tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4936442976765681382024-03-12T17:02:11.520-07:00Cameron In The CorpsCameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-43538145727007593582011-06-27T14:58:00.000-07:002011-06-27T16:30:09.314-07:00Half-Marathon<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghFU5T3mXwJ82ImyzkJoKxGYE6m8l_Oy9xXykgWTzQP_l3JPsUkMJtzYHQZkT6-KHzJIUk8teF4kTZstPnLixj-HV2TKkgruXJ2E5plxCX5_lz5SHq2CgDdT4-FktVKa2PejAVbQBKzFYu/s1600/phoca_thumb_m_maraton%252520lowenbrau1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623045703756237698" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 284px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 190px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghFU5T3mXwJ82ImyzkJoKxGYE6m8l_Oy9xXykgWTzQP_l3JPsUkMJtzYHQZkT6-KHzJIUk8teF4kTZstPnLixj-HV2TKkgruXJ2E5plxCX5_lz5SHq2CgDdT4-FktVKa2PejAVbQBKzFYu/s320/phoca_thumb_m_maraton%252520lowenbrau1.jpg" border="0" /></a>A group of volunteers ran in the Lowenbrau Half-Marathon yesterday in Santo Domingo. It was really fun to get together and participate in such a cool event, the race was really well-organized and had over 1,100 competitors.<br /><br />It started at 5 p.m. local time, which given the Caribbean climate I thought would be a death sentence. But it was just overcast enough to bring the temperature down a notch and that made a big difference. All throughout the course, which wound through wealthy Dominican neighborhoods and main thouroughfares, fans were lined up shouting encouragment at the runners, giving water, and spraying us with water from their garden hoses.<br /><br />I had no idea that events such as that existed in the Dominican Republic, or that there was such a sub-culture of similar sporting events. I found out at the race about other events around the country, including triathlons and biathlons.<br /><br />The D.R. is a confusing place full of juxtapositions. On the one hand you have very impovershed parts of the country without even the most basic services, corruption is endemic in the military and police force, the political system consists primarily of handouts and graft, thousands of children born in the country are stateless and unable to attend school or work in the formal sector and, on top of it all, the Dominican Republic is also home to one of the worst, if not the worst, education system in the Americas.<br /><br />Yet on the other hand if you go to certain parts of the capital or Santiago you could easily think you were in the the United States. There is every amenity, chain restuarants, fancy cars, million dollar high-rise apartments, you name it. There is even a half-marathon with corporate sponsors, competitors from 8 different countries, tons of publicity, and a huge turnout on the day of. We even got a sweet goodie bag for registering that included our chip and number, a running shirt with the event printed on it, sports drinks, crackers, cookies, and chocolate.<br /><br />I competed in said event yesterday, only a 4 hour bus ride from my community. It is disconcerting that extreme poverty and extreme privilege are so close to each other. I know it is the same in the States and most other countries of the world, but I guess that I didn't go back and forth between the two sides in the States so I never really had to think about it.<br /><br />It raises deeper questions that I can't answer, though I do know that getting together and running in the event with my friends was one of the most fun things I have done in-country so far.<br /><br />One of the coolest things about the race was that one volunteer, Meg, brought 15 kids from her community to run in the race. I mean kids, like 10-14 years old. They couldn't even technically register because they were under 16 so they don't have a Dominican cedula, they had to lie and run as their parents.<br /><br />Once she decided to start training for the half-marathon 3 months ago she invited some kids in her community to train with her. Keep in mind that running is not a part of the culture here, I'd say that outside of the small niche group of runners in the capital there are very few people who run long distances for fun. Baseball players just kind of run short sprints and then stand around for a while, and the rest of the population is pretty sedentary.<br /><br />I have never seen anybody running for fun in my site, or even running at all. But the kids started going with her on her runs, and eventually they had a pretty good sized running club going. In order to motivate the kids, she told them that everyone who stuck with it and ran every day on the training schedule would get to go to the capital and compete in the race. 15 of the kids did, and she got friends and family from home to donate money in order to pay for the bus tickets, food, 2 nights in a hotel, and entrance fees for the race.<br /><br />Most of the kids had never gone very far from their rural community if they'd left at all. Some had never seen the ocean before, despite living on a pretty small island the size of New Hampshire and Vermont. But they kept with the training program Meg set up, got to visit the capital and walk around the Colonial Zone, eat pizza, stay in a hotel, and when the race rolled around they were all there warming up with the group of Peace Corps volunteers.<br /><br />Once the race started they were off, all skinny arms and legs in rapid motion. One of the kids was running in jean shorts and none had what I would call comfortable running shoes. But every single one crossed the finish line running, it was amazing to see. One boy who couldn't be older than 12 or 13 finished in 1:46 and another tiny girl who couldn't weigh more than 85 pounds finished under 2 hours. I was so impressed by the kids, and by Meg for making it all happen.<br /><br />When I saw them that night in the hotel they were all smiles, all said they were going to keep running and said they would eventually like to do a full marathon.<br /><br />Here are the race results if you're interested:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lineameta.com/images/stories/21K_Lowenbrau/2011/results/results_1st_to_last.pdf">http://www.lineameta.com/images/stories/21K_Lowenbrau/2011/results/results_1st_to_last.pdf</a><br /><br />The winner is Kenyan, the second place finisher is Kenyan-American, and the third place finisher is Kenyan as well.<br /><br />The first Peace Corps volunteer to cross the finish line was the incredible Jared Oubre, who finished 54th with a time of 1:27:34. The second PCV, and first woman, to cross the line was the equally incredible Merry Placer, with a time of 1:36:00, good enough for 11oth overall and 10th amongst women. I finished third among PCVs with a time of 1:44:47.<br /><br />However, Merry and Jared were both collegiate athletes, Merry at Wake Forest and Jared at Williams, so I'm claiming to be the first normal PCV to finish the race.<br /><br />I've never run that far and I felt strong, even at the end, so I am happy. I stuck to the 5 minute per kilometer pace set by my running mates during the event, Jenn and Peter, for the entire race, actually running my fastest three kilometers from km 18 to the finish.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I did not beat my mother, who in 1985, the year before I was born, says she ran a half-marathon in 1:38 at the age of 27. However, she has not presented any documents confirming that time so I remain skeptical. Not really, my mother is twice the athlete I am.<br /><br />Also, before I forget, please donate and get your friends to donate to this water project I am working on in my site with Duncan. You can read a description of the project and donate here:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-455">https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-455</a><br /><br />Thanks for helping out. The advantages of donating to a Peace Corps project is that 100 percent of your donation will go directly to the project. There is no overhead, the money is for materials only. All the planning, execution and manual labor will be carried out by the benificiaries of the project and the Peace Corps Volunteers free of charge.