Hace Calor

It seems to be hot just about everywhere. A heat wave is devouring North America and pushing thermometers even in northern lands like Minnesota and Ontario well into the 100s. While it’s not that hot down here, each day brings a debilitating temperature consistently in the 90s. This would be easily tolerable if air conditioning was commonplace or even if the electricity was on during daylight hours to power fans. Alas, we sweat.

Dominicans, for being a Caribbean people, are not fond of the sun. They avoid sun as fervently as American children avoid broccoli. They are professionals at seeking out even the smallest slivers of shade. They do everything in their power to avoid making their skin color darker. If they get too dark, people might think they are Haitian and being a Haitian is not a popular thing here in the DR. Being racist against Haitians is a popular thing though.

Dominicans’ reasons for avoiding el sol are not simply racial but also very practical. Not surprisingly, it is quite a bit cooler in the shade. When it is too hot to be indoors and AC is decades (maybe longer) away from being a household staple, the shade is a good place to be. I suspect shade-sitting is a sort of national pastime in many developing nations.

Shade-sitting. A national pastime.

My daily uniform while here in my community usually consists of khaki shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops. Not exactly the business casual ensembles other Americans my age sport to their day jobs. But the current heat wave here has downgraded my uniform to basketball shorts, a sleeveless t-shirt and occasional barefootedness. Part of me thinks this is lazy. Another part of me thinks I am really beginning to dress like a local.

Sometimes it rains in the afternoon and the heat takes a break from its onslaught. Then the rain stops and the humidity sweeps in like a wet blanket, making people long for the unrelenting dry(er) heat of the mornings.

I suppose heat is preferable to the hurricanes predicted on the horizon. August and September mark the high point of hurricane season. People educated in the way weather works say this will be a highly active hurricane season. Hopefully the people who predict weather patterns are as incorrect about this as they are about most everything else.

Easily one of the things I dislike most about living in the DR is the lack of seasons. I want four distinct seasons in my life. I want to wake up, feel the early morning temperature and be able to judge, by that alone, what month it is. With the exception of the few months in late spring when the rainy season is upon us, it is always summer. An endless summer. Many Americans probably think that sounds great. But I want seasons. Four of them. Changing leaves, mounds of snow, rainy springs and hot summers is the climate for me.

Hang in there America. Soon enough it will be fall and you will be able to slip on a light jacket and watch the leaves change. Or spend a crisp Saturday afternoon tailgating at a football game, letting cold beer keep you body warm. Our summer never ends. The heat wave lasts 12 months, and then it starts all over again.

Camp Superman

The first week in July, PCVs in the DR attempted something previously undone in PCDR history. A 5-day Camp for Dominican muchachos aged 10-14. This marked the third summer in which Volunteers here in the DR have put on Camp Superman. The first camp in 2009 took place over three days, 2010’s camp stretched to four days and this year we upped the ante to five. More days, more activities, more fun and more knowledge dropped.

Along with two fellow volunteers, I helped plan, organize and coordinate the camp beginning back in February and saw it through its fifth and final day last week. It required much work but ended as an epic, muddy success.

On July 6^th, 16 Peace Corps Volunteers left their respective communities throughout the country and made for the idyllic mountain town of Los Bueyes for the 3^rd Annual Camp Superman. As in all Camp Supermans, the idea is to teach young boys how to become young men. To reach young boys in their more formative years before they reach the vulnerable ages in which far too many young Dominican males succumb to delinquency or premature fatherhood. The Camp offers the boys a chance to meet boys from other parts of the country and the unique opportunity to camp in tents, go on hikes, eat s’mores and simply enjoy the great outdoors.

Through various educational activities revolving around themes such as Gender, Nutrition, HIV/AIDS Prevention and more, the boys learned valuable information to take home with them to their respective communities. There is also much time allotted for sports, arts & crafts, science experiments, swimming in a beautiful river and doing other fun activities synonymous with Summer Camp.

