Agosto

August can be pretty brutal here in the DR. The heat is relentless. The sweat is endless. Energy and ambition are hard to come by. No es facil.

This past week marked my 1-year anniversary since arriving in the DR. It is impossible to believe that an entire year has passed. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday we arrived, other days it feels like years. A new group of trainees has arrived in country and we are slowly becoming the wily veterans on the island. Just a year ago, I was stumbling off a plane, wide-eyed and melting in the Caribbean heat. I’m still melting, but most everything else about life here has become much more simplified.

While I should feel like a veteran and be moving into a new stage of my service, lots of changes are happening in my volunteer life at the moment. After months of stagnation and agonizing debate over what is best for both myself and my service, it has been decided that a site change is in my best interest. I will be leaving my current urban site for a much different, much smaller site. The process leading up to this decision has easily been the most difficult aspect of my service to this point.

I will be moving in the weeks to come and in many ways will be starting my service anew. It is an exciting transition and I know it will be best for me moving forward. I’ll be sure to document the move, introduce my new site, explain what a ‘batey’ is and all that fun stuff over the course of the next month.

Camp Superman

Almost one week later, I feel as though I’m still recovering from the exhaustion that comes with spending 4 days with 30+ muchachos in the Dominican wilderness. Last week was the second annual Campamento Superman, where young boys aged 10-14 from all over the DR come to camp, play and learn how to be Supermen.

The trip from my site to the beautiful mountain site of Los Bueyes was long. Really long. Eight hours on 4 buses long. That might be tolerable to you or I, but to my two 11 year-olds who have rarely been outside of the barrio, we may as well have been traveling to Asia. Add to the trip that one of my boys struggles with carsickness and the travel days become even longer.

But we made it and the weekend was full of activities both physical and educational. The boys slept in tents and lived life in the great outdoors. We bathed and spent many hours splashing around in the crystal clear river. We played all sorts of camp games like tug-o-war, had slip-n-slide relays and went wild in alka seltzer tag, a twist on tag where each person is given an alka seltzer tablet to wear around their neck and a bag full of water to splash each person’s tablet. The last ones standing with an intact alka seltzer tablet win. We also put on a science fair, talked about gender and what it means to be ‘men’ and painted Superman plaques. The Dominican boy scouts were on hand to teach wilderness survival tactics and local guides led a nature hike. A Dominican group called Futbol para la Vida came to teach about HIV/AIDS awareness and let the kids and volunteers act out their World Cup aspirations on the soccer field. All in all it was 4 days full of activities for muchachos and volunteers alike.

I was concerned that the boys might get brave and venture out on their own from time to time, especially at night. But fortunately for us, most all of the boys had seen the Dominican horror movie Andrea that takes place in the same region of the country we were camping. Any thoughts the boys had of wandering alone in the wilderness were immediately erased by thoughts of monster lady Andrea lurking around. Any late night noises or bad nights sleep were attributed to Andrea. This fictional character helped keep the boys in check.

Each night we sat around a campfire and made s’mores. I think volunteers missing the simple pleasures of camping and the great outdoors in summertime back home enjoyed these moments even more than the boys.

My two muchachos were a handful to say the least. They were among the, shall we say, least well behaved campers (understatement). But they had a blast and in the end I’m glad it was them that participated. It will be months before their doñas will be able to pry the Campamento Superman t-shirts from their bodies.

Las Galeras

Photos of Las Galeras, Samaná, and an epic 4th of July weekend.

La Playita near our beachfront Villa

Beachfront Villa with Pool (on the right) = Greatest Idea Ever

Beach Football on Playa Rincón

Patriotism on Rincón

Paradise

4th

What a glorious 4th of July that was. A massive crew of volunteers and many visitors from the States overtook a beautiful beach town on the Dominican peninsula of Samaná. We rented a number of houses all over town and I found myself with 15 good friends in a beachfront villa with a pool. Not a bad way to celebrate our independence.

The beaches were amazing, the games of American football on the beach were intense, the company of so many PCVs was great and the stories unforgettable. A 4^th of July pageant, multiple renditions of the Star Spangled Banner and various other patriotic tunes, plus a surprise 30^th birthday party for a fellow volunteer only added to the fun.

Now it’s back to reality (sort of). This week is Camp Superman, a boys camp put on by volunteers that began last summer. A group of volunteers, myself included, will be taking 2 muchachos each from our communities to a beautiful mountain site where we will camp out and put on a 4-day summer camp. More on that (with photos) to come next week.

