Rain rain go away....

When your on the road and it begins raining there is no difference with driving an inch or a mile...you are totally soaked within the second.
Anyways, as you can imagine I got caught in the rain again. These were fat rain drops too. I know you guys know what i'm talking about. There is fat rain and skinny rain. This was fat rain. I decided to stop on the side of the road this time, because....I don't really know. I stopped and took a leak in the woods, because why not right? Whilst relieving myself, I found a sizable banana leaf that I decided to use as covering for my soaked backpack. I fancied myself a young Robinson Crusoe the way I was utilizing the island for my necessities. A few Dominicans that got caught in the rain decided to stop where I was as well and use my covering. We had a typical Dominican-American conversation:
Him: Where you from?
Me: The United States
Him: oh New York
Me: Sure...
Him: Nice bike
Me: (thinking to myself: great, just go ahead and take it what am I honestly going to do about it)  Yea I really like it, its fun to drive around, but it sucks to get stuck in the rain.
Him: Better lock it up or someone will steal it.
Me: (never heard that one before) Thanks, yea I have this huge chain to lock it up wherever I go.
Him: nice
Me: cool
Now that I have you on the edge of your seats......as the rain stopped and I decided to continue on I reached for my glasses that I had put in my rain jacket pocket.......they are not there.
Now, there is no way homeboy took my glasses because he never touched me, we never shook hands, nothing. Could he have stolen them? Because I am completely confused as to how I could have lost them when they were sealed in my jacket.
Him: What are you looking for.
Me: My glasses
Him: Where are they?
Me: (blank stare) I put them in my pocket and now they are gone.
Him: They probably came out a ways down the road, because when you drive a motorcycle  lots of air can push things out of your pockets.
Me: No, I just took them off when we were standing here (as i continue to look for them)
Him: Well i have to go. Check down the road a ways. Things can fly out when you are driving.
Me: but...ok. Thanks see you later.
After that useless exchange I spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out how they could be gone. Eventually, I find them in  random area of the woods that I was never in. Did I black out, and in my unconscious state fling my glasses into the woods in a fit of incoherent rage? I don't think I will ever understand what happened that day......but I found them, gracias a dios, and I can see!

Rosalia and I stopped off at the beach before the torrential downpour began.....

I'm sorry for having wasted your time with that ridiculous rant on how I ALMOST lost my glasses. It can get lonely here.
I was up on the north coast this week finishing up my site visits, which are now officially done! I visited two sites that are very close to the beach :) There are a lot of non-profits in this area, because it is an attractive program for volunteers. Lots of touristy things. They were both interesting sites though, and neither community had access to potable water, having to walk as long as an hour round trip with their bucket.
Needless to say , there is tons of need and I have an even harder decision to make now that I have to narrow them all down.
I will be doing paperwork all weekend and then try to get a feel for what direction i think we should go. Keep praying that i make the right choice!

 Why sit in a chair?

 Many homes made of palm bark walls and palm frond roofs....with a tin door kicker.

Anybody fancy a poop?

Mountain Biking

I spit in my helmet the other day.....

Got something stuck in my mouth and my natural reaction (like anyones) was to spit out. I did not realize i had a helmet on so i splattered off the face mask and back onto my face. It was pretty gross. Now that you have that image in your head......

I am finishing up site visits, and traveled to remote Paradero yesterday. This campo is about an hour and a half up a mountain.....all dirt and gravel. It really tested my driving ability, which turned out to still lack experience. I felt so uncomfortable that I paid a motorcycle taxi driver to drive MY motorcycle back down the mountain after the visit with me on the back until we hit pavement. I was even more scared being on the back than driving myself, ha. Made it alive, gracias a Dios. View from the top:

So, since this site is so remote the project pretty much defines itself. It has a lot of potential with the infrastructure that already exists. We are not trying to re-invent the wheel or anything. The goal is to build off of what is already there. They have a "clinic" that is very poorly run and the one doctor and zero nurses are hardly ever there. When he is there, he does not seem qualified to treat patients as many have left the clinic confused and given medicine to treat symptoms they do not have. There is a lot of Doctor turnover as the on-site doctor is really a medical student who is doing an internship, and they change out every 9 months. The instability leads to a lot of uncertainty.
There are some health pomoters, but they are undertrained. The biggest advantage Paradero has is it leadership, and its mostly women. The ladies control this town, and since the men spend most of the day in the fields, this is a good thing. They are making positive changes in the community. They are involved in micro-business, and a community bank, which is phenomenal. The initiatve is impressive and i think FIMRC would be received well here. We shall see.

