catching up

I’ve decided to play catch-up with this blog. The summer went well, although it was a little slow because many Dominicans aren’t motivated to do much during the summer. Or during December and January. Or when it’s raining. Nonetheless, I started tutoring a few kids that were behind in reading, and it’s been quite fulfilling. I’m very proud of one little girl I’ve been working with since June who also happens to be my neighbor; even her teachers are impressed by how much she has improved. I also started a book club with four ‘tweens’ from my campo, and that was great. We read Charlotte’s Web over the course of two months and three of the four girls read the assigned reading every single week without fail. This month we are going to add a few more members to the club and begin reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The sex ed youth group that I’ve been working with since May graduated in September, participated in a national conference and a one-day regional workshop, and in December gave two talks about AIDS to their peers at the local high school.

So there was the work catch-up in less than 200 words. Personal life: I went through a really rough patch this past fall. There are plenty of reasons why things weren’t going so great down here, and I won’t get into them now, but suffice to say I was just not feeling it. I didn’t really think I would leave early (ET in Peace Corps lingo) but it was comforting to know that I could always just leave. In early December, all of the youth volunteers who arrived in Sept. ’07 had a 3-day training session, and I left feeling a lot better about my work. It was helpful to get ideas from the other volunteers, and even more helpful was the chance to vent about everything in my site to people who could understand what I was talking about.

In mid-December I left for a three-week long trip to the States, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I was starting to feel more positive about things here in the DR, but was also seriously lacking energy for the year ahead. During my trip home, I spent a lot of time with my family, reconnected with old friends and made new ones, and generally reveled in all things American—electricity, hot water, great food, a work ethic, music in English. I feel like I now have a lot more perspective thinking about my life here in the DR...not everything is as important as I maybe thought it was. My time here has flown by, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. The 10 months I have left are a drop in the proverbial bucket of my life, and I need to take advantage of every day for whatever it is… even the days when by 3 o’clock in the afternoon I’m wondering how to keep myself occupied until it’s socially acceptable to go to bed. Maybe a little cliche, but also very true for me right now.

I was a little apprehensive about returning to my site because I had had such a great time in the US, but so far it hasn’t been too bad. I would even go so far as to say, it’s been pretty good, but I don’t want to jinx anything as I got back less than a week ago. Things weren’t looking so great when I stepped off of the plane and into the DR; within four minutes the sleazy airport employee taking bags off of the carousel mercilessly hit on me. I thought, “This cannot be a good sign.” But, I kept my chin up through the adjustments to non-potable non-running water and to throwing toilet paper in the trashcan and to fire ants who’ve made a lovely home in my dogs’ food and to huge spiders inside my rubber boots and to five hours of electricity a day. My spirits could not HELP but be uplifted by the warm welcome I received upon returning to my campo--my dog licked my face nonstop, everyone commented that I looked as white as a piece of paper, and I was told to be a little more gordita than when I left, here a serious compliment. In the span of about two hours, I had fifteen visitors to my house and gave out about twenty-five hugs. The hummingbird that frequents the banana trees in my backyard even made an appearance to celebrate my return.

Things have calmed down now that it’s been a few days since I got back, and I’ve been working on my annual plan for the year that lies ahead. It’s been great to organize my ideas and think about how to direct my energy and about what I can actually accomplish in the coming months. My goal is to work on the following projects by November ‘09: help construct a basketball court, plan and run a sports camp with other volunteers, teach soccer, host a dance workshop (not taught by me, don’t worry), paint a world map mural in the school, continue working with the kids’ club, expand the sex ed group and have them give more talks, paint an anti-AIDS mural in the town park, organize a parenting class, help some families get their children documented, organize a campaign for International Women’s Day, do school gardens, continue literacy tutoring, start a second book club and continue to work with the first, help write a project plan and grants for a community center/library, and carry out some basic income generation projects. It’s a lot to aim for, and I can almost guarantee that I won’t get it all done, but with the participation of the community (there’s the hard part) I think we can accomplish at least three-quarters of these projects.

At this point, this blog post is definitely long enough to make up for at least one or two months of my not writing! I’d like to end with two unrelated thoughts:

1) Come visit! Three weeks away helped me to recognize, once again, how lucky I am to live among such beautiful surroundings and people.
2) If anyone has any of the newest albums by the following artists and wants to share them with a Peace Corps volunteer who goes by the name of Lily, please let me know and I will be eternally grateful.
a. Vampire Weekend
b. Andrew Bird
c. Blind Pilot
d. Mates of State
e. MGMT
f. Brian Eno & David Byrne

peace.

oops

So I just realized that I haven't posted in, say, seven months, and apparently people actually read this. Sorry guys, I had no idea! I apologize profusely and promise to do a much better job. In fact, I have decided that I am going to write a book about my experiences. When I say book, I actually mean keeping track of what is going on in my Peace Corps life by writing it down. Because I seriously cannot believe that I have been in the DR for 15 months already, and I know that in a year or two I will be struggling to remember details about my life there that seem so everyday right now. So...keep your eyes peeled for my book. Maybe the NYT or the Post or even Oprah will hear about it and you'll see my mug on the cover of the book review. Maybe.

