Intercambio de Matancitas

I am exhausted. Yesterday I had the overwhelming task of taking 18 kids (ages 12 - 22) to Matancitas, about an hour away from Baoba, for a huge Escojo Mi Vida event. Regina (the volunteer in Matancitas) and Laticia (the volunteer in Los Limones, about 2 hours away) and I had planned an all day conference for our Escojo groups. The plan started out with us three having about 40 kids, and then it grew to include 2 more Escojo groups, so there were about 70 kids total.

Unlike the regional Escojo conference in Jarabacoa (which had a 70 kid-12 volunteer ratio), it was up to us 5 volunteers to plan and pay for all of the activities. My group left Baoba around 8:15, as soon as church was over. I climbed in the back of the pickup truck with all 10 of the boys, while the 8 girls sat up front so that their hair wouldn't get messed up. We arrived in Matancitas at about 9:15, the last group to arrive.


At 9:30, the activities began. The Escojo group from Los Limones gave two charlas: one on how to use a condom and another on the consequences of pregnancy in adolescents. Two of my kids, Franklin and Melvito, were called up front to show that they learned how to successfully put on a condom (on a plantain).

Next, 10 of my kids acted in a 10-minute drama. In the drama, there were three couples. All three had sex, however only one couple used of condom. Thus, one couple ended up getting HIV and the other couple ended up pregnant. Moral of the drama: use condoms.

After the drama, the group from Salcedo gave a charla on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. The group from Matancitas acted in a dance/drama. And I concluded the educational activities with a Jeopardy-style game on all of the topics that they had previously learned.

Then the fun began. We had a talent show, which basically turned into a dance-off. My girls had spent the past week practicing a dance and came prepared with costumes (jean shirts, tank tops and neckties). After about 4 dances, we had to cut the talent show off because one of the girls (not in my group!) started stripping and waving her shirt in the air. She had on a sports bra, but we decided that wasn't really acceptable behavior at a conference that emphasizes healthy decision-making.
We then ate lunch, which was buffet style and included (50 pounds of) rice, chicken, pasta salad, spaghetti, and potato salad. We paid women in Matancitas to cook all of the food, and ended up spending $7000 pesos (about $200 US dollars) to feed all 80 people. We played a few games after lunch, then corralled everyone out to the beach. We tried to have structured activities on the beach, but it started raining so we just gave them the afternoon full of free time. I spent the time sitting in the rain watching my kids who were swimming to make sure they didn't drown. So by the time 5 p.m. rolled around, I was cold and tired and couldn't think in Spanish anymore, and that's when I knew it was our time to head home.

Overall the day was a huge success. I love taking my kids places because they are so well-behaved. They participated in all of the activities, they helped clean up after lunch, they listened to all of the charlas, and most importantly they listened and respected me. Not all of the volunteers can say that about their group, and I feel very lucky to have such a good group of kids in Baoba.

A Day in the Life of...

I’ve gotten a lot of emails from you recently about what I actually do on a day-to-day basis, so here is what I did on Monday, April 27, 2009

• 7:30 am: Wake up, take bucket bath really quick because there’s light! Am able to blow dry my hair, and already the day is off to a great start.

• 8 am: Brandy, my 7 year old neighbor shows up. I brew us a pot of coffee and we sit on the front porch and share my breakfast of pan y café (bread and coffee)

• 8:30 am: There are now 5 kids on my front porch playing card games. I ignore them and read my book, “The Canterbury Tales”

• 9:30 am: I force all of the kids to leave except for Brandy. It’s time for our tutoring session. Today we work on writing the alphabet and saying the correct letters.

• 10:15 am: Brandy leaves and Leo arrives. It’s time for his tutoring session, and we work on reading words with the “ch” sound.

• 10:30 am: The lights go out. No big deal, except now the water in my refrigerator won’t be as cold as I would like.

• 10:45 am: sweep and mop the house. The kids return immediately after the house is clean to color in my coloring books. My house now needs to be swept and mopped again.

• 11:30 am: time to eat! Take out the rice and guandules from the fridge. Mix that with a salad of lettuce, tomato, bacon bits (thanks mom!) and oil and vinegar, and it’s “a buen tiempo.”

