How Time Flies

I feel like I´m more aware of time here. Aware of the time that has passed since I´ve been here and how much the people and the place have changed. There are big things like they´ve paved parts of the road, put in some sidewalks, put in a cell phone tower(that´s still not connected, but it´s there nonetheless), and now they´re putting in light posts all the way past my house on our little road. So instead of having luz (electricity) that´s floja (weak) I will soon have luz fuerte that will run from the wire by the pole that´s 40 feet from my house.

However, the biggest way I notice time passing here is with the muchachitos, and with the pregnancies and births that have happened since I´ve been here. For example, my friend Rosini was pregnant when I got here and now her daughter Yuliana is a year old. They mayor Eddie and his esposa Mayelin just had their second son and Cafe their first is growing like a weed. He was just beginning to talk when I got here and now he´s talking up a storm and inventing stories like Nate did when he was that age. My friend Yafresi just had her secon daughter (which is another story I´ll get too at some later point) and her first who was a year old when I got here is now 2 and a half. And Steven, the grandsom of one of my favorite doñas, La Buena, could barely walk and now he wanders our neighborhood visiting friends and playing.

It´s through these kids and friendships that I measure time here. It´s through them that I realize not only how long I´ve been here but how time moves us along and changes us without us even knowing it. And it´s through them that I realize how time has made me part of this community that I´ve come to love.

Fogones Mejorados (Improved Cookstoves)

At last I’ve begun work on the improved cookstove project. It was pretty much the main reason that I was solicited for my site. After months of planning, trying to have meetings, filling out grants, waiting to receive grant money, getting the community organized, finding materials (some as far away as the capital), getting materials transported to my site, and getting someone down here to train us, work has finally started. I just finished stove number 6. My friend Andrea came down to train my albañil (mason) Jutico and I. Ben came over from his site near here and Elise the volunteer near me came over as well. We had a big crew for the first couple of days. I think the stoves will make a big difference for the people who receive them for a number of reasons. They use way less wood to cook with, which means way fewer trees will be cut down. And, they have a chimney so the women, children, and whomever else is in the kitchen, will not be inhaling smoke all day long.











How do you make an improved cookstove you may be asking yourself? Well, first we had to take a lot of measurements. We checked the size of the cement blocks. We decided the size of the stove based on that. We identified the location of the stove based on space, and where the chimney was going to have to go through the roof. Next, we had to lay down the first and most important layer of cement blocks. Everything must be square and level because we’re building up and the more square and level the stove is the stronger it will be and the longer it will last. Once the first row is laid out we built the second, third, and fourth, leaving openings on the third and fourth in the front to build the mouth of the stove.





After the four layers are done we filled in the stove with soil up to the level of the second block. On top of this we put the clay tiles that make up the fire box and can stand up to heat better than cement. One 8 x 16 tile goes down flat, another buried halfway behind the base block, two more of the same size on the sides. Then you fill in the seams with clay that you’ve mixed with water so it’s super sticky. After these four are stuck together inside and outside a 10 x 10 tile goes on top and gets the same treatment. Next, we filled in the final cement blocks that go over the box and cement a 6 x 6 tile behind the block over the firebox to help protect the block a little more.







Then, we had to fill in more dirt around the fire box until it is level with the top. After that we put in an empty kilogram aluminum can with top and bottom cut out and wrapped in chicken wire behind the fire box to work as the tube that goes between the two burners. Then we put four one foot pieces of rebar into the soil and set the bigger of the two pots on top of them and lowered them until either they hit the aluminum can or were between 7 and 8 centimeters above the edge of the stove. Did I mention the pots have to be level both from side to side and from front to back? Then we filled in around and up to the pot until it is level with the top of the blocks. We repeated this process with the smaller pot in the back, including putting the aluminum can underneath out the back so that it can connect to the chimney, which we also had to make.





