I am still on my leave in the states for another week and just discovered a great surprise. While checking on my latrine grant today, I discovered that the grant is fully funded! Thank you so much for your help and support for such a pressing issue. When I get back I will start construction and keep you posted with pictures and information. Because of your generosity, we will be changing these family’s lives.

I am very excited to return to the community to share the news!

Making 10 latrines was clearly not enough for the 26 families here without a bathroom. I applied for a Peace Corps Partnership grant to make at least 13 more. Its finally up on the Peace Corps website with a link so that anyone can donate for the project.

It is my Christmas wish that instead of presents for me this year that my friends and family donate to the grant instead. All donations are 100% tax deductible, and the donations can be anonymous or attached with a name notifying me who the gift was from.

I am asking for 3000 USD in total. This will be enough to make at least 13. I do have some materials left over from the first 10 so this may be able to stretch to 14 or 15. That’s 13-15 entire families that have never had access to a bathroom of any sort. They have been using the sugar cane fields and the hills around the community to defecate for generations. Not only does it affect their own health, but this habit is also detrimental for the entire community. The feces can contaminate water sources and become a serious health threat. If cholera reaches our providence, lacking latrines the community has little to avoid a high-impact outbreak.

I have a short PowerPoint presentation about the project with lots of photos that I can send to any potential donors. Just leave me your email address here on the blog or email me at davidsonalyson@gmail.com and I will send it to you. My mom presented it to her school’s Key Club in order to gain donations and I think it is helpful and informative for anyone considering donating to the project. It discusses my community, what latrines are and how they work.

Check out the website, share it with family and friends and please help with what you can.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-471

Happy Holidays!

While my mom was here we taught the women in my Healthy Homes group how to make homemade hand-washing stations with easy to find recycled materials. In Spanish they are called “llaves caseros” which translates more directly to homemade water faucets.

Hand washing is a habit that is not at all commonly practiced, thus the need for health volunteers to at least try to confront this in their communities. After I received a very gracious gift of nice soaps from Dr. Duffy and his wonderful office I decided it was the perfect time to make the hand washing stations that we learned about in training. The women were absolutely ecstatic about the soap, especially when I told the group it was from a dermatologist in the states.

The model is very simple. You need a large plastic soda bottle, string, soap and water. Since we had the mini soaps, my mom and I creatively decided to cut up a couple of shower loofas and tie them on the bottles with the soaps inside. This allows an easy way to lather up and it lets the soap dry in the air instead of sitting on a wet tray.

I was surprised, as usual, how something so simple can make these women so excited. Seeing them wash their hands on a more regular basis now is definitely a nice payoff too. Their only complaint is that they need to refill the bottle with water too often since their kids wash their hands too much.

One of the latrine recipients

Putting rocks around the hole to make a sturdy base for the floor to rest on

Putting the cement on the floor

Adding the final touches, sturdy and durable corrugated metal sheets

We broke ground on a latrine construction project on October 28. After soliciting funds and waiting about four months I received a grant though a local Dominican Bank to fund the construction of nine latrines. This is still far from enough, since there are still around 25 families without a latrine or bathroom of any sort and 5 more with latrines in poor condition, but for now this is a good start.

In order to involve the most marginalized population in the latrine project of Casa Colorada, I decided to have a Haitian, Creole/Spanish-speaking, mason work alongside a Dominican mason during the project. Since several needy Haitian families do not speak Spanish, I felt that this would be a good way to gain their confianza (trust) and participation in the project since I would have a mason that was culturally and linguistically sensitive to them. I do not speak Creole yet nor do I have much Haitian culture experience, so I alone have not been able to penetrate this extremely marginalized and needy area of the community thus far in my service.

I chose the Haitian and Dominican masons based on recommendations from my Hogares Saludables group. The group had already voiced the need to build latrines in the more “Haitian” area of the community so they were supportive of the idea to have a Dominican-Haitian duo as the skilled labor.

So even though I thought this idea was great, it was very challenging to find a Dominican who was willing to work beside a Haitian as an equal and received equal pay. Most men I talked to did not like this idea. Race is a truly sensitive issue here in the Dominican Republic, and this project has only made this more clear to me. Haitians are regularly paid less than a Dominican worker in any type of agricultural work, even if they do the exact same thing. They are also regularly disrespected and gossiped about by their Dominican neighbors.

