More Haiti Relief Info.

Hey guys,

Here are a few other resources for the relief situation in Haiti.

PEACE CORPS

Peace Corps suggests checking out these two websites for making donations. www.charitynavigator.org & www.cnn.com/impact.

WATER FILTERS

As most of you know, my project is to work with ceramic artisans, and my Host Dad makes water filters which are connected to an American company called FilterPure. Right now they are taking donations to buy filters to supply Haiti, below is information.

Only $30 will provide clean water for a family of 6 and can be their lifeline at this time of tragedy. Check out our facebook cause for updates on Filter Pure International or the FilterPure website.

We have a goal to raise $50,000 to buy 2,000 filters and ship them into the country. We have a FilterPure distributor in Haiti, but all of our filters were destroyed in the earthquake so we must ship them from the Dominican Republic.

OTHER INFO.

Also if you know anyone whom has family or friends in Haiti, networks have been established to help people connect with loved ones lost in the quake:

ü Americans with family in Haiti should contact the U.S. State Department Operations Center at 1-888-407-4747.

ü Red Cross Missing Persons Database: http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/haiti

ü Post your missing loved one on the Haiti missing people board and the EARTHQUAKE HAITI Facebook groups.

In my town, the school has been collecting local donations and the Catholic Church has been donating its collections for the week.

Since, as Peace Corps volunteers we are restricted from going into Haiti, volunteers have been giving a hand with organizations in the capital such as USAID in coordinating relief. I hope to be able to help out in the upcoming in weeks.

Thank you to everyone for all your emails and concerns. It was very touching to hear how much everyone has been thinking of me.

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.

Winding Down

As the days wind by, and it is getting closer and closer to when I am coming home for Christmas, I have been trying to wind down my current projects, to start fresh in the new year.

I just taught my last class of ESCOJO MI VIDA (Choose my Life), which is class for youth teaching them about making healthy decisions about sex, alcohol, drugs, discrimination etc. I am giving them an exam on Tuesday, which many have told me they will score a 100%, I hope so! I will probably have a Christmas themed graduation, because I love celebrating Christmas as everyone knows, and since 99.9% of people are some form of Christian, I figure this will be fine.

We just received some more grant money for the library, so this morning we are working on doing some more construction on the outside wall, and we just bought some new books and finally book stands (we had been using rocks). Anyways, I think we will be able to finish with spending the money before I leave.

With my artisans, I have been visiting all the different workshops and conducting evaluations with them of how the year has went and what projects they would like to accomplish in my last year with them. I am planning a afternoon event, where we will do team building activities, and talk about the results of the evaluations. Then we will create a plan of action for the coming year.

Right now we are gearing up for a few artisan fairs. We are participating in a fair at the US Embassy and a 5 day Christmas Fair in the beginning of December. I have been doing sales trainings for my artisans who will be selling at the fairs and making very basic promotional brochures in English and Spanish to educate customers about our products. I planned my flight to work out so I would be leaving from the capital the day after the Christmas fair (where I will also do much of my gift shopping). Let me know if there is anything anyone wants before I come home! Again the website to our merchandise is http://picasaweb.google.com/kconnorsdrv.

In December we should know if we are accepted for an international folk art festival in Santa Fe New Mexico. If so this will be a big break for the artisan association and a great chance to make networking contacts for exporting.

I am also now preparing for our 1 year in Service Peace Corps Conference where I will be presenting my work in the last year along with challenges and successes. We will also be preparing a certain tool for the group that everyone can use in their service. I will be creating a sales training class, so if anyone has any good research on sales technique email them my way! We will also be problem solving about a challenge, and I think I will be presenting a case study to better organize meetings or to create a better system of organization of the association. Also, if anyone has material on management techniques for meetings or for small businesses, let me know!

I am getting so excited about coming home and I can’t wait to see everyone! But right now I am just focusing to tie up all projects so I can really relax during vacation!

I guess its time for a new post

Hey guys,

So I realized I haven't posted in almost 2 months so I better write something. Basically here things have been really busy. I helped my artisan group plan a national art fair, which was a four day event. Pictures are on Picassa. It was fun but stressful, but a good learning experience. I also had taught a 14 class business course and after the class the kids could write their own business plan with a chance to travel to a national competition. Well it just so happened that two of my groups were selected to go! But it happened to begin the same day as the last day of the fair, so my kids went down with Justin in the morning, and I followed them at night after the fair. Not only did this clash of dates add to my stress, but the morning of the competition, one girl decides to drop out to leave her 13 year old teammate stranded to present by himself. So that night I did as best I could to prepare him for his presentation the next day of his business plan.

Neither of my groups won, but they both had stellar attitudes, talking about how much fun they had, and how much they learned, and asking if they could maybe do new projects next year. I was like a proud mother, it almost brought tears to my eyes.

Another event to add to the lump, I am planning the Inauguration of the first ever community library in Higuerito this Saturday at 4! The library is already open, but the Dominican Republic is all about ceremonies to make things official, so we are doing a shoe string Inauguration since we are low on funds (meaning there aren't any). But we are getting by fine, and I actually just received acceptance on a grant I had just written for the library, so soon we should have so more money to work with.

So I am trying to think of something funny... Well as those of you know, I am all about holidays, so I want to throw a Halloween party in my community. My friend and I just bought scary masks for 50 cents, so I kind of want to scare the little kids as they come through the door. I am still undecided up a costume, so let me know if anyone has any good/easy ideas.

