Deportes Para la Vida (Sports for Life)

This summer I had the opportunity to work with the professor of physical education at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos giving talks about HIV/AIDS prevention and sexual health education. we had a group of 17 participants aged 10 to 14. Why HIV/AIDS prevention and why would I be working with a physical education teacher you ask? Well, let me back up a bit and tell you more.

During our first ten weeks of Peace Corps Training, we learned about a variety of programs that already exist in the DR and in which we could participate or develop in our site. HIV/AIDS prevention is one of the driving forces behind funding here in the peace corps DR, therefore programs that educate youth on HIV/AIDS prevention are popular. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) website in 2009, in the world there were an estimated 33.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS, including 2.5 million children under the age of 15. In 2009 an estimated 1.8 million people died worldwide, including an estimated 260,000 children under the age of 15. Here in the Dominican Republic, WHO in 2007 estimated that 71,000 people were living with HIV and an estimated 3,300 children were living with HIV. During our Peace Corps Training, we were given information that suggested closer to 1.8% of the Dominican Population is living with HIV/AIDS. With a total population of 10,090,000, this would put the HIV/AIDS estimate closer to 180,000 people. It is difficult to get an accurate read on the number of cases of HIV/AIDS in the DR based on a variety of reasons including stigmatization of the disease. In the Dominican Republic individuals are 6 times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than in the United States.

While sexual practices in the DR may be improving, the society has a reputation of promiscuity and infidelity and the use of contraceptives is also stigmatized. I write this neither to pass judgement on the country, culture, the people nor society of the Dominican Republic. I am writing this to give you a background and context to the situation here. Not all Dominicans are promiscuous nor are all husbands/wives cheating, however the general likelihood that this would pass is much higher here than it would be in most parts of the United States. The danger with this type of behavior could be a rapid spread of HIV, making it a worse situation than it already is, which is where the Deportes Para la Vida, (DPV) program comes into the picture.

DPV was started as a grassroots program in Africa, Grassroots Soccer, Because soccer is the most popular sport around the world, the developers of the program used games and soccer drills to break the myths, stereotypes and stigmas of HIV/AIDS amongst youth. The program in the DR was started as a pilot in 2005 specifically to work with at risk population sin Bateys, Haitian immigrants, Dominicans of Haitian descent and Dominicans. Within the past year, the Peace Corps partnered with the Deportes Para la Vida program and has offered two trainings to volunteers and youth counterparts.

Back in March of this year, both Phoebe and I attended the second training for DPV with our community counterparts. I am working at an orphanage therefore I was able to bring two members of the community; employees, with whom I thought I could work to develop the program for the kids and staff at the home. This summer, we started our initiative with our target group of 10 to 14 year olds at the home. We had a group of 17 kids, 9 girls and 8 boys who completed the program. Working with the kiddos was excellent, but working with the physical education teacher was a the most rewarding experience. Seeing how well he was able to pass along the information to the kiddos, use the games and curriculum of the DPV program to teach HIV/AIDS awareness, I truly believe that we could be making a difference in the lives of youth at the home.

Partnering with the physical education instructor was suggested to me by the Peace Corps because often the youth do not have much organized nor structured learning in the physical education courses. DPV is made to be fun, interactive and educational; perfect for a gym class. The kids we taught are now not only more conscientious of how to support members of society with HIV/AIDS, but also they have learned ways in which they can live their lives in a healthy manner.

We are planning to continue the courses this fall and hope to work with the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade classes at the orphanage. Gym class will now be educational!

National Camp Superman

I recently had the good fortune to participate in a 5 day national boys camp here in the Dominican Republic called Campamento Superman. The Peace Corps Dominican Republic boys initiative was started relatively recently, within the past couple years I believe, and is a nice compliment to the tremendous work that is taking place with the young women of the Dominican Republic. The boys initiatives, from my experience, are really beginning to grow and we are fortunate to be developing opportunities for young men aged 10 to 14 to experience teamwork, talk about gender roles, play, exercise and visit parts of the country they have never visited and may never visit again. We camped in tents for 5 days, an experience that many young americans have not had. For others, camping as youth was an integral experience in our development as young people creating a lifelong appreciation for the natural world.

