Ups and Downs

Wednesday was a good day and a bad day. Wednesday was a typical day.

On Wednesday I woke up not wanting to get out of bed. I was supposed to go to school that morning to help teachers prepare for the upcoming school year, but based on the lack of work that was achieved the day before, I wasn't too motivated to walk 20 minutes under the hot morning sun. It took two hours of arguing with myself to get me out of bed (good thing I set my alarm early). When I arrived at school it looked like it would be another wasted day, but then to my surprise parents started showing up for a meeting. 

Turns out the school principal had invited the members of the parent's association over to discuss the planned events for the first week of school. The day before I had asked the principal when the next parent's meeting would be and she said she wasn't sure. Turns out she thought I was referring to an all school parents meeting, which is different than a parent's association meeting. During the meeting the principal talked about many of the issues I have been harping-on including parent participation and student attendance. I didn't know until then that she had been listening to what I have been preaching over the last year. After the meeting my principal surprised me again by informing me that a teacher-trainer I work with ran into an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer. The trainer said that the the former volunteer wants to help with our library project, fingers crossed I will hear from him soon.

My two phones - one even has a QWERTY keyboard!

After school I went into town. After purchasing a drink at the internet café I was informed that the power had been out in town since the morning. They never tell me when the power or internet is out until after I have bought my food. Ugh. I really should ask before I buy anything but it seems tacky. Anyway, I should have known better, power is frequently out in town on Wednesday so the power company can make repairs (or so they say). I made the most of the situation and paid to get 24 hours of internet on my phone. Internet on my phone is pretty bad, for example I can read emails but not send them, but it is better than nothing. Side note, I have two phones they are supported by different companies so they each get signal in different places. Neither of them work in my house. One of them lets me call other volunteers for free, and the other allows me limited internet and I can call people on my front steps (sometimes).

As I went through my notifications on Facebook my annoyance at the lack of power dissipated. On Sunday a news article was published in a local South Jersey newspaper about the library project. Many of my family and friends had sent me messages of congratulations and support. It means so much to me when I receive those kinds of notes. Kind words make a big difference when you are on the monstrous two year-long roller-coaster called Peace Corps. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone for the well-wishes. I also received a emails from people interested in supporting the library, and possibly some more publicity for the project. We shall see what develops.

When I returned to my community, I stopped by to visit my host-sister who was celebrating her birthday. Last year she didn't do anything special because her birthday fell on Tuesday the 13th, which is the equivalent to Friday the 13th in the U.S., and she was afraid of getting cursed if she tried to do anything. This year her grandmother made her a pizza and they saved me a slice. Score!

Superstitions came up again later in the evening. I recently started a new course called Me Toca a Mí which revolves around a novela (spanish soap opera) made by Peace Corps Volunteers in the D.R. All the actors are Dominican youths and each episode focuses on a different issue. So far we have discussed: self-esteem, bullying, having sex at a young age, family relationships, being a good role model, and the importance of education. On Wednesday night the main topic for discussion was discrimination. Everything was going fine, until we began to talk about Dominican-Haitian relations. Many Dominicans do not like Haitians. Dominicans have accused Haitians of practicing witchcraft, causing the Cholera outbreak on the island in 2010, and in general being evil. The negative perception of Haitians goes all the way back to colonial times. Haiti was the first country in the western hemisphere to end slavery, via a slave revolt. Lead by freed slaves, Haiti invaded the Dominican Republic and took over for 22 years. Dominicans have never forgotten the invasion, and it has lead to many more negative, and often bloody, interactions between the two countries.

Back to my class. Samaná does not have many Haitians. It is far from the border, and there are no sugar cane fields to entice migrant workers. I had never heard any youths speak negatively about Haitians before, so it shocked me when many of them stated that Haitians were evil curse-casting witches. Some even said they would never speak with a Haitian if they could avoid it, even though most have never met a Haitian before. When I tried to explain their shared history and the culture roots of voodoo, my students just shook their heads. One declared that Haitians want to invade the D.R. again. I asked how they could do so, as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Other students then interjected that Haiti was poor because it is filled with bad people. By the end of class I was still unable to convince my students to change their minds about Haitians. I told them we would discuss the issue again next week, so if anyone has ideas on how to combat this issue please let me know ASAP.

I keep all the cards I receive on display

Wednesday ended as it began, on a negative note, but the positive news I received through-out the day kept me buoyant. My service would be a tougher, bumpier one if I didn't have the support of both my American and Dominican friends. Thanks again to all of you for making my life a lot easier.

The Benefits of Working on Vacation

There are few things more amazing than the generosity of strangers.

Today I took sometime out of my vacation in the States to visit Hilldale Elementary School in New Jersey and talk about my service in the Peace Corps. Since November I have been skyping every month with the 5th grade students as part of Peace Corps' World Wise Schools Program. But today was the first day I met the students and staff in-person.

