¡Feliz Navidad! I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart! do do do do do do
It pains my heart that I cannot be home with everyone this Christmas to wear silly sweaters, watch childhood Christmas movies, bake a ridiculous amount of cookies, and especially go to glee Christmas concerts. But fear not, I have been partaking in many Dominican Christmas events filling me with dominicanized Christmas cheer! The reason I am not home this year is due to my current promotion in the DR. Now I will a volunteer leader in charge of a group of 20 or so volunteers in the northeast region of the Dominican Republic. Pray tell what does this mean? Well, to my knowledge I will be helping the administration find and develop sites for new volunteers. Thus, I will be doing interviews in prospective communities and help evaluate if the projects seem suitable for a volunteer. I will also be visiting host families, to make sure that they have decent living situations for the volunteers when they first arrive in site, i.e. a door on their room, a private place to shower and go to the bathroom, and most importantly that the family has an upstanding reputation in the community. I’m also now in charge of doing security housing checks, for volunteers whom will be moving into their own houses. But, the most fun part of my new job is volunteer support. Basically, setting up workshops to give extra training for certain projects, planning fun events so volunteers can get together within the region, and visiting volunteers to help motivate people within their projects and just providing general support. Also, I am in charge of contacting and coordinating volunteers in the case of emergencies i.e. hurricanes, strikes, cholera, etc. I have been shadowing a current volunteer leader (my new position), and I have been learning more about what my job entails. Most likely, I will not really start too much work until the New Year, because the Dominican Republic basically shuts down the month of December. I did have a small Christmas brunch for volunteers in my region, with food and some glee Christmas cds that I gave out.
Moving on to Christmas! I have been participating in many Dominican festivities. I just came from a small potluck party with my artisan group. Here they call these parties, fiesta de traje (Party of bringing), since everyone brings something. We sat around drinking and eating, and then we all went in a circle saying what we are thankful for and declaring our plans for the New Year. The drinking and eating is very methodical with drinks brindar (given out) first. Then apples (a Christmas treat), grapes, and raisins. Later cheese and crackers. With the main course being a big traditional soup called Sancocho. This consists of starchy veggies and chicken in a salty chicken broth. Usually, the main course is not served to the near end of the party, in the thought that everyone might leave after the good food is served. The party was a great bonding time for the artisans, and some of the older ladies got pretty tipsy, which was pretty hilarious. One really exciting part of the night is that one of the artisans was going crazy taking pictures with the new camera I brought back from the states, which was funded by you guys! The artisans just had a blast taking pictures, and it was so much fun seeing how excited they were. I was really touched near the end, when one of the artisans said she was thankful for all the help I have given them since I’ve been here and that was one of the best Christmas presents I could ask for.
Moving on to more Christmas festivities. Soon, I will be awaking about 4:30 A.M. to take part in the early morning Christmas parade called the mañanita (little morning) or the Aguinaldo (Christmas bonus or Caroling). The last 10 days of Christmas, our community has Christmas Caroling very early in the morning throughout the town. We sing and play drums and the guida (basically a metal cheese grater and a stick). Then the Caroling ends at one house and there is a mass followed by ginger tea and crackers. The ginger tea is amazingly delicious, and almost worth the lack of sleep. The whole thing last about an hour and a half, and since I do not have a 9 to 5 job (gracias a Dios), I fall back to sleep afterwards. Tomorrow may be the last early morning caroling for me because I will be moving on Wednesday!
I am moving to a city called Nagua on the north coast to be more central to the region I will be in charge of. I will be literally running distance from the ocean… so everyone needs to come and visit before I come home for good in July! I will also be upgrading in amenities, aka 24-hour electricity! So you will not have to rough it too much if you decided to come and vacation.
Lastly, what does a volunteer want for Christmas? This year all I ask is that you consider donating to my boyfriend’s community library project in the Dominican Republic.
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-403
Countless development studies demonstrate that investment in education results in drastic development improvements. As you all know, I have helped start a community library in my old town, but it is a long process to build a library, get people interested, and train community members to run the daily use of the library. Thus, please help my boyfriend quickly fund his library so he can get cracking!
I hope everyone is with their loved ones this Christmas! Play in the snow for me and I will be with ya’ll to celebrate next year, promise!
Miss you all dearly!