Our tent city

Camp Superman involved 16 lucky volunteers and 45 young Dominican boys in a beautiful location in Los Bueyes, in the Dominican province of Espaillat. I was able to bring three boys from my boys science group at the orphanage. The boys and I left the home at about 8 am and arrived at the lovely site of our camp around 3pm, after riding in several busses and topped off by an amazing two hour truck ride up the mountains! We camped on the the banks of a gorgeous river, which also served as our afternoon showering hole and swimming hole. The boys, divided into five teams, were placed in a variety of situations to work together, improve their teamwork, communication and problem solving skills and promote their individual self confidence. I led a couple activities and I witnessed my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers leading a variety of powerful and memorable activities and discussions throughout the long weekend.

boys chillin at the regional superman

The boys walked blindfolded in silence through a grove of trees following a rope. The boys had to find their way through a labyrinth using a process of trial and error. They worked together to get the entire team across a rope representing the obstacles in their lives. The boys constructed boats out of sticks, tarps and cardboard one afternoon and then floated them down the river. They boys learned about nutrition, made masks, and conducted a wide variety of science experiments. We visited a waterfall, went on a hike and enjoyed watching a movie while eating popcorn one evening. They learned Karate, did warm up games and exercises every morning, and learned about HIV/AIDS prevention through a program called Deportes Para la Vida (Sports for Life).

One memorable moment for me was listening to a fellow volunteer narrate the story of "Where the wild things are" while seated around the campfire and watching the story acted out by volunteers and the boys. My favorite part of the story was watching many of the boys join in the "monster party" by dancing around the fire with wild abandon, getting in touch with the playful and joyful little monster inside of us all.

Another memorable moment was witnessing and participating in a discussion about gender roles in the Dominican Republic. The boys are confronted with a machista culture, a.k.a. male dominant. What this means in practical terms is that boys are not encouraged to take on tasks or chores that are seen as stereotypically feminine or female. This translates into boys learning at a young age to defer household work to the girls or women in the home, often times with a very degrading attitude towards the women and those who partake in this type of work. What my role is, as I see it and as many volunteers see it, is to open and create a space where these roles and stereotypes can be questioned and discussed and potentially redefined. It was a requirement of the camp for the boys, in their teams, to do the dishes. While this is a small step, it may be the first time in some of these boys lives they have been required to do the dishes. I hope they went home to help their family out!

I have discovered my new favorite game, Alka Seltzer Tag! We played this at the regional camp superman and it is quickly becoming the keystone game to the field day activities. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, you poke a hole in an Alka Seltzer tablet and thread a string through the hole. You now have a necklace which members from the opposing teams attempt to get wet, so as to activate the process of dissolving the alka seltzer tablet. Once the tablet is dissolved, you are out of the game. I think I'll bring this one home to the family reunion!!

Camp Superman wouldn't have been complete without an epic soccer game during a rainstorm. A couple of the volunteers played college soccer and a couple others, like myself, played throughout high school. We gathered our teams, chased the ball around the slick grass and jumped around in the mud. It was an absolute ball!

While there are many more memories from the camp and very special moments that were shared amongst volunteers and the youth, these memories will be left for another day. I'm lucky to live in a country like the DR and work with volunteers as dedicated and professional as the volunteers in the DR.

Peace Out, Danno

Me and my boys in front of the waterfall

Karate!

The view above our camp

Construction of the boats

Attempting to float

Sinking before he had a chance!

Girls Group take one

My girls group started with the most excitement that I have seen in this country. The girls were excited to have a new event, new group and have the focus be solely on them providing them a space for empowerment, learning and fun. However, with all good intentions, I still get to make mistakes and learn from my missteps. So, with that in mind, here is part one of a multipart blogpost about the journey of me and my girls group. The journey is not yet over, it's only just begun. So any potential negative ending hasn't really happened yet, it's my pessimism, being balanced out, or sometimes making me loco, by my hopeful idealism; I won't stop believing. The more I reflect on my girls group, the happier I am that I am working with them.