One the 63 cards I received.

When I entered the classroom students immediately began to whisper to one another, "Is that Susan?!," and "Susan's here!" I felt like a celebrity. The students then gave a presentation of about why they think the Peace Corps is important, and thanking me for my service. They said the most adorable things like, "Roses are red, violets are blue, if you need help Peace Corps serves you." My heart melted when one student said that he wanted to join the Peace Corps because his parents were immigrants, and he wanted to serve the U.S. and help others abroad. 

The love fest continued with a the 5th graders presenting me with a Hilldale t-shirt and duffel bag, both personalized with my name. The students surprised me one more time by announcing that they had fundraiser an additional $500 at the elementary school and that the language honor society in the high school raised an additional $500! I was floored. This time last year I didn't know Montville existed, and yet the community has done so much for me and my neighbors in the Dominican Republic. I feel so incredibly blessed by their geneoursosity. When I return to my community next week I can't wait to see my neighbors reactions to the great news. I predict a lot of dancing.

Thanks to the help of Montville residents, family, and friends we have reached a quarter of our U.S. fundraising goal for the library. But that means we still need to raise $4,200. Please help us out, as so many already have, and make our community library a reality by the start of the new school year.
To submit a donation CLICK HERE!

Just a reminder: All donations are tax deductible, and 100% of donations will go to our project. 

Also, you can donate offline. Although donating on-line is the fastest way for projects to get funded, you may also donate by mail or over the phone:

Send a check to:
Peace Corps Headquarters
Office of Gifts and Grants Management
1111 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20526

Please make check payable to Peace Corps Partnership Program
Please also note the project number (14-517-025) in the memo section of the check.
(Please print and mail this donation form with your check, so Peace Corps can contact you with information regarding your donation, if necessary.)

-or-

Call the office and Peace Corps can take your credit card information over the phone at 855.855.1961 x2170.

Most of the world doesn’t understand “9-5”

 I love reading blogs written by other Peace Corps Volunteers. I like to learn how others handle life as a volunteer, and what they learn from their service. I recently came across a really well written blog by a volunteer serving in Kyrgyzstan. Even though much of his experience is completely different from my my own, I found I could relate to a lot of his thoughts. Below is one of his posts:

I recently saw an article floating around my facebook newsfeed disparaging America for refrigerating eggs. People were like, “What the hell, America?! You are so stupid!” And I was like, if we have resorted to criticizing America for refrigerating eggs, that is actually proof of how great America is. “Oh, no civil war? No mass starvation? People aren’t fleeing the country by the millions? Ok, well I guess everything is going pretty—REFRIGERATED EGGS!! OH MY GOD! ALERT THE PRESSES!”

Just imagine: a country so incredible its affluence permits people to spend hours arguing in weblog comment feeds about the proper temperatures for eggs. Few places on this globe allow for such luxury.


                                                  What about turkey eggs?


It’s now after fall break at my village school, and our recently settled schedule has been messed up again. An outbreak of hep A has obliged our director to ban unnecessary movement throughout the school and keep classes in students’ own homerooms. I suspect at least a few of the absentees are cases of great acting rather than a crippling month long illness. “I can’t go to school, mom. I’ve got that thing, I think, that people are talking about, you know, the one where people get to—I mean—have to stay home from school…”

In one particularly bad day of student attendance last spring, I talked my counterpart into taking a little visit together to the “troubled” students’ houses to talk with the parents. While several of them were supportive and said they would do a better job encouraging, what one mother said caught me off-guard. I asked if school was important and she said yes, but that her son was needed to do the farm work so the family could have food.

I know not everyone in America has it altogether easier, and most people work very hard. But if I had to put a number on the average work schedule here, 5am-9pm would be a little more accurate. People work really, really hard, and especially the women since the lack of running water and consistent electricity tends to hit the domestic chores the hardest.

It’s not always the same kind of work we’re used to in the states, assisted by all our time-savers. But people are doing what they need to do in the moment to secure a future. That means when the coal truck comes to town, you stop what you’re doing, go home, negotiate a price, and then spend the next couple hours shoveling it into your shed. Staying warm is kind of a priority in Kyrgyzstan. Yet this disrupts my neat little 9-5 schedule I have all written out for myself, like I thought I was still in the states or something.

We get up, we brush our teeth, we hit the office, take an hour off for lunch, put in a few more hours and then go home to an evening full of whatever we want to do. We press a button and the dishes are magically polished. We flip a switch and are kissed by warm air. Our biggest complaints are re-matching socks from the dryer or that minute rice actually takes five. Now I scrub my clothes with a bar of soap and that’s after hauling the water from a pump down the street. I never realized what a precious gift I was being handed – that precious gift called time.

Time gives us so many opportunities. We can get a second job, help our kids with their homework, volunteer at a food bank, or even surf the web for articles on eggs. Let’s just not forget what grace a 9-5 affords.