My last months of Peace Corps passed by quickly, as I finished training other volunteers, their masons and health promoters on Ecological bathroom construction and behavioral change with USAID funding. I feel confident saying that masons have really loved having a construction manual to take home with them after training to refer to as they begin projects in their communities. After saying my goodbyes to Villa Clara, Los Miches (my two sites), friends and Peace Corps staff in the capital, and purchasing some more beautiful larimar, I arrived at the airport 2 hours late. I'd never missed a flight before, and I suppose it only meant that after 33 months of living in the Dominican Republic I was officially on "island time". It's definitely not the first thing that I wanted to have to spend money on in my state of unemployment. I guess thank you Peace Corps for the readjustment allowance, but you should have reminded me that I needed to show up to the airport on time! Kidding..sort of.
I arrived in Chicago to be greeted by my roommate from college, Mel, who is a P.E. teacher and volleyball coach for the Chicago Public School district. I took a run along Michigan Avenue that next morning when I woke up, and things did not feel too much different. It felt like the Santo Domingo Malecon and looked a lot like it too. It was not until I entered Target and was dumbfounded by the card swiper thing at the cash register that I realized there was a thing or two I would need to brush up on besides my English. It had been awhile since I'd swiped one myself and was a little caught off guard. This is when Mel decided to nickname me FOB, "Fresh Off the Boat". That nickname would stick for the entire weekend.
Mel had to coach a game later that afternoon, so later that day we headed over to Kenwood High School to load the team onto a school bus and head to another high school. First day back in America and I get to ride a school bus through Chicago! I was absolutely thrilled. I felt like a little kid in a candy store. The boys on the bus are all chit chatting about their girlfriends and where they want to go to college and how they are going to pay for school. We arrive at the other school where our competitors greet us. I head into the bathroom, choose one of the eight bathroom stalls and then wash my hands with the warm water. I am probably thinking to myself, "Dios Santo, agua caliente, inodoros, yes I am at a school in America."
I am not quite having a "reverse culture shock" moment yet. I walk out of the bathroom and am asked by a few boys from the opposing team, "HEY..is our school nicer than yours?? Is it bigger??" I look at them and do not really even know where to begin. So I don't. How can you begin to explain that they have eight stalls in their bathroom and somewhere to wash their hands after they use it when there are schools that do not have a bathroom, let alone an indoor bathroom with eight stalls? How would I even be in the place to decide whose school was bigger or better. They both had swimming pools for crying out loud! I responded "Oh, I am just a friend of the coach and I honestly really do not know whose school is bigger or better."
This is not the only situation that I have found myself in where I have no words to describe the different mentality that I have gained by living in a developing country for the last 2 1/2 years. It happens everyday. I have only had a few break downs since coming home and every day my normalcy is returning more. Things that made me sad the first week make me smile now because I do have a whole other world to compare ours to. Sometimes it all feels like it was a dream and I am saddened in a way that slowly America is growing on me, although I am happy to be home.
2.24.2012
.Home sweet home.
At the beginning of February, many returned Peace Corps volunteers from 1962 forward came down to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps DR . Above is a video I made to present for part of the Appropriate Technology sector presentation at the celebration at the beginning of February. It gives a good idea of what the construction of the project entails.
We had a little fiesta at the end of the week and Gaby, the volunteer in Las Galeras, surprised her masons with cake and certificates. They went home and cleaned up after we had finished our 2nd latrine and came back looking sharp. Muy Dominicano.
Next stop, Isla Saona, in a small touristy Dominican village Mano Juan. An environment volunteer, Colleen, used a mixture of community fundraisers (selling Empanadas and movie nights) and a grant funded by Water Charity to plan for the construction of 2 ecological bathrooms at the school. Below are the materials being loaded up in Bayahibe.
After traveling to Isla Saona from the capital with a 20 pound toilet bowl fiber glass mold and arriving soaking wet, a few destroyed items (my phone!!) that were completely swimming with water, we were exhausted. Some community members showed up soon after our arrival and helped to carry the materials to the school. Students whom had volunteered to carry materials ran hiding so that they could get out of the work they had promised. That was our first red flag to stopping the construction this past week. The community showed little to no support in the construction of the bathrooms. Before my arrival, Colleen had made a schedule of volunteers for the week. After no one showing up to work on the first day of the project, the teacher tried to pay a Haitian to help us with the construction. He ended up bringing us sand that looked like dirt and then he said he would not bring any more because the teacher had only paid him for what he had done. We told the community that they had to send us a list of the volunteers (who really would show up) for the week so that we would be ensured that we would not have to stop mid-construction. This could be partially because it is for a school and not for an individual, but in all reality--why would parents not want a bathroom for their kids at the school? Why would they not fight for changing the sanitation and habits of the youth in the community? Beats me. I was pretty bummed that we couldn't build, but I know we made the right decision to not dump a bunch of resources on a community that just wasn't ready. If they were not willing to work, how can we be sure that they will remove compost from the toilets in a few years and keep the bathrooms clean?(Below: picture of the school).
(side note: I found it very weird that tourists go through here in their bikinis and look through the windows..I would find that a bit distracting if I were trying to learn...)
Although trying to be a volunteer on this isla "atrasada" is somewhat impossible, it is still paradise. I felt grateful to be able to make it out there before I close my service in April.
1.25.2012
and the journey continues.
These last few months have just flown by, partly because I spent 17 days in America, partly because my work is finally starting to pick up.
Let me start with my trip to America. It was so nice to be back to Iowa to visit my family and friends over the holidays. It'd been 3 years since I'd been home during the winter months and I was more than slightly disappointed by the good weather. I had hoped for some serious snow/ice storms so that I could cozy up in my basement with a book or movie by the fire. Well, no storms meant that the roads were not bad and that made it so that I was able to drive and be extremely busy trying to see as many people as possible in my week in Iowa. I love being home, I love all of you friends and family and seeing you but being home just doesn't feel like vacation to me because to me vacation should be relaxing.
So, knowing the person that I am at home (constantly on the go making plans with back to back and maybe even breaking plans with people because I make too many plans), I knew I needed to make plans for a real vacation which is why I ended up in Denver/Copper Mt. with a few friends from college for the last part of my vacation. Good choice on my part because it really did feel like a vacation, and I wouldn't have even seen snow on my trip if I wouldn't have made these plans. Even if it was man-made snow because there hadn't been any snow, it felt real. Part of my reason for choosing Denver as my vacation spot is because I have always had it in the back of my mind that I would end up there someday.
So that leads me to my current situation. I spoke with a fellow volunteer friend that is back in the States now. Turns out she has an excel sheet with 71+ jobs that she has applied for in the last several months of being home. Only a few interviews and nothing. The good thing is that I know how to live on bare minimum if needed. I know how to not buy things when I don't need them. But....that doesn't mean I don't want a job that I can get some get some new shoes..a ski pass in Denver..and real vacations and this and that and yeah that's my mind telling me it's time to find a real job. Because I deserve those things, I'm a hard worker and 27 months (well I guess 30 something months now) not making enough to even get what I need (sorry Peace Corps..but I can hardly afford to eat what I need and neither can my friends as we have both lost some poundage and LUCKILY you are giving one of my roommates protein powder so we can survive at the end of the month when things are tight). I have friends here that literally things are so tight at the end of the month that they eat oatmeal everyday until pay day 3 meals a day for the last 4-5 days of the month. I shouldn't have to rely on a friends protein powder with a splash of carnation milk to feed myself. Nor should volunteers have to survive on oatmeal for so many days.. And I don't want to live like that anymore. I want a steak and potatoes with a side of brocolli and cauliflower with cheese drizzles over it or something and some birthday cake or something here and there to make me feel human dude. Like a three course meal. I am not saying I need that everyday.. but it'd be nice to feel like I could splurge a little to widen my food options.
So..the job search has begun. I am looking at some teaching fellows in Denver where you can get your teaching certification while teaching elementary Spanish in an under-served community. My heart kind of flutters and it is the first application since my applying to Peace Corps that I actually feel excited about. So I think to myself, am I going to have to feel this way about 71 jobs like my friend or is there someway that I can continue harassing people where I am applying and convince them that yes, I am awesome and will blow you away once you give me the chance to. and the kids will love me. Actually, if I don't get this job or a job like it I think I'd be a good photographer for kids. I always can make them smile for some reason for pictures. That's a skill for my resume, right?
Work here..well, my to-do list is longer than it ever has been. I am excited about my work, but would be more excited if the Appropriate Technology sector wasn't being done away with. My director of AT, Tim, is being let go because of budget cuts to Peace Corps. It makes me sad because I've never seen someone so passionate about their work, so passionate that it has also made me passionate about bathrooms, composting ones at least. So passionate that he took his last week of vacation time that he hadn't use to spend it at the office working. Working because he loves it and working because he knows we need him and he wants to make sure we get everything we need from him before he leaves.
My USAID grant (US$5,200) is finally here. I will be planning 3 training conferences on composting latrines in the Samana peninsula. I already went out to Las Galeras and started planning for our first training conference. My friend Gaby lives out there and has funding to do 20 composting latrines. I am helping her smooth out her budget and figure out where to order her materials to make sure that she will have enough funding for at least her planned project. Her budget is looking great, and it looks like she may have funding to do even more than originally projected.
