January 24, 2012
Hi everyone! Meet the new, 25-year-old Claire/Clara! I just celebrated my birthday on Sunday and had a great time of it, exhausting but awesome. So, my past several days:
On Friday, I had a regional meeting- mini-VAC in PC lingo, don’t ask me what it stands for- so I got to grab a bola (free ride) out of my site and then get on another guagua (bus) to Santiago. I got there early and sat in a nice park for awhile, eating a delicious pineapple frio frio (shaved ice) I bought from a street vendor. It was only my second frio frio, literally ‘cold cold’, in-country and I had not enjoyed my first one, which was licorice. Sometimes my desire to try new and exotic foods backfires. This time however it certainly paid off, and then as always happens outside my site, I got some yummy junk food- pizza and chips with two fellow PCVs, followed by tons of sugary candies and sugary dried mangoes at the meeting. There were about 12 people there, many of whom I hadn’t seen in months, it was nice to say hi and we went over some important Peace Corps issues, nothing too interesting to outsiders I’m afraid. The budget cuts in the US are certainly being felt by Peace Corps, I’ll say that, and we are in a bit of an unusual situation, caught between the normal desire for more funding plus the Peace Corps ideal of ‘living at the level of the people.’ It’s one of the several major aid questions that I’ve had plenty of time to think about. What are volunteers here to do? We have 3 main goals- basically, one is help the locals with projects, two is share American culture with them, and three is go home and share their culture with our fellow Americans. But, how best to achieve goal one? Should we be working with the poorest of the poor in desperate areas, or should we work with better-off communities where we can make more of an impact? That ties in with the question, should we send volunteers to the same site over and over again to continue work that a previous volunteer started, or say that after two years it’s time to give attention to a new community that needs help? I personally don’t believe it’s possible to enter a community and in two years create a sustainable project, I think a commitment to a community of 3 volunteers in a row, 6 years total, would be more effective, but there’s plenty of room for debate.
Anyway I’ll never get to my birthday! So after the meeting I did a bunch of shopping- new camera, little speakers, brindis (snack food, crackers and Little Debbie cakes), and pancake mix to prepare for the weekend. Got home, collapsed into bed.
Saturday, woke up panicked, my room was a mess! I did what I could and at 9:30 am another PCV, my friend Dora, arrived, with 5 teenagers from her Escojo Mi Vida sexual health club! 3 boys, 2 girls. We went to the lake near my house with about 5 boys from my town and ate the brindis, talked about safe sex and had a condom-blowing up contest, it was really fun! We then walked to a centenarian’s birthday party to get some lunch, and another PCV Emma arrived. We rested, then left the kids at my house to rest some more and the 3 PCVs went to see the party going on at the local center where all parties are held in my town. It was the last big party of Patronales, Patron Saint week/s (2 weeks in my town), and tons of people were there, lots of beer, hot dogs, dancing, and an ancient looking swinging seats machine that was spewing fumes! We survived it. Me and Emma danced some bachata and had Presidente beers, then headed home where Dora had already gone, with the delicious chili all ready. After eating we all got pretty and went out to see the fiesta- which had ended! We couldn’t believe it! The entire mob scene was gone, party over, so we hung out in the park for a little while, where a car was still blaring music, and then went and watched Pan’s Labyrinth in the original Spanish.
Sunday- my birthday! Alright I have to keep this short, so let’s see- chocolate chip and strawberry pancakes for us and the 12 girls in my Chicas Brillantes group who showed up, drawings of their ideal husband and future families, jumping rope with my Christmas jumpropes and finding out how truly out of shape I am, running around crazily with so many teenagers, inviting them all back after lunch to the mayor’s pool, going there and having an awesome time swimming and then dancing, Dora making amazing lasagna for dinner, and then going to hang out in the park again at night, with some little romances going on to give us old PCVs headaches. I felt bad because there were no more guaguas for Emma when she left at 6pm although I had thought sure there would be, but she managed an amazing 5 bolas and made it home. After the park, we all shared some jokes, me introducing the kids to blond jokes, and then went to bed. They were good kids, I’m sorry I don’t have more time to write about all of them, but there was some good downtime talking with the 2 girls and one of the boys that I’m glad I got to experience- I have been hanging around my wonderful little 5-year-old neighbors a lot, I realized, and have not gotten to experience the world of Dominican teenagerhood. It’s quite similar to US teenagerhood from what I can see, although of course there are differences I won’t get into now, that’s for another day.
Monday- school for me in the morning, Dora’s troupe headed home, and now Tuesday after lots of sleeping I am getting back to normal. I head out on Thursday to help film the next few telenovela episodes! I may have a few slow days in my site, but there is always the next big event or meeting to look forward to. I am making a commitment this year to getting out more in my community and visiting in my spare time, but as for today I just hope I can catch up on my emails. Until next time! Ah yes, and today I arrived at 101 folded paper cranes. I want to have 1,000 by September 21 this year- Peace Day. 900 to go!
