Rana

Buenos,

Hi! How refreshing to have a pressured cold shower, sink, and my friends! I made it into the capital last night to meet up with Leeann, Mark, Jim, Andrew and Andrea and for an annual medical appointment and we got to go out to Dinner at a Chinese place, watch Wolverine, and yes – get squeaky clean.
I also got to pick up packages (Tobin, Nana, and Mom). Thank you Toby – you are like a Morphos of Costa Rica love on account of how much chocolate, tea, pictures and fantastic letters you’ve sent me. Thank you Nana – you are the greatest Nana and also most magical person I have ever met. My Nana is wonderful about hiding gifts in gifts – she gave me a few books (I’m almost done with In the Time of Butterflies and think Minerva is awesome) and in the pages she’ll hide pictures of my wonderfully adorable baby cousins and Chester and this time little worry people. As always Thank you to Mom – Fruit leather and chocolate. I love mom’s letters. They are exactly how she talks. (Mom did I tell you that Mata has hair that is almost 2 times as long as yours? She sorta looks like one of the aunts almost.) I’m using the Envelopes for little reusable bags as a little side project. Oh also! Here is my address for those who have been asking if it has changed. Check this out:

+ Hermana Sarah Termondt, PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
Avenida Bolivar 451, Gazcue
Apartado Postal 1412
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

It is more likely that your mail to me won’t get messed around with if you put a cross, Hermana, and also buy jesus stamps. Funny- but it is advice from another older volunteer that I think is smart. Dominicans fear God like the Californian Supreme court upholds inane rulings. Ah.

I really like my site. I am understanding the campesinos a little more. Oh and my Nana pointed out that I am referencing Dominican words sometimes that are new. For example – Sonrojar = to blush or literally to become red. Colmado = little corner store. Campo = more or less a farm or rural setting. I am understanding a little bit more now…but I am still quite entertaining to them when communicating. My community is really supportive though and wants to teach me. The Donas around me are like a tight knit little circle – comparable to a peaceful mafia armed with rosaries. Mata was explaining to me that they are going to protect me with whatever I do so that was nice to hear. She also wanted to make sure I knew I was welcome to come visit again with my husband anytime I want after my service had ended (although it just started). They are also quite concerned that I’m playing with Mauricio (the kitten) and holding him too much because he, as all cats do, have parasites that will disable from having ninos of my own. They are also deathly afraid of frogs and were creeped out that I took a photo of one in my hand (for you to identify Toby).

I’ve been hiking and exploring a lot with the kids in my community. There are a group of 12 yr old girls I call the grapefruit girls because they gave me a GIANT grapefruit– Paloma, Carina, Ginet being the leaders who are like little tour guides. There is a waterfall that isn’t too far away from my site that is really pretty apparently and also Indian caves that I will be exploring in the coming weeks with them and other friends. There is also a very nice guy named Gine (Hini) who I’ve become good friends with – he is very different than the usual tiguere Dominican male who you immediately question their intention. Gine was studying to be a priest and therefore received good schooling and is very intelligent. He now wants to be a civil engineer and he’s really interested in learning English and about the U.S. I’m really glad he’s there because he helps keep sanity sometimes with the campesinos. All the Donas tell me he’s very respectoso meaning that he really does have the intention of friendship (I’ve told my site I have a boyfriend living in Santiago because – believe me it is much much easier that way. Before asking my name people will ask if I have a boyfriend wanting to set me up with their sons. It is really helpful in dealing with the tigueres also – Tiguere remember means a guy who is basically a super direct Rooster like guy after all the women. They are annoying and it’s nice to be able to say no with a firmer reason attached so the odds they will continue to harass you are lowered. Thankfully it’s not bad in my community.)

I am starting up English classes this Saturday with the kids and then with the adults. Lets see how that goes haha. I’ve got a list of kids for the morning and an open class in the afternoon as a trial. Everyone wants to learn English. It is their first and foremost desire for me. Otherwise I’ve been reading books on Thursdays to the tiny kids in our little library, I’m going to try setting up the apiculture (bee’s and HONEY!) project kids with a connection in Nagua to hopefully give them incentive to make the project into more of a business, I’m looking into trash collection companies in Castillo, made my own clothes hangers and another round of chocolate, and I’m sewing a lot! They say cogiendolo suave here (taking it easy) but I tell them I’m cosiendolo suave (sewing it easy). I have fixed several of the campesino’s shirts because I like to sit on the patio with little projects. I asked another volunteer today, Amy who is super awesome and like personifies a cool older volunteer to me, about her reusable bag campaign and the patterns she’s using. I’m going to start some bags when I get back to the site.

