Happy New Year!

The holidays came and went like the breeze.  I celebrated a Dominican Christmas and New Year, one with my host family in Boca Chica and the other with my host family in the capital.  Both involved lots of food, drinking and very little sleep.  To be honest it didn’t really feel like the holidays because I didn’t carry out any of the traditions that I normally do with my own family, but I definitely had a good time despite being far from home. 

As we always do I've made a few resolutions. In the New Year, I hope to be more generous with myself and my time while still maintaining time to myself to be reflective.  I am on the brink of moving into my very own apartment, a first for me, so alone time shouldn’t be as hard to come by as in these last five months.  I was lucky and found a little one bedroom directly across the street from my host family.  While its not as cheap as I had hoped, I’ll be the first tenant living there, and most importantly it's close to my host family and other people who know me.  It has running water (at least when the tinaco, the water storage unit on the roof, is full), tile floors, and mahogany colored doors and cabinets.  By Peace Corps standards, it’s a gem.  Today I spent 4 hours sweeping, mopping and scrubbing splattered cement and paint off the floor and kitchen counter.  In the process, I came across  another cultural difference when asking my host mom if I could borrow her mop.  In our culture we consider it common courtesy to ask someone politely to borrow something or to accompany us in doing something.  However in response to my polite request, my host mother came right out and said “Why do “you all” do that?  If you can see that I’m not mopping, which clearly I’m not, just say, I’m taking the mop!”  A similar situation surpassed with a friend, when I asked if he would come to the grocery story with me.  He responds” why would you ask me if I want to come to the grocery store with you?  That’s offensive…just say come on, we are going to the grocery store."  I suppose since hospitality is such an important part of the culture here, it is already assumed that someone would be willing to lend you their things or accompany you somewhere, so why on earth would you ask them about it?  For me, it’s not been an easy habit to break, but I’m trying to be more forward and tell instead of ask.

Yesterday was “Reyes”, a national celebration of the three kings arriving to visit the baby Jesus.  In this country, Reyes is an even  bigger deal for kids than Christmas, because most of their presents come on this holiday.  The whole country goes into to a frenzy for a few days beforehand with toys being sold by the millions, and culminates in a day of children running around like mad playing with all of their new toys.  At my organization we celebrated Reyes as our belated staff Christmas party (originally cancelled due to a death in the family of one of my co-workers) by spending the day poolside at a country club with free food and drinks.  My boss is very much a proponent of the philosophy “care for the caretakers” and periodically plans events for us to relax, which, I do believe helps tremendously given the stress of the job (especially by Dominican standards).  However, I still am reminded on these types of occasions how a-typical my experience in Peace Corps is when compared to most.  Soon I will have two cell phones, a “flota” (group account) for each of my jobs-- one for work (unlimited minutes with co-workers) and one for Peace Corps (unlimited minutes with PC staff and corps members).  Who would have though that Peace Corps would be my first time to have a “work” phone?

I am down to the wire on my organizational diagnostic, since next week is the time set aside for yearly evaluation and planning at Caminante.  It will be the perfect opportunity to present the findings of my investigation and propose my role within the organization.  I’m looking forward to the opportunity, but it sure did arrive quickly!  I’m sure most people feel that way about 2011 in general.  I know that I have much to be thankful for in the New Year, and much to look forward to.  I hope everyone at home welcomed the new year with happiness and good health.  

Final note--I got a new kitten!  I've never been a big cat person, but she's pretty cute and hopefully she'll keep the rats away.  Her name is Lola (see pic below).  

Navidad and Gripe

I’ve been sick the last few weeks with gripe--a cough and most recently an ear infeccion, but have managed to continue working throughout for the most part. I seem to have the same susceptibility to upper-respiratory issues here, but am thankful for the absence of digestive-related problems thus far. 

The holidays are in full swing here in Boca Chica. Work has consisted primarily in attending and putting on holiday events.  In the office we’ve decorated a tree with the typical lights and balls and the not so typical limpiabotas painted yellow by the muchachos in honor of the sweeping campaign for raising educational spending (see photo below).  We’ve already done 5+ events for families and youth that my organization works with.  These generally consist of demasiado gente, loosely controlled chaos, a drum circle with Dominican Christmas carols, a few words of Christmas thanks and reflection and serving food assembly line style to all of the invitees (and then some).  In Dominican culture, “crashing parties” as we would call it in the US is a frequent occurrence so by not implementing a strict guest list there will always be extra people that show up.  I also had the opportunity to accompany 25 boys who are either living or working on the street to the National Palace for a Christmas dinner put on by the First Lady.  It was an exhausting afternoon/evening, busing them to the capital and then keeping track of them among the other 500 boys and girls as they got popcorn, treats, and dinner, but overall a great experience.

