Things that Probably Didn't Happen to You this Week

My life here in the D.R. is never ordinary by American standards. This week, however, has been particularly eventful in its non-ordinariness. Here is a run down of what's been going on in my community over the past seven days:

Emely at home resting her leg

My host sister, Emely, was hit by a motorcycle as she was leaving school. Don't worry she is okay, except for the broken leg. Here is the full story: A 17 year-old was popping wheelies on the dirt road in front of the primary school, and surprise he lost control and hit Emely as she started her walk home. First they took Emely home, but soon they decided she needed to go to the hospital. By the time they arrived at 7p.m. the doctor who knows how to set bones and make casts was gone for the day. Luckily, they were able  to take her to a private doctor. The boy who hit Emely has agreed to pay for the cast, which cost $700 pesos or $16 dollars,  an amount my host mom had to borrow from her church because she didn't have the funds available at the time of the accident. Emely's family will still have to cover the costs to transport her to school since she will be in the cast for a month - she will be traveling via a motorcycle. Emely doesn't seem to phased by the ordeal. She is enjoying the lack of chores, getting a ride to school, and the piggy back rides from friends as she changes classes.

Putting the finishing touches on the ceiling

My project partners took all 150 gallons from my water tank to use for library construction. The water was mixed with cement to seal the ceiling of the library. Part of me is happy that one more step is done and the other half is annoyed that my water tank is empty. Remember, I don't have running water. All the water I get comes from the sky, so taking all the water from my tank is not a small problem. My project partners' excuse is that they thought it would rain, which to their credit it did look like it was going to rain. I just wish they would have asked first. I have had water taken from my tank without my permission before, so I keep an additional 70 gallons of water inside my house. I am hoping we get a good rainstorm before I run out of water. If that happens I will have to sit out by the side of the road with an empty trashcan and hope the water truck passes by. I am lucky that I can buy water; not everyone can, but I still don't like having to waste my day waiting for water.

Nana inside the water tank

The one benefit to my project partners emptying out my water tank is that it gave me the opportunity to clean my tank. Or more correctly, it gave my 9 year old neighbor, Nana, the opportunity to clean my tank. Over the past year my water tank had collected its share of mud and leaves at the bottom. The bottom is out of reach of my hands so Nana offered to go inside the tank and clean it out for me. My biggest contribution to the cleaning was to blast bachata music by Romeo Santos over my portable speakers. I heard neighbors across the street talking about the music and declaring that I am bien dominicana (very Dominican).

Neighbors at the beach - Nana is the one covered in sand

Wednesday was a school holiday, Día de Las Mercedes, so I went on a trip to the beach organized by my girls' youth group. We took a safari bus and the entire ride music was blasting (bachata, merengue, dembow, and salsa). When I returned home my ears were ringing.

Thursday I presented at a teacher's workshop in the northern area of the Samaná peninsula. In order to get to the rural school where I was presenting I got a motorcycle ride with a teacher trainer. The ride was over an hour and we primarily stayed along the coast line allowing me to enjoy some beautiful views. But I will say that riding a motorcycle isn't as glamorous as it seems. We nearly had to cancel the trip due to a rainstorm, and my hips were aching by the time we arrived at the school.

Lastly, a highlight of my week is that we installed windows and doors at the library! Whoo! It is starting to look like a real building! You can check out more pictures of the progress here.

Library Committee members showing off the new windows

How to Live without Running Water

This week Tropical Storm Bertha passed over the D.R. When I received notification from Peace Corps about the storm's approach my first thought was, "YES! I get to do my laundry this week!" One's concern about tropical storms changes a lot when you live without running water.

Overall, living without running water isn't too bad. I definitely prefer no running water to no electricity (dinner by candlelight is depressing when you are alone). Still, it can be a tough to adjust to life without running water. When my sister visited this summer I had to teach her all the things I had learned when when I first moved to my community. Here is what she learned:

Collecting Water: My community primarily relies on rain for our water. Every house has at least one gutter that deposits rain water into a trash can, old oil drum, or a tínaco, which is a big water container. Mine holds 150 gallons. During dry spells children are sent to local springs or the river to collect water for the family. Water can also be bought via trucks that pass by daily, but the water is too expensive for most of my neighbors to afford. Since I moved into my own home last September I have been able to rely on just the rain water I collect. That is because I live alone, Samaná gets above average rainfall, and I am a water hoarder.

