I'm Slacking

Well, I’ve officially failed at this blog thing. It’s not like anyone I really know reads it anymore so I’m really just writing to satisfy the needs of random strangers flipping through blogs. As I had expected my life now compares nothing to the life I shared with you in August which was in reality the last official blog which stated my status in the Peace Corps.

I quit working with the USAID funded tourism cluster... What a disaster that was! I ended up leaving because there were really hard feelings about an 'inexperienced' twenty something year old (me) coming in and telling older executives (Dominican Nationals) how USAID would like to monitor the project. Needless to say it is a ton of paperwork. No one wants to do it as requested so we end up doing it a million times until these executives realize that USAID won’t budge until it’s done properly. I was eventually ostracized from internal activity.

I don’t understand how little volunteer me can be considered a threat to an NGO but regardless it’s over and I am more than relived. As soon as I left I took up an opening as a regional volunteer leader which makes me responsible of ensuring new volunteers are safe especially in cases of emergencies. Although I’m overseeing many volunteers, this really does not take up to much time on my schedule so I have also volunteered my time with FDD Foundation Dominicana de Desarrollo, a micro financing organization. This job is definitely more of my forte. In reality the team is a team and there are specific issues that need to be tackled which are so nice to have. I’m done with ambiguity.

I was asked to join a team of two ladies who are in charge of program innovation. Although this information is broad, there is only so much I can say. I’m not even sure how much I can :). I’m basically working on a large scale organization diagnostic. The goal; keep the employees and clients happy. There are many ways to do this and not to do this and the foundation has entrusted me and the other consultants with tactics and its implementation. Again very vague.

I’ve been doing both jobs now since October and honestly couldn’t be happier with all I’m learning and being able to do. I get to continue my interacting and participating with the spirit of a volunteer and the people as well as work with a pretty well structured organization.

The best part of it all is that I can still play a role in my old community. I received the funding necessary to construct my ladies stove, which I hope to begin constructing in June (too much else going on between now and then). As mentioned in my previous blog, this stove not only offers my ladies an opportunity to generate income by selling a wide variety of baked goods but it also provides the community to consume goods that are nutrient rich as opposed to the stale breads available at mini markets. Im very excited to see how it all turns out.

I have about ten months left in my service, which really leaves me little time to figure out what is next. I have school on my mind but need to find the way to balance my schedule better in order to discipline myself to study. Ok, my head feels likes exploding when thinking about all of this. Thanks for reading!

Marite