September, October, November, and beyond

I never intended to go this long without a proper blog update, but here I am, four months later. I did update about Tropical Storm Noel, but besides that I could be up to who-knows-what and you'd never know because I didn't tell you. I'm so sorry! Of course, I did see a lot of you during my vacation home, so you had the inside scoop through October. Here's what happened since the beginning of September to the present in Joan's DR world...

I birthed another 13 people, including four adults. In other words, I helped them get their birth certificates, as they were previously unregistered as Dominican citizens. This is such satisfying work as the benefits to having their documentation are incalculable - they basically can't do anything without it. We have now declared 20 people to date, and have more paperwork in the works! Here are some "new" citizens to my community and a neighboring community further down the highway:





We've also continued with the "Servir y Jugar" (Serve and Play) program, and have had great success! Thank you very much to all who donated sporting equipment. The kids have carried out 15 community service activities to date, and through their service have "earned" lots of sports equipment! They completed 8 clean-ups of the beach, which we are following up with a small research project so that they will learn how the trash they are picking up harms the environment.

Most recently, I came up with the ingenious idea of having the kids complete their community service hours by raising money for the Sala de Tarea (after school program). This way, we are helping two of my projects at the same time - the Sala de Tarea raises funding, and the Serve and Play group earns their community service hours! Oh, I'm good. One day was spent going door to door, asking for one peso from every house. Many people gave more - we raised over $1,000 pesos in one easy day! (Half of a teacher's monthly salary.) We followed it up by making more "Mistolin" (the household cleaning product), which was our summer fundraising activity for the Sala de Tarea. I still had left-over ingredients from before, so I put the kids to work. We made and sold the product in two working days, and raised another $1,500! Here are some photos of making the Mistolin, and handing the money over to the Sala de Tarea:






The first part of October was spent getting my editing shoes back on and preparing the next issue of the Gringo Grita, Peace Corps DRs official magazine. Its a lot of hard work, with lots of 12-hour days in the tiny PC library, but a lot of fun as well. In the end, we turned out a great issue with lots of fun articles. Its a funny, sarcastic, inspiring magazine with specific American-Volunteer-in-the-DR humor, and is a great outlet for the Volunteers. To the right is my staff photo for the last issue, some of the guys went crazy with Photoshop...

Four days later came...my trip home! I can't say enough about it. Seeing all of my family and friends, enyoying great food and beautiful New England autumn weather, hanging out at cafe's, viewing peak foliage, celebrating Mom's 50th birthday, experiencing the Red Sox win the World Series...it couldn't have been better!



On top of all that, I saw IN CONCERT the Dominican Republic's FAVORITE (modern) Bachata group, AVENTURA (yes, in Massachusetts!):


Arriving back here in November, I arrived into the middle of Tropical Storm Noel, which left lots of destruction in its path. I was in the capital for five more days until I could return to my site. I spent the rest of November in and out of the capital and my site, trying to rent and get settled into a new house before heading to Santo Domingo for another Peace Corps-related event. We had a big Thanksgiving celebration, which was a ton of fun, at a country club with sports, games, and lots of fun activities. I won a Merengue contest! Our youth training group also performed a choreographed dance routine for the second consecutive year with our dance troup called "Sparkle Motion." Here's the video:

(...to be posted later...)

We then had the annual All-Volunteer Conference. As soon as December arrived I was out again for my 1-year In-service training. Just as I got back and was getting my new house ready for my family's visit in December, another Tropical Storm hit and we were ordered out of our sites again and to a "safety" checkpoint. Its been hard being away for so long, but come January I'll really get back to work again, I promise!

That's right, I said another Tropical Storm. Olga, they called her. Hurricane seasone supposedly ended November 30th, but here we are in the middle of December with more natural disasters. Don't try to tell me that global warming isn't real!!!!! I was "consolidated" with other Volunteers in the north to the big city of Santiago, which saw lots of flooding and damage. Here are some pictures:



Conveniently, my family is arriving into Santiago tomorrow for their 10-day Christmas visit! I'll head to the airport to meet them tomorrow then we'll spend a week in a hotel on the north coast before heading to my site for four more days and Christmas. It will be an exciting holiday for all of us!