Storing Water:My 150 gallon tank cannot store enough water to make it between long dry spells. It is also located outside my house, which means that on occasion my neighbors borrow some (or all) of the water stored inside. So in addition to the tank I keep two more trashcans filled with water inside my house (another 60 gallons). Also, whenever I empty a gallon sized container of anything (bleach, soap, vegetable oil) I fill it with water and store it under my sink (another 10 gallons). I fear that my water-hoarding tendencies are going to turn me into a emergency preparedness crazy-person when I return to the States.

Drinking Water: Thanks to the previous volunteer in my community, almost every house has a bio-sand water filter. The filter allows us to safely drink all the water we collect. The filters last up to 20 years and maintenance is minimal. Bio-sand water filters are awesome. Previously, families had to buy purified water, many could not afford to do so and instead drank the non-purified water they collected. Many people suffered from amoebas and other diseases because of the non-purified water. Many Dominicans continue to suffer from water borne diseases because there is no purified tap water in the country. Everyone has to either buy purified water, filter the water themselves, or risk getting sick.

Washing Dishes: Dish washing is a multi-stage process involving many buckets. You have your bucket next to the sink with clean water, your bucket in the sink with soapy water, and your buckets on the floor with dirty water. You use the clean water to rinse off the soapy dishes and after all the dishes are done you pour the soapy water into a dirty water bucket. You will need the dirty water to bucket flush.

Bucket Flushing: No running water means you cannot push a level and make the toilet flush. Instead, you have to take a bucket of water, preferably dirty, and forcefully toss the water into the toilet. The pressure caused by the water will flush everything down into a septic tank. Note: it is important that you put the seat up when you flush, nobody water dirty water on the seat. Also, flushing is trickier than it looks. Many volunteers have stories of accidentally overflowing the toilet or embarrassingly having to ask a member of their host-family to flush the toilet for them. The latter happened to my sister. The month she stayed with me was not enough time for her to master the bucket flush.

Bucket Bathing: Since shower heads are impossible to use and baths use up too much water, bucket baths are the best way to get clean. To bucket bathe you need two buckets. One filled with water and a smaller bucket or cup is needed to pour the water over your head. Unless you heat up the water on your stove, the water will be very cold. I recommend exercising before taking a bucket bath, but some days all you have to do is sit in the sun for a minute to work up enough sweat to make a bucket bath refreshing.

Doing Laundry: I go to my host-family's home to do my laundry because they have a washing machine, and I get to use their water and not my own. Laundry uses a lot of water, as I detailed in my post all about the process. Read it here.

Sharing: If your neighbors have a ton of kids running around and not a lot of water, share. Don't get mad when people use water you collected, it is inevitable. Can you blame them for taking water to quench their thirst and cook their food? Be a kind and generous person, and people will reciprocate. Just this week I received avocados, plantains, chicken, help organizing books, and one of my students told me I was beautiful in English!

Living through an Epidemic

Imagine a mysterious disease is sweeping through your community. In the span of a few weeks almost all your neighbors, family, and friends have fallen ill. Your government says the disease is a virus from Africa and Asia transmitted via mosquitoes. Would you trust the government's word?  If you live in the U.S. your answer is probably, "Sure, I trust the government and the Center for Disease Control to tell me the truth." Dominicans are not so trusting.

CDC Warning for Vacationers

Right now the Dominican Republic is dealing with an outbreak of the Chikungunya virus (pronunciation: \chik-en-gun-ye). Symptoms include high fever, myalgia, skin rash, and joint pain. Most symptoms go away after three days. Except for joint pain, which can last up to four months. Thankfully Chikungunya is not fatal. Since the virus arrived in the Caribbean in December 2013 it has been spreading like wildfire. Almost everyone I know in my community has had the virus. Some have even claimed to have had Chikungunya twice, although according to medical professionals once infected, a person should be immune for the rest of their life. But Dominicans do not believe this is true.

Dominicans do not believe most of what the government and medical professionals are saying about Chikungunya. Most Dominicans say that the virus has spread too rapidly for it to be transmitted by mosquitoes. Dominicans are accustomed to dengue, another the mosquito transmitted virus. Dengue has similar symptoms to Chikungunya except you can get it up to 5 times, and it can be deadly. Dengue has been present in the D.R. for a long time, so the transmission rate is not as high as it is for the newly introduced Chikungunya.

