A little about college here...

9/14 Tuesday: Book Club!!
I began my book club today and I am excited!!! I want to make it a book club/creative writing class. I think this will be as fun as my art class. A few women came to help out and I asked them afterwards if instead of just helping out, if they wanted to form a book club of their own and they seemed really enthusiastic about it!! So this weekend I’m going to research what exactly one does in a book club (aside from read) and buy a few copies of a Harry Potter for the kids and In the Time of the Butterflies for the women, and a dictionary.

What will we do in this club?! This is what I have so far: Class will be once a week for about two hours. We will have homework of reading about 15 pages a week or a chapter. The kids will have to keep a list of characters and their roles. Each time a new character is introduced they have to write it down with a description. Each week they have to sum up what they read and also keep a list of words they didn’t know and we’ll look them up together. They will write down the definitions and maybe we’ll have vocabulary tests every couple weeks? Who knows? I also want them to write little short stories to encourage their creative sides and if anyone has any other creative writing ideas, let me know! They will receive a star each week for completed homework and will earn something after so many stars but I’m still trying to think of what. I was thinking of making it a prestigious thing, like levels of reading and they get a new color name tag or something. We have to make name tags I decided. Big ones that hang around the neck with yarn, because why not?

I am excited. I don’t remember if I wrote that Brittany is the one who is going to be in La Coyota but Miguel told me she is and I am sooooo happy!!! She said she’d love to take over my projects (ie any Escojo classes/book club/library organizing). I keep picturing us working together on the book club each week (even if only for a month) when she gets here. Can’t wait! (Can you tell I am STARVED to work with someone? Ha!)

9/13 Monday: Noel goes to college
Today is a proud day for Noel and for his family. Today is the day that he begins going to the University. While this is a big deal in the States as well, here it is harder to go to school and thus less common, making it a bigger deal on average. Think of this: Noel’s dad died when Noel was 4 (the story behind that is that he was a motor driver like Noel and he was driving in the rain which made his blood cold, giving him a bad case of la gripe which killed him), Noel’s step dad, Tito went to school up to sophomore year in high school and Margara made it up to 7th grade. Nowadays most kids at least finish high school but as recently as 15 years ago it was very common to drop out before finishing.

Why is it so hard to go to the university here you ask? Well for one, I have noticed that parents don’t push their kids at all. Noel has been telling me since I got here that he is going to start college one of these days to be an accountant. And I always thought he was kind of a slacker for not just doing it. Then I realized that (A) I am naïve in thinking anyone can get whatever they want, they just have to do it and work for it (a luxury for more developed places) and (B) Noel has no one in his life giving him that little push. So one day mid August, after tiring of listening to him debate with himself when the actual last day to sign up for classes was based on what Fulana said, I said “Why don’t you just go and ask the University yourself?” And he looked taken aback before saying sheepishly, “Alone?” I had no idea that was the issue! I said I would be more than happy to go with him and we picked a date to go.

The day before we were supposed to go I casually asked if we were still going and he started to make an excuse to get out of it. I got mad and was like, “Fine!! Don’t go to school and keep on driving a motorcycle your entire life.” No no no! Of course we’re going. He was just joking. Riiiiiight. We went to three colleges the next day together to check out prices, see when school starts and when you have to sign up by. Noel is so timid, once we walked into a registration office, I took a number, looked around and Noel was gone!! So, I decided to just be Dominican and I budged in line to ask my question, I wasn’t registering after all right? Then I went out to the hallway and found him sitting out there. When I asked what happened he was like, I’m not sitting in there!! Then I told him that he doesn’t have to be embarrassed, that room was full of other guys from the campo that were nervous and didn’t know what they were doing either. I told him I was here to support him so he didn’t have to feel alone in this. He didn’t know anything about school, not even what a credit hour was. We decided what to ask based on the brochure I grabbed and when our number came up we were ready. By the end of the day he had picked which school he was going to based on a pro and con list we wrote up together. I think a lot of Dominicans get overwhelmed by the entire process and have no one to turn to for help so they never start it. Also most Dominicans get stuck in the planning stages of anything. They just aren’t taught how to problem solve/organize stuff.

Second large reason many Dominicans don’t go to college: banks don’t give school loans. I can understand that, chaos would ensue! They don’t even have home addresses here, how would you find someone who skipped out on their loan? So while the universities aren’t expensive it is difficult for the average Dominican to pay for everything. For instance, Noel has to keep paying 700 pesos/week towards his motorcycle. Now he’s also got to pay 850 pesos/week in transportation, plus the $2000 pesos/month for school and on top of it all he’s working less because he’s at school half the day! So he’s got to come up with an extra $5400 pesos/month to go to school. I know if I suddenly had to pay $5400 RD/month I would have to use money from home; and I make a little over $11,000 RD/month! Imagine someone who makes like $7000 RD/month. And that’s not buying any books or anything. Overall, college here is really cheap as compared to American university prices (ridiculous) but having to pay for it all out of pocket as you go without a decent paying job… no es facíl.

Anyways, I feel very proud of him for going to school. And it’s fun to see anyone when they start school because they try to act humble, like its not a big deal but you can hear it in their voices when they find any excuse to say, “I go to the university, yada yada yada.” I just hope that he can find a balance between earning enough money and going to school. I would be so sad to find that he had to stop going to school because he couldn’t afford it, a big reason he never started before Tito go the job as a cobrador in the guagua. (so Tito can help pay if Noel comes up short)

Aug 23rd (ish) to September 12th

9/12 Sunday: So much for the beach…
This will be a short but sad entry. Today I was planning on getting away with friends to go to the beach and a stupid tropical depression or something decided to storm in and ruin my plans. Trips to the beach jinx the weather. Boo.
9/8 Wednesday: Meeting with Miguel, Ernesto and Community
I was pretty worried about this meeting because I was imagining the worst with community members turning on me. While that’s not incredibly common, it happens and it’s obviously very upsetting when it does happen. With everything that has happened with my neighbors, this thief thing is a pretty serious accusation. I was worried that Miguel wouldn’t do anything about it or that he would kind of take their side. After that conference in May I’ve decided I can’t exactly trust his judgment. Today I went to Santiago for our meeting, which was supposed to be at 11. I was running about 30 minutes late (American Time) when Miguel called and said he was running about 30 minutes late too. He met me around 1pm: 2 hours after our original time. (Turns out he was running 30 minutes late Dominican Time) We had our “meeting” while he sat in the front seat of the SUV and I in the back, in a supermarket parking lot and then like that but driving- on the way to my site. I was kind of conflicted because while I am open to criticism and suggestions, he wasn’t putting any of the blame on my neighbors. He was saying that it was my community that was saying all this stuff and that the Ruales wouldn’t be so stupid to say all that. He seemed to have already made up his mind about this. While I sat there thinking about it, I realized that no one in my community tell aside from Margara and Noel had told me about their gossip. I place full trust in her but it doesn’t make for a strong case against them when trying to convince Miguel that his friends are that stupid, rather, not stupid but malicious. I don’t think for a second that she would lie to me but how can I back up what I’m saying when I say that only two people have told me?

The meeting with Ernesto went ok. I was a little annoyed that Miguel and Ernesto spoke the entire time, and at the very end Miguel asked my thoughts. I don’t like to interrupt so I let them talk thinking that Miguel would give me my time but, true to form, Miguel was in a hurry to get out of here so I felt very rushed. Unfair since I have been waiting to have this meeting for like two weeks. Ernesto told Miguel that he would never call me a thief and that when I came back from the States it seemed like I was angry with them. (Right because angry people give gifts and cookies) And he said that I had said I was going to have a meeting to talk to him about the receipts and then never went back. This again, was not true. I went to his house and asked him if he wanted to see the receipts and he laughed and said it wasn’t necessary. And now I’m freaking out because I called the grants manager in Peace Corps to check on three packets of receipts that I accidentally turned in early and he found all but the one I really need: the library one. Fantastic. It’s going to look really bad and it’s the only inventory I have of supplies bought. It would be a HORRIBLE thing if I don’t have these receipts. It figures too, 10 grants later and this is the one that goes missing. Another thing that really bothered me was that Ernesto told Miguel that the reason we don’t get along is because I have a new “family” now- Margara’s- and that of her family one likes money a lot (offensively referring to Minga) and the other likes to gossip a lot (referencing Margara here). First of all, it was Ernesto who told Minga to charge me more when I moved out and also it’s
Ernesto who has all of his kids working on the library meaning that they are all getting paid and so out of the 6 people working on it daily, 4/6 of that total money is going to Ernesto’s house- $1850 pesos/day. Secondly, Margara is seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met!! When I was angriest and wanted to go tell the Ruales how I felt it was to her that I went to calm me down. I have never heard her say a bad thing about anyone! During this meeting I wasn’t taking notes or anything and Ernesto was going on and on and I forgot to mention everything that he said that was wrong. I told Ernesto that I think the issue here, if he really didn’t call me a thief (highly unlikely), is communication: we have none. Miguel wants us to meet in the women’s club each Monday to talk about the progress of the library so people don’t gossip. He says that whenever people ask about the progress to tell them to go to the meeting with any questions and that’s that. It could be a good idea.

Also Miguel told Ernesto to come to my house later that night and Ernesto said “I don’t have a problem with that.” And guess who never came over. I specifically stayed in my house with the door open, and was full of children (so no debating if I was home or not) until the power went out around 8:30 or 9. I was secretly hoping they didn’t come over though. It’s obvious that they don’t want to make this work and that’s fine. I am really bothered by the fact that they are going to keep on working with Peace Corps name and money for the foundation, more or less as the face of Peace Corps. People in charge of that foundation should be good, honest people who are a good representation of Peace Corps: pretty much the opposite of my neighbors.

Then we had the community meeting. This went ok, sort of. Miguel was all over the place. He was talking about Satan and having a cold and all kinds of stuff. Then he brought up the thing about meeting every week to talk about the library and everyone was in agreement. I got so lost in all the rambling that I didn’t notice that he never said in the meeting anything about where the project money went and how I’m not a thief! Ugh, great. Just when I don’t think it can get worse... Now people will be wondering why Miguel didn’t mention anything about me being a thief or not.

I am upset. I feel the same as before the meeting but at least not stressed that my community will kick me out. Ernesto kept talking about how crappy the family is that I hang out with and Miguel didn’t ask me about it but rather was like, “They are a pretty crappy family Betsy.” How would he know?!

Also, I found out that Brittany is the PCV who is going to be placed in La Coyota (site close to me) and there isn’t going to be one placed in Villa Nueva. I’m happy it’s Brit because I feel really close with her already and she has an idea of what’s going on here. But makes me feel protective of her and I want to get this foundation set right so its not something she has to just be dropped into and deal with.

What I would like to know is what happened with Miguel? He’s normally so good about picking up on things in Dominican culture but this time I felt he was turning a blind eye to it and telling me it was Margara, Minga and a power struggle within the community instead of placing any responsibility on Ernesto and family. An example of an outright lie: Ernesto told Miguel that he saw me in Santiago (when I was with Brittany) and he said hi to me and I ignored him. The truth is that I saw him because Brit and I were already sitting down and I said “Hi Ernesto” and he responded. Then Brittany asked if that was “The Ernesto” and I said yes and how weird it was that in that moment he acts like nothing is wrong. All this seems so petty but it’s the culture here. Saying hello, not saying hello, the order of saying hello- its all noticed and there’s a wrong and right way to do it. I wrote a 4 page report to Miguel and Romeo before the meeting explaining everything but I feel it didn’t help in Miguel’s case. What to do now? I’m going to call one of the PC doctors, Lissette to get her advice, and I’m going to call the grants man and see if he has my receipts! I’ll do what I can and I guess that’s all I can do.

