Am I in heaven or the Peace Corps?

I've been at my new site a little less than a week and wonder if I am even in the Peace Corps anymore. Other volunteers have called it Peace Corps retirement. I wouldn't consider myself retired just yet though. Yes, I am right on the beach and it would be wonderful to be retired here in the exact same spot someday. It's cheaper than living in the states. Get this, my beach front apartment that I am going to move into is only $2,500 pesos a month (so about $75 US a month). No I won't have electricity or running water all of the time but I didn't have that at my last site either. What I will have is an indoor bathroom and a kitchen sink. Two things that I had been living the last year y pico without. That's right! Maybe I have retired...

I am more than excited for the work ahead of me. My woman's group will be meeting tomorrow for the first time since I moved out here but I have had the opportunity to speak with several of the women and even watch them make their bread. And eat a lot of their bread. A LOT. It's delicious. It reminds me of the homemade bread that my great grandmother used to make. They use a huge cement stove to make the bread, and form the dough into long french style loaves. They produce about 80 loaves a week on Mondays and sell only door to door within the community. I really think that they can expand their market and take their bread to other parts of the peninsula. I don't really understand why they have not done that yet.

Also, an environmental volunteer that was at my site a year ago started a Brigada Verde group (the environmental group for youth) and they are still having weekly meetings even after the volunteer left. Hopefully I will be able to do some projects with them during my year here.

I have a month and a half to do my community/organizational diagnostic and turn it in to Peace Corps. It's weird looking back to a year ago when I was beginning my diagnostic in Dajabon. I was so stressed out about it and confused at was I was supposed to be doing. Now, I feel really laid back, confident that I know exactly what I am doing and how to analyze my community and look for potential projects.

Also..exciting news about my old community. They are going to continue the latrine project and I will be allocating funds to an account for them to work weekly and sending out another volunteer closeby at the end of work weeks to check that the work was done correctly. If they do end up finishing the project, I am going to feel good that I did something for that community that was somewhat sustainable. If they can do the project by themselves, that means that I was able to capacitate them (with the help of Peace Corps of course, I couldn't have done it alone) to do this project and run in by themselves.

I guess that everything is working out in a weird way, even though I am still somewhat sad about leaving the people I spent the last year of my life with. In another year I would have had to do the same, so it was bound to happen eventually.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my family and friends back home and the rest of you who are following my blog. :) God bless. Please visit me here at my new site..there is no excuse now for anyone that is planning a beach vacation.

Saying goodbye and hello a year early.

I don't even know where to begin. Two weeks ago I left my site in a hurry, being told my safety and security to pack a bag and be escorted to the bus station by my at the time Dominican novio (that I was ending things with because of a crazy ex-wife). I'll spare the details, mainly because I don't want my personal life all over the internet but also because it is far too complicated to even begin to discuss. I will say however that it looks as though 2 months has gone by since my last blog which is actually around the time that the story begins..

I could begin by saying I am sorry to my community for having to cut our time shorter than it had to be. I am not sure where to place the blame. I could blame myself for being ignorant and getting myself into a situation that could have been avoided from day one. I could put the blame on the Dominican novio for maybe being the person most aware of the loca and should have never have included another person in the drama (and kept it well-hidden). Or I could blame the many people in my community for giving me the okay to even enter this situation in the first place. Or even put the blame on the loca that threatened me and put me in the situation I am in now. I think I will put the blame on fate.

Ironically, I am sitting in the same air-conditioned, hot showered bathroom hotel that I was sitting in on July 6th after cutting my big toe open on a glass after a fun-filled 4th of July weekend in paradise, the Samana Peninsula. Why is this so ironic? Towards the end of the healing of my big toe is when I started spending 2-3 days a week in line at the hardware shop for my latrine project, meeting the guy that would lead to a crazy situation to lead me out of Dajabon forever. Starting this project would lead me back to Samana to spend (hopefully) the rest of my career as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

The last 2 weeks spent in the capital have given me a lot of time to think and prepare for what is going to take place tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be headed back to Dajabon with a Peace Corps driver to pack up my entire life from the past year. I will also be holding a meeting with some community members to discuss the possibility of them continuing the latrine project with occasional supervision from a close volunteer and having myself allocate funds to the bank account for them to buy materials and pay wages for the project. I am a little nervous about how this will all work out, given the past lack of support and organization of the latrine project. I am not saying it was just me, I couldn't have whipped out the 19 latrines on my own..obviously. In fact, I only stepped in with construction when completely necessary. I did however organize by handling all of the purchases, accounting, logistics, family organizing and mainly just bossing people around to make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing when they were supposed to be doing it. Now, I'd really love to be there to see someone step into that role. Actually, someone should have been there doing that the whole time and that is what we call a PROJECT PARTNER. Yes, thats right, the ones that come to look for us in the capital when we first go out to our sites. Yeah, I never had one and no one ever stepped up to the plate as much as I desperately searched for that kind of support. I think that this is the best thing that could have happened to my community, because I KNOW they can do this on their own! They need to see that for themselves and I think it couldn't have worked out better. My director Tim tells me that this will be a real test to determine the "sustainability" of the project.

