Sunday, September 27, 2009

Aguas Blancas

It is a special week in Constanza. It is Patronales. Each city in the DR has a patron saint and each city has an annual celebration to honor that saint. The celebrations begins as a religious event and over the course of the week becomes a big party. Naturally.

The festivities here in Constanza have consisted of bouncy castles, creepily androgynous clowns (see above right), trinket vendors and food stalls popping up in the parque that marks the city center. That and concerts. On Friday a groups of us Americanos went to a merengue concert downtown. Not yet my kind of music but it will grow on me over time as that and bachata are seemingly the only forms of music played in this country. Oh, and Michael Jackson too. He is something of his own musical genre down here. Despite not loving la música, it was a fun cultural experience. And we got to stand right next to the Síndico (mayor), whose face is plastered all about town on all things ranging from buildings to garbage trucks. A true Constanazan celebrity.

The only other highlight of my Patronales experience was sliding down the fire pole at the local fire station. A couple of the local youth that we work with are part-time bomberos (firemen) and had no reservations about letting us slide down the tubo. In the U.S. there would likely be rules & regs against allowing random foreigners to do such a thing. But here in the DR, most anything goes.

Saturday was a day of team-building activities for the 15 remaining Youth volunteers. We started the morning by reluctantly hopping into another godforsaken camión. The flat bed trucks from hell. Our destination was the beautiful area of Aguas Blancas. This weeks' go round with the camión was exponentially better than last. Less people, more space and a 1-hour trip rather than a 3-hour tour.

Aguas Blancas is an area high up in the mountains that consists of a 100+ foot waterfall cascading into an ice-cold pool. It's pretty to look at and daring to swim in. 2 for 2. Our host families provided us with the cautionary tales about the low water temperature and looked at us crazily when we told them we intended to swim there. No matter, we were jumping off the nearest rocks and into the pool immediately upon arrival. The water was indeed cold. The closest thing to a Polar Bear Club experience I have ever had.

The water truly did take your breath away on first contact. Once you were able to breathe, it hurt to do so and was all-around pretty intense. You got used to the water (more or less) soon thereafter and all was good. Some in the group kept climbing upward to find a higher, more adrenaline-filled spot to jump from. Normally I would have followed suit, but after my skull-crushing Canadian experience with cliff jumping this past summer, I stuck to the less death-defying heights.

The real team building came later that night as a number of us passed up another Dominican concert to partake in my favorite PCT pastime, kicking it on the loma. There is a large hill nearby the neighborhood we all live where we often sneak away to in order to avoid the ever-watchful eyes of the locals, listen to music in English and better get to know the people we will be sharing experiences with in the two years to come. The loma is easily the best part of Constanza.

A close second is the local repostería (bakery). We eat mountains of rice and platanos each day, but comfort food is missing from our diet. This is why when a teacher or current volunteers pay us a visit and happen to have M&Ms or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in tow, we pounce on them like rabid dogs. Enter the repostería, which can sate my sweet tooth on a daily basis for under $1 US. It makes each plate of rice all the more appetizing to know that cakes and cookies are in the near future.

All is fantastic here. Couldn't be better.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

GI Woes

I speak not of the marines. I speak neither of the old toys nor of the new movie. I speak of a common affliction among Peace Corps Volunteers and, I imagine, all foreigners living in developing countries. That's right, the GI Woes I have experienced this week are of the gastrointestinal variety. If toilet talk is not your thing, avert your eyes now.

We were lectured for hours in our initial weeks of training about how to avoid stomach issues and the Big D (not Dallas). Avoiding the water is the obvious one. Purified only. Steering clear of lettuce, cabbage and other veggies that are water-based is another. Passing up on street food (which is hard being as street food is always the best type). But even while taking all the proper precautions, shit happens (pun intended).

Visits from the GI fairy are never fun. But when living in an environment with no running water, limited & unflushable TP, and paper-thin walls separating you from not just your host families but your neighbors too is a new experience altogether.

While being both bedridden and within close proximity to the baño, I was visited and taken care of by a steady stream of fellow trainees as well as an overbearing Doña who when she hears, "No, I do not want anymore god-awful tasting death tea." she brings it anyway. It fascinates me that while denotatively the word "No" means the exact same thing in both English and Spanish, connotatively it seems to mean something different altogether. No means yes. Yes means yes. There in no No here.

Secrets and/or things on the DL do not exist in the DR. The chisme (gossip) is in full force at all times. Therefore, a sick gringo in one house is first news and then common knowledge to all in the neighborhood. Everyone makes it their business to know how your bowels are moving and offer their advice on a med, soup or herbal death tea that will fix you right up.

