Can't Wait To Get Back to Miches

Tomorrow will have been a week since we’ve officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers of the Dominican Republic and yet, here we sit, the 22 of us ICTers, still listening to the babbling of what I could only wish were a brook. I’d probably learn more that way anyhow. For some reason, beyond all comprehension, Entrena has invited representatives of the Ministry of Education to lecture us for three days on how to be trainers of trainers of literacy. Today is the second day and so far, it holds par with yesterday – reading and repeating, one and half hours of information stretched out to cover an entire day. And have I mentioned we already all this? Just as a concrete example of how efficient these people are, our agenda for the three days, which would have looked very nice on a single sheet of paper, was given to us in an eight page packet. And the massive amounts of literacy training booklets that they’ve handed us are all written in cursive. A great place for people to start who don’t know how to read or write.

Anyhow, back to the swearing in ceremony. It was a really nice formal affair at which the director of PCDR was present as well as the second in command to the ambassador to this country who happens to be a returned PCV. And now, I have a shnazy new certificate I can hang on my wall so that I might hold merit with the Dominicanos – man, do they love their certificates. The day following swearing in was the All Volunteer Conferenc where all 166 of us in country gathered to be given money belts and to meet one another. I know have special permission to participate in the Escogo mi Vida Telenovela project during my three month diagnosic phase (normally, PCVs aren’t allowed to be involved in committees during this period). I’ve also signed up to be a member of the Marine Interest Group (yay SCUBA! ), to participate in med missions translating between patients and US volunteer doctors, (when my Spanish is major, or course), and I’ve talked to all the leaders of the various youth groups.

In the time since then, as I wait restlessly to retur to my site, I’ve come up with a basic plan for carrying out my diagnostic. I’m pretty excited about getting to know all the teachers in my community – not to mention the youth – and anyone else, too J. Also since then, it’s been raining pretty much nonstop as we approach hurricane season. Beca and I were caught in a deluge yesterday on our way home from the training center. Of course, neither of us were equipt with an umbrella or money for a carro publico and both of us had our laptops in tow. So we ran from over hang to over hand, from colmado to colmado, undil we finally came to a place that had large plastic garbage bags – a rarity in this pais. Of course, they only agreed to give us one, so we had to saddle up Beca with both backpacks under the safety of our Dominican make-shift poncho. By the time I got home, all I had to do was add shampoo to complete my shower. And thankfully, our computers both made it through, safe and dry.

Speaking of survival, thanks to Peace Corps initiated Standfast, we’ve all managed to stay alive throughout the congressional elections of this marvelously civilized country who only had 43 deaths due to party disagreements and civil unrest. It’s particularly interesting, however, that with each election sicne the democratization of the country, voter turn out has continually decreased – yet, people and families still retain an ardent fervor for one party or another – not that there’s much difference between them ideologically or even politically, aside from the colors on their campaign posters and T-shirts… and banners, and painted cars, and painted buildings, and bumper stickers, and pretty much everything else you can color, paint, or dye. Even more interestingly is the fact that these posters and enlarged, whitened faces, are all that their campaigns consist of. That along with the constant guaguas driving throughout the communities blasting copy-written violated songs, words replaced with ‘vote for me’ lyrics. That and the occasional traffic jam caused by a caravan of people on motos sporting flags and making noise. Pretty amazing, huh? Now I ask you, my fellow citizens of America – are we that far off after our last election fuelled by T-shirts and Obama collectors edition china? From president to rock star to a red and blue face on a white shirt. Perhaps I need to readjust my definition of progress.

Anyway – I’m done with my rant and of to compartir in PB&J sandwiches!! The highlight of my day. I shall have to think of something else to do during the next lecture. Love and best wishes to all <3

A Tour of the Area

I can’t believe I actually live here. This site is amazing and so far my family continues to be pretty great. I’ve discovered that they’re evangelical – which means that their four sons aren’t aloud to dance, among other things – which is great for me, though I’m still pretty sure the 19 year old has his eyes wide open, asking me if I’m aloud to marry while in the Peace Corps and all. When my fellow PCVs learned I had 4 host brothers, they all joked that I’d be one of the ones getting married. I guess he has the same idea. But they really are wonderful. Zuni, my host mom, really cares to find out what I like and don’t like – to eat I mean. And she’s actually gone out to by the things that I’ve said I liked, which pleasantly surprised me very much. And as for the religion, it hasn’t really affected me that much yet, I just hope they don’t ask me to go to church. Actually, so far, I rather like living with this kind of a religious family whose friends also forbid themselves from drinking and dancing and such. That makes for a much more comfortable and pleasant Friday night by my standards.

