So I have been putting off this last blog for some time now. I guess i just didnt know what to write even though I had a ton of sappy closing ideas.

I flew for fricken ever today to come home, well not really, but to where my parents live now (Fresno, CA). Now before you start talking bad about Fresno, they actually live like an hour away, so we are way better than Fresno is widely known to be. It doesnt feel like home yet, and may not be all that permanent, but my Mom did a great job setting me up in my own Trailer with Hot water and blankets and all that is wonderful about the 1st world.

Things that i am doing right now that make me happy...Ice Cold Silver Bullet, Pandora, Internet and TV at the same time, Electricity, string cheese, Bacon, and catching up with the real world that seems to have moved really fast while I was gone.

Ok, so back to the sappy stuff. I just really wanted to thank everyone who was so kind as to send me a card, message, NB Coaster, package, or prayer while I was gone for the last 2 years and 3 months. It was a crazy decision to do the Peace Corps in the first place, but without all of you and your support I definitely wouldnt have made it the whole way through.

In no particular order... Thank you to Mom and Dad, Grant, The Irelands, Grandparents, Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and people about recently added and about to be added into the family, Ashlee, Kevin, Swartz, Curtis, Zak, Davey dave, KP, Katie, Erica, Kelsey, Kat, Dodrill, Matt Matt, Mulvanys, all the couch surfers ever, Amy, Ryan and Anna, Mike Mcgraw, Jesse and Jay, and all of you who have subjected yourself to this grammar lacking blog for so long. Especially to all of my fellow Volunteers who stayed on for two years, You guys are family forever.

Well, I hope that it was as good for you as it was for me. No? well I tried. Dios Les Bendiga!

Translated into english it means ¨its dead¨. These words I had the un-privilege of saying last week during translation at a local medical mission in town two miles away. Doctors from the Midwest, mostly surgeons, nurses, a dentist and eye-doctor come twice a year to offer free medical services to those who cannot afford them. It is usually one of my favorite things about Peace Corps service. Being able to communicate between the patient and doctor so that someone may receive a surgery that will better their quality of life and or save their life is incredible. We remove cancerous and non cancerous growths, give tubal-ligations, cut out infected gall bladders, ovaries, and some of the weirdest growths I have ever seen on people. This is gratifying to be a part of such important medical care not just translating but in viewing and assisting in procedures. Last year I was even able to cut out a gall bladder with the guidance of one of the surgeons. To say the least it has definitely been one of my favorite experiences here in the last 27 months. However, this last week I scrubbed in to translate between the American Surgeon and the Dominican Doctor on an emergency Cesarean section. I was not involved in the preliminary talks agreeing to do the procedure together, but was asked to interpret during the procedure… which I was more than excited to do. I had never seen a baby born and brought into this world and was proud to be apart of this baby’s life from the moment it was to enter the world. As the procedure was beginning I translated with the Anesthesiologist and patient as he gave her a spinal so that she would be awake during the surgery but unable to feel anything. She said that she was sufficiently numb and the American team of doctors asked me to tell her that they would like to say a prayer with her before the procedure. As I translated this out loud, the Dominican doctor and nurse quickly said to me in a hushed tone ¨ellos ya saben el bebe esta muerto, no¨…they already know that they baby is dead, right?... Well, somewhere in the hustle of things, this seemed to be lost not only on me but everyone else as well. So without wanting their prayers to be misdirected and expecting another outcome, I quickly informed everyone that they baby was already dead, according to the Dominican medical staff. One of the hardest things I think I will ever say in my life. Everyone was shocked and wondering why this hadn’t come to surface yet and it really took all the air out of the room. The surgery went on as planned and I tried my best to comfort the mother as she held back tears while translating between the two doctors. I needed to be in close proximity to the whole procedure as they cut and held tools for each other and eventually removed the swollen body of the dead baby. The mother requested that she be able to see the baby before they took it away, so we wrapped the tiny damaged body in a blanket so that she only see the face and quickly the Dominican nurse took the baby away after she had seen her lost child. The doctors closed the incision and took the mother to recovery. I stayed longer and continued to translate everyone’s condolences to the family and mother. I finally got packed up and left to go outside and allow myself to fully digest the situation that had passed. I think I am still digesting that situation and will be for many years to come. I would have really liked to see a healthy baby born into this world, but realize that it doesn’t always work that way. It makes me understand the fragility of life and beauty in living it well. I pray that the mother finds relief and understanding and may someday have a healthy child and be happy again. I feel like this was an experience that I was meant to have and learn from and though unfortunate, I am glad that I could be there in some form to help. I have continued working at the mission all week and am happy to say it has been more than successful. I have seen too many growths, sonograms, enlarged testicles, breast lumps, gyno exams, and extra fingers to last me for a long time and am fairly certain that being a doctor is not in my future but I still wouldn’t have wanted to change a thing about this last week. I am very thankful that there are people who give these invaluable services to those in need and a special big thanks to all those whom I have had a wonderful time working with this week. Solo Dios Sabe…

So I have recently been travelling around the southern region of the country doing some Regional PCVL duties, checking houses, seeing how new volunteers are feeling in their sites and projects, etc... It has been hot and sweaty.

But it has also been good. I was able to see some new places and now can really almost say i have been everywhere on this island. Its the getting there that is the hot sweaty and frustrating part.

Before this road trip i was at my Close of service conference where we went over how to adjust back to te real world after being a volunteer abroad for the last two year. It was very informative but made me realize just how hard it is to sit and concentrate at a desk for 8 plus hours! I will have to take that into consideration when getting back and applying for a job.

Luckily i got to let all that pent up energy go as the majority ot the 33, of an original 52, went to the all inclusive resort to celebrate our being here for two years and sleep with AC so cold you can get sick from it. All in all it has been a great last two weeks and I am looking forward to getting back to my site so that i can begin to wrap up the things that I have pending before coming home in about 10 weeks. Time flys!

Lets see what is on tap for the coming weeks... I have just recieved the money from Amy and School children for Children to begin work on the grant we applied for, I will be painting some murals with kids from the youth group at the school, and studying for the GMAT so that I can go back to school! I couldnt sit in a desk for the life of me, so this seems to be the most logical step for me to go back and get an MBA.

This one was a little short but I will try to be more diligent about posting in the weeks leading up to my last day here. Weird the feelings that come with all that, but i think that i am still far enough away to not quite be feeling them yet.

So it has been three plus months since a blog post and upon my return to the United States i recieved some sharp critisism about my pause from posting. No real reason here for the pause but now is better than never...so here we go.

I spent the month of April doing things...(cant really remember, so we will say that I celebrated truning 24 years old sitting in my house drinking an Ice Cold Presidente that was gifted to me by my host mom). Then ther was of course some preperation for the All Volunteer Conference in the Capitol. During this whole period of three months, starting in April, I grappled with the decision to go home for a vacation to regain some of my sanity...i still had not decided by the end of this month and it drove me to new heights of crazy.

May was good with the Conference and some visits to the South with my main man Justin Lee. We went to the Bay of Eagles and did some jumping off of cliffs in a rather enjoyable break from my site. I continued work with the Women and their PB efforts with some more managing alterations and some healthy and safe food preperation classes. My kids were just finishing their school year and we were beggining some of the first classes for the summer. Still no decision had been made on the trip home and I tried to not start refering to myself as crazy.

June was a better month. I was able to finally decide that a trip home was the only thing to fix my incurrable insanity and the ticket was purchased with the help of my M & D on a low interest rate payback plan due some time in October. This made me feel good. I only had about two weeks until i headed homw and with a variety of meetings in and around the capitol i decided to travel a bit before leaving as opposed to sitting in my house alone for 5 days. I was able to help out at a Veteranarian Medical mission to spay and nueter dogs and horses and cats, and pigs...etc..... and then aome easy days beofre the plane ride home.

June 15th I set off at about 5am and through soemwhat stressful seating arrangments and 9 hours in the Miami Airport I made it home around 7 pm to be picked up by S Curtis himself, whom i hadn't seen in two years. All of this felt great, i did however need a couple days to adjust to the USA before i really came out of the ol' shell. All things apart...it was amazing with Camping, friends, Family and Cousins, and Babies and Dinners, and Waterworld, golfing, USA Soccer, Rockies Baseball, Weddings and Microbrews, Driving a car, using the Wash and Micro, and all in all just getting a handle on my life come finish time in October.

Here it is... Colorado til Thanksgiving, Cali til Christmas, and then moving somewhere til Grad school in August. Decidely i am a west coast man and will be that way for some time to come. I really want to thank everyone that had a part in my trip home as you all made it wonderful and have been so supportive of me in the last two years abroad! I cant wait to come back!

For now, I have some events with youth at the end of July, Close of Service Conference in August, wrapping up PB as a fully sustainable income earning project that i hope to see alive and well come 5 years from now, and soaking in all the beauty and ugly that this island has to offer so as not to forget it when i come home to the USA.

It will fly by just as the last two years have. If you'd like to fly down, you have til October 29th.

Les Quiero a Todos!

Jeff Gregg Wahl

This post is a reflection on the last month and the interesting place I have found myself in these days. For the most part I have absolutely no complaints about service, community, and country here in the last two years..Its pretty amazing to think that you can have the absolute freedom to do whatever you want and determine your projects on a daily basis. To be able to go to the beach and the next day go climb a 10,000 ft peak and still call it ¨work¨. However, I have done all these things it seems and I currently have a common feeling in my stomach that we all have from time to time when you start to question what you are doing and if you need some change small or big to get out of the so called funk.

I have been reflecting on this funk and at first very one-sidedly... but after some consult, I have begun to see the things I love about being here. Its a hard argument to have with yourself because the places are so different to begin with but How can I say the ability to get change at the grocery store is worth more than the ability to walk into anyones house and sit down for a meal at a moments notice? Or the freedom of working in an undefined volunteer capacity vs. the benefits of saving money from a well paying job? I want both seemingly and cant have them.

So it becomes a question of finishing a commitment until some arbitrary date with rather unimpressive benefits, like a pat on the back...or picking up and leaving to some other uncertain future that may or may not exceed my high expectations. So I guess I am trying my best to see the issue from all sides and get my doses of reality so that I can decide whats best for me and when...?

This may or may not be confusing to some, but its just like any other job, or task in life with all of its benefits and burdens and I have to ride it out until I see the next big cliff to jump off!

As for a quick recap of the past month... Erica headed home on the 11th and since then it has been a bit of a transition, so far so good...The Women have finally reached a pinnacle of success (Potentially) and gone from making $0 pesos to an average of $10,000 pesos a month (Thats more than I make)...if thats the case I feel that I have done my job quite well, even though it involved many people and a lot of luck and generosity...However, with More money comes More Problems!... We have surpassed the grassroots development of small business for income generation and moved onto a more mid level business in this country and that will require more change and adjustment for the business...so we will see about that (Exciting but Scary)!...Possibly meeting with USAID to start a pilot program such as this in other regions of the country to produce locally and provide to the undernourished persons in that region while putting money into the local flow of the economy of the campos...Of course this is accompanied by a money management and savings education campaign...so that would be another big big big huge project... not sure if I want to be in charge as much as an inspiration-idea guy for it all...Then I have just been doing site development and about a million meetings in the Capital for all kinds of things...Hoping to spend most of April in my shack...nice and tranquillo!

Happy Easter to all, Good Luck Pat and Kacie with the Baby and lets see some of you down here soon!

So there is some good info on the PB business that i just answered for my Grnadpa and he thought that i share it on here with you all! It might be a bore, but just in case my exciting news of the week is ... I am now named BOMBERO. This is my new nickname given to me for my firefighting skills. A fridge expolded at my neighbors house and I happened to be the only one around, so I put it out over the course of 10 minutes of Frion Burn. Kinda wish I had a picture, but it was a little to intense of a situation to remember to grab my camera.

Just saving lives, what can I say???

Here is my candid PB interveiw with Doug Wahl...

When you create your next blog or via email, I would like to know more about the PB business.

Different containers? jars - 4 oz packets??

The Jars are either 8 or 16 ounces. The packets are weighed to contain btween 3 and 4 ounces. The jars are still in need of a induction heat sealer so that the oil does not seemlessly find a way out onto your hand.

Volume/day or weekly.

Volume is currently dependent on the amount of orders coming in. Right now there has been workevery day in the afternoon, except sundays. This is because a variety of factors. The cleaning and sorting process is still done by hand. The other time variable is the possibilityof having electricity or not while at work. If there is then they can grind with the automatic/electic grinder, and not by hand. As well as to seal the packets we need electricity for the heat sealer to seal. When the orders are like now about 500 - 1500 packets ( or 100-300lbs. of peanuts) a week. This electricity problem is quite annoying. We have it in our plans to save for the purchase of a small generator to avoid this in the future.

How many different places purchase and how is it delivered.

