November 7th, 2009: I think I might be insane---Another trip!

As you will remember if you have been reading my blog, about a month ago we hosted a group of Escojo health promotors in our community to have an over night event. Well this weekend, it was our turn to go visit them in their community! Since we have limited funding for these events, the kids each had to come up with 150 pesos (about four dollars) to be able to come on the trip. I didn’t think a lot of kids would be able to find that much money, and by the time the deadline (Monday) rolled around, only about ten kids out of 19 had turned in their money. However, after that several other kids came and gave me the money for the trip. I couldn’t say no because I knew they had worked hard to come up with that money, but the problem was that by Thursday night, the night before the trip, I had a group of 16 kids—yes that’s right, sixteen teenagers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen—that were ready to get up at 545 in the morning to travel. Now let me just say that usually when we do trips or camps there is a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio of volunteers to kids—at this event it was going to be about 1:15. Needless to say, I was a little bit nervous about how the kids would behave and whether they would take advantage of the lack of adult supervision!
Because transportation is so expensive here, I began looking for ways to reduce the travel costs of a group that large, and luckily a friend of mine was able to help us out a bit. At 545 in the morning all seventeen of us piled in the back of a pickup truck and slowly made our bumpy way to the nearest town. There, I left five kids to pile in the car of a friend of my friend who works in the capital and offered to take the kids to the capital and drop them off at the bus stop of the next bus that we would be taking. Then I put another five kids in the back of a group of nuns' truck that was also on its way to the capital (I had to have a discussion with my kids before they got in about respecting nuns), and the other seven of us got on a public bus. Amazingly, we all ended up in the same spot and from there took another bus to a stop where the volunteer of the other group was waiting for us with another pick up truck to haul us all up the mountain to her community.
We arrived at the conference center where we were going to stay and were greeted by the other Escojo group. We had lunch, did some ice breakers, and headed to the beach. My kids, if they’re lucky, usually get to go to the beach once a year with the Canadians who bring them during one of their trips, so for them going to the beach was a huge treat! After that we got back and, to my surprise, the kids still wanted to swim in the pool. They swam and then bathed and set up the tents that they were going to sleep in (also the first time they had ever slept in tents)
That night we did workshops on leadership and discrimination, and then spent the rest of the night playing music and dominoes and just sitting around doing the typical Dominican “Compartir” (sharing). The kids were so excited to be somewhere other than their houses for the night that they couldn’t fall asleep early, despite the fact that they had been up since four and five am. It had begun to rain, and some of us had moved our mattresses into an outdoor meeting space that was more waterproof than the tents. All of my girls decided that they wanted to sleep there, and so I slept outside with my girls, which was great because it gave us a chance to have a mini sleepover and plenty of girl talk. Before going to sleep, however, I had to do several checks of the tents and other sleeping areas to make sure there was no “boy-girl” mixing. As far as I could tell, the kids were pretty respectful of the rules (I had to explain to my boys earlier that no, they could not just give a couple girls they had met kisses because we all knew that kisses led to other things that could have negative consequences).
We all woke up around 6 am with the sun; I personally woke up to the voices of my kids talking, and one even beating a drum (I promptly went over there and told him to be quiet, since others were still trying to sleep). The kids hosting the event did a great job; they had to cook and wash the dishes and clean the entire center that had been lent to them for the event—I was so impressed that they were being so responsible. I was especially impressed when they got up earlier than their volunteer to prepare breakfast for all thirty of us!
Before departing, my kids presented a great drama on the consequences of alcohol—I had not seen them rehearse it, but they got up there and performed wonderfully and gave out a great message! We then did an activity to practice making presentation materials, and then reflected on the last twenty-four hours. As my kids loaded into the pickup truck to go back down the mountain, they took out their instruments and began playing the merengues they have composed about Escojo. They played all the way down to the highway, and as soon as we got on the next bus they began to play again, getting a little more wild (our harmonica player and dancer claimed he was too hot, and before I knew it he was dancing around on the bus without his shirt!) While we were on that bus, one of the men who worked on the bus began hitting on me, calling me “mami” and harassing me a bit, which is pretty normal in this country. But to my surprise, my kids began to protest, saying that we were all going to get off the bus if he continued being disrespectful. I was touched that they were protecting me like that, I guess they have learned that I hate that kind of behavior and felt like it was their job to put a stop to it!
We arrived in the capital and all piled onto another bus that would take us to our nearest town. When we arrived, it was raining, and we had to wait quite some time until the pick-up that was supposed to come and get us showed up. We finally piled into that vehicle (which I was afraid would break every time we went over any big bump) and began to make our way back to Las Pajas. It rained on us the entire way there, and we were all getting very damp in the back of the pickup. Despite the fact that Dominicans hate getting wet and claim that if you get wet you will get a cold afterwards, the kids didn’t seem to mind the rain at all; all they could do was talk about what had happened at the “intercambio”(exchange) and who was “enamorado” (in love) with who. All throughout the trip, my kids hardly complained at all about whatever little problem arose (be it having to wait for a bus, walking to the beach because the truck broke down, or being hungry because they had left too early to eat breakfast, and on the last day we left late and didn’t eat lunch). They were troopers, and it was obvious that they were just happy to be traveling and knowing other places.
After being in my community for a year, it was fun to do this event because I saw some changes in myself and my kids. For example, I am now able to control a group of 16 teenagers on a five hour trip involving four different vehicles! During the drama and the workshops my kids were able to make significant contributions to the conversation thanks to the topics we have discussed in the classes I teach them. They also took me seriously when I asked them not to hook up with any other kids during the two days we were doing the event. I hope that this also reflects the fact that my kids have learned to be respectful and follow rules when need be. I think I have grown just as much as they have during this year; I have learned a lot from them and hopefully gained their respect, which is important when working in communities
It was also fun to see the group that hosted us working; they have been a group for longer than we have (the volunteer in that site is about to leave country) and they were able to lead a lot of activities and do a lot of tasks without the help of the volunteer, which is something I aspire to for my group. Despite the fact that being in charge of such a large group of youth was a bit stressful, and I arrived at my home exhausted, it was a great experience for both me and my youth, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again if the opportunity arose.

