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.

Volunteer Visit

About a year ago, when I first got in country I went for a volunteer visit to see Ann and Tim. Now, a year later it was my turn to have a volunteer visit. I remember thinking how much it seemed Ann and Tim knew and trying to imagine that I would feel so knowledgeable a year later and be able to give good advice to a new trainee. Needless to say, I still don´t feel that knowledgeable, but Ann and Tim assured me they didn´t feel very knowledgable by the time I came to visit them either. I wanted my trainee to have a good time so as I had been planning on doing a mural for international women´s day before the dengue hit me, I decided it would be a fun project to do while she was here. So Thursday I went down to the school to start mapping out and drawing the mural I had designed. My volunteer Lauren arrived in the afternoon and I hauled her down to the school and we worked on drawing out the mural to be painted on Friday. However, Friday dawned cool and rainy, which meant no school, so no kids to help us paint, plus it wasn´t ideal weather for painting. So we had a lazy Friday, watched a movie, I made soup for dinner and we played cards and dominoes. Luckily, Saturday morning was sunny and my friend Ruth who is the closest volunteer to me and her trainee Carly (who grew up in Beaverton) came up to visit. We had arranged for some of my friends to take us to the Rio Mijo which is a 20 minute drive or so from my campo. We had a nice lunch of locrio first and then put on our cascos and hopped on the motorcycles of my friends to take us out to the river. We spent a few hours at the rive, enjoying the cool water on a hot day. It was lovely. Then we headed back to my house where we rested for a few hours and I made spaghetti for dinner, then it was time to head out to the discoteca for a little bit of dancing. We went to one and were almost the only one there although luckily my friends saved us and we spent plenty of time dancing and then decided to head over to the other discoteca, which was closed until the owner saw us pass and opened it up for us. So we spent another couple of hours and dancing. It was a great night and I was so happy to be in my campo and see that the girls were having a good time and that my guys were being such gentleman and buying our drinks and dancing with all of us. I knew they were good guys but it made me proud to see how they treated my friends and encouraged them to dance. Here´s some pictures. I will perhaps add more later.


Me, Carly, Madeline (my little neighbor), Ruth, and Lauren.


Dari and Goné hanging out in the hammock whil we waited for lunch.


Martin trying out the hammock de los estados unidos.


Ruth enjoying her locrio.


As snug as three bugs in a rug. Ruth, Lauren, and Carly curling up for a good night´s rest after an action-packed day.

Dengue

That´s right dengue. I made it almost one year exactly in country and came down with dengue. For those of you who don´t know dengue is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes and there are more cases of dengue than malaria here in the DR. Although mine started a little abornmally. I was on my way to San Juan on a motoconcho and started feeling light-headed and like I was going to pass out so when we got to the stop in San Juan I sat and rested until I felt a little better. Then I proceeded to walk down the street, but only made it about half a block before I got the light-headed feeling again and had to go into a shop and sit down. So I went back to the stop with the intention of going back to my site, but I couldn´t even sit on a motoconcho without feeling light-headed. I called one of the Peace Corps doctors and she said it was probably from the heat, to have a Coca-Cola and water and let her know how I feel. Well, the Coke and water helped well enough for me to make it back to my site. But then, that evening my temperature started went up to 101 and my back and legs started acheing. I took some medicine to make my temperature go down but by the middle of the night it wore off and my body was still all achy. By 6:00 am my temperature was up to 102. I called the doctor and she told me to come in. They sent me for blood tests, gave me some ibuprofen for the fever and aches, told me to drink lots of water, and gave me two options, go to the hospital or get a private room at the little hostel like place we normally stay at. I opted for that rather than being all alone at a hospital. It was a nice relaxing weekend and by Monday I was feeling much better although I had a crazy looking rash all over my body. It was even worse on Tuesday but I felt well enough to go back to my site. The rash lasted a couple days more and was a little itchy going away and I was pretty low energy for the next couple weeks. But I am better and doing well now. Here´s some pictures of my rash.


Here´s the rash on my neck.