• Noon: wash dishes immediately after eating so that the ants won’t swarm my kitchen

• 12:30 pm: Nancy, my 13-year-old neighbor, comes to visit and chat. We sit on the front porch and discuss why she didn’t go to school today (headache) as we eat honey straight from the honeycomb.

• 2 pm: It’s time to make the rounds. I walk down the street to visit Manolo and his family. I help him and his wife shell guandules for tomorrow’s lunch, and as a thank you they give me some to cook tomorrow.

• 2:50 pm: Rachele, another volunteer, calls me to plan out her next Escojo meeting. We decide that STDs and HIV/AIDS is a lot of information for one 1-hour lecture, but neither one of us wants to break up the information and teach an extra class. So we both decide to just cram it all into one hour. I’ll let you know how that goes.

• 3:30 pm: Walking home from Manolo’s, I see about 6 of my Escojo kids sitting outside. I go sit with them.

• 3:45 pm: Trenita, another volunteer, calls me. She has to give a lecture on conflict resolution at the next Escojo regional conference, and needs some real-life conflict scenarios. She decides to use two from my group (our little fundraising problem and my catty teenage girls who always arrive late to my meetings). It’s a good thing my Escojo group is very conflicted so that I could help her out so easily.

• 4 pm: I go play dominoes with the old people of the neighborhood. I lose.

• 5 pm: I go visit Mingo and his wife Alessandra. They sell cleaning and bath products, and I want to buy a bar of soap. But they don’t have anymore, and I’ll have to wait for the next shipment to come in.

• 5:30 pm: I go visit Sofia (Nancy’s mom) who just arrived from out of town.

• 6:15 pm: I go to the colmado to buy 1 pound of sugar (to make coffee tomorrow morning), and to refill my 50-gallon botellón of water. This costs 50 pesos (about 2 US dollars). Frank, the 13-year-old son of the colmado owner, mopeds the water over to my house. (I bet y’all didn’t know that I could turn moped into a verb).

• 6:45 pm: Dinner is peanut butter and crackers. Yum!

• :00 pm: The lights come back on! Shut the front door and hide out in my back bedroom so that I can actually get some work done. Get ready for my English graduation party tomorrow. Write the student’s names on their certificates, and write their final exam.

• 7:30 pm: Finished with work for my English class. Now start studying for Wednesday’s lecture on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.

• 8 pm: Try to de-clog my shower drain by pouring boiling water down it. This does not work.

• 8:10 pm: The lights go out. Listen to music and type this journal entry on my computer until the battery dies.

• 9 pm: Double check that the doors and windows are locked and that the gas tank is turned off. Go to bed, say my prayers, and try to sleep without a fan in this sweltering heat.

Peace Corps News

Wanna know the latest Peace Corps DR happenings?? Well, here they are:

• One of the volunteers was in a bad motorcycle accident. Lori, who had just finished her two years here and decided to extend her service for a few more months to finish up a project in Puerto Plata, was riding a motor with her boyfriend at night. They crashed into a dog that was in the middle of the street, and her helmet wasn't fastened well and flew off. She was conscious but not in stable condition (she was only speaking in Spanish) at a hospital in Santo Domingo. She stayed there for about a week until she was stable enough to medical evacuate her to a hospital in the U.S. Please keep her in your prayers.
• On a much lighter note, one of the volunteers who came here with me in August is already engaged to her Dominican boyfriend! They met in November when she first arrived to her site, and immediately started dating. Peace Corps is currently doing the required paperwork and background check on the guy, and if all goes well they will be married by August.
  
• I have already booked a flight back home December 15-January 5. Write those dates down because I want to see everyone in those three short weeks!!
  

Camp G.L.O.W.

Dear Friends and Family!

It’s our pleasure to be writing to you today. Imagine the Dominican
Republic, strengthened, empowered and succeeding in the hands of
powerful, young female leaders. Peace Corps Volunteers committed to
Camp GLOW, a world-wide Peace Corps initiative, are preparing this
year’s event. GLOW is short for 'Girls Leading Our World,' and here
in the DR, we call our event '¡Campamiento Estrellas de Hoy!" (Camp
Stars of Today). As volunteers involved in this year’s Camp GLOW
event, we’re planning talks, workshops, games, and bonding activities
for over 50 young Dominican women.

