to believe it´s been that long. I finished my community diagnostic ...interviewing every house in my community (all 43 houses) and the neighboring community (30 houses) and presented my results at a conference in Santiago in February.

I found that about 20-25% of the houses suffer from either, or diabetes and high blood pressure and more than half the houses suffer from flu like symptoms every 2 months. Some pretty big problems I know, which is why I´m excited that my nutrition course starts this month and I am writing a grant to get money for latrines. Lack of latrines play a huge rule in the flu like symptoms and general hygiene of both communities, so as of now, getting these people their basic sanitation needs met is my number one priority.

I am also planning a monthly education and check-in session with the people who suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes. As well as a monthly baby-weighing to check the growth process of each infant under 5 years old.

The youth group and I have started an after school tutoring program that I am really excited about. Each child meets with a youth twice a week for one hour to go over homework, learn to read, as well as learn other subjects, but they also have three goals to complete for the program. Monthly we will have an all inclusive meeting to check the progress of each child. Sadly the majority of the kids (aged 6-12) do not know how to read, so I´m hoping this program will help with that. In the future I would love to fix up the school (it´s in TERRIBLE condition) and install a small computer center and library....because none of the children have ever used a computer and have very lilttle access, if any, to books.

Other than work, I have moved into my own house and I LOVE it! I love having my own space...even if I do have on average 3 kids in my house at any given time.

My house

My kids

Reminder on packages.....This is what I need-towelsmarkerscrayonslots of chocolateteapoptartscandyblank papert-shirtsvitaminscalcium pills

adviland anything else you can think of. plus my b'day is this month, so please send.And come visit me!

Ok, I had no intention to post, but here I am at a computer- using the internet in the DR - and trying to load photos. This is not an easy task.

Anyway, I am good. 4 months here...life in the campo is going well. I´m learning to relax and take things as they come, which I´ve never done before. I´ve always worked with goals and tasks somewhat in the near future. Here I do whatever comes, whatever the community needs. There is planning of course, if you can call it that, because it never turns out the exact way you planned or expected, which I´m learning isn´t so bad after all. Versatily and all that jazz. The unknown. That´s my life.

I´m looking forward to projects, projects I never saw myself doing like latrines and working with the school. I have a found love of pigs. I LOVE them. They are adorable, they remind me of Tallulah. I want one for my house. Which reminds me...did I tell you guys they´re building me a house? Yup. I am beyond excited because, no matter how much I like my host family - a girl needs her space, and pancakes in the morning. Not yucca and fried cheese.

Also, a HUGE thank you to mom and Jeff for my christmas present!!! I miss everyone and am waiting to hear from you guys about your visits. Yup your visits...make it happen!

Update:

Tropical Storm Noel - I'm alive, it was horrible, my floor was full of water and my latrine flooded, the water group had to be evacuated by helicopter (I'm so J)I fell in love with my host family at CBT..Nina and Welman. ....Nina stepped on a nail and had to get stitches, that's the background of the story. Anyway, Kim and I were doing the usual, sitting with the family in plastic chairs listening to Es tan difficil, pretending to know spanish and them pretending like they know what we're saying-looking at each other---when a cockoroach runs by, well Nina gets all excited, not scared excited but happy excited and had Welman catch the cockaroach and then he preceeded to put it into a plastic baggy full of other cockaroaches--- turns out after much confusionon my part as to why she's collecting and buscando for cockaroaches- turns out that she uses their guts as a home remedy to extract the tetanus from her wound, so there ya go.I graduated Peace Corps training and am now an official volunteer!I love the kids in my site- so much so that I actually played soccer with them- and then I fell and bruised my knee- but I redeemed myself by teaching the boys cheerleading and yoga, and they actually really love it.My site- In the hills of the northwest, yup I live in the hills, although I can pretty much say that it's nothing like the hills of hollywood- unless rollers and hairnets are in fashion now and I missed it. But the lastest gossip is that the price of cheese has increased, which has pretty much resulted on screaming matched in the street and chairs thrown...yes actual chairs thrown. I guess people like their cheese even more than I like cheese, and I like cheese.And the hills are not alive with the sound of music, but full of the sound of cows, and the people in the site think I am weird that I don't eat them..or pork or goat. And they just think I'm weird in general because I told them I slept with my dogs back home and every time I see a puppy I have to play with it..also because I've taken up running, for exercise but mostly so I don't have to take a cold bucket bath.My Dona looks for guys under my bed every night.Tropical Storm Olga occurred, and all volunteers had to be consolidated to a hotel.I'm learning to live without Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and malls...and at first I thought..."How sad, I'm losing a part of myself" things that would literally make me happy and get me through the day. But then I thought of what I do besides drink coffee and shop that makes me happy and gets me through the day- and I thought of playing dominoes with the muchachos, helping Caco learn to read, or dancing with lil' Robinson, and maybe living without a latte or appletini isn't that bad, and what really counts is the time I spend with these kids and the people I'm fortunute to know and that finally I don't think of this as "getting through the day" but as things I look forward to. I feel like I'm letting go of so much but gaining something completely different. (ok I promise that is the last sappy thing I am saying for now except I miss you guys like whoa!)Oh and please send me stuff...especially for my kids, like markers, coloring books, Uno, a kite, anything really.

It´s been a while... I´m tired but need to write because I´m leaving to my site tomorrow and will not have access to a computer for a while...just an fyi.

1. The phone number I had is no longer...my host mom in Santo Domingo dropped my phone in her hot chocolate...but I have a new one but can of course not access my voicemails since I do not have the pin code. awesome.

2. I´ve been to my site, leaving to live there tomorrow. It´s nice, lots of cows and cheese. No toilet, bucket baths, but the kids are great there.