In other news, I'm back in the States for the holidays, and this picture pretty much sums up my favorite activity thus far--sleeping, particularly on other people's couches. It's great. There are no couches in the DR, at least not where I live, so I'm taking full advantage of all the cushy pieces of furniture I can get my hands on while I'm here.

creepy crawlies

so, things are hectic up here but overall going well. i've had some fellow volunteers come visit, which is always lots of fun and i get to show them all the pretty places near me. it's been really really hot recently, but just yesterday some clouds rolled in and i think it might be raining for a while now. in other news, two days ago i killed a huge tarantula that was in my house. remember those giant fuzzy ones that were behind the glass when you went on a field trip to the zoo or the aquarium? yeah? well here they like to come hang out in your house when it's about to rain (something to do with the humidity or the pressure or something) and it was very unsettling to see one just waiting to pounce on me. ok, apparently they are acutally really shy but they do bite. so then last night i was coming in from the backyard, carrying a bucket of water, when i noticed a big black thing on the outside wall of my house. i looked closer, and it was a SCORPION. or something that looks remarkably similar to a scorpion that has huge pinchy claws in front. i also killed that. hopefully today the streak will not continue because i do not enjoy those interactions. what else.. work is slowing down a little just right now which is great because i have a ton going on. i'm headed home for a week in august too, so that's something to really look forward to! i've got to go buy some dog food and then head back up to my community, but i'll try to post some more pictures soon.

-lily

a few pictures

my first english class graduated!
this is "my" beach, about 20 minutes from my house.
me and the mom

I can´t believe...

...that I´ve been here for over 7 months! Time really flies here. Overall things are going well, I´m about to start a new round of English classes and also start teaching a 10 week course on sexual health for kids from the high school in town. My mom and her husband Patrick came to visit for a week, which was great because I hadn´t seen them in quite some time, plus it´s always fun to show people around my village. We also took a trip to Las Galeras, which is kind of touristy but also drop dead gorgeous. This past weekend I went into the capital and then went to visit a friend who lives nearby, which was a nice relaxing time. My house is getting painted right now, which is great because it looks amazing but also really crappy because I have to clean up after the painters. I´ve been cooking a lot, but this is a country where rice, oil, and msg are staples, so let´s just say I don´t have a lot of dinner guests. I made a frapuccino-like thing with a borrowed blender yesterday and all of my neighbors mocked me, but then I made them try some and everyone was like, ¨Lily this is so good, now you can get married.¨That´s basically the ultimate compliment here in terms of cooking, apparently a woman can´t get married until she knows how to cook well. It´s frustrating for me because the gender roles are so fixed here... but I´ve been feeling even more frustrated with the role the Catholic church plays in the community here. I´m in a bit of a hurry so I can´t go into too much detail, but I will say that if the church leaders put half as much effort into improving the situation of the community as they do into fundraising for the church, people in my village would be a lot better off. Ok, that´s all I´m going to say about that for now, have to go get some flyers printed for my new English class. I hope all is well, maybe next time I will attach some more pictures!

NEW CAMERA!!

this is fibi slash phoebe. she is getting bigger and bigger, the vet thinks she will get to be about 40 pounds which is a good size i think. there was a med mission of american vets near me this week, so i took her to get spayed. it was free, and they also gave her flea medicine and cut her toenails. i helped them translate. it was good.
this is me, obviously. the picture was taken in cabrera, the closest city to me. it´s nice.
this is my living room, as usual filled with children. they really love to play uno and have filled up about 500 coloring books already. sorry the picture is sideways, i am bad at technology.
this is my house! it needs a paint job and eventually ill get around to scrubbing that black stuff off (its caused by the rain dripping down or something) but its great. my landlady has recently opened her heart and for one reason or another has informed me that i no longer need to pay rent. its amazing. i am getting my rocking chairs fixed so i can have nice seats, and i just traded my neighbor for a tv. i know, so not peace corps, but it was a good deal and i gotta keep up with my telenovelas. hey, they wanted me to integrate into the culture.
this is my kitchen counter and stove. note the very not dangerous placement of gas tank about 4 feet from stove. if you can see i also have NATURE VALLEY granola bars which are a blessing from god. just like the red truck that drives through my town selling vegetables, announcing its presence over a bullhorn that says ¨the red truck has arrived, like a blessing from god¨. i bought a carrot and a cucumber and a pineapple from him the other day. you can see them on the table if you look hard.

ok i have to run but now you can see parts of my life here! look forward to more!

semana santa begins..

well, things are going very well down here in the DR. my new house is lovely, albeit minimalist in its furnishings. i´m working on that though. fibi is growing incredibly quickly and is super cute. the sexual health conference was last weekend for my two youth and it went great... i am so proud of my kids. they learned a lot, made new friends, and got to see a whole new part of the country. this week i am headed to a very touristy part of the island to see some family friends who will be here, which i am very excited for. if only i had a camera. my english class is going well, we are having a little graduation on april 5 which they are all extremely excited for. today i woke up at 2 am to go on this pilgrimage walk to a shrine in the rock about 5 miles away from my village, it was painfully early and i am, you could say, running on empty right now but i´m glad i did it. tomorrow my youth group has a talent show at the local bar/dance hall to raise money for the club, and ithink it will be quite a sight,some of the acts are pretty ridiculous. i have to run, but soon i will be able to post PHOTOS with my entries so you can see where i live!!

'lily