Finally, the president of the community neighborhood organization of Casa Colorada, La Junta de Vecinos, agreed to do the project, saying that it was a service to his community. He did however put up a good fight beforehand. He argued that the Haitian man that agreed to do the project, Leonardo, should be his helper and be paid a half-day wage instead of a full-day wage. He also attempted to spread rumors about Leonardo, telling people he was a bad person and a bad mason, which was even more frustrating. At this point I really started to believe this plan to challenge the social norms and include both races in the project was backfiring.

The Junta de Vecinos president eventually agreed to do the work after I explained that the grant would not allow me to pay the two masons different pay. After this initial stress, I am happy to say that the two masons are working great together. There have been no issues since the start of construction. Now we are almost done with these first nine and I expect to be completely done this Friday.

I am putting up a Peace Corps Partnership grant on the Peace Corps website so that I can fund raise with my mom's key club back home to make more latrines. It should be up in the next week or so. Anyone else will also be free to donate on this website. I will put the link here once it comes out.

My kitchen counter

Here I sit trying to press and stir the lingering powdered milk bits into my coffee. I don’t really have a good excuse for the hiatus I took from writing. I am still here, living in the community of Casa Colorada, currently trying to bear the heat of summer. 85 degrees, 95% humidity were the numbers last time I checked. I finally bought a fan. Since the only way to bring items back to my community is on a motorcycle, I had to bring my brand-new standing fan stretched across my lap between myself and my neighbor who drove me to the store. Welp, he was obviously not accustomed to a long object on the back of his motorcycle and my poor fan hit a tree coming home. I was worried, since I’m pretty sure there is no insurance for objects broken while driving home on your motorcycle. Thank goodness it works still.

I graduated my women’s nutrition course and now we are working through a more general health manual learning about chronic disease prevention, infectious disease prevention, reproductive health, and sanitation. In addition we have started a small business, making floor cleaner. The women love it. We make about 80 bottles a week with chemicals I buy from the capital and recycled soda bottles found around the campo. The women sell them fast! Simultaneously we created a directive to confront our lack of a water system. For now 100% of the money we make from the floor cleaner goes to a fund to pay for a water system. I hand delivered a letter to the local mayor to see if he would help with the project yesterday. I will keep you updated.

My youth Escojo Mi Vida group is finally taking off. I realized this when my kids surprised me with a skit on abortion during our last meeting. They know the themes for our meetings ahead of time and, without my knowing, they organized a very well done skit about the weekly topic! I was shocked and relieved to see that they are finally taking the course seriously.

I have not announced it to them yet, but I just received my very first grant. A group called Kids to Kids has given the Escojo group 500 USD to construct a volleyball court and to buy 5 nice outdoor balls and a pump. The money is also to put on a 2-day volleyball camp for the younger kids, to get them using the court and promoting healthy lifestyles. We will also include HIV/AIDS education through a program called “Deportes para la vida,” a program that teaches about HIV/AIDS through sports. All very exciting!

Let me show you my house and other fun pictures that I have not had the chance to share:

Neighbors

My house!

The latrine

My compound, I live here with my Dominican parents Develsa and Papito

I’ve been so busy starting up my work here that I have completely neglected this blog! Where to begin? About a month ago I presented my community diagnostic to the rest of the Peace Corps health volunteers as well as our coordinator Miguel Leon. I went with Dominga, a member of my community, and we gave a fantastic speech about Casa Colorada.

Just this week I presented it to our Junta de Vecinos, the local neighborhood association. At the end of the presentation I have a section about plans for the future. Together we decided that our priorities for the rest of the year are to build latrines and develop youth activities. Thanks to the diagnostic study, I know that we have 28 entire families without a latrine or bathroom of any kind. They are using what we call the “monte” or the sugarcane fields, “la caña”. I wanted to do a latrine project from the moment I discovered this startling statistic but I’m very satisfied now that the entire community also sees this as a priority and wants to focus on the project. With the community’s blessing I am now looking through different grant options to get the funding for at least 25 latrines.