Budgets don't always work that way I have found out over the last few weeks. My other friend is doing a composting latrine project in Monte Cristi and when I had originally planned for her budget, it was before all of the changes that occurred in our design, and her budget ended up being slightly off. Also prices of materials have gone up even more because her grants were applied for much longer ago than my friend Gaby on the peninsula. She is hoping to score some materials for her project from some politicians, city hall or some local NGO's to balance those miscalculations. It wasn't too terribly off and if she gets a few bags of cement and sand donated the project will be completed. It isn't such a terrible thing after all and it gives opportunity for a little local funding to happen. Afterall, if local people have to step it up to make this happen, maybe after my friend is gone the community could do another small project with the help of politicians/NGO's/ect. Thankfully there are always solutions when things don't go as planned, which is what Peace Corps is all about is learning how to work around problems and find the best solutions to get things done in a most of the time disorganized, running around with my head cut off kind of environment.
Besides helping other volunteers get things off the ground and planning the training conferences, I am still working on perfecting the construction manual and have taken quite a bit of video footage for a video project. I plan to have a mini-video for the AT sector presentation at our 50th anniversary presentation that is coming up in a few weeks. I want to show how this project has grown and developed over the last 3 years. Many Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from the States are coming down to celebrate the 50th and want to hear about each sector.
That is all. =)Ohh..and I may be getting a few more visitors in March--my dearest friend Erin and her boyfriend Gabe are trying to plan a visit. I hope it happens.
Cuidanse mucho!
11.08.2011
More on working life in the capital...
Three toilet bowl molds officially arrived this past week, which means construction time is nearing for some of the volunteers that I am helping. This next week I will be headed out to Isla Saona, a small, beautiful island located off of the south of the island. There, we will be building 2 ecological bathrooms for a school that currently has no bathroom. The volunteer and mason from the island attended the training that was held out in Santiago several months ago, but the latrine construction is somewhat complicated so I will be going out to assist them with construction.
I am now realizing the importance of having a construction manual (in addition to the health promotion manual) for volunteers. Especially for volunteers who are in an isolated area with no hardware store nearby to get last minute materials. Fortunately the time that was spent writing a construction manual over the last few months will be paying off. The manual gives the materials needed for each of the 4 days of the construction of the base and the exact tools that are needed. This will prevent us losing an entire day of construction to have to go off of the island to look for any missing item that can not be improvised last minute. Even if it was not an isolated site, this manual is a guide that makes room for error or time wasting little to none.
The work in store for us over the next week is not just construction. I will also be collecting video footage, pictures and re-taking notes on the project. This will all be used to continue the construction manual (adding in sections on how to use our toilet mold, how to build a caseta, ect.) and to double check the accuracy of the measurements in the manual. The video footage is for a video project that I will be undertaking with some of my fellow AT volunteers that will explain the entire composting latrine project.
I am working on an outline for the video that begins with the community diagnostic phase and finding that your community needs composting latrines, health promotion, construction, removing the actual compost, using the compost, ect. This will be used as a tool by volunteers doing this project in the future to give families a visual of exactly how this project works. My roommate Gabe (the AT PCVL) found a GREAT picture that represents what a compost latrine IS NOT, which is a picture of a compost latrine with no caseta with plants growing out of it that is not being used by the family. The picture will be going into the video.
The notes that I will be taking will also be useful for a facilitator's guide that I am writing about composting bathrooms projects. The facilitator's guide will be useful for volunteers that want to implement bathroom projects within their communities and will be a "how to" manual on project implementation.
Besides that, we poured a toilet with our mold today so that I could give it a test drive before taking it to Isla Saona this weekend to pour. Our plan is to pour the molds in Bayahibe and bring the actual toilets with us on the ferry to the island. I have recruited another AT volunteer working with composting toilets to assist me in this venture because as much as I hate to admit, I am still a woman (with a herniated disc on top of that) and I am not about to be lifting and grunting and mixing cement alone trying to show people how to do this stuff. :) A pair of man hands will be greatly appreciated.
Que mas..A friend of mine from the peninsula is getting a site change to the capital, so yesterday we went back out to Samana to pack up her things and did a quick stop at my old site, Villa Clara. I was happy to find my women's group slaving away at their new oven and picked up some fresh baked bread to bring home to the capital. They seem to be loving their new oven and are baking and selling more than before, so that was great news! I plan to do a trip out there possibly in January to do some more work with them on the side.
Stayed tuned, sorry to bore ya'll with all work and no play. :)
I am now realizing the importance of having a construction manual (in addition to the health promotion manual) for volunteers. Especially for volunteers who are in an isolated area with no hardware store nearby to get last minute materials. Fortunately the time that was spent writing a construction manual over the last few months will be paying off. The manual gives the materials needed for each of the 4 days of the construction of the base and the exact tools that are needed. This will prevent us losing an entire day of construction to have to go off of the island to look for any missing item that can not be improvised last minute. Even if it was not an isolated site, this manual is a guide that makes room for error or time wasting little to none.
The work in store for us over the next week is not just construction. I will also be collecting video footage, pictures and re-taking notes on the project. This will all be used to continue the construction manual (adding in sections on how to use our toilet mold, how to build a caseta, ect.) and to double check the accuracy of the measurements in the manual. The video footage is for a video project that I will be undertaking with some of my fellow AT volunteers that will explain the entire composting latrine project.
I am working on an outline for the video that begins with the community diagnostic phase and finding that your community needs composting latrines, health promotion, construction, removing the actual compost, using the compost, ect. This will be used as a tool by volunteers doing this project in the future to give families a visual of exactly how this project works. My roommate Gabe (the AT PCVL) found a GREAT picture that represents what a compost latrine IS NOT, which is a picture of a compost latrine with no caseta with plants growing out of it that is not being used by the family. The picture will be going into the video.
The notes that I will be taking will also be useful for a facilitator's guide that I am writing about composting bathrooms projects. The facilitator's guide will be useful for volunteers that want to implement bathroom projects within their communities and will be a "how to" manual on project implementation.
Besides that, we poured a toilet with our mold today so that I could give it a test drive before taking it to Isla Saona this weekend to pour. Our plan is to pour the molds in Bayahibe and bring the actual toilets with us on the ferry to the island. I have recruited another AT volunteer working with composting toilets to assist me in this venture because as much as I hate to admit, I am still a woman (with a herniated disc on top of that) and I am not about to be lifting and grunting and mixing cement alone trying to show people how to do this stuff. :) A pair of man hands will be greatly appreciated.
Que mas..A friend of mine from the peninsula is getting a site change to the capital, so yesterday we went back out to Samana to pack up her things and did a quick stop at my old site, Villa Clara. I was happy to find my women's group slaving away at their new oven and picked up some fresh baked bread to bring home to the capital. They seem to be loving their new oven and are baking and selling more than before, so that was great news! I plan to do a trip out there possibly in January to do some more work with them on the side.
Stayed tuned, sorry to bore ya'll with all work and no play. :)
10.20.2011
Campo girl steps off the metro..
I’ve officially been living in the capital for a month. As much as I would love to admit my days are completely full of work, I will admit guiltily that this month has served more as me adjusting to life in the capital. I’ve realized that my Spanish is slowly going out the window, due to speaking mainly with just Americans. My clothes are getting looser as I sweat my way to the Peace Corps office nearly every day. Walking a lot more and getting away from arroz and habichuelas (rice & beans) will make that happen apparently. I have officially lost all of the weight that I gained here in the Peace Corps. I do not want to lose any more--so pass me my presidente, that blue cheese bacon cheese burger at the embassy that I had for lunch last week and a chocolate bar por favor.
Speaking of food.. The other night I made a delicious eggplant tomato pasta..just throwing everything we had available into it. It turned out well considering the ingredients on hand..I believe it was a success and could tell by the quiet but very happy munching that was going on. Our apartment has an actual oven as well so I’ve been doing some baking as well, my banana bread and brownies have been mastered without a measuring cup. Cooking with friends or for friends is so enjoyable. Cooking is meant for more than one person and eating with other people is probably one of the best things in life. On my list of things to buy this payday—a large baking pan.
The Metro. Phil showed me a new way to the Peace Corps office. I can take one public carro (carro public) down to Maximo Gomez, where there is a metro that drops me off 4 blocks from the Office. The other way is taking 2 different carro publicos. I like to switch it up, but this morning I took the metro. I’ve road metros before but something about this morning was different for me. It was a great morning. I left the house around 10am and took my carro to the metro. I realize I’ve forgotten the IPod..but, that’s okay, I have a song in my head (It’s a Brand New Day-Joshua Radin) and hum it the whole way there. I look around at all of the people, everyone from such different backgrounds, everyone with their own lives and problems and I am just another person riding the metro and walking on the sidewalk. I look up and trash is blowing in the air. Somehow even that is beautiful to me at that moment. When I look around it kind of makes me feel bad for getting stressed out about my own problems because God only knows that everyone has their own issues that they are dealing with. I am one person and when I am gone, the world will keep spinning. And trash may or may not continue to fly from the tops of buildings like rain drops in the Dominican Republic.
Music. An typical night in our home consists of Phil rapping strumming a few strings on the guitar or to mixed beats that he creates on his computer, my attempts at the guitar (which…is actually decent, even playing a little bit that I’ve made up myself), teaching Marite the little I know on the guitar (and she is sounding pretty damn good I might add). Gabe, Marite’s boyfriend just moved in and we really would like him to pick up the harmonica so we can start a band here at the house..but...unfortunately he does not think that this is as great as we do but we have decided that we can totally picture him out on the field building water systems in the middle of nowhere and just whipping on his harmonica to play a tune… I think we all have a little bit of talent that is going to be unleashed throughout the months to come.
Water. The water situation here at the house is unpredictable, a reminder that I am still living in a developing country. Last night there was no water. We have two big tanks in our bathrooms to fill with water and last night we hardly had any in our tank but needed to do the dishes. My friend Jose and I washed the dishes with the absolute minimum of water and I am thinking—this is a skill that if for some reason the electricity goes out in the states for longer than a few days and there is no water, I will be the first to step up to the plate and show everyone how to minimize their water consumption and get their dishes spotless.
