This is something I wrote about 5 days after moving in to my new house:
Wow what a change my life has taken in the past few days. I am back at the survival level of the basic needs pyramid again. I am preocupada and paranoid about everything like when I first got here and worried incessantly about mosquitoes and infections and dirty water and motores. I realize now what a carefree, easy life I have had the past 6 months. I already have a list of things to get done tomorrow and have barely had time to stop and think. My plans: I will spend the morning sweeping up dead cockroaches and spiders and and all the dirt that falls from the roof as well as the puddles of rainwater that leak through the zinc. Then if it isn't pouring, I will open up the house to dry and air out. Then I will deal with the nest of flying ants that I just noticed a few minutes ago. Then I will check for rat poop, and cat poop, as Palomita, my cat, seems a little confused about using her sanitario. Speaking of which, I have been avoiding using my latrine because of the stories I have heard from the neighbors about snakes they have found in there, and now it is night and I really have to go. But hell no, it is better to hold it. Then tomorrow I will wash all the dishes in case some pajarito walked on them during the night. Then it will probably be time to sweep the floor again. Right now it seems an uphill battle against all forces of nature. I know it will get easier as I find rhythm and figure out how to fit in all of my oficios and still find time to do my job. But I am a true ama de casa now. Later in the day I will pick a wall to start scrubbing off all the mold and termite stains and dirt and whatever else accumulated from the last people who lived here, who apparently never cleaned. I feel like am running a halfway house for pajaritos, which with this rain is basically what my house is. Rain this hard against a zinc roof if something everyone should experience once in their life--kind of like driving through a carwash without windows. It is really nice to have the water but now there is just too much of it and I have nothing to collect in it since I have no water tank and my barrel is already full. Anyway, the pajaritos come into the house to stay dry. I now have quite the assortment of spiders, cockroaches, crickets, those flying ant things, lizards, frogs, moths, and some other things that I don't know what they are. The cockroaches gross me out but is the spiders that give me "cosa" even though I know that ellos no hacen nada. I have a nightly ritual of entering my house and going around looking for them on all the walls. For some reason it makes me feel better to know where they all are before I go to sleep. They have these eyes that glow in the dark when the light hits them and they are very mean-looking. I don't try to kill them because it scares me more to see them run. The cockroaches I have to kill, and it is the grossest sound when they pop. Then I double-check each door and window, survey my bed for pajaritos, make sure the mosquitero is tucked in, go pee in my vasinilla, blow out the lamp, and wiggle into my bed. I always wake up in the middle of the night which the electricity comes on, because invariably I've left a light switched on so I have to get up to turn it off. It still scares me a little when the light comes and goes, I am still getting used to that.
I am starting to understand more the life of a dona. Now that I am finally living alone all I want is someone to sleep with me because it is a little scary. I am beginning to see why no one lives alone, especially women. I never thought I would say this, but I see how men could be useful to have around. I would love someone to connect my gas tank, go fill up the botellon of water, patch the holes in the roof, clean up and burn all the trash in the yard, cut down the cacao turns that are leaning on the roof and make scary noises every time the wind blows, fill the cracks in the floor, replace the rotten board that fell on my bed today, build me furniture because I can't afford to buy any, and defend me against ladrones and brechadores. Brechador is a new word I learned here, and it means peeping tom. Ay, cuantas cosas. Again, I can't believe I'm saying this, but in exchange for all these things I think I would gladly cook and clean. Who would have thought I would have this sort of domestic instict? But no, I will have to get over my fear and become both the duena and dueno de la casa.
Speaking of garbage, it is absolutely disgusting and everywhere. The pile closest to my house is full of dirty diapers. I told the owner he needed to clean up the mess the last tenants left and he said he had already picked up two huge bags of diapers from the yard. SOOOOOOOOO gross. There is also underwear, toiletries--all kinds of used things they threw in the yard as they were moving.
The entry ends there. Things have changed again since I wrote that, although not so drastically. I feel like I am definitely getting the house under control, poco a poco, and making it a nice place to live. I painted, which is still a project in progress, as I've only done two rooms, but it looks pretty. I changed the dirty mustard-brown color of the bottom half of the walls to a yellowish-cream color, and it looks way cleaner and mil veces mejor. I want to paint everything, but it is a lot of work and right now I don't have the money. I have also had lots of help from friends, which is great. People don't have a lot to give but they are resourceful and like to help. Nene, who is like my mom here, had a clothes rack made of rebar that she painted and gave to me, and she found me an old pew that was in the clinic waiting room to use as a sort of shelf for my books. My dona gave me a table for the stove, and two other women gave me little tables to be fixed up. Nene and Leidy came and unpacked all of my stuff because I was too overwhelmed to do it, and teased me about all of the "basura" I horde. Yes, it is true that I have bags full of styrofoam trays and empty cans and paper used on one side and things like that, but when you live in a campo without garbage service, what else can you do? There is already enough trash in my yard for me to be adding to it. Luckily, I have I separate kitchen outside, which is what all houses here have and is where most people do all their cooking--on a wood stove called a fagon, so all of my "trash" I just put in there. I have a "kitchen" inside my house-- I say "kitchen" because it is just a room with nothing built in. Nicole did almost all of the painting because she is way faster than me, and I just did the edges because I am a perfectionist like that. Nene comes over randomly to "decorate." She found an old tinaja in the kitchen outside, which is what they used before to store water and some people still use and is basically a giant clay vase--and she cleaned it and painted it and is going to make me a giant stick/plant arrangement to put in my living room. And there are always girls around who offer to wash my dishes of mop the floor or rake outside so that is nice. People are good here. When it rains and I am not home my neighbors come take down my clothes from the clothesline. Overall, I am excited about my house and the possibilities it has. It is pretty great to live independently, so what I want, and cook for myself. Although I having done too much cooking so far because either I don't have time or forget and anyway Nene always invites me to eat at her house or brings me food. Which is lucky too because I'm not sure my salary is enough to buy food. I know for now I am spending a lot on the house, but I think even in the future I will really have to budget, and hopefully garden. There are a million things I want to experiment with growing, although the amount of trash mixed in with the dirt still scares me a little. I will have to clean the yard really well. My yard is big and almost all grass minus the piles of trash, and has a really big shade tree in front, a guava tree, plaintain trees, a couple bitter orange trees, and sugar cane. It has lots of possibilities. I want to plant guandules, which are these pea sort of things that grow on trees and are my favorite food here, as well as papaya because papaya trees grow super fast. I will plant pineapple, pepper trees, flowers, and maybe a vegetable garden too. I hope that I did not make my house sound like a place no