Let's Talk About Sex

Making Condom Balloons

It has been said that you are not a true Peace Corps Volunteer until you have shown your neighbors how to properly use a condom. When I heard that I thought, “Psh, I am going to be working with small children, no way will I end up doing a condom demonstration.” Then last week I held a Fiesta de Cóndones (Condom Party) at my house with over 30 kids screaming, “I want a condom!” Kids as young as 10 made condom balloons, played games to learn about the risks posed by HIV/AIDS, reviewed how to use a condom, and, of course, practiced putting on condoms with the help of some plantains, a carrot, and a wooden phallus I was given by Peace Corps for just such an occasion.

Interviewing President Condom

Many readers back home are probably shocked at the notion of 10 year-olds practicing putting a condom on a vegetable, but I have received no complaints from parents about the event. Why? Because parents here know how important it is for their kids to receive good sex education. Sadly, the D.R. has the highest rate of pre-teen pregnancy (kids 12 years-old and under). News stories about pregnant 9 year-olds are not uncommon. HIV/AIDS is also a big problem in the country. HIV/AIDS is the number one killer of women age 15 to 24 years old.

I don’t want to see any of my young neighbors become pregnant when they themselves are still children. Nor do I want to attend any of their funerals. I will never know how my sex talk impacted all of my students. But I hope it will help them to resist peer pressure, and instead make informed decisions about their sexual lives.

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.

La Luz

Dominican Political Cartoon

Woman, "Everyone on earth gets excited to see the emblematic (symbolic) buildings shut-off during Earth Hour."
Man, "Whatever is here doesn't get anyone excited because we are accustomed to seeing everything shut-off!"

The Dominican Republic has a huge energy problem, black-outs are a regular occurrence. Most people are used to daily black-outs, even in the capital. I was once in an IKEA store (in a ritzy area of the capital), and when the power went out no one screamed or even complained. We all just waited around for a few minutes until the generator turned on. That's when people shouted, "¡La luz llegó!" Literally, the power has arrived. It is the standard reaction when the power comes back on. The fact that there is a catch-phrase for the end of a power-outage shows just how routine blackouts are here.

Access to electricity varies in every community. Cities tend to have more electricity, but if you live in a poor neighborhood you could have no power schedule at all, and be at the will of the power company. But that is probably because you aren't paying for your electricity. 30% of all the electricity used in the D.R. is stolen. That is the highest rate in the world.

In my community we have power from 6am to noon, and again from 6pm to midnight. I think it is a pretty sweet schedule. Other volunteers have to deal with rotating schedules: one day on followed by one day off, or one week power in the morning and the next week at night. One volunteer's power depends on how much power the local sugar cane factory is using. The factory controls the power so she gets more power during harvest season. I like the consistency of my schedule. However, I still have to deal with down cables, exploding transformers, etc. that can lead to out of schedule outages sometimes lasting over 24 hours. The current infrastructure can't handle the current usage demands which causes things to break often and be poorly repaired, thus continuing the cycle.

Some of my neighbors are happy with our power schedule. They say that if we had power 24 hours a day they wouldn't be able to pay their electricity bill. Power is very expensive in the D.R. because all the oil has to be imported, at a high cost, which is passed along to consumers. Which is why many people steal their power, which causes the price to be even higher for everyone else. Politics and corruption also play their role in the cost of electricity, but are too complicated to go into here.

The World Bank estimates that if the power issue was resolved the GDP would grow an additional 2% a year, and it's already growing at 5% (which means the economy is growing at a steady pace). Which is why everyone from the World Bank to Richard Branson are trying to help the D.R. and other Caribbean countries solve their energy problems. This will take time, so when you visit me remember to bring your flashlight!

