13. A Whole New World

Good Afternoon, it's been a while right? I fell off the wagon but I am in the process of getting my life back together. 


Where have I been the past three months? Did I fall off the face of the earth?


The past three months have been a whirlwind. A lot has happened and I will try to briefly explain where I disappeared to. 


Most Volunteers spend their entire two years of service in one community. Sometimes Volunteers are removed for security purposes or their projects aren't working out but either way, I was removed from my community in June for security purposes. I then spent some time in the capital visiting a few communities that were potential sites for the remainder of my service. I visited four different communities and after leaving Batey Cuchilla, I knew that is where I wanted to complete my service. 


Batey Cuchilla is located in the SW region of the Dominican Republic. It is very different from my old community. A Batey is a community that was once centered around the sugar cane industry. In the past, Haitian workers (seasonal immigrants) would come into the area during sugar cane season and live in these communities. They consisted of barracks and a few homes. They would work hard days cropping the sugar cane. Over the years, the bateyes have grown into larger communities and since the sugar cane industry is no longer competitive, finding work is difficult for the people living in Bateyes. 


Many people living in the Bateyes are of Haitian decent. Children of Haitian immigrants, although born and raised in the Dominican Republic, are often stateless and denied services as their parents are denied Dominican nationality due to their undocumented status. The lack of work, low wages and the education system make Bateyes some of the poorest communities in the Dominican Republic. 

My buddies in the sugar cane fields.

Batey Cuchilla is a small Batey located in an area that houses a large number of Bateyes. It is a dry, dusty area North of Barahona. There are close to 600 people and about 120 houses. There is a primary school that goes up to fifth grade and only has four teachers, one who also serves as the director of the school. Once you are beyond fifth grade, you go to a neighboring community. It is a trek. The kids get up early and walk to the side of the highway where they hitchhike and wait for someone who is nice enough to pick them up, if they are lucky. They do this everyday. There is a makeshift baseball field where they also play soccer. Electricity changes but usually is on for about half of the day. Twice per day, there are pumps that give water, once in the morning and once in the evening. These pumps are shared between two or three houses. 


So here I am, living in Batey Cuchilla. I have almost 2 months under my belt here. I lived with another Doña for about two months, and this week, I moved into my own house. 

The front of my house.

I will be doing similar projects in Batey Cuchilla - Gender initiatives, sports teams, HIV/AIDS awareness, maybe/possibly building a basketball court and as a second project, working on documenting youth whom remain stateless. 


So there you have it!


In other news:


I visited the United States for a week. It was short but sweet! It was a great time though and definitely bittersweet to be home, it almost felt as if I never left. I was able to see some of my friends, hang out with my family and play with my dogs. That being said, I think it was a successful trip and thanks to all of those who made it special. 
When my mom picked me up from the airport, she told me I smelt like a "grandma" (whatever that means). The next few hours, both my mom and dad followed me around the house smelling everything I had brought with me - which wasn't much, just a book-bag with a change of clothes and my computer. They made me change and I believe washed my belongings more than twice. My dad washed my backpack three times, bleached it and it hung outside for the remainder of my trip. I would like to believe it is because my backpack has been through hell and back - tossed here & there, been through rain storms, thrown in dirt, stored under a bed, probably had rats and tarantulas crawling through it and sat on the floor of one too many over-crowded guagua rides. BUT, who knows, maybe it is my new scent - "grandma".


And last but not least, I have been in the Dominican Republic for one year. Happy one year anniversary to my blog as well (although I have been quite neglectful lately - I promise to shape up)!


There are some exciting things happening in September so I promise to write soon. It's good to be back!

Trouble!

Hermanos.

Out on an adventure. 

Batey Cuchilla!

12. Cariño

If I had to describe Cariño's family in one word, it would be tough. Ever since my first day in Los Vasquez I have been intimidated by this family. All four of his older brothers strut down the dirt road, shirtless, winking at me and/or blowing me kisses. My first month here, I played game after game of Dominoes with these boys while they laughed, made fun of my Spanish and God only knows what else they said. I tried earning their respect by beating them in Dominoes only to find out that they would always win but after re-checking the score a few times, it was only because the points didn't seem to add up correctly. I have played a Dominican card game, Casino, with their father to find out that he too, would cheat. How do I tell a 70 year old man that I know he is cheating? I didn't, I played stupid. After four months, I finally figured out who all was part of this family.

They are a family of 9, Six boys and one girl. Their father is a bit older, their mother is younger and their primary source of income is agriculture. I have witnessed the only girl in the family get into two fights, both defending her rambunctious, sometimes hard to handle, nephew, Rafeline, who also lives with them (Rafeline's father does not live in Los Vasquez but he has lived here all his life, with his grandparents). There is also a two year old living with them along with his mother, the fiance of one of the young boys and she is 6 months pregnant. The only daughter's fiance also frequently stays in their house when he is not working at an all inclusive resort a few hours away. They have 13 people staying in a 3 bedroom home, they all share beds which is common for people to do in the Dominican Republic.

As you know, after my first three months in Los Vasquez, I moved into my own house. I started seeing more of Cariño (usually with a friend or two in tow). He would come over and just sit and laugh at/with me. We became friends especially when I mentioned that I wanted to buy a horse. Cariño is the boy that helped me find and buy my horse and he now helps me take care of it, doing most of the dirty work. He is 16 years old and still attends the local elementary school in Los Vasquez. He has proven to me that he is responsible by taking Señor Eduardo (my horse) to feed in his land three times per week. He has ridden Eduardo with me and walked alongside me as I have ridden him solo talking me through what to do. He has brought me lists of items to pick up at the vet when I leave the community in order to clear up his parasites or to clean out his ears. Cariño now comes over everyday to hang out, listen to music or just to talk.