Now that the 54-hour parasite has passed and I am positive that no little creature is going to jump through my stomach cavity a la Alien, I can look back with humor. In the end it wasn't all bad. I got some serious reading done. I got caught up on sleep. Watched a couple movies. Lost at least 5 pounds, making an intestinal parasite the most effective diet I have every willingly or unwillingly been on.

I would like to be able to say that after this little run-in I am now better accustomed to the bacteria and microbes living in every glass of water or bite of food here, but who am I kidding? I have the weakest stomach ever. This is the first of many parasites that will make camp inside me and wreak havoc. These will be the tales that add up to my PCV equivalent of war stories. Occupational hazards of life on the front lines. My GI Joe meets GI Woes meets tainted street empanada fables.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Clean-Up Crew

The past week has been our busiest yet. Our weeks in the capital were spent doing very general and primarily language-based training. Here in Constanza, things are getting far more specific. We are learning the tools we will put into action after swearing-in as volunteers.

After a week of getting to work, a group of us Peace Corps Trainees had a chance to get out of the city and see our youth groups in action. The majority of the youth groups we are working with are Eco-Clubs focused on tackling environmental issues. Saturday was the International Day for Cleaning Coastlines (at least that's what it says on the free hat they gave me). Since there are no coastlines up here in the mountains, we drove into a nearby national park to do some trash pick-up. Sounds cool enough, right? Enter el camión.

The camión is a type of flatbed truck commonly found here in the DR, usually used to transport food. On Saturday, it was used to transport humans. Twenty-five humans to be exact. We, Americans and Dominicans alike, piled into the back of the truck and set off on the most uncomfortable ride I can fathom in a moving vehicle. I now know how livestock feel in semis.

We were initially under the impression that we were heading 45 minutes into the mountains and picking up some trash. That seemed feasible. Discomforting in the back of a camión, but feasible. We should have known better.

Three hours later we had maneuvered through the unpaved mountain passes and arrived at our destination. We spent about 45 minutes picking up the trash that didn't exist because we were in the middle of nowhere and there were no human beings within a 50-mile radius to produce any trash whatsoever. In the 9 hours the trip took, we could have cleaned entire neighborhoods in the city and made an actual difference rather than picking up imaginary trash. Priorities seem to be an issue here.

The whole thing turned out to be somewhat of a publicity stunt, complete with television cameras capturing the picking up of trash. In fact, some of the Dominicans poured out their bags full of trash just so the cameraman could get a shot of them picking it up and putting it in a bag. Pretty random stuff. To boot, the trash we were able to find had to be taken back to the city to be properly disposed of. How was it going to get to the city? With us in the back of the camión of course. What was a cramped ride before had become far worse as we had to share our limited space with garbage bags leaking garbage juice.

I currently look and feel a bit like Quasimodo, with a hump protruding from my back due to being slammed against the railing of the camión time and again. I cannot and will not be able to sit properly for a week due to a bruised tailbone. My ribs are sore. All in all, a fantastic DR experience.

While I sarcastically bitch, the trip actually was very fun and the breathtaking scenery made it all worthwhile. We were literally walking in the clouds we were at such a high altitude. We got to see the monument that marks the exact center point of the country. We got free hats and t-shirts. We got to know one another on a more intimate level due to the close quarters and entangled bodies. It became one of those situations where you just have to laugh because it is so absurd. I expect many more equally absurd experiences in the years to come.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Constanza

God damn it is beautiful here. Way up in the mountains, far away from the Capital, with fresh air and a cool breeze. Fantastic.

I had heard nothing but great things about the city of Constanza and now I see why. The drive here was full of beautiful scenery and a queasy stomach due to those zigzagging mountain roads, but the end of the road led to this picturesque pueblo. For the next 5 weeks, the 16 aspiring Peace Corps volunteers in the sector of Youth, Family and Community Develop will be calling this  place home while we tackle some hands-on training with youth groups from across the city.

Being cooler doesn't mean it's not hot. It is. Just ask my bright red skin. But nothing compared to the sauna that Santo Domingo has been in the past few weeks. I think after a few short weeks in the capital, anywhere would have been a welcome change. Aside from the heat, the traffic and feeling of never being entirely safe turned me off to the capital. The cooler weather means I actually use a blanket at night rather than sleeping in a pool of my own sweat. That said, the early morning bucket baths are far more brisk in the cool weather.