Sirve Con Fuerza! (Serve with Force)

Well it seems anywhere I go I am able to involve myself in something that has to do with volleyball. Here, as I have mentioned before, I have a team that I coach in my site, and I have also been working on organizing several volleyball tournaments for teams that volunteers have been coaching.
This past weekend we had an overnight tournament near my site that went great. My girls were so excited to travel (even though it wasn't very far) and to spend the night somewhere else. The schedule went like this: We arrived, ate, introduced ourselves and talked about the rules of the tournament and good sportsmanship, then headed to a nearby school that had a court and played a round robin between all four teams. The teams were not exactly equal in size or skill (my team, for example had mainly 13 and 14 year olds, whereas another team had a twenty-year old), and several teams got absolutely creamed, but thanks to all our chats about good sportsmanship, the teams all supported each other and cheered each other on.
The first day my girls ended up winning two games and losing one (to the team that had the twenty-year old on it) and were happy when we left the court and went back to the center where we were staying. After shower time all the girls came down to the main room and one team gave a presentation on the consequences of teen pregnancy. After dinner and cake the girls did some activities to get to know each other better, and then they were supposed to go to bed. My girls at 9 pm had told me they were exhausted and wanted to go to bed, but at midnight they were still up giggling and running around.
Despite the late night, the girls woke up before 6 am to begin to get ready for the tournament. After breakfast we did several activities to get the girls thinking about self-esteem and how they affect their teammates' self-esteem, and then I taught them some volleyball cheers that we had in the States--they all loved the Ace cheers!
After that we headed to the court for the semi-finals and finals. My girls won their semi finals game easily, and then it was time for the finals, against the team with the 20 year old and several girls who actually knew how to jump and hit a ball really hard. My girls got super pumped up at first, but were a little scared in the first game and lost. The second game they came back from 3-10 to win 16-14 thanks to some good defense from my said and infighting on the other side. Unfortunately, the girls couldn't pull through and win the third game, but they fought hard and were proud of themselves for getting second in the tournament, and of course winning a trophy!
We finished the tournament by handing out trophies to the two first place teams, and volleyballs to the teams with best sportsmanship and the team who raised the most money for the tournament. The girls all had a great time and were excited to go back to their towns and keep practicing for the next tournament!
As you'll see in these photos, my team was "sponsored" by the Macalester volleyball team, who sent us uniforms, a net and balls, which came in handy for the tournament, thanks Mac!

October 4th, 2009: Compartir! (Literally translated--sharing!)

One of the reasons I think many kids join the activities I do in my community is so that they can participate in the trips that go along with the activities. For the “Escojo Mi Vida” program (the group of youth health promotors in my site) every couple of months Peace Corps puts on a conference where two youth from each group are allowed to go. We also arrange what we call “intercambios” (quite literally, “exchanges”) where groups from different communities meet up for a day or two to focus on a new topic that they haven’t learned about, or review the information that they already learned. This past weekend, we had a group of seven youth and their volunteer come and visit our community for two days and one night, and I am pleased to say that it was a success!
The volunteer who came to visit wanted her group to see what a batey was—none of them had ever seen a batey, and many of them live a somewhat cushier life than the kids here live. The plan was to have them arrive at lunchtime, eat, do different icebreakers with the group here, give a presentation about gender inequality, and in the evening do team building activities and have some time to hang out with the youth. The next morning we would do a short workshop on public speaking, and then some closing activities. I was very stressed in the days following up to the event because we had to arrange for someone to make all the food, figure out the sleeping arrangements, prepare the center, etc, etc… And, as we all know, it’s usually hard to get teenagers to do everything you ask them to do, so I felt as if a lot of the preparation burden was on me.
The day of the event, despite the fact that one of the motorcycles that was carrying two of the visitors broke down, everyone arrived safe and sound and was very happy with their food. During the icebreakers it was obvious that both groups were still feeling very timid, and there was little chatting in between the two, which got me nervous. As the day went on, however, the kids warmed up to each other, and by the time we sent them off that night to sleep in my kids’ houses, I was pretty convinced that there wouldn’t be any problems. My favorite activity of the day was a scavenger hunt that the kids had to do together in the batey; they had to ask around and find out how to say several “Escojo” themed words in Kreyol, as well as find some random items (including an animal--see photo!)
In the evening the visiting group gave a presentation on the concept of gender inequality, which I hadn’t talked about with my kids in so many words. My youth loved thinking about gender roles in our community and the girls especially liked the idea that their brothers should help them do chores around the house!
That night we had arranged for several team building exercises; we did one but then realized that what the kids really wanted to do was sing and dance, so we let them! My group played the merengue songs they composed about Escojo, the other group danced to the songs, and then they continued on well into the night singing and telling jokes (we tried to make sure they weren’t too inappropriate, however sometimes us gringas still don’t understand everything that’s said, and I’m pretty sure some jokes went over our heads!). It was fun to look around the room and watch all of them enjoying themselves and getting along.
The next morning we did a short presentation on public speaking and had them practice tongue twisters, then let them sit around and ask each other questions about one anothers' communities. They asked each other some really interesting questions and were able to learn a little bit more about how the others lived. Everyone was sad that the event was ending, but the kids were all planning the date when our group could go down south to visit the other group!
I was especially happy with the way the event ended because, after constantly nagging the kids to help me with everything the first day, as we were finishing we assigned responsibilities for the clean up, and EVERYONE did what they were supposed to! That was maybe the most successful thing I’ve done all year—a 100% success rate!

September 21st, 2009: Bachelorette in the DR!

A Peace Corps friend of mine here is getting married next week, so to celebrate, sixteen of us went to the southern part of the country to hang out on the beaches and relax. We rested on a beautiful beach, used the pool at a nice hotel (of course, we couldn’t afford to stay there!) and did fun bachelorette party activities. Sounds pretty similar to a bachelorette weekend in the states, right? Well, some of it was very similar, but there were a couple things that reminded us that we were Peace Corps volunteers in the Dominican Republic, instead of people with jobs in the Unites States. Here are some examples:

--On the bus ride up to the hotel, we argued with a bus driver who was trying to charge us 75 cents more than normal for a bus ride. This included calling him a thief, him calling us thieves, and us paying him what we believed he deserved and then hurrying away. We consulted several locals later, who told us that the driver was indeed trying to scam us.

--One of the girls that was supposed to come to the party couldn’t because a snake had entered her house and eaten her kittens. She had to sleep in another house and missed the bus that she needed to take to get to us.

--Our plans to go out on the town the first night were foiled because the mayor’s daughter was having a “Quincenera” and all the local bars and discos had closed down for the event.

--when we went out dancing, we were dancing almost exclusively to bachata, merengue and reggaeton, not the typical disco music in the States!

Overall I had a great time, Dominicanness included! I was able to see a part of the country I had never seen before, and enjoy the company of my friends, many of whom I see very little!

August 28th, 2009--Sports Camp!!

August 28th-30th: Sports Camp!

