Capital to Campo

(from, Domingo 5/23/10...Viernes 5/28/10...Sabado 5/29/10)

Last week was my final week in Pantoja. On my last night with my host family, we had a mini-fiesta and exchanged going-away gifts and photos. It was pretty sad to leave them, but since I’ve been here in Mao, the family has called a few times to check in with me which has been nice. Hopefully I’ll visit for their graduations in August when we return to the capital for 3 month in-service training (IST). These are some of the photos from our last night.

Obama!

Maikel, Mayelin, Me, Miki

So I don’t have a lot of Internet access at my site - by which I mean there’s none at all. Even though it’s a large city (nearly 70,000 people), I’m outside of the town and see more cows and goats in my barrio than cars, motos or even pavement itself for that matter. There are all dirt roads here, and no matter what, my toes rarely feel as dust-free as I would like. Anyway, I haven’t found an internet cafe yet (que triste), and I think this computer is likely the only one in my barrio. I plan to upload this at some unknown point in the future. So if you’re reading this now, gracias a Dios, I found internet somewhere. The lack of online communication aside, things are great, and I really like this campo. I’m really happy with how Peace Corps life is turning out. Hopefully everyone else is too.

The neighbors here are all nice, welcoming, and there’s already a group of kids I haven’t met yet that somehow know my name. I smile and wave whenever I hear “Eeemmmma” even though I usually don’t know who I’m greeting. I’ve made friends with some of the colmado guys when I go to buy calling cards and chocolate. And I’ve seen about a half-dozen stray dogs that I would strongly consider adopting in 3 months. A little about the weather - it is a LOT cooler here in the north than in the capital. It has been raining a lot lately - just about everyday - and its awesome. The best place to be in the rain is under a metal roof, because its so loud that it sounds like the world is falling apart a little. I love it. And the nights here sound like all evenings in this country, DR music, and the shuffling of dominoes. The neighborhood itself is really picturesque in my opinion, a lot of brightly-painted wooden and cement homes, wide views of the sky, and red sunsets. ...Hint to friends - visit.

In my first week here, I’ve been going to the school everyday, and just meeting as many people in the community as I can. Essentially, that means attending everything that anyone invites me to... Dia de las Madres parties, neighborhood meetings and prayer groups, masses, a lot of dominoes games, and meeting all of the relatives and friends that come in and out of my host family’s house. When I’m not being the only American at social gatherings or trying to remember peoples’ names, I attempt to introduce myself to the community in other ways... running with my host brother in the barrio, saying “Buenas!” constantly or just smiling at everyone I see.

The purpose of these next three months is to do a community diagnostic and then present it at the beginning of August at IST. The diagnostic is a way to meet the communities that we’ll be living in for the next two years, and through a lot of observations, interviews and surveys, we’ll find what the community wants and where a volunteer can work within that. So far, everyone at my school has been helpful with getting me started with ideas for topics and questions to ask about. I’ve made all my surveys and interview questions, mostly all about education and informatica, and based on input from everyone’s ideas, have tailored the questions and added more specifics about Mao. I’ve started a few interviews this week, and my goal is to interview as many different people (families, youth, community leaders, teachers, etc.) as possible...we’ll see how that goes!

Sunrise before Mass

My host brother, serving at Mass

Campo View

Sunset after a storm

Also...Happy Early Birthday, Cam!! :o)

xo,

Emma

Swearing-In, Standing-fast

(from Domingo, 5/16/10)

We’re officially Peace Corps volunteers! Our Swearing-In was last Wednesday, and everyone looked so nice. It was a beautiful day, and marked one of the last times that the 39 of us will be at Entrena all together before we start service. Also, the staff told us that we are the only PCDR group so far to have gone through all of training without having anyone move back to the States. Pretty awesome, but then again, so is the group. Congrats, friends! :-)

On Thursday we had the All Volunteer Conference and later that night a Peace Corps Prom! Now it is the weekend, and we’re on standfast for elections. We can’t leave, or do anything too exciting and have been told to keep a “low profile.” Entrena has painted pictures of possible post-election gun shots, violence, and loud, noisy crowds in the calles, but so far this has been the quietest weekend yet in my barrio. There are no political desfiles, or music, and hardly anyone is even around at all. I can hear the distant Aventura bachata at a colmado up the street, and at times, American music (songs in English, what?). Overall, a very tranquillo day that has allotted me ample time to read, find out what I’m missing in the news, run, email, descansar (rest), hang with my host family and develop only a mild case of cabin fever. All in all - no complaints.

