Well Merry Christmas everyone! The Christmas celebration I had here was certainly different from what most of you might have done for the holiday, but it was fun and interesting nonetheless. Here in the DR people celebrate Christmas Eve moreso than Christmas day. The day was spent preparing food and cleaning the house for the dinner that would take place that night. At five I went to the Catholic mass (surprisingly, none of the other churches were having events on Christmas Eve). There weren't a whole lot of people who attended—many people were busy catching up with family members who had come back to the community to visit for the holidays, but the mass was nice nonetheless; we prayed, sang, and sang some more.
Upon returning I stopped by the "community oven" which is located in a community leader's backyard and was the spot where everyone was baking their chickens (most people here do not have ovens, so they paid a small fee to pay for gas to use the community oven on Christmas). We picked up our chicken and went back home. The electricity hadn't come on yet so we decided to wait until it came on to eat, however by 730 it still hadn't come on so we decided to eat anyways. We had baked chicken, bread, a salad of beets, eggs, potatoes and carrots, and spaghetti. That night was pretty mellow; once the electricity came back on my host family put on a movie and I went to visit the Canadian nuns and a few family members who were visiting them. We ended up going back into the church to look at the small Christmas tree that was lit up and we sang a few Christmas Carols (in French and Spanish) to make it feel a little more like Christmas.
Christmas day was a day of rest—all night people had been playing loud music and partying, and at 430 am the Catholic church had a service that mainly consisted of singing. Since I couldn't sleep with all the music anyway, a few of my host family members and I went up there to sing. We sang, drank ginger tea and had some Christmas candies. I returned home to sleep some more and spend the day visiting with people. The rest of the day was pretty mellow—Christmas day isn't really a day when people get presents (the kids got presents for the “Dia del nino”--day of the child, that were donated by a Canadian organization) but they do get new clothes—all the children that are enrolled in what I call the “church school” and have foreign sponsors get a check to go to a certain store and buy a new set of clothes. In the afternoon everyone dressed up in their new clothes and paraded around, and when the kids got tired and went back home, the adults went out to celebrate in the discos.
Christmas night I went and sat with some of the “jovenes” (teens) that were not out in their new clothes because many of them could not afford them, or they did not want to go to the bars with the other jovenes. Instead, they were sitting in a circle with a drum, an empty paint can and a couple other makeshift instruments and they were singing, rapping and joking around. They sang their Evangelical songs, but also made up raps about the “Americana”(that would be me), and invited me to sing (I sang “Jingle Bells” for them). At times half the circle was laughing hysterically because of some rap one of the kids was singing or the way they were dancing. That might have been the best part of my day; seeing that these kids, though they have very little, can be incredibly creative and enjoy themselves as much, if not more, than anyone else.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
December 12th, 2008--Just workin
My life lately has been a mixture of formal work in the school and after school programs as well as lots of informal work, such as getting to know people and identifying areas in the community that need to be strengthened. I continue teaching PE classes which exhausts me every time (these kids have a lot of energy and little discipline) and I have also taught some English classes to 7th and 6th graders. The government says that starting in 6th grade the kids must learn English, however the teachers at the school right now were trained to teach a specific subject in the high school and so they never learned English and cannot teach it very well. I am trying my best to teach the kids the basics, but there is very little time in the day to teach them.
I have also filled in every once in a while at the after school program and continue meeting with youth twice a week to plan events and organize “charlas” or “talks”. I had discussed with the boys organizing a baseball tournament, because in past years the older boys always played a tournament that lasted several weekends in December and January, but in the past couple years no one has taken the leadership of it and last year the tournament didn't happen at all. With a little guidance from me, the boys planned what they needed to do in order to begin the tournament (the most work was cutting all the grass that had grown on the baseball field—the boys probably put in 15 hours cutting the grass with machetes) and by the time I had returned from Thanksgiving the tournament had been planned and they played that Saturday for the first time. I was so happy to see them organizing it almost completely by themselves, all they needed was a little help from me to begin with, but then they took off! They have three teams that play two games every weekend, and they are keeping some stats and at the end the winning team with receive a trophy and the most valuable player will receive a medal.
The after school program funded by foreign donors also organized a volleyball team for the girls in the community, and I am serving as referee when the girls play. The games, though there are no lines and a very low net, get very heated, yesterday I had 4 girls screaming at the top of their lungs at me and each other about a call I made. Luckily they forget about it quickly and move on to the next point where they are cheering because they won.
Informally I have spent time getting to know more people and learning a little bit of Kreyol. Also, because it is the end of the semester a lot of the high schoolers are studying for exams or filling out take home exams that I have been helping with. I am beginning to understand why people put their kids in private schools if they can here, because there is very little support and instruction in the public schools. For example, the kids are supposed to learn English in school, but the professor gives them very little instruction and then a difficult take home exam. A lot of these kids have come to me to have me fill out the take home exam because they have absolutely no idea how to do it. Another thing; the kids have to pay for the take home exam (30 pesos each, about a dollar) which they can basically have anybody (such as a native English speaker) fill out, while the kids who do not pay have to take a monitored exam during the school day. This kind of system makes me very greatful for how demanding and dedicated my teachers were in the US!
The next couple weeks involve a trip to the beach to relax a little, and then lots and lots of Christmas activities (the public school, after school program and the church school are all making food and giving gifts to the kids)!
I have also filled in every once in a while at the after school program and continue meeting with youth twice a week to plan events and organize “charlas” or “talks”. I had discussed with the boys organizing a baseball tournament, because in past years the older boys always played a tournament that lasted several weekends in December and January, but in the past couple years no one has taken the leadership of it and last year the tournament didn't happen at all. With a little guidance from me, the boys planned what they needed to do in order to begin the tournament (the most work was cutting all the grass that had grown on the baseball field—the boys probably put in 15 hours cutting the grass with machetes) and by the time I had returned from Thanksgiving the tournament had been planned and they played that Saturday for the first time. I was so happy to see them organizing it almost completely by themselves, all they needed was a little help from me to begin with, but then they took off! They have three teams that play two games every weekend, and they are keeping some stats and at the end the winning team with receive a trophy and the most valuable player will receive a medal.
The after school program funded by foreign donors also organized a volleyball team for the girls in the community, and I am serving as referee when the girls play. The games, though there are no lines and a very low net, get very heated, yesterday I had 4 girls screaming at the top of their lungs at me and each other about a call I made. Luckily they forget about it quickly and move on to the next point where they are cheering because they won.
Informally I have spent time getting to know more people and learning a little bit of Kreyol. Also, because it is the end of the semester a lot of the high schoolers are studying for exams or filling out take home exams that I have been helping with. I am beginning to understand why people put their kids in private schools if they can here, because there is very little support and instruction in the public schools. For example, the kids are supposed to learn English in school, but the professor gives them very little instruction and then a difficult take home exam. A lot of these kids have come to me to have me fill out the take home exam because they have absolutely no idea how to do it. Another thing; the kids have to pay for the take home exam (30 pesos each, about a dollar) which they can basically have anybody (such as a native English speaker) fill out, while the kids who do not pay have to take a monitored exam during the school day. This kind of system makes me very greatful for how demanding and dedicated my teachers were in the US!
The next couple weeks involve a trip to the beach to relax a little, and then lots and lots of Christmas activities (the public school, after school program and the church school are all making food and giving gifts to the kids)!
December 3rd, 2008--My Friends
Well here in town I have made many friends; little children, old ladies, middle aged women, old men, teenagers, etc... I have also made some not so common friends:
My latrine—I'll spare you all the details, but beginning the first night that I arrived I have had some stomach problems, and so me and my latrine have become very good friends, I am happy going to it for help at all hours of the day and night, and it accepts me kindly.
