Money Money Money

Receiving, and applying for $$$$ dolla dolla bills for small sustainable development projects. That’s what I have been up to these last 2 weeks. There is nothing like cold hard cash to get you out of a slump. I had been feeling a little lethargic the last month or so, until I found out on the same day that I just received 2 grants (one after 9 months of waiting). The long awaited grant is to help fund activities for my sex-ed/HIV course for pre-teen and teenagers. I started the class with out the funds and am not about to graduate my second course… I had almost given up hope when I found a large lump sum in my bank account. I quickly made a new account for the new funds, as to not by accidentally spend them on empanadas.

My second grant is for a kid’s art class for the summer. Since children here do not get many formal outlets for creativity, I figured this would be a fun activity that I could join with our new community library, to promote education in the summer. Furthermore, I got news that a package of educational toys from my mom’s employer Discovery Toys, are now on their way! These kids should have a great time this summer in the library! My scheme is to try to just jam pack the library with kids to pump up interest before I leave, so the project continues forward!

One exciting step towards sustainability for the library is a new literacy program started by one of my former students, Emmanuel. Emmanuel is a stellar 14 year old in my community. He came to me with the idea, to start a reading club to help teach small children to read in the morning. The library is usually only open in the afternoons, when the younger grades are in school, so this gives them an opportunity to enjoy the library. I said it sounded great to me, just come to the library meeting and present it to the committee. With the go ahead of the committee, I passed him a copy of the library key, and his face lit up like a flood lamp. His class now meets 3 mornings a week, and he has about 13-20 kids per class. I obviously, had to check this class out… see pictures above!

Continuing, on my pathway of fundraising, I applied for two new grants this week. One is to hold an awareness event against violence against women. This idea came up after I gave a presentation on the subject to the 2 women’s groups, and the women loved the idea but wanted to take the message farther. They brought up the idea to have all the community groups involved, giving dramas, and doing a march. I saw an opportunity for a women’s empowerment grant called Mothers to Mothers, and decided to try to see if I can get some money for the event. Either way, we hope to have the event in the summer.

Lastly, I just turned in an application for a small grant for my artisan association called the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP). This grant will be funding the creation of a small office for the artisans to better organize their business and finances, improvements on the artisan building to create a central store, and funds to create promotional materials for the association. If approved you will be hearing more about this project later… because this grant is funded by my family and friends back at home! The artisans will be covering 40% of project costs, but I will need to raise US $2,600 as fast as possible. The faster I raise the money means the faster we can implement the project, and the faster I can go home. Meaning… if you want me to return, when the time comes, please help out my cause with donations and/or passing on the link to everyone you can. I have a feeling, the project won’t be approved for a month, but just a heads up!

In other news, I just started getting involved with a new movement of volunteers to share and talk about world and political issues and how they relate to development work. We spent the other weekend at my friend’s cabin, where we had debates, presentations, and watched a few documentaries. It was a really fun time to get together with volunteers but also educate each other about world issues, which we can sometimes forget about in our villages, where we our cut off from world news. The group just started a small publication (not sponsored by Peace Corps), if anyone is interested in reading. The first edition in PDF can still be found at this link https://drop.io/progressivecircle/login (password: firstamendment). You will not find anything from me here, but hopefully I will put something together for the second issue.

Last but not least…. I just need to say, I PLACED 3^RD, in the hitch hiking race last weekend (also not Peace Corps sponsored)! Just think the amazing race with costumes. This is a pretty big honor- which was recognized by a sweet DR hat, I received from the organizers.

That’s it for now. But a look ahead…. I will be leaving for Honduras Tuesday the 27^th for 11 days! Be ready for some Latin American adventure tales for sure!

Holidays!!!

So I realized I may have broke my every 2-week blog entry new years goal. But, who really keeps their new years resolutions? Have you kept yours?

Accepting my defeat and moving forward let me tell you about 2 of the biggest holidays/ elongated vacations in the Dominican Republic. Carnaval and Semana Santa.