I have a few more sites this week to visit, but then I am pretty much done! So,Ii need to sit down and seriously evaluate everything I have taken in over the past few weeks, and narrow it down to 3-4 solid options. Pray that I make the right decision!

More photos from Paradero,

Home sweet home!

Adios!

Pooping in the monte

Well, I managed to make it back from my whirl-wind adventure up and down the country. Rosalia and I went to the Capital then way down south to Barahona and the Haitian bateyes. It is kind of like driving from Florida to South Carolina...and then some, time wise anyway. I was able to visit a few bateyes and a village right outside of the Capital.

Rosalia and I had a few adventures. We got caught in the rain, blew out a tire, and got lost. Those 3 things pretty much happened in one day. I was on my way back from Barahona and it began to rain, so I stopped off at a gas station to wait it out. I continued on after it dissipated, but I kept running into showers so I just drove through it....slowly. I roll into the Santo Domingo area around 5 and i decide to take an alternate route, which i thought was a short cut, but in reality just turned me all around. So I am cruising through some unknown part of the Capital when the back of my bike starts wobbling. I assumed it was uneven pavement and kept going. Eventually, I started realizing what everyone on the sidewalk was screaming at me.....my rear tire was flat. Great. Everything is closed, so I am pushing Rosalia in the rain during rush hour traffic in Santo Domingo. Luckily, I found a tire repair shop just about to close. I was able to buy a part and get it replaced. I arrived at my friends house around 7pm. So, that was my day 11am-7pm on the road, blah.
Here is Rosalia half taken apart:

Other than that, I am pretty much a pro at riding now. I have ridden in every condition this country can throw at me. I was in the south Monday through Thursday so I have just been catching up on paperwork since I have been back.

The Bateyes were a very interesting situation. I spent 2 days traveling to 3 of the 9+ villages that are comprised mostly of Haitian sugarcane field workers. It is an intriguing project, because there already is a lot of aid present in the area. World Vision has set up a huge health clinic, and staffed it with specialists and nice new equipment. Not to mention, they have a child sponsorship program where you too can give a child a better future for only 20 dollars a year. Medical missions trip head over heel to offer care to this minority immigrant population. So, what would we do there?
There are ideas and realities. Medical missions have a great idea in coming down and providing free surgeries and general care to the people who can't afford medical care. World Vision has a great idea in building a clinic and providing children with sponsors for better futures. The reality is, with so many medical missions coming in the people begin to depend on them for their primary care, but what happens when they don't show? The reality is, World Vision sponsors so many kids, but after interviewing over a dozen families it seems that the children aren't receiving any aid from the sponsorship program. So, where does all that money go?
Initially, i'm sure every organization sees a problem and develops an idea that turns into a reality they may or may not have envisioned. What is mine going to be? I'd like to think we are different from everybody else, that we will have a real impact on the world. Who knows? Sustainability is such a subjective idea.

Those are my deep thoughts for the year. Here are some photos from my travels:

 Yea, that's not sanitary....he is not happy either. Thats 1/4 tired filled with questionable water. Bathtub?

 These kids loved having their photo taken.

 Does you kitchen look like this? What is what, right?

The trick is to cook your meal without burning the tire.......Haitians are creative and resourceful. I would not have thought of this.

Big river below

I took Rosalia to get her first scheduled maintenance yesterday :) " Hondas only get better with age" , says the mechanic. Vamos a ver.

I opened a bank account here too, so i'm in it for the long haul.

