Moved into my new house and it is a definite step up from my old neighborhood. For starters, I have water most of the time and so I don’t have to buy my water off the truck anymore. But, I still store water in about 4 different large tanks for when I am out of luck. Definitely one less thing to stress about. No more peeping-tom. Gracias a Dios. Did I mention it is furnished? So now my home looks more home-y than my last one. It is pretty impressive by volunteer standards. The irony is that now that I am back in town, I am super lazy even though everything is soo much closer (and it is starting to show – yesterday I was asked if I was pregnant).
With all the commotion of moving into my fifth house in about a year, there is lots to write about in the comings and goings of my life here in the DR. In short:
November brought the re-creation of the environment youth group that fell apart during the summer. We went to every classroom in the highschool in both the morning and afternoon sessions to motivate and invite the students to the first meeting. Out of a couple of hundred students, only about ten showed up. Disappointed at first, but better to have a few motivated and genuinely interested students than a bunch of goofy kids. Funny thing is, all the members are male, with two American female facilitators. Compared to the last group, this one is more action based than social, which is a nice change. Within a few weeks we kicked off our first community activity which was sponsoring a movie night. We had permission by a friendly local bar to use their white wall and super speaker system. It was just like being in the movies, which for most, have never actually experienced. Entrance was free, but we sold popcorn and soda to raise funds and awareness of the youth group. We gained about two new members from that activity. Since there was no luz that night, we used their generator for electricity and that brought even more people to see the movie. We ran out of chairs and people were either standing, sitting across the street, or on their motos watching the movie. It was pretty cool to see, and many told us that we should do it every week. I laughed, so much work for just a few hours! But definitely worth it to see the community in this makeshift movie theatre. Next up is a community clean-up.
The painting school is still going, despite us having to scramble for funds to keep it moving. That is the hardest part, finding the funding necessary to keep this community project available to all interested. Being that the school does not require registration fees and is completely free, all funding must be found outside (and since this is a public website, I can’t even begin to bi### about the lack of local funding, to save my skin). So my time is spent doing grant writing (!in both english and spanish!), which is actually pretty difficult considering that art funding is not very common for development projects. Any ideas – please let me know. The easy way out has been to buy the supplies myself. I have bought construction paper, glue, scissors, colored penscils/crayons and hopefully I can find some glitter to make christmas cards with the kids next week. In order to keep the kids motivated we have incorporated different painting projects to distract them from the constant charcoal drawing of a woman’s leg that has been the subject for the past year. For an eight year old, it is a restless way to pass the time, but they keep coming back and that is a good sign considering there are more dangerous ways to pass the time in this place. I think that most of them are there to be able to participate in the fun activities such as actually being able to paint. Who wouldn’t? We have painted t-shirts, completed a color workshop, painted flowers, rocks, and leaves in the park. A nice distraction and more creative (in my opinion) outlet for them. Although, I must admit that the constant leg drawing has taken effect. The older kids have advanced in their drawings and it is impressive to watch them draw. They have taken to drawing and painting in the park, and I am amazed to see how much they have progressed. Very talented. Next month we hope to receive funding for more supplies and especially more work benches / easels for us to be able to accomodate all of the kids that are interested. Many times we have had to turn some of them away because we don’t have enough boards for them to draw on. I guess we will just have to wait and see what the new year brings.
Thanksgiving: I volunteered to be part of the Thanksgiving committee and so I helped bake pumpkin pies; 18 of them. It was pretty easy with four of us baking, so it was pretty much just goofing off in the kitchen and (magic!) wi-fi in the American household we were using. This all took place in the capitol. I ate the next day like there was no tomorrow. Stuffed like the turkey I didn’t partake in feasting on.
Then came my one year in service training. Three days of being trapped in a center with my sector group, eating, listening to the different projects, and the general problems that seem to plague us all in this development work lifestyle. I had to give two different presentations which is still hard for me to do. I am just not made out for presenting. Can’t help it, but I survived.
Last week I came into the capitol (here now again). It seems that lately I have been living in both places, as my host mom / family likes to remind me that I am “lost” (pero tu ‘ta perdida!) and maybe I should just move to the capitol. It is an exageration. Last week we were participating in a art/craft xmas fair in the colonial zone. This year they dedicated the fair to the artisans of my town, and so, as part of my organization, I coordinated a few of our artisans to make the trip and participate. This means that my project partner and I had to put on a presentation about the org and its projects. Yay. It was pretty fun. I didn’t get to go last year, and so I was interested to see how much is sold and of course, what I can buy. Plus a few fellow volunteers were participating and so hung out at the fair. And what a prettier place to be but in the colonial zone in front of the cathedral when in the capitol?
Plus - added a few galleries of photos