This week our ICT group will be staying in the capital for an extra week for In-Service Literacy Training. Which means I’ll have an extra week with friends before moving back to Mao. I think everyone is pretty pumped about getting out and finally starting their service, and I am too, but it is nice to have these last few days together before we depart. Training has been awesome, and our first weekend as volunteers was memorable - I will miss everyone.

Enjoy the photos!

Mayelin, my host sister

New Volunteers (Jenn’s Photo!)

All 39 New Volunteers!

Peace Corps Prom (Jenn’s photo, again!)

Miss you all at home!

xo,

Emma

A Dollar a Day

(from Domingo 5/16/10)

...Or about 35 pesos, was our daily payment as Peace Corps Trainees. And perhaps it goes without saying that my new volunteer income would never support my old lifestyle, but just for fun - let’s try it out. Point in case: my typical morning commute into the city for work back home.

First off, even if $3.15 chai lattes existed here, it would take me just over 3 days of volunteer pay (about $110 RD) to buy just one. Also on my new budget, to afford to park for one day at an MBTA lot, it would take me nearly a week ($195.50 RD) of saving my pesos. And a single ride on the T to my stop would only cost me one and a half day’s pay (that’s $62 RD)... At this point in the scenario, it’s 8:00 am, I’ve arrived at work, and I’ve already spent nearly 370 pesos - over 10x my daily 35 Peace Corps peso allowance...(this was a lot of math), and I didn’t even factor in the price of gas.

So, living off a dollar a day doesn’t really work in the States, and to be honest I don’t think it works so well anywhere else either. But part of being here is learning to be creative, so here’s a mini-list of what one can buy here for 35 pesos or less:

Macita (awesome tasting cookie/bread thing at any colmado) - 5 pesos

Guineo (banana) - 5 pesos

1 hour’s time at an internet cafe - 25 pesos

Tiny chocolates - 1 peso each

Carro publico ride from my house to training center (Santo Domingo) - 20 pesos

Gua-gua ride from my barrio into capital - 25 pesos

Ice cream (on a stick) - 15 pesos

Moto ride - 15 pesos

Empanada - 25 pesos

Developing 1 photo - 20 pesos

Hair gel - 25 pesos (Also, did you know that hair spray does not exist here?).

Mini ice creams - 25 pesos

I guess my priorities are pretty plain...snacks. :-) My sister will not be surprised.

Clearly nothing on that list is a necessity, and most of the time I just save my money anyway. I used to consider myself pretty frugal, but here I’m on a whole new level of cheap. I talk myself out of buying most things, (except food, apparently). I avoid taking carros or gua-guas unless its too far to walk. I will go out of the way to colmados and internet cafes that have the lower prices...etc. It’s worth mentioning too that for the most part, locals do not overcharge. It’s a Dominican value to be honest, and cheaters and thieves are really, really disliked here. Of course, I’m sure being a white foreigner who speaks less than perfect Spanish, I have been unknowingly ripped off here and there - especially in taxi rides.

This post is not meant to be a complaint - moreso just my new perspective on attempting to make 35 pesos last as long as possible. It is certainly not a lot of money, but I’d like to think that I’m learning to stretch a dollar pretty far in this country.

Smiley Pesos :-)

xo,

Emma

Mucho gusto, Mao.