This month I’ve had the pleasure of attending some events put on by international organizations here in the DR.   One of these was Plan International’s Christmas party, which was much like an office Christmas event in the states…..eggnog, hors d'oeuvres and sweets, and soft music playing in the background of polite chitter chatter.  Last week, I represented my organization at a conference on smuggling and trafficking put on by the International Office of Migration.  The head of the mission in the DR described the current time as a “golden age” of responding to child trafficking issues in the DR, since post-earthquake in Haiti it has become impossible for the Dominican government to ignore the growing problem. Finally, last weekend I celebrated Christmas wtih the Peace Corps.  The Peace Corps director had an annual holiday party complete with Chinese food, rum punch and 25 different pies and cakes at his ritzy apartment building near the Embassy.  What a blast!

The usual buzz of the holidays has been joined by the energy behind the grassroots campaign to raise educational spending.  Everywhere you go, people are wearing yellow shirts with “4%” written across the front.  The last 3 Mondays in a row there have been hundreds of people camped out in front of the national congress (including most of the people from my organization) protesting.  Dominican law states that 4% of the budget is designated for educational spending but in reality this number has never surpassed 2%, making the Dominican Republic the country with the lowest investment in education in Latin America.  The movement has really taken hold in the pueblo and leads one to hope that the legislation may actually pass in Congress to raise the budget.  My hope is that with the increased spending the Ministry of Education will invest the money wisely in school infrastructure so that each school can meet the demand the number of children attending and doesn’t have to have 3 different school days of 3 hours each.

While I have enjoyed observing cultural elements of Christmas in this country I, of course, have been feeling pangs of longing for home….cold weather, hot chocolate, Christmas carols and time spent with family and friends.  Know that this holiday season, though I’m far away, I’ll be thinking about all of you! 

Merry Christmas!  

Translations:

Navidad- Christmas!

Gripe—the term most close to “cold” in the US, used to refer to any kind of sickenss that involves the upper-respiratory tract including cold, cough, sinus, etc.

Limpiabotas--  in this case refers to the boxes that the boys who clean shoes carry around, but the term also refers to the boys themselves.
muchachos-- boys
demasiado gente- too many people

One month in...

I’ve been in my site for about a month now.  There have been ups and downs, but overall I’m looking forward to my two years of service here.  Working with boys living on the street is not easy.  When they’ve reached that point, there becomes very little that you can do for them.  I accompanied a colleague one day to the capital to take a street boy, age 10, to his family in the capital.  He slept the whole way because he had not slept the night before. We arrived at his grandmother’s house 2 hours later after 4 different public transportation transfers, we found a family full of excuses—everyone trying to lay the blame on someone else for why this child was living on the street in another city, even on the child himself!  I doubt he lasted more than 3 days with them…it was clear he was unwanted there, and when living with his father, he was abused.  The whole situation was discouraging and made me understand why Caminante has decided to focus so heavily on prevention and scale down on interventions.  In public health, prevention is a mantra, so we definitely speak the same language. 

There have also been many bright spots over the last month:

1)   Working with the limpiabotas.  These boys have resilient spirits and a desire to learn despite their education system that has failed them and their economic situations that have forced them to work in the street at a young age.

 

2)   Focus groups with youth—It is amazing how poignant young people can be when you give them the forum to express themselves.  In this country, unfortunately, those opportunities are few and far between.  In school, the teacher is the law, there is only one correct answer, and the right for children to have an opinion and be heard (an actual part of law 136-03, which protects children) is largely ignored. 

3)   Thanksgiving with Peace Corps friends—While nothing can replace spending Thanksgiving among family, this day came a close second.  In a large club in Santo Domingo all 200 of us shared a traditional family-style Thanksgiving lunch accompanied by sports, swimming, a talent show and general merriment. 

4)   Weekend with host family in the capital—My original host family that I lived with during training continues to be one of my favorite parts of my life here.  After Thanskgiving Day, I went and stayed the weekend with them.  They made all the traditional dishes that are cooked in celebration here—asopao (my favorite) and sancocho.  I helped my host sister shop for items for her new cafeteria she is opening on the corner, next door to my other host sister’s colmado and my host mom’s knick knack store (they are a very entrepreneurial family).  To top off the weekend, I went to a baseball game and a 35^th wedding anniversary in the family where they roasted an entire pig on a spit! 

