Swearing in and heading to Site

Wednesday, November 21, 2007: I, and the other volunteers in my training group, swore in and became “real volunteers.” I am now Kira Park, PCV. It’s hard to believe that we have been here 10 weeks, nearly a quarter of a year, and we are now, just, officially volunteers in Peace Corps.

Thursday, November 22, 2007: My first Thanksgiving away from home, family and friends went great. I didn’t really have any expectations, and I had heard the PCV-organized event was a fun time, so I wasn’t too concerned. The food was great, and there were sports tournaments in the morning, turkey and all the fixins for lunch, and entertainment (a dance contest, a talent show and a dating game) in the afternoon. All in all, a good time. We got to meet other volunteers, which was excellent, and I finally met Robyn, the volunteer who I had been emailing with before heading down.

Friday, November 23, 2007: My first All-Volunteer conference in Peace Corps. This is an annual meeting/workshop that everyone comes to in the capital. It was surprisingly interesting and worthwhile. Usually stuff like that seems not particularly relevant or applicable, but this was really good. Also, it was another chance to get to know other volunteers.

The phone situation:
My original phone number (1-809-467-5202) doesn’t work in my site, but I’m keeping the phone so I can take advantage of the PC network when I’m out of my site, so keep that number as a backup. My main phone number is a little confusing, though. We went to the store last night to get it sorted out, and they gave me my phone number, but then they gave me a different number and said they changed it. When I got home and charged the phone to check it out, the phone number that makes my phone ring is the original number I was given, not the number they told me was mine in the end. So, here are both for now until I figure out what’s going on. If one doesn’t work, just call the other. Also, text messaging doesn’t appear to be working still, and voicemail may or may not be, I’m not sure. How Peace Corps of me, right? Haha.
The number that, I think, makes my phone ring: 1-809-708-6839
The number they told me was the number, but doesn’t appear to make my phone ring: 1-809-708-6847

So, that’s that for now.

And now, after I finish this, I will be packing up the last of my stuff and preparing to head to my site, this time for real. I am a myriad of emotions about this, and today is one of the few times so far in the PC experience that I have felt genuinely physically nervous. This is for real. It’s not training, it’s not a visit.

I feel excited yet scared. Everything is possible, which is amazing and overwhelming. I have a lot to offer, but a lot more to learn. The support, encouragement and enthusiasm I have had behind me from everyone at home has and will continue to help me remember that this is the most amazing thing I could be doing right now. It’s right for me to be here.

I know that I need to be patient with myself – in getting to know my community, and its members; in learning Spanish and living with a host family; in learning my organization and how I can help them; in becoming independent in my own site and building a life for myself there that is fulfilling, rewarding and productive. I know that I need to overcome my fears and put myself out there; be the one who says “Hello” first and looks for ways I can become a part of these people’s lives. I know I can do it. (But make sure to remind me!)

Thank you again for all the packages (most of which have yet to arrive), emails, phone calls and thoughts of support. I miss you, but I’m so happy I’m here. I can’t wait until I feel settled though!!! Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Kira

site visit

Saludos!

Having visited and returned from my new, permanent site, I thought I’d give a little insight into what my next two years might be like. Which is of course total speculation because there is no way 5 days of a visit can indicate 2 years of living in a community, but this is what I have to go on so here it is.

The community:
Bajabonico Arriba is a sector of the municipality of Alta Mira, in the province of Puerto Plata. It is comprised of about 7 subdivisions, but I will be spending my first three months with a family that lives in Bajabonico Arriba proper. In all, there are about 3000 people (so I’m told) in the community as a whole. The only way to get into the town is by motorconcho, and it’s 50 pesos and about 20 minutes. There’s a road but none of the transport vehicles come in… it’s only if you have a private vehicle you can drive in. Once you get to the road where you can catch a guagua, it’s about 5 or 10 minutes either way, either to Imbert (another volunteer is there) or Alta Mira, and it’s about 35 minutes to Santiago, the nearest major city.