one would want to visit--it is actually great and you should all come. I have lots of space--3 bedrooms, although still only one bed. The only really hard thing is lack of light. I was frustrated at first but realized it is all a matter of your attitude. If you expect to have no light, then you will just be pleasantly surprised if the light comes one. You just have to be comfortable with darkness, and not expect to get anything done after about 6:30 pm. Plus, the light from gas lamps and candles is nicer anyway. I have very few pajaritos anymore, as you will all be glad to hear. I think the paint helped, and maybe they have realized that the house isn't vacant anymore. I just have the occasional lizard and smallish spiders, and the other day a big frog that left huge puddle of water everytime he jumped when I poked him with a stick--I didn't realize frogs did that. Where does all the water come from?? The only menace now is my cat, who is kind of driving me nuts. She is just super needy and whiny and bites and eats people food and gets into everything, and poops and pees on everything. I think it is because she left her mom too early, so I am trying to be patient, but sometimes I kind of hope one of the stray dogs will get her. I got her to control the rat problem in my house, and now I am stuck with a crazy cat. But she is very cute and maybe one day will grow out of her bad habits. People here hate all animals, cats especially. Everyone is afraid of her and tell me that she will give me parasites that will make me sterile. Maybe it is that some of their cat-hatred is rubbing off on me. I am in the capital now, so I'm going to go eat my take-out and watch tv. Sorry it has been so long since I've been in touch--this is the first time using internet in over a month. And I went to Spain to visit my sister!! And, to sum it up, in her words: "despite a few robberies, it was a great trip." She put some pics up on facebook if you want to see what we were up to over there. I will put some pics up of my house soon too. Write to me, I want to is going on outside this tiny bubble in which I live. Love to all!!!!
miércoles, 13 de mayo de 2009
sábado, 21 de febrero de 2009
I am here in the capital and taking advantage of the internet access. It has been a long time since I have updated anyone on what I've been up to--so long in fact that I forgot what my blog's web address was. So now I will try to squeeze as much in as possible. So, at the end of last month we had to turn in our community diagnostics--which are the reports that we are supposed to spend our first three months in site doing. We presented them at a conference all together, and then spent a few more days doing training about what we are supposed to do once we get back to our sites--which is where is gets a bit nebulous. Now is when we are supposed to be launching our projects. The honeymoon period, if there was one, is now over. I came back from the conference with a plan made, and have since already had my share of disappointments and frustrations. We've all quickly realized that just because we are ready to work and want to start things doesn't mean that our communities are, or that anything has changed. The other frustration is that during the conference I found out that all of the volunteers in my group have found their own houses and have moved out on their own. In my community there are no available houses, and I know, because I have been looking for months. The one empty house I found was technically located in another community and needed a lot of repairs, and for this reason was vetoed by my regional leader. So, being that this was one of the things I was really looking forward to here, it is a big disappointment. I was thinking that I would just stay with my host family for the time being, since it has always seemed that they were opposed to my leaving anyway, but when I broached the subject with my host dad the response wasn't exactly positive. It seems that they would rather me live in my own house too, which I am trying to attribute to a lack of space (they all sleep in the same room while I have the other room) rather than something personal. But it still didn't make me feel so good. So now I am exploring other options for housing--meaning other people I could move in with. Also, lots of the other volunteers have pets, which is something I would love to have too but is obviously not a possibility for me now. Peace Corps doesn't really have any helpful suggestions for me either--the availability of independent housing is not something they guarantee but is almost never a hard thing to find.
My first "official" project was to start an English class for my jovenes. After some careful planning and advertising, we had our registration day, to which no one came. By the first day of class I finally got four students registered and was expecting more to show up since it seemed like there was a lot of interest. I had my "assistant" announce the class at the last youth group meeting and when she said that the first session would be limited to 20 students they all replied "why so few???" So, needless to say, I was surprised and frustrated when not a single person showed up to the first class, not even my assistant. I have tried to figure out why, but have realized that there is no use, because there are phenomena here that have no logical explanation. Or I haven't had enough experience here yet to understand their thinking behind why they all decided not to come--it is something cultural that I just don't get. I was mad because I had spent a lot of time planning and had made a trip to the city just to make copies, and no one could be bothered to show up. But I decided not to give up on them, and the day of the next class I spent going house to house looking for students. A lot of them said that they didn't sign up because it was only for 20 students, even though I explained that space wasn't an issue because there were currently 0 students. Apparently this had created some confusion. By the end of the day I didn't have anyone more signed up but did have some say they would make it. The first kid to arrive was only about 10 minutes late and over the next 45 minutes they kept arriving, and by the end I had 13 students. Even though we didn't get through too much since we had started so late, it seemed like they enjoyed it and some of them actually paid for the class afterwards. Money had been a point of contention before, as some of them told me they didn't have the 100 pesos to pay for materials, but I told them it didn't matter and to come anyway. It is not that my community is so poor that they can't afford 100 pesos--it is that their priorities are um, different. To give some perspective, there are high school students who pay 20 pesos each way on a motor to get to school each day, even though they could walk the 1 km and get there faster than it takes to wait for a ride. My 5-year-old sister also gets 15 pesos a day to buy candy at school, even though she brings snacks from home. So there is disposable income, even if no one wants to pay for an English class. But, I am considering my first English class a success, and hope that I have students again. Other than that effort, I have continued to work with my women's group--planning an event for international women's day, making their "business" (a tiendita) more functional, and planning social activities to strengthen their group. I pushed them to buy more stuff for the store in preparation for Valentine's day, and did some advertising for them, and it paid off. The first day with new stuff in the store we sold 800 pesos, which is a big deal since we usually don't sell anything, and I think it got them excited. We also planned an "angelito" gift exchange and potluck for V-day, which honestly blew me away. They took it really seriously--we had good food, decorations, and a huge beautiful flower arrangement that one woman made. I am happy when any of them take any sort of initiative. Also this week I threw a baby shower--unrelated to my women's group. And yes, I do more in this country than throw and attend parties. Baby showers aren't really a custom here, so I proposed it as a welcome party to the women of my project partner's family (his sister is pregnant). It turned out very low-key, but she was surprised and excited because we had decorated and set up the room for the baby. I will put up pictures of it.