All this takes place during a weeklong camp where the girls have the
opportunity to hear and talk openly and honestly about life goals,
life planning, healthy sex and relationships and much more. From yoga
to HIV awareness, the camp will be life-affirming for all our
participants, and a much needed respite from social and economic
pressures. Many young women in the Dominican Republic have children
and are married or otherwise involved in a domestic partnership far
before age 18. Camp GLOW aims to introduce and reinforce their power
to make healthy choices.

The girls themselves raise funds to participate, and the PCV’s seek
corporate sponsorships, as well. Yet, it’s still the generous
contributions of our Stateside communities that make ends meet. Your
contribution will pay for lodging, food, materials, and convey to
these young ladies that the world cares about their well-being!
If you’re able, please consider sponsoring a camper by securely
donating money at the Peace Corps-sponsored link below and send this
email on to at one other person. Donations from $5 or more are warmly
welcomed one and all. If your auxiliery club is interested in making a
donation, we encourage you to contact your volunteer before using the
website.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-303

We would love to send donors Thank-You cards and a photo from camp in
appreciation of your generosity. If you would like to receive one,
please be sure to fill out all the contact information on the donation
web form. Thanks so much for taking the time to consider it!

Warm Regards,
Your Volunteer, the girls, and the whole Camp GLOW family

The Scavenger Hunt

Lily, the Peace Corps volunteer in La Capilla (about 30 minutes north of Baoba) has an Escojo group in her site as well. Lily came to the Dominican Republic the August before I arrived so her group has already graduated and they are now giving lectures to the community. My Escojo group went to her site to help with a parade and a presentation on March 8 for International Women’s Day, and this past Saturday her group came to Baoba to repay the visit. Her group gave an hour long presentation to my kids about discrimination and diversity, which helped me out because it’s one less theme that I need to teach my kids before they graduate. After the lecture and the snacks (crackers, salami, cheese and soda), we had a scavenger hunt, which was a huge success.

Let me explain about the scavenger hunt. We divided all of the kids (36 total) into 2 groups: one group went with me and the other with Lily. Each team had a list of things they either had to search for or actions that they had to do, and we had to take pictures of each activity. Each activity completed earned the group a specific amount of points, and the team with the most points won. Here are the activities:

• Find the oldest person in Baoba and take his/her picture. -The team earns 1 point for each decade the person has lived.
• Hold a doña in your arms. Her feet cannot touch the ground. - 3 points
• Form a pyramid with beer bottles – 1 point for each level of the pyramid
• Put on your school uniforms – 2 points for each person in the photo wearing his/her uniform
• Find the stray dogs of Baoba – 3 points for each stray dog in the photo
• Fill bags with trash from the ground – 2 points for each full bag. If the bag is filled with leaves, it doesn’t count.
• One person has to hold live chickens – 4 points for each chicken held at the same time
• Fly a kite. – 10 points for each flight flying in the photo.
• One Peace Corps volunteer has to ride a horse – 5 points
• Climb a tree. Feet cannot touch the ground – 3 points for each member of the group who is in the tree.
• Put rollers in the hair of a man. – 3 points for each roller.
• One Peace Corps volunteer has to ride a pig. – 8 points
• Gather the most family members together at one time and take their picture – 2 points for each person.

My team lost by 5 points. We didn’t fly a kite because we didn’t have time to make one, and for the school uniforms, they only put on their shirts, not their complete uniform therefore we didn’t get any points for those questions. But the kids loved the activity, mainly because they got to see me ride a pig. And I liked the activity because they collected trash from the ground (and then burned it), learned to work as a team, and it gave me the opportunity to play with the kids. Sometimes I feel like all I’m doing is acting like their teacher or their mom, so it’s nice to be able to goof around and relax with them.