My cell phone—this is obvious, it keeps me mildly in touch with the rest of the world, and whenever I need a break from my host family I tell them I'm going to make a call and go into the countryside where I get better signal, and a break!
Recently I have had several friends that would not go away when I wanted to sleep: I had mice in my bedspring. For about a week now I could hear them scurrying around somewhere under my bed. My host mom put some poison in my room and we found one dead next to the poison the next day, but I still heard the noises. Last night my host brother saw a rat scurrying towards my room, and so my host mom put a rat trap in my room. At about midnight I heard “snap!” and then rodent shrieks, then the sound of the metal scratching around on the concrete floor, and then nothing. I knew the mouse was dead, but I didn't want to see it. I tried to sleep and I woke up again early in the morning to the sound of more scuffling under my bed. In the morning I went outside to listen to the radio (where it gets better signal) and told my host mom that a rat had been killed in my room. I am trying to be independent and prove to my family that I can do normal Dominican things such as cook and clean, but I decided to leave this chore to one of my family members—I'm not that brave yet!
As I was sitting outside she came out with the rat trap—the rat was pretty large and pretty dead, which was a relief. Unfortunately, I still knew that there were more wandering around down there. This afternoon my host sister informed me that she had seen a dead mouse in my box spring, and finally we got the courage up to try to get it out. My host sister and I moved the mattress out into the hall and with our neighbor we tipped the box spring up, and there was not one but three mice scurrying around and one rotted mouse head sitting there on the floor. I never thought I would be one to scream when seeing a mice, but me and my neighbor and my sister shrieked a little, and the children came running to see what all the fuss was about. My neighbor yelled for a stick to kill them and my host sister came back with a machete, but my neighbor wanted something large and blunt. A boy ran in with the handle of a broom and my neighbor batted around a little, but in the end the mice ran into the next room free. At the very least they are not in my box spring anymore....
A couple minutes later the pastor of a church came by to inform me that they also have a mice problem, and that mice seem to be infesting a lot of the houses in the area. Great...I'm gonna keep looking around for a cat, it seems the only way to keep these mice away!
My latrine—I'll spare you all the details, but beginning the first night that I arrived I have had some stomach problems, and so me and my latrine have become very good friends, I am happy going to it for help at all hours of the day and night, and it accepts me kindly.
My cell phone—this is obvious, it keeps me mildly in touch with the rest of the world, and whenever I need a break from my host family I tell them I'm going to make a call and go into the countryside where I get better signal, and a break!
Recently I have had several friends that would not go away when I wanted to sleep: I had mice in my bedspring. For about a week now I could hear them scurrying around somewhere under my bed. My host mom put some poison in my room and we found one dead next to the poison the next day, but I still heard the noises. Last night my host brother saw a rat scurrying towards my room, and so my host mom put a rat trap in my room. At about midnight I heard “snap!” and then rodent shrieks, then the sound of the metal scratching around on the concrete floor, and then nothing. I knew the mouse was dead, but I didn't want to see it. I tried to sleep and I woke up again early in the morning to the sound of more scuffling under my bed. In the morning I went outside to listen to the radio (where it gets better signal) and told my host mom that a rat had been killed in my room. I am trying to be independent and prove to my family that I can do normal Dominican things such as cook and clean, but I decided to leave this chore to one of my family members—I'm not that brave yet!
As I was sitting outside she came out with the rat trap—the rat was pretty large and pretty dead, which was a relief. Unfortunately, I still knew that there were more wandering around down there. This afternoon my host sister informed me that she had seen a dead mouse in my box spring, and finally we got the courage up to try to get it out. My host sister and I moved the mattress out into the hall and with our neighbor we tipped the box spring up, and there was not one but three mice scurrying around and one rotted mouse head sitting there on the floor. I never thought I would be one to scream when seeing a mice, but me and my neighbor and my sister shrieked a little, and the children came running to see what all the fuss was about. My neighbor yelled for a stick to kill them and my host sister came back with a machete, but my neighbor wanted something large and blunt. A boy ran in with the handle of a broom and my neighbor batted around a little, but in the end the mice ran into the next room free. At the very least they are not in my box spring anymore....
A couple minutes later the pastor of a church came by to inform me that they also have a mice problem, and that mice seem to be infesting a lot of the houses in the area. Great...I'm gonna keep looking around for a cat, it seems the only way to keep these mice away!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
November 20, 2008--A Rainy Day in the Batey
Last night when I went to bed there were dark rain clouds on the horizon. I assumed it would pour for an hour or so at night, as it sometimes does, and be sunny the next day. But when I woke up in the middle of the night it was raining very lightly, and it continued this morning and throughout the day. This was the first day it had rained all day, and it was also the first day I had worn jeans in the community (yes, it was that cold!)
I took this opportunity to sleep in a little longer, and get caught up on some “documentation” of interviews and meetings that I had to do. I didn't feel too bad about staying in the house, because nobody else was leaving their houses either. The professors for the public school never arrived, and classes were cancelled in one of the after/before school programs. It's not that it was raining that hard, in fact, it was basically sprinkling all day, but since there are no paved roads, any time there is any water at all in the streets it makes them very muddy and difficult to get anywhere. So all day, everybody was in their house.
After I got done doing some work I came and sat with my family. The girls were doing some chores, my host mom was cooking and a neighbor who lives next door but comes over to eat with us (since he's not married and doesn't have a wife to cook for him) was sitting in the room as well. I decided this was the perfect time to start learning Kreyol, up until now I have only mastered how to say “How are you?” in Kreyol, but this alone charms all the old Haitian men who come and greet me. So I began asking our neighbor how to say certain things. He is a small, wirey though still strong man who came from Haiti forty years ago to work in the sugar cane fields. He now grows some food on a plot of land he has, and he always brings us bananas and plaintains to eat and sell to others. He is one of the ones who is particularly thrilled that I can say “I am good, how are you?” in Kreyol. So he started naming things around the room in Kreyol, and I went writing them down phonetically, since Kreyol is basically a phonetic language. My host mom would chime in every once in a while with a word as well. Soon I had two pages full of words, but remembered very few. Thanks to my French skills however, I was able to impress my family by counting in Kreyol (the numbers are basically the same as French).
When it finally stopped raining for a while I made a very slippery trek over to the health clinic. The clinic is run by the government and has a nurse and an intern (a student who has studied medicine in the university for 5 years and is now giving a year to the governmet) who live there during the week days and then leave and go back to their homes in the city during the weekends. Today the doctor was the only one in the clinic, so I got to sit down with her and do a little bit of interrogating about the health in the community. Some of the problems she sees most frequently have to do with parasites, dehydration of children (a result of vomiting and diahrrea, which is also related to parasites), diabetes, high blood pressure and a lack of folic acid in the older population. We also discussed the absence of family planning and the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the community. It was interesting to talk to her about what she has seen so far, and how important education is in preventing things such as parasites and dehydration.
I had been chatting with her for about an hour when four teenage boys came in carrying a seven year old who was crying. They explained that he had jumped off of a wall and cut his foot on a piece of zinc (tin). He foot was bleeding a lot, and so the kids laid him on the operating table and the doctor began to clean the wound and stitch it up. When she gave him the shot he started screaming and crying because he thought that the doctor was going to amputate his foot, which of course the teenage boys were telling him was going to happen. He tried to get off the table and the 4 boys and I had to use all of our strength to hold him down. We had to hold him there for a good six or seven minutes while she was stitching up his foot, and for about 5 minutes he was screaming and crying and yelling curse words that I only recently learned. When the doctor was about finished his parents came in. They didn't seem particularly worried or sympathetic; they just stood there and said, "I told you not to leave the house, now are you going to wear your shoes?" The doctor told them that they had to be sure and get him another tetanus shot (the clinic hasn't received the medicine from the government lately so the family has to take the 45 minute motorcycle ride to the nearest town to get it), and gave him some more medicine. Then one of the boys carried him to his house on his back.
