Welcome back. It’s been a couple months since my last entry, so we have lots to catch up on, don’t we?   First things first: it’s not hot anymore. Of course it’s still warm and muggy, and of course you don’t want to be in the sun in the middle of the day, but for the most part it’s southern California weather where I live. Always t-shirt weather, but now I need a warm blanket at night.   Fruits in season: oranges and avocados. Yum.   Results of 1-year in-service dentist appointment: no cavities.   Results of 1-year in-service physical exam: no testicular cancer.   Results of Business Plan Competition: Both my groups—the bakery team and the soap factory team—made it to the national competition. We had a great conference in Santo Domingo (I was MC during the conference), but the competition was tough and neither group won money. So it goes.   Results of U.S. presidential Election: Barack Obama won. I estimate that Peace Corps volunteers are roughly 100 % Democrat, so there was a bit of celebrating. About 50 volunteers in the Cibao region met up in Santiago, and we stayed up, watched the results come in, and felt proud to be Americans.. Dominicans are mostly entirely pro-Obama as well, so it was exciting to be here. Contrast that with the 2004 election when I was living in France. I heard the “hip-hop community” in the U.S. has nicknamed him B-Rock. That’s cool.   Community Fund Update: I am proud to say we now have an operational scholarship fund! As you know (since of course, you’ve read all my previous entries, riiiiiiiiiiiight?) the community fund for the 27 Waterfalls has been active for a year now, and until now the projects have focused on infrastructure: water systems, community center, basketball court, and the like. However, we have noticed a real desire for a scholarship program in the area. Most kids want to go to the university or a technical school after high school, but the families in the area are poor. Kids are pressured to find work and start contributing to the family, so in many cases money for tuition, transport, and materials is out of the question.   One of the Dominican government’s best initiatives is INFOTEP, the state-run technical college. There are hundreds of technical courses offered, and there’s no tuition. The only cost to the student is his/her transport to the regional training center (in our case, Santiago, about an hour away), notebooks and pens. We know that many youth in the area are interested in taking an INFOTEP course, but even the small transport costs are prohibitive for a lot of families.   We decided to offer ten scholarships that will cover costs of materials, transport, and food during the courses. Each of the twelve community groups in the area nominated 2 local youth between 18 and 25 years old. Earlier this week the two jefes of the 27 Waterfalls and I conducted interviews, and selected 10 of them based on their interview scores.  They will be starting classes in January, working towards certification in information technology, auto mechanics, hair styling, electronics, accounting, and office management. And they are fired up about it.    So we’ll see how this round of scholarships goes, and hopefully we will start offering university scholarships early next year.   Books update: I just finished reading my 26th book since I got in country, and I though I’d share the list with y’all. I’ve categorized them as follows:   The Best Books I’ve Read Here: 1776 – David McCollough American’s #1 historian drops knowledge about the first year of the American Revolution. We didn’t stand a chance against the Brits in the beginning; but we pulled through because of a bad-ass George Washington and a whole lot of good fortune. Fun to read, fascinating, and inspiring.   The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan Michael Pollan is a professor of journalism at Berkeley, a food columnist, and a connoisseur of all things edible. In this book he gives insight into industrial agriculture, “organic” food (and its different interpretations), and alternative models. It’s not at all a hippy, let’s-all-become-vegans-and-join-PETA book; rather, he talks about people’s current relationship with food and the politics and ethics of food production.   The Persian Puzzle – Kenneth Pollack This could go in the “Great books if you’re a foreign policy dork like me” category, but it’s so well-written and so important given current circumstances that it earned a spot up top. This book is a history of US-Iran relations, and it gave me a full understanding of how the US and Iran ended up in such a hostile situation, what’s going on politically on both sides, and how we can move forward from here.   Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder The biography of Paul Farmer, a genius medical anthropologist that set out to change public health in the developing world. Cool insight into Haiti, Farmer’s home base.     Great books, highly recommended: The Botany of Desire – Michael Pollan The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers Gang Leader for a Day – Sudhir Venkatesh 100 Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez Great American Essays 2006   Great books if you’re a foreign policy dork like me: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It - Paul Collier. The White Man’s Burden – William Easterly Diplomacy – Henry Kissinger   Good books; won’t blow your mind, though: The Stand – Stephen King Drown – Junot Diaz Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris Dress your Kids in Corduroy and Denim – David Sedaris The History of Love – Nicole Krauss Eats, Shoots and Leaves – Lynne Truss Blink – Malcolm Gladwell Catch-22 – Joseph Heller On the Road – Jack Kerouac Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – John Perkins Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand (Fountainhead was way better) Fast Food Nation The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini     There you have it. Have a lovely thanksgiving and we’ll hang out again soon.

Hello there. I hope all you readers are nice and comfortable with your fancy-shmancy air conditioning while I’m trying to survive my first tropical summer. As I soak through my t-shirt and wait for a breeze to pick up, I’ll fill y’all in on the happenings of the last couple months.

Happening #1: mango season arrived.Mango trees grow everywhere in the DR. No matter where you are in the country, if you take a look around you there will likely be a mango tree close by. It is a pleasant tree to begin with: big and shady, very climbable and a great hammock anchor. And then May arrives, and the branches literally sag with the weight of ripe mangos. And by god, are they the most delicious fruit I’ve ever tasted. You poor gringos have no idea what a proper mango tastes like; the bland, farm-grown monstrosities that you find in American supermarkets were picked while still green, coated with preservatives, and sold for $3. Over here in the DR, however, there’s not enough stomach room to eat all the mangos once they come into season, even though everyone is eating at least five a day. If at any point from May to August you feel like eating a mango, you can:

A) get one of the local kids to climb a tree and knock some down for you (hey muchachito, buscame un manguito!); B) check the area under your closest mango tree (I have two in my backyard) for some freshly-fallen fruits; C) buy a bucket’s worth on the side of the road for $2; or D) wait for someone to offer you one; it will happen at least every 15 minutes.And another thing: a mango is not just a mango. There are 80 varieties that grow in the DR: small but rich lechoza mangos, long and sour yamaguis, large purple haitianos, roundish and sweet banilejos, gusto abajos that taste a bit like an orange creamsicle, and dozens of others.

So yes, there are lots of mangos, and they are delicious and perfect. But just when you started to think that the Caribbean could – perhaps – be heaven on earth…

Happening #2: summer arrived.At some point in May, life began to slow down a notch. Running errands became logistically more difficult. And a brow-wiping handkerchief in the pocket became a necessity.

