Telephone Number and PICTURES!

Hey guys! The Peace Corps just gave me a cell phone for my time in the Dominican Republic. If you buy a calling card, you can definitely call (or text) me anytime.

The number is: 1-809-723-9939.

And finally I have put pictures up online. It's an extremely slow process in a country where high-speed internet is not very readily available, so be patient with me.

The web address is: http://picasaweb.google.com/LRams728

And the next stage begins...

So much has happened in these past 2 weeks, so here is the latest Peace Corps news.

All of the youth volunteers left Constanza on Saturday, October 18. We had all really bonded with that community so it was a very sad day. While in Constanza, I met my best friend in the country thus far: a 10 year old boy named Cley. Cley was my dominoes partner everyday for 2 weeks. He made me a beaded bracelet, accompanied me to church, carried anything even slightly heavy for me, and gave me a picture of his graduation from 3rd grade. It was so adorable. And so it was especially hard to leave him. On Saturday, he just sat with me and cried for an hour while our luggage was being loaded into the bus. Even his mom kept joking with me that I would need a larger suitcase to bring Cley and dominoes back with me to Santo Domingo.

And now I'm back in Santo Domingo for our swearing-in ceremony tomorrow. Apparently this is a huge deal with both US and Dominican Republic government officials, all of our host families, and the other volunteers that are currently serving in the country. Out of our group of 50, we have unfortunately had 6 people leave: 1 for medical reasons, and 5 chose to leave. Three of those were youth volunteers, so it's been a tough three months. But hopefully the rest of us are here for the full two years. On Thursday, all of us new volunteers are headed to a pool party at the US ambassador's private home! Not too many people can say they swam at both the embassy and the ambassador's house.

And then on Saturday I am headed to Baoba for good. I went and visited my site for 5 days and I am so extremely excited to begin. Baoba is gorgeous. It's a very rural, campo with just 4 dirt roads in the entire town. It's surrounded by green valleys and cow farms, and it's just so weird to see palm trees in the middle of these pastures. There's both a high school and an elementary school in the town, which is rare, and a great resource so the children in the town don't have to travel far to go to school. And there are two basketball courts, two baseball fields, and multiple Catholic churches. Also it is just a twenty minute walk from the beach! And actually it's not just the ocean- there is a river that runs into the ocean, which is so gorgeous.

The people in Baoba seem so friendly and ready to take me on as one of their own. I've made speeches in all of the classrooms and in three church services telling them who I am and what I'm going to do, and everyone tells me that they are going to take good care of me. There are also a lot of strong women in my site, which makes me so proud. These girls (ages 17-25) aren't married and don't have kids and they keep telling me that they're going to wait until after they study and start their careers before they start their families. Also the people in Baoba want so much from me, I'm definitely going to be busy. I'm supposed to teach English (since Baoba is a beach town, close to resorts, it would be beneficial for their tourism jobs if they knew English), start a sala de tarea (an after-school homework/tutoring program), create neighborhood watch groups, a club for women, and start basketball, baseball, and volleyball teams for both boys and girls.

Also, just so you guys know there is no internet in Baoba. Hopefully I'll be able to travel to the closest large city once a week to use it, but I'm not sure. But please continue sending me mail, emails and comments on my blog! It can get lonely here, and I imagine it will only get worse once I leave all of these Americans. I really do appreciate all of the encouragement and loving words, even if I can't find the time to reply back immediately.

La Noche del Cine

Below is the recap from my journal about last night's fundraiser; Please feel free to learn from the chaotic event that occurred:

OK, So we had our big fundraiser tonight for my pastoral juvenile group. And it was seriously a disaster. We began cooking popcorn at 4:15. In total we cooked 5 lbs, or 250 small bags worth. Angelo came over to help us out right at 4:30, and about 4 more boys came over 15 minutes later. At 5:30, Rachele, Angelo and I go to the church where we’re going to have the fundraiser, while the rest of the boys and Trenita and Regina stay to continue cooking the popcorn. We set up chairs, find extension cords, and set up where the projector is going to go, so everything was looking great. This was their project, and they were actually participating and helping set everything up. Yay!

Then the drama begins. Angelo tells us that the projector is coming at 6:45. The movie is supposed to start at 7. We were expecting plenty of time to figure out how to set up the projector, but now that time is very minute. Our fellow volunteers arrive first, at 7 on the dot, looking very American and wondering why we aren’t ready to begin. The projector has yet to arrive. When the projector comes – AT 8 P.M. – the room is full of chatty, energetic preteens and teenagers.