<br /><br />you can read Duncan's pitch on his blog:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.duncanpeabody.blogspot.com/">http://www.duncanpeabody.blogspot.com/</a>Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-33592646049473696302011-06-08T06:01:00.000-07:002011-06-08T07:07:06.902-07:00BooksSo I saw that my friend Jonathan posted a list of the books he has read while in the Peace Corps on his blog a while back, and I thought to myself, that's a good idea, I should do that as well. So without further adieu, here is my list, in chronological order:<br /><br />Under the Banner of Heaven - John Krakauer<br />Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence - Paul Feig<br />Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter - Adeline Yen Mah<br />Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson<br />Suite Française - Irène Némirovsky<br />Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama<br />Why the Cocks Fight - Michelle Wucker<br />Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder<br />A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn<br />The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini<br />The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz<br />What is the What - Valentino Achak Deng as told to Dave Eggers<br />The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger<br />The White Man's Burden - William Easterly<br />Consider the Lobster - David Foster Wallace<br />Cocaine Nation - Tom Feiling<br />The Professor & the Madman - Simon Winchester<br />Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser<br />A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini<br />Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation - Joseph J. Ellis<br />A Heartbreaking Tale of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers<br />Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine<br />- George Dohrmann<br />To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee<br />The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris <br />- Mark Kurlansky<br />The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway<br />The Other Wes Moore - Wes Moore<br /><br />Not as numerous a list as I would have predicted while preparing to depart almost two years ago, but I'm going to go with the quality over quantity defense. <br /><br />Also, reading books and watching tv shows and movies on my hard drive are in direct competition with one another, so that has cut into my overall reading output. <br /><br />I recommend all the books on this list, so if you are looking for ideas, pick one up, and the send me your thoughts upon finishing it.<br /><br />Note: We just finished the Dominican-Haitian Relations Conference this past weekend and I think it was a success. The conference's theme was "Mobilizing Marginalized Populations" and its goal was to give volunteers and community counterparts specific ideas and strategies for projects they can do in their communities that include all members of the community: haitian immigrants, women, undocumented children, informal sector entrepreneurs etc. <br /><br />One thing we wanted was for the conference to be practical and concrete, as opposed to theoretical and abstract. While it is important to understand the larger political and historical factors behind the current crisis of undocumented people in the Dominican Republic, instead of focusing on that big-picture we focused on tools and strategies for starting documentation projects and how to navigate the process to actually get people their birth certificates. <br /><br />The same was true for the other mini-workshops and presentations. For education, rather than talk about the larger scale problems with public education in the Dominican Republic that are beyond our abilities to address, a great volunteer shared tools that she has been using for the past year and a half in her community to teach literacy to a small group of students. There were also presentations about youth initiatives, which include the sexual health course Escojo Mi Vida, girls club, organized sports, and environmental education. There was a health presentation about higiene and nutrition, which included a demonstration of a simple handwashing device made out of a soda bottle, especially important now because of the risk of Cholera. There were also healthy recipes using local ingrediants and tips for how to start a community garden project. The fourth presentation in the afternoon session was about doing a latrine project, focusing again on specifics, like how to organize the community and educate everyone on how to properly use and maintain latrines, and where to find funding to carry out the project.<br /><br />The final presentation of the day was about the youth business plan competition, in which youth 16-29 receive business education through a course called Construye Tus Suenos, and upon completing the course write a business plan that is submitted to a group of judges for evaluation. The best twenty plans are invited to a competition where the kids make a professional presentation of the plan and budget in front of a panel of dominican professionals. The three winners are given the start-up capital for their business. Two youth who won the competition last year spoke about the experience and how the business is doing a year later. It is a great project for the rural areas because there aren't many jobs available and many people in our communities don't have access to traditional lines of credit, either because they are to poor to give collateral, or don't have citizenship.<br /><br />Those were the meat & potatoes of the conference, in addition there was fun as well. Some of those include a photo exhibition from each community that was on display throughout the conference, a presenation about the history of Dominican-Hatian relations dating back to the 17th century, a Kreyol lesson, a movie, "Glory Road," to spark a discussion about race and discrimination, an immigration activity, reflection about the issues of race and disrimination through art, poetry, and drama, and guest presenters with experience in immigrants rights and working in local politics and non-governmental organizations. <br /><br />It was a long three days, but the participants were very engaged and enthusiastic, and really embraced the planning session at the end. Each group walked out of the conference with at least one project in mind to begin implementing as soon as they arrive back in their communities. <br /><br />I don't have my camera cord with me right now, but I will post pictures from the conference the next time I have internet. <br /><br />Until the next time!<br /><br />Jiska pwochenn fwa!<br /><br />Hasta la proxima vez!Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-31682621610674851842011-03-04T11:44:00.001-08:002011-03-21T09:25:39.912-07:00Foto Time<div align="left">Hey how about that, two blog posts in one month, pretty good huh? This one'll be short on words and long on pictures which I'm sure you all will prefer anyway. </div><div align="left"><br /></div><div align="left">I finally got a camera, thanks to Alicia's mom Lorri. Thanks Lorri! In my now more than 18 months here I've taken maybe a half dozen pictures. My dad and Jen gave me their old camera to bring down, but it used AA batteries at an unbelievable rate; brand new duracells would literally last 5 minutes tops, so I just never took pictures because it was prohibitively expensive to use.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">I'm also just not a very good picture taker. I feel like having a camera out takes me out of the moment sometimes. I'd prefer to just enjoy it, but then I always regret not having any pictures once time passes and my memory starts to fade so I'm determined now to chronicle my last 8 months as best I can to preserve the memories. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><br />Also, Dominicans love taking and posing for pictures—I think my friends in my community are even more excited about my new camera than I am. Most of it is for reasons of vanity, but they have also pointed out that we can now take pictures of all the work we are doing. Nelson “el Chiquito” was out yesterday taking pictures of the girls soccer practice. Printed pictures also make great gifts I've learned.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><br />Also, the newest group of volunteers arrived a couple weeks ago and I was asked to go to their training to share pictures of my house and community with them during the PCV Living Conditions presentation. I was one of 4 current volunteers to present. I represented a batey, and the others represented a campo, pueblo, and city. A batey is a rural mixed haitian-dominican community, a campo is a rural dominican community, a pueblo is a fairly large town, and a city is well, a city. </div><div align="left"><br /></div><div align="left">So for those of you who were wondering what it looked like, here are pictures of my house:</div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /></div><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align="center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylqnR7KxbU7r3d9e2-uxmoepOXn4fVDqUMS4q9ol39k8Gn_nHSiCRhvAdU9UvmX7QO4rbz-WRjJDvpqqAYUIsnvva4Kn0mG8SqhAOer7E4Rqy7YC_AlU7tZK8dh1_uqCiE1vwdrjT8t_P/s1600/DSCF0167.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580315521013011618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylqnR7KxbU7r3d9e2-uxmoepOXn4fVDqUMS4q9ol39k8Gn_nHSiCRhvAdU9UvmX7QO4rbz-WRjJDvpqqAYUIsnvva4Kn0mG8SqhAOer7E4Rqy7YC_AlU7tZK8dh1_uqCiE1vwdrjT8t_P/s320/DSCF0167.jpg" border="0" /></a>Front </p><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align="center"><br /></p><div align="center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhovYPdbb0y7FtiTm2cXfcysVygLdbN6jrF0UCajRfLBgPc8W6WkSL7AsasNdmWnbv8NC7_brW3dHi48rq661x2dDB6f7OKd4nqUDHtI32znIzGIVVggtYTzx2nsQcrJSOL731IhgemVvbe/s1600/DSCF0169.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580317066956942162" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhovYPdbb0y7FtiTm2cXfcysVygLdbN6jrF0UCajRfLBgPc8W6WkSL7AsasNdmWnbv8NC7_brW3dHi48rq661x2dDB6f7OKd4nqUDHtI32znIzGIVVggtYTzx2nsQcrJSOL731IhgemVvbe/s320/DSCF0169.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div align="center">Back </div><div align="center"><br /></div><div align="center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9qCcXY80LBnE7UOlqkSmA9_WzwaJSxRNy-kw44IWj3u5NQfP1gKAA998PI2e8Wmk1ZeCgMaZrKUeHCheQeFOfBes7UJ6IFwrOB_P11i-03BXDBVboOesyY2Uof_jNriTgW7Bqs4UsdXCb/s1600/DSCF0065.