October 27th, 2010, made our cohort’s one year mark as sworn in Peace Corps Volunteers. The majority of the crew spent the weekend celebrating our anniversary as well Halloween in Playa San Rafael and Bahia de las Aguilas. During this time there was not one waking moment where we were not cracking up over something ridiculous from the past or from that very moment. Our party could be picture as the most successful organized chaos ever.
Prior to our planned festivities, Cholera broke out in Haiti and we were informed within a few days that all volunteers were required to consolidate in order to receive up to date information as well as some training to pass along to our communities. This consolidation affected our party plans for a few hours until some members of our party committee took responsibility into their own hands and arranged for our training to be held a few hours before other volunteers in order to keep our original itinerary. Needless to say all went well; Success! There was perfect weather in the South although there was a tropical storm approaching.
A day after our return from our R&R, again we were informed that we must consolidate again due to Tomas’ approach on the island. So this past week was spent in a hotel in Santiago. Not much got done but most volunteers benefitted from some quiet peaceful Z’s, real showers, as well as hearty food.
Now I’m back at site where it is really chilly and showers are pretty unbearable (I know…At least I have water…its ice water though).
My priorities are getting more cholera info out there although I’m pretty behind on things. All I know is that if a storm hits and there is a bad water supply or cholera spreads in DR, people need the basic preventative info. A volunteer told me that some Dominicans along the border don’t want Haitians traveling with them on public transportation. Some nationals believe it’s a Haitian disease. I’d like to correct some of these erroneous beliefs if I do come across them. If there were ever a breakout here in my site, it could easily become chaotic considering how difficult transportation is and the nearest hospital is located 23 Km away down a spiraling mountain road.
My latrine project should begin in December, si dios quiere! And legalization of my villages association continues progressing slowly.
Most of the time is spent on organizational and administration stuff for health promoters and Health NGO’s working with youth on AIDS Prevention. I have a team of 17 health promoters that are spread across all 8 communities in this municipal district. These ladies are your best bet if in this region and find yourself in need of medical attention. At the moment I’m trying to get information together from all 17 promoters in hopes of having some kind of file system or database of all the patients currently benefitting from their assistance. Like this some of these patients who rarely ever see professional help if at all, have some sort of medical history to take with them. So I have spent a number of hours making digital copies of countless numbers of people and their information from pages of indecipherable handwriting. I don’t say this to be rude but keep in mind the majority of the woman I work with maybe made it to high school and have dedicated themselves to house work and being health promoters.
There is something called ‘one year blues’ for some volunteers. I translate this as being the realization that a year past so quickly with little done and the next year may fly by faster and we still have a long to do list that we hope to get done. Granted this may not be every volunteer’s definition of ‘the one year blues’ however this is what I’m feeling right now. I can’t say ill get all I want done but if I have learned anything at all during my time on this island, is to take the path of least resistance and not to fret because it all ends up working out (while working towards the goal of course). More updates to come
XOXO
M
