Hurricane Survival 101

I wanted to send a message to let you all know that I am OK. We have survived Hurricane Dean, which plowed across the Caribbean and brushed along the coast of the DR Saturday night. Peace Corps Saftey and Security is right on top of any potential danger headed our way, so as of this past Tuesday we knew to be prepared for a possible hurricane. Before the weather news, we had had a nice weekend away planned for the volunteers in our region, scheduling a mandatory meeting in a cool hotel on the north coast that serves Indian food. We were more than disappointed when the PC called to let us know that we were being "consolidated", and everyone had to make their way to the nearest "safety checkpoint" for at least the next three days. That meant no cool hotel, and no Indian food! :´( In my case, I headed to a mediocre hotel in San Francisco de Macorís, just over an hour inland from my site.

I always thought I´d feel like I was betraying my community if they ever pulled me out in an emergency, leaving my friends in the path of disaster. Though, it was hard to believe there was any real danger when I headed out Friday afternoon in sunny skies dotted with fluffy white clouds. No one seemed too worried, the path of the storm was only predicted to skim the southern coast, and in that case only with strong winds and rain. They were right not to worry.

The effects that hit us were disappointing to say the least. Rain came down like a dribble and a light cough would have created a stronger breeze than anything felt outside. (The photo above was actually the day after the hurricane, with heavier rains than during the storm!) If we were going to be evacuated and sheltered in a small hotel for three days, I would have liked to see some action! Well, at least everyone was safe, and I didn´t have to worry about anyone in my town getting hurt.

Instead, we made the most of our evacuation time. I completed the following, hurricane-survival techniques:

1. I went shopping and got some much-needed clothing items (clothes just disintegrate down here!)
2. I watched the following movies:
The Departed - 4 stars
Before Sunset - 4 stars
Coach Carter - 2.5 stars
Also:
Season 1 of The Office - 4 stars
3. Ate lots of food and drank lots of Snapple, with Peace Corps covering the tab (thanks American tax payers!)
4. Got back spasms from lack of physical activity

All in all I think it was a blessing in disguise. I´d been burning myself out with meetings and activities in my site, I needed some good quality rest time.

In having survived this hurricaine, I have the following recommendations for anyone who might find themself in the same situation:

1. Bring your laptop, or know someone who has one. With this, you can get lots of work done, or more importantly, watch lots of DVDs.

2. Bring lots of DVDs.

3. Bring a memory stick so you can transfer music from friends´ laptops onto your own. Key for when you were lacking enough Dominican music.

And that´s that. I´ll head back tomorrow and back to work. Hope all is well up there, and Happy Birthday Dad!

Joan

July 2007

Let’s break it down – boom chicki boom. Here’s the low down on what went down this month down here in the DR:

July 4^th - I get a call from Bianca, fellow volunteer and great friend who lives somewhat close to me two hours away on the north coast. She asks what I am doing for Independence Day. Having forgotten almost entirely about this holiday (thanks to this lack of marketing and no difference between summer and any other season), I agreed that we should do something. The only logical thing that comes to mind is to have some people over your house for a cookout. But how would I find a grill in a country that doesn’t barbeque? As fate would have it, I have an American neighbor, a retired rancher from Colorado named Harry, who has got just about every piece of equipment you could ever dream of. Against all odds of PCDR, I obtained a grill from Harry for this day. Bianca came over and we splurged on hot dogs and hamburger meat. I invited some of my closest friends and their families and we had a true family cookout! It was a great taste of home. Well, I wouldn’t say it tasted great, I royally screwed up the hamburgers, having a hard time getting those coals burning the way they should. You can see the disappointment on their faces as they watched in disbelief at just how bad a cook I can be:

Early July Fundraising – Also against all odds was the likelihood of keeping the Sala de Tarea (after school program) up and running. With no money and no one who cared, the Sala was falling into a bottomless pit. In steps Joan – and the Sala is saved. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but damn I’m good. Here was one of our efforts to raise some money – we made and sold a common household cleaning product called Mistolin which everyone uses, and sold it for poco dinero (little money), I bought the raw ingredients in the capital and we spent many afternoons mixing a couple of gallons at a time and filling old (recycled!) water bottles with the stuff. It sold at 20 pesos a pop (about 65 cents), and we did great. The kids did most of the selling, they’re cuter and much more convincing. They loved to sell! “Mistolin twenty pesos sala de tarea” was about all they could muster to say, no further explanation, but it did the trick. We’ll probably do another round this month:
Now you see it...

...now you don´t!

Also at the Sala de Tarea was a volunteer from Ohio named Betha (see above, right). She came in for six weeks to help out at the Sala, teaching and playing with the kids. She helped with the fundraising as well as the campaign to get people their birth certificates. It was nice to have another American around that I could complain to for a while (I still do that!). Hopefully she enjoyed her time here!

July 7^th – I proposed the idea and helped organize a baby shower for my good friend Jenny. She is the one I lived with during my first three months in my site. It was a success – she never suspected a thing and was totally surprised. Look at her reaction!

More scenes from the baby shower. By the way, the Spanish translation for baby shower is “baby shower”:

July 25^th – The baby is born! My “niece”, Angela Julianny. People often name their kids after themselves, many times combing names of the parents. In this case, Julio + Jenny = Julianny. Pronounced like the old mayor of New York. She is so tiny and white, here’s a photo:

July 8 – 14^th – The new editor of the “Gringo Grita”, the Peace Corps magazine for the DR, steps into position. It was a busy busy week with lots of commas and hyphens and references to the dictionary to check our slowly fading knowledge of English, along with all of the technical problems that come along with this type of work. (What would copy and design be without computer glitches?) In the end I lost a lot of hair but we turned out a great issue. My good friends Bianca and Margo came on board to help, and they were great, with lots of creative ideas and way more energy than I had. I´ll put a link up to the PDF if I can figure out how to do it.

July 23 – 27, Camp GLOW – Thank you so much to everyone who donated, your money went a long way! The girls camp, Camp GLOW, was a big success. It was a great opportunity for the girls to learn about a variety of sensitive topics in a comfortable environment, without the pressure of what the guys are thinking. The camp touched on teamwork, leadership, self-esteem, family planning, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and more, along with fun activities. I gave a creative writing class and a salsa dance class. I brought two girls from my community, Reylandi and Argenis. Here we are in our cute pink t-shirts:

The trust walk:

Pin the clitoris on the woman:

Learning how to put a condom on a plantain:

Will I do it again? Hell no. Was it great for the girls involved? Absolutely. Is Joan the “camper” type? No sir. I’m still trying to get the tree song out of my head, “E-I-E-I-O!”

July 30^th – Fearing the worst, I took my youth group on a day trip. I worried for nothing – the day went great! We went to a natural fresh water pool about 45 minutes from where we live and spent the day swimming and dancing (there´s always dancing in this country). It was the first real activity that I did with my youth group. I was hoping for it to be a good strengthening activity to help shape the group and involve more people. It worked! Our regularly scheduled meeting last night brought in more people than ever, and everyone was so excited to talk about and plan our next activities. Here is a photo from the pool:

Hope you’re having a great summer!