As far as youth projects... I have started teaching a very comprehensive youth sex education class. More comprehensive than anything I received! Its called Escojo Mi Vida, I choose my life. The course includes charlas (informative, interactive talks) on values, planning for the future, self-esteem, drugs and alcohol, the reproductive system, HIV/AIDS, STIs, family planning ect. The goal is that after the 2 months, I will be able to select a few youth that are especially dedicated and train them to become multipliers of the information. They then they will go on to create their own youth group, teaching the charlas themselves this time.

Our “primary projects,” as Peace Corps health volunteers is the course described above as well as a Healthy Homes course for women that focuses on improving child and maternal health. I have started this as well and now have two groups up and running: one from the La Mina neighborhood and the other in the center of town, Casa Colorada. Our first theme to tackle is nutrition.

Today my group from La Mina, basically all of my direct neighbors, came to my house to practice cooking with local green leaves. What all health volunteers struggle to teach to their communities is that the dark green leaves from the yuca plant, sweet potato plant, and pumpkin plant found in almost everyone’s patios can actually be consumed. Plus, they are very rich sources of vitamins and minerals, MUCH more so than the tubers they produce. For a population that seriously lacks vegetable consumption, these leaves offer an easy and FREE way to complete their diet. I say that we “struggle” because eating dark green leaves from the patio is greatly against the norm. No one has ever considered eating these leaves before so there is a lot of convincing that needs to be done and activities to normalize the concept.

The first day I introduced this concept I made a big batch of carrot bread. I gave it to everyone to eat while I was introducing great leaves. The bread was a hit. They absolutely loved it. I had never seen people so enthusiastic about any sort of bread before in my life actually. I assume this is because desserts are a luxury here and they aren’t made often, additionally people don’t cook with ovens because it uses too much gas. Anyways, needless to say, they were very impressed. I finished my explanation of green leaves, about the vitamins, what the vitamins do for the body, about how to use the leaves, what leaves are toxic, which aren’t ect. Finally I asked, “Have any of you ever used green leaves to cook with before??” All of them shook their heads no. Then I responded, “Yes you all have! They were in the bread!”

After 3 weeks of learning about these leaves, we got together today to cook with them. We made banana bread in my house first, sprinkling in a cup of green leaves cut up in tiny pieces and a grated carrot! Next we separated into two groups. One group made corn cakes, and the other fried carrot dumplings, both with green leaves. Everything was very tasty!

As for the title of this blog… While cooking in my kitchen, my neighbor Toña, noticed my tennis shoe collection, all of the three pairs I had lined up on the wall. Tennis shoes are hard to come by and expensive so people here rarely have more than one pair at a time. After someone else commented, “Alyson has a lot of shoes,” she responded “mas zapatos que pies!” More shoes than feet!

I just got back from a fantastic visit with my Mom and Dad. They were here for a short but sweet one week trip during the first week of January. When I picked them up in the capital we had a belated Christmas celebration and then it was off across the East of the island to my site and then to the peninsula of Samana to visit a my good friend Gabby.

This is a letter that my mom wrote to family and friends about the trip. She explains her first impressions of the country and of my site especially.

I have seen so much cultural variety in just the four days I have been here. So

far we have spent two days of the high life in the capital, traveled by gua gua

(local long distance taxi with up to 15 people) several times with all our

belongings, stayed at a B&B run by an amazing Dominican woman who lets Peace

Corp volunteers stay free, and then traveled by motorcycle into the area that

Alyson has been assigned to. I have met many people she is associated daily,

about 30, all Spanish speaking and I have been diving into my rusty Spanish

skills for the appropriate words to converse. Alyson's Spanish language skills

are amazing in the short time she has been here!

Alyson lives in a very remote area of Hato Major where the environment and

community are so welcoming. We rode on the back of motorcycles with overstuffed

duffle bags I had filled with specific items she asked for, obscure things I was

sure she needed, and stuff in general that can best be described as consumable

comforts. The 45-minute motorcycle ride was on a dirt road that took us past

extensive and well groomed passion fruit & papaya orchards, cattle grazing in

tropical pastures and over semi-dry creek beds that will eventually swell up

during the rainy season preventing anyone from leaving the remote community

setting.

