This post is to give you an idea of the daily frustrations and ridiculousness of a Peace Corps Volunteer - some little anecdotes of life recently!
I have
learned to live always having jugo (natural juice) in my fridge. I take
advantage of my fruit trees in my garden and make juice daily. Today I woke up
to learn that nothing was ripe in my garden for me to use. So out I went in
search of some ripe guanabana (soursop). I see one of my health promoters (who spent 10 months in my health promotion course) and am expressing my frustration at not finding any that are ripe being sold and she
says “why don’t you just go buy soda or the juice concentrate – it’s quicker
and that way you don’t have to clean”. Immediate thought on my end “how long
have you been a health promoter and what are you teaching people….” Ay mi madre
This past weekend I had a meeting with the committee for the community center and once we covered everything regarding the project we moved on to other important town issues. One was a fixing of roof project and the most important and lengthy discussed one was our cemetery. Our cemetery is about 1 year old - before this our town used to bury people in the one in a neighboring community. The issue was that the guy who guards the cemetery has decided to bury Dominicans on the sunny, flat side and Haitians in the side that would be best described as a ditch. Other than discrimination and segregation, which was not the issue with the town, the main issue was that it did not look orderly and clean - making the town look sloppy and unkempt. So, for something that we, as american's would think would be common sense, there are some Dominicans who don't understand the importance and dignity in there being order with burials. There was also someone who mentioned that burials, by law, have to be at least 6 feet under but nobody knew that. Everyone was surprised. Needless to say - it was an asinine conversation for the american observer, but for the town meetings and towns people these are the types of issues that a rural campo in a developing country deals with, daily.
Everyday my kids surprised me at how easily entertained they are with anything they find. I found one of my girls made a little car using my old contact lens holders as wheels. Another one made a house out of sticks that she took off of old branches. One of the girls sits and sticks her hands in a bucket of water and will tell you that she's dipping into (insert any color and delicious flavor ice cream here). Creativity and imagination is something kids in the campo are growing with, unfortunately most will not have the opportunity to use this creativity and imagination in a productive way in the future that could get them out of the cycle of poverty.
During my women's group the other day I asked how many people had gotten a pap smear. Only 3 (out of 10) raised their hands. Keep in mind they are between 21 and 37 years old. I asked how come so little and the response I get is "I haven't gotten married yet!" Here, losing your virginity means getting married. So here I go explaining the importance of getting one done to prevent cervical cancers, cysts, fibroids, etc. an the women are saying "No, Laura, here if I don't bleed the guy will immediately leave me". Ok, so I go on to explain about reproductive parts and how not everyone has the same thing etc. after about an hour of going over and over this, the women left saying " I'm still not doing it until after". It is so frustrating that in the culture the sex and relationships far out way your health.
I HAVE CRABS!!! and they are all over my house. It is rainy season and crabs from the beach are roaming about. Every evening they seek shelter in people's homes. Well, I have a few living here with me and they are huge. My poor cat has tried to kill them for food but he himself keeps getting snapped and bit.