On a final note although I wish I could say this in person more than you guys know: CONGRATULATIONS NESS AND AUSTIN! I AM SOOOOO HAPPY FOR YOU!
I WISH YOU BOTH THE BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL YEARS TOGETHER!
I wish so much I could hear Bailey’s toast to you guys. I want her to send it to me. I also think the pizookie party is an excellent idea. Miss you guys a lot. Send me pics of the wedding and all your gorgeousness and I’m sure I’ll miss you even more.

Love you all! New pics up!
Love,
Sarah

Officially a Volunteer!

Hey!

Ok - officially am a Volunteer now! We swore in yesterday with the ceremony at Entrena and we had some older volunteers come and watch us. I was very smooth like when they called my name because I was in the beginning and didn't really catch on to what we were supposed to do or say when they called our names so I went up and spoke in both English and Spanish, forgot to shake all the important people's hands and sonrojared pretty good. Cassidy told me it was endearing. I felt otherwise. Haha.

I just told Kev and Leeann and they agree.

It was after that moment that I started feeling a little bit overwhelmed! I am really a volunteer now and tomorrow will be the first time that there is no real schedule and you are finally basically on your own to do your own thing....and although that sounds logically awesome - it also is a little bit scary when you are so used to a ridiculous schedule.

Then again, I also met Eva today - she is a Youth Volunteer who lives about 11 km away from my site and she is very cool. I am going to travel back with her tomorrow so I can find out how to get there the smart way. She also told me that she does art classes and that we have a waterfall in our area! SCORE! She was also telling me how awesome my community is and the people in it so that was very good to hear.

I got your letters Blair, Aunt Flo-Flo, Po, and packages from Nana and Gramps and Bay! Thank you so much!

So - I am heading to my site tomorrow for the long run! I definitely won't be having as much internet time as I previously have had - hopefully bi-weekly.

Keep taking care of yourselves!
Love,
Sarah

I live on a chocolate farm.

Hi!

I am sitting in my room at Dona Roma’s house spooning the peanut butter that I just bought from La Sirena and the plastic cup of chocolate sauce (THAT I MADE!) into my mouth. My parents along with Peanut butter and chocolate give me faith in lasting relationships.

So yes I have my site!! I live in a ‘campo campo’ apparently outside of the little town of Castillo in the Duarte Province. From my experience so far, you take a singular windy very rocky road up to my community and it basically consists of this same singular road that takes you through some fairly lush tropical forest with lots of tiny houses, a school house, a church, and several colmados. You will also find fields of horses grazing and tons of cacao trees. Yes, I get to say that I live on a chocolate farm basically. Yes, that is really cool.

My experience upon arrival was really quite something. I met my project partners (Elizabeth 25, and Richard 21) who are both very nice and want to be involved and help but seem a little muddled when it comes to what Peace Corps is and what their role should actually be. I am also muddled about this though so I’m pretty sure it’ll work itself out with time because I already have ideas of projects that these kids can help me implement. Anyways – upon arrival….I got into a truck with my partners and head off to my site. They are trying to talk to me and I am realizing that I’m having a really hard time understanding them because of how quickly they are speaking and their Cibaoeno accent. We drop off a vegetable delivery on the way and the driver is a little insane to put it lightly, but we finally reach my homestay house where about 20-30 community members are waiting on the front porch with a big banner saying ‘Sea beinbenida a este hogar y a nuestra comunidad’ and a little guy playing the guitar and them all singing a welcome song to me! I cried a little because of how overwhelming it was but then ended up explaining that my Spanish isn’t that great but I want to thank them for the welcome and then started playing guitar for them because I’ve found that goes over very well with Dominicans when you have nothing left to say. Haha. I met a bunch of people and didn’t even realize when I met my homestay mom who is named Mata (nickname for Mathilda). She is a skinny quirkly little lady with really long dyed black hair (much longer that mom’s) but she very well could be one of my distant aunts. The whole family VERY much so reminds me of how my Mom describes her childhood with her family and especially uncles in Lake Charles Louisiana since I am basically living on a little farm. All of the neighbors work together as a unit, as a family, to survive. They kept gesturing to their arm running their finger down it and I figured out shortly this meant that the person they were referring to is like family – ie the blood in their veins is the same.