When I got to my site in November, I was quite satisfied with the climate. Being in the foothills of the northern mountain range, the air was less humid and the temperature cooler than the coastal areas. At nights, a long-sleeve shirt or sweater was necessary, and in the day it was almost like Southern California. Summer, however, is a different story.

You know how seafood vendors sometime pack live crabs and lobsters with ice for transport? The freezing cold doesn’t kill them, but it slows them down to near-immobility. Well, the heat of the summer Caribbean sun has the same effect on humans. No one in their right mind is in the sun between 11 and 2, and if they are, they will be dripping sweat in about 6 seconds. If it’s been a particularly hot day, and if there’s no electricity (and thus no fan), it may be difficult to fall asleep at night.

So how the heck have I survived my summer here? I did what any rational gringo would do and… Happening #3: I went to the USThat’s right: after 10 months of living in the DR, it was time for a vacation to the homeland. It was a whirlwind trip through Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and my hometown of Yucca Vally, CA. During these two weeks I:Ate more than a little Mexican food;Ate more than a few hamburgers;Spoke English;Visited the Google campus (way cool, and the food is as good as the hype)Rock climbed at Joshua Tree National Park (a 5.8, for those who know)Golfed and almost shot par on a couple holes;Saw the new Batman and enjoyed it;Went to a Music and Arts Festival in Santa Monica;Discovered “Rock Star”, the follow-up to “Guitar Hero”;But most importantly,I visited my good friends and spent quality time with my beloved grandparents, brother, aunt and uncle, and Mom and Dad (ahhh). Happening #4: I did some Peace Corps work as well.In the meantime I’ve been working hard to save the world in the following ways: Sub-Happening #4-A: The 27 Charcos Community Fund, moving along.The Community Fund at the 27 Charcos – in which a portion of each entrance fee is used for community development projects – is now operational. Having brought together representatives from the surrounding communities, we reached consensus on the first round of projects, which are currently under way. We have a community school bus, two aqueduct projects, and an office for the Defensa Civil (volunteer civil service group) under way or already completed. Sub-Happening #4-B Number-crunching at the CharcosOver the summer I’ve been working with the jefes and the secretaries at the visitor center to take a close look at the operational costs. The place is co-managed by the Guides Association and the DR Ministry of Environment, and they have an agreed-upon entrance fee structure. The two parties will soon begin negotiations on the new co-management contract, so we need a good analysis to show how the money has been spent. Sub-Happening #4-C: Youth leadership conference deemed a successFor the last few months I’ve been helping to plan a regional youth conference, “Celebrando el Cibao” (the Cibao is the central valley region where I live). This conference has been held for the last several years, and is organized entirely by volunteers themselves. The conference’s focus is diversity, so we led discussions and activities that dealt with cultural identity, religion, sexual orientation, disabilities, and the like. We also invited several guest speakers, including a former Vice President of the DR, who gave the opening remarks. The conference just wrapped up yesterday, and it went great. There were about eighty participants present, who were youth leaders selected in the communities where volunteers are working. It was a lot of fun for the kids and for the volunteers. Sub-Happening #4-D: Teaching business to local youth.For the last three years, Peace Corps has teamed up with some non-profit organizations to organize a business plan competition for youth. Several MBA schools in the US have business plan competitions: students submit proposals for a start-up business, and compete to win money for the initial costs. Here, we have developed a course for basic business skills, which volunteers can teach to local youth groups. At the end of the course, the youth are invited to prepare plans for a small business in their community. The volunteers help with editing and suggestions, but the ideas and the work are their own. The volunteers host a regional judging, and the best groups with the best plans are invited to the capital for a weekend conference and competition. They make presentations and are judged by VIPs in Santo Domingo. Peace Corps volunteers and our partner organization – this year, Plan International – have raised funds from several large Dominican companies, and we provide winning groups with up to three or four thousand dollars. For a small business in the campo, that is plenty of investment to get things started. So I’ve been teaching the course over the summer to a youth group, and they just turned in plans for a bakery and a small soap and detergent factory. The conference will be at the end of the month. I’ll let you know how it all goes, and if my groups made it to the national competition.So there you are. That’s how I spent my summer vaca…I mean, my work. Until next time…

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

I'll get to writing a new entry soon. In the meantime, check out my sweet digs.

I no longer live alone. Ever since I moved in, a frog named Ronaldo has taken up residence in my bathroom. I’m okay with it, though.

The first few days I noticed him, he (I can’t determine a frog’s gender, but I’ll call him male for the time being) was checking the place out, trying to decide on a good bug-eating perch and a place to nap. I would find him on the ceiling, in the sink, behind the toilet, and behind the bathroom mirror. Eventually he made his decision.

One day, as I had just stepped into the shower and turned on the water, the shower spigot appeared to be clogged. I tapped it with my hand to try and dislodge the object. Then a brown slimy object came shooting out at a high velocity and just missed my head.

First, I screamed the girliest scream I’ve ever screamed in my life and ran out of the shower. Then I grabbed a blunt object and went back in the bathroom, ready to do battle. Indeed, Ronaldo had been the high-pressure projectile that had almost whacked me in the head. I decided against tossing him outside, thinking that he’d take off by himself after such a traumatic experience.

I was mistaken. He was back inside the spigot the next day, and I was wise enough to turn on the water before I got in the shower. Again, he shot out of the pipe, but about half an hour after I got out of the shower he was back inside.

We have now accepted each other’s company. Whenever I shower I remove him from the spigot, he patiently waits for me to finish bathing, and as soon as I turn off the water he crawls up the wall and back in. Rather than paying me rent, he eats bugs. I’m okay with it.

On a non-frog related note, my parents and brother visited me in mid-March, and we had a grand time. We spent a few days in the capital, then went up to my site for a few days. We went up the Charcos one day, went to Patrick’s site and rode horses up in the mountains (awesome, thanks Patrick!), they got to spend time with my Dominican host family, and go to a way-authentic fiesta with a famous merengue tipico band, El Prodigio. Then we went for a few days to Las Galeras, at the tip of the Samana peninsula, for some quality beach time. It was a great visit, and I enjoyed showing them around.

Buenos dias a todos.