To make the chimney we had to cut a piece of smooth zinc in half vertically and then also cut a round about the size of a 5 gallon bucket opening. We had to roll the zinc around a piece of wood and tied it together with wire. After that, we had to punch holes in the zinc with nails and then put screws in to hold the chimney together, after which we cut a hole in one side about the size of the aluminum can, and we made four holes in the top part of the chimney. To make the hat for the chimney we had to cut up to the middle and then pull the parts together so they overlap, then we nailed a hole and put a screw in to hold that together. After that, we punched four holes in the hat for the chimney and we wired the hat to the chimney. Now comes the fun part, my mason had to cut a hole in the zinc right where we wanted the chimney to come down and we had to feed the chimney through the hole and down into place, putting it through a big aluminum can in the process. We had to fit the opening over the top of the aluminum can that was coming out of the back of the second burner and then cement everything except the big can into place.







Following this, we filled in around the burners and chimney as much as we could with dirt. Then we put into place and mold made of 1 x 4 boards that stand 4 centimeters above the top of the block. After that, we filled in the top with cement and leveled it out until it’s smooth. At this point we took out the pots to fill in any holes we may have left and to take out any excess cement that might have fallen into any holes or be stuck on the inside. Finally, we put on some dry cement at the end to make sure it looks nice on top.

The families have to turn the pots every hour or two for the evening and can take them out that night or early the next morning so they won’t stick. They also have to wait 5 days before they use them so that the cement can dry well.

It’s pretty cool to see the finished project after a hard day of work, although now it’s taking two days to do because my mason decided I wasn’t going to pay him enough, even though we had talked about it previously and it’s more than almost any other mason in the country is getting paid to do this project, so Thony is going to be my mason, with some help from me of course. The only problem with that is that he’s not a mason so it’s a slow process to lay block and cement it together well and get everything level. I know he (and I) will get the hang of it soon enough, but for now what could take 5 or 6 hours with a mason is taking us 9 or 10 hours. It’s exhausting, and you’re generally working inside under a zinc roof, which means it’s super hot, so you’re sweating buckets. Furthermore, you’re working with zinc and cement, so my hands are covered with little scrapes and cuts and my skin is peeling. However, working with the families and spending pretty much all day for a day or two at their houses is really fun and I get to know the people of my community a lot better. Plus, seeing a finished stove and the excitement of the doñas makes it all worth it. Six down, 56 to go.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday rolled around again. The second time I’ve celebrated it here in country. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for long enough to celebrate two birthdays. This year Elise came over and my friend Ben came down and we went to this pool that’s at this Italian restaurant in San Juan. Somehow we missed discovering it until just recently and to think of the fun we could have had if we had only known. Luckily, there’s still some months left to enjoy it. It’s this beautiful pool and it has this gazebo which is elevated over the pool and you can swim under. Of course, we had to sit up there. We had some decent Italian food for lunch and swam around for a couple of hours in the water. Something like that makes you forget you’re in the Peace Corps for a little bit, which is actually quite nice on occassion. Then we bought some food and headed back up to my house where we cooked up a taco dinner and drank beer and wine and just hung out and talked and listened to music. Then later that night I talked to Mom, Dad, Nate, and Gretchen, and then I called Kate W at some ungodly hour and we chatted for awhile. It was so good to hear all their voices. Oh, and I got an idea to make a raised bed back behind my kitchen building so I spent an afternoon hauling rocks with some help from the neighbor boy, and then Thony came and helped too and making this little bed. I told Thony that instead of a birthday present he could fill up the raised bed with the sandy soil from the cañada near our house. He surprised me and did it while I was handing out the chicken wire to my women's group. I just planted some seeds in little containers yesterday so that I can plant in my new raised bed. I’m really hoping I’ll have more success than I have in the crappy soil that’s out behind my house. In the end it was a mellow birthday but a good one.

Chicken Wire at Last!!