Other things of interest:

• Library construction has begun! We finally got permission and built the bridge, and work on support columns for the new roof has begun. 
• We also are holding a raffle to raise funds to purchase new chairs for the community center. First prize is a washing machine, 2nd is a 50lb sack of rice, and 3rd is a gallon of vegetable oil. Tickets are $100 pesos each or $2.50 dollars. You know you wanna buy at least four for $10.
• The water here is purified. The problem is that the tubes that bring the water to homes have too many contamination points to make the water safe to drink when it reaches the faucet.
• On Friday Pato (my cat) showed off his hunting prowess by bringing a dead rat into the house! I shrieked when I saw it, and my neighbor did the same thing when she saw it. Then we looked at each other and laughed, but when we looked at the rat we began shrieking again. I tossed the rat outside, but that was enough excitement for my neighbor who promptly left. That night I noticed that Pato had a blood stain on his front paw, definitely earning his keep.
• During church on Palm Sunday, palms were handed out. But these palms were fresh, someone brought in a big branch from a tree in their yard. They were nothing like the dry palms I got at my church in the States. Yet another win for life in the D.R., although the U.S. does have electricity all the time.

This Week

There is no such thing as a ho-hum routine week for me in the D.R. In the past week the following has happened:

Dominican Wives Only an Email Away!

• I went kayaking in the ocean at a friend's site - my life here is sooo tough.
• I saw a 10 year-old students run naked in front of his house - not the first time I have seen him do this.
• A Dominican friend asked for my opinion on a job offer she received to become a mail order bride in Europe. I told her that the type of men who need to buy a wife are typically not the kind you want to marry.
• My power went out, outside of its normal schedule, leaving me in the dark for a few days. I also got to see sparks fly out of the transformer in front of my house, and learn new vocabulary: candela - spark, prestando - flickering, as in the lights are flickering.
• A teacher painted my fingernails...during class.
• A boy climbed up a coconut tree and shared the coconuts he knocked down with me, other volunteers, and a security guard who left his rifle lying in the sand while he ate with us.

  

  Climbing for Coconuts

• I saw an ostrich while at a teacher training conference at a one room school house. The ostrich is a pet. It is the second pet ostrich I have seen in as many months. You can also buy peacocks from a guy in town.
• My girls youth group has decided that they want to go to the national book fair in the capital. So far this week they have held a raffle for a gallon of oil, and sold habichuelas con dulce (sweet beans) on the side of the road, just like kids in the States sell lemonade.
• It didn't happen this week but, while I was traveling the outside of my house was painted!

  

  Romeo Guarding Our Newly Painted Home

Walking

The word andar in Spanish typically means to walk, but here in the D.R. it is mostly used to indicate someone has been traveling. You can imagine my confusion then, when I first arrived, and thought that certain people in my community were avid walkers, but I never saw them exercising. Recently, I have been andando mucho here are the highlights:

Surprise Birthday Party!

For my birthday I went whale-watching with friends; the whales were not too active but it didn't matter because I spent a day on the beach with friends, my community threw me a surprise party, and a bunch of friends sent me cards from America. Thanks for all the love guys!

Following my birthday I spent a few days in the capital discussing volunteer concerns with Peace Corps staff. I arrived back to my site in time for Carnival (the D.R.'s independence day celebrations).

Typical Carnival Costume

The next day I left with three members of my girls youth group to participate in a three-day conference. There were sessions on healthy foods, good relationships, AIDS, as well as, a talent show, and condom party. I was in charge of crafts, so we made friendship bracelets (Thanks, again, Kelly!).

Representing Samaná with Flow (Style)

After the conference I had a break for a few days and then I headed down to Paraíso (Paradise) located the southern part of the country. I didn't travel alone, with me was my friend Courtney, her cat Luna, and her dog Nelly. I had been pet sitting for Courtney for three months while she changed communities (she had security issues at her initial site). The journey took us 15 hours!  We left my home at 3:30 am but only after running around with flashlights looking for Luna after she escaped her pet carrier. The two of us plus Luna squeezed onto a motorcycle with a neighbor who drove us into town where we picked up Nelly and waited for the bus. Once on the bus Luna began to cry just like a baby. Only a cat is worse than a baby because most people, especially Dominicans on a bus at 4:30am, do not have any sympathy - I could feel the loathing of the other passengers. We were charged an extra ticket because of how annoying Luna acted.