My counterpart:
My primary project is working with an organization called Fundelosa (Fundacion Desarollo Loma y Salud) and they have a bunch of pretty big projects, namely a solar panel project, a bakery, a cacao processing facility, a youth group, and a microcredit loans program. My counterpart is 26 years old and has a 12 year old son. They start early here. Everyone wants English classes, which scares the bejebers out of me cause I’m no teacher, and there is a lot of interest in what I might be able to do there, although I’m trying to not get ahead of myself.

My host family:
Yes, I have electricity (most of the time). Yes, I have running water and a flush toilet (all the time, so they say, but it’s not as glamorous as it sounds). My “dona” is 28 and my “don” is 36 and I put that in quotes because they aren’t hardly older than me, but they have a 12 year old son and an 8 year old daughter and oh what a difference a couple of kids makes. The family is wonderful, and although I have no idea where I can go to get a few minutes of alone time to be quiet and mellow, they are so happy to have me it really touched my heart. The room they had for me only had a wall to about 4 feet high and no door, and when the volunteer who checked them out told them those were problems they built me a door and the rest of the wall because they so wanted to have a volunteer stay with them. They already asked me if I’d stay with them after the three months, but I don’t plan to. It was a little awkward, but I like them a lot. And I don’t think they’re going to make me eat stuff I don’t like, which makes me really happy.

The quirk:
There’s another volunteer in my site. Technically I am following him up but he ended up extending his service for six months or something so he’s not leaving until April or May or something. This is extremely uncommon and I have mixed feelings about it. No matter how it goes or how you slice it, having another volunteer in my community changes my experience. I think it will be fine, and Dan seems really nice (although we scarcely had a chance to say hello when I was there). I’m looking forward to getting to know him a bit better. He’s a health volunteer, but he actually started a youth business plan group last year that won the competition and their business is going to be my main secondary project, so he and I will probably collaborate on that as I get up and running. I don’t know anything about him or his service or his projects or anything yet, but as I find out more I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Being on my site visit was definitely an eye-opening experience. Like everything in Peace Corps, it had it’s highs and it’s lows, but overall it was great. And exhausting. This being my first time totally immersed in Spanish was definitely hard. My host family yesterday and today was convinced I was sad, but really I was just tired and worn out and needed some rest. It was nice to get back here today although I got caught in a horrible downpour and was soaking wet.

Okay, this is kindof a lame entry but I’m tired and I need to go to bed. I’ll try to write more when I get to the internet place and do a second entry then if I can think of anything more to say that is interesting. Don’t forget to write! I miss you all!!!!!!!

Love,
Kira

More information

CONGRATULATIONS TO UNCLE DENNIS AND LINDA FOR BEING THE FIRST TO GET A CARE PACKAGE TO ME! Another one is being temporarily held hostage in the PC office bc I have to bail it out for $100 pesos, but that´s only 3 dollars, no biggie. I can afford that so far. I don´t know what it is though, I´ll find out soon. Thank you so much!


Okay folks, I got my cell phone today so the mysterious calling situation is now resolved.

1-809-467-5202

When you call, dial it just like a regular long distance call, but it is international and it´s a cell phone, and international rates to cell phones are different than to land lines. If you go to callingcards.com, you can get one to call me that is about $0.10 per minute, which isn´t too bad. The number is over there on the side of the blog and will stay there. The addresses there are still current, since people have been asking me.

Now that I´ve got my site assignment I will be setting up international mail forwarding in Santiago, but that won´t be for a while and even then the peace corps office can recieve mail for me.

Okay, so what´s my plan for the next while?
Tomorrow I meet my project partner and go out to my site. It´s called Bajabonica Arriba or something like that about 15 kilometers from Alta Mira and 30 km from Puerto Plata. I stay until sunday and then have monday and tuesday at the training center. Wednesday we swear in, thursday is thanksgiving, friday is all volunteer conference in the capital and saturday we go out to our sites for good. I still don´t know about my project, really, but i´ll find out.

We did superlatives in our CED group at the end of training in MOca, and go figure, I got voted Mrs. Overachiever and Most LIkely to Marry a Dominican and Bring Him Home. Geesh. You guys all have something in common. I can´t get away from it. Oh well, se la vi. Vamos a ver. hehehe.