Stay tuned for more on my journey to Samana...

This past weekend 2 kids from my Brigada Verde group and I headed to a conference about an hour outside of Santiago in Los Montones and spent the weekend listening to presentations on the environment and sustainability. We also visited a coffee distributer on the very top of a mountain called Karoma Cafe to learn about sustainable coffee growers. We learned about different qualities of coffee and about organic fertilizers. The weekend was great, my youth really enjoyed the conference. So much in fact that one of them was in tears when we were getting on the bus to head back to Dajabon. I was surprised because I was a little worried to whether or not they felt that they were learning new things and having a good time. I realized when I saw my muchacha crying that I had helped to have a positive impact on at least one life since I have been here. It is amazing how much for granted I took things like cheer camp, church camp, and the many other opportunities that I had as a kid. She told me how she had never been to a conference and enjoyed it so much that she didn't want to go home. Kids need other kids, they need to go places where they meet new people and have new experiences outside of their comfort zone.

I'm sure everyone is dying to hear about my latrine project. My masons and I learned how to build a new form of the composting latrine that is similar to the water tanks that water volunteers build. We are have now build 6 more latrines and are building 4 more this week. The plan is to build 4 every week! At first I was using my house as the warehouse but realized that I can not continue living like this because work is constantly in my face. Too stressful. I will now be using the health promoters houses at warehouses. :)

Where to begin. Life is just passing me by here in the DR and it is difficult to create a summary of all of the successes and problems that have unfolded since my last entry. First and foremost, I took a trip home at the beginning of August which to my own surprise went very smoothly and was very revitalizing. Much different than my study abroad experiences where returning home was very difficult and frustrating to readapt to my life before. Of course, I was on vacation..it wasn't as though I was going back for good. I spent two weeks spending time catching up with family and friends, eating great food and enjoying some good quality American cerveza. :)

Lets rewind to before I took off for the states. Before I had left, the director of the Water and Sanitation volunteers, Tim, and a few other volunteers with more construction experience than myself had been helping me to plan and prepare for my latrine project. They had all come out right before my trip to the states to start putting together our first latrine (you can find pictures are on facebook). We put down a slab of cement and gravel for the bottom and built a wooden mold for the latrine walls, taking measurements of where the "pipiducto" (pee tubing) would fit in and ventalation tubing would go. We also built "la loza" which is the top part of the latrine where the toliet bowl will later sit on top. (remember, there are two sides to the latrine, but only one toliet bowl...the actual toliet bowl will be moved when one side of the latrine is filled and it is time to use the other side..). After my trip to the States, we stood the walls up to fold together like a match-box. Well, sounds easy right? Not quite... cement was cracking...piecing were breaking... it was super heavy and no one was happy with the ammount of work it took to produce 1 latrine. SO, now we will be trying something completely different on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of this month. Water volunteers construct circular water tanks using the same method of ferrocement with chickenwire and steel to strenghthen the walls of the latrine. Instead of constructing in a rectangular way building the walls first of the ground and afterwards doing heavy lifty that requires far too much manpower, we will be building in this same circular form as the water tanks, which allows for us to already have the wall standing and just throw and smooth cement onto it. I will better understand the new model and be able to explain furthur when we are training later this month.

My construction workers (Maestros) STILL have not completely finished this first latrine. I am getting quite frustrated after the 7 days that they have spent doing a little here and a little there instead of just getting it done right away. I created a contract describing their responsibilities for the project and detailing how and when they will be paid for the work that they have completed. They are being paid by latrine completion, not by time spent on one latrine. Of course they need to produce quality work, but what could have been done in 2 days has been stretched into 7+ (+ because it still isn't finished). I could rant and rave all day about the problems I have faced with this latrine project. I plan to hold a meeting sometime this next week to discuss with them OTRA VEZ (again) their responsibilities and explain to them that if they can not commit to this project that I will not hesitate find other people within or outside of our community who can handle the job (yep...Jefe (boss) Andrea.)