We arrived in the capital at 8am and expected to be getting on another bus to the south at 10am. However, the driver of said bus decided not to make the trip that day and we ended up waiting until 2:30pm to continue our journey. Luna, apparently defeated, was quiet for the second leg of the trip. The silence made the views much more enjoyable. We arrived in Paraíso as the sun set, and went to in bed at 8:30pm.

A Tough Place to Live - Paraíso

The next day, Courtney and I walked 10 minutes to the beach that gives the town its name. Later we went to a different beach, San Rafael, where we met up with another volunteer from the region, Sara. I then traveled with Sara to her site, El Palmar. Like me, Sara lives in a campo (farming or countryside) community, but it couldn't be anymore different from my own. Where I have rolling hills covered in palm trees she has flat arid land covered with sugar cane. I live on a highway, Sara lives in a neighborhood with tree-lined sidewalks. My neighbors raise pigs, hers raise sheep. I am bitten up by black flies, while she has so many mosquitoes you can hear them buzzing around in packs (the blood-suckers gave Sara dengue fever - not fun). One thing that was the same between our two communities was the friendliness of the people. Everyone said hello, many gave me hugs and kisses, one man even gave me a beer.

Mountains on the Horizon

The journey back to my site was much less painful without the animals, and it only took nine hours. I was back in my site just long enough to chat with neighbors, hold some meetings, and wash laundry before I set off again. This week I am in the capital working on the volunteer magazine the Gringo Grita (Shouting American). Since I am in the capital, I will have internet and skyping capabilities all week. So, chat me up!

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!

Literacy in the D.R.

When I received my invitation to serve in the D.R. I initially thought I was going to be teaching English. It took me a second read-through to realize that the literacy Peace Corps wanted me to help improve was Spanish not English. Others are often confused as well, when I say I am helping to improve literacy rates in the D.R. they assume I mean English literacy. It is such a simple assumption to make, of course a country so close to the States and dependent on tourism would consider English literacy a top priority. It shocks us, fortunate enough to have grown up with the U.S. Public School System, that a nation so close and intertwined with our own could have so many difficulties educating its youth.

Basic literacy in the D.R. is a huge problem, currently the D.R.'s literacy rate is 133 out of 205 countries (from the CIA Work Factbook). What does that number represent?

It represents nine year-old kids in the second grade who can't write their names. It represents the two shift school day, which means students have class for three to four hours a day. It represents the lack of textbooks and workbooks in the classroom (forget computers). It represents the poor pay and poor training of teachers. It represents the days of school lost because rain has made the dirt road too muddy.

The number 133 and all it represents, makes me feel like, at times, the work I am doing is a drop in the bucket. But there are moments that warm my heart, that let me know that my work is important to those I reach. Like when my students smile when they read a word on their own, or when a teacher arranges for students to come to both sessions of school.

I always knew that teachers had a tough and under-appreciated job, but I never realized how hard they have to work until I started working alongside them. If you are a teacher you have my utmost respect. Thank-you for all the work that you do.

Now onto random, non-sentimental thoughts:

• My grant (that I originally submitted in September) has been funded! I now have a whole $5,000 to put to use. Hopefully the news will get my library committee energized enough to begin building repairs.
• There was a nation wide commercial strike. All businesses were supposed to be closed for two days to protest rising costs and a potential tax increase. Samaná didn't take things too seriously, most corner stores were open the whole time and nothing closed on the second day.
• School is tiring me out! I want to be in bed by 10pm at the latest.
• Last time I was in town the power was out aka no internet fun for me. The town of Samaná is supposed to have power 24/7 but like everything in the D.R. it is not a guarantee.
• Someone from Majorca asked if I was from Spain. I felt great, until that evening when my project partner gave me a book on Spanish grammar.
• Things I can't find in town: pot holder, can opener, wine opener, large bowls (for mixing and popcorn), and grape jam (I can find orange, pineapple,  guayaba etc).
• My 10 year-old neighbor said I was her best friend! So exciting because I think of her as my best friend too. We read and play a lot together, including making karaoke videos to Prince Royce songs. |'ll eventually have good enough internet and post a video of the two of us singing into hairbrushes.