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580332359022272946" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9qCcXY80LBnE7UOlqkSmA9_WzwaJSxRNy-kw44IWj3u5NQfP1gKAA998PI2e8Wmk1ZeCgMaZrKUeHCheQeFOfBes7UJ6IFwrOB_P11i-03BXDBVboOesyY2Uof_jNriTgW7Bqs4UsdXCb/s320/DSCF0065.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div align="center">My Living Room </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsjQJQvaKrvDow3sbx-nuA8IQ07PdDF6Pk1tavDuUTuzkUl4yQExTqXwK0AYb4O8bAQUa-u40SU5qsWKVE44apmfHyJaabivCCglWBFbapd8HZyEg3dHBpdiKhQaygyRpPcUI8MEILcBe/s1600/DSCF0159.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580334059631915170" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsjQJQvaKrvDow3sbx-nuA8IQ07PdDF6Pk1tavDuUTuzkUl4yQExTqXwK0AYb4O8bAQUa-u40SU5qsWKVE44apmfHyJaabivCCglWBFbapd8HZyEg3dHBpdiKhQaygyRpPcUI8MEILcBe/s320/DSCF0159.jpg" border="0" /></a>My Kitchen/Bathing Room </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtKgKti9BcWUvCSRTRwtTVMgZfmbYN3IxtZKVkg7DH8F7jI0sUiRWa1ZLgyUzOHWzSnzjKuiiOljZLrqq28UekkzpKp_qORCulnkYr18SIV2jxRCUQmRDg8bpUZaFdYFXHiDjRZI5T39Y/s1600/DSCF0160.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580334060177819714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtKgKti9BcWUvCSRTRwtTVMgZfmbYN3IxtZKVkg7DH8F7jI0sUiRWa1ZLgyUzOHWzSnzjKuiiOljZLrqq28UekkzpKp_qORCulnkYr18SIV2jxRCUQmRDg8bpUZaFdYFXHiDjRZI5T39Y/s320/DSCF0160.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center">My shower</div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586560027415108482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIhDCCUUKBiAsK9l5i5LyxB48Y8lQ4eiD-WwbQb6R7_g27QGMio335j171ETcEIUNb6k85aLDkFLXl7LeixdJLVcsgAZRF-7Js1bXZxjnSCXStGEQlkRGssBSv1gPubwrgsDuanOyRraSW/s320/23.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="center">My Bedroom</p><div align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586562733784566866" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiECL3atnp6l9hc_FXxVHN6GNUfw3WD4270TKf6yo1VZMWskquaufFd57Cs0KY2J_3mhI00wgN2CUMJ87Cs8zMgp6xK5jArAVYtO92tNy5DpfYmEPWLp0KhnqMuYc1-H-F2XCMQhHYZro6X/s320/19.jpg" border="0" />My trash disposal<br /></div><div align="center"></div><br />That's all the time I have for now, in the next post I will try to include some pictures of my community as well. Adios!Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-79347412235559371872011-02-23T17:39:00.000-08:002011-02-23T18:10:04.860-08:00Blog 2.0<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BYZtObfhr7IMUcxEqmz40Rg8KLcOmSWd_3YO68oP7Olv1piNLyyhFpUenDMpp2TfVWrcl8R4IYDkIjstez_-5zHFtDxcSJtGE1G3IU1frTBnI5IF95UOgWdFmhe4l5FpBV8zX9c_e2yh/s1600/179683_584260001531_42006151_33049575_1085365_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BYZtObfhr7IMUcxEqmz40Rg8KLcOmSWd_3YO68oP7Olv1piNLyyhFpUenDMpp2TfVWrcl8R4IYDkIjstez_-5zHFtDxcSJtGE1G3IU1frTBnI5IF95UOgWdFmhe4l5FpBV8zX9c_e2yh/s320/179683_584260001531_42006151_33049575_1085365_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577069103904601986" border="0" /></a><br /><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hello all! It has been more than a year since I have updated my blog and for that I am deeply sorry. Many of you (members of my family) have mentioned to me how much you had enjoyed reading my blog and wondered why I haven't been updating it. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Well, I don't have a good excuse, but I have many excuses to make up for the lack of a good one. Quantity over quality has always been my motto. First and foremost I got lazy, no two ways about it. When there is electricity it is easier to just watch a movie or TV show on my laptop than actually think and reflect about my life in a blog entry. So if it was nighttime, and there was electricity, zoning-out won-out over taking the admittedly little amount of initiative required to write something and share it with those who are interested. I realize that was very selfish so again, my apologies.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> My second excuse is that there isn't internet access in my community or in nearby communities. So even IF I would have had the initiative to write a blog entry, I wouldn't have had the ability to post it online. Using the internet requires a trip to Barahona about an hour and a half away. There are places with internet closer but in my experience those places either don't work, are too slow to get anything done, or getting permission and the password is such a fight every time that it isn't worth it (cough, cough, stupid World Vision Office, cough.) So the closest reliable internet is in Barahona, at a pizza place called Pala Pizza. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Don't be mistaken, I am able to use the internet at least every couple weeks, if not once a week. It is just that in my limited amount of internet time I have to prioritize, and email, facebook, news and sports have just been higher priorities over the past year. The internet is so vast and so much happens in the world, that trying to catch up on it all in one hour every couple weeks is just so overwhelming that having access to the internet often makes me more stressed out than relieved. Trying to get all my work stuff done and also use the web for enjoyment never seems to fit into the amount of time I have so every session feels kind of incomplete. This is actually a lame excuse for not updating my blog in a way because the amount of time it would take to copy and paste a blog entry written off-line to my blog is minimal; I offer it to you nonetheless.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> My third is and final excuse is simple: <a href="http://duncanpeabody.blogspot.com/">duncanpeabody.blogspot.com</a>. Duncan's blog is just so much funnier than mine could ever be, and he updates it pretty frequently, so it just made more sense in my (lazy) mind to direct any and all interested parties in that direction. Again, bad excuse since none you know him, but I will say that I have been successful in increasing the popularity of his blog. Our family makes up at least 50 percent of Duncan's readership and 100 percent of his fan club.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> Also, because he constantly cries about being overshadowed by Duncan, I would like to send you all in the direction of Justin Hitchcock's blog, <a href="http://justinsexcellentadventure.blogspot.com">justinsexcellentadventure.blogpot.com</a>. Justin is best known for getting his front tooth knocked out by Duncan on the 4<sup>th</sup> of July. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> But seriously, Justin's blog is very good as well. I highly recommend it, especially for the story about the time he, Amy, and Duncan drunkenly adopted three abandoned puppies one night and then regretted it in the morning. Here is your second place sticker Justin.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> And for those of you who know me—which I assume anybody reading this does, otherwise you are weirdly interested in the meandering stories of a nobody living on an island—then you know that if I can't be the best at something, in my own mind at least, then I don't do it. Hence my subconscious resistance to writing a blog. Fear of having my writing pale in comparison to Duncan's, or even worse, Justin's, has prompted my mind to construct the artificial barriers to updating my blog mentioned above. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> But no! I am here to say that fear of inadequacy will no longer hold me back from sharing my life with the nearly half dozen members of my extended family who are interested in reading about it. <i>Wi, nou kapab!</i></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> One of my New Year Resolutions is to write more, or at least write something, and that includes this blog. So I am resolving, here and now, to update my blog more frequently, ideally at least once a month. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> I'm back, if you'll have me. It only took me 18 months to figure out that writing about my life and work on a regular basis is a good idea, both for myself and for my friends and family at home. Better late than never I say! </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While we are on the subject of new year resolutions, I'd like to share mine with you to let you know where I'm at heading into this next year and also to keep me accountable to my resolutions. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u>Personal</u> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Eat better (cook, organize lunch with a family)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Exercise at least 3 x a week (running, soccer, basketball)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Push-ups, crunches, lunges, squats at least 3 x a week</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stretching, yoga, and relaxation for at least 20 minutes a day</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Study Kreyol or Spanish 30 minutes daily</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Write (blog, journal, Gringo Grita, etc.)