When asked how Chikungunya is spread, Dominicans will say by the air. The reason why it is spread via the air, however, varies by community. Other volunteers have told me rumors of government experiments gone wrong, a strong wind from Africa, and a chemical spill. In Samaná, the region where I live, the theory is that the cause of the virus stems from toxic trash that was dumped along the southern coast of the peninsula. Apparently when the trash was dumped, over 12 years ago, the people in the surrounding communities began to get sick. The government then buried the trash in a different part of the region, and people there began to get sick too, so the government dug a bigger hole. According to my neighbors Chikungunya is just another chapter in the saga of the toxic trash.

All the rumors have made me wonder, "Why don't Dominicans trust the word of their government?" My neighbors say it is because the government is always lying to them. Unlike Americans, Dominicans have not grown up for generations in a country known for democracy and freedom of the press. Many Dominicans still remember what it was like to live under the harsh rule of the dictator Trujillo. Many of Tujillo's successors were not much better. As a result, Dominicans today are suspicious of politicians and the government, and they worry about backsliding into their autocratic past. Chikungunya is a foreign word, it sounds made-up to Dominicans. In a country where previous governments have covered up assassinations and embezzlement, it isn't too far a stretch to think that the government just made-up Chikungunya to hide another problem.

It also doesn't help that even politicians don't believe that Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes. When Senator Prim Pujals came to visit my community last month he announced that the government was sending workers out to the rural areas to spray insecticide to kill mosquitoes. He then said, "Not that it matters much, because Chikungunya is in the air."

One thing everyone can agree on is that Chikungunya is not done its rampage just yet. It is expected that by the end of the summer 50 percent of the population on the island will have become infected. I have yet to become ill, but my time may be out shortly. I will soon be spending five nights at a summer camp with over 100 other girls from around the country. It should be a fun, if exhausting, time. The camp is at an eco-lodge so we will be outside all day long, and it just so happens that the mosquito that carries the virus is a day eater (or so medical professionals would have us believe). A good number of volunteers and kids were struck-down during the boys camp a few weeks ago. I am bringing two girls from my community who luckily have already been infected so they are safe. However, I am not. Wish me the best of luck!

So as not to end on a ominous note, here are some awesome things that happened this week:

A portion of my neighbors' generosity

• It rained a lot so now all my tanks are filled and I got to wash my laundry.
• Kids came to class in the rain!
• I have teenagers helping out with my literacy classes.
• My neighbors gave me 6 mangos, 4 bananas, 6 plantains, 20 passion fruits, and too many limoncillos to count!
• I made 5.2 liters of passion fruit juice. I gave half of what I made to my neighbors (different neighbors than the ones who originally gave me the fruit).
• Power was out in my community for 42 hours, that is a new record since I have been here. The awesome part is that it came back on!
• Romeo played with another dog - Romeo has "issues" and doesn't really like to hang out with other dogs. He isn't aggressive, he just doesn't like to interact with other dogs.
• Kelly and I played Monopoly with my 9 and 14 year-old neighbors. Kelly and I where called tramposas (cheaters) - it was a blast. More to come about competitive cross-cultural differences next week.

  

  Monopoly Negotiations

Summer School is Cool

The most popular place to be in my community this summer isn't the river or out in the fields picking mangoes. Instead, kids of all ages are flocking to the community center for English class and a literacy club run by me and my sister, who is spending a month of her summer vacation in the D.R. Kids have been so excited to start class that they were arriving an hour early. Dominicans are never early, as I have previously mentioned. The enthusiasm the students have for class reminds me of how my little brother and cousin would wake up early on the weekends to play video games. They went to bed dreaming of the fun they would have the next day.

Even when full the community center is very airy

It has been wonderful to see kids learning and coming back the next day impatient to learn more. However, we have only had class for one week and we are already over our maximum capacity of students. On the last day of class this week we had over forty students participating. There were enough chairs and table space for only half of those students. Station activities helped to lessen the fighting over chairs, each student got some time sitting down. But with so many students the room remained crowded leading some older students to sit outside. 

Summer classes are not the only event that suffers from a lack of space. The community center is used for a variety of events, but can only hold at most 60 people out of the 500+ residents of my community. Last week the Senator of Samana, Prim Pujals, came to speak to my community about our lack of running water, and our library project. The community center was jammed packed, with people piled up outside looking in the windows to hear the senator's speech. The Senator told us that he could do little to help us on his own but he signed a letter we wrote to President Danilo Medina, asking for his help to build a regional aquaduct and our community library. 