One of my project partners is also some sort of a tour group coordinator, so he got us (the four of us volunteers living in this area) a free tour around the area. It was absolutely lovely. We started by going to the top of a mountain with an amazing view of the mountain range and the lakes and ocean below. We had a local products tasting and saw a cock fight – that thank god was not a real fight-to-the-death fight – and then we ate lunch at the hotel, after which we took a horse ride to and along the beach, spent some time in the water, and then took a boat trip back across the lake to where we started. So this is an example of how generous the people are here, including my project partners. The tour costs about 150 US dollars. We got it for free. Time will tell how my project partners are work wise and how that whole aspect of it will go – but time we got.

I used to be quite anxious about what I should be doing with my time. But lately, I’ve gotten so used to taking afternoon naps that when I go back to the capital for our final training session, I’m going to struggle not taking them! I go to bed fairly early, but I find that I also wake up really early, partly because of the damned birds – so taking a nap works out pretty well, you escape the hottest part of the day that way, too. Here in El Cedro, it’s actually not all that bad. My bedroom has a zinc roof, though, so my room is pretty hot during the afternoon, hotter than it is outside. So nap time could take place on the floor depending on well the fan feels like working, but Zuni just brought in a new one which seems to be working great.

I can’t wait to share this place. I know I just got here, but I’m already anxious for people to come and visit. By that time, I’ll be able to give tours of my own

My Home for the Next Two Years, El Cero, Miches

This week is the week we’ve all been waiting for with baited breath. Sites were finally assigned on Monday. On Tuesday we had our project partner days where we met the people who had requested that volunteers be sent to the communities and then we went with them to visit the community we’ll be living in for the next two years. I was completely surprised and a bit overwhelmed when I got to my site and they had thrown me a welcoming party. Around thirty members of the community of El Cedro, Miches attended, listened to my introduction and my project partners’ presentations, and ate. I was amazed that they had enough food for all those people. A full dinner, too.

My host family is lovely. The mother is the secretary of the school, the father owns an auto repair shop that’s somewhat, kind of connected to their house. They have four boys between the ages of 17 and 22. Thank god two of them already have girlfriends. I was really afraid there for a second. The house is also very nice with 24-hour electricity and running water. There is no cell reception with the Peace Corps’ network, but the family has been quite generous in sharing their phone minutes so far. The best part about this place, though, is the view. We’re nestled in the foothills of the mountain range, green as green could be, and a river runs practically in the back yard – if there were distinct yards. The beach is minutes away as are a couple of lagoons. The only unfortunate thing is, of course, the presence of roosters in the morning and another bird, yet to be named, who fills the night with its all but lovely chirping on half second intervals to accompany the blasting music from down the road. Oh the noise.

The pueblo of El Cedro (meaning the cedar) is small, there is one school for all grades with a total of about 600 students and 11 teachers. I asked to be placed in a town exactly like this, with a motivated group of teachers and facilitators, which they all seem to be. They also have a fully functioning CTC (community technology center) complete with kindergarten and small library. I feel as though I’ve struck a gold mine, yet I’m not quite sure what to do with it now that I’ve got it. I am the only ICT volunteer out of 22 who has been assigned to work jointly with two labs, the school’s and the CTC’s, but they both seem so organized already that even with two labs, I’m afraid I’ll be difficult to find an area where I can help. When I return to begin my 3 month diagnostic after swearing in, I plan on sitting in on each of the teachers classes, to get to know them and their methodologies as well as the students. I also plan on observing the classes at the CTC. Other than that, vamos a ver.

My project partners seem great so far. One is the math teacher at the school and another is an encargado at the CTC. During our mini-seminar before departing to our sites, we planned out a rough itinerary for this week, something which they enjoyed doing and have actually adhered to thus far with punctuality, which is incredibly impressive. So far I’ve been presented to all of the morning classes at the school, the attendees of tonight’s Catholic church service (the experience of which I’ll refrain from elaborating on), boys at the basketball court, people at the ice cream shop and in various family’s homes. I look forward to Friday’s activity – a safari around the area including both lagoons, the beaches, and nearby towns.

There is so much more to say, so much that I’m feeling and experiencing, yet I’m not quite sure how to say it. The only thing I can really put into words is – wow – it’s actually happening. I mean, this is it. This is going to be my life for at least the next two years and I have no idea through which paths it might take me. It’s exhilarating, really. Overwhelming, exciting, and exhilarating.