Reading. I find myself being able to focus more and read guilt free. Well..mostly guilt free. My director overheard me talking about a few books I had read and I quote him, “If you are reading that much..you aren’t working enough”. I laughed. He laughed..kind of. A good book recommendation for anyone interested in learning a little more about China’s Cultural Revolution should consider reading Life and Death in Shanghai. I haven’t finished it just yet, had to put it down a little over halfway through and start something a little lighter. It really makes you feel like you are there as you learn about one woman’s (who is considered capitalist because of working for Shell) experience.
Laundry. Laundry is a half day event. It might be another reason for the pounds shedding away because it consists of going up and down 5 flights of stairs with the laundry basket. Between that and mopping the house I think that my arms may get some definition over the months to come. Vamos a ver. My roommate Marite was a little appalled by me putting my underwear into the laundry machine. I was surprised because I didn’t know that it was all latinas (she’s Cuban) that handwash their underwear. I thought it was a Dominican thing. Well…now that I read that aloud she says it could be just a Carribean thing. Regardless, I am done hand washing my underwear after leaving the campo…I paid my dues and lived like a latina for long enough. Sorry Marite. I know you still love me.
Closing our service. Things are going to start feeling different around here as some of my group is already beginning to leave. We had a few early COS-ers, including my roommate from my hotel room at staging. We still have memories from our first weekend together and it was strangely unreal saying our goodbyes. I hope it is not forever. I admit that I teared up the other night thinking about another friend leaving me. I expect that we will have a reunion all together within the next few years even.
Work. As I look at all of the things that I would like to accomplish, 5 ½ months is a very short time. I am pondering a 13 month extension instead of my original 5 ½ months. I am not ruling it out, but am waiting a little longer to make my final decision. I have around 10 volunteers that are going to be working on composting latrines, although a few of these will only be constructing 1-2 at their sites to get the idea of excrement composting in the air, and to better determine if this project would be a success.
Monday we traveled to Bonoa so that I could meet Yovanny, the man that is designing and making our molds for the toilet bowl. He is doing a great job and we finally have the mold we have been perfecting since I first started this project. I will be coordinating with him and other volunteers with the ordering and transport of the molds to sites.
This weekend I will be headed out to a campo outside of La Romana to present the project to a site that is in need of composting latrines. There is no projector so I plan to just put together a small photo album of pictures for people to see and an informational handout.
I submitted my proposal to USAID to hold three training conferences over the next months in Samana. I have a feeling it is going to be awhile before I receive any support, so am planning to hold training in the South with some left over grant money of another volunteer.
The construction manual for the project is looking sharp and my goal is that anyone could pick this up and build one with these instructions. Another goal of mine for the months to come is working on a video project for the compost latrine. I am going to be collecting footage of the construction, the swivel toilet seat (a new invention that the AT group came up with during training), health promotion and the actual removal of the compost. In December, we are planning a trip out to Los Miches to see the removal of the compost from one of the composting latrines from my project.
Fun. Peace Corps “Homecoming” is this next week and we are also going to have a little Halloween celebration at our house. My sister is coming down next week and I am so excited to spend time with her and share with her everything that I have learned about navigating in the capital.
Speaking of food.. The other night I made a delicious eggplant tomato pasta..just throwing everything we had available into it. It turned out well considering the ingredients on hand..I believe it was a success and could tell by the quiet but very happy munching that was going on. Our apartment has an actual oven as well so I’ve been doing some baking as well, my banana bread and brownies have been mastered without a measuring cup. Cooking with friends or for friends is so enjoyable. Cooking is meant for more than one person and eating with other people is probably one of the best things in life. On my list of things to buy this payday—a large baking pan.
The Metro. Phil showed me a new way to the Peace Corps office. I can take one public carro (carro public) down to Maximo Gomez, where there is a metro that drops me off 4 blocks from the Office. The other way is taking 2 different carro publicos. I like to switch it up, but this morning I took the metro. I’ve road metros before but something about this morning was different for me. It was a great morning. I left the house around 10am and took my carro to the metro. I realize I’ve forgotten the IPod..but, that’s okay, I have a song in my head (It’s a Brand New Day-Joshua Radin) and hum it the whole way there. I look around at all of the people, everyone from such different backgrounds, everyone with their own lives and problems and I am just another person riding the metro and walking on the sidewalk. I look up and trash is blowing in the air. Somehow even that is beautiful to me at that moment. When I look around it kind of makes me feel bad for getting stressed out about my own problems because God only knows that everyone has their own issues that they are dealing with. I am one person and when I am gone, the world will keep spinning. And trash may or may not continue to fly from the tops of buildings like rain drops in the Dominican Republic.
Music. An typical night in our home consists of Phil rapping strumming a few strings on the guitar or to mixed beats that he creates on his computer, my attempts at the guitar (which…is actually decent, even playing a little bit that I’ve made up myself), teaching Marite the little I know on the guitar (and she is sounding pretty damn good I might add). Gabe, Marite’s boyfriend just moved in and we really would like him to pick up the harmonica so we can start a band here at the house..but...unfortunately he does not think that this is as great as we do but we have decided that we can totally picture him out on the field building water systems in the middle of nowhere and just whipping on his harmonica to play a tune… I think we all have a little bit of talent that is going to be unleashed throughout the months to come.
Water. The water situation here at the house is unpredictable, a reminder that I am still living in a developing country. Last night there was no water. We have two big tanks in our bathrooms to fill with water and last night we hardly had any in our tank but needed to do the dishes. My friend Jose and I washed the dishes with the absolute minimum of water and I am thinking—this is a skill that if for some reason the electricity goes out in the states for longer than a few days and there is no water, I will be the first to step up to the plate and show everyone how to minimize their water consumption and get their dishes spotless.
Reading. I find myself being able to focus more and read guilt free. Well..mostly guilt free. My director overheard me talking about a few books I had read and I quote him, “If you are reading that much..you aren’t working enough”. I laughed. He laughed..kind of. A good book recommendation for anyone interested in learning a little more about China’s Cultural Revolution should consider reading Life and Death in Shanghai. I haven’t finished it just yet, had to put it down a little over halfway through and start something a little lighter. It really makes you feel like you are there as you learn about one woman’s (who is considered capitalist because of working for Shell) experience.
Laundry. Laundry is a half day event. It might be another reason for the pounds shedding away because it consists of going up and down 5 flights of stairs with the laundry basket. Between that and mopping the house I think that my arms may get some definition over the months to come. Vamos a ver. My roommate Marite was a little appalled by me putting my underwear into the laundry machine. I was surprised because I didn’t know that it was all latinas (she’s Cuban) that handwash their underwear. I thought it was a Dominican thing. Well…now that I read that aloud she says it could be just a Carribean thing. Regardless, I am done hand washing my underwear after leaving the campo…I paid my dues and lived like a latina for long enough. Sorry Marite. I know you still love me.
Closing our service. Things are going to start feeling different around here as some of my group is already beginning to leave. We had a few early COS-ers, including my roommate from my hotel room at staging. We still have memories from our first weekend together and it was strangely unreal saying our goodbyes. I hope it is not forever. I admit that I teared up the other night thinking about another friend leaving me. I expect that we will have a reunion all together within the next few years even.
Work. As I look at all of the things that I would like to accomplish, 5 ½ months is a very short time. I am pondering a 13 month extension instead of my original 5 ½ months. I am not ruling it out, but am waiting a little longer to make my final decision. I have around 10 volunteers that are going to be working on composting latrines, although a few of these will only be constructing 1-2 at their sites to get the idea of excrement composting in the air, and to better determine if this project would be a success.
Monday we traveled to Bonoa so that I could meet Yovanny, the man that is designing and making our molds for the toilet bowl. He is doing a great job and we finally have the mold we have been perfecting since I first started this project. I will be coordinating with him and other volunteers with the ordering and transport of the molds to sites.
This weekend I will be headed out to a campo outside of La Romana to present the project to a site that is in need of composting latrines. There is no projector so I plan to just put together a small photo album of pictures for people to see and an informational handout.
I submitted my proposal to USAID to hold three training conferences over the next months in Samana. I have a feeling it is going to be awhile before I receive any support, so am planning to hold training in the South with some left over grant money of another volunteer.
The construction manual for the project is looking sharp and my goal is that anyone could pick this up and build one with these instructions. Another goal of mine for the months to come is working on a video project for the compost latrine. I am going to be collecting footage of the construction, the swivel toilet seat (a new invention that the AT group came up with during training), health promotion and the actual removal of the compost. In December, we are planning a trip out to Los Miches to see the removal of the compost from one of the composting latrines from my project.
Fun. Peace Corps “Homecoming” is this next week and we are also going to have a little Halloween celebration at our house. My sister is coming down next week and I am so excited to spend time with her and share with her everything that I have learned about navigating in the capital.
9.27.2011
Culture shock?
Is reverse culture shock possible if you are in the same country but in a different area? The last week and a half has been super intense for me (in a good way), which is why I ask. I have come to realize that I made the best decision by moving to the capital and adjusting to this before returning to the United States. I think that living with other Americans and also adjusting to a more "consumer" society you could say will make my transition to the States much less shocking when April arrives.
I do have to say that one of the most enjoyable parts of being in the capital is not having to feel the need or obligation to socialize with my neighbors constantly. Don't get me wrong, I am a social person but I think 2 years of campo socializing was about all this girl could take. I realized that now that I am living with people that understand me, where I come from and people with many of the same values that I have..I am so much happier. I can finally laugh constantly throughout my day to jokes in English..really, long, hard laughing. I get to play scrabble with my friends in English and finally get to break in a Scrabble dictionary that I got.
