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!

September 11, 2008

The people here in the DR are incredibly hospitable and generous, and even more so here in the campo. When you visit a house you will be asked to sit, though it seems more of a command than an invitation and you will inevitably be served a coffee or juice at some point during your visit. I was out visiting families and community leaders today and I ended up drinking 6 glasses of fresh fruit juice, including cherry (cereza), lime (limon), melon (melon) and passion fruit (chinola) in addition to a coffee and a few oranges (naranjas) off the tree. I was in heaven!

Because we don’t go to the grocery store every time we have a craving for something like avocados or bananas, you gotta eat the oranges too when they’re ripe. So many days my extended family and I harvest a pile of them and sit for any hour peeling and eating until our lips hurt.

I spent the evening hours today in a small wooden house playing dominoes with my teenage brothers. The light had gone out just as the sun set and not long after a beautiful storm moved in, bringing thunder, lightning and a ton of water. With downpour loud on the tin roof the four of us played dominoes for hours by candlelight, teasing and laughing the entire time.

Various people in my community acknowledged today as a day to recognize for the United States. Dominicans have a strong connection with the United States, so many of their families are in New York and more are joining our society every day. I was proud, on the anniversary of a day we mourn, a day when many people realized that our foreign policy might need some improvement, to be an American who has chosen to engage in the cultural exchange with other countries. I read the book Three Cups of Tea since I’ve been here, a story of a man who gives his life to build schools in a part of the world where it seems that every obstacle is in his way. He finds in his travels that a cause of Anti-American terrorism from the Middle East is a lack of positive educational options. He ventures to believe then that building schools, rather than bombing entire countries of people, is the answer…hmm…what a concept.

I highly recommend reading it.

I am currently reading Truman, a huge biography of Harry S. Truman, Be Bold, a book about people who have chosen to start non profit organizations like Teach for America as their life’s work, Educating Esme, a hilarious journal of a wonderful person’s first year of teaching and Tropical Nature, a unique piece of writing describing the biology of the tropical forest ecosystem in a very accessible, interesting form.

The juice I made with the gorgeous cheeries pictures above. Of course they're no Michigan cheeries but they're alright anyway.

Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike

Welcome to Hurricane season in the Caribbean! It sounds a little scary and the red spinning spirals on the radar are unnerving but here on the ground, at least in most places, it just looks like a lot of rain.

However, as Hurricane Ike approached the north shore of the DR in the last couple days they set into play our emergency action plan, sending all 160 of us to consolidation points across the country.

I live high in the foothills of the mountains in the center of the country making my site one of the safest places during heavy rains and hurricanes, which is why when I packed my things to leave for lower land this morning my family was a tad puzzled. But you're safer here they said, rightfully so.

As I write this I am sitting in a hotel lounge with about 45 other volunteers and although it’s still not raining here we are prohibited from leaving the hotel. Better to be safe – with good food and air conditioning – than sorry. A few of us are even taking the opportunity to get some work done while we’re together, in between delicious meals, internet time, House, MD. marathons and games of dominoes of course!

The morning after we were cleared of Hurricane Gustav I went running. It’s so gorgeous here in the foothills the morning after rain because the sky is clear and you can see crisply into the distance in both directions; over the rolling green hills to the neighboring villages, the pines and the palm trees, and into the mountains. Everything was still wet at 6am and when I ran past the stand of pines not really noticing it, a breeze blew and the smell of pine stopped me mid run. I felt like I was in the Michigan forest and I had to look up to orient myself. I’m looking forward to being back in the campo after all of this rain fills the rivers and makes everything green.

Running Alone

August 30: When San the puppy began running with me months ago it was a huge hassle and I would pray, as I crept out of the house in the mornings at dawn, that he would still be sleeping just long enough for me to escape without him chasing. He was a jumper, too excited to run to contain himself. The back of my calves were always scratched and on some days he would tire himself out around the mid point and I would have to sacrifice my run to carry him up the hills back to the house. We tried strategies to stop him from going; sometimes I would yell at him to stay at the house and he’d wait until I got just out of sight to chase me. Sometimes the family would hold him, yelping frantically, until I was long gone…but he knew the route and as soon as they released him he was off like lightning, racing up behind me faster than you would believe dachshund mutt legs could go. But sometime in the last three months I unconsciously started to enjoy his company.