Once the projector comes, you would think that all of our problems would be solved, and we just be an hour behind schedule. Our problems are not solved. These kids are here for social hour. They paid their 20 pesos and now want to just hang out with friends and eat popcorn and drink juice. There was absolutely no way to hear any of the movie over their incessant chattering, and nothing would make them shut up. I do not know how many times I told someone “Sientate y Callete, (sit down and shut your mouth).”

After we passed out all of the popcorn and juice, the Americans slowly began trickling out. They were only there to support us, and I do not blame them at all for leaving that chaotic zone. Around 9, everyone left. I felt extremely embarrassed to be a part of this failure, frustrated at our pastoral juvenile group for not being more put together, and just annoyed at small children in general. And I felt that we should have given some of the money back to whoever bought a ticket.

I do not really blame our pastoral juvenile group. They made the arrangements with the projector and thought it would arrive on time. That was out of our control, as were the annoying children. There was nothing we could do about those factors. And the pastoral juvenile group was extremely gracious of our support, and I think maybe a little embarrassed that we were there to witness it. It was utter chaos.

Weekly Schedule

I just realized that you guys probably have no idea what I am actually doing here. So here is this past week's schedule:

Sunday

• 8 a.m.: Meet with my pastoral juvenile group to plant trees. This was actually an amazing project. Thirty-five kids showed up, which was about 30 more than I expected. And were able to plant about 200 seedlings.
• 5 p.m.: Meet with my pastoral juvenile group to plan our big fundraiser
  

Monday

• 8:30 a.m.-noon: Training seminar on family problems and how to resolve them
• 12 p.m.: Lunch
• 2 -4 p.m.: Give a presentation on sexual health (in Spanish, of course) to about 40 community members.
  
• 8-9:30: Go to a religious service conducted by my pastoral juvenile group

Tuesday

• 8:30 a.m.-noon: Training seminar on leadership skills and conflict resolution
• 12 p.m.: Lunch
• 2-5 p.m.: Spanish class
• 5-7 p.m.: Health seminar
  
• FREE TIME!: I played dominoes with about 5 boys until 11 p.m.

Wednesday

• 8:30 a.m.-noon: Health seminar on sexually transmitted infections
  
• 12 p.m.: Lunch
• 2-5 p.m.: Spanish class, where we watched the movie Voces Inocentes about the civil war in Ecuador
• FREE TIME!: Played dominoes with the same boys from 8 p.m. to midnight

Thursday

• 9 a.m.-noon: Visit a public school and sit in on two classes. One of the classes was first grade, and there was one teacher with 46 students. Needless to say, it was chaos. The other class was second grade, and the teacher had a lot more control over those students.
• 12 p.m.: Lunch
• 2-5 p.m.: Spanish class
• FREE TIME!: Played dominoes with the same boys from 8 to 11:30 p.m.

Friday

• 8:30 a.m.-noon: Training seminar on art therapy, and how art benefits both children and adults
• 12 p.m.: Lunch
• 2-5 p.m.: Spanish class
• 7:30-10:30 p.m.: All of the youth volunteers and trainers went to eat pizza. The most popular pizza topping here is corn, and it is delicious!

Saturday

• 7:30 a.m.: Traveled to the mountains to deliver clothes and food to a poorer community

Sunday

• 8:30 a.m.: All of the youth volunteers will go to Aguas Blancas, to relax and swim in an icy cold river
• 4:30 p.m.: Begin preparing for the pastoral juvenile's fundraiser
• 7 p.m.: La noche de Cine begins- We're projecting a movie (although the exact movie has yet to be decided by the group) and charging 20 pesos for entrance, a bag of popcorn and a glass of juice. The money raised goes to the group so they can buy new instruments (guitars and drums) for their religious services.
  

Vamos a la playa!

Here it is...the news you have all been waiting for...

For the next two years (starting November 1), I am going to be living in a small coastal town called Baoba. It´s a rural campo on the northeastern coast of the island. In case you can't find it on the map, the closest beach is called La Entrada, and the closest large(r) city is called Cabrera. I am so extremely excited about this because there were only 3 beach sites, and I got one of them! A youth volunteer who has been in country for about 1 year is living about 20 minutes away, and another youth volunteer from my group is going to live about 30 minutes away.

Instead of working with a formal government-based organization, I´m going to be working with the youth group in the town. The pros of this are that I will have a lot of flexibility and will be able to implement a variety of projects that I want to, without conforming to the rules and regulations of a formal organization. However, the cons are that the group will probably be unorganized and lacking structure. A large part of my job will be to work with sports teams in Baoba because there are some sports facilities in the town, and I will also work on building leadership skills with the older youth in the town.

Because I am in a beach town and close to many resorts, I expect lots of visitors! Come see me!