PIX UPDATE

go to the link on the right side of this blog. new albums have been added. enjoy. (and gimme a comment or something people...)

God, Jesus, Yogurt and Care Packages

So the latest rumor regarding the mail system is that due to the highly religious nature of this society, drawing crosses and writing phrases such as "Dios te Bendiga" (God Bless You) or "Jesus Te Ama" (Jesus Loves You) on care packages often ensures their eventual delivery -- and sometimes even quicker delivery! So there ya go, even more incentive to send packages of love.
Just a reminder, use the address on the right side of this web page, send only padded envelopes or letter (not boxes) and always mark the value under $20.
What's that? A wishlist ... sure!
dark chocolates-- individually wrapped
twizzlers
kashi granola bars
seasoning mixes for thai, indian, and other fun foods
dehydrated miso soup
pictures
tootsie roll pops
holiday decor
recipes
newspaper and magazine articles of interest
music and movies
surprises :)
I mentioned God, Jesus, and Care Packages, but still haven't written about the promised "Yogurt". What's yogurt got to do with the aforementioned? A lot actually. There is a brand of yogurt here that has a picture of Jesus on the front and a friendly "Jesus Te Ama". So the question I have is this: How great of a marketing tool is it to put Jesus's face on a bottle of well... anything ... in a culture that has quite an affinity for Jesus? I wonder what would happen if you put the face of Jesus on a care package?

updates ... por fin

How about a simple picture narrative of the past few months interspersed with little stories? Please excuse my slacking on the blog. Although change and weirdness is constant here, I am finding that I am much more “acustumbrada” (accustomed) to most things Dominican, and forget that you might enjoy reading about them. I’ll get back on the blog.

Llegó Travis! (Travis arrived) This pix is from his first day here—he pirated the sunglasses that I found on the beach, as his Midwestern eyes couldn’t handle the Caribbean sun.

Peace Corps Eco-Tourism Workshop—a weekend in the Cibao for sometimes-long workshops, a hike, zip line, a donkey that we enjoyed visiting with, and discussions about community-based eco-tourism. I must admit that prior to living here I had never spent much time considering the impacts of mass tourism. This experience has changed forever how I view resorts and tourism. When not developed with the community, tourism often exploits both natural and human resources. I see a lot of that here and it is a shame. On a positive note, there are several groups working in country to explore more sustainable tourism—including community guide groups and funding for small businesses that will bring tourists out of the resorts and into the community. I was able to meet a few weeks ago with folks from one of USAID’s newest international programs. It is called the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance and the idea is that the community is integrated into the tourism market and that both the resorts and local community benefits from the Euros & dollars that enter here.

Environmental Ed in the schools—working with the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation and the University of Miami, I have begun helping with an environmental ed campaign. The pilot program includes three schools. We’ve completed the first and are on number two. The modules that I helped design include 8 sessions related to marine ecology—mangroves, sea grass, coral reefs—and human impacts on them. Part of the program includes painting a mural. Somehow in my ambitiousness, I chose a 20 x 8 foot mural – but it turned out great – the kids did most of the painting and an artist I know helped me design and draw it. In the last week we took the kids on a field trip to the National Park of the East to see caves, snorkel and enjoy the playa. A few girls and I spent our beach time collecting sea glass. =
Visiting Betsy—my friend Betsy lives in a campo a few hours from here, so Travis and I ventured out one weekend to visit her. The campo is a small town situated with mountains all around. There was a beautiful river to visit, 1 peso mini-bananas to gorge on, and tons & tons of free avocados. In our 24 hours with Betsy we made scrambled egg & avocado, avocado & cheese sandwiches, and pasta with avocado & tomato. It was cool to see what her life is like—showering outdoors, working in an internet center, and teaching the obligatory English classes.

novios

Being white, American and female in the Dominican Republic can be quite interesting. Walking down the street, riding a bus, visiting a government office, passing through a security gate, attending a meeting, or just sitting in front of my house exposes me to never-ending piropos, or pick up lines, blown kisses, requests to be my novio, or boyfriend, and marriage proposals.

I have days where the constant come-ons are entertaining. The piropos can be quite clever: Cuantos curves y yo sin frenas. -- How many curves and I´m without brakes. But most often they are simply hisses, ¨hola mami¨, and ¨I love you.¨

I do my best to ignore the hissing and calling. But there are the days where the guy trying for my attention receives an earful of my grammatically incorrect angry Spanish where I try to convey that I think he is obnoxious, that I have no idea why I would ever consider dating a rude guy who hangs out on the street calling to women, that being white is not better, and that he is the 65th guy to want me that day.

