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