Cariño is a natural leader. He has a small group of friends that follow him around. He can be a smart alack sometimes, but what 16 year old boy isn't? He teases the girls in the community & I have had to kick him out of a meeting or two for flicking people's ears while they are reading or throwing balls of paper at other kids. He loves animals and you will always find him on a horse or with a dog running behind him. Cariño reminds me a little of myself.

Over the past month, I have been asking Cariño when and if he was going to come over to study. He explains to me that he does not like school, he can't pass 7th grade and he will probably just cheat on his exams. Over the course of the month, we have had numerous discussions and I have explained to him that most kids his age don't like school and I understand that it can be boring, but it is very important. He would blow me off whenever I mentioned studying for his exams saying he would come by later just to get me off his back. This past week the local elementary school had their final exams.

Last Monday, Cariño came by after his first exam, Science, and he told me he failed. Once again, I told him to come over and we could study for Tuesday's exam, Spanish. He comes over, after his exam on Tuesday to tell me he failed. Later in the day, Cariño sees me working on Math with a younger girl, in Sixth grade. I tell him to come by later and we can work on Math and he says ok and sits and watches me help her. He never comes by. On Wednesday, after his final, he comes over and when I ask him why he didn't come over to study, he tells me he did but I wasn't there. Liar. Later in the evening, in walks Cariño, no shoes, his shirt tied around his head, his pants sliding off his skinny body and smelling of rum. I shake my head and lecture him, "Listen Cariño, I know you can pass these. If you do, you will be able to move onto Eight grade, you don't want to redo seventh grade for a third time, do you?"He just looks at me with his glossy eyes and I tell him to go home. Thursday afternoon, Cariño is at my doorstep with his notebook, a broken pencil and his stack of exams that he had not passed. He will be given another chance to retake all of them on Friday.

As I am going through the exams, I ask Cariño for his notes so we can fill the tests out correctly. He doesn't have any. We spend the next two hours going through each exam and googling the answers - What is a verb? What is a pronoun? When was the Dominican Republic founded? What is an earthquake? We get all of the answers and I tell him it is up to him to study and memorize these, I cannot help.

We move onto Math. I look at his old exam, 40%. It is a 20 question test, 5 true and false, 5 problems on less than, greater than or equal to, 5 problems on whether a given number was positive or negative and 5 math problems, 3 multiplication and 2 division. While looking at his test, I see that he needs the most help on >,< and = and the multiplication and division problems. I look a little closer and notice that a few of the problems were incorrectly marked by the teacher. I question him on who corrected it and he told me his Math teacher did. This is what I see; -1000>900, -300>200, 90<100, 50=50 and -20=20. I was stunned. I tried calling a few other volunteers and couldn't get ahold of anyone. I then call a friend in the states (thanks Teri!) to make sure I am not losing my mind and she confirms that I am not. I then try to explain to Cariño that some of these answers are incorrect. He has a tough time wrapping his head around this and tells me, no, the teacher said it is wrong, it is wrong. I explain to him that if I have $0 but I owe my neighbor $1,000, I have $-1,000. If he has $900, who has more money? He understands but continues to tell me that it is wrong because the teacher said so. After ten minutes of explaining/arguing, I tell him to forget about it but make sure to bring me his test when he gets it back.

We move onto multiplication and division. After working with a few other students, I have come to realize that they were not taught how to multiply correctly. They were all missing a few MAJOR steps to multiplying. I start from scratch with Cariño and tell him to be very careful because one little mistake will give him an incorrect answer. I watch him struggle through simple multiplication tables, doing them in his head, guessing random numbers but too ashamed to write them down. We use Dominoes and count. We move on to harder problems. After working through many problems together, I let him try on his own. I correct his Math problems and they were all correct. I see him hiding a smile, he says thank you, we give each other a fist bump and I tell him I know he is going to do great.

Cariño passed all of his exams. He turns 17 in two days and will be able to start Eighth grade next year.
In Spanish, the word Cariño is often used as a term of endearment such "honey" or "sweetheart".

The Education System in the Dominican Republic is of great concern. The government is spending less than 4% on education and the Dominican Republic has one of the highest illiteracy rates in all of South/Central America. It is common to see 16, 17 and 18 year olds in Sixth and Seventh grade and the classrooms are often overcrowded. Students go to school for four hours per day and much of this time is wasted. Classes start late and a chunk of the day is spent copying straight from the board. For homework, I watch children copy pages straight from the book, tracing pictures and copying the Math problems, but not solving them. Teachers often pass students in order to move them along even though they are not prepared. They begin a school year behind and have a hard time catching up. Rather than going through the embarrassment of repeating a grade, students often choose to leave school all together.

Sometimes as I sit under my mosquito net, listening to rats crawl through my walls, or itching mosquito bites and I wonder "what I am doing here?". I could be back home with my family and friends in the states, celebrating holidays, going to bachelorette parties, watching my brother and his wife start a family etc. etc. But then little things happen, such as Cariño passing Seventh grade, and I realize it is the little things and the relationships I am making and that is what I am doing here.

Love you all and I will send another update soon enough! xoxo

11. Yee-Haw

It is about that time again! Here is the latest and the greatest. I am going to separate this into four parts...