</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><u>Professional</u></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stay in my site</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Cogelo suave</i> (take it easy), hang out and talk to people, <i>compartir</i> (spend time with my neighbors)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Lesson plan and execute the <i>Sala de Tarea </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(after-school program)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Solicit books for the library with a library committee—form a library committee!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Kick ass with </span><i>Actas</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (birth certificates), find a dependable lawyer to help with rectifications</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Organize the committees and write grants for water & latrine projects</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Meet with the mayor and get school transportation solved</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Stay engaged & don't work alone</p>Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-82077261334965505672010-01-15T07:27:00.000-08:002010-01-15T07:29:35.067-08:00Checking InWell it has been a long while since I’ve updated everyone; this whole not-having-internet thing is really killing my blogging output. Let’s get to it.<br /><br />The biggest news to develop of late is that I finished my community interviews and put together a list of potential projects for the next year. I split them up into an “us” category—meaning we have control over starting them, we just need to be organized—and a “help from outside” category—larger scale projects that require resources we don’t have here in the batey.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Us</span><br />Sexual Health Course<br />Organized Sports/Girls’ Sports<br />Hygiene Demonstrations<br />Environment Clean-Up and Education<br />Talent Show/Music and Dance Club<br />Book Club<br />Sala de Tarea<br />Chess Club<br />Business Plan Course<br />Parent-Teacher Group<br />Dominican-Haitian Relations<br />World Map Mural<br />Handwashing Bottles<br />Money Management<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Help from Outside</span><br />School Transportation<br />Citizenship Declarations<br />Computer Lab<br />Extend School to 8th Grade<br />English Course<br />Latrine Project<br />Water Access in Every House<br />Paved Streets<br />Clinic/Medical Mission<br />Reduced Smoke Stove Project<br />University Assistance<br /><br />Last Sunday at our youth group meeting I presented these potential projects and had each youth vote for their three favorite “us” projects and two “help from outside” projects. The winners were Sexual Health, Organized Sports/Girls’ Sports, English Class, Music & Dance Club/Talent Show, Computer Lab, and University Assistance.<br /><br />I also added three very important projects to the list, a Sala de Tarea, basically an after-school program with alternative teaching methods for struggling students, a Latrine Project, and a Citizenship Declarations project, because the majority of people in the community are not Dominican citizens despite being born here and in some cases being part of a family that has lived in the country for generations.<br /><br />If you aren’t a citizen you can’t go to school past 8th grade, you can’t vote, you can’t get a bank account, a loan, or a real job. You’re basically screwed and guaranteed a life of poverty from which you can’t escape no matter how hard you work. And it is a vicious cycle because kids can’t be declared if their parents aren’t declared, and parents can’t be declared if their parents aren’t declared, etc. etc. The problem is that declarations are basically a bureaucratic and xenophobic clusterfuck for anybody who looks Haitian or has a Haitian last name, which is pretty much everyone in my site. Trying to help people get declared is very arduous, but so important that I will undoubtedly be working on it throughout my two years of service.<br /><br />So the first projects I will be starting on in mid-February are:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Us</span><br />Sexual Health Course<br />Organized Sports/Girls' Sports<br />Talent Show/Music & Dance Club<br />English Class<br />Sala de Tarea<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Help from Outside</span><br />Citizenship Declarations<br />Computer Lab<br />University Assistance<br /><br />Over the next two weeks I will write a community diagnostic report, using all the information I’ve learned about the community over the past three months through informal conversations, formal interviews, and youth group meetings. Then, based off the report, I have to prepare a presentation in collaboration with one of my project partners and present if first to the community and then in front my bosses and the other youth volunteers during our 3-month In-Service Training that is happening the first week of February in San Cristobal.<br /><br />So that’s how the “professional” part of my life is coming along here in the Dominican Republic. I’m excited to be done thinking about the community diagnostic and presentation and actually start working on the things I’m here to do.<br /><br />On the personal side of things, everything is pretty good. I can move out of my host family’s house at the end of January so I’ve been looking around for places to live, though that has been kind of disappointing. I have one place available if I want it, really it’s the only option, but it doesn’t have a latrine or place to bucket bathe. I have a good situation with my host family so I could continue to stay with them, but I am ready to have a little more space and a little more privacy, and a lot more time away from 9-month-old baby, so I would really like to move out on my own. I have been living with host families for the past five months!<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong, all three have been great, but I couldn’t even live with my own family for five months. So I will probably move into the only option place, and then continue to do my business in my host family’s latrine on the other side of the batey and bathe in my boxers outside my house. Though one potential problem I foresee with that plan is if I get hit with a bout of stomach problems in the middle of the night and have to try and run across the community while trying not to shit my boxers, a very real possibility.<br /><br />Though actually my health has been great, knock-on-wood. After a rough start it seems as if my body has settled in here very nicely.<br /><br />Let’s see, what else is there to report… well I spent Christmas Eve here in my site, Eve is the big deal here, not Day. My host “mom,” she’s only 21-years-old, made me a special dinner that was very good, fried chicken, fried plantains, and spaghetti. Then I met up with a bunch of volunteers in Cabarete on the northern coast for New Year’s Eve, which was amazing. Other than that it’s been same old, same old here in the site; a lot of reading, basketball when I’m not being lazy, growing a beard that I have since shaved, English class, and trying in vain to learn Kreyol. Mwen pa kapab aprann Aysian! That means I can’t learn Haitian, which is what they call Kreyol in my community. And they call Spanish Dominicano, apparently forgetting the 15 or so other countries that speak Spanish.<br /><br />That’s all I have for now, I hope everyone is well. And if you have any extra resources, i.e. blood, money, clothing, food; try and find some way to get it to Haiti. I assume the Red Cross and other similar organizations have a way you can direct where your donation goes. Man is that place cursed. If you want to be depressed, read the Wikipedia entry on the history of Haiti.<br /><br />On that cheery note, I bid you all adieu!Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-44543772322660640112009-11-10T09:16:00.000-08:002009-11-11T06:46:22.641-08:00Batey Nef<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg271GjbNx-TqHfveslrNPLt1xbgjWCHbkrBgKJERA7cx46AachKNAyHx8ieEcHuNSMRGGVYbrEuckm3C9ERMum19fVp0s6zoGe8L3mZ6OJ_sz0J2Uo2m8KrNbIQ6cy4Gb3UVa3R-MSUoLD/s1600-h/IMG_1651.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg271GjbNx-TqHfveslrNPLt1xbgjWCHbkrBgKJERA7cx46AachKNAyHx8ieEcHuNSMRGGVYbrEuckm3C9ERMum19fVp0s6zoGe8L3mZ6OJ_sz0J2Uo2m8KrNbIQ6cy4Gb3UVa3R-MSUoLD/s320/IMG_1651.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402529629332925042" border="0" /></a><br />Hey all, I found the internet but I don't have a lot of time so I am going to make this quick... Bullet points go!<br /><br /><ul><li>The cancha inauguration was amazing, our youth and the community of El Chorro made us look so good, they didn't really need us at all but it was nice of them to give us some of the credit.<br /></li><li>CBT ended, very sad, good times with good people. Definitely won't forget it.