Other stuff

Because of limited internet access, I think my new practice might have to be storing up blog posts until I can put them up... therefore, number 2 for today, some things that have happened/are happening here:

For mental and physical health I decided to start waking up at 6 and running into the campo in the mornings, enjoying precious alone time and beautiful vistas – trees, mountains, fields of corn, etc.   It was really nice and peaceful the one day that I achieved this goal.  But when I got back an hour later, my family was awake and wondering where I was.  Then my host mom was like: “Oh!  You should have told us!  You didn’t have to go alone!  I run every day with a group of women.”  Translation: “We walk slowly around the pueblo for half an hour and chisme (gossip).”  

Well, there goes my alone time.   There wasn’t a good way to be like, no thanks, I need a little break from doñas and chisme.  Dominicans don’t really understand the idea of ever wanting to do anything alone.  On the one hand this is great, as I am integrating into my community pretty quickly simply by going to everything I am invited to, sitting around with neighbors, drinking coffee, and talking to everyone who stops by my house, curious to see what the gringa is doing.  It’s not so hard to be happy in a new place when the whole community is interested in you and super welcoming.  On the other hand, I am already going a little bit crazy from life in a fish bowl.   I should probably just count my blessings – at least they always want to be with me instead of the opposite!

So this morning my “run” became a walk with Victoria and a few of her friends.  It was surprisingly very pleasant, and appears to be something we’ll be doing regularly.  I guess I’ll assert my independence when the time is right…

The women in this little pueblito are pretty organized.  They have lots and lots of groups.  How well these groups function is a different story, but I am really happy to be in a community where so many people are motivated and want to be involved in things.  Then again, when they say there’s a meeting, you generally have to consider that it will start at least half an hour late, then 15-20 minutes will mostly involve attendees signing their name to a sheet of paper, maybe some confused conversation, and eventually the point of the meeting will be reached.  Hopefully.   So when they say there’s a meeting at 9 AM that should end by 11, assume that it will start around 10/10:30, and maybe end by 12.  Frustrating.   But they do often have fresh juice and empanadas or crackers or something… so that’s a plus.

Gifts I have received:

Endless mangos:  Careful what you tell people you like.   I told my host mom that I like mangos, and since then mangos have been delivered to my house, handed to me on the street, stored for me in the fridge… I’m not saying this is a bad thing.  I do love mangos.  But the abundance is pretty excessive. She thinks it’s really weird that I only eat one at a time… she eats mango after mango.  My record to date is still only two big mangos in one sitting…I assume I will get better at mango consumption soon.  Buckets and buckets of mangos.  Juicy juicy mangos.  Yum.  Avocado season is coming up.  I’m pretty excited about it.

A giant sweet potato:  Upon meeting many people for the first time in my town, they exclaim, “Pero ella se parece a Gigi!”  (But she looks like Gigi!)  I’ve been told that I could be Dominicana on other occasions, as there are some blancas here too, so I guess it’s possible that this woman Gigi, who I haven’t met yet, looks just like me.  Or I look like her.   One of my first days here, an old man came at me with his arms spread and a look of joy on his face.  When he got closer his expression turned to surprise, but then back to joy.   “Mija!”  He immediately called me his daughter and gave me a hug, then stared at me for a long time, laughing to himself and chattering about how I look like Gigi.  He really thought I was her.  He’s light skinned and he’s got blue eyes, so it must be true.  I could be his daughter.   And then he brought me a giant sweet potato as a gift.   Every time he sees me (which is whenever he feels like wandering over), we have pretty much the exact same exchange.  I suspect that this will be our entire relationship for the next two years.