Also, some of you may have seen pictures of me dressed up at a beach--this is not where I live--I was at a wedding last weekend here in the DR of which my uncle was in attendance so he invited me to come. I spent an incredibly relaxing 2 days at a really nice resort in Cabarete, and enjoyed my first hot shower since October. Not to mention air conditioning, internet, a pool, the beach, American food, speaking English, and everything being paid for. It was great. You can look at my resort pictures and see what you could enjoy if you came here to visit me. That being said, when am I going to get a visitor?
My first "official" project was to start an English class for my jovenes. After some careful planning and advertising, we had our registration day, to which no one came. By the first day of class I finally got four students registered and was expecting more to show up since it seemed like there was a lot of interest. I had my "assistant" announce the class at the last youth group meeting and when she said that the first session would be limited to 20 students they all replied "why so few???" So, needless to say, I was surprised and frustrated when not a single person showed up to the first class, not even my assistant. I have tried to figure out why, but have realized that there is no use, because there are phenomena here that have no logical explanation. Or I haven't had enough experience here yet to understand their thinking behind why they all decided not to come--it is something cultural that I just don't get. I was mad because I had spent a lot of time planning and had made a trip to the city just to make copies, and no one could be bothered to show up. But I decided not to give up on them, and the day of the next class I spent going house to house looking for students. A lot of them said that they didn't sign up because it was only for 20 students, even though I explained that space wasn't an issue because there were currently 0 students. Apparently this had created some confusion. By the end of the day I didn't have anyone more signed up but did have some say they would make it. The first kid to arrive was only about 10 minutes late and over the next 45 minutes they kept arriving, and by the end I had 13 students. Even though we didn't get through too much since we had started so late, it seemed like they enjoyed it and some of them actually paid for the class afterwards. Money had been a point of contention before, as some of them told me they didn't have the 100 pesos to pay for materials, but I told them it didn't matter and to come anyway. It is not that my community is so poor that they can't afford 100 pesos--it is that their priorities are um, different. To give some perspective, there are high school students who pay 20 pesos each way on a motor to get to school each day, even though they could walk the 1 km and get there faster than it takes to wait for a ride. My 5-year-old sister also gets 15 pesos a day to buy candy at school, even though she brings snacks from home. So there is disposable income, even if no one wants to pay for an English class. But, I am considering my first English class a success, and hope that I have students again. Other than that effort, I have continued to work with my women's group--planning an event for international women's day, making their "business" (a tiendita) more functional, and planning social activities to strengthen their group. I pushed them to buy more stuff for the store in preparation for Valentine's day, and did some advertising for them, and it paid off. The first day with new stuff in the store we sold 800 pesos, which is a big deal since we usually don't sell anything, and I think it got them excited. We also planned an "angelito" gift exchange and potluck for V-day, which honestly blew me away. They took it really seriously--we had good food, decorations, and a huge beautiful flower arrangement that one woman made. I am happy when any of them take any sort of initiative. Also this week I threw a baby shower--unrelated to my women's group. And yes, I do more in this country than throw and attend parties. Baby showers aren't really a custom here, so I proposed it as a welcome party to the women of my project partner's family (his sister is pregnant). It turned out very low-key, but she was surprised and excited because we had decorated and set up the room for the baby. I will put up pictures of it.
Also, some of you may have seen pictures of me dressed up at a beach--this is not where I live--I was at a wedding last weekend here in the DR of which my uncle was in attendance so he invited me to come. I spent an incredibly relaxing 2 days at a really nice resort in Cabarete, and enjoyed my first hot shower since October. Not to mention air conditioning, internet, a pool, the beach, American food, speaking English, and everything being paid for. It was great. You can look at my resort pictures and see what you could enjoy if you came here to visit me. That being said, when am I going to get a visitor?
martes, 20 de enero de 2009
January 16, 2009
When it rains here, it pours. After a couple-week-long drought it started raining last night, and hasn’t stopped since. Just yesterday I was carefully rationing a bucketful of water that had been carried from a neighbor’s well to cover my entire garden, and now just hours later we have way way too much water. Our tank that collects rain from the roof that was empty yesterday is now full and overflowing from the hole in the top. Our lechosa (papaya) tree also fell over during the night, because the ground is too saturated to hold it up. But my hortaliza is happy, and flooded, though luckily there are channels between the beds for drainage. I had made plans to meet up with two volunteers in Macoris today, but now it looks like I won’t be leaving. My street is already flooded, and when it rains the motoconchistas don’t work because they don’t want to get wet. And motores are the only way to get out of my community. Even if I were to make it out, I would still run the risk of not being able to get back, especially if the river has risen above the bridge, which happens fairly fast. So I am probably better off staying put. But it is a bummer.