9/6 Monday: The kittens have moved
Kouldbie didn’t seem to like that tarantula at all. She moved her kittens to Ernesto’s house again. Then I sent a kid over to get them and they had already given one away- which I was actually grateful for even though it was rude of them not to ask/inform me. Then Wandi was threatening, loud enough that I could hear, that he was going to kill the kittens and the cat if she brought them back over again. Well guess what, the next day- Kouldbie moved her kittens there again. So take that Wandi. Hopefully she is sleeping under your bed.

9/5 Sunday: Setting a meeting with Miguel, Do tarantulas eat baby kitties?
It’s Sunday night. I just got back from Santiago. Noel dropped me off at Ernesto’s driveway and we had a debate about equal rights between men and women. This is my doing because one man in the neighborhood was calling a young girl a slut. At first Noel seemed alarmed but then when he realized who was being called a slut he shrugged it off. I said that it was pretty crappy of her dad to be yelling at her at someone else’s house calling her a slut to which Noel responded, “Well Elizabeth, a slut is a slut. It’s a fact. Non debatable. If she’s a slut, then they can call her that.” I asked why she was a slut and he said it was because she had more than one boyfriend. Then I asked if Tolo was a slut- having more than one wife is worse than having more than one girlfriend right? He laughed and said of course he wasn’t a man whore, that it’s different for guys. Men are different from women. His examples of this included how men can walk around without their shirts but women can’t, how men are the ones that work… If people call the woman a whore, its ok but there isn’t even a word that exists that’s so ugly that people use for men. I said that in the States there is more equality than here and he said that’s why there are so many problems there, with divorce and all that!! I laughed. So then I asked about professionals. What about people who are educated and both are making money? He said, if they’re making the same, fine. If she’s making more and she leaves him, it’s kind of his fault and he should get a better job but that she is still a whore. Everyone will think she’s a whore but they’ll think she had a good reason. How messed up is that?! After having further conversations on this, and calling him ancient, he seems to have come around a little bit to my point of view. I find that, once given good reasons and not being rude in the debate, most people come around to a more developed way of thinking here. It’s like they begin the debate with you with the point of view that everyone has always had and they have it because they were never asked to think about it. Once they think about it and are presented with a more rounded fact base, they’re like… ohhhhh, that’s true. I think with time, I can convince Noel that equality is the way to go.

After our little debate I went up to my house to shower and get changed. I went into the bathroom to greet the kittens and Kouldbie and then I saw the first huge tarantula ever in my house, right next to them like it was stalking them for dinner! Sure there have been baby ones and one time there was an adolescent but this was a full grown adult. I don’t remember jumping over it to get out of the bathroom but next thing I knew, I was out, trying to plan my next move. I called Noel because I figured if men and women don’t have equal rights here, he should automatically be the one to have to kill this spider. No answer. Diablo. I waited outside and then decided to start making cookies until he showed up. When he arrived back he was disgusted to see that I still hadn’t showered but I asked how in the world can I shower when there is an 8 legged, fanged mammal in my bathroom? One that when it flips onto its back can spring upwards of 6 feet. My bathroom is less than 6 feet wide. Not that it could really hurt me but I swear if it jumped on me and I felt its nasty straw legs crawling around with their stiff little hairs…. SICK! Noel happens to be afraid of tarantulas as well but, like I said… men can walk around without their shirts and all that sooo…. When I showed him the spider he freaked a little. I said I would go and get Minga to kill the spider and he scoffed at me, he is a macho man after all… right? He isn’t afraid of some giant tarantula, who would be scared of that!?! Maybe a wuss, that’s who. While saying this, I think he looked a little panicked. Then, he got it together and said, “Get the machete!” I just stood there and stared at him until realization crept into his face as he remembered that I do not own a machete. (why would I when then I would have to use it?) It was then decided that he would kill it and I would hold the headlamp. I wasn’t really found of this plan as I didn’t want to be close to it but hey, compromise is what relationships are made of. Did I mention there was no power; I was out of candles, my oil lamp had burned the entire wick and my headlamp had stopped working. Fantastic!! Anyways, long story short, I seriously thought about getting Minga (or any other little kid over the age of 7 for that matter) to take care of this for me but then Noel showed up and spared me the walk around the neighborhood, killing the scary spider with my broom. And while he broke the broom I have had my entire service, the spider is dead and I am safe and showered. Whew!

9/2 Thursday: I finally get a Volunteer Visit!!!
I am super excited because after two years of service I finally am getting a newbie!!! I don’t know if you all remember how excited I was to go on my PCV visit when I was in training? Then a hurricane came and it got canceled and I was super freaking sad. We were able to reschedule the visits but it sucked because Kenzie and I went to visit this business PCV and we didn’t do anything except see an old man masturbating. It was so boring, well apart from that. Then last year this time when I was supposed to get a PTC I was in the States for my friends wedding. Thus I was sooooo happy when I got one this time around. I tried to plan things with her here. We nearly finished painting that mural outside of my house I have been trying to do forever (nearly finished because it was raining a lot while she was here), we were going to do the last stove but it fell through because the family didn’t bring the sand to their house (still), we went dancing, we had my art class, corrected/translated thank you cards, baked cookies... all the important parts of service. She is super fun and hyper. Also her name is Brittany- which no one can say in Spanish (sounds like Bree-tan-neey or Bree-nee)- so we’re going to open a new name up for voting. I think the top four should be (1) FlorLinda aka pretty flower (2) Milagros aka old doña name meaning miracle (3) Shakira aka, hips don’t lie (4) Paloma aka dove. Also I felt it was a huge success because she looooooooooved the visit and it renewed her enthusiasm. She is going to try to be the PCV placed in La Coyota, a community a little higher up the road from me. It made my week that she loved my life so much:)


8/31 Tuesday: Meeting with Miguel= failed
After I found out my neighbors were still calling me a thief (the amount I supposedly stole to pay for my 4th of July trip and Noel’s motorcycle I guess just wasn’t enough so they doubled it to 100K and it now includes me paying for his college), I called Miguel. I was super mad about all this and he agreed that this couldn’t continue. We set the date for Tuesday of last week to have a meeting but what I didn’t know was that Miguel thought it was for the capital and I was sitting on my porch waiting for him show up to my house. Adding to the badness of the situation, I told my neighbors that Miguel was going to come for a meeting on Tuesday and so they were waiting as well. The day before a milk truck drove through my community ripping down the power lines thus making us without power for 4 days or so until the community paid Oney to fix it (I contributed 50 pesos). The point of this is that my phone was dead so I sat at my house waiting until around 4:30. I was able to call Miguel the next day thanks to the fact that Minga has a generator, and I asked him what happened with the meeting. That’s when I found out that he thought it was in the cap and I thought it was at my house. I figure my neighbors had called him to confirm this meeting because Noel and I saw them leave their house around 1pm and didn’t come back until after I left at 4:30. Did they bother to tell me that Miguel would not be coming? Of course not. Anyways, I have a new meeting with Miguel next Wednesday at 3 pm in the community and we’re supposed to meet beforehand at 11 in Santiago to discuss. Hopefully all goes well.

8/27: Friday: Why the rush with my life?
So this whole time I have been freaking out about extending. I want to go to med school and that takes forever so I wanted to get started on it STAT. I just kept thinking that my 20s didn’t last nearly long enough! Well, the thing is, once I start med school there will be no traveling for a long time. And then I started thinking: I have to get this library on its feet. I may stay here in the DR be here until the spring to finish it- Who knows?! On top of that, I really would like to extend to another country for a year. I mean, it’d be so neat to compare the different Peace Corps experiences and I think I have learned so much in these two years. Plus think of how my Spanish would get so much better in another year where they say their “s” in their speech! The thing is though; I may be too late to apply for an extension for another country. That little concern aside, where would I like to go you ask? Well, as 3rd year PCVs get a LOT more freedom in picking compared to the newbie PCVs who don’t get any say at all really, I would like to go to (1) Nicaragua (2) Guatemala (3) Ecuador with a big lean towards Nicaragua. I figure that I may as well put off going to med school another year to get another great experience fit into my life. If I get into med school, I’ll be in it for so long, what’s another year?
Good news!! I just called Romeo, the Country Director for PCDR and he said there’s still time to extend to another country!! I told him I would like to Central America and he’s going to call me back so we can get the process started :) Ohhh, excitement!! If I go to CA, who’s going to visit me??????? :D

