Three Blogs in one Post...Read from Bottom.

All Moved In

So If you would just go back about three entries, all of this will make a lot more sense...do it, now.
I have just moved into my house in La Guama! I love my new location, although it is not quite as tranquillo, bc it is closer to the the main road and there is quite a bit more noise from time to time compared to my last site, I have an amazing house and piece of land behind it. It is about and an acre and a half and I have big plans to make it better. The house is made of cement walls and does not have any leaks in the tin roof. The floor is cement and it is about 500 SF, with two rooms and a living area. I have my kitchen and couch in the living room and an office storage room as well as my bedroom. I have set all up for the most part and am beginning to hang up my cards and letters from home on the walls.

I have said my goodbyes to the last volunteer whom was living here, Jake Browder an Agro-forestry volunteer, and now am all alone in La Guama. I already have a good base of people whom i can count on here via the Peanut Butter women. I am in the process of going out each night to meet and talk with as many other neighbors as I can.

The peanut butter is going well still, we should have our labels by the end of this week and I hope to sell quite a bit more volume this month, both at the Peace Corps office and locally in the weekly markets and to Colmados (Small local house/stores). I will be making more to bring to the All Volunteer confrence in May too. My next goal is to be able to remove myself from some of the tasks by teaching the women to do them for thimselves, such as the accounting and marketing, but this will take some time and guidance for the time being.

Chris Mulvaney is planning a visit out here for two weeks and I couldn't be more excited to have him. He has told me that he wants to just enjoy my day to day routine and that is great because I can enjoy his company and still maintain my productivity here without leaving the site too much for cross country adventures. I plan on putting him to work, digging ditches, giving classes, etc...which shouldn't be too hard for him with his big dumb smile and long hair. He will be a hit with all the ladies here, young and old.

I also will be participating in a hitchhiking race this weekend. My partner Rachele and I will be pretending to be Medical Students whom need a ride to a medical mission that we are helping at. Dominicans love free medical missions from Americans, so hopefully its a hit and we will win the race. The kicker is the bottle of liquid that must be drank, gifted, disposed of before you arrive at the finish...it sounds a bit dangerous but really is a lot different from the states, bc hitchhiking is so common here...it will help me personally that my partner has blond hair will be much more easily picked up than just me by myself. I plan on making this my Birthday celebration with my volunteer friends since I will be spending the 25th in my site working on projects.

What are my projects here???

Well with the land I have behing the house I plan on getting a group of muchachos to clean up the area of trash, etc... as well as other community areas, so that we are elegible to recieve a grant to buy a baseball bat, gloves, and a ball to organize and play pelota behing my house on the new gras field. I would really like to make a weekly event, so that we met and play formally every sunday evening, and the community can come watch and play as well.
I will also be borrowing two oxen to till the land next to or behind the house so that I can plant my garden soon. Rainy season is about to start here and I would like to get my seeds planted before then, so that they dont get washed away. I will be wheelbarrowing some goat manure to my house where I have set up a compost for the garden with most of my thrown away food items, and decomposible trash items. It should be nice to have all the fresh fruit and vegetables when the summer comes. I will try to take a pic of my plowing the field old school style with a whip and my pair of oxen.

Some other possible/pending projects are a local park area for the kids to play to keep them away from the busy road and other no so wonderful activities. I may be able to find a group of Youth whom want to participate in the Business Plan Competition, and will give English class at my house for those whom I believe are serious and show interest.

Right now, I am showering outside with my hose and bathing suit, or at night when no one can see my white butt. So I will be looking to install some PVC Piping to make a shower in the latrine area of my back yard which has tin surrounding it.

I will still be working with the NGO (CODECAS) to locate an office in Las Matas and hope to be giving some management and operations training to them so that they may keep the organization running smoothly after my departure, but this is seemingly forever on hold due to holidays and other conpromises in the groups leadership team. So...patience and we will see what happens, hopefully the grant fro the better cement stoves and 50,000 trees goes through soon, bc that will give everyine the needed kick in the ass to get going.

All in all, I am quite happy with everything now. I can't to come home from August 1st to the 20th. The first few days in Cali with my parents and then on to Denver and the Fort, for friends and a wedding. Time has been flying by here and to me it already seems like June is here. A full schedule makes all the difference in the world! Hope that everyone is doing alright up in the states, the spring weather coming in beautifully...

Jeff


Work Day

What an amazing day I had today. I woke up after not being able to sleep all night due to over worrying about every little thing that has been happening these days. I stepped out the front door and went to my host family's house to pay my landlord (Landa) for the following 8 days of April. She looked at me with conviction and told me tht I had not paid her for last month. Bieng that she was either confused or lying, I was disheartened by the whole confrontation. I mean she wants me to pay for the whole month of April even though I will only be there for 8 days. That being said, its really the principle that makes me angry. 800 pesos is only about $22 dollars and not really a big deal. I however could really use that money this month and am mad that she only sees me as a source of income rather than a valuable community asset. I left without an agreement and chalked it up as sometihng to forget about because I had a full day ahead of me.

