From trainee to volunteer...

I´ll begin with the mandatory apology for slacking off on my weekly blog.  I feel like I´ve been around the world and back in two weeks, without really having traveled very far.  I returned from Constanza to Santo Domingo for a fun packed weekend during which I cooked out on the corner with my host family (pig´s head and boiled bananas!  Sounds crazy I know, but one of my favorite meals here so far), had my hair done Dominican style by my host mom and sister, and danced bachata and merengue until all hours of the morning.  I finally got a cell phone (for any of you New Yorkers you can call me for REALLY cheap if you find the right card at a bodega).  My number is 809·723·7806.  Then I left for a 5 day visit to my site, Boca Chica. 

To say the least, I am a very lucky young lady.  I have a wonderful host family that I will be living with in Andres de Boca Chica (about a 7 minute ride on the guagua).  My host brother, Donchi, 23, and host sister ChiChi, 25, both work at my assigned organization, Caminante, with me.  I must take a moment to explain that these names are, in reality, apodos or nicknames.  It is extremely common for people in the DR to have an apodo, and they are so frequently used that someone may have known someone his whole life and not even know his real name (this is especially common in the campo).  Donchi´s real name is Luis Antonio and ChiChi´s is Cruz Maria, but I´ve only ever seen their ¨real¨ names in writing. 

Anyway, I spent most of my site visit running around with a group of American visitors, pastors and their wives from Oklahoma whose church supports my organization.  It was exhausting because I did a lot of translating but also a positive experience because I got to see so many of the initiatives that my organization works on.  We visited a Batey  where many of the kids that work on the street in Boca Chica live, a homework space that supplements the very short school day here (this topic will get an entire blog posting at some point), a pizzeria that was started by a former limpiabotas who Caminante worked with for many years, the vocational school that Caminante runs in conjunction with an initiative of the First Lady, and met with a group of young women who have formed a microfinance organization under the guidance of Caminante.  These individual activities do not nearly sum up to the total of the experience that I had last week visiting my site.  I am so excited for the work ahead, to continue compartiring with my new family and friends there, to work with the young and passionate people at Caminante, and to get to know the young men and women for whom the organization was founded-children and adolescents whom despite their most difficult situations have learned to sobrevivir, selling avocados, limes, or a shoeshine--traveling to work, going to school, and often taking care of family members.  I know that these children will envoke in me more emotions and thoughts  than I can explain in words.  I just hope that I, who know nothing of the types of hardship they face, have something they find worthwhile to offer in return. 

In closing, I am now officially a Peace Corps volunteer.  On Wednesday I took the same oath as the President himself, swearing to defend the Constitution at all costs during my service.   It was a moment that I will not forget.  While I´ve never considered myself a particularly patriotic person, at that moment I felt a certain duty to my country that once can only describe as such.  Tomorrow I will travel to my site and begin my official two years of Peace Corps service.  Oh the possibilities....

P.S.  For those of you who might have been wondering after hearing the news, we are still safe from cholera here, but its only a matter of time before it arrives across the boarder.  Today every PC volunteer in the country came in for a special training on cholera, so we are on top of the situation!  I will keep you updated on any developments in that area. 

Translations-
apodos- nicknames
Batey- A Haitian community, traditionally formed around sugarcane production
guagua-Dominican term for a bus
limpiabotas- shoe shiners
sobrevivir- survive

Last weekend in Constanza--Celebrando la Juventud

This weekend was full of learning experiences.  Saturday our youth group completed their activity for “Celebrando la Juventud” week.  We had been planning for weeks a neighborhood cleanup followed by the painting and installation of three trashcans around the barrio.  Here in Constanza (and in the DR in general from what I've seen) there are few to no public trashcans depending on where you are, so when people are not in their houses they typically just throw trash in the street.  The youth group we’ve been working with, an "Ecoclub" determined that having public trashcans in the neighborhood would be a  good first step in the right direction of changing people's behavior with regards to trash.

Leading up to the day of the activity we had visited the local hardware store multiple times to price all the materials (including the metal barrels themselves that would be used for trashcans).  They assured us that the barrels would be ready for us when we came to pick them up Friday evening.  Much to our dismay, after getting a factura of all of our materials Friday afternoon, we were informed that there were no barrels and that we would have to wait until Monday!  At this point, I nearly lost my cool, reminding them how they had promised us that the barrels would be there and that the mayors office would be in attendance along with the press (a sliiight stretch of the truth).  They started to call around town and eventually came up with one, which they wanted to deliver to us in the morning, but which I insisted that we take with us at that moment, and promised two more for the next morning.

The activity went over beautifully once we finally had all of the materials.  We began the morning with a limpieza of the neighborhood followed by a wonderful snack of tostadas and juice provided by the mayor’s office (a result of our youth group soliciting their support).  After our experience at the hardware store, we were pleasantly surprised that the snacks came through.