Once there, we presented the family with 2 boxes of Sees candy and the decks of

cards Aly asked me to bring as gifts. Her host family has a very humble home,

but like many of the neighbors, they have one blaring television. A favorite

soap opera

came on and seven family members turned their chairs toward the TV and gave

their full attention to the program. We were later asked if we wanted sun-dried

cuttle fish or chicken for lunch. Well, I said chicken would be lovely. So

Alyson, Logan and I were asked to walk to the store and pick up a large one. We

made our way, about 5 minutes away to a woman's house where she walked out to a

corrugated tin shed and brought out a chicken, screeching, squirming and

hanging upside down by his feet, I realized I now wanted the dried fish. Geez,

this Americano is so detached from the actual food source that I didn't even

think about the butchering involved for lunch which I was about to witness. I

thought about the labor involved - to bleed and de-feather, then chop and cook;

but we all sat down two hours later and devoured what ended up being a very

delicious meal. While this was the family PC set Aly up with,

it has not been a good emotional match for her - therefore my pro-active

daughter set out to find a more appropriate living accommodation for herself

which we were

about to visit.

Afterwards, we walked the neighborhood meeting and greeting many local folks,

past the little public school where my Nogales HS English class donated school

supplies of crayons and markers, to the place that will soon become Alyson's new

home, about 25 minutes away - a little haven of her own, which is safely nestled

on

another family's compound. We stepped over an innovative, thick-branch fencing,

as the family have several donkeys, goats and a horse, onto an oasis of green

lawn scattered with three massive, shady mango trees as well as a variety of

well established citrus trees. Alyson found this place on her own and I was

impressed by the change in scenery, which was rural and less ghetto looking than

the shack on the main dirt road at the end to the road. We met everyone that

will become a part of Alyson's new family, enjoyed coffee with sugar, had

approval to take some

photographs and left with a full embracing of the people that will become

Alyson's world for the next two years.

We are now on the third leg of our journey, at the beach in Las Galeras. So,

we're off with mask & snorkels to see some of the world where Alyson's Peace

Corp buddy, Gabby, is assigned.

12/19/2010

Feliz Navidad! I just got back from the holiday party for Peace Corps volunteers and staff in the capital. Romeo, our director, had the party as he does every year on the top floor of his apartment complex in downtown Santo Domingo overlooking the city. It was a very beautiful spot for the holiday gathering. To start off the night we read together “The night before Christmas,” but in Spanglish. It started with “It was the night before Christmas and all through the casa…” mixing up Spanish and English phrases to complete the poem, a nice was to share some Christmas spirit.

Many volunteers are going home for the holidays and its hard not to be a little jealous. Christmas in the campo is not exactly what it is back home. What it sounds like is that the main celebration is the night before Christmas, la noche buena. We will be having a dinner together, probably killing either a pig or goat beforehand and then enjoying some cervezas and rum together. Gifts are not exchanged and Christmas lights and Christmas trees are hard to come by.

So like the title of this blog states, I am 80 interviews into my diagnostic study of the community Casa Colorada. I will probably be doing about 20 more to complete all the houses in the area. The minimum amount of interviews is 80 but it has been a personal goal to interview every house in my community so that I have officially shaken everyone’s hand and they all know who I am and why I am here.

Through out this first 80, the interview format that I was originally using has changed a bit. A handful of the original questions that I was really excited about have turned out not to make cultural sense to the people here, so I have had to stop asking them. One of the best examples of this is the question “Me puede explicar un ejemplo de una comida saludable?” Can you give me an example of a healthy food? To myself, and the grand majority of people I know, health and food choice is inter-related and important. Here however, in rural Dominican Republic, health and choosing food do not have similar definitions or a connection. From what I have gathered, people eat what they can, what is available, what is growing in their backyard. Food choice as we know it is not a reality here.

After I asked this question, each family would look at me with a confused face. To help, I would ask further, “What is a food that gives you energy? A food that is good for yourself and your family? A food that makes your body strong?” …. STILL more blank expressions. The woman assisting me with the interviews would then translate this question to “What food do you like the most?” To me this was not at all a translation for an example of a healthy food but I just smiled and listened for the answer. I will get back to you with the actual statistic but my estimation is that 90% said arroz, habitúelas, y carne, also known as la bandera (the national flag in English, which is what they call their usual meal consisting of rice beans and meat). After about 20 interviews like this I had to give up on this question.