It appears that I haven’t posted in about a month. Well, I’m been a busy guy (kind of). In addition to being a Peace Corps volunteer, I have taken on several other professions. Allow me to explain a few of my new trades:

Caballero (cowboy)

The other week I went to visit another volunteer who lives close by, sort of. The distance between his community and mine is small…probably 8 km or so. Yet the quickest way to his place involves a half-hour motorcycle ride, then a half-hour hike up the hill that crosses two rivers. He's a water volunteer, managing the construction of a community aqueduct, living in a super-isolated small community up in the mountains. So, one of my guide buddies and I found a couple of mules and rode for three hours in the general direction of his site, asking the people if they knew where "Roberto el gringo" lived. We arrived, spent the afternoon hanging out at his pad, and rode back. My butt hurt a lot.

Agricultor (farmer)

I moved into my new place. It's awesome. It also has space in the backyard for a garden. So as of five days ago, I am a tomato/eggplant/pepper/plantain/lettuce/spinach/cilantro farmer. I haven't actually farmed anything yet, but the seeds have been planted.

Chef (chef)

Since I moved into my new place, I now have to take care of my own meals. Man it was nice to have the host mom cook all my meals. I usually eat lunch at the 27 Charcos visitor center, so I usually only have to make dinner. There are some very different ingredients here, and I need to learn more Dominican recipes. But yeah, I'll call myself a chef at this point. Why not.

Guia Turistico (tour guide)

This is high tourist season in the DR, which means a lot of volunteers have friends visiting. And since the 27 Charcos is the coolest place ever, most of them bring their friends to my site. In the last month I've had visits from volunteers at least once a week, up to three or four visits a week. I don't always go up the waterfalls with each group, but I try to at least spend some time with them before or after to explain the project and hear their feedback.

Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps Volunteer)

There's also been a lot of progress on the work front. After meeting with all 13 of the surrounding communities, I received 12 project proposals. These were community-initiated projects in which the community groups met to agree on the most pressing needs. They then wrote a proposal explaining the community situation and need, and created an itemized budgets that show the community's contribution as well. After the deadline, I arranged a meeting with one representative from each community group, and we approved 6 projects. These are smaller-scale initiatives that we should be able to carry out within the next few months and with only about half of the available funds. The approved projects include two water projects (wells with public faucets), purchase of land for a community center, building of an office for the Defensa Civil (the volunteer civil-service org), supplies for another Defensa Civil, and a community-run breadshop. There are other large-scale projects (basketball courts, community centers, aqueducts) that we'll need to do in phases. My plan is also to move away from infrastructure projects and start a competitive scholarship program (for language schools, technical institutes, and Dominican universities), technical courses for community members, and possibly a micro-credit fund for entrepreneurs in the area. Lots to be done.

The parents are here in country right now, and my brother flies in tonight. It's been great showing them around Santo Domingo, and I'm looking forward to bringing them to my project site. Pictures to follow.

Hello all,

I just got back from the 3 Month “In-Service Training” conference. The 17 of us in Community Economic Development (CED) from my training group met in a conference center in the pine forests above La Vega, on the grounds of what was once a home of ex-President Balaguer.

Our respective project partners (in my case, the president of the guides association) came with us for the first couple days. We presented the results of our community diagnostics, identified possible projects for the upcoming year, then broke out in groups to create specific objectives and an action plan. Then the project partners left and the volunteers stayed for extra training on grant writing, group strengthening, Dominican government resources, marketing, and the like.

As we were wrapping up the conference on Sunday, the biggest Carnaval celebration in the country was taking place in La Vega, down the mountain. So in the afternoon we piled into vans and spent the evening watching the parade and trying not to get our butts whacked with sand-filled pig bladders. Yeah, that’s what they do…the carnival “teams” dress up in wild costumes and march down the street holding basketball-size bean bags on a rope. If you are on the curb, you’re (usually) out of harm’s reach. If you are in the street, you will get whacked and you will have a bruise. I evaded most of the whacks, but many of the gringas were less fortunate.

Before the conference, I visited one last community to check out the situation and what their development needs are. The place is called Naranjo Chino, an agricultural community in the mountains and miles from any sign of civilization. I convinced a couple of guides to go with me one day, and we took off in the early morning. After three and a half hours of hiking through the forest, we came across a small path and an old dude leading some cows. We asked him if this was the road to Naranjo Chino; he replied in the thickest campesino-accent I’ve ever heard that yes, it was just a little further ahead.

Shortly thereafter we arrived at a cluster of 6 wooden houses: the center of Naranjo Chino. There are 17 houses in total, we learned. These families live without electricity, bring water up from the creek down the hill, cook over wood fires, and eat what they harvest. There’s no store, but if one person rides a half-day into the nearest town, s/he will bring back, say, cooking oil to be shared among the families.

The most interesting part of my visit was hearing the attitudes of the people in this village. In the other communities I have visited, the people are typically angry and pessimistic: “no one’s done anything for us, no one helps us, there’s no work”. In Naranjo Chino, the people were happy, even though they lived more modestly than anyone. They liked where they lived, they had no intention of moving, and when I asked them what could be done to make their lives easier, they phrased their response in a way that suggested, “it would be nice to have some electricity at some point in the future, but if not, no big deal.”

Here's the view from the top of the hill as we were coming back from Naranjo Chino. The charcos and visitors center is below.

I move into my new house on the 1st! The place has a great view, it’s in great condition, and I probably pay less for it than you pay for your cell phone. Once I move in I’ll post some pictures of it.

With the 2008 presidential campaigns rolling out in the US, it all must seem silly at times: nonstop gossip on the news about who said what about whom, nine thousand debates each month, political commercials, rallies, and “town hall” meetings.

The Dominican Republic’s presidential campaign season is underway as well. Dominicans go to the polls on May 16th to decide between the incumbent Leonel Fernandez of the PLD (leading in the polls), Miguel Vargas from the PRD, or Amable Aristy from the PRSC. And if you thought the US during election time was goofy, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet

Top Five Goofy Things about the Dominican Presidential Race:

5. Each candidate has his baseball commercial.

Dominicans, needless to say, are crazy about baseball. In an attempt to strike a passionate chord with the voter, every candidate has made a commercial in which a baseball game is a metaphor for the election. Miguel Vargas’ commercial, for instance, shows him up to bat against a pitcher that resembles Leonel, the incumbent. The Leonel-esque pitches twice, each with a different election issue written on the ball (unemployment, high cost of living). On the third pitch, the ball says “reelection”, and Miguel is almost hit by the pitch. The crowd boos and hisses. The next pitch says “elections 2008” and Miguel hits a home run.

4. Each candidate has his New York commercial.

As far as I know, the DR is the only country in which the candidates actively campaign in foreign countries. With 1.2 million Dominicans living in New York city, mostly in Washington Heights, the candidates have all campaigned regularly in New York and have commercials in the DR that show the support they have in New York.

