My work here is almost done...

For all of you reading this blog, please continue to think about the possibility of making a donation to my work, project and community here in Santiago. I will be accepting donations through the end of this week (Friday December 5th). I am finishing analyzing and typing up the results of my investigation, organizing my project (the sales of my artisans works together in my programs office and in a local church), and I have my final presentation to my community, organization, and program that sums up all my work, my results, and suggestions/ recommendations to my organization and community of artisans.

We had a meeting last weekend to elect the assembly (president, secretary, treasurer, vocals...) and the association is beginning! Now we have to go to register our name with the State to officially become a working non-profit! Very exciting!

La Competencia Internacional de NACO

This past weekend was wonderful. The Pan-American Championships of swimming were held here in the DR this year and we traveled to Santo Domingo to compete with our team, the Bettas of PUCMM and it was a very tiring, inspiring, and worth-while experience. There were 17 teams there from all over from southamerica. There were mulitple swimmers that we met that competed in the past olimplic games in Bejing. We met people from all over the world and talking in Spanish and being able to understand others' Spanish from all over was really cool. I placed top 16 in 3 of my 5 events and we placed 6th in the final relay yesterday. I stayed in a room with 7 other guys from the team and the coach. We went to Acropolis the large mall downtown and ate out, went to an arcade, and played lazer tag together Sat. night. We laughed and ate lots of food for energy and I am really going to miss all the guys on the team, being that that was the last meet of the season. We will still be hanging out at the pool when possible, but the next season won't start until January.

Día de Gracias

 

Gracias a todo mi familia. All of your love and support is more than I need during the difficult times. I am sorry I am not home today and I miss you all very dearly (and all that wonderful food too)! I love you all very much.

Gracias a mis amigos nuevos y mi programa. Todos de ustedes son maravillosos and have made this an incredible journey from the start. I am grateful to be spending today with you even if we can´t be with our families back home, it is a wonderful thing we have each other. Elaine and Marcos, Dorka, my host Family, esta experiencia ha sido uno de lo más bella y buena en toda mi vida y estoy agradecido a Uds.

Gracias a mi cielo, quien siempre esta aquí conmigo, si no de locación, dentro de mi corazón. ¡Te amo y te quiero y no puedo esperar para el día cuando puedo ver a todos de Uds. de nuevo!

La IV Feria Comunitaria de EMPRENDE

There was a community fair in the central park of my community for all the small businesses involved with EMPRENDE this past weekend. There was food, music, dancing, and most importantly, all of my artisans selling their beautiful art together. It was a great community bonding event where everyone came together and had a really great time. The artisans were thrilled to receive their new business cards that we created together and they took great pride in handing them out. It was really great to see my work pay off and many people in the community commented, "que chulo, que bonitas son" (how cool, how beautiful they are!) It has inspired me to continue my work and spend more time in my community that I have become so deeply attached to. I can't wait until the association gets up and running and we can host our own Community Art Fair which would highlight just the artisans work. Everyone is very excited for that day.

La Cañada- Proyecto Comunitario

 

This weekend I was working with one of the artisans in my community to present her idea of a community based project to a group of the highest community leaders within the Northeastern Sector of Santiago. The proplem: La cañada, or stream, running through my community, Hoya de Caimito. It was covered years back and the overcongestion of poor quality houses but when it rains it overflows and runs into all of the homes, destroying everything on the ground. This is a grave problem. The black water of the crick is contaminated by excessive polution and causes health problems when it floods, as well as security problems that result (three children have died in the past couple years as a result of being trapped in their houses during the floods.

I helped type a 8 page report of the problem, the causes, and the steps needed to take in order to find a solution. I went to la cañada, took pictures, spent time talking to the community about what was happening there and why no body does anything about it and created a presentation to present to these community leaders. I went with Lourdes, the artisan, to present the ideas and solutions to the leaders at the Centro Leon. They included capacitating, or teaching, the public about what´s going on and what they can do within their own community. Continuing to search for governmental aid and international institutions to fund the project is also essential. The presentation went very well, but still much work is needed to be done. I have much more specific information if anyone knows of anyone who can help.