My house is basically one of the nicer houses in my little community. Everyone hangs out there and there are always people in the kitchen area talking really fast and joking around – I can’t wait until I start understanding these jokes. There are lots of old farmer guys who are the most difficult to understand, probably even in English, but are super nice and comical – they love playing little tricks on each other and slapping each other’s caps around. My house consists of the main house where my room is, which is very small but has a nice sized bed, mosquito net, small dresser and little table with a really tiny window. Mata and Chiche (my homestay dad who is a nice guy and can be playful but I think is generally stressed out about getting chores done and is sort of serious) and Chichi (serious brother, just like his dad, who is 19) all sleep in the main house also so there are three rooms all together. They also have a little place to put their motorbike and a little living room area where they put 4 fold up chairs and a table and have the TV. Then there is a separate building for the kitchen which has a table, little stove, a nice sink with tiled surface although no running water, and basically is my favorite part of the house because it is very homey. People come from all over the village and sit in the kitchen and hang out. Then you have the outside shack where chickens, dogs, and the little kitten Mauricio wander in and out of. This area also houses the fogon which is the outside wood stove commonly found in the campo but unfortunately is an aspect volunteers are trying to change since fogons contribute to deforestation problems. Then there are the pigs that live behind this (don’t make swine flu comments – peace corps will if needed). Then there are the rainwater tanks where we collect rainwater for all water purposes besides drinking and finally the outside bathroom which has a toilet actually but you have to put water in it to flush. There is also a dark little shower stall where you bathe with rainwater and a bucket! It is actually not that bad and sorta cool I think. There are also little gardens around the house where they are growing tomato plants, lechosa trees, oregano, aji (peppers) and juandules. Around the area you can find Mango trees, cherry trees, pear trees, zapote, tomatos, name, aguacate, and seriously a ton of stuff. It is soooo cool because basically all of what I’m eating comes directly from right around me and is organically grown (there is a chorus of bioindicating frogs in my backyard so that is good news). I immediately told Mata what I could and couldn’t eat and she didn’t seem to have any problem with the no red meat idea but I did see the process of chicken preparation from start to finish. I do know that these chickens are free range and live quite well in comparison to US CAFO birds but I’m not going to say it’s easy to see the process. I was explaining this and another story about how badly Dominicans treat domestic animals to Jean (who lives in the Santiago Region now in a sweet spot also) when she came to visit me today and she made an interesting comment – She had noticed the same thing and noted that Americans come in here and are all compassionate for domestic animals when behind the scenes we do much worse with our livestock. It’s the reverse for Dominicans. They treat their domestic animals very badly by American standards but have ‘freerange’ livestock. I am not saying I think that is better by any means….just at least out in the open. I had a couple of really hard encounters with animal treatment so far and I hope that my strong reactions will teach the kids that I don’t like seeing that and hopefully it will have a sustainable impact. That’s all you can hope for.

Onto the fun part. I got to make my own chocolate as I said earlier. Thanks to Reedly I now know that Chocolate tree, Theobroma, is a member of the Malvaceae family which is the same family as hibiscus. That was for you Lea. I will tell you the process: So you take the fruit pod (which is yellow and sort of looks squash like) from the tree and take out all the seeds and they are whitish and liquidy and goopy. Then you put them in a sack and let them ferment for about 9 days. Then you take them out and dry them in the sun in a really large tray like contraption with a sliding roof. Then you take the seeds out of this and toast them in a frying pan until nice and dark brown and they smell like chocolate and then you take off the seed coat called the cascara. Then you put these in a pilon and you mash them up really good and hard until you start seeing the grasa and the whole thing is a creamy texture. Then you take the chocolate and roll it into a little ball and put it in a banana leaf and at this point let it dry and then can grate it into your coffee before you brew it or make hot chocolate. I decided that I wanted to take it a step further and make a fine chocolate sauce or bar so I came back to the city and bought a really fine strainer. I took my cocoa ball and cut it up, added milk, sugar, and vanilla, and then brought it to a boil and strained it into cups to make a mold in the freezer. They are currently freezing and I’ll see if it works and then I’ll start my chocolate factory and Willy Wonka will have nothing on me. Except for little orange men and lickable wallpaper maybe.