I asked the doctor if she had to stitch up a lot of kids, and she said it happened very frequently, and once two boys came in together because they had been throwing rocks at each other and both needed stitches in their head. I must say, this community is certainly lucky that it has this clinic to patch them up when things like this happen!
**Note--three days letter I went to the little boy's house to check on him, he was already running around and in perfectly good shape, despite the fact he had three stitches!
I took this opportunity to sleep in a little longer, and get caught up on some “documentation” of interviews and meetings that I had to do. I didn't feel too bad about staying in the house, because nobody else was leaving their houses either. The professors for the public school never arrived, and classes were cancelled in one of the after/before school programs. It's not that it was raining that hard, in fact, it was basically sprinkling all day, but since there are no paved roads, any time there is any water at all in the streets it makes them very muddy and difficult to get anywhere. So all day, everybody was in their house.
After I got done doing some work I came and sat with my family. The girls were doing some chores, my host mom was cooking and a neighbor who lives next door but comes over to eat with us (since he's not married and doesn't have a wife to cook for him) was sitting in the room as well. I decided this was the perfect time to start learning Kreyol, up until now I have only mastered how to say “How are you?” in Kreyol, but this alone charms all the old Haitian men who come and greet me. So I began asking our neighbor how to say certain things. He is a small, wirey though still strong man who came from Haiti forty years ago to work in the sugar cane fields. He now grows some food on a plot of land he has, and he always brings us bananas and plaintains to eat and sell to others. He is one of the ones who is particularly thrilled that I can say “I am good, how are you?” in Kreyol. So he started naming things around the room in Kreyol, and I went writing them down phonetically, since Kreyol is basically a phonetic language. My host mom would chime in every once in a while with a word as well. Soon I had two pages full of words, but remembered very few. Thanks to my French skills however, I was able to impress my family by counting in Kreyol (the numbers are basically the same as French).
When it finally stopped raining for a while I made a very slippery trek over to the health clinic. The clinic is run by the government and has a nurse and an intern (a student who has studied medicine in the university for 5 years and is now giving a year to the governmet) who live there during the week days and then leave and go back to their homes in the city during the weekends. Today the doctor was the only one in the clinic, so I got to sit down with her and do a little bit of interrogating about the health in the community. Some of the problems she sees most frequently have to do with parasites, dehydration of children (a result of vomiting and diahrrea, which is also related to parasites), diabetes, high blood pressure and a lack of folic acid in the older population. We also discussed the absence of family planning and the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the community. It was interesting to talk to her about what she has seen so far, and how important education is in preventing things such as parasites and dehydration.
I had been chatting with her for about an hour when four teenage boys came in carrying a seven year old who was crying. They explained that he had jumped off of a wall and cut his foot on a piece of zinc (tin). He foot was bleeding a lot, and so the kids laid him on the operating table and the doctor began to clean the wound and stitch it up. When she gave him the shot he started screaming and crying because he thought that the doctor was going to amputate his foot, which of course the teenage boys were telling him was going to happen. He tried to get off the table and the 4 boys and I had to use all of our strength to hold him down. We had to hold him there for a good six or seven minutes while she was stitching up his foot, and for about 5 minutes he was screaming and crying and yelling curse words that I only recently learned. When the doctor was about finished his parents came in. They didn't seem particularly worried or sympathetic; they just stood there and said, "I told you not to leave the house, now are you going to wear your shoes?" The doctor told them that they had to be sure and get him another tetanus shot (the clinic hasn't received the medicine from the government lately so the family has to take the 45 minute motorcycle ride to the nearest town to get it), and gave him some more medicine. Then one of the boys carried him to his house on his back.
I asked the doctor if she had to stitch up a lot of kids, and she said it happened very frequently, and once two boys came in together because they had been throwing rocks at each other and both needed stitches in their head. I must say, this community is certainly lucky that it has this clinic to patch them up when things like this happen!
**Note--three days letter I went to the little boy's house to check on him, he was already running around and in perfectly good shape, despite the fact he had three stitches!
November 15th, 2008--My new job(s)
Well things are certainly picking up here in Las Pajas, I have now officially become the community photographer/lifeguard/PE teacher/youth organizer (what my real job is supposed to be)/community documenter.
Let me start off by saying that, as most of you know, I'm not one to sit around all day not doing anything. So although Peace Corps wants us to focus on our “Community Diagnostic” for these first three months, I have decided that it's not going to take up enough of my time, so I have taken it upon myself to find other things to occupy my time. One of those things has become teaching PE at the local elementary school. Previously I had gone and visited several classes at the public school and helped teach some classes at what would be the equivalent to an after school program in the US. It's actually another school run by a community member here; kids from k-4th grade go to this school the first part of the day, and the public school the second part of the day. This school evolved because public schools here only offer 3-4 hours of schooling a day, and adding in recess and settling down time, the kids only get about 2.5 hours of instruction daily. To make up for that, many communities, including mine, have these before or after school programs. When one of the teachers can't make it, I sometimes stand in for them and try to teach a class to third or 4th graders. Believe me, it is NOT easy, I now have so much more respect for teachers anywhere, but especially elementary school teachers! Part of the problem is that these kids are squished into small, hot spaces to learn, and there are so many children that it is hard to keep them under control. They also, understandably, have a ton of energy and nowhere to expend it. That's how I got the idea to teach PE. Two Canadian nuns who are working in the community and I met with the elementary school teachers and told them what our strengths were and asked them where they needed help. They jumped at the idea of giving the kids PE classes, because they have so much built up energy that goes towards fighting and being rowdy. So last week I began giving PE classes, however I ran into several challenges:
1. There are no balls or bats at the school. The other day I asked the kids if they wanted to play baseball and they said yes, they found a little squishy ball and broke a stick in half to use as a bat. It worked fairly well, I must admit, but it would be better to have the real thing.
2. There is no field or court in the school. There used to be a concrete court with basketball hoops, however the hoops have since broken off and the concrete has cracks. There is a field-ish area a little ways from the school, but taking a group of kids over there and trying to keep track of them would be a nightmare.
So my version of PE for these kids (I had 3rd and 4th graders one day and 5th and 6th graders the other) was running around a lot, stretching, playing an active version of “Simon Says” and teaching them some kickboxing moves (only the kicking part, I didn't want to start with the boxing and get them fighting with each other again!). Unfortunately, these things can only entertain them for so long, so after that we played some makeshift baseball. I am going to rack my brain for more activities for next week, but I have one more problem: I still haven't figured out how to say “play tag” en espanol...if anyone knows please let me know asap!
As I mentioned before, I have also become the town photographer. I took pictures of all the kids that go to the local high school 45 minutes away so that we could send the pictures to the Canadian donors who finance the trip. After that, my neighbor asked me to take pictures of her daughter's second birthday party, which I gladly did. Of course, my host family had to jump in on the fun too, so I was asked to take a picture of my pregnant host sister as a “7 month momento” and then, since the rest of the family didn't want to be left out, they had me take a picture of them as well. I have a feeling the picture taking is not going to stop any time soon!
Another job here: Lifeguard. Two weeks ago a large group of us (ranging from 4 year olds to 30 year olds, though I had only announced the event to my youth group) decided to trek to the river, which is about a half an hour away on foot. When we arrived the current was fairly strong, and since I was one of the few who could swim, I was charged with the task of helping other people across the river to the other side where there is a more beachy area. Some people were afraid of the current, but I have to admit that I don't know where knowing how to swim would have been much help—this part of the river was only about 2 feet deep. I was also in charge of making sure the little kids didn't cross into the deeper part of the river.