3. The party bus is a form of campaigning.

A common campaign event is a bus or truck, piled high with rock-concert-size speakers, driving through a town blasting merengue, bachata, regueton, or salsa. In between songs there will be an announcement for the candidate. Occasionally the bus or truck will pull into a plaza or gas station, and you got yourself an instant block party.

2. Parades that shut down entire sections of the city.

In the larger cities, the local office of the parties will organize parades through town, but there will be so many people, motorcycles, trucks and buses in the street that it doesn’t really move through town, it just shuts down an entire street or neighborhood.

1. One candidate, Amable Aristy, is known for coming to towns in his helicopter, then dumping out suitcases of money, cheese wedges and salami. Seriously.

As a Peace Corps volunteer I am not authorized to state my opinion on Dominican politics, so I’ll leave the judgment to you.

On another note, the Aguilas from Santiago won the Finals. My community, being huge Aguilas fans, went nuts. See the video:

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr day. I’m in the capital right now, at the end of a busy grant-writing, student-group-hosting, endless-meeting-attending two weeks.

The president of the Guides’ association and I worked hard the first week of January to finish writing our project proposal to the Programa de Pequeños Subsidios of the UN Development Program. We’re trying to acquire a small hydroelectric power source to power the visitor center (since the DR usually has electricity only half the day), guide training, administrative training, a publicity campaign, and a kiosk to sell photos and videos of the visit. We should hear back from the UNDP folks in the next month or so. USAID just approved a grant program specifically for eco-tourism projects in the DR, so we’ll be applying for that one as well. We have a great opportunity to improve the project, but we have to start thinking seriously about our strategic vision, rather than our short-term needs.

The community diagnostic has been coming along. I’ve met with almost all the communities, and I have several youth groups working with me to conduct interviews in the community. Our 3-month In-Service Training, where I’ll present the results, is in 3 weeks. There’s a lot to be done.

Last week another volunteer, Jon, and I met with the head of the charitable foundation for Sun Village, a nice all-inclusive hotel in Puerto Plata. We explained our projects and discussed how the foundation could help. Then, we ate four-star buffet (i.e. not rice and beans and boiled plantains) and sat on the beach sipping Mai-tais for the rest of the afternoon. It was a rough day.

The Finals of the Dominican baseball league are going on…the Aguilas Cibaeñas are up 3-1 against the Tigres de Licey, and they could win the series tonight. Bartolo Colon (yes, the Angels pitcher and Cy Young 2005 winner) is pitching and Miguel Tejada is playing for the Aguilas, so the odds are in their favor.

Coming next post: goofy campaign tactics for the presidential election here, to be held in May.

Hello all. It´s been far too long. I don´t have too much time right now, but I'll give you a quick recap of what's been going on.

So here’s how Christmas goes down in the DR. First, there’s 5 AM mass every morning for the nine days preceding Christmas. Someone in the community usually walks up the road banging a drum or blasting their stereo at 4:30 to make sure people don’t sleep in…how thoughtful. Christmas eve is the big family day. About 25 people came to my host family’s house, and we had a big dinner of rice and beans, roasted pig, BBQ chicken, different salads, yucca, cassava, empanadas, avocado, fruits, nuts, y mas. Christmas day, it appears, is dedicated to getting boozy. At 10:30 AM some neighbors were already on the train to drunksville. In the evening I went to the Patronales celebration going on in the pueblo nearby. Each town has its own once-a-year fiesta, and theirs is the last week of December. It’s basically a block party: kiosks selling rum and beer, and the people hanging out and dancing in the street. Dominicans open presents on the dia de los reyes, on January 7.

Over New Years I was in Cabarete, a great beach town and the number one kitesurf spot in the world. I didn't kite surf ($300 US to learn) but it was pretty cool to watch.

So here's some pictures.

Some of the volunteers and I celebrating New Years on the beach.

Doña Linda and I at the Christmas dinner.Some of the waterfall guides and I at the Patronales fiesta.More to come next week...

Hello all. Tropical Storm Olga paid a visit to the Caribbean last Tuesday and Wednesday, even though hurricane season ended already. It didn’t cause as much damage as Noel, but it left its mark. The largest river in the country, Rio Yaque del Norte, flooded and washed out several communities. In the area where I live, the wind and rains knocked down billboards and trees, and landslides took out some farms as well. Meanwhile, I was “consolidated” at a nice hotel in Santiago with fifty other volunteers from the Northern region. If there’s a good chance a tropical storm/hurricane is going to hit the island, Peace Corps DR orders all volunteers to regional cities, where everyone stays in a hotel and can be accounted for while the storm passes. I took my first hot-water shower since leaving the US three months ago. It was glorious. Thank you to those of you who wished me a happy birthday. For those of you who didn’t, I’ll give you one more chance next year, then that’s it, I'm cutting you off. I was lucky enough to have two birthday parties: one at my site with the guides and one in the capital with some of the other volunteers. My doña came into my room before the sun was up to sing happy birthday to me…apparently that’s what they do here. It made me happy in a get-out-of-my-room-I’m-grumpy-and-I-want-to-sleep kind of way. Things have been going well at my site. I’ve been visiting neighborhood groups in the communities that will be beneficiaries of the 27 Charcos community fund, and getting ready to begin interviews. I’ll be asking questions about demographics, public health, community infrastructure, economic situation, etc. This is all part of my community diagnostic that I’ll be presenting at the end of February. Have a very merry Christmas and enjoy your hot showers and potable water.

This is a video of the house I lived in for 5 weeks during our community-based training. Enjoy.

What a couple of weeks it has been. Two weeks ago I went out to my site for four days, and this last week I’ve been in the capital. Yesterday I arrived at my site for good. No more training, no one telling me what to do or where to go. My Peace Corps service has begun, and I’m nervous.

About my site.

I have the most awesome site ever. I am the third consecutive volunteer to be working with the guides association of the 27 Charcos of the Rio Damajaguas. The guides take tourists up the river and back down again, which requires hiking, swimming, climbing (sometimes over the backs of the guides), jumping and sliding down the 27 waterfalls in this river. When the first PC volunteer arrived there was no guides association nor a visitor center…just some local guys hanging out in front waiting for tour buses and paid by tips. Now there’s a well-run association, a beautiful welcome center, and an exclusive contract with the Education Ministry for use of the protected area. The contract also stipulates that a percentage of each ticket sale must be used to benefit the surrounding communities.