Mi Comunidad

In the thick of things

Last week there was a lot of work to do. In between visiting all my artesanos and collecting more data from my investigation, I got to spend time in some families houses and one wouldn´t let me leave until I was fed lunch until I couldn´t eat any more. The care and generosity of my community is overwhelming. Many artesanos have gifted me necklaces, intricately painted bottles of wine, seashell keychains, paintings made out of the plantain leaves, etc.

My weekend was spent swimming (i won two metals and two buttons... lol ive never received a button before :) and working. I had a meeting with all of my artisanos para definir los estatutos (to define the bylaws) of the association. It appears that it is actually going to work and the association is going to be formed. All we have to do now is pick a date to elect the assembly (the president, vocals, treasurer, etc) I was very excited after the past meetings had very few people show up even though everyone told me they would be there. But it seems like things are turning around and are actually going to work out, which is really exciting after all the work I have done! I am currently creating business cards for all the artesanos that don´t have them and getting ready for a community fair EMPRENDE is putting on this coming Sunday. Well its off to class now then work some more..

HAITI

Almost by accident, we met Davidson. It was a pamphlet that Emma found on a day that was past the deadline to sign up. But we got in contact with him because he was the leader of a small trip going to Haiti. He himself grew up and lived in Haiti until college, where he is now studying in his last year in PUCMM in Santiago, DR. We met with him a couple times before we left and with a waiver release sign, 4350 pesos, and $60 us dollars we were set to go to where I had only dreamed I would ever be: Haiti.

Ever since I read Mountains Beyond Mountains (which all you blog fans out there should go read right now cuz its wonderful!) I have been interested in international development and Haiti specifically because it’s long, rich history and how yet it remains to be one of the poorest countries in the world. The Dominican Republic has many social and economic problems they are struggling with as we all know working and living within our communities, but there is a visible line between Haiti and the DR as you fly into the island. One side is lush and green, and the other brown and very much dead looking. I was interested in learning why things are the way they are and how the two countries that share the same island are so very different.

This past Friday, the hour arose (well we did but the sun didn’t). 5am we got up to get to the bus station at 6:30 to find out that the earliest bus that went straight to Cap Haitiano (our destination) didn’t leave until 11:30am. 5 hours to kill. Wishing we could have slept because we hung out with some guys on the swim team and some others from the program, we tried to decide if we should go home and sleep or what. Jaime’s dad was visiting and had gotten in the night before and so before we took him to another country we decided to show him the monument, Dominican coffee at my house, and elaine’s beautiful hostess self in our extra time. We went back by concho (the over-crowded public transportation cars of the DR), always an experience for a first timer before returning to the bus station. We were on our way, just a few hours behind schedule, which is something that you learn to deal with easily here in the DR.

After a brief stop at the border to fill out paperwork to get our visas we arrived. Our entrance felt like we were entering into a refugee camp. There were people all over: in the river you have to cross, in the street selling things in large bins the Hatians wear on their heads… Many children didn’t have clothes on. Everything seemed brown. It was a large brown field where nothing but a couple dead looking trees. It was strange. We were definitely attracting attention being a giant, nice coach bus filled with gringos- and I had a hunch it wasn’t good attention. People stared at us as we passed through. When we arrived in Cape Haitian, we took a tap-tap (public pickup truck with wooden benches in open back you climb into) through the pot-hole filled, bumpy, crowded roads from the bus station to our hotel.

I felt like I had entered into a new world. I don’t know if I can describe it exactly but there were people everywhere in the streets, walking and selling things and talking. The houses were all unfinished, half painted, crumbling cement or scrap metal walls. The road was so bumpy that taking pictures was almost impossible, not to mention felt inappropriate when everyone was still staring at you as you drove by.