We were all talking about it the other evening and someone said "We can never see this but any outsider who comes realizes quickly that volunteers as a whole are depressed". I agree to a certain extent..you definitely are leaving a certain part of you, your sanity and your happiness upon your decision to join Peace Corps. I don't think that I quite realized just how much I need other like minded and awesome individuals in my life until just over the last week and a half. I feel like a new woman.
So. Living in the capital has been super interesting because the view behind our apartment is an impoverished neighborhood (barrio) and the street next to us is an extremely wealthy area (I mean..were talking 5 minutes walking from Louis Vuitton..and tons of other designer type of things I have never heard of). I have had Krispy Kreme donuts twice and Burger King in the last week..I don't even like those things all that much but it was so incredibly wonderful. Burger King was just an all around terrific experience..and it wasn't just the food. Friday night 4 friends and I were hanging out at the apartment and we decided lets go to Burger King..little did we know how incredible burger king is now! We go in..and the first thing I notice is, WOW this is spotless clean. It isn't that cleanliness isn't common here in the DR but in most business it isn't exactly up to par with U.S. standards. Then, the kids play area--incredible. Brilliant. They had super cute big couches in the place..genius. THEN, I am wondering--why are there no salads on the menu? Well..it just so happens that there is a flat screen television, yes..a flat screen television, with a menu that is constantly changing and I just hadn't seen the salads. I was completely blown away. I feel crazy finding all of these different things crazy, but I am not.
So, other businesses within walking distance from the apartment.
-2 shopping malls--not just any ordinary Iowa shopping mall..were talking like wow..I didn't even know Dominicans could shop here. Did I mention that the food courts have cinnabon, sbarro, sushi, papa johns..ect the list goes on.
-2 grocery stores..with mostly anything that I could ever dream of.
-5-6 liquor shops..
-A Naturalizer shoe store..still can't stop thinking about the shoes that I tried on last week that were soo comfy (and all of my shoes are broken except 1) but oh so almost half of my Peace Corps monthly pay.
-Taco Bell
-TGIF
-Outback steakhouse
The list could go on and on.
American society and the way that we live is absolutely insane and out of this world. I am not saying it is a bad thing..I was quite excited about all of the wonders in Burger King, trust me. It is bad that it has let some of us become these greedy, unconscious human beings.
Why is it that I feel ashamed/guilty about feeling the consumer and wanting feelings for the first time in so long? Even wishing that I made more so that I could get the things that I want. Not just the things I want, but need as well. I barely get enough money to get all of the food I need here in the capital let alone get shoes that I am in need of. I can't help but feel that it is wrong to feel this way toward things after seeing some very impoverished parts of this country, and people that struggle to put food on their table or don't even have a bathroom or running water.
Work is slow but coming along. I am currently working on a budget to submit to USAID to get money to train volunteers, their masons and health promoters on composting latrines and health promotion. I will be sending that to a contact that I made at a tourism fair last week to see if there is funding available. Also, the toilet bowl mold that we have been working on since we first started developing the composting latrine project is FINALLY perfected and the AT PCVL Mark and I mixed up some cement and poured a toilet bowl at the office today to test it out. I am super excited, because now there are going to be around 5 volunteers doing this project and they will all have actually cement toilet seats with real toilet seats and lids for these latrines. :)
In a few days my director, the PCVL and I are headed out to the border near El Cercado to an AT volunteer's site that is going to begin a compost latrine project. Over the next few months I may get the chance to go to Isla Saona and a few other places to help out another volunteer with composting latrines which would be incredible.
Other news..chopped a good 13-15 inches of my hair off for Locks of Love. No regrets, it is so refreshing to not have to worry about all that hair! :)
and best of all.. Coming home for Christmas on December 20th-January 7th.
I do have to say that one of the most enjoyable parts of being in the capital is not having to feel the need or obligation to socialize with my neighbors constantly. Don't get me wrong, I am a social person but I think 2 years of campo socializing was about all this girl could take. I realized that now that I am living with people that understand me, where I come from and people with many of the same values that I have..I am so much happier. I can finally laugh constantly throughout my day to jokes in English..really, long, hard laughing. I get to play scrabble with my friends in English and finally get to break in a Scrabble dictionary that I got.
We were all talking about it the other evening and someone said "We can never see this but any outsider who comes realizes quickly that volunteers as a whole are depressed". I agree to a certain extent..you definitely are leaving a certain part of you, your sanity and your happiness upon your decision to join Peace Corps. I don't think that I quite realized just how much I need other like minded and awesome individuals in my life until just over the last week and a half. I feel like a new woman.
So. Living in the capital has been super interesting because the view behind our apartment is an impoverished neighborhood (barrio) and the street next to us is an extremely wealthy area (I mean..were talking 5 minutes walking from Louis Vuitton..and tons of other designer type of things I have never heard of). I have had Krispy Kreme donuts twice and Burger King in the last week..I don't even like those things all that much but it was so incredibly wonderful. Burger King was just an all around terrific experience..and it wasn't just the food. Friday night 4 friends and I were hanging out at the apartment and we decided lets go to Burger King..little did we know how incredible burger king is now! We go in..and the first thing I notice is, WOW this is spotless clean. It isn't that cleanliness isn't common here in the DR but in most business it isn't exactly up to par with U.S. standards. Then, the kids play area--incredible. Brilliant. They had super cute big couches in the place..genius. THEN, I am wondering--why are there no salads on the menu? Well..it just so happens that there is a flat screen television, yes..a flat screen television, with a menu that is constantly changing and I just hadn't seen the salads. I was completely blown away. I feel crazy finding all of these different things crazy, but I am not.
So, other businesses within walking distance from the apartment.
-2 shopping malls--not just any ordinary Iowa shopping mall..were talking like wow..I didn't even know Dominicans could shop here. Did I mention that the food courts have cinnabon, sbarro, sushi, papa johns..ect the list goes on.
-2 grocery stores..with mostly anything that I could ever dream of.
-5-6 liquor shops..
-A Naturalizer shoe store..still can't stop thinking about the shoes that I tried on last week that were soo comfy (and all of my shoes are broken except 1) but oh so almost half of my Peace Corps monthly pay.
-Taco Bell
-TGIF
-Outback steakhouse
The list could go on and on.
American society and the way that we live is absolutely insane and out of this world. I am not saying it is a bad thing..I was quite excited about all of the wonders in Burger King, trust me. It is bad that it has let some of us become these greedy, unconscious human beings.
Why is it that I feel ashamed/guilty about feeling the consumer and wanting feelings for the first time in so long? Even wishing that I made more so that I could get the things that I want. Not just the things I want, but need as well. I barely get enough money to get all of the food I need here in the capital let alone get shoes that I am in need of. I can't help but feel that it is wrong to feel this way toward things after seeing some very impoverished parts of this country, and people that struggle to put food on their table or don't even have a bathroom or running water.
Work is slow but coming along. I am currently working on a budget to submit to USAID to get money to train volunteers, their masons and health promoters on composting latrines and health promotion. I will be sending that to a contact that I made at a tourism fair last week to see if there is funding available. Also, the toilet bowl mold that we have been working on since we first started developing the composting latrine project is FINALLY perfected and the AT PCVL Mark and I mixed up some cement and poured a toilet bowl at the office today to test it out. I am super excited, because now there are going to be around 5 volunteers doing this project and they will all have actually cement toilet seats with real toilet seats and lids for these latrines. :)
In a few days my director, the PCVL and I are headed out to the border near El Cercado to an AT volunteer's site that is going to begin a compost latrine project. Over the next few months I may get the chance to go to Isla Saona and a few other places to help out another volunteer with composting latrines which would be incredible.
Other news..chopped a good 13-15 inches of my hair off for Locks of Love. No regrets, it is so refreshing to not have to worry about all that hair! :)
and best of all.. Coming home for Christmas on December 20th-January 7th.
8.27.2011
So, I am an AT volunteer now..
The clay oven for my women's group is finished. It took 4 days to complete after we had a table built with blocks. I can now say that I could build one on my own. It was a lot of work though, and we had to make due with the materials that I was able to locate here in Samana. We had originally planned to use all yellow clay for the oven because it is more flexible for building than red clay. Unfortunately, the yellow clay that arrived from the hardware shop was full of rocks and we only had a little after sifting. The oven ended up being built mostly with red clay. Here is a brief description of each day of work.
The table we built was supposed to be 2 meters by 2 meters, but the women were quite sneaky and added in extra block to make it larger because they wanted an even larger oven.. This was the biggest oven that Duncan had ever built, and he didn't really want to go much bigger than 2mx2m. After building the table, we filled it with dirt and left a small amount of space at the top.
Day 1- In a 2x2 meter space, we put a layer of sand and then broken glass on top of it (for handling the heat from oven), with salt over that to fill in the space between the glass. Then, another layer of sand. After we put in a brick floor and built a mold for the oven with block and sand.
Day 2- We covered the sand/block mold with newspaper, and then made our clay mixture. The clay mixer had red clay (which was supposed to be yellow), the yellow clay that we had available, koalin (which is a clay like substance that helps the oven not crack) and water. We formed blocks with the clay and then proceeded to put them around the oven and smooth them together. We built an arched entrance to the oven with bricks and clay. I added sea shells to make it more beautiful. :)
Day 3- Another clay mixture with sawdust, kaolin and clay. We formed balls out of the clay and put them around and around the oven smoothing them and packing them in until it was finished. The sawdust is used to make the oven stronger.
Day 4- A layer of pure clay and water to give the oven a nice finish.