I will continue to work with the guides association to renegotiate their contract, improve their service and marketing of the site. However, my main project here will be to get the community redevelopment fund started. Since the contract was signed a couple years ago, the fund has grown to tens of thousands of dollars, but no structure has been established to determine how the money will be distributed. There is an oversight committee that meets every once every three months, but it is more like a board of directors than an operational committee. My job for the next two years will be to make the fund work. I will spend a lot of my time with the junta de vecinos (community groups) of the eight beneficiary communities to begin the process of identifying their needs and opportunities. I will also work closely with the Environment Ministry, the Puerto Plata tourist board, the governor’s office and the municipality (all of whom are members of the oversight committee) to agree on qualifying criteria for projects. We’ll likely be setting up some sort of endowment as well.

It’s all very overwhelming, but in a good way. My project is an enormous undertaking, but this is what I asked for. Right now I’m just trying to remember people’s names and follow conversations, and the goal seems far away. These next few months I’ll be working on a community diagnostic: conducting interviews with the gente in each community to get a full picture of the economic situation, demographics, infrastructure and public health.

Last week in the Capital.

This past week has been a lot of fun. Monday and Tuesday were the final days of training, and Wednesday we officially swore in as Peace Corps volunteers. For Thanksgiving, every year a group of volunteers set up a day for all volunteers. This year they rented out a private recreation club that we had all to ourselves. Huge pool, basketball courts, volleyball courts, domino boards, dance floor, and a typical Thanksgiving feast. At night we all hit the city. Good times. Then on Friday was the all-volunteer conference, where we went over policy changes, updates from Tropical Storm Noel (many volunteers whose houses were destroyed have been working with relief organizations and helping distribute provisions), and technical workshops. And now here I am.

By the way, when I got back to the capital I found out about another epidemic in the country: leptospirosis. It’s been somewhat prevalent in the country, but since the storm the number of cases has grown tremendously. It’s a bacteria typically caused by rat urine, and it will ruin your day if you get it. It’s a hygiene issue more than anything, so we have to be careful to wash our hands and food well.

So that’s what’s going on in my life. Until next time…

I'm stoked. Like, way stoked.

I just got back from a week at my new site. I don't have time to write a big blog entry right now, but check out the website for the project I'm working with:

www.27charcos.com

More info to follow. Start planning your vacations to come visit me.

So about the storm...

Ok, so now I´ve gotten through dengue fever AND a tropical storm. It was raining all last week, and Sunday evening the rain started coming down HARD. There´s a tin roof over the house I´m living in, so it only amplified the sound of the rain. All day Monday and Tuesday it poured. Gusts of up to 30 mph-ish. Luckily the community I live in has good drainage systems and is on a hill. There´s a river behind my house, though, and it was about quadruple it´s normal width. So we got lucky, but volunteers in other parts of the country got it bad. One of the trainees in my group apparently has 3 ft of water in her house. There is a lot of damage all over the country, at least 25 confirmed dead, and the main highway is blocked by busted road and foliage. The government is getting a lot of flak for not warning people in vulnerable areas...since the storm came in on Sunday, there weren´t a lot of people in the Dominican version of FEMA office, and they weren´t able to mobilize people on time.

CBT Update

Less than two weeks left in Community-based Training (CBT). I can’t believe it…a week from Monday (Nov 12) I find out where I’ll be living for the next two years!!! I have an idea of what I would prefer to be doing and where, but I’ll have to leave it to my boss to decide. I don’t even know where the sites are and what the main projects are. However, Community Economic Development (CED) volunteers work with producer groups (agricultural cooperatives), ecotourism, and/or youth entrepreneur groups. The sites are scattered all over the country, in cities and tiny pueblicitos, on the beach and in the mountains, working with well-established groups or organizations that are just getting off the ground. So, November 12 will be a fateful day. In the last blog entry I had dengue fever. I no longer have dengue fever. Within a few days of the last entry, my white blood cell count began to rise and I broke out in a rash, which are indications that the virus was dying off. I went back to CBT that day, and within a couple days I was feeling 100% healthy again. The bummer is that I am NOT immune to dengue having already contracted it. CBT has been awesome. For the last 4 weeks the 17 CED trainees have been living with host families in a small pueblo outside of Moca, while learning the skills and methods that will make us successful volunteers. There’s a lot of classroom time, with seminars on the DR business environment, challenges for small businesses, accounting skills, agriculture in the DR, marketing in the DR, facilitation techniques, and more. We also have Spanish class almost every day in groups of 4-5 for 3 or 4 hours at a time. My favorite aspect of CBT is that a lot of our time is spent learning by doing. Rather than simply discussing producer groups, we’ve gone and visited coffee and zapote farms to discuss the industry with the members of their associations in Moca. We’ve met with locally-based non-profits to see what they have going on. We’ve conducted community diagnostics of our neighborhoods, in which we interview community members and visit different businesses in the area to get an idea of the layout of the barrio, the good and bad areas, the commercial environment, and an assessment of the development needs. We’ll be doing a more complex community diagnostic once we get to our sites later this month. We’ve met with business owners to get an idea of the problems facing small businesses. Next week we’re going to an eco-tourism site. By the way, I’m a domino addict right now. I’ve learned how to play the Dominican version of Domino, I’ve gotten semi-good at it, and now I spend most my evenings playing with other trainees, the training staff, and families in the area. The next three weeks will be exciting. This weekend we’re going hiking into some caves nearby, next week we’re wrapping up CBT and that Saturday we head back to the capital. On Monday we’ll find out our sites, and on Wednesday we go visit our sites for 5 days. Then we come back, get sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers, and the next day is Thanksgiving. All 150 volunteers in country come to the capital to party and eat turkey and pumpkin pie. That weekend is the all-volunteer conference, and the next week I head out to my new home for 2 years. The end.

Hangin out at the colmado after a long day of training...

My host sisters in Santo Domingo...

A view from a hill in Cambita, where I visited a current volunteer...

Gripe, shmipe. That cold I wrote about last entry morphed into a hardcore 102 degree skull-crushing miserable fever that lasted from Tuesday evening to Friday morning. At present I'm in the capital being monitored by Peace Corps medical staff, having received lab results that show I have dengue fever. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll start from the beginning.

So the day I arrived in Community-Based Training (CBT), I started feeling a bit of a cold. This was Thursday Oct 4. It didn't get any worse that a sinus infection, which felt pretty cleared up by Tuesday. Tuesday night I wake up from sleep drenched in sweat and burning up. I spend Wednesday and Thursday in bed, sleeping nonstop.

