Friends and My Presentation

I´ve let a lot of time go by since my last blog entry. I figure you probably see it one of two ways:

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

The Ozzy Ozborne Incident

We´ve all seen it before, one of VH1´s top 100 countdowns entitled, "Rock and Roll´s 100 Most Shocking Moments". I´m sure there have been a variety of compilations on the theme, but one "shocking" moment which always seems to make the top 10 is that of Ozzy Ozborne and the chicken. You know the one - a Black Sabbath concert in the 70´s, someone throws a chicken on the stage, Ozzy throws it back ("I ´idn´t know ´em birds cayn´t fly"), and the crowd tears it apart. PETA caused a big stink and he hasn´t lived it down since.

Well, I´ve got my own most shocking moment. I´m sure there will be more, but this one has got to make my top ten by the time I´m finished here.

This past weekend was Carneval. It was actually rescheduled from the prior weekend, but the night before Carneval was a beauty pageant, where they elect the girl who will be crowned the Queen of Patron Saints Day (later this month). About an hour into the show someone was killed outside of the club. I was there, I had no idea what was going on when people started rushing outside and leaving during the middle of the show. It turned out some kids were on drugs and one killed the other. Really sad, he was only 20 years old. I went to the funeral the next day which was a horribly powerful experience. The body stays in the home of the family and everyone comes to grieve, they are buried the day after they die. I´ve got to find a way to educate more about drugs in my community!

So, out of respect, the scheduled Carneval event was postponed to the following week. I had seen preparations for Carneval hanging up around the town for about two weeks before - these decorations being pig or cow intestines. People blow into the intestine and inflate it like a balloon, then hang it to dry. On the day of Carneval the mischevous ones run around smacking people with these intestine balloons. They can really hurt! Here is my friend Andres displaying one of these unique toys:
The celebration started with a parade from the school to the town park where there was a stage and sound system set up for the show. There were some fantastic masks, all hand made, which competed for the best costume award, along with choreographed dances. I feel like I learned a lot more about Dominican culture after this day, you can really feel the African roots by watching some of these dances. It even made Reggaeton make a little more sense. Here is a video of one of the dances: Here are some costumes and masks from the day:Each costume had time on the stage to display their artwork and let the judges get a good look. One man, seen pictured below, actually made an almost-life-sized mule. He dressed like a campesino (farmer, which he probably is anyway), with his legs positioned as the two hind legs of the mule so it looked like he was riding it. He had two baskets of fruit draped over the back of the mule, along with two live chickens. The man began tossing fruit into the crowd. Everyone got really excited and dove enthusiastically for each new piece of fruit. Here comes a mango! Now a platano! I started to get a little concerned as these fruits can be heavy and he was tossing them pretty hard. More mangos! Platano! Pineapple! Pineapple? Just when I thought I should be concerned about this, I look up toward the sky and see a chicken hurling through the air. No, he couldn´t! He did. He threw the chicken with all his might into the center of the crowd. I screamed. The chicken landed in about five different sets of hands, which all pulled in different directions. The chicken was literally torn apart, alive.

Half of the crowd started running away, the other half ran towards the scene. I stood stunned for a moment or two before I hurried over to lean against a wall and try to catch my breath. I saw a man I knew; he saw the terror in my face and commented, "Poor chicken". Poor chicken? To say the least! For the rest of the evening you could see a lone chicken wing and unidentifiable clumps of feathers rising up from one part of the crowd to the other. Needless to say the rest of the evening was shot for me, I felt nauseous and couldn´t really concentrate on the rest of the event. And after all that, the guy won best costume.

I spoke to another volunteer about this and she assured me that this is not a normal occurence. Gracias a Dios! So, that is my most shocking moment of Peace Corps DR thus far. More stories to come.

Joan

(José Miguel, 2/25/2007)

Well it has been a fun and eventful month of February. I brought in the new month by heading to the nearby penninsula of Samaná for a regional meeting of all volunteers in the Cibao region. The meeting was spiced up by taking the following day to go on a whale watch! It turns out that our North Atlantic Humpback whales come down here to this specific bay in the warmer waters of the Dominican Republic to mate. It was a good time to get to know other volunteers and enjoy a few days away. Samaná is so beautiful! The whales were very active too, we even saw one breaching. We went out in small motor boats, about the size of a Humpback whale, so it made it a little nerve wracking to see them jumping out of the water so close to where we were! Here are some photos:

This month marked the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps in this country, so they held a big celebration for a weekend in Santo Domingo with current and former volunteers from decades past. There were free and paid events, and one returned volunteer named Jackie Alcorn, who served in the years 1965 – 1967 (during the American occupation – scary!), was kind enough to sponsor me so I could attend the paid events. It was so inspiring and motivating to talk to Jackie and other former volunteers to hear what they did and how important their Peace Corps experiences were to their lives, enough so to come back to the country and celebrate it 40 years later! It helped me see the big picture again of what this experience can mean, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day little things that distract you from that greater understanding.