Cape Haitian, the second largest city in Haiti has a population of 130,000 today. This city holds a very important place in Haitian history. We went to Broma, the place of the birth of Toussaint and also the sight of the last battle of the revolution of Haitian slaves, gaining Haitian Independence in 1804. Seeing the statues/ tributes in the dark because we were a few hours late was scary appropriate for Halloween!

On Saturday we traveled to the house of Davidson’s mom and his aunts house. Even though none of us could communicate directly it was a great experience going into their neighborhood and talking to them through Davidson. We went to the San Souci, the place of the palace of the first and only King of Haiti, Henry Cristof (during the time right after the revolution). We rode donkeys up a steep steep mountainside for a couple hours to arrive at the Citadel which the Haitian slaves had built during the revolution to lookout for French opposition that never actually came. 20,000 slaves died in the building of this giant castle/fortress which was made out of limestone, animal blood, rainwater and sugarcane- all by hand. It was spectacular. We got to climb to the top of the towers to sit at the top and eat a packed lunch overlooking the coast and entire mountainous countryside. It was bien Hermosa.

We went to a beautiful restaurant where I ate muro, a spicy rice and beans dish and also a goat soup which was very tasty. We went to a local discotec which was amazing and there was a giant latin dance competition and a presentation/ celebration for Dia de los Muertos (the day after Halloween which they celebrate the dead). The best dancing I have ever seen in my life- better than every tv show and movie and people I ‘ve ever seen! We also became familiar with their type of traditional music, compa. Amazing and we tried babancou, the local Haitian rum that is very strong and uniquely sweet because it is made of sugar cane.

We had a crammed ride home with like 20 people in a 14 person bus and more people who hopped a ride on the roof during our treck back to the border. Bumpy, cramped and uncomfortable is an understatement, but we were relieved to make it back safely and hear the familiar sounds of merengue and people speaking Spanish. It was an eye opening, rich experience which I will not forget for a long time to come.

The last week of October

Service-Learning big wigs from the U of M visited this week and I got to take two of the four around in my community with me and we ate lunch at one of the entrepreneur’s houses (conveniently she is in the cake making business and needless to say they liked the experience). I also got the chance later in the week to help one of the artisans make a piece of art from fibra de plátano, which is dried plantain-palm tree leaves/bark dried, flattened, cut and scrapped together to make beautiful forms of art.

After this Esperanza, the artist I was working with, invited me to a community meeting she was having. I showed up with her… and a dozen other middle age and older women. That wasn’t in itself the problem. The problem was it was a meeting on breast cancer and how to give self checks as a preventative medical technique. Let’s just say it was a little awkward I kinda just sat there with nothing to contribute but two eyes looking at the ground. In hindsight it was a pretty funny predicament to be in, but at the time I wanted nothing better but to get out of there.

We had our midterm paper due for our capstone class on Wednesday and by the end of the week we realized how much work we have to do in the upcoming half of the semester. With the investigation teacher hospitalized for Dengue Fever, and our director leaving the country for conferences in a week it was imperative that we get on top of things again so that we are ready for the capstone projects we are creating and the presentations to the community of the results and recommendations of our investigations. We spent all day Thursday in Elaine’s office and didn’t even go home for lunch.

On a more serious note, other problems have arisen recently. Firstly, one of the women Emma works for in her health organization was killed in a car crash two weeks ago. Her community and organization are still dealing with the impact of that tragedy. Secondly, the doña, or woman who watches the kids and cleans the house of Elaine and Marcos, her husband was shot and killed by a policeman last Sunday night after the doña was at Portia´s birthday party. The son of the husband from a previous marriage had gotten in a fight with the doña´s nephew months ago. The feud resurfaced on Sunday night when one slashed the other´s hand almost off with a machete. Amongst plans of retaliation from the other side, the husband of the doña came out and said, “What’s going on with my son?” and the police shot him.

