Water

Ten years ago the people in my community were washing their clothes in the river. They have memories of the first time that their water came from the aqueduct pipe. I have many colleagues working in communities that are still planning and constructing systems to bring water to their houses a couple days a week. Running water changes the culture of a place, completely changes the way of life and the health of the people and the environment. Knowing these people as they are now, it is mind boggling for me to think of them moving their water completely by hand, washing and bathing in the rivers which we use now only for recreation and for the extraction of sand and river crab.

So if we don’t get our water from the river here where does it come from? Many residents of the US answer either ‘the city’ or ‘the well,’ as the people here in the Dominican campo say ‘the aqueduct.’ What magical places then, these cities, wells and aqueducts – constantly producing an infinite amount of drinkably, bathably, washably clean water, just turn on the faucet! But really, where does it come from? Is it possible to use it all up? Especially on a relatively small island surrounded entirely by salt water…

So I started an investigation, like an explorer searching for a lost city, or more appropriately a fountain of youth…a fountain of life, if you will.

I began with the aqueduct. I happen to work with the organization that manages it and, showing interest, one of the guys agreed to plan a day trip with me to where it all begins. Or so I thought. The day came, we packed lunch and headed South into the mountains. The road is unpaved and the closer we got to our destination the smaller and bumpier the beaten path became. The view from my house is a gorgeous but it gets even better as the mountains get higher and the road drops of hundreds of feet to the full flowing, blue Rio Bao. More than an hour later we reached the national park building where Maximo, a chubby elf of a man has the job of park guard. His main duty appears to entail eating and playing dominoes with himself. Hey, at least park guards are written into the budget.

The hike from here to ‘la obra de toma’ – the building of take is an hour. This is a small dam where they extract the water from the river which is bound for my house. En route of the semi strenuous hike in the mid day sun my collegeue shares with me that a fungus destroyed part of his nervous system in his head, he’s had three operations and he has asthma. I think to myself, ‘perhaps I should have come more prepared to this day hike…Lets see, in my backpack right now I have enough bananas, casave bread, water and pistachios (thanks mom and dad!) to sustain us for days, I have a long sleeved Patagonia baselayer – versatile enough for many emergency situations, a camera – should we need to document our final days, and a cell phone with no signal – should we find use to for the alarm, calculator or Pong-like game, Brick Attack.

I was extremely excited to reach the obra thinking, “Wow, to see where the water we use for everything really comes from!” I climbed on top of the giant cement box that filters out the sand to get a better look up at the river flowing into the iron grate bound for the pipes. From here I could see upstream to a series of small waterfalls flowing out of the forest…but wait…this isn’t the beginning…this is only where the aqueduct starts, not the water! Where does the water come from? “The aqueduct,” say the people who use the faucet. “The river,” say the people who run the aqueduct. But here the trail ends, what do the people who run the river say? I plan to find out.

the view from my house

HALLOWEEN!

I had been feeling a little disappointed about the lack of change in the seasons living here in a subtropical climate. As I am a lover of thick wool sweaters and anything made out of apples, autumn is my favorite season, especially in Michigan, and when I was informed by their Facebook profiles that a group of my friends was busy making delicious apple butter I became truly jealous. But it is getting cooler here in the mountains.

A few weeks ago, I woke up a little chilly and started using light blanket in addition to a top sheet on my bed. Also, initiating my environmental youth group, Brigada Verde, and planning the regional conference has kept me too busy to even notice what month it is.


Our Brigada Verde group had its first meeting a few weeks before Halloween and my muchachos were already ready to start planning the design of our new “poloches” – from the English words polo shirts, a term they use to describe polo and t shirts. The problem arose when they realized that we are brand new group and have no money to buy poloches. I suggested a fiesta to raise money - a Halloween fiesta – and they freaked out. Where I live everyone has family living in Nueva Yol – New York – and so they are familiar with the holiday but have never celebrated it. They were ecstatic about the idea. So we spent the next few weeks selling tickets and preparing.

There is an extremely few number of days of the year in this country where the sun does not shine in full force. But on the 30th of October in my campo it rained all night. We woke up on October 31st to a grey sky and a foggy mist in the valleys – perfect for Halloween! It was fairly cool the entire day, but the true miracles were that the sky never cleared up and at 8pm people from surrounding communities were lined up outside the door waiting to get in to our fiesta.

It was a great night, complete with a choreographed thriller routine and live tarantula. We had covered the venue completely with Spanish moss and it didn’t really matter if the electricity went out or not – which it always does – because only candle light led the partygoers from the bar to their tables to watch the spooky presentations.


My muchachos are phenomenal - they went out and caught a live tarantula before the party! We hung it where the people went to buy their drinks. The ghoul and I let it go at the end of the night.

Some of my ghouls waiting in their coffin for the people to walk in the door.

My mom sewed me a sleaved jacket out of material I found and I tied the remnants around my waist.

My brother had the winning costume with a wicked stake through his head, complete with strawberry flavored blood. I'd be a vampire too if it always tasted that good!

Don't ask me how they climb trees without branches... One of my muchachos in the pine tree throwing moss down for us to decorate.

The itsy bitsy spider

This is my smallest cousin here, we call her chi chi (chee chee). One day a while back she was upset and so I started singing the itsy bitsy spider, complete with hand motions. She totally loved it and from then on every time I see her she starts imitating the itsy bitsy spider crawling up the water spout with her little hands smashed into a bundle. I'm certain that by the time I leave she'll be singing it in English. I am a serious animal lover but this picture is so funny, and its the little things that keep you entertained and positive when you live in the campo.

