Sarah en La Republica Dominicana: 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