A Dizzying Experience

One of my New Years resolutions this year is to try and write in my blog at least every 2 weeks. This may not seem too hard for those with constant Internet, but here in the country where internet is an hour and a half round trip adventure, and internet time is frantic and precious, sometimes the blog would slip my mind. Thus I must apologize for my less than frequent updates, spanning 2 or 3 months. I realize that my close family and friends are those that give me the strength here and in life, so I will try to follow through with my New Resolution and update often.

So let me wipe the dust off my blog, and I hope to deliver to you guys a better or more frequent update on my happenings in Peace Corps Dominican Republic.

A DIZZYING EXPERIENCE

I returned to the Dominican Republic the first week after New Years, and I am right now just getting back into the swing of things. Yesterday, we had our first library meeting of the New Year, to talk about further construction and programs to be planned for students in the library. A fellow friend and I went after the meeting to go talk to the director of the high school. We asked if he could create a list of 10 of the brightest senior students, and we would offer them the opportunity to do their required service hours in the library. While standing in the school, things suddenly began to move in a circular manner, almost like the school was made of Jell-O. My whole vision was wobbling like something out of Alice and Wonderland, and I thought I was dizzy and going to faint. My first thoughts were “Wow I just got really sick, and I’m going to faint.” And/OR “Wow this school is really made poorly, it’s shaking from all the students.” We all had gone silent, and took a moment to realize that everyone else had felt the same sensation. Then someone addressed the elephant in the school. We just experienced a terremoto, AN EARTHQUAKE.

Being born and raised on the East Coast, I had never experienced an earthquake. That’s why I didn’t realize at first what was happening. I also didn’t realize the impact that this wobbling had created. With no experience with earthquakes, I first assumed that this was an isolated small quake and I did not think much of it. Then the phone calls began to ring. My friend is an emergency coordinator for the Peace Corps and she had to get contact with all volunteers on our region especially those on the coast because of the threat of a typhoon. Then there were the calls from family, and emails from friends, and I began to learn that what I had thought was just a wobble had created devastation just across the border. I initially called my friends whom were near the border, and it appears that everyone is fine and there has not been any destruction that I have heard of in Peace Corps sites. What I gathered from Spanish CNN today was that the worst destruction was in Port-au-Prince and to its South West, i.e. away from the Dominican Republic.

Last I heard, there were an estimated 100,000 deaths in Haiti. Having devastation so close to home, really makes you think, why not here, why not me? I feel like I have always read about monumental earthquakes on the other side of the world, but having one on the other side of the island is frightening. Especially with earthquakes, there is basically no warning or evacuation time. And of all countries, why Haiti? By UN standards, Haiti is the least developed country in the Americas, and it really needs all the help it can get. There is a huge illegal Diaspora of Haitians into the Dominican. They take very low-income labor-intensive jobs and live with out documentation robbing them of rights such as basic education after 5th grade. They are discriminated against and thought to be of a lower class because of where they are from. As may be true for many immigrants, they are constantly broken down and taught to be ashamed of where they are from, and now this? It just doesn’t seem fair. Granted aid is already on the way, but Haiti had enough on its plate before this disastrous destruction!

Haiti came from humble beginnings. It was the only nation who gained independence from a successful slave rebellion. It is also the first post-colonial black- led nation. Haiti has known the hardships of slavery and overcame them. Despite the adversity, I hope Haiti can rise again from this tragedy, but the road seems like a long one. Pray for Haiti and its people. Pray for inspiration for Haiti’s government and all international players that they will arrive to productive solutions.

If you would like to help out, here our two website where you could donate. www.MercyCorps.org or www.google.com/haitiearthquake. You could also try organizing donations in your communities, especially with water, food, and soap.

To conclude, remember to not take things always at face value. A wobble in your life could actually be devastation in another’s. A smile to a stranger, could change a person’s day.