8/26: Thursday: A malicious rally conspired by diabolical neighbors.
When I left for the camp on Monday I saw Ernesto in the street and I stopped and said hello. His partner in crime, Oney was there and ignored me. I assumed he was mad at me again for one thing or another despite the fact that I haven’t seen him since he randomly came to my house and gave me a hug. I don’t really care if he’s mad at me. I don’t think about it more than noticing it and then I brush it off and don’t even try to understand it. Nor do I care if my neighbors fantasize about ways to kill me each day, which they very well may do. There was a time where it bothered me but I have come to terms with it. Recent news has pushed me past my point finally and I can cheerfully and honestly say that I hate them. I have never hated someone before. I’m pretty sure they hate me as well and their façade of being nice to my face while planning conspiracies behind my back will no longer be effective. I won’t be mean but I won’t put another ounce into being nice.
Before I completely felt this way, on this particular Monday morning, when I said hello to Ernesto he said hello back. I asked what they were working on and he answered. I stood there a moment, then realized I had nothing else to say to him at all and walked off. It seemed that maybe there was a residual resentment emanating from him but aside from that, it wasn’t so bad.
When I got back from camp on Wednesday I was so tired from sleeping about 5 hours the last three nights that I went to bed at 9:30 pm and slept in late the next day. Noel came over and told me that my creative neighbors had been up to no good while I was at camp and that his mom wanted to talk to me about it. Great I thought. What surprises await me now?
It turns out, while I was away, Ernesto went to a part of the community that doesn’t know me very well and told them that I was stealing money. Now he’s telling people that I have stolen $100,000 pesos from the library and I used 50K to pay off Noel’s motorcycle and the other 50K to pay for Noel’s school and our 4th of July trip. (In reality Noel’s school is about 6K pesos/semester- so he’s going to pay a little less than $2000 pesos/month and our trip was about 4k each; he paid most of his part and had to borrow a little from me. He owes me about $1500 pesos or about $35 USD and is paying me back in motor rides.) On one hand, at least they accuse me of sharing the stolen money, so I’m what? A generous thief I suppose. On the other hand, I’m mad. I have been patient. I have turned my cheek. But enough is enough. There is a balance between being tolerant and being a pushover and that line has definitely been crossed, probably a while ago but I like to give the benefit of the doubt when possible. I deserve respect, dang it. I’m a professional. I came here to help, I didn’t think to myself as I was about to finish college with my entire life ahead of me: “Ohhh, let me join the Peace Corps and steal grant money because that’s where it’s at.”
I don’t even want to talk to my neighbors; I don’t want to look at them. And I sure don’t want them to talk to me or try to be my friends. I want to walk in front of their house each time I come home just so they can see me. I want to go out of my to be nice to other people in my community just to make them look even more crazy. There are several things that make me mad about this so why don’t I point them out:
1) Noel works really hard to pay his way in life. It really bothers him that people now think he’s taking handouts. I can see where he’s coming from.
2) I told Ernesto when I got back from the States what happened with the finances. I offered to let him look at the receipts and he laughed and declined saying there was no need. Then he goes behind my back and tries to rally people?
3) He’s trying to get people in the community to turn against me. This isn’t just between us anymore. I don’t want the community remembering/thinking of me as a thief!
4) He told some woman who works for the Mayor to tell the Mayor that I am a thief and not to give any money to the library. WTF?!? Does he just NOT want a library?
I called Miguel and I told him all of this. We have a meeting set up for Tuesday at 2 pm. I can’t wait. When I called my friends Kelly and Rachele they were both like, “And why do you want to extend again?” Jessica told me she would have said to hell with the library and quit working on it. I thought about doing that but there is no way I’m dropping this project. I have worked too hard on this for too long. I am extending in my site to finish it and if they throw rocks at me at every step along the way as they seem hell bent on doing, bring it on. This library isn’t for them. It’s for the kids that need a place to learn and grow and it’s for the kids that I’m going to do this. Not just throw it together but finish it in a hurry but do it completely and finish it well. Despite the rumors my neighbors start on a weekly basis saying that they’re going to get Miguel to fire me, I ‘m not going anywhere. I talked to Miguel after my COS conference and he told me he would love it if I extended, to revamp Escojo, to plan the Escojo National Conference, to tie up stuff in my site. So there Ernesto and family. Take that. (sticking my tongue out)
Oh yeah, another thing. Tonight I noticed that I must not have shut my bedroom window all the way so it locked and someone stole my money box. I’m pretty sure there was just about $100 pesos in it but guess who I think did it? None other than the wonderful, consistent, shameless thief: Geraldo! Who lives with whom? One guess… that’s right! My neighbors!
8/25 Wednesday: I love youth camps!!!
It’s true. I love youth camps. Like I said, this year it was Rachele, Kelly and I planning this three day camp for 75 people and while at times stressful, I really enjoyed planning it. I like being in charge of stuff I suppose. We plan fun nighttime activities and this year we were lucky to have really interactive presentations from each PCV. I was only bored like 2 times during the entire camp whereas normally I peace out to take a nap several times during conferences.
I was really proud of one of the youth I brought, Randi. He’s Noel’s little brother and I was hesitant to bring him at first because he’s at that age where he sometimes listens but other times gives an attitude and walks away. Also I wasn’t sure because Celebrando typically has older participants- like 17 years old. Randi is 12. But seeing as he always calls me Haitian as an insult I figured he could use the diversity camp more than other kids.
I also brought a younger girl, Anyi who is 12 as well. I hadn’t ever brought her to a conference, not because she is a bad kid but because her personality bothers me. Rude to say I know. But she makes stuff up when she doesn’t know the answer (such as telling a group of people that I am home, just locked in the house sleeping when I’m actually in Santiago for the day) and she bosses the younger kids around a bit. As this was my 10th conference I was running out of options so I decided to go for it and take them. Randi was super outgoing, a real crowd favorite. All the other PCVs were asking whose he was and saying how cute he was. He won an award for being the best participant in the group (and I didn’t even vote!) and when he accepted his award he did a little Michael Jackson dance in front of the crowd upon request. It was hilarious.
Anyi however did not seem to enjoy herself. I realize that to a shy 12 year old 3 days away from mom and dad can seem like an eternity so after I found a note she wrote to her mom the first night saying she missed her and that she was different that everyone else, I asked all the other PCVs who have girls to please have their girls go out of their way to talk to Anyi. This didn’t help. She didn’t try to interact with any of the other girls at all. I felt bad for her but was also annoyed at her lack of effort. I also think that maybe she felt bad that Randi was so popular and she wasn’t.
As a last ditch effort for fun, on the way home on the last day we went to the big mall and ate pizza and ice cream in the food court. It was their 2nd time ever having pizza. Then I gave them some money and let them play in the arcade. After that we went into the big grocery store, Jumbo, and looked around. Anyi finally seemed to be enjoying herself once we began to check out the clothing:)
Overall, it was one of my favorite conferences. I’m to miss taking kids to something that they would never get to experience if it weren’t for these groups. I doubt either of them will be able to go back to Jarabacoa where the camp was, for several years but I’m sure they will always remember the experience fondly as I will.

Celebrando el Ciabao y otras cosas

8/27: Friday: Why the rush with my life?
So this whole time I have been freaking out about extending. I want to go to med school and that takes forever so I wanted to get started on it STAT. I just kept thinking that my 20s didn’t last nearly long enough! Well, the thing is, once I start med school there will be no traveling for a long time. And then I started thinking: I have to get this library on its feet. I may stay here in the DR be here until the spring to finish it- Who knows?! On top of that, I really would like to extend to another country for a year. I mean, it’d be so neat to compare the different Peace Corps experiences and I think I have learned so much in these two years. Plus think of how my Spanish would get so much better in another year where they say their “s” in their speech! The thing is though; I may be too late to apply for an extension for another country. That little concern aside, where would I like to go you ask? Well, as 3rd year PCVs get a LOT more freedom in picking compared to the newbie PCVs who don’t get any say at all really, I would like to go to (1) Nicaragua (2) Guatemala (3) Ecuador with a big lean towards Nicaragua. I figure that I may as well put off going to med school another year to get another great experience fit into my life. If I get into med school, I’ll be in it for so long, what’s another year?
Good news!! I just called Romeo, the Country Director for PCDR and he said there’s still time to extend to another country!! I told him I would like to Central America and he’s going to call me back so we can get the process started :) Ohhh, excitement!! If I go to CA, who’s going to visit me??????? :D

8/26: Thursday: A malicious rally conspired by diabolical neighbors.
When I left for the camp on Monday I saw Ernesto in the street and I stopped and said hello. His partner in crime, Oney was there and ignored me. I assumed he was mad at me again for one thing or another despite the fact that I haven’t seen him since he randomly came to my house and gave me a hug. I don’t really care if he’s mad at me. I don’t think about it more than noticing it and then I brush it off and don’t even try to understand it. Nor do I care if my neighbors fantasize about ways to kill me each day, which they very well may do. There was a time where it bothered me but I have come to terms with it. Recent news has pushed me past my point finally and I can cheerfully and honestly say that I hate them. I have never hated someone before. I’m pretty sure they hate me as well and their façade of being nice to my face while planning conspiracies behind my back will no longer be effective. I won’t be mean but I won’t put another ounce into being nice.
Before I completely felt this way, on this particular Monday morning, when I said hello to Ernesto he said hello back. I asked what they were working on and he answered. I stood there a moment, then realized I had nothing else to say to him at all and walked off. It seemed that maybe there was a residual resentment emanating from him but aside from that, it wasn’t so bad.
When I got back from camp on Wednesday I was so tired from sleeping about 5 hours the last three nights that I went to bed at 9:30 pm and slept in late the next day. Noel came over and told me that my creative neighbors had been up to no good while I was at camp and that his mom wanted to talk to me about it. Great I thought. What surprises await me now?
It turns out, while I was away, Ernesto went to a part of the community that doesn’t know me very well and told them that I was stealing money. Now he’s telling people that I have stolen $100,000 pesos from the library and I used 50K to pay off Noel’s motorcycle and the other 50K to pay for Noel’s school and our 4th of July trip. (In reality Noel’s school is about 6K pesos/semester- so he’s going to pay a little less than $2000 pesos/month and our trip was about 4k each; he paid most of his part and had to borrow a little from me. He owes me about $1500 pesos or about $35 USD and is paying me back in motor rides.) On one hand, at least they accuse me of sharing the stolen money, so I’m what? A generous thief I suppose. On the other hand, I’m mad. I have been patient. I have turned my cheek. But enough is enough. There is a balance between being tolerant and being a pushover and that line has definitely been crossed, probably a while ago but I like to give the benefit of the doubt when possible. I deserve respect, dang it. I’m a professional. I came here to help, I didn’t think to myself as I was about to finish college with my entire life ahead of me: “Ohhh, let me join the Peace Corps and steal grant money because that’s where it’s at.”
I don’t even want to talk to my neighbors; I don’t want to look at them. And I sure don’t want them to talk to me or try to be my friends. I want to walk in front of their house each time I come home just so they can see me. I want to go out of my to be nice to other people in my community just to make them look even more crazy. There are several things that make me mad about this so why don’t I point them out:
1) Noel works really hard to pay his way in life. It really bothers him that people now think he’s taking handouts. I can see where he’s coming from.
2) I told Ernesto when I got back from the States what happened with the finances. I offered to let him look at the receipts and he laughed and declined saying there was no need. Then he goes behind my back and tries to rally people?
3) He’s trying to get people in the community to turn against me. This isn’t just between us anymore. I don’t want the community remembering/thinking of me as a thief!
4) He told some woman who works for the Mayor to tell the Mayor that I am a thief and not to give any money to the library. WTF?!? Does he just NOT want a library?
I called Miguel and I told him all of this. We have a meeting set up for Tuesday at 2 pm. I can’t wait. When I called my friends Kelly and Rachele they were both like, “And why do you want to extend again?” Jessica told me she would have said to hell with the library and quit working on it. I thought about doing that but there is no way I’m dropping this project. I have worked too hard on this for too long. I am extending in my site to finish it and if they throw rocks at me at every step along the way as they seem hell bent on doing, bring it on. This library isn’t for them. It’s for the kids that need a place to learn and grow and it’s for the kids that I’m going to do this. Not just throw it together but finish it in a hurry but do it completely and finish it well. Despite the rumors my neighbors start on a weekly basis saying that they’re going to get Miguel to fire me, I ‘m not going anywhere. I talked to Miguel after my COS conference and he told me he would love it if I extended, to revamp Escojo, to plan the Escojo National Conference, to tie up stuff in my site. So there Ernesto and family. Take that. (sticking my tongue out)
Oh yeah, another thing. Tonight I noticed that I must not have shut my bedroom window all the way so it locked and someone stole my money box. I’m pretty sure there was just about $100 pesos in it but guess who I think did it? None other than the wonderful, consistent, shameless thief: Geraldo! Who lives with whom? One guess… that’s right! My neighbors!
8/25 Wednesday: I love youth camps!!!
It’s true. I love youth camps. Like I said, this year it was Rachele, Kelly and I planning this three day camp for 75 people and while at times stressful, I really enjoyed planning it. I like being in charge of stuff I suppose. We plan fun nighttime activities and this year we were lucky to have really interactive presentations from each PCV. I was only bored like 2 times during the entire camp whereas normally I peace out to take a nap several times during conferences.
I was really proud of one of the youth I brought, Randi. He’s Noel’s little brother and I was hesitant to bring him at first because he’s at that age where he sometimes listens but other times gives an attitude and walks away. Also I wasn’t sure because Celebrando typically has older participants- like 17 years old. Randi is 12. But seeing as he always calls me Haitian as an insult I figured he could use the diversity camp more than other kids.
I also brought a younger girl, Anyi who is 12 as well. I hadn’t ever brought her to a conference, not because she is a bad kid but because her personality bothers me. Rude to say I know. But she makes stuff up when she doesn’t know the answer (such as telling a group of people that I am home, just locked in the house sleeping when I’m actually in Santiago for the day) and she bosses the younger kids around a bit. As this was my 10th conference I was running out of options so I decided to go for it and take them. Randi was super outgoing, a real crowd favorite. All the other PCVs were asking whose he was and saying how cute he was. He won an award for being the best participant in the group (and I didn’t even vote!) and when he accepted his award he did a little Michael Jackson dance in front of the crowd upon request. It was hilarious.
Anyi however did not seem to enjoy herself. I realize that to a shy 12 year old 3 days away from mom and dad can seem like an eternity so after I found a note she wrote to her mom the first night saying she missed her and that she was different that everyone else, I asked all the other PCVs who have girls to please have their girls go out of their way to talk to Anyi. This didn’t help. She didn’t try to interact with any of the other girls at all. I felt bad for her but was also annoyed at her lack of effort. I also think that maybe she felt bad that Randi was so popular and she wasn’t.
As a last ditch effort for fun, on the way home on the last day we went to the big mall and ate pizza and ice cream in the food court. It was their 2nd time ever having pizza. Then I gave them some money and let them play in the arcade. After that we went into the big grocery store, Jumbo, and looked around. Anyi finally seemed to be enjoying herself once we began to check out the clothing:)
Overall, it was one of my favorite conferences. I’m to miss taking kids to something that they would never get to experience if it weren’t for these groups. I doubt either of them will be able to go back to Jarabacoa where the camp was, for several years but I’m sure they will always remember the experience fondly as will I.


