Cinco De Mayo!!! isnt a holiday here :( !

May has come and it has brought me many good things. I have become more at home in my new community and have a few projects coming along that give me a great sense of purpose here. I have continued my work with the Mujeres Unidas en Desarrolla (Women United in Development). We just recieved our first set of Labels to put onto our products and they look amazing! I have also started a business plan class that coincides with a national competition for youth ages 15 to 30 to learn about the business process and to write a formal business plan for submission to win the possible start up money to begin. I had 22 youth show up to my first informational meeting/class. Which was more than the expected 15 and it looks like we will be getting a few more in this Friday. I am sure that not everyone will want to finish the cirriculum, but none the less it is great to see them taking advantage of their opportunities. I originally planned to teach an English class that would be a part of the Business class, but have decided to host that seperately, due to the demand and difficulty teaching to different levels of fluency all the while not faltering on the business side.
So as of today, I am teaching my first English class, And I swore that I wouldn't! But...when People are motivated it motivates me to do something as well, How can I say no, if they are willing to be serious and work hard? Well I couldn't.
I also am still working with the NGO CODECAS which is origianlly my first project with my old project partner from my previous community. The commute down the hill is a bit strenuous sometimes , but I am sure that the projects ends will justify my commitment to stick by it. Soon enough we will have our funding for the 400 Stoves and 50,000 Trees. The real challenge begins not in the implementation but rather in the accountability of follow through of all the people that it takes to operate a project of this size. I pray/hope that it all goes as smoothly as a project can possibly go in this country. Already there has been a bit of a snare in obtaining the ceramic pieces that make up the stoves. They are only made in one place(far away) and there is quite a bit of back order from smaller projects by other volunteers. So...We either do a somewhat shady dominican government thing (in my opinion) and push ourselves to the front of the line...or if I had a perfect world we would have the funding to give a class to local entreprenuers here and give them an opportunity to provide a service and create a source of income for themselves. This however, is on pause until the other partners either realize their butting in line habits seem to work, or they fall flat, and we are back to what I have been saying since the start. But, hey...can't convince everyone and they are a lot more experienced with the cutting in front of people thing than I am and maybe they know something that I simply can't see. I wait for enlightenment patiently.
I will be hosting a couchsurfer named Jade this week for atleast a couple nights. She and I met in Cabarete on the NOrth Coast and she will be keeping me company for awhile. I am then off to the Capital to pick up Mr. Chris Mulvaney who has agreed to grace me with his smelly presence for two weeks of adventure and learning about the life of volunteer. I appreciate the visitors, but especially those whom have the courage to come do what I do for even a night or two. Chris has unknowingly agreed to spend four or five of them here! I am sure it will be a satisfying encounter with that little bit of home that we all wish for when we are away.
On a personal note. I just dug a 20 x 12 garden on the side of my house. It isn't what I expected...cause I am a gringo and have no idea what I am doing most of the time... And after three hours of using a pick to turn the ground over I have 11 blisters on my hands. I thought about quitting about half way through, but then caught myself smiling and thinking that I was really enjoying the hell out of myself. The only difference between here and what I would be doing in the garden back in Fort Collins was the opposite of ease (no shovels through nicely manicured lawns here, or gas powered rototillers for the speed factor) and of course back there I would have had an icy cold Coors Light in my Koozy on the patio table.
But don't worry, when I finished the whole thing I mandar'ed a muchacho to go get me a Jumbo Presidente from the Colmado. I wonder if I could get a Jumbo Coors Light? Well maybe someday they will put out a special edition...
Peace and Love.
Jeff