This resulted in a riot from the neighborhood at the injustice of it all and there were tires burning in the street and dumptrucks of sand piled in the road to close off the neighborhood as the neighbors brought the coffin into the middle of the street in protest. The doña was never even able to see the body before the burial. Attending the burial was too dangerous and therefore didn’t even see the burial. The news came as a shock and everything is still settling down. We wish there was something we could do for her and her family, and we are still thinking of ways we could help.

It was a tough week and there were many lessons to be learned.

La Competencia de los Bettas en PUCMM: Oct. 24-26

We arrived home at four pm on Friday afternoon only to run straight to the pool for the swim meet that started at three pm. Luckily it was at our home pool and we didn’t have to go far, but that still didn’t help the fact that we hadn’t swum in over a week and I was puking my brains out the day before. I told my coach, Freddy, that I wasn’t feeling well and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to swim that day and if I do, don’t be disappointed.

His response was, well you should go eat a lot chocolate before your race and that will give you energy.

WHAT?! Are you kidding?... He was not. Despite my burst of laughter and response of “ok, if you want me to throw up again,” he insisted that chocolate is good for you before each race. It made sense now why they always handed out chocolate bars and gummi bears to the team during the competitions. However, I found it hard to believe that I had actually found someone (in fact a whole culture) who whole-heartedly idealizes the benefits of chocolate as much, if not- more, than Mary Beth. No, just kidding. Needless to say I did not eat anything before I swam, but seriously somebody needs to teach this country some proper pre-physical exercise eating habits!

However, I soon was informed of the proper pre-physical exercise eating habits by BG’s host mom. She informed me that it was actually 3 hours that you must refrain from entering the water after eating a meal. The reason for this, she said, was that your body can’t handle the physical activity and digestion processes at the same time and your insides will actually explode. I had to fight to keep myself from laughing but when she informed us that, “no, really it happened to a girl last week in a pool and she died!” It was at that point I could no longer contain it and was soon after rolling on the ground laughing.

It was almost as funny as the time that we found out why Dominicans believe cows can’t swim. It’s because when they try to swim they leave their tails up and forget to close their butts, thus… drowning through their buttholes. Haha! It is stories like these that make me stop and ponder the true complexities of cultural miscunderstandings.

SO, going back to my story of the swim meet, I decided to go for it even if it meant killing myself and swam the 100 breast Friday night to end up taking second place. I felt much better on Saturday and we were at the pool all day long from 8-3 and from 4-8 for the afternoon session. It was tiring, but I swam well and had some laughs sitting around with all the guys on the team. We had dinner at our program director’s house (our other mom’s house) Sat. night to reflect and wrap up our rural stay experience. After swimming all morning Sunday, I had qualified to go to Santo Domingo and swim in the Pan-American Championships in six out of the seven events I swam. I was surprised and pleased at how the meet went.

Sunday night we had a birthday party for Elaine and Marco’s two year old daughter Portia. It was a Halloween themed birthday party and I appeared as a pirate to help man (aahrr) the stations for all the dozen other two year olds that were running around. It was very fun and I ate far too many sweets.

To wrap up a good weekend, when I went to practice on Monday, Freddy congratulated me and informed me that I was the muchachos 18+ third place overall point scorer of the meet and I would receive a trophy! How crazy cool is that, and even crazier, I may be competing against a dozen other countries, including one team from New York. The funny thing is, if I can make it work with my schedule, I may be competing against my own country wearing the Dominican colors.

El Estadio Rural: October 18-24

As an integral part of the our Service-Learning program, every semester the students take a week off in the middle of the semester to go live and work in a poor rural area of the Dominican Republic called Rio Limpio. The idea is that we, the students, will be able to see the differences and the similarities between the rural setting and the urban setting in which we work. We were working with CENM, the Center of Ecotourism of Nalga de Maco learning how to make organic fertilizer and with CREAR, a non-profit organization that maintains an organic farm and hosts a technical degree- high school for Dominicans and Haitians to learn about sustainable agriculture together. We also had the chance to work in the fields with the students and, while they all showed us up at weeding and hoeing and general farming techniques, they were all very welcoming and willing to show us how it is done and teach us the reasons behind the things that they do.