Little by little we have taken the sand mold out of the oven and now are making fires each day that have started with a small fire and will grow into a roaring fire after about a week which will finish the curing process. The oven will reach full baking potential after using it for 3 months. I want to give a shout out to my co-volunteers Duncan and Gabe, who taught me everything I know about clay ovens and assisted me so much throughout this project! :) I couldn't have done it without you guys.
More news on the latrine manual. I finished updates on the manual, but it is STILL a work in progress. It is much, much better than before and is the official copy that will be used with the new Appropriate Technology volunteers. I included a section on how to form a latrine committee and updated the construction segments and various other parts of the manual, along with adding in the new drawings that had been done by a few of our more artistic volunteers.
This next week, I will be training a group of 15 volunteers and their masons on composting latrine construction and the BIBOBSI latrine manual (the one from the last paragraph). My mason that I used in Dajabon will be joining us in a mountain outside of Santiago for the 4 day training to build 1 latrine. The goal of the training is so that these volunteers will learn how to implement a composting latrine project at their sites and have a mason who is trained to construct them.
And..finally, the BIG NEWS. There are still people here in the Dominican Republic without a place to poo...so, on September 15th, I am officially an Appropriate Technology Volunteer and will be moving to the capital. I will be living with 3 other close friends that I have made throughout my service 2 carro publicos from the Peace Corps office. My new Close of Service date is April 15th. My work plan is as follows...
"In my extension as an AT volunteer, I plan to move to the capital on September 15th, 2011 so that I can serve as a “consultant” for the ecological bathroom project. I will begin by immediately reaching out to volunteers that are trying to implement composting latrine projects at their sites so that I can begin to plan for cross-sector training for ecological bathrooms. I will use October to search for funding and the means to hold an ecological bathroom training event for volunteers. In the following months, I will be planning and hosting the training event. Throughout my 5 ½ month extension, I will also be working on developing a more systematic approach to the project which will include learning objectives and lesson plans. I will also be visiting volunteers at their sites to help them with the BIBOBSI method and their projects. Throughout these visits to volunteers, I intend to continue updates on the latrine manual as needed. At the end of my extension in April, I will present during the training sessions for the project to the incoming group of AT volunteers in CBT."
Don't worry friends & Fam--I'll be home for Christmas most likely for a visit! :) I love you all, and thank you for supporting my mission here in the DR!
The table we built was supposed to be 2 meters by 2 meters, but the women were quite sneaky and added in extra block to make it larger because they wanted an even larger oven.. This was the biggest oven that Duncan had ever built, and he didn't really want to go much bigger than 2mx2m. After building the table, we filled it with dirt and left a small amount of space at the top.
Day 1- In a 2x2 meter space, we put a layer of sand and then broken glass on top of it (for handling the heat from oven), with salt over that to fill in the space between the glass. Then, another layer of sand. After we put in a brick floor and built a mold for the oven with block and sand.
Day 2- We covered the sand/block mold with newspaper, and then made our clay mixture. The clay mixer had red clay (which was supposed to be yellow), the yellow clay that we had available, koalin (which is a clay like substance that helps the oven not crack) and water. We formed blocks with the clay and then proceeded to put them around the oven and smooth them together. We built an arched entrance to the oven with bricks and clay. I added sea shells to make it more beautiful. :)
Day 3- Another clay mixture with sawdust, kaolin and clay. We formed balls out of the clay and put them around and around the oven smoothing them and packing them in until it was finished. The sawdust is used to make the oven stronger.
Day 4- A layer of pure clay and water to give the oven a nice finish.
Little by little we have taken the sand mold out of the oven and now are making fires each day that have started with a small fire and will grow into a roaring fire after about a week which will finish the curing process. The oven will reach full baking potential after using it for 3 months. I want to give a shout out to my co-volunteers Duncan and Gabe, who taught me everything I know about clay ovens and assisted me so much throughout this project! :) I couldn't have done it without you guys.
More news on the latrine manual. I finished updates on the manual, but it is STILL a work in progress. It is much, much better than before and is the official copy that will be used with the new Appropriate Technology volunteers. I included a section on how to form a latrine committee and updated the construction segments and various other parts of the manual, along with adding in the new drawings that had been done by a few of our more artistic volunteers.
This next week, I will be training a group of 15 volunteers and their masons on composting latrine construction and the BIBOBSI latrine manual (the one from the last paragraph). My mason that I used in Dajabon will be joining us in a mountain outside of Santiago for the 4 day training to build 1 latrine. The goal of the training is so that these volunteers will learn how to implement a composting latrine project at their sites and have a mason who is trained to construct them.
And..finally, the BIG NEWS. There are still people here in the Dominican Republic without a place to poo...so, on September 15th, I am officially an Appropriate Technology Volunteer and will be moving to the capital. I will be living with 3 other close friends that I have made throughout my service 2 carro publicos from the Peace Corps office. My new Close of Service date is April 15th. My work plan is as follows...
"In my extension as an AT volunteer, I plan to move to the capital on September 15th, 2011 so that I can serve as a “consultant” for the ecological bathroom project. I will begin by immediately reaching out to volunteers that are trying to implement composting latrine projects at their sites so that I can begin to plan for cross-sector training for ecological bathrooms. I will use October to search for funding and the means to hold an ecological bathroom training event for volunteers. In the following months, I will be planning and hosting the training event. Throughout my 5 ½ month extension, I will also be working on developing a more systematic approach to the project which will include learning objectives and lesson plans. I will also be visiting volunteers at their sites to help them with the BIBOBSI method and their projects. Throughout these visits to volunteers, I intend to continue updates on the latrine manual as needed. At the end of my extension in April, I will present during the training sessions for the project to the incoming group of AT volunteers in CBT."
Don't worry friends & Fam--I'll be home for Christmas most likely for a visit! :) I love you all, and thank you for supporting my mission here in the DR!
7.14.2011
My snoring neighbor..a literal wake up call to life back in the DR
I decided it is well past time for a blog. It’s about 12am here in the campo and you can only begin to imagine what would trigger me to feel like writing a post. I’ve been listening to my neighbor snoring for a good hour now....it woke me up. (nope..that is not a joke, this is a true night in the campo…). As soon as I typed that out her snoring stopped, which means I’ve stopped smiling. Actually, it isn’t the first time I have smiled tonight. I smiled all 5 times the electricity came on tonight too, even if the longest stretch was for 10 minutes! Something strange happened with the electricity here since I left and came back from my vacation to the USA..it comes and goes like crazy. It will come on for a good 5 minutes and then literally leave for an hour and then come again for 10 and then gone again for 2 hours. Can someone please make me understand the electricity crisis here, because after 2 years I still remain clueless as to why it is like this. People tell me it’s because no one pays there bill—but if I never get one then how can I pay it in the first place??
Going back to the States for 3 weeks made me come back here and wonder how I have been doing this for 2 years. Part of that has to do with a herniated disc and muscle spasms that I am currently trying to bed rest my way out of..which the muscle spasms are way intense and started in my lower back 3 months ago..went away..came back stronger and more paralyzing and in the last few days of bed rest have traveled to my right upper butt cheek..hopefully that means they are headed down to my toes and will be all the way gone soon. I’m trying to be positive about the whole situation and I really truly believe that is what is going to happen. Okay so..the other part is because I’ve now realized the problems that exist in this country or in any other developing are MUCH more complicated than a 20 something year old Peace Corps volunteer can resolve. I have come to terms with the fact that I certainly cannot save the world as I originally believed upon my arrival. When I talk about how I don’t know how I’ve done THIS for the last 2 years, I am not talking about not living without 24/7 electricity and not doing my business for the first year y pico in a latrine and bathing outside, but I am talking about living without my family and people who truly understand me, don’t judge me for every little thing I do and care about me. Sure, other volunteers understand, and are like my family but it’s not like I get to see them as much as I would like to. I miss living with people who speak English. I miss living with people in general. Living alone was fun for awhile but I really just want an American roommate. I do prefer living alone though to living with Dominicans. I’d even go back to my college days right now and live in the same room as one for the next 4 years (MEL if you’re reading this—I mean that…I can truly say right now that I would looove to be back in the Pods in our little tiny room together…even on our messiest days. I’d do it all over again…)
So, it’s official. I think I am going insane. I am thinking the 3 week trip back to the States officially made things 100x more difficult for myself. Not because I had hot water, but because I realized how wonderful it is to be surrounded by all of these amazing individuals that I love so dearly and could not get enough of in just 3 weeks. Especially my mom………….yes I’ve gone insane. Just kidding, I have the best mom in the whole world who has been so amazing to me ESPECIALLY since I’ve been here listening to my countless anxieties over the telephone twice a week, and refilling her calling cards for those special nights when I need longer than 45 minutes to vent.) Thank you mom, you have been my biggest supporter.
Back to the herniated disc and muscle spasms. How did this happen? People keep asking me what I did, so here it is. I really have no idea what I did to myself, but if I could pin point one thing it is this. LISTEN CLOSELY NEW/FUTURE VOLUNTEERS. MUY IMPORTANTE PA’ K SEPAN. ESCUCHA BIEN. 2 years ago, I bought my bed at a store that apparently puts old springs inside of a new mattress. I had no idea that people did that—and no one seemed to care to warn me about it..SO IM WARNING YOU. Save your money BEFORE you go to Peace Corps for a bed because you don’t get enough to buy a decent bed…unless you can live without a stove, gas tank and plates..then you might have enough. Thankfully, a volunteer that was leaving gave me a good deal on a tempurpedic bed that he splurged on for his service (why hadn’t I thought of that?) and I am finally resting in peace without a spring jammed into my hip.