Let’s see, what else is new? Yesterday a few notable things happened. First of all, my regional leader delivered my mail to my site, which included five packages! A few of which I had been waiting for for months. Llego la Navidad por fin! I got speakers for my computer/ipod, and now I am listening to my music as I write this. Yesterday I also went with three kids from the youth group to the first session of the ayuntamiento (like city hall) in Castillo. We arrived there and found out that the session had been “suspended.” Since we had already gone all the way to Castillo, we decided we may as well make the most of it and went directly to the house of the sindico (like the mayor, but of the region). Apparently it is okay to do this, completely unannounced, in this country. Luckily the sindico knows me, so it wasn’t that weird. The point of our visit was to ask for help in obtaining metal tanks to serve as garbage cans to put in front of the colmados. This was an idea I had the other day, when I was considering the huge problem of trash in the streets here and the fact that the National Day of Youth is coming up at the end of this month. So, at a recent youth group meeting I proposed that we do something about it. My suggestion was met by utter silence from the group. Which I was expecting, since this group never does anything, and the only leadership comes from two older women who are like the matriarchs. I still don’t know if their impotence is really because know one cares, or they are all lazy, or they are intimidated by it, or just shy, because no one ever says anything in the meetings. I don’t like to push them either, for one, because it is not my job to come in and take over the direction of their group, and two, because as I am the same age or younger than some of them, it feels uncomfortable to treat them like children like the two older women leaders do. Basically, I have trouble with the dynamics of the group. We spend the meetings being lectured by the two women about our bad behavior in the meetings, and how we don’t show enough initiative in the goings-on of the church, and lack values, etc., etc. It seems that the main purpose of the group, since it pertains to the church, is to involve more youth in the planning of the misas, oraciones, and the upkeep of the church. I’m not sure how my role fits into this, since social projects definitely seem like an afterthought. But they do all want to please me, which is at least one advantage I have, so with the help of the very vocal leaders, we assigned the task of going to the ayuntamiento to me and three other youth. I suggested that perhaps it would be easier, and more effective to raise the money ourselves, and thus make the community take ownership of the project. But this is also culturally unheard of, since the custom here is to ask for things from the government, and expect to be given them. This means that if someone is lacking, for example, a mosquito net, or a casket, or a latrine, or whatever, they just go to the sindico directly and ask for it. Which means that the community is dependent and not self-sufficient, nor do they support each other. There is definitely enough money in this community to support everyone, although it is not distributed very equally. (And it is not spent wisely. My don told me the other day that the banca, which sells lottery numbers, takes in more money each day than all the colmados in the community combined. And people buy everything at the colmados—food, phone cards, alcohol, household stuff. Which means that people spend more money playing the lottery than in all of their other daily expenditures combined. He told me that daily sales at the banca are around 30,000 pesos, or a little less than $1000, for a community of 800 or so people. A lot of people play, but there are few repeat offenders that make up the majority of these sales. I have just been informed by an anonymous source that my dona and one of the aforementioned youth group matriarchs are the two very biggest jugadoras in the community. Poorer communities just don’t have problems like this). The other problem with this practice of asking for everything is that it explains why people say that the sindico doesn’t do anything—he is probably too busy meeting with people who need sheets and mosquito nets to address bigger problems like the calle, or the bridge, or …..the trash.
Ah, the trash. Cuanta basura. Bringing up the issue of the trash in the streets in front of the colmados, which just sits there and then makes its way to the river when it rains, in the meeting made me realize that it is a much bigger and more complicated problem than I had first realized. Even if we were able to obtain the garbage cans, get people to use them and not steal them, and clean up the trash that is already in the streets, there is the issue of what we would do with the trash once the garbage cans got full. Which brings me to the bigger issue, which is that there is really nothing to do with any of the trash in the community, which is probably the reason it is all in the street. Waste management was one of the topics in the interviews I did of 50 households, so I know that the majority burn their trash or at least a portion of it, with the rest throwing it into a pile somewhere, usually, but unfortunately not always, on their own property. There are obvious drawbacks to both of these types of waste management—burning, especially of plastics makes the community smell horrible and gives people cancer, and piles of trash are unsanitary and probably breed all kinds of parasites. What’s more, the rains and the animals spread it around, and there are a lot of people who walk barefoot. There are not even many people who separate organics from nonorganics so that the organics can at least decompose. For example, in my backyard is a forest of cacao, with a thick layer of dead leaves and trees and all kinds of organic things on the ground. But under the leaves and all around are all kinds of non-organic things. I’ve found lots of shoes, dishes, a blender, a stereo, and lots and lots of plastics, all disposed of by a this household over the years. This stuff is never going to disappear. There are some people who seem to realize that trash should at least be contained and covered, and they dig holes in their yards to dispose of it. But really there is no very good solution. Or at least I don’t know enough about waste management to propose one. You would think that people who have to live so close to their own refuse would learn to consume less or reuse, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Plastic bags are especially problematic, as everyone buys all foodstuffs in tiny quantities for every meal at the colmado—and most things, being bulk, are measured into plastic bags, and then all the little bags are put into bigger bags. People seem to really like plastic bags here-- they are cheap and convenient and used for everything. And then they are burned. Most people cook on a fagon, which is a cement table-like platform with two holes for building fires to cook over. With this type of cooking, trash, including plastics, is often used as fuel. So, if I am not getting cancer from the burning piles of trash on my street, I am probably getting cancer from eating food that was cooked in burning plastic.
So, back to our meeting with the sindico… He listened very patiently as I explained the situation, and then told me I spoke perfect Spanish, which was nice to hear. He then told us that they were already waiting for approval of a donation of the metal tanks for the region, and if approved, could send a few of them to Rincon Hondo. I didn’t, however, ask him what I really wanted to which was, “what are we supposed to be doing with our trash and why haven’t you started any type of waste management???” because it seemed like too much to get into at the moment. But, getting trash put into trash cans seems like a good first step, and we have to start somewhere.
When it rains here, it pours. After a couple-week-long drought it started raining last night, and hasn’t stopped since. Just yesterday I was carefully rationing a bucketful of water that had been carried from a neighbor’s well to cover my entire garden, and now just hours later we have way way too much water. Our tank that collects rain from the roof that was empty yesterday is now full and overflowing from the hole in the top. Our lechosa (papaya) tree also fell over during the night, because the ground is too saturated to hold it up. But my hortaliza is happy, and flooded, though luckily there are channels between the beds for drainage. I had made plans to meet up with two volunteers in Macoris today, but now it looks like I won’t be leaving. My street is already flooded, and when it rains the motoconchistas don’t work because they don’t want to get wet. And motores are the only way to get out of my community. Even if I were to make it out, I would still run the risk of not being able to get back, especially if the river has risen above the bridge, which happens fairly fast. So I am probably better off staying put. But it is a bummer.