1. My work
2. My Community
3. My new friend
4. Other news

1. My work. I feel a little behind because I was in the capital for 2 weeks with pneumonia. During that two weeks, I did nothing other than learn how to spell the word pneumonia, watch KU lose and make many trips to the hospital. That good ol' tax $$$ did put me up in an air-conditioned room though, so thank you! Now that I am back & healthy, I am in the process of re-motivating.
One of my youth and I went to talk to the teachers at the school about doing the HIV/AIDS sports program (Deportes Para la Vida) during gym class or during free time. I thought it would be no sweat, 60% of their school day is free time anyways. They all said it sounded wonderful but I needed to ask and receive permission from the director of all of the schools in the region. That director is located in Hato Mayor so we decided I would make the trip the following morning to go talk to him. We put together a letter describing the program and asking permission, I chat with the moto driver and tell him I need to go to the city early, no later than 8am. I wake up, get ready, go find him & he is not there. He shows up at nine like nothing has happened although I have called him 12 times. Oh well, lets go! We get about 3/4ths the way there and the motorcycle stops, we get off (there were three of us on it) and he tips the moto hoping the gas moves around, get back on & go. About two miles later, we run out of gas for real. I walk to the office of education and wait to talk to the director, nice and sweaty. I give him the letter and explain the program and let him check out the manual. He says it looks great but I need permission from the other director who is not here because he leaves at 10am and it is now 10:30, he is also going to be out of the office for a while. I then get to hear my project partner tell me that I should have come earlier....OH REALLY??? Thank you. We left it at "ok, your number is on here, he will call you next week". I haven't heard from him. The other thing, this past Tuesday the kids came over to my house after school and told me that they have vacation until April 25th. I knew a holiday was coming up but I did not know they would be off school for over a week. Well, this program contains at least 10 classes so even if I got permission tomorrow and did it twice a week in the school, I still wouldn't have enough time. Back to square one. Now, we are in the process of organizing a group BUT it is Samana Santa (holy week) so basically everything is on hold other than drinking and dancing.
My chica's group is going strong. We are on our sixth week and last week we learned about the female reproductive system. I started another group for younger girls ages 7-11. It is not going to be as formal and we are just going to do art activities and play.

Chica's Brillantes

Some of my younger chicas!

Me with a few of my Chica's

English classes are on & off. I worked with three youth in hopes of making it a little more formal and we were supposed to start this week but I don't think it is didn't to go over too well considering it is a holiday weekend.
Lastly, as part of my project, my community has communicated that they would like to build a basketball/volleyball court for the youth to have a place to play. We have discussed it many times and had finally decided on the land that would be used. This week I come to find out that there is this money already available and an engineer is coming to survey the land (he was supposed to come on Friday but didn't show). Now I hear they are going to start this Tuesday, I am still confused and will be curious to see what happens. I am a little skeptical but it would be great if it really happens.

2. My Community. It is crazy to think about, but I have been in my community for about 6 months and I am still learning new things everyday - Who sells milk, who is related to who, who is "medio loco" and of course, who I can trust and work with.
Sometimes I feel like I have opened my own little tienda (store) in Los Vasquez. Here is why:

I wake up around 7:30-8:00 and make myself coffee or tea. I have to do this with my door shut or else I will be providing for the entire community. I read a little and prepare for the day. Come 9:00, I start opening up shop. I first brush my teeth (I need to open my doors for this so I can spit out my front door) and then start opening my windows. The shop is now open. I do a little sweeping and now the customers start coming. If for some reason, my shop isn't open by 10:00, they start banging on my doors or wait outside. They file in, some sit in my plastic chairs and some just stand. They notice my stove is dirty because my greka (thing I use to make coffee) leaks. They monitor me and tell me I am don't know how to sweep and I need to clean my stove. Good thing I have them! Once my daily routine is done, I now have about 4-6 kids in my house and there is dust/mud all over my floor again, we color or talk. They ask if I have water, mentas or lollipops. They stare at my book shelf and visually browse my things. They aren't allowed to touch though! They ask questions about all of the things they see "¿Que es esto?"and just stare. Sometimes I get the occasional customer who is too nervous to enter and just stares through my door, window browsing. I then close up shop for lunch time and after lunch I take an hour or so to relax. Shop opens back up around 1:30. Any later, they start calling. Of course, I have those days where I am not home for longer periods of time, visiting families, going to the river, getting water or meeting with my youth groups. On these days, I get questioned about where I was and what I was doing. I try to close up by 9:30 but sometimes I stay open later. My clientele is a wide range of people but the majority are young boys ages 5-15, the girls visit often but they only stay for a few minutes and stop in on their way to the colmado to buy oil, eggs or other ingredients they need as they are preparing lunch.

 I always wanted to open my own boutique!

Muchachos coloring in my shop.

3. My new friend. As some of you know, I finally bought myself a pet. This has been a lengthy process but the damage is done. I bought a horse. I had spent a lot of time thinking about whether I wanted a horse or donkey. I had made lists of pros and cons and talked with many people in my community about it. I FINALLY decided I wanted to buy a donkey. The main reason I wanted a donkey was because I do not know the first thing about caring for horses and they seem to be a lot more work. Donkeys can eat trash, they are smaller and when I would try them out here, my feet would drag on the floor...nothing to be afraid of, I could just step off if I needed to. They could help me carry my water (the main reason I was in the market for a pet anyways) and they don't really run. I have never seen a Donkey kick someone off its back nor wear a saddle. Sounded like just what I was in the market for. There are donkeys everywhere around here but I couldn't find one to buy. So I got a horse.