Costa Esmeralda

This past weekend, a group of us finally made the trip to Michés and Costa Esmeralda. Michés is a seaside town 90 minutes north of my city of El Seibo. The coast that begins in Michés and moves east along the Bay of Samaná and the Atlantic Ocean is known as the Emerald Coast and is one that is undeveloped and absurdly beautiful. People in and around my site have ranted and raved about this, the nearest beach to my site, since day one and I finally took the opportunity to see what all the hype is about.

The trip was almost scrapped at the last second due to the unrelenting rains that have dictated life here in the DR for the past few weeks. But some bravery and a propensity to roll the dice and trust that all things will fall together got us on the bus north. The bus ride from El Seibo to Michés is worth the trip itself. The climb up into the Cordillera Oriental passes through lush green mountains, by large waterfalls and to the northern coast. It was something straight out of Jurassic Park.

The beach at the city of Michés leaves much to be desired but a 3-hour walk along the coast will lead to Playa Esmeralda, a hidden gem and one of the DR’s most beautiful beaches. The long walk flies by as you cross rivers, climb drooping palm trees and stop periodically to cool off in the calm waters. In the 8 hours we were away, we never saw so much as one human being (almost). The rains stayed away. The beach was ours.

I would love to post photos that show just how beautiful the Emerald Coast is, but on our walk back to the city to catch the USA/Ghana match, we finally ran into 2 human beings, 20 minutes from our destination. These human beings decided to rob us. My camera with the day’s photos was taken by two ladrónes with broken bottles and bad attitudes. Michés has a reputation for being a bit caliente, so we knew not to bring much cash or valuables. Our cameras and small amounts of pesos were all they got away with. In the end, we walked away unscathed aside from some pretty serious sunburn, annoyed about being robbed by 2 tigueres with broken bottles.

While my first experience as the victim of a crime in the DR put a blight on the trip, the deserted beach, the impeccable weather and the 6 hour walk through Caribbean beauty was fantastic. Playa Esmeralda is, to the point, the most beautiful beach I’ve seen in the Dominican.

Nueba Yol

I have survived my first trip home to the States during my service and am now slowly readjusting to life back here in the DR. Being in America after a 10-month stay in the Caribbean was interesting. Not nearly as strange as I thought it might be but a change of pace to be sure.

Only after removing myself from the rat race that is American life was I truly able to see it for what it is. It makes me more thankful for the tranquility of life here in the DR even while knowing that when my time here is up, I will reenter said rat race without missing a step. Inevitable. Until that day, I have much time to cogerlo suave aquí.

America is a pretty wild and incredible place. A land of consumerism and hot water on demand. Of personal motor vehicles and freaky fast internet. Wild and incredible.

Now I’m back and it’s summer, aka Hurricane Season. The rain is even worse than it was when I left (which I didn’t believe possible). Most days seem to be spent indoors waiting for the rains to pass. Thank Dios for podcasts and books. School is out and daily schedules have changed completely. I feel like I am having to learn the daily life of my community all over again.

So I’m readjusting back to Dominican life and summer schedules, starting to use Spanish again after a 2-week hiatus and waiting for the first of many hurricanes predicted to pummel the Caribbean. It’s going to be an interesting summer.

Moho

The rainy season may have just begun, but it is already kicking my ass. The constant rain keeps everyone indoors and makes holding regularly scheduled classes and/or meetings a near impossibility. The constant rain has also turned my small apartment into a breeding ground for moho, or mold.

I don’t have a back door to help air pass through my place and have persiana windows that do not let in large amounts of sunlight. Those things coupled with the rains have made things good and damp in my apartment for the past few weeks. The dampness and humidity have led to lots of moho. I am fortunate that my apartment itself is made of bloc and not wood, but all of my furniture is wooden and currently black, blue and fuzzy. The mold on my dresser has spread to clothes and the mold on shelves has spread to books and papers. Lots of stuff had to be thrown out.

The past few days have been full of scrubbing everything with bleach and asking neighbors and businesses where one can buy a dehumidifier, which has led to blank stares and mistranslations. Apparently they are far from common down here. So for now it is just bleach baths for all of my belongings and hoping that my black fuzzy roommate has gone away for good. Vamos a ver.