Let’s see, what else is new? Yesterday a few notable things happened. First of all, my regional leader delivered my mail to my site, which included five packages! A few of which I had been waiting for for months. Llego la Navidad por fin! I got speakers for my computer/ipod, and now I am listening to my music as I write this. Yesterday I also went with three kids from the youth group to the first session of the ayuntamiento (like city hall) in Castillo. We arrived there and found out that the session had been “suspended.” Since we had already gone all the way to Castillo, we decided we may as well make the most of it and went directly to the house of the sindico (like the mayor, but of the region). Apparently it is okay to do this, completely unannounced, in this country. Luckily the sindico knows me, so it wasn’t that weird. The point of our visit was to ask for help in obtaining metal tanks to serve as garbage cans to put in front of the colmados. This was an idea I had the other day, when I was considering the huge problem of trash in the streets here and the fact that the National Day of Youth is coming up at the end of this month. So, at a recent youth group meeting I proposed that we do something about it. My suggestion was met by utter silence from the group. Which I was expecting, since this group never does anything, and the only leadership comes from two older women who are like the matriarchs. I still don’t know if their impotence is really because know one cares, or they are all lazy, or they are intimidated by it, or just shy, because no one ever says anything in the meetings. I don’t like to push them either, for one, because it is not my job to come in and take over the direction of their group, and two, because as I am the same age or younger than some of them, it feels uncomfortable to treat them like children like the two older women leaders do. Basically, I have trouble with the dynamics of the group. We spend the meetings being lectured by the two women about our bad behavior in the meetings, and how we don’t show enough initiative in the goings-on of the church, and lack values, etc., etc. It seems that the main purpose of the group, since it pertains to the church, is to involve more youth in the planning of the misas, oraciones, and the upkeep of the church. I’m not sure how my role fits into this, since social projects definitely seem like an afterthought. But they do all want to please me, which is at least one advantage I have, so with the help of the very vocal leaders, we assigned the task of going to the ayuntamiento to me and three other youth. I suggested that perhaps it would be easier, and more effective to raise the money ourselves, and thus make the community take ownership of the project. But this is also culturally unheard of, since the custom here is to ask for things from the government, and expect to be given them. This means that if someone is lacking, for example, a mosquito net, or a casket, or a latrine, or whatever, they just go to the sindico directly and ask for it. Which means that the community is dependent and not self-sufficient, nor do they support each other. There is definitely enough money in this community to support everyone, although it is not distributed very equally. (And it is not spent wisely. My don told me the other day that the banca, which sells lottery numbers, takes in more money each day than all the colmados in the community combined. And people buy everything at the colmados—food, phone cards, alcohol, household stuff. Which means that people spend more money playing the lottery than in all of their other daily expenditures combined. He told me that daily sales at the banca are around 30,000 pesos, or a little less than $1000, for a community of 800 or so people. A lot of people play, but there are few repeat offenders that make up the majority of these sales. I have just been informed by an anonymous source that my dona and one of the aforementioned youth group matriarchs are the two very biggest jugadoras in the community. Poorer communities just don’t have problems like this). The other problem with this practice of asking for everything is that it explains why people say that the sindico doesn’t do anything—he is probably too busy meeting with people who need sheets and mosquito nets to address bigger problems like the calle, or the bridge, or …..the trash.
Ah, the trash. Cuanta basura. Bringing up the issue of the trash in the streets in front of the colmados, which just sits there and then makes its way to the river when it rains, in the meeting made me realize that it is a much bigger and more complicated problem than I had first realized. Even if we were able to obtain the garbage cans, get people to use them and not steal them, and clean up the trash that is already in the streets, there is the issue of what we would do with the trash once the garbage cans got full. Which brings me to the bigger issue, which is that there is really nothing to do with any of the trash in the community, which is probably the reason it is all in the street. Waste management was one of the topics in the interviews I did of 50 households, so I know that the majority burn their trash or at least a portion of it, with the rest throwing it into a pile somewhere, usually, but unfortunately not always, on their own property. There are obvious drawbacks to both of these types of waste management—burning, especially of plastics makes the community smell horrible and gives people cancer, and piles of trash are unsanitary and probably breed all kinds of parasites. What’s more, the rains and the animals spread it around, and there are a lot of people who walk barefoot. There are not even many people who separate organics from nonorganics so that the organics can at least decompose. For example, in my backyard is a forest of cacao, with a thick layer of dead leaves and trees and all kinds of organic things on the ground. But under the leaves and all around are all kinds of non-organic things. I’ve found lots of shoes, dishes, a blender, a stereo, and lots and lots of plastics, all disposed of by a this household over the years. This stuff is never going to disappear. There are some people who seem to realize that trash should at least be contained and covered, and they dig holes in their yards to dispose of it. But really there is no very good solution. Or at least I don’t know enough about waste management to propose one. You would think that people who have to live so close to their own refuse would learn to consume less or reuse, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Plastic bags are especially problematic, as everyone buys all foodstuffs in tiny quantities for every meal at the colmado—and most things, being bulk, are measured into plastic bags, and then all the little bags are put into bigger bags. People seem to really like plastic bags here-- they are cheap and convenient and used for everything. And then they are burned. Most people cook on a fagon, which is a cement table-like platform with two holes for building fires to cook over. With this type of cooking, trash, including plastics, is often used as fuel. So, if I am not getting cancer from the burning piles of trash on my street, I am probably getting cancer from eating food that was cooked in burning plastic.
So, back to our meeting with the sindico… He listened very patiently as I explained the situation, and then told me I spoke perfect Spanish, which was nice to hear. He then told us that they were already waiting for approval of a donation of the metal tanks for the region, and if approved, could send a few of them to Rincon Hondo. I didn’t, however, ask him what I really wanted to which was, “what are we supposed to be doing with our trash and why haven’t you started any type of waste management???” because it seemed like too much to get into at the moment. But, getting trash put into trash cans seems like a good first step, and we have to start somewhere.
viernes, 9 de enero de 2009
Strange Phenomena of the DR
January 3, 2009
I got back to my site late this evening from the capital, and it is chilly here, like winter. I had to wait a long time in the cruce because there are never any motoconchos after about 6pm here, making transportation difficult if not impossible. I couldn’t get ahold of my friend who was supposed to pick me up and ended up calling everyone I had in my phone, and he finally showed up. His explanation was that he was in another community that doesn’t have any cell phone service. Which is a good excuse, but I’m still not sure how we was expecting that I get ahold of him. Cell phones are the bane of my existence in this country. Signal is spotty at best, and chances are the person you are calling doesn’t have signal either, or their phone is dead because the electricity has been gone so long, and guaranteed they will not be able to call you back because they definitely won’t have any minutes. Then there are the phone cards I buy that mysteriously don’t work because the codes have been “robbed” and used by someone else. Everyone has cells phones here, but sometimes I wonder why.
