My Placement!

Exciting news - we received our site placements last Friday! It's not 100% official, but chances are that things won't change. So, this is what I got - I'm going to be right where I am now for training, just outside of Nagua on the beach! Its a nice small town with a quiet atmosphere, though Nagua is only 10 minutes away so I have easy access to groceries and Internet, etc. The town is very cute with friendly people who can't wait for me to get started. They already have a lot of projects lined up, so I have the advantage of having work ready to go without having to worry about starting something from scratch. And as I mentioned, its ON THE BEACH! Who'd a thunk it. I find it kind-of ironic that I've never been much of a beach person and never really had much interest in going to the Caribbean, and now here I am living on a beach in the Dominican Republic. Well, I'm a beach person now! Already I'm more tan than I've ever been in my whole life (though I'm still proud to be the whitest volunteer here).

What I'll actually be doing at my site will be determined once I'm there for a while. The first three months will be spent doing a community analysis, after which we'll really get to work. The town has a lot of ideas in mind, some of which are: working with a sala de tarea (after-school tutoring) which I could help run and recruit teachers for, fundraising activities for the local community center, and starting a girls baseball or softball team. This could be a good opportunity to have kids do community service work to earn sporting equipment, etc (there is a program like this through Major League Baseball). I visited my site for the first time last weekend, and without making my presence known, looked around the town and got a feel for the place, which was a very nice feeling! I'm lucky, as no one else will be able to see their sites ahead of time until our official site visit a couple of weeks from now. Here are pictures of the beach and the baseball field:

I finally took some pictures of my family. They are psyched to know that I will be staying around the area, and I'm excited as well because I can always come by their house to say hello or grab a quick lunch ; ) Here they are, in a rare shot of the three brothers actually wearing t-shirts (well, two out of three). L-R: Muriel (19), Anneuris(25), 11, Federico (Fede), Asia(mom, ??), and Carlos Jose (15, soon to be a famous baseball player in the states):

And speaking of baseball, check out this game I played with Fede the other day. It features 5 Dominican baseball players, three of which are Ortiz, Manny, and Pedro! I found it hysterical:

Well that's all for now, hopefully we'll be doing a little something for Halloween tomorrow, though Dominicans don't really know what it is. They'll just be looking at us funny when we're dressed up.

Happy Halloween!

Joan

T-shirts and Tid Bits

So, in case I decide to go through with this revolutionary thing, this will be my campaign sign. I've got it set up and ready to go as a back-up plan.

Meanwhile, I'm still learning and observing new things about the culture. Have you ever wondered where those one-time-use only t-shirts go after their time? (ie. "Inotech Orientation Staff", "Folsom County BBQ Free-For-All, July 26 2001", etc.) Well, they came here and perhaps to other countries, more than likely given up as donations. Everywhere I look there are "Staff" and "Security" t-shirts, though I have a have a hard time believing that these people are actually prepared to kick someone off the street for being too drunk or rowdy. The biggest shock came when a friend of my host brother came walking in the house with a North Shore Community College t-shirt on. No kidding, as in exclusive to the Danvers, Beverly, and Lynn campuses. I expressed my disbelief by blocking his escape out of the kitchen and demanding he tell me where he got his shirt. He was clueless, and could care less at how cool I thought it was that the college was in my town in the U.S. Perhaps the funniest thing about all this, however, is that the Spanish word for "t-shirt" is "t-shirt", and the word for a polo shirt is "polo t-shirt". Imagine it being spoken with a latino accent - "POlotee shier". I get such a kick out of this.

So, during our time in Nagua, we've been working at an internship during the afternoons three days per week. I go to a neighboring town with another trainee named Jill, and we help out at a Sala de Tarea - or after school tutoring room. Ah, the kids at this place. I hate to make fun of them since the education system here is so bad, but what the heck. Yesterday we tried to play hangman with the group of 7-12 year-olds. It was challenging to say the least, as the kids were suggesting letters such as "ni" and "po". Its really sad that these kids are just not comfortable with their alphabet. The method of teaching here is to have kids copy down letters, syllables, or words over and over, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can read it or understand its meaning. Anyway, the kids are really cute and they like us because we play games with them. Here are some of them, notice what they said about us on the chalkboard! (bonita = pretty, amable = kind)This past weekend we made the unfortunate decision to join a local youth group on an excursion to a nearby national park. After getting up early then waiting for two hours to leave, 50 people piled into the back of a pick-up truck (bigger than a normal truck, but really not very big). I have no idea how no one fell out, people were standing and lining the sides of the truckbed. After riding the 40 minutes or so listening to the 16-year-olds say annoying things, we realized we were in the midst of a really long day. The balance of the Sunday consisted of short 10 minute walks, which were followed by hour-long resting periods so that the kids could get on our nerves some more. We finally made it to the river we heard about and took a dip, though not without crossing the river numerous times and getting my shoes and clothes soaking wet (I know, I should have worn sandals). We made it out alive luckily, if not hungry and exhausted. Here is a picture from the day, left to right - Margo, Maria, me, Bianca, Enrique, and Jill.

So, the word on the street is that we're going to find out our site placements by Friday! We're all very anxious to know. I'll post then for sure.

Have a great week!

Joan

What is the meaning of life?