My real job: Youth organizer. My youth group has been making a lot of progress, and every time more kids show up than I would have ever expected! We can only meet at about 8pm because of all the activities and different schedules the kids have. The problem with meeting so late is that occasionally we do not have electricity at this time, and we can't have a successful meeting. Two nights ago we were going to meet and talk about the different sports they wanted in the community, but the electricity didn't come on until 9pm, so there was no meeting. The next night, when we were planning on meeting and discussing how to clean up the community, there were kids coming at 730 and 745 just waiting for the meeting to start. In the end we had about 30 kids listening to the doctor talk about cleanliness, and then discussing what we need to start a volleyball and baseball team. It's amazing that these kids are so enthusiastic about these activities, and I love seeing them take the responsibility for getting things done!
Last job: Community Documenter. Since I am doing interviews now with different people in the community, we are asking them what kinds of things affect the community and what they would like to see in the community. Almost everybody says that the road leading out of the community is a huge problem; there is only one road and it hasn't been maintained since the sugar cane company was up and running about 12 years ago. Because of it's current state, a 12 kilometer trip to town (a little more than 7 miles) takes 30-45 minutes on a motorcycle, and is incredibly unpleasant. If the road were in better shape, people would be able to travel more quickly and frequently to the nearest town to study and work.
The other main problem that affects the community is unemployment; ever since the sugar cane company closed down there has been no steady employment in the community. Most people live off of their gardens where they grow plaintains, yucca, potatoes, etc... In order to make a little more money people make and sell small snacks, such as pieces of bread or candied coconut. Many people get a little bit of help from the government, but when we went around interviewing people we would ask them what financial resources they depend on, or to put it more simply, “How do you eat or get your food”? A lot of the people interviewed simply said, “Sometimes we don't eat.” So with some other youth in the community we have gone around asking these kinds of questions to community members and documenting their answers. In January I hope to present my findings to the entire community, so that they know they are all concerned with the same issues and from there we can begin working on thinking about what we have in the community and how we can use it to solve some of the problems that exist here.
Let me start off by saying that, as most of you know, I'm not one to sit around all day not doing anything. So although Peace Corps wants us to focus on our “Community Diagnostic” for these first three months, I have decided that it's not going to take up enough of my time, so I have taken it upon myself to find other things to occupy my time. One of those things has become teaching PE at the local elementary school. Previously I had gone and visited several classes at the public school and helped teach some classes at what would be the equivalent to an after school program in the US. It's actually another school run by a community member here; kids from k-4th grade go to this school the first part of the day, and the public school the second part of the day. This school evolved because public schools here only offer 3-4 hours of schooling a day, and adding in recess and settling down time, the kids only get about 2.5 hours of instruction daily. To make up for that, many communities, including mine, have these before or after school programs. When one of the teachers can't make it, I sometimes stand in for them and try to teach a class to third or 4th graders. Believe me, it is NOT easy, I now have so much more respect for teachers anywhere, but especially elementary school teachers! Part of the problem is that these kids are squished into small, hot spaces to learn, and there are so many children that it is hard to keep them under control. They also, understandably, have a ton of energy and nowhere to expend it. That's how I got the idea to teach PE. Two Canadian nuns who are working in the community and I met with the elementary school teachers and told them what our strengths were and asked them where they needed help. They jumped at the idea of giving the kids PE classes, because they have so much built up energy that goes towards fighting and being rowdy. So last week I began giving PE classes, however I ran into several challenges:
1. There are no balls or bats at the school. The other day I asked the kids if they wanted to play baseball and they said yes, they found a little squishy ball and broke a stick in half to use as a bat. It worked fairly well, I must admit, but it would be better to have the real thing.
2. There is no field or court in the school. There used to be a concrete court with basketball hoops, however the hoops have since broken off and the concrete has cracks. There is a field-ish area a little ways from the school, but taking a group of kids over there and trying to keep track of them would be a nightmare.
So my version of PE for these kids (I had 3rd and 4th graders one day and 5th and 6th graders the other) was running around a lot, stretching, playing an active version of “Simon Says” and teaching them some kickboxing moves (only the kicking part, I didn't want to start with the boxing and get them fighting with each other again!). Unfortunately, these things can only entertain them for so long, so after that we played some makeshift baseball. I am going to rack my brain for more activities for next week, but I have one more problem: I still haven't figured out how to say “play tag” en espanol...if anyone knows please let me know asap!
As I mentioned before, I have also become the town photographer. I took pictures of all the kids that go to the local high school 45 minutes away so that we could send the pictures to the Canadian donors who finance the trip. After that, my neighbor asked me to take pictures of her daughter's second birthday party, which I gladly did. Of course, my host family had to jump in on the fun too, so I was asked to take a picture of my pregnant host sister as a “7 month momento” and then, since the rest of the family didn't want to be left out, they had me take a picture of them as well. I have a feeling the picture taking is not going to stop any time soon!
Another job here: Lifeguard. Two weeks ago a large group of us (ranging from 4 year olds to 30 year olds, though I had only announced the event to my youth group) decided to trek to the river, which is about a half an hour away on foot. When we arrived the current was fairly strong, and since I was one of the few who could swim, I was charged with the task of helping other people across the river to the other side where there is a more beachy area. Some people were afraid of the current, but I have to admit that I don't know where knowing how to swim would have been much help—this part of the river was only about 2 feet deep. I was also in charge of making sure the little kids didn't cross into the deeper part of the river.
My real job: Youth organizer. My youth group has been making a lot of progress, and every time more kids show up than I would have ever expected! We can only meet at about 8pm because of all the activities and different schedules the kids have. The problem with meeting so late is that occasionally we do not have electricity at this time, and we can't have a successful meeting. Two nights ago we were going to meet and talk about the different sports they wanted in the community, but the electricity didn't come on until 9pm, so there was no meeting. The next night, when we were planning on meeting and discussing how to clean up the community, there were kids coming at 730 and 745 just waiting for the meeting to start. In the end we had about 30 kids listening to the doctor talk about cleanliness, and then discussing what we need to start a volleyball and baseball team. It's amazing that these kids are so enthusiastic about these activities, and I love seeing them take the responsibility for getting things done!
Last job: Community Documenter. Since I am doing interviews now with different people in the community, we are asking them what kinds of things affect the community and what they would like to see in the community. Almost everybody says that the road leading out of the community is a huge problem; there is only one road and it hasn't been maintained since the sugar cane company was up and running about 12 years ago. Because of it's current state, a 12 kilometer trip to town (a little more than 7 miles) takes 30-45 minutes on a motorcycle, and is incredibly unpleasant. If the road were in better shape, people would be able to travel more quickly and frequently to the nearest town to study and work.
The other main problem that affects the community is unemployment; ever since the sugar cane company closed down there has been no steady employment in the community. Most people live off of their gardens where they grow plaintains, yucca, potatoes, etc... In order to make a little more money people make and sell small snacks, such as pieces of bread or candied coconut. Many people get a little bit of help from the government, but when we went around interviewing people we would ask them what financial resources they depend on, or to put it more simply, “How do you eat or get your food”? A lot of the people interviewed simply said, “Sometimes we don't eat.” So with some other youth in the community we have gone around asking these kinds of questions to community members and documenting their answers. In January I hope to present my findings to the entire community, so that they know they are all concerned with the same issues and from there we can begin working on thinking about what we have in the community and how we can use it to solve some of the problems that exist here.
November 8, 2008--Daily Activities
Some of you may be wondering what exactly it is I'm doing here in my community, especially since I have just arrived and haven't started any projects. Well, it's a legitimate question, and it's one I'm asking myself every day. For the first three months that I am here in the batey I am supposed to be doing a community diagnostic (basically researching the community, getting to know people and getting to know what the community needs and wants from me). This of course means that I have to be pretty self-motivated, because nobody else here really knows that much or cares much about this diagnostic. This first week here I have spent a lot of time just seeing the area and getting to know people. Here is a normal daily schedule:
630 am Wake up, go running with some of the local youth
730 am bath and eat breakfast
730-830 or 9 am Sit on my porch, write in my diary, watch the kids going to school, say hi to everyone who passes
9-12 Go visit the school, or the after school program or the church school. Sometimes at the before school program I'll be asked to stand in for a teacher if someone is absent (let me tell you, I was not prepared the first time to teach a bunch of 3rd graders!)