Currently the main clients are Peace Corps Volunteers that buy 16oz. Pb jars., The local Catholic church (Delivering Aid food relief to Haiti) The Diocisis of the Catholic church (Buying Nutrifort for Malnourished in their programs), and more infrequent customers such as orhanages, medical mission teams, etc... It is delivered by paying one of the Church trucks Gas and various coordination efforts of peoples time and shcedules. No woman has access to a car...etc.

You mentioned that the women were starting to do their own marketing. How do they do that. They probably can only reach their immediate community environment. Does anyone (women) travel to SD to try to get new customers. Are you considering having one of them go with you to SD and get them introduced to the buyers?

This is the biggest challenge in moving from a small business to a medium sized business. The women are accustomed to the same way of life that they have been for teh last 50 years. That of course does not involve very much travel to and from their villiage. The system is in place to reimburse them for their marketing and business efforts but it is a matter of puting in the legwork that many of them would prefer to see someone else do. In a group setting, it is easy for some to stand abck and just clean peanuts instead of be an active business person. Some are clearly not capable and those who are, are often busy with other things as well. Marketing is being championed by myself through product recognition and knowledge that is being achieved as we extend our reach and meet more influential persons. They are being taught about teh facts and stats on their product so that they can share that knowledge in future situations to help realize a sale.

Are there any plans to try to automate the putting the PB into jars. Probably can't increase the volume doing it by the spoon method.

No automation for jar filling. They, and this is how i feel, need to master other areas of business before investing heavily into capital that may just end up collecting dust if the basics arent taken care of first.

What do you think is different about your PB .vs. going to a whole foods and using their PB grinders to make PB?

Its pretty much the same. I would say that the overall health and sanitation standards in the US are much higher. But with the envirnoment we are in, we hold ourselves to a very high standard. We actually start from the seed, and grow the peanut, so just going to whole foods is like getting your kicks on turning a hand grinder and saying you made your own, but in reality, there is quite a few steps before that. Still, the organic is much healthier for both us and them.

How is the PB nurtionally "fortified" with additional vitamins??? or is it just their best source of protein?

It is in itself a great nutritional food. But the fortified NUTRIFORT is a mix of the peanut paste with Milk Powder, Honey, A Multi vitamin supplement, and coconut oil. It has a slightly sweeter taste than normal peanut butter.

So...there ya go, some of the PB mystery solved.

Someone find me a job for when i get home please. Preferably high paying and low working!

Jeff Gregg Wahl

Welp, it looks like I continue to fail as a blogger... but we will just say that from now on they come in monthly installments. And a pretty good month it has been!

So... To close out January, I spent the major part of 3 and half weeks at my house and workin gin my community. This was much needed as I was tired from the travell beforehand. It was just nice to be able to have a routine and not live out of the backpack. Drink Coffee from the Grecca in the morning, read my books, sweep my floor and talk with my neighbors. I guess that means it really is a place i feel is my home. It's just better than anywhere else.

We are in the process of working with a former volunteer, Amy, to recieve a grant to further improve our operations for PB. The new electric Grinder is a godsend, and suprisingly enough has brought more business with it! I was worried it would be collecting dust and rather worthless, but it has provided inspiration and motivation to the women and confidence to new buyers. Right now we hope to recieve the grant so that we can deliver fortified PB to haitian refugees in the refugee camps coem March or April. As well as orders from other independent Groups, such as the Catholic Church whom has come to order now on a weekly basis, providing a source of stable income and cashflow for the Biz. Hopes are that we can have them set with years of work in the next four to 6 months. They already seem to operate fine withouth me and It makes me proud that they have come so far and i know thtat they will go much further.

I attempted to asist a NGO (Beyond Borders) with their coordination of the delivery of aid materials through the DR to Haiti...rather complicated, but as soon as I put everything more or less in order...Big Government decided that they couldnt afford the 13 dollars a day to put me up in th Capital where I could use the Internet and Phone to make it all happen...so i handed the reigns over to the ever capable Adrianne whom lives just a "tad" closer to the capital than i do.

After this I went home and prepped the community for the arrival of my Parents. Cleaned the house Thouroughly and sat and waited. They arrived safe and we headed out there to conquer Peace Corps Wahl Family Style! I was proud of them as they didnt complain at all even when the lights went out and when they had to shower with a bucket of cold water! I hope they were impressed with my campo cooking skills and I know that they enjoyed the genuine hospitality of my community memebers and friends!

After this We decided we would do more relaxing activities! Cecked out the Larimar stones, the great veiw from San Rafael Beach, and then on up to Las Terrenas... This was the icing on the Island Vacation. We got a nice Villa and soaked up the "Rich" culture of the island. We had Erica Come out with us for two nights with her dog... Played Cribbage, talked a lot about the things that never seem to get spoken about over the phone and generally just enjoyed each others company like we havent in a long time! I really love my parents and am glad that they found it in them to come visit and understand another country and its culture and even why I complain over the phone...(only sometimes).

Thats a pretty short recap, but I guess I will try to be more weekly in the next month. If anyone has any questions about the situation in Haiti and Along the border where I live...feel free to ask and direct them my way! I have many thoughts on the situation but feel that posting them would be better only after some more time has passed...

Miss all my friends and family, I know you are all doing great! Be back in 7ish months! Lets go Skiing when i get there!

Happy New Year to All!

Its been a bit since I last wrote anything up here. I have had some requests and I will do my best to recap the last month or so...

December is an interesting month here, in that no work is completed until the last weeks of January. Everyone was busy welcoming family back to the villiage from the capital and with all the extra commotion there is really no time for anything too productive.

I finished up my Sexual health class with my youth group graduating 12 of the original 17 kids. I would say that it has been one of my best experiences here thus far teaching. Jay and I taught more or less together and we decided to lead the class in a discussion form as opposed to lecture. It was a dramatic difference in the openess of the kids and i think more effective overall. Now they know all about HIV/AIDS Prevention, STD's, Discrimiation(Huge problem here), How to put on and properly use a condom, teenage pregnancy, etc... So some real good stuff.

I also continued with my muchachos creativity classes. After doing some Christmas card making, we read some short kids books and then tried to write our own version of a book...it was a little challenging, but overall i saw a couple lightbulbs click on. Next week I am going to so some bridge building (sort of like the popsicle stick thing) but i will be doing it with Spaghetti and stcking cans of food on top to test the strength. Then some Tye-dye shirts, and maybe a Volcano thing with some Baking soda and Vinegar...any other ideas for easy science experiments I would love to hear.

I spent the Christmas with Erica in Samana, who cooked from scratch an amazing homemade dinner with the works... We also did some projects with her kids in La Pascuala. After Xmas, we headed to Cabarete to spend New Years. Which was a nice vacation from the campo. Bars on the beach, no shirt, no shoes required. We celebrated the new year with fireworks on the beach at midnight. Lotsof Volunteers and lots of Fun, in one place.

Then I was ever so lucky to have a friend, and former PC Trainee, Madaleine come visit from the States with her family. They were here to "honor us" as volunteers and rented a "fortress" of a property for us to come stay with them and relax. This included: Horse Back riding, private beach, pool, hot tub, tennis court, ping pong, tower, open bar, five star chef, pool table, satellite TV...and so much more. This is an illustration of the large differences in this country. But, her family is from the sates, not here, and some of the most gracious people I have had the opportunity to meet!

I am back in the capital and its hard to imagine, but three weeks have sped by and i really feel the homesick bug for getting back to my village. I will be there until my wonderful parents make it down for a week in Feburary. Lots to catch up on and lots to see and do inthe next month there.

On another note, I am now the regional PC Volunteer Leader for all of Region Two. I am very excited for the opportunity to help new volunteers and develop new sites for future use as well. Lots of travel required meeting communities and staying with host families to decide about the possibility to put a future volunteer there. A great responsibility to have and another dynamic of my time down here.

Happy Holidays! I am writing you at 8 in the morning with my sandals on and my shirt off…bet you’re jealous! I hear its kinda cold there in the states.

So a lot has happened lately, at least as much as can happen in my adventures here. I went to the capital in hopes of securing some form of financial assistance for my peanut butter endeavors. It didn’t turn out quite as I had planned, they effectively passed me off to one another, saying how much they like my idea, but really just avoided it all together. Whether intentional or not, it left me feeling rather frustrated with myself for not being able to get what I wanted out of the opportunity. I guess its just been the lack of formal business I do in the village that is making me rusty…quien sabe? Either way, no worries, I just keep sending emails and soon enough somebody will see the beauty in poor persons producing for other poor persons, solving basic human needs (Hunger, malnutrition, etc…) and creating an economic cycle that can be beneficial (not Poverty, saving and earning credit)... I can’t be crazy enough to be the only one who thinks this might work.

After that, I hung around the capital waiting for Thanksgiving. Due to the distance, time and money it costs to go my village, I decided it wasn’t worth all that for one night and a day back at home. Thanksgiving was spectacular as was last year. I however did not win the Turkey Trot this year. Which means that I am out of shape and now having to quit a vice or two because I bet myself that if I didn’t win, it meant that improvements were needed. They are currently being worked upon as well as a new running and weights (Cement in a 2 cans with a bar connecting them) schedule. We participated in the talent show and I suppose declared the winners as well…A video may be available in the future.

Then I really went big. That’s right, the resort. I decided I needed a one year break from no electricity, water, cold hose showers, cockroaches, mice, rats, dirt, you get the idea. So we went to Punta Cana (Gringo World) and for only 48 US dollars had everything you could possibly want, eat, drink, see, and shower within reach. Amazing. Tiring. And totally worth it. Especially as I type this now getting bit by these damn Mosquitoes. Good Lord I hate mosquitoes.

We came back only because we had to. We had our one-year training session. Which we shared ideas, problems and plans for then next year. It was useful, but not fun sitting in a chair for eight hours straight. My favorite part was when we went to the baseball game one of the nights. So…you get the idea. They even starting talking to us about possibly extending service…I don’t think I will be doing that, but you never know.

And Finally back here in my little house. I didn’t find the packaging I needed for PB (an aluminum based one, that oil cannot escape from) my project partner didn’t do what I had asked her to, the women love to talk abut how the business is failing but wouldn’t think about doing much more than talking about it…and yup. Glad to be back. Have about two weeks before Xmas and need to get a fire lit under them, with a meeting on Thursday and some new ideas, I believe we can. I am having a kids art camp this Wednesday after school and we will be making Xmas Cards. Then Jay will have the inauguration of his completed aqueduct on the 19th…so things are moving more or less. Oh and today is our Condom Party in health class, we will be putting them on Bananas in a race complete with aerobic activity and proper disposal. Should be interesting.

Lastly, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Christmas music is always good, but better when with family so make sure you all remember how lucky we are to have our families close. I know now more than ever how important it is to be with loved ones during these times, and am lucky enough to have both loved ones here and there. I will be back for next Christmas and if I am not living in a van down by the river I plan on having anyone and everyone! Goat will be served, but don’t worry, its delicious.

Love Jeff

November 20th, 2009

It’s been a relaxing month and I have had plenty of opportunity to write a blog, but am only now getting around to it…

I have been back in my village for three weeks now, which is a wonderful change of pace from my traveling constantly in October. I feel a lot more fresh and relaxed, mostly due to the large amounts of free time spent reading and catching up on what’s happening here in La Guama. Which isn’t much…

Lets see…Peanut butter is a a bit of a stand still these days. It been an internal debate of mine to step back and let them fall so that they can get back up and learn from their mistakes or If I should be there to hold their hands all the way. Both are good ideas but I feel if they fall now, we still have enough time to recuperate and become sustainable by the time I pack my bags up. It’s nothing too big, but really frustratingly simple. Everyone loves to sit around cleaning peanuts and chatting about who owes who money or which party will win the elections…but absolutely no one wants to sell peanut butter. That would involve leaving the village and using business interactions and just a huge displeasure in general. Well…I can only sell PB until I leave and then who will sell it? Exactly… So I stopped selling it. We will be having a meeting to assign positions to each woman in the group so that she may have her share of the responsibility in selling product. Only then will they realize that a group is successful when it works together for the greater good of all. As opposed to me working for the greater good of them…on a salary of ZERO pesos! Ha…dumb white development workers working for free, really doesn’t accomplish the goals of development at all.

There is still some work being done on my part that I cant ignore. I am still actively trying to find underwriting for a food assistance and malnutrition program. I wrote to five international NGO’s this last week and have a meeting scheduled with the Batey Relief Assistance group in the capital this Monday. There has also been interest from CARITAS. The reason I must do this, Is because the ingenuity of it is perfect. The nutritional needs in this country are astonishing…for that matter everywhere in the world except in your pantry at home. Anyways, here we are producing a product locally that can help to alleviate these needs and create a source of income for motivated people at the same time. It’s the putting of the two together that is challenging. We can’t give it away for free and starving people cant buy it. So we need someone to support this initiative, but its always challenging when it holds as much promise as it does risk. Money is scarce and many larger NGO’s cant afford to just throw it at any old project. So here’s to a little luck our way hopefully and here is some good stuff I found the other day that really struck a chord with me…

´´Hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable in a world which has, in fact, levels of production, resources and knowledge sufficient to put an end to such dramas and their consequences. The great challenge of today is to 'globalize,' not just economic and commercial interests, but also the call for solidarity, while respecting and taking advantage of the contribution of all components of society.´´

Pope Benedict XVI

Ok…well the other project is the contruction of 400 wood burning efficient stoves. In reality its me trying to communicate with my AWOL project partner whom doesn’t know about courtesy and delegation of responsibilities. Anyways…I have not had much of a part in whats happening these days, really just a figurehead in a document so that they could secure funding for their project and then pay absolutely no attention to the persons whom they solicited to work with. Fine by me…and good luck.

