Christmas with a dash of Supernatural tid-bits

It didn't really feel like Christmas. Where I am living, and from what I have heard from other volunteers –the whole country, lacks the special Christmas time cheer that we all look forward to. Most volunteers who have spent a Christmas here always say “leave if you can”, try not to spend Christmas here if possible” , “spend it with other volunteers”. I know see why.

 I never realized how much I relied on this Christmas cheer to get me excited about the Christmas season. Thank god for itunes Christmas hit collection. What I did know was that I would be eating a lot over the next couple of days and that I am okay with!  Sunday b before Christmas, the 23^rd, started out semi-normal. It was the morning of my park clean-up with the youth of the community. As most Dominicans do, they plan something and never follow through. So Sunday morning I spent waiting in the park with my host mom – only person who came to support me – and no one showed…no even the firefighters who’s original plan this was. We decided to go to her father’s garden where he has tons of platanos planted and we wanted to get palm leaves to make pasteles in for our Christmas dinner, La Cena. We went, found a machete and came home with soo many palm leaves! On our way home my host mom stopped at the market and told me that I was going to go ahead of her to take everything she bought because she had to run other errands. No problem, I said. What I didn’t know was that this meant having to carry two live chickens all the way home and find a place to put them – I didn’t feel comfortable hanging them from a tree so I put them on the floor and just hoped they were comfortable. I felt so bad so I fed them part of my yucca lunch and thought about naming them. Then I remembered that I would be eating them so decided not to get all personal and name them!

Our plan was to start preparing all the food when she got home. When we were unpacking the rest of the food, my host mom got a call from Frank – the one my host mother goes to for advice on her witchery , he’s only 23. He was having a party for all his clients and wanted her help in preparing a sancocho. Of course she said yes.

Once everything was put away we took a walk to his “place” – this is where he works all his magic, red previous post for more info. We got there and it was super unorganized. There was nothing to cook the cow head in and nothing else. We were all given errands – my job was to go get a ponchera and sazon for the meat.  I got back and things started to get going. I helped peel plantains, rulo and other viveres. The great thing about where his “place of work” is is that it is in a valley type area surrounded by matas of everything; coconut, oranges, plantains, rulo, mango, banana. So there was nothing else to buy – just pick! I never realized how hard it is to peel some of these viveres. It stained my hands and pants. Once everything was peeled my host mom worked her kitchen magic and finagled a way to cook it all in. I was then handed an unopened bottle of rum and told that this as for the women to drink. Hmm. Ok. This whole time were waiting for the drummers. The two guys who know how to drum Haitian chanting music. I, of course, was intrigued and curious – was I again going to experience some other supernatural thing tonight? Before the drummers got there, this guy came out of the shack in a long, red cape/robe. He was ringing a bell and doing circles around the shack – then the drummers came and he sat in front of them while they drummed.  It was an interesting night – The same spirit came up in Frank that did last time, Criminel. He was there in case anyone had any questions. Of course, if he really can read the future like people kept saying, I wanted to know if I would be here for the whole two years.  When I asked, he gave me the most vague answer saying that it is what I want it to be… Giving it a lot of thought over the recent experiences of this stuff I decided I don’t really believe in all of this.  

Running my portion of errands - getting the ponchera

       

My host mom prepping the cow head

Peeling viveres - it's really hard

  

.......

the 23 year old wise man, Frank, in his 8 ft by 8 ft  office

Dancing for posession

Haitian Chanting and Drumming

We came home and I stepped out of the warped reality for a couple of hours by checking out what “it’s always sunny in Philadelphia” is all about. Loved it!

Christmas eve – I woke up exhausted because the chickens, which slept in the kitchen, were making so much noise all night long due to their discomfort.  As I was waking up the kid who lives next door was so excited to kill them that he came right over. He hung them on the tree outside, upside down, took the knife I usually use for spreading Peanut Butter, and went to town. 

Here is the step by step process of our Christmas dinner - La Cena:

                                                                       La Cena:
                                                                    Roasted Chicken
                                        Pastel of viveres wrapped in palm leaves and boiled
                                                           Auyama (squash) pudding
                                                                     Empanadas
                                                                        Spaghetti

I was thinking he was going to give it one clean slice – no he cut their necks off like he was slicing French bread with a dull knife..back and forth, back and forth..making it worse for the chickens.  I watched the process of cleaning and plucking so that I could do the second chicken. SO once that one was killed it was up to me to clean, pluck and prep. The day was spent sitting in the same plastic chair, cooking. Starting at 8:30 am and getting our plate ready for La Cena at 9pm. I only ate one empanada...i was around food ALL day and couldnt really eat. We had visitors stop by throughout the day but for La Cena, it was me, my host mom, her friend Juana and the little boy who killed the chickens. After dinner I painted Juana’s nails and went to bed.