12-3 Sit on my porch, eat lunch, chat with neighbors, moan about the heat
3-5 or 6 Visit school or church school again, go out and sit and chat with other families in the community, maybe jump in on a game of baseball or volleyball
6-8 Sit on my porch, try to help prepare dinner, hope that the electricity comes on
Rest of the night: Sometimes I go to a church service or youth group meeting, but other times just sit outside and chat with people.
My work on the diagnostic will become more concrete soon: I am planning on interviewing a lot of youth in the community as well as visiting houses and interviewing the families. I would also like to do a couple focus groups with the neighborhood association and the public school teachers. Just recently the pastor I am working with made the kids receiving scholarships to go to high school form a youth group, and he put me in charge of it. This has taken up some time in my day, because we have met several times (once to take a trip to the river) and just last night I did an activity with them that will help me with my diagnostic. However, these meetings only take up an hour or two or my day, and the rest of my time, there is lots of sitting and chatting involved in my “work”. Sometimes it comes easily, other times I just sit in silence with my neighbors, and every once in a while we'll comment on someone walking by, or the weather, or the electricity situation.
While I'm at it, let me explain this electricity situation: when I was here visiting before, there was a schedule; the electricity would come on at about 9 am and last till about 1pm, then go out till 7pm when it would come back on and stay on the rest of the night. It was fairly reliable and pretty convenient. Now, what the people here are saying is that the government owes the power companies lots of money which it has yet to pay, and so the power companies are cutting the electricity more frequently and everybody in the country is suffering. This past week we've never really known when the electricity will come back on, so when it gets dark we all just sit outside chatting, and when the lights come back on everybody claps and cheers and gets up to tend to things inside the house. Sometimes it's nice to have the chance to just sit and chat, but other times I'm dying to get back in the house and read or clean my room or do a number of other things that are hard to do by flashlight.
630 am Wake up, go running with some of the local youth
730 am bath and eat breakfast
730-830 or 9 am Sit on my porch, write in my diary, watch the kids going to school, say hi to everyone who passes
9-12 Go visit the school, or the after school program or the church school. Sometimes at the before school program I'll be asked to stand in for a teacher if someone is absent (let me tell you, I was not prepared the first time to teach a bunch of 3rd graders!)
12-3 Sit on my porch, eat lunch, chat with neighbors, moan about the heat
3-5 or 6 Visit school or church school again, go out and sit and chat with other families in the community, maybe jump in on a game of baseball or volleyball
6-8 Sit on my porch, try to help prepare dinner, hope that the electricity comes on
Rest of the night: Sometimes I go to a church service or youth group meeting, but other times just sit outside and chat with people.
My work on the diagnostic will become more concrete soon: I am planning on interviewing a lot of youth in the community as well as visiting houses and interviewing the families. I would also like to do a couple focus groups with the neighborhood association and the public school teachers. Just recently the pastor I am working with made the kids receiving scholarships to go to high school form a youth group, and he put me in charge of it. This has taken up some time in my day, because we have met several times (once to take a trip to the river) and just last night I did an activity with them that will help me with my diagnostic. However, these meetings only take up an hour or two or my day, and the rest of my time, there is lots of sitting and chatting involved in my “work”. Sometimes it comes easily, other times I just sit in silence with my neighbors, and every once in a while we'll comment on someone walking by, or the weather, or the electricity situation.
While I'm at it, let me explain this electricity situation: when I was here visiting before, there was a schedule; the electricity would come on at about 9 am and last till about 1pm, then go out till 7pm when it would come back on and stay on the rest of the night. It was fairly reliable and pretty convenient. Now, what the people here are saying is that the government owes the power companies lots of money which it has yet to pay, and so the power companies are cutting the electricity more frequently and everybody in the country is suffering. This past week we've never really known when the electricity will come back on, so when it gets dark we all just sit outside chatting, and when the lights come back on everybody claps and cheers and gets up to tend to things inside the house. Sometimes it's nice to have the chance to just sit and chat, but other times I'm dying to get back in the house and read or clean my room or do a number of other things that are hard to do by flashlight.
November 2, 2008--Church Times three
Well today I accidentally went to church three times (I only intended to go once). As I have mentioned before, there is a large Evangelical population here in Las Pajas, but of course Catholicism is the dominant religion of the country, and accordingly there is a Catholic church in the community. Since I had already been to the Evangelical church services, and didn't want to give the impression that I preferred one religion over the other, so I told my host mother this morning that I would like to go to the Catholic service with her in the afternoon. I then left to go visit the host family of a former volunteer in the community (or so I thought). When I arrived at their house there was no one there, instead I found one of the youth leaders, who said that the family was in the church (an Evangelical church) and that I was welcome to come. Since I didn't have anything to do, I agreed to go. This group does their bible study on Sunday mornings, and they were all watching a video about religion. I stayed there for a while and then went back to my house.
After a hike into the hills with some of my host brothers and sisters and some neighbors, I came back to the house to get ready for the Catholic church service. I went with my host mom to the church, where there were about ten little kids playing the tambourines and drums and singing to begin the service. Since Las Pajas is so far away and a small community, a priest only comes once a month, and the rest of the time church members lead the services. Today two older members were leading the services. I must admit, I felt much more at home in this church, not because my beliefs fit more with one sect or the other, but because the service was much more like the ones I am used to in the United States—there was praying, some singing, and a short sermon. I had actually avoided the Catholic church services (and all church services in general) here in the DR up until I arrived in Las Pajas because I feared a long sermon, rituals that I wasn't accustomed to, and awkward parts of the service, such as communion, that I couldn't take part in because I am not Catholic. I was pleasantly surprised with this service; the sermon was short, the songs were fun and I didn't have to sing, since I didn't understand, but I happily clapped along, and when it came to communion, for some reason I don't quite understand, only the two people running the service and one other man took communion, which only consisted of a wafer, no wine. Nor did I have to do any kneeling, because in this church there is nowhere to kneel, and the floor is cement.
About halfway through the service there is a ritual, similar to most American churches, where everybody greets each other, usually with a handshake. Here however, no one is shy, so during this part, everyone greeted one another by saying “la Paz” (Peace) and hugging each other. I don't think I have ever gotten so many hugs by strangers in my life.
Towards the end of the service the man in front formally recognized my presence and thanked me for being there, which was very kind of him, so afterwards I went and thanked both the directors of the service, who then gave me another hug and told me I was always welcome. One thing that was very different from the Evangelical services was that this church was not full by any stretch of the imagination. There were a group of young children there, and then the rest of the churchgoers were mainly older parents and grandparents, there was no one my age or in the 15-30 year old range.
I came back to sit around with my host family, and quickly the electricity went out. We were sitting in the dark when a girl came by and asked me to go to her church service. Once again, since I didn't have anything to do, I went. This was a different Evangelical church that I went to this time, but the service was similar; lots of singing and dancing and a short sermon from the pastor, followed by lots more singing and dancing and a raffle for a bag of food in order to raise money for a new floor for the church. Though both kinds of services were fun to go to, I see myself going to the Catholic one more because, as I stated before, it reminds me more of churches in the United States. However, if things keep going as they are, I might end up going to a different church service every night of the week!