</li><li>We had our swearing-in ceremony, the acting U.S. Ambassador was there, as was the Peace Corps country director and all our host families, technical trainers, and language facilitators. Lots of words of encouragement for our two years of service and a nice way to wrap up training. </li><li>Had two days in the capital after swearing-in to wrap up things, pack our stuff, and say goodbye to our host families. Everyone stayed in hotels the last night before departing to our sites, we (the youth crew) found a great one: cheap with balconies everywhere and roof access. We spent our last night together as a group drinking, dancing, eating pizza and basically being loud drunk Americans with an amazing Caribbean breeze blowing and keeping us cool. It was great. We also swam at the embassy pool the next day, unbelievable.</li><li>Then we departed to our sites. I like my site a lot, great people and I found a great little park area with a bench where I can read. Love it. Have had 5 youth group meetings already and am starting English classes this week. Soccer everyday and co-ed volleyball this friday. Not going to have time to do my community diagnostic but oh well.<br /></li><li>Got bed bug bites all over my body, not so fun.<br /></li><li>Had a week of Kreyol training, starting over with a new language also isn't very fun, but hopefully someday I will be as functionally bad at Kreyol as I currently am at Spanish.</li><li>I have the world's worst farmer's tan, lots of sun+t-shirt= not a good look for me. No beach days in sight to fix it either.</li><li>Batey 9 is surrounded by sugarcane fields, with mountains in the distance. It is actually very pretty. Sorry no pictures yet, gotta get on that.</li><li>Better update to come, gotta write the post before I get to the internet next time.</li></ul>P.S.<br /><ol><li>I have a cell phone! and I have service at my site most of the time! Those who are interested can call me at 1.809.723.2761. Simple, no country code or anything like that.<br /></li><li>Here is another link to some more of Kerri's pictures from CBT... <a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225887&id=1615070&l=73e448ac65" onmousedown="'UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this)," target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225887&id=1615070&l=73e448ac65</a></li><li>I am not funny when I write, quite the opposite in fact. I apologize but I am afraid that I am just a boring writer. But the good news is my friend Duncan is a hilarious writer. So read his blog and just know that that is how I wish I could convey my experience down here to you all. Seriously, go to his blog right now and read all the posts. You won't regret it. <a href="http://duncanpeabody.blogspot.com/">http://duncanpeabody.blogspot.com/</a><br /></li></ol>Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-70460907783468885172009-10-18T08:49:00.001-07:002009-10-18T08:58:40.926-07:00PhotosHey all, so we left Constanza yesterday and are now back in the capital. It was quite a sad send off, a lot of tears, a lot of hugs, and a lot of love. I will write more about the inauguration and the goodbye party with our families and youth soon, and also upload pictures from both. Also, it recently came to my attention that all the pictures I have on facebook cannot be seen because Kerri´s profile is private, so here are some photos from Constanza up to two weeks ago.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222082&id=1615070&l=8b95cf2de3">http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222082&id=1615070&l=8b95cf2de3</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223338&id=1615070&l=f9dbd5944d">http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223338&id=1615070&l=f9dbd5944d</a><br /><br />Hope these work, adios!Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-78659018711975450712009-10-14T15:29:00.000-07:002009-10-14T18:38:41.656-07:00La Cancha<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dO8zHwoYgj-frU7ORYj0FL6dbwgsvmFI6GDZTCVTb-yIsM2KnNGeiyvpkNE4xNxiL3r53m5rwD_muGSrUrbaUO7Sl427Qm8WOSW58yMDSBOOdZONVRfWxlJ2ZQxsYZJuoua2ayGCtp-Z/s1600-h/DSCI0277.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dO8zHwoYgj-frU7ORYj0FL6dbwgsvmFI6GDZTCVTb-yIsM2KnNGeiyvpkNE4xNxiL3r53m5rwD_muGSrUrbaUO7Sl427Qm8WOSW58yMDSBOOdZONVRfWxlJ2ZQxsYZJuoua2ayGCtp-Z/s320/DSCI0277.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392605688496080642" border="0" /></a>I mentioned briefly in my last post that I, along with three other volunteers, have been working with our youth group on building a basketball court, or “cancha.” Well I have great news to report.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaMse7QDXf0BUD4W0reXZ4K0b1R3xeyYLt3Wxhl2RLvsKBc_TBdQMbjfnr97Y3WUMWoGb56Tv63PDUrSmGItdIeZhKkQ6UxJsnWbvQ-sY8I7FXOiIr7uOFy6EChuKQPo-YZltjhB2R6S-/s1600-h/DSCI0285.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaMse7QDXf0BUD4W0reXZ4K0b1R3xeyYLt3Wxhl2RLvsKBc_TBdQMbjfnr97Y3WUMWoGb56Tv63PDUrSmGItdIeZhKkQ6UxJsnWbvQ-sY8I7FXOiIr7uOFy6EChuKQPo-YZltjhB2R6S-/s320/DSCI0285.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392608079496871842" border="0" /></a><br />At the end of last week the project’s prospects were looking pretty dismal. The mayor blew off our meeting, and the letter we gave to his assistants must not have been as persuasive as we thought because we kept getting the run around when our youth asked about the funding.<br /><br />In the letter we basically said that our barrio, El Chorro, did not have a basketball court or play (baseball field) for kids to do recreational activities, but they did have more than half the concrete already completed for a mini-cancha as well as a broken hoop. The community also had motivated youth that had the knowledge and ability to finish the court and the support of the neighborhood association. All we needed was 15 bags of cement, red, blue and white paint, and two meters of sand.<br /><br />The estimates we got for the materials put the cost around 8,000 pesos, about 220 dollars. We thought it would be an easy sell to the mayor because it was just a one time expense for a barrio without a court and he wouldn’t need to do anything but sign the check. Our youth seemed optimistic as well.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB68Zs6gf8p5HQ1PaHsGNsrODI9gJr9uLVphnBC2St06E60k8YXij31bgPI8P9_bsRmub0rwhQWT0CCXS53NFwJpLgPe6Nkh6-VNQ49iZ-q1At25ZpSUsk6FuVtjAMtUZozhCWVg-4zPSm/s1600-h/DSCI0315.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB68Zs6gf8p5HQ1PaHsGNsrODI9gJr9uLVphnBC2St06E60k8YXij31bgPI8P9_bsRmub0rwhQWT0CCXS53NFwJpLgPe6Nkh6-VNQ49iZ-q1At25ZpSUsk6FuVtjAMtUZozhCWVg-4zPSm/s320/DSCI0315.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392609039243224050" border="0" /></a><br />Well when we went down to his office to make our pitch last Monday we were told that the mayor had an “emergency meeting” and wouldn’t be able to meet with us. So we made the pitch to his aides and gave them our letter with pictures of the unfinished cancha, and they gave us positive feedback and looks that said “all you’re asking for is 15 bags of cement?” So we waited all week to hear back and never did, and our youth kept saying they were going to find out tomorrow, then tomorrow, then tomorrow. Finally by Thursday we all knew we weren’t getting anything from the mayor, not even a no.<br /><br />It wasn’t unexpected, we had always assumed we would be rejected by the mayor and had been trying to get our jovenes to walk the beat and make similar pitches to the hardware stores, businesses, and political candidates. But the whole week they had said we would get it from the mayor so we waited and waited, and then when we had wasted the whole week we finally were able to get a group organized to hit up businesses on F<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkCP-a8Rm8Ic3DtHltHOezJmSjUCfXJEK1VQjRbku2TDXIO7eeUNfDVqu4CmELUppRpmKeOiznnDsyEwp4PPNqxVrmKOTIy1ccFGgD1Hz3YbFY_ELnf3w_2Fpmeesq5k9uZRr3zVkKp0g/s1600-h/DSCI0319.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkCP-a8Rm8Ic3DtHltHOezJmSjUCfXJEK1VQjRbku2TDXIO7eeUNfDVqu4CmELUppRpmKeOiznnDsyEwp4PPNqxVrmKOTIy1ccFGgD1Hz3YbFY_ELnf3w_2Fpmeesq5k9uZRr3zVkKp0g/s320/DSCI0319.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392610548107286338" border="0" /></a>riday morning.<br /><br />But by then we were really under the gun. It was October 9th and all the volunteers had to have their projects done by the following week. Basically we were starting from scratch, and as we walked downtown to meet our youth to go from business to business I was pretty pessimistic that we would get anything from anybody. I was mad we had waited to hear from the mayor instead of fundraising and had wasted the whole week and was disappointed that we had apparently failed in our admittedly ambitious attempt to help build a basketball court.<br /><br />But something amazing happened once we hit the pavement. It started slow, the fi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4535UCekLSDyc6_3adoXnOxHjTVOC0YjOhtlkhHgMjEukrWTEVnJzShrgzUCwxwIX_eZ3fzzfo6UYlbYW-z91RPw2Q9nqhBw5i1PIT246-oaRITCluumsaHs8-E80f6kWLsLc6r30Yqyd/s1600-h/DSCI0321.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4535UCekLSDyc6_3adoXnOxHjTVOC0YjOhtlkhHgMjEukrWTEVnJzShrgzUCwxwIX_eZ3fzzfo6UYlbYW-z91RPw2Q9nqhBw5i1PIT246-oaRITCluumsaHs8-E80f6kWLsLc6r30Yqyd/s320/DSCI0321.