Carnaval is a pagan celebration that results in huge parades and parties every Sunday in February. It culminates in the biggest, most badass party on the Dominican Republic’s Independence Day, February 27^th. Many of the large cities hold their own distinct parade, but the biggest is known to be in La Vega (just down the highway from my site!). The parades could be compared to a Mardi Gras like setting with elaborate costumes, lots of food, drink, and music. The parades consist of Diablos (Devils that look like Dragons), in many different beautiful costumes. The Diablos carry around pig bladders covered in colored latex, and they will hit innocent passerbies if they stumble into the street (sidewalks are safe), accept on Independence Day when anywhere is fair game! You can also by these big bladders from street vendors, for the price of US$1. I have one covered in pink flowers. But putting these pig bladders in the common persons hand is a dangerous game. Some people think its fun to fill theie pig bladder with rocks instead of air, which makes for a quite a painful hit! (Kids think this is extra especially funny… little brats!)

I visited Carnaval 3 times this year. Twice in La Vega (one of them being Independence Day), and I went to go see Carnaval in Santiago. I was able to make it out of the festivities pretty unharmed. This was partially due to a friend, whom after a few drinks, liked to willingly go into the street and take most of the brunt of the golpes (hits) by pig bladder. (Picture above). That night there was a great concert from and Puerto Rican band (a little ironic on the Dominican Independence Day but o well). The night got even more interesting as a man with a very large snake came through, and we decided to have a photo shoot with it.

All I can say is the Dominicans sure know how to celebrate their Independence!

This last week was another huge Dominican holiday, Semana Santa (Holy Week). Almost everyone takes the full week off and visits family, goes to the beach, and to church. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the days with the most church activities. I would even say that Good Friday was a bigger deal than Easter Sunday. On Good Friday, none of the colmados (convenient stores) can play music. The town was very pleasantly peaceful. Almost everything is shut down. Villa Cruz, the living cross, is a very popular ritual. Usually the church youth group puts on a play of the crucifixion of Jesus that processes through the community. I was able to go last year, but when I went this year, I ended up just with just a normal mass. At the end of mass we did do a once around circle in the community, but no play. You can’t win them all.

For most of Semana Santa, I helped out my friend in the next community over build a basketball court with a group of Americans who came to help out. We laid the cement, and then once it dried, the last day we taught the kids in the community basketball and volleyball technique. It was a blast, and my friend did an amazing job coordinating it all!

Although I did not make it to a beach, I did make it to a water park. A water park? Yes, there is a water park here just about 15 minutes from my house. They had a really good lineup of concerts going on there last Saturday. A few friends and I went and danced in our bathing suits, it was a pretty good time. I went down 2 slides (there was only about 5, and 2 you needed to rent a tube, but they had run out). They had some other pools, and a decent stage, so I was pretty impressed. I had come with real low expectations aka I was expecting a glorified plastic kiddie pool.

I also had a small Easter Party to lure my kids to my sex-ed class during the week. We painted eggs with juice packets, and I made some really funny faces. I also made a cake with jelly beans (thanks mom). I tried to explain the neo-paganism significance of the hare and egg as signs of the fertility of Mother Earth and the bountifulness of spring, but I think that flew right over their heads. But they had their eggs and sugar, hopefully learned something, and had a good time, so it went pretty well.

Semana Santa was a great week, but now its back to work! Well hopefully, no one showed up to our artisan meeting Monday, the Dominicans like easing back into things. I am trying to catch on.

O before I forget… a recipe for a Dominican favorite for Semana Santa

Habichuelas con Dulce (Beans with sugar)

Puree in a blender cooked red beans, ½ pound of sugar, vanilla, sweet potato, short bread cookies, milk, and coconut milk.

Add a few whole beans for effect, and chill.

It is actually really delicious, but be careful to not eat this whole serving. You may go into diabetic shock!