Return to the Capital

The return to the capital wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was very much tempered by pizza for lunch the first day back and McDonalds the second, plus a visit to US soil and a swimming pool at the embassy. And to my delight, I haven’t heard a single rooster since I’ve been back. The only thing that would make this better is if I weren’t sick in bed. It’s just a cold, una gripe, but its zapped me of all motivation to do anything and makes the heat just that much more difficult to bear. I’m blaming Becca for giving me her illness! No, not really – I’m chalking this up to another lesson my body’s trying to teach me: don’t let yourself get stressed out over small things (like a kid’s documentary) cuz your immune system will plummet and you’ll like that even less.

The farewell bash wasn’t nearly as packed as our facilitator had anticipated, but I think it went well nonetheless. It was pretty exciting to see how the other two groups’ projects came out. I was really impressed by the company logos Sabrina’s graphic design team came up with, how they gave a presentation going over, in detail, how they developed each one. The newspaper team said they faced a lot of adversity in the way of kids not showing up or not doing the work, but they had a nicely laid out two 4 page paper to present to everyone at the fiesta. The documentary was well received, especially by the students who created it. I was somewhat disappointed, however, that none of their families had come to support them for various reasons. But the kids were beaming. Everyone wanted to take photos and to exchange emails, so we did and that was nice.

After the premier of our little film, our fluent Spanish speaker of the group, in his ever brightly shining positivity and support, introduced me to the audience as the directora whose passion and something else I didn’t quite catch made this happen. I was of course, thrilled to be recognized in this way and wish I could have spoken with the passion he spoke of, but my damn language barrier got in the way. All I was able to do was read off of a post-it note, but he said it came out well, which is good enough for me J. I said in our groups’ closing speech that their families and their community should be proud and that I was sure they’d be successful in whatever they went on to do with their lives. I’m not sure if it registered with them, but I hope it did, because they never hear that kind of thing from anyone.

Even though our documentary was essentially just a simple collection of interview clips with a few visuals of the factories in between, I guess it was enough to catch the eye of one of the men working for a local television station. To be quite honest, that’s about all I understood when he introduced himself to me afterwards. I’m not exactly sure what he wanted, other than my email, but it was really nice to be asked for my contact information instead of the usual other way around.

Before the party, my doña took me to a small tienda on our block to look for shoes. She knew I didn’t have any that fit the semi-formal dress code requirements of the party and the swearing-in-ceremony. To my complete surprise, she bought the shoes. She said it was something to remember her by, because “te amo mucho.” I wanted to print out all of my favorite family photos from the five weeks I spent with them and give that as a gift, since they don’t have very many photos. But when I found out that to print actual photos costs 20 pesos per photo, my brilliant idea was shot down. Fortunately, a veteran volunteer helped me through the process of “thinking around things” here in the DR and I eventually decided to print a card, on regular printer paper, that included all the photos. It wasn’t ideal, for my perfectionistic standards anyway, but she loved it, and I hope to visit again someday during my service and bring back with me the real photographs I originally planed to give. I miss little Jose already, too, always wanting to paint (scribble) or play cards (throw them down on the table). The little kids here do nothing but cry.

We find out our site placements on Monday, though they knew yesterday during our meeting and still wouldn’t tell us. I know I’m going to be working in a school, which is great, but that’s the extent of my knowledge as of now. During our meeting they basically told the eight of us working in schools that we were chosen to do so because we demonstrated an ability to work without any structure or support, neither of which we’ll be getting from the Ministry of Education. For this role, they say, we’ll need to be headstrong and self-motivated, good with fundraising, and willing to role with the punches. That last one will probably be my biggest challenge.

There is a supposed structure of the committees that we’ll be working with once we get to our site, but that’s assuming everyone shows up to the meeting and is on task, which is almost never going to happen. So they gave us some starting out techniques that might help in our initial meetings and ways to capitalize on the excitement of the town to have us there during our first few months.

I’ve worked a little on my project vision – my teacher training classes that will eventually lead to the development and production of teacher training videos. One of the others working in schools has helped me to translate my vision statement into Spanish and we will be sitting down to discuss an rough curriculum for the training sessions. He was a substitute teacher for a while before coming to the Peace Corps and I’ve seen how great he is up in front of a class, so I’m really looking forward to collaborating with him on this project. We even aspire to bring our most motivated teachers together to film the videos as an incentive for the to meet like minded individuals as well as a little travel. We’re not aloud to apply for Peace Corps grants during the first three months, but I don’t imagine we’ll be shooting before then anyway. When we’ve sketched out our class outline, I’ll post it up along with my vision statement. I’d really appreciate if those of you with teaching experience could comment, critique, or offer suggestions.

Until then, I await with great anticipation the announcement of our project sites and the five days we get to visit them before swearing in.