Senator Pujals promised to donate $30,000 peosos ($700 dollars) if President Medina does not donate funds to our library project. However, I have no idea how long we will have to wait to recieve President Medina's response to our letter. But you can support my community's library right now by donating to our project. Please help us out, as so many already have, and make our community library a reality by the start of the new school year.

Everyone packed in to hear the Senator

To submit a donation CLICK HERE!

Just a reminder: All donations are tax deductible, and 100% of donations will go to our project.  (Tax deductible means that you are allowed to deduct donations that represent up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income on your federal tax returns. So donate and you will have to pay less taxes!)

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.

Other things of note:

Pin the Tail on the Donkey is fun in any language

• We celebrated my sister's birthday by throwing her a party. Pin the tail on the donkey was a big hit. Our Dominican guests had never heard of the game before but they quickly took great pleasure in spinning around blindfolded participants. Some people did fall down
• The transformer across from my house blew out last night, again. It was fixed this morning, a big improvement over the last time when we were without power for over 24 hours.
• This month the D.R. introduced a new 911 system in two cities. It got so many prank calls in its first two weeks that the government is now requiring everyone in the country with a pre-paid cellphone to provide their I.D. information or else their phone will be suspended. Basically, everyone in the country has to register their phones with the government.
• When opening the metal door to the community center for a evening event, I managed to whack myself in the head with the door. Luckily I do not have any visible bruising for neighbors to question me about, but it is one more reason why you should donate to the library project. Help protect me from incurring more head injuries.

How to do Laundry without Buttons

Doing laundry in the D.R. is not easy feat, it requires strategy and endurance. You can't just press a few buttons, and voila - have clean clothes. Here is my easy 10-step guide to washing your clothes in the D.R.:

So many buckets to fill

1. Consider the power schedule (if it exists). In my case, laundry is always done early in the morning (just in case the power cuts off early) and never on Wednesdays (power plant repair day). 

2. Decide if you have enough water. My community relies mainly on rain water. Water can be bought, but it is expensive, and you will need to wait around for the water truck to pass, and then haul all the water from the street to the house (It's a great work-out!). I tend to do my laundry every two weeks but I sometimes go a month without washing clothes during dry spells.

3. Fill the washing machine, rinse buckets, and softener bucket with water.

4. Throw in some detergent and crank the washing machine dial to 15 minutes.

5. When cycle finishes wring-out all clothes. Wringing-out clothes is a skill, and Dominicans will let you know if you have bad technique. 

Demonstrating proper wringing-technique 

6. Place clothing in rinse bucket number one, then wring-out clothes. Repeat steps for second rinse bucket and softener bucket. As you wring, you will realize that washing clothes is great exercise.

7. When clothes have passed through all the buckets, place them in the "dryer" for five minutes. In the "dryer" clothes are spun around really fast and water is sucked out the sides. After the "dryer" the clothes will still be damp. 

8. Water needs to be periodically added to the washing machine, so make use of the water being sucked out of the "dryer" by having the "dryer" hose fill up the first rinse bucket. Then take water from that bucket to fill the washing machine. Also, as you wash, the water will get darker and darker but don't worry too much - that's why there are two rinse buckets and a softener bucket!

First Load

Last Load

9. Once clothes are out of the "dryer" hand them up in the sun for the afternoon.

10. After a few hours in the Caribbean sun your clothes will be dry and warm - almost as if they came out of a real dryer. 

Total time needed: 4 to 8 hours. Washing: 3 to 5 hours. Drying: 1 to 3 hours.

A Sister's Eye

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck

Woot, woot! Hey everybody! My name is Kelly and I will be taking over Susan’s blog for this post.  I am Susan’s sister, and as you may be aware, got the chance to spend two weeks with her over winter break.  The whole family travelled around the country the first week, but it was just Susan and I on our own for the second week.  Susan and I had a lot of fun and a few adventures in our week together.  She asked me to write this post to maybe shed light on things that I found interesting that she might have skipped over in her enthusiasm to talk about her project and such.