One day I let my host dad use my computer for a presentation... his flash drive had a virus.

The virus ate my computer somehow... I don't even pretend to know how these things work.

My project partner fixed it... but I lost everything.

I have not had my computer to write while I am at home and post when I get near the Internet ...And that is why I have not posted to my blog.

The good news is I'm back in action and I have a bunch to write!

Expo Cibao!

The family that I live with has been amazing, supportive and has taken care of me more than I could ask for. Whenever he drops me off somewhere or I leave to go to the city my host dad asks me if I have enough money and when I’ll be back. One night I stayed with our extended family thinking that my parents knew I was there and my host mom stayed up half the night worrying herself to death about what happened to me…don’t ask me why she didn’t call me…but the point is she is great. I spend a lot of time with them but my cousins are actually closer to my age 16, 18 and 20 and my aunt is more like a mother to me, so they have adopted me into the family as well.
This weekend was the yearly expo at the fairgrounds in Santiago, the capital of the Cibao region of the country (the central valley) and so we planned a family trip, the six of us. A couple days before, our younger brother and mom got pink eye and so they had to stay behind for the trip...and so we were four, but we had a great time.

"Solidarity with vision of the future, Santiago"

At the fair we checked out exhibits of all kinds of businesses and products, from powdered milk to clean energy and I even found the booth of Foreign Policy the magazine in Spanish. We also checked out the cows on display, a merengue group, the art museum’s exhibit and store and got some ice cream before heading to a pueblo neighboring ours for their patronales celebration.

Most of the pictures are us with the cows and acting silly for the camera...as you can see.

Gordita

There is an analogy to describe the experience of learning a new culture. It says that each culture has its own colored glasses and each person in the culture is permanently seeing the world in that color. When you move into a new culture you can put on new glasses but it’s impossible to take off your own, just as it is impossible for you to forget your culture when you leave it. So if American culture is blue and Dominican is yellow, my world right now is green. It’s very difficult for us to understand other cultures without judging them through our blue glasses. Although I may try, I can never understand what its like to be Dominican. I can only ask questions, try to understand and imagine what it looks and feels like in yellow. One of the things that is nearly impossible to see in green is that telling someone they’re fat is not offensive. “Oh, estas mas gorda!” – Oh, You are fatter! the women say to me when they haven’t seen me in a while. Although most would like to be skinny and they know it’s healthier, when they tell you that your fatter it just means that your family is feeding you well, that you are happy and healthy. Although I was blessed with “good” genes, wonderful family support and have never had body imagine issues, this, the unbalanced diet, and the fact that I actually am fatter than when I left the states, is taking a serious toll on my self esteem. I keep telling myself that it’s not the end of the world, they mean it as a compliment and reminding myself I have been running during the week. It’s the only place where you can have so many people in love with you, always telling you that your eyes, skin and hair are perfect, and still have a body imagine complex.

San the Sun God

He looked so majestic sitting there in the sun I couldn't resist a picture. He ran with me today! Albeit not far, but he is improving. Maybe one day we'll be back to our old routine. He's taken to following me everywhere I go and sleeping under my bed since I saved him.

The Peace Corps Act (22 USC 2501 ET SEQ.)

Congressional Declaration of Purpose

“The Congress of the United States declares that it is the policy of the United States and the purpose of this Act to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower, particularly in meeting the basic needs of those living in the poorest areas of such countries, and to help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served and a better understanding of other peoples on the part of the American people.”

I'm working too!

September 8th: One of the great thing things about working in development as a Peace Corps volunteer is that we have the time and take the opportunity to get to know and integrate into our communities before and during our development work. We take into consideration what is right for the community and what they are going to want and be able to sustain after we leave. Working within the capacity of our communities with a two year limitation, the projects are typically small and the development is slow but it is more empowering for the communities than handouts. To give you all an update on my work and to hold myself accountable for it in the future, I have included here some of the things that I’m currently working on, project ideas, goals and dreams for my work and life here:
- Brigada Verde: A nationwide environmental youth movement to learn and teach their communities about environmental initiatives. I’m starting a group in my community, co-planning the regional conference and co-chairing the national committee.
- Reforestation: We are planning the construction of a nursery to grow trees for reforestation. I am working with the neighborhood association where I live to work on reforesting the rivers and educating the property owners about why it’s important. We also have a trash clean-up scheduled for the end of the month!
- Women’s groups: I would like to work with the women’s groups on nutrition, cooking and how to minimize waste by using organic stuff to make compost.
- English Classes: I’m teaching English three nights a week and compiling a manual on how to teach English using environmental themes.
- The Schools: I’m working with the science teacher on her environmental science lessons and activities. We want to start a garden at the school and I would like to help them write and institute a curriculum addendum on human impacts on the environment.
- Radio: Another volunteer and I are planning a monthly radio show where we answer questions on environmental topics.
- WMU: My alma mater now has a huge population of Dominican students on scholarship and I’d like to work with WMU and the Secretary of Education here to facilitate service learning projects for the Dominican students to come give back to their communities.
- Beer: Although I have no prior experience in brewing, I plan on starting a beer revolution by brewing and distributing the DR’s first beer darker than Bud Light. I have a dream of opening a brew pub. Send supplies! Email tips and recipes!