1 Year

I have officially been in the Dominican Republic for a year. I can think of no other year that has brought as many changes in my world as this one.

I have: moved to a developing country, learned Spanish (more or less), forgotten a good bit of English, had a dead rat in my wall, had cockroaches in my bed, taught the English I am rapidly forgetting, learned Dominican culture and politics (both are equally important if you want to work here), opened a working clinic, ridden in the back of a truck 3 hours each way on July 4^th to swim in a beautiful bay while singing patriotic songs the whole way with 20 people I didn’t know a year ago, jumped of 27 waterfalls, got a foot infection from those 27 waterfalls, gotten a dog to whom I am now apparently allergic, witnessed my only sister get married, had my mom move to somewhere about as remote (and harder to get to) than me, started an exercise group for the women in my community, laid down the foundations to start a library, computer center, and better cook stoves project, started a scholarship program for unemployed adults, helped secure an ambulance for the area, ridden out 4 hurricanes and countless road destroying rain storms, ridden out 5 transportation strikes, had the Michael Jackson skin disease (vitiligo), had about 10 hot showers (not including Cassie’s wedding where I took more than my fair share), encountered 5 working toilets, had about 4 days of full electricity, learned just how long certain foods last without refrigeration, killed a scorpion trapped in my friends mosquito net, received a TON of love and support (and phone calls, packages and letters!) from my friends and family back home and discovered that this really is the place I should be and what I should be doing. This was reiterated by one of my project partners when he asked me if recently I really had to go in a year and couldn’t I stay for at least two more years? (don’t worry, that’s not going to happen.)

There are more things than that, but those were the “biggies”. I know this next year will be more successful (at least that’s the case with most volunteers, after the first year of adjustments and gaining community knowledge; the second year is easier to work). Projects I have planned for next year and two months (training is not a part of service, so while I’ve been in country one year, I have a year and two months of service left) are the library, computer center, stove project, compost project, possible coffee pulp fuel project, medical mission (Feb 2-4) and continued hospital work, and expanding the scholarship program to help ambitious unemployed youth gain capital (through grants or small, low-interest loans) to start businesses with my guidance. I will continue to give English and exercise classes, and when tourist season starts up, work on the eco-tourism project to see if we can’t actually make some money on it this year.

I am, of course, always open to: visitors, packages, letters, phone calls, text messages, e-mails, and smoke signals. And, being as the internet and mail services aren’t that great here, smoke signals might be your best bet; I’ll be looking out for them.

Sadie's Pics

The New Sadie

I got a dog. A family from the embassy was leaving the country and didn’t want to bring their three year old Shar Pei, unfortunately named Sadie (unfortunate because my dog from the States that died while I was here was named Sadie and unfortunate because Dominicans have a hard time pronouncing Sadie even though both the “Sa” and the “die” sounds occur frequently in Spanish). I decided to take her because she was already spayed and had her shots and came with all the stuff ready to go. One of the reasons I was hesitant to get a dog was because those things are incredibly inconvenient if you live where I do and very expensive (remember, I’m a volunteer, and while I have enough money for myself, it doesn’t extend to cover an operation for a dog.) I also don’t have time to train a hyper puppy, so an already trained, calm dog was perfect. The family decided they could bring to dog to San Cristóbal as there isn’t a viable transportation option for dogs between there and the capital. I picked up the dog in San Cristóbal along with all her toys, necessities, and a 50 lb. bag of dog food. He had never been to San Cristóbal before so I wasn’t about to have him take that stuff to the bus stop (traffic nightmare), so I had my friend, Chulin, help me carry the things from the park to the bus stop (and when I say “help me” he carried it all and I walked the dog).

We get to the bus stop and I decide it would be a disaster to try and take her inside one of the crammed buses and better to wait for one of the trucks and ride with her in the back of the truck (this would be a 6 hour wait). Chulin (knowing he is my best friend here) decided he would wait with me. Thank God he did. Apparently, Dominicans are terrified of dogs. She has a wrinkly face and so they automatically think she is a Pitbull. Chulin would explain to everyone who chose to walk on the street instead of the sidewalk where we were standing that she wouldn’t bite them and she’s on a leash, but it didn’t matter. The funny thing is, I have never met a calmer dog. She doesn’t bark, bite, howl, whine, and she hardly even sniffs people or animals. She’s perfect for here because people don’t know how to act around pet dogs that aren’t aggressive (most people have dogs her size for dog fights or to protect their house from thieves), so I’m having to train everyone that they shouldn’t throw rocks at her or hit her. All of the kids near my house love to come because they can pet her, and for a lot of them that’s the first time they’ve been able to pet a dog. This dog will never want for attention and as I’m writing this she’s on her third walk of the day (none of which were by me.) While having her will be more work, I think changing some people’s opinions of how dogs can be if they are raised correctly will be worth it.

The reason I haven’t taken her for a walk yet is because I got an infection in a cut on my foot from the 27 Waterfalls. It’s a LOT better than it was but I still cannot wear tennis shoes and walking in flip flops here just fills the cut with dirt and sand. I think it should be completely fixed in a week or so and then I will start trying to burn off the 15 lbs. I’ve gained since coming here.

As for projects, things are in the planning stage right now, which means a lot of waiting and not a lot of doing. The hospital’s ambulance is an actual real ambulance, which is good, but it’s having trouble driving around on the streets because it’s so big and doesn’t have enough power to get up some of the horrible mountain roads. We’ll see what ends up happening. They might just switch it to a hollowed out mini-van, which was the plan in the first place before the senator got involved (we don’t really need sirens as it is not Dominican custom to yield to them anyway). The good news is that the idea of having better health care is catching on and the public health committee in my town is seeing how harassing the government relentlessly is starting to get stuff done. Now that we have more equipment (again, I cannot thank Mom and Grandma enough), the stuff left to be done is fine-tuning (you know, like having a sufficient supply of gloves), so now this committee feels more empowered to complain to the government and get what they deserve. It’s a different kind of sustainability, but sustainability none the less. I hope they can keep it up when I’m gone.

I found different stoves that cost about half as much, so I’m much more excited about this project. I now have to find a time to go up north where the stoves are being built to see how they are and what the building plans look like. Then, I can talk to people and get the list narrowed down (which, even though I can now help twice as many people, will still be a huge pain) and submit a grant request.

The scholarship program for unemployed adults is going well, but it kind of seems like some of the women don’t understand that the purpose of technical training is to then get work and make money. A couple of them live so far away from anything and have so much work to do in the house, that work outside of the house is basically impossible. I feel like this project will greatly benefit about 4 of the 6 that are receiving scholarships, but it sucks that it might be wasted on 2 of them.

The municipal government and I are going to start a library project. The old library was destroyed in Hurricane Noel, and while the building was partially restored, it is now being used as a house for a family whose house was destroyed by the same storm. The mayor built a HUGE new building for their offices (as their building was destroyed as well) and the third floor will be used as a multi-purpose room/library. My job will be getting books (in Spanish) or money to buy books to stock the library. There are a couple resources that Peace Corps has for library projects, but a lot of them are for the construction of the building, less for the buying of books, so if any of you know of organizations that donate used books (in Spanish) or work with childhood education, things of that nature, let me know. The ultimate goal, after the library is open, is to have a homework room and reading program. I would really like to have a program such as “Book-It” in America (clearly the prize will not be Pizza Hut gift certificates), but a similar idea, so we are putting together a “culture committee” with representatives from the Teacher’s Union, Mayor’s Office, and University Students Group to assist with these ideas. I am really excited about this project. It will help everyone in the community and hopefully help some of these students catch up to their peers in other parts of the country and world.