First off, toilets.  If you follow the Sochi Olympics you might have heard about how they make you throw your toilet paper in the trash instead of flushing it down the toilet.  In the D.R., this is standard.  Even at the swanky resort we stayed at in Punta Cana, signs were posted asking you to not flush the toilet paper.  Simply put, the sewer system in the Dominican Republic cannot handle supporting people flushing their toilet paper.   It’s hard to grasp when you live in a place where automatic flushing toilets are the norm nowadays. 

Note shower head and faucet do not work

Part two of my experience in as it relates to toilets is what is known as “bucket flushing”.  As you may be aware, Susan has no running water.  She does have a toilet however.  How does this work you ask?  Why by bucket flushing of course!  To bucket flush you fill a small bucket, think the size of a small sandcastle bucket, with water that had either been collected the last time it rained, or had already been used in the sink.  I will explain that later.  You stand a foot or so away from the toilet and throw the water with some force into the toilet bowl to basically force most of the old water and such down the pipe.  Bucket flushing is never one hundred percent successful.  You only do it when you do a “number two” so the water is always sort of dirty.  Secondly, it can take a couple of tries to get everything down; sometimes you don’t throw the water hard enough.  Now, about that old water from the sink I mentioned earlier.  Susan has this smart little set up so that any water that goes down the sink drain, whether from washing your hands or brushing your teeth, gets stored in a container which you then use to fill up your little bucket to “flush”.  It’s a great way to recycle and reuse water, a valuable resource in Susan’s community.   It does however leave her bathroom with an odd sort of minty smell though. 

Now enough about bathrooms, let’s look at other interesting things about Susan’s house.  She has no doors except for those leading outside.  Her bedroom, bathroom, and living room areas are all separated by curtains in the doorways.  I guess they allow for better ventilation?  She also has no oven.  In fact, no one in the D.R. really has an oven.  Gas is super expensive and it is hot already there so ovens just don’t make sense.  Instead people cook either on the stove, so there are lots of fried foods, or they will cook outside in plaster type of oven, heated by a charcoal fire.  In an odd way, it made me think of how people must have cooked before stoves and ovens even existed.  The little rooms these fires were in were blistering hot and smoky. 

Plaster based stove with charcoal for fuel

There is no way I could spend more than five minutes in them, let alone all day like most women.  Also washing dishes is a pain when you are trying to conserve water.  Obviously to make sure everything is sanitary, you have to use some of the filtered rain water, of which limited supply exists, so you try and be very careful and maximize the area cleaned per cup of water.  It makes it very apparent just how nice running water truly is. 

Making bracelets by candle light

The people in Susan’s community are awesome.  The kids are of course very friendly and a lot like kids back here in the States.  I taught a bunch of them how to make simple friendship bracelets with some embroidery floss our mom sent in a care package before.  It was incredible to see how some kids picked the skill up in now time at all while others, like Susan, seemed to struggle a bit more.  Overall the week with Susan was great and totally worth giving up all my downtime between semesters.  I even lost weight by eating the Susan diet of eggs, toast, and jam!

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.

Water - It's Essential for Life

"If your community gets water by the time you leave in two years that would be cause for celebration."

That was the response of a Peace Corps staff member when I told her that Dominican officials announced plans to bring running water to my community. The government officials say the work will begin by the end of August and be done in three months. Like my Peace Corps counterpart, I am doubtful that the project will be completed on time. My thinking is, "If it is as easy as the government makes it out to be, why haven't they done the job already?" Well, the government has tried to bring water to my community in the past. Unfortunately the engineer mysteriously disappeared and so water never reached the pipes. Those pipes were then destroyed three years ago when the main, and only, road in my community was paved. Perhaps in some ways it was a good thing that the engineer ran-off; I can say from personal experience that living without running water after having become accustomed to its convenience is at times frustrating, and I frequently reminisce about how much easier running water makes daily life.

My community's number one goal for years has been to get running water. A man was killed by police during a protest in 2011 (Read the full novela here). Running water is a serious issue. And I don't mean potable water you can get out of your kitchen sink (potable water doesn't even exist in the DR). Nor am I referring to water that comes out of the kitchen sink. One Volunteer said upon hearing news of the project, "Aw man, showers. I love showers. You should get some of those." Residents of my community are not expecting to receive indoor plumbing. That would be like successfully crossing the universe when the plan was to only land on the moon. All my neighbors want is to have a faucet in front of their houses that they can use to fill buckets with water, which they can then take into the house to wash dishes, clean floors, cook, and bathe. Residents would even settle for having faucets on only one side of the road, because it would still be a whole lot easier than what they, what we, have to do now.