Sorry for the overly-general description of events. I hope everyone has a great holiday season!
Joan

"Tropical Storm" Noel

I know, I have been way behind with my blog. There is a lot to fill you in on for the months of September and October, including my wonderful trip home, but first I must tell you what has been going on in this country over the past two weeks.

The Dominican Republic has just experienced the worst natural disaster it has seen in years. You may have seen some of it on the news, I’m not sure, but let me share with you what happened from an insiders point of view.

Labeled Hurricane Noel when it reached the United States, it was still only a tropical storm as it slowly churned its way over this country. It was hardly windy, with a moderately heavy rain at best. What it did was bring water - lots and lots of water. It caught everyone by surprise. The water came down slowly and steadily for a couple of days until the ground had soaked in all it could and the water began to rise. Rivers overflowed, bridges fell, landslides covered the roads, and acres of flat rice fields were submersed. The level of the water rose, barging into people’s homes and driving the people away. Those who did not want to leave when they were warned by relief agencies could later be found on their roof or in a tree, praying for a boat or helicopter to come by and bring them to safety.

(People look on as water fills the streets and houses:)
Refugees sat in schools and safe houses throughout the country with nothing but their lives. Homes were damaged, crops destroyed, and some lives were lost. The rains eventually stopped, but the water stayed for some time. Homes could be seen sitting in the water, its level halfway up the house, most things inside destroyed.

Here some refugees are served food at a local school near my town that served as a shelter:
The disaster affected the entire country. The areas hit hardest with water levels as I described were the south and my region in the northeast. Other parts were affected differently; mountainous areas saw a lot of mudslides, and many bridges were down, making access to certain parts of the country impossible for a few days.

I arrived from my trip to the states on a Monday afternoon, just when they realized that this was an emergency. From the airport, I headed down the coastal highway to the center of Santo Domingo. Huge waves were crashing into the shore, throwing water over the highway and at times covering it completely. The Peace Corps called a “Standfast” and immediately began contacting Volunteers to make sure they were OK and ordering them to stay put. Volunteers were not allowed to leave from wherever they were at that moment until further notice. Travel was dangerous and no one was sure as to the extent of the damage. Having arrived in the capital, I stayed, and wasn’t cleared to go home to my site until that Friday.

We heard bits and pieces of news during that time, but it wasn’t until that Thursday that I realized the seriousness of what had happened. The Peace Corps informed us that the country had declared a national disaster. Foreign aid was called for and relief agencies got to work. I found this very interesting - the Peace Corps is the only international organization with Volunteers located in every part of the country. We know first hand what the situation is like in rural parts of the country better than any other organization. Certain agencies which offer assistance are based in the capital or another large city, and basically search blindly for the areas they assume need help. The Peace Corps has an advantage by working and living in these communities, so the government called upon us to report back to them what the real situation was where we live. I must admit I felt proud to be given this responsibility, and hopeful that my connection would be able to help those who need it in my community.

Don’t worry, my town was FINE. My town is the largest of many small towns that make up a district. Many of these smaller towns (or neighborhoods, really) were hit hard. I live in an area that produces a lot of rice. If you’ve ever seen a rice field, they are flat. Rice needs a lot of water to grow, so this land (at sea level, mind you) usually has water up to ground level. In many areas in my district, excess water doesn’t have any place to go (no hills, not enough rivers), so the land just filled with water. Of course, farmers often live near the fields where they work, so many houses were left underwater and people were evacuated.

