Ill

Sick. Again. For those of you keeping track at home, my ratio of healthy days to sick days in my site is about 1:1. ¡Que Vaina Mi Vida!

I am fortunate to have access to a television during this time I am living with a host family. Especially on sick days. As soon as I move out on my own, my TV in the DR days are numbered. For now I’m able to keep up with some sports (damn Vikings) and see the occasional movie in English. Also, there are 4 American TV dramas televised here that are not dubbed. Alas, only 2 of those 4 are not of the Law & Order franchise. But that does leave me with 2 or 3 hours a week of House. I had never seen the show back home but I am so hungry for English language programming that I would probably watch Fox News if we had it. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Dr. House is a sometimes psychotic, often grumpy, always brilliant diagnostician who, in true TV fashion, solves the strange medical mystery without fail while fighting his own demons. It’s actually a really good show.

Why am I talking about House?

As I lay in bed Tuesday night with a fever and what can only be described as pus balls growing in the back of my throat, I couldn’t help but try my hand at self-diagnosis, Dr. House-style. Is it just another Dominican mystery virus? Dengue Fever? My eyes do hurt. What about strep? I’ve had that before. Oh Shit!! It could be throat cancer! I don’t even smoke!

This went on for some time before a Peace Corps doctor was called to curb my self-diagnosed delusions (It was strep). Luckily, even while living in a developing country, I have some of the best medical care available. Thank You United States Government! If only every American could have health care provided by the government. A quick trip to the capital for some antibiotics and all was well. My Doña thought I might not need to make the trip to the capital. She was going to be more rational and pray the demons out of me. She prayed in her Dominican evangelical way, which is pretty much just yelling and gyrating while occasionally saying Jesus’ name. More praying at me than praying for me. I was a little put off by the whole episode but let her do her thing. While I appreciated her effort, I was pretty certain at that moment it was penicillin I needed, not Jesus.

I almost had a second bout of sickness en route to the capital when a child asleep in his mother’s lap across the aisle from me on the guagua threw up all over himself, his mother and everyone in his general vicinity. I was spared a vomit shower by the kind Dominican soldier sitting next to me. For all I know he was on his way to the border to help with the Haiti situation; and now he would smell like vomit for the 7 hour trip there. ¡Que Vaina Su Vida! As the sight or smell of vomit is almost guaranteed to make me vomit, I sat with my head craned out the window, like a canine with a gag reflex, until the woman and her child got off the bus.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the entire episode. A child projectile vomits on public transportation and passengers are neither alarmed nor upset about being vomited upon. It’s just a seemingly normal part of everyday life. Shit happens, right? In 5 months I am already almost completely desensitized to these crazy daily occurrences. That's acclimation, Homes!

Fish Out of Water

"There are no foreign lands. It is only the traveler that is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

After a slowdown during the holiday season, life is starting to return to its normal pace (which is still pretty damn slow). Diagnostic work is getting thrown together and prepped for our upcoming 3-month training. Hard to believe we’ve been in our sites for 3 months already. And now 5 months in country?! ¡Diablo!

Aside from the pace of daily life, the pace in which I am devouring books has returned to form. Books have been a constant in my early life in my site. They offer a source of entertainment to fill the void in life sans internet or television. They give me an opportunity to think in English for but a few hours a day and give my brain a break from the cerebral overexertion that comes with living life in a second language. They provide a source of further escapism from the already escapist lifestyle I live down here.

I recently read a wonderful book called Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri that consists of a number of short stories about Indian immigrants living and adjusting to life in America. I’ve found myself reading a lot about the immigrant experience lately. I suppose it’s because in some ways I am living a quasi-immigrant experience myself. I have multiple ‘fish out of water’ experiences in each passing day. I find myself for the first time in my life a member of the minority. In fact, aside from Haitians, I am the only minority and certainly the only gringo in my community. It is a novel and alien feeling to see things from this end of the spectrum.

My life is presently lived in somewhat of a fishbowl. Eventually the novelty of having a local gringo will surely wear off. In time the members of my community will learn how truly uninteresting I am. Sooner or later this world will feel natural while the States become foreign. For now I relish the feeling of being somewhere unfamiliar. Of having an experience comparable to that of Ms. Lahiri’s characters but rather than moving to America, I’ve moved from it. Of feeling and taking in newness everyday. Of learning a new language and way of life. Of being in the classroom of the world.

El Terremoto

So there was an earthquake this week. You might have heard about it. I think it was on TV. I actually did not even feel the quake out here in the east, which is the opposite side of the island, but it could be felt on most of Hispaniola and the destruction in Haiti is obviously catastrophic. As if the residents of the poorest country on this hemisphere didn’t suffer enough in their daily lives.