3. I want to write more but I´m tired so you´re going to have to call me, which reminds me, my phone charger from my US phone died so I have no one´s number, please send them to me. Gracias!!!

x x x

Ok so here is my ¨tentative¨ site placement...well the region anyway because I can´t say the exact site for security reasons, but it looks like I´ll be in the northwest of the country, which is closer to the Haitan border. They showed us our placments on the map before we were assigned a site...and there was one site that we called the ¨dot¨ because it was pretty far away from other volunteers...and it´s me! I´ll be in a small campo and I´m pretty excited that I will be be closer to Haiti. I´m hoping to have a donkey, but we´ll see.

For ALL of you (and I´m hoping ALL of you) who visit, the nearest airport is Santiago.

So I safely arrived, it´s been a month, and I´ve already:

-had gripe (Dominican word for the flu/cold)

-met some cool people

-watched The Office and Will and Grace in English (Emily´s casa is the best!)

-sweated more than I ever had in my whole life (great, I can cross that off my list of things to do)

-taken numerous bucket-baths by candlelight (very romantic all by myself)

-packed myself into the back of a pick-up truck with chickens - where I was hit on the head by a bag of Cheetos (or the Dominican equivalent) then one of the chickens decided to lay an egg right by my feet

-have seen traffic stop for cows and goats

-been accidentally fed salami

-used/using a latrina, which is quite treacherous at 4 in the morning, I have a war with the cockroaches and giant spiders in there every night...so far me and my flashlight have won

-been to the beach!

-drank a jumbo presidente...yup no more cocktails for me, apparently at the local colmado (decorated with the latest and greatest plastic chairs) they do not serve appletini´s

-lived/living with 2 really great host families, my host family now has family in Boston whom I´ve talked on the phone with

-learned bachata and merengue

-have done some really impressive work with my mosquito net (patched wholes with elastic and have hung it from some really strange places)

-had chickens in my house..just chilling

-had a 40 minute motoconcho ride through mountains, sheep, goats, horses, cows and pigs, it was actually pretty awesome

I´m working on:

-not looking like I have leprosy from my numerous mosquito bites

-not looking like an idiot when I speak spanish, which I feel may be awhile

-planning a trip to climb Pico Duarte

-loving rice and beans every day

That´s about it, I have to attend a meeting tonight..and the next night and the night, because my Doña tells me I have to (....and I want to of course)

I miss everyone, I´m already looking forward to my hot shower in March when I see Jessica´s baby, although I kind of prefer bucket baths now, they are quite efficient.

xoxoxox

Yennifer (apparently my new name)

Hey everyone!

Just a quick note...I made it. I can´t believe it´s been a month!! Things are going really well. My spanish is improving...slowly, but improving non-the-less. I miss everyone a ton! I´m near the south for four more weeks, learning spanish and having technical training then back to the capitol and on to my site for 2 years. Every day of the week is really busy, like today...so next time I promise to give a more descript update.

x x x x

We made it to California! The road trip was long but fun! First stop was New Orleans where Tammy played black jack at Harrah's casino with some guys money and won $100. We got drinks "to go" and walked around Bourban St. Very fun.

Next we stopped in San Antonio and went into the city, saw the Alamo and walked the River Walk. There, while walking down a side street, I saw a little dog behind a dumpster and I could not leave her there! So we called the number on the tag (it was an Animal Hospital), called the owner who didn't pick up (we got the number from the hospital), then we drove the doggy to the animal shelter. The owner eventually called us, turns out she was out of town and the dog was supposed to be with her niece...poor baby. But it had a happy ending so that's all that matters.

Then we made it to Las Cruces, New Mexico where I think I've stayed in the second nastiest motel I've ever been in. The last stop before California was Arizona...where we stayed in a really small town, with tumbleweed and everything but the scenery was beautiful!

Finally, we are in L.A. and just got back from Long Beach where we ate on the beach and had cocktails.... after driving just about all over the city. Good times!

Then I leave on Monday...CRAZY!

New Orleans.

Update-

Yay...19 days to go! I received my staging kit and found out that staging is in DC. I booked my flight from LAX today, and I get to DC a day early, which is fine by me. Why LAX you ask? Well it looks like I am taking that road-trip trip to CA after all...I'm so excited! Both Tammy and I have quit our jobs and have no apartments... we are out!

I also have instructions from the Peace Corps for family and friends about sending packages and such:

Jennifer Goode

Cuerpo de Paz

Avenida Bolivar 451, Gazcue

Apartado 1412

Santa Domingo

Dominican Republic

Visiting me:

I want people to visit me! But you can't in the first three months of training, so any time after December would be fabulous.

Me leaving:

I can't for 6 months (3 months of training and 3 months of service)...just in time to see Jessica's baby!

So that's that, and that's it for now.

I'm leaving Boston, for a week in Georgia with the fam, then Orlando and Tampa...and possibly a road trip to Cali. Then it's the Dominican Republic! It looks as if this week is super busy but I want to try to see everyone before I leave, so if you want to get together let me know asap.

I can't believe I applied to the Peace Corps over a year ago and now I only have one month left until I leave...crazy!

I'm starting this blog to keep up-t0-date with my family and friends for when I'll be in the Peace Corps Dominican Republic for 27 months...yay! I've never really "blogged" before so this might take some getting used to.

Anyway my ASSIGNMENT is:

Program: Healthy Families

Job Title: Community Health/Health Nutrition Extensionist

Dates of Service: Nov. 20, 2007-Nov. 19, 2009

Orientation/Training: Sept. 11, 2007-Nov. 20, 2007

More to come soon.....