(from Viernes, 5/7/10)

I am here on my site visit in Mao! And so far, Mao = Wows. (ha!) But really, things are great. I’ve been here since Tuesday afternoon. Two employees from the school met me on Project Partner Day and we drove the 3-4 hours from Santo Domingo to Mao. Some of the drive was familiar from the last time I visited the north - passing by La Vega and driving through Santiago. Along the way, Juan and Ruby pointed out all of the fruits and vegetables growing on the sides of the road in the fields. They told me about Mao’s crops, and Mao has a lot - bananas, rice, platanos, yucca... more I can’t remember. As you drive into Mao there are large banana groves on either side of the road. I’d never seen so many at once, so it was pretty cool.

Juan's Rice Field

Right away we went to the school, called IDENE (Instituto De Ensenanza de Ninos Especiales) where I met my project partners, host family, and teachers from the school at a welcome party. The project partners and teachers are great - friendly, and very welcoming. They seem enthusiastic about helping me get started with projects and they’ve had Peace Corps volunteers before. The school is so cute and I think working with the students will be a lot of fun. There are more teachers and students than I originally thought - about 20 faculty and teachers, and 40-50 students with 5 classrooms. The students are separated into classes by age, and all students attend for different special needs reasons including learning and behavioral disabilities. Many work with a speech and language instructor, too. The youngest student is 3 and the older students are around 18.

Instituto De Ensenanza de Ninos Especiales

The school itself is only a year old, and I guess before the new construction, the school was run for 10 years out of a home in Mao. The school was built by Banelino, a local fair-trade banana company that’s responsible for a lot of community aid in Mao. The company also provided the new computers in Mao’s informatica lab. So from what I can understand, Banelino and IDENE work closely together. Today (Friday) everyone from the school went to an all day course at Banelino about the environment. And it was awesome - honestly not what I expected my first meeting here to be at all. In training they’ve told to expect meetings to start late and that not everyone will show up or participate. I think Mao will be different. All of us attendees were there an hour early, the presentation started on time, and everyone was enthusiastic throughout the 7-hour course. Furthermore, the event was about the DR’s problems with trash and what can be done to remedy the issues. (I haven’t written on here too much about the trash system in this country, but basically it is not strictly enforced, and in some places there isn’t a system at all. There are hardly any trash cans around, people can (and some do) litter wherever they want, there are no fines or consequences for it. On some occasions, people just empty whatever trash they have from their homes out in a little gutter between the sidewalk and the street). So, it was wonderful to be in a room full of people talking about the importance of recycling. Thus far, things here are clean and on time in Mao - a good start in my opinion!

Some of the faculty and teachers from IDENE at the Banelino Presentation

As for Mao as a site - it is perfect. There are all kinds of little stores here, supermercados, parks, two sports complexes (tennis, basketball, soccer, baseball/softball), two hotels, a helados Bon (ice cream shop, very important!). Mao isn’t exactly the middle of nowhere that I was expecting to end up living in for my Peace Corps service. Nevertheless, even though Mao is a pretty big town, my barrio is in more of a rural, campo area - which I enjoy a lot so far. I’m able to walk to my school from my house, but am a bit removed from the downtown part. My barrio is a very scenic area though - mostly tranquillo and quiet, no political parades, hardly any cars or motos and lots of views of mountains, rivers and fields. And even though this is definitely the most rural barrio I’ve lived in yet, there’s constant water and electricity - which is absolutely amazing by DR standards. Very posh campo. :-)

Views around the barrio:

My host family is very sweet to me and they brought me around to all the neighbors during the visit. They have had a volunteer before, which is great because they already know a lot about Peace Corps. They ask me a lot about the States and my family back home. The house itself is really nice, and my room is bright and very white - I can tell that it was freshly painted recently. At their house, there are several different fruit trees in the garden (banana, papaya, mango, guava, tamarindo, and one or two others that I don’t know the English name for) and my dona makes all kinds of different jugos (juice drinks). We also have two blue birds, as well as a cute little black dog. And, just like my Pantoja host family, my don and dona laugh and tell me I am much too “jovencita” (young) and cannot run or go anywhere alone because it is too dangerous. So for safety, they send their ten-year-old grandson running with me. Thankfully, he is a really good sport about it. He listens to my iPod as we run around the neighborhood, and some days he even asks “Emma, when are we going to run today?” Most evenings the four of us sit outside, and my don and dona tell me that soon I’m going to meet an esposo and get married in the DR, at which point I remind them that I am “jovencita” and can’t be doing things like that. :-)

I am glad that the new family is so enthusiastic about having a volunteer, and I feel really lucky to have had awesome host families this whole time.