Anyway, on the way up to my site on the motor, my friend informed me that there was a serious motor accident in my tiny community today, involving one of my youth and this very friendly grandpa who is always around with a bottle of rum in his hand at all hours, and that the grandpa is probably going to die. I was shocked. And then I thought about whether I would ever stop being shocked by things like this. I have been told by other volunteers that this is one of the hardest things—to come to terms with the fact that bad things happen in this country. Life is just less controllable, and you have to learn to accept it and expect that the unexpected will happen. It is not that bad things do not happen back home in the U.S., it just seems that the occurrence of freak accidents and unfortunate circumstances is much much higher, or maybe it is just that one single event can affect so many people because people live so communally. I remember thinking about this when I first arrived, that chances are that someone in my community would probably die during my two years, and I would certainly know the person. I know very few people who have died in my entire life, and already in my 2 months in site we have had two deaths. Death is also just very up close and personal here, in a way I have never witnessed it. And from a more selfish standpoint, I really don’t feel like going to any more lutos (funerals), at least for the time being. People here are also very superstitious. Every day during the mourning at Madelin's house visitors are always sharing new stories about weird things that happened to them the day before--apparent evidence that Madelin's ghost is around. Even the family members talk like this, and they are all terrified of muertos. There are also many people who claim to have seen dead people walking around, and others who are able to foresee death.
The other person involved in the crash was a kid in the youth group, who interestingly enough recently caused another gossip storm in the community for eloping with my 17-year old next door neighbor. Which brings me to a very unique phenomenon of Dominican culture, and that is campo marriage. People do not get married in the campo, at least not in any way that we think of as marriage. The way it usually happens is that the novios (couple) leave together during the night to spend the night in a hotel or somewhere in another pueblo or city. When the mother realizes that her daughter has not come home (which happens fairly early, by about midnight since girls here to not have freedom to be out late) she immediately says “ella se caso” and begins wailing and soon the entire community is talking. It is still really hard for me to believe that there couldn’t be any other explanation for a girl not coming home by bedtime, but no, here the only reasonable explanation is that she must have decided to get married. Anyway, tradition has it that the couple stays away for a week, with the boy being able to visit his family but the girl not, and then on the 8th day they return home to live together with one of their families. Apparently the time away is for the parents to get over their grief so that they will be able to welcome the couple back. But really they have no choice to accept the marriage, because once the girl has been somewhere overnight with her boyfriend, with everyone knowing about it, there is no going back. This is also not a new phenomenon—there are lots of viejos who were married in exactly the same way. The reason the couple has to sneak off during the night is usually because the parents don’t approve of the match, and also because there is really no other way for the novios to be alone together. I have even heard that in extreme cases, if a girl is out with her boyfriend and he brings her back to her house late, like at 11pm, the parents will say “llevatela, no aceptamos mujeres en nuestra casa” meaning “take her, we don’t accept women (non-virgins) in this house.” So basically, if you want to be able to spend time alone with your novia or novio or not have to be home by 10, the only choice is to get married. Which unfortunately leads to lot of young marriages and marriages under the influence of alcohol, and bad pairings too, because chances are the couple don’t have a lot of experience being a couple since their entire relationship has probably taken place in the presence of one of their families, sitting in plastic chairs on the porch. It is hard for me to reconcile this somewhat archaic view of dating with the very permissive sexuality in this culture. But I think that the permissiveness, being that this is a very machista culture, is one-sided. Boys are allowed to go out and stay out as late as they want, and no one cares what they are doing. The reason girls are so restricted is that no parent wanst a pregnant, unmarried daughter living in their house, whose baby they will then have to support.
There are a few who have weddings, like my project partner last weekend, and everyone is aware that there is this type of formal marriage, but somehow they still equate novios spending a night together as marriage rather than just spending a night together. There are also some obvious legal consequences to this type of union, as “wives” have no legal rights to money or property if they “divorce”, and most women do not work and would thus have no means of supporting themselves if husband were to leave them. The amount of women who stay with cheating husbands or even end up raising their husband’s “children of the calle” (from his other women) is shocking but definitely understandable considering this. Machismo is alive and strong.
I got back to my site late this evening from the capital, and it is chilly here, like winter. I had to wait a long time in the cruce because there are never any motoconchos after about 6pm here, making transportation difficult if not impossible. I couldn’t get ahold of my friend who was supposed to pick me up and ended up calling everyone I had in my phone, and he finally showed up. His explanation was that he was in another community that doesn’t have any cell phone service. Which is a good excuse, but I’m still not sure how we was expecting that I get ahold of him. Cell phones are the bane of my existence in this country. Signal is spotty at best, and chances are the person you are calling doesn’t have signal either, or their phone is dead because the electricity has been gone so long, and guaranteed they will not be able to call you back because they definitely won’t have any minutes. Then there are the phone cards I buy that mysteriously don’t work because the codes have been “robbed” and used by someone else. Everyone has cells phones here, but sometimes I wonder why.
Anyway, on the way up to my site on the motor, my friend informed me that there was a serious motor accident in my tiny community today, involving one of my youth and this very friendly grandpa who is always around with a bottle of rum in his hand at all hours, and that the grandpa is probably going to die. I was shocked. And then I thought about whether I would ever stop being shocked by things like this. I have been told by other volunteers that this is one of the hardest things—to come to terms with the fact that bad things happen in this country. Life is just less controllable, and you have to learn to accept it and expect that the unexpected will happen. It is not that bad things do not happen back home in the U.S., it just seems that the occurrence of freak accidents and unfortunate circumstances is much much higher, or maybe it is just that one single event can affect so many people because people live so communally. I remember thinking about this when I first arrived, that chances are that someone in my community would probably die during my two years, and I would certainly know the person. I know very few people who have died in my entire life, and already in my 2 months in site we have had two deaths. Death is also just very up close and personal here, in a way I have never witnessed it. And from a more selfish standpoint, I really don’t feel like going to any more lutos (funerals), at least for the time being. People here are also very superstitious. Every day during the mourning at Madelin's house visitors are always sharing new stories about weird things that happened to them the day before--apparent evidence that Madelin's ghost is around. Even the family members talk like this, and they are all terrified of muertos. There are also many people who claim to have seen dead people walking around, and others who are able to foresee death.