My group started when I took two girls to a regional girls conference and after the conference we met, planned for the following weeks meeting. They decided who they wanted to join the group and we all worked together and wrote invitations. The first meeting was awesome! There was lots of energy, the girls were leading the icebreakers, name games, discussions and I was getting to know the girls more. We used a few get to know you techniques from the girls curriculum which was developed by other peace corps volunteers. I found the worksheets extremely helpful and it gave the girls something to focus on during the class and helped to ease them into the curriculum of the program and gave me an opportunity to get to know them a little better. For example, we shared our nicknames, hometowns, how many brothers and sisters we have in our family and things like that. We had about two or three classes with this type of getting to know you activity.

When the group was starting, I had applied for and received a grant to celebrate international women's day, march 8th 2011. We celebrated the event on March 12th 2011 and several of the girls helped me in planning the event. Reflecting on the planning for this activity, I may have made one of my first missteps. I asked four girls, girls who didn't go to the conference, to help me in the planning...eh, my analyzing mind thinks this may have thrown off the event or the group as a whole or perhaps I offended the two girls I took. (I haven't worked with teenagers, much less teenage girls, in this capacity for quite some time and sometimes perhaps I forget to be more conscientious of my audience). I also may have offered this activity too soon in the existence of the group and didn't quite have the confianza, trust, needed to pull of the activity successfully.

Despite my analysis and reflection now, generally the women's day event went off well. The girls learned to make several different art products from recycled materials; tambourines, maracas, drums, mirrors and little lizards. I gave a talk about gender roles in the culture with one of the girls in the group (one who came with me to the conference) and about 35 girls from the home came to do art activities in the neighboring community. It was really cool to see the girls working with community members and doing different types of artwork that they may not have worked on before. The girls worked alongside members of the community, their caregivers and a few internationals, myself included. Some pictures of the event are below.

My awesome welcome sign made with the help of my wife

The youth hard at work learning their craft

The youth working on their mirrors

Finished products

One of the lizards finished and painted

Overall, the event was a success. The girls got out of the orphanage for an afternoon, shared learning a new activity with the neighboring community, used some of their creative/artistic mind, and were able to take a little souvenir home with them. Moreover, they got to see that they can be artistic with products they have lying around the house or can be easily found for little cost. I thought it was cool.

What I'm learning is that I can be pretty hard on myself. I had one idea of how the event would go and lo and behold, the event went a completely different direction. Does that make the event a failure or my girls group a failure? No, not at all. I'm learning to be easy on myself and let events and moments unfold as they're meant to. With all the planning in the world for an event, aspects will end up differently than I had imagined, and that's okay. In the end, the girls learned something and had a new experience. I hope I can, and I will, continue to provide that opportunity for them.

Boys Group

BOYS GROUP

Imagine a room, a school classroom in the Dominican Republic, where 10 young boys learn basic science skills, listen, are attentive and interested in the subject matter. It's not possible you say, I didn't think it possible...on a certain level of my consciousness I did believe. After my first three classes failed to keep the interest of the boys I was hoping would turn into my rockstar leaders, I decided to forge ahead and hope that some of them would stick around and stay interested. I mean, I was dealing with some serious behavior management stuff that I haven't dealt with since those old AYA days and I was dealing with the behavior without any apparent structure nor consequences. For example, in the middle of explaining the days lesson during my second class, not rocket science stuff I know, they were to pick out a picture from a magazine, cut it out and glue it to a piece of cardboard (they would eventually cut the picture and cardboard up to make their own puzzle), one of the kids gets up out of his seat, walks over to the other side of the room and roundhouse punches another kid across the back of his head. The assailant then strolls back to his seat, sits down and continues flipping through the magazine looking for an appropriate photo! I'm thinking to myself, what did I sign up for? and WHY DID THIS KID CLEAN THE OTHER ONES CLOCK?? I still don't know why and likely never will. The kid who got his noggin smacked didn't even bat an eye nor try and fight back.