This was a miserable time. I had no energy, no appetite, and the fever wouldn't go down. Also, my body ached as if I had just had the hardest workout of my life. I cringed whenever I moved any joint in my body. Luckily my dona had fruit juice, smoothies, and homemade teas to give me every half hour.

Friday morning we all went to the capital for the 2nd Annual Peace Corps Business Plan Competition. This is an awesome event in which a hundred or so kids submit business plans and get a free weekend in the capital to defend their plans against a panel of judges. There's thousands of dollars available to the young entrepreneurs to help them start their businesses. There's also professionals that come speak on business skills and other methods for obtaining startup capital.

I was feeling pretty good, but I called the Peace Corps doctor and described my symptoms.

"So, does this sound like I'm at the end of whatever I had?"

"No, it sounds like you're in the middle of a dengue fever."

Friday I got blood tests done, and hung out at the competition. On Sunday, when everyone went back to training, I stayed in the capital. This morning I had more tests, and this afternoon the results came back. I have to stay in the capital until at least wednesday, or until I develop the typical dengue rash- a full body rash that indicates the end of the dengue virus.

So that's been my week.

I got the gripe. What is the gripe? It’s the general term for being sick: flu, cold, diarrhea, indigestion, whatever. In my case, it appears to be just a head cold. It sucks, but I can still eat food and participate in training activities, so I can’t really complain.

The gripe has, however, allowed me to see some of the campo diagnoses and remedies. For example, gripe is apparently caused by getting wet from rain, not wearing socks, and not eating enough plantains. To cure gripe, you can’t drink cold water, you need to gargle constantly with salt, lime, and water, and eat fish.

So it’s been a busy past couple weeks. Last weekend I visited a current volunteer who lives just outside of San Cristobal, west of the capital. Yesterday I said goodbye to my host family in Santo Domingo and moved in with a new family in a pueblo outside of Moca, where I’ll be until mid-November.

Volunteer visit in San Cristobal

Thursday morning I took a gua-gua to San Cristobal then a carro publico to the pueblo. I spent the weekend with David Mayo, a volunteer who has been here for a year working with the coffee nucleo (cooperative) for the San Cristobal province. There are local coffee associaciones, regional nucleos, and a national federacion that exports the coffee. He took me to the main office in the afternoon, and as he talked with me I understood some of the issues that could arise during my service. His nucleo is well-established, but there is a lot holding it back. Most of its leaders are old men who are set in their ways. It becomes difficult to convince a group of 60 year old coffee farmers to begin using electronic accounting or change the nucleo’s shipping practices, even though it will be more efficient and cheaper in the long run. Another tricky element is politics. Coffee production is subsidized in the DR, so there is a lot of government money coming in to the nucleo and some positions are appointed by the party in power. Corruption and the appointment of unqualified officials as “technical experts” is common. Lastly, the capitalist mentality is lacking in some respects. Since coffee production is subsidized, there’s not much of an incentive for the farmers to be profitable—the government has made up the difference in the past, and they will surely do the same in the future.

In the late afternoon/evening we traveled via motoconcho to a tiny isolated village up in the hills called La Cumia. Dave had a meeting with the youth group in the pueblo, but when we got there I learned another valuable Peace Corps lesson: sometimes people don’t show up. There were less participants than anticipated, but the youth that attended seemed excited to be there. I see a great opportunity in working with youth to develop small income-generating activities in the community. Keeping people motivated (and self-motivated while the volunteer is not present) is key.

Friday morning we woke up early and met up with Felix, a local avocado farmer. From 7 AM to noon we hiked nonstop to his avocado farm up in the hills. We started out hiking through a couple small villages, then along a small footpath, then finally hiking up a mountain chopping the undergrowth with machetes to make a path. You can’t get a vehicle up to his crop…you have to walk and load up the avocados on pack mules. Along the way we munched on bananas, papayas, cacao, zapote, avocados, and whatever else was growing naturally in the area. At the top of the mountain we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the southern coast, all the way to Santo Domingo, at least 50 miles away.

After the hike we ate lunch and took a well earned siesta. In the afternoon we went to the local plei (baseball field) to play baseball and Frisbee with the local kids.

Saturday morning we went down to El Cuatro, a small pueblo on the way to San Cristobal to see a coffee factory. I got a crash course on how coffee is produced: the red coffee cherries are picked from the trees, de-pulped, washed, dried, dehusked, dried again, classified by quality, then shipped out. Beans aren’t roasted until they’re exported. After the factory tour we did some errands in San Cristobal. Saturday night Dave and I went to the discoteca with his (Dominican) girlfriend and her sister. Good times.

Ok I´m almost out of minutes but I´ll write again soon to describe my new pueblo.

