I know I know I know. I did a really, terrible, truly abismal job at keeping in touch this summer. I admit it, okay! I failed. My excuse is that it has been a fun, crazy, hot and hectic summer. Now that the weather is starting to cool (ever so slightly) I guess my How [...]

Today is election day in the DR. The last two weeks have been crazy as the candidates and populace gear up for voting. I met a congressional candidate last week when she stopped by the apartment to talk to the electorate. Kissed her on the cheak and everything. Never done that before. By far the [...]

We had a little Valentine’s Day party in February in the Pre-school, and the shindig yielded some pretty great pictures. The kids are, well, my pre-school kids. The adult is Milva, the teacher. Enjoy!

Last week one of my neighbors called me over and handed me two tiny bottles of shampoo. They had pink tops and faded labels featuring a picture of a beach and a lawn chair. The bottles were dented, and dirt clung stubbornly to the scratches, even though they had been carefully cleaned. “Where are they from,” [...]

I got back from Jimani almost a month ago, and I’ve tried several times to write about the experience. Even in my own private journals and free writes, I’ve hit a wall. Figuring out how to communicate publicly about the situation has been, well, challenging. I’ve been giving it some thought, and I’m going to do [...]

At a summit with Haitian president René Preval, Dominican president Leonel Fernandez, and Spanish vice-president María Teresa Fernández de la Vega a couple of interesting ideas came out.  In particular, they suggest that debt payments from poor countries go to Haiti instead of their creditors. They estimate the payments would total $10,000,000 over ten years. Dominican [...]

**If I was worn out when I wrote Saturday’s post, I am totally exhausted writing this one. Expect the number of typos to sky rocket. Sorry ’bout that** The last three days, I’ve been supporting the U.S. government’s effort to aid the disaster response in Haiti. It has been an interesting, exhausting, frustrating, invigoration, and educational [...]

The BBC has good content and some new angles. “Haiti quake: Death toll may be 200,000, US general says” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8465137.stm “Struggle to survive in Haiti camps” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8465152.stm

**I’m tired, so this is a bit stream of consciousness. You’ve been warned.** I’m just sitting down at my old host family’s house after a really long day. Yesterday, after a meeting about girls groups, my boss asked if I would stay in the capital this weekend to help out at USAID (the United States [...]

“Country Without a Net” by Tracy Kidder (New York Tomes Op-Ed Page) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html “Room For Debate: The Help That Haiti Needs” (New York Times Op-Ed Page http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/the-help-that-haiti-needs/?ref=opinion

Partners in Health http://www.standwithhaiti.org/hait Paul Farmer’s (the Mountains Beyond Mountains guy) organization. Christian Science Monitor Haiti Earthquake Relief: Seven Ways to Give http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0113/Haiti-earthquake-relief-Seven-ways-to-give Charity Navegator http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1004 UN compiled list of legit charities you can contribute to. Scams are already starting so it’s worth checking out. The Guardian Live Update http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/jan/15/haiti-earthquake-update Blog updating regularly about the situation in Haiti.

It’s three days since the quake rocked Haiti, and we’re finally getting an idea of what really happened. Tuesday night, damage to communication system kept a lot of the details from getting out, or at least from getting out to where I live. The news was reporting a hospital collapse, which, while truly devestating, is [...]

Some of you might have heard of the huge earthquake that hit Port au Prince yesterday evening. We felt it in Batey 8, but it didn’t do any damage. Haiti is not so fine. The country’s infrastructure was devastated in the 2008 hurricane season, and the quake did even more damage. CNN is covering the story [...]

I’m writing from Emily’s couch in D.C. In a little more than twelve hours I head back to the DR, putting an end to my little adventure in America. The adventure included two weeks in Seattle, and then headed off to DC to see my college buddies and celebrate New Year’s. I [...]

Time flew by after our in service training and Thanksgiving, and all of sudden I’ll be back in the states in a week. I have a couple of things to wrap up (girls’ group graduation, a couple meetings, cleaning my house, etc.) but I’m pretty ready to roll. Oddly enough, after last Christmas’s reflections, I feel [...]

I would like to introduce you to the new member of my little family: Rate Trap Driver. Actually, her name isn’t rat trap (Although that is her chief vocation. Or it will be if she wants to keep getting meals.). That would just be cruel. Her name is Bomba (which means “bomb”) and she is as [...]

On September 10, I went back to school. Not graduate school.  I don’t want to study for the GREs, so I went for something a little less demanding: pre-school. I’m not technically a student (we have a strict policy: only ages 3 and 4 allowed), but I am learning a lot. I have a long held policy [...]

About a week ago, I noticed that the sugar cane was looking pretty tall. Then big piles of gravel appeared all along the road, and the lookouts began building their palm frond hut to sit in while they watch for burning cane. I realized it’s almost November, and safra will start in a month and [...]

I was walking along, on my way to visit the pre-school teacher, when I walked past a group of four swans. The kids have warned me that the big white birds are dangerous, but the kids have warned me that everything else in the batey is dangerous as well, so I pay them no mind. I [...]

Last week’s girls’ group meeting was GREAT. Our topic was self esteem. So we defined self esteem, and talked about factors that raise and lower self esteem. To be honest, everyone was a little bored. I was even a little bored. So we moved on to the next activity: Acrostic poems using their names. It was amazing. [...]