I remember in training when I was struggling with Spanish, I would sit and talk to children and ask them simple questions. What is your favorite color? How many siblings do you have? What is your favorite food? With the later the answer was always a matter-of-fact response: “arroz, habitúelas, y carne.” Other options and the ability to choose are foreign. One of my jobs is going to be teaching nutrition classes and trying my best to show the people of my community the connection between food and health and to slowly try and improve their diet. From what I have seen so far though this part is may be more complicated than I originally thought it would be.

For the past month, the Dominican Republic and Peace Corps have been busy confronting the recent cholera outbreak. Cholera is a bacterial infection of the small intestine spread through water and food contaminated with feces that carries the bacteria Vibrio Choleri.

The main symptom is severe diarrhea that is the color of rice water. Additionally, cholera is often not accompanied with pain or fever, which sets cholera apart from other types of diarrheal illnesses. If left untreated it can kill a person in 24-48 hours though dehydration however, as Peace Corps has explained, if treated with rehydration fluids early (a mixture of salt, sugar, and purified water), the bacteria will pass through the body and no medicine or other treatment is needed.

Cholera was first confirmed in Haiti on October 21, marking the first time in the last century that Vibrio Choleri has been found on the island (CDC). What I have read is that the bacteria was brought to Haiti through post-earthquake aid that Haiti received from Nepal. Vibrio Choleri can survive on food 5 days and up to 10 days in colder temperatures too, so it indeed seems possible that foreign aid could have carried it here. Quite an unexpected consequence of receiving help…

In other countries cholera is endemic and has become a somewhat normalized illness that people have learned to live around. The reason why is it such a big deal now is because cholera is new on Hispaniola and the population has no knowledge what so ever on how to prevent and treat the illness. Additionally, there are neither solid waste treatment plants nor proper plumbing for the majority of both Haiti and the DR. Because of this the DR and the Peace Corps are working hard to makes sure the population can recognize the illness and know how to prevent and treat it through hourly radio announcements, television announcements, and charlas (informative talks) in the clinics, hospitals and schools throughout the country.

Since Peace Corps issued volunteer consolidation in the beginning of November in order to inform all the volunteers at once about the illness and how to educate our communities, I have seen the death toll in Haiti jump from 200 to 2,000 and the number of reported cases jump from 1,000 to 91,000 (CDC). Further reported by the CDC earlier this week is that the case-fatality ratio is 2.3%, meaning that in the 91,000 cases, 2.3% of these people have died. This seems like a relatively low percentage but between November 27 and December 3, there were 41 deaths per day on average (CDC).

In the Dominican Republic the government has been slow to announce the cholera cases, no doubt due to the threat this would have to the tourism industry, the number one source of income for the country. Just to give you an idea, the news announced the first case of cholera in the DR in a region in the East of the country (probably 2 hours away from me) on November 16th. However, the host brother of a fellow Peace Corps volunteer in the central region of the country had already been diagnosed with cholera. It took the public radio and TV a few weeks to announce the cholera cases in her region. What we do have publicly announced as of Tuesday is that there are 22 cases in the DR (Dominican Today). None have been in my community or anywhere in the providence of Hato Mayor, where I am living. Gracias a dios!

Very complete and most current update on cholera in Haiti done by the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5948a4.htm?s_cid=mm5948a4_w

Most recent article regarding DR cholera from Dominican Today, a good DR news source in English:

http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2010/12/7/37889/Public-Health-reports-Cholera-cases-now-22-but-under-control

Here is a video my mom found while looking up material for the World Wise School Peace Corps exchange program (http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/). The movie talks about the city closest to me, Hato Mayor, about halfway through the video. It also talks briefly about the small sugarcane towns around the city, where I am currently living! Take a look.

http://isp.web.ur.msu.edu/Dominican%20Republic.wmv

Here is a video my mom found while looking up material for the World Wise School Peace Corps exchange program (http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/). The movie talks about the city closest to me, Hato Mayor, about halfway through the video. It also talks briefly about the small sugarcane towns around the city, where I am currently living! Take a look.

http://isp.web.ur.msu.edu/Dominican%20Republic.wmv

Hello again,

Finally I am moved-in at my permanent site and should be able to write more now that my schedule has slowed down. About a week before I arrived here our APCD (the Peace Corps director of the Health Program) interviewed the health group one last time and gave us a small packet about the communities he had chosen for us to volunteer in for the next two years. Soon after we swore-in as official volunteers, repeating the same speech that the president uses to swear into office. Here are some photos from the ceremony...