Today, we went to a site called Rio Grande Abajo. We as in the HUB and study abroad students from PUCMM. I tagged along so i could knock out a site visit and a service project in one day. Efficiency! The site is really cool, nestled in the mountain next to a river. Very picturesque:

Anyways, we ended up going there to help the community re-paint their elementary school. We spent most of the day doing that, and i got the opportunity to meet with some of the community leaders and discuss our project. They seem very driven and supportive of what we plan to do, and have even started construction on a clinic (unrelated to our potential presence). It is a logistical dream from a volunteer standpoint, because Puerto Plata and Santiago are each about an hour away, you can hike a nearby mountain, swim in a nearby river, or drive on over to 27 waterfalls (those of you who have been here know how cool this is). So, tons of stuff to do for volunteers that have worked their butts off all week. Not to mention, the area is in need of a well equipped medical center.
There are many other campos in the area that could use help, and that presents an opportunity for us. One of my only hangups is there is an overexposure of volunteers in the area, and I'd like an area with no real expectations of Americans.....good luck, right?
All in all a really cool site, we went to the river, hung out with some cool kids while we painted the school, and ate some good-looking street food (bet you're loving that Grandma, ha)

Tomorrow i am heading to the Capital then spending most of next week looking at sites in the south of the country. Should be a good bonding experience for me and Rosalia (Rosalia and I?). We have already logged 750km!

That's it for now, sorry this one was really boring.

Hiya!

The Art of Electrocution

I was in two countries today. That is one of the things I think is cool about this island; its 2 countries. I visited a site in Restauracion, which is 12km from the Haitian border, so when I finished with all my meetings i just drove over for a quick sec. Then I drove all the way back to Santiago which is about 175km away. Rosalia and I had a quite the adventure. The day before, I drove into the border town of Dajabon and stayed the only hotel I could find. Check this out:

Probably squinting your eyes huh? (maybe its just me that does that) What is that thing? Is it some type of artificial lung or a lawn mower battery? It is the shower head in my hotel room on the dinky border town of Dajabon. It "supposedly" "heats" your "water" as you "shower". What they really mean to say is, "This will electrocute you to death." No thanks, I choose life. You are supposed to flip that switch while your in the shower all nakey and what not. Yes, the water does drip from what looks like the male end of an electrical cord, it drips right off of that onto your body. Things you don't see everyday.....

Anyways, the site i visited was great. There is a lot of potential there to help not only the Dominicans that live in and around the town, but also the Haitians that live in and around the town. The population is about 1/3 Haitian. Most of the town is functionally illiterate, and the main source of jobs are the coffee and other cash crop fields. The leadership the town presents is outstanding, and that is not something you see everyday either. Most leadership is non-existent to weak at best in rural sites, but Restauracion has a bevy( oh yea got to use it) of leaders that are very willing and excited to work with us. It was very refreshing. They have a small hospital that only offers basic treatment, no surgeries, and they are very poorly equipped with staff and supplies. I feel like everything is in place it just needs a big shove to get going.

I met with the town mayor, hospital director, local teachers, local governmental staff and some families. It was all very positive. I have a good feeling about this one. Here are some photos:

 This is a typical Haitian home in the town. All wood and tin, warehouse style sleeping arrangements.....

 This is a cute little Haitian boy who was being treated at the hospital....

This is a special room where they treated everyone who got Cholera when it broke out last year. Hundreds of Haitians flocked to this hospital to try and nab one of these 3 beds.......

Really looks like Haiti is the theme of this blog.

Like i said, after i spent the morning here I sped down the mountain to come back to home sweet home, Santiago:

This is what my drive back looked like most of the way; curvy country roads. Now you can see what Rosalia and I see :)

Adios! gonna spend the 2 days doing all the paperwork and not dying in the shower!

Some visits

The last two days i have been on site visits. I went to two different communities; Portrero and Cuesta Arena.

Cuesta Arena: This is a little campo (rural village) about half an hour outside of Santiago. Its close but far from civilization. Close as in its only a 5km drive to the nearest school/town. Far as in there are literally (literally, we counted) 3 vehicles (motorcycles) in the entire village of 250 people, so its a 5km walk to the nearest school/town. Don't forget the dirt roads and stifling heat. Also, their only source of water has been labeled unsafe for human contact. They bathe, wash their dishes, laundry even drink this water. Obviously, this leads to chronic stomach pain, parasites, skin and vaginal infections for women. There is also a large majority of children that suffer from sickle cell anemia.
It is definitely a community with huge needs, and it is close enough to a big city that volunteers could stay comfortably and commute to work. The leadership in the town consists of a man named Guillermo and his brothers. They have no real formal education, and most people don't know how to read or write in this village, but the brothers are well respected.
Here are some photos of Cuesta Arena:

Portrero: This was an interesting community. Not that they all aren't, but it is very unique. Rosalia and I drove to Guatapanal, which is the closest town to Portrero and about an hour and a half outside of Santiago. Once we got there, out contact took us to to Portrero in her jeep over 12km of rocky dirt. This place is in smack dab (who came up with the term smack dab? what does that even mean?) in the middle of nowhere. Fabian came with and we kept commenting as to how desolate and remote this place was, even compared to Bateyes. There is nothing for miles, then you come up on these sparsely spread out houses; one eveyr quarter mile or so. There are no general stores. They drink straight from the river because they do not sell bottled water. Their main source of jobs? Working in the fields harvesting this weird plant that they sell as raw material to make.....lasos....like rope....Thats it. That is life in a nutshell for these people. There is a basic school that goes up to grade 5, but it was only built 3 years ago. Many of the families we visited had no formal education at all. One of the questions i ask is, up until which grade did you study? They would just shake their heads and bare a shy smile.
The Ministry of Health did build a clinic, but they forget to staff it or put any materials in it. So, it is an abandoned building. It is a very nice structure, and it would be perfect for us as we could just move right in instead of having to build something from scratch. We shall see how things turn out.
Here are some photos of Portrero:

The top photo are the kids coming back from school. 3 or 4 kids on the horse with backpacks hanging from feet. Dominicans are so creative :) The bottom picture is the most populated area of the village.

Well that's about all i got. Its tough to visit these sites and know i can only pick one out of a dozen or so. It is really cool to see these places and meet the people that live here. I feel very blessed. Now i have to do all the paperwork for these visits...goodbye Friday.

Adios!

Mi nuevo Motor!

I have someone very special I want you all to meet.....

Rosalia is her name, and she is beautiful. She is a brand new Honda CG-125.

It is sooo much fun driving this thing around. I am still alive after the first day, so that is a good sign. Anyways, i have just been preparing for our first site visit tomorrow. It is called Cuesta Arena and its about an hour outside of Santiago. We shall see how it goes. Ill let you guys know.

Well, thats about it. The electricity was out all day today, so that was a bummer. Here is another farwell shot of my lady:

...so photogenic....

Adios!

The journey begins!

So, here I am, back in the Dominican Republic.

Who knew i would be back here so soon? As we were getting off the airplane i was talking with this little 4 year-old girl. She stood up on her sit and said, "i'm a grown up now", so, i said, " yea you shot up". She received this as "yea you shut up", and she just gave me the meanest stare and said you don't say that! That's a bad word? The whole back of the plane thinks i told a little girl to shut up. Why would i use an expression like shot up with Dominicans that don't speak great English? Why am i so awkward around children? All these things ran through my mind as the redness in my cheeks started to fade. I apologized, but then she said, "I almost called the police!". Let it go girl! I explained myself to her and her mother, and everything was cool. We even ended up standing next to each other in the customs line and chatted about normal stuff. Hatchet buried! Welcome to the Dominican Republic!

I arrived at the HUB (our little house church/hostal) and went to bed right after i could not figure my blackberry out. I woke abruptly at 4am to a......rooster crowing......during my dreams I must have forgotten where I was. Better get used to that again. As I stepped out of bed I began to sweat...oh yea I'm in the DR. Then we had church, which was great. A lot of people showed up and we had a breakfast of chocolate covered donuts! Afterwards I went to my old village and hung with Francisco, Cha cha, Francesca, Anabel, Natalie (aka cutest baby ever), and many of my old neighbors. I played a few hands of Dominoes and realized i really need to practice. It was so nice to be back in my old stomping grounds. Everything just kind of came back; my Spanish came back naturally, friendships never skipped a beat and not much had changed. I was so happy as i walked out of El Asfalto and back to the HUB, because it was then that I finally realized I had a family for life here. Not a bad first day.

I will be in this country for 18 more months. I will be setting up a medical assistance program in a rural village through a program called the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children. I will be purchasing a motorcycle soon. I hope to keep up with this blog more. I have a ton of new experiences heading my way, and i feel super blessed to be here!!

Stay tuned for more boring entries