Live with Passion: Dominican travles, funerals and shenanigans (tons of pictures!)

The new year started off with food poisoning. Not too much to report on that. Once that was over I headed back to site to get working on my diagnostic report – a 15 page report explaining what I have been doing over my diagnostic period, what I found and what I plan to do about it. In a nutshell I have decided to do 2 groups of each initiative (Escojo and Hogares), start a documentation project and, in the future, a latrine project. Over my diagnostic period I found myself talking with a lot of families about documentation. When I asked why someone left school in the 4^th gade (the average grade which people dropped out) a lot of them said something along the lines of “well I know that I won’t get papers so I won’t be able to go to high school…I thought I might as well just learn how to be a Dona from now”. This was shocking to hear but not as shocking as the results of teen pregnancy. There was a high correlation between undocumented girls and pregnancy starting between 12 and 14. So, in a nutshell, yes documentation will be important. I don’t have many details on how I will be going about that primarily because I’m focusing on getting my groups going. I have also decided to get involved with a volunteer run initiative which focuses on marine conservation. Now those of you who have known me for years know how perfect this is – remember when I was applying to colleges with good marine biology programs? Well, I may finally be able to fulfill that dream.

Once this report was done, I headed to 3-month IST (In-Service Training) –a benchmark in Peace Corps service. This is when we all go, all 15 of us new health volunteers, and present our diagnostic. I did mine in PowerPoint and had all sorts of graphs, pictures, etc. During IST we also, finally, learn how to apply to grants so we can fund our projects. Yay! No more out of pocket expenses! We also did a lot of project planning, vision making, etc. The highlight of IST was Valentine ’s Day. I spent it with my closest friends here – we pushed all of our beds into the conference room and watched Crazy, Stupid, Love. One of the best non-Bill Valentines Days ever! Not to mention the PC staff that came that day – doctors to give vaccines, safety and security officer, speakers, etc. brought tons of candy!!!

Before all of this though, I took a short R&R to Casa de Campo. My godfather, Diego, was here with his family and had invited me to spend a few days with them. It was nice to get a way and even better to finally see a familiar face from my pre-pc life. They all asked me how it has been going and for the first time I found myself struggling to find words to explain it all. I think this had to do with the fact that because I don’t talk to them regularly it’s harder to sum up what it is I’m actually doing. I ate delicious food, had several hot showers, went to the beach and had several “holy-shit-EVERYONE-is-ALWAYS-on-their-iPhone” moments.

I headed back to site after this very refreshing escape and began packing up to move out to my own place!!! I was so excited to just have my own space and not have to always answer to someone or feel obligated to get out of my room early in the morning when all I want is to sleep in. Well, I guess my expectations were quite high. I moved out, spent the first few days without water until I bought a tank and all the proper not-too-much-water-and-electricity-in-the-house equipment.

A little about la Americana living in my new community:

Without fail, I always have kids in my house or in my patio. They are either helping to clean everything, helping hand things up, just sitting and waiting for me to talk to them, waiting for a mandado (when you send a kid to get you something or do something), etc. At first I would get so frustrated – “ugh, don’t these kids ever just chill? Why are they always coming over here?” Now, I look forward to them coming over – sometimes they are the highlight of my day. There is one little girl who I have adopted as my Dominican baby sister. She’s 4 but has the attitude of a 16 year old and knows a lot! She comes over every day without fail, sometimes I’ll give her breakfast or lunch – most of these kids rarely get lunch, and this is the only meal they get around here. This little girl has kept me company, made me laugh when I’m said and best of all always comes over to give me hugs and tells me she misses me. She is AWSOME!

Neighbors are always sending food to my house! It is great! However I always feel bad that I can’t give anything back – or I can but it will fail in comparison to true Dona Dominican cooking – que verguenza!

I barely sleep. I have motoconchos speeding by my house all the time, and they said it was one of the more tranquilo barrios.

I love having my own space to do my thing! I had developed this awesome routine of running in the morning mixed with yoga and some serious journaling time! Then came IST, Bill’s visit and I lost this amazing routine.

Now, down to the best part of 2013 – Bill came to visit for two whole weeks! After 6 months of anticipation I went to the airport and was finally re-united with my best friend! We spent a couple days at my site – when we had gotten back from the airport my kids had made a sign welcoming him for him and hung it on my front door – so cute! They had been waiting for him to, the whole week prior they kept asking…”is he here yet?” “When is he coming?” no matter how many times I told them, they still asked. Our agenda consisted of a lot of fun traveling and relaxing beach side time.

We rented a car from a guy in my community and headed north towards Puerto Plata. On the way we stopped at my CBT site to visit my host mom there – She was so happy she could meet her “son”! After a very loud and boisterous hello and goodbye we headed up a new highway in the DR and passed a couple miles of Palm Tree reforestation – I didn’t even know that existed. We stopped in Puerto Plata for lunch where I went for New Years. Once we did that we headed to this beautiful eco-lodge. We stayed in an open-air bungalow that overlooked the mountains and ocean of Puerto Plata. Bill and I decided we are going to build one of these one day!!! After a peaceful sleep, we headed to 27 Charcos. This place is amazing – I went with a couple of volunteers and knew I had to come with Bill. You climb up a mountain for about 45minutes and then jump and slide your way down waterfalls to get to the bottom! This place was actually semi-started by a peace corps volunteer as an eco-tourism project- he trained the guides and built the path up the mountain. Now, truckloads of tourists on excursions come here to experience this natural wonder! GO PEACE CORPS for providing such awesome adventures!