Christmas morning I woke up wishing I was waking up in Belmont to stockings and santa presents. I skyped with my family while they looked in their stockings and I opened a present from my sister! I then went to the kitchen to sit in the same plastic chair and start eating all the food we made the day before. Around 11 I started with the wine – which we didn’t get to drink on the 24^th – and the day was spent sitting in the plastic chair, eating, drinking and me hearing about the shape-shifters that my host mom and her cousin have seen…I can’t escape the witchery! The evening ended with me having to counsel Juana out of thinking my host mom cast a spell on her. She came back drunk from a day aat some older, wiser witches house, crying that she misses her mother – who passed away a year ago. We were all listening to her in the kitchen and all of a sudden she throws herself on the floor, starts slithering like a snake, making hand signals to the cousin insinuating that they should go have sex, and screaming that she wants an uncooked egg and coffee grounds. Damn it I only have one greca full amount of coffee left for tomorrow morning. I gave her the coffee grounds and she shoved them in her mouth. My host mom and cousin held her down so that the spirit, santa marta, wouldn’t hurt Juana. They asked all these questions and then Juana finally came to be. She stood up and was pissed because she thought they put a spell on her or did something so that a spirit would come up. She doesn’t like the spirit possession stuff, so I don’t blame her for being pissed about it. What she doesn’t know is that it just came up in her or someone else, outside the house, made it so that the spirit would once up in her. She called my host mom and cousin all sorts of names so they were pissed and couldn’t talk to her about what really happen ed. Luckily, her and I had a serious bonding moment the day before so I thought I would take advantage and try. I followed after her and was able to calm her down. She finally called down and when we came back home I spent about an hour trying to listen to her and explain some of her irrational thinking. I realize, however, that when it comes to talking about the supernatural stuff is irrational by nature – but hey I tried. She hasn’t been around since…she always came and had lunch with us because she can’t afford to buy food – when she does have some change it is because she slept with a guy for it. Sweet woman, sad story.

The cousin spent most of Christmas with us. He is very well integrated in the world of baseball here and got me tickets to see many Ramirez play tomorrow and then meet and greet with him – unfortunately I will be heading up to Puerto Plata. The great thing is that he doesn’t have a shortage of these tickets. He knows pretty much every one. He hangs out with Sammy Sosa’s family, is best buds with Juan Carlos Franco and his brother is Daniel Rondon.  Appreantly I live in the neighborhood where they either all grew up or where their families currently live.

My Christmas was pretty low key but filled with supernatural superstitions and food! I gained a lot of weight those two days – sitting, eating, more sitting, much more eating!

If anything, I have decided that Christmas away from home was definitely harder than I expected and something I don’t think I want to do next year. I am glad I got through that faze and am now getting ready to go spend 4 days with amazing people on the beach in the northern coast of this beautiful country!


Hope you all had a great Christmas!

happy Reading

~ups, down, witchery and reflections~

The past month resembles that damn superman ride at 6 flags New England. The slow, steady ride up and steep fall, the twists and turns, the dark tunnels and high top beautiful views. I have been up, down and all around it feels like. Upon my return from Thanksgiving, when I was in the peak of my high I was ready to return and get to work. I got here on that Friday after thanksgiving and settled back in for a 2 month stretch where I will be at site. Saturday I had a pretty steep ride down to what I thought was the lowest of low. Between drama with my project partner and host mother, feeling that I am only here for my project partners to reap the monetary benefits of having a PCV in the community (ex: getting to go to hotels for trainings and conferences).