My health promotors are continuing there presentations to each family on the health and sanitation of latrine usage and how to maintain this type of latrine. The education factor is the most important of all in this project.

Besides latrines...

I just got a Kids to Kids grant for US$500. My Brigada Verde group (a group of youth learning about the environment) plans to decorate trash cans to put around the community, do trash clean-ups and paint wall murals with this money. Also, I plan to start a group of young female readers to read in the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. I read the book in English and I think that it will be a great way to discuss feminism and get them thinking of how they can become leaders in the community although they are women. The book is about 3 sisters (Las Hermanas Miribales) that rebelled against the dictator, Rafael Trujillo who ruled the DR from 1938-1961 (ish). It really puts you in the shoes of these women in a point of history that has had a huge impact on the economic and social development of the country. Also, this book is a great choice for young readers being here on the Dominican-Haitian border where Trujillo massacred thousands of Haitians during this time period because of the increasing population of Haitians in the DR.

Last but certainly not least..my women's group and I have started making jelly. We haven't sold any yet BUT we have made some with pectin that I brought from the states. Unfortunately, pectin is very expensive here and there is not really a market for jelly. We had an experiment the other night on making pectin from oranges and it was very successful. We made passion fruit jelly with pectin from oranges. All you do is cut up the oranges and boil them until there is a white foam at the top and then strain it through a colander with a piece of cloth of the top and it gives you pectin. We have a ways to come before we get a little business going...but it is a start. We are thinking of making wine as well...stay tuned.

:)

10 months went fast...time to get to work!

I just spent the last few days in the beautiful Samana Peninsula celebrating the fourth of July in Las Galeras. It was amazing, by far one of the most beautiful places on this island. A bunch of us volunteers rented houses to stay in, which was a great idea because we saved a lot of money just cooking at the house. Unfortunately, I stepped on broken glass during the last night there and Peace Corps had to send me a driver to come into the capital to get stitches. I am fine now, just a little crippled and stuck here in the capital for the next week. :) We also had another volunteer get his front tooth knocked out playing football. Peace Corps probably wasn't too happy with our injuries this weekend, especially being so far away front the capital to have to come and get us on probably some of the worst roads in the country. I am extremely grateful to have great, around the clock medical help and care here in this country. :)

This was not the best time for me to be cooped up here in the capital. I have a lot of organizing and work to do before July 21st, which is when Peace Corps is sending out a crew to help us put together our first latrine. I have trained 7 health promoters to give charlas (presentations) to families in their homes about sanitation, the way that the fertilizer latrines work and how to take care of them. The education factor is more important than the actual latrine construction because if the families do not understand that the urine and feces are separated and the dried feces have to be taken out of the latrine after the latrine is filled, then the latrine will NOT have the potential to last a lifetime, as it otherwise could if they take proper care of it. (If anyone would like more information on the actual latrine construction and how a fertilizing latrine works, I can give more information and pictures later).

Before beginning the presentations with the families, I want to give more information to them about the project so that we are all on the same page and any confusion that exists is eliminated. I told each promoter to invite 5 families that are in need of a latrine who will be able to provide labor, food for the workers and also have the materials for the top house of their latrine. The top part of the latrine may be costly, so it is important that only the families that are able to do this part are committing themselves to this project. Although some people who are in desperate need of a latrine will not be part of the project, I think more value will be put into the latrines if the community members are taking more responsibility and ownership in the project. Today I was supposed to have a meeting with all of the beneficiaries of my project to explain their responsibilities of the project so that there is no confusion. As much as I have explained to people that these are not hole in the ground latrines, the same people ask me over and over why I am doing hole in the ground latrines. It gets very frustrating because I KNOW that my Spanish is not the problem, but that they are simply not listening to me when I am explaining the project to them over and over.