So to inaugurate the new school year I took two of the kids to my community to a sports camp that a group of volunteers and I organized. There were about twenty-two kids and eleven volunteers, which was a nice, manageable amount of people. I brought one boy and one girl from my community, neither of which had ever traveled as far as we did the first day to get to camp (it was about a four hour trip, probably about eighty miles, but it took so much longer because of public transportation).
The first day there we did some activities to promote good sportsmanship, then a group of volunteers taught the kids how to play kickball and we organized several games. After that the kids went to the pool for swim lessons and games, and then had time to shower and rest before dinner. After dinner we did team building activities and had “reflection” time where we broke into groups and talked about our day.
The second day we woke up in the morning at about 6 am—none of the kids could stay quite till the designated 7am wake up call-- and did yoga with all the kids (they definitely thought it was funny at first, but calmed down and seemed to enjoy it by the end). They then jumped in the pool and afterwards we coaxed them out for breakfast. After breakfast a group of volunteers went over the rules to play soccer, and then the kids played till they got tired out. After a snack, another volunteer and I did a presentation on good nutrition and had them play games to learn about the different food groups. After that, we ate lunch and came back to play volleyball. I did a short session on the rules and techniques for volleyball and we went and played. We ended that session with two games of volunteers vs. kids, and I am sad to say that my team lost :(.
After more shower time, we had divided the boys and girls and had a “taking care of your body session” which lead to many interesting questions (on the girls’ side at least). Then it was dinner time, and we had planned a bonfire, but it began to rain and we had to make a makeshift bonfire out of construction paper inside the gazebo and eat our smores uncooked. It didn’t matter though, the kids were happy anyways, and just played dominoes and sand and danced around the rest of the night.
The next day, after another yoga session and breakfast, we reviewed what we had learned and handed out certificates and medals. The kids were definitely sad to leave! On the way back, we passed through Santo Domingo and I gave my kids a tour of the Peace Corps office. They loved it and wanted to stay there for longer than we could. They came back tired but happy!

Please Help!

I’m writing today to ask you for your help with a camp that a group of Peace Corps volunteers are going to put on this fall. The camp, called “Celebrando el Este” will be a three day camp involving forty kids from all over the Eastern region of the country. At this camp the kids will learn about different countries and cultures and learn to identify and combat racism, gender discrimination and stereotyping through interactive workshops and activities. When they are finished with the conference they will be asked to return to their communities to coordinate activities and presentations related to the themes that are addressed over the course of the conference.

While the East has areas that are economically developed, the majority of the youth attending the conference hail from humble families where they have many hardships and few opportunities. Many times gender discrimination and racism are factors that contribute to these hardships. Here in the DR there is a complicated relationship between Dominicans, Haitians and their descendants. This includes blatant discrimination against Haitians and anyone that might have Haitian blood. This camp is an important opportunity for youth (of both Dominican and Haitian descent) to dialogue about current issues that they encounter in their communities. By doing so the camp's goal is to work towards the elimination of discrimination and promote understanding amongst youth and their communities. We hope that these youth will learn about other cultures and examine their own identities, and in doing so, begin to think beyond their neighborhoods and current lives and aspire towards a better future for themselves and their communities.

The campers themselves are required to raise funds to participate, however in this case we also rely heavily on individual donors such as yourselves to help cover the costs of food, lodging and transportation. If you’re able, please consider sponsoring a camper by donating money at the Peace Corps-sponsored link below. We are asking you for a small contribution to our cause in order to help fund this conference. Any amount would help us put on this very important camp. In order to donate, please go to the link https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-315 .

Sometimes the website may be down, so if it doesn’t work the first time, please try, try again! We would love to send donors Thank-You cards in appreciation of your generosity. If you would like to receive one, please be sure to fill out all the contact information on the donation web form.


Thanks in advance for your help!

Brianna, future Celebrando el Este campers and all the Eastern DR Peace Corps Volunteers

August 17th, 2009: Summer Days, Drinftin Away

Well the hot summer here has made me lazy and a bad blogger, but I’m back and ready to write! In my last entry my Escojo group had graduated and I was hoping that they would begin to give presentations and multiply the information that I had taught them. Well I learned the hard way that summer is not really the time to start anything new or ambitious—here in Las Pajas, since a lot of kids live with their grandmothers or aunts, the kids leave for the summer to go spend time with their real parents in the cities. Almost as soon as my Escojo group graduated, about half of them took off to the cities, leaving the rest of us in Las Pajas, struggling to plan activities. The same happened with my volleyball team—about half the girls disappeared during the entire month of July! After adjusting to the initial shock of a town with half as many kids as there used to be, I decided to adjust my plans for the summer, this is what I ended up doing during these months:
--The Peace Corps assigned me and two other volunteers who lived near me to coordinate the sub-regional Escojo conference in July. This gave us plenty of work since we had to plan the agenda, rent the space, organize transportation and food, etc… We decided the conference theme would be discrimination; kids from ten different communities sat through four different presentations on stereotypes, homophobia, sexism and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS. I must say, I think we gave the kids something to think about, the discussions that took place during the homophobia presentation (a word most kids had never even heard of) and the sexism presentation were certainly interesting. In regards to homophobia, most kids ended up saying this: “If we can’t change them [meaning gay people] we should at least accept them and help them if they need it,” I guess we’re kind of getting somewhere….
--Volleyball, volleyball and more volleyball. Though a lot of the volleyball team took off to go visit mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, the girls who stuck around over the summer were bored, which meant that they arrived at my house around 3:30 every day asking to play volleyball (practices were supposed to be twice a week at 5 pm). We ended up playing almost every afternoon, occasionally playing with the boys as well, the only problem was the boys (ages 15-17) had no mercy for the girls, and would end up hitting the ball as hard as they could at them, without thinking that those techniques didn’t necessarily provide for a fun game. Eventually the girls told me that they didn’t want to play any more with the boys, so I kicked them out and told them to form their own team (which they have yet to do).
--A group who did stay around over the summer were the young mothers that I had began to meet with in March and April. Our meetings were canceled the entire month of May because it rained every day, so in June I decided to start up again. The women didn’t have a clear idea of what they wanted to do as a group, so I decided I would give a small course on reproductive health. We had four classes discussing reproductive organs, pregnancy, family planning and condoms. I think they all really enjoyed learning about new things and sharing advice and stories with each other.
--Towards the middle of the summer I began to realize that the younger kids were really really bored, and decided to start tutoring a few kids at my house who were behind in school. A large group of kids began coming, so we moved the classes to the community center and I began classes focused on several books that we have—For three days in a row we would read the same book and then do educational activities related to that book, such as math problems, practicing with vocabulary words, and an art project. The first week was great, I had two groups of about six kids each, one older and one younger and we read The Hungry Caterpillar and did activities with the book. The next week, a lot of parents had heard I was giving classes and so I ended up with three groups of about 10 kids each. I got some of my volleyball players to help me give classes, but it was a struggle to keep all the kids under control. By the third week kids ages three to twelve were showing up, and my volleyball girls got sick of helping, so it was me, trying to control thirty children who were running around and shrieking. I understood why their parents had sent them to me, they couldn’t stand them in the house any more! But I couldn’t get anything done either. Luckily for me, during that week a group of Canadians donated about twenty large boxes of toiletries and clothes that took up the entire community center, so I canceled classes saying that there was no room to do anything in the community center (whew!).
--I was lucky that I could use the donations to cancel classes, but the donations also created a lot of work for me and my project partner. The group of Canadians came and asked us to hand out all the donations in the best way we thought possible. This meant that every day for about a week we sorted through toiletries and clothes, trying to make sure that every family in town received the proper amount of toiletries and clothes. Of course, it’s impossible to make everybody happy, and by the end of the week I was so sick of people coming to my house asking me to change what they had received or asking more for more things. When the time came for me to leave for vacation (Argentina to visit Rakaia!) I had a cold, was exhausted, and so grateful for the chance to get on a plane and fly far, far away!