I spoke with my boss (Joy) and told her what has been happening and how my site change was coming about. I was rather bitter after my convo with the Landlord, whom also happens to be my host aunt. So I hoped that she could work some magic and smooth things over. She said she'd try and get back to me later.

I caught a moto up to La Guama where Only two of the Women had shown up on time for our full day of work and production. I dropped my things off and began working on the calculations for the Price per Unit of our two main products (Peanut Butter, and PB for Malnourished children "NutriFort"). It was what I expected in that the amount of time we were spending making this NutriFort was not worth the amount of profit that was being generated when we could better serve ourselves making Peanut Butter. Now the issue is in that the NutriFort is being bought directly from us by the Catholic Church who is donating it to the orphanages in our area. The down side is that they have their hearts in the right place, but not their heads, as they were unable to accurately calcualte the costs of production and appropriate profits for the women. This had been done prior to my arrival but had made a large impact on our current productivity.

So...I explained this simply to the women and they were in agreement that it was a bad investment of time, but still an unavoidable task and good deed for those children whom need it. So we have decided to relay this to the church and ask for a more appropriate profit per packet and hopefully it all turns out dandy. The truly amazing part to me is the absolute motivation of the women to work, during a holiday week, as they did from 8am until 4pm. Even better, was the little party and card they gave to Jake the Volunteer whom is leaving this site on the 12th of April. I enjoyed watching, making, talking and learning from them all today.

BUT...The best part of my day was when my boss called me back and told me that she had spoken with my project partner in La Estancia. She said everything I wanted to hear and took a huge weight off of my shoulders. I really feel relieved, elated, and excited now. I am comfortable to go talk to my partner and not feel as if I am blindsiding him with my plan to move to La Guama. He also feels the same as me about continuing my work with the local NGO, which is great bacause I will be as busy as ever and still making a large impact in the lives of many people in our region of San Juan and the Border.

It's incredible the swings that we all go through from time to time, but is inspiring to see the light that we are always thinking will come of our darkness. I feel that I have seen the light lately and and am truly greatful to have someone or something flipping the switch for me.

Jeff






Great and Not so Great

So I have been having a wonderful time here thus far in the Dominican Republic, without any hesitation I can say that. Lately though I have come upon some feelings that are hard to deal with.

Being away from the ones I love and cherish for so long is not easy and I dearly miss you all. The memories I have are wonderful to be able to recall when I sit and think, and they are torture when everything here seems to be going against the grain. Sometimes the thought of relaxing in the backyard with my friends and working on my garden and lawn seems like it would be easily regained as soon as I came back. But I know that people have gone on to other endeavors and places and that Grant has the lawn taken care of just fine. So I wait for my one year mark to come home and visit these memories, to make more, and to bring them back with me for another year.

I have had a difficult time as of late because I am in the process of changing communities to work on a consistent basis with my Group of Women whom are making and selling Peanut Butter. It has been spectacularly successful and I am thankful that I can have such a rewarding project. It is a mere 8km up the Road to a place called La Guama. I have found a house to live in and a piece of land to grow a huge garden and its very close to a dear friend of mine, Jay Thrasher. However this requires me to move from my current community, La Estancia, where I have already built relationships with some amazing people. These people helped me acclimate to my new environment and took me in to their houses for dinner and coffee. It will be hard to leave them on account of this.

However, they are forever unwilling to work together in spite of their political and religious differences, which does not make for a very productive working environment for myself. They have already had four years of Volunteers and not much to show for it due to this factor. I have tried to motivate them and do realize that things work slower around here, but have affirmed my fears that I will not be as successful or productive there as I will be able to be in La Guama.

The unique thing about the culture here, is that everyone seems to think that they deserve everything without putting much forward on their parts. That was a large problem with La Estancia. I now have told my Project Partner whom solicited to have me there, that I will be moving away …He said that he did not Agree with this at all and didn’t really want to talk about it with me. He and I are working with the NGO based in Las Matas de Farfan. This is suitable, because there is a directive of leaders that live in all different communities and me moving would be no different than that. However, I do believe that he and his family count on my rent and food purchases to supplement their income. That is not the reason I came here, and its unfortunate to have them feel that I am "Botaring" (Throwing them to the street, more or less) by moving away.

I have never been one to burn bridges, but the people here often won’t see what I see as a purely business related decision. They feel that I am no longer a friend and wonder why I would ever do such a thing. I can tell them as many hard facts as to why this is a better situation, but they will not listen. That is a very hard thing for me to deal with. I guess I need to learn to be less sensitive about what others think.

I will/hope to still continue my work with the NGO, as well as visit my old site nearly weekly to eat lunch and talk with my neighbors. I just hope that they want me to. I guess anyone whom doesn’t want this, really isn’t my friend anyways. I never have had enemies and don’t plan on starting now.

So…its great, and not so great all at the same time. I know that time will work things out, but time is frustratingly slow. I wish it would fly by so I could come home to see the people whom are my friends and so that I may feel at home again in my new community. For now though…I just have a big dumb smile on my face, no matter what anyone says to me or what happens in the future.

Jeff