We were greeted by the whole community and were invited to an art fair where they all presented us with their hand made goods. After arriving, we played a decent game of baseball against the Dominicans which turns out is both of our country’s favorite past times’ (so they say). It was the most beautiful baseball field you could ever imagine: a simple abandoned field with a fence behind home plate and bases with holes worn through them, but it was situated in the middle of an gorgeous tropical mountain range. I couldn’t help but forget the game for a while and run off with some kids to go pick fresh fruit explore a while. After being scolded by competitive team members I returned to the field only to be playing left field with a goat next to me. We laughed as Neil smacked a line drive straight into a horse’s knee just outside of third base. It was a good game of ball and helped us to get to know the community and fostered relationships that we won’t soon forget.

The week only continued to get better from there. We began working and learning the organic techniques and practices and why they plant mais, yucca, and mohlondrones together (because they not only have different growing seasons and thus keep a steady flow of crops coming in throughout the year, but the combinations of smells emitted from the plants act as natural insect repellants.) We used machetes to chop up parts of plátano (plantain) trees that look like giant cylindrical onions inside, cacao, weeds and other natural ingredients to create layers that foster the perfect conditions and temperature for quick decomposition and rich, fertile soil. The soil they produce is some of the richest in the world and it was amazing to see the process first hand.

We continued to engage in activities with the community. After dinner the adults and kids would meet us at the restaurant where we were served amazing Caribbean, Latin-style dinners (fruits and vegetables and meats and cheeses and fresh juices…) and we would all play dominoes late into the night. We learned the tricks of the trade so to speak and the key to this ever competitive game in this country is to slam your domino down as hard as you can in the opponent’s face when you make a winning move.

I had the chance also to work with the local artisans who made hand carved art out of wood. I had the opportunity to work with two guys my age, Joanael and Hiyo, and actually carved my own wooden spoon, sanded it down, and polished it. Thanks to much guidance by them I now have my own hand carved spoon to bring back to the states and indulge in some of the sugary “normal” cereals that I so dearly miss. It was really interesting to have conversations with them and find out what their realities were, what difficulties their businesses faced and what their goals are for the future. It was an experience that was invaluable in the insights it gave me into my investigation with the artisans in Santiago and the differences and similarities between the rural and urban realities here in the Dominican Republic.

On the second to last night I went to bed feeling especially exhausted. I couldn’t figure out why until the middle of the night when I woke up felt a sudden rush of heat and dizziness only to fight to get out of my mosquito net I was sleeping in to make it all the way to the… well bath tub. It was an unfortunate place to be puking my brains out because the next morning it turned into an internal struggle if I would ever eat spaghetti again as I was cleaning it out with my hands. Anyways, to spare the details, I was sleeping/ waking up/ puking/ repeating all night long along with a couple other members of my program. We were afraid the river we had swum in the day before caused it because other foreigners warned us that they ended up going to the hospital from the same thing.

We never did find out what we had and sadly we missed ascending the mountains on horseback to visit the coffee farms and a cooking workshop with the local women among another game of baseball with the kids. I did however come away from that experience having a greater respect and appreciation for Dominican culture and people. The women who worked in the kitchen of the restaurant made us an amazing ginger/oregano/salt tea that was supposed to kill any potential parasites that were living growing in side of us (there was a fear of this given the fact that an 8 year old girl upchucked a 18inch tapeworm while one of the girls in my program was working at the local preschool). But these women were so caring and generous and insisted on cleaning our rooms and bathrooms and fixing us a yucca, plátano, and garlic soup that evening (after eating plain rice for lunch) so as to settle our stomachs they said. Thanks to all their care and love, it worked and we were all feeling better more or less by the next night.