 I have been struggling to find my niche in the community and was suffering from serious campo envy. Sunday, I went out to a Batey for an annual party they have and then went to celebrate the last night of Patronales at another campo town. The drive jump started my campo envy and the allergies I developed from all the horses really brought energy and motivation down. Come Monday I couldn’t do anything as I was drugged up on anti-histamines. Monday began a 6 day drag of decreasing motivation, depression, loneliness, frustrations, and questioning why I am here. I tried to remind myself that this is normal but it just seemed to be dragging on for too long.  On Saturday night I decided to have a glass of the home-made wine while my host mom was cleaning the kitchen. Half way through my first one I decided to continue – woke up Sunday morning and, though I was feeling like I was going to die, my spirits were a little higher. Not as high as any point in my honeymoon stage but they were there. A couple days later, I realized that this is the plateau. The plateau that happens when reality sets in and I say “ o, this is my life for the next two years.  I have come to accept the hardships that come with PCV life in a semi-urban setting – some of my communities are more impoverished than any campo I have seen in this country so far.”

Health wise I am feeling like I am walking through a fun house- it’s a take your pick kinda deal – allergies here, common cold from climate change there, fire ant bites where ever you turn, dodging mosquitos the way you would startling clowns, and everything else you can imagine.

I have been eating well –for the exception of the semi fried-dough food stand resembling kitchen on a Sunday morning. Frying pieces of dough all morning long and letting it sit in oil. If only there was confectionary sugar or cinnamon – nope just drizzle some refrigerated oil on it instead.

I made my first batch of wine the other night! I am learning how to make it out of the fruits that she grows in her garden! It’s a simple process and the wine is delicious, all natural (only 4 ingredients) and dangerous..hahha

 making wine with love....

                                               

....without electricity!

The most interesting part of my life so far is the spectacle that is my host mother. If I haven’t yet mentioned it, she is a witch doctor/spiritual healer/spirit pocession vehicle. I have learned that she does in fact cast spells and believes in them more than anything. She mixes potions and puts them in the fridge – most of them are nothing harmless – potions for people to find money, or couples to get back together, healing potions, etc. When she talks about all of this I find it hard to sit and accept the things she is saying. I cannot, and will not, laugh or say I think she is crazy – the whole witchery thing is a huge part of the culture at my site. It seems that everybody does spirit possessions and talk about it all the time.

 I had my first – semi-encounter with one of her spirits. She was sitting on the couch when I got home listening to music on headphones, something she never does. My host sister told me to just let her be. Next thing I knew my mom was making sounds – it sounded like she couldn’t breathe or was having a panic attack. She got up and went to her room, where I thought she was lying in bed. My sister came out, took a glass of water, dripped three drips on the floor and put the cup upside down. Immediately I knew something up but my sister just kept telling me, she’s fine she just doesn’t feel well. They have been keeping me sheltered from all of this for a while because they don’t want me to get scared. So my sister and I are sitting in the kitchen and next thing I know there is an old man calling out to my sister to go to him. It sounded like a grandfather but deeper and raspier. I got chills and didn’t know what to do. My sister comes out after about 5 minutes and still says her mom has a headache. I left it and didn’t question. My host mom came out to the kitchen, as herself, as if nothing had happened. I asked her if she was okay and she said “Si! Porque?” The day went on normal. Finally, a day has passed and I decided to ask them both “SO I know that when your beings are up your face changes but does your voice too?” My sister immediately looked at me and said “you heard him yesterday didn’t you” - my host mom was not happy that I experienced this – she’s afraid I will be scared away. She never experiences her beings because she “blacks out” the time that they are up. So I asked all my questions to my sister – apparently this old man had a message for my host mom and then left.

I have also been experiencing some other weird – supernatural type stuff lately. She has been saying a lot of things will happen and I won’t really give it much attention until the event actually happens:

-        1. She told us that the cat was going to go missing and get hurt in the near future. 4 days ago the cat went missing. After day 3 of him being gone, my host mom asked one of her beings to bring him back and that if they did she would light a candle for them. The next morning we woke up and the cat was at the door with his hind leg badly damaged and a deep hole/cut on his back. Call it coincidence – call it supernatural. I don’t know.

-       2.  I had my host mom read the coffee cup of one of my friends back home. She told me a lot of interesting things, which I wrote down of course so I could relay it all back to my friend. Again, took it all with a grain of salt – until I got on the phone with her and shared everything that came out of the coffee cup. My host mom nailed some of what’s going on in my friends life right now.