8/23 Monday: Celebrando el Cibao
Today is the first day of the youth diversity camp we have here in the Cibao. I have been looking forward to this camp for a few months now. Kelly, Rachele and I are the ones planning it. It’s for 27 PCVs and 55 youth. I really like this camp because, (A) I’m sick of Escojo camps, (B) the kids really NEED to learn about diversity because they don’t get it anywhere in their education. It was a struggle getting the school director to let the kids go to this camp. As you know, we do not see eye to eye. He told the kids they couldn’t go because school is important. Which I agree with of course but it’s the lack of consistency on his part. He says no because he’s got power issues; a common problem with school directors in this country. He told the kids that they couldn’t miss 3 days during the 1st real week of school. They actually began school last week but that week doesn’t count as they are only in classes talking about behavior and rules. An entire week of that! Even better, they have so many “holidays” here where there’s no school that even the 1st day of school this year was a holiday and they started on a Tuesday! So when he tells me he values each and every school day it’s hard not to visibly roll my eyes at him and groan. Very difficult indeed. I had to go to the school with one of the kids’s parents and talk to him about it. I pointed out that 55 other kids were going, meaning that 25 other schools in total were letting kids miss three days of school. He didn’t say it was ok that they go but he said it was up to the parents and that if they missed these three days then they couldn’t miss another school day for the rest of the year. Bologna.

8/22 Sunday: Broken stuff and out of site!
Just as I said I was going to start writing in my blog again I (1) had my COS conference and then went to a resort for two days (2) my computer broke. So much for writing! After getting a new power cord and a new hard drive my computer is almost nearly fixed. I have learned that you have to download drivers for every single thing you can think of after your hard drive dies or else your computer won’t work. As a result, I have no sound/movie driver or whathaveyou I suppose so no Glee watching for me (making this one of the lowest points of my service now, so sad without Glee!!), and no music. Also there are random things like the fact my Microsoft Office is in Spanish as well as my iTunes. Ah well. I’m just glad to have my computer back, although sometimes the new power cord doesn’t work. I have a lot of paper work to do at this point in my service.
The question of my life now isn’t “to extend or not to extend?” but rather, “to extend for how long?” Yes sure the last blog I wrote I said how I wasn’t extending but hey, that was a while ago. Also you know me, things change all the time. Also of course when I’m in the States I didn’t want to extend! My neighbors were overwhelming me too. So I want to extend until December for sure and then I was thinking of traveling with some PCV friends of mine through Nicaragua and Costa Rica. But then I’m like, well… I’ve wanted to work with the Haitian population more and I’d love to do a latrine project before I go as well. I need to finish the library and get some community groups formed and strong to keep the library up and running. These aren’t things I can do really if I leave in December. Well I could but it would be very stressful. So I think I’m going to apply for a grant to do latrines and if I get it, I’ll stay till next spring. I also was thinking that I should take a pre calc class in the spring semester and I won’t be able to do that if I stay.
Then there’s Noel. So, I know I said I was emotionally unavailable before but I think I’ve changed my mind about that. I like the guy! I can see why the DR is number 1 in number of PCVs who marry host country peeps. They are sweet in their own way. I’ve never had anyone tell me and actually follow through, that they would do anything for me. And, not that I’m looking to get married but I find myself empathizing with many other a volunteer with ending a perfectly good relationship prematurely. It’s sad really. I’m not looking forward to the day.

8/2: Monday: Why haven’t I written? A sum up of the last 3 months
I know I have been really great about writing in my blog my entire service but I stopped on purpose in June because all I wanted to talk about was my drama with my terrible neighbors. I don’t want to look back at my service and only think of that, so I stopped writing. Although I will now recount some stories about them, it won’t be the focus so that’s good.
About Current Events and My Trip Home: First and most excitingly, my COS (close of service) conference is in two days!!!!! This means that I’ve made it guys!!! I did it!! Although my COS date (last day of service) isn’t until the 28th or 29th of October, the COS conference is as good as October. The end is so close. And, while I LOVE my service, I am excited to go home. I feel very mixed about it. I can’t WAIT to be done with my neighbors but I also realized when I went home that my PCV friends aren’t like any other. I didn’t realize how we had changed until I went home and found myself not wanting to tell my best friend stuff but rather wishing I could call my friend Kelly (a PCV) because, even though it was something that happened in the States, I knew my States bestie wouldn’t understand the way my PCV bestie would. A simple example is Chai tea. I bought some and I knew my States friend wouldn’t like it because it has such a distinct, different flavor. And she hated it, like I would have two years ago . I wanted to say, “Wait, just taste it. Really taste it and if you actually don’t like it for the flavor not for the fact that it’s a different flavor, then great.” And I want to say that with lots of things, life in general! I didn’t feel like that last year when I went home. Other differences were that I kept randomly speaking in Spanish and then would be sad that no one was around to understand my spanglish. Also, even on the last day on my trip home I was still stopping myself from tossing the toilet paper in the trashcan! Overall the trip home was fantastic but I missed my PCV friends so much. I felt like I was disrupting the lives of my States friends and was trying really hard not seem rude or imposing but still left feeling like I was selfish by American standards. That part of my trip sucked. Also I noticed that I am a lot more social and need to be around people more than before. That part was fun. I hope that when I get home I don’t have problems making new friends because I realized that there is really only one person I hang out with in Dixon and she’s since gotten married, has two new children and is pregos. So, yeah- that’s not quite the same. I talked with my friend Ali (she COSed in May) and she said that social seclusion is tough after PC. I mean think of it, now I can call up at least 5 different people at any given time to hang out or to talk and odds are, one or two will be down. At home, I went through the one on my list and then would just take a nap or something. Depressing.

About Gossip: I was dreading coming back to my community because of my neighbors. While I was gone Noel called me about once a week and told me that Mercedes and Wandi were telling people I had sex with Wandi (GAG!!!!) and Ernesto was saying that I stole 50K pesos from the library project. I was repulsed and amused by the 1st accusation- although that’s a very strong thing to say because really all I have is my rep. If that’s gone, I become ineffective in my community but it’s so out there to say that it made me laugh out of disbelief. The thief thing is super strong to say in this culture and made me incredibly angry. How dare him. I have worked so freaking hard to get funding for this project and then to say I would steal it? I was sooooo mad. People get into machete fights over throwing the T word around!! And, not to mention I was bailing hay, painting and scooping ice cream while I was home because I’m so broke. So if I had stolen roughly $1,389 USD I think I would have lived up my vacay a little more. All I can say is karma karma karma. It’s not my place to punish them but I take comfort knowing it will come one day.

About Mild but Sweet Revenge: I came up with a great plan. I baked cookies when I got back to my site and just gave them to Mercedes today, telling her that they’re from my mom. That my mom wanted to send me back with a special treat just for them since she knows how they take care of me. Mercedes was really nice to me today. It was awesome. When I was home I called Ernesto once after I found out he called me a thief. I had been avoiding calling him but I figured that he was snowballing things in his mind so I needed to straighten it out and stop being a child, avoiding the things I didn’t want to do. When I called him from the States to check on things he was not friendly, didn’t ask about my trip (very rude on his part) and then when I asked him to write down my phone number he said no thank you! How rude! Although it’s hard I’m going to try to go out of my way to be nice to them. It’s going to be 100% fake because I detest them but I think it’s the best punishment I can give and strangely satisfying.

About Noel: So, he was really sweet when I was home and he called me a lot. I previously we talked like once a week but I think it was more, he definitely called way more than that. I have decided that I am not good at relationships. Maybe I should just be an old maid. He’s all Dominican and says all the “te quiero”, “mucho besos”, “te extraño” yada yada yada and I find myself nearly cringing. I’m just not an emotional person and while I like Noel, I’ve decided that I must be emotionally unavailable. So why did I start dating him? Well, I thought I would grow to like him more. Its not that I don’t like him, I do!- but I don’t think I would have dated someone in the States if I liked them this much. Also, we’ve had our problems and I swear if a Dominican dumps me, I’m hopeless. Here’s what’s going on: he was worried that I would come back from the States changed. I explained that’s ridiculous as I am American and so it’s not like I’d come home thinking I was all cool since I could now speak English. It’s different when an American goes to the States than when a Dominican goes. We hung out the 1st day I got back and then 2nd he only came by for a few minutes. I gave him some crap about it and I think I offended him. He came back and hung out with me while I was with two other PCVs so I wasn’t talking much in Spanish and since then, he’s been cordial to me but not coming by. Actually, today he said hi to me and then changed and went to the river and didn’t even invite me!!! How are you not going to invite me to the river? Man! He and I need to talk but he needs to come over so we can talk! I am starting to get annoyed by it and am trying to tell myself if he doesn’t come over today at a decent time I won’t get mad. Maybe it’s like a junior high break up? Maybe this is his way of breaking up with me? That would be how my Dominican relationship ended! Hopeless!

About Dengue: This is just so you all know, dengue is running ramped here. Last I knew there had been 22 deaths in the country from it, 12 of which were in the Santiago area (so by me). If I get dengue I hope first hope it’s not the hemorrhagic type and I second hope it’s the kind that just makes me sleepy. No matter what though there’s that rash…

Side note: the kids hanging out at my house are really annoying me lately. Today I hid out from them for 2 hours. They didn’t know I was home, hehe. Right now they’re on the porch and I’m inside at the kitchen table and my front door is shut. They’re just waiting for me to finish the “work” I said I had to finish, basically until my battery dies because there’s no power. Just so you get a picture of my life right now.

About Projects:
The Foundation SSAMA: The foundation is a freaking joke. To sum it up, Miguel wants each foundation to form 10 new Escojo groups per year. The leaders of each foundation don’t know anything about Escojo and so they throw these crappy classes together (unless they have a PCV to do all their work) and don’t actually teach anything but write down names and get head counts. It’s a blasphemy of Escojo. I am upset because I have worked so hard with it to have its name dirtied so quickly though laziness. I have stopped helping with the foundation stuff because (1) Ernesto is pretty much not talking to me (2) I shouldn’t be doing all their work, I’m leaving in a few months (3) I went to an Escojo “conference” through the foundation and it was a complete disaster. Apparently it’s ok that the kids get drunk at Escojo conferences and stay out till all hours of the night drinking and dancing. The three PCVs that were there put their feet down and Miguel wasn’t in agreement. Romeo, the country director- the head guy in PC-DR had to get involved. I don’t want to be apart of it. It’s a mess and if Miguel sees no problem with it, I’m out. But I do feel bad for my kids teaching Escojo and feel bad for their students. They’re most likely going to fail the final exams.