I’m getting long-winded. Here are some photos, all from areas near my town. I don´t have a lot of information on the situation in the south, but I know its worse:

Here is a street still one week after the storm hit:
This woman´s house was moved right off the foundation:
Driving through flooded streets with church Volunteers:
This man returned to his house this day to find it filled with mud and debris. You can see from the lines on the house how high the water was:
Soaked mattresses were left out to dry:
Delivering donations to one of the affected areas. I went with people from the Catholic Church this day to see some of the damage:


The woman below shows the level that the water was up to at her house:

What the people need now are mattresses (imagine a mattress soaked through with water - you can’t use that again!), mosquito nets (lots of standing water breeds lots of mosquitoes!), water, and food. The really scary part is knowing how difficult the next few months will be. All of the crops have been destroyed, and many farm animals have died. We are going to be seeing a major food shortage here, and already are. Food prices will go way up because things will be imported, and many poor will have a difficult time paying to feed their families. Until we can get the crops growing and producing again, times will be tough. But they will survive, they have before.

The effort of people in my area to help those affected by the storm was a beautiful thing. People went on TV asking for donations of anything they could spare to help those who had lost everything - a fork, a candle, whatever. Donations came pouring in. All of those clothes that I brought here to sell to raise money I immediately put in a big bag and donated to the affected people. Those who gave me clothing donations can feel good that your clothes went to a very important cause! The Catholic Church in my town has been amazing, putting donations together every day and bringing them directly to the different neighborhoods that need help. Other local organizations are helping too, and the Civil Defense of the Dominican government. (Photo at right is of donations that came into the Civil Defense)

Millions if not billions of dollars came in to the Dominican government from many generous countries, including the United States, Taiwan, Venzuela, etc. Have the people seen it yet? No. This will be the interesting part, to see how much of that money the people will actually see. I shouldn’t doubt a fair distribution of the funds, but from what people here tell me about things like this happening in the past, the money rarely makes it to the people who really need it. We will see.

Meanwhile, the people are getting on with their lives. It was very impressive to see the attitude of the people as they returned to their damaged homes. They took a look, picked up the mop, and got to work. Certain things will take time and money to replace, such as electric equipment (refrigerators, washing machines), beds and mattresses, etc. But in general they’ve still got their house, so they will just start over again with what they’ve got and go from there.

I don’t know if there is anything you can do to help. If there is and you are interested, I will let you know.

*The first three photos were taken by a Korean Volunteer I met this past week. She came on to help with the Civil Defence just at the right time. She's in a program similar to Peace Corps out of Korea called KOICA, and will be here for the next two years. (Below: flooded rice fields)

August 2007

Nagua at sunrise (its much prettier from up here)

I birthed seven children this month, and two of them were already 9 and 10 years old. Man, did that hurt! Alright, so they didn’t pass through my birth canal, but I did help to give them a chance at life. I’ve been working for about three months now on a campaign to help register people who don’t have their birth certificates. There is a big problem in this country with people not being registered, as once a child is born it is the responsibility of the parents to go to one of the Civil offices and declare their son or daughter. This must be done within 60 days or the child is not registered, and to register a child after this period is a time-consuming and costly hassle. Many parents just don’t get around to it, don’t see the importance of registering their child (they come from small communities and don’t realize there is opportunity outside of their village), or they simply live too far from the Civil office and don’t have the money to go there. Whatever the reason, a large percentage of the population is undeclared. Without their documentation, they can not hold a job in the public or private sectors, can not go to school past the 8th grade, can not obtain government health care subsidies, can’t open a bank account, can’t vote, can’t marry…the list goes on. Basically they do not exist in the eyes of the government.