Today, for the first time in these months, I ran alone.

I originally thought that this entry would be a eulogy to my late running partner, San Gonzalez Ortega Hunt, but he is still alive. On Friday he was hit by something, probably a motorcycle, as I said he is still alive. We don’t run on the weekends and he’s sort of a vagabond anyway so when he didn’t come home I didn’t even notice. On Saturday morning my dad and I happened to be down at the local convenience store partaking in a cerveza for his birthday when we overheard the people taking about the little dog that runs with me every morning. The prognosis wasn’t good, they told me he was at a nearby house and that he was going to die. “I’m sorry for your friend,” my dad said to me in English. They were reluctant, and a little puzzled by my concern but took me on the motorcycle to see my friend when I asked.

He wasn’t using his back legs at all laying there in their yard but I scooped him up and brought him home not exactly sure what to do next. I suggested to my brother having him put to sleep if he was in pain and not improving but he replied, “You are not the boss.” This is a culture that relies heavily on God to make the decisions. The reply to many everyday questions is “Si Dios quiere” – if God wants it. It’s also not part of the culture here to care for animals like family, dogs are dogs. So without the support of anyone I had no idea what to do. I spent the weekend bathing him, trying to get him to eat and carrying him outside to pee, thankful he was still functioning well enough to wait until he was outside. During the remaining hours he just laid wherever I set him.

Though I imagine he will never be the same he has improved in the last week and a half. Now he walks around like a circus dog with his back legs in the air and yesterday he used his back legs very gingerly! Although he is not his happy jumping self, he is eating and wags his tail whenever I come around. The other volunteer who I work with suggested that I strap him to the front of me in a baby carrier to run in the mornings. I think this is a little extreme but we may fashion him some sort of scooter if I can find some wheels his size!

La Feria Ganadera

August 10: Our county fair housed a showcase of prize cows, a cotton candy machine, a popcorn machine, a plasma screen tv, a satellite dish and three ancient carnival rides. After scoping the array of delightfully well groomed cows - and I’m talking cows at least 2 or 3 times the size of the largest cow you have ever seen - like a large buffalo or something, my brothers and I got drinks and watched the X-games on ESPN in a little tent (in the middle of the campo on a subtropical island) …you never, never know what to expect here in the DR – never! After a while of motorcross, bmx and some fried foods it was getting dark outside and we were preparing to leave for home when my little brother turned to me, begging me to take him on la estrella (s-tray-ya) – the star.

La estrella was a medium sized ferris wheel, not nearly the size of some I had been on before, but just glancing at it you would swear it was taken right from Coney Island around the turn of the century…the last century…a hundred years ago. The paint was gone, along with its original motor and in its place was a makeshift machine moving the iron structure faster than I had ever seen one move. As the cars moved over the front side of the wheel they accelerated a bit and the people squealed. It did look like a lot of fun, and opportunities like this are incredibly rare where we live. The family looked at me waiting to see if I was brave enough to accompany the young boy on this adventure, which of course I was, I was actually really excited. But for some reason I shook my head. “I would really love to,” I said “but here? I don’t think so.” I felt even worse saying it this way because this is where he lives, not near Cedar Point or in the United States where there are regulations, lawsuits and security attached to things like this. But that’s what I said and with both us slightly disappointed, we left.

Less than a half hour our uncle stormed into the house, searching frantically to locate our cousin who went to bed early with a headache - a cable in the center of la estrella had snapped and the two sides of giant wheel, filled with people, moved in separate directions. Fortunately no one died but several people were severally injured, a young girl won’t walk again and I think Samuel learned a new lesson, thanking me.