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!

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!

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!

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.

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!