Stoves: The stoves are nearly done. Word is that Ernesto charged a few people and didn’t build their stove so I need to talk to him about that. I have a feeling he’s going to tell me he didn’t take anyone’s money. My poor stove guy, Jimmy, literally has to eat with his mom at her house with his family because the stove project is over and he has no money or work. Ernesto has begun shunning him and remember that Ernesto is in charge of doing the labor on the library. The deal we had was that Oney was going to start the library and Jimmy finish up the stoves. Then Oney told me he couldn’t work in the community any more because he found work outside the community. During this time an opportunity came up for me to take a stove mason to another community to have a stove building workshop. I took Jimmy because he was the only one of the three who told me he was available to work on the stoves. Oney got super jealous and was very disrespectful to me and now Ernesto won’t give Jimmy any work on the library. Another issue that I need to talk to Ernesto about. I love the maturity levels here.

Library: I have been working diligently trying to get funding for this library and I feel like the weight of the world is on me! The first grant of $2300 USD miraculously filled in May- which we used right away on materials. Then we received another grant for $5,000 USD and we’ve got about $500 USD left from that. I’m guessing we need another $1500- $2000 USD for materials and the rest I’ll use on books!!! I have one $500 grant for books on its way. Then there’s the $5,000 grant posted online that I have been really trying to “fill” with donations. I did a radio interview, wrote a press release, contacted 9 newspapers, have been in contact with 2 foundations… and when I was home I found out that the $5,000 USD grant I have been trying to get money donated to will be receiving a check to complete the funding- last I checked it was short $1,874 USD still. I was soooo relieved and excited! I literally was singing and jumping up and down. I didn’t realize how stressed I was to get that filled. I had come to terms with the fact I wasn’t going to get the library done. And now we will be able to finish it!! It’s a good thing we’re going to get that grant because despite the fact I told Ernesto NOT to get anything else on credit at the hardware store and despite the fact I told him not to do more than half of the work on the library, he has “bought” things in my name at the hardware store on credit and has done more than half of the labor on the library. Why did I not want him to do this? Because we’re out of money. The Mayor of Navarrete is supposed to donate $150,000 pesos. She said she’d donate half of the money last May and the other half in June... I’m still waiting for anything. Today when I called the treasurer, she said maybe next month (which is what she told me last month) When I told her we were out of money, that we needed at least $40,000 to pay the workers she said the check would be ready for me for $40,000 on Monday. We shall see but I hope so! Then I can pay another installment towards the labor at least. I had just been hitting walls with this project all of May, all of June and half of July. Now I’m hopeful again. It’s true that you have to be persistent, when you get knocked down keep trying. You have to think outside of the box, be resourceful and be able to accept failure to be a PCV. Jeesh.

About After Peace Corps: So, I’ve decided to try to get into med school. I’m going to apply to a few post bachelorette programs and cross my fingers. My GPA Is decent but my math/science GPA is not so impressive and it makes me nervous. But that’s what a pb program is for! I had thought I was going to extend my service (was like 95% sure) but then when I went home instead of getting a feeling of sadness on the plane, I got his overwhelming feeling of, yessssss, I’ve paid my dues. I need a break from volunteering. No es facíl dude. Although I recently found out that Miguel is placing two health PCVs on my mountain, two from the group that’s coming in two weeks to the DR. This annoys me on several levels. First, why was I placed here ALONE and now he’s all about grouping? It SUCKED being here alone. I was the only health PCV in the entire north region of the country! Second, Ernesto told me that these girls will be here to help with the foundation. So if Miguel is making Ernesto their project partner I am seriously going to object. To me it’s a slap in the face, like the fact that he’s such a bad person and treated me so poorly doesn’t matter. Miguel is still going to reward him with more PC work. Also, why didn’t Miguel think to mention this to me or ask me to help with site development like he should have?

On the other hand, I’m glad that there will be two new girls (even though he’s putting them in the only two communities I did some stoves in outside of my community) because I am sure that they will continue the library. And I am happy for them that they will be able to work together; I think my service would have been exponentially better if I had had a nearby partner in crime. This leads to me think that I need to extend for at least a week since they will be leaving for their communities a day after I am supposed to leave the country. Seems kind of stupid to extend for a week but I think it’s important to talk to them about the library and the foundation so they don’t end up having to repeat groundwork. We’ll see if I extend. I really want to backpack across Central America when I’m done until Christmas but that depends on if my PCV friends (Kelly and Kenz) flake out… lol

The 18th is the most important post here, digo yo.

5/18 Tuesday: Sick, guest speakers, and Ernestina flips out
You never know what you’re getting into when the day starts. Or do you? I woke up today with full body aches and a headache to match. Little did I know that it was a foreshadowing of the day to come. It was a bummer being sick today but at least I didn’t have anything to do until Escojo at 4- MY Escojo class:) You know I’m sick because I’m worn out from all these kids and all this EMV stuff!! Today I didn’t get out of bed until 11:30 and then I laid back down again at 1:30. I was concerned because I only had about 60 pesos on my phone and the colmados were all out of calling cards. I needed to get in touch with my guest and also I wasn’t even sure if the kids would be out of school at 4 when we were supposed to have class!! School goes until 5:15 but this week they’re in review sessions for the exams and so they’re generally done early. I was hoping so.

The kids showed up on time but it was a disaster with my guest. He got so lost that he couldn’t tell me where he was each time I called. He just kept saying he was on his way. As I watched the balance of my phone card dwindle, it began to rain and the kids got out from school. It was 4:00, the kids were being bratty about waiting and my guest speaker was lost in the rain somewhere. Urg, and I had a headache. Luckily the kids were actually being bratty about waiting because they had forgotten we were having a guest speaker and when I reminded them they perked up. The speaker showed up around 4:45 and we had a fun class.

Nearly at the end of class, Ernestina showed up outside of the Club. I invited her to come in with us and she declined. About 5 minutes later she came in, when the class ended, and she began to talk with the speaker, a Regional Coordinator or RC. I offered her some pop and she declined that as well. As the kids lined up to put their stickers on the attendance sheet, Ernie began to yell something to all the kids about how this 3rd group is terrible. How she is part of the 1st group and no one can pass her up/walk on her. She said she’s a coordinator now and if we have guest speakers she will be informed about them. She said that the 3rd group just wants to work by themselves and she wouldn’t let that happen. Whoa. Can you say “Monster”? Needless to say, the kids all looked petrified. So I told the kids to keep on with the stickers and told Ernie that we would talk after.

She is insane. After the class left, it was me, Ernie, the two guest speakers and 4 other youth that are going to teach these next Escojo classes. I was asking each youth whom they wanted to be paired with from a list I had and when I go to Ernie she said she wasn’t in the project and wasn’t going to do it. Ummm… why not? Well, that did it. She went off. She said that I was the one who left her and all the others from the 1st group out of this one, that SHE was the one who formed the 2nd group while I was fooling around in the States- and for how long was I there? THREE WHOLE WEEKS!! (Dominicans come here from the States and generally stay the entire winter to visit with family) I was the reason she wasn’t a Regional Coordinator (RC) last fall because someone told her I was talking about her, she said it was HER that went to training in SD, it was HER that got that position and she doesn’t need help from anyone, nor did she get it. She said that I took out my angry feelings for Wandi on her whole family, she has been my enemy since last fall (which I was not aware of), I have no friends here, she tells people I didn’t come here to work but to live alone on the hill, I don’t visit anyone, I don’t do anything, she tells everyone that the fist PCV who came here was excellent but the 2nd one sucks and that they don’t want to work with Peace Corps anymore, that they don’t ever want another PCV… on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that we were “talking” I would have maybe preferred somewhere where crowds weren’t gathering (literally) or somewhere in front of the 2 guests. But, so be it….

I told her that I never told anyone she shouldn’t be a coordinator last fall. On the contrary, I wanted her to be one, I called her my “Star” but she couldn’t make the interview date because that was the weekend she got married! Also, new rule: RCs are supposed to have at least one year with EMV and she had one class. I didn’t say this but I wish that Miguel had spoken with me about selecting her to be a coordinator for the foundation because I would have suggested against it since she left EMV and has shown no interest in going back. I told her she’s at fault for not being an RC. She needs to change her bad attitude and also she quit EMV last fall. I told her that I’ve tried to fix things with her and her house, I wrote a poem for Mercedes (ok, so I copied it from some website…), I visit, I gave gifts. I tried to talk to Wandi and he ignored me. I tried to talk to Ernie, I even offered her a seat the other day when I found her on my front porch as I was leaving to go run. When I visit I can only visit when Ernesto is there because Mercedes treats me so coldly. What more can I do? Pay them? Don’t think so! I didn’t mention anything about my having no friends or never visiting because I felt it was irreverent to the problem and she apparently wasn’t going to take the high road in problem solving. I didn’t even really feel bad (I felt a teeny bit bad) that she said all that crap to me because I’m used to it from her family!! Ha! In hindsight, I am very happy with the things I said and where this happened. Now everyone can see both sides of the story and I didn’t say anything even remotely bad. Yay for me!

Tomorrow I’m either going to call Miguel or I’m going to tell Ernesto that I am not working with the Foundation from this point on until things change with Mercedes and Ernie. If Ernie can/wants to do it all alone, be my guest but I’m still in charge of the current EMV class and will continue teaching it. Miguel would be a good mediator but it’s not like he’s going to come out here tomorrow and I have to go with Ernesto on Thursday to another EMV thing. Not sure what I’m going to do yet, guess we’ll see. Whatever it is, I’m ready. I feel good about the decisions I’ve made. Mercedes needs to put some effort into this too; it’s always Ernesto telling me to go over there. Forget that. It’s got to be from both sides, I’m done being a doormat. And Ernie needs an attitude change. She thinks she’s always right, she’s perfect, and that she has to be in control of everything. She’s a monster.

The good side of this is that I told Minga and Margara about it and they both back me up 100%. They make me feel so good. I went to each of their houses tonight for a total of about 5 hours. With them behind me, I can do anything!! Also, it made me feel good because Margara walked past the crowd while Ernie and I were discussing things and she heard them saying how Ernie was saying so many lies (maybe I’m not a friendless looser who joined PC just to live alone on a hill!!). It feels good to think that the community supports me, even if it is silently. After all, if I wasn’t already in the fire, I’d avoid being burned by this family too!

5/17 Monday: Escojo takes over Betsy’s life
Today I began the day with a run (less sore today) and then had to hurry and get ready to go with Ernesto to Paradero, a town kind of far from us, to give the 1st Escojo class. When Ernesto told me about the foundation starting 10 Escojo classes I said I’d be glad to help but I’m not going to run 10 classes. That would be insane. Well, I kind of ended up running the workshop to start the classes and now I’m giving at least the 1st class to each group. And while Ernesto was with me in the morning, when we did the one in the afternoon, he dropped me off and went to Navarrete. Great. You know, it’s a good thing Escojo doesn’t make me nervous anymore because there were 25 kids in that class and I didn’t know any of them!! The class in the morning had 12 kids. Anyways, it looks like I’ll have the pleasure of giving classes 5 more times this week in addition to my other stuff. Oh boy! I complain but actually, if this works out I think it could be really cool. Also I like that I get to travel to other communities in my mountain and get to teach classes to other youth. Pretty sweet deal! (when they aren’t driving me insane like the afternoon group who wouldn’t shut the heck up) I just hope it works out because I don’t think I can keep this up for more than 2 weeks without loosing it.