The health volunteers

My language class

Health volunteers during the ceremoney

More photos can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2361129&id=6711258&l=67040a5f97

The name of my new community is Casa Colorada. It is a batay in the East of the country, 45 minutes on a motorcycle from the closest city, Hato Mayor. The main form of transportation to and from my site is by motorcycle and the road is not paved, we have dirt with gravel hear and there. The batay communities here have intrigued me from day one. I expressed this interest to our APCD, which is why I think he chose this site for me. The population of these communities is a mix of Dominicans and Haitians and Creole is spoken as well as Spanish. Since Creole shares many similarities with French, I have been interested in learning some Creole as well. Additionally, the racial dynamic between Haitians and Dominicans is incredibly interesting and to have the chance to be in the middle of it sounded like the experience of a lifetime.

What exactly is a batay you ask? A batay is a rural Haitian/Dominican community originally developed to temporarily house Haitian migrant workers during the sugar cane harvest. As these communities were developed to house Haitians only during the harvest, housing and sanitation was not created to withstand long-term use. Nevertheless, Haitians and Dominicans over time began to live in these communities full-time.

One way you can pick out a batay when your moving through the Dominican countryside is by the barrack-style housing. Here in Casa Colorado we have one of these barrack-style houses still here housing a group of families but the rest of the houses are personal family homes. The batays, like mine, still lack proper housing and sanitation and are commonly marginalized due to the high population of Haitians lacking Dominican citizenship papers among other things.

Today, due to internal government issues regarding taxing and exportation, the sugar cane industry has collapsed and what remains are the rusted trucks and machinery in the fields surrounding and in the batay. Small family-owned sugar cane fields still exist but what I’m told is that it is nothing like it was before. When I ask what this community needs, I am constantly told that they need jobs. Unemployment is high.

Even though the situation may sound grim. The people are very pleasant and seem happy. The land is very lush and green and fields of sugar cane and other agriculture like passion fruit, papaya, yucca, plantain and banana and grapefruit trees surround the community. The temperature can get hot but it cools down significantly at night and I’ve actually gotten to put on my sweatshirt a couple of times, which was very nice.

Currently I am conducting a diagnostic of the community by first interviewing every house in the community with a 3 page questionnaire that I developed in training and my first few weeks here. The interviews take about a half hour each but it is a great opportunity to meet and talk with the members of the community and to gain confianza. So far I have done 10 interviews, only 80 more to go! These first 10 have been interesting. I’ve realized already that there is a need for latrines since there are families that are currently using the sugar cane fields as their toilet. Also we need a sports field and youth programming since the youth here have way too much free time.

For more information about batays you can read what Wikipedia has:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batey_%28sugar_workers%27_town%29

Although not complete it gives some more information and some photos regarding batays. If anyone gets a hold of a more complete history please share.

Check out the rest of my photos from my community-based training in Bani with this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2360401&id=6711258&l=c741598817

Saludos,

I just moved from the capital Santo Domingo to a small town in the countryside for “community-based training.” In Santo Domingo all 59 of us volunteers learned the basics regarding health and safety, geography of the country, and Dominican culture and language. Now the 11 other health volunteers and I are located in a small campo, which is similar to where we will be living once we are at our permanent sites. Here in Las Tablas we have had the privilege to learn Spanish in very small groups with a handful of Spanish teachers that came with us. My class has only 2 other volunteers and I am definitely starting to notice my Spanish improving. Finally, I have overcome my habit of saying “oui” in lieu of “si.” Coupled with the Spanish I am learning lots more about what I will actually be doing here to promote health as well as the resources and tools available.

One of the main objectives of my service is to start two committees in the community that I will eventually be living in. The first is a youth group called Escojo mi vida (I choose my life) that focuses on making healthy sexual decisions. The other is an adult group called Hogares Saludables (Healthy Homes). Both are designed to follow a "trainers of trainers" model to promote sustainability and to help spread the information to more ears and in the voices of Dominicans themselves.

For Escojo I will be leading a youth group through a series of charlas (interactive lectures) and then will be choosing the star students to become multiplicadors or multipliers of the information. They in turn will lead their own charlas in the future and participate in national conferences for the Escojo program. Also, when I leave regional Escojo coordinators are available to support these groups. Hogares Saludables is similar but I will be working with a much smaller group of women and training them as Health Promoters. After training them, the goal is that they will act as heath resources for the community and lead health charlas themselves.

Here in Las Tablas we have formed both groups and are taking turns giving charlas for practice and to benefit the community as well. It is a struggle in Spanish but we are always reminded by our supervisora Ann, “Fake it until you make it.” So far I am very impressed by how interested and respectful our Dominican groups are.

Apart from work, I have been enjoying life out of the busy city. A normal day consists of the following: I wake up at 6:15 for a run the local sanctuary before the sun is too hot, I get home and eat two rolls of white bread with big pieces of avocado (lucky me it’s avocado season). Next, its off to four hours of training with Ann, followed but a two hour lunch, just enough time for a siesta and to eat the hefty Dominican mid-day meal of rice, beans, fried platanos, chicken, yucca and if I’m lucky a vegetable or two. Next we have another 3.5 hours of Spanish class. After I get to play dominoes and cards with the local kids, talk in Spanish to my new family, and occasionally dance bachata and merange with them. I eat a simple dinner, today it was a big bowl of oatmeal and then usually shower by candlelight since the electricity is so sporadic. Sleeping can be tough since I’m almost constantly sweating under my mosquito next and if there is not power, there is no fan either. Overall though I am really enjoying this cultural immersion and getting to learn about the tremendous amount of opportunities and resources I will have to work with when I am at my permanent site.

A la prochaine

I have just moved to a new community for more training. It is called Las Tablas, a small town near Bani. Look it up on Google Maps if you get a chance. I will write more soon.

Hola from the Dominican Republic!

I am finally here and safe. Here at the Peace Corps training center I have internet but its slow since all 59 volunteers in my training group are trying to use it.

Last night I met my host family. They are incredibly warm and patient with my not so strong Spanish skills. I have a host mother, father, brother who is about my age, a small puppy named Snoopy, and a bird. I'll only be living with them for 4 weeks though and then I will be sent to another site for technical training. I am very very lucky to have running water and and sporadic wifi in a part of the house. Most volunteers take bucket baths, which apparently is not that bad. I wasn't expecting to but here we take malaria medication and also must sleep with mosquito nets (mine takes up the grand majority of the room). Volunteers occasionally get Dengue so we are supposed to always were repellent and take care.

Our training schedule sounds very interesting and thorough. It includes learning when and how to bargain, how to build ovens, how to bleach vegetables, how to handle social interactions and much more.

More to come later...

Alyson

¡Hola!

I created this blog so that I can keep in contact with friends, family, professors, and other important people with whom I have worked with while I am living in the Dominican Republic. I would like to take this opportunity to use you as references for the various public health, language, and culture immersion endeavors that I will be facing and to keep you posted on my training and assignment starting soon when I depart August 18th.

So far I know that my job title is Community Health Extentionist and that I have three primary duties: Educating youth to practice safe sex and to prevent specifically HIV/AIDS transmission, improving mothers' nutritional practices in order to reduce malnutrition among children under five years old, and working to reduce undesired pregnancy by way of improving reproductive health practices among women living in small rural villages. Sounds like a big job!

The assignment should prove to be very interesting especially in the context of Latin American culture which is know to be somewhat patriarchal and with strong religious traditions. I have heard that this has been challenging for Peace Corps volunteers, particularly for women volunteers.

Secondary projects are free for me to develop aside from my primary assignment. I plan to develop a letter exchange with children in the DR and the high school that my mother works at in Los Angles as well as with the elementary school I worked at in Santa Cruz. I have also heard through a fellow volunteer already in the Dominican Republic that physicians frequently visit from out of the country to provide free medical services (organizations like Doctors Without Boarders I’m assuming). Since many don’t speak Spanish, they need Peace Corps volunteers to translate for them. I definitely plan to become involved in this. Additionally I hope to start a jogging club.

Any dialogue or advice about anything is very welcomed. I hope to keep you updated on the interesting situations and challenges that I face and that I can benefit from your opinions and guidance too.

Take care,

Alyson