Life in the DR - Little Video

Merry Christmas!

Here is a little video for those of you that would like to see what it looks like around my house and site. It is a shorter version of a video I made for my Nana for Christmas. That being said it is still quite long and hopefully not boring.

Take me home Campo Roads

Amanda, Jean, Sarah and Claire performing at Thanksgiving 2010

Click here for Music Video

Thanks Amanda for video and lyrics and writing the song.




I'm currently stateside visiting with my Nana for Christmas time! Outside is snow and I'm being treated like a fairy princess. Hope friends in DR are doing well and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, (Especially them ladies and doggies in Imbert).
Love,
Sarah

Thankful

A collection of what I said I am thankful for at Peace Corps Thanksgiving
A different response to every person that asked me

Migratory Song Birds
The peace early morning brings
The opportunities I now see I have
The friends and family that continually support me
Phone calls and letters from home
The sun
Life
Hope

Also Turkey



I will post pics of the desserts our teams made soon. Be well!

Jessica Wall defeats mosquito. In other news: Cholera, TS Tomas, and bamboo barstools

Buenas,

Ok so here we are yet again where I am way behind updating the blog. In recent news my good friend and former co-worker Jessica Wall came out to visit me for a few lovely days that started out with a Cholera prevention training and ended with a hurricane scare. In between were many a peaceful pina colada. She amazingly managed to avoid getting eaten alive by bugs – very impressive J. Here is the requisite waterfall shot. She posted some great ones on her facebook, check it out if you like.

Volunteers were pulled into the capital to do a cholera training due to its presence in neighboring Haiti. My main concern at the moment is my community being that I am already working on sanitation and water projects – I don’t want to see my friends getting this. My AIDS course is finishing up and I’m thinking that my students will start giving Cholera prevention charlas or educational talks to the Mother’s clubs and also the church congregation. We have a little Clinic in our site built by former volunteers, but it unfortunately like the country is not prepared to deal with an epidemic. In relative terms, from what I've heard, Haiti is much less equipped and seems to get hit harder with everything. TS Tomas, Cholera, and still recovering from the Earthquake....a friend of mine working in Haiti right now put it well - 'It's a mess'. On this note - as a current PCV I have no affiliation with this link dealing with Haiti's political elections and was simply shown this by a group of Returned volunteers that are passing this info along (http://bit.ly/haitielection).

The tropical storm barely hit the DR, although I do have to say that it was pretty exciting in my house thinking my tin roof would blow off with mild winds (It didn't and I'm totally fine). You go through a lot of different feelings in a two year time span in another culture - but the storm made actually made me feel a bit fake and torn. You can go from feeling part of the community, a vecina, intergrated - and within a second you can receive a text message that turns you into a fragile Americana saying you need to go to a delux hotel while the storm passes. It's like survivorman really - like I have this emergency escape button that I really don't have the mental struggle...if it gets real bad they pull me out. I understand, they have to. Yet I have my Dominican friends in my site that I just leave there saying, be back after the hard part, 'cuidense mucho, oiste?!' 'What's that Judas? Oh yes, we'll take great care - bring us something back Sarah.' I understand there is nothing I can do about it logically but nonetheless - yes it sucks. That being said I was almost consolidated in the Capital but managed to make it back to my site after dropping J off (which was in the standfast region since we weren't in too much of a danger zone) and hung out with Bija and Rosa for a windy few days. Most of the volunteers were consolidated but nothing really happened. Furthermore, I do not want a hurricane and think it is pretty demented that some volunteers do merely to be consolidated in fancy hotels without any regard to the well being of their Dominican counterparts. That my friend is selfish. Yes I said it.

Ok there is the rant of the day. Here are some photos of the Brigada Verde Conference East that I took my two kids (Orlando and Robercy) to check out. They are great kids and although we don't have a formal BV environmental group we are playing with the idea. They are part of my Aids course (Escojo). The conference was in Sabana de la Mar and it was BEAUTIFUL. We went to Parque los Haitises and it was generally epic. I took them specifically to try and get them pumped about avian conservation being that my site is located between two reserves and we get a lot of migratory songbirds that unfortunately the kids kill for fun. Orlando and Robercy, being guys and older, can help with this problem.

Lastly, my latest invento: a bamboo barstool with a Bija model. Hope all is very well and thanks for reading!

Love,

Sarah

Me, Alanna, Leeann, and Mark - PCVs














Orlando on his first boat ride.













Jovenes at the BV youth conference - caving.



















A beautiful Mr. Bija modeling his new bar stool.