5/16 Sunday: Elections
Elections in this country are insane. Politicians lie in wait outside of the poling areas and pay people for their votes (although many people say that they’ll vote for Fulano, take Fulano’s 100-8,000 pesos and then vote for Pedro). I wanted to see this spectacle but sadly went running super duper far yesterday thus today, the idea of walking .25 miles to the school and back was too much. Instead I stayed in my house the entire day. I was so sore that any ideas of getting out of bed made me ache. Jeesh.

5/12-14 Wednesday-Friday: Newbies Swear In, All PCV Conference, Peace Corps Prom
Talk about negative. Today I was stuck in my site for like 2 hours because I couldn’t find anyone to take me to Navarrete. I decided to kill time at Minga’s house while waiting for a ride or a hitchhike and her daughter, Margara came over. I always refer to her as Minga’s daughter but let it be known that she is also Noel’s mom (btw, I was sick that Sunday so Noel and I didn’t go on a date, I take that to be a sign) and she’s my best friend. She’s really fantastic and my go to for advice. So, imagine my surprise when she came over today and spent about an hour warning me about how terrible the people are in the community!! She wasn’t saying it in a malicious way but man- an entire hour?! I figure something bad must have happened to her recently.
I went to Navarrete finally only to find that the buses were on strike, great. So when I finally got to the capital I missed the meeting by about 2 hours- the meeting I was supposed to be co-running. Then, since I got there so late, I didn’t have time to go to the swearing in of the newbies. Which means I’ll never see a swear in unless I extend (a very likely option). Although, remembering my swear in- they’re boring.
That was all on Wednesday. On Thursday I went to my last ever (and 2nd) All Volunteer Conference. It was ok. They’re kind of boring but fun because you get to meet all of the newbies. The conference is at the training center in Pantoja and it’s far from the office which makes it a pain in the butt to get there by 8 am. Nevertheless, the conference is from 8 am until 4 pm. The great thing was that they gave great snacks this year (DONUTS!!!).
Something about Entrena that makes the weather crappy- it rained. So we ended up spending 45 minutes in the rain before our taxies arrived. Urg. I was surprised at the punctuality of the PCVs because my group was the 1st to get back to the hotel and we got back at 6:30. Prom began at 8! So, imagine 4 girls trying to share one bathroom, one shower and one mirror to get ready. Not to mention we got locked out of our room. But, we got dressed in prom attire and hit the road. Prom was really fun. What made it prom you ask? While we had it at a regular get together for PCVs we got the happy hour extended 2 whole hours and we had to wear nice clothes. Also, some PCVs got together and drew a picture backdrop!! Happy Prom!!!

5/11 Tuesday: Woooo Whoo!!! RAIN DAY!!!
I am an old campesina. I went to bed last night at 9:30 and didn’t get out of bed, officially until 9:30 this morning. I say officially because I had to get up 3x to deal with the psycho puppy who peed in my bed the night before and since has been temporarily band from the bed. She doesn’t like this and so, in addition to waking me up to tell me her puppy bladder is full, she wakes me up to show her disapproval of her not in bed with me. Great.

Today I was also able to sleep in because it was raining. I was supposed to have an Escojo class but had to move it to Saturday due to the school once again being uncooperative with the schedule we’ve have for nearly 3 months and trying to coordinate the new time with a guest speaker who moved and so was going to send someone else. So I was going to keep working on the mural but- hey it’s raining!! Thus, I took the day off… kind of. I cleaned the house, made some cake, am writing in my blog, talked with Ernesto, and am doing that grant jazz I need to get done. Later I’ll prepare to head out to the cap early tomorrow and hang with the Dona some. I mean, sure there’s no power and there’s a lot of mud everywhere, and my cell phone has been lost for about 3 hours now, but those are the worst things about my day!! Life is so good:)

5/10 Monday: A very strange day.
So today was a weird day because everything fell into place in a seemingly productive way. Today I was supposed to meet up with Ernesto in Navarrete at 1pm and we were going to buy the wood for the library. We were both late, getting there at 2 pm. We went to the wood shop and ordered the wood, and strangely the wood shop said they could deliver the wood that same day. (I agreed but figured it’d be delivered Wednesday or Thursday). The wood buying went so quickly that Ernesto and I found ourselves with an hour to kill before our meeting with the Mayor at her house at 4. We went to a furniture store to hang out with a friend of Ernesto. A thing to understand is that furniture stores are a dime a dozen around here. They’re on everyone corner along with the same type of clothing stores and colmados. Well, here is where the day gets weird. We were at this store for maybe 20 minutes when the Mayor shows up to buy a mattress. Of all the furniture stores in all the world… Anyways, we had our meeting right there and she agreed to the amount we asked for on the letter- $150, 000. After a long and confusing conversation with Ernesto (because her agreeing to give this money just like that isn’t what happens here… it’s like trying to convince me that pigs really do fly or something) I discovered that this money has to also be approved by a board (which Ernesto is pretty good friends with) and then they generally approve half. Well dang. If I had known that I would have asked for double instead of 1.5 times more. Anyways, we have to wait for them to have the board meeting and then see how it goes I suppose. I’m not holding my breath. I feel like we will get something from the local government but it’s going to be in the stage where we’re buying books and furniture.
And the day gets suspiciously better: Ernesto told me he talked with one of the people we spoke with last week about getting all of the sand donated for the project. We went there together last… well, some day last week and dropped off a letter explaining our cause. The guy, to me anyways, seemed completely uninterested and after a 2 minute conversation of Ernesto talking, we left. Does that seem promising? No. Well, Sunday when I was with Ernesto, I called the Mayor and set up a meeting with her (luckily being able to set one up for the next day) and then Ernesto called a friend of his. His friend happened to be with Sand Man and so his friend talked to him about the sand. And Sand Man said he’d donate all the sand we need! It would be available next week and we just need to get it transported up, aside from that it’s free! (not sure how we’re going to get it up here, but hey, one step at a time…)

After all this good news, I went to an internet center to write letters to newspapers asking for help in filling the second Peace Corps Community Partnership grant, or PCPP (the one that is posted on the internet and then the funds become available once the grant has reached it’s goal). The letters were going well, I wrote letters to 5 newspapers from my hometown area asking them to write a story about the library we were doing here, and to see if they could run the story on the same day- to see how fast we can fill it. Well, the weirdest thing happened- I wrote a wealthy friend of a friend two months ago about the library and he never responded. Literally 15 minutes after I had finished sending the last letter to the newspapers, the friend of a friend sent me an email asking if I still needed help with the library, how much we needed and where he could send a check!!! Not that I think by any means he’s planning on donating $5K but it’s just another sign of how things that are meant to be always come together. Now I just need to close out the other PCPP (for those interested in this, we spent the entire $2,300 USD from that grant in one trip to the hardware store and still had to use another $1750 USD just to buy the rest of the materials to make the floor of the library and the support columns… so no books, no walls, no electric wiring, no furniture, no paint… we have a long way to go still) and then write up PCPP #2; which I’m doing tomorrow. Today I am so tired. Having a puppy, two kittens and a cat that won’t shut up for the last month and however much more time is making me tired and grumpy.

sorry I didn't proof read this guys...

5/9: Sunday: Writing less, working more…
For any of you following my blog, you may have noticed that I am writing significantly less and less. This is because I am really super busy. I haven’t even gone to Santiago since my birthday!! Not that I am complaining, I love being busy. Being bored makes me sad. The problem with this is that I say yes to everything and then later realize that I’m actually doing something already that day. Saturday for instance I was supposed to be in 4 places at the same time. Whoops…. I ended up teaching an Escojo workshop. Something I wasn’t expecting. I thought that Ernesto and I were having a meeting for an hour or so with some of the youth from other communities, explaining what Escojo is and all that jazz. Well, nope. There is a super cool guy named Joshua who is PCs Director of Escojo and he was supposed to be here at 9am Saturday to give this workshop. I have never gone to a workshop and wasn’t really sure what it all entailed so I was happy to be there to experience the magic. Well, after waiting for Joshua to show up for an hour, Ernestina and Ernesto looked at me somewhat desperately and asked me to do something. Did I mention there was a full house? Over 70 people from 11 communities. Good thing I’m not shy!! Ha! So, I stalled and rambled and stalled. Until nearly 11 when Joshua arrived. But he was sick. He showed me his agenda and once I had an understanding of what a workshop was exactly I was ok and I took over while he went up to the house to nap. I taught the workshop the rest of the day and the next day he took over again. It great was a success and I felt very satisfied afterwards. We have between 5-7 groups set up to start and we should know who’s serious by next Saturday when I go around with Ernie to collect the lists they’re supposed to make.
Speaking of that, I found out that Ernie recently went to training in SD for Escojo Regional Coordinators. I guess she went last March or April and this is the first I’m hearing of it. I was upset. Annoyed. I talked with the PCV health leader last fall about Ernie being a RC for Escojo and Katie told me that each participant needs to have been in Escojo for at least one year and that it didn’t help her case that she was married since that’s not the image that Escojo wants to project. And now, after Ernie left Escojo for 7 months, she talks with Miguel (who never talks to me about anything) and she’s suddenly in training to be an RC? I can’t tell if I’m annoyed that she’s doing this because she didn’t put her time in and has a bit of a big head about it all or if its more personal and I’m mad that she left EMV, ignores me slightly and now can be an RC without my input on it at all. Not sure really but I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I think that she can be a good RC but she should still have had to have put her time in for the job. Ah well, cosas de la vida.
Anyways, after the workshop ended today I called the Mayor of Navarrete. I got her cell phone number and I called her up today to talk about getting some financial assistance with this library. Ideally we would like to get about $100-$150,000 pesos from her but vamos a ver. She invited me to her house tomorrow at 4 pm. Not only do I expect her to be super late if we even are able to talk to her but I don’t expect to achieve what we hope to achieve tomorrow. Everything in this country is a fight although with the elections being only a week away, we may have an advantage.

Anyways, I’ve been surprised lately how I don’t have much fear about talking in Spanish. Although, Mary Alice you can tell Carmen that if she tries to talk to me in Spanish again when I go home in July I’m going to quedarme callada because I have a ton of vergüenza of my Dominican Spanish to other Spanish speakers. She’d think I had a speech impediment if I can a conversation with her, I know it.

5/1 Saturday: Despedida para Ana y Temo
Today was Anne and Tim’s farewell party. In a nutshell, it made me realize that my group is the next to go!!! Bummer because I really love it here now. I understand what a PCV was telling me right after I swore in now. She was in the group about to leave and she was complaining how right after you get used to being here it’s time to go. I only have 5 months left and I can’t picture leaving. Urg, I also don’t want to think about applying to grad schools (essays, letters of recommendation (ready for that Mary Alice--- er, I mean Bill?), the GRE and the COLD!!!! We finish the end of October although with this library project I may find a reason to stay until December. All I can say is, la vida no es facíl.

4/27 Tuesday: “Maybe I should just go for it and see how it goes?”: when your motorcycle driver asks you on a date.
As you all may have read, I have been extremely happy these last two months in my site. Life is good. No, life is great. Sure things aren’t going great but there are always problems in life. For example, today y pa’ ‘lante I have to change my Escojo class to the afternoon because all the teachers decided they don’t like the time I’m having it at. Later today I was at Margara’s house making tostones and spaghetti for dinner with her and her fam, having a great time when Ernestina and Mercedes showed up. Mercedes saw me and wouldn’t even go into the house. She told Margara that she had to go because Ernesto was sick from some juice and then left. Ernie said she was charging her phone and left. In case you didn’t get that, those were both bunk reasons and they were avoiding me. I am going to make this hard for them. I’m going to go to the Club de Madres each Monday from now on and I’m going to go out of my way to hang out at the houses they go to. And we shall see how long they decide to keep trying to ignoring me! Ha!