Until Thursday there had not been a decent rainstorm since tropical storm Chantal, July 9th. Once everyone used up the rain water they collected, people began to send their kids to fetch water from nearish wells and springs (10 to 30 minutes away). Some families even take a donkeys and horses to the water sources and load the beasts burden with jugs of water (my host-family's donkey is often used for such tasks). On Wednesday my host-mom and her granddaughter went to a spring to do laundry. Luckily, for me, it rained the next day so this weekend I got to use the semi-automatic (ie. labor intensive) washing machine at home.

Other things:

• I got to meet a Canadian, who owns a farm in my community. She has a whale watching business and wants to organize school trips with me for this winter when humpback whales migrate to the bay of Samaná to give birth. She also runs a dog rescue program - very much needed here. When I visited her home there were 16 dogs running around. I want to adopt one of them but there were so many to choose from I couldn't make up my mind! You can check out all the adorable puppies on their Facebook page Samaná Dogs.
• Wednesday was my last day of summer school. We had a party and the kids were well behaved. Still, I was disappointed not as many kids came as I expected. Who doesn't want to come to a party?!
• This week I started teaching English to adults (16yrs+). There were over 30 people in attendance so we are splitting the class into two. I am lucky that my project partners are in the classes. They were able to help maintain order with some of the youth.
• BINGO is a universally popular game. No matter the culture or age, everybody wants to shout BINGO...and get a mint.
• A third Volunteer from my training group has been struck down with dengue  (a mosquito transmitted virus). The good news is that he is already on his way to recovery. The bad news is that all three Volunteers became ill in the capital, which is where I am this week for my community diagnostic presentation.
• Another Volunteer from my training group was sent back to the States, hopefully temporarily, to receive medical treatment (it's called a med-evac in Peace Corps lingo). Please keep her in your prayers.
• I attended a teacher training session this Thursday. Some of the highlights: I arrived first, early, and was rewarded with having to wait around for over an hour to start the session as teachers straggled into the school. One teacher did not recognize a large hand-turn pencil sharpener, the type you can find in almost every classroom in the States. The teachers all agreed that pencil sharpeners would be useful to have in the classroom as students often use razor blades to sharpen their pencils.
• I received my first card! And it wasn't from my family - such slackers. Thanks to the friends who sent it and the goodies that accompanied it. The anti-itch cream has sadly come in handy this week. I also received a card today from another friend in Russia - she mailed it in April but it got here! You can send me snail mail too! My address is here.

Campo Data

Cards from some of my students

Eres la mejor profesora que yo [h]e tenido en mi vida" Translation: You are the best teacher I have ever had in my life.

That line comes from a note one of my students wrote to me. It also included a smiling heart and a flower. My last post was a little on the negative side about my students so I'd like to clarify that they can be really sweet and kind, sometimes they just get a little too rowdy.

This week has been much like the past month, I have been teaching in the morning, and in the afternoon I have been finishing up my interviews for my community diagnostic. I have also been going through the data the last Volunteer collected during her community diagnostic. Community Diagnostic is the term Peace Corps uses to describe the research Volunteers are supposed to perform during their first three months at site. A typical community diagnostic includes interviews, participation in community meetings, and observations in local institutions such as schools. At the end of the three months Volunteers attended a conference and present their findings along with a representative from their community. Everyone discusses the work together and then the Volunteer and community partner plan out their projects for the next year. I have my conference in three weeks.

I've already begun to prepare my presentation so I'll give you all a sneak peak. The following are graphs based off the information collected by the previous Volunteer. She did a survey of 124 houses in the community - by my count there are 145 houses in the community.

Average Income in my community is $6,233 pesos monthly, or $135 US dollars. I make about twice that, and I only have to take care of myself - not four people, which is the average family size here in my community. Luckily, it seems everyone here either works in agriculture or has family who does, so hunger isn't that big of an issue here.

Monthly Income in my community

Another positive is housing structures. There are only three houses in my community made entirely out of zinc, and about a third of houses are made out of cement and cinder blocks - nice and sturdy for those pesky tropical storms.