Okay, that´s all for now.
More later!
Kira

BIG NEWS

Hey everyone!

The big news came a bit early!

My permanent site assignment is on the north coast!!! The nearest town on the map is called Alta Mira, and it looks to be about 30 kilometers from Puerta Plata. EXCITING! Ill be working with a group called FONDALESA (or something of the sort) on a cocao project, and ill also work with a microbusiness that makes decorative candles and a womens group in the next campo over. Im really excited. Also, this site is right next door to 27 charcos, the ecotourismish site I have mentioned that is basically a hike up 27 waterfalls and then you jump down into the ponds. It sounds exciting and requires a lifejacket, a helmet and a guide. YAY. The others in my barrio are going to Pedernales, Azua, Salcedo and San Cristobal.

Very cool, so you can start planning your trips. Theres an airport in Puerto Plata but its going to be spendy I think, so compare prices between Santiago and Santo Domingo. Santiago is closer, but Santo Domingo is probably a good bit cheaper. It would mean a couple to a few hours of travel to get up to my site, but the nice thing is that wed be able to day trip to my site and check it out and you would still be able to have a soft bed and hot shower at the end of the night!

Anyways, go me. Ill post again on Monday if I can with my cell phone number and some more information about my site.

XOXO
Kira

Bienvenidos de la Republica Dominicana

¡Saludos!

Cuerpo de Paz es lo que yo había imaginado, y también completamente diferente. Como Uds. ya saben, experiencias como así son demasiado complicados para ser simplemente lo que podemos imaginar. No creo que nosotros pensáramos lo fuera fácil, y eso ha sido la verdad.

Bueno. Todavía no siento tanto preparado para escribir a Uds. en español, pero no importa. Cometeré errores, y espero que no se moleste demasiado. Tengo que decir que estoy usando un diccionario, libro de 501 verbos, y la ayudadora de deletrear de la computadora, y pueden decir que yo estoy haciendo trampa un poco. Pero las herramientas existen para usarlas, ¿no? Pienso que mi español parecerá mejor que lo es en realidad. Pero también, y para decir la verdad como Uds. ya saben, soy la jueza más difícil de mi mismo. Eso es lo que todos mis profesores y compañeros me dicen. Yo sé, yo sé. Déjame sola.

Entonces, ayer yo terminé el último requisito de entrenamiento técnica de la comunidad. Tuvo que dar una presentación a un grupo de jóvenes (pero aquí jóvenes significa personas entre 14 y 25 años, más o menos). Tenía una compañera y trabajábamos y presentábamos juntos sobre el tema de “fortalecimiento de grupo.” Era bien, más o menos, pero todavía mi español llega y se va como la luz, y ayer se fue. La cosa más difícil para mi es entender a algunas personas cuando estén hablando, específicamente personas quien hablen por sus dientes o quien hablen demasiado rápido. Y, también, el acento de la región Cibao es difícil para entender porque se cortan las palabras.

Algunos ejemplos:
- “Paco ‘ta cotao” significa “Paco está acostada.”
- “El Presidente pa’ ‘lante” significa “El Presidenta para adelante” (un slogan de campaña).
- “¡Echa pa’ ‘lla!” significa “Echa para alla!” (no sé si esa frase es solamente un dominicanismo pero ellos lo dicen como “scoot over,” por ejemplo cuando tú estés en un carro publico y el cuarto persona esté entrando, ellos dicen eso a los otros personas).

Bueno. Por el mejor parte, los requisitos de entrenamiento son bastante terminados. Solamente todavía necesitamos hacer la entrevista del idioma final, una prueba de primeros auxilios, y cosas como así. Y tenemos nuestra última vacuna de rabia. Todo será bastante fácil y no estoy preocupada.