I bought him from Tibo who lives down the street. He cost me RD $2,000. That is USD $53.29 to be exact.
I have a 14 year old boy, Cariño, helping me out. He has two horses of his own so he knows how to care for him. Good thing. My Doña doesn't want him staying at my house because he will eat everything, including the Papaya, mangoes etc. that they sell for their income. He usually spends a few hours at my house grazing but we tie him up in places where he can reach the valuable things. Three times a week, Cariño takes him to his land (they have a lot) with the other horses to graze, he usually sleeps at Cariño's yard which is just around the corner from me.
I have named him Señor Eduardo (Mr. Ed).

Señor Eduardo

Giving rides. 

Cariño & Señor Ed helping me w/ water

I have only ridden horses a few times in my life so Cariño is teaching me. It is a little nerve-wracking especially because he does not wear a saddle, just a pretty grass skirt! Yesterday the both of us rode Señor Eduardo, Cariño was driving and I was on back. I have seen Cariño fly down my street on many different horses so I had to constantly remind him that I didn't want Señor Eduardo to run with me yet. We did trot a little and it was fun. Once we reached the river, we switched and I drove (I don't know the lingo yet, sorry). Señor Eduardo went SOOO slow when I was driving. I would make the same noises Cariño makes, kick him but he wouldn't do anything but a SLOW walk. Cariño thought it was a riot.
I did a little internet research and read that horses like carrots and apples. I told Cariño that I was going to buy him some and he looked at me like I was insane. I didn't fully catch what he said but something about how carrots and apples are expensive and I should feed them to him, not the horse.

Isn't he cute?

4. Other News.
CampSuperman. Next weekend, I am going to Camp Superman. It is a regional camp so about 10 volunteers are bringing two boys and we are going into the mountains in El Seibo. We are going to camp out, play in the river and teach these muchachos a thing or two.
One of the boys I had in mind, whom I do not know too well, always waves to me and is really shy when I talk to him. I thought he would be the perfect little guy to bring, he is always helping his grandfather with their horses (He lives with them, I am not sure where his parents are), working in their land and always seems rather polite. So while talking with some women in my community I mentioned I wanted to bring him. They said "No, you can't bring him. He is bad. They call him gasolino because he is always going." Sounds good to me, don't all 11 year boys go and go? Then walks up his grandfather. They call him over and I explain the camp and how I want to bring his grandson. He said "thank you but this boy is dangerous". I couldn't help but laugh. Dangerous? Really? He said "he moves around too much and puts his hands on everything" I explained that it could be a good opportunity and explained more about that camp but the final answer was no. Off to ask more boys!

Bola Race. Bola Race is a Peace Corps, Dominican Republic, tradition. A bola is an unpaid ride, similar to hitch-hiking in the states. You basically flag down a car and jump in, tell them where you are headed and they let you off when they are no longer headed in your direction. Many times they are in the back of a truck. Anyways, all the willing volunteers meet in a given location, this year, Santiago. Some of the rules of the Bola Race are:
Teams of at least two, one needs to be a male.
You can not say you are a Peace Corps Volunteer.
You can not pay for a ride.
Be in costume. This is supposed to help you get a ride and gives you a story as to why you need a Bola.
The following morning, we all meet up and are told the surprise location and the race begins. This year, the ending location was Las Terrenas (the same place I went for my family vacation).

The group before take off. 

Sarita & I!

We set off at 9am. Las Terrrenas is at least four hours away from Santiago if driving straight there. I believe the winning team got there in just over four hours and the losing team did not show up until about 7pm that night. My team took 11 bolas and it took us just over 6 hours. Most of our Bolas were in the back of empty fruit trucks but one was sitting on bags and bags of flour and another was a cozy ride in an air conditioned Mercedes. It was a gorgeous drive to Las Terrenas and really is fascinating the amount of people that are willing to stop and pick up gringos.

My Bola Team!

Back of a truck! 

Below is Frailin. They now call him my hijo (son). He is gone for Semana Santa and I miss the little guy so much!

I think that about wraps it up! I keep telling myself that I am going to write more often so they are more frequent and shorter. I'll see what I can do! I miss you all as always! xoxo

Frailin w/ Caña (Sugar Cane)

10. March

It is now March and time seems to be flying by. Again, it has been a busy month between starting a few projects,vacationing with my family, attending another conference and now I am in the capital getting over pneumonia.

At the beginning of the month I had a wonderful, week-long vacation. The best part about it was that I got to see some of my family - my mom, my dad and one of my brothers, Matt (I did miss the rest of you boys and you too Lauren!). We traveled up to the Samana peninsula where we had rented a house and spent the week playing in the water, exploring and visiting. It was a wonderful time. Some of MY highlights of the vacation were: going whale watching, washing my clothes in a washing machine, seeing my family and hearing their thoughts about the DR, hot showers, an always available/flushing toilet, playing in the ocean and of course, watching them struggle with spanish (now they know how I  feel). It was really great though because they were able to see some of the culture. Between driving on the dirt roads with moto's zipping by in every direction, going to markets, working with unreliable internet/electricity/water, waiting while our realtor lady was 4 hours late and interacting with Dominican people I feel like they had a good vacation but also got to see a little glimpse into my life. They also brought me some fun stuff, my dad gave me a much needed haircut (hate to say it dad but as good as it looks, it is kind of uneven, I would stick to Insurance) and updated me on everything back home. It was hard to see them go and even harder to go back to my site but it was definitely worth it and my fingers are crossed they will come back soon.

Mi padre cutting my hair.

The beach.

Matt with a drunken Dominican.

Whale watching.

At dinner.

Matt with a machete.

At lunch on the beach.

Mi madre & I in the ocean. 

Lobster lunch on the beach.