I'm not a school teacher. I have little training in teaching and much less experience. I'm much more comfortable in settings outside the confines of a four walled classroom (I would have been more comfortable and at home under the shade of a tree in the town park or in the mountains, not in a classroom. And for my AYA'ers this kid and I are going on a long long long walk and it'll be me, you and gavin, or simon, or andrew, or jack, or dustin or...you get the point). Not only is teaching both my boys and girls group a personal challenge, but also I find myself conflicted because I have this resource (an actual classroom) which so many of my fellow PCV's don't have, would kill for (are writing grants for) AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT!

Well, thankfully I know an excellent school teacher and I get to speak with her everyday, my wife. She has been helping me set up a classroom management structure that the kids sometimes respond to and other times, well... After my first three disastrous boys classes, I created the sticker chart AND knew that I had to do a science activity the boys would love. I got lucky, I think. I found a used two liter bottle of coke, bought a liter and half of cooking oil, filled a 12 ounce coke bottle with water, bought alka-seltzer and borrowed food coloring from the volunteer house at the orphanage. I showed the boys how to make a lava lamp and they were transfixed. At the end of class I introduced the sticker behavior chart which would reward the boys for their participation, attendance and behavior during class. Even in the DR, stickers work, more or less, to entice the boys to come and participate and most importantly, their behavior has improved. I haven't had any clock cleaning incidents. I feel like my classroom is much safer for the kids and maybe they are learning, a little.

My favorite class, since blowing their minds with the homemade lava lamp, has been teaching the boys about movement/flight/force. I gave a brief lesson on measuring and force (Remember I'm a psychology major so Anthony go easy on me). The boys taped a string on one wall, measured it and marked it every 10 centimeters with a black marker, blew up a balloon, taped a drinking straw to the balloon and slid the straw through the string. Next, of course, they let go of the balloon as it flew in their faces because they put it on backwards! Once they figured out which direction to put the balloon on the string, they were laughing and jaws were wide open as they watched the balloon slide down the string and slap against the wall as the string ran out.

I loved seeing the smiles on these boys faces, their giggles of laughter as they enjoyed themselves in attempt to get their balloons to smack harder against the wall. For 15 minutes, they let go of their incessant need to fight, be bigger, badder and cooler than one another. They were just kids playing with balloons. Then they went back to "normal" and asked me for more balloons so they could chew on them like pieces of bubble gum. Okay, no you don't get another balloon kid. We did put washers on the balloons, making them weigh more. I attempted to teach them that the heavier an object is the more force is needed to move it along the string. I'm not sure if they got it, and may never be sure, but at the end of every class, when the boys give me a handshake, or fist bump or a hug, I get something.

Web Articles

My friend Christina wrote threes very flattering articles about some of the work I've been doing. Push THIS BUTTON, follow the link and you can read what she wrote about my work with the girls group.

I've also been teaching a small group of kids swimming. Follow the links on the NPH homepage to read the article about the swim club.

No government shut down in the cane fields

No government shut down here in Batey Monte Cristy. We received a formal letter from our Peace Corps Director this week. Volunteers don't stop working :) We are doing well and very busy. Our internet service is either really great or non-exsistent so hang in there friends and family. Hopefully, this weekend we will have decent service and we can respond to several of the looming unanswered questions and e-mails. Both of us have been working on different projects with the Youth in our project sites and this weekend we are off to a conference focusing specifically on families as a whole unit. Hooray!!! We are looking forward to a visit from Dan's Mom next week, our first visit in country! And then, Cortney & Kylie (CO friends) in June and Phoebe's parents! More soon, sending you all peace and best wishes, Phoebe and Dan

Is anybody out there...

Hi friends and family,

We would like questions, prompts and any ideas for blog posts...Please comment, please let us know what you are curious about...we would love to fill you in.