After months and months of waiting and planning and waiting some more I finally was able to get the chicken wire for my women’s group. We had lost motivation a little since last fall when we had applied for the grant and it had taken so long to get processed and up on the web site. Then I had training and my trip home in late May and June so I decided it would be best to wait until I got back from the States. Finally, I got the women together, 11 in total, less than what we had started with but a good group nonetheless. I started doing charlas. First about picking a site and planning a garden. Secondly, I did a charla about semilleros (starter beds) and we made some and planted some tomatoes for the women to take home. Then I handed out seeds to the ladies so that they could get started on their semilleros. Finally, I went and bought some more seeds and chicken wire for the ladies and the nephew of the presidenta of my women’s group took me to town to pick it up. We had a meeting that same afternoon and six of the eleven women showed up. We hung out and talked for awhile and I made plans to buy them a couple shovels, hoes, and picks to share that they can use to prepare and care for their gardens. I sent Thony to town to buy those the other day and he delivered them over to Tima’s house. This week I’ll be doing a charla about natural and cheap and easy to make pesticides that we can use to help with insects. And trust me, there are a lot of pests down here. Something about the humidity must breed more insects. It was particularly rewarding to hand out the chicken wire after so many months of waiting and working. I can’t wait to see what the ladies have done with it!

Adrienne Visits

The volunteer who was here before me came to visit in August for a few days before she started grad school. She stayed over a the doña’s house but we hung out quite a bit. We walked around and visited with some of the families she had been close to and she came to a meeting with my women’s group. We also went up to Macoca, my long lost swimming hole. I hadn’t been there in quite a long time and was super disappointed to realize that it had mainly filled in with gravel and sand since the last time I was there. The water was beautiful and clear but my swimming hole had disappeared. It was sad, although the water was still really refreshing. I’m still hoping that it will clear out again if we have a big rain. In fact, it already could have considering how much and how hard it’s been raining recently. Anyways, we went up there with Thony, Elise (the new volunteer near me), and some of the girls that Adrienne was really close to. It was fun. Then Adrienne came over that night and we drank a little wine and chatted some more. It was fun to see her after more than a year and to see just how different our experiences have been in the community. I’m working with way different people than she did, which makes me feel good, cause I feel like I’m reaching a part of the community that she hadn’t, so hopefully I’m spreading the benefits of having a volunteer to more parts of the community.

Celebrando El Sur

At the end of July we had a conference here in the south of the country. It was called Celebrando El Sur (celebrating the south). After having been to a few camps here, I know how positive they are for the kids, but can also be very stressful for the volunteers. This camp turned out to be the best camp I’ve done so far in country. My friend Justin planned the whole thing pretty much by himself, handing out different charlas and tasks for the rest of us to do. We had 15 volunteers and 45 kids. It was up outside of this city called Neiba about half an hour on this partially paved, super curvy road, then turned off onto this rock (not gravel, but big rocks) road that leads at a 45 degree angle up this mountain to this camp. It was a pretty small place but had bunk rooms for all our us. Volunteers bunking with the kids because a bunch of Dominican teenagers unsupervised is just generally not a good idea. Heck, I guess that applies to all teenagers, not just Dominican ones.

The theme of the camp was diversity. So we had charlas about gender, ethnicity and immigration, HIV/AIDS and sexual pressures, biodiversity (I did that one), the continents of the world (I did Africa), and a few others I’m not remembering right now. The kids had to present a few times as well. They had to present something that represented their community. My two girls Laury and Germania presented about our holy spirit. They had a photo that they shared with the group while they talked about the holy spirit festival. Each group of kids also had to do a presentation on a different country of the world. We also had a game night where we had a bunch of stations the kids stayed at for 15 minutes each. The favorites were musical chairs and beer pong (with water of course) and flip cup. On the last day, the kids were divided into groups and they were each given a news article about some sort of diversity that they had to turn into a news broadcast. They were hysterical. We all got matching t-shirts and took a group picture on the last day complete with certificates for each of the kids and for each of us volunteers. It was a great weekend with the kids and I was so proud of my girls.