When I got back to my site, my little shadow, Frailin, was sitting in the front of my house waiting for me. He kept asking "what did you bring me, what is in those bags?" I had brought back two more bags than I had left with, one full of clothes (and jeans, thanks Brig!) and the other had four swimming noodles, some goggles and a ball. My family and I had bought some noodles for the ocean and I wanted to bring them back to my site because on the weekends I try to go to the river with the kids and teach them how to swim. It was pretty hilarious because before I knew it, there were a handful of kids in my house looking at the noodles having no idea what they were. They of course start hitting each other with them, knocking everything over in my house and when I explain to them what they are they didn't seem to get it. Next thing I know, I step out of the front of my house and Frailin is sitting there eating one of them, little red pieces everywhere and he just giggles. I handed over the goggles to one of the older kids, I had promised him I would bring some back because he had been making a spear gun to catch fish in the river. Watching him make it was unbelievable and by the end of the day he had come back with four tiny fish, fried them and ate them for dinner.

Sometime between visiting with people in my community, playing with the kids, organizing/having meetings and preparing for an upcoming conference, I had gotten sick. I had a horrible fever and a pretty bad cough but I had a lot to do before Thursday so I just let it go. I would send Frailin to get me Ibuprofen and then try to rest but it was really hard without someone coming to my door with tea, warm buckets of water for me to bath or shots of strange oil that would "cure me by tomorrow". Wednesday evening we had a girls group meeting and I packed my things up for the conference and left Thursday morning with two 18 year old boys for the capital. I stopped in the medical office, got some medicine (and a lovely package, thanks mobit!) and off we went to the Deportes para la Vida conference (sports for life). The conference was great! It is a relatively new initiative that Peace Corps is working with that uses activities/sports for HIV/AIDS awareness along with making good decisions, alcohol and drugs. The conference was a training conference which meant the boys and I would get trained so we can then go back to our community and do the activities. We are planning on talking with the teachers in our community and hoping to come into the school and give one activity/week in place of gym class. Vamos a ver. Taking youth from my community to conferences is such an awesome experience. It is so neat to see them participate, make new friends, learn and get excited about doing things in our community. I am really looking forward to starting this in Los Vasquez and I think the kids will love it. Anyways, after the conference, I sent my boys home and went back to the medical office and was told I need to go get blood tests and a chest x-ray. So now, I am here in the capital with pneumonia. I was told to rest so that is what I am doing. It was pretty funny going to get the chest x-rays, these poor nurses thought I was oblivious (I sometimes am), telling me to raise arms, take deep breaths etc. etc. I didn't understand half of what they were saying so I was just kind of moving around and they would just shake their heads and say "dios mia".

My girls group is going strong. They are so fun to work with and they have such a blast every week. This past week, we made collages, they loved it and my floors are still covered in glue and tiny shreds of magazines! I am hoping to form another group for younger girls, it has been hard because every week, new girls come to my house wanting to participate but it also throws things off a little. Right now have about 16 girls, ages 14-19 that have attended all the meetings and then a handful that want to be part of it so we will see if they come the following week and so forth, I am holding it in my house but I am going to have to move it because there is not enough room. Either way, I am very lucky and happy they want to be a part of it so it has been a great project to start with and learn from.

Making collages in my house. 

I thought I would include a little list of things I have found funny over the past month or so....
-Taking a 30 minute moto ride back to my site with 3 bags and holding four noodles.
-My dona giving me water to wash my hands with and seeing tadpoles swimming in it.
-Being the worlds worst mopper and having ten year old girls shake their heads at me because of it. They always scream at me "con animo Libby".
-Having dance parties in my house with the little kids with my new speakers my fam brought me.

Our car.

-Watching my dad try to drive this mini car we rented over mountains, through the awful roads and smelling our brakes burning.

Cleaning dishes with Marielis (my bff). 

-My best friend in my community is ten.
-The kids have learned they can lock me inside my house. Aren't they precious?

Frailin in a bucket in my front yard.

That is all for now! As always, I love hearing from everyone. Take Care & ROCK CHALK!

9. Projects

I'm back! It has been an eventful few weeks and I have a busy schedule ahead of me as well.

I have moved into my house, completed 3 month IS, attended two conferences with juventud (youth) from my community and accomplished 6 months in the Dominican Republic. 

The completion of 3 month IST has started a new phase of my Peace Corps service, basically the part I have been patiently waiting for. As stated before, the first 3 months in country were spent training and living with host families and the next 3 months were spent in my community, gaining trust, completing interviews and figuring out the strengths/weaknesses of my community and what projects I want to take on. I then went and presented my results to my group and can now get to work! 

Here is a quick rundown of what I presented. My community is 360 people with 72 houses. About 90% of my community has electricity and zero have running water. The majority of the houses are made of wood and the rest are made of zinc or concrete blocks. The main source of income is agriculture, oranges, grapefruit, mango, guandule (pigeon pea;s) and tobacco. The men spend time working on their land and the women spend time in the house cooking and cleaning. When enough agriculture has been gathered they will go to a bigger city to sell it. There is a river at the end of the community and the community is surrounded by sugar cane fields. About 43% of the people are between the ages of 10-23. Many of the children live with their grandparents because there are not any opportunities for work so there parents go to bigger cities but leave their children with grandparents or aunts and uncles.
My community has an elementary school that stops at seventh grade and has two sessions, one in the morning for the younger students and one in the afternoon for the older students. There are 5 teachers and the students are only in class for 4 hours/day but much of that time is spent on breaks. After elementary school they have 3 options - stop attending, go to the public highschool or go to the Catholic school. The public school is in a neighboring town that is over an hour walk away. This school also has two sessions so the students are in class for less than 4 hours per day but this requires over a 2 hour commute. The Catholic school goes from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon and it is about 10 miles away so transportation is necessary. It is difficult for the youth in my community to continue on with their education and many times they are asked to help around the house rather than continue on through school. There is no clinic in my community and the closest is in a neighboring community. The closest hospital is in Hato Mayor which is about 35 minutes away on a motorcycle. There are two churches in my community, one Catholic and one Evangelical - 63% of the people are Catholic and 30% are Evangelical.
The youth in my community spend their free time playing cricket, dominoes or hanging out "bajo el arbol" (under the tree). There are no organized activities and they have no space to play sports or a positive space to gather. After talking and spending time with the youth in my community these are the things we are planning/hoping to focus on in the next few months...