After a hike into the hills with some of my host brothers and sisters and some neighbors, I came back to the house to get ready for the Catholic church service. I went with my host mom to the church, where there were about ten little kids playing the tambourines and drums and singing to begin the service. Since Las Pajas is so far away and a small community, a priest only comes once a month, and the rest of the time church members lead the services. Today two older members were leading the services. I must admit, I felt much more at home in this church, not because my beliefs fit more with one sect or the other, but because the service was much more like the ones I am used to in the United States—there was praying, some singing, and a short sermon. I had actually avoided the Catholic church services (and all church services in general) here in the DR up until I arrived in Las Pajas because I feared a long sermon, rituals that I wasn't accustomed to, and awkward parts of the service, such as communion, that I couldn't take part in because I am not Catholic. I was pleasantly surprised with this service; the sermon was short, the songs were fun and I didn't have to sing, since I didn't understand, but I happily clapped along, and when it came to communion, for some reason I don't quite understand, only the two people running the service and one other man took communion, which only consisted of a wafer, no wine. Nor did I have to do any kneeling, because in this church there is nowhere to kneel, and the floor is cement.
About halfway through the service there is a ritual, similar to most American churches, where everybody greets each other, usually with a handshake. Here however, no one is shy, so during this part, everyone greeted one another by saying “la Paz” (Peace) and hugging each other. I don't think I have ever gotten so many hugs by strangers in my life.
Towards the end of the service the man in front formally recognized my presence and thanked me for being there, which was very kind of him, so afterwards I went and thanked both the directors of the service, who then gave me another hug and told me I was always welcome. One thing that was very different from the Evangelical services was that this church was not full by any stretch of the imagination. There were a group of young children there, and then the rest of the churchgoers were mainly older parents and grandparents, there was no one my age or in the 15-30 year old range.
I came back to sit around with my host family, and quickly the electricity went out. We were sitting in the dark when a girl came by and asked me to go to her church service. Once again, since I didn't have anything to do, I went. This was a different Evangelical church that I went to this time, but the service was similar; lots of singing and dancing and a short sermon from the pastor, followed by lots more singing and dancing and a raffle for a bag of food in order to raise money for a new floor for the church. Though both kinds of services were fun to go to, I see myself going to the Catholic one more because, as I stated before, it reminds me more of churches in the United States. However, if things keep going as they are, I might end up going to a different church service every night of the week!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Oh the internet
Hello Friends,
I am sad to report that the blogs that I have written on my computer will not open on this computer, so I cannot post them at this time, and with the little amount of time I have, I cannot rewrite them. However, I just wanted to let you all know that I am safe and sound in my community, pretty hidden from the rest of the world. I was able to find out that Obama won HOORAY, and I must say that everyone in the DR is also happy about it. Forgive me for not writing more, I promise I will try to find some way to post soon!
I am sad to report that the blogs that I have written on my computer will not open on this computer, so I cannot post them at this time, and with the little amount of time I have, I cannot rewrite them. However, I just wanted to let you all know that I am safe and sound in my community, pretty hidden from the rest of the world. I was able to find out that Obama won HOORAY, and I must say that everyone in the DR is also happy about it. Forgive me for not writing more, I promise I will try to find some way to post soon!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
My blog!
Hello friends!
Here is my new blog, the entries below are those that I have written in the ten weeks I have been here thus far. There are far more to come! Enjoy and keep in touch!
Here is my new blog, the entries below are those that I have written in the ten weeks I have been here thus far. There are far more to come! Enjoy and keep in touch!
October 23rd, 2008: One day in my community
The following is a description of just one of the days I spend in my community while visiting:
Today was a busy day, in the people sense of the word, not necessarily in the doing sense of the world. The morning was spent playing cards with my host brothers and sisters and the neighborhood children. Every once in a while new kids would stop by to introduce themselves and ask me when I was going to give English classes (that's the second most common question they ask me, apart from if I'm Canadian or not—a lot of Canadian volunteers come for small amounts of time). I try to talk to each of these kids, get a little bit of a sense of who they are, and of course memorize their names. We chat about baseball, school, their community, and I sometimes attempt to explain to them where I come from, though it's difficult to do without a map.
For about an hour my host brother and walked around to see more of the community; we went and saw where the clinic was, though we couldn't go in because it was closed. Then we went up on a hill to visit a barrio I hadn't seen yet. This barrio is a little more secluded and muuch more quiet, which was one of the reasons a women there said I should live in that barrio.
After lunch we sat on the patio more. A guy that works for one of the churches documenting the “adopted children” from that church came over and showed me all of his pictures of Canadians that had come by. After that I got ready to go to my meeting with the “jovenes” (young people). We tried to publicize it as much as possible, but it began to rain just when the meeting was supposed to start. This postponed it a bit and meant that only about 12 kids came. Still, it was good for me to introduce myself to them and get to know a bit about them. I asked them what they liked about their community, many mentioned the sense of unity that existed. I also asked them what they would like to see in their community. Many wanted more sports activities, some mentioned that they would like to have more laboral opportunities, and others, of course, wanted English classes. After the meeting I went back to my house, then walked with my sister to see the local disco, where people were beginning to arrive for a night of dancing and drinking. We did not go in, but I was able to meet a couple more jovenes, they are of course the ones that I would not meet at the churches. I am beginning to realize that it is important that I go to different places in the community so that I meet people from different groups.
At seven I was picked up to go to church. Seeing as I didn't go to church much in the US, and I had never been to an Evengelical church service, I was excited to see how this one would turn out. This particular church service was going to be lead by the youth group, and supposedly they had a special activity planned. We arrived by flashlight, since the electricity still hadn't come back, and I sat down and began to watch. I hadn't really thought about it when I sat down, but by chance, I sat down on the women's side of the church, it was only later that I realized that the two sides were separated! At the beginning there were lots of people singing and praying, then the service began, with different people leading songs and speaking about the bible. Towards the end of the service, during one song all the kids got up and began to dance around the room. Because of their religion, evangelicals are not able to dance normal dances, however they are able to move their bodies when praising God, and this is just what they were doing; in two separate lines the boys and girls marched up the aisle of the church moving their bodies, and then marched around the church. They did this several times, and every time they passed me I was smiling, no matter what you believe in, it was obvious that these kids were enjoying themselves and doing something they believed in. The jovenes were never able to do the activity they had planned because the electricity didn't come back in time, and the church was only lit by candlelight, but all the same it was an interesting, enjoyable service. I still have two more Evangelical and one more Catholic church to visit!
Today was a busy day, in the people sense of the word, not necessarily in the doing sense of the world. The morning was spent playing cards with my host brothers and sisters and the neighborhood children. Every once in a while new kids would stop by to introduce themselves and ask me when I was going to give English classes (that's the second most common question they ask me, apart from if I'm Canadian or not—a lot of Canadian volunteers come for small amounts of time). I try to talk to each of these kids, get a little bit of a sense of who they are, and of course memorize their names. We chat about baseball, school, their community, and I sometimes attempt to explain to them where I come from, though it's difficult to do without a map.
For about an hour my host brother and walked around to see more of the community; we went and saw where the clinic was, though we couldn't go in because it was closed. Then we went up on a hill to visit a barrio I hadn't seen yet. This barrio is a little more secluded and muuch more quiet, which was one of the reasons a women there said I should live in that barrio.
After lunch we sat on the patio more. A guy that works for one of the churches documenting the “adopted children” from that church came over and showed me all of his pictures of Canadians that had come by. After that I got ready to go to my meeting with the “jovenes” (young people). We tried to publicize it as much as possible, but it began to rain just when the meeting was supposed to start. This postponed it a bit and meant that only about 12 kids came. Still, it was good for me to introduce myself to them and get to know a bit about them. I asked them what they liked about their community, many mentioned the sense of unity that existed. I also asked them what they would like to see in their community. Many wanted more sports activities, some mentioned that they would like to have more laboral opportunities, and others, of course, wanted English classes. After the meeting I went back to my house, then walked with my sister to see the local disco, where people were beginning to arrive for a night of dancing and drinking. We did not go in, but I was able to meet a couple more jovenes, they are of course the ones that I would not meet at the churches. I am beginning to realize that it is important that I go to different places in the community so that I meet people from different groups.