Danno and Phoebs

La Luz Se Fue...The Electricity Went Out

So last night we were battling with our new friends and neighbors a group of bats rapidly multiplying in our wall. We were trying to close off the eaves of the house with a plastic bag and duct tape, well the little buggers were crawling under the plastic bag barrier and crawling around on the wall then flying through the house. We were trying to shoo them out the door, Dan is howling in fear swinging the broom around, while Phoebe is laughing...and in the process we hit the main wire of electricity running into the house and unbeknownst to us, it melted and fried when one of the currents was eliminated. This is only the beginning of our night adventure. At 9pm the electricity turned back on for the evening. The only reason we knew it was because our 70-year-old nearly deaf neighbor had the TV on so high we could hear the program in our living room. We both looked at each other confused because our house was still dark. So, we went over to our neighbors house, which led to her screaming at our other neighbor to confirm we had luz/electricity. What a mystery? Then all four of us in our pajamas started poking around the house with candles and flashlights until it was found and confirmed several times, yes the wire coming into the house must have disconnected, pure genius. So, you would think any normal person would have said goodnight and gone to bed, waiting for a professional in the morning; oh, no...not in the DR. Both neighbors told us to immediately turn off the breaker in the house. The next thing we knew all of the 3ft extension cords from both houses (four total) were being connected and then through gruff commands were being run from the window of a neighbors house into the window of our house, and that's where it got really interesting. They gave us the male side of the extension cord? We asked them to give us the female so we could simply plug in our fan and go to bed. "No, foreigners they told us, we know about this and you do not. Poor foreigners don't know anything about being innovative with electricity" they said to each other. We were dumbfounded. If it wasen't for our basic understanding of D/C and A/C currents at this point we would have thought they were going to blow up the house. Then, our little Dona neighbor unhooked the wire from the socket, inserted the positive and negative into the female part of the socket, wrapped a bag around it and screamed to us, "Plug it in!" We both looked at each other and in unison said, "You!" Then the lame Americans waited for the gutsy grandma from next door to come over, plug it into to our socket and, lo and behold, our electricity was back. Impressive. Today a professional came over and fixed the disconnected wire in about 5 minutes. We were more then grateful and so was the yogurt in the fridge. This taught us two very important lessons, to never doubt ingenuity, and to leave fixing electricity to professionals and grannies...also, an industrial extension cord might be our next purchase or wish list item for a suitcase in the states.

Educational Entertainment...Need a new book?

A few folks have asked us for a list of books to read we could recommend about the DR, andmovies to suggest...these resources touch on the culture we are immersed in, the population weare working with and the history of the region we live in...this is a work in progress:

Fiction...

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Dantica

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junet Diaz (Crude language and a lot of Spanglishbut very realistic)

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder

Non-Fiction...

The Eastern Stars by Mark Kurlansky

The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic by StevenGregory

Why the Cocks Fight Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola by Michele Wucker

Movies...

Road to the Big Leagues Starring David Ortiz and Vladimir Guerrero 2008

Sugar Starring Algenis Perez Soto and Andre Holland 2009

The Price of Sugar Narrarated by Paul Newman

Enjoy!

Chicas Brillantes

Hi friends, family, and followers,

We are up in the mountains of San Cristobal for the weekend for a gathering of girls of all ages from all over the southern half of the Dominican Republic. The conference is called, "Chicas Brillantes" or in English, Brilliant young ladies. We both brought two girls from each of our work sites along with fifteen other volunteers to a weekend camp...girls only; Dan and the other four male volunteers don't count. We are all sleeping in bunk beds for the weekend, eating group meals and well...doing girl stuff. It is our first official, "Camp" and we are feeling very psyched about being here and having the privilege of bringing girls from our proper sites.

Girls in our Batey and in DR society in general are encouraged to stay in the house helping their families with daily chores, rearing children, etc. Often in our presentations in the community or informally during visits we will hear older women or older girls telling younger girls, "Tu no sabes.." meaning in English, "You don't know" this phrase said over and over again, resulting in cultural oppression among the female gender. Education is valued in an urban setting more than a rural setting based on access and resources...so it is not always an easy feat to rally girls to leave the community, this is a very big deal!

During our Chicas Brillantes Conference, The girls have had presentations and discussions on topics such as; self-esteem, conflict resolution, parts of the body, teenage pregnancy, health, gender equality, and heroines. Dominican nationals as well as volunteers have led the presentations, and many questions and insightful dialogue has been presented in the process of talking about many issues that are naturally silenced within this society. As the weekend progresses the girls have become closer, forging friendships with other girls from other regions and more sensitive topics are being presented based on the level of trust.