The second portion of our activity was the most rewarding—preparing the barrels to become utilitarian works of art.  If I overestimated the reliability of Dominicans, I much underestimated their resourcefulness.  The barrels, traditionally used to hold gasoline, were closed on both sides.  By my estimation, we would have needed a dinosaur sized can-opener to transform a barrel into something resembling a trashcan.  To my surprise, I watched a few young men with nothing but a beat-up machete and a hammer complete the job of detapping the barrel in a matter of minutes.  Then, together with all of the kiddos, we spray painted the barrels with a white base and the “Ecoclubes” logo along with the neighborhood name.  Finally, we proceeded to have the kids dip their hands in paint to put their handprints on the barrels--some as tree branches, others as butterflies, and others as just freestyle hand prints.  Something we did NOT take into account was that, by requesting durable paint to withstand the sun and rain, we were given oil-based paint that does NOT come off of your hands with water! This was discovered after some 25 odd people were already covered in colors!  After a few more trips to the hardware store to buy paint thinner and rags, we finally succeeded in getting everyone cleaned off and were able to install the newly designed trashcans in designated spots in the neighborhood with chains and locks (to prevent them from being stolen to store water…a common occurrence here that explains the lack of trashcans to begin with).  Overall, it was an exhausting day, but a very rewarding experience. (I've attached a few pictures at the bottom.)

As you may have noticed, I’ve made a decision to write my blog with a bit of Spanglish.  The reason for this is not because I am incapable of translating (though it is becoming difficult at times to come up with English vocabulary!) but rather because 1) some translations do not do justice to a concept and are better left in their original form and 2) the story-telling of my experiences feels more authentic this way.  Any of you reading this that are bilingual will surely understand this sentiment.  I will try and keep these terms to a minimum so as not to make the reading experience too jarring.  Any words that are in italics in my entry will be in a list at the end explaining their meaning in English

Dominican term of the week: “bola” 

While this word most directly refers to a ball (of any kind), its utility for me in this country thus far has been far from its traditional usage.  Here in the DR, a “bola” refers to a free ride, or hitchhiking, as we refer to it in the States.  “Bolas” are extremely common here for going just about anywhere, and anyone with a delivery truck or otherwise is willing to cart you in the back for a ride.  Being “gringos” in a town not used to seeing many North Americans, we’ve even achieved bolas from cars going in the opposite direction!!

Translations--

Barrio- Neighborhood

Factura- Invoice/Bill

Limpieza- Clean-up

Tostada- A toasted sandwich of any kind (much like a melt in the States); could simply refer to toasted bread with butter, or to a more traditional melt with ham and cheese inside.

  

My PC Site- Boca Chica!

Yesterday was officially the longest day in training I've had--a full 12 hours of excitement.  It began with a visit to the Ministerio de la Mujer (the government department dedicated to expanding women's rights) and ended with a birthday party for one of the volunteers, where I had an allergic reaction to something I ate and broke out in hives all over my body!  My heart goes out to everyone with a food allergy--not fun.

In the late morning, we had a very suspenseful two hour session where our boss, Adele, who came in from the capital, announced our provisional site placements.  She had us pick names out of a hat and sit in a chair in the middle of the group while she gave us a two minute summary of each of our site placements.  We have all been waiting for this day since training began and I was all nerves.  Along the way our technical trainer and current volunteers have been reassuring us that Adele works very hard to match sites with volunteers backgrounds and after hearing about my site, I truly believe this.

I will be spending my two years in Boca Chica, an overcrowded touristy beach town of about 100,000 just east of the capital, Santo Domingo.  Boca Chica was the site of the country's first resort back in the 1960s and an area where rich Dominicans from the capital built luxurious vacation homes.  Over the last few decades, Boca Chica has experienced the deterioration that often accompanies rapid tourist development.  Many current travel guides describe it as "slightly seedy" and a recent article goes as far as to say "Boca Chica is a has-been of a resort town along the crystal blue Caribbean. It is a place of worn-out luxury, where prostitutes ply their trade openly and children of poverty, often undocumented Haitians, are easy targets for drug runners and sex traffickers".


Now that it is clear why a youth Peace Corps volunteer would be needed in a beach resort town, I will describe the NGO I will be working with for the next two years.  Caminante, meaning "One Who Walks the Path", is a grassroots organization that provides a safe space where hundreds of at risk youth receive counseling, health information, legal assistance and educational and vocational programming.  The purpose of Caminante is to serve children who are at risk of being drawn into prostitution (primarily street children, many of whom are Haitian) as a result of the tourist economy in Boca Chica.  Additionally they provide services to those who have already been victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.  I still have not been given the details of what my role within Caminante will be, but I am extremely excited to be working with them and hope that my background in education and public health will be a valuable resource for them.  As a side note, Boca Chica is only about a 10 minute drive from the Santo Domingo International Airport, so, easy access for all of you who are thinking about visiting!  


Things are winding down here in Constanza.  We have a little less than two weeks left here.  Tonight I'll be attending a party my youth group is throwing as a fundraiser for our project for the final week of "Celebrando la Juventud" (Celebrating Youth).  It has rained for 10 days straight here!  Not fun when you have to be out and about, but wonderful when you are lying in bed with the background of rythmic pings coming off the tin roof.  


Dominican word of the week: “vaina” 

Literally, vaina means “thing” but it is used just about every other sentence in colloquial Dominican Spanish when someone is searching for a word and can’t think of the name of something. Example:  My host brother hands me yet another fruit that I have never seen before (but which I will surely eat) and I respond “Que es esta vaina??”