Moto Ride!

Running near the Barrio

In addition to visiting IDENE, getting to know my project partners, and spending time with the host family, I also had a tour of Mao. During the visit this week, we visited local organizations (fire stations, armory, English centers, the ayuntamiento or city hall, etc.) so that I could be introduced and start to get familiar with the area a bit... or at least not get completely lost when I return later this month. ;-) Part of this visit was also stopping by 7 of the schools here. We went to escuelas basicas (elementary schools), liceos (high schools) and colegios (private schools, here mostly run by nuns). Each time, Juan introduced me as a Peace Corps Volunteer, living and working in town for two years with IDENE, and here in Mao to help with Informatica. Unlike my new site at IDENE, most of the schools had struggling or nonexistent computer labs; for instance, 2 of the 7 schools had labs - only one of which contained functioning computers; none of the labs had internet. Even the biggest escuela basica in Mao, which has over 1,000 students, didn’t have computers. Up until this point, I’d only seen two liceos during my time in the DR, both of which had working labs. This was my first opportunity seeing so many schools at once without the technology and resources that I’ve always taken for granted. The visits were pretty eye-opening considering I’ve been used to computers always being easily accessible throughout elementary and high school. But, its just not a reality here to have working machines.

All in all, I’m happy with my site and the idea of living in Mao for two years. Knock on wood (literally did that), and “solo si Dios quiere” (only God-willing) of course, but I see good things and am anxious to start. The project partners are supportive, the school seems like a great environment, the host family is really nice, and this place is beautiful. Going into this, I just wanted everyone to like me, but things seem to be better than that and I feel really lucky to be here.

That’s about everything. This one was really long to read through I know, but I wanted to share Mao. And I just want to say thank you to YOU, friends and family for all the nice messages recently (on Facebook, gmail e-mails, care packages, Skype, letters, and here on the blog comments, too). I’m always thinking of you back home and your support is so thoughtful, and no te preocupes (don’t worry about me!) all is super bien here. :-)

Mao, "Ciudad de los Bellos Atardeceres" - City of the Beautiful Sunsets

...and yes, I'll work on getting a better photo of one!

Be well!

xo,

Emma

Site Placements!

(from Lunes 5/3/10)

Today is a very significant day. Not only is it our two month mark in the DR, but we also got our site assignments and cell phones today - two very long awaited additions to Peace Corps training! Tomorrow we’ll meet our project partners and then travel to our sites for a 5 day visit getting to know our new homes as best we can. Then we’ll return here to the capital for the Swearing-In ceremony, All Volunteers Conference, and then the Education Sector will have literacy training. Which essentially means I’ll get to live here with my Pantoja host family for an extra week + a few days, which is great because I’m not ready to give them up yet. :-)

So my site...I will be serving at a special needs school in Mao which is in the north of the country, to the southwest of Puerta Plata. (If you’re looking at my map above, Mao is located behind the letter “t”). It is a bigger pueblo/city and the school has about 30 students ranging in ages from 5-20. I don’t know too much more about the town itself other than what it said (in Spanish) in the Peace Corps site description. And since I haven’t had internet to Google “Mao” just yet, I’ll wait and post more about it after this weekend.

In other news, I showed my Peace Corps cell phone to my host family, gave them my new number, and my youngest host brother offered to put music on it for me. So now I have a good mix of 52 reggae, salsa, merengue and bachata (Aventura included, of course) songs.

More to come soon. Be well and thank you for reading!

My host family at a church fair last Sunday

At Entrena with my Spanish class

xo,

Emma