The group from La Capilla only stayed in Baoba for a couple of hours (2 – 5 p.m.), but afternoons like these are great for the kids here. They get to visit old friends and meet new ones, and it really breaks up the monotony of the campo life. Their days normally consist of school, work, and chores. And so this gave them an excuse to simply play and act their own age for the day.

Fundraising 101

My Escojo group has been working on fundraising so the group will have money. We have a lot of things coming up in the month of May that we need to pay for. The Escojo group from the neighboring town of La Capilla is coming to give us a lecture on discrimination and then the two groups are going to compete in a scavenger hunt, so it is our responsibility to buy snacks for the meeting. We also have our big graduation party coming up at the end of May, so the group needs money to buy a cake, refreshments, and graduation certificates. Thirdly, we’re planning on going to Matancitas, a town about an hour away, to visit the Escojo group there, so we need to pay for the transportation of the group. AND the group wants t-shirts made so that we can all look cool.

The group does not know that I have applied for a $16,000 peso grant (about $500 US dollars) to use for the Escojo group. I refuse to tell them until absolutely necessary because they need to learn how to raise the funds themselves. Once I leave, they aren’t going to be able to get grants from the US government, so they need to learn how they can raise money.

So in the regional Escojo conference, Andy and Meri learned how to make bracelets out of string and beads. We decided that a fun and simple fundraiser would be to make the bracelets and sell them to the students in the school. So I went to Nagua, bought $1000 pesos worth of materials, and spent 1 hour teaching the 20 kids in the group how to make them. Everyone made 3 or 4 bracelets and left the meeting excited to sell them. In larger towns, Escojo groups are selling the same bracelets for $40 pesos, so we decided since Baoba is a smaller, more rural campo, we were going to sell them for $35.

A week passed, and at our weekly Escojo meeting, I asked everyone to pass forward the money they got from selling the bracelets. The grand total of our fundraising efforts: $50 pesos or less than $2 US dollars. I was hoping that we would make enough money for me to make my $1000 and then the rest would be the group’s profits. But as the results were a little less than expected, I decided I would be fine with losing my $1000 pesos and all of the money that the group got from selling the bracelets would be their profits. Because I was angry and disappointed, I then turned my normal sex-ed class into a basic business lesson and led a discussion into what went wrong with selling the bracelets. The lessons learned?

• Our price of 35 pesos was too high, and we would’ve sold more if the price was at 25 pesos.
• We cannot sell the bracelets on credit, especially to little kids. They will never pay the money owed.
• We cannot teach the kids how to make the bracelets themselves because then they will make their own bracelets and won’t buy them from us.
• If we sell a bracelet, we cannot spend the money on snacks or other things sold in the school. This completely defeats the purpose of group fundraising and is in fact like stealing money for the group.

I then asked the group how we could solve the problem. The group from La Capilla arrives in Baoba in one week and we only have 50 pesos to use to buy snacks for the meeting. So the group decided that everyone will bring 50 pesos to the next meeting. So now the group has a little bit of money, yet they still have absolutely no idea how to fundraise.

JR in the DR

Well I think its safe to say this post might be a little different from my last visit to Lauren. No resort luxuries this trip, I think that's safe to say - quite the understatement actually. Although for some reason, I think I enjoyed this visit much much more...probably because Mom and Dad didn't come with me this time (just kidding, Barn and Vick..)

Here's how the week began:

Sunday 10am: First flight out to Miami. Managed to battle the airport by myself! I am proud to say that I am officially an established traveler and LOVE flying solo.
2:30pm: Flight to Puerto Plata.
4:00pm: Arrive in the Dominican Republic where I am greeted by Latin musicians and photographers that look like Vegas showgirls? (that's the closest analogy I can think of to compare). Lauren plus a few friends arrive to pick me up and take me to Baoba!

Side note: I absolutely love the ride to Baoba. It takes about two hours and the ride consists of swerving to miss potholes, pedestrians, cows, motors, other cars, etc. but the view along the coast is gorgeous!

Dinner on Sunday consisted of arroz y habituelas (rice and beans) which was actually really really good. I'm not sure if I was just so hungry or if Lauren's cooking skills have improved drastically but it was not as bland as it sounds. (LR tells me that people in the town think that her meals are too spicy).