The trip ended with a giant talent show where the entire community crowded inside and outside of the restaurant to sing and dance and perform skits for us. Because our group had no hidden crowd-pleasing talents, we decided to sing a mediocre rendition of our hymno nacional. It was nothing compared to the Haitian drumming, bamboo didgeridoo-playing, crazy African tribal dancing performances that we enjoyed as a very unique intercultural experience. Spending that last night dancing the night away to the traditional merengue sounds that are very much representative of the life and culture here in the Dominican Republic, made us realize how close we had become with this community and the lasting impact they had on us. It will be impossible to forget how generous and welcoming their community was and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it, even just for a week.

The next morning we left early in the morning to drive North to DaJabon, the biggest city on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Each Friday they open up the border just for the day and the city is literally flooded with Haitians coming in to sell every type of good you can imagine at the market that turns the whole city into a giant flee market. Bartering, haggling, hassling and begging best describes the experience in the market at DaJabon. I ended up buying a couple T-Shirts, cologne (because after the woman sprayed 10 different kinds on me as samples I felt it was the only way to solve both of our problems), and a very large quantity of Haitian Coconut packaged cookies all for very cheap.

We hopped back on the bus and made it back to Santiago at four pm, right on time. I tried to get some sleep on the guagua, but there was none to be had due to the, well- lets just say, less-than-perfect road conditions. I dropped my stuff off and was welcomed by my host family like a son that went away on a week-long trip. To see their excitement upon my arrival made me feel very accepted and loved. It was good to be “home” again.

Factoria de Cigarros

Yesterday we had the opportunity to tour one of the largest cigar factories in the DR and they are said to have the best cigars in the world. Better that cuba they convinced us! If only dad and leo could have been there! We saw the whole process from the planting and growing to the processing and rolling out! Off to the countryside for a week of work in a rural very poor community close to the border of Haiti in the mountains. See you when I get back next weekend!

Los Bettas and La Competencia

What a wonderful weekend I had swimming in my first international swim meet! I really felt like part of the team, but was still surprised at how different our cultures are even at something as regulated as a swim meet. It began with a procession of all the 15 or so teams from across the country into the pool area. This large parade was led by military personel, a professional-looking band, and a giant chicken mascot dancing to merengue as the cheerleaders lined the side of the pool.

The warm up and start of the meet was a little lax each day and there is no way to predict when you will swim like the programs back at home that had it nearly down to the minute. Here you´ll swim in a little while whenever the next couple events end... it is much more relaxed. However, the competition is just as intense; if not more intense because almost the only thing they care about is your time- What'd you go?! But not to worry- all went well and my years of practicing paid off. So while the roosters where crowing on the fence of the pool I jumped into a couple top places.

I got second in the 100 breaststroke and 4th in the 50. I also placed top ten in the 100 and 50 fly as well as the 100 IM. For all my swims I made the cut (sometimes by less than a second) to swim in their end of the season international meet where there will be over a dozen countries represented. The thought of competing against one US team as we swim with the Dominican colors made us laugh! BG, another girl in my program is also swimming on the team with me and as less than 1 percent of the Dominican swimmers are girls, she won an overall 3rd place trophy (out of 6 girls) but will also be competing in the Capital, Santo Domingo at the end of the season. There was a huge fancy banquet for everyone involved in the meet with a buffet and a trophy ceremony. The most exciting part was that the coach, Freddy, told us he will be paying for everything for us to travel and stay down in the capital for the competition at the end of November!

It was a really great experience, combining two of my greatest loves- the flavor of the latino culture and swimming as reggaeton, salsa and merengue blasted throughout the whole weekend. My host family came to watch one day and I met so many new wonderful Dominicans and had no lack of practicing my spanish! Some parent was commenting on how great it was I was willing to talk with everyone whether I knew them or not because that was the best way to learn- by putting yourself out there.

After a few hot afternoons of sitting under the sun at the pool, we were tired but had made many new friends and had a good time stirring up the Dominican competition in the pool!

