Adaption

Life in the Dominican Republic continues. While some ideas have manifested differently than expected, I kind of like how things are turning out.

For example, my exclusive mentoring group has turned into an open club for girls to come hang out and get some exercise. I desperately wanted this group to involve pairs of one big and one little “sister,” where the main purpose was to increase educational stimulation through tutoring sessions. Yet Dominicans do not tend to operate well with structure, and they also are not exclusive. I originally made 10 invitations for my group, and now we have about twenty girls who attend the group on any given day. We start the session with something relating to school, such as games with math flashcards or story creation, and then we end with some artistic activity or just plain running around playing tag. While the group feels a little disorderly to me, the girls seem to love it. Like I already mentioned, the girls came up with the group name, Las Super Mujeres de Ensenanza. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if it would hold any significance to the group after the name was established, but yesterday I was proven wrong.

I am promoting the Escojo Mi Vida group that I plan to begin in about two weeks, and yesterday I went house to house in El Mani to inform the community of this group. One of the homes I visited happened to belong to a girl from my girls group and I was thrilled to see a familiar face! I told the young girl’s grandmother that I already worked with her granddaughter, and the girl said, proudly, yes, in the Super Mujeres de Ensenanza group! The pride she held in explaining that she was, indeed, a member of this group made me feel like the girls group is already accomplishing its goal - however different it may be compared to my initial expectations. I’m not sure how this group will turn out in the end, but I think I like the direction in which it’s headed.

By the way, during our walk through El Mani, we were stopped by a parade of people and a line of SUVs. The presidential hopeful for the upcoming election was campaigning in El Mani, of all places! I got to meet the potential future president of the DR. I have always gotten an irrational satisfaction out of meeting celebrities, so I was quite excited by this surprise in the day.

Apart from my girls group and Escojo, I am in the process of deciding what other projects to do in the next few months. I have two prominent ideas that I am playing with. I just finished reading Jeffrey Canada’s book Whatever It Takes, a book about Canada’s commitment to ending poverty in Harlem. One of Canada’s main goals in his program, The Harlem Children’s Zone, is to educate parents about how to raise their kids to help their intellectual development and increase familial support. He explains that many low-income parents are not taught to read to their children or talk to them like equals, but that these tools can dramatically improve their child’s intellectual capacity. Thus, one idea I have is to form a group for pregnant teenagers in the neighborhood. Of course, I would have to study a ton before teaching this class, but it’s something I am considering. Another idea of mine is to start a composting project in the community. I love the idea, and at the very least will introduce composting to a few homes in the neighborhood (such as to my host family and my own).

Everything is connected, even though it doesn’t always feel like it. Even though I am working in a large barrio surrounded by other large barrios, I am starting to see this interconnectedness already. I will likely have at least three youth from my girls group join my Escojo Mi Vida group as well. Many of my girls live in El Mani, where I will have my Escojo group. It looks like some youth who will join Escojo have parents who attend the Junta de Vecino meetings in El Mani. It’s incredibly satisfying to find such connections, and I take it as a sign that I am slowly but surely figuring out this community - how it works and the people who live here.

And just as my work here is beginning to take off, so is mango season! This morning I ate my very first mango from my mango tree. Even though most of the mangos are still green, a few are turning pinkish, and this morning I discovered that one mango had fallen from the tree. I cut it open to find the deepest orange inside. Just another sign that the seasons are changing and life is in constant transition.

Visits and a dog

My dad just left Santo Domingo and it was certainly great to introduce him to my new home. We spent about 4 days in Bani and I showed him all around my neighborhood and the pueblo; he also got to meet tons of people in my community. After our tour of Bani we spent a couple nights of luxury on the beach and in the capital. It was great to end the vacation with some swimming and cable tv. My dad’s visit was wonderful and I loved showing him around. Like Lauren and Abby’s visit, acting as a tour guide in the DR made me realize how happy I am to be living here and how lucky I really am. I have certainly learned a lot about myself and Dominican culture in the last seven months.

It’s been about a month since I began my first project and it seems to be going well. As I said before, I decided to focus my efforts on a mentoring group at the local school in my barrio. It certainly took a while to get everything set in motion. The most unexpected obstacles arose, such as school cancellations, Valentine’s Day celebrations, and an Independence Day march around the block -- but since I last wrote I have had 3 group sessions, so overall I have been relatively successful! When I began recruiting for my group I felt like I was begging girls to come to my information sessions. I swear, I spent about two weeks talking about this service group as if it were cool and exclusive, like only a select girls could join (I guess that’s all true to some extent), but all this talk must have worked, because I had nearly 20 girls in attendance last week! We had a full session of creating the group rules, deciding on the group name ( Super Mujeres de Enseñanzas), playing a dinamica, and doing some art. If you are wondering what a dinamica is, it’s basically an ice-breaker activity. I remember hating those back in the States, but here the Dominicans eat those activities up. They just love them! The other day we played a game called Peso Caliente, where two groups compete against each other by forming two lines and each person drops a peso in her shirt until it falls to the ground. Once it hits the ground the next person must do the same until everyone in the group has dropped a peso down their clothes. It sounds weird but Peso Caliente is always a huge hit in this country.

In addition to my mentoring group I am also starting to lay the framework for my Escojo group. I am currently coordinating a sports day for youth, basically for anyone interested in Escojo to hang out and ask questions before we begin the group. A few days after the sports day I will start my Escojo group, so that should fall in the end of the month. I am definitely excited to start up another project in addition to the mentoring group.

Lately Peace Corps hasn’t felt like such a lonely experience after all. There are probably several reasons for this sentiment (for example, I spent a fabulous week with Abby and Lauren and my Dad just left), but tonight my companionship is coming from my new dog-child, Bella. I received my 2-month-yr-old Chihuahua a couple weeks ago and she has instantly become my baby. She arrived in my arms full of ticks, some balding spots on her face and a bloated belly; but after just one week she already looked much, much better. Maybe I am biased but I think she is absolutely adorable. It has certainly been worth the potty training and extra cleaning to open my home to Bella. Having a Chihuahua has certainly amplified my status in the community as well. Neighbors and strangers alike often point at me as I walk with Bella. Thanks to my new puppy I am one step closer to full Dominican acculturation.