Housing Materials

 I have mentioned in the past that there is no running water in my community. So where do we get water from? Rain (Lluvia), Wells (Pozos), Rivers (Ríos), or we buy it (Comprar). I was surprised by how few people said they collected rain water. The questionnaire left water sources open ended so I think people forgot to write that they collect rain water because they just assumed that it was redundant to write down what everyone uses. I have yet to meet someone who does not use rain water.

Water Sources

Before I left for the DR, I spoke to my Church's youth group about my decision to join the Peace Corps. We also talked about my potential living situation. When I mentioned that I might have to use a latrine one boy asked why I couldn't just use a port-a-potty. We then had a discussion about the logistical difficulties of giving everyone with a latrine a port-a-potty. Since I have arrived in the DR I have only had to use a latrine during a visit to another Volunteer's site. In my current house I have to walk outside to use the bathroom but it does have a toilet. Since there is no running water here, I do have to bucket flush (pour water in the bowl to manually flush) but it definitely beats a latrine. Anyway, here in my community I am in the minority. The majority of families use latrines, and some do not even have those. Note, the Volunteer before me installed 7 eco-latrines, so the number of people without latrines is inaccurate in this graph. My best guess would be there are three or four families lacking bathroom facilities. Also, for the non-Spanish speakers: Inodoro = toilet, Letrina Individual/Colectivo = Latrine Individual/Shared, No Sanitario = No bathroom.

Bathrooms

Now wasn't all that exciting and interesting! At the very least I hope you appreciated the colorful graphs. When my presentation is completed I'll make it available to all you data loving nerds - warning it will be in Spanish. A question for my data loving nerd friends, do any of you know of any good papers that discuss the relationship between frequently reading, having access to books, and adult literacy? If so send them my way!

Going to the River

 "Suuuuussssie can we go the the river PLEASE," pleads my host sister

"Okay," I say

"I LOVE YOU," screams my host sister and she hugs and kisses me and the other neighborhood kids cheer.

     If you couldn't tell by that brief conversation, the river is the place to be once school is out for summer. But most parents don't let their kids go to the river without supervision, hence the kids always ask me to take them to the river. Getting to the river is an adventure in itself. The path to the river winds through cow pastures which mean in addition to dodging cow pies,  I also have to carefully cross several barbed wire fences. Sometimes there are gates, sometimes we have to get creative, and sometimes we get sliced.

That barbed wire will get you!

     Once at the river, the coolest thing to do is to tirar, literally throw yourself,  off a ledge. It's not that high, but the kids were really impressed when I tirared for the first time without hesitation. Their minds would be blown if they went to an American amusement park.

The River

Climbing up the ledge

     Before you leave the river it is expected that you whip out your soap and start scrubbing. Since there is no running water in my community and trip to the river kills two birds with one stone; you get to play and you save water. I am not super knowledgable about the environment but I still feel a little uneasy when I see people putting all those chemicals in the river. I also learned that people use the river to clean out cow intestines for the classic Dominican dish Mondongo. I laughed when my host sister told me she was grateful that I don't like Mondongo because she helped was the cow intestines once at the river and she has never been able to eat Mondongo again. Sister Solidarity.

Also going on:

     I am very grateful for my mosquito net:

I have several of these guys in my room.

      The Governor kept one of his promises; bags of food were given to every house in the community. Apparently the bags typically only arrive when politicians come to town, so basically right before elections. Also, the desks at the school are being repaired. Hopefully the Governor will keep up his promise about funding for the library. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 Showing off their rice and beans.

The Governor Comes to Town

     "The governor will be here at 5pm so let's start the meeting at 4pm to make sure everyone arrives before him." - Mayor

    And so it was that a little white lie was spread around town ensuring a packed room to greet the Governor of Samaná, Enriquillo Lalane. Some people were so excited about the governor's arrival that some people arrived early. I had never witnessed Dominicans at an event early; having the governor visit was a big deal. When the governor arrived, on time, there were over 40 residents present to discuss the needs of the community.

    The first concern brought to the governor's attention is the lack of running water in the community. Water is by far the top need in the community. As I have previously mentioned, everyone here collects rain water and when it doesn't rain people either have to carry water from rivers or purchase water, which many residents have told me they consider expensive. Unfortunately the governor's response to this need was not the most compelling. He said there are engineers investigating the issue but as my community is at the top of a hill, water would need to be pumped up hill, so its going to take some time. One resident after the meeting told me he was, like many, unsatisfied with the governor's response. He said if the government truly cared they would have fixed the problem already. He noted that the president travels around the world for meetings and that the money spent on his trips could do a lot of good inside the country.

