February was a tumultuous month to say the least. As you already know, I suddenly had to leave Las Tablas in the middle of the month because of a security incident. Just as my projects were gaining momentum I had to let everything go and move to the capital while I searched for a new site.
Luckily, when I told my friend Sarah what had happened, she quickly came up with a solution. She suggested that I move to San Juan de la Maguana to help her with a big project she is about to begin. Sarah has been working with the Escojo Mi Vida program for over a year and is now hoping to integrate the course into the public school curriculum. I have also been working with Escojo projects since I first arrived in Bani and had a similar idea of introducing the curriculum into the Bani schools. Since working in Bani is no longer an option for me, I jumped at Sarah’s suggestion and asked my boss if I could move to San Juan. She eventually agreed and here I am! I've been in my new (and last) site for about one week.
So, now I have two and a half months to introduce Escojo Mi Vida into five schools in the San Juan area. The goal is that eventually the charlas will be incorporated into the school curriculum. This project is risky but I’m excited about the potential it has to reach such a high number of youth.
As my secondary projects I hope to work at Plan International and a health clinic whenever I have the time. Plan is an international NGO that focuses on empowering youth as a means to end poverty. They have a program which is basically identical to Escojo, but they also have other projects that I hope to get involved with. The clinic, called La Clinica Cristiana, offers cheap health care for the poor in San Juan’s surrounding campos. The clinic also organizes medical missions where American doctors spend a week performing free operations. I hope to serve as a translator for these missions since I loved the med mission I did back in November.
Apart from work, I think I will like living in San Juan. It seems like a nice city because of its abundance of parks and, most importantly, it has a track! Even better, there are two Mexican restaurants in the city. I’m not expecting the food to be authentic, but I’m still excited about the possibility of buying non-Dominican cuisine.
My time in the Dominican Republic is going FAST and there is a lot going on between now and October. I’ve got three weddings (Ottie, Molly, and Chelsea), a bachelorette party (Caitlin), two weeks’ visit to the USA (yay!), and a final decision on what happens when I leave this island. I just got my first acceptance letter for graduate school in urban planning (Michigan!!!) which means that the idea of life after Peace Corps has suddenly become a reality. I feel both excited and sad, as the last 1.5 years have been filled with so many happy, sad, and life-changing moments.
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