Quick Update

I'm here at a internet center and don't have much time. However I feel guilty if I'm every on the computer and don't update my blog, so here's a quick rundown on what's going on in my life right now.

I still have my Escojo (sex-ed course) group, meeting every Wednesday night. Now there are a lot more kids that want to join the group, so I'm reteaching the course. But there's a catch: I, personally, am not teaching the course again. The kids who have already graduated from the course are going to teach the entire course to the newbies. We'll see how that goes. And in October, I'm taking two kids (Frank and Nanci) to Santo Domingo for the 5th Annual National Escojo Conference.

I am tutoring about 8 kids (one hour a day, two days a week) in basic reading and math skills. This is going a lot better than my summer school because I only have to deal with one kid at a time.

And English class has restarted. I really did not want to teach english again, but the people here have not stopped bugging me. So it's another basic english class. It's set to last two months, and the kids probably won't learn anything except "hello. how are you?" And judging from how the last course went, I'll be very frustrated by the time the course is over. But luckily, the course ends just one week before I am headed on a plane to the US! YAY!!

And I have been traveling. I went down south to Barahona with about 15 girls to celebrate another volunteer's upcoming wedding. We had a makeshift bachelorette party, peace-corps style, and lots of time at the beach. It was the first time here that I've really felt like I was on vacation, so that was nice. And I also went out to Samana with a few of my Dominican neighbors. About 20 of us climbed in the back of a pickup truck to meet Sofia and Miguel's family, who live in Las Galeras. Pictures of both of these events are posted online.

Celebrando el Cibao

Yuliana, Henri and I just returned from spending three days in Jarabacoa at the Celebrando el Cibao camp (August 24-26), and everything ran smoothly. A lot of what we taught the kids seems like common sense, things that Americans learn at an early age, but here the whole “thinking-outside-the-box (or in this case, island) doesn’t really exist. Here is a quick rundown of what we did and what the kids (hopefully) learned:

• A presentation on water contamination. We talked about all of the pollutants that can be in a river, even in a river that looks clean and clear (washing motors in the river, dumping laundry and dishwashing detergent, trash, flea-ridden dogs swimming, etc.) and how we can prevent those things from occurring. Then we all went down to a river and swam for a couple of hours.
• A gameshow called “Quien es ese Americano?” (who is this american?). The kids were given descriptions of one of the 22 volunteers that were there and had to guess who it was. An example: this volunteer was born in Tennessee, her parents were born in China, she studied social work, and wants to be a doctor when she leaves Peace Corps…who is this American??? Afterwards, we all pointed out in what state we lived and what countries our families are from. Everyone in the Dominican Republic thinks that America equals “Nueva Yol” (New York), so it was good to explain that the United States is a lot bigger than just that one part. And after explaining that our families all emigrated from different countries and we all therefore have different backgrounds, one girl asked us if we were satisfied with the diversity in the country. We all explained that yes, it is one of the things we are most proud of about the US.
• Guest speakers came to tell about the religions of Judaism and Islam, which most of the kids never even knew existed. The only religions that people usually know about here, especially in the smaller campos, are Catholicism and Evangelicalism.
• A group of Koreans who are in the Dominican Republic volunteering came to teach us how they greet each other in Korea. All of the kids practiced bowing and then saying “Ahnyahng!” (For you Arrested Development fans, it was hilarious to see 50 Dominican youth yelling “Ahnyahng” over and over again.)
• All of the volunteers did a short presentation on a country, and the kids had passports and traveled around the world, learning interesting facts about all of the countries. I taught the kids about Finland (in honor of Ms. Noora Lento) and the facts that everyone liked were that they have a female president and that in part of the country there are 50-plus days of no sun in the winter, and in the summer that are 70-plus days of constant sunlight, and that all males have to serve in the army once they turn 18.
• Kung Fu experts came and gave a martial arts demonstration.
• We toasted s’mores (or in Spanish- s’mas) over a bonfire. My kids had never even eaten a marshmallow before so that was a totally new experience.
• And of course we had a talent show, complete with a limbo contest. It is basically a requirement to have a talent show at these camps because the kids absolutely love to show off their singing, dancing, and poetry reciting skills. And they all loved doing the limbo, which I don’t think any of them had done before.