I would have gone the better part of a day without even knowing there was a natural disaster just hundreds of miles away were it not for my Doña calling everyone she knows to warn them about the impending tsunami. After quickly confirming I was in the DR and not Southeast Asia, I deduced something had occurred in Haiti. There was no tsunami and life here on 2/3 of Hispaniola goes on in relative normalcy while life on 1/3 of the island falls into complete and utter disarray.

Unfortunately while being so close to the damage there is little one can do from here. Volunteers are not allowed in Haiti and I’m not sure what could be accomplished in the wreckage even if we could go. There are potential opportunities in our communities to collect supplies and non-perishable food items to send across the border but asking the poor to donate to the poorer doesn’t seem to benefit anyone too greatly at the end of the day.

It is obviously a horrible situation. Most all situations in Haiti can be labeled as such. My only hope is that this disaster leads to sustained relief provided by the international community, especially the U.S. It would be very easy for us to drop a billion dollars and three tons of energy bars in Port-au-Prince, pat ourselves on the back and wash our hands clean of the situation. But the problems in Haiti stretch far beyond this natural disaster and we should offer sustained aid and support to a neighboring country. That a place like Haiti can even exist less the 800 miles from the richest, most powerful country on earth boggles the mind.

Whatever anyone back home can do for the Haitian people, do it. My experiences with Haitians since arriving to the island of Hispaniola 5 months ago have been overwhelmingly positive. They are a people that work very hard for very little. Send money; you don’t need your nails done this week. Send old clothes; you know you’ll never wear that ugly shirt again anyway. Educate yourself on Haiti and the difficulties these people face. Read Mountains Beyond Mountains and learn about the efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer. Do something besides gawking at the horrific images on the television only to change the channel. Act.

The Oughts

Navidad has come and gone. Actually, I’m told Christmas is celebrated up through the New Year so there are still a few more days left. Christmas Eve, Noche Buena, and not Christmas Day is the day with the most significance here. The Dominicans cook a large meal (what would normally serve as a week’s worth of food), spend time with family and walk the streets sporting their Christmas best. They also dip into some traditional alcoholic beverages, which turned the ordinarily pious evangelicals into inexperienced inebriates. Humor ensued. All passed by well and I got to spend part of Christmas Day at the beach with a couple of other volunteers. Not exactly a traditional Christmas, but who could complain about a day at the beach?

With that it is time to usher in the New Year. The new decade. This marks the end of what I consider to be my first complete decade. I lived through the 90’s, but was 4 when they began so I didn’t become mindful and aware of that decade until Grunge was out and Presidential indiscretions were in. With this past decade, which I’m told we are referring to as the Oughts, I was between the ages of 14 and 24. I came of age in the Oughts. These were my most formative years. The years of high school, college and early adulthood. The years that put me on a roundabout path to the DR.

I spent most of the decade in school and since then I have done a lot of wandering; taking one calculated step after the next to see the world while avoiding adulthood. I don’t know whether or not I should be concerned that the wandering will take me into a new decade and my late twenties. I’m comforted by Tolkien, who said, “Not all those who wander are lost”. I’m still wandering in a way, but don’t feel lost. I’m right where I need to be and don’t have to worry about the next step for another 23 months. The ‘Real World’ will catch up with me eventually, and I’ll have some great stories to tell it.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

¡Feliz Navidad!

The obvious beauty of the Caribbean surrounds me every day. The abundance of fruit trees, the white sand beaches, the dazzling sunsets and natural green everything. If I were here for a short vacation I would take note of each of these things and truly appreciate them. But as I am here every day, I too often fail to see and truly appreciate the physical beauty of my surroundings. On Monday I found myself in the back of my host family’s camióneta riding along the highway between nearby Hato Mayor and El Seibo with the Caribbean breeze in my face and for the first time in country, truly took in the impressive countryside and felt really at peace being here in the Dominican. I watched the clouds form over the mountains to the north and create a mystical haze over the conical lomas and the sun set behind us in an explosion of orange and pink and felt truly contented and at ease for the first time in the company of family and in my site.

We had our Peace Corps Christmas get-together hosted by our Country Director last Friday in the capital. It was a nice little break in a slow December month to meet up with other volunteers and eat some quality food. We had a Chinese dinner, which, while not traditional Christmas fare, was a more than welcome break from platanos y yuca. A small group of volunteers that live in the east made a pit stop in the beach town of Juan Dolio on the way back to our sites. I have been in the DR for 4 months now and had only been to the beach 1 time before this past weekend so I was due for some time at the playa. A day of sunbathing and sunburning was exactly what the doctor ordered after some recent stomach woes and a tranquilo month.

