power and such

On Friday, my project partner Maria was inaugurated as the first mayor of Veron. The event was filled with fanfare, champagne, a helicopter, and lots of important people.

A member of the national newspaper told me he forgot his camera and asked me to take photos for him, so I acted not only as the token Americana, but also as press! One of the presidential candidates, Amable Aristy, and his daughter Karina, mayor of Higuey, arrived in a helicopter, which was very exciting for everyone involved. Maria gave a speech that she had practiced for hours with me and answered questions of the press. I enjoyed the opportunity to chat with community members and continued to be amazed at the fact that I am a PCV drinking champagne! The people of power in this community are the people of tourism as this area is the largest tourism destination in the Caribbean and the highest grossing province in the DR. So, many presidents of hotels were present supporting this new effort.

Maria is busy setting up her new office and finding out what funds she will have.
Now, with her as mayor and Veron as a Municipality, we will apparently have access to a lot more resources for basic needs such as trash services and school buildings. I am still trying to understand exactly how things work and what role I can play in all of this. It looks like I am going to help link the community groups to the Ayuntamiento (mayor’s office) in order to improve communication and distribute resources, but how that happens I don’t quite understand (and I don’t know that anyone does!)
A few weeks ago I found out about a community group that is trying to build a school in a barrio where there are no public schools. They had a piece of land donated and a little bit of money. I told Maria and expressed interest in helping this group, she told Ayuntamiento in Higuey, and at the inauguration, they announced that they would be building this school. (Although the Secretary of Education is not involved, so therefore we’ll have a school but no teachers or supplies…). Gotta love the system here!