We watched Mulan, great movie if you haven't seen it! And then discussed how women are capable of changing gender roles and doing nearly anything a man can do, exceptionally empowering. We are both feeling inspired, and content, and having moments this weekend when we are beginning to realize, "Ah...yes, this is why we are here!" as we witness and participate in a genuine experience with our Peace Corps peers.

Wishing you all the best. We love questions and comments and love,

Danno and Phoebs

Daily Schedule

A few folks have asked about my (Phoebs), “Daily Schedule”…most days

• Wake up and make the bed 6-7am, tuck in mosquito net to prevent creatures in bed
• Make breakfast with windows and doors closed (Coffee, oatmeal, homemade yogurt and cereal and/or fruit)
• Dishes in two dish bins (similar to camping) in the house
• Sweep and Mop the floor while spraying for roaches and moving around rat poison
• Look for Water at the neighbors and fill up h2o tank, then clean the shower before the electricity turns off in the whole Batey
• Yoga 10-12, shower with a bucket afterwards (Always)
• Make and eat lunch with all the windows and doors closed
• Walk around the community, have a bit of coffee and chisme (gossip) and tell community members and parents about the classes offered tonight
• Reading hour with whomever comes to read, hopefully the students whom need to practice their literacy skills, the electricity comes back around this time….
• Meeting in the afternoon with one of the organizations or/a break to prep
• Make a snack and eat it in the house or eat a snack at the meeting
• Go running with a group of wild girls
• Teach English, girls group, adult literacy, or Sexual Education until the electricity goes…when the light goes, class is over…
• Make and eat dinner with Dan…and yes everything closed again
• Sometimes visit and play cards
• Wash feet, hands and face…very important to prevent parasites
• Off to sleep…ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz, and then we wake up when the electricity goes

*Please note, no internet access in my life on a daily basis…this is very special when I get to use it. For meals, all the windows and doors must be closed while eating or preparing food or we are expected to provide food for anyone that walks by…tall order when a dozen people walk by the house sometimes. We are learning more and more daily…Peace, Phoebe

Agua...water

Every other day I wake up and wash my face with the last few gallons of h20 in the thirty-gallon tank, and then I use the same water to do the dishes. After that, I mop the floor and then with this water, I flush the toilet. What a journey the last few gallons had. After flushing the toilet, I take my three 5-gallon white buckets and go to the neighbor’s house where I alternately fill up the three buckets with his hose, carrying two and leaving one to fill. After three trips and a couple of hours, the thirty-gallon tank is full, and 15 other gallons are stored in the three white buckets. Next time you use the shower, flush the toilet and brush your teeth, think of us here in the DR…maybe your water could make a longer journey.

Three month IST…In Service Training

It is official, three months of community diagnostic has passed. Many meetings observed, cups of coffee drank, dominoes and cards played and heart to heart conversations had, on to our official time of service. Nearly 6 months in country, 6 MONTHS, WOW! After a three-month training and three months of evaluating the community and organization, now the magic happens… This past week we experienced our first of many In Service Trainings. We both presented our community diagnostics with our Host Country National Project Partners to the other 22 Youth, Family, and Community Development volunteers, our directors, and our Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders. Very Exciting! It was great to share with our peers and learn about their adversity and personal feats. It was a comforting reminder we are not doing this alone, we have a strong support system and a director who truly cares about us. In the conclusion of our presentations we presented our official Plan de Trabajo (Plan of Service). Based on the information we found, our interviews and observations, we are both ready to start up our activities and serve our communities. Dan will be coaching baseball, swimming and soccer, working with the caregivers at the orfanato, running both a girls and a boys science group, and leading initiative games with the staff throughout the year. I will be continuing English lessons and a running group, I am starting a girls group, and I will be teaching yoga, sexual education, environmental education, literacy and adult literacy. In addition, I am trying to move into the school library to work and lead classes in exchange for renovating the space and hopefully, acquiring more books…wow, somewhere in the next year I hope to drink a bit of coffee, go to the beach and maybe make a few new friends. My personal goals; I hope to master the Spanish idioma (language), every other day I hope I will do yoga, every week night we will shut the door at 9pm and at least once a month we will take some sort of trip or go to the beach. Tall order, but here we go. Wish us luck, go through your children’s books in Spanish and please keep holding us in the light, Phoebe

