1. Joan is settling in nicely and therefore doesn´t feel the need to vent all of her frustrations to us through her blog.
2. Joan was suspected to be in the CIA and has been held in federal detention since the beginning of March.
Well, if you guessed number 1, you are correct. Things have been
going very well lately. I´ve settled into my community and am really liking it here. I´ve made friends and have had an eventful past two months. There were Patron Saints celebrations and Holy Week at the beach, and best of all, my brother came to visit! Marc came for a full week in April, taking a break from the cold by spending time with “big sis” at my site. He got to see how I live and made a few impressions of his own. (He´ll be posting his own blog entry here soon, I´ll let him tell you about it.)
Meanwhile, my adjustment has really been helped by some special friendships I have made here. First is Reylandi, whom I have mentioned, a great friend and neighbor who is smart, cool, active, motivated, and just plain hot stuff. I also have some really great neighbors who are always looking out for me (and feeding me) and making me feel like I am home.
Then there is Frank. I am being truthful when I say that he will marry me some day. You see, Frank is studying to be a Catholic priest. I´ve asked him why as well, but he just really enjoys what he does, and seeing him in action I know he´ll make a great priest some day. Frank was the first person here (Domincan) with whom I really felt a connection. It is not always easy to relate to people who come from different cultures, especially when you have such a sarcastic sense of humor, like I do. I hadn´t been laughing, as in really laughing, until I met Frank in January. And it figures that when we met we were at a funeral, and we laughed all the way through (oops!). Since then we have been great friends, and though Frank doesn´t actually live here (he lives at a seminary school in Santo Domingo), I see him during holidays. Soon he will be doing some priestly tradition where they have to live in practical solitary confinement for a year! He won´t be able to come visit :´( , but I can stop by any time I am in Santiago. Here is a picture of myself with Reylandi and Frank under a full moon night at the beach:
During Holy Week ("Semana Santa", the week before Easter), everyone has the week off from school and most of the week from work, and by tradition they go to the beach. So, my town became flooded with extended family and friends-of-friends all headed to the coast. There are many people from my town who live here year-round but don´t cross the highway all year to go to the beach until the week of Semana Santa. It seems a little ridiculous, and when I first arrived I wondered how it would be possible to live here and go to the beach so seldomly, but by the time Semana Santa rolled around I realized I hadn´t been to the beach since New Years Eve. I´m already like a local!GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
I finally finished my first three-month project, a diagnostic assessment of the community, and presented it both to my community and the Peace Corps. It got amazing reviews! Viewers commented, “The best community diagnostic presentation I´ve ever seen in my life”, and “A smash...I´d sit through it again”. It produced some interesting results. I´m really glad they have the volunteers take the time to do this project because it helps us get a deeper understanding of the community and its needs, and gives us time to settle in and meet new people. Here I´m going to list some of the results which you might find most interesting, and some photos of me and Reylandi (also my project counterpart) presenting my diagnostic to the community and the Peace Corps:I created a representation of the logo of my community organization to present my findings. My community organization is very organized, and has a detailed transcription of the significance of each color and shape in their logo. In my presentation I talked a bit about the meaning of each shape, and how it related to the theme of what I was presenting. That shape then folded out to a poster with information. Get it? There´s more photos below:
My town
Population: around 3,688 (not including people who work or study outside of the town)
Main sources of income: Agriculture (rice and coconut), and fishing
62% of the houses are made of cement block
16% of zinc (metal, like my tin roof)
15% of wood
7% of a combination of these materials
96% have electricity, 4% do not
45% of homes have a bathroom inside the house
3% have a toilet outside
32% use latrines (25% personal for one household, 7% share with other families)
20% do not have any time of sanitary facility (this is mainly the poorest neighborhood, located on the beach. Beachfront property is not the same here as it is in the States.)
11% of dominicans in my town do not have their birth certificates.--With babies being born in the home (common) and other distractions, families often don´t get around to officially declaring their children. In the past this wasn´t such a big deal because people often didn´t leave their communities and just worked in manual labor. However, now there are a lot more restrictions for people who do not have their documentation. Kids can not continue school past the 8th grade, they can not apply for a formal job, marry legally, vote, open a bank account, get a drivers license – basically they do not exist in the eyes of the government. This system deprives people of opportunity and keeps them in the cycle of poverty. It can be a lengthy and costly process to obtain a late birth certificate, and for those whos parents also lack their birth certificates, it is practically impossible for them to obtain their own. One of my project plans is to start a campaign to help those who don´t have their birth certificates to obtain their documentation.
Many people speak of the problems of drugs and delinquency amongst the youth of the community, because there is not enough work or activities with which the youth can be involved. I have two main project plans in relation to youth:
1. To re-form a youth group which existed through my community organization and carry out activities to keep them busy, having fun, and learning about positive lifestyle choices. I´ll be taking some of the girls from the group to an all-girls camp this summer where they can learn about gender-related issues and share the knowledge with the community when they return.
2. The second is that I have joined with a group from the community who is starting a new sports league, and together we will form new teams of many different types of sports. Right now there are only softball and baseball teams, with one soccer team out of a nearby city. There is only one girls sports team of baseball, they play against the guys. I´ll help make sure that more girls teams are created, as well as volleyball and basketball teams, among others.
A lot of my time will also be spent helping my community organization raise funds to finish the construction of their new building. It has been on hold for a long time, and the stalled plans have been stalling their motivation, but once this building is complete they will have their own permanent location, a space for classes (English and computers – guess who they want to teach them?), and in general it will be a community center where community groups can have meetings, etc.I´m also hoping to start some swimming lessons and dance classes. I realize that these things take more than just knowing how to do them to be able to teach them, so I´ve got some learning to do myself! Amazon.com, here I come.
So as you can see, I´ve got a lot on my plate, and have yet to start anything concrete. Though I´ve got plans and the ball is slowly starting to roll. I was starting to get stressed about being behind, but after meeting with the other volunteers I trained with it seems we´re all about on the same page, its all part of the Peace Corps process. I´ll keep on keepin´ on, I hope you all do too.
Until next time,
Joan
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