water water water

quench of thirst.


4pm and raining again... While originally I wasn't sure if I liked it, I've come to expect the relief from the heat and burning sun when a good t-storm rolls in. And I find myself planning my day around these afternoon rains. Nothing important ever happens after 3pm. I'm starting to understand why my fellow campesinos tell me it is hard to have meetings, plans, or anything that implies puncutality and a schedule in the afternoon. No one likes to leave the house in a torrential downpour, and the "rivers" will flood and be impassable on foot. When we don't have water, I wait to do any chores until the afternon when I can use the water fresh from the eves to wash and bathe. The crux of the roof of the enramada and the house provides perhaps the best water pressure I've experienced in the country. Plus I save a trip to the trickling brook - my alternative source of water that I often collect from without thinking too much about its clarity and contents.  
When the washing is done, next is time to sit, watch, and listen to the deafening drone of water falling on my zinc roof. This relentless noise is so distracting to any activity you might be doing, or conversation you may be having; it forces you to stop and soak up the calm of silenced campo noises and postponed activities...all overcome by the bullets hitting the rooftops. I am grateful for a waterproof home. The videos below aren't too exciting visually, but the sound provides a good example of how loud it is...turn the volume up.

Latrines: Needs, Wants and "Community Development"

     I've been asked by many people, "So what are you actualy doing down there? What kind of projects are you planning? Do you feel like you are making a difference? Is it worth it? Is your community responding?" These questions roll around in my own head and I often don't arrive at any concrete answer. The first several months here I spent walking around trying to orient myself to the community. This involved spending full days walking from house to house - chatting with families, asking questions about their lifestyles and families, and drinking lots of sugary coffee.Peace corps calls this the "Diagnositic," or a way to meet your community, identify potential project partners, resources, and understand the needs of the community that could be met with future projects. I posted below my formal results, in the form  of a powerpoint presentation, that I presented at our 3-month group meeting. While it is in Spanish - it covers the basics of what I learned during the intial 3-months I was here and gives a bit of an overview of what daily life is like for the people in Las Auyamas.
     But, back to those original questions... what projects am I doing here? The first tangible project process I have started is organizing the building of 30 latrines - or pit toilets, bathrooms, sanitarios... call them as you wish. As I learned during my tour of the community, approximately 30% of the 105 houses I visited do not have a proper place to use the bathroom. Indoor plumbing systems do not exist here, so those with "bathrooms" have latrines out back. These are basically an 11 foot hole in the ground with a surrounding cement floor, some kind of toilet seat, and a little zinc house built around it for privacy. Based on conversations and recent meetings, I estimate there are at least 40 households that either do not have one of these, or are sharing one latrine with over 25 people. A sanitary place to use the bathroom in my opinion is a basic human right. And the community has identified it as a project they would like to see realized here in Las Auyamas.
    The next step, and current struggle, is to include the community in the development of a latrine project here and not just do all the work myself and give them to the families.This has proven to be the most difficult part. In the past, various organizations have come in to the community with a chunk of change, materials, and a plan to build X-number of latrines. The people recieving them may have had to pay $200 pesos, or dig their own hole. But the organizational part of delivering materials, buying materials, storing materials, knowing what materials to buy, building, deciding who gets one and when...was all done by an outside contributer. Gracias a dios for these organizations who have provided many people here with a latrine. But now that I have arrived in town and started talking about latrines, the general expectation is that I am "bringing a latrine project" here. Which i suppose I am doing, but I don't have the money, resources, and organizational answers in hand - this part is meant to be partly the responsibility of the community.
 That being said, I decided to hold a "latrine meeting" to see how many people were interested and motivated enough to take part in the process. About 30 people showed up. We talked about how the community will be involved in this process... they will have to dig their own hole, collect sand for the cement floor (hopefully with help from the truck of the sindico (like a county commissioner), provide 3 helpers for the mason, and contribute 500 pesos. All of this seemed to be okay with the group, but when it comes down to the fundraising and money part, things get a little dicey. I proposed the idea of a fundraising committee to try and make some money for this newly formed group of people in need of latrines. Perhaps we could organize a raffle or sell baked goods at the next festival in town...no response... In the next two meetings I held, attendance shrunk down to about 20 and then to 5. I've had a few people ask me if the money has come yet, and tell me I shouldn't hold meetings until I have the money to build latrines with. Granted it was raining for the last meeting, it is discouraging to feel like people don't want to work with you, they just want to recieve the end product.
 On a more positive note, those 5  people at the last meeting are interested in helping organize logistics and take part in an educational component of the project. One of the men has volunteered to store materials in his home and they were interested in the idea of including attendance at a workshop on the imortance of good hygiene practices as a requirement for recieving a latrine.
 So, here I am in the process of writng grants to try and get the funds to build 30 latrines in Las Auyamas, while simultaneously contemplating the sustainablility and method of this type of community development. One of the grants I have submitted is to a Dominican bank, ADEMI that donates part of its profits to community projects. I was drawn to this one because it is an outside of Peace Corps fund that the community could potentially use again in the future. I'm not sure what the liklihood of this is, given the lack of literacy and access to effective means of communication, but maybe establishing a connection between the bank and the community could help further down the line when I'm not here. 
 If we recieve the money from ADEMi, it will be enough for only about nine latrines. So, the other grant currently under construction, is part of the Peace Corps Partnership Program. It provides a way for donors in the states to contribute to projects happening around the world at various Peace Corps posts. The connection is made via website, where donors can visit and read about different projects happening around the world and then donate money to specific projects if they are willing and able. I am in the process of completing the paperwork, but stay tuned for more information if you are interested in contributing to this or any other Peace Corps project.