Mini-Vac meeting

Once every few months we get together with all the volunteers that live in our region for a mini-vac. I can’t remember what mini-vac means anymore, but pretty much what happens is one person is the representative for our region and they go to a meeting in the capital where they talk about what’s going on with Peace Corps, bring up any issues volunteers are having, etc. Then we get together as a group and talk about all that stuff, but also hang out and relax with other volunteers for an evening. It works pretty well here in region two because there are only nine of us. Although it’s hard to make a time that works for everyone. We decided to hold our last mini-vac meeting at my friend Jeff’s house. We call it Hotel de Jefe. We were going to have a chili cook-off but we got standfasted the day before we were supposed to have the meeting so we all made chili and ate it in our sites instead. Luckily the standfast ended the next night so on Sunday instead of Saturday those of us who were able headed out to Jeff’s place. We cooked up a mean dinner and then tried to burn a stump in Jeff’s backyard and sat around listening to music and chatting. It was a great night. Peace Corps is funny in a way. You get so used to just being in your community that you don’t realize that you’re stressed out or just tired of having to integrate all the time until you hang out with another group of volunteers. Number one it’s a nice reminder of the fact that you’re not alone in feeling stressed and tired, but it’s also a chance to vent, and laugh, and share stories, and listen to American music.

4th of July

There are a few times during Peace Corps service where we get to gather together and celebrate a U.S. holiday and 4th of July is one of the big ones. Which is funny because 4th of July has never been a huge holiday for me, but for many Peace Corps Volunteers it is. I stayed in my site last year but this year I decided it was time to get out of the campo and head to the beach. So I made the trek up to the Samana peninsula. A bus into the capital and then another bus on the “new highway” which only some parts of were new. We went winding through mountain roads on a huge Greyhound looking bus. When we go to the town of Samana we then had to catch a ride in a guagua that wasn’t really a bus but the back of a truck. We were piled in like sardines with all our backpacks and about 6 Dominicans as well with their produce, gas cans, etc. Needless to say it was really cozy. We got dropped off at the grocery store to stock up on supplies and then headed over to meet up with the friends we were bunking with. We went out to dinner and then headed to a party that some of the other volunteers were having and then headed out dancing for the evening to a discoteca. All in all a pretty good evening. Upon waking in the morning on the 4th of July we went and grabbed breakfast and then headed out to catch a boat to the beach we were going to spend the day at. It was beautiful. I mean spectacularly beautiful. We rented chairs that were strategically placed in the shade to hang out around and to stash our stuff. We spent the rest of the day swimming, lying around, munching snack food, and drinking. We headed back in the late afternoon and headed out for dinner and another night of visiting parties at various houses and hotels. We ended up at my friend Sarah’s room playing guitar and singing songs. Not a bad way to spend 4th of July. I may have to change my mind about the holiday, although it helps to be on a tropical island where no one else celebrates the holiday.

Religious Clothing

Since I talked about the Fiesta del Espíritu Santo I feel like I ought to mention the clothing more in depth. I don’t know the history of it, I wish I did but it’s really pretty cool. So for the procession before the festival and for the noche velas which are pretty much just mini versions of the big festival in someone’s house. They generally have a little shrine building and three blue crosses in the yard. They play palos and sometimes perico ripiao and some serve food as well, depending if it’s one that is going to last overnight or not. Anyway, back to the clothes. The clothes are amazing. They are usually cotton dresses for the women that are brightly colored in general, mainly red, yellow, green, and white. Sometimes they’ll have crosses sewn to the chest or sometimes on the sleeves. For the men, of which I don’t have a good picture unfortunately, they are cotton pants and button up shirts in the same colors as the women’s and with crosses sometimes as well. They make me think of Cuban men’s guayabera shirts (I think that’s the right name) although a lot more colorful.

May Fiesta del Espíritu Santo

So the Holy Spirit Festival rolled around once again at the end of May this year. It’s eight weeks after Good Friday. This festival is local to El Batey, think of it as El Batey’s Spring Fest, minus the rides and the dunking booth. I was excited to be here for it again because last year I had just arrived in site and didn’t really understand everything that was going on. I feel like I know a little more this year. Supposedly, the Holy Spirit doll (although you can’t call it a doll in front of the true believers) was left to the community by Taino Indians (the native population of Hispaniola) a long time ago. Although it was definitely not made by the Tainos. My guess is it was probably given to them by the Spanish, assuming the story is even partially true. Many people believe that it really does hold the spirit of the Holy Spirit and believe in its ability to grant wishes and perform miracles.