Good thing I still have enough work to do and even a little time for procrastination before I leave to keep me here. And a good bed too—that helps. You know what- Actually there is more than that that is keeping me here. My Dominican neighbors are quite amazing. Two of them came over and cleaned my entire place without me asking for help because they knew I was incapable of doing so. The same with my laundry. I even have a few that come over to lay in bed with me to chat during my bed rest times. Women of course…God only knows the gossip in this campo would hit the roof if it were anyone else.
Ok so back to the work in store for me. Right now, I am looking for yellow clay for this oven we will be building (On July 28th and 29th to be exact if anyone wants to stop out we are building it right on the shore line). No one seems to know what that is, but if they want their oven they are going to have to figure it out. They know better than I do where to find it. I’ve asked over 50 people in the community and every construction store in town and everyone just has the same blank stare on their face. My director thinks they should know where to find it. That is my number one goal for the week is to locate this supposed yellow clay that exists somewhere on this island. My other task is to get these women organized in our meeting this week to build our base for the oven and a little shack for it before our Peace Corps handymen come out for building day.
Another task that I am doing is updating this composting latrine manual, which will be wrapped up over the next few weeks. I don’t think I’ve written anything about that on the blog but it’s actually been a process. My friend Marite and I began brainstorming in March on what we were going to do about this out of date manual. We decided it needed to be completely reformatted. WELL finally after many attempts with PHOTOSHOP and even recently attempted to understand the complexities of INDESIGN through countless unhelpful youtube videos, I’ve decided it is beyond me to reformat the manual the way we want it. I think that reformatting would require a graphic designer, which is not me. SO, that actually makes my job a lot easier. I have decided only to update the manual so that it fits with the composting latrine that Peace Corps Dominican Republic is building, instead of Peace Corps Bolivia (the manual is one used before in Bolivia). Phew, when I came to terms with the fact that I am no graphic designer…you have no idea the weight that was lifted off my chest.
SOOO that leaves me with a little less than 3 months after these next few weeks of work. What to do what to do what to do. Well, some of my time will be occupied with helping a few people get latrine projects off the ground..which will require some traveling..possibly back up to the border and to Puerta Plata. Also will be finishing up all of my grant reports…been slacking, haven’t reported on any of my grants, but I have until my close of service date to get those wrapped up….It will get done.
Then that brings me to September. September is our Close of Service conference for a few days in the capital with all of those crazy trainees that accepted the same invitation as I did for August of 2009 and entered this journey with that are making it out alive. The conference is basically just to help us figure out our next step in life and to help us edit our description of service paper (a description of our work here and then a little signature at the bottom that tells whatever employer to be that we are eligible for the noncompetition for government jobs)..and resumes.
Then October. I won’t think that far yet. One day at a time is how I will get through this. Back to the present…the snoring continues.
Going back to the States for 3 weeks made me come back here and wonder how I have been doing this for 2 years. Part of that has to do with a herniated disc and muscle spasms that I am currently trying to bed rest my way out of..which the muscle spasms are way intense and started in my lower back 3 months ago..went away..came back stronger and more paralyzing and in the last few days of bed rest have traveled to my right upper butt cheek..hopefully that means they are headed down to my toes and will be all the way gone soon. I’m trying to be positive about the whole situation and I really truly believe that is what is going to happen. Okay so..the other part is because I’ve now realized the problems that exist in this country or in any other developing are MUCH more complicated than a 20 something year old Peace Corps volunteer can resolve. I have come to terms with the fact that I certainly cannot save the world as I originally believed upon my arrival. When I talk about how I don’t know how I’ve done THIS for the last 2 years, I am not talking about not living without 24/7 electricity and not doing my business for the first year y pico in a latrine and bathing outside, but I am talking about living without my family and people who truly understand me, don’t judge me for every little thing I do and care about me. Sure, other volunteers understand, and are like my family but it’s not like I get to see them as much as I would like to. I miss living with people who speak English. I miss living with people in general. Living alone was fun for awhile but I really just want an American roommate. I do prefer living alone though to living with Dominicans. I’d even go back to my college days right now and live in the same room as one for the next 4 years (MEL if you’re reading this—I mean that…I can truly say right now that I would looove to be back in the Pods in our little tiny room together…even on our messiest days. I’d do it all over again…)
So, it’s official. I think I am going insane. I am thinking the 3 week trip back to the States officially made things 100x more difficult for myself. Not because I had hot water, but because I realized how wonderful it is to be surrounded by all of these amazing individuals that I love so dearly and could not get enough of in just 3 weeks. Especially my mom………….yes I’ve gone insane. Just kidding, I have the best mom in the whole world who has been so amazing to me ESPECIALLY since I’ve been here listening to my countless anxieties over the telephone twice a week, and refilling her calling cards for those special nights when I need longer than 45 minutes to vent.) Thank you mom, you have been my biggest supporter.
Back to the herniated disc and muscle spasms. How did this happen? People keep asking me what I did, so here it is. I really have no idea what I did to myself, but if I could pin point one thing it is this. LISTEN CLOSELY NEW/FUTURE VOLUNTEERS. MUY IMPORTANTE PA’ K SEPAN. ESCUCHA BIEN. 2 years ago, I bought my bed at a store that apparently puts old springs inside of a new mattress. I had no idea that people did that—and no one seemed to care to warn me about it..SO IM WARNING YOU. Save your money BEFORE you go to Peace Corps for a bed because you don’t get enough to buy a decent bed…unless you can live without a stove, gas tank and plates..then you might have enough. Thankfully, a volunteer that was leaving gave me a good deal on a tempurpedic bed that he splurged on for his service (why hadn’t I thought of that?) and I am finally resting in peace without a spring jammed into my hip.
Good thing I still have enough work to do and even a little time for procrastination before I leave to keep me here. And a good bed too—that helps. You know what- Actually there is more than that that is keeping me here. My Dominican neighbors are quite amazing. Two of them came over and cleaned my entire place without me asking for help because they knew I was incapable of doing so. The same with my laundry. I even have a few that come over to lay in bed with me to chat during my bed rest times. Women of course…God only knows the gossip in this campo would hit the roof if it were anyone else.
Ok so back to the work in store for me. Right now, I am looking for yellow clay for this oven we will be building (On July 28th and 29th to be exact if anyone wants to stop out we are building it right on the shore line). No one seems to know what that is, but if they want their oven they are going to have to figure it out. They know better than I do where to find it. I’ve asked over 50 people in the community and every construction store in town and everyone just has the same blank stare on their face. My director thinks they should know where to find it. That is my number one goal for the week is to locate this supposed yellow clay that exists somewhere on this island. My other task is to get these women organized in our meeting this week to build our base for the oven and a little shack for it before our Peace Corps handymen come out for building day.
Another task that I am doing is updating this composting latrine manual, which will be wrapped up over the next few weeks. I don’t think I’ve written anything about that on the blog but it’s actually been a process. My friend Marite and I began brainstorming in March on what we were going to do about this out of date manual. We decided it needed to be completely reformatted. WELL finally after many attempts with PHOTOSHOP and even recently attempted to understand the complexities of INDESIGN through countless unhelpful youtube videos, I’ve decided it is beyond me to reformat the manual the way we want it. I think that reformatting would require a graphic designer, which is not me. SO, that actually makes my job a lot easier. I have decided only to update the manual so that it fits with the composting latrine that Peace Corps Dominican Republic is building, instead of Peace Corps Bolivia (the manual is one used before in Bolivia). Phew, when I came to terms with the fact that I am no graphic designer…you have no idea the weight that was lifted off my chest.
SOOO that leaves me with a little less than 3 months after these next few weeks of work. What to do what to do what to do. Well, some of my time will be occupied with helping a few people get latrine projects off the ground..which will require some traveling..possibly back up to the border and to Puerta Plata. Also will be finishing up all of my grant reports…been slacking, haven’t reported on any of my grants, but I have until my close of service date to get those wrapped up….It will get done.
Then that brings me to September. September is our Close of Service conference for a few days in the capital with all of those crazy trainees that accepted the same invitation as I did for August of 2009 and entered this journey with that are making it out alive. The conference is basically just to help us figure out our next step in life and to help us edit our description of service paper (a description of our work here and then a little signature at the bottom that tells whatever employer to be that we are eligible for the noncompetition for government jobs)..and resumes.
Then October. I won’t think that far yet. One day at a time is how I will get through this. Back to the present…the snoring continues.
5.17.2011
Summing up the last 5 months..
22 months in country..could it be?
I have spent a lot of these past months hosting American visitors at my site and in between doing work/traveling to do work in other parts of the country, which has been great but I think has left my community wondering what I am doing here. It also is making me wonder what I am doing here. Every time I come back to my community, I feel suffocated, sad, isolated and miss my old Peace Corps experience (even though I was much more isolated and further away from other volunteers?) which doesn't make any sense. I should be happy-being on the beach and all, right?
Here is what happened. The fact that I was a volunteer elsewhere for so long made me take for granted the amount of "confianza", or trust, that I had already built. How did I build that trust in Dajabon.. 1, I never left my site for the first 3 months because it was the "rule" given to us by Peace Corps. 2, I was actually completing a project that was visible to people and was something that they needed. Now, where I am at now, I have had to leave my site for different reasons--all of which are "work related" but somehow can not get my community to understand that I am not just a tourist. Now I understand the rule of not leaving your site (AT ALL) during those first months.