Fotos de la Competencia

Nuevo Perrito!

When I came home from my trip to the South, guess what was waiting for me at the door? A brand new puppy, only 8 weeks old. Blog fans meet Canela, which means Cinnamon. She is the cutest sweetest thing I´ve ever seen! She is not house trained and we find little "regalitos" on the floor everywhere. However, she is not allowed to be taken outside past the backyard my host mom informed me because there are dog-nappers here and it is dangerous. I tried to suppress the funny thought of someone waiting out in the neighborhood until they spot a dog to take (especially because there are stray dogs in every side of the city) until I found out that it is worth 20,000 pesos (roughly 600 dollars).

So I try to play with Canela often. With a lack of entertainment (the only form was eating the newspaper she was suppossed to be doing her business on) I went out in the city in quest of a dogtoy. It turns out there is only one store that sells them and they only sell toys for giant wolf-sized dogs, which is ironic because the only type of dog that lives here is the chihuahua and other yippee little things. I bought the smallest chew toy there was and the family and Canela were very happy when I returned. Now we spend the evenings tring to play fetch, but she can barely carry it two feet. What a sight to see!

The Challenges in Community Development

I have successfully met, gotten to know and interviewed 13 artisans over the past couple weeks. As a result of my investigation, it was brought to my attention that there is a desire within the community to formalize an association. All but one said they wanted to form part of an association of artisans within their community. I was very busy coordinating with my boss at Emprende and with each of the artisans a time that would work for everyone to have a meeting to discuss what the group wanted from the association and what the groups goals are in order to start creating a mission and vision and all that.

Of the 15 or so whose houses I visited and who personally told me they would come today to the meeting at 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday, 5 showed up.

Now I knew it was to be expected that not everyone would show up, but I later found out that some were taking a nap, others decided to go to the salon instead, etc... it was frustrating seeing that all the artisans desire something better for themselves, but very few were willing to even take the initiative to TRY and create more opportunities for themselves.

Community Development takes time. It is a slow and non-linear process. It takes patience and flexibility, qualities that I am developing more and more each day. The meeting went well and we got some things done like deciding a name and the mission and vision of the group, but we will have to have another meeting soon in order to formalize the bylaws and all that of the association before we can move forward and do things as a group like identify new markets to enter such as large art fairs or foreign markets to sell to (just a dream now). I will keep working as hard as I can but how does one motivate a community to take their own futures in their own hands when they are worried about how they are going to put food on the table today?

Viaje al Sur- Sept. 26-28

We had an amazing weekend. We traveled to the south. We went to the frontera/ border of DR/ Haiti and saw some pretty horrible scenes. We went there to visit a huge market they have in this zone that's called no mans land between the two countries. It was supposed to be a huge cultural learning experience and they preped us on the bus for the worst- crowded streets with tons of people waiting to pick pocket you and people shoving things in your face left and right trying to get you to but their products. Instead, when we got there, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. The whole market and practically the whole town was underwater. People were wading through the water and still trying to sell us a thing or two, but for the most part everyone was sitting around wondering what to do. Pick up trucks were taking people across the lake of a market and others just sat on their platforms with their goods, feet dangling in the water. It was pretty sad to see especially because it had been like that for over a month, since the last big hurricane.

Then on Friday we went to Lake Enriquillo (a national park reserve) and saw dozens of huge iguanas walking right in front of us. We walked through the park, but the entire lake was flooded and there was not much to see once again. Seeing the iguanas, though, was like looking back a thousand years. They were rhinoceros iguanas, native to the DR only and very endangered. It was really really cool to see!

