March-May

I guess I can say things have been pretty slow these last few months at site and off site. Collectively, one can say a lot has been done however the time I have put into my service per day has been much less in comparison to my work schedule before. This has proven to be tough to swallow for me. To feel more productive I have taken it upon myself to research potential schools and dedicate a few hours a day to my GRE exam, which I hope to take in June.

I however still feel guilty that my service in site is coming to an end and that these last few months are dedicated mostly for my own benefit and loosely wrapping up legalization work and the construction of a few more latrines. There is a group of volunteers that have completed their service and are returning to the states this Friday; officially making my cohort the seniors in PCDR. Our service is scheduled to end in 6 months, which is really hard to believe.

In reality, the projects that I am working on are now pretty much running on their own. For example my youth group for HIV/AIDS prevention has become sustainable for the time being, expanding more and more each month. Last October I recommended one of my youth to take the role of Regional Coordinator and be the one to create an action plan and timeline to target more youth in the area of Jarabacoa. I am still in charge of financing from a grant I received distributing money based on my regional coordinators expenses. In other words my responsibilities have become almost non-existent. The regional Coordinator has done an amazing job. I’m really moved by how dedicated he has become in this role. He is doing a better job than I feel I could have done in all honesty.

The Coordinator has created a team of his own who have graduated from the program I taught last year. They are now branching out and teaching the courses to other youth in the area. So far two new groups have received training and graduated. A new course is well on its way. A festival for Easter was hosted for all the youth in the area. Other regional coordinators and their youth were also invited to attend. It was a very well planned event. The municipal government lent out a projector, screen and a sound system for the presentations. The youth prepared choreography, poems and songs for the occasion. Lunch was prepared by local volunteers. I wasn't asked to do anything other than provide the funding. Truthfully, I feel a little unproductive for not having volunteered myself, however the purpose of our service is to teach and multiply, right? I should be satisfied knowing that my youth group is capable of hosting a function on their own not asking me for one piece of advice.

I am also having the same luck with my health promoters. Well I feel like they have always been sustainable because they have steady income from an NGO, however they are better established and have a stronger action plan for the coming years, when I am no longer present.

I finally received my first grant toward the new national health consortium project. 8 health volunteers and myself each received about 10 grand U.S. (PEPFAR FUNDING) specifically for educational material, transport, food, and some leg room to teach youth and woman about prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. This is basically what I have been doing in my community but on a larger scale. The money I was given for my community initiative was around 500 US and my team has multiplied the awareness on a pretty large scale in my opinion so you can imagine what can be done with 10 grand each a total of 90 grand. The volunteers that received this funding were asked to open these accounts with a leader from an assigned local health NGO. The point of this project is not only to multiply awareness on a very large scale but to enable these Health NGO's to take up this initiative on their own so Peace Corps can pull away and leave this responsibility to them, with the proper training and mission and vision. As the National Coordinator for this consortium, I have already heard feedback from most volunteers working on this initiative and unfortunately we are foreseeing obstacles which entails lack of motivation, maybe some special interest and inefficient use of funding. Each volunteer knowing that a little money can go a very long way, we feel that our initiative should be redefined before spending this large amount of money. So at the moment I am working with volunteers coming up with ideas and plans to better our project plan and long term goals.

Recently I have begun involving members of the community association with the legalization process. In all honesty I need them by my side in order to complete the process and to feel that they can defend themselves if or when something occurs where they may need legal assistance. This endeavor has really opened my eyes as to how backwards the system is here. Every step takes weeks which would take a few hours or a day back at home. The money that has been poured into transportation alone would prohibit any villager from taking the time to do this. I have literally lost count as to how many times my paper work has been turned down because it lacked a ‘minor detail’ when in reality I followed their guidelines step by step (which they hand out). It has come to the point where I feel some offices don’t want to recognize community associations as a legal entity. I don’t want to believe this but it’s been almost a year now when I should have been done a few months into the work. I don’t like to admit it but I’ve cried from frustration when usually I’m pretty patient and understanding. Im crossing my fingers and praying that this process will be completed by Mid-June.

March and April were basically dedicated to revamping the ecological latrine Manual that was adopted form Bolivia. Some artist were kind enough to re-due drawings of social situations and step by step latrine construction (people now look Dominican rather than late 20th century south/central american). This manual will be used by the new sworn in Appropriate Technology volunteers who trained in this construction at my site in April. My friend Andrea and I are rewriting and 'dominicanizing' the manual for future use. Having appropriate technology trainees at my site was really enjoyable. I helped with the construction of 4 latrines; 2 VIP (Ventilated, improved pit Latrine) as well as 2 dry pit latrines (ecological latrines).

Celebration for Peace Corps 50th anniversary has been going on for some time now. in March a Congressional Delegation came to the Dominican Republic. This CODEL was ran by Senator Leahy and led by Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams. The delegation arrived and traveled to a Batey 6 (Sugar Cane Plantation) in the East visiting a youth volunteer and her community, then they met up with the Leonel Fernandez and Finally ended the day with a Dinner at the US Embassy. I had the great pleasure of speaking on behalf of all the volunteers in the country and those serving around the world. There is also a PC Committee that is working on other great projects to celebrate the last 50 years of PC.

This is all I have for now. Grands Bissous!

M

January and February

I should be a master organizer. I like nothing better than to take a pile of junk and having it make sense. I see a mess, I get excited. Yes, my writing this is strange but I realize I spend a large amount of my time currently in my service just organizing. This habit takes over me in almost every aspect of my day to day. I’m not sure if this is OCD or if it’s a talent. I want to think it as a talent but frankly the latter makes more sense. The reader may want to be the judge.