At the end of February I finally submitted my community diagnostic of Villa Clara. It definitely was not as detailed as my first diagnostic, mainly because there is not the same kind of ''need'' as there was on the border. As much as I do not enjoy teaching English (mainly because I am not certified to be an English teacher, and really don't know the correct methods for teaching), I started an English class here in Villa Clara that is just about complete. I also have taught some business classes to my women's group, and we have plans to build a new oven in July when I return from the US. I am waiting to receive the funding for the grant that I applied to do this, and am trying to line things up with another PCV that is working on a design for this oven. The other project that I wanted to try to tackle over the next several months was latrines.
When my director came to visit with my community and I over what projects that we had decided on, she told us there was no way I would have time for latrines if I was planning to COS in October. I think I could do it if I receive this ADEMI grant by July, but grants take forever so I am not going to count on receiving the funding. An option is to do an extension at my site, or even move to the town of Samana..I am still considering. I have a few options, one would be to extend for a few months to finish up projects in Villa Clara which means staying in the community. The other is to extend in the town, but it would have to be a year extension. The year extension would be to do a latrine project in Villa Clara and to work with other volunteers by assisting them in their latrine projects. Still thinking on that..
Between hosting visitors in March and April, I spent some time out in Jarabacoa (mountains!!) at my friend Marite's site to give training sessions to the new Appropriate Technology volunteers on ecological latrines. My masons from my project in Dajabon were also out there to teach the new volunteers how to build the latrine that we were building out there. It was awesome to be able to share with other volunteers what worked/didn't work with the project. Also, I am excited to share that one of the AT volunteers is currently beginning his service in my old community, and will be working on more bathrooms! I was overjoyed when my director told me that he was sending someone out.
Last week I returned to Dajabon to spend a week translating for doctors (wavesofhealth.org) and then go out to check out the finished latrine project. Yes--finished project. People really stepped up to the plate after I left and completed 51 latrines in total. Overall, I was impressed with what they had done. There were a few disappointments--such as people not using their lids for their toilet seats, which completely defeats the sanitation efforts of this project. There were still a few latrines without the "caseta" (upper zinc house of the latrine), one of which was actually finished before I had even left the community but the couple had divorced and the wife took half the zinc with her..I guess that's a good excuse? Not.
Although I realize at this point that there are different levels in development, I do know that if I were continue working in development after Peace Corps I would want it to be in an area that is much less developed than where I am at now. I find it much more satisfying, although more difficult, to be working with a group of people that have huge basic necessity needs than a community where people have nicer tv's or houses than most people I know in the USA. Or use my housing deposit to buy a huge flat screen instead of fixing the leaky tubes at my house. Maybe that is an exaggeration--but is is how I am feeling.
Heres to the next 5 months of attempting work in my community..wish me suerte.
That sums it up for now..lo siento for not writing sooner. I'll try to be better.
Those that don't know..I'll be home June 7-28 <3
I have spent a lot of these past months hosting American visitors at my site and in between doing work/traveling to do work in other parts of the country, which has been great but I think has left my community wondering what I am doing here. It also is making me wonder what I am doing here. Every time I come back to my community, I feel suffocated, sad, isolated and miss my old Peace Corps experience (even though I was much more isolated and further away from other volunteers?) which doesn't make any sense. I should be happy-being on the beach and all, right?
Here is what happened. The fact that I was a volunteer elsewhere for so long made me take for granted the amount of "confianza", or trust, that I had already built. How did I build that trust in Dajabon.. 1, I never left my site for the first 3 months because it was the "rule" given to us by Peace Corps. 2, I was actually completing a project that was visible to people and was something that they needed. Now, where I am at now, I have had to leave my site for different reasons--all of which are "work related" but somehow can not get my community to understand that I am not just a tourist. Now I understand the rule of not leaving your site (AT ALL) during those first months.
At the end of February I finally submitted my community diagnostic of Villa Clara. It definitely was not as detailed as my first diagnostic, mainly because there is not the same kind of ''need'' as there was on the border. As much as I do not enjoy teaching English (mainly because I am not certified to be an English teacher, and really don't know the correct methods for teaching), I started an English class here in Villa Clara that is just about complete. I also have taught some business classes to my women's group, and we have plans to build a new oven in July when I return from the US. I am waiting to receive the funding for the grant that I applied to do this, and am trying to line things up with another PCV that is working on a design for this oven. The other project that I wanted to try to tackle over the next several months was latrines.
When my director came to visit with my community and I over what projects that we had decided on, she told us there was no way I would have time for latrines if I was planning to COS in October. I think I could do it if I receive this ADEMI grant by July, but grants take forever so I am not going to count on receiving the funding. An option is to do an extension at my site, or even move to the town of Samana..I am still considering. I have a few options, one would be to extend for a few months to finish up projects in Villa Clara which means staying in the community. The other is to extend in the town, but it would have to be a year extension. The year extension would be to do a latrine project in Villa Clara and to work with other volunteers by assisting them in their latrine projects. Still thinking on that..
Between hosting visitors in March and April, I spent some time out in Jarabacoa (mountains!!) at my friend Marite's site to give training sessions to the new Appropriate Technology volunteers on ecological latrines. My masons from my project in Dajabon were also out there to teach the new volunteers how to build the latrine that we were building out there. It was awesome to be able to share with other volunteers what worked/didn't work with the project. Also, I am excited to share that one of the AT volunteers is currently beginning his service in my old community, and will be working on more bathrooms! I was overjoyed when my director told me that he was sending someone out.
Last week I returned to Dajabon to spend a week translating for doctors (wavesofhealth.org) and then go out to check out the finished latrine project. Yes--finished project. People really stepped up to the plate after I left and completed 51 latrines in total. Overall, I was impressed with what they had done. There were a few disappointments--such as people not using their lids for their toilet seats, which completely defeats the sanitation efforts of this project. There were still a few latrines without the "caseta" (upper zinc house of the latrine), one of which was actually finished before I had even left the community but the couple had divorced and the wife took half the zinc with her..I guess that's a good excuse? Not.
Although I realize at this point that there are different levels in development, I do know that if I were continue working in development after Peace Corps I would want it to be in an area that is much less developed than where I am at now. I find it much more satisfying, although more difficult, to be working with a group of people that have huge basic necessity needs than a community where people have nicer tv's or houses than most people I know in the USA. Or use my housing deposit to buy a huge flat screen instead of fixing the leaky tubes at my house. Maybe that is an exaggeration--but is is how I am feeling.
Heres to the next 5 months of attempting work in my community..wish me suerte.
That sums it up for now..lo siento for not writing sooner. I'll try to be better.
Those that don't know..I'll be home June 7-28 <3
12.14.2010
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.
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.
12.02.2010
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...
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...
10.04.2010
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. :)
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. :)
9.05.2010
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.
:)
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.
:)
7.06.2010
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! :)
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! :)
4.21.2010
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..
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..
2.19.2010
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. :)
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. :)
1.22.2010
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)..
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)..
12.17.2009
La Navidad is here!
Right now I am in the capital and am dealing with some sort of allergic reaction on my mouth and face. It has calmed down a bit, but now my lips are just really chapped. The dermatologist that I saw on Tuesday told me that the reaction is either from 1) mangos 2) my toothpaste or 3) some other unknown source that enters my mouth. So, coincidentally, I have had several mangos that have popped out of the trees randomly even though it is not mango season (mango seasons is May and April). I am not completely sold that that is the case but for those that do not know, mango trees are from the same family as poison ivy, so this is why some people get an allergic reaction to them. What I have been told by other volunteers with mango allergies is that you can still enjoy mangos as long as you peel the peel off and wash and cut the mango off of the seed that is in the middle. I was relieved because mangos are pure deliciousness...so plan those visits in April and May if you want to enjoy unlimited mangos for virtually free (because of the Haitians selling them for dirt cheap in our market).
Things have been a little frustrating for me lately out here in the campo (countryside). My project partner is talking about quitting and selling his farm and it makes me feel very lost as to what my roles are as a Peace Corps Volunteer with the association/cooperative. Meetings are canceled frequently and when they do meet they discuss matters dealing with them forming the cooperative and nothing makes much sense to me as it is. So, when my project partner told me this I just wasn't sure what to think. The good news is that I talked to Joy, my APCD, and she said to focus my diagnostic on the community instead of on my organization. She said just throw in a slide or 2 about my organization but don't let it get me stressed out. She said if they need something, they will get it together and I am not there to hold their hand. I think that this made me feel a lot better about things because I know there is a magnitude of projects that I can work on in my community!
As for moving out in February, things are looking good. My host dad built the doors for my house and he helped me plant tons of Batata (which is delicious, kind of like potatoes but a little sweeter) and chick peas. My host sister and I planted tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce, papaya and pineapple. So, I am super pumped for all of this deliciousness right in my backyard! It will be great to finally just be able to cook my own food and have my own place for the first time in my life. It is so crazy for me to think that this is the first time that I will ever live on my own and here it is in the Caribbean. There is still a lot of work to be done on my house before I can move in, but hopefully we will get all of the necessities required by Peace Corps for me to be able to move in right away in Febraury. :)
Other news would be La Navidad! Christmas is here and it feels nothing like the holidays. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the snow. I have never been away from home for the holidays because studying abroad always worked out so that I left right after Christmas. I don't understand the holiday without the cold weather and snow..it is beyond me when people are all excited that it is Christmas. So what makes Christmas interesting here in the DR..first of all, there are people of all ages (2 years old to 80 years I'd say) and loud music at my house on Saturday and Sunday nights (which are the fiesta nights here) and lots of dancing merengue and bachata. Bottles of rum (Brugal specifically, a brand of rum here) being passed among old men playing super intense rounds of dominoes. The reason why they are able to splurge a little on the rum during the month of December is because most people receive a double wage during the holidays (I am not sure if this is true in my community because most people are unemployed...). We end our nights drinking a warm drink (non-alcoholic) that they make over a little fire in the ditch with boiling water, a spicy leaf called "inebre", cinnamon sticks and sugar and little touch of dona power. It is a sweet beverage with a unique spicy aftertaste you could say. Besides the weekend fiestas, my host family, several neighbors and myself are all doing an "angelito" which translates as "little angel" but is the equivalent of a secret santa. It will be nice to give a gift to someone at least to make it feel a little more like Christmas. I wish that I could have sent presents back to the U.S. for each and everyone of my friends and family, but with the cost of mail that is clearly just not feasible but I do want you guys to know that I love and miss you all and wish you a VERY Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Things have been a little frustrating for me lately out here in the campo (countryside). My project partner is talking about quitting and selling his farm and it makes me feel very lost as to what my roles are as a Peace Corps Volunteer with the association/cooperative. Meetings are canceled frequently and when they do meet they discuss matters dealing with them forming the cooperative and nothing makes much sense to me as it is. So, when my project partner told me this I just wasn't sure what to think. The good news is that I talked to Joy, my APCD, and she said to focus my diagnostic on the community instead of on my organization. She said just throw in a slide or 2 about my organization but don't let it get me stressed out. She said if they need something, they will get it together and I am not there to hold their hand. I think that this made me feel a lot better about things because I know there is a magnitude of projects that I can work on in my community!