At seven I was picked up to go to church. Seeing as I didn't go to church much in the US, and I had never been to an Evengelical church service, I was excited to see how this one would turn out. This particular church service was going to be lead by the youth group, and supposedly they had a special activity planned. We arrived by flashlight, since the electricity still hadn't come back, and I sat down and began to watch. I hadn't really thought about it when I sat down, but by chance, I sat down on the women's side of the church, it was only later that I realized that the two sides were separated! At the beginning there were lots of people singing and praying, then the service began, with different people leading songs and speaking about the bible. Towards the end of the service, during one song all the kids got up and began to dance around the room. Because of their religion, evangelicals are not able to dance normal dances, however they are able to move their bodies when praising God, and this is just what they were doing; in two separate lines the boys and girls marched up the aisle of the church moving their bodies, and then marched around the church. They did this several times, and every time they passed me I was smiling, no matter what you believe in, it was obvious that these kids were enjoying themselves and doing something they believed in. The jovenes were never able to do the activity they had planned because the electricity didn't come back in time, and the church was only lit by candlelight, but all the same it was an interesting, enjoyable service. I still have two more Evangelical and one more Catholic church to visit!
October 23rd, 2008: Visiting my new community
I arrived in Batey Las Pajas in the afternoon, after a long ride in a small bus along the coast, up into the sugar canes, and along a shaky, half rock, half dirt road. One of the first things I saw was the school, painted yellow as are all Dominican schools, surrounded by houses. One of my project partners (who I will be working with in the future, and who brought me from the capital to the batey) told me my house would be right in front of the school. My bags were brought on motorcycle around the road over to my house and then I was brought over to the house.
My house is a green, wooden house with a little porch. When I arrived two older women were sitting outside in plastic chairs, watching the people pass. I was immediately hugged and kissed by both of them, and introduced to one as my new host mother--the other quickly added that she lived in the houses next door and I could also consider her my mother. I then met two of my host sisters, a 17 year old and an 11 year old, who showed me the house. The house is simple, but has everything neccesary; it has electricity when available, a faucet in the back for water, cement floors, and a place to bathe as well as a latrine out back.
I spent the five days in my community getting to know the area and the community members. The batey gets a lot of support from churches in Canada, as well as a church in Colorado. Thanks to these churches, the community now has electricity and water faucets, as well as several different after school programs and many other programs to support the youth in the community. The people are very friendly; every time I was introduced to someone they got up and offered me their chair, telling me to sit down and chat.
The batey itself has four different “barrios,” and I have heard estimatesof between 250 and 350 houses total. It has a makeshift baseball field, four churches, a school, two after school centers and lots of little “colmados” (kiosk type stores). When walking around, greeting others, it is not uncommon to trip over a chicken, see a goat, or have to move out of the way for a herd of cows that are coming down the street. Outside of the batey there are field of sugar cane, open fields, and plots of land growing beans, yucca, plantains and plenty of fruit trees. Several times I was able to go into the hills with some of the kids and it was amazing to see all the open space and sugar cane that's out there. Not only was I able to walk around in the sugar cane, but several times I could be found walking along, chewing the sugar cane happily, not thinking of the disappointment of both my dentist and I at my next appointment.
When I left on Sunday morning, I knew I had been placed in the right spot. I am in a place where the people want to work together to improve their community; there are several strong NGOs working in the area that I can learn from and help progress, and best of all, there are a ton of enthusiastic youth who want to hang out and learn from me. I can't wait to return!
My house is a green, wooden house with a little porch. When I arrived two older women were sitting outside in plastic chairs, watching the people pass. I was immediately hugged and kissed by both of them, and introduced to one as my new host mother--the other quickly added that she lived in the houses next door and I could also consider her my mother. I then met two of my host sisters, a 17 year old and an 11 year old, who showed me the house. The house is simple, but has everything neccesary; it has electricity when available, a faucet in the back for water, cement floors, and a place to bathe as well as a latrine out back.
I spent the five days in my community getting to know the area and the community members. The batey gets a lot of support from churches in Canada, as well as a church in Colorado. Thanks to these churches, the community now has electricity and water faucets, as well as several different after school programs and many other programs to support the youth in the community. The people are very friendly; every time I was introduced to someone they got up and offered me their chair, telling me to sit down and chat.
The batey itself has four different “barrios,” and I have heard estimatesof between 250 and 350 houses total. It has a makeshift baseball field, four churches, a school, two after school centers and lots of little “colmados” (kiosk type stores). When walking around, greeting others, it is not uncommon to trip over a chicken, see a goat, or have to move out of the way for a herd of cows that are coming down the street. Outside of the batey there are field of sugar cane, open fields, and plots of land growing beans, yucca, plantains and plenty of fruit trees. Several times I was able to go into the hills with some of the kids and it was amazing to see all the open space and sugar cane that's out there. Not only was I able to walk around in the sugar cane, but several times I could be found walking along, chewing the sugar cane happily, not thinking of the disappointment of both my dentist and I at my next appointment.
When I left on Sunday morning, I knew I had been placed in the right spot. I am in a place where the people want to work together to improve their community; there are several strong NGOs working in the area that I can learn from and help progress, and best of all, there are a ton of enthusiastic youth who want to hang out and learn from me. I can't wait to return!
October 4th--Volunteer Visit
Last weekend we were sent to visit other volunteers so that we could see how they lived. Another trainee and I were sent to a city called San Francisco de Macoris to visit a volunteer who is now a Regional Volunteer Leader, which means they have already finished their 2 years of service and have now extended for a year to live in this city and be a contact point for all the volunteers living in the north. After taking a truck down the mountain and then negotiating with a taxi driver to take us to the city, we arrived. It was a lot hotter in the city, but we were happy to be in a new place. After we met the volunteer we went to her house, which is nice according to Peace Corps standards (it had running water and everything). We ate lunch and sat around and pelted her with questions about her service. One of the more interesting things she had to show us was a list of everything she spent one month when she was trying to justify getting a raise. The things she spent the most amount of money on were work-related expenses (copies, folders, books, etc), transportation and food. It was nice to see her budget and where we could cut down on some expenses and what we had to keep in mind when spending our meager salaries.
After lunch we walked around the city, our host showed us all the cool, posh restaurants, bakeries and cafes in the city that we of course couldn't afford. She said she felt bad for tempting us, but it was cool just to look in the windows and imagine what we could be eating. We also went to a big supermarket, an activity that I later found out many volunteers who went to cities did, just because big grocery stores are a novelty when you are living in a small town where there is none. At the supermarket we got ingrediants to make brownies, and as soon as we got back we began making them. Our host, like most volunteers, does not have a fridge or oven, but she did have a “baking pot” which is basically a pot that is shaped kind of like an angel food pan, with a whole in the middle, and then a top with holes around the side so that the air will circulate around the entire thing evenly. The Peace Corps Dominican Republic quaterly magazine publishes recipes for this kind of pot in each issue, so we used the recipe and made some excellent brownies, which are also rare in this country!
The next day we ventured into the “campo” to visit some other volunteers who still lived in their sites. We first took a minibus to a little village where a technology volunteer was living. He showed us around his town, which was a nice size, and then we all got on motorcycles to go out to the “campo campo” (super small town in the countryside) to visit another volunteer and some other trainees who were visiting her. Her site was interesting, it was very, very small and rural. The one thing that all of us were surprised at was the state of her latrine. She shared a latrine with another family, and it was in awful shape; there were bugs and toilet paper everywhere and it smelled awful. Apparently even when she cleans it, the other family that she shares it with doesn't bother to keep it clean. That definitely made all of us hope that we would not have to use a latrine, however later a neighbor told us we could use her latrine, and when I went in that it was actually quite lovely: it was painted dark green and light green, it was completely clean and there were no bugs (somebody said a frog lived in there and took care of the flies, but I didn't see it). After that I felt better about the prospect of using a latrine.