Juan died

El Firme’s big news for the last 9 days has been the unexpected death of my Landlord. I had written a negative blog about him but all said and done the finality that death brings is an odd feeling. He was in his late 40’s and drank too much and didn’t take care of himself. He had a few trips to the hospital and then I’m in the middle of building a latrine and find out that he had died. It was really fast and unexpected. Another great reason to live life to the fullest every day.

I have gone to many funerals here but this was the first person I really knew and interacted with that has passed away. The funeral process last nine days, called the novena, with the first and last being the most important to attend. People wear black and white or specific other colors to demonstrate their relationship to the deceased. Dominican kids are taught that you should cry and moan to show your sadness and it will help you get through it I was recently told. I have been asked many times if I cry and I tell them I try not to in public, and they wonder why that is. I hear myself trying to explain why that is but even I think it’s overall sort of ridiculous of me. I think that 4 year olds are emotionally evolved. When they are mad, they are mad. When they are sad, they are sad. Life is that simple. Somewhere along the line maybe we worry about appearance or impression and get emotionally constipated and can’t figure out what or why we feel things.

Juan’s wife Mica has been a good friend to me since I arrived in my site. She has participated in many of my events and is a main component in the success of the reusable bag competition. She also dealt with her husband hitting on countless women who came through the colmado as the culture here unfortunately generally permits with no second thought. At the funeral, Mica was mourning as she was expected to do. She will be the only one that will really ever know what she thinks about the whole matter.

The whole community depends on their store for their main daily purchases and without Juan in the community it has affected a lot of people’s daily routines. Finding a reliable source of a few veggies is now even harder. I disliked Juan but had learned how to deal with him simply because I had to but his death leaves the whole community with a strange feeling of finality and a lot of questions.

La luz llego

Great news: I have electricity again. The transformer in my neighborhood blew up 6 months ago and after doing everything I could think of and losing faith that I’d ever drink cold water at my house again, miraculously I hear the sweet hum of my mini fridge.

Living here tests me in ways I never would have imagined and an experience allowing me to live without electricity for this amount of time has produced a few unexpected outcomes. Without being able to refrigerate my food, I ate at my friend Rosa’s house much more often and consequently during lunch time formed my closest friendship with a very young 74 year old Dona. My Spanish is better after spending this time with her and venturing into conversations about the meaning of life, food, and local gossip. I found myself looking forward to these meetings to discuss my projects and voice frustrations/seek advice. Along with eliminating any possible distraction my computer and cell phone could provide, this attributed to feeling more productive in my site. I planned events and meetings to keep me busy. I visited people more while charging my cell phone at their houses. I read books I’ve always wanted to read but never had time to. I played music and sang, loudly. I got really good at eating everything I cooked the same day. I feel asleep at 9 and woke up at 6, a schedule I much prefer after the insanity of college hours.
Then there is the negative. I have lost trust in people. I am skeptical. I am angry. I see corruption. I see good people who aren’t being helped, who have just come to accept that is life – Jean told me the other day, Sarah you are being so Dominican about this….the fatalism I had developed regarding the situation. I did everything I could and I just wouldn’t have electricity again. The plethora of lies. A light company that strings its clientele along and breaks their end of the contract over and over again. Jose, the not much better than a con artist who took our money and appeared to be on the run for a month then tried to hike up the price when he finally brought us the promised transformer a month later. Jerkface. Wasted phone cards with more lies. The frustration dealing with uneducated neighbors and the impossibility to get them to care and unite to take care about a very basic issue, let alone my projects. The hope that would grow repeatedly into a strong rooted weed to only be pulled up and composted after every rain of lies beat down on us. Hah.
It was rough.

Now I am here, 11:30 at night typing on my laptop after just having an hour long phone call, both light bulbs turned on and yes I am listening to that sweet hum of my fridge. Yet, a bittersweet hum. I don’t like that I am connected to this grid and all that it really means to me now. I wish more than anything I could have gotten enough solar panels without thinking how expensive they are and how they would be instantly stolen to run my lightbulb and little fridge so Bija’s wet food wouldn’t be an issue. Still, I’ve learned that I can be happy and feel productive without any luz. Granted I recognize its need for development but also the addiction and absolute panic most feel without it once accustomed to it. Before coming here, a light out was sort of a big deal. Where else could I ever have gone without electricity for so long, (realistically although I respect his ideas, I’m never going to be the guy from into the wild)? I couldn’t more strongly agree now after this experience that what really is needed is a developed independence to be able to take care of your own basic needs and realize you can get used to most anything and still be ok. The definition of basic would greatly differ between a Dominican Dona and an American housewife. Will it still differ for me once I wake up from the campo? Don’t get me wrong, I love having this little fridge back again and not having to walk to the colmado fridge where I was storing Gatorade bottles of filtered water – but there is definitely something in the nights illuminated solely by fireflies and candle lights that provoke the wonder.