Cuando recibamos nuestros teléfonos y aprendamos nuestros sitios y proyectos, se escribiré pronto. Espero que haya usado la mayoría de los tiempos. Eso es un ejercicio bien para practicar los tiempos y los pronombres para objetos directos e indirectos. Debo mandar eso a mi profesor de español porque él siempre quiere que nosotros hablemos usando todos los tiempos, especialmente el subjuntivo. Pero pienso que hace falta imperfecto de subjuntivo, y entonces: No creía que pudiera escribir eso en tan poco tiempo: solo duraba casi 45 minutos. Pero también, 45 minutos para escribir una página de carta electrónica fuera mucho si lo haría en inglés. No importa. Aquí está. Espero que Uds. les guste. Dígame sus pensamientos y sugerencias, por favor.

Bueno. ¡Adiós y qué Uds. pasen buen día!
¡Me voy!

Kira

Tormenta Tropical Noel, y La Gallera

(okay, the video failed. i waited forever. can´t upload it. check for pictures on the links)

We have rung in our Peace Corps service with our first tropical storm – Tropical Storm Noel. It started raining about 9 pm Sunday and rained hard and constant for about 30 hours until about 10 am on Tuesday, and then it’s been off and on since then. When I woke up Monday morning my house had about 2 inches of standing water. Luckily, my bedroom sits a bit higher than the rest of the house so the water only entered under the door about a food into my room, and nothing important got wet… on the floor anyways. However, the roof is zinc and nailed onto the house so there are holes, and when it really rains, it rains through the roof, so the end of my bed has been damp for a couple of days. It’s great. It brings out all the wonderful stale, musty smells from the mattress. Mmmm. On a sad note, there have been something like 15 document deaths and several people unaccounted for in the DR because of this storm. It’s worse in Haiti, although last we heard there weren’t any reports yet because they don’t have the infrastructure to handle this kind of a storm or to report how bad it is. For us, it was mostly a ton of rain, a few downed banana trees, a small mudslide on the road near my house, and of course, a small flood IN my house. However, to be honest the water in the house here is not as catastrophic as it would be in the US. The floors are all cement and nothing important touches the floor… probably because of situations such as this. Although now it’s 630 Tuesday night and I’ve learned that the electricity, which normally comes and goes throughout the day but often enough to keep the inversor charged (and thus the lights on), has been damaged by the storm, so the inversor isn’t almost out of charge. I just took my first bath-by-headlamp and am now sitting on my bed under the mosquito net typing with my headlamp on. Peace Corps Moment, right? :)

>>>>

Cockfighting. A truly cultural experience.

Saturday afternoon the volunteers in my neighborhood went to the Gallera. One of the Dons in our barrio fights his chickens there, so we went as his guests to check it out.

Five Americans. Four of them women. The only women, in fact, in the place at all. Talk about being in a fishbowl! A few of the men around us were more entertained by our reactions than by the fights themselves.

My thoughts?
Two male chickens (or roosters or whatever they are) in a ring, fighting to the death. Well, pecking each others eyes out and stabbing each other with little spears taped on the backs of their feet, more specifically. These gallos go into the fight with their red rooster thingys on their heads, and they leave without them. Thankfully we weren’t close enough to see too much detail, but it was clear what was happening, and pretty disturbing as well. It wasn’t the fighting part that bothered me so much as the “to the death” part. Quite a lot of time passes between when you can tell who won the fight and when the loser actually dies (and then they STILL flail around for a while when they’re dead), and that’s the hardest part to watch. But it’s like a train wreck – you can’t look away. One round was really sad, and definitely the most disturbing. Not long into the match one of the chickens decided he just didn’t want to fight and tried like hell to surrender. He was running away from the other guy just as fast as he could, making himself small and running circles (because he couldn’t go anywhere else) to get away. It was so cruel that they didn’t just declare him the loser and let him off the hook and out of the ring. Even if his owner decided he wasn’t worthy anymore after that, the slaughter probably would have been a lot faster. It made me a little sick to my stomach.

I guess the moral of the story is that I’m not necessarily opposed to it categorically, but when one of them gives up, they shouldn’t just let them be attacked to death. I’m glad I went because cockfighting is a major cultural activity here, but I don’t think I’ll go again unless I have visitors who want to check it out. My curiosity is satisfied.