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392612233905799666" border="0" /></a>rst politician blew us off, and then some hardware stores said the boss wasn’t in but they would deliver our letter and call us back, not very promising. Then our luck started to change. A couple of our youth knew someone who worked at another hardware store, and he said we should come back in the afternoon to talk to his boss, so we had an in. Then while standing on the street writing down the name of a political candidate whose face was plastered on a truck, the candidate walked up, it was his truck! He was unshaven and clearly just a regular working man during the day, and one of our youth started talking to him and showed him our letter, and he just reached in his pocket and gave us 500 pesos, about 15 bucks. It wasn’t a lot but it was something, our first donation.<br /><br />From there we went out and met another candidate who promised to donate something, then a water distribution plant that promised a couple bags of cement and all the sand we wanted. The ball was rolling. From there we went to another hardware stuff who said they would call us, but while <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwUTbfvgFj8DTKZmd8z3Es8rwR551_YdaGOUkDIm77l13TUO_ZYfmJcYsha6biB_VceJ3z0dcIsy9HN6x00mOdNZlS37GbH32golTx6VTuvsFeJgF1zS3_1_iGAlfP4WGJ_agTsRItBJC/s1600-h/DSCI0325.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwUTbfvgFj8DTKZmd8z3Es8rwR551_YdaGOUkDIm77l13TUO_ZYfmJcYsha6biB_VceJ3z0dcIsy9HN6x00mOdNZlS37GbH32golTx6VTuvsFeJgF1zS3_1_iGAlfP4WGJ_agTsRItBJC/s320/DSCI0325.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392614030622717106" border="0" /></a>we were waiting one of your youth recognized the ex-mayor and told him about the court and he just bought us four bags of cement on the spot. Later that day we got some paint from the owner of the hardware store we had visited earlier, and two bags of cement from the water place, and our group got six more bags and some paint plus 1,000 pesos from other sources.<br /><br />The day was a complete 180, we had gone from nothing to everything and could actually build the court. We started to plan things out and after preparing we started building the court on Sunday morning. It was hard work, we didn’t have a cement mixer so we had to mix the gravel, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWXO2pbaEM2eHpB0vADJ5ujpUHMZavsWxNnCeiUzRWIpjovXcS7Y7bjB8i5V-gTTFf06ucQFtwGN40ZYGn9PJyy3xwuDftPdfRBfYV2FTiCPwhxZ2Q-9jH8HzRMZKeFOdMntJtRrGOqMP-/s1600-h/DSCI0332.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWXO2pbaEM2eHpB0vADJ5ujpUHMZavsWxNnCeiUzRWIpjovXcS7Y7bjB8i5V-gTTFf06ucQFtwGN40ZYGn9PJyy3xwuDftPdfRBfYV2FTiCPwhxZ2Q-9jH8HzRMZKeFOdMntJtRrGOqMP-/s320/DSCI0332.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392615016600095666" border="0" /></a><br />sand, cement and water by hand. We also had to get the sand from a disgusting river and bags of wet sand are about the heaviest thing I have ever tried to lift. But our youth were incredible, they had all the connections. The brother of Kelvin works in construction so he led the laying down of cement, and a guy they knew had a backhoe so he ripped up the broken rim and also dumped sand for us to mix. We worked all morning on Sunday, then the youth finished the laying down the cement that afternoon.<br /><br />We let the court dry on Monday and then on Tuesday went over there early to put the lines down and paint. Dean and I printed international court dimensions from the internet and tried to make an official court while Jenni and Alicia painted the backboard and cleaned the surrounding area with some neighborhood kids. Putting the lines down was much more complicated than we had envisioned, we had to measure and place tape 5 cm apart at perfect angles 6.25 meters from the non-existent rim for the 3 point line, and make perfect circles with nothing but a measuring tape and string. It was extremely tedious work and took a long time, but we got the lines painted in yellow and they finished painting the court red, blue and white. And I also got the world's worst farmer's tan to show for it.<br /><br />Now we just need to install the hoop and then on Thursday we have our inauguration/bball tournament so that should be a lot of fun. All in all I'm really happy with the work we've done here in Constanza over the past five weeks. It was just supposed to be training but because we were paired with such an incredible youth group we were able to complete a project that we can all be proud of. Not a bad start at all and now I'm really excited to get to my site and do work in the place I will be calling home for the next two years.<br /><br />(more pictures of the cancha can be seen <a href="http://s559.photobucket.com/albums/ss35/cameroncorps/">here</a> and there will be more to come)Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-71161720938916504972009-10-06T15:24:00.000-07:002009-10-06T15:47:21.085-07:00Winding Down and Starting Over<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NLoIr4Ljos6-KQ0REeosCrImQZL3vnIwuT_bR9Pqrxk0nxAuFzzdrGOF7gBJwZq7uOC3iQ6mQjcTbpBOpceaIWc7vFBhpvSOoGavcSycB7xDmI68KkQKsMTBQiXKb_LNcIPxxNlizHGW/s1600-h/Waterfall+Pic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NLoIr4Ljos6-KQ0REeosCrImQZL3vnIwuT_bR9Pqrxk0nxAuFzzdrGOF7gBJwZq7uOC3iQ6mQjcTbpBOpceaIWc7vFBhpvSOoGavcSycB7xDmI68KkQKsMTBQiXKb_LNcIPxxNlizHGW/s320/Waterfall+Pic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389616917552522898" border="0" /></a>
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLLOYDC%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">The community-based portion of our training is nearing its end; we have less than two weeks remaining in beautiful Constanza. It has been great, I think everyone was beaten down by the weather in the capital when we first arrived, many volunteers have told us that they don’t understand why they have this training group arrive at the absolute hottest part of the year. But I guess it was good because the rest of the year will seem cooler and less suffocating in comparison.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">But after three weeks of hell (I actually imagine hell must feel a lot like </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><st1:city><st1:place>Santo Domingo</st1:place></st1:city></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> in August) arriving in Constanza was a blessing. I immediately fell in love with it. It is so green, with mountains in every direction and crops covering every valley and hillside. It looks a lot more like </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><st1:state><st1:place>Oregon</st1:place></st1:state></span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> than an island in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><st1:place>Caribbean</st1:place></span></st1:place><span style="font-family:Georgia;">. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Also, after the unbelievable amounts of trash everywhere in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><st1:city><st1:place>Santo Domingo</st1:place></st1:city></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family:Georgia;">, Constan</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">za looks like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/">Pleasantville</a>. There are still some places that trash just kind of gets dumped out of sight, but you actually see garbage trucks on the streets here, something I only saw once in three weeks in the capital. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">As part of our training in Constanza the 15 of us were divided into smaller groups and each group was partnered with a local youth group. This was great to get to know some Dominican youth and start figuring out how to work within screwed up system to get things done. My youth group, along with Jenni, Alicia, and now Dean, is an environment-focused youth group from the barrio of El Chorro, a poorer barrio on the outskirts of town. The group was amazing and really had their stuff figured out, we definitely learned a lot more from them than they did from us but they like us so I think it’s okay. We are still in the process of trying to get some cement and paint from the mayor or some other source to finish a little basketball court in their barrio before we leave, so keep your fingers crossed. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Throw in the fact that all us volunteers lived within two blocks of each other and hung out all day during training and then every night made CBT a really great experience. “Loma Tim</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6_Gj9bj1iW1JD5z_PFXhYioSxQ_4gGGNOtnYNQ7W1ux6DZfIzfXgn1PpfnLdVfffjpxKXgh1uUCgQ_TBtCCS9YXyiOMnuh8zfMNfLMx2o929F-wR4zDSx5hD3Z-T_CBL_0ze88pm6nTQ/s1600-h/Loma+Time.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6_Gj9bj1iW1JD5z_PFXhYioSxQ_4gGGNOtnYNQ7W1ux6DZfIzfXgn1PpfnLdVfffjpxKXgh1uUCgQ_TBtCCS9YXyiOMnuh8zfMNfLMx2o929F-wR4zDSx5hD3Z-T_CBL_0ze88pm6nTQ/s200/Loma+Time.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389617066767312082" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:Georgia;">e” was amazing. Instead of going to clubs or bars to spend money we didn’t have, we would just take some ipod speakers, blankets, and sometimes drinks up the hill near our barrio. Up on the loma we would just sit in a group, talk and get to know each other, listen to music and stare out at the city lights and stars above. It was a blast and was the perfect way to unwind after long days. Part of me is kind of sad to see it go honestly, but now it’s on to the Big Show!