The good news? We helped seven of these people get their documentation! Together with the help of a woman from the Foundation in my town, we met every Sunday and the interested people came and took the necessary steps to declare their children, grandchildren, or themselves. We have also been trying in vain to get four adults declared, and have been ALMOST THERE for a month now, but there’s always something else the office needs. Hopefully we can get these men (all over 50) their birth certificates very soon. One wants to travel to visit his daughter in the United States and needs his passport; another told me he just wants to know he is written down somewhere as having existed before he dies. People from a nearby community, a village in my district, came a few weeks ago and told us about all of the people in that area who are undeclared, so this past Sunday we started a second wave of the campaign in this town. We’ll just keep going and do what we can and hopefully declare as many people as possible! Here are Darwin and Faviola, two kids we helped to register:

Also this month, I started the Servir y Jugar (Serve and Play) program with the local baseball league. Through community service work, sports teams can obtain free sporting equipment. The equipment is donated from people or organizations in the states, and with the guidance of Peace Corps Volunteers, Dominican kids and youth can work to earn this equipment. Every 10 hours of work earns them one piece of equipment (one baseball bat, one basketball, one t-shirt, etc.). We started two weeks ago on what should be a long run of Serve and Play activities, and I must say it feels great! The kids are excited because they are going to get more equipment for their teams, and in the meantime they are helping the community! We've started with some clean-ups - a clean-up of the baseball field, and many of the beach. (If I haven’t mentioned it before, Dominicans tend not to use trash cans, so there is a lot to pick up!) Here are some shots of the activities:


After the first clean-up of the baseball field, I went to the PC office in the capital to see what supplies were available to bring back. They were hoping for uniforms, as well as bats, gloves, balls, etc. (no jock straps Jeff, but thanks anyway.) I managed to bring a few bats, balls, and gloves, as well as two sets of uniforms! I came back late from the capital that day, and as I walked through town to my house with the ends of three bats sticking out of my backpack, I was spotted and followed to my house. The next thing I knew, a whole team of boys and girls had arrived, coach included. They were so excited that they could hardly wait for me to put down my bag to see what I had brought. They loved the uniforms (t-shirts only), and are ready and eager to continue working to earn these uniforms. With the entire league working two hours at a time (i.e. 25 people working two hours each = 50 hours), those hours add up fast. I’ll keep everything at my house until they have earned it, no advanced loans! I’m tough but fair : )

I’ve also got plans to help a new girls volleyball team, and a new sports league’s first basketball team. They just re-made the basketball court in this town, so everyone’s super excited about basketball.

Let’s see, what else…My youth group has been growing in size and strength, which is good, though its been a little tough to handle. The kids have a ton of energy and are excited about the group, but its hard to control and many don’t know yet how to take responsibility. We just attempted a movie night that we had been planning for a month, but where some people slacked and didn’t do their work, things fell through and in the end we were not able to pull it off in time. This will be their first lesson in “taking responsibility”. That talk comes at this week’s meeting. Here are some of my youth at my house:
Another thing I did was help plan the going-away party for Frank, who left this month for one year of his seminary program where he will live in a house in Santiago and pretty much can’t leave or have visitors during this time. I guess the idea is that if they can survive this mental test, they’ll probably be able to make it as a priest. The going-away party was quite an event, with dramas, speeches, and poetry. And once again, it was a complete surprise! That makes two successful surprise parties I've pulled off - yes! We had it in the new fancy town hall building, here are some photos:

Here I am with Frank (right) and his cousin who lives in New Jersey. No joke, this kid is 13-years-old!


At the end of the month, my community organization had its annual elections to elect the next president and board of directors. I was on the election committee and helped prepare the event. We've got a great new president now and a lot more motivation for the upcoming year, hopefully we'll get off to a great start! On September 1st they swore in the new representatives. I didn't make it that day, but they gave me a special recognition for the work I've been doing on their behalf.

Other than that, there was the hurricane evacuation, which I mentioned. Coming up next month: more homework at the Sala de Tarea; giving birth - again; fundraising/pleading for money; and the new batch of trainees! That’s right, we’re the veterans now ; )

Here are some random photos to keep you all photo happy:

Shots of the beach at my site:



My favorite twins, Eliasil and Eliasail, listening to my iPod:


I'll leave you with this video of my cat, proof that he is possessed by demons:

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!