Toby Hammer does the DR. In other news - Escojo mi Vida and bugs.

Mr. Toby Hammer came for a lovely visit before he goes out to Panama to research leaf cutter ants. Here are some pics.

PCV Alanna and Toby helping me with the World Map Mural. THANKS!

Toby teaching kids how to use condoms with my Escojo group. Escojo mi Vida is an HIV awareness and family planning course. That is a platano. No shame, fighting AIDS.

PCV Eva also made a special visit up to my site with her Escojo group to teach the Reproductive System.

Beetles and Japanese Cukes.

Ominous rainclouds.

How to build a Compostable Latrine in Photos

For Kiri and Jaron and all other interested parties.

How to build a Composting Latrine in Photos




















































































Check out that Belly
































Standing proud


Will have more photos soon.


The Beginning of the World Map Mural. More to come soon!

Update how to text Sarah and pics

Visit

http://claro.com.do/sms/

Then put in the number 809-723-9938
Then put in your message!

Thanks again for writing me :)

Here are some fotos. I'll do an update hopefully really soon on the progress of the latrines. We just had the Latrine Training/Poo party and it was a success! We ended the poo party at a place, appropriately named, Dudu.




Me and Eva at Dudu














Alanna and Marcos. Mark does have a third nipple. No joke.













Dudu cave.













Eva nails it.

















Puppet Theater for Rincon Hondo.

Latrine Green

Hiya!

I've gotten a lot of people asking how they can help out. What wonderful folks I know. Currently, besides being more than welcome to visit and help carry blocks....


Click HERE or the little latrine if you'd like to make a donation to our Community Latrines project.

A BIG THANKS to the community of St. Thomas Aquinas for their donations which have enabled me to start the project. We are planning another training workshop for all interested masons and carpenters in surrounding communities to learn a new, more sustainable design for the end of August. We then will be conducting a health/sanitation and maintenance course for beneficiaries in collaboration with the Dr. in our community. Then the construction.


Here is a photo of one of the water filters I've been installing in El Firme. They are BIG huh?! This family (Maria, Jose, and Uva - yes we call the little girl grape) is my favorite success story currently. They are great people and friends.
















On an unrelated note - I am related to these two funny face makers. I got to visit my cousins Maddie and Henrique on a quick trip back home to Cali. Life is good.
Thanks for reading!
Love - Sarah

4th of July - Ode to Jean Erickson.

Photos Stolen from Arya and Sara. Thanks.

I had a FABULOUS 4th.

Photos from El Limon Waterfall, Playa Fronton, Las Galleras music festival.





































Singing "Bought me a ticket caught me a plane to Spain went to a party down a red dirt road, there were a lot of pretty people there, read'n Rolling Stone read'n Vouge. Ask me how long can I hang around, I said a week maybe two just until my skin turns brown then I'm coming home to you....California."

See you tomorrow :)
Love,
Sarah

Projects!

Photo Reel! Update Below














El Factor Compostable Latrine workshop with my carpinteros Chiche y Papolo.














Base of Compostable Latrine. Volunteer Mark and his mason will hopefully make it up to my site to host another workshop.














Dra. Alfa helping teach Hygiene and water seminar to El Firme















Filter Maintenance course














Reading club going at the cancha's unruly grass. Project still in progress...














Before and after photo of fallen my fallen greenhouse... And there wasn't even a hurricane! The power of termites. Good news is that this is where we'll have the Compostable latrine workshop to teach surrounding communities how to build them because the termites also have really gotten my latrine and the family that lives there after me will be able to use the compostable one.

















AND I got my landlord to build me the Enramada pictured above. I built the little benches to the right which we are now using for reading club. It's a better option to have it outside now with unfortunate theft problems and the blazing summer heat. I love it.



















My new little cacao sack hamaca :)
Made with 2 Cacao sacks, rice sacks stuffed inside for extra cushion and butt mosquito protection, two bien fuerte sticks with holes manually drilled (it was hard), lasso string, and a rick sack stuffed with other rice sacks for a little pillow. Milagro helped me sew it because I've somewhat forgotten how to gracefully use the sewing machine I used to make the volleyball net.















And here is a picture of my friend Carlos excited for his birthday cake.




OKaaay! Hiya.