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">We got our placements in a big meeting with our assistant peace corps director (APCD) Adele Williams. She has been working on developing possible project sites since February and during her explanation of each site and who was going where it was obvious she had thought about it a lot and put each person in the site that most matched their skills, desires, and experience. I think to a person everyone is really happy about their site placements so that's pretty awesome.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">(Here is a <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=19.072501,-69.801636&spn=2.341241,4.54834&z=8&msid=106688613065543082904.00047549f187b38198cab">map</a> to the youth development group's site placements)
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">I am going to Batey 9 in the southwest of the country. This is the desert area and it is supposed be really hot, really dusty, and not a whole lot of fun in terms of climate. She said there are a lot of youth excited to have a volunteer and I will be working with sexual health and sports and recreation. We didn't really find out anything more than where we are going so I will have to wait until we get our project descriptions in a couple weeks and also visit our sites. Like I said Adele put a lot of work in and had good reasons for sending people where she sent them, and I feel like it is a really good fit for me. The only downside is that I am really far from all the friends I've made in CBT--I am the only one from our youth development group going to the southwest. But there are some second year volunteers in the region so I won't be totally alone.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">So yeah, that's the lowdown. We are almost done here, then we go back to the capital for a couple days, then go visit our site and take our stuff, then go back to the capital to swear-in and then we will be returning to our sites for good around October 29th. I also have a week of Creole training in there somewhere but I'm not sure exactly when.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">My internet access is most assuredly never going to be like it has been here in Constanza for the rest of my two years, so I will try and write a lot before I leave. Once I get to my site I have no idea what kind of access I'll have, I'm pretty sure I won't have any in the Batey and I don't know what the closest town is that will have access. So start sending that snail mail, letters would be greatly appreciated. The mail goes to the capital and I'm pretty far away, so I'll probably only be able to pick it up every month or so. Nevertheless, here is my mailing address for the rest of my two years:
<br /><span style=""></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:Georgia;" lang="ES"><span style="">Cameron Jones PCV
<br />Cuerpo de Paz
<br />Av. </span>Bolivar 451 Gazcue
<br />Apartado Postal 1412
<br /></span><st1:city style="font-weight: bold;"><st1:place><span lang="ES" style="font-family:Georgia;">Santo Domingo</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:Georgia;" lang="ES">, </span><st1:country-region style="font-weight: bold;"><st1:place><span lang="ES" style="font-family:Georgia;">Dominican Republic</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Letters are safe and easy, packages perhaps less so, but since it is going to the Peace Corps it should be fine. Don't send boxes or anything via UPS or FedEx, they go to customs and cost a lot to get out and get messed with. So letters and padded envelopes via regular mail is they way to go I've been told. Several people have received stuff already in large padded envelopes and they said it takes about two weeks to arrive. Love you and miss you all, adios!<o:p></o:p></span></p> Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-69827654909589159672009-09-19T17:11:00.000-07:002009-09-19T18:55:10.381-07:00Constanza<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpJgLPL1nr-IsAnI6eqSdfN6gKyDBx5VYTgIGq5kgTb9FcPruECeX-3jZ2okPYq8F0MWqDzd5ujbCrBZedp2o-qGWuEyxbhIE4FA1uOlmLmaduwYGuVt95j6X2duZAZ4ipqjyE8VqWwsc/s1600-h/Constanza+Pic.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpJgLPL1nr-IsAnI6eqSdfN6gKyDBx5VYTgIGq5kgTb9FcPruECeX-3jZ2okPYq8F0MWqDzd5ujbCrBZedp2o-qGWuEyxbhIE4FA1uOlmLmaduwYGuVt95j6X2duZAZ4ipqjyE8VqWwsc/s400/Constanza+Pic.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383344057914090466" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Hello all. It has been a while since I updated the blog, for that I apologize, I will try and write more often while I still have some kind regular internet access. A lot has happened since I wrote last, including a visit from Aaron Williams, the new Peace Corps director. You can read a little about him <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/08/aaron_williams_sworn_in_as_pea.html?hpid=politics">here</a>. The Dominican Republic was the first country he visited after getting sworn in, so it was a pretty big deal. He came to our training center straight from a meeting with the vice president of the country. He was really nice and gregarious and spent like thirty minutes talking to us about his service (he served in the D.R. from 1967-70 and married a Dominicana), and then took some pretty tough questions from us ranging from his experience learning Spanish to what his vision was for the future of the Peace Corps. Then he joined us for lunch before jet-setting off to wherever else in the world he was going next. It was great to meet such a successful person who had been in the exact same position as us 40 years earlier, and who went on to have an incredible career in both the public and private sectors of international development.<br /><br />What else has happened in the past few weeks... well we had our volunteer visits which were great. I visited a married couple, Darryl and Trenita, and they were amazing hosts. They live in a suburb outside La Romana, which is a pretty big city in the eastern part of the country along the southern coast. It was great to get out of the madness of Santo Domingo and actually see what life as a volunteer is like. Mostly we hung out and talked, ate American food that they cooked, and I tagged along as they had their various meetings and activities in their community. There was girls' volleyball practice, a high school graduation, and condom distribution and safe sex information with their Escojo Mi Vida group of teenagers, which is a program designed to teach youth groups about safe sex and then when they complete the class they can teach it to their peers. And we went to the beach twice! So I finally swam in the Caribbean Ocean. The color of the water is like nothing I have ever seen, and it felt great to get in and swim around a little bit. My beach visits are going to be few and far between I fear, so I need to really ejoy them when I can. <br /><br />The big change is that we finished the core part of our training and have split up into our project groups to do community based training in different parts of the country. The youth group is one of the largest, with 16 (now 15, I will elaborate later) people. We are in beautiful Constanza high in the mountains. The difference between here and the capital is like night and day, I literally and metaphorically got a breath of fresh air when we arrived. I absolutely love it here. It may surprise some of you, it definitely surprised me, to find out that the Dominican is actually a really mountainous country. Everyone thinks of it as just island of beautiful beaches and baseball players, but it has three major mountain ranges stretching across the country and its highest peak is more than 10,000 feet. We are not that high, but our valley is surrounded by mountains on all sides with beautiful green forests in every direction. The temperature is perfect during the day and a bit chilly at night, I don't ever want to leave. Our group is great so the long days of classroom training aren't as bad as they could be, and in smaller groups of three or four we have started working with local youth groups. My host family is wonderful, super generous and friendly. My host parents are named Pedro and Esperanza, and their three kids are Enzo, Evelyn, and Jesus, ages 13, 10, and 8. I like them a lot, we play soccer and dominoes and listen to this awful song Pepe on repeat day after day. The other trainees are really fun to be around, we walked to the river the other day to go swimming and have been hanging out a lot. That's not so good for my Spanish but great for my happiness. The only drawback to Constanza is that colder weather means colder bucket baths, so cold that it borders on unbearable. The cold water felt great in the city, but here it makes you want to scream. My dona boils the water for me sometimes, so if she offers I accept. It makes me a wuss but feels so much better. But I have been taking a lot more cold ones lately because it's easier and that's what everybody else in my family does, though experiencing the warm bucket baths makes the cold ones that much more painful. <br /><br />This past week was a hard one in training. We had to carry out a community diagnostic of our youth groups' barrios and then do a 30 minute presentation to the group of what we found, in Spanish. Needless to say there were some long, stressful nights trying to prepare the presentation. But our group worked really well together and I thought we did a really good job, though I am ecstatic to have it behind us. Then on Friday our big boss lady, Adele Williams, the Assistant Peace Core Director for the youth program, visited us along with her counterpart from Peace Corps Costa Rica who was visiting to share ideas with Adele. While he made a presentation, a handful of people were pulled out in succession to meet one on one with Adele. I was one of those people and it was to talk to me about <a href="http://www.directrelief.org/WhereWeWork/DominicanRepublic/BateyReliefAlliance.aspx">bateys</a>. A batey is a Haitian community within the D.R. They used to be seasonal housing for Haitians who migrated to work in the sugar cane fields, but they are now basically slum cities isolated from the rest of the country. They have a pretty bad reputation, and a lot of volunteers are hesitant to go there because it is a very tough situation to work in because of the lack of resources. But during my first interview one of the questions was if you would be willing to go to a batey, and I said I would. Some volunteers come and ask to go to a batey because they want to take on that challenge, I am not that hardcore but I figure I have no excuse not to go. When she talked to me on Friday Adele said she just wanted to make sure I was still willing to go to a batey, and to talk to me about learning Creole. So part of the question about where I will be spending the next two years has been answered, though I don't know where specifically I will be placed. I could be biting off more than I can chew, those in our group who visited bateys for their volunteer visit said it was shocking, but now that it has become more concrete and less hypothetical I am looking forward to it in a weird way. Plus, now instead of being bad at one foreign language I can be bad at two!Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-88041815592794575082009-08-31T15:27:00.000-07:002009-08-31T16:19:57.313-07:00Classes and a Car Wash<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCHEEyFV-gOyWC3xO8hMkOJMKjcl6lTlPFofjN8SxEk1ceyJ974Sp94s9YyA7vqjn-SLi9zLCLdS4xaETB5yA7DDrXCJ32w8Rhvt5X6qQQ_X2IWyqj2ZcpyP1c17EvLTppM8Wx0FpIcjk/s1600-h/merengue3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 317px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxCHEEyFV-gOyWC3xO8hMkOJMKjcl6lTlPFofjN8SxEk1ceyJ974Sp94s9YyA7vqjn-SLi9zLCLdS4xaETB5yA7DDrXCJ32w8Rhvt5X6qQQ_X2IWyqj2ZcpyP1c17EvLTppM8Wx0FpIcjk/s320/merengue3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376269693321134738" border="0" /></a><br /> I arrived in the Dominican Republic on August 20th, so I have been here about a week and a half. During this time I haven´t done much but go to classes all day and hang out with my host family and study or read at night. I have only seen the ocean twice! Visions of hanging out on the beach were shattered the second we landed. Training is intense, we have safety and security classes, language classes, technical training classes, history and culture classes... I thought graduation meant I was done with school! We also have health classes about mosquitoes, water, malaria, dengue, parasites and a whole host of things you don´t even want to hear about. I have had about a half dozen shots since I arrived and have to take these malaria pills once a week that supposedly have a side effect of ¨technicolor dreams¨ and make some people go crazy. We were issued our ¨mosquiteros,¨ mosquito nets, that we have to sleep under every night and also our motorcycle helmets that we have to wear when using a ¨motoconcho,¨ a motorcycle taxi that you have to take to get to many rural parts of the country and are supposed to be near suicidal endeavors. We are not allowed to drive a motorcycle or we get kicked out but we can put our lives in the hands of some random, crazy motoconcho driver... doesn´t make much sense to me but oh well.<br /><br />Speaking of rules, we have spent hours going over the rules and regulations, of which there are countless let me tell you. The list of things you can get kicked out for is almost as long as the list of diseases and viruses you can/probably will contract during your two years here.<br /><br />But there have been a couple of free moments when I have been able to have some fun. First of all our group is great, there are 51 one of us from all over the country. There is actually another volunteer from the University of Arizona! But it is not just a bunch of college-aged kids, there are three volunteers over the age of 50 and at least one or two in their late 20s early 30s. Our training director said some statistics at the beginning, I don´t remember exactly but we were from something like 30 states. And man are there some smart and successful people in our group. I think like 25 people have graduate degrees, including one law degree. Many have their masters in social work or public policy, and several others are pursuing graduate degrees in conjunction with their service.<br /><br />Despite having such a large group I feel like I know a lot of people decently well already. Though we are never all together outside of school, at various times groups of us have gotten together after training to play baseball with some neighborhood kids or basketball on an outdoor court not very far from my house, so that has been great. And on Friday we went out for the first time, but not to a club or bar, nope, we went out to a car wash!<br /><br />They have been drilling it into our heads in training that it isn´t safe to be out late, or to drink in excess, or do any of the things they know college-aged kids like to do at night. I think a lot of it has been a scare tactic and also to cover their backs in case something happens to one of us, but there is some truth to the fact that this is a very poor country on the whole and large groups of Americans could be a target. But you can´t live in fear so on Friday a group of us from around my barrio, Los Cocos, and the neighboring ones, Don Gregorio and Pantoja, met up at a colmado (corner store) to drink some cold Presidentes and then went to a Car wash in Los Alcarrizos that we had heard was a good time. Now when we were putting the plan together it sounded pretty weird to go to a car wash at night, but we were all excited to go out and do something fun at the end of our first week. We walked about ten minutes to a car wash that was basically underneath the Autopista Duarte, which is hands down the scariest freeway I have ever been on. When we got there we saw another group of volunteers that lived in Alcarrizos and later another group came. All in all there were about 25 of us and it was a blast. The ¨car wash¨ is actually a car wash with a dance floor and bar off to one side. Dominicans absolutely love to dance, and we had gotten a little lesson in how to dance Merengue and Bachata during the week. The girls in our group went crazy and danced immediately but it took the rest of us guys a little while, and some liquid courage, to get out of the chairs and on to the floor. When we finally did I have to admit it was really fun and we all switched off dancing with one another and literally danced for two hours straight, at one point forming a conga line and then a circle inside which the Dominicans showed us how raunchy you can dance when you actually have moves and not screws on your hips. It was a great time and we were all disgustingly sweaty at the end, the dance floor was under a little ramada so we were practically outside and the humidity never subsides so we were all just drenched. But it felt great to get out, drink some cold beer, and dance the night away with some new friends in a new country.Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-493644297676568138.post-60012767463146212602009-08-29T07:42:00.000-07:002009-08-29T08:23:18.216-07:00The BeginningSo I have been down in the Dominican Republic for about a week and now that I finally have a strong enough internet connection I can share some initial thoughts and observations of the D.R.<br /> Well to start, it's really hot and and extreeemely humid. I was bracing myself before I came for a lot of humidity, and because I am a desert kid I figured it would be a rough adjustment. But it is like nothing I have ever experienced. You just sweat and sweat and sweat, and since everybody knows how I am about showers and cleanliness, one would think I would be having a hard time with it. Really what you have to do is not think about it. Do not think about the sweat dripping down your face and through your shirt, your pit stains and backs stains and front stains, or the swamp in your pants (in Dominican culture men are supposed to wear long pants, all the time, regardless of the heat). And luckily I managed to do so rather easily, I have completely let go of apprehension over sweating constantly, I am sweaty, every one else is sweaty, that's life.<br /> After a long day, class and training starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m., a nice cool shower would be nice. But since my house doesn't have any running water that is not an option. Instead we take "bucket baths." Basically you stand in the shower with a big bucket of cold water on the floor and you take a smaller bucket, fill it up, and pour it over your head. Then you lather up, fill up the smaller bucket again, and repeat. You do this as needed until you feel clean or the bucket is near empty. Again, it is one of those things that, given my great affinity for showers, should have been difficult to adjust to. But it is quite the opposite, "bucket baths" are actually incredibly refreshing and it is amazing how little water you need to feel clean.<br /> My host family is very nice, but I do not have a really close relationship with them like I did in Chile. I am gone all day at training and when I get home I am usually really exhausted from the heat, from the long day, and from the mental exertion of trying to think and speak in Spanish. I tend to go to bed pretty early and not sit out with them on the porch for hours which is considered pretty unfriendly in this culture, but I am just so tired that I basically look forward laying on my bed with the fan on high and pointed directly at me, listening to music, and reading before falling asleep. Then I wake up and do it all over again the next day. But I hope as my Spanish improves and I get more energy as I adjust here I will be able to connect with them more, but we are only in the capitol for about two more weeks. Though I did go to church with them on the first Sunday, they are very religious and attend an evangelical church in our neighborhood, and it lasted for three hours! It started at 5 p.m. and the first half wasn't bad at all, there was lots of singing and music, there was a full drum set and an assortment of Dominican instruments, but then the second half was just a guy preaching and it dragged on like no other. I am not religious but I went because they invited me and it was a good thing to do with the family and experience at least one time. They go to the church like four or five days a week but I have turned down every weekday invitation since, and I think one Sunday service was enough. But it was a unique experience to say the least and I'm glad I went. The country is still almost entirely Catholic but evangelicism is spreading fast and they tend to be more passionate. I'm getting kicked out of our school that has the wireless but I will try and update soon. Paz!Cameron Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725708930214547476noreply@blogger.com3