Oatmeal Frog

One day while baking dulce de canepa with my little host sister we heard a duck making noise in the cupboard. Asking what it was I quickly learned that frogs are called macos and they sound like ducks when they make noise in your cupboard. I opened up the door and found this little guy hangin´out. I decided he could stay because I´ve heard of worse things infesting cupboards in this country.

Then one day I was baking some bread, about to put in the oatmeal and HELLO!! Mr frog jumped out of the twistie'tied shut bag of the oatmeal into my mixing bowl, and then on to the floor.
How the little guy got in, the world may never know. It was tied up, and there were no holes, plus I hadn´t used the oatmeal in about a week. So had he somehow snuck in when I last had the bag opened, he survived on little oxygen and oats for almost a week...

Visitors!!!

September 4, 2010

Anna and Leon, two very dear fellow PCVs came to visit Las Auyamas for a couple of days.

As we enjoyed delicious snacks brought from the capital and good solid English conversation, it was nice to acknowledge the feelings happiness that come along with settling in to our communities and life here as a volunteer. Looking back on the last six months it is somewhat of a relief to have them behind me. As thrilling as it is to uproot your life only to plop yourself down in an entirely new world, the ease of mind brought by re-establishing routines and regularity is worth celebrating, and that we did with an afternoon trip to the river, fresh guacamole and homemade corn chips.

worms

September 3, 2010

Found this little present on my back porch from one of the local roosters. Perhaps these were the cause of a previous bout with gastric distress.

!Kids!

September 2nd, 2010

Hard to believe it is September already. Woooo time is flying. The family across the street has a recent new addition to the neighborhood flock. Eight new baby goats! They are 10 days old now…funny to watch their long-legged, awkward attempts at leaving the shelter of the enramada.

Compost Creation

Aug. 29^th, 2010

Yesterday I had the second environmental youth group meeting at my house, and while a bit rough around the edges, we ended up with a pretty solid compost pile in the backyard which was the primary goal of the day. Last week I assigned each of the kids with the task of collecting the various local materials needed for a quick start up compost – sawdust, ashes from cooking fires, dry leaves, fresh cut grass, manure, kitchen scraps, etc… and luckily, about ¾ of them returned this week with the goods! When the boys in charge of sticks to make the box for the compost failed to show, we sent those who had arrived on a mission to find some while the other ladies and I sat and chatted… when they all came back with the better have of a few trees, I had to remind myself that next time I have to put the emphasis on finding dead or already fallen branches. Nevertheless, the muchachos – all skilled with their machetes - constructed a really strong and aesthetically pleasing little square house for the compost. I was impressed.

Towards the end we talked a bit about the importance of the different ingredients found in this community and some of the benefits of making compost. Some were more interested than others, but I think the general idea was understood: use trash to make food for plants instead of always burning it. As far as the kids applying this type of knowledge to their own homes and making compost, we’ll have to wait and see. Some families have pigs and chickens that devour the organic trash like peels of fruits and viveres, so encouraging the women to save these scraps for use in compost might be a challenge; as I suppose it is easier to just throw it out the kitchen window to the hungry pigs that make it disappear real fast. But not everyone has pigs and chickens and everyone here burns all of their trash in the road as there is no collection service. One of the largest components of these burning piles is yard trash… such as the leaves that fall from the shade trees, grasses, fresh cut raqueta (the cactus used for fencing) and the leftover plant matter from various harvests. I would like to experiment putting large amounts of some of these different types of plants, especially the cactus, to see if it will decompose well.  If goes as planned this pile can serve as a demonstration of one environmentally responsible way to deal with the compostable trash that often just gets burned. Hopefully all will go well and this pile will help some of my veggies grow up strong and healthy.

 

I am in the process of steering this rowdy group of jovenes into a Brigada Verde – a Peace Corps initiative focused on spreading knowledge about the environment through the youth in the Dominican Republic. There are various ways volunteers are managing their groups; some run them like you would a classroom, others just play games, pick up trash, and go on hikes. Eventually I would like to start teaching some of the more specific themes included in a series of lesson plans - in an attempt to expose and raise awareness about various environmental issues… but as this group is still developing I think we’ll stick to more hands-on, fun activities until we get more accustomed to working together and the idea of having a “youth environmental club” is well-established.