My family also makes café which I’m excited to try and make when I return next week after graduation. I live relatively close to Mark and Leeann which I’m excited about! Leeann lives with a family that also is in a Cacao area but also makes CHEESE. I will definitely be visiting her since I loved the Cheese in La Cumbre. Ben lives to the South West of the country and his area makes Peanut Butter. We are all already talking about our upcoming visits to different regions to barter goods.

In terms of my project ideas so far at my site it’s basically a giant drawing board since I am orienting myself but from just the first week the ideas of helping some of the farmers who are involved with the Cacao cooperative be certified organic/fair trade is a potential project that I talked briefly with another business volunteer about. That’d be sweet somehow if I could be in touch with Toby and Jess Wall to see if I could somehow set up Perks with a Dom Rep fair trade chocolate delivery from my community. Also setting up a trash collection system and constructing own trashcans, working with the school in various ways including a community garden, brigade verde youth groups, English classes, music classes, reusable cup and bag campaign for the colmados, hackey sacks out of reusable biodegradable materials, maybe solar stove projects being that I prefer them to the ceramic stoves that still use wood, and also trying to set up a cancha or field for the kids to play baseball since they currently have nowhere to play (although this may be tricky since all the land is uneven and hilly as well as costly). They also have asked me to help them raise money to finish an aqueduct project that they started out and are well on their way with. The community seems very motivated to improve their situation which is great news and they have groups that meet regularly. They just need resources which I hope that I will be able to learn about and connect them to. I am definitely excited with the potential but am realistic with the situation given that my Spanish is minimal and I’m brand new. They tell you a lot that you need to be flexible and patient and this makes a lot of sense.

Other than that I rode back home with Mark and Leeann today to the capital and hung out with Dona Roma and Jean visited and we swapped stories. Then Bay and my parents called and that was wonderful to hear from friends and family since I have my new cell phone! If you want my number please send me an email. The cell phone reception at my site is not that good but you can leave me a message and I stand in my window to get it! I can’t call out but can receive incoming calls for free along with texts I’ve been told. We apparently have a test today and then graduate on Weds! I’m sad to leave Dona Roma but I’m hoping she’ll let me visit whenever I want – I’m going to get her flowers when I do leave since she has been so wonderful to me.

I have to travel an hour of site to get internet so once I’m settled for real after this week the updates will calm down for a good while probably. Ok I should sleep! That’s all for now. Hope all is well and to talk to you soon!

My site!

I just got my site!
I'll be living close to Castillo in the Duarte Province. I'm assigned to work with environmental education with youth groups (specifically sports teams) with possibility of working on organic cacao projects.

Mark and Leeann are both close to me.

That's all I've got for now. I'll have more information after I visit the site (tomorrow) with my project partner. I'm excited!

Poncherita.

Hey everyone!
Sorry again for the delay in my responses. My computer unfortunately flashed the blue screen of death and I thought it was no longer functioning for the last month – but thanks to the wonderful being I solely know as Tri (ICT PC Volunteer Leader) who fixed it I am now able to send this note! That was much needed great news this week.

I am now back in Santo Domingo with Dona Roma after a month in La Cumbre hanging out with wonderful people and leaving feeling like I have made real friends in this country – Dominicans and Volunteers both. There is no way I am going to convey everything in this post but I’ll cover the key points. I have a lot of new stories about my homestay experience in La Cumbre involving my Dona going thru possibly a mid life crisis, hours of my homestay dad playing the guira and merengue tipico starting at 7 in the morning and also his lecture relating global warming to Earthquakes, animal fun, and most memorable was the poor grandmother who was ill and lived in the back house but provided me with some very awkward moments. The best part about this is that there is really no word for awkward in Spanish besides uncomfortable, strange. I find this to be very funny because I feel as a PC trainee, it is one of the most essential words you need to learn. I danced a lot, explored, had amazing coffee - yep I’m addicted again – made cheese, music, hackey sacks, helped build some biosand water filters and a ceramic cook stove, spent a lot of time visiting wonderful Donas and friends… and also picked up quite a doozy of a bathroom story that I will hold in to my heart forever and always. I call that story Poncherita and I’ll save that one for in person if you have a strong constitution.

They delivered my notes and birthday packages during a charla about a week ago. I felt super loved because I got a lot of mail (Leeann and I got the most). It is like a warm shower when you get a package of treats. Thank you soo much again to Mom, Nana and Grandpa, Toby, Vanessa, Sanders, Aunt Donna and Meg, Aunt Flo Flo, Tyler and Erika!! The mail gets all collected and delivered at once so some of you have written me that things are on their way and I´ll write to confirm I´ve got them. It is wonderful to hear updates from back home (I´m saving them all) and Reeses Peanut Butter cups, Organic Fair Trade Dark Chocolate bars, and Yerba Tea have reached a new level of amazing to me. Post cards too!