Health class has been a hit. Great attendance every week. Must be because the topics are a bit more caliente then what they hear on a daily basis. Las week we taked about early age pregnancy and contraceptive mehods. They understand the concept of all quite well, but no one have ever heard the word absitinence before. Besideds that the have so much Verguenza, or shame, that they refuse to go get these methods for free from the clinic. So I have officially become the intermediary of providing counsel and resources if needed. But it’s a great thing to encourage their understanding of the issues, diseases, and responsibilities involved in sexual health. My favorite class was when we went over reproductive organs, and I had to draw them on poster board and I had labels made up and definitions and functions written as well. Let me just say that it is not easy to draw a penus or vagina with such accuracy so that you can identify all parts. I now know more about these two intriguing items in spanish than I probably will ever know in English. Haha!

Well this blog is kind of a smorgasboard of whats happening here. Seems like a lot, but there has still been time to put down at least 1000 pages this month. As well as the beginning of running and lifting (my weights are made of coffee cans filled with cement) routine. This week will see some work in the capitol and then Thanksgiving celebration with volunteers…then a conference for a group a 16 of us to go over our past year and coming one. Only 11 months from today I will be home…can’t wait! Come visit, time is running out.

Jeff

Good News! Not to have a negative point of veiw, but I am really excited that I have made it this far and will be starting something new in another 360 days or so.

This last week was quite a bit of fun, as I was travelling once again. Some for work and some for fun. I made it to Pedro Santana, which is located on the Border just north of my site about an hour. There I gave a starting a small business charla for 30 community members. This is a site where Jasmine lives and works as an environmental volunteer and she asked me so nicely to come and give the presentation. It lasted about two hours (Still surprises me I can speak spanish for two hours straight, but then again I've always been a talker) and was incredibly successful. We spent a couple evenings at her house and cooked, etc...

Then I was off to the Capitol for a night before heading to do some PB bizniz. I happened to go See Inglorious Bastards in the movie theather, and it ws a nice change of reality, if you like the Tarentino Films.

That next day was spent going to Monte Plata to see a Catholic Preist about starting a similar PB project in his site and using the PB to feed 400 kids in the School. We are trying to cut costs right now to fit it in his budget but we hope to be able to have a larger NGO underwrite the program to atleast get it up and off the ground.

He was a enjoyable guy who gave me an even better book to read called "Dead man in Paradise", which is a true account of a murder here in the DR during the reign of Trujillo and some guys quest to figure out the mystery of it all, but running into all the same frustrating road blocks that exist here...I think its funny.

Then I met a whole mess of new volunteers whom just swore in to their service and are moving out to their new sites. Seems like a great group of them. After that things were a bit more hazy with a couple Halloween parties and some American Football watching. Ate like a King and will be missing the food soon.

So a pretty good week in all. Just trying to get over a few slumps here and ther around the one year mark. Gonna miss the Family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but then I will have less than 10 months to go. Will be in English and Health classes all week. Trying to solicit support for PB and hopefully seeing my grant approved for donations soon. Gotta get it all done before December comes and things move to a standstill here.

Congrats to Frasure for Becoming a Volunteer in Belize! Check out his blog!

As always, come visit and lets go to the beach.

Jeff

I was Lost.

Not really, but i spent a large chunk of time out of my site this last month trying to get a grasp on what exactly I am doing here still. It was a week of ups and downs...And though I am back at my house I still havent quite figured out what exactly I am doing.

Its tough to struggle between the value of time and effort for others and times and effort spent bettering ones own situation. The United States looks like the gates of heaven to me sometimes. I know I know...there is some sort of economic Crisis. Balh Blah Blah...You guys have schedules people stick to, asphalt roads, electricity, dishwashers, laundry machines and holes that are covered as to avoid falling in them.

Which brings me to a down moment...I fell in a hole. At Night. In Contaminated Water. With Rebarb stiking out. 12 Feet Deep. I lost my glasses and my sandal.

I climbed out. Took a shower. Cleaned out my cuts. And tried to call my Mom....

But I didnt have a cell phone. Someone washed it. It broke. No way to call Mom or Anyone else for that matter. Super pissed.

Wake up next day and pretend that I am to dignified to climb back into the hole to search for my glasses and sandal. Realized that I am poor and have to get a ladder to climb back into the shit water to look for my glasses. Did it. No glasses but get the sandal back. Also got to explain to group of people watching me, how I fell in the hole the night before...which they thought hilarious.

But...I am doing good again. Some little bumps came and went in the last weeks but some good ones as well. I spent quite a bit of time in Samana visitig Erica and between bathing in the river and going to the beach, we hiked with Charlie to Playa fronton through the "Jungle" for an hour until we set up camp on a deserted beach that can only be reached by boat or hike. It was pretty awesome and I had two great people to pass the night with. We also were lucky enough to see a new project site with a waterfall that may be developed for a tourist tour in the future which was beautiful. Planted a garden and laid a cement path entry way for Erica's house which turned out great as long as the garden grows some day otherwise I will surely look like an idiot.

I am back in site and everyone says i was gone for a month, which was only two weeks, so now I am trying to put in some face time and finish up some teaching obligations. I have a presentation in Jasmines site the 27th and a trip to a catholic church to create a PB group there that will help provide nutrifort supplements to some 400 children eventually. I am in the midst of finishing a brochure that further explains Nutri Fort as well as writing some Grants for future use in Nutritional campaigns along the border region. I will make sure to send out this information to all friends and family and anyone else who would like it. Stoves are moving, but I am trying to stay as nuetral and removed as i can bc in reality it is a project management nightmare and I want no part in it. Exit strategies are coming soon.

So...as you can read...I am kinda lost. So much to do, so little time, passed half way in this journey and starting to think about the days after it all...School, Skiing, Travel to France, Sell Property here to rich white people....I am taking all commentary. If you want me to come to where you live...Just ask.

Congrats to Patrick and Kacie and all the rest of the Irelands!

Nos Vemos Pronto.

I have had a whirlwind of a last month down here and my productivity has been down. Not that I was ever talented in that department to begin with...but you know.

So I have had a plethora of Visitors and made visits myself, all of which were great! After I had a Volunteer visit at the begining of the month a I headed to the Capital for Comittee weekend and attended a choice few events. Stove meeting, Biz Plan, and I forget the last one.... I also happened to help`out with some of the festivities on Thursday night of mayhem in the Capital as we said Adios to John, whom is heading to Some other spanish speaking nation for more peace Corps... This led to me staying out too late and regretfully resting it off the next two evenings.

After this, it so happened to work out that I was able to visit Espie in Ocoa for a couple nights and see her sight, talk about some health projects and annoy her about what her plans for her life after peace corps were, since she leaves Nov. 2oth.

Then back home to spend one night with Ben Saver in Yabonico, Then ben back to my place, then night at Project Partners so that I was able to leave at 3am to drive with him to Santiago by 8am. Which Sucked. We got there and tried to make an agreement for purchasing the 400 sets of ceramic stoves, which was delayed, until I rewrote it with the help of a friend two more times.

Stayed with Rachele in her site that night, wnet with Kelly to CBT new Volunteer traing to give a charla to the Newbies, back to Racheles, then a night in the Capital. Where...I found a Couchsurfer, Roxanne, Whom came with me to my site and spent the last four night with me and The two Frenchies who are still living in and out of my house, playing cards and drinking a bit, along with Jay from down below and Ben Saver again.

So...You can see, that I havent exactly been able to sit down and get to work this month. I hope that next one is a bit smoother. Maybe if the light was on all day I could get More done, who knows?

I will be posting a grant on the Internet within the next Month for donations towards some equipment to help in the production of PB. Keep your eytes open for that. All in all, its all good down here. Hurry up and come visit, I will take you to the beach and kill all the spiders for you before you come.

Jeff

So I am now feeling back in the swing of things in my Campo and its been a fun two weeks getting there. When I arrived in the capital on the 20th, i spent two nights getting my bearings. After that I decided that being already half way in between my house and some friends houses, I would go visit them and try to save some pesos. I headed up to Samana to Visit Erica for two nights and had a great time taking it easy, then added a night at my Iris´s house in Sanchez. I had planned on heading back but figured one more night couldnt hurt and went to see my buddy Dave in the pueblo of San Francisco de Marquoris. All in all it was a great trip and good to see some of the beauty travelling in the back of a truck from place to place.

I had one minor mishap in that I arrived here witha case of strep throat which I subsequently passed along to a couple of people. I felt fine and in no way feel responsibe for the passing of the strep, bc I well I had no idea I had it.

Back to my Campo, I had a visitor, Clif, my first night so It was not spent sitting in the dark all by my lone self. Then a night to myself which was long and wierd, cause It had been some time since I had last done it. So i decided to visit a friend across the valley about an hour or so away, Ben Saver, whom had just moved into his own house. We tried to get some beers and hang out, but it was raining and when we made it to the colmado, well they didnt have any. So it was a rum night. We woke up early to catch the milk Truck to town and our meeting...which is quite a ways over bumpy roads and needless to say I ended up with a bit of milk on me by the end. Its a milk truck that fills with people and drives to fast over potholes with loads of rice bags and goats and chickens. But it is Cheap!

Our Meeting was positive because It seemed that they partners had been getting their shit together and we would be making some critical contracts in the coming week. Ben came up to my house that evening and we took it easy. Then a night off from the visitors. After that I met Espy a health volunteer in Las Matas and she came up to tour my peanut butter operations so that she can give a presentation to my women at a later date. She was awesome to have around because she puts up with my sarcasm and has a tell it like it is attitude. She had fun i suppose and decided to stay two more nights. This was when I had a scheduled visit from a newly arrived Volunteer, Bob from Chicago, and we both gave bob our description of our daily activities and answered any and all questions that we could. My biggest surprise came when as i was walking back to my house in the dark out jumped two people scaring the shit out of me. It was Fanny and Arturo, the french couple who had visited me a month ago. They liked it so much that they came back. To top off the visiting spree, the next day there was 10 gringos in my house all visiting and checking out the PB, Etc...

All great visits, but a bit overwhelming. I feel like this month will go quickly as I have more visitors coming and quite a few work related trips to take. I have yet to ever feel this busy, but I suppose it is a good thing. I have started to plan out my next year and activities but may not be able to really start until October. Projects = Trash Service and Instalation of Trash Cans with youth group, more PB Contracts with NGOS, My help with NGO 400 stove project writing and over seeing contracts more or less, Sexual Health and decsion making class, English, and TRYING to start Exercising.

I hope to be able to give a good PB update int he next two weeks for all to read.

As well as I have heard that somehow This insignificant blog seems to be getting lots of reads from people that I dont even know sometimes...So I must say that You are all warned that there will be many grammatical errors and inappropriate use of certain words, because only here can I express my self with a four letter masterpiece and it holds some weight. In my community its just some crazy gringo yelling words that dont mean anything. I hope you all are doing well and look forward to your messages and or calls and visits.

Jeff

I have just completed my stay home back in the United States...I am so very thankful for all the wonderful friends and family members I have here. It has been feeling rather rough lately thinking of returning to live by myself so far from you all. However, I am sure that I will fall back into my old routine of reading, coffee, and rice and beans. I hope to have an even more successful 2nd year of Volunteering, and plan on working hard to create sustainable projects for my community.

Now for the good stuff...I need to say thank you to nearly a million of you, but here goes my best;

Thank you first of all to my Parents for their support and assistance, without you guys I couldnt have come home for an amazing and important time. You two are a constant blessing and I take faith in you even from miles away.

Grant, you are an incredible brother. You drove me around, avoided accidents, offered to help me buys things, even though you're poor too. You truly have a heart of gold and a courage that I cannot match. I know that You will havean amazing Junior year and find yourself and live your dreams. I hope to see you down there someday so that we can hang out at my house.

To all my family members, Grandpa, Grandma, Julie, Dave, Gary, Anne, Linda, Karen, Amee and Ellee, Josh, Aly, Jack and Andrew, Wendi, Michela, Lexi, John and Kathy...you guys are amazing. All the effort you put towards coming to see me in far away places means an incredible much to me. I always will continue to think of my arrival another year from now, with anxiousness and wonder, as to how old you are, how school is, all the wonderful adventures that I would want to hear about, etc... You are a gracious and loving family.