After 27 Charcos we headed to the city of Santiago – second largest city in the DR) where Bill would finally meet my Peace Corps friends. We went out dancing, Bill learned how to dance Bachata, and had a couple of beers. We kept it low key in preparation for our Carnaval shenanigans the next day! So, Sunday morning we headed to La Vega for the biggest Carnaval celebration in the DR. celebrated during the whole month of February, although some towns celebrate it during March, Holy Week and August. It usually climaxes around February 27, Dominican Independence Day. This carnival is distinguished by its colorful costumes, that symbolize many religious and traditional characters such as Calife, Guloya or the famous Diablo Cojuelo. There are kids who participate in the parade and they all carry pig blatters. The goal for them is to whip people with these pig blatters (many people don’t attend carnival for the sheer fact of avoiding the whipping. Prior to going I said, no biggy I’ll just stand on the side. Well, even if you’re standing on the side they will get you. I got whipped twice on my butt and at the end of the night a really bad one of my thigh. It was so bad that I fell over because all the feeling in my leg was gone. I cried out of pain and couldn’t walk for a good 25 minutes. I guess I’ll just chalk it up as a war wound.

When I could finally walk a bunch of us headed to a free Prince Royce concert! For those of you who don’t know who he is well…he is the Dominican Justin Bieber who plays Bachata. Girls freak out over him and during his concert everytime he played a song or spoke the girls went nuts! It was a great way to end carnival. Bill and I dance in the middle of the baseball stadium – it was held here – and just enjoyed every moment of this!

Monday we headed back east towards Punta Cana for 6 days of all-inclusive awesomeness. It was a bit shocking for me. I actually asked bill if it was okay to shower without flip-flops and put the TP in the toilet. He laughed and probably thought I was just being ridiculous. We had fondue, Mexican, Italian and definitely skipped the Dominican buffet night. We partied on the beach, drank at the swim up bar and finally watched The Hunger Games together. We have been reading the books together to keep us connected and vowed to not watch the movie without each other. It was great to have a movie night in. A great part of our stay was the people we met. We met a couple who just loved what we were doing. They loved that, as a young couple, we were allowing and fully supporting each other to follow our dreams. They couldn’t believe that there were people like that that still did that. We spent the days talking to them and by the end of our trip they told me that they would like to send down a box of 60-70 pairs of school shoes for the kids in my community. This is primarily because I went into a rant a few days before about how many kids aren’t allowed in school without a certain pair of shoes, most of which can’t afford. These people are amazing and I am so grateful to have met them – it reminds me that I can in fact have some faith in humanity. Thank you.

As our vacation wound down, we headed back to my site for 3 days of my usual daily life. Bill really wanted to get an intimate view of what my daily life was really like. Well he did, especially when he said “I don’t know if I could do this – the pace of life is just so slow”. Haha yes, I’m lucky if I do two productive things in one day. Not because I have become lazy but it’s because I spend a lot of time just talking with people in my community. Bill played with the kids a bunch which was good, it kept him “busy”. I tried to make one of the days full of errands – we went and got materials to build a gate for Zenny. I forgot to mention this…I GOT A PUPPY! His name is Zenny and I am mad at him right now. He is a hyperactive, aggressive dog. He is half Rottweiler and half German shepherd. I got him for free thanks to a previous volunteer. Her dog just had puppies and she was “giving them out”. I have now experienced the sleepless nights, non-house trained and high maintenance of a puppy. Anyways, Bill, being the best guy in the world, offered to build a gate to keep Zenny from always being in my room. The day Bill was leaving came – we went to the airport and had a tearful goodbye, on my part of course – he kept strong for me – and then I headed back. It wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. I think I was just so happy to have had him here for 2 whole weeks that that overshadowed him leaving.

Once he left I got a bacterial infection which has affected the really bad Gripe I have been having. No worries, some amoxicillin and crazy amounts of Ibuprofen can fix this no problem. As the weekend came, my good friend who, by the way, watches my house and zenny when I’m gone, comes over to spend time with me almost every night and has just been an amazing friend overall were hanging out. Her brother has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and she has been really messed up over it. It was a tragic situation, because he past away this weekend. I was with her the whole time as she had asked me not to leave her side. Her brother was 15, he had intestinal issues after something he ate and two weeks later, he passed. He helped me with my move, helped nail things into the wall, cleaned my patio for me without even asking him, and always sat outside my house watching it when I was out running errands; a beautiful and humble kid. This is the second funeral I have attended in the past month for a friends’ brother. It has been a very interesting and culturally awakening experience.

There is no set time for a Dominican funeral. It starts once the first neighbor finds out about the death – this is usually around the same time the family finds out considering word spreads like rapid fire around here. Here, instead of giving space for the family to mourn you are supposed to go sit at their house for days and just hug them every time you see them. About 200 people show up for this. You can imagine how I felt after finding out that I shouldn’t just be giving them space – guilty for not throwing myself on them. Usually the next day, or even that afternoon while everyone is still gathered, the funeral car comes and some people take the coffin out to the car. This is the worst part – when the women are screaming, throwing themselves on the coffin and some become hysterical. The crowd walks behind the car to the cemetery and they prepare for the burial. This is when it gets really interesting. Some women become so hysterical that they supposedly “lose their scream so have to be thrown up in the air to bring her back”. I saw this happen a couple of times – four people take a limb and they throw her up and down until the scream comes out. People have actually gotten hospitalized at funerals…ironic. The past few days have been emotional

Here are a ton of pictures - somewhat out of order, but it's what I can with spotty wi-fi.