As for moving out in February, things are looking good. My host dad built the doors for my house and he helped me plant tons of Batata (which is delicious, kind of like potatoes but a little sweeter) and chick peas. My host sister and I planted tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce, papaya and pineapple. So, I am super pumped for all of this deliciousness right in my backyard! It will be great to finally just be able to cook my own food and have my own place for the first time in my life. It is so crazy for me to think that this is the first time that I will ever live on my own and here it is in the Caribbean. There is still a lot of work to be done on my house before I can move in, but hopefully we will get all of the necessities required by Peace Corps for me to be able to move in right away in Febraury. :)
Other news would be La Navidad! Christmas is here and it feels nothing like the holidays. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the snow. I have never been away from home for the holidays because studying abroad always worked out so that I left right after Christmas. I don't understand the holiday without the cold weather and snow..it is beyond me when people are all excited that it is Christmas. So what makes Christmas interesting here in the DR..first of all, there are people of all ages (2 years old to 80 years I'd say) and loud music at my house on Saturday and Sunday nights (which are the fiesta nights here) and lots of dancing merengue and bachata. Bottles of rum (Brugal specifically, a brand of rum here) being passed among old men playing super intense rounds of dominoes. The reason why they are able to splurge a little on the rum during the month of December is because most people receive a double wage during the holidays (I am not sure if this is true in my community because most people are unemployed...). We end our nights drinking a warm drink (non-alcoholic) that they make over a little fire in the ditch with boiling water, a spicy leaf called "inebre", cinnamon sticks and sugar and little touch of dona power. It is a sweet beverage with a unique spicy aftertaste you could say. Besides the weekend fiestas, my host family, several neighbors and myself are all doing an "angelito" which translates as "little angel" but is the equivalent of a secret santa. It will be nice to give a gift to someone at least to make it feel a little more like Christmas. I wish that I could have sent presents back to the U.S. for each and everyone of my friends and family, but with the cost of mail that is clearly just not feasible but I do want you guys to know that I love and miss you all and wish you a VERY Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
11.16.2009
Trying to keep you guys up to date...
I have been at my site a little over 2 weeks now. I feel very comfortable with my host family and also feel as though my Spanish may be getting a little better even. My host dad is super talkative and I am really appreciative of that because he is constantly trying to teach me things. Not only in Spanish but also about growing fruit trees and gardening. He is also planning to teach my how to put electricity in my house and how to set up a tube for water. Also, we are going to build a bed frame and other household items for me when it is getting closer to my time to live in my own house.
As far as my community diagnostic goes, I am feeling a little bit panicky. I have been going to all of my community meetings to keep trying to learn more but it is hard to imagine getting a report written and a presentation formed within the next 2 1/2 months. It seems like a lot of time right now, but when the days go by slow and the weeks fairly quickly it gets me a little worried. The only things that I have started to work on so far are my community map and some interviews to learn more about the financial situations of different families. It blows my mind that familys of 3-5 people are living off of 200-300 US dollars a month. We would not dream of that in the states! Although necessities are a cheaper here, $200-300 does not go far. So, you are probably wondering how these interviews will come into play for my community diagnostic. I am learning about how families spend and save their money so that I can see if there are ways that they could do things better. This will be included in my two year plan if I see it necessary to give "charlas" or, presentations, over financial planning and basic accounting skills that they can use. I have found that most families to do not really know what their actually income is because they don't have a set income from month to month. This is due to the fact that they are selling a few nuts or mangos here or giving a few moto rides there.
I am also continuing to attend community meetings and association meetings of my fruit producer group. I am trying to work on an organizational diagnostic with Andres, my project partner, but that is coming along slowly if at all. At the meetings, the members are constantly trying to talk at the same time and nothing every really gets accomplished. I think that I will be working a lot with getting them organized and getting them able to have more constructive meetings. An additional problem is that many of the members do not attend meetings.
Right now there is a volunteer COSing (close of service) in Dajabon about 15 minutes away from me. Yesterday I attended her going away party that was thrown by the association of bee keepers that she was working with for the last 2 years. They presented her with so many plaques and certificates it was unreal. I hope I will be able to figure out a way to make such an impact on my association, but right now it seems like I can't even figure out with is going on! Other volunteers that have been here awhile tell me that I should not stress about it because this is how everyone feels at the beginning...clueless! :) So, I am trying to just keep calm and not worry about it too much. It will all come together eventually.
As for all of you--keep saving those pennies to come visit. I really think that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to come see and learn about developing country first hand...and take a few trips to different beaches as well. Love you all and miss you all.
As far as my community diagnostic goes, I am feeling a little bit panicky. I have been going to all of my community meetings to keep trying to learn more but it is hard to imagine getting a report written and a presentation formed within the next 2 1/2 months. It seems like a lot of time right now, but when the days go by slow and the weeks fairly quickly it gets me a little worried. The only things that I have started to work on so far are my community map and some interviews to learn more about the financial situations of different families. It blows my mind that familys of 3-5 people are living off of 200-300 US dollars a month. We would not dream of that in the states! Although necessities are a cheaper here, $200-300 does not go far. So, you are probably wondering how these interviews will come into play for my community diagnostic. I am learning about how families spend and save their money so that I can see if there are ways that they could do things better. This will be included in my two year plan if I see it necessary to give "charlas" or, presentations, over financial planning and basic accounting skills that they can use. I have found that most families to do not really know what their actually income is because they don't have a set income from month to month. This is due to the fact that they are selling a few nuts or mangos here or giving a few moto rides there.
I am also continuing to attend community meetings and association meetings of my fruit producer group. I am trying to work on an organizational diagnostic with Andres, my project partner, but that is coming along slowly if at all. At the meetings, the members are constantly trying to talk at the same time and nothing every really gets accomplished. I think that I will be working a lot with getting them organized and getting them able to have more constructive meetings. An additional problem is that many of the members do not attend meetings.
Right now there is a volunteer COSing (close of service) in Dajabon about 15 minutes away from me. Yesterday I attended her going away party that was thrown by the association of bee keepers that she was working with for the last 2 years. They presented her with so many plaques and certificates it was unreal. I hope I will be able to figure out a way to make such an impact on my association, but right now it seems like I can't even figure out with is going on! Other volunteers that have been here awhile tell me that I should not stress about it because this is how everyone feels at the beginning...clueless! :) So, I am trying to just keep calm and not worry about it too much. It will all come together eventually.
As for all of you--keep saving those pennies to come visit. I really think that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to come see and learn about developing country first hand...and take a few trips to different beaches as well. Love you all and miss you all.
11.03.2009
Life @ my site
I swore in as a volunteer about a week ago and came back to my site on Friday. I think it is going to be a lot harder getting started in my community that I had originally thought before getting out here. I have no idea where to begin as far as the fruit producer group goes but I have spoken with some people about the problems that exist and also was giving a "course" on how they plant and grow the fruit here. Basically there are 3 parts to growing the fruit. To my understanding, first they plant the seeds for the fruit in bags in something called a "jimanadero" and after 15 days they replant in the "vivero". The vivero is somewhat of a nursery where the seeds continue to grow for 45 days and then they go to the fields to continue growing until the fruit is ripe. I will probably continue to learn the process for this, as of right now that is the most that I got out of the "course" that a man named Gregorio taught me.
Right now I have decided to just focus myself on getting to know members of the community better and try to look for opportunities for secondary projects. So far I have taken notice that many families do not have bathrooms (latrines) and this could be a possibility for a project later on if I can find the resources to do it. Also, some members of the community have approached me about wanting to learn English and I think that that could be an option to start here in the upcoming month. For now, I plan to just settle in to my community and talk to people about their needs and wants. There are also some things going on in and around my community right now and some events have taken place that make me a little nervous about my safety and I know that I need to take precautions for the time being until I know my surroundings better. Thats all for now..:) Stay tuned for more.
Right now I have decided to just focus myself on getting to know members of the community better and try to look for opportunities for secondary projects. So far I have taken notice that many families do not have bathrooms (latrines) and this could be a possibility for a project later on if I can find the resources to do it. Also, some members of the community have approached me about wanting to learn English and I think that that could be an option to start here in the upcoming month. For now, I plan to just settle in to my community and talk to people about their needs and wants. There are also some things going on in and around my community right now and some events have taken place that make me a little nervous about my safety and I know that I need to take precautions for the time being until I know my surroundings better. Thats all for now..:) Stay tuned for more.
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