To my friends, Dave, Steve and Katie, Ash, Ryno and Anna, Kalai, Zak, Andrew, Evan, Kari, Dodrill, Tex, Danny, Galardi, KP, Jesse, Jay, Mulvany, Amy, Scotty and Sarah, Nelly, Jbone, Laine, Bobby, Cam and Sam, Frasure, Matt, Patrick, Kacie, and Margaret...You guys rock.

Without all of the memories of you in the last year, I feel that I have earned more over three weeks than deserved. From Vegas to Monterey, to Fort collins and Weddings...it was an amazing time to see you all. I hope that a year from now it will feel like no time has passed at all. You guys make me proud to live in the DR, bc I can share stories of you all with my community and they love you as much as I do. Cant wait to sleep on your couches when I come home for the last time!

Overall, It is killing me to leave...but I suppose It would be selfish to stay. I have friends and family with slightly darker skin down there, who need to see me, and me them, too. I want everyone to know that you are welcome any day of the year down there with a free couch and translation service. I would be proud to have you there after telling so many stories about you all. Come for fun, come for work, come for the rice and beans! I hope to be back up and running with a new blog in the next few weeks!

Love,

Jeff

I Just had my first foreign Fourth of July! It was too much fun and a wonderful break from daily activities to go explore some new places in the Country. A group of about 20 or so headed down south to the Bahia de Las Aguilas, just outside of Pedernales. We rented a truck after meeting up in Barahona and staying the night in a house rental on a Cliff over San Raphael Beach. This was a large shipping truck with an Open bed that 17 of us all sat in the back of for 3 hours there and back. It was a bit bumpy, but we had the drinks and singing of American Classics to get through it. When we arrived at the beach we had to get a boat to take us to the out to a secluded spot, barter for Ice for our cooler, etc... The Beach was beautiful, the shade was hard to come by, but we made it work. Swimming and hanging out with some music until the people next to us accidentally lit the Beach on Fire. So we started bailing buckets of water onto it, and luckily got it extinguished before it got to close to our site. After a long day in the Sun, we headed home and stayed another night in the San Raphael house, cooking for 20 and playing games. I had a lot of sun and fell asleep early. Woke up the next day exhausted from the long weekend and stayed another day with my friends Justin and Kelly on the Beach in his site.

The next day was not as beautiful. I have to take a public bus for about an hour and half to wait on another to take me home. Well, I was asked for my documents twice by the military check points, whom I have a pretty strong suspicion that being able to read is not a requirement of employment, as I was asked to get off of the bus twice. Sitting in the back in a bus built for 24 that has 42 in it made for quite the exiting situation. Once off the bus I somewhat annoyingly read the passport for the guard whom thought that it was expired, that it didn't actually expire until August 13th of 2009. He decided to cover his ass, by rapid fire qquestioning me about what I was doing here in the country...as he is doing this The Bus is Driving off. Well, this just pissed me off...I tried to be nice, but now I was being left in the desert with this Bruto, I yelled at the bus to stop and his Boss decided to let me get back on. Thank God I have finally wised up to this Country and had my backpack with me and do not pay until I arrive at my destination. To compound this beginning frustration, it all happened again about 30 miles down the road. But hey, atleast they are keeping the streets safe of all those Peace Corps Volunteers. I can't blame them, I dont look anything like I looked a year ago with short hair and a shaved face, so they probably thought I was a pretty serious Terrorist threat.

Since then, It been English and Business Class back in site. Trying to nudge the women in the Peanut Butter Group to work with a sense of urgency, making posters, a couple days translating at a Dental Mission by the Students of the University of Maryland. Smart bunch...most already spoke spanish quite well. In reality I was more of a Dialect translator then a spanish translator. I have come to think that Dominican Spanish is actually has a very Japanese sound to it sometimes. Instead of saying Cerrado (Closed), they will say Cerraow. This caused the dentists some problems, but they picked it up quick. It will probably cause me a few more speaking to native Mexican or Spanish speakers when I return. It became a habit of sorts, out of neccesity to communicate here.

Free time has been spent, cleaning, cooking, laundry in the bucket, reading a few books (Blink was a good read, and Of course some trashy westerns), and quite a bit thinking of home and listening to tunes. Only 20 days to Cali, and a few more to CO. I think that a year without family has been challenging and discovering in many ways. But...Its time to see home. Be back soon. Love and Miss All.

Jeff

So I haven´t really used this medium of sharing information lately... I instead have been buying too many phone cards to call home and text friends! Oh well.

Let´s See... Peanut Butter is flying off the shelves right now. Its almost too much to handle. I was able to reach a small agreement with the local Orphanage and Nuns, about supplying them with a nutritional peanut butter for the kidz. They had been purchasing a similar product in the Capitol and it was also more expensive. Now we have local women benefitting instead of the French Company in the cap, and the Kidz are getting fatter. Thats how Biz Works. Aprende.

I also have had few vendors show up at my house and ask if they can buy it from us and sell it at other colmados and pueblos that we currently dont supply seeing as we dont have a truck or any vehicle of the sort. They are infamous for screwing the little guys, so we will approach that one with some caution...but it will be nice to see the results of an extending market for us. The trick with introducing a new food here is having people try it...Then Dominicans get obssessed about it. Its working well thus far.

A Grant proposal is in the works for Us to upgrade our current fabrication methods and storage. We would like to purchase an induction sealer to put aluminum seals on the top. Thereby opening us to supermarkets that have higher food safety issues than local biznizs. We would also like to purchase an electric grinder, bc with increasing orders being recieved, we cant turn that damn handle another half million times. I may even have some left over to do a nutrition campaign here in the local area to educate about proper eating and recieving of nutrients..such as protein which lacks in nearly everyones diet...Including mine.

The other work news is the approval of the budget with the NGO. About 150,000 dollars that will go towards reforestation of 50,000 trees, which are trees intended for use in cooking later on. As well as the construction of 400 energy efficient stoves. This has given us the challnge of organizing the community of about 200 families to pay a quota and recieve educational training. I will be giving the training with a partner, but will not construct all the stoves. It is located far from where I live and would be impossible to do by oneself. I like to think of myself as more of a management type of guy.

Other than what appears to be lots happening, see above, I still have all the free time in the world when the electricity is out, to dream of home. My new home in Cali, the people I am looking forward to seeing, etc... Oh man, I was dreaming that I was at BrewFest and then I woke up and I was sweating in my mosquitero. That was sad. I need to be there now. Only 31 days. Cant´t Wait.

I have just finished quite the trip/experience with one of my best friends, Mr. Christopher Mulvany. I am so very thankful to have any visitors down here, so its always a blast when anyone does decide to come. We had two weeks to see the island in its entirety…and we nearly did it.

Chris had brought along a friend, Akilah, from Boulder and we three had some awesome times. To start the trip off…of course the plane was 4 hours late and arrived in Santo Domingo at 2am. Which meant that I had to continually call the scheduled Taxi to the airport to postpone. It all worked out well enough and I still greeted my guests with my customary arrival gift of two Grande Presidente beers, which are consumed on the way back to the hotel.

Though we were up late, we got an early start and headed North to stay a night with a volunteer in Sanhez, Iris, whom was a most delicious Cook and a better host! We were able to walk around her Pueblo and meet her friends and neighbors as well as give my two guests a different view of Peace Corps, unlike my small community.

The following morning we packed up to head to the far east point of the peninsula, Las Galeras, a tourist town that lucky for us... was out of season. This allowed us to find some great deals, with my super deal-making skills, and sleep in a large beach house for Motel 6 rates ($40). It was nothing short of the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life!

The afternoon was spent drinking Coco Loco’s on the beach with food served on our towels (Chicken, rice, beans, and Fried Platano chips – Chris’s favorite) for about $5.

After showers, we headed out in search of a happy hour, an happened upon Marco’s beach bar. Marco and his loyal 40 something single dude-weirdo were our kind hosts and told us that happy hour did not ever end and lucky for us, this cut our bill by about 75%! We had planned to watch the Nuggets game at an ex-pats house, Earl from Canada, but he was F’ing weird too. So it didn’t work out, but we still had a great time and I learned that the Beach bar business can suck. Especially, in my opinion, if you don’t know what your doing.

The next morning we decided to head to the less heard of Playa Fronton, which was the most amazing place I have ever been in my life. I literally could not stop saying “ This is Amazing”. They luck we had was high as we ran into a crazy dude from the states on a beach with only 10 people whom invited us to rock climb the cliffs and spearfish with him in return for some of my peanut butter and bread we had brought along. The dude was insane. We couldn’t of asked for a better experience though…the only down side to this beach is when we were on the boat ($20), the waves were huge and the boat would rise to the crest of the wave and then slam smack down on cement water, thereby causing me to crush my man parts at least 6 times and feel a bit sick as a result. The guides need some sensitivity training maybe? I hope I can still have children someday.

We headed out in the Afternoon and stayed in a campo outside of Samana, with another Volunteer, Erica…whom is also a CSU Graduate! Go Rams! She had a friend Joan over and we all made some style of Mexican food tortilla wraps. Erica made the Tortillas from scratch and I was impressed. The Electricity was out all night and the climate is much hotter than where I live, so I basically sweated all night but had to keep the cover on because the Mosquitoes were annoying the ---- out of me. Erica and I had to leave for a PC all Volunteer Conference the next day, but she was kind enough to let Chris and Akilah stay a night by themselves instead of dragging them to a boring conference in the capital. They managed themselves incredibly well and made it back to SD the next afternoon just as we were finishing up our deal. The night was spent Dancing at the CarWash to all the Dominican Favorites. Those of you who know me, can guess that I danced one actual song (not by choice) and really just did some 12oz. curls while socializing.

The next day we got up a bit late, but headed out to the border to my house. It was a long trip (6 hours) but they were troopers. The first two days were just loungers at my house and we did some PB meetings and My Business Class. They got along just great, and didn’t even mind the outside auto-flush toilet I have!

Monday brought us to Elias Pina, directly on the border. Chris and Akilah, bless their hearts, were on a trip over the border to Haiti. Chris speaks some French and managed well enough he said, however the absolute lack of anything that can be called infrastructure, caused them to alter their plans. They did return safe and sound and have many stories. I stayed with a friend whom lives on the Border and helped with some Community Bank Presentations and English classes. It was nice to have a chance to be able to visit one of my closest friends, Ben.

Back to my house we wrapped up their time here with some hikes and new favorite card game (Casino or 21 – not black jack). Being the die-hard fans we are, we left on Thurs to see the Nuggs game back in the Capital that evening. This was the first time I had just hung out with Chris and it was good to have some Bro Time. We took our 20 bucks and went to the casino, where we were solicited sexual favors by prostitutes, which we declined, but may have been a better choice than losing our 20 bucks so quickly! I said my goodbyes the next morning, only to surprise them the next night because I hadn’t left in time to return to my site. So, Gracias a Dios, we had another awesome night.

They left for the nice and easy United States and I headed home to do some much overdue cleaning and teach my classes this week. I can’t wait to see them again when I get back in…66 days, if you read this today. Keep on keepin on, my friends and family.

Nos veremos pronto!

Jefe

May has come and it has brought me many good things. I have become more at home in my new community and have a few projects coming along that give me a great sense of purpose here. I have continued my work with the Mujeres Unidas en Desarrolla (Women United in Development). We just recieved our first set of Labels to put onto our products and they look amazing! I have also started a business plan class that coincides with a national competition for youth ages 15 to 30 to learn about the business process and to write a formal business plan for submission to win the possible start up money to begin. I had 22 youth show up to my first informational meeting/class. Which was more than the expected 15 and it looks like we will be getting a few more in this Friday. I am sure that not everyone will want to finish the cirriculum, but none the less it is great to see them taking advantage of their opportunities. I originally planned to teach an English class that would be a part of the Business class, but have decided to host that seperately, due to the demand and difficulty teaching to different levels of fluency all the while not faltering on the business side.

So as of today, I am teaching my first English class, And I swore that I wouldn't! But...when People are motivated it motivates me to do something as well, How can I say no, if they are willing to be serious and work hard? Well I couldn't.

I also am still working with the NGO CODECAS which is origianlly my first project with my old project partner from my previous community. The commute down the hill is a bit strenuous sometimes , but I am sure that the projects ends will justify my commitment to stick by it. Soon enough we will have our funding for the 400 Stoves and 50,000 Trees. The real challenge begins not in the implementation but rather in the accountability of follow through of all the people that it takes to operate a project of this size. I pray/hope that it all goes as smoothly as a project can possibly go in this country. Already there has been a bit of a snare in obtaining the ceramic pieces that make up the stoves. They are only made in one place(far away) and there is quite a bit of back order from smaller projects by other volunteers. So...We either do a somewhat shady dominican government thing (in my opinion) and push ourselves to the front of the line...or if I had a perfect world we would have the funding to give a class to local entreprenuers here and give them an opportunity to provide a service and create a source of income for themselves. This however, is on pause until the other partners either realize their butting in line habits seem to work, or they fall flat, and we are back to what I have been saying since the start. But, hey...can't convince everyone and they are a lot more experienced with the cutting in front of people thing than I am and maybe they know something that I simply can't see. I wait for enlightenment patiently.