On the Saturday of Camp, we had spent the morning hiking to a beautiful waterfall and were on the homestretch of five days when the skies opened up and the rains fell hard. Our initial reaction was to play. Some boys played dominoes and board games under cover from the rain. Others joined a large game of mud soccer and got dirty. Boys and Volunteers alike were covered head to toe in mud and loving every second of it. Then the flash flood warnings came, tents got flooded, clothes got wet and things almost hit the fan. Fortunately, Peace Corps Volunteers are a resourceful bunch. 16 people worked together to clean tents, hang dry clothes, build a super tent where all 42 boys had a slumber party and saved the day. There are few other people I would want on my side during a torrential Caribbean downpour while caring for 42 muchachos than PCVs.

Camp Superman 2011 was an enormous success for both Dominican boys and PCVs alike. The boys were able to enjoy a unique life experience and Volunteers were able to watch the young boys they work with day in and day out in their communities grow and mature before their eyes.

In just 5 days, an ordinary boy can learn to become Super.

*Pictures forthcoming. Si dios quiere.

Mira Mi Pinta

My Escojo Mi Vida youth group graduated from my Sex Ed / Life Skills course in late May. With the course finished and the summer months ahead, we arranged to do 3 community service projects. One in June, another in July and a third in August.

Project #1 – A Community Mural

Among the first sights one takes in upon entering Batey Cachena is a large wall on the side of a row house barrack that is peeling away multiple layers of decades old political campaign ads. The wall is ugly. So we painted it.

My youth came up with a design that offers a welcome to and description of the community. The wall includes baseball players, sugar cane cutters, a school and an open bible featuring a verse chosen by one of my Christian youth. Each of these are accompanied by the words: Land of Baseball Players, Land of Hard Workers, Land of Professionals and Holy Land (a bit much).

We are not nor do we pretend to be proper artists. For that reason the final product was a little lackluster and nothing resembling a work of artistic genius. But my kids did the work themselves and the townspeople seem to like it. Success.

Artists at work.

Welcome to Cachena. The finished product.

Oz

I'm back to the noise and unrelenting heat of the DR after 2 weeks Down Under. Australia was a great time but it was somewhat of a tease to be in such a large country for such a small period of time. Can't wait for a return trip to visit other great cities and the bush. That said, experiencing Sydney, diving in the Great Barrier Reef and cuddling koalas with the fam isn't a bad way to spend a vacation.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbor Bridge. We climbed to the top!

Giraffes, Zebras and a skyline view at Sydney's Taronga Zoo

SCUBA Diving in the Great Barrier Reef

Hand Feeding Kangaroos

'Cuddling' Koalas

The Day that Wasn't

We left Los Angeles on June 2. We arrived in Sydney on June 4. And June 3? It would seem to have not existed for myself and the other 200+ people on our massive Airbus. For the first time in my life, an entire day has escaped me. Bill Bryson, Iowa’s greatest author, is able to put it more poignantly than I:

“Each time you fly from North America to Australia, and without anyone asking how you feel about it, a day is taken away from you when you cross the International Date Line. I left Los Angeles on January 3 and arrived in Sydney fourteen hours later on January 5. For me there was no January 4. None at all. Where it went exactly I couldn’t tell you. All I know is that for one twenty-four-hour period in the history of the earth, it appears I had no being.” – Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country

Off to See the Wizard

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

On Thursday June 2, I will board a plane in Santo Domingo and on Saturday June 4, I will land in Sydney, Australia.

My youngest sister has been studying abroad Down Under since February and the rest of the fam is going to join her for 2 weeks Aussie greatness. The journey to the world’s largest island, the only island that doubles as a continent and an overall desirable vacation destination will be a long one. But the ends will most surely justify the means.

Escojo Graduation

My Escojo Mi Vida group celebrated their graduation last night. Escojo is a Peace Corps initiative in which we volunteers teach Dominican youth about sexual health and life skills. Over the course of the past 3 months, I have met weekly with my Escojo group to discuss themes ranging from decision-making, HIV/AIDS, discrimination, STIs, the human reproductive system and more.

The HIV rate in the DR is (arguably) between 1-2% and higher still in batey communities like my own. The teenage pregnancy rate is also high and a large part of the problem is lack of education and lack of easy access to condoms and other birth control methods. The goal of Escojo is to educate youth in volunteer's communities to make good life decisions and to educate themselves about sex and HIV/AIDS.

Eleven youth aged 13-20 graduated on Monday. Looking ahead, we hope to do a number of community service projects over the summer. A strong youth group has been lacking here in Cachena for some time and we hope to change that with Escojo.