Besides my latrines, I was doing a business plan class for youth in my community. Unfortunately after the first 5 classes they have all stopped coming. Better luck next year I hope! It is a really good opportunity because they have the chance to enter a competition to win money and start their own business. I have also started a group called Brigada Verde, which is an environmental group for youth in the community. We made group t-shirts by painting leaves from trees and using a rolling paint brush to leave the leaf stamp on them. I learned this activity during my in service training in Febraury and it was a huge success for us. My youth really enjoyed the activity, so hopefully I will be able to find more art projects for us to work on as well. This Saturday, although I am not sure because of my foot, we have plans to plant 500 pine trees in a high point in my community called Cerro de Juan Calvo. I hope my foot doesn't stop us! :)

More thoughts on life in the DR

It has been awhile since I wrote my last blog, so I am sure those who I haven't talked to are dying to know the progress of things in my community. Things are so slow-paced here in the "campo" life in the DR that I wish I had great accomplishments to share with you all already. Elections are on May 16th, which means that things are getting pretty heated with politicians all over the Dominican Republic. Aspiring mayors, governors and senators are dumping resources left and right throughout the underdeveloped Dajabon province, which means I have to dip my hands into some of the hand-outs for my latrine project. So far, I have gotten 18 meters of sand delivered to one of the mother centers in my community. Tomorrow another truckload or two is on the way. All of our sand for the project deserves a huge gracias to Magasin, who is running for mayor in Dajabon. The cement is hopefully coming from City Hall, but we are going to have to go to some follow-up next week to be sure. My latrine committee and I also have to finish up interviews with everyone in the community to decide who we be part of the project and then I will be trained on different presentations on the latrine maintenance to train the committee so that they can educate the families individually on the organic fertilizer latrines. Besides that, I am still waiting for my grant to get filled that is up on https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-363 for all of you that would like to donate. Donations are tax-deductible and you will be able to see the project progress online.

I have started a business plan course for youth in my community, which I had around 30 people sign up for and 6 people actually showed up. I told the 6 that were there to each try to get 1-2 more youth to come with them to the next class. I will give a series of 14 classes to educate the youth on how to write a business plan, which they will then turn in to judges in the capital to review. If their business plan is well prepared, they have the opportunity to attend a competition in the capital and win money to start their own business.

The attendance to my English class that I started during my first 3 months here has dwindled down to about 5 students. I think that we might have to take a break for awhile and then start back up and do a class that meets more often. Having class once a week just is not enough for the students to really grasp the basics of a foreign language.

This weekend I am going to the Brigada Verde (Green Bridge) conference in the capital. Brigada Verde is a group that volunteers start to give environmental presentations to youth to grow awareness in communities about the growing importance in our world of our environment. I am able to bring two youth from my community to the conference where we will be educated on different environmental concepts and also take trips to the national park and aquarium. I will then use the two youth to start a Brigada Verde group and start doing activities like trash clean-ups and recycling in the community. I also gave a presentation last week in the middle school on the difference between Organic and Non-organic trash to start building interest to have a group like Brigada Verde and hopefully get a larger group formed than in my English and Business classes.

Work is slow, and I am realizing the importance of being here for a full two years. I am beginning to realize how impossible it is to do work alone. Now I think I understand why there were so many group projects in college, because in the world we really can't accomplish much as individuals. I have come to terms with the fact that as one person, I can't save the world but that at least I can make a little bit of an impact on a community. Sometimes I wonder if I am actually doing any good, or if the people here are just fine as they are. People complain about how poor they are, but at the same time I kind of enjoy the slow paced culture here. I feel like I have time to enjoy the company of others more and get to know my neighbors rather than go to work at an 8-5 job. Really, if this country were developed like the U.S., they would be having to live that kind of life. Would they really want that instead of spending time with their neighbors and family all day? I question this everyday..

Hopefully getting some things started around here..

Our CED In Service Training was at the beginning of this month. We stayed at a Catholic center right along the Caribbean in the capital. Our project partners stayed with us the first 2 nights, which proved itself to be quite the experience. I brought Dora, the president of the Centro de Madres, who has turned into one of my best friends over the last 4 months at my site. Although she is unable to read and write, she is quite intelligent. During IST we presented my community diagnostic together which went well. We also formed a game-plan/timeline for a latrine project and discussed various other potential projects for the community. After our project partners left, us PCV's stayed for another 3 days to learn about grant writing and various other topics. The 2 best ways to get grant money is to go through USAID, which is called a SPA grant (Small Project Assistance) and PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Program). I can apply for $USD 5,000 for both. The PCPP will be posted on the Peace Corps website and will be used to solicit donations from friends and family from the states. I plan to use both of these grants for my latrine project and also solicit the city hall here in Dajabon. Hopefully I will raise enough grant money to build latrines for 25-30 families in my community.