They start by having eight weeks of practices. The women go to the church in their religious clothes and clean the church and the men play the palos. Then the Saturday before the party, they carry the doll in a glass case through the community, stopping at various houses where they play the palos and do blessings on the house. At some of the houses they even make food for everyone in the procession, which means food for 50 or 60 people, maybe more, I’m bad at estimating numbers of people. They also have some people along who play perico ripiao, another traditional music that is played with a drum, a guira, and an accordion. A guira is a round metal thing that looks kind of like a cheese grater that you play by rubbing a stick on it.

Last but not least, the festival is on Monday. People come from all over the place by the carloads, truckloads, and busloads to see our little Holy Spirit doll. There are venders selling pictures of the Holy Spirit, candles to light when you pray for your miracles, plastic necklaces with crosses, jewelry, clothes, food from fried yucca to hamburgers to pizza to traditional sancocho (stew) and chen chen (grits), and alcohol mainly beer, whiskey, and rum (Brugal of course), and all the mixers to go with it. Some people will stay in the church all night praying (or sleeping on the benches). Meanwhile, palos are playing in various places outside and sometimes inside the church and people will dance. By the end of the night it’s generally the young people and the very religious who are still standing. The very religious stay at the church and the young people go over to one of the discotecas and dance reggaeton, bachata, and merengue until the wee hours of the morning.

Velorios, Novenas, y Rezos

I woke up this morning to hear that my neighbor across the way had died up in the loma. No one knows exactly what happened. They had been harvesting beans and he packed up his mule and started the long trek down yesterday afternoon. This morning a young man found him and came down to let his family know. As I’m writing this, a group of people has gone up into the mountain to bring his body back down. They have cleaned his yard, chopped the weeds around his house, and set up a tent for people to sit under in case it rains. And they have cleaned up his house so that they can lay out his body when the group that went to the mountain arrives with it.

Death is a common theme around here, particularly in a community made up largely of the older generation, as the young adults and people in their 20s and 30s have largely moved away from the campo to the cities. With death comes certain rituals that have been practiced for generations among the people of the Dominican
Republic.

The first part of these traditions is the velorio, which has already started for my neighbor although his body has not yet arrived, and will continue until tomorrow morning. Normally, it begins with the laying out of the body, and then all the close family members (spouses, parents, children, siblings) will sit in a room with the body and wail. People come in to pay their respects, which causes the family to wail even more loudly. After paying their respects people will gather outside in chairs and chit chat or play dominoes on the domino tables that have been brought in. In the normally separate kitchen building, someone is generally making coffee or hot chocolate, which they pass out on trays in little plastic cups usually accompanied by mints. Those who are close relatives of the family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) will stay all night at the velorio, many until they take the body for burial in our little cemetery.

Following this is the novena, which lasts nine days. On these nine nights close family and friends gather and play dominoes, drink coffee, suck on mints, and talk. At the end of each evening they play the palos, which are big bongo like drums and sing.

After the novena comes the rezo. At the rezo, anyone and everyone who was friends with or family with the deceased comes to pay their respects to the family. This means that sometimes as many as four or five buses come from the capital bringing extended family and friends to the campo. The immediate family cooks food for everyone, and I mean everyone. People will come early in the day and leave in the evening to head back to wherever they have come from.

Depending on how religious the family is there are other traditions they will follow as well. Some will not play music or drink for a month or more afterwards. And many will have a cabo de año every year on the anniversary of the person’s death for seven years.

Brigada Verde Camp

April 2010

Brigada Verde groups were started by Peace Corps Volunteers several years ago to teach environmental responsibility to the youth of the Dominican Republic. This program has since been endorsed and supported by the national government and some NGOs, although Peace Corps and us volunteers are still at the heart of the movement. As such, we try to have several conferences throughout the year including at least three regional conferences and a national conference. We held a national conference in April which I got to attend with a couple of youth from my community. We went to the national aquarium where we watched a video and then were taken on a tour. The following day we spent most of the time in a national parked tucked away in Santo Domingo. We did a nature walk and in addition the kids got to ride bikes or go on a paddle boat ride in the lake in the middle of the park. We also had several charlas (lessons) during the conference led by not only Peace Corps volunteers but also by some of the youth who put together amazing presentations that they gave to their peers. We finished up by presenting certificates and t-shirts to the kids and then took a group picture.