All that said, I would like to introduce you to a few of my suitors:

Gabriel -- A neighbor of mine, and in fact one of my first friends.
Gabby lives with his mom and brother and attends a primary school. He has told me various ages for himself, always older than he is, but I finally found out that he just turned 14. (!) Gabby used to take me around to introduce me to people, we´d go jogging together or watch Spanish movies. Several times Gabby has asked me to be is girlfriend and argues with me when I reject him. He explains that he is very mature for his age and it doesn´t matter how old I am. He apparently told his family that he WILL marry me one day.

Novio -- Old creepy guy from the corner store whose name I don´t know.
I cannot avoid passing the little colmado on the corner of my street. I pass it at least four times a day and am there almost daily to buy something. The owner of the place has a younger guy to do most of the work, but he sits out there from about 7:30 a.m. til 9:00 p.m. For my first few weeks in my house I cringed every time I had to go near him. He always had a piropo for me and constantly spoke of marrying me, getting himself a visa to America. Although maybe it seems silly, I found myself constantly upset by this man. He bothered me and I felt like I couldn´t fix the situation. That is until one day I found a solution. Anytime I passed him I would say ¨Good morning, afternoon, evening NOVIO¨. I simply call him my boyfriend, he calls me his girlfriend, and that´s that. I think he is so amused with the whole thing, as well as the reactions of others, that he doesn´t have time to make rude comments to me. We laugh together, I buy my egg or bread, and all is well in the world.

Travis – best friend of mine who has been living in Jacksonville
(Travis will be joining me in the Dominican Republic on September 9 to work as an English teacher, learn Spanish, and adventure together.)
On my very brief visit home, he took me to a place that we had been once before—about 4 and half years ago. At that place over 4 years ago we talked for hours and my life was never the same. I had fallen in love. And this time on our visit, after a picnic lunch and much reminiscing, Travis read me a beautiful letter, presented me with my Grandmother´s engagement ring, and asked me to join him in marriage. (I said yes)!!

Hurricane Dean

My brother flew into Santo Domingo and we began our jam packed 7-day itinerary, which included a visit to my CBT host family in Los Cocos, the climbing of all 27 charcos (waterfalls) in Imbert and visiting Nuna´s cigar factory for lessons. I had heard that there was a hurricane brewing in the Caribbean and that Peace Corps had asked that we tend our cell phones carefully so as to receive any urgent messages. On that same day, Rob and I passed through Santo Domingo on our way back to my site. On a whim, we popped into the Peace Corps office to check email and the hurricane. After walking in the door I learned that Peace Corps had decided that if you happened to be in the Capital on that day, you must stay because they were probably going to consolidate the next day (which they did). Consolidation entails calling in all volunteers from various regions to a safe house, in case of the hurricane. So, frustrated that we were ¨stuck¨ in Sto Dgo, and with bottles of rum in tow, we headed to the designated safe house.
This safe house turned out to be a 4 Star hotel, complete with casino and white terry cloth robes. Although we were not happy to be without the freedom to travel and see things (more so Rob than me), we made the best of 3 days in the hotel… buffet meals, hot showers and cable. Unaccustomed to air conditioning, many of us were cold and so wandered the hotel in our robes! We watched the Illinois Democratic Debates and applauded when Sen. Chris Dodd mentioned Peace Corps affect on his life (Dodd served in the Dominican Republic).
The category 4 hurricane that passed directly near the island left hardly any evidence of its passing. We saw drizzles and a tiny bit of wind. Apparently it was a ¨dry¨ hurricane, meaning that its bands hardly had power or rain. All joking aside about the hotel and our hurricane party, I am so glad that Dean didn´t do much damage. I have been working on a Disaster Mitigation Committee in my community, and it is quite obvious that in the case of something strong, the results would be terrible. When I finally made it back to my site, I found how many friends of mine had prepared for the hurricane--they had used rope to tie their wood & zinc roof down, just hoping it wouldn´t fly away.

camping on the beach with barrio kids, an experience I won't forget

One of the Presidents of the Juntos de Vecinos (neighborhood groups) that I work with has an amazing heart and energy that never tires. Hence, he organizes annual camps for kids from his barrio--really poor kids that never go anywhere or do much of anything. He does this without any formal funding--just solicits donations from anyone and everyone in order to have sufficient food. Tents were borrowed from his church and some women came along to do all the cooking.

