My site visit

If one could have seen me a week ago (only my fellow PC Trainees truly know), mentally I was somewhat of a mess. I could not stop thinking negatively about my site. I was disappointed that I had not been placed in a mountainous area, but ultimately I knew that it would only be the people there that would make or break my site. I tried endlessly to think positive but I was pretty disappointed that I had not been put in a more beautiful area of the country. I told myself I needed to do a 380 and remind myself why I joined the Peace Corps. I joined my own personal growth as an individual, but at the same time I am here because I want to help and improve the lives of others. I had to remind myself that this is not about me. So, with that as my mindset I headed out to meet my project partner in a country outside of the city of Dajabon. It was approximately a 6 hour bus ride from Santo Domingo, which means that I am one of the volunteers further away from the Peace Corps office here in the capital. I am also pretty isolated because there is not another volunteer in my training group that is very close to me. The closest volunteers to me are in Monte Cristi which is about an hour away from my site.

Instead of being picked up by my project partner, I was picked up in the capital by a woman named Dora and a man named Polito. Dora was awesome and we ended up hitting it off right away. I knew that we were going to get along great when I told her my feet hurt from wearing heels, she offered me hers. Dominicans are all about sharing, some a situation like sharing shoes is pretty typical.. Turns out she is my neighbor and also is a member of the Mothers Group (Grupo de los Madres) in my community. The other man that came to pick me up is one of the fruit producers that I will be working with in my town. He seems like he will be a very hard worker and a great motivator in the community. I found out that I will not only be working with mangos, but also a various other fruits including avacados, bananas, passion fruit, grapefruit, ect.

Arriving at my site, I met my actual project partner, Andres, who was super intense and seems to be very motivated to make improvements for the association of fruit producers. After speaking with Andres, I have discovered that the main problem that the producers are facing in the community is that the Haitians are crossing the border and selling the same fruits at a super low price, which is driving down the price of the fruit so low that the farmers in my communities are not making enough money on their fruit. Also, they are not able to sell all of the fruit that they produce, so they lose a large quantity of the fruit every year that is not consumed. Andres and I will be doing a diagnostic and a census of the fruit in my community and the surrounding communities that are all part of the organic fruit association. I attended a meeting of one of the producer groups, which was amazing. I was gifted with big bags of avocados and grapefruit and was told that I was like a daughter to them now and that they would be looking after me. So don’t worry mom, I have at least 10 old men watching my back to make sure I stay out of trouble and don’t get involved with people I cannot trust. Eventually, it sounds like our principle goal will be planning and implementing a small factory where they will be able to process their fruit so that it will last longer and so that they are able to sell it. This would also mean that they would be able to create new products such as juice or wine and could potentially sell it in the Dominican Haitian market in Dajabon. This could also open doors for them to export at some point. I feel like there is a lot of work and planning that will need to be done in the next 2 years for this to happen, and certainly a lot of letter writing for grants to even get the funds to. In addition, during my community diagnostic over the next three months I will be searching for other smaller projects to work on.

On the home front, my host family is great. I live with a couple named Rolando and Suni who have 2 children, Muneca and Reynaldo, 17 and 19, respectively. Suni’s mother, Zarra, also lives with us. The house is small, we don’t have running water and electricity is spontaneous. I take bucket baths outside behind a piece of tin that doesn’t really cover much and if someone from the street knew to look, they would definitely get a show. I just throw the water over my head and hope I am not being spied on. We also have a latrine, but I get a little cup for the middle of the night so that I don’t have to go all the way outside to go to the bathroom if I wake up. Our back yard is abundant with cherry, coconut, mango, avocado, orange and grapefruit trees. I’ve already been told by Rolando to never hesitate to yell out when I want a piece of fruit. The family also has a “colmado” attached to their house. Colmados are basically tiny little shops with gum, suckers, rice, noodles, butter, oil, eggs, ect. People can go and buy exactly the quantity that they need. I also have introduced Scrabble and Uno to my family, which have both been a big hit and huge ice breakers for me to get to know everyone. Muneca and I also went running together to the river. It is a nice place to run and I hope to get in better shape while I am here. I also think I have already found a house to rent when I can finally live solo in 3 months! It needs some fixing up but I can get an advance from Peace Corps from my settling in allowance to do that. I realized during the visit that all of my worries before going to my site were pretty pointless and not realistic at all. The countryside is quite beautiful even if it wasn’t the mountains that I had originally hoped for. I can’t wait to get back to my site Friday to be honest, I couldn’t be more excited.

Wednesday is the big day to swear in officially as volunteers! Time sure does fly..I can’t believe I have been here already for 2 ½ months almost. That means 24 months to go…which is still a hell of a long time. SO, with that in mind…don’t forget..packages are always welcome! So are phone calls, I just got a phone and would really love to hear from you all. It is 33 cents a minute for me to call there, which is really not something that I can afford on a volunteer budget of 30 cents a day. So if anyone is willing to make the splurge, its cheaper on your end to call me. Shoot me off an email/facebook message if you would like the number! Love you all. Peace.