Trainee Visit

A new group of youth volunteers (well, as of now, they are just trainees) arrived in the Dominican Republic two weeks ago, and as part of their 3-month training, all of them went to spend 4 days visiting one of us old volunteers. The purpose of the trip was for them to learn how to use public transportation, and basically just to find out what youth volunteers do and how we live.

Andrew showed up at my house on Thursday afternoon. I had been eagerly awaiting his visit, as had every single teenage girl (and some of the adult women- one woman told me that she would ditch her husband and marry Andrew) in Baoba. Up to this point, I have only had girl visitors, which made all of my teenage boys happy. But now the roles reversed, and it was my teenage girls who had the opportunity to flirt with an Americano.

It took only a few minutes after Andrew’s arrival for the visitors to start arriving. First came all of the little kids, ready to play with the new kid. And then came the teenage girls, eager for me to introduce them.

Basically I used the weekend to show Andrew how extremely tranquilo my campo life is. We sat on my porch and chatted; then we went to the neighbor’s porch to sit and chat some more. On Thursday night, we went over to Sandy’s house (the lawyer who is helping me lead the Escojo group) and he cooked dinner for us us and all of the Escojo kids. Andrew was a hit that night, teaching all of the kids a new game called Zoomie Zoomie.

On Friday, we went to the high school in the morning and wrote a few country names on the map mural that the kids and I did earlier in the summer. Andrew got to hear the school principal basically ask me for every single technological thing he could ever want. (“Lauren, could you ask America if they could send me a laptop and a printer and a scanner and a copy machine and a projector and big screen.”) In the afternoon, we met up with some other volunteers and their trainees at DuDu, the freshwater lagoon that is close to Baoba. The easier way to get there is by motor, so I asked Yan Carlos, a 16-year-old kid to take us there. He had never been, so I paid the 50 peso entrance fee for him, and he was happy to hang out with us for a couple of hours. And then on Saturday, Andrew and I trekked down to the beach with all 15 of the Escojo kids (and about 6 dogs because the boys wanted to wash them in the river/ocean), which was a TON of fun. I was a little hesitant to take all 15 kids and be responsible for all of them down at the beach, but it was definitely one of the most fun things I’ve done here in Baoba.

I don’t really work on weekends, but about 80% of my job is just hanging out with the people in Baoba, especially the youth, so I’m glad Andrew got the opportunity to see that aspect of my job. Although I think after 4 days, he was probably getting pretty bored. He said he would prefer to live and work in a larger city, and while I feel that the slow campo life is perfect for me, I definitely understand how someone else might need to live at a little faster pace.

Unfortunately, I got a stomach virus on Saturday night before Andrew left (Brandy, the 8 year boy who I shared my birthday with later told me that he had the same stomach virus on Friday, so I’m pretty sure that’s where I got it.) And Andrew called me on Sunday night to tell me that he was sick with the same stomach flu. Poor kid. But I guess I gave him a pretty accurate description of my life here – sit on porches, visit with neighbors, go to the beach, hang out with teenagers, and get the occasional illness.

And of course now I’m getting the aftermath of my first male visitor. Lots of questions about if Andrew and are dating or even married, and lots of gossip about where he slept those three nights (on a borrowed mattress on the floor in a totally separate bedroom). Pero así es la vida.

El Peaje

I'm taking two kids to another 3-day conference. This conference, called Celebrando el Cibao, is to teach Dominican youth about other cultures and social ideas. I decided to take Henri (22 years old) and Yuliana (15 years old) because they got the highest grades on my final Escojo exam that I gave to the group way back in May. The conference is not directly related to Escojo Mi Vida, but hopefully Yuliana and Henri will come back and be able to teach the rest of the Escojo kids what they learned.

Because it's a conference run entirely by volunteers, we have had to do a lot of fundraising. And like most volunteer-run camps, each community has to bring $1000 pesos. This money should not come out of the volunteers' pockets, but the kids should fundraise so that they are invested in the conference. This also is a good excuse to teach the youth group how to fundraise so that they can raise money themselves once I leave Baoba. We did a raffle to raise money for Camp G.L.O.W., so for this camp, we decided to do a peaje.

