September 21st

It is currently September 21^st, and I’m hardcore chillin in my hammock. This thing was the best thing I packed- it’s the Peace Corps version of a couch. Woke up today at 7 am, took my dog for a walk (more on her later) spent about half an hour bringing buckets of water back and forth to my house, ate breakfast, read a little bit, and here I am. Nothing noteworthy has happened recently, so I’ll catch you up on my life this past year and my feelings about la Republica Dominicana. 

First- here’s an update on the work I’m doing. I had explained in my prior post my projects before I left for America, but I made a point to finish those before I was gone for a long period of time because they would never pick back up when I came back. Right now I have a boys group, I’m starting a new program called “Somos Familia” and I’m working on a new round of “Deportes para la Vida” groups.

 As for secondary projects, I have solicited an organization called “Courts for Kids”, in which we raise money for a court and a group of Americans come to my community for 3-4 days and we build the court with people from my community. I haven’t officially gotten approved yet, but a representative from the organization is coming to La Ceiba to check out my site and the specific land I have planned. Fingers crossed it all goes well, it would be an amazing project for myself and my community!

Another big project I’m trying to take on is to fix a bus that used to go through my community that took kids to the university. When I was doing my community diagnostic back in November, I found that there was a very large amount of youth 18 and up that didn’t attend the university. When I asked why, I was told that even though La Ceiba is geographically close to the capital, it takes a very long time and is expensive to get to the university. I can definitely back that up, I’m usually exhausted by the time I get to the capital. Between finding/riding a motorcycle, waiting 30 mins for a packed bus, riding that packed bus for 45 mins, riding a packed metro for 30 mins, then walking about 20 minutes to the peace corps office, it’s almost 2 hours later and I’m sweaty and ready for a nap. People also aren’t able to take night classes because there are no busses that come back to my community past 7:30 pm, and it’s dangerous to take a moto or a car that late at night. But last week I was talking to a friend in my community and she told me that about 2 years ago there used to be a bus that ran through La Ceiba from 6 am to 10 pm and took people directly to the university quickly and cheaply, but it broke down. I asked where the bus was now and she said it’s just sitting in the next city over. I’m in the process of finding the owner of the bus, but it’s been really hard. And even when I do eventually find him, it’s going to be difficult to convince him to go along with my project, raise the funds, find a driver, etc. It’s a great idea in theory, but I’m going to need a lot of help and compliance from Dominicans, which is hard to find. But if successful, it would be a project that would change a lot of lives by making it easier to obtain a university education. If anyone wants to help in a monetary fashion for either of these projects, let me know J it’s greatly needed!

Now that you’re up to speed about my official duties as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I can share my feelings about living here for over a year now. It’s definitely been a rollercoaster of emotions. Some days I’m so happy to be here, living an abnormal life, learning a new language and doing work that really matters and will last a lifetime. But other days I yearn for familiarity, the easiness of America and the company of my friends and family. Sometimes just the ups and downs of how I feel about this place is exhausting. One day I’m on cloud 9 when one of my girls tells me how I changed her life just by starting and organizing a volleyball team, and the next day I want to pack my bags and get out of here when I’m sexually harassed by countless men just by walking my dog. In my pajamas. I never know what kind of day I’ll have.

Throughout all the good and bad times I’ve had this past year, not much compared to the month of August. I had prepared myself to go through the quickest, most painless readjustment period I could go through when I returned from the states, but I had no idea what I was talking about. I remember telling my mom on the phone the week before I got home, “Mom, it’ll be fine. I’m happy here and I know what it’s like so it won’t be a surprise when I get back. Relax!” But I was wrong. Of course I knew what it was like living in a campo in the DR, but what I had forgotten was how awesome it was in America. Yes the amenities were nice, but the thing I didn’t realize I had missed the most was feeling truly comfortable and relaxed. I was having conversation I was enjoying (and that I wasn’t excluded from because I can’t speak Spanish at the speed a group of Dominican ladies can), my mind didn’t have to work to translate what someone was saying to me, and then formulate a response in English and translate it back in Spanish, and I could easily just enjoy the company of people I have missed for a very long time. When I arrived in Miami to see Meghan, I unexpectedly slept for a good amount of the time I was there. I wasn’t even tired, but when I was in a dark, quiet, climate controlled room and I had just stuffed myself with pizza, I was out like a light. Her boyfriend said “Geez, it’s like you haven’t slept in a year! Oh wait….” Yes, it’s exactly like I haven’t slept in a year! When I came back to the DR I just kind of stood in my house and looked around and realized it was going to be tough getting used to all of it again for another whole year. It was amazing to realize how used to living in 3^rd world poverty I was, how I didn’t think twice about all the weird things I did- carrying buckets of water, going to the bathroom out in the woods in a hole in the ground, bucket bathing, electricity for only a couple hours a day, killing tarantulas, etc. To make the adjustment period even worse, a tropical storm came my 1^st weekend back and broke our electricity for about a month. No electricity means no water, no charged computer or phone, and no fan. I mean, I only had it a couple hours a day anyway- but those were an important couple of hours. I could only bathe every couple days, I couldn’t wash my dishes (maggots grew on them) and I wore dirty clothes. I kind of just opened all my doors and windows and laid on my floor and read books. The electricity poles have finally been fixed, and let me tell you, I have never been more grateful for the few hours we have a day. It’s funny how even the littlest thing can get taken away and I can now realize how appreciative I am for it, instead of complaining when it goes out. These life lessons just keep coming!

The Dominican culture has also been a huge hurdle to overcome. I have never met anyone in America that even resembles a Dominican. They’re the type of people who do something nice and come to my house to bring me lunch or a bucket of water to bathe with, then criticize me on how pale I am or how I don’t leave my house enough, etc. They have “I love Jesus” or “Christ saves” banners on their cars, but then try to rip me off because I’m American.  Once a woman paid me a nice compliment, but then nearly knocked me over pushing me aside to get to be the first on the metro. They’re the nicest, most inconsiderate people. It makes sense, trust me. They will help me in any way possible if I have a problem, but they won’t think twice about making a bad comment about my appearance or my Spanish. It drives me crazy! Luckily, I have a host family that is amazing and supports me in every way possible. They did call me “gordita” once, but I took it as a compliment. Rice and beans all day, baby!

Professionally, it’s definitely a challenge. Meeting starts at 2, they trickle in around 3 and we don’t start until 3:30. Cell phones ring, they take the call in the middle of the presentation and talk over me. If it rains, no one comes. Then no one comes to the next meeting because no one came to the last one, and I have to go to their houses and remind them that the program is still running. I had a 2 day conference and I was taking 2 Dominicans. I reminded them once a week about the conference, and went to each of their houses about 5 days before to confirm their assistance and to tell them what to bring. The night before we leave I get a text from one of them saying they simply “can’t go anymore” and that’s it. I go to their houses to demand a reason and one says he has to work and the other one just didn’t feel like it anymore. Times like these make me question my presence here. Why am I doing all this if they don’t seem to care about my work? But then I just have to realize that this is their culture, it’s not personal. They’ve never really had to be anywhere at a specific time, pay attention without talking, or keep their word about something they committed to. They’re not going to change what they’ve been doing their entire lives just because some white girl does things differently. If I want to be successful here, I need to be patient and pick and choose what I let bother me. It’s all worth it when I hear people in my presentations speaking their minds about gender inequality or teenage pregnancy, even if they were an hour late :)