This year, the camp was to take place in Macao, the closest beach to us that Dominicans still have access to. I offered to help, excited for the opportunity to camp on the beach and organize activities to teach kids about the environment, and especially coastal areas. I enthusiastically planned crafts and games, bought art supplies and packed my hammock for four days of beach and camping. What could be better?!? Well...

-30 kids, age 4-15, never been camping before, and growing up in a rough barrio with often teenage parents, hence do not receive a lot of attention

-SAND! SAND! SAND! in my hair, my food, my pillow, my ears

-bugs--mosquitos and some tiny thing that doesn't respond to repellent and hurts & itches more than mosquitoes

-clinginess-these kids all cuddled with me at all times--sounds cute, but not in the heat, hence I "slept" in my hammock with the bugs

I could carry on about the so-called challenges of this camp, but the truth is that although I was so tired, dirty and sometimes frustrated, it was wonderful! The kids who hardly ever go anywhere had a chance to play in the water for hours, examine crabs and shells, listen to my charlas about self-esteem and environment, play games that involved pretending they were lobsters, paint, build sand castles, eat marshmellows, and stare at the stars.

There was a moment at dusk when some kids and I were walking on the beach and one of them asked me how old I was. 25, I responded ... thinking about how I used to dream about my mid-20's--hoping that I would be doing something really cool. I am doing something cool -- a gorgeous beach, speaking Spanish, trying to share my love of the environment with kids ...

PLEASE check out the pix from our trip! http://picasaweb.google.com/colleengatliff/20078BeachCampingInMacao

this is for real

So for the first 3 months we were just trainees. Nervous kids stumbling through Spanish and scared of public transportation. People told us where to be and when. We pointed out people carrying chickens under their arms, cringed at new starchy roots for dinner and had to reference a map when someone told us they were from San Juan de la Maguana.

We graduated… it was exciting, we felt accomplished and proud to be PCVs. We’d passed minimal conversational Spanish, survived CBT, built friendships, and even wore our Peace Corps DR pin for a day or two.

Then we ventured to our sites. We took full advantage of our cell phone “flota” as a social support network, learned to count ants on a wall, and drank endless cups of coffee while getting to know our new neighbors. All of this coffee drinking was supposed to have a purpose—we were conducting community diagnostics. Peace Corps tells us that we are not to begin any projects in the first 3 months—just do your diagnostic. So, it was a fantastic excuse for what often felt like aimless wandering and chatting.

Well, I wrote up a diagnostic and then went to Santiago with a friend from my site, Kassiel, to present it at the Peace Corps 3 month IST (In Service Training). All the PCVs presented our diagnostics to each other and sat through workshops on project planning and grant writing. Kassiel then left to return to Veron and our entire group of 31 went to a retreat center in the mountains for 5 days of training, relaxing and idea sharing. I so loved getting to know my group better. We’re from so many different places and have such different experiences. Who knew that I’d learn to play Pinochle (sp?), have a friend from South Dakota, learn to create a makeshift chai from colmado ingredients or spend an hour listening to a Texan explain techniques for making solar ovens?

The workshops were interesting, even if they hardly applied to my project. We learned to make an improved wood burning stove –which involved lots of mud! Learned about coffee in the DR—and the fact that it is controlled by a monopoly that offers ZERO incentives for improved quality or organics, hence it is a country with perfect coffee climate, but poor quality coffee. Bummer. A Sunday afternoon at the river was thoroughly enjoyed. Note my favorite picture from that day: PCV chicks tanning and reading Cosmos!

Anyway, the week was great, I learned a lot and enjoyed organically grown romaine lettuce (my first romaine since I arrived in this country!) And now, I am back in my site and I have no excuse of “I’m working on my diagnostic” … it’s time to plan projects, solicit funds if needed, and get movin’. Happily, I am moving at a Caribbean speed. It’s exciting, as it is unlike anything I’ve ever done but at the same time I am bringing my skills and experiences to the table. I feel like I am forming a niche, and that feels good. This niche of mine is probably best explained by Kassiel, who said to someone at Peace Corps—“Colleen is here to be a bridge for us between the hotels and the people of the community.” Yikes, that's a big job!

(note: if you can read Spanish and want to see my diagnostic, just ask. If you can’t read in spanish and are really interested, ask nicely and I’ll translate it)