-       3.  I have been thinking a lot about moving to a place closer to the majority of my communities due to the sexual harassment filled walk I have everyday. I have been afraid to tell her because I know how much she wants me to stay here – I would be finishing construction on the annex of her house to then move there. I haven’t wanted to tell her because I knew she was preparing and had set in her mind that I would be paying her rent – something she was going to somewhat depend on for daily needs. So I didn’t really know how to approach it. When I finally did – in a delicate, well thought out way – she turned to me and said “ I already knew that”. I was surprised. I guess this is something she had known for about a week (the same amount of time I decided this to myself). About a half hour later, my sister came out of her room and I pulled her aside and asked her “hey did your mom mention something about me moving to you?” she said “yeah the other night we were just watching TV and all of a sudden she said “Laura is going to leave – she isn’t going to live with us anymore and will be looking for a place soon”.

 I don’t even know what to believe anymore. I feel like I am in an episode of the twilight zone.

A little bit about why I am actually here:

-       -   I am about to finish the interviews that I have been doing for what is called the Diagnostic period of my service. This is the time where I go around, get to know the communities’ needs and talk with families about different health topics to get a glimpse of their knowledge level with each topic. This will help me prioritize my work with each initiative and help me figure out the layout of the charlas I will be giving.  So far it’s looking like the need for education on nutrition vs. malnutrition is high as well as women’s reproductive health and with the youth teen pregnancy and hopefully do something about the high rate of HIV and AIDS. I have met many young girls who have or have had their first pregnancy at 12 or 13. No wonder so many of the women have reproductive system issues. I have also seen a lot of malnutrition and it kills me. I see these children running around, barefoot, with big bellies and super thin limbs (kwashikor).

 One of my communities - majority hatians who live here  - houses vary form block, to wooden to zinc.

Another one of my communities - this is one of the poorer ones

About to introduce the Healthy Homes initiative to my group of leaders for the women - this is so they can go back and explain what I am doing in each community and invite the women to participate in March

My Charla Papers - I will be making 9 months worth of Charla papers (usually using about 5/week) - this is what happens with very limited resources

-         - I will be collaborating with a program at UPenn also, as a side project, to develop a garden with a program that works with child’s health here in my pueblo. Someone there is looking for a volunteer who lives here and has the chance to help over a longer period of time.

-         I have been getting involved with the firemen of the town to have more community events.

 -      - On the 23^rd of this month I have planned a clean-up for the park with all the youth from my communities. We are getting paint donated, the firemen will be using their high pressure water to clean and we will be picking up all the trash! This is in preparation for an activity for kids that we are planning for the 6^th of January. There will be games, competitions, clowns, gift-giving, etc. It will be great – they have never had anything like this in the pueblo!

 I 

       Being in a Pueblo come with certain challenges. It is difficult to explain however I feel that a peace corps volunteer has to do a lot of work to integrate, feel part of the community, build confianza within the community and feel safe. I feel like I have to work doubly hard for all this to happen. Most future PCV's dream of being in a rural setting where you become one of the community member and can form deep relationships with most people that live there. Managin my expectations of this has been difficult. However, spending time in my 5 barrios has shown me that will be working in some of the poorest communities - some even poorer than campos/more rural setting  I have seen. I think this has to do with density and how close the houses are to each other - Chronic infections and disease spread faster this way.

Heading into the market

Typical crowdness and loudness - motoconchos everywhere

-         My exercise class has been going well. I have been using it as a time/opportunity to throw in tidbits about nutrition and preventative health!

 I promise my exercise class has grown...

With New Year’s around the corner I have been thinking a lot about where I was a year ago. Appealing the decision from Peace Corps to defer me for service until January 2013. I am so grateful for everyone who pushed me to appeal. I know I have only been here for  about 4 months now but I have already learned a lot from the people here and am already seeing that this is where I am supposed to be. I now understand all those times when I would come home from work and feel like I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't contributing the way I knew I could or I just felt plain unfulfilled. I see that I am finally accomplishing a goal I had from way long ago – before I even knew options post-college and before I could even think about living on my own.

If you want something bad enough in life – you can make it happen. It may mean sacrifice but if in the end it will give you peace of mind knowing that you are on the right track – it is more than worth it.

I keep my sheets in the fridge

Literally, in the fridge.

As I fought to find a place to store all the stuff I might not use I realized that the mini fridge in my room which doesn't work, can function perfectly as a storage space. What I didn't realize is how this perfectly reflects something I value – discretion.