We definitely kept busy in training. My training projects last week were teaching our barrio kids about how to build an abonera (compost pile) and how to maintain it. Ben and I worked together on this at Arturo´s conuco. Arturo is in the La Cumbre song and he is Ben’s sidekick. The La Cumbre song is apparently a hit! It was soooo wonderful to be walking down the street the other day behind two students I’ve never met humming it! Alot of the kids know it now at the school because apparently chisme and our Dominican hit singles spread like wildfire. Ben and I also wrote an Earthday song called ‘El poder es tuyo’ which is pretty much made of cheese and hippi but it was fun too. It´s about how you shouldn´t throw trash in the streets and take care of your land...it ties in a sense of nationalism which is very effective here. I am having a great time writing and playing music here. Ben was saying that it’d be a good project to make a CD by the end of service with Dominican songs to give to Brigada Verde Youth group leaders to play during their sessions and I think it is a good idea.

We presented for a very small school called ´Las Hermanas Mirabal´ which I´m sure some of you have heard about (revolutionaries during the time of Trujillo that were killed right here in La Cumbre on the Carretera Tamboril – we´ve visited the spot and the monument there). Anyways, the school is very different from what we´re used to in the US. There are no places for the kids to play, there are very few visual aids, the kids all wear uniforms but that´s about the only order in the whole place (kids talk over the teacher and are running in and out of the class and it´s really chaotic). They were really excited for us to come though. We did a poster competition and then a talk on Trash reduction and management incorporating a trash pickup, session on how to compost, and arts and crafts out of recycled materials. Then we painted a large blank wall of the school in a DR Geography mural which we had the kids work on. There are a lot of Dominicans who don’t know very much about geography and we decided on the country map of provinces. It looked great until we realized the only varnish our director had given us was meant to go on boats or metal. Now it looks slightly dirty and sneezed on but then we thought that went fluidly with Peace Corps style. It still gives the school some color and helps the kids learn geography – the kids are proud and looking at it and that’s the whole point.

I’m going to be negative Nancy for the next section because that is a part of life too – I was disappointed with the closing activities with training because they had built them up like we were going to have a lot of fun snorkeling, caving and beach camping. That turned into seeing no fish in the rainy/choppy conditions and almost capsizing the boat as a result of poor choice of guide, getting left behind and almost lost in a cave as a result of poor choice of guide (all while having another bathroom story), and finally having our beach camping actually take place on the rocky driveway of one of the guides houses who had a large number of pigs, dogs, and roosters on the same property. Haha, yeah. I also noticed our program’s hypocritical tendencies of excessive waste production and roundabout conversations regarding the work with Solid Waste Management that we really need to be addressing. It is in my opinion a most basic problem and yet the biggest problem in terms of environmental issues in the Dominican Republic. Although I think I’d like to work on Agriculture projects – I feel like all of the volunteers would be utilizing their time in a much more productive manner for the next two years if we all combined together to work on a solid waste management system and campaign. I am frustrated that we’re taught to teach kids to throw away trash into a garbage can when that garbage can won’t even be collected because there is no collection system reaching them. I believe I have a group of very resourceful, experienced and intelligent fellow trainees and volunteers to work with for the next few years so I have a feeling I’ll be using them and contacts back home for real projects.

Jean and Mark left me a note this morning telling me they got sucked into a religious retreat with their homestay families. I feel bad for them and yet wish they would have put their foot down because the gringos only have a few more days to hang out…but I hope they are having one hell of an evangelical party.

Here is my wish list in order of priority as of this exact moment
1) To find out that I’m going to an awesome site in the North
2) To speak Spanish
3) My kitty cat
4) To somehow stop my stomach from deciding to throw a revolution during the most inopportune moments (such as hiking or caving or anytime there is an unsightly latrine as the only option).
5) Mail from friends and family (Still haven’t gotten yours Bay or Lea but I’m hoping).
6) To do yoga today. Also to see Jean and Mark and Kiri.
7) New pants.
8) Peanut Butter.


Ok that’s the update! Thanks for reading and wish me luck for this upcoming week when I find out my site placement. Cuidense.
Love,
Sarah