The other person involved in the crash was a kid in the youth group, who interestingly enough recently caused another gossip storm in the community for eloping with my 17-year old next door neighbor. Which brings me to a very unique phenomenon of Dominican culture, and that is campo marriage. People do not get married in the campo, at least not in any way that we think of as marriage. The way it usually happens is that the novios (couple) leave together during the night to spend the night in a hotel or somewhere in another pueblo or city. When the mother realizes that her daughter has not come home (which happens fairly early, by about midnight since girls here to not have freedom to be out late) she immediately says “ella se caso” and begins wailing and soon the entire community is talking. It is still really hard for me to believe that there couldn’t be any other explanation for a girl not coming home by bedtime, but no, here the only reasonable explanation is that she must have decided to get married. Anyway, tradition has it that the couple stays away for a week, with the boy being able to visit his family but the girl not, and then on the 8th day they return home to live together with one of their families. Apparently the time away is for the parents to get over their grief so that they will be able to welcome the couple back. But really they have no choice to accept the marriage, because once the girl has been somewhere overnight with her boyfriend, with everyone knowing about it, there is no going back. This is also not a new phenomenon—there are lots of viejos who were married in exactly the same way. The reason the couple has to sneak off during the night is usually because the parents don’t approve of the match, and also because there is really no other way for the novios to be alone together. I have even heard that in extreme cases, if a girl is out with her boyfriend and he brings her back to her house late, like at 11pm, the parents will say “llevatela, no aceptamos mujeres en nuestra casa” meaning “take her, we don’t accept women (non-virgins) in this house.” So basically, if you want to be able to spend time alone with your novia or novio or not have to be home by 10, the only choice is to get married. Which unfortunately leads to lot of young marriages and marriages under the influence of alcohol, and bad pairings too, because chances are the couple don’t have a lot of experience being a couple since their entire relationship has probably taken place in the presence of one of their families, sitting in plastic chairs on the porch. It is hard for me to reconcile this somewhat archaic view of dating with the very permissive sexuality in this culture. But I think that the permissiveness, being that this is a very machista culture, is one-sided. Boys are allowed to go out and stay out as late as they want, and no one cares what they are doing. The reason girls are so restricted is that no parent wanst a pregnant, unmarried daughter living in their house, whose baby they will then have to support.
There are a few who have weddings, like my project partner last weekend, and everyone is aware that there is this type of formal marriage, but somehow they still equate novios spending a night together as marriage rather than just spending a night together. There are also some obvious legal consequences to this type of union, as “wives” have no legal rights to money or property if they “divorce”, and most women do not work and would thus have no means of supporting themselves if husband were to leave them. The amount of women who stay with cheating husbands or even end up raising their husband’s “children of the calle” (from his other women) is shocking but definitely understandable considering this. Machismo is alive and strong.
sábado, 3 de enero de 2009
My life so far
November 21, 2008
I am nearing the end of my first month living in my site, and there is both a lot to say and not much to say. A lot has happened, but my life is also becoming normal here, and doesn’t seem as crazy as it did before. I guess that means I have adjusted. I am realizing that my life here is starting to seem much more real than my life back at home, as it becomes more removed from the present. That is a weird thought. My life still feels far from settled or complete here, but it is moving in that direction.
So, now I will tell you a bit about my new home. My community is called Rincon Hondo, which literally means “deep corner.” It is located in the NE part of the country, in the Septionentral mountain range, and about an hour from the coast. You probably won’t find it on a map, but if you are interested you can look for Pimentel and Castillo, and my road off the carretera is between those two pueblos. Off the main road, my community is about 3 KM up an unpaved road. There is really just one road that most of the houses and all of the businesses are on, there is one other road that crosses it where the colmados are, but it goes to two different little communities on either side of mine. Everyone either lives “alla arriba” (up the road) or “alla abajo” (down the road). It is campo, meaning rural, and there are an estimated 800 people who live here. It is very very green here—there are lots of trees and everywhere is very densely vegetated. It might be as close to jungle as anywhere in this country. There is also a river that is in a little canyon that runs alongside the main road. If you keep going up the main road it continues uphill and at the very top, about 6 km away from my community, is the summit and another little community, El Firme that has 360 degree views all the way to the coast.
January 2, 2009
I gave up on writing for a long time since I have had no internet access so little motivation since I don’t know when anyone will ever get to read what I write. Anyway, I am in the capital for a day and have internet! I notice that this last entry is very incomplete… but as far as describing my community pictures probably do a better job. So, you should all check out my Gmail album, as I have been putting new pictures on there every so often. Anyway, the reason I am in the capital now is to do some business and take my vacation day—both of which had to be put off because of a death in my community. A friend of mine, Madelin, who had been battling cancer for several months, died on Tuesday morning. She was only 23, and her death has definitely shaken the community. When someone dies the whole world comes to a complete stop and everyone gets to work immediately getting everything ready for the velorio, which is the first day of luto, or the nine days of mourning. By 5:30 that morning everyone in the community knew, all of the furniture had been cleared out of the house in preparation for the arrival of the casket, and all of the women had set up fires on the ground of the gallera, which is the cockfighting ring, to start cooking. It is tradition to feed everyone who comes to the house that first day, and the entire world comes. Families are also huge here, and everyone is related. People came from all over, and Madelin’s boyfriend even flew in from New York and was there by the afternoon. Most of the day was spent in the packed house, full of people screaming and wailing, yelling at god, kissing the casket, and occasionally falling on the floor. It is definitely very public and very expressive, but that is the tradition. Overall, it was upsetting and a little scary, and impossible to be in the house and not be crying too being surrounded by so many sobbing people. It was very interesting to realize how much of mourning and expression of feelings is actually cultural. Even the way people cry here is different. That afternoon we had a service in the church, with a priest and the entire community, and then we loaded the casket on the back of a truck and the entire community got into the backs of trucks too and we had a procession of 30 or more trucks all the way down the hill, onto the freeway, and drove 5 mph all the way to the cemetery in Castillo. I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was absolutely incredible, but I didn’t bring my camera because it was pouring and I was in the back of a truck. There we did a lot of praying, and that was when the boyfriend arrived, which was also very intense. And then the mourning continues for 9 days afterwards, with the 9th day just as big and with as many people as the first day. So, I was planning on going to the capital on the 30th and going with a group of volunteers to the beach for New Year’s but obviously I couldn’t leave my site. Apparently it is okay to leave during the 9 days, as long as I am back for the 9th day. Which is good, since I could use a break, as it has been rather intense there. My dona, Isa, was Madelin’s cousin, and she has been spending all day every day at the family’s house doing the cooking and cleaning for them. For example, this morning when I went over there she was scrubbing the entire outside of the house. I’m not sure what makes this a good time to do that, but whatever. New Year’s was very quiet, as no one is allowed to play music during the mourning, and nothing ever happens without music here. Most people actually went to sleep before midnight. I was sitting with my friend’s family in his house that night, almost asleep, when at about 11:30 we heard a crash and went outside to find 3 crates of Presidente beer in the middle of the road, that had apparently fallen off a truck and the truck had drove off. We picked up all the glass, and most of the bottle were unbroken, so we picked some up and hid them in the bushes before the driver came back to find them. We then decided that our good fortune meant that we should go do something fun, so we went on the motor to a neighboring community where there was lots of drinking and some dancing at the colmado. It was a typical colmado scene, which consists of people sitting outside the colmado in plastic chairs drinking rum out of plastic cups, and really really loud merengue and bachata music and a few people dancing in the whatever tiny paved area the colmado has. There were actually only a couple of people from my community there, so it was really nice to be relatively anonymous for a couple of hours.