A peaje (pronounced "pay-ah-hey") is technically a toll booth. With the permission of the mayor, we held a long rope across the highway with signs saying that we were doing a fundraiser, and when the cars would stop, the girls would go out and collect the money. This is apparently a very common fundraising method in the Dominican Republic, and surprisingly we raised a lot of money. In total, we raised $3525 pesos (about $100), not including the various drinks and snacks we bought during the 8 hours of standing in the hot sun. So with the extra $2525 pesos the kids want to plan a trip.

The outcome of the peaje was great. We collected more than enough money. However, actually doing the peaje was a headache. We were out on the highway at 7:30 amm because we got a bola (free ride). And we worked through lunch and stayed out there until 4 pm. We would've left a lot sooner, but because we arrived to the highway via bola, we were stranded until someone else came to get us. And let me tell you, by 4 pm these kids were hot, hungry, tired and GRUMPY.

And I got sunburned. During the heat of the day, there were 14 kids sitting down on the shady side of the highway and me and one guy standing on the sunny side of the highway. The kids kept telling me, "Lauren, why are you standing in the sun? Come sit in the shade with us." But if I went over to that side, there would be no one to collect money on the sunny side. So I stayed.

Also the kids thought we wouldn't raise money if the people knew were collecting money to send only two kids to a camp in Jarabacoa. So we lied and told everyone that it was for their graduation from Escojo Mi Vida. Most people didn't even read the signs or ask why we were raising money; they simply threw coins at us as they drove by, so I don't know if that would've mattered or not. But it wasn't worth arguing about with them. If they thought we would get more money for a graduation, so be it. And also, just so y'all know, not only did I lie to get people to donate money, I was very much promoting my girls to act and dress as sexy as possible to coax money from all of these male Dominicans. And I believe that is why we were as successful as we were.

Patronales

Here in Baoba, we are in the midst of celebrating our Patronales. Patronales is a 9-day party with live music and of course lots of drinking. Technically, Patronales is supposed to be 9 days of religious services for us to celebrate Baoba’s patron saint. But like with all Dominican religious holidays (see previous entry on Semana Santa), it’s just another excuse to get drunk.

Patronales started on Friday the 14th and ended on Sunday the 23rd. As a general rule, I try to stay away from the Patronales. Since I’m supposed to be a role model for the kids here, I don’t like to become associated with parties with alcohol, drugs, and dirty dancing. So I usually go to the religious services and then head home before the real partying starts.

On Wednesday night, I made an exception. The girls in my Escojo group wanted to do two of their choreographed dances in front of everyone at Patronales. I have seen these dances a million times and even danced with them a few times, so I wanted to be there at Patronales to support my girls. The church service ended at 9 pm, Patronales started at 9:01, and the girls danced at 9:30. They did a great job, and afterwards we all stayed and enjoyed listening to the music.

Around 10 pm, I was talking with Valerio, the father of one of my girls, and he pointed out a group of people, mostly teenagers, that were all crowded in a circle, smoking drugs. He came in a pickup truck, so we decided that he and his daughter and I would head on home before any trouble started. As we started walking to the truck, a huge fight broke up between the people who were smoking. I knew that Valerio always carried a gun with him, and when I saw him reach for it on his belt, I very calmly walked far away from him and the fight.

The fight was getting intense- one kid had a baseball bat- and Valerio shot his gun into the air to break up the fight. This of course caused panic with all of the other Dominicans, yet did nothing to break up the fight. Two more shots were fired by someone else, and everyone started running. I didn’t run. I was partially hidden behind a tent so I just stayed there and watched the action, ready to flee if necessary. But I thought that running hysterically would just cause more panic.

Valerio came and got me and told me we had to leave right then. I had planned on going with him and his daughter and leaving the rest of the kids at the party to enjoy the Patronales. But after the fight broke out, there was no way I was going to leave my kids alone. So I told Valerio that he had to wait, and walked around and found every single one of my 20 teenagers and sent them all home in the pick up truck.

We all arrived home safely, and when I got home, it finally occurred to me how dangerous that situation could have been. The next night, we all went to the Catholic mass, and went straight home. No one was going to stick around Patronales to see if another fight would break out.