So that was my summer, now I'm preparing for volleyball tournaments, sports camps and the school year to come, which will involve teaching literacy and math to fourth graders, training and new group of Escojo kids, and some other projects here and there, I'll keep you all updated!

Escojo Photos

June 6th, 2009--Graduation!

After twelve weeks of classes, my group of sex ed health promotors graduated from their course! The program is called “Escojo Mi Vida” which literally translates to “I choose my life”. The classes, which I taught once a week, covered subjects such as self-esteem, values, decision making, abstinence, STDs, HIV/AIDS and adolescent pregnancy. A lot of kids came at first, but the kids who graduated where the ones who came to ten out of the twelve classes and passed a test to prove that they knew the information.
At the beginning of the course there would be thirty kids in the classroom, some of which had come because they were interested in the material and others who came because they just wanted to hang out with the friends. Eventually the kids who weren’t all that dedicated or interested in the class stopped coming and we ended up with fifteen kids who prepared to graduate.
The days leading up to the graduation were a bit hectic but preparing for the graduation was good for the kids because they learned how to plan a big event. The kids had to break into committees to decide on the agenda, what food they were going to serve and how they were going to decorate the place. They also had to assign which graduates were going to talk at the graduation, and the last two days of the event, with the help of my dad, they did some acting exercises and planned a skit about adolescent pregnancy.
The day of the graduation the kids all showed up three hours early to decorate the community center and make last minute plans. An hour before it was supposed to start all the kids went home to get ready. At seven o’clock when the graduates were supposed to be there only about five kids had arrived, and by seven thirty when the event was supposed to start there were more little kids waiting for the graduation to begin than there were graduates in the community center. My parents kept asking me if we shouldn’t go round up the kids and other community members so that we could get started. Being used to Dominican time, I told them not to worry, and sure enough by about 8:15 everyone was in their seats and ready to go.
The graduation started off with a prayer, then I welcomed and thanked everyone for coming, then the students talked about what Escojo was, what they had learned and what their plans for the future were. They preformed their drama and then our community leader said a few “words of support”. The kids then had to do a type of “swearing in” where they each had to stand in front of the audience and say what they chose for their life, for example “I choose a healthy life” or “I choose to help and educate others” or “I choose to prevent STDs”. After that they received their certificates of completion and played a “Perico Ripiado” (a type of merengue) that they had composed about Escojo. Our community leader wanted us to march around town so that more people knew what this graduation was all about (this was the first graduation to ever happen in Las Pajas). We marched to another neighborhood chanting and cheering and then played the song again. We finished by going back to the community center, handing out a small snack and playing the song once more.
It was fun to have the graduation because it awarded the kids who had worked hard during the course and it allowed for the community to understand better what Escojo was and what we will be doing in the future. The kids also had a great time and were still talking about how much fun the graduation was several days later—that goes to show that they enjoyed it and were proud of themselves, probably the most important part of having the graduation!

May 23rd, 2009--VOLLEYBALL TRIP!!!

THE PREPARATION:
One of my big projects in the past couple months has been forming a volleyball team and preparing to take them on a trip to visit another volunteer who also has a volleyball team. The twelve girls on my team are between ten and fourteen years, and one of the main reasons I have been able to convince them to practice twice a week and be good sports is that I told them that we would go on a trip. In the month before the tournament the girls came to practice religiously twice a week, and wanted to practice more but I put a limit on the amount of times a week we could practice. They also arranged to have a raffle to raise money for the trip. While they were busy selling raffle tickets I took no more than five trips to the capital city of our province (about an hour away) to beg the politicians for money to pay for the costs of our transportation to the camp/tournament (which was what we were calling it). Here in the DR if you want something done in your town (such as a road paved, building built, etc) or you just want something (like a job, or money to pay for a car rental to take 12 girls on a trip) the standard procedure is to go ask one of the many “local” politicians to give you whatever you want. So I began by taking an hour long motorcycle ride to our “mayor”’s office in the capital city. By the time I arrived there were twenty people waiting to talk to him, and I didn’t have time to sit and wait as well. So I left him a letter with his secretary who told me to call back every couple of days to see if he had received it. I did just that, but in the end she basically told me that he wouldn’t grant any request unless you talked to him in person.
After several more unfruitful trips to his office and the Senator’s office (they both were never in their offices) to ask the same thing, I finally got lucky and called one day when I was in the city, talked to the secretary and was told to hurry in, because the mayor was finally in the office taking requests. I went to the town hall and waited outside his office with about fifteen others. People were being called in one by one to talk to him, and then suddenly the secretary came and told everyone to go into his office. Now there were about fifteen of us all in his office, all vying to get his attention. I decided to go shake his hand, to let him know that I was there (I had met him several other times at various events, so I was pretty sure he recognized me) and then sit back and let some other people fight over his for attention. After three groups talked to him, I got closer and sat down in a chair next to his desk. The girl in front of him was asking him for a job, he told her to come back on Thursday and talk to his secretary. Then he turned to me. I explained to him that we were going on a trip to participate in a volleyball tournament/camp and that we were asking him to donate some money to help us pay the car rental. He said, "Oh no, I can just send one of our buses to take you". And that was that, after a month of trying to contact him, and contact the car rental company and find a driver from our town, he had solved all my problems. I tried to get him to give me a phone number that I could call to confirm the day before to make sure the bus would come, and he gave me his personal cell phone number and then sent me on my way.
During the week I tried calling that number several times, but of course he never picked up, so the day before I made several calls to make sure that the bus was coming, and finally talked to the right people, who told me that they would arrive at 8am (a little later than I had hoped). Meanwhile, my team had raised 500 pesos (fifteen dollars) which was enough to buy everybody ham and bread to eat for breakfast in the morning and bake three cakes to share with the other team. The girls were all super excited, borrowing clothes from different sisters and friends to make sure they all had the same uniform, and claiming that they were going to wake up at 5 am to do their chores and get ready. I told them they could not arrive at my house until 730.

