Arte

Mural time.

Orphanage painting with the lovely IT gang and the final picture for the World Map Mural in El Firme! The kids were actually showing me they knew some of the countries. High 5.

Soon,
Sarah

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a guineo.

Again it has been too long. It is going to be odd to have internet access every few moments when I am back in the states because I am so used to being rushed to check my email and look up stuff for grants-programs in the 30 minutes I am at internet centers. I can say that at least I will appreciate it, momentarily. It seems as if old habits do die hard in many cases. I have this very unrealistic idea that I will not go back home and be addicted to facebu and not watch TV and not take warm showers. I do think that I will want to sit and talk with people though and resist getting the iphone/ipad/ipickle I keep hearing about. You know what was really nice? Just getting to visit my Nana this Christmas and feeling like she had the time to talk with me. I hope I go home and things will not speed up to the pace they were before I left. At least I hope I never feel like that, even though I would like a job and more school and a family eventually and my American mind has taught me that those words are oftentimes synonamous with stress. My Dominican mind has taught me that having any job is lucky, school is a priviledge and family is everything. You should really make time to sit and visit with people that are important to you. You should also sit in a hamaca and have a cup of coffee while the sun rises. It is restorative. Haha, at least for me it is.


What Ive been up to in brief summary: -Medical Mission in March with the ILAC center! Translating for Americans Doctors and Dominicans receiving eye surgery. -Marine Interest Group Conference (Environmental Conference for kids, Orlando and Bee came with me) -Woman camp (Dona Rosa, Maria, and Ydalia came with me!) -Finishing up latrines and water filters. The last ones are going very slowly due to the simple fact the source of motivated beneficiaries has run dry. -Helping out with a Composting Latrine Manual -Helping out with Brigada Verde National Conference (Environmental Education for teens) -Scuba diving and getting Rio dog fixed and vaccinated with free clinic in Sosua. Yes, I have temporarily adopted a little terrier dog and she is adorable and will be staying on the island with a new volunteer. - I turned 25! It was an epic birthday, filled with snorkeling and fun friends. Plans for summer (That is right, I am staying until August because I wanted to) -Planning Avian Conservation Conference. Funding from the University of Vermont and program called Optics for the Tropics. Event is to educate/motivate youth to stop killing endemic songbirds with slingshots. -Small library construction in El Firme and teacher training -Planning Rescue Diver Course in Sosua North Coast -Climb Pico Duarte -Mom visit in May! -Figuring out life back in US. I am hoping to get a seasonal job with the National Park Service using the Non competitve eligibility Peace Corps gives me after I get back and a few good hugs from my family. I am also hoping to have more internet to search my options with Grad Schools for next year and I am thinking about Plant Ecology if I get a good vibe that there are jobs available if you have that degree. A lot of questions. A lot of decisions.

I am probably missing something. No worries. Now I would love to hear what you have been up to!? Thank you so much to the friends who have been calling and writing still, it still means the world to me.

Also new music recommendation here - The Civil Wars
A very Happy Birthday to my Uncle Dave! Be well. Sooner, Sarah

Long overdue - Michelle Kizner is a spirit in motion. In other news: How to cut a rug.

Blue Lagos, Rios, and Dominos - that's just how it goes when Michelle comes out to visit for a lovely tour of the northeast DR. Thanks again for your company Geoffrey and to the lovely Katie Apone's culinary delights and site visit in Pimentel.

Photos
Geoffrey and Michelle at Los 3 Ojos
Hilee, Geli and Michelle playing dominos in Loma Vieja
Tico, Michelle, and Ornelia and also a horse.
The lovely Katie Apone and Michelle in a rio.

And friends of Ms. Kizner need to watch this video because it makes perfect sence. Especially June. (Note, about 100 people have asked me when my dancer friend is coming back)

Another great time for the books. Thanks again Michelle :)

Another post very soon with updates. Cuidate.

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.