After dinner a few kids came over from the youth group (people will just visit throughout the day), ranging from 4+ and played cards, chatted (with Lauren) and tried to chat with me until they realized that this americana did not speak the language as well as her sister. The lights eventually go out and kids go home, while Lauren I get ready for bed by candlelight and gas lamp.

Not real sure of the time but sometime throughout Sunday night/early Monday morning this rooster kept crowing outside the house and I don't know who ever came up with that "fact" about roosters crowing at daybreak, because that is a MYTH! This one crowed about every hour. Although I'm sure it didn't help that most of the night I was tossing and turning due to the heat, mosquitoes and biting flies, and then the fact that Lauren and I were sharing a pillow.

Monday 6:45am: Run with some of the jovenes to the beach
7:45am: Breakfast of sausage cheese balls (Thank goodness for Mom packing those in my suitcase!)
10am: Then the dreaded bucket bath. Lauren often referred to this as a shower. No, no. No shower. Well there's a shower head. That will drip water into a bucket, that you will pour over your head. The water was so cold and after that first 5 seconds after I poured it, I honestly considered not bathing for the rest of the week. Luckily for Lauren and the residents of Baoba I managed to brave it through Thursday.
12pm: Had a lunch of peanut butter and crackers. (FYI: they make really good pb in the DR!)
For the remainder of the day, visitors dropped by or we went and visited with some of the families there. Lauren was my personal translator for the week and most of the time I was just trying to comprehend what was being discussed in conversation. As many years of Spanish I have had and it is still EXTREMELY difficult to speak the language. Not only are regional dialects different, but it's spoken so fast! Alot of the time I could figure out what was being said, just not smaller details and then how to respond. Lauren and I would talk at the end of the day about how exhausted we were! All we had done that day was literally sit around. We came to the conclusion that your brain is constantly trying to comprehend the conversation around you - even when I would be reading a book, I would look up and still be trying to figure out the topic of discussion around me.

Other meals we ate during the week included platanos fritos (fried plantains which tasted just like french fries), bean soup, more peanut butter crackers, etc. Some of the kids would bring us their flavored milk from school (tasted just like a milkshake!)

On Tuesday Lauren's neighbor took us on his moto to the lagoon down the road. It was unbelievable! It was like a scene out of Lost. It's a lake surrounded by tall rocks and vines, all covered in shade so the water is a really cool temperature. (We took pictures on LR's camera so hopefully she will put up a picture on here, but even a picture won't do it justice.) They have ropes running across it since the water is so deep. After we went swimming for a while, he took us to get yogu (yogurt). Again, delicious! (I think part of the reason why all the food was so good was because everything was full-fat - this yogurt was not Mom's Weight Watchers yogurt that I'm used to getting out of our refrigerator). I even loved the moto ride - I've been saying for a while that I want to ride a motorcycle so maybe this will satisfy that fix for a while.

On Wednesday, I went with Lauren to her sex ed class where she taught on abstinence. Afterwards, there was a surprise birthday party for Valeria, one of the girls there. I finally was starting to get closer to the younger kids there - (they love rock paper scissors!) and then all of the older kids in LR's jovenes group wanted to ask me questions - the girls wanted to know whether I liked it there, the boys wanted to know if I was single, and the little kids just wanted to play more games.

It may seem like Lauren and I didn't do much during the week, but I very much wanted to see the life that she lives from day to day. I understand how she gets so exhausted with the kids not going to school (one girl didn't go to school because she washed her hair; another boy didn't go to school because he was helping his mom clean the house; and then another boy decided not to go to school for an unknown reason, yet came over to Lauren's house to visit in his school uniform just so she would think he had gone!) and I realize that so much of her job is to form relationships with the people in the town. They are already beginning to talk about when she has to go back to the US and how sad they will be. They joke and say how she is never going to come back once she leaves. I know this isn't true because I spent less than a full week there and I already want to return before the end of summer. (If you would like to contribute to the "Take JR to the DR" fund, it would be greatly appreciated.)

I didn't take very many pictures (sorry Mom), but the few that Lauren and I did take I will try to put up here ASAP!

That's all for now! :)

-Jordan