We had a lunch of chicken fajitas and guacamole at that volunteers' house and just hung out. Another interesting part of her living situation is that little kids were constantly playing outside her house and peering in at all the “Americanos”. After talking to some other volunteers, they made it clear that many people set limits as to where the kids can play and when people can come over, so that they can at least have some privacy when they need it.
After lunch and hanging out, we each got on another motorcycles (I forgot to mention that we were not driving, we have to hire drivers which is a pretty common thing to do here) and headed back to the pueblo, where we caught a minibus to take us to the big city to find a bigger bus headed in the right direction. When we got to the bus station we had to do a lot of haggling to ensure that we did not get charged to much, but we finally got on and then got off at the bottom of the mountain. From there we got in a truck for the very long trek back up the mountain. The trip itself was only two days, but traveling took a lot of our time. The total cost of transportation was 800 pesos—about 23 American dollars, however for us, who as of right now are receiving about a dollar a day for spending money, that was a lot of money! Welcome to Peace Corps life!
September 6th, 2008: Mi Cumpleanos; Estilo Americano, Estilo Dominicano, Pero siempre, mucha baile, (My Birthday: American style or Dominican, always
Today was my birthday, and it seemed as if everyone knew (we have already been warned many times that news here spreads like wildfire). It quickly circulated among the other volunteers that my birthday was Saturday, and since everyone wanted to go out dancing this weekend anyways, we all agreed on a place to go on Friday night, to dance and celebrate.
Somehow almost all fifty volunteers managed to agree to going to a bar/dance club on Friday. Only a few people had actually been there previously, and the rest of us were anxiously awaiting our first Dominican dances. Five other girls who live in my neighborhood and I pulled up to this venue after a long taxi cab ride, and were pleased to see that most of the other volunteers were also there. The place that we went is called the Car Wash (yes, in English) which was actually kind of confusing because there are many venues called the Car Wash. Apparently the only way they could get people to come wash their cars in a country where it always rains is if they also provided a bar and a dance floor, which is why many car washes also serve as party areas at night.
We arrived at this Car Wash, which was a pretty large open venue, and saw that it not only had a bar and a dance floor but a Jumbotron playing a baseball game at all times. At first we all just sat around chatting, some danced merengue, but most of us just sat and watched, since the majority of us are new to merengue. Suddenly, after a break in the music, the dj put on some good ol' American hip-hop and rap, and within seconds every single American was on the floor dancing. The Dominicans just sat there in awe, a few men tried to get in on the action, but they were clearly out of place.
I woke up on Saturday morning to my host mother carrying three chickens upside down by their legs through our house to our little back porch area. I ran for my camera, thinking the chickens were dead and she was going to defeather them, but when I ran back to see them, there they were, squaking around with the family's tiny chihuahua running in between them. I went out with my friends to the grocery store, and by the time I got back one of those chickens was cooking in a pot of soup, which I ate about an hour later. My host mom promises that the next time she kills a chicken, I can watch and learn.
I spent the rest of Saturday hanging out with other volunteers, then I ate dinner with my family and was just relaxing when my host mom's sister and her children pulled up in a car and told me to come with them. The kids, who are 6, 9 and 13, are very energetic and were clearly very excited to have me over to their house for a “surprise” party. We picked up my other “aunt” who is the host mom of another volunteer, and talong with the volunteer, we went over to their house. Since my cake wasn't ready yet, the girls insisted that I walk up and down the street with them until it was ready. They made sure my eyes were covered as I walked in the house, and then sang “Happy Birthday” in Spanish, attempted in English and then sang another congratulatory song in Spanish.
We ate some of the cake, took more pictures than you could ever imagine, and then began dancing. Everyone had to dance with me, since I was the birthday girl, and then they all danced among themselves. Later, the girls put a song on called Maraca, which is basically a song that encourages people to dance reggaeton, which is a dance form that children really shouldn't be emulating. The 6 year old and 10 year old got up there and danced around, while I alternated between thinking it was a hilarious sight and being rather horrified that their mother was allowing them to dance that way. Then they put it on again and insisted that we gringas dance. The girls had already taught my friend this dance, so she was used to it by now, but I almost died laughing when I got up there and tried to mimic them (when in the Dominican Republic...)—these little girls certainly knew what they were doing, and I did not!
All in all, it was a good birthday, and quite the cultural experience!
August 27, 2008: First Venture into Santo Domingo
Today we went to the downtown of Santo Domingo. We of course had to have our language professors help us down there, because the directions and buses are all very confusing. We went first to the best hospital in the DR, which is where we are to be treated for all of our medical problems requiring attention from the hospital, even if we live four hours away. The hospital was nice, clean, and had AC (a big plus!). After that we went to the Peace Corps office and met the staff and looked around. The office has been in the same large house for about forty years. It's a house that used to belong to a very rich family during the Trujillo era, but PC now rents it . The offices are great, there are a ton of resources for volunteers, air conditioning, wifi, computers, a lounge with cable, basically a place to go if you need a little piece of the US. All of the staff was so nice, both the PC medical doctor and the PC director gave us hugs just because =), and everybody was emphasizing that they are here to help and support us.
After that we got a bite to eat and went to the “Zona Colonial” which is the touristy part of Santo Domingo, with all the old cathedrals and national buildings. In the cathedral there were a lot of Mausoleums, one that supposedly contained Christopher Colombus's ashes, but I don't quite believe that. We continued to walk around the colonial zone and then made our way back to our barrios. For me, the most fun/interesting thing that happened today was something very normal for most Dominicans: A ride on the “Gua gua”. Gua guas are local public buses that travel certain routes. There are fairly small, smaller than the normal school bus but bigger than our vw van. Despite their size, five people are supposed to sit across each row of seats (technically there are four seats, two on one side, one on the other side and one that folds down to block the aisle). Of course, many people are packed standing in the front where the seats end. My favorite part of the Gua gua is the “cobrador” who is the guy who rides in the doorway, announcing the route to all and any who are listening. To us it seems like every cobrador who passes is trying to convince us to get on, even when we know that is not the route we want. When the bus fills, he leans over everyone, making things very uncomfortable, so that he can collect everyone's money. Our cobrador today packed as many people as he possibly could in the car. Some refused to get on, but he didn't get the hint, and at the next stop he would try to pack more people on.
We were riding with some other volunteers who had to get off before us, they had gotten on first, and were thus in the the very back, but they had to get off before the rest of the people in the front (and there is only one door—in the front). When they announced that they had to get off, everyone started grumbling a bit, people had to get off and lift up their seats, and others had to step out of the gua gua, to let our friends off. Then something so organized happened that it took me by surprise: everybody was yelling that those going to Pina (I'm assuming the last stop) should move to the back, and when we told them where we had to go, they told us to move to the front a bit. There were several ladies looking after us, making sure the cobrador knew when we needed to get off, and telling us where to sit down (we had gotten up and were falling all over people because we were standing while the bus was moving, trying to get to the front). The fact that everybody had their own collective system, without the rules posted or noted anywhere, was something I had never seen in public transportation in other places (In Buenos Aires people would push each other and jump in through windows to get a good seat). I was also touched (though it was probably normal) that some of the older ladies took care of us and made sure we were all right.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
First thing's First
Okay friends, I've decided that I'll start a blog so that I can put up all my anecdotes and not bother you all with too many emails. Just remember, I still want to hear from you all!
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