A bouquet of flowers:  My sister’s friend gave me a flower yesterday that smelled like honey-suckle.  I put it in my hair and tried to explain the concept of the nectar on the end of the honey-suckle… she didn’t really get what I was talking about, but she did understand that I liked it.  So today she brought me a bouquet of these flowers and put them in a glass of water in my room.  Now my room smells like honey-suckle.  Sweet.  J

Lastly, awkward moment of the week:

My new padres decided they wanted to see me dance because Caroline told them I’m a good dancer. (“Pero Laura sabe bailar!”)  No biggie.  I’m thinking they’re gonna put on some standard Prince Royce and I’ll bachata around the kitchen to satisfy their curiosity.   For some unknown reason, my host dad puts on a Mexican CD.  I find it only slightly awkward to sway by myself to Mexican music while my new Dominican parents watch.  To get out of this, I say, “I can’t dance without a partner!”  Whoops.  Dad pokes his head out the front door and yells something down the street.  Some guy comes a’runnin.   Hombre stands in the doorway, smiling at me with a lazy eye, waiting expectantly for... the Mexican dancing to begin?  Awk.  Mostly because of the way this guy just stood there and stared.  I tried to laugh it off, introduce myself, and kind of imply, “Ok, nice to meet you, see ya later.”  When that didn’t work, I went to brush my teeth and hoped he would be gone by the time I got back.   When that didn’t work, I went in my room and started moving my things around as though I needed to organize, though I’ve already organized.  It took a while, but eventually he left, muttering something about Americanas and verguenza.  Phew.  

Unfortunately, Tabara Arriba isn’t the kind of place where you never see people again.  Dude lives around the corner and now he likes to andar past my porch when I’m sitting in the rocking chair and "psst psst" me.  But this isn’t as bad as the old crazy man who comes over just to stare, or, if I’m not in sight, knocks on my door as he yells to my host mom, “Estoy enamorado.”  Por Dios.

Work in my new community

I’ve been in my new community for a few weeks now and am feeling pretty good about things in general.   My first three months in site are supposed to be dedicated to doing a community diagnostic, which means meeting as many people as possible, asking questions, hanging out, and just generally getting to know my new home.  (I’ve been drinking lots of coffee with random neighbors.)  This makes a lot of sense, as far as understanding where I’m living and who I’m living with before jumping into any real work.   BUT, in my case, my project is already kind of in action…

I am working with a foundation called FUNDASEP (based in San Juan, a town about an hour from my pueblito).  Their mission: to alfabetize the “Valley.”   The valley includes my pueblo, Tabara, as well as 4 surrounding pueblos.   33 literacy classes between 5 pueblos.  That’s a lot of work right off the bat!  So I’ve been observing classes and meeting teachers and students everyday.   The classes range from kind of ok to so downright awful that I can already feel the frustration building.  Sometimes this already feels stressful… but usually it just makes me excited to work with the teachers and try to make the program better.  While I do feel like I am already working pretty hard for diagnostic time, it’s been a great way to meet lots of people around my pueblo.  Classes are held in or around the teachers’ houses, so for every class I go to I meet a bunch of students, the teacher’s family, neighbors, random passerby, etc.  Sometimes they give me coffee or fresh fruit juice.  (Last night I was observing a class and an old woman called me over from across the street to give me candy and a bowl full of guyabana fruit.  YUM.)  Everyone is always really excited that I’m there.  They sometimes seem nervous too, which is kind of funny.  I think I was portrayed to the teachers as their new boss lady, but after talking to them individually and explaining that I’m here to support/help, they seem more at ease.  

While literacy will clearly be taking up a lot of my time, I also want to have some youth groups and work in other areas of education here.  Adult literacy will continue to be a problem if half of the jovenes drop out/don’t learn anything in school anyway.  I could write a lot about the high schools I’ve seen here, but lets just say that I want to do youth empowerment, health charlas, job ideas, business planning, critical thinking… so many things that are lacking.  My host sisters will be awesome helpers with this too. 

So anyway, work is underway and I feel super welcomed into the community and into my family.  Life is good. J

Major Life Changes

To summarize:

We finished training in El Seibo and left last Friday for Santo Domingo.  I received the warm welcome I was pretty much expecting from host family #1 (ie. hugs, kisses, exclamations of joy) and had a great weekend, reuniting with friends from other sectors who have been in different training sites for the last month. 

On Monday I spent más o menos the entire day sitting on my couch in Santo Domingo with a revolving group of peace corps friends, basically just happy to be reunited and in each other’s presence.  Full house, between them and the family. “What is this, the Brady Bunch?” Someone asked about my four hermanitos hanging out on the porch, watching us and blabbering in imitation of our excited English.  Yes, and that is why I love them.