After dinner I went back to my house and there were 3 kids there who I got into a water fight with until nearly 10pm. It was fun because I wasn’t getting wet, just them! I was sitting out under the moonlight writing in my journal when Noel came over to visit. I have suspected that he has a crush on me because lately he’s been acting a little different. Well, last night he was like, “I’m not just saying this because I’m drunk right now but I’ve had a crush on you since we met”- the paraphrased, shorter version of course. This complicates my life. Not just because he is my motor man but also because it’s his mom and his grandma who are my best friends!! I’ve thought about dating him actually. I mean, I’ve wanted to date a Dominican (this may sound weird to people who don’t live here but it makes sense I swear) and he’s not a player, he’s in my site so I’d get to see him all the time, he’s got a motorcycle and works so he’s not a bum, he’s respectful and has never said anything inappropriate like 95% of the other Dominican men… and I love his family. On the other hand, this could end badly and then I’m screwed. I mean, if we date it’d almost have to be until the end of my service and I don’t think I want a commitment like that! (Sure I only have 6 months left but that’s a lot of hours…) Do I like him like that? Not really but Dominican relationships aren’t started based on that. It’s more of convenience and other simple factors. Then maybe something comes from it. So the question is what are the expectations at first really? I don’t know, I mean maybe I should just go for it and see how it goes? But is he the one I should experiment with? This whole entry sounds bad…

4/25-26 Sunday and Monday: Happy Birthday!!
This weekend was GREAT!!!! There was a regional meeting Sunday and my friend Kelly send out an email to all the PCVs in my region saying that we were going to have a birthday party afterwards for me so people should stay the night. It was the best party I have ever had! The last time I threw a party for myself no one showed up (8th grade graduation, big ego hit) but this time there were like 20- 25 people!! Fun!!! We went to a Mexican food restaurant and I didn’t have to buy any dinner because my little group got there late and ate everyone’s leftovers. So I got to try a bunch of the food there for free!! Then my friend Chris bought me a shot of tequila (which ended up being a double shot) and Mica told the restaurant it was my birthday and she bought me a piece of cheesecake and everyone sang to me when the waiter brought it out!! And they put a huge sombrero on my head. After dinner we went dancing and had a great time. It was so fun!! It was the 25th but close enough to my birthday. Someone was watching the clock in my group because at midnight they played a happy birthday song at the club and everyone clapped for me. It was so nice!!!!
I ended up having to sleep on the floor that night without a pillow or sheet or anything but no big deal. At least it was free! The next day I went out with Ali, Kelly and a girl named Mary who is visiting to lunch and then we all bought matching shoes together. I used the internet and talked with my best friend from home, Becky (1st time since September!), and also with my mom (talk with her online all the time:) though Skype. Later that night my sister, Rach, called me and we talked- 1st time since January! When I got to my campo no one had planned anything but that’s because no one knew about it. I didn’t really make a big deal about it to anyone, just mentioned it to the kids who hang out in my house that Friday before. Someone made me habichuela con dulce though which was delicious!! Ah yes, birthdays get better and better each year. It makes me nervous about next year, will I be sad I’m not here in the DR? I’m sure there won’t be a party with even 10 people to go out dancing with… better enjoy this time in my life while I can. And so I will:)

4/15- 4/18 Bola Race!!!
For those of you reading this who are seriously seriously behind the times and don’t have facebook, Bola Race is essentially hitchhiking across country with a bottle of alcohol in a costume with a partner. Yep, a perfect recipe!!! I wanted to go last year but couldn’t find a male partner (the ratio is ridiculious) so I missed out. This year I considered not going because I’m worn out!! I have been out of my site every weekend and just want to stay in my site and chill. But I went. And it was a hoot. We met up in Hato Mayor Friday and did a white elephant type of alcohol exchange. Then at 9 am the next morning we met up, the destination place was announced and a bunch of oddly dressed, mostly white people began trying to get a bola out of town. The rule is that you have to have an empty bottle before you get to the finish line and you can’t dump it out. Never in my life have I drank that early. I gave a bunch of our bottle to some homeless guy around 9:30 and so I can still say that I have never been drunk before noon. Mine and Andrew’s story was very original. We were newlywed brother and sister who were washed out to sea after a bad storm in LA a few months ago. After 3 days at sea a boat found us and took us to the DR. There is a lawyer at the end destination (a beautiful, calm tourist area called Bayihibe… may have spelled that wrong) who specializes in helping shipwrecked people without passports back to the States. The only part anyone ever double took on was that we were married brother and sister. We placed 7th out of 23 teams:)

4/9- 4/11 Escojo Conference:)
In a nutshell: Rachele, Ali and I planned this conference by ourselves and it went great. It makes me confident that the youth conference in August that Kelly, Rachele and I are planning will go well. We had a Sundae Bar one night and a Snack Bar another night (who’s idea do you think that was?:) along with a talent show. I know it seems like all I do is have fun here but what can I say? The fun stuff is more fun to write about! (Aside from the entry about someone poking out Kouldbie’s eye of course…)
4/7 Wednesday: Someone pokes out Kouldie’s eye.
Today I went to my Doña’s house to eat lunch after taking it easy in the morning with an Indiana Jones movie (until the power went out). Before I went to Minga’s I decided to check on my cat, Kouldbie and her two little kittens. I took some pics to post up on facebook for the next time I was online and then set off for some free rice and beans. About 20 minutes into my visit with Minga, a little boy ran up to me telling me that Kouldbie’s eye was outside of her head, giant and had blood all around it. I assumed that maybe something insignificant had happened to her but that he must be exaggerating. I ate some mangoes and headed up to my house, forgetting about the crazy kid.
When I got to my front door I was surprised to find Kould waiting for me and even more surprised to see that she indeed had a big problem with her left eye. It was bulging out of the socket and surrounded by red tissue. Well great, fantastic. I had to cancel planning English with Jen, loaded up the cat and the kittens into the carrier and got onto the motorcycle headed to the vet in Navarrete.
When I got to town everyone was closed still for the 2 hour lunch break. So we found the vets house and asked him to end his lunch a half hour early. I should have taken it as a sign when the 1st thing the vet did was take out a roll of packing tape and tell me to hold her legs together while he taped them… my jaw dropped and I asked him if he had thought about using some… ohhh I don’t know, anesthesia? Jeesh! He thought about it for a minute and said, oh yeah, I guess we could do that. So he put the tape away and instead of giving her something to put her to sleep he gave her something to dull the pain and tried for the next 45 minutes to force the eye back into the socket while she growled. It made me nauseous as I pet her. Poor thing. I finally convinced the vet that this obviously wasn’t working and so he said that he would give her an anti-inflammatory and maybe the eye would go back in on its own. He said it was important to keep it moist in the meantime and so I had to constantly keep wetting it. The problem was that I wasn’t going to be here this weekend because I have an Escojo conference Friday-Sunday. He offered to keep her until Monday and after weighing the options of taking the cat back on the motorcycle for a day and then bringing her back while I went to the conference, I decided to leave her with the vet. I was worried though, remembering the tap incident and asked him to use pain meds every time he was going to do something that hurt her.
Thursday I was really busy with two art classes, English class and stove making in between but Friday on my way to the conference I stopped at the vet and checked on Kouldbie. The vet wasn’t in yet and when he finally got in, he took about 10 minutes to go and look for her… making me wonder what was going on. When I did see her I was upset to see she looked gaunt. The vet said that her eye was still outside of the socket and that if it didn’t go back in by Monday he would have to operate. Ummm, hello…. It’s been over FOURTY hours. If they anti-inflammatory meds didn’t work yet I doubt they’re going to go into overdrive and shrink her eye back into her head. When we took off the little mask he had made her, I saw that the eye had lost all of the original color and was completely black. I’m no doctor but I know anything black on the body generally gets cut off, STAT. Problem was I didn’t have enough money on me to pay the vet and get to the conference and all of the banks were closed due to some computer problem. So I told him I was just taking her back with me so I could take care of her until Monday when we would operate if they eye was the same and I took Kouldbie to Santiago to the vet there.
When we got to the vet in Santiago (“we” because during all of this I had my youth with me, a timid 13 year old girl who had only been to Santiago 2 times in her life, ah the things I was showing her!) the vet took one look at the eye and said it was too late to save it. But Kouldbie had a fever from infection so they had to wait a day to operate. Poor cat!! I asked how much it would be and laughed when they said it would be $5000 pesos- more than half of my months salary. I thought about putting her to sleep but after she suffered for 2 days, and if we did that her kittens would die too. Urg…. I’m going to have to figure out how to save up $5000…
I left Kouldbie and went to the conference. The conference was really fun and went really well (surprising since I’m one of the head people planning it!). When I picked up Kouldbie the next Wednesday I was happy to find her one happy cat, loving life!! The vet had to sew her eye shut so she looks like a pirate, maybe I should get a patch. Anyways, I’m glad I have her home. She’s one smart cat because there is no way I’m leaving a $6200 (with the vet bill from Navarrete) in the DR!!!

yay!!!!!!!! 3/29- 4/6

4/6 Tuesday: So this is what it feels like to finally be adjusted… well, mostly adjusted.
Today was the day of the condom races in Escojo. This is the best class ever, something about spinning blindfolded kids around and watching them trying to put a condom on a plantain is great. So great in fact that last year I planned to have this class around my mom and sister’s visit so they could be in the most fun class. I really like my Escojo class this time around. I regret not putting myself in the last class 100% because I think all the classes have potential to be great if they’re lead properly. This class and my first class are great. Sure they fight and argue and say the other team cheated and yada yada yada but that’s a given with these kids- maybe all kids, I really don’t know. But with my kids I expect it. I’m so glad that I have Escojo. Sure I don’t feel like drawing/planning the 4 new topics we’re going to do in the upcoming weeks because drawing the classes takes forever and I am quemada, but I really love my classes. Teaching kids is really fun, something that seriously surprises me. (Remember I am the one who when asked what I wanted from my host fam in CBT I said, “I just don’t want to be in a house with children.”) I’m so grateful that Escojo is my project (or one of them) because I never would have volunteered to teach anything before PC. Now I know I can do it, I understand how to do it and I really enjoy it (although not enough to do it for a career). One great thing about Peace Corps I’m discovering, aside from the friendships and freedom, is that in a very hands-off way it throws you into things you probably would have never done before and makes you do them. I realize I really can do anything. It’s not about being smart or super talented- it’s about determination and motivation. If you stick to anything and have the right attitude you will become good at it. I never wanted to do things before that I wasn’t fairly good at but I embarrass myself alllllll the time here and it’s fine. I am so glad that I am here, that I did this because it’s opened up my world: to food (I ate my 1st and hopefully last, full bowl of boiled bananas the other week because a poor family gave them to me and it was so nice of them), to experiences, to culture, to friendships, to an entire world I never would have experienced simply because I didn’t speak the same language. I can say for certain that I am adjusted to my situation here. Yes I will continue to adjust and to grow but I am comfortable and happy now. I know not everyone likes me and that’s how it’s going to be. I love it here (but am still counting down till I go home!!!) and I appreciate all the opportunities I have been given. I am finally not living being really careful not to become attached because I’m leaving in X number of days. I got a dog for heavens sake! With only 7 months left, who does that?! The main thing I want to do now is work on Dominican relationships. I want a Dominican best friend who is really a best friend. I really love my Doña and her daughter but that’s it. Noel and I are becoming pretty good friends, surprisingly. It’s strange but the last week or two, I have begun seeing my service and Dominicans through different eyes and I really like this new outlook. I’m excited for each day to come and grateful for each that passes. I think I am gaining a better understanding of Peace Corps and what it means to be a Volunteer.