Talking with the other trainees this weekend, we cannot believe that it’s been only a week. Our schedules have been so packed…8-5 nonstop with language classes, cross-cultural training, health and safety training. The evenings are always busy as well, hanging out with our families or meeting up for a Presidente or three. Language classes are going well. We’re in classes of 4-5 people for 3-5 hours per day. With such an intense schedule, I can sense my ability improving every day. Surprisingly I was placed in the advanced class. We don’t use textbooks; the class is entirely based on discussions of topics relevant to our training. Every now and then the teacher will stop and go over some vocabulary and expressions for the subject we’re discussing. I’m still trying to get a knack of the Dominican accent (which is strikingly different from Castellano or Mexican Spanish), but I’m feeling a lot more confident in my abilities. So at this point there are two aspects of Dominican society that warrant some explanation: firstly, the nightlife, and secondly, public transport. La Vida Dominicana por la Noche. So, you’ve been in training all week, sweating more than a normal human should, trying to understand your host family, and bathing with a bucket of water. You can think of nothing better than meeting up with some of your colleagues and sharing your experiences. And frankly, you’ve earned it. Well, my sweaty gringo friend, there are three options at your disposal. Option #1: El Colmado A colmado, or corner market, is a key element of Dominican culture. People get their groceries and household items from these places, which are always no more than a few blocks away. And since they blast latin music at all hours of the day, they’re always within earshot. They usually have a decent patio in front and a stack of plastic chairs. You buy yourself a drink, grab a chair in front, and let the people-watching begin. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring a set of dominoes as well. Option #2: El Car Wash Go to a car wash. Seriously. Evidently some dude a while back thought to himself, “Hey, when people come and wash their cars, they may want a few drinks as well.” So car washes here have car-wash-y-cerveza specials throughout the day. Some other dude, or maybe the same dude, thought to himself, “Hey, maybe I should keep this place open at night, bring in a DJ, and turn it into an outdoor discoteca.” And so it was. A car wash is a great place to spend an evening…lots of stackable chairs and cold Presidentes, and a DJ and dance floor for your enjoyment. (Author’s note: I recognize that a woman may have come up with the idea for car washes…I used the male article “dude” for storytelling purposes only. Probably was a guy, though.) Option #3: La Discoteca I haven’t been yet. There’s probably a DJ and a dance floor, though. Public Transportation in the DR Organized chaos. I wanted to describe this sooner, but I’ve only in the last couple days come to understand how the hell people get from one place to another here. And I still don’t really get it. The most common forms of public transport here are gua-guas and carro publicos. Gua-guas are minibuses that are always in some stage of decomposition. 90 percent (according to my statistics) have broken windshields and windows that are patched with duct tape, fiberglass, or cardboard. The rows have two seats on one side and one seat on the other; however, the buses are jerry-rigged with a foldable seat in the middle, which allows for 5 people to squeeze in. No, of course they’re not air conditioned. How do the gua-guas operate? I’m glad you asked. Well a gua-gua requires a driver (chofer), and a doorman (cobrador). The driver’s job is to drive, which includes swerving through traffic, driving on the median if necessary, and playing their collection of salsa/meringue/bachata/reggaeton/mambo CDs at top volume. The cobrador collects money and hangs off the bus yelling the destination to prospective passengers. You know the gua-gua you need when A) you hear them call out your destination, or B) you recognize the number of the gua-gua (many don’t have numbers). Now, the number doesn’t mean there is a specific route determined by the city government; it just means that the driver or owner decided to use that number so that people would recognize their bus. When you want to get off, you just yell at the cobrador to stop and let you off. There are no bus stops. Carro publicos are similar to gua-guas, but operate in shorter distances: usually along main streets. Did you know that Toyota Corollas can fit 7-8 people? Yes, they can. On Thursday I’ll take a regional bus out to a pueblo to visit a current volunteer for the weekend. I’m excited to see what it’s like to live and work as a PCV in the DR. I’ll also get to see how regional transportation is in this country. Probably just as nuts.

It's been less than a week since I said goodbye to family and friends in California and left to begin service as a Peace Corps volunteer. Yet these last six days have been some of the most exciting, stressful, anxious, but positive times of my life. I'm thinking back on all that I've done in this short time and it's hard to believe: 2 days of pre-departure orientation in Washington, DC, an overnight retreat in the country once we arrived, dozens of orientation sessions on topics ranging from medical procedures to vacation policies to cross-cultural issues, vaccination clinics, introductions to our host families, intensive spanish class, language proficiency interviews, going out in the city to celebrate my host brother's 18th birthday, relaxing at a local pool, getting to know my colleagues and supervisors, all while trying to adjust to the realization that I've moved to a totally unfamiliar country where I'll be living for the next two years and three months (at least).

Staging in Washington began on Tuesday afternoon, and was meant to provide an introduction to Peace Corps as an organization and an idea of what to expect once we arrive in country. The material was helpful, but the best part about it was meeting the other 52 people in my group. GREAT people, from all over the country, and all very excited to learn and eager to begin. With a few exceptions, everyone is in their twenties, and there are twice as many women as men. The projects are Community Economic Development, Health, Youth Development, and Water & Sanitation. I'm also proud to say that there are 6 UC grads, so we comprise over 10 percent of the group.

We had to check out of our rooms at 3 AM Wednesday night to head to the airport. I say "Wednesday night", because I don't think I've ever gotten up at 3 AM in my life. Of course, several of us decided to just make an evening out of it and go out in Georgetown. At the airport, the grogginess, anxiety, and sleep deprivation brought out people's real personalities, which was really funny to watch. Thursday afternoon we had introductions with the country staff, and Friday was the first day of training at our beautiful training center in Pantoja, on the outskirts of the capital. Friday afternoon I met my host family.

Way cool. Mi dona is friendly and hospitable, and she has four kids: two sons, 23 and 18 years, and two daughters, 12 and 7. As I said, Friday we all went out into town and celebrated the 18 year old's cumpleanos. I drove with the brothers and their friend who has this ridiculous sound system. We spent the first couple hours crusing the main streets of Santo Domingo, playing merengue and reggaeton at decibel levels roughly equal to a space shuttle blasting off. Cultural realization #1: Dominicans adore music, and they make sure that it can be fully enjoyed while driving. We pulled into several parking lots where another parked car with an even crazier system would be playing some latin music and creating a mini-discoteca in the parking lot. Good times. Saturday we went to a friends' house for lunch, then we all went to a private recreation center and hung out at the pool in the afternoon.

This would be a good time to describe the weather. Well, I'm sweating right now. I have been sweating since the sun came up this morning. And the only only time in the last 24 hours that I haven't been sweating was when I took my cold bucket bath last night. The issue is not the temperature (which is in the 80s, probably), but the humedad. It's way sticky here, and it will take some getting used to. I look at Dominicans foreheads and I don't always see beads of sweat, so it gives me hope that one day, I too can walk around without feeling like I'm in a sauna.

Next week we have more orientation and then on Thursday I head to the countryside to live with a current volunteer for four days. That will be great, as it will give me a chance to see what the Community Econ. Devlpt. volunteers' day-to-day lives are like.

I'm on dial-up and the connection dies when I try to upload photos. I'll upload some when I have a chance, i.e. when I come across some broadband. Until then...

I am stoked about: Dominican beachesmeeting the other volunteerslearning to dance merenguelearning to dance bachataseeing la zona colonial in Santo Domingobecoming fluent in Spanisheconomic development trainingla Semana Santapicking mangos and avocados right off the treesbeisbol! I am not stoked about: spiderslarge spidersman-eating tarantulasflying beetlesDengue feverany bacteria, virus, fungus, or parasite that causes abnormal bowel movementsbucket bathssweating nonstop for 27 months

I may or may not be stoked about: Malaria pills (they give you crazy vivid dreams, for better or for worse)host family life (they may be cool, but they may be nuts)Dominican cuisine (how long can I last on rice and beans?)tropical storms (really cool, up to a point)

My staging packet finally arrived a week ago. I fly out of Palm Springs on the 10th to Washington. Staging starts the afternoon of the 11th, with icebreakers and info sessions through the 12th. Then at 2:30 AM on the 13th we check out of our hotel rooms and head to the airport to catch our flight to Santo Domingo. No way I’ll be sleeping that night.