Here´s the rash on my elbow and forearm

Carnaval Campo Style

On February 24 we had a Carnaval celebration in my campo that was organized by some of teachers at the biggest school in the community. The kids from many of the community schools dressed up and paraded from the school to the center of town where they had a stage set up and the kids did some great dances, plays, recitations, etc. Of course the parade started 2 hours late, but overall it was a very fun afternoon and evening. Here's some pictures for you all to enjoy.


One of the girls in a beautiful dress with the Dominican flag painted on her face.


A couple of pretty little indian girls


A very serious witch


I loved these outfits with the raqueta (euphorbia) on top of their heads and these green one pieces suits.


The little boys that were with the little girls with the raqueta on their heads.


Check out this little devil. The best part is he has a bunch of school milk cartons and other garbage pinned on to his clothes as part of the decoration.


A beautiful bride who I didn't realize was a little boy until Thony told me.


This costume was made out of plastic bags (fundas). I want to hope that they were recycled ones but they probably weren't.


A troop of short-skirted baton twirlers showed up from San Juan. What they lacked in skill they made up for in short skirts and white underwear.


A little Catholic doña in the making.


These boys walked down the street cracking their whips, which sounds like a gun-shot going off every time it cracked.


Their outfits are made out of paper strips that were glued onto old clothes.


I loved these boys costumes and their little dance.

Adios Llorona

Llorona died last night. We carried her down to a place in the cañada where the ground was soft enough to dig a deep enough hole to bury her in. She was wrapped in her towel and in the box we had put her in for the night hoping she would make it until this morning and maybe somehow come out danger; that the poison in her system would work it's way through and she would survive. But that didn't happen. When I went out to check on her last night around 9:30 she was gone. Her little body still holding some of the warmth of life, but her breath and her heartbeat no longer there.

I had thought that we had been lucky. The poisoned meat that had killed some of the neighbor dogs last week had been found and burned or buried. We had somehow escaped and still had our little loca with us. I had a dream during this time that Llorona had found a piece of the poisoned meat and that we were trying to save her. Then yesterday morning around 9:00, the little neighbor boy Llorona always played with yelled out to come see what Llorona had. It was a piece of the poisoned meat. We took it away and buried it and hoped that she hadn't eaten enough to make her really sick. I made her drink as much milk as she could and we waited. About an hour later she started staggering like a drunkard around the yard. I fed her more milk. A little later she vomited, and we hoped she had most of the poison out of her system. She couldn't really walk and her tongue was lolling out of her mouth, but she seemed to get better a little later and was walking more steadily. We watched and waited more. She seemed to be holding steady and we were hopeful. I tried to give her more milk but she didn't want any. So I found a water bottle and put the milk in there and forced her drink some. Then I thought that maybe most of the poison was out of her system probably, so I gave her some water. She was so thirsty. But then they told us not to give her water, because the water helps move the poison through her system. So I switched back to milk; prying her little jaws open to pour in a little at a time. Holding her mouth so she would swallow. Then sitting with her to see if it would stay in her system. But it was too little too late, or she ingested more meat than we thought, I don't know.

I keep trying to search for a reason, for a meaning, for some sort of silver lining, but I've yet to find one. It seems like such a senseless, cold-hearted act. Why? Why would someone do this? What purpose did it serve? Other than to strike pain into the hearts of those of us who had to watch our beloved animals suffer and die. I don't know if I'll ever have an answer.

All I know is there is a weight and pain in my chest that I don't know how to get rid of. And a feeling of having failed to protect a little being in my care. All I can hope is that she knew that I loved her and that her short life was joyful. Que en paz descansa, mi Lloronita. I miss you already.

Safe and Sound

Just so you don´t all worry about me, I wanted everyone to know that I am safe and sound after the earthquake in Haiti. Didn´t even feel the thing, although everyone else did. I think I was on my way home on a motorcyle. If you would like to help, the best way is to make monetary donations to well-established programs like, CARE, UNICEF, the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders. Thanks for all the thoughts and well wishes everyone has sent and thought. My love to all! I hope everyone is safe and happy and hope this new year brings more happiness to all of you. Oh, I will hopefully be home sometime in late May or early June for about 3 weeks so I hope to see most of you then!