My Site

On Tuesday we received our site assignments.  I was excited to find out where I’ll go and nervous about spending the weekend at my new site, meeting my new host family, and my project partners.  I felt like it was a big make it or break it moment.  And let me tell you the first night almost did me in! 

I will be living in a community just outside of Baní, a fairly large city just an hour away from Santo Domingo.  The population is a mix of lower income Dominican and Haitian families.  Most of the streets are unpaved and the houses are a mix of concrete, wood, and tin. 

My primary project will be assisting five adult literacy facilitators who have created a small local literacy program.  They have class every Sunday for three hours in the elementary school.  They would like to strengthen their program with resources, training, and motivation. Many literacy students do not have papers and therefore could not attend school. So, I hope to work in documentation as well, to ensure their children have the opportunity to attend school.

One of my project partners, Josefina, hosts me in her home.  She actually has three structures on her property; I’m not sure the logistics of it all yet, but Josefina, her husband, and four children (18, 16, 14, 11 years old) all live here.  Our house has a cement block exterior and some cement block interior walls.  Sheets serve as doors, but I will hopefully have a bedroom door when I return next Friday. 

The first night as I sank to the middle of my ‘mattress’ I watched mice scurry across the tops of the walls.  After that, I decided to act like I’m camping.  Lots of critters, one burner cook top, no running water (plenty of water though), no fridge, bucket baths, and candlelight (the electricity goes out at 7 every night). 

Everyone I meet here is so welcoming.  They greet me with big smiles and kisses and then run off to find me a pop or a snack as everyone else offers me their chair.  One of the facilitators, Fatima, always has a muffin in her purse for me.  They argue over where I will eat lunch and worry my water isn’t cold enough. 

As of now I am content with my site, and look forward to starting my diagnostic.  The first three months I focus on integrating into the community and determining where they need help.  After that I will be able to move into my own place and being working!

Pa Mangar Mi Visa

There is a song here that goes, "I'd like an American girl, for what?  To get my Visa!"  The Dominican boys love this song, and really enjoy singing it to the Americans as they walk past.  It's pretty comical.  I'd post a video, but I couldn't find one without outrageous dancing.

The song's theme is extremely relevant to Dominicans.  It is difficult for them to obtain a Visa to the United States, and a way around that is to marry an American.  Many Dominicans have family members and friends living in other countries including the US, Puerto Rico, and Spain.  Most of our host families have one or more family members living in the US.  My El Seibo family has a daughter in Florida, and my Santo Domingo family has a sister/aunt in Virginia.  I've seen both families receive money and gifts from the States.

That said, two of the largest sources of income here are remittances and tourism.  That leaves Dominican livelihood in the hand of foreigners or those living abroad.  I am hoping that my work in adult literacy (an adult is anyone over 15) will encourage more self reliance and motivation.

Today was our last day of CBT.  We'll be in Santo Domingo tomorrow and settle back in with our first host families.  My family moved houses, but still live in the same neighborhood.  I'm excited to see my new digs!  On Sunday I'll be soaking up the sun on another island!

Side note: I put up some photos you can check out.

Cacao

A PCV who lives just outside of El Seibo is developing a Chocolate Tour or Tour de Cacao.  We had the opportunity to test our her tour yesterday and it was amazing!  We started our morning at the Bloque de Cacao, which is an association of cacao farmers.  The farmers deliver their cacao to this fermentation and packaging center where the product is laid out to ferment in these greenhouses, or artificially dried in tumblers.  After being dried and sorted, the cacao is packaged in large sacks and is ready to be shipped.  I heard some of their chocolate is sold to Cadbury!

From the Bloque de Cacao, we took a big flat bed truck to a cacao farm outside of the city.  The volunteer lives right across the road from a field full of cacao and banana trees.  We saw the whole process from sprouting seeds, planting, and a mature tree (3 years old).  They cut open a pod with a machete, naturally, and you can suck on the seeds.  It was like a slimy sweet tart.  I didn't like the texture, but some people loved it.

After seeing the trees, we pounded dried and toasted cacao beans into a paste and then form it into balls.  These balls are then dry for two day.  Once dry, they grate it and make a mixture with hot water or milk and sugar.  It made delicious hot chocolate.

I was pretty tired and hungry by now.  We traveled up to the site where we'd eat lunch.  It was incredible.  There was various thatched huts, a gift shop and hammocks!  Before eating a delicious lunch we tried chocolate wine!  It was surprisingly good.

When we finished our whirlwind tour, Laura, Sarah, and I gave a presentation in a marginalized neighborhood about gender discrimination.  It was interesting to talk to this group of women and men about gender and how difficult it is for many of these single mother's to provide for their families.  I look forward to working with a women's group in my site and helping them in some way, though literacy classes, charlas on health or teaching new skills.