The holiday season feels very much unlike the holiday season. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it is still 80 and sunny rather than 30 and snowy. Maybe it’s the lack of Xmas music and movies. Maybe it’s the absence of Salvation Army bell ringers. It’s just not Christmas-y. After all, what is Christmas without 24 hours of A Christmas Story? I’ll be spending Christmas at my site with my host family, seeing how Dominicans celebrate Navidad, eating many apples, which are a holiday season delicacy here, playing Santa Claus for my family and hoping that Home Alone is on TV just once in English.

In the past few years I have spent much time and many holidays away from home but this will be my first Christmas away. Perhaps the most valuable attribute I brought with me into the country is imperviousness to homesickness. Not to say I don’t miss home, I just don’t suffer from homesickness. But even while not homesick, it’s weird to be out of the country and away from family and friends this time of year. It’s certainly helpful to have other volunteers here to share the holidays with and helpful to know that a New Year’s celebration is but a week away.

Happy Holidays!

Diagnostics

I know some out there are wondering what exactly it is I'm doing down here. I don’t know that I’ve taken much time to clarify. In all honesty, I’m still in the ongoing process of finding out myself. As a Youth, Family and Community Development volunteer my reach is quite broad. The list of potential projects is virtually endless. Right now though I have one specific task to focus much of my efforts on before tackling that endless list of projects.

These initial 3 months of service are dedicated to a Community Diagnostic. This is the time when we integrate into the community, build confianza, continue to improve our Spanish, attempt to meet everyone and work on a large presentation that will be our guide to projects and community needs over the next 2 years.

The diagnostic has many layers. There are interviews to be done with community members. Work to be done with community groups and organizations. Creation of community maps, priority matrices and seasonal calendars. Compiling of data to prepare the presentation and constructing a work plan for my first year of service.

Based on the results of my diagnostic, I will be better able to understand the needs of the community and the resources at my disposal to meet those needs. Doing this work and dedicating time to community integration prevents me from entering my site on Day 1 and thinking I know what is best for the community before I’ve even met with anyone. With the diagnostic I should able to better understand my community after 3 months and they’ll better understand who I am and what my role is as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

While that still doesn’t do much in explaining my role here as a Youth PCV and the types of projects I’ll eventually be doing, it does attempt to explain what it is I am to be doing (and not doing) in these initial months.

Knowing I have the diagnostic to complete is a necessary crutch to lean on. Not having multiple projects going on and having a flojo daily schedule can make one feel like they aren’t getting much accomplished and are doing a disservice to their community. The people here are definitely beginning to wonder when the gringo is gonna start doing stuff. I have to continually remind myself that these initial days and months are dedicated largely to the diagnostic and not get down on myself for not having classes, practices and/or charlas on a daily basis.

With the holiday season in full swing, time seems to be playing tricks. Days crawl by slowly while weeks elapse quickly. It makes little sense. It’s both irritating and delightful. This trend is sure to continue into the New Year.

Día de Pavo

Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone and I don't even know where to begin in describing how glorious it was. From the Olympic size pool with a high dive, athletic and non-athletic competitions and the greatest meal I have eaten in the Dominican to the talent show in the piano bar, cheeseburgers at the Embassy, sleeping 11-deep in one small hotel room to save pesos and the many shenanigans I will not list here, it was a fantastic weekend to say the least.

It was great to see the volunteers from our training group and great to meet dozens of other volunteers, finally putting some faces to the names I have already heard so much chisme about. Meeting so many other volunteers simply reinforced what I already know about the incredible and inspiring group of PCVs we have down here in the DR. The one downfall of Turkey Day is that it comes but once a year and we must wait 365 days to do it again.

After spending multiple days and far too many pesos in the capital, it is back to my site for the Navidad season, which I'm told has already begun. Christmas here is not a day but a month. An entire season. A time when everything slows to a crawl. Not exactly the ideal time to start many projects but certainly an ideal time to become better integrated into the community and with my host family. Also a good time to start teaching myself to play the guitar I bought before leaving the capital. I've always wanted to learn and there will be no better time period in my life to learn than in these next 2 years.

Between now and Christmas is when I hope to get the bulk of my Community Diagnostic done. There are more than 100 interviews still to be done with community members and community leaders. Plus, I recently fell ass-backwards into a role as basketball coach for a group of local muchachos, so I will thankfully be a bit busier than I was in the initial weeks. While the tiempo libre has been great and these first months are supposed to be tranquilo, I gotta get some volunteering done.