5)   Trip to the National Palace for the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women—Because my organization manages a project funded by the First Lady’s initiative, we were invited to her commemorational event.  All dressed up, we sat in a ballroom and listened to speeches and testimonials from professors, priests and other distinguished guests from the DR, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, and the US.  The whole event had a very religious undertone, complete with a guest performance by a famous evangelical singer.   None of my colleagues understood my eyebrow raising of course, because here it is completely normal to hear religious discourse in a state building—there is absolutely no separation of church and state. 

This month will be full of celebrations.  Caminante plans a holiday event with every community and population that they work with.  While in my mind that is a lot of money put towards feel-good events, they justify the cost based on the fact that many people that we work with cannot afford their own Christmas celebrations.

Translations

limpiabotas- boys that clean your shoes on the street

asopao- traditional Domincan soup with rice and meat

sancocho- traditional Dominican stew with plantains, yuca, boiled bananas, and a variety of meats (among other things)

colmado- corner store/grocery

Dominican term of the week-- "Ya tu sabes"  This phrase literally translates into "You already know", but a better translation for our usage of it would be, "oooh you know how it is".  This phrased is used very frequently, and often in situations where someone is referring to a pattern of behavior (often one they aren't privy to).  But its usage is can be even more generalized.  It is a way of expressing, thats just the way it is!

First week on the job

After a week's delay in the capital, during which I was holed up in a hotel waiting out Hurricane Tomas (I'm not complaining....cable television, 3 buffet meals a day and hot showers were quite a treat) I've finally settled in at my job in Boca Chica.  I'm working with Caminante, an NGO that works to protect the rights of children and adolescents focusing specifially on child labor and commercial sexual exploitation, as I explained in an earlier post.  My first three months will be spent putting together an organizational diagnostic as well as community diagnostics of the areas in which Caminante works in order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of my organization and to determine exactly what role I will be undertaking here.  

What exactly does a diagnostic entail?  A not exhaustive list includes- shadowing my colleagues, formal interviews with staff, informal conversations with staff and community members, and focus groups with youth and families served by Caminante.  While this doesn't sound like much work for three months I'm already scrambling and hoping to get everything done.  Firstly, because I've been told that its difficult to do much of anything during the month of December (think Christmas extended); secondly, because Caminante is involved with so many projects in so many communities; and finally, because at the end of this month the national census will be taking place and ALL of my colleagues will be working on it, ie indisposed!

Apart from the diagnostic, I've also started to work alongside two of the young educators (one of whom is my host brother) with a group of trabajadores  (boys that shine shoes or sell food on the street).  We are in the process of administering a literacy diagnostic to determine reading levels so that we can separate the boys into smaller groups.  My first small mini-project while I'm completing my diagnostic will be to "alphabetize" (some reverse translation--literacy in Spanish is alfabetazacion) those boys that are still pre-literate.  (Shout out to my Harbor Heights clan...I know you appreciate the lingo;) )  

In terms of my home life with my host family, I'm learning lots of new things and discovering new things about myself.  I'm learning how to cook, how to break down my "American" concept of personal space and alone time, and how to eat rice twice a day!  I've discovered that I like cats more than I thought (we have a kitten...Chumi, and I plan on getting one when I get my own place) because they serve a purpose here--to keep the rats away!  I'll be living with my host family until the end of January, at which point I have to find my own place.  I'm a little nervous to live on my own for the first time, especially in a neighborhood that is considered "caliente", but I know that it will be a chance for personal growth.  

Dominican phrase(s) of the week:  "A buen tiempo"  and "buen provecho"

These two interchangeable phrases stumped me in my first weeks in country.  They are used in conjunction as formalities and courtesies during mealtime.  An example:  Someone walks into a room where people are eating, and the people eating will almost always say "a buen tiempo" which means they are offering food to the person (this is a very sharing culture and everything that one has one shares).  The courteous reply by this person is "buen provecho" which literally means "enjoy your food" but also signifies that they person is negating the offer and doesn't want any food.  Sometimes these phrases are interchanged and I honestly still don't understand all of the subtleties, but these phrases are a great example of the formal aspect of Dominican culture.   

Translations

trabajadores- workers

alfabetizacion- literacy

caliente- literally this translates into "hot", but in this case it is used to refer to a lot of movement and an element of danger

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??”