Playing drums & singing. 

 
Escojo mi Vida (I Choose my Life) is an initiative that has been very successful in the Dominican Republic. It focuses on sexual health topics, HIV/AIDS, drugs, alcohol etc. The youth participate in a series of charlas (short lessons/classes) and then move on to graduate which then makes them "multipliers". There was a volunteer in a neighboring community whom gave a session to my community so I am lucky enough to already have a group of multipliers. This month I took two of these boys to a regional conference where we learned how to form a new group, how to strengthen a group and participated in other Escojo activities. My boys had a great time at the conference and it was a great motivator to get started.

Chicas Brillantes is a group for girls from ages 12-18. It focuses on subjects such as self esteem, conflict resolution and women's health. It is a great opportunity for the girls to get out of the house and it provides a safe place to talk and ask questions. There was a regional conference this past weekend where we participated in charlas, played sports, made masks for Carnaval and even had a camp fire where we made s'mores! The girls came back to my community ready to get started and full of energy!

Me w/ my chicas @ the Chicas Brillantes Conference

I am also planning on holding English classes once or twice a week. This has been a struggle because everyone wants English classes and I am hesitant to do them because they aren't going to learn much more than "good morning" "how are you" "my name is..". I am going to make an attempt at it though and then hopefully form an advanced class that I can actually help.

Over the next few months I am also hoping to get information on building a "cancha" (basketball court) in my community and forming sports teams. In March, two youth from my community and I are going to a conference called "Deportes Para la Vida" (sports for life) which is an initiative that uses sports to teach youth about HIV/AIDS and other issues they may be faced with. I am really excited about this and I am looking forward to doing activities outside of a classroom setting.

So those are some of the first projects I am going to work on. I know some of these may fail or may not go as planned but it is great to actually get started and see where my youth thrive and spend more time getting to know them.

In other news....

I am in my own house. I am still eating lunch with my Dona and I am basically still on her property but it has been going very well so far. I feel as if people from my community are more comfortable coming to visit me and they have all had a good laugh at me living solo. It is extremely unusual for women to live and sleep alone in this country so I am still explaining that they do not need to send a 10 year old girl over to sleep in my bed with me. It has been nice for them to see me carrying my own water, sweeping and cleaning, they all think it is hilarious, especially when I mop. It has made them realize that I am actual part of their community, that I will be here awhile and that I am not an oblivious American that needs my Dona to do everything for me. I have a bed, a stove and a gas tank but there are still some things I am hoping to get over time, like some chairs. I bought pots, pans, plates and utensils but I didn't realize I needed to fill my gas tank with gas - maybe I am an oblivious American. That being said, I haven't done any cooking yet. I do have to say that carrying the water is much more work than I had thought. My Dona has this gutter system rigged up so all the rain water goes into this HUGE tank (this past week it rained quite a bit so I threw on my raincoat and stood in the rain with a bucket - goofy American) and then she makes a few trips to the creek every week. When I was living with her she would always have a bucket of water for me to bathe with and then she did all the cooking and cleaning so I never really had to fetch much water unless I did it for fun with the kids. Anyways, it is not that fun.

Frailin putting water in the tank

Getting water

The kids love coming over. If I go into my house and shut my door, they throw rocks at my tin roof so I will come out. The other afternoon, I decided to take a little break and shut/lock my door, I was lying in bed reading and I looked up and there was a little boy (Frailin) standing there. He climbed through my window and as much as I wanted to be angry at him, I couldn't stop laughing. It is tough having them all in my house because they want to touch everything and they are hard to control. Sometimes I make them do sit-ups, push-ups or wall sits.

Pushups in my house.

Resting after wall sits. 

My parents and my brother, Matt are coming to visit at the beginning of March, I am soo excited to see them. Next post I will put up some pictures of our little vacation!

Feel free to leave any questions in the comment area below and I will answer them next time!

Cheers!

My shower.

Friends.

8. Happy 2011

Hello All!!

I hope everyone has had a great start to the new year. Again, sorry for the delay in posts, I was going to wait until after my 3 month IST (in service training) but I spoke to my parents and they made me feel guilty for not writing in a while so I thought I would write a quick little update.

I have been in the Dominican Republic for 5 months now and in my community for 3 months. Somedays it feels longer and some days it feels shorter. Either way, I am happy, healthy (I think) and I am feeling at home more and more each day. I think these blog posts are getting harder because my everyday happenings don't seem as significant to me anymore. Sleeping in a mosquito net, fetching water, showering with a bucket and waking up to roosters all seem like the norm to me so I am having a harder time thinking of things to write about.