O in further news, I think I will be meeting the BEN AND JERRY! My best friend here works on a chocolate and wine tour at a chocolate factory. Since Ben and Jerry is all about fair trade, they buy from my friends factory, and they are hosting a competition to create a new flavor and the winner comes to her chocolate tour. Anyways BEN AND JERRY are coming with their ice cream to her site, and they are going on the tour and building a community park. I am going to help be a translator!!! So hopefully I will have some fun pictures from this soon!

Lastly, I am celebrating my 1 year in service in a week! Meaning only a year and a week until I am home for good! So we might do a little celebrating before the Ben and Jerry experience.

Okay I will try to be more vigilant with my blogs, and write something more interesting next time!

I miss everyone so much! See you in December!

Artisan Work

So my recent Peace Corps effort is finding a larger market to sell my Association's products.  I just recently began updating pictures to picassa http://picasaweb.google.com/kconnorsdrv, so check it out!  Also, I have been trying to research free trade organizations, and trying to find access to international markets.  If anyone has any insight into connecting with international buyers or becoming free trade certified or of any good free trade associations please let me know!  More updates about my efforts to come.   

Paint by Numbers

So right now, I’m sitting in one crazy regero (mess).  My apartment has been in the process of being painted for the last week and a half, and I am hoping all the fumes are not doing any permanent damage.  Like the UV rays I have been absorbing, I won’t worry about these effects until the rear their heads in the future where I am sure with our great medical advancements, there will be cures for everything! 

 

So, back to painting as anyone whom has gone through it, you know it’s a process packing up all your things, having strangers in your house, not being able to get to your things.  Take all that trouble times it by a million and add some crazy and that’s what I have been going through here!  First, let me explain… this painting was not my idea.  The owner of my apartment is visiting from Puerto Rico (I still have not met this mystery man), and he decided he wanted to do some improvements meaning paint the whole house!  The first day his sons arrive and paint for a good 45 minutes until they decide that it wasn’t so fun painting in the insane heat that is the summer on a subtropical island (I don’t blame them, what kind of vacation is that?).  So then we are painterless for a few days, so I have some smattering of paint to admire.  Then of course the day I head to the capital for a meeting is the day some people were hired to paint the base for the apartment.  I do not call them painters, because they were not, they must have been some guys with nothing to do that were found on the street.  I come home from the capital, to find o yes the painters had come, and they had moved all my things in the most complicated and inconvenient way possible, putting most of my clothes and necessary items in a room, and then blocking it with my table filled with papers and binders, and other miscellaneous items, so I could not reach anything.  Furthermore, it seemed as if monkeys and entered my house and thrown paint around the apartment.  Literally, everything has white base paint on in now.  I have a matching set of paint splattered dishes, silverware, cups, mugs, shoes, tables, doors, tile.  Even my paintings now have extra paint on them!  I like to match, but this is a little ridiculous.  To top it off, there are beer bottles all over, and they had been using my only nice big knife to file down paint! 

Luckily, today arrived an actual professional painter with just his son.  They are painting over the splatter, with a very pretty yellow cream color.  But, things are even messier now!  Hopefully, tomorrow this delightful paint adventure will end, and I will upload pictures of my new painted house!  Hopefully, the pain will be worth it!

In other news, a pool was just built at the discotecha (club) near my house.  This last Sunday, Rachele and I ventured to the pool party, as it cannot be described any other way.  The pool is actually two pools and a Jacuzzi, fully equipped with a swim up bar with underwater bar stools!  And both of us being rubias (blondes), you know that means free drinks always!  There is also a restaurant, but we snuck in some snacks because we’re poor.  So, this pool is not a quiet lay out and relax pool. There was techno music pumping, and I danced merengue a few times in the pool (Once someone even cut in!)  Around 6 the first band arrived, Krispie, which is a merengue tipico band… I think my favorite Dominican genre of music, mainly because this type of music includes the accordion!  Rachele and I watched the first band from the Jacuzzi, mainly because we were too afraid of being cold and getting out of the water… I don’t know how I’m going to manage Christmas back home.  We used all our bravery and left the Jacuzzi for the second band and danced up by the stage!  These bands all have professional male dancers, whom twirl around and dance with quick succinct steps.  It is incredibly contagious and no matter who you are, you cannot watch and not want to dance with them!   

Fast Forward... its been two weeks and they are still painting!

First, I apologize for the lack of posts so far.  This month has been quite busy to say the least.  My first week I was in the capital for my follow-up language training.  Then I had a lovely visit for a week and a half with my family.  And I just returned yesterday, from an Artisan Fair in the East of the Country (an 8 hour trip if the bus hadn't broke down for 2 hours on the side of the highway, and the driver abandoned us).  

So needless to say, I feel like I have been running around the country.  I am about to leave on Friday, to head down to the South for a 4th of July Celebration.   Myself and 14 other volunteers are trecking out to a desserted and protected to beach on the south west tip of the country.  I have heard that there is little nothing there, so we are coming in the day before to get all food and supplies (toilet paper), before we go.  The beach though, is supposedly breath-taking, and I will surely post- pictures afterwards.

Traveling around has been fun, but I am really looking forward to settle- down in my site for awhile after the fourth of July trip.  This week, I finished my last class of the Youth business course that I have been teaching, and tomorrow I will be having a review and party for the class.  Today, I am in the city to buy materials to make a 4th of July themed cake.  I decided I would make the fiesta also fourth of July themed, to provide some cultural interchange for the kids.  Pretty soon, I will be working with this class to help them write their own business plans, for businesses they want to start in the community.  We are still working on opening our library, I plan on doing some digging tomorrow to help level the land before my class.  I am also working on a Marketing Strategy for my artisans, so I am currently researching Fair Trade Associations to evaluate if this would help us gain more access to markets.  So that is it for now, because the internet is about to turn off.  I will write a more interesting post soon!