Since arriving back at site, I have formed a comittee of 8 members in my community and myself to begin working on this project. 4 are from Los Miches Arriba (the upper part of my community) and 4 from Los Miches Abajo (the lower part of my community). I will be acting as a facilitator and let the group do the decision making for the project. The tasks that I have undertaken this far include making the list of materials for the latrine and going 3 different places to get pricing estimates. I have started the SPA grant budget section and am doing some negotiations for labor to try to get it as cheap as possible so we can build as many latrines as possible. The committee helped me to form a list of questions to interview each household in the community and will help me decide criteria to determine who will be included in the project. The next step is that each member of the committee will be coming with me to conduct the interviews and after we compile this information we will be deciding those who will be part of the project. They will also be helping me write letters to the government here to solicit for funds and materials for the project. The community members receiving the latrines will have to provide for 25% of the project which will include the labor they are able to do, cooking lunch and dinner for the workers and proving wheelbarrows and shovels.

This is going to take a lot of effort on behalf of the community to get this project accomplished but I know we can do it! I hope that you guys back home who are able to help out with donations once I get the grant up online will do so. Every dollar counts and you will be able to see the progress of the project online as well and photos once we are in action. Wish us luck!

I am trying not to start too many things at once because I don't want to get myself in too deep and get unorganized. So, in addition to the latrine project, I will be doing an income generation project with the 2 Centro de Madres (mother's groups) with Mistolin, a floor cleaner. I plan to teach them basic business skills on how to price and market the product and make a profit. I also will be continuing my English class on Sundays and hopefully be starting a youth group to work on issues with the environment. My fruit producers are finally forming their cooperative so hopefully I will find ways to work with them as well.

Other news? I am all moved into my house and it is amazing living on my own for the first time in my life! I can't wait for everyone to visit and enjoy a bucket bath or two. :)

Earthquakes and aftershakes

I am still alive and kickin´ as most of you already know! We felt about 20 seconds of the earthquake here in Dajabon and some of the aftershocks, but fortunately there was no damage here. The earthquake and damage in Haiti was the talk of my community for a solid week, as you can imagine. Red cross has set up tables here in the Dajabon marketplace with microphones yelling at people in the market on Mondays and Fridays to donate money and supplies for our Haitian brothers and sisters. Boxes are being packed with food, medicine and other supplies. A few volunteers and I tried to help out this past Friday but were running around with our heads cut off for awhile and then finally got sent to work taking inventory of medicine but it was almost time for me to head back to my site by then. I wish that there was a way to help more. A crew from Peace Corps headquarters in the DR and a few volunteers have headed west to evaluate the situation and how they can provide asistance. I hope that all of you back in the states that are in a position to help out have taken the time to do so. I find it disturbing that a number of Haitians were already eating cakes made of mud and water to take away hunger pains, and now a 7.3 earthquake decides to pass through.

I will be spending the next week wrapping up my community diagnostic. It has been coming along slowly but surely. Given the fact that my mango producers have not had a meeting since my first month here, most of my diagnostic is focused on the needs of the community and the interviews that I have done. I am 99% sure that a latrine project will be top on the list. I have found that nearly 40% of my community does not have a latrine (one of those outdoor bathrooms for those that don´t know there is a picture in my facebook album of one). It is going to be a huge task but the first thing I will have to do is to begin looking for funds and creating a budget of how much making a latrine will cost. Right now, many people in the community that have latrines are having problems with them filling up with water because of the way that they were constructed during a past project. This means that I will have to find the cheapest way to build a latrine that will not fill with water.

Another project that was mentioned more than others is for a basketball court and-or park for the community. Currently, there is no real place for kids in the community to be active. My community is heavily populated with youth, and not having much for them to do has created a huge delinquency problem within the community. I also plan to start the business plan curriculum with the students in the spring. This will provide an inspiration among the youth because if they enter the competition they have a chance to win full funding for their business idea.

Besides the diagnostic, my house is coming around. They poured cement floors yesterday and also have put a cement type bar for my stovetop and kitchen area. I can´t wait to finally start cooking for myself and have privacy. I feel like if I have too many more days of all 3 meals being fried in oil I will die of a heart attack before I make it out of this country in 2 years. I can´t wait to feel healthy again and maybe even fit into my jeans again, haha! I have had an all around great experience with my host family for the last 3 months, but I am ready to be a big girl now.

I am finally allowed to get visitors starting next week! Some of my family is coming down at the beginning of March and I can hardly wait. This is the longest I have gone without seeing my family and friends. I know some others are already starting to plan their visits and are saving. It means so much to me, you have no idea! Life is not easy here at times and sometimes just knowing I am going to have visitors keeps me going. If you have anything you would like to have brought down to me contact my sister or my mom as they will be here in March. (If anyone wants to get me a computer...mine is broken so I can no longer skype)..