Mural for International Women`s Day

For International Women´s Day I really wanted to do something in my community. So I had organized with the director of the biggest school to do a charla (literally chat) for the 7th and 8th graders and also to paint a mural at the school. However. Things always turn out more difficult than one thinks. I was going to head down to Paraiso for the weekend to celebrate that we`d been in the country for a year, but the day before I left I came down with dengue and instead spent the weekend in the capital laying in bed and taking ibuprofen to bring down my fever and stop my body from aching. So needless to say when I got back to my site, I wasn`t feeling up to standing on my feet for several hours to do the charla. Luckily, for me, I had my volunteer visit the next week so she helped me draw the sketch on the wall of the school and the following week we started painting it. We still haven`t finished and now I`m going to try to do another one to celebrate Earth Day. Hopefully I will be able to finish the first one and do the second one next week.


Thony and some of the muchachos helping to paint the mural.


We had a big group so we had to take turns painting. And some people were definitely more skilled than others.


Here`s how the mural looks now. Hopefully it will look even better next week when we finish.

Veggie Gardens

I know I´ve mentioned that I`ve been trying to do a vegetable garden project for awhile now. I`ve been waiting for a grant which got lost somewhere in the Peace Corps Office (not by me) to begin with and then it takes awhile to fill up as it is an online donation type grant. Thanks to everyone who donated by the way. So now I have the funds in my account, but I have to set up another account, if the guy in charge of all this will ever send me an e-mail with the amount I need to put in the new account I have to open up. In the meantime I happened to stop by the rural health clinic in my campo and was talking to the nurse there and he suggested that we start a little garden out back of there. It´s a completely enclosed area so no chickens or other animals can get it. I was excited! So Thony and a couple other boys went down and cleared out the area one day and set up little raised beds to plant in. A few days later we went back to plant the seeds. We planted tomato, bell pepper, and eggplant to begin with. Definitely staples in Dominican cooking. And hopefully I will be able to plant carrots, cilantro, lettuce and spinach seeds. All the seeds are from the Secretaria of Agriculture who has a program for community groups who would like to grow vegetables. I was excited to get some seeds planted that will provide food for the community. And I`m hoping to get everything figured out with the grant so that I can use the grant to buy the chicken wire for my women`s group so they can start planting too! Then hopefully I will do some charlas on organic gardening and how to make organic pesticides, which are pretty easy for the most part although you have to apply it more often than the regular ones. But in a relatively small vegetable garden it shouldn`t be too bad.

On another note, I started a little vegetable garden too. I planted Tomatos, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, carrot, cilantro, and basil. However, I think the chickens ate most of the seeds. As of now I have 3 tomatoes, 5 eggplants, a bunch of cilantro that I actually planted in a different spot than the garden. The peppers sprouted, but then it was like something ate them right away. The other stuff never even sprouted so I`m pretty sure the chickens got ahold of it. I`m pretty the chickens ate the seeds of everything else. I guess I´m just going to have to bite the bullet and buy chicken wire. Think I might do so now that I got my return. Thank goodness for working for a couple months in the states before I came down here.

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Here`s the little garden. It`s right behind the health clinic.


Here`s Thony planting some tomato seeds I think.


Here`s our friend Mudo (the mute) up in the coconut tree in the clinic yard throwing us down some coconuts. All the boys and men here climb the trees like monkeys. It`s impressive to watch. Mudo is probbly about 20 or 25 feet up this coconut tree.