Then we stayed at a hotel in barajona which had a pool and a beach and a buffet that was wonderfully delicious. On Saturday we went to Bahía de las Aguillas, which took many hours to get to off the main road. Bumpy dirt roads through the lush desert terrain and many stops to ask for directions, we finally made it to a little fishing town where a man took us by boat down the coast to what they say is one of the top 3 beaches in the world. And let me tell you- it has to be exactly that. It was 16 miles of virgen beach and it was our little group there- alone- all afternoon. It was awe-inspiring. We sat under the shade of a large tree on the pure sandy white beach and had a family picnic. Playing an ultimate frisbee game followed by just laying on my back along the shore, waves carresing by back was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life.

Then we went to a couple of water holes on the way back- natural spring fed holes (you had to jump into them from 30 feet up). That was sweet when all the dominicans cheered as the gringos jumped in! Que divertida! We went back to the hotel and that night went to a local carnival where the ferris wheel was on crack and went faster than a roller coaster, had no seat belt (only a bar) and where little kids were pushing me to buy a hamock. After riding the zipper- yay!- and eating cotton candy, and buying two hammocks later (which were each only like 2-3 dollars) we went home tired and content.

On sunday we had a relaxing morning poolside and then had an amazing presentation and talk from a Peace Core Volunteer that works in the town we were staying in. He was really incredible and his story was even better. He also works with artisens but of a different kind. He works with this stone called Larimar and it is a blue semi-precious stone that is only found in the dominican republic, only in this one city that we were in called baraona. It is beautiful the work they do and he helped set up an artisen school and tryed formalizing the association of artisens but talked about all his struggles and triumphs in his two years being here. It was an eye-opening experience.

Then we packed up and headed home for another long, bumpy ride only to do intense amounts of reading of poverty in spanish which was tiring and we got home late and I wrote my paper on the reading and went to bed. It was a really amazing weekend and i know i say this all the time but has to have been one of the best weekends of my life!

My Investigation

i am working at this fair today at the Exbo Cibao and going to have to write three papers for tomorrow when I get home tonight but it was worth it because we went to the sweetest place on earth yesterday!!!! we hiked up a mountain in the middle of the tropical rainforest and followed a river through rock caves and jumped off 27 waterfalls (big and small) along the way. we would jump off a waterfall into a pool of water below that would lead to another fall we would jump and we enjoyed a rainshower that was beautiful in the middle of this jungle with the sun only to come out afterwards- it was one of the most gorgeous things ive ever seen in my life!! this sure beats school back at home! lol no actually i have lots of work ahead of me. i am starting my investigation tomorrow and have it pretty much officialized and checked over by the program director elaine and my methods and investigations class professor edgar (from Panama). I will be studying the------------------


Realidad de los artesanos del sector Nordeste de Santiago y su potencial de asociatividad, como forma de desarrollo de sus negocios.


OBJETIVOS DE INVESTIGACION:

Apreciar la realidad actual de los artesanos del Nordeste de Santiago y sus principales limitaciones en el desarrollo de su actividad productiva.

Identificar las posibilidades de Asociatividad en los artesanos del Nordeste de Santiago, como una estrategia para el fortalecimiento de sus negocios.

Identificar potenciales iniciativas de comercialización en conjunto y otros emprendimientos de apoyo al desarrollo de sus negocios.

------------which means:---------------------------------------

The reality of the artisans in the northeastern sector of Santiago and their potential of forming an association and other forms of collaboration, as a means of developing their businesses.

Objectives:

1. Assess the actual reality of the artisans of the northeastern sector and their principle limitations of developing their productive activities.

2. Identify the possibilities of formalizing an association of the artisans as a strategy of development for their businesses.

3. Identify potential commercial initiatives in conjunction and other ways of helping develop their businesses.


I will be identifying and interviewing as many artisans as I can within the neighborhood of Hoya del Caimito and the surrounding area of the Northeastern Sector of Santiago. The interviews will last a half hour to an hour and I am receiving a voice recorder to help me in the field investigation. The purpose of the interviews is to get to know the community, find out what the challenges and dreams of each business are and to identify areas in which I can help improve their businesses with my few months here. I am excited to begin, but have a lot of work ahead of me!