Living the Life

Semana Santa is sadly coming to an end, but I will be looking forward to next year's festivities.  Good Friday was pretty somber here, but us trainees took advantage of our day off and decided to play some Headlamp Kickball.  Some curious Dominican boys joined our game, my team won of course.  There were only two injuries, Blair fell down before first base and got all scraped up, I sadly couldn't contain my laughter, and Dora got elbowed in the nose, nothing a little Dominican rum couldn't cure.

On Saturday, after I got some delicious cherry juice from a colmado we ventured to a river here in El Seibo.  After a sunny and sweaty 40 minute walk though the campo, past horses, cows, and sugar cane fields, we arrived.  I was too chicken to swim because of the stories about river diseases, so I just watched from the shore.  On our way home, I used my awesome hitchhiking skills and got us a bola (free ride, usually in a truck bed or motorcycle).

Today, Easter, my host sister and her twin brother took some trainees and I to the beach in Miches.  The ride is about an hour and a half long though the mountains on a pothole infested road.  We all arrived in one piece though and had a great time.  A truck filled with speakers drove onto the beach to play music and there were some stands where you could buy cold beer.

I've had a great last weekend here.  I look forward to returning to Santo Domingo.  I'm going to leave you with a video from a really popular song here.  My host sister once listened to it 9 times in a row!

What's going on with me.

The church in front of my house and two of the billions of street dogs here. 

We had a game day in Spanish class on Friday.  There was Phase 10, Scrabble (in Spanish), and Charades.  One host mom made a traditional Dominican dessert, it was milky corn soup, not my fave.  Most of their desserts are made with staple foods like potatoes, beans, and rice.

Speaking of odd desserts, on Saturday my host mom insisted I learn how to make Habichuelas Dulces, which consist of pureed red beans with sugar, Carnation milk (an ingredient found in almost everything), and cinnamon; you can eat them hot or cold.  I had them hot and it wasn't too bad, tasted like sweet bean puree.  During Semana Santa/Easter time they make a huge pot and share them with family and friends.  I am going to try and make some sort of treat for Easter.

Saturday night we all got together to watch the movie Volunteer, an 80s movie with Tom Hanks, he becomes a PCV in Thailand to escape money troubles.  It was funny to see them interpret a PCV.  Dora and I made a papaya shake and someone brought popcorn, it was pretty great.

While navigating a new culture you get very tired.  You are analyzing every situation, translating conversations, making sure you are polite and say the right things.  It gets tiring and some nights I am physically and mentally exhausted.  At the same time I love the challenge and at times think of it as a game.

One weird situation happened with my host brother on Sunday.  He said he bought me a pair of jeans at the market, they were my size, which he could only know if he looked at my clothes.  I wasn't sure how receive a gift, especially from a male.  I awkwardly thanked him and rushed out of the house.  I often find him staring at me and our trainer said I needed to be direct with him, so today I proudly/awkwardly asked him what he wanted, he said I'm looking at you, I said yes I know, do you have a question, he said no and walked away.  I felt mean, but it's uncomfortable.   

It is Samana Santa this week in the DR.  School is out and and many families visit relatives or take a trip to the beach or the river.  I am trying to convince my family to take a trip to the beach, but they really aren't going for it...gas is expensive.  We have Friday off and then the following Friday we move back to Santo Domingo to complete training!

Happiness

Did you know that today is Discovery of the Location of Happiness? In
2301 B.C., Hi Ling Su, a Chinese scholar and saint, discovered
that happiness lies in the heart, not somewhere outside
ourselves.

First Literacy Class

Laura, Sarah and I taught an adult literacy class tonight.  It went well and I am excited to work in literacy.  I'll give you a run through of my day and night.

This morning we paired off to interview various organizations in El Seibo.  Blair and I went to the Ministry of Women and the Ministry of Health to find out about their programs and projects.  It turned out that I knew a woman working in the Ministry of Women, she is a friend of my host sister.  She introduced us to the director and we had a nice chat about their programs.  She emphasized how they would like a PCV to work with them; everyone wants their very own PCV.  The Ministry of Health was a bit more intimidating.  We were ushered into a room full of people and after everyone used their best English phrases, "How are you?  Hello."  We were suppose to ask our interview questions under their spotlight.  After my daily beans and rice Blair and I hung out at my house while there was a thunderstorm.

Once the rain let up Laura and Sarah came over to review or lesson plan for our presentation.  The night before we had made chocolate cake to bring with us, but my host brother apparently liked our cake and helped himself to a hefty portion. We showed up ready for class, but arrived to find the teacher waiting outside for the key.  Laura went to the teacher's house for the key only to come back with the wrong one.  We continued to wait for the key and more students to arrive.

*When it rains here, people don't like to go out.  Classes and meetings are canceled, stores are closed, and the streets empty.  So we were grateful 6 of 20 students showed up to attend our class.

The key arrived, we taught our class, and ate small pieces of cake.  I am looking forward to teaching another class and baking more cakes.