Downside of my return:  I had almost forgotten the really truly amazingly deafening heartpumping bodyquaking bedshaking power of the colmado across the street.   As if that weren’t enough, my host brother finally fixed the speakers that he’s been working on since I met him.  Don’t get me wrong, I am very impressed by his ability to fix speakers, it’s a wonderful skill, but these particular speakers are meant for those cars that drive around with their trunks open, blasting music that makes you wince and curl into a quivering ball until the bass stops shaking your body and you can think again.   He doesn’t have a car… just the speakers.  This is not abnormal.  He and his friends like to set them up in their little hangout area directly under my window.   Kewl.  It’s a lot cooler when they are also selling empanadas and give me free samples, but apparently in my absence their little business fue robado and now there is a group of girls selling empanadas across the street, using what I am pretty sure is the same stand my brother had.  Quien sabe.  Where’s the tiguere now?  Letting a bunch of girls steal your empanada stand…

Other downside:  Being hot and sweaty in Santo Domingo is a whole other breed of hot and sweaty than in other places.   Combine an actual temperature increase with dirt, car exhaust and just generally feeling like a disgusting slob.  Unpleasant.

Luckily I will not have to deal with constant noise, sleep deprivation and grime-covered skin in my site!  I am now in a beautiful, tranquilo pueblo surrounded by mountains.  When we had our interviews about site placement, I do remember saying something along the lines of, “As long as it’s green and people like to dance I think I’ll be happy.”  “So…somewhere in the Dominican Republic then?”  They responded.   Clever. 

But here I am, in Tábara Arriba, with a new mommy (Victoria), papa (haven’t figured out his name yet), two sisters (Caroline, 16, and Sami, 19) and a three-year-old neice (Ellen, Sami’s daughter).  And lots of other new friends and family.  I’m hoping that within a week or two most of the town will know my name and I’ll stop hearing rubia/Americana.   This wasn’t an achievable dream in the city, but maybe it will be here, though the town is still a pretty good size.  People haven’t really been able to agree on a population – somewhere between 3,000 and 8,000.  So that’s helpful.  But I really do think there is some kind of divine symmetry to the placement process, and I like my pueblito more and more. 

Everyone is extremely nice and welcoming, it’s really safe, and there are lots of potential project partners to work with.   Most importantly, my family is great.   They call me their daughter/sister, we joke about how we look alike (minus skin color… and probably several other features).   People keep asking about the Americana and Victoria says, “She’s my American daughter, the half sister of Sami and Caroline… you didn’t know about that American novio I had?”  The amazing thing is that some of these people, who have known the family their entire lives, actually stop and think about this, looking me over and considering the possibilities.   Like…“Ok, it could be possible that all this time Victoria had an illegitimate daughter in the United States that we never knew about.”  In a place where everyone knows everyone’s business.   Normal.   Welcome to the Dominican Republic.

Tomorrow I go back to Santo Domingo for a final week in the city.  We have some important business to take care of… including a graduation ceremony and “Peace Corps Prom.”  Yes, really.  In reality, this is just a big party to celebrate the volunteers who are ending their service, and to welcome the new volunteers.  (Limos and prom dresses will not be provided.)

And as of next weekend, I will be permanently moved to my site, and ready to start figuring out what the heck I’m going to do for the next two years.   Wish me luck!

My site!

Por fin!  

Peace Corps process: 

1.  Think about maybe applying for a few years. 

2.  Decide you are crazy enough to do it and just apply. 

3.  Have an interview, go through lots of medical stuff, generally wait around in suspense hoping you aren´t sent to Kazakhstan.

4.  Finally find out you are going to the Dominican Republic! Gracias a Dios!

5.  Wait around some more until you leave.

6.  Get on a plane to the Caribbean and start 10 weeks of training, during which time you are still in suspense about where you will actually be living.  (Especially in the DR, where there is a huge range of placements and living situations.)

7.  FINALLY find out where you are going. 

8.  Go there!

I am in Tabara Arriba, Azua, a small pueblo about 3 hours from Santo Domingo, in the southwest of the country.  So far all I can say for sure is that it´s beautiful, really green and surrounded by mountains, and that my third (and final) host family seems great.  

More information to come later!