THE CAMP
Almost all of the girls arrived at my house at 7am, the same time that the bus arrived. The girls were pleased to point out that I had told them to come at 730 because I thought that the bus wouldn’t come until eight, but I was wrong and they actually came at the right time. There was a flurry of bread and ham cutting and serving and then we all piled in the bus. Before we even left town the girls wanted to stop at a small store to buy candy and soda with the money that their parents had given them. We arrived pretty quickly to where we had to go, and were greeted there by the other team.
We had the camp in the elementary school, using their outdoor concrete court and the facilities the school had. We began by introducing ourselves to the other team, then we did some relay races and warm up drills. After that we practiced passing, setting, hitting and serving. We forced the girls to make groups so that there were half girls from my team and half girls from the other team. When we finished with the drills the girls were absolutely exhausted, so we took a break, ate some cake and then just rested and hung out. The girls from the other team went home for lunch while my team stayed and ate food which some of the mothers of the other team had prepared for us.
When everybody returned after lunch we talked about good sportsmanship and then did a team building activity where we blindfolded each team member and put out object on the court. The teammates had to guide their blinded teammate from the sidelines through the court without her stepping on any of the objects set out. The girls loved the activity and were disappointed that we didn’t have time for every single girl to try being blindfolded.
Then we began the tournament. My team had twelve girls and the other team had eleven. Since we wanted everybody to get a chance to play, and everybody was already exhausted, we played four games to just eleven points. My team won every single games, and boy were they excited!!!! Throughout all four games they were chanting and cheering (we had to stop several of the cheers because they did not quite show “good sportsmanship”) and celebrated every win as if it were the national championships. After that we mixed the teams and had them play several more games, and then of course the coaches had to play! Let me just say, the Las Pajas team won that game as well…
We finished the day off with some song and dance and then started packing up to go home. My girls were very tired, but insisted on passing by a local store on the way home to by more candy and small gifts for their families. We drove home in the pouring rain (it has rained almost every day this month). When we arrived on the dirt road that leads to our town all the girls started pretending they were crying, wailing that they wanted to go back to the camp. When we arrived in town they started singing and chanting to make sure that the entire town knew that they won. I was exhausted by the time we got back, but it had been a successful day and my girls were proud to say that they had won!

Bits and Pieces

"Why is it raining?"
"BECAUSE GOD WANTS THE MANGOES TO RIPEN!"
Yes friends, it's mango season, and every day little boys have brought me mangos for breakfast, I must say, I can't complain! Of course, the beginning of mango season also means that it's the beginning of the rainy season, and for about two weeks it has rained every afternoon, making the roads impassable, especially on motorcycles! Every time I travel I have to plan my returns for the morning so that I don't get stranded in the rain.

An exciting trip
So I have a volleyball team of twelve girls between the ages of ten and fourteen years old, and we are planning to visit another volunteer's team where we will have a little camp in the morning, and a workshop on nutrition and sportsmanship and then a tournament in the afternoon. The girls are so excited because they have very few opportunities to leave Las Pajas. They have begun to sell raffle tickets to help pay for the trip, and though many people have signed up to buy them, here people have the bad habit of not paying for things. If the girls keep up the good work, we probably will raise about forty-five American dollars which is a good chunk of money here! Even though the girls at times have ehm, shall we say, poor sportsmanship, they are trying very hard to work together as a team and go on this trip, which I think will be good for them.

"Teacher, you are beautiful"
--Say the 11 year olds I am teaching English to. I have been teaching English in the school as well as to a group of high school and college students, and I must admit I like it more than I thought I would. It is one thing that everybody is very enthusiastic about and wants to learn. Since here the kids address their teachers as "profesor" in Spanish, they address me as "teacher" in English. It cracks me up every time when they say things such as "teacher, you are beautiful" or "teacher no tengo pen" (i don't have a pen). I also really enjoy inventing fun games for the kids to play in order to practice English--when trying to teach classroom objects I placed all the objects on the floor and had the kids race to see which team could find the object I named first--they ended up on the floor trying to hold one another back from reaching the object. I can't say how much they actually learned, but it was a lot of fun to watch grown men grab onto each other's legs and be pulled across the floor when trying to reach an object!

That's what's going on with me for the most part. I hope you all are doing well. Keep in touch!

A little begging and pleading

Hello everyone,
So right now I am involved in organizing several summer camps that involve youth and Peace Corps Volunteers throughout the country.
In order to fund these camps, which are great ways to get youth out of their communities and give them an opportunity to travel and meet other people, we need help from the US. There isn't much money here in the DR to finance youth camps, so what PCVs do is set up a online link through Peace Corps Washington where people can go online and donate to our cause. Right now I am working with 9 other volunteers to organize a 3-day sports camp where each volunteer will bring two kids from their community to participate in different sports and workshops about sportsmanship, leadership and how to take care of their bodies. It's shaping up to be a ton of fun and a great experience for the kids! However, we still don't have quite enough money to pull it off. If you are interested in helping us out, you can make a donation by going to this link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-296 It would be greatly appreciated, and I will be sure to post pictures and a full report after we have the camp in August!