I will be hosting a couchsurfer named Jade this week for atleast a couple nights. She and I met in Cabarete on the NOrth Coast and she will be keeping me company for awhile. I am then off to the Capital to pick up Mr. Chris Mulvaney who has agreed to grace me with his smelly presence for two weeks of adventure and learning about the life of volunteer. I appreciate the visitors, but especially those whom have the courage to come do what I do for even a night or two. Chris has unknowingly agreed to spend four or five of them here! I am sure it will be a satisfying encounter with that little bit of home that we all wish for when we are away.

On a personal note. I just dug a 20 x 12 garden on the side of my house. It isn't what I expected...cause I am a gringo and have no idea what I am doing most of the time... And after three hours of using a pick to turn the ground over I have 11 blisters on my hands. I thought about quitting about half way through, but then caught myself smiling and thinking that I was really enjoying the hell out of myself. The only difference between here and what I would be doing in the garden back in Fort Collins was the opposite of ease (no shovels through nicely manicured lawns here, or gas powered rototillers for the speed factor) and of course back there I would have had an icy cold Coors Light in my Koozy on the patio table.

But don't worry, when I finished the whole thing I mandar'ed a muchacho to go get me a Jumbo Presidente from the Colmado. I wonder if I could get a Jumbo Coors Light? Well maybe someday they will put out a special edition...

Peace and Love.

Jeff

Well,

I have had a wonderful and blessed birthday here in the Dominican Republic. 23 is starting to feel a little too oldfor my liking, but it is an inevitable coming of age. I have always felt that I act a bit immature for the age I am...but the truth came in the form of Old Man Back Pain the morning of my birthday. I couldn't believe it. Next thingit will be the arthritis!

I came home to my campo this week and tried to get back into the swing of things after way too much fun for a peace corps service on my little Bola Adventure. I have been brainstorming all kinds of project ideas and hope to seethem come to fuition sooner rather than later. Maybe a play area for the local children, so that they no longerplay in the busy street. Maybe a youth group dedicated towards environmental issues and awareness or possibly a business plan competition.

The way I have been feeling lately is that which afflicts many volunteers. That sometimes you have this reality check and think..."What is it exactly that I am doing here again?"...So I am on a mission to renew my commitment to service and to step even further out into my community at the risk of thoroughly embarassing myself by more fully participating in cultural practices here. But I beleive that is that exact reason I came here. Not to be American and to do things that I would do back home (though they do sound appealing) but rather to allow myself to find some more of the right ways to do things and to live one's life. The key is really opening oneself up for the chance to do so.

Update wise...Spent the night before my birthday with a good friend Ben Clarke, whom lives and works on the Borderin Elias Pina. He is a graduate of Notre Dame and a very intelligent and insightful person. He Speaks Arabic and has been a great counterpart when it comes to exchanging ideas and solutions to the problems of poverty and education here. Him and I walked about an hour to Jay Thrashers site and helped a bit with Jays vegetable garden, by digging and picking the soil to get it ready for planting seeds. These seeds were donated from Steven Dodrill and will be as delicious as any vegetables I buy in the market just because hard work always tastes better. Its hard, because we have to go to the creek to get buckets of water to water the garden!

I was able to speak to many Family and Friends this week and it was wonderful. For those of you whom I have not yet had the chance to speak to, i sincerely hope we do soon and that all is on the up in your lives. Just know that you are always welcome to come live here, the people seem to be happier admist a bad economy than those persons whereyou are currently living...and that it is always harder somewhere else, so instead of talking about it, do sometihngabout it. Cause I tell you what...I am sure glad I don't live in Haiti right now, and for that matter I am prettyglad I am not searching for a job and living in the United States right now!

Told you it was always worse somewhere else! So come live the Tranquilo life today! Only $25 a month to rent a house! Great rice and beans! Roosters Galore! Don't miss this opportunity to shower outside with a hose! Whoo!

Love Jeff

Was incredible. So I just arrived in the capital from a weekend of shenanigans. We all met up in the large city of Sanitago...which looks and reminds me a lot of an American City. We had a group meeting in the Mall (Which is why it felt like The U.S.) where we had a white elephant exchange of all the bottles of select beverages that would need to be consumed before finishing the race the next day. Well the first one we got did not suit my tastes and luckily somebody stole it and we ended up getting a bottle of Bermudez Limon. Much better than anything that begins with "G" and ends with "in"...atleast in my opinion. So after that we spent the night to wake up early to meet at the starting point which is the monument in Santiago. We all arrived at about eight A.M. and started it off right with a little O.J. and party bola beverage mix. The teams all were required to dress in costume and to have a story to go along with it. My partner and I chose to be medical students dressed up in Scrubs, whom had been left behind by our group because we had basic spanish skills and could fend for ourselvves. Well it worked out great because everyone loves American Medical Care here (Hah!) and we got Bola after Boal after Bola...and came third place! The race had 23 teams and all whom participated were absolutely awesome with a wide range of costumes from Gypsies to Professional Volleyball players. The night was spent overlooking the beach in the Town of Rio San Juan at the Bayhibe Blanca Hotel. I of course was a bit tired the day after clebrating my thrid place finish but nonetheless ended up meeting a couchsurfer named Jade in Cabarete and spent the afternoon chattign with her about a visit in the future. The kicker is, that it was already late afternoon and I live about 10 hours from there, so I found a girl named Rachel whom grew up about 2 miles from me and Littleton and she was working for a Non Profit called "The Dream Project". She and I hit it off and I was able to crash her couch that evening and finally headed back to the Capital yesterday Morning. I am still here because I had the unfortunate event of having my Wallet taken, but no worries...bc I am poor so whom ever did take it didnt recieve a penny. Trying to get everything all straightened put and head home this afternoon to spend some quality work time int he Campo for the next Three weeks before Mr. Mulvany comes for a visit in May. Well...this blog entry was super messy and unorganized and probably grammatically horrible, so please excuse me until I have a bit more time to edit on my next one!

Love you all.

Jeff

All Moved In

So If you would just go back about three entries, all of this will make a lot more sense...do it, now.

I have just moved into my house in La Guama! I love my new location, although it is not quite as tranquillo, bc it is closer to the the main road and there is quite a bit more noise from time to time compared to my last site, I have an amazing house and piece of land behind it. It is about and an acre and a half and I have big plans to make it better. The house is made of cement walls and does not have any leaks in the tin roof. The floor is cement and it is about 500 SF, with two rooms and a living area. I have my kitchen and couch in the living room and an office storage room as well as my bedroom. I have set all up for the most part and am beginning to hang up my cards and letters from home on the walls.

I have said my goodbyes to the last volunteer whom was living here, Jake Browder an Agro-forestry volunteer, and now am all alone in La Guama. I already have a good base of people whom i can count on here via the Peanut Butter women. I am in the process of going out each night to meet and talk with as many other neighbors as I can.

The peanut butter is going well still, we should have our labels by the end of this week and I hope to sell quite a bit more volume this month, both at the Peace Corps office and locally in the weekly markets and to Colmados (Small local house/stores). I will be making more to bring to the All Volunteer confrence in May too. My next goal is to be able to remove myself from some of the tasks by teaching the women to do them for thimselves, such as the accounting and marketing, but this will take some time and guidance for the time being.

Chris Mulvaney is planning a visit out here for two weeks and I couldn't be more excited to have him. He has told me that he wants to just enjoy my day to day routine and that is great because I can enjoy his company and still maintain my productivity here without leaving the site too much for cross country adventures. I plan on putting him to work, digging ditches, giving classes, etc...which shouldn't be too hard for him with his big dumb smile and long hair. He will be a hit with all the ladies here, young and old.

I also will be participating in a hitchhiking race this weekend. My partner Rachele and I will be pretending to be Medical Students whom need a ride to a medical mission that we are helping at. Dominicans love free medical missions from Americans, so hopefully its a hit and we will win the race. The kicker is the bottle of liquid that must be drank, gifted, disposed of before you arrive at the finish...it sounds a bit dangerous but really is a lot different from the states, bc hitchhiking is so common here...it will help me personally that my partner has blond hair will be much more easily picked up than just me by myself. I plan on making this my Birthday celebration with my volunteer friends since I will be spending the 25th in my site working on projects.

What are my projects here???

Well with the land I have behing the house I plan on getting a group of muchachos to clean up the area of trash, etc... as well as other community areas, so that we are elegible to recieve a grant to buy a baseball bat, gloves, and a ball to organize and play pelota behing my house on the new gras field. I would really like to make a weekly event, so that we met and play formally every sunday evening, and the community can come watch and play as well.

I will also be borrowing two oxen to till the land next to or behind the house so that I can plant my garden soon. Rainy season is about to start here and I would like to get my seeds planted before then, so that they dont get washed away. I will be wheelbarrowing some goat manure to my house where I have set up a compost for the garden with most of my thrown away food items, and decomposible trash items. It should be nice to have all the fresh fruit and vegetables when the summer comes. I will try to take a pic of my plowing the field old school style with a whip and my pair of oxen.

Some other possible/pending projects are a local park area for the kids to play to keep them away from the busy road and other no so wonderful activities. I may be able to find a group of Youth whom want to participate in the Business Plan Competition, and will give English class at my house for those whom I believe are serious and show interest.

Right now, I am showering outside with my hose and bathing suit, or at night when no one can see my white butt. So I will be looking to install some PVC Piping to make a shower in the latrine area of my back yard which has tin surrounding it.

I will still be working with the NGO (CODECAS) to locate an office in Las Matas and hope to be giving some management and operations training to them so that they may keep the organization running smoothly after my departure, but this is seemingly forever on hold due to holidays and other conpromises in the groups leadership team. So...patience and we will see what happens, hopefully the grant fro the better cement stoves and 50,000 trees goes through soon, bc that will give everyine the needed kick in the ass to get going.

All in all, I am quite happy with everything now. I can't to come home from August 1st to the 20th. The first few days in Cali with my parents and then on to Denver and the Fort, for friends and a wedding. Time has been flying by here and to me it already seems like June is here. A full schedule makes all the difference in the world! Hope that everyone is doing alright up in the states, the spring weather coming in beautifully...

Jeff

Work Day

What an amazing day I had today. I woke up after not being able to sleep all night due to over worrying about every little thing that has been happening these days. I stepped out the front door and went to my host family's house to pay my landlord (Landa) for the following 8 days of April. She looked at me with conviction and told me tht I had not paid her for last month. Bieng that she was either confused or lying, I was disheartened by the whole confrontation. I mean she wants me to pay for the whole month of April even though I will only be there for 8 days. That being said, its really the principle that makes me angry. 800 pesos is only about $22 dollars and not really a big deal. I however could really use that money this month and am mad that she only sees me as a source of income rather than a valuable community asset. I left without an agreement and chalked it up as sometihng to forget about because I had a full day ahead of me.

I spoke with my boss (Joy) and told her what has been happening and how my site change was coming about. I was rather bitter after my convo with the Landlord, whom also happens to be my host aunt. So I hoped that she could work some magic and smooth things over. She said she'd try and get back to me later.

I caught a moto up to La Guama where Only two of the Women had shown up on time for our full day of work and production. I dropped my things off and began working on the calculations for the Price per Unit of our two main products (Peanut Butter, and PB for Malnourished children "NutriFort"). It was what I expected in that the amount of time we were spending making this NutriFort was not worth the amount of profit that was being generated when we could better serve ourselves making Peanut Butter. Now the issue is in that the NutriFort is being bought directly from us by the Catholic Church who is donating it to the orphanages in our area. The down side is that they have their hearts in the right place, but not their heads, as they were unable to accurately calcualte the costs of production and appropriate profits for the women. This had been done prior to my arrival but had made a large impact on our current productivity.

So...I explained this simply to the women and they were in agreement that it was a bad investment of time, but still an unavoidable task and good deed for those children whom need it. So we have decided to relay this to the church and ask for a more appropriate profit per packet and hopefully it all turns out dandy. The truly amazing part to me is the absolute motivation of the women to work, during a holiday week, as they did from 8am until 4pm. Even better, was the little party and card they gave to Jake the Volunteer whom is leaving this site on the 12th of April. I enjoyed watching, making, talking and learning from them all today.

BUT...The best part of my day was when my boss called me back and told me that she had spoken with my project partner in La Estancia. She said everything I wanted to hear and took a huge weight off of my shoulders. I really feel relieved, elated, and excited now. I am comfortable to go talk to my partner and not feel as if I am blindsiding him with my plan to move to La Guama. He also feels the same as me about continuing my work with the local NGO, which is great bacause I will be as busy as ever and still making a large impact in the lives of many people in our region of San Juan and the Border.