I spent practically my entire morning re-arranging my book shelf (decent size at this point of my service) browsing materials that can be given to incoming volunteers and those picking up new projects. Subconsciously I am already making a slow move to the Capital for my third-year assignment as well as forestalling a pack-rat habit. I literally want to move back to the states with a suitcase and nothing more.

This upcoming Month of March is starting to look too busy. The calendar is filling up and all I can do Is plan exactly how some days need to run in order to make it flow. Otherwise, Catastrophe!!! I cannot accept this. (This is all normally, normal; just not too this degree).

Yes, Maybe I assumed too many responsibilities but here in the DR things fall through all the time and there is nothing worse than being the only Americana, in a village, feeling useless and bored. Unacceptable. The problem is that recently everything is functioning and taking shape….>…. This is great! March includes the following: Training of aspiring appropriate technology volunteers in my community. I’m assisting this year’s water sector trainer, mainly for latrine construction…mind you, I didn’t single handedly build any of my latrines (it was a community effort; people who know how to build latrines pretty well). This training will last 5 weeks

My friend Andrea and I are tearing apart the current manual/coloring which breaks down in elementary terms the spread of contamination by grossing out the village woman and through teaching basic sanitation. This manual is meant to better integrate and condition woman in the appropriate use of this ecological latrine. I can speak for many volunteers and say that it can pretty challenging keeping up with the attention span of any one person when speaking of such a subject and training a person to break many old habits. The manual currently has many dense and repetitive areas. Andrea and I really want this manual to be more user friendly for future volunteers and be more educational because we don’t lose our audience. ----More organizing.

These past 2 months involved lots of organizing: work-related travel, visits from fellow volunteers, latrine inauguration, Scuba diving training and because I don’t know when to stop, I was fighting some disease throughout this time I also hemorrhaged my ears after my dives. I’ve seen many doctors in these three months which accounts for my damaging my ears, my tummy ailment, personal management J and one truly inspiring medical mission. Ooh and I forget a wonderful woman’s Camp, where I got to work with some of my favorite people. I no longer have to say pictures to come. I finally made a leap and got Picasa. Why, you may ask was I avoiding such a wonderful program? If you have read any of this thoroughly you already know that I take organizing to another level. Now I’m tempted to spend entire days organizing pictures, past events, dates, and writing memoires for them (not so much).

Don’t judge me, I have not had the chance to begin organizing pics---but here is a window to my Peace Corps experience……

M

Latrine Inauguration February 3rd 2011

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

4 days till Christmas…. 3 fully constructed latrines, 17 to go. The process has been a whole lot slower than I had imagined. Although there are no real organizational issues, we have come across many problems with work ethic. It may have to do with the fact that this community is not my own, not being acquainted with everyone and/or that I am a young female. All I know is that getting the men to follow my directions is unnecessarily difficult.

For example, when I see the cement ratio off, I may ask to either add more water, sand or cement and receive a blank look and a reply that usually goes “We have always done it this way” (our way). It’s a constant battle to have to explain why the ratio has to be exact; I mean the last thing I would want is for the concrete to crack and someone falling into a latrine pit, right? A poopy way to go.

I asked a fellow water volunteer who has had some experience building these latrines to hang out a few days at my project site. Honestly, I do not know if I would have had completed any latrines properly if he didn’t come give my volunteers some guidance. There is a basic manual (which we all use) to guide Peace Corps Volunteers through the process which apparently needs to be revised. I basically spent the majority of my time sharing my concerns with my friend and he would speak to the community members about it. He even had some trouble getting them to follow direction but according to him and other volunteers this is the way things are in the DR when it comes to construction of any kind. This is not meant to negatively judge anyone but it is part of their culture and frankly their education. So after the initial frustrations we accept it as it is and just smile and move along (sometimes I laugh hysterically, then move on).

Work stops on the 24^th then continues on the 27^th. We hope the first ten latrines will be completed by the 30^th, which will complete our work for the first community. We can then begin the second half of the latrines in the New Year in the second benefitting community. I would like to have all latrines constructed by the end of January, so I can finalize the legalization of my assigned community’s association and begin my search for funding to construct a library, since I have several boxes of donated books lying around in my host family’s home.

In between all of this, I continue working with the Peace Corps Health Supervisor, with the national health consortium project, which is still in the initial planning stages. The consortium is comprised of ten health NGO’s from all corners of the country that work with local rural health promoters as well as youth that need education on safe sex. These NGO’s are still a bit unorganized, so I’m working with the PC Health supervisor and creating a team of business volunteers to tackle administrative problems. Each NGO has an assigned health volunteer whose primary concern is to teach them basic health practices and such. Hitting in both directions with the help of PEPFAR funding, we all as a team feel that this could be a very successful sustainable health project.

At the moment, most rural health promoters and youth are taught and managed by volunteers, which is great but not sustainable. Peace Corps has been in the DR for 50 years now, since its start. I don’t think this represents our work negatively per say, however if PCDR ended tomorrow, projects won’t necessarily run sustainably. Communities are still in need of a lot of guidance. The consortium calls for many leadership roles and many new responsibilities. The plan is for the health side of PCDR to begin allowing these organizations to pull their own weight while we sit back and supervise. Volunteers will then have more room to pick up new projects in issue areas that are not getting as much attention.

If I do decide to stay in country and serve a third year, this will be my main project as Executive Director of the National Health Consortium. It’s a really exciting opportunity and most certainly a big challenge. As you may see, my plate is a bit full at the moment, however this is how I like it…I have a big appetite for this kind of stuff. So cheers to all my friends and may this New Year open windows/doors to many opportunities.

-M

MY CREW

THE BEGINNING....LATRINE PROJECT