April 20th, 2009--How (Not) to Build a House in the DR

So if you have been following my blog with any regularity recently you might have noticed that I have not been very consistent in writing lately. That's because I've been busy trying to make a house out of an abandoned classroom in a condemned building. Yup, you read right! Let me explain:
For the past three months I have been living in a little apartment attached to a house where some Canadian nuns live. They are leaving in the next couple days to go back to Canada for six months, and for various reasons I decided about a month and a half ago that I would like to move out before they left (I felt uncomfortable about having to look after the whole house while they were gone, and it is slightly removed from the rest of the community). There is a building in my town that used to be a rural hospital, but it was abandoned about ten years ago because the structure wasn't sound (the foundation was not sturdy and rain filtered through the roof at times). Two different families recently have fixed up parts of it to live in, and between their two parts there was a large room that my project partner at one point had used as a classroom for his before-school program but had not been used in about a year. There was tile through most of it, however a side part was missing a bit of floor, and in the far back where there used to be a room to do washing my project partner swore that there were tubes that we could use for a bathroom. So I decided to fix it up—the things that Peace Corps required me to do was fill in an open wall with cement that was currently only covered with tin, put a door on the other side of the room, secure the windows and doors, and of course fix the bathroom. My project partner told me to hire my neighbor to do all the carpentry work and I decided to hire a friend of mine who works in construction to fill in the wall and the small amount of floor that needed to be covered. One day I went and bought about 200 dollars worth of materials, thinking that this would be all the materials that I would have to buy in order to fix up the house, since it was the list that my “workers” had given me. HAHAHA!
As you all know, construction and house repairs can be frusterating in any country, but what my project partner claimed would be a week long project turned into a month and a half of trips to the hardware store, pestering the people I needed to do the work, and fretting about my ever-growing costs. Here were several of the problems:
1. The supposed “tubes” that we would be able to connect to the toilet and use as drains did not exist, so we I had to buy new tubes to put in the house. Then we went to find the tubes that lead to the septic tank, and couldn't find them, which made me think that we would have to put in all new tubes. So I paid someone to dig a ditch towards the septic tank, and we left it for a while while trying to fix other things and waiting for April to come so that I could get paid again and buy the tubes. When April came someone else started digging and we found some of the tubes that we needed! However, it also meant that the ditch that the first guy had dug needed to be filled in and a different ditch had to be dug.
2. The guys who did the floor and wall for me worked really fast, but my neighbor who was going to do the “woodwork” took about a month to do a job that could have been done in less than two days.
3. Every time someone came to work in the house they realized they needed some other kind of nail, or piece of plastic, or wire, and so I had to take an expensive ride to the nearest hardware store (30 minutes a way) in order to buy it.
4. Domincans like to give advice and get involved even if nobody asked them to; though some suggestions helped a lot, most of the time when someone came in to tell me what I had to do or how I should have done it, I just smiled and nodded and tried to tune out.

Finally, a month and a half after starting, I moved in with the help of several teenage boys and lots of little kids. It was a frustrating process but once I moved in I felt at home. Even if a lot of people did want to come in and give too many opinions, I also have to give a lot of people credit because so many people came to my rescue during the process and helped out immensely. Here is a list of all the people who helped:
 2 Catholic nuns (furniture donations and moral support)
 1 Evangelical pastor (electricity installation, ideas for how to fix the house up, the only one who could actually motivate some people to work on it)
 1 carpinter (doors, windows, the division to make my bedroom)
 2 guys who have worked on the construction of hotels in tourist areas (plumbing installation on the inside—note that they are not actually plumbers—filling in of the wall and floor)
 2 Haitian men in their 60s who dug the ditch while all the teenagers lounged around and watched (believe me, I gave those teenagers plenty of grief about the fact that these older men worked harder and were stronger than them)
 The man who presides over the parish here (wood donation)
 2 drivers for the NGO I work with (they installed the toilet and were able to get the right tubes for me)
 6 14-18 year old boys (two would take me to the pueblo when I needed to buy things, two covered up an open window with tin, two helped me move my furniture and paint)
 1 2 year old, 1 three year old, 2 five year olds (they helped me put rocks in the yard to make a path and moved the last of my belongings from my old house to the new one—gotta love willing child labor!)
 2 preteen girls who helped me clean the patio and the floor


As of right now my house still isn't completely finished—I still need to put lights in the bathroom and we need to connect the tubes for the toilet (I've been using other people's bathrooms when necessary—thank goodness for the sharing, open culture of Dominicans!), but those things will hopefully be done soon. The kids in my town love that I have a house right in the middle of the town where they can come and play, so I've had to set down some rules. First, if there are more than two kids they have to play in the yard—they can't come in my house. Also, they have to wear shoes (kids here have bad habits of running around barefoot everywhere, which is dangerous because not only can they cut themselves easily but there is a lot of animal waste around town, and plenty of diseases can be spread if kids are stepping on cow or goat poop). Finally, if they make a mess, they have to clean it up—the picture below is of two six year olds who were trying to climb up my wall and peek in my window. They left footprints on the wall so I told them that they had to scrub the wall as a punishment—they actually loved it and ended up fighting over who could use the scrub brush! Here are some photos of the construction of the house and my little helpers--Í'll post more pix later.

More Pictures

Pictures from International Women's Day

Doing the art collage

The inside of the center



The truck that brought us to the event.

The girls waiting for the bus and practicing their poem

March 8, 2009: International Women's Day.....Campo style!

For about a month and a half now a volunteer who lives a half hour from me and I have been planning an event for International Women's Day. Our original idea stemmed from the fact that the Gender and Development Peace Corps Committee here in the DR was offering small grants to volunteers who wanted to host events in their sites. My friend and I decided to hold an event together that would bring mothers and daughters to celebrate the day together, since often we have seen that mothers and daughters don't have much interaction apart from household chores and daily life. Our idea was to bring mothers and daughters from 3 different sites together (about 30 total) and do team building activities and a health presentation with them. My friend lives in a site where there is a very strong, active youth group and she proposed the idea to them. The group loved the idea and wanted to expand it to 100 people and include a march. In early February we found out we had received the grant from Peace Corps and I took a group of my youth to her site to have a meeting about the event. We then planned on inviting about 80 people from 4 communities, doing a presentation at the beginning, then a presentation on women's health and an art activity, closing with a small ceremony and lunch. The grant we got from Peace Corps was not going to cover all the costs of such a large event, so we decided to do a raffle as well to raise funds.
During February we sold raffle tickets and did some preliminary planning, and the first week of March we had to do lots of shopping and running around to get the event ready. On my side, I had to make sure my youth sold their raffle tickets, that we invited the right number of mothers and daughters, and that we had transportation to the event. Many girls here in Las Pajas don't live with their mothers; they live with grandmothers or aunts or other relatives that take them in while their parents are elsewhere working, so I told the girls to simply invite older women who they respected and wanted to spend the morning with.
At the end of February we had a scare because we found out that a softball tournament that was being organized by the government of our province was going to start on the same day as our event, and many girls in my community were going to be involved in it. We decided to continue with the same date because we had already arranged for that day, and even though a lot of girls did go to the softball game to play, in the end there were plenty of people who wanted to come with us—partially because I had told them that we would stay that afternoon to watch the softball game.
On the 8th we were supposed to go in a bus from my friend's town who would come and pick us up in the morning. My friend paid the driver half of what he said he would charge us the day before he was to pick us up, and we planned to pay him the other half at the end of the day. Knowing that in this country things can be a little unreliable, both my friend and I were a little worried about the transportation, and indeed the morning of the 8th, after I had told all the participants to be ready to go at 730 am, my friend called and told me that the driver didn't want to take us and had returned the money to her. That threw me into a frenzy, so both she and I tried to think of solutions. Finally one of the girls that was going to go with me went and woke up one of the few men in our community that has a truck, and told him (not asked or begged, which I would have done, but no, she TOLD him) to take us to my friend's community, which amazingly he did. So instead of riding in a bus, all of us girls, dressed up for the event, climbed into the back of a truck that usually carries cows or large pieces of iron, and happily rode the half hour through sugar cane and cacao fields to my friend's community.
When we arrived at 9 o'clock (the event was supposed to start at 8) we were the first ones there, and we had come from the farthest away. We waited until about 930 when some people trickled in, and then just decided to start the event with the 30 or so people that were there. We did introductions, several important people from the community talked, we did some fun ice breakers and my girls presented a poem they had written. We finished with a team building activity where groups of two had to carry one another like babies, on their backs, or had to lie down one on top of the other; the ones who did it the slowest were out. The women enjoyed the games a lot, and it was fun to see everybody having so much fun, laughing and practically crying while watching grown women try to carry each other!
After a break for some coffee and crackers we came back to do an art activity. We had each pair of “mothers” and their “daughters” set goals for their daughters' future and then make a collage of those goals. At first we were a little worried because some of the mothers don't write and we thought they might get discouraged with the activity, since the first part they are supposed to write the goals. But the teams worked together and in the end everybody was coming up to us to show us their collages and their goals.
We then took a short break and came back for a presentation on birth control that another health volunteer gave. She talked about all different kinds of birth control that people could use, had the girls race to see who could put a condom on a banana the right way, and then had them play a musical chairs type game to remember all the different kinds of birth control she talked about. They enjoyed that a lot, and definitely learned something as well.
We finished by giving out certificates to all the women and eating a good hearty meal. At times the event was incredibly hectic and I will admit I was afraid it might be a flop, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I know that everyone enjoyed it.
After the event all the women who had come with me went to cheer on the Las Pajas softball team who had just began to play at the field in the town we were in. My volunteer friends and I cleaned up and then headed over to the field as well. For about 3 hours we were all there cheering on the team—even though the sun was bright, it was incredibly windy and everybody had been up since 7 am when our team won everybody went and ran a victory lap around the field, chanting and cheering. We stayed a while longer to watch the other teams play and then all the women who had come with me piled into our truck and we went back home, chanting and cheering as we left the town and chanting and cheering as we entered Las Pajas. When the girls got out of the truck they continued dancing and chanting about the win, even though the softball team hadn't arrived home yet. When the team did arrive, they all went directly to the local “disco” to dance “ga-ga,” a kind of dancing and music with Haitian roots. My volunteer friends returned to Las Pajas with me so we watched some of the festivities, but we were too tired to continue with the girls, who were up half the night celebrating. All in all it was a great day for the women of Las Pajas!