    The governor was also vague on some of the education issues presented such as the lack of reliable and affordable transportation for high school students (HS is 5km away), and the condition of the chairs at the primary school, which are falling apart after 17 years of use. He said he would call the Ministry of Education and see what they can do. Regarding the library project the mayor forced the governor's hand on this point by presenting a letter from the previous governor pledging his financial support, which never came through. The governor said that the letter embarrassed him and he pledged to fund the repairs to the community building where the library will be located. 

    The governor's response to other community concerns were much better. The governor promised to provide funds to repair a local road, fix several houses, and supply food baskets to all families in the community. I was actually surprised by the level of support offered by the governor. I had been at a similar meeting in the town of Samaná the week before and he did not pledge any concrete action to the concerns presented. I think the meeting in my community was more successful in part because the governor grew up nearby; many residents are family friends and/or were taught by the governor's mother. He probably doesn't want to let people down that can trash talk about him to his family and friends. I am hoping that the local factor will ensure that the governor will come through with his promises but only time will tell.

     In other news:

•  People cannot stop giving me food! In one week I was gifted the following: 2 bags of mangos, 1 bag of passion fruit, branches of limoncillo, toasted corn on the cob, cacao, some leaves for tea, dulce de coco, and coconut water (straight from the coconut).
• My family has a new baby kitten, my host mom says that our other cat isn't a good mouse hunter but she is going to train the kitten properly. I also got to see 10-day-old kittens at a neighbor's house and was told I can have one when they are bigger! Yay for no rodents! For the record I have yet to see any rodents here but I don't want to take any chances.

  

  Newest Member of the Family

• I rode on a motorcycle without holding onto the driver but don't know how if I am willing to try riding side-saddle.
• I am teaching my host sister how to use a computer. Before we started classes she only knew how to turn a computer on and off. We have yet to have a lesson with internet, as I do not have access at my site, but I am excited to show her Google and Wikipedia - she does know what Facebook is and she really wants to make an account. I'll leave you with a photo us taken while playing with Photobooth.

  

  Funny Photos are a Hit Everywhere

Susie's in Samaná

                           Me: "Hola, mi nombre es Susan" (Hi, my name is Susan)

                           New Host Mom: "Suuuzzzaan"

                           Me: "O Susie" (or Susie)

                           New Host Mom: "¡Susie es preciosa!" (Susie is precious!)

View of Samaná from above

     And like so I have been re-named. To my new community in Samaná my name is Susie. Yes, I have arrived at my permanent site here in the DR, and it is in the lush peninsula of Samaná! I live in a small community of 800 people along the side of the road between the towns of Samaná and El Límon. I have already visited all the families in my community minus one or two. There are also two corner stores, a church, hairdresser's, a bar, a lottery, a community building and, a four classroom school. The homes are made of cement or wood, some have zinc roofs others cement. The region of Samaná is a mountain range, which means I can see the ocean from parts of town. The ocean itself is only a 10 minute drive from my house and happens to be the launching off point to go see the humpback whales which come to Samaná every January-April to find love.

Mural in Santa Barbara de Samaná

    Rest assured, live in Samaná is not going to be one long vacation for me (although you are welcome to use your vacation time to visit). My primary project is going to be establishing a library in the community. There is a space set aside for the library but it needs some TLC, such as a floor, a 3rd wall, and books. While I am not working on the library I will be working on other education related projects that are TBD. Part of the beauty of Peace Corps is that the first three months I am in my community I am supposed to focus my attention on getting to know my neighbors and along the way the strengths and weakness of the community.

     For example, while visiting my community I learned that there is no running water in town. All residents collect rain water and when that runs out they gather water from nearby rivers or pay for water to be delivered. My community is the only one in the area without water and they feel neglected by the government. Last year they held a peaceful protest about the lack of water and a man in the community was shot and killed by the police. My host sister said that the dead man did not approve of a policeman who liked his married daughter, and the police used the protest as an excuse to kill an innocent man. It made national headlines when it occurred. And you thought telenovelas exaggerated things. I would like to help improve the situation but I am not sure in what way I can be of best use for my community in this situation. Hopefully, I will figure something out in the next three months.

   To end on a positive note, next Saturday I am going here with a church group from my community:

Las Terrenas