Later that day… I went looking for Lucy Loquita (I changed my dog’s name) and ended up sitting and talking with Ernesto for a loooooooong time. How long I will never know as the watch fixer in the community has my watch (hopefully just a dead battery). But it was a nice talk and I’m glad to have Ernesto as a friend to hang out with. I never just hang out with people. I always feel like I’m passing time because I have to and am waiting until I can leave. What a bad attitude. Anyways, I left his house and called the grants coordinator of Peace Corps (who I have been calling a lot lately so my grants for the library move along quickly). I was on the phone with him working out this and that with the grants when he told me that- oh! The money from the PCPP (the grant that was online) was sitting there waiting for me and he just noticed he had forgotten to approve its deposit. And also, oh! The money for the SPA grant has arrived!! Not for me in particular-however, my SPA was written and since I had been calling it moved along quickly and was approved in Washington already which just means that I have to wait for the divining up of the money. That was the one I was really afraid of. SPA can take FOREVER to finally come in for the people who are on the waiting list and Conrado told me that he didn’t know if there would be enough money in the funds (whenever they finally came in) for my project since I was at the end of that waiting list. So I called Miguel last week who told me he would make sure that I was bumped up on the waiting list since I’m in the next group to COS (leave). YAYYYY!!!! The SPA grant is $5000 USD!!!! And the PCPP is $2300 USD!!!! And the other grant I wrote and should hear back from by this Friday is for $2500 which means that potentially by the end of this week I could have gone from having no funds for the library to having everything I requested- $9500!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOT!

More good news: I wanted to write a grant for a small latrine project and Conrado kept telling me there were none that were applicable. Then I read about a new one that seemed applicable but Conrado told me it wasn’t. Knowing that he deals with lots of people and wouldn’t remember that it was me that asked him every time we spoke about that grant for latrines I kept asking him if this grant was applicable for latrines. I figured he would double check after “so many people” were asking him about this grant and latrines. It worked and today when I asked him about it again he reread it with me and realized that it can be used for latrines! So now I can write one for that and do a latrine project too if I get approved!! The only two other things I would like to do before I leave in the way of projects are the basketball court and garbage pick up. Well, murals too but that’s just a few days of work and doesn’t involve much planning. The other two involve a lot of harassing. I am so pumped right now!! We are meant to have this library!!! :)

4/3 Saturday: Concert at a water park= genius idea
I had heard that Santiago and Puerta Plata have water parks but I never had gone to one here. To tell you the truth I was scared to go thinking that I would contract some nasty fungus or disease. I pictured the water in a park like this, in a country with no general regulations for anything, to be cloudy and full of pee- maybe even poop. I vowed that if I went and the smell of chlorine was not in the air then I was absolutely not getting in the water. I also thought it was going to be a joke in size, having one small, crappy pool full of people and maybe having two slides. I was ready for the worst and ended up being pleasantly surprised. The water was pretty clean, the park was waaaaaay bigger that I had expected with multiple slides and pools- it even had a sprinkle area, platforms to jump from into deep water (with Dominicans actually in lines and waiting!) and, my favorite part because I have never used one before: it had a bar in the water!!! The prices to drink were double or triple that of a colmado but I guess that’s to be expected, especially on a day where there was going to be a concert with multiple singers, some really famous.

We were mildly concerned that we would miss a singer since they claimed that the concert was going to be from 10 am to 10 pm and, since we had to get ready by going to the salon beforehand, we didn’t get to the park until around 3. Luckily we are in the DR and so they didn’t start singing until around 3:30 or 4.

Overall we all had a great time. I haven’t gone to many concerts in my time but I think I prefer Dominican concerts. No one has any shame and so they’re singing and dancing. I must have danced for 3 hours Saturday night. The park closed around 10 or 10:30 and we took a cab home. There was a group of 7 of us and we all went to my friend Kelly’s house because she lives pretty close. If you are ever in the DR and can go to a concert, I recommend that you go!

4/1 Thursday: Easter Egg Hunt!!!!!
In honor of Semana Santa, today is my only class this week. I canceled all the others for “spring break” but I still wanted to have my art class. I really wanted to have an egg hunt for them and this week is the most appropriate time for that so we had to have art class! The only issue was figuring out a way to dye the eggs. After lots of searching and research I have decided to dye the eggs using the DR version of kool aid. The only sad thing is that we only have red and orange but I was fortunate to come across some actual Kool Aid grape flavored powder on Monday! At least we will have purple which is all that really matters, verdad?

I knew today was going to be crazy but fun. I only let 30 kids participate since we had a limited number of eggs and it’s nearly impossible to control more than 30 kids at a time. I bought 120 eggs and Minga hardboiled them on her new stove for me that morning. I set up all the bowls with juice and explained to the kids how to use the crayons and then dye the eggs. Then I told them to collect their eggs and memorize which eggs were theirs before trading eggs with a partner. Then they had to go out and hide their partner’s eggs and after, return to the Club. Of course chaos ensued. All 30 kids went right up next to the side of the Club and hid all three of their eggs TOGETHER in a pile- when they had the entire baseball diamond at their disposal!! This would not do. I herded the kids back into the Club and said they weren’t allowed to hide them next to the Club and they couldn’t be together, that the point was that the person had to really try to find them so they needed to use all the space in the play and put them separate from one another. I saw their light bulbs turn on, now this was going to be fun. The went out and re-hid the eggs and then came in for a lesson on why we have the Easter Bunny in the States and why we do fun stuff with eggs. Then I let them go out to find the eggs before the big dog in the neighborhood found them and ate them, and that was equally funny. Ah, I love my “job”:)

3/31 Wednesday: A talk with a neighbor.
Today I spoke with Ernesto about Mercedes. I have done everything else. I’ve avoided her, I’ve talked to her, I’ve been super nice, I’m sucked up, I’ve gone to her house to hang out, I tell her when I’m leaving and when I’m back… after 4 months of this, there are no other options aside from talking to Ernesto. And I was a little nervous because if Ernesto decided that I suck as well after this conversation, I would be in a pickle. Surprisingly it went well. I explained my problem, telling him that I wanted to talk to him about this because he randomly told me the day before that if he were in the US and I was his project partner and he had a problem with someone, he would talk to me. I told him how I have really tried to make things better between Mercedes and myself and have not been seeing the fruits of my labor. I told him I care for his whole family and when I first realized she was angry with me, it really upset me. I also told him even other women have approached me telling me that I should talk to her about this because she seems really mad at me. He told me he would talk to her so we shall see how it turns out but, as usual, I’m hopeful.

3/29 Monday: This is kind of a boring story but I thought it was funny: A trip to the vet….
Last Friday I went to the only vet I knew about near the downtown area where I always go in Santiago. I was nervous that is was going to be one of those agro-veterinarians which are a dime a dozen here and is staffed by people who don’t generally know how to care for a “pet” rather than just shoveling vaccines down farm animal’s throats. Sure I def have a different opinion of them in the States but they’re different here. For instance, I went into one of these shops last week in Puerta Plata. I told the guy behind the counter I needed a deparasite med for my puppy. He didn’t ask how big she was or how old she was, he just gave me a bottle and said to give it all to her. I decided not to buy anything and instead went to a different place. With common sense stuff like that I know it’s no big deal but with actually giving vaccines I need a legit vet. So, I was very happy to find on Friday that VetBoca in Santiago seems very legit. I would prefer that they spoke English but Spanish isn’t really an issue anymore so that ok. I had decided to bring Caramelita into the vet on Monday and wasn’t sure how I was going to go about it still. I have heard many many horror stories about PCV’s animals freaking out on the bus rides, throwing up, defecating or urinating all over everything. I hoped that if I was calm she would be calm. But also I had some errands to run in Santiago and didn’t know about getting her into the stores.

Getting out of my site was a piece of cake. I assumed the motorcycle ride would be ok because we had already been on a motor when we went to paint the mural last week. We ended up getting a bola down in a truck with Tolo, went to a lumberyard to buy some wood for the stoves and then waited at the expresso bus stop to Santiago. To my relief she rode on the bus like a champ and slept. We got off at the giant hardware store in Santiago, Ochoa, and I decided to put her in my shoulder bag and see what happened. Success! We got in! I picked out some paint, bought some seeds for the gardens and checked out, all the while with her being a very good girl in my bag. It wasn’t until as I was leaving, I went to pick up the bag I had checked that they saw her. And they didn’t even care!! They thought it was so cute that she was in there the whole time! So, I took her out of my bag and put the harness I had just bought for her on her. Stop at Ochoa to get some stuff: Check.

Next we walked for a while… she doesn’t understand how to walk (a) in a place with lots of stuff to distract her (b) on a leash (c) with a harness. So when I say “we” walked I really mean it took her about 15 minutes to walk one block and then I carried her the rest of the way. We went into the next store, her carefully stowed away in my shoulder bag, and I went to the counter to get some tickets to a concert “water park” this weekend. Apparently only one guy can sell tickets and he wasn’t going to be in for another 30 minutes. So I walked around the store, found grape Kool Aid for my egg dying art class on Thursday, tried on some clothes, looked at makeup… a little of this a little of that. An hour later I went back to the counter and the dude still wasn’t there. Not surprising. But there was another store that sold tickets that wasn’t too far from this one so I set out to find that store. All the while Caramelita was zonked out in my bag. Overstimulation can be a good thing sometimes! I went into the next store and bought the tickets without a problem. Buy 7 tickets for this weekend: Check.

After that I decided that now would be as good of a time as any to buy some paper for my Escojo class. When I went into this store Caramelita was readjusting and the door checker said, “Let me see what’s in your bag.” I showed her and it was our 1st rejection: she said I couldn’t go into the store with her. So I asked her to get me some paper and glitter for my art class and she stared at me for a minute and then said I could go in. Stop to get supplies for Escojo and art: Check.

Now I was really beginning to become loaded down with stuff so we went to the park and played fetch and then went to the vet. She did a good job with the vet and so I left her to go to the normal spot to use internet: the hotel Aloha Sol. They have free wireless for their guests and while I have never stayed there, that’s the hotel PC uses when we need to be consolidated (for hurricanes generally) so they let us use it.

When I went to pick Caramelita up she was laying peacefully on her side staring at the wall. I asked if she had been sleeping the whole time and the vet said no it was just the opposite. She had been crying so much that they thought maybe she was hot so they moved her to a different cage on top of all the other cages so that she was closer to the fan, they gave her water and even shut their front door and turned on the AC! What a diva!! I put her in my bag, grabbed all my stuff and walked to my bus stop. She slept for a while but woke up when we were half way home and was standing at attention looking out the window on the way home. Then on the motorcycle she didn’t behave quite as well as the 1st ride but overall she was good.
I thought this day was funny. All those stores and only one cared that I had a dog in my bag!! Hopefully when I take her back to the vet for her 2nd vaccine set she still fits in my bag!