New city means new host family. I was very spoiled in the capital to have such a great host family. They set the bar high. My new family is also great. Many little kids running around keep things interesting. My Dona lives in a modest house with her daughter and three grandsons aged 2, 2 and 4. They are impossibly cute but a bit much from time to time. Can't remember the last time I fell asleep or woke up to the sound of crying children. All is well though. I think it's hard to feel unwelcome by any family here in the DR. The people are overwhelmingly hospitable and seem to enjoy nothing more than overfeeding a gringo.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and Friday night met the representatives of the youth groups we will be working with in the weeks to come. I was extremely impressed with the leader of the youth group I will be working with. He is creating a youth group from the ground up to offer a positive alternative to the negativity in his barrio. It is an Eco Club that will tackle environmental issues and help clean up the neighborhood and surrounding areas. Anyone who has been to the DR knows that trash in the streets and anywhere and everywhere else is a major problem. More than anything else though, the group serves as an opportunity for local youth to meet up, have some fun and do positive acts for themselves and the community. Inspiring stuff.

On Sunday, leaders and members of the local youth groups took a group of us Americans to the river. It was a 90-minute walk each way to get there, but the scenery was terrific. It's almost difficult to believe that we are in the Caribbean while being surrounded by pine forests. It seems a bit more Colorado than DR. But gorgeous nonetheless. This small country is home to many diverse eco-systems and this mountain valley is just one of them.

The water in the mountain stream was cold and refreshing after sweating through the long trek there. And after a couple of hours of swimming and sunning, the walk back went uphill and included a trip straight up 349 stairs. The views were even better heading back and I can't foresee these mountain views getting old in the next 5 weeks. It's gonna be hard to leave Constanza.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Volunteer Visit

I am so ready to be a volunteer. After 4 days of staying in the campo with a current volunteer, I cannot wait to have my own place, with my own food and my own time schedule. I learned a lot, got a more realistic view of what life will be like as a Peace Corps Volunteer and, most importantly, had some fun.

I visited a small campo of about 1,500 people that is centrally located between the cities of Santiago, Moca and La Vega. The town was about the exact size I wish to be placed in. Small enough to know most everybody and build great confianza while large enough to have occasional electricity and running water.

I had the opportunity to visit my first Dominican beach during my trip. On Friday, a small group of current and future volunteers made the trip to the northern beach town of Sosua. I got to swim, snorkel and burn crispy over the course of the day. The Caribbean sun is not going to be my best friend in the 2 years to come. The beach was beautiful and not full of tourists, which is batting 2 for 2. And in the Dominican, batting average is of the utmost importance.

I got to experience the slow-paced life to come and see where I stand with my language skills as compared to current volunteers. I also got to hear some of the inside stories shared amongst volunteers that we are not privy to at the training center. After getting to meet a number of volunteers and get a small glimpse into the life of a volunteer, I am most definitely ready to start my service.

In the days to come it is back to being over-fed and overprotected by Donas and long days of language and technical training in the barrios of Santo Domingo. While it is hard not to love the Donas and our training center, I'm ready for a change of pace and a change of scenery.

This coming Thursday we will be leaving the Capital once again, this time for 5 weeks. After a few short days of training we will be breaking up by job sector to begin our Community-Based Training. It will be sad to leave the entire group of people that we are still getting to know, but good to get some practice in the work we will be doing come November. I have heard nothing but great things about the city of Constanza where my training will take place and am ready to head to the mountains for some cooler weather and outdoor activities. Anywhere with less heat, humidity and mosquitoes is most welcome by me.

On a less exciting note, our group of 51 became a group of 49 today. Two trainees decided after their Volunteer Visit that this was not for them. It was strange to watch the first people go and disappointing to realize that this will happen time and again throughout the next 27 months. Every group hopes to pass everyone through, but that's not entirely realistic. Seeing them leave really reinforced the difficult challenges ahead and proves that this is not for everyone.


Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Inspiration

We are a lucky group of trainees. On Tuesday we had the great pleasure of being visited by the brand spanking new International Director of the Peace Corps. He's been on the job just a few short weeks and his first stop abroad was right here in the DR.

Director Aaron Williams is himself a former Peace Corps Dominican Republic Volunteer. He served in the late sixties and early seventies alongside Senator Chris Dodd. Other former PCDR Volunteers have gone on to any number of impressive professions, including astronaut. It will certainly be interesting to see where the 50 trainees I currently spend my days with end up in the years and decades to come. Past volunteers have set the bar pretty high by making it to Capitol Hill and Outer Space.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect after being told that the International Director was to visit with us. My natural assumption was that some old, albeit important, man was going to come and share his slightly dated and/or mundane ideas with a group full of twentysomethings. What we got was anything but that. Director Williams, fresh off his appointment by President Obama, was young, engaging and, most of all, inspiring. He took our questions, ate lunch with us and took the time really listen to us and not simply talk at us.

To hear his story as to why he joined the Peace Corps decades ago and how it changed his life for the better very much reinforced the reasons I am here. He has been right here in our shoes as a PCDR trainee and future volunteer. His visit as a real treat and a dose of inspiration to take with us into our service.