One year into my service I’m stumbling across a strange realization: I’m hungry. Not just peckish, not just feeling like a little snack, but really, truly genuinely hungry. Not quite starving, but close. Maybe this needs a little background information. Yesterday was my one-year anniversary in the DR. I’d been in the capital almost a [...]

HISTORY: After a year in the DR, you may not think of yourself as a tourist anymore. In fact, you may often whip out your green card when someone tries to charge a special “gringo” price. That being said, the idea of taking off for a week of pure tourism can sound like a pretty sweet [...]

I was trying to explain what I do to a group of American visitors, and I think I finally got it. My job breaks down as follows: 40% walking around, checking in on people, doing reminders, looking for people and things, getting the lay of the land, figuring out the latest gossip, acquiring and carting things I [...]

Support my projects! ***Donate to Camp GLOW, a girls camp organized by Peace Corps volunteers. I’m bringing three girls this July. You can donate online with a credit card at: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-303 ***Donating to glow is the biggest thing you can do right now to support my projects. Send art supplies. Any and all arty things are GREAT. Send knitting [...]

Last Sunday, our softball team played their second double header since we began practicing last March. Over a hundred people turned out to watch young women (aged 13 to 25) play, lined up three deep along the fowl lines. The coaches conscripted grade school boys to run up and down the fowl lines with branches, [...]

It’s getting hot down in the great southern desert. It still cools off at night (thank god) but May is the official beginning of summer, so it’s only going to get worse. Bucket baths and long hair was entirely too much of a hassle, so I cut it all off last weekend when I was [...]

Well, as it turns out the first three months of Peace Corps are not the hardest, at least not for me. You see, during that first chunk of time it’s all about settling in, getting to know people, getting to the know the community, etc. No one really expects us to work or get things [...]

I’m not very good with technology, so some of these are repeats. But here she is!

March 28, 2009 Yesterday I felt tired, lonely, listless, and beaten. It happens sometimes. I didn’t really have a reason. Things were actually going quite well. That morning, we planned the informational meeting for the softball team (finally), everything was coming into place for our big dinner for the Escojo group, and I had made the [...]

This is coming in a little late, but here it is anyway March 27, 200 I got back about a week ago from my first big vacation.  A friend of my dad’s got married to an Argentine woman, and they planned a big Argentine wedding. Peace Corps of no Peace Corps I wasn’t about to miss that. [...]

Most nights, I can see big clouds of smoke billowing up out of a distant red glow. We’re in the midst of zafra, the sugar can harvest that lasts from December to June each year. The sugar can company burns the cane before cutting it, making it easier to hack into little bits before it [...]

They say that the first three months of Peace Corps are the hardest. Well, I’ve passed by the three month mark and I’m feeling pretty good. Maybe my challenges are still to come, or maybe I’ll be coasting from here (haha–but one can dream). We had a big training last week where we learned about [...]

Well, I made it through Christmas. That may seem like a pretty bleak take on the holiday season, but it’s the best way to describe it. It was a challenge, I got through it, and it worked out okay. Not great, not fantastic, but just fine. For those of you not so familiar with Christmas in [...]

December 12 I know that sounds impossible, but it really is true! I sweep my room every single day, I mop once or twice a week, and I shower twice a day. I never throw my clothes on the floor, I pick up my room daily, and I make my bed in the mornings. What the heck [...]

December 5 I accidentally named her. I can’t think about anything but Ginny. I am so hopelessly in love with this dog. It looks like I’ll be getting a puppy in early February after all…       

December 4 I found a litter of puppies nearby my house. They are the most adorable bunch, only one month old. I’ve visited them twice in two days.  I’m going back tomorrow to bring snacks. My favorite of the bunch also turns out to be the smallest. One of the puppies passed away the other day, which [...]

November 24 I spent a good chunk of the morning helping one of the teachers clean the sala de tarea (literally homework room). Despite the name, salas are not just spaces where kids can get help with their homework. Salas are an effort to attack two of the big problems with the Dominican public [...]

November 24, 2008 This is a pretty greedy, grabby, and whiney post, so it might be best to skip on to the next one. I realized today that Christmas is only a month away, and the Dominican postal system is unreliable, so I decided to start begging for packages right away. I’m going to be here, all [...]

It went great! I read to classes for two hours until I started loosing my voice. Some kids were obnoxious, but the majority seemed really excited. I’m going to hold on to the memory of their big shiny eyes for days when I’m feeling blue. The teachers and principal also really liked it. They invited me [...]

The goats moved out this week, returning to the coral with the other goats. Yesterday, when the boys took the goats out to pasture the little brown goat somehow got left behind. He bleated at the door of the coral for a minute, then started bounding headlong toward the house. It was adorable. I’ll let you [...]

For the first three months in site, we’re supposed to focus in on our community diagnostic. However, I’m itching to get going a bit, so yesterday I started my first mini-project. Kaveh, the volunteer that I’m following up, got a donation of books for the library World Vision is building. However, the project ran out of [...]

November 8 I’m taking a break after my first week of work here in Batey #8.  My room is unbearably hot in the afternoon, but for the first time this week we have electricity during the day.  With a fan, This American Life, and my computer charging I’m pretty comfy despite the heat outside. My goal for [...]

Baby goats are living in my house! They can’t be with the big goats or they will get trampled, so they trot around my house. The little buggers are two weeks old, so little that they still have their umbilical chords attached. Being itty bitty, they are also hard wired for one thing: food. This [...]