No hablo espanol (bien)

I was doing a teambuilding activity with my Escojo group the other day. They all had to grab each others' hands, making a knot, and then unravel the knot without letting go of the hands. So after everyone was tangled into this huge human knot, I told them all to "desnudar." I did not know the word for untangle, but "des" is a prefix that means undo, and "nudo" means knot, so in my mind, it all made sense. However when the kids gave me weird looks and the boys started jokingly taking off the clothes of the girls, I soon realized that "desnudar" means to undress. Oops.

Along with learning Spanish, I have also had to learn Dominican Spanish. Dominican Spanish is a language all its own. Instead of saying "poco" meaning little, they say "chin." Another example: In Spanish, the word "guapo" means cute or handsome. But here, it means angry. So whenever one of the girls in my girls' club would tell me about her boyfriend, I would ask her if he was guapo, if he was handsome. They all told me no. I thought they were all telling me me that their boyfriends were ugly, but they thought I kept asking them if their boyfriends were angry. Oops.

When I first arrived in Baoba, the question that everyone asked me was if I had lived with a man before. I was confused as to why this question was so important, and I answered yes, I had lived with my dad for 18 years, before I left for college, and for some reason, this answer was not socially acceptable here in the Dominican Republic. Later I found out that to live with a man means to have sexual relations. It does not simply mean what the words say - to live in the same house a man. No wonder everyone thought I was wierd when I said that I had lived with my dad. Oops.

Camp G.L.O.W.

Camp G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World) is a 5-day, all-girl camp. And it was intense, for both the volunteers and the girls. All of the other Peace Corps-run camps are only 3 days, and we sleep in comfortable dorm rooms. But at this camp, we all slept on the ground in tents with our girls.

I brought 4 girls- Marlene (19-years-old), Maria (17), Leidi (16) and Valeria (12). And they were all great. They participated in all of the activities and had positive attitudes throughout the stressful week. I was so protective over all of them, especially when traveling. I really just felt like a mom with my 4 daughters. I'm just going to skip over the charlas and lectures and presentations that they all learned and tell the interesting parts of the camp.

These girls are all used to sleeping in beds with pillows, and for all of them it was their first time sleeping outside and camping out. Also, there were only 4 bathrooms/showers or 60+ girls, so that was a difficult experience as well. Especially for Dominican girls who like to bathe at least twice a day.

And the rain started. And didn't stop. Our tent was the only tent didn't flood. During the storm, the other girls slept in a roofed shelter (although it didn't have walls, so the girls still ended up getting soaked), but we stayed mostly dry. However due to the intense thunder, lightning and wind no one slept that night. The next day, nearly all of the girls wanted to pack up and go home. But not my girls. They were troopers and wanted to stay to finish out the week.

On the last day, there was a little drama. Regina had brought three girls from Matancitas, and Regina and I thought that our girls all got along. They've met each other at Escojo conferences and various trips between Matancitas and Baoba. But apparently that was not the case. My girls came to me upset that the girls from Matancitas were spreading gossip about them and telling people not to clap for them when it was time for them to get their certificates or when their pictures came up on the last day's slideshow.

During the last night, we had a bonfire. One of the Matancitas girls had to be removed because she started fighting with another girl (not from Baoba, thank goodness). During the bonfire, a few girls stood up to thank the volunteers and tell what part of the camp they liked best. My girls stood up and thanked me for bringing them there, and then added "We liked the presentation on how to resolve conflicts because in Baoba we want to resolve conflicts and not cause them," which I think was a deliberate stab at the Matancitas group. I have no idea what really happened between the two groups, but it is safe to say that they will not be going to Matancitas anytime soon.

On returning home, we ended up waiting at the bus stop in Santo Domingo or two hours. Buses kept coming, but Dominicans don't believe in lines, so there would be a mad rush and the bus would fill up before I could get all of my girls on. At this point, we were all sick (thanks to sleeping outside in the rain), and Marlene had a fever. So I went up to the bus driver and told him in my bossiest tone that I am in charge of bringing these 4 girls home and one of them has a fever and he better let us go home. And TADA! The next bus came and the driver escorted us all to our seats before he let any of the other people on.