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...