Sorry for the really long delay between updates. Thanks again for reading :)

Ok so lets start with the bad:
16 houses in my community, including mine, lost electricity in May due to a reportedly blown up transformer. To put it lightly, once accustomed to having electricity, well yes it bummed me out. I had to walk to the nearest Colmado to charge my phone and computer and most importantly my fridge is out of commision. I really like cooking so that is actually the hardest part, not being able to store food. We since have hooked up a wire to the next nearest transformer and I am getting Luz Flojo (sort of like brown out electricity)....meaning that only certain things at my house can get charged. The Luz flojo burned out my camera charger and one of my lightbulbs but luckily it seems to charge my phone and my computer. I have a surge protector on my computer and it appears to be fine. My fridge still doesn't work. Good news is that without being able to easily cook for myself I'm going to Rosa's house and talking with her a lot everyday and feeling better and better about my spanish and also the fact that I get a lot of community gossip from her. I like that she trusts me.

My backyard greenhouse fell over. One night around 3 am, Bija and I awoke to the sound of tearing sheet metal. I thought, hmm....that's a new sound - god this country is noisy, and then fell back asleep. The next morning I find the above picture. I stood at my back door laughing. The power of termites is intense. My landlord knew about it and did nothing and then once the greenhouse was on the ground they left it there for about 3 weeks. I didn't want any visitors during that time because my house looked like it was hit by a hurricane in the back but then amazingly one day Clide came by and helped clean it all up. Then even more amazingly was how I told my landlord I'd like an enramada so I can teach my reading club outside and then within the week it was up. All of my plants inside the greenhouse survived and I got an even sweeter hang out spot....I'm glad the greenhouse fell now. We are going to use the space to put in a compostable latrine since my latrine is now deemed dangerous to use. I'm also going to take advantage and use this as a Latrine Workshop for all interested masons in surrounding areas to learn a new design. In the meantime I'm visiting Rosa's house and my little bedpan. Don't knock it til you've tried it.

Good News:
Filters - Although a little frustrating, finally they are here and I'm installing them little by little. The transportation was an issue because the filters way 250 lbs each and I think in total we had over 7500 lbs trying to climb the hills to reach my community....not possible in the smallish truck we had. We took half, the driver left me stuck with the other half in another community and then it took 2 weeks to convince the drivers in my community to help me transport the other half to individual's houses. I also am having issues now with 10 families coming to claim their filter (10 are located in a colmado that I used to store them). I have gotten to the point of being rather short with the laziness. Other Donas are mad at me for not gifting them a filter. Other community members are proclaiming that I'm selling the filters....Ay dios. On the other hand, it's been wonderful going to the different houses and installing them because I really like hands on projects. I get the whole family together after I've installed the filter to review with them how to use the filter and then I check back to tell them the filter is ok to use and see if they appear to be taking care of it. All in all - it's looking like the project is going to be successful but I highly doubt I will do another cement filter project. I wouldn't mind bringing in plastic ones though. I also would like to note that the only person who really helped me with any transport issues was Clide...who at the time had serious kidney stones and was helping to lift the filters into the bed of his truck. We need more Clides in the world.

Latrines -
I took Chiche and Papolo down to El Factor to learn the first steps and design of the compostable latrine with fellow PCV Mark who is in the middle of his latrine project right now. They learned a little but I'm thinking it'd be a great idea to pay for Mark and his mason to come up and host a workshop at my house. I'm also thinking of inviting several other interested volunteers and surrounding communities to have a big latrine party :)
I just submitted my grant that will allow me to receive money for the project. My church back home raised $1881 for the project with a pancake breakfast and individual donations and this is AMAZING. Thank you so much for those that helped and I'll be posting more soon regarding this once the website it up. The grant coordinator isn't known for his efficiency so it may take a while.

Cancha-

Stillllll working on resurfacing. It's really hard to motivate the kids to help me clean the grass and break up the ground. I did have a friend, Manolo, help me one entire afternoon doing this and we covered 1/4 of the court with a new level of cement.
Eva and her girl group came up yesterday and at church I had invited all the kids in my community to come play volleyball and although the net isn't quite what it used to be...we managed to have a mini volleyball game between the two communities after I tried teaching everyone the basics again. I always lose my voice whenever we do a cancha activity and therefore I am trying to solicit an adult in my community to help me do activities like this with the kids especially now that summer has started.


Otherwise I am doing really good! I am feeling and all realms of my life seem to be back in order. I am really excited for this weekend also because Jean and her friend Sarah are coming to visit today at my site and then we are going hiking to El Limon's waterfall, Playa Fronton, and then doing the volunteer thing again in Las Galleras for 4th of July. I'm a'bringin my guitar and a'sing'n my heart out.

Also am planning on taking the Reef Check instructor course so I can help teach the class to the new volunteers. I'll post photos from my last dive in Catalina...Mark has some. Here is a picture of where we were in Catalina.

Thanks so much for the continued correspondence - especially the lovely long letters. The packages have been really slow but I'll email you when I get them.

Hope all is well!
Pronto,
Sarah