Two of my friends from college, Emily & Jason, recently got married. I was supposed to be part of their October wedding but I received my invitation to serve in the Dominican Republic, leaving in August, so unfortunately I was unable to attend. Well, the two newlyweds decided to come to the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon and, well, I crashed it. Just kidding, they invited me. So I took a quick little trip to visit them in Punta Cana which is in the East, a couple of hours from me. It was so great seeing them! The whole thing was surreal, it was their honeymoon, I hadn't seen them in months, we were in the Caribbean and also on my new stomping grounds! The point of this story is that my life here seems normal, so normal that when I was visiting them at an amazing resort, I forgot that you can flush toilet paper down toilets, or even that toilets flush (I threw my TP in the trash-can). It was a perfect little getaway though and my fingers are crossed that they both don't think I am a savage. So, an amazing meal, two hot showers and a hangover later, I went back to my campo life filled with creek water, dirt roads and spanish!

Thanks Emily & Jason!

I have been spending the past month finishing interviews in my community and working on my project for 3 month IST. On February 1st my whole group will be meeting to present our communities and learn lots of other important stuff, so they say. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in my group again and getting this presentation over with. I am bringing someone from my community to present with me, her name is Mami and she has been helping me with the diagnostic. I feel weird calling her Mami, I don't even call my own mom that (obviously) but I don't know her real name and have never heard anyone call her anything but Mami. I need to figure out what to call her during my presentation, I don't know if Mami is going to fly. Mami and I have to give a 15 minute presentation on my community. It should be pretty entertaining and I will let everyone know how it goes!

More importantly, I found myself a house. I actually didn't look very hard, my Dona kind of just started painting it and told me I was living there and I said ok. It is next door to her and I had never noticed it before. I am going to move in after I get back from IST, that means moving my belongings 10 yards away and going to the city to buy myself a bed and a stove - if I'm lucky. It makes me laugh, every time I walk by it, I kind of chuckle. I think I am laughing AT it, not WITH it. It is divided into two parts, one for sleeping and one for everything else. Off the back of the house (my bedroom) I have an area to shower. I don't have a toilet/latrine so that is going to be interesting, I guess I am just delaying the inevitable. In case any of you were wondering, I have an open door policy (for Americans) and am now taking reservations, so purchase those plane tickets, I only charge $1 USD/night and you get to share a bed with me free of charge.

All of the kids are counting down the days for me to move out. As of now, my Dona does a good job at keeping the kids from charging into my room, they still throw rocks at my windows and scream my name until I come outside but I am lucky to have her. That being said, I am a little nervous about how excited everyone is and how I am going to manage it. Between my IPod, my computer and my Dr. Dre Beats headphones, I have some pretty cool gadgets they would all love to get their little hands on. I need to set up some rules. I am picturing a mad house for the first week or so and I was told I need to buy a set of 15 dishes so I can feed everyone that is over, whatever that means. Below are some pictures, they aren't that great, but they are all I have for now. I will put some more up once I am moved in.

The Front yard.

The other side.

The back (bedroom) and shower.

My modest, blue house.

I know you all want to get away from the snowy states so remember you have free lodging in the Dominican Republic for the next two years, great accommodations and clean/hot bucket showers!!

That sums it up for now, thanks for reading and thanks for the comments, I thoroughly enjoy them and always look forward to reading them. Hope everyone is well and I miss and think about you all each and every day. xoxo

7. Navidad

Well, I survived my first Christmas in the Dominican Republic! It was a bit of an emotional ride but what the heck, this whole experience has been. I was fortunate enough to video chat with my family, aunt, uncle and cousins along with a few friends so I did get a little piece of home which was great.

As you would assume, Christmas here is different in many ways. The celebration consists of "Noche Buena" y "La Navidad" on what would be our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Noche Buena families cook big meals and spend the evening drinking and dancing. La Navidad consisted of more drinking, dancing and in the evening everyone wears a new outfit. Looking at the BIG picture, it is easy to find similarities - family, music, food and cooking but it was NOTHING like home.

Family. Over the past few days, my little community of about 200 people has practically doubled. My house of four people has turned into a house full of eight people, three of them being grown adults (and all eight of them sleeping in just two beds). Two of my Dona's sons came in town for the holidays with one of their spouses. One of them is the father of Aumendi (my little brother) who also has another child, a three year old little girl named Yubelacy. Up until this point I was unsure of where Aumendi's parents were. It is quite common here for grandchildren to be living with their grandparents and it is all for different reasons. Aumendi's mother explained to me that when her family left my community for work, Aumendi hated his new community, there were no kids and the pace of life in a bigger neighborhood was too much for him. She then brought him back here to live with his grandmother and go to school here. He is five years old and has made a decision to live away from his mom, dad and little sister. It was really neat to see them interact. I have watched Aumendi get picked on and pushed around by a lot of kids in the neighborhood and this week he and his little sister have been inseparable. His dad also took him to the big city and bought him a new outfit for La Navidad and a water gun so he was the coolest kid on Christmas Day and he looked adorable in his new outfit and his little loafers which he hated! It was also great seeing my Dona surrounded by her sons. It reminded me a little bit of home. She really is a wonderful woman!

Yubelacy y Aumendi

Aumendi in his new Navidad outfit!

Music. The music here is completely different to say the least. One of my favorite things about Christmas back home is the music. Within the first hour of my Dona's son arriving he pulled out four enormous speakers into the front yard of my house. Yes, my Christmas was full of music - BLARING bachata, meringue and reggaetone having nothing to do with Christmas but singing about finding an American to give you a visa. Merry Christmas! So yes, this year I woke up on Christmas morning to bachata music and looking out into my front yard to people drinking rum!