As American’s we subconsciously draw a thick line where our personal thoughts, actions, and words begin and end. We keep things to ourselves when we don’t want others to find out something embarrassing, we dance around saying something we don’t want to say “ugh it’s that time of the month”. Really, that is quite nondescript. The motor of our mental filter is constantly at work ensuring that we don’t offend, say something crude, or just be plain rude. This allows our society to function on a level of mutual respect and ease.  We sleep on these secrets and tuck them away in the safety and folds of our minds. Like the secrets, my sheets are hidden away – my sheets are personal, I can finally let go when I’m sleeping and let all my worries and thoughts go. I keep them in the safety of my mini-fridge, somewhere no one will ever expect to find sheets!

Keeping up with the Dominicans has proven to break the barriers of this metaphoric line. Everything from rapid speech, erratic movement of the hips, laughs that sound as deep as drums and nasal sounds to describe different bodily functions. It is what I would imagine it would be like to be surrounded by an African tribe on uppers.  Surrounded by a sexual culture (keep in mind that these are specific observations made in my community) driven primarily by youth, I am constantly reminded that there is no discretion when it comes to expressing who you’re going to sleep with that night and end up “married to” that morning. The youngin’s, both guys and girls, are always grabbing their crotch, pursing their lips and any passerby and throwing you a wink. Now, this lack of respect is only one form of indiscretion. My host mother has been very descriptive about many many things. Always talking about the meats of a woman’s body, both in and out, telling me some of her deepest thoughts, being in the bathroom and telling me that she’s finally evacuating – yes evacuating.

It’s no wonder their sheets are always hanging out to dry!

On to other fun facts and activities!

My host sister and I have been spending a lot of time together. I have gotten to wanting to take care of her. She is always taking care of her mother and the house so, I decided she needed a day off and took her to the closest city, San Pedro de Macoris. It’s on the coast so we went to what we would know as the boardwalk – like – area , I bought her an ice cream and we dipped our toes in the water! You could see it on her face how happy she was! She is starting to confide in me about a lot of things and I’m saving up to take her to get pizza on “Children’s day” – the 15^th of December!

Ever since she heard what my three month diagnostic was about, when she gets home from schools she says “Laura, can we go do some of those interviews?” She is so motivated and excited to do the work with me that it reminds me of some of the reasons I’m here! She also helped me with a poster I made for my first group with the youth from all the communities and wanted to help me make a home-made hand washing station for the bathroom! She is also very excited about nutrition and has already started adding one green leaf to her lunches. Every day she asks me something about food, nutrition, health and well-being. Her humility amazes me ; tonight, I was having a cup of my Trader Joes mint medley tea. Per Dominican custom, you make sure you share with EVERYONE in the house. So I poured 5 tea bags, we had company, and everyone asked for it with sugar, primarily because they weren’t used to “Te Chino” – tea that comes in tea bags (remember my host mom is a healer and uses her own concoctions of leaves). So everyone added sugar and my host sister came up to me and said, “I know this is your favorite tea and I’m going to have it without sugar so I can really know what it tastes like”. This is a minor example but she really takes the time to learn things and cares about how she connects with others.  She runs with me in the mornings, does yoga with me AND has attended all of my exercise classes!

I finally made myself a closet! I was living out of my suit cases with the most used clothes on top. I found the ridiculously large roll of twine a brought with me and the two lashes I use to attach my yoga mat to my backpack. I nailed two nails to the concrete wall and hung the twine, the lashes and quite a few pieces of yarn! Tada! A perfectly good closet!

My weeks are filling up and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I am lucky to have the support of the people I work with and my host mom. I keep thinking about how much I lucked out with the people I am surrounded with here – the people at the foundation which I am partnered with are great, I have nothing but support and motivated counterparts and my host mother does nothing but care for me.

Hanging out before my reunion with the youth! My project partner being goofy behind me!
This is where I spend most of my days - it's a good meeting spot between all the barrios and is the back part of the Ingenio

The jovenes getting organized for a dinamica

Project partner, me and host mom (left to right). We drove about an hour through nothing but tall sugar cane to a small campo where there was a live bachata band for the inauguration of a colmado

Thanksgiving is next week and I will be heading to the capital with other volunteers. We will enjoy all that is turkey deliciousness, a talent show, a few hours of pool time on the roof deck of a hotel and some sports in the morning!!!

                           Some other pictures

 My home for two years is in the process of being built!

 Walking through my barrio

front entrance to my house during sunset

beautiful - from my front porch

Just another cow hanging out in front of the house

More to come soon!

Love and miss you all like crazy!

Happy Reading!