February 27th, 2009: Independence Day!

So the 27th of February is the Dominican Republic´s Independence Day, and practically every town celebrates it with a parade/march of some kind. The schoolchildren celebrated it this past Tuesday with their teachers (because the teachers live in a different city and didn´t want to come to our town on a holiday). However our community leader wanted to celebrate on the actual day, so he told his students from the before school program and the rest of the community that they should come to the march on Friday morning at 8. By 830 there were only the children in their uniforms waiting to march, so we started off, and I feared it would just be us marching around town (many people had told me that they were going to other cities for the day where the festivities were more exciting and lasted all day). However as soon as we began walking through the community other people joined us and by the end of it we had a huge group of people marching in the hot sun, chanting, singing and playing the drums on pots and pans. We finished the march in front of the community center where they sang the national anthem and the children did a coreographed march. Here are some of the photos:

February 24th, 2009: Birth

Unfortunately, adolescent pregnancy is fairly common in Las Pajas. Despite the fact that contraceptives and condoms are available at our local clinic, ever since I arrived I have seen way too many young pregnant girls and mothers. The one who I have had the most contact with is my eighteen year old host sister, who was about five months along when I arrived, and so, according to the math, was due to give birth sometime in February. I had accompanied her to a couple doctor's appointments here in Las Pajas and in the nearest city, and tried to encourage her to go to all of her appointments, however she did not go to see the doctor in the city or have a sonogram during all of January and Februrary, and because of this had no idea when she should expect to give birth. There are several reasons that she did not go to see the doctor: first of all, to travel to the nearest city where there is a certified OBGYN (in Las Pajas we have interns who have finished school but are not yet doctors) it is about an hour's ride on a motorcycle and then a bus, so the traveling alone is tiresome. Secondly, the cost of the trip is not cheap for the expecting mothers, which makes it even more difficult to arrive. Thirdly, my sister unfortunately is still young and does not quite know how to manage her money, so by the time she had an appointment to go visit the doctor, she had spent her money on other things and had none left to travel.
Finally on February 23rd she went into the nearest town for a checkup, and when I arrived at my host family's house for lunch, I was informed that my host mother had ran out the door because my host sister had called to tell her they were going to perform a C-section on her. I called my host sister at noon and she said she was waiting for my host mom to arrive and for the doctors to perform the C-section. By two when I called again, she had a healthy little boy and was recovering from the surgery.
I went into the hospital the next day to see her and the little boy. My host mother had spent the night there and was planning on staying there until they released my host sister. She wasn't just spending the night to keep my host sister company; in public hospitals here patients need to have someone stay with them because there are no orderlies or nurses who stop by to help them with anything. My host mom had to help my sister bathe, go to the bathroom and look after the newborn. Patients also have to bring their own sheets and provide their own food, so when my host mother dashed into the city after she got the call, she went with a pair of sheets, but I also brought clean towels in the next day when I came to visit. My host sister was also fortunate that her uncle lives in that town, so he was able to bring them food every day and run errands for them.
While I was there visiting the only time I saw a nurse was when she came into to change my host sister's IV; it was my host sister's uncle, my host mom and I who helped her to the bathroom and helped her bathe and change clothes and care for the baby. My host sister was lucky that she had a little privacy because there was no one else in the hospital room with her—even though there are about 8 beds in each room. While the hospital wasn't dirty, it wasn't clean either; there were no trash cans in the room and the bathroom didn't even have a place to hang and IV. While they weren't the worst conditions ever, I must say that these women are very strong to be able to give birth with very little attention and inadequate facilities!
Many women after giving birth return to town the next day on a motorcycle, but since my host sister had had a C-section, that was definitely out of the question! She spent two nights in the hospital and then we were luckily able to arrange for a man in our town who has a truck to pass by and pick her up. She arrived home and since then has had plenty of visitors, however acccording to Dominican tradition, she basically has to stay inside the house for the first month (especially at night) after she has given birth.

February 10th, 2009: Time to get to work!