It's incredible the swings that we all go through from time to time, but is inspiring to see the light that we are always thinking will come of our darkness. I feel that I have seen the light lately and and am truly greatful to have someone or something flipping the switch for me.

Jeff

Great and Not so Great

So I have been having a wonderful time here thus far in the Dominican Republic, without any hesitation I can say that. Lately though I have come upon some feelings that are hard to deal with.

Being away from the ones I love and cherish for so long is not easy and I dearly miss you all. The memories I have are wonderful to be able to recall when I sit and think, and they are torture when everything here seems to be going against the grain. Sometimes the thought of relaxing in the backyard with my friends and working on my garden and lawn seems like it would be easily regained as soon as I came back. But I know that people have gone on to other endeavors and places and that Grant has the lawn taken care of just fine. So I wait for my one year mark to come home and visit these memories, to make more, and to bring them back with me for another year.

I have had a difficult time as of late because I am in the process of changing communities to work on a consistent basis with my Group of Women whom are making and selling Peanut Butter. It has been spectacularly successful and I am thankful that I can have such a rewarding project. It is a mere 8km up the Road to a place called La Guama. I have found a house to live in and a piece of land to grow a huge garden and its very close to a dear friend of mine, Jay Thrasher. However this requires me to move from my current community, La Estancia, where I have already built relationships with some amazing people. These people helped me acclimate to my new environment and took me in to their houses for dinner and coffee. It will be hard to leave them on account of this.

However, they are forever unwilling to work together in spite of their political and religious differences, which does not make for a very productive working environment for myself. They have already had four years of Volunteers and not much to show for it due to this factor. I have tried to motivate them and do realize that things work slower around here, but have affirmed my fears that I will not be as successful or productive there as I will be able to be in La Guama.

The unique thing about the culture here, is that everyone seems to think that they deserve everything without putting much forward on their parts. That was a large problem with La Estancia. I now have told my Project Partner whom solicited to have me there, that I will be moving away …He said that he did not Agree with this at all and didn’t really want to talk about it with me. He and I are working with the NGO based in Las Matas de Farfan. This is suitable, because there is a directive of leaders that live in all different communities and me moving would be no different than that. However, I do believe that he and his family count on my rent and food purchases to supplement their income. That is not the reason I came here, and its unfortunate to have them feel that I am "Botaring" (Throwing them to the street, more or less) by moving away.

I have never been one to burn bridges, but the people here often won’t see what I see as a purely business related decision. They feel that I am no longer a friend and wonder why I would ever do such a thing. I can tell them as many hard facts as to why this is a better situation, but they will not listen. That is a very hard thing for me to deal with. I guess I need to learn to be less sensitive about what others think.

I will/hope to still continue my work with the NGO, as well as visit my old site nearly weekly to eat lunch and talk with my neighbors. I just hope that they want me to. I guess anyone whom doesn’t want this, really isn’t my friend anyways. I never have had enemies and don’t plan on starting now.

So…its great, and not so great all at the same time. I know that time will work things out, but time is frustratingly slow. I wish it would fly by so I could come home to see the people whom are my friends and so that I may feel at home again in my new community. For now though…I just have a big dumb smile on my face, no matter what anyone says to me or what happens in the future.

Jeff

I have had the priviledge of participating in a wonderfully fufilling medical mission this past week until the coming Wednesday. I cant even begin to adequately explain how I feel about the whole experience... But I will try.

To be able to efficiently communicate with people who need life saving operations is something that I never signed up for, but it is possibly one of the most elating experiences I will ever feel in my life. I was told by a friend of mine Rachelle that her Uncle and Aunt come to Las Matas de Farfan every year with a medical team to do operations here. Now I live only about 8km from Las Matas and was just happy to have Rachelle come out to visit me and the helping at the hospital was just an after thought. It turned out that it became a very full time committment and was worth every second. We went in on Monday the 9th at 8 am and begma with translation for the American Nurses and their patients in Pre-Op. This entailed asking when they had last eaten, if they had allergies, took medication, checking blood pressure and adminstering an IV...as well as re-assuring them that everyting would be fine, as they are not used to recieving this medical treatment ever. Many needed to have the process explained before feeling relaxed and able to give their well-being over to another group of persons that they had never even met before and were neither able to speak with eachother to communicate pain, issues, and joys.

The Day was busy and passed quickly as we left that evening at 5pm. Rachelle and I went back to my Campo and cooked Dinner and watched a movie on the Computer. The next day was the best yet as I recieved a "promotion" more or less to help with translation in the Operating room. Now I was usually wearing medical scrubs and walking around checking on all the patients, which led to many thinking that I was a Doctor who was able to admit them and prescibe them medicine...which I became slightly perterbed with the amount of people whom were approaching me to fix every problem, of which none I could very much about. But that comes with the skin and the language abilities i suppose...

Anyways, I was asked into the operating room to reassure patients that were being put to sleep, that every thing would be normal and fine and there is no need to worry bc these doctors knew what they were doing, etc... This meant that I thouroughly cleaned every exposed inch of skin and wore the whoel nine yards of cap, cloves, booties, and so on...Once in there I was instructed to keep my hands in front of me and touch nothing. I translated for the doctors and vice versa for the patients to help everyone understand eachother. Once they were asleep and dreaming, the doctors were so kind to explain and show me the process by which they were operating. This led to the chance to participate in the surgery by holding instruments in order to help keep the incision open so that the Surgeon was ablr to cut away the tumor, gall bladder, lump... I could see the fat, muscle, bladder, stomach, liver and all the in betweens. I then was able to feel these parts and the gall bladder that we were removing. How absolutely incredible. There is no way for me to explain how it felt then or after and since. The hands of surgeons are truly the hands of god in many ways. The removedness of the whole thing is what got me so good. It felt as if I were in a completely different reality. I mean its not every day that you get to be a third year medical student doing surgery for the first time in your life. Wow.

Well we headed up to La Guama and stayed with my friend Jay up there and visited and ate together. This was Rachelle's first time visiting out this way...so I thought i should show her around and not just work at the Hospital all day. We did work until Wed. Evening and then had dinner with the group at there "camp". I cannot say no to free food when I am living here! I was pleased to meet everyone and get to know here Aunt and Uncle better too. The best part of the night was whne the shared some of their experiences thus far and I seemed to be the highlight of the night...or atleast the Peanut Butter that I make with my Womens group was. I had been selling it to the med team and Rachelle's Uncle had bought the whole box from me! Well he couldn't exactly eat it all, so he chose to give it to the field doctors who went out each day to different areas to see if anyone there needed med assistance. It turns out they were in a poor part of where I live and thought to themselves well we could use that Peanut Butter that was brought back to help nourish these children whom are showing al signs of not recieving proper nutrition. They gave away every bottle of peanut butter citing its nutritional exceptionallity as it has high levels of Protien, Oils, Sugars and Salts that are essential parts that are missing from the diet here. I was nearly overcome with the way things seemed to be working and the thanks and praise I was recieving for having been in the right place at the right time. I feel blessed to have been part of helping improve someones situation. I just know that it takes a team of people to do it. I cant give the PB away and I cant buy it all on my small stipend, but if I could I would and help all those who need to eat it to improve their health. It just so happens there was a team of people who could do just that and happened to care enough to do it. We were all blessed that day.

So we took the day off on Thurs to go back up to Jays house which doesnt have running water or Electricity. He had boughten a Wild Horse the other day and was working on our Garden that we are starting. I had some seeds brought to me by my Friend Steven Dodrill and we are using those and some others we have dried to start our 30 x 20 garden. It should be hard work, but with a little rain we will have fresh produce for quite some time to come.

Rachelle left on Friday morning and I headed back to the hospital to continue helping. All the same but so nice to be able to do it. Sat for half a day and Sun I was able to attend a small Church service they had in English! and had communion too. Very nice, as I havent done this in almost a year it seems like. It was very refreshing to be able to participate in that. I ate lunch and talked about my experiences with them and what have you...The people that left on Sat were so kind to leave me Beef Jerky, Tuna, Granola, Candy, NEW UNDERWEAR, and new friendships.

I will continue this week helping them until they leave on Wed to head back to the states. But the funny part is those of them that return next year will be able to see me again, as I will still be kickin it and doing my thing here! I hope this next week is just as great as the last and want to express to them that my admiration for what they are doing and do is bigger than words and I always will be thankful to have helped with whatever I was able to.

As for me, its been invaluable. I have been able to show my friends and neighbors that I am capable of helping them in ways that arent always physical and monetary, and bc of it have formed very good realtionships with people whom are never going to forget the time that the tumor was removed from their body by an amazingly goofy PC volunteer and a wonderfully gifted and caring team of Americans, the truest and best form of Americans, who realize that the world is bigger than just me and my house, car and money. Americans who make me proud to be one.

Jefe

So I hav ehad the amazing opportunity to work with a wonderful group of doctors, nurses and regular good people to provide a service that is of dire need here in the Dominican Republic...especially where I live right now. I have a friend named Rachele who told me that here Aunt and Uncle always come to visit the DR to do missions in Las Matas de Farfan, which is my closest pueblo. So she convinced me to come along and help translate for the doctors and patients!

I could have never imagined that I would be helping with sometimes life saving operations bc I was ablr to speak to people who were often neighbors of mine from just up the road. The gratitude these people had for what they were recieving I could not match with my smile. They always told everyone how thankful they were and I am so lucky to be able to see and feel the residual lasting effects of a chartible act by a group of incredibly kind and generous people.

I not only translated for the removal of tumors on face, breast, etc... but atcually had the opportunity to scrub in and assist in the Surgery as I spoke to the patient recieving the operationa and help to remove the part in question.

Don´t worry I wasn´t leading the surgery, but rather taking instruction on how to help the doctor whom was removing the lumps, etc... The true skill and power of these people is remarkable and envied. I simply assisted in the operation and felt that I would never feel something like that ever again in my life.

I truly believe that I am one of the luckiest people Alive and cant imagine doing anything else right now In my Life.

Cheers to those who give of themselves, and a Saludo to those who did it with me this last week in Las Matas de Farfan!

Jefe

A New Set of Eyes

As my friends left yesterday, I had the joy of a five hour bus ride and reflecting on our time here together the last ten days. What a treat it is to see this country again through three new pairs of eyes. With my six months spent here so far, I have come to feel more less “at home”, and rarely does something truly shock me anymore. However it was great to be able to see the shock and appreciation that Zak, Matt and Steve were able experience here. Not only did we do things that I am accustomed to doing often, but we ended up on a few new adventures for me as well. Here’s a little list of memories from the reflection:

Cold Presidente at the Airport as I greeted my guests

Meeting all the great Volunteers

Coors Light 6 pack ( You know this was the best moment of the last 6 months for me)

Learning Batchata in the Colmado

The First Chimi

The Second Chimi

The Embassy Pool

Salsa with the teacher who took it way too seriously

Dancin at the Rinconcito

Jumping off of 27 Waterfalls

Public Policy Debates

The longest day ever on Public Transportation

The Guy who lost his Cock on the Bus

The two old drunk guys who fought on the bus

Being stopped by the Military for being white

Rained in and happy about it

Casino

Being bought beer after beer by two tipsy lesbians

Making jewelry of one of the most rare stones in the entire world

Waking up with the sound of the beach

Waking up in Spanish in the middle of a Downpour

Crazy guys and Coconuts

The View

French Canadian Beauties

The party just seeming to follow us

The Last Chimi

Saying Cheers to it all

Incredible. I need to thank everyone again. Zak, Steve, Matt …you guys are some of the best friends I could ever have. If Hard drives and Hand Sanitizer didn’t exist…we’d still be friends. See you fellas soon.

When I am here with some of my very best friends sharing my experiences with them, having a cultural exchange, and learning so much about what they’re doing back in the states. Not only that, but they brought me the Christmas I never had this year. Can Openers, Football, Food, Clothes, Gameboy, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, Books, and even a 6 pack of Coors Light. To say the least, I was and am very delighted. I also received quite the care package/s from the Irelands whom are truly my family in all senses. My mother Sent me a package and it made me smile for days as she put in there only what she would and that is why I love her.

So far We have been able to meet all but a few volunteers and Teach them how to dance Bachata, Merengue, and Salsa. Two nights of dancing in the capital were followed by a trip up to an ecotourism project, called 27 Waterfalls, where we slid and jumped down every single one of them. It was one of my favorite things I have done here thus far. Right now We are in my site after a day of traveling across the entire country and talking with my community and will be visiting the Peanut butter enterprise and staying/camping with Jay Thrasher, my crazy good friend whom lives in the poorest area of the country with me, and therefore is my Hermano or life. Cause it ain’t easy, but that’s why its interesting,…no?

We will be headed to the beach in the south and relaxing in a few days and hopefully making a nice end to our time together. I am very thankful for all of you. Thankful for the opportunity.

Peace and Love.