I am nearing the end of my first month living in my site, and there is both a lot to say and not much to say. A lot has happened, but my life is also becoming normal here, and doesn’t seem as crazy as it did before. I guess that means I have adjusted. I am realizing that my life here is starting to seem much more real than my life back at home, as it becomes more removed from the present. That is a weird thought. My life still feels far from settled or complete here, but it is moving in that direction.
So, now I will tell you a bit about my new home. My community is called Rincon Hondo, which literally means “deep corner.” It is located in the NE part of the country, in the Septionentral mountain range, and about an hour from the coast. You probably won’t find it on a map, but if you are interested you can look for Pimentel and Castillo, and my road off the carretera is between those two pueblos. Off the main road, my community is about 3 KM up an unpaved road. There is really just one road that most of the houses and all of the businesses are on, there is one other road that crosses it where the colmados are, but it goes to two different little communities on either side of mine. Everyone either lives “alla arriba” (up the road) or “alla abajo” (down the road). It is campo, meaning rural, and there are an estimated 800 people who live here. It is very very green here—there are lots of trees and everywhere is very densely vegetated. It might be as close to jungle as anywhere in this country. There is also a river that is in a little canyon that runs alongside the main road. If you keep going up the main road it continues uphill and at the very top, about 6 km away from my community, is the summit and another little community, El Firme that has 360 degree views all the way to the coast.
January 2, 2009
I gave up on writing for a long time since I have had no internet access so little motivation since I don’t know when anyone will ever get to read what I write. Anyway, I am in the capital for a day and have internet! I notice that this last entry is very incomplete… but as far as describing my community pictures probably do a better job. So, you should all check out my Gmail album, as I have been putting new pictures on there every so often. Anyway, the reason I am in the capital now is to do some business and take my vacation day—both of which had to be put off because of a death in my community. A friend of mine, Madelin, who had been battling cancer for several months, died on Tuesday morning. She was only 23, and her death has definitely shaken the community. When someone dies the whole world comes to a complete stop and everyone gets to work immediately getting everything ready for the velorio, which is the first day of luto, or the nine days of mourning. By 5:30 that morning everyone in the community knew, all of the furniture had been cleared out of the house in preparation for the arrival of the casket, and all of the women had set up fires on the ground of the gallera, which is the cockfighting ring, to start cooking. It is tradition to feed everyone who comes to the house that first day, and the entire world comes. Families are also huge here, and everyone is related. People came from all over, and Madelin’s boyfriend even flew in from New York and was there by the afternoon. Most of the day was spent in the packed house, full of people screaming and wailing, yelling at god, kissing the casket, and occasionally falling on the floor. It is definitely very public and very expressive, but that is the tradition. Overall, it was upsetting and a little scary, and impossible to be in the house and not be crying too being surrounded by so many sobbing people. It was very interesting to realize how much of mourning and expression of feelings is actually cultural. Even the way people cry here is different. That afternoon we had a service in the church, with a priest and the entire community, and then we loaded the casket on the back of a truck and the entire community got into the backs of trucks too and we had a procession of 30 or more trucks all the way down the hill, onto the freeway, and drove 5 mph all the way to the cemetery in Castillo. I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was absolutely incredible, but I didn’t bring my camera because it was pouring and I was in the back of a truck. There we did a lot of praying, and that was when the boyfriend arrived, which was also very intense. And then the mourning continues for 9 days afterwards, with the 9th day just as big and with as many people as the first day. So, I was planning on going to the capital on the 30th and going with a group of volunteers to the beach for New Year’s but obviously I couldn’t leave my site. Apparently it is okay to leave during the 9 days, as long as I am back for the 9th day. Which is good, since I could use a break, as it has been rather intense there. My dona, Isa, was Madelin’s cousin, and she has been spending all day every day at the family’s house doing the cooking and cleaning for them. For example, this morning when I went over there she was scrubbing the entire outside of the house. I’m not sure what makes this a good time to do that, but whatever. New Year’s was very quiet, as no one is allowed to play music during the mourning, and nothing ever happens without music here. Most people actually went to sleep before midnight. I was sitting with my friend’s family in his house that night, almost asleep, when at about 11:30 we heard a crash and went outside to find 3 crates of Presidente beer in the middle of the road, that had apparently fallen off a truck and the truck had drove off. We picked up all the glass, and most of the bottle were unbroken, so we picked some up and hid them in the bushes before the driver came back to find them. We then decided that our good fortune meant that we should go do something fun, so we went on the motor to a neighboring community where there was lots of drinking and some dancing at the colmado. It was a typical colmado scene, which consists of people sitting outside the colmado in plastic chairs drinking rum out of plastic cups, and really really loud merengue and bachata music and a few people dancing in the whatever tiny paved area the colmado has. There were actually only a couple of people from my community there, so it was really nice to be relatively anonymous for a couple of hours.
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