Proxying for Sarah...
This is Sarah's post. Whatever follows is the work of Sarah. Sarah wrote the following words.
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I know, I know. I’ve been in the DR for about a month now and have been practically incommunicado. Besides being very busy with work and adjusting to living in a foreign country again, my only real excuse for not posting earlier is that blogspot won’t let me sign in without creating a new email account (and after creating emails for my boss and our organization, and then becoming in charge of all organization emails, I don’t want to have to deal with one more email account). I can’t even use the internet as an excuse, as I have internet at my house. At any rate, the following is the first mass email I sent out to my family back home. More posts to follow.
Tuesday, June 5th
I apologize for not writing earlier, as I promised, but life has been a whirlwind for me since I arrived here on May 19th. It’s not the culture shock (or lack there of, in this case) or the switch to Spanish that keeps me busy; what keeps me away from the computer here is learning new things, meeting new people, and getting back to the intense, yet tranquilo way of living that I have missed since I left Nicaragua in December.
I am living and working in San Juan, a city about three hours west of the capital, Santo Domingo. Although I am getting to know the city rather slowly, I like what I have seen so far. It may have a population of about 200,000, but it is easy to get to and navigate the downtown area, and it is well maintained (at least, I think it is—but I’m comparing it to Managua, where I lived last fall). The city itself is rather flat, but only a few minutes away are mountains, speckled with small towns and rivers. From the mountains, you can see all of San Juan. The mountains are absolutely beautiful, and I enjoy watching the fog lift from them in the mornings and watching the sun set behind them in the afternoons.
For those of you who do not know, let me explain a little bit about what I am doing here this summer. I am working with a non-profit organization, Cambiando Vidas (Changing Lives) that was started here in San Juan literally weeks before I arrived. The non-profit has two components: the first is to build low-income houses for the people in the campo communities surrounding San Juan, and the second is to start a preschool program in these communities, since the government in the Dominican Republic provides no schooling until the kids here reach elementary school. One of the most important aspects of Cambiando Vidas is to get as many community members involved in the programs as possible; to make Cambiando Vidas the community’s program instead of the communities participants in our program. Right now, Cambiando Vidas is just working in one of the communities outside San Juan, Las Charcas de Garabito, but in the future we hope to work in other communities.
This summer, I am working primarily with the preschool program, helping my boss (the founder and idea man behind the organization) to create the program, assess the needs of the community, and get as many kids and parents involved, so that it will be ready to begin in January. But I’m doing other things too, such as helping out with house construction, the budget, writing newsletters to donors, getting other people involved in the organization, and anything else that is needed to help this organization succeed.
The first week I was here marked the first house build of Cambiando Vidas. I came down with some other Americans, all of whom had met the founder, José Abreu, before through working with Habitat for Humanity. I can’t imagine having started my summer internship any other way than that first week. In that first week, our small group of Americans worked with countless community members to build this house. Despite the sun, the heat, and the hard manual labor, community members of all ages came to watch and help out, from the school kids (who kept begging their teacher to cancel classes so they could work on the house all day) to neighbors and family members. For me personally, I had the opportunity to meet many community members that I will be working with this summer, practice my Spanish and translating skills, start to learn about Dominican culture (food, music, dance, beer, catcalls and Dominican men, etc.), and give my brain a break after just having finished final exams.
It’s funny, because I thought that since all the other Americans were in their late 30s, mid 40s, and early 50s (one of them being my parent’s friend from college), I thought I would feel awkward in the group and after spending the day in the Dominican sun working, everyone would want to go to bed right away. Turns out, at least for these guys, the rule here is work hard all day and party harder all night. They all loved to go out, dance, and drink beer (they told me during these