That Friday all current volunteers were invited to the National Palace to meet the Vice President of the country! I really wish I had pictures of these things, but cameras were not allowed in the Palace and I´ve just been really lazy in general lately. They did, however, air the entire one-hour meeting of each volunteer shaking VP Albuquerque´s hand on National TV, some people in my community saw it and told me about it. (That was actually the second time I was on TV here, the first was during training when we helped out with a youth group trip to a national park.) It was a unique experience, its not easy to get into the National Palace.

On to the following week, and Livin´ la Vida Loca! That´s right, I saw Ricky Martin in concert! Friends, you´re probably thinking, “I just don´t know Joan anymore!”, but I´ll tell you, it was a blast. I´d never been to a pop music concert like that, it was an event for sure. Lots of choreographed dancing, and Ricky had a different outfit on for every song. I went with three other female (obviously) volunteers, and we danced like Americans from the bleachers and had a great time! When else could you see a concert like that for $8? I´m not kidding, that´s how much we paid...

This month things have really been coming together at my site. I´m finishing up my community diagnostic and it has been really interesting. I´ll post the results when I´m finished. With this project I am determining which projects I´m going to work on throughout the year. It was a great way to get to know the community and individual people more, and to really understand what I am doing and why.

After six months of living with host families, still pulling belongings out of my half-packed suitcase, I have FINALLY moved out on my own! I got a SWEET deal, renting my own house for under $80 per month, which comes mostly furnished, including a CD player, TV, and DVD player! (“Joan, are you sure you´re in the Peace Corps?”) Yes I know, it seems a little strange, but they came with the house, why should I complain? Actually as soon as I moved in I realized that the CD player doesn´t work, the DVD player won´t play burnt CDs, and the TV is black and white. Plus, the power is still out half the time, so I still have to deal with that. The owner lives in Spain. I knew her mother, so she suggested that I rent the house. It has two bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a bathroom, and a storage unit for water. I stayed there for the first time last night, and though it was a little scary getting used to all of the new sounds, it was so nice to wake up to a cool morning in my own bed! It rained a little on Saturday when I was cleaning, so I got to hear the rain on my tin roof for the first time. ("Tiiiiiiin ROOF! Rusted.") Here are some photos, I´m so excited! My last bit of news is that I have joined the group of Peace Corps volunteers who works on the PCDR (Peace Corps Dominican Republic) magazine. It is like a fancy newsletter for all volunteers in the country. Volunteers can write in stories, funny or serious (I wrote a funny one, of course), and there are information updates, fun tidbits or games, etc. With my background in advertising and marketing I felt this was a perfect fit for me. We spent this past week, myself with five other volunteers, in the capital putting together the Spring issue. It was so much fun for me, I´m so glad I got involved. Again, I didn´t take pictures, but I at least do have this one that will serve as my staff photo. (The cover is a Rolling Stone spoof, so we had a rock and roll theme. This is me as, “Better than Joan Jett” Joan.)

On the upside

Alright, its about time I put aside the sarcasm for a minute and fill in some of the gaps. I realize I´ve been leaving out some of the more positive stories from my time here, so here are a few tidbits from these past 5 months:

This culture in general is very generous and giving, all of the time. You´ll be sitting next to a stranger on public transportation and they will share whatever they are eating or drinking with you, even if it means biting that Halls menthol in half (this happened to my friend Michael!).

The only two new pieces of jewelery I own were given to me by people in my community. During one of my first weeks in my site, I commented to a woman I was talking to that I liked her earrings. "Really?" she replied, "Here..." and she proceeded to take the earrings out of her ears and give them to me. I couldn´t deny the gift, the earrings were mine. The same thing happend with a bracelet my friend Reylandi was wearing. It was a bit gaudy, but it grabbed my attention so I told her I liked it, and the next thing I knew it was mine. Sometimes it just makes me feel really selfish, I´ve just never been that giving! And especially when you know they don´t have a lot to give, it makes it even more special.

Dominicans are always inviting you into their home to sit and chat, or just relax. The pace of life is so much more laid back, I´ve been so uptight for so long that I´m still getting used to it, but when I can settle down enough its great to just sit in a plastic chair in front of the house and watch the people go by. Juice or fresh fruit is offered and you realize how cool and comfortable it can be to sit in the shade and feel the gentle sea breeze.

Everyone is ready to help you at a moment's notice. When I needed help with my diagnostic project, there were youth and adults ready to drop what they were doing and help me, just like that. Reylandi, the girl who gave me the bracelet and one of my closest friends here, is always willing to help, whether I ask for help or not. She helped me with interviews, and even with shopping for more stylish clothes at bargain prices. Last week I had to give two educational presentations at the school for National Youth Day. The first one went horrible as I couldn't control the class or keep their attention. You know its bad when a teacher has to step in and say, "Alright everybody, you're going to listen and have fun and learn something or you can leave". I was desperate and asked Reylandi to help with the second one, and before I could even get to the question mark she had said yes. "Why would I mind helping you with an unruly, uncontrolable class of teenagers?" She's amazing, really.