Food. I haven't seen my Dona outside of the kitchen in the past three days. She works so hard and manages to keep a smile on her face throughout it all. We had a HUGE meal for Noche Buena which consisted of roasted chicken, apples, potato salad, empanadas, pasta, bread, hen and other birds that I am not sure what they were. Everything was really good. It was a little strange because she served me first and I ate dinner at a table by myself staring at a wall but it was really good otherwise. Definitely not like Christmas dinner at home but all in all it was a good meal. In terms of drinking, it is a major past time in the Dominican Republic. Not too many people drink in my community on a nightly basis but they have made up for it over the past few days. I can look out into my front yard now and it looks like my old college house, empty bottles everywhere. Everyone drinks, age doesn't matter. As I am writing this, there is still music blaring in my front yard with about 15 guys aged 22-30 drinking and my Dona keeps sending out platters of food for them to eat. She has been whispering a countdown to me over the days... "in two days they are leaving" "tomorrow, we will be alone and it will be quiet again".

My Dona w/ part of my x-mas dinner!

So yes, Christmas was definitely different, the 85 degree weather and constant sweating made it easy to forget what was going on back home and now it is practically over, just a few more hours of these same 10 songs I've been hearing over and over. Anyways, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and I was thinking of all of you!

On to other things. Overall, the past month or so has been good. I am feeling more comfortable in my community and everyday a new kid warms up to me and screams my name when passing by. All of the children are on Christmas vacation so that has been fun. Usually the days are quiet because they are at school but I have been busy being pulled in every direction. Like I have said, the first three months in my community is supposed to be spent building trust. We are not supposed to start any big projects but only little things. I had planned on starting English classes but I have put that on hold and instead put on a cricket tournament and will hopefully do a volleyball tournament in a few weeks. The cricket tournament was fun. It was a bit disorganized as I had expected. I had two boys in the community round up teams over the course of a week and I would check in with them everyday. The day before the tournament I asked for the list of teams and both the boys had put themselves on about three different teams. Each of our cricket teams had only two people so I had to explain to them that they can't be on more than one team because it is impossible to play on two teams at once. They continued to tell me it was fine and I continued to tell them it wasn't, that it doesn't make sense. We worked through that and ended up having about 12 teams. It was a learning experience and definitely a case of trial and error but all in all we had a good time and even painted our faces. I gave the winning team each a little pack of silly bands and I can't explain what a hit they were. Now everyone is asking for all sorts of tournaments, dominoes, baseball, volleyball, basketball etc.

Cricket Tourny

I am still in the process of interviewing people in my community. It has been hard to get things done over the holidays and I think it will be hard over the next week or so as well. The pace of life here is slow on any given day, and then throw in the holidays and it is basically a lost cause to even attempt to accomplish anything right now. So for now, I am just going to have to put some of that to the side.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am very impatient when it comes to time. Not much else phases me but if I am running late, I get anxious. If you tell me you will pick me up at 7:30, nine out of ten times I will be standing in my front yard waiting for you but if you are five minutes late, I will be on the phone asking where you are. I hate being late and there is no such thing as being late here. Actually, there basically is no such thing as time in the Dominican Republic so it has been trying. I experienced the same thing when I was in Tanzania and I promised myself I would try to not get so caught up with time upon my return but it did not work out. I understand it is a different culture and blah blah blah but 9:00 still means 9:00 wherever I may be. For example, I get a phone call asking me to attend a meeting in my community with the senator of the nearby city and a few Brazilians whom are investing in nearby land, "it is very important you attend because it would be great for my community because it will provide jobs" ok great, meeting starts at 10:30, I will be there and so will two other volunteers that live in neighboring communities. The two other volunteers arrive in my community at about 10:20 and we then wait for my project partner to finish getting ready. By the time she is finished it is close to 10:45 and we are all getting anxious because we are late and we have a 15 minute walk ahead of us, I mean this is important, it is the Senator right? We would look awful showing up late. We arrive at the location to find that nobody else is there other than two men setting up a tent. Ok, great, its 11:00, we are late but where is everybody, I thought this meeting started at 10:30? Time passes, nobody else has showed up. We are all kind of looking at each other as each minute ticks by. At about 12:15 people start coming and fifteen minutes later, the senator, the Brazilians and his entire entourage show up. I still don't understand. The meeting was supposed to start at 10:30, it was now half past noon. All of the Dominicans were told 10:30 but they didn't start arriving until 12:15. Was 10:30 just a joke? Why not just say 12:00 or 12:30? How did the Dominicans know that 10:30 really meant 12:30? Yes, it may sound petty but when this happens a few times a week and you are sitting in the Caribbean sun dripping sweat, it does get frustrating. Then I have to remind myself - who cares, I have nothing else going on, I have nowhere to be, this is why I am here. It is hard though and to me, 10:30 will always mean 10:30.

I have one last, quick story to share before I go hide my head under my pillow because my ears are bleeding from this music. A few days before Christmas, one of my favorite little boys, Franlin, was told to pack his bags because he was going to spend some time with his mother (he also lives with his Grandma here). This has happened a few times with other kids, some have returned, some haven't, I haven't quite figured it out. I think Franlin will return at some point, I will let you all know when that is. Anyways, I was going to help him pack and he pulled out his bookbag and this is what it was!

Rock Chalk!

That about sums it up for now and below are a few more pictures. I will be spending my New Years in Cabarete which is in the Northern part of the country with other volunteers so I will let everyone know how that goes! Have a wonderful New Year!!

Fanlin y perro @ the river

Playing Cricket

Me, Franlin y Marielis

Me and some of the girls @ the beach!