Well it's been a while since I last updated, but that's not for a lack of stories to tell! The past couple weeks have flown by, mainly because I moved out of my host family's house, my mother came to visit, and I had to go to a week long In-Service Training that Peace Corps provided to prepare us for the next year's work. Let's go step by step as I explain these three events:

New House:
First, as most PCDR volunteers do, after living with my host family for three months I moved out of their house and into a little place of my own. Because Peace Corps does not allow us to live in houses with tin walls, and there are no houses available in my community that are made out of block or wood entirely, I cannot at this point live completely on my own. However, the two Canadian nuns who live here part of the year have been nice enough to offer me the apartment that is attached to the side of their house to live in. The apartment is pretty basic (it used to be a garage) but I do have my own INDOOR bathroom (though I kind of prefer a latrine because you don't have to clean it or worry about using too much water) and I have my own separate entrance. I have two rooms—one for my bedroom and the other as a living area/kitchen where I have a small stove and keep a bucket of water near it to wash and cook with. Though it's not very lavish, according to Peace Corps living standards it is a very nice place!

Moira's Visit:
Yup, my mother came to visit for almost a week and got to see my entire town and meet practically everyone in it! She arrived on a Tuesday and I went and found her at the airport and we spent a day and a night in a small hotel near the beach. We enjoyed the sunshine and water, but my mom was swimming in the water and got caught in some coral, which put a damper on things because little coral pieces were stuck in her feet and hands and we had to treat them the entire time she was here in order to get them out.
After the beach we took a bus and then some motorcycles into my town. My mom was worried that the motorcycle drivers wouldn't be able to carry her suitcase and my backpack on their motorcycles, but she soon saw that it was no problem at all (the trick is to set the suitcase on the front of the motorcycle and the driver simply has to balance it while he is driving). We arrived in Las Pajas and for the next four days our days mainly consisted of meeting people and visiting with them. I think some of the highlights for her were the warm bread that a woman in my site backs nightly to sell, and getting her hair braided into cornrows (she has a couple pictures you should ask to see if you can!).
The people in my community loved meeting my mom and ever since I got back from my training they have been asking when she is going to come again and when the rest of my family will come (the boys in town are particularly interested in when Rakaia—my 15 year old sister—will be coming to visit)

In-Service Training:
At the end of my mother's visit, she and I as well as my two “Community project partners” traveled into Santo Domingo. My mom went to the airport and my two project partners and I went to a hotel for the night before we took off for another city in the morning. For our training, all the youth volunteers and their project partners, as well as our bosses and trainers, met at a retreat type center in the mountains. For the past three months each volunteer and their project partner had been preparing our community diagnostic to present at the training, and so for the first day we all presented our diagnostics and discussed our plans for the future. The next day was full of planning projects and doing “teamwork” activities with our project partners. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my project partners outside of Las Pajas, because we all had time to discuss our projects without interruption. We now have lots of plans for the future, but the projects that we are going to begin this month are:
English classes
A girls' volleyball team
More activities for the recently formed youth group
An event in a neighboring community for International Women's Day

After our project partners left us volunteers stayed for several days to do more trainings specific to Peace Corps and to talk about projects that other previous volunteers have done. It was great to be able to chat with my friends about their communities and swap ideas, however I returned rather overwhelmed with all the information and plans that had been discussed. The days following the training have been for planning and sorting through all the information we got.

This month I will also be traveling to the capital for “Committee Weekend” which is where all the volunteers meet and form committees to work on certain projects. I will be helping to plan several weekend camps for youth (one is a tournament for volleyball teams, another is a sports/nutrition camp and the last, a diversity camp) as well as checking out what other committees do. This month is a short one, but it is certainly chock full of plans!

January 22nd, 2009--Life Just Flies By!

Wow, it's hard to believe that we're almost finished with January, I feel as if this month has just flown by! What have I been doing? Well, that's a good question, because thinking back, I can’t think of what, but I have been busy! A lot of my time recently has been taken up with meetings--meetings with the “Junta de Vecinos” (Literally translated—Neighborhood Group, but basically the group that takes care of community infrastructure, sanitation, etc); meetings with my youth group, and then the small group of leaders within that group; organizing discussions for teenagers with our local doctor; meeting with our “health promoters” and an outside NGO that wants to do a nutrition program for children, etc.. etc.. etc...
But with all these meetings, I still don't have much to report, many things, such as my youth group, are just beginning, so things are going slowly—I'm just excited that we have elected a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer!
Since there is so much, yet so little, to report right now, I'm going to instead focus on something that I haven’t talked about much: day-to-day life here. First off, electicity: I had mentioned a while ago that our electricity is not always reliable, but it is supposed to have a schedule—it's usually on from 10am to 2 pm, and then returns around 7 pm and goes out sometime in the early morning. Every night when the electricity comes on everyone in the community cheers, and every day at 10 when the electricity comes on about half of the community turns on their music full blast while other half turns on their TVs to start watching the telenovelas.
The water here is also come and go—my host family has a spout in the back of their house and when there is water we fill up lots of large buckets and during the day we use the water in those buckets to bathe, wash the dishes, wash clothes, etc... My host family has a latrine out in the back of their house as well as a private area made out of tin and wood where we bathe. The house itself is considered a normal house around here—it has a cement floor and is made of tin and wood. It is obviously not impermeable to mice, rats or big bugs, but it's comfortable enough. My host mother and I have our own rooms, while the brother and two youngest sisters share a room. The oldest sleeps in the barracks next to our house.
And now, the other part of daily living: food. We eat similar foods just about every day, so here, for example is what I ate today and yesterday:

Breakfast: Fried green plaintains (green on the outside, meaning they are not sweet) with fried salami,
Yesterday: a soup of noodles with garlic

Lunch: Chicken fried in seasoning with onions and garlic, rice with peas cooked with onions, garlic, salt, bullion and oil,
Yesterday: rice cooked with beans and onion, garlic, salt, etc, and boiled eggplant cooked with plenty of seasonings.

Dinner: Boiled yucca and fried egg,
Yesterday: a bowl of cream of corn flour (pretty similar to cream of wheat).

During the day when we're lucky we also have plenty of fruit: bananas, oranges, sometimes papaya, etc.
As you'll notice, vegetables are a bit lacking in my diet, mainly because here in the community noone sells or grows things like carrots, tomatoes or lettuce (the two vegetables that you do see here are squash and eggplant) but when I go into the bigger town nearby I usually try to buy some kind of vegetable.
Soon I will be moving out of my host family's house and will be living basically on my own, but I am going to continue eating lunch frequently with my host family because, even though I would have never believed this four months ago, I have come to like eating rice every single day and I know I cannot prepare the rice like my host family can!

My host mother preparing the chicken for Christmas.


This is a picture of one of the baseball teams with their "Madrina" (literally translated, godmother) on the opening day of the tournament.


This is one of my favorite people in the batey-an older man who eats with us, has taught me some Kreyol and brings us yummy things from his garden like peas and bananas! It just so happened I caught him when he was wearing this funny hat one night.