5 Months in 3 days

Hi friends and family! Dan and I are both working hard on our initial community diagnostic. For Dan, this looks like meeting after meeting with different sects of the orphanage to seek information about NPH. For me, it includes a lot of walking around to different houses, informal introductions, visiting and an array of different styles of coffee or cold drinks. We are learning more about our community, eliminating generalizations and making connections. I am learning to slow down because time is definitely necessary for this process. For example, yesterday my goal was to execute 5 interviews with 5 different families. I completed 3 and an organizational interview. Through the process, I learned about specific family relations, the full names and ages of the family members, and what programs and curricula the family is interested in. Sometimes I learn more; one of the families I interviewed keeps bees, another family makes 30,000 pesos a month which is great for a rural Batey, another family has two daughters with scholarships studying in the Batey. In general, I have learned hurricane George displaced many families and demolished most of the houses in the Batey. I have also learned that most of the employment is not in the Batey, most families commute to San Pedro de Macoris or Juan Dolio to find work. Every interview and going around the community makes it feel like this is my barrio, this is my community, and this is my home.

Happy Holidays...Felicidades

Our first and quite possibly our only Christmas in the Dominican Republic was a new and exciting experience. For the three days leading up to Christmas Eve, we woke up at 4am and sang Christmas carols with a group of 30-40 people throughout the Batey. It was a fun tradition, we would go from house to house and went through this tradition of, "Open the door, open the door" and the person in the house would open the door and turn on the light and everyone would cheer and say, "Feliz Navidad." After the carols at 6am we would all have tea or hot chocolate and then go back to bed. It was a DR tradition that just made us both feel happy to live here. On Christmas Eve, A pig, 3 chickens, and a goat were slaughtered and butchered in our back patio. Post-Christmas there are only mother's with baby animals around the Batey, every other animal has been sacrificed for the annual meal. For Christmas dinner, we went to the orphanage and feasted outside on the basketball court with a house of boys. Following the dinner we had more food and a host family gift exchange extravaganza back in the Batey (with our adopted host family, they adopted us). We watched Love Actually with subtitles and passed out quickly for the night.

When we woke up, nearly every single person with the exception of us on Christmas day was dressed in new Christmas duds, this is a DR tradition. The local colmado (convienence store) was blasting bachata tunes for three days straight, and apples and grapes were being exchanged for the Christmas celebration. a slew of strangers showed up in the Batey from many different families from many different locations. There were several full trucks of families driving in and out of the Batey all day with lots of smiles, tears and hugs.

We missed our family and friends terribly and realized that next year we will probably go back to the States; however, we are so glad we had a chance to experience this rich cultural tradition here in the DR.

Feliz Navidad, Merry Chrismas, Feliz Nuevo Año y Happy New Year!

With Love, Health and Peace,

Phoebe and Dan

Patronales Rodeo Photos

Here are some more photos of Batey Monte Cristi. We included a video of the main gathering place in town. Happy new year!

Adopted host brother on horseback

3 main modes of transportation in Batey Monte Cristi

Host niece and Phoebs

Main gathering spot and colmado (small convienence store)

Adopted host family, Doña and sisters (They adopted us)

Our mode of collecting water at our new home

Our new home on the right

Batey Monte Cristi rodeo cowboy

Batey Monte Cristi, West side

Calle Principal (Main street and entrance to our house)

This is the main gathering place on rodeo day during patronales

Photos from Swear In Ceremony 10.27.10

With our first host mom in Santo Domingo
Phoebe speaking on behalf of the volunteers at swear in
The women of Peace Corps DR with Jennifer (Training Director) 10.27.10
The men of Peace Corps DR with Romeo (PCDR Director) 10.27.10
Youth Volunteer Crew (Best PCDR sector!)