Before I came to this country, my visions of success were simple. ¨If I can get through to at least one person, in some positive way, my time here will have been worthwhile.¨ I really meant it too. I do believe that you can change the world one person at a time. However, now that I am here, and I see the all of the problems that this country faces, I feel overwhelmed and powerless. I want to change it all. I should be talking to the president and his cabinet, not the little girl who is learning to read. She´ll get it eventually {crossing fingers}.

Meanwhile, we´ve got filthy streets and dengue fever and AIDS and prostitution and no electricity for no reason and thousands of stray dogs dying in the streets. We´ve got discrimination against Haitians and extreme poverty and teen pregnancy and child labor and unsanitary living conditions and too much cholesterol. We´ve got high drop out rates and low literacy and corrupt governments and flimsy medical care and no idea how serious these problems are.

It makes me either want to start a revolution or just give up on the whole things and take up a new career as a professional latin dancer.

I don´t mean to be too critical but I´m definitely going through a period of ¨what am I doing here?¨ I haven´t been too motivated by the training so far, we are learning how to tutor and start a youth group and analyze the needs of a communty, but I´m still trying to figure out how that will help us erradicate illiteracy in the country? When do these lessons come? One of us volunteers can be in charge of literacy, others can eliminate AIDS and discrimination. I´ve got it all figured out. As long as we split it up like that maybe it won´t seem so overwhelming.

On the positive side of things, I think something clicked with my Spanish, its getting somewhat better. Still lots of vocabulary to learn, but I´m getting there. Also, I adore my host family here in Nagua and have a great time just sitting around talking to my new host brothers and sister. I haven´t had any serious illnesses yet, which is always a plus. I´m really looking forward to finally being on my own and settling down into a community and starting to work. I´m sure once I have a focus I won´t be so overwhelmed.

I promise next time I´ll stop complaining and will post some pictures. Hope you´re all enjoying the fall!

Joan (back to Juana)

You put the lime in the coconut and drink it on up....

So, when I last wrote I was getting ready to visit a current volunteer for a long weekend. My visit brought me to a small city in the east called El Seibo, where I stayed with Brian, an IT volunteer. It was great to see how he lived and experience a day in the life of a "real" Peace Corps Volunteer. He's got a pretty comfortable situation, with electricity and running water most of the time, and lots of resources nearby (I'm trying not to get my hopes up about this). His main task is to help establish a computer lab, and he teaches english and organizes other projects on the side.

It wasn't all hard work and learning as you are probably thinking, we got together with other nearby volunteers, who were also hosting trainees, and had a weekend of fun! There were two nights at local discos practicing our merengue and bachata dancing (I must say I'm pretty good). We also visited a health volunteer named Callie who lives in the "campo", a very rural area, and who does not have electricity nor running water. To get there, you need to find a pick-up truck to ride in the back of, and the ride is about 45 minutes along dirt roads. She bathes and gets her water from a nearby river. Very different living situations from one volunteer to the next.

We headed to the river to see how it was done, but really just to swim and have fun. What a great time! I love swimming in rivers, and we were by a damn so it was like swimming under a waterfall. Here we are literally bathing in the river (l-r Iosefa, Megan, me, Callie, Ana). I feel bad about the pollution, but that's how the people do it in these places so what can you do:

That brought us to our last week at the training center in Santo Domingo (for a while). By this point I had really started to make some friends, so it was sad to think that we would be separated now that we were finally getting to know each other! Anyway, we had a final going-away party and "thank you" to our host families, and had them all at the training center last Friday afternoon. When I said I was pretty good at dancing, I wasn't kidding-there was a dance contest at the going away party, and I won! Iosefa and I, from our practice at the disco in El Seibo, swept the competition (nothing to worry about, Jeff).

Below are some more pictures- here I am with my spanish class, Margo (also in youth), Adrienne, and Jonathan(both in health);

Margo and Adrienne at the training center;

My host family in Santo Domingo - Martha, Raydiris, me, Martha's neice, Lisbeth, and Antonio.

I left Santo Domingo last Sunday with my training group (all of the other trainees here to work with youth development), and arrived for six weeks of training in Nagua, in the north of the country along the coast. So far its been pretty good. I have a super cool new host family with older kids, who are much easier to live with. (I love 6-year-old Lisbeth, but "Mira! Mira!" (Look! Look!) every five seconds gets to me after a while.) Margo is living in a house right on the beach. A few days ago we all went to her house and a neighbor picked fresh coconuts for us directly from the trees in her back yard, chopped them open with a machete and let us drink the water (its water, not really milk). I'll have to try it with lime next time, as the song goes. We also ate some coconut, which is when it has come off the tree and had time to dry. Oh my was it delicious! I haven't had fresh coconut many times, but I never knew it could be this good.

I haven't actually taken any pictures yet since I've been here, but Internet access is much easier, so hopefully I'll be able to post a new blog soon. We're starting internships to get some practical training with active youth programs. I will be working with an after school program to help kids with their homework and other projects. The school systems here are not very good, so after school programs like this are very beneficial to the students.

Tonight is another volunteer's birthday, Morgan, so we will go out dancing (I swear, I usually don't dance this much!). Tomorrow we've got a day trip planned to a nice beach! This town is right on the water, but the beaches are not very clean.

Hope you all are doing well!

Joan