And really anybody on the street is available to serve. When Jenny, the woman I live with, needs to buy something but it isn't convenient to the house, she just flags down someone going by on a motorcycle and asks them to run the errand for her. They do it gladly, no eyerolling, no annoyed heavy breathing as I would expect, just acceptance and compliance. A "thank you" is not needed, it is implied.

Well, those are just a few stories to keep you up to speed. I've just signed a contract to rent a house! I'll move out at the end of this month. I can't wait to live on my own!

Yours truly,
Joan

Hay, Dios Mio!!!

So, my first Christmas away from home was extraordinarily boring and uneventful. I expected something out of them, ANYTHING, since they´re really religious and seemed to be preparing for Christmas, but the day was just like any other day, it was strange. It made things kind of lonely, but I guess that was to be expected. I did initiate a sing-a-long on Christmas Eve by handing my guitar to someone who knows how to play, so we sat in front of the house and played some latin-sounding tunes (well, I listened). As you can see, we were hanging out with David Ortiz (left). In his down time he hangs out in my town, withOUT the bling:

It turns out that the bigger day to celebrate is Three Kings day (Saturday, Jan. 6th). This is the day that people give the children cheap gifts which usually break the next day. Perhaps what is more fun than the gift itself is smashing it into a million pieces once it breaks. I went to the Catholic church for this holiday where they gave free gifts to kids. It was crazy once they came out with the box of toys, I'm surprised that no one was trampled to death. See the picture below, the poor woman with the box was trying desperately just to stay on her feet as kids and parents alike were just short of throwing punches to get the next gift.

Jose Miguel was a little disappointed in the Salem, MA t-shirt I gave him with the black cat on it, though I assured him it would fit perfectly in a few years.

New Years Eve was fun, my friend Michael came up to my site and we had a fun and relaxing time. Michael was one of the trainees in my site before me, so he already had friends in my community.

Random thoughts:

There are some English phrases and expressions which are so engrained in me that I can´t help but say them, or I feel I don´t have an equivalent Spanish translation for it so I just use English. “Oh my God” is one I say so often that it comes out unconciously. I didn´t realize how much I had been saying it here until Jose Miguel recently picked up the phrase, and I find it hysterical ever time he says it. Other English expressions I use are, “wow”, “oops”, “ouch”, and “cool”. For “cool”, there is a Spanish translation, “che´vere”, but people think its funny or weird when I say it so I don´t use it often. I actually caught Jose Miguel on video saying “Oh my God”, watch, its so funny. Its dark but the audio is what matters. I had just been spinning him around endlessly or playing some other older sister/younger brother torture/fun game:



It didn´t take long before everyone in town knew my name. I´m trying my best to remember other peoples´ names too, I even have a notebook where I write down names of people with a detail or two about that person to help me remember, but its hard to know everyone in a town when I´ve only been here six weeks or so. Lately when I walk down the street I encounter people who´s faces I don´t even recognize greeting me with a, “Hello Juana!”. Somehow they all know that I like to go for walks too, a concept which they don´t entirely understand. Just the other day I walked by a woman (a stranger to me) who said, “Juana, out for a walk (paseo)?” No, actually I am working. That´s another thing now, they all think that when I am out I am going for a walk, they don´t know that I´m actually doing work here. They´ll get it eventually.

Perhaps the most invasive of these people who know me who I don´t know are the children. They all learned my name super fast, with an excellerated learning rate because there is a song that uses the name Juana and has a nice, catchy rhyme. They have sung this song all day and all evening, every day since I have arrived. I don´t even need to be at the house (or for them to know I am in the house because I am hiding from them), to hear them singing the song, or just calling out my name in general. I don´t need to do anything or even pay them any attention, they are just fascinated with me I guess.

Anyway, at first I pretended to like the song because I thought that might make it go away faster, but I was terribly mistaken. It only encouraged them, and I´ve learned that children do not tire of the same joke over and over and over and over again. I managed to get some kids singing the Juana song on video too to show you how obnoxious it can be (note, only about two of the kids actually know the words). The words go something like this, “Juana, Juana, peel me a banana, and if you don´t want to peel the banana....” then something about my sister. It sounds a little crude I know, but as I mentioned in earlier blogs kids have no filter for that stuff. Here´s the video:

In the past couple of weeks the song has started dying out as I stopped encouraging it and asked them to sing something else. I´ve slowly but surely been learning how to live with these people to make life more livable here. Things are going well though, I´m busy with my first project, a diagnostic of the community, and am feeling productive. I like the interviewing aspect - its fun and I get to meet a lot of people. Its been raining here a lot lately, which I actually really like because it keeps things cool and keeps people out of the streets and therefore keeps the noise level down! Nights are cool and comfortable and I thoroughly enjoy wearing my long sleeves. I fear the days not far from now when the intense heat will return with no visible end in site! Until then, I´ll just enjoy things day by day.

Joan