The most interesting part of the packet is this booklet called “A Few Minor Adjustments”. It addresses the psychological difficulties that most volunteers encounter in the first few months of service, so that if/when I come across these issues it won’t be such a surprise. The booklet talks about the difficulties of a new culture and host family life, the frustrations of pre-service training, and the problems that may arise in one’s work. Though I’m sure it will be a useful guide during service, reading it now made me way anxious (“oh yeah, I didn’t think of that…I should be worrying about that too”). It brought me back to reality a bit…yes, this will be tough at times.

On a lighter note, Facebook never ceases to amaze me. In the last couple weeks, fifteen of us in the September group have been in contact through a “Peace Corps DR” group one of them set up. It’s been a great forum for sharing ideas, excitement, questions, and concerns.

One month from today, I’ll be on my way to the Dominican Republic, where I’ll be living for 27 months. Nuts.

I’ll be serving as a Community Economic Advisor with the Peace Corps, and I can’t wait to begin. I’m looking forward to learning about and living with the Dominican people. I’m looking forward to beginning my career in international development. I’m looking forward to meeting the other volunteers, who I’m sure are fascinating people. I’m also looking forward to challenging myself by living without many of the comforts of western living.

A bit of info on the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps was established by Pres. Kennedy in 1961 with three goals in mind: 1. “To help the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women” 2. “To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served” 3. “To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans” Since its founding, over 178,000 volunteers have served in 138 countries. Volunteers live in rural communities or poor city neighborhoods in one of several areas such as health awareness, business development, English teaching, natural resource conservation, and youth development. Volunteers receive enough money to get by in the country, but they live on the same economic level as the other members of the community.

A bit of info on the DR.

It’s a middle-income developing country in the Caribbean, on the east side of the island of Hispaniola. It’s 81st in the world (out of 194) in terms of per-capita GDP, and # 94 in the UN’s Human Development Index. Population is 9 Million. They speak Spanish.

Columbus landed on Hispaniola when he sailed the ocean blue in 1492. He saw that there were lots of gold deposits in the island, so he and his buddies enslaved the 400,000 native Taino Indians and forced them to work the mines. In ten years, exhaustion, malnutrition, and disease brought their population to less than 3,000. But Columbus still needed workers. So they started bringing boatloads of African slaves to repopulate the island. Control of the island went back and forth between France and Spain, and later between Haiti and the DR. In 1844 the Dominicans declared their independence from Haiti. The rest of the century was especially volatile for the DR, which evidently experienced coup d’etats on an almost annual basis. The 1900s were characterized by military dicatorships, especially that of Rafael Trujillo. Trujillo was one bad mofo, always willing to execute anyone who was allegedly against the regime. He admired Gen. Franco in Spain, and operated in a similar fashion, naming cities and mountains after himself and ordering ridiculous statues of his likeness to be constructed all over the country. The last 20 years or so has seen some semblance of a democracy in the DR. The current President is Leonel Fernandez, who was voted in for a third term in May 2007 with 57% of the vote.

My job.

I will be serving as a community economic advisor. Quoting from my assignment description:

“The overarching purpose of your work will be to strengthen the capacity of community-serving organizations, small business entrepreneurs, and communities in a manner than promotes locally driven projects and community wealth. Volunteers will work primarily in rural areas. They will engage in numerous activities that range from business education to strategic planning to technical assistance. Volunteers may work with farmers groups, agrarian cooperatives as well as with micro-entrepreneurs receiving loans from micro-credit organizations. PCVs also promote the improvement of business and leadership skills with Dominican youth through capacity building workshops. All volunteer activities are carried out in a manner that taps all ‘stakeholders’ of the community: staff of community organizations, entrepreneurs and community leaders, among others.”

The process of becoming a volunteer.

It takes a while. When I was going through the application process, I was dying to know what the steps were and how long I could expect to wait until the next step. So, if any readers are considering service, I’ll spare you the frustration.

I applied online in January ’07. The online application isn’t too difficult…basic information, education and work history, and a couple 500 word statements on your motivation, experience, and goals.

A couple weeks later I received a phone call from the recruiter for the LA/Orange County area, and we set up an interview for early March. The interview was mellow. He asked some questions about what I want to do, why I want to do it, where I want to go, why I want to go there, etc. I told him I wanted to do either business advising or community development in Latin America. I asked him about Peace Corps service and he shared his experience with me. It was basically a friendly conversation for two hours. Not stressful in the least, and actually reassuring since I was able to get a better picture of what life is like as a volunteer.

The recruiter went on vacation for two weeks, and when he got back he called me to let me know about the different slots open for nomination. I was “nominated” for Latin American region, doing business advising, with a February 07 departure. I had told him September was the earliest I could go, but apparently all the slots that fit my preferences were full until February.

This was the most ambiguous part of the whole process. He had to get authorization from HQ in Washington, DC to nominate me in that program, which took another week (early April at this point). But the nomination itself was tentative: it did not guarantee placement in Latin American region, a job in business advising, or a Feb 07 departure. Final placement was subject to review from the Peace Corps Placement office at a later date. Basically, I don’t know what the hell the nomination actually does, since it can (and did) change. So I said OK great.

A month later, mid-May, the medical and dental packet arrived. I needed to be medically cleared before the placement office could offer me an official placement. I got that taken care of in a couple weeks, and then waited another 6 weeks or so.

I get a letter in mid-July saying that my medical packet is incomplete, because the clowns at UCI Student Health Clinic didn’t put one of the lab results in with the packet. So I faxed that lab in, and a couple days later I was medically cleared.

Less than a week later I get a call a nice lady at the Placement office, who wants to offer me a September departure to “a Spanish speaking country in the Carribean” as a community economic advisor. I said hell yes, and my invitation packet was Fedexed to me the following day. I accepted the invitation, and now I have a whole bunch of paperwork to do before I leave.

All the new volunteers in my group will be flown to a city (TBD), where we’ll spend a couple days going through basic info sessions and getting immunizations. Then we’ll fly as a group to Santo Domingo, where we’ll be for about 3 months taking language courses, job training, and health and safety seminars. I’ll be living with a host family. Then I’ll move in with another host family at my site for three months, after which I’ll move in to my own place. My term of service ends November 2009.

OK, this entry is entirely too long. So long for now.