So, its been a month since the last post...and I feel that owe all my 6 avid readers an apology. Its not that I didnt want to write, but rather that writing under the pressure of my internet usage budget is rather stressful and mych easier to accomplish when I am in the Capital using the Internet for free at the Office, like right now.

I have had a long January to say the least, after my New Years Celebration in Cabarete, I settled into my campo by starting to teach a starting a small business course. We talked about everything from accounting, marketing, pricing, creativity, and even some supply and demand. They seem to understand my examples that i made to fit their specific scenarios, but it could be just the ever-convincing head nod.

I also finished up my community and organazational diagnostics to turn into my boss. I have chosen to focus my efforts of develping further an NGO that is local to the border region where I live. It should be quite the challenge, as the entire world seems to be having financial issues, so soliciting for money for development programs could be quite hard. Either way, it will be well worth it. For instance, we just started a project to build 350 stoves, which will reduce deforestation and improve the health of those whom are cooking everyday, as well as plant 50,000 trees to improve what we have lost due to unawareness in the past about environmental issues. It will be a very comprehensive project and will finish before my two years is up in July of 2010. But I am very lucky and excitied to be able to help with all of this.

I felt a bit lame the last week bc I had unheard amounts of time to just sit and think to myself. Its something we never have to, are able to, or choose to do in the states. Here I have to, choose to, and am able to though. It may seem like a priveledge, but rather it becomes quite revealing how uncomfortable it is to be completly alone and only have yourself to converse with. I hope that I will be able to "find me" during my time here, but as of right now...I often am frustrated with all of the "me time". Development is kinda of like an Oxymoron, it is always seems to be the opposite of what should work, whether developing my community or myself.

Either way, I hosted another couch surfer, named Kathryn. She was awesome. Good looking and she bought the beer! We watched a movie and cooked dinner and even met some other volunteers the next day. I really have enjoyed the couch surfers who have come to the middle of nowhere to visit me and share in my experiece. Remember you are always welcome in my casita.

I also had my 3 month training in the capital this week. We learned all kinds of stuff, some useful, and others not so much...but it was great to have the opportunity to learn it all. Now I have some materials to do a community garden project, make tight bracelets out of plastic fundas, make mentol tiger balm, recycle paper, mistolin, etc...

I will have the next two weeks to prepare for my english class in March and then Zak, Scube, and MM are coming down to visit for a week and some. We are going to see Carnival, Jump off of 27 Waterfalls, visit my site, go to Bararuco for Larimar, beaches, and rivers. I am very excited to have a little bit of home come visit me. I honestly can't wait.

Hope to see you all here soon too!

Love.

So I have just come to the realization of how much I actually like being in my site. Everything costs so much in the Capital and its never my bed that I am sleeping in. But heres whats happened since a while back.

I celebrated Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, with my family at their house, with all the extended family members coming home from the Cap. to the Campo. We ate more food than we normally do, but there is no exchange of gifts or anything like that until the 6th of Jan. which is 3 kings day, symbolic of when the 3 kings brought baby Jesus gifts. However, I would be surprised if there was gifts given at all where I live. We will see about that when I go back tomorrow. If I know one thing for sure, every single person will expect me to give them something. Which is quite frustrating.

After xmas I hosted a couch surfer named Jaeson from SanFrancisco. I put up my house and extra bed almost as a joke on The website and was surprised when i had a request not a week later. I have had 3 more since then! I have only hosted one though i will be hosting a girl from New Jersey later this month. I think the reason I am so popular is because of my close proximity to Haiti (20km), so many people want a place along their way to see the border/cross etc...

I left my campo at 6am on the 30th to travel 7 hours to the site of my Friend Rachell, we met sith some other volunteers and stayed the night there on the floor. We then went to a beach on the 31st in a town called Cabarete. I felt like that i was in America...it was so nice copared to where I live every day. So we found a buget hotel deal by cramming everyone into one bed. I layed on the beach drank rum and chinola juice at Happy Hour, stayed out for fireworks on the beach at midnight and hit the floor at about 3. The next day we ate like kings, drank at Jose Oshea's an Irish Pub where they had a bottomless pint for 2 hours for 6 dollars! My night ended earlier this time as we had to travel to the capital the next day, but I really enjoyed the beach. I even went and spoke with some of the local realtors in that area of the country.

No I am back in the Capital and I recieved my computer from a volunteer who visited the states and brought it back. I am having some trouble connecting to the Wireless here i think bc of a wireless driver issue, as well as seeing some of the movies that Grant had put on for me, but other than that it is absolutely amazing to have all this music and ease of using a computer! I really am thankful for all that my family did to get it here.

So I am headed back tomorrow and wont be back to Santo Domingo until Febuarary for a training with my fellow volunteers, but I am looking forward to some more couch surfers and Zak is coming out at the end of Feb. for Carnival Celebration.

Hope everyones New Year was Great and heres to having a great 2009!

So its still hot enough to sweat here and the lights people put up on their Palm trees would be cool if there wasn´t a blackout every 5 hours...so the Holiday season eludes me. Maybe its just the lack of incessent consumerism. Thats probably it, oh how I miss the Consummerism.

On another note, My Womens group (Mujeres Unidas en Desarolla) are doing great, we are having a large meeting to formalize out business plan and then after that I will be speaking with the Whole Planet Foundation and Possibly Kiva to secure some financing and possibly export soem of the product. But those things are a long way off. But the peanut butter is that good.

My community is a bit slow. I am supposed to be working on establishing a better organizational system for a community based NGO here named CODECAS - which is for the development of the campesino farmer of the south. Its a descriptive name but a very open possiblity for doing any human development projects. Its just that no one works very hard here, or if they do its not on a schedule that is cohesive to my American time frame. I really think I could network well with many other like minded organizations to grow and establish efficient and sustainable operations for CODECAS here, but I cant do it without the help of some key people in the process. Hopefully it will go a bit smoother in the next months.

Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) is going to be spent with the family eating kinda like we would on thanksgiving but with a lot of weird food. The next day I will spend with my friend Jay in a house he has celebrating Like Americans, we are killing a chicken and cooking it for dinner. I made him some gift out of zinc and nails so that he can hang it at his house. Then its off to the Beach, for the first time, up north in Cabarete with all the other volunteers, for some Debauchery. Maybe.

Much Love and Merry Christmas to All!

Jeff

Well let me just start by saying, Matt you can fly into Las Americas with the most ease, there is also an airport in Baharona, but I am not sure you can get a flight there all the time. I will be waiting for you in a multicolored 1984 Honda Civic with a Cobrador named Pancho. Let me know when the flight is coming in. Zak I have a strong feeling you may never leave if you make it down here, but thats a good enough reason for me.

On the whole note of Death...My first puppy died after just 3 days of Ownership. I am quite possibly the worst Father of all time, R.I.P. Moose/Fea. It wasnt really my fault, i think that she had a parasite befoe eI got her and I tried everything to get her to perk up but she wouldnt eat and wouldnt drink and finally she just never woke up. Que triste. But its alright because I think I am going to wait to get another for a while now, I´m not ready to be no Baby´s Daddy. Ya Tu Sabes.

Just read "Tying Rocks to Clouds" , a book with interveiws of 20 of the worlds most renound and recognized spiritual persons. Everything from People who are hard core Religous to others who dont believe in anything, Christianity to Buhdism, Spirtual to Phsycological... really interesting. It was like a ginat catalog to pick your religion from, I chose to make my own with bits and pieces of various ones that spoke to me personally. The whole thing was a reflection on the meaning of life, why there is suffering, etc... with opinions by Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Ram Dass, some guy from Religious Television, and a bunch of others. Recommended for those who have the curiosity like I do. I mean who would solve a murder mystery with the first clue they found if there were 99 others to look at? Its in your best interest not to buy into anything, figure it out for yourself.

Christmas will be spent drinking and eating Pig with the family on the 24th. Its tradition I suppose. Eveyione here travels back to the campo from the capital or from the states (Nueba Yol). Everyone is payed sueldo doble (double salary), and they just hang out. On the 25th I will be spening some quality time with my main amigo Jay (From Boston) doing some home made gift exchange and partaking in a bit more of the yuletide liquid cheer. New Years is on the Beach in Cabarete. Some of you may be getting a slightly intoxicated phone call. I figure its the most appropriate timing, and i cant really do that on top of the Loma in my site.

Maybe an Online Christmas Card/Letter of Sorts next time. Miss you all. All Gifts can be depositied into my bank account so that I can buy a ticket home eventually to visit. Peace.

Just wanted to give a little thanks to all of you. I feel so lucky to have the opportunities in my life to share, learn, and live with all of the amazing people I have been lucky enough to meet so far. Just helps me to realize how thankful I am that I have the opportuinity to be here, though I miss you all, If anyone is ever interested in coming down here to live with me even just for a day, I can show you some of the people and reasons I am thankful. Truly Eye-opening and Mind blowing.

On another note, We had a thanksgiving day celebration in the capitol. All of the Volunteers came about 150, we swam at a pool, ate amazing food, drinks, I won the turkey trot in the morning, Played soccer in the afternoon. Swam at the US Embassy pool and took a hot shower (first one in nearly 4 months), watched a talent show (lots of talent here in the DR) Flushed my toilet paper down the toilet instead of saving it to burn later. Couldnt of asked for much more. Gracias a todos. Gracias a dios.

Those of you whom are finding boredom in your routine at home...come visit. I feel like I am begging. Just lie to me and tell me you are thinking about it.

So I went from being not busy at all to really busy. I now have 8 seperate community groups and they all seem to meet at the same time. I live in La Meseta but work with La Estancia, I also have to now pick up the slack for a volunteer whom decided it was best for her to head home. So i will be shortly selling Peanut butter(Handmade) and helping those women with their business operations as well. But its great bc The days are flying by and in a week or so I will be in the Capital for a Thanksgiving Celebration with all the other volunteers. I plan on running in a 5k race as well, should be interesting considering some outlying factors...as well as a 3V3 Soccer tourney and a Domino Tourney. May be spending the new years with Marissa and her family in a Resort (Pray for me that it is all inclusive) and i swear to putting up some pics when I am in the capital on the 26th and 27th . Send me some Love people!

I miss you all. Keep you head up Ash, life is what you make it. Grant Start using your funds for visiting me not other things. Congrats to Ryno and Anna for getting engaged as well! Oh and I will be getting a new puppy in the next week and I have decided to name him Moose! I always wanted a dog named moose.

Kelsey, Thanks for the Letter, hope France is treating you well. John and Kathy thanks as well, Pet Kaepa for me. Rest of Family, make sure to not let my parents sell all of my stuff before they move to California in December. Zak Think before you act my silly little friend.

Peace.

Ok So here is an Update about my current digs. I live in A Campo called La Estancia, it is about a 20 min ride outside of Las Matas de Farfan, which is a pueblo of about 20,000 people. This is where I am right now on the internet. My project partner is also My host family. His name is Genio and he will be working with me to do community projects as well as redevelop the organization CODECAS, which currently only exists on paper and needs to be seriously worked on. It is a Organization for the Development of Rural Small Farmers of the South. Hopefully I can secure some grants and put together an office and build a better foundation of structure for future efforts to provide opportunity for the small farmer here in the DR. Right now though... I am just hanging out. Thats what i do a lot of these days. I have to complete a 3 month (no project) organizational diagnostic as well as a community diagnostic during which i just talk to people and interveiw them and drink coffee, etc... It a little , A LOT ACTUALLY, slower pace of life around here. I have been reading like a madman, as well as have found a spot to hand up my Hammock up on a hill where is the only place I can get reception for my phone. So , ya know, its not all bad. Here is my Number, i can recieve calls and texts for free but i may not get them because of limited reception and may not return them because it costs me more than I make as a volunteer in an entire month. 1 809 723 8723. I have pics i have been taking but forgot my camera today, so it may be a couple weeks before i get some up. I have found a house to live in as well but cant move there for a few months. Right now its sleeping in the shack next to the Donkey, Goats, Pigs, Chickens, Ducks, Horses, Cows, and Dogs, (these are all animals that we really have, rarely tied up to anything)... awake by 6 in the morning, too hot to do a damn thing by 9 am, sit in the shade (where there is some) with my family until we pick up our sillas to move to new shade, eat the same exact thing for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner (all day every day, Platano, Yuca, Egg, Onion, all drowned in oil) Though i did buy some hot sauce and sneak it in to my meal the other day, Mmmm... Then its evening, and I either go to a meeting, (Not this week bc its Patronales, a 9 day festival of Drinking) and usually go to sleep by 8 or 9 at the latest.

Talk about a change of Pace. But I have plenty of time to think, which is a big reason I came here... and I can´t complain because I have thought of some amazing things already.

Here´s to Everyone at home, Have Wonderful Thanksgivings and Tell everyone I say Hello!

Congratulations to Steve Swartz and Katie Sammons for getting Engaged!

Happy Birthday Margaret!

Lets go Broncos!

Love.

I found out today that I am going to be living in a campo called La Estancia, It is about 6km outside of Las Matas De Farfan in the San Juan Region. It is about as far from the Beach As you can get. I am following up two former Volunteers there as well. I will be working within the Community and with an organization called CODECAS, which is a Council for the Development of Southern Farmers...more or less. I konw htat they do not have an office or have been paying dues, so ther is no moneyas of now eihter, so i will be probably doing some grant writing and hopefully working with the farmers and strengthing the organization, somehow i suppose. Its about 45 min from the Haiti border and I am not by many other volunteers. Except Amy who is only 4km away from me so that is about as close as you can be to someone. I also have a guy named Jay who is an engineer working with water up in the Mountains about 45 min away, he is my main man for adventure so that is hopefully going to be awesome as well. Igot a cell phone, but I only have a hundred minutes a month though. You can call me on my phone, when I get signal, and it doesnt cost me any minutes or money. If I call you it has to be on A ophone card. Here is my number 1'809'723'8723. I should have it with me most of the time, but you got to remember that i am going to be 3 hours different from you as soon as you start daylight savings time. I am going to live with my Dona Bota, thats her name Bota, and thats it i guess, but I hear she is nice. If you look at a map of the DR I am towards the Border in the almost exact middle of the country. I also got Robbed on Saturday night by the Taxi Driver, he wanted 380 pesos for a ride that costed 130 and me trying to offer him 30 more pesos to just drop it, he told me to listen to his explanaiton and grabbed my glasses off of my face and drove off. Fucking Asshole, I am too trusting sometimes, but Now i am glad to get out of the Capital. I will be getting some new ones next week. For now I am wearing my contacts. I also got Scabies, which is when these things burrow into your skin and itch like crazy, i thought it was excema, but it wasnt, so now i am using this lotion, soap and taking a pill for about a week and that should fix it. I havent got the camera charger, but I have gotten 5 postcards from new Belgium, my friends sent me,Big shout out to all my Beer Loving Friends!!! Should be back with the Net in a week or so and will let everyone know how it went. Somebody should think of a halloween costume for me because no one celebrates it here but I am still going to dress up like a goon. Oh and Happy Bday Scuba Steve Dodrill.

Well I am finished with Training in about a week and a half, which means I will be moing to my site shortly after. The place I will be living for the next two years! Crazy.

Community Based Training was great. We lived with new host families, mine was ust alraight, I hae a 2 yr old nephew who has broncitis/is just a wimp...who crys all night every night i hae been here and wakes me up atleast 4 times because we all share the same ceiling, there is just a tin roof shared by all, so you can hear everything everyone is doing.

Met some Awesome people in My CED group, so seperating will be lame, but atleast when we get together for the upcoming holidays, i have a feeling we will be celebrating like champions, but thats easy to do when you are all on the beach.

Working on getting some Pics up here soon. Really want everyone to see what it looks like, from the good to the Bad. I got to go swim at a waterfall yesterday ...we were learning about Ecotourism. Hope everyone is enjoying the ease of things back home, I wish it would just fall in place here. Have good Octobers, Halloween, etc... I should know by the end where I will be. I also need to kow when you are planning your visits, so I can take some time off.

Jeff

I got the Gripe. Its the Flu equivalent here i suppose. But its different bc it is 95 with humidity and I have to take my temp with a Celcius Thermometer, anyone who knows how high 39.8 C is gets an A+. Went to the Capital to get checked out for Dengue, Malaria, Strep, Etc... all came back negative, gracias a dios. However, i did stay in the hostel Bella Epoca, which is only a 10 by 8 room, but it has a shower with water pressure, cable tv with 100 channels and about 10 in english, Funniest Home Videos never seemed better in the last decade!

Talked with my parents today, that was good too, only the 2nd time I have spoken to them in over a month. Seems like everyone is having a good time back at home too. Things here may seem exciting to you, but they are all rather becoming standard for me at this point. Poeple here sit down and relax for most of the day, which really sounds nice, but when you are not used to it, it gets to really dragging on and on, talking about the weather for the 7th time that day.

I was thinkin I would send a Pic of myself in My Road 34 tshirt (Thanks Ash) with me standing on the Beach with a sign that said ¨Wish I was There¨ ...you get it, I miss the 1 dollar Banquet Beers. Hopefully they Will Hang It up? I should be getting my camera Cord Soon, so I should be able to starttaking some pics and posting them, i hope.

I took a walk with Marissa, another Volunteer, the other morning and we saw a Pig being butchered, which I thought was cool, but she thought was rather queasy(sp) First they cut the feet off of the pig, then they sliced it Neck to below the belt, looked painful ripping throught all the chest cavity, removed the intestines and heart and scooped out the blood with bare hands into a bucket, not sure if they use it for sacraficial purposes or what, jk, they then used machetes to cut every imaginable cut of meet i can remember drooling over at the grocery store, as I dreamt of smoking it in my old back yard. Oh how it breaks my heart! Beer and Pulled Pork.

Interesting Fact: If you dont have any money, then you are less likely to engage in the old bad habits you used to, I myself have ceased with my worst. Think about it sometimes, but it really isnt available, so I quit i suppose. Congratulations me, Its been over a month. Now to steer clear of all the others...

El Jeffe

So I am all finished with my Training but because of the four hurricanes we have had hit us, we cannot leave our barrios. Many of the bridges or highways around rural areas have been washed out by this constant over saturation. So My trip to Pedernales, which was then changed to Jarabacoa, is now changed to nowhere. This has been reminiscent of the entire time spent here... no matter how things are supposed to work, they always seem to work out differently. I just hope this actually works out soon. 

Due to the need to stay with our host families for a few more days, they asked for the money they had already given us...back. Which is not cool at all, i do understand, as they need to account for our expense, however, I chose to actually allocate my funds differently because i did not need the entire amount to spend on my visit. Well needless to say, i will be dipping into my own stash for a bit here. As well as revisiting my new budgeting pro forma.  

Anyways, My sister had a baby yesterday, it is a girl. Now we have 15 in our house. But i am very happy to be a part of the experience. I have to move to Moca in a few days with a new family and am going to miss the family that i was really becoming a part of. 

Here is a couple funny notes...

I was sitting eating Pink Oatmeal for Dinner when My host Sister, 26, walks up with a bottle of rum and asks me if I like rum, to which I politely reply Yes, she then takes the cap off asking me if I want some, to which I reply later, she says Now, I say with Coke?, She says No, I drink Rum with Oatmeal. Surprisingly, it made the oatmeal a lot better.

I also have been teaching my 13 year old sister english with some books that I brought. She unfortunately has already mastered the F word and as I was sitting one night on the porch with my sisters, she asks my what the meaning of Gorda was in english. I said that Gorda meant Fat, like a fat person. She then looked at her sister and said " You are Fucking Fat" ...when coupled with a thick spanish accent, I just about burst into tears with laughter. So now we are working on other forms of more constructive criticism. 

Jeff

- If you don't do it today, you'll just be one day older when you do.-W.M.

Hey Everybody! It hasnt been too bad down here at all with all this hurricane stuff. Just lots of rain but reallyno wind or anything like that. As to answer a few questions people have been posting... I take public transportation everywhere, if the US carpooled like these people then we would probably have half the cars on the road. I take a carro publico which is the ugliest shittiest looking toyota or old beater that seven people plus one driver fit into. Personal space isnt really acknowledged here. I take a Guagua, which is a bus here, not a baby...About 50 people on a bus made for 20. Or a Motoconcho, which is a motorcycle which I ride on the back of to get to places that public transport doesnt go. It all costs aout 10 to25 pesos in the city but more for a cross country trip which i will take on thursday to Pedernales. But in US dOLLARS THAT is still only 11.00 bucks. Too bad PC only gives me a dollar a day to live on here. It should be more later when I move out on my own in January hopefully. As for the Bucket showers, they are quite cold. But when its 95 degrees and humid it feels like heaven. When I got off the plane I literally was swimming in the humidity. The Mosquitos thrive here, giving both Dengue during the Day and Molaria at night. I take aralen pills which give you crazy dreams like hallucinations but i kind of like that too. So hopefully i avoid the dengue, which about one third of the group gets each2 years.

On another note, I did go out dancing here on Sunday, which is kind of like A thursday in college or a friday night. The Reggatone dancing is a lot like free lapdances. They really like American men here, which is good, but they also have different notions about what certain things really mean. There was a Dominican Woman 23, whom pulled me around all night, but with the right amount of liquid coaxing I gave into dancing and most who know me know that i would rather just sit and socialize, but needless to say I gave into her finally. She had aninteresting familysituation, so i will be further avoiding seeing her before i leave fopr my five week community based training. It is in Moca by Santiago thye 2nd largest city.

The spanish training is conducted each day in small classes of 3 to four people in complete spanish so it is challenging but just living here you kind of pick upwhat you need rather quickly, I expect to be more than competent in all presentations and activities in a couple more months.

I am extremely bummed to see that CSU lost to the CU ButtFucks, but hopefully they are better than last year. I also heard that Mccain picked one hell of a running mate. Someone should ask my father what he thinks about that one! Haha! Oh how i miss his witty Republican comments! jk!

I forgot my camera charge cord, so if someone finds that send it to me asap, i wont be able to post pics for a while unless i get them from another volunteer, so Lo siento.

Not watching TV and having my 9 Silver bullets a day has taken some getting used to, but I have already eread 2 books in two weeks and probably a lot more in time to come. Not too exciting yet, Pre service training is boring but somewhat important i guess... I hope to be douing something a bit more productive soon enough.

Keep em coming...Lots of Love.

Whats up Monster. Thats what they say here.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Colorado Sunshine right now, As i am currently in my 2nd hurricane since i left home. It rains either all day or at least 6 times a day. I live with my Dona Ramona Mena and her family. Which is quite an experince. Growing up with no sisters I was quite suprised to in a house of 10 girls and only 3 little boys. I still dont even know everyones names let alone anything they are saying. Yo tENGO un Abuelita, Madre, 6 sisters sort of, and 5 nieces and nephews. I am the only man in the house. The women are ages 13 to 27, besides my madre and abuela. The little boys are 8,7 and 1. Little Girls 5 and 2. I am loving the help they give me with my spanish however, the attention is a bit overwhelming. For instance, when I eat my mother sits across from me and watches while all the other women watch me eat and talk to me or about me and laugh quite a bit. But they do wash my clothes by hand and are very kind, when they arent telling me something they think is funny. The amount of food i am served is ridiculous, I am getting way too much to eat, I can´t even fininsh. I probably eat 6 Meals a day of 4 or 5 courses each.

Anyway, I like it here. I live in what we would call a ghetto. But its more like the burbs here. I have my own room and bed with a cement floor. I take a shower with a bucket of water. The electricity goes out twice a day and sometimes all day. I am getting used to it though. Its a very simple and content culture. I just need to slow down and relax.

Feel Free to Ask questions in the comment section. I will be back on in a couple days hopefully, barring no Hurricane Damage!

I am headed out the door tomorrow for a couple of years...which is quite surreal. I am glad I got to see so many friends and family before I left, you guys are awesome. I know i wouldn't be doing this if i hadn't met so many of you in the first place. If I didn't get to see you, just get out your calender and write me in for November 2010. Or just keep it open to be safe.

I will be heading into what seems to be the middle of Hurricane season!!! But in the Capitol city of Santo Domingo, so there should be no problems. Hopefully the storm/storms don't destroy too much of the island and I can get started on my training and projects real soon. If you send me mail, try to put it in an envelope, even postcards, b/c other wise it may end up on the wall of the local post office.

Please check back often and leave comments, they will keep me going!

Most importantly, come visit!

So I don't leave for about three weeks or so, but I am incredibly bored/anxious to move out of my parents house. I figured it was a good time, since I'm so bored, to set up this little blog where I will hopefully post pictures and various un-intriguing stories for you all to read and chuckle at. Blah, blah, blah... this is already heading towards that genre.

I had fun up in Fort Collins last weekend and will be back up on the 5th for Grant's Birthday, so if anyone in Fort Collins wants to meet up before I head out - That is the time to do it.

As excited as I am to leave and go see some new places, I know that I will sorely miss everyone while I am gone, as well as all the ridiculous shenanigans that I look forward to. However, after my initial three months in the DR anyone is welcome to visit me. Whether you would like to stay with me or at a resort instead...I will take time off to come visit any of my family friends or acquaintances. Seriously, I am gonna need someone to talk to in English after awhile. Plus they make a wicked mixed rum drink, so shenanigans are universal apparently.

Feel Free To share this with anyone whom I missed or asks about my sorry ass!

- Jeff

P.S. - If you send Coors light it will need to be Cryogenically Freezed b/c it takes quite a while for me to get mail. Here's my address:

Jeff Wahl, PCT

Cuerpo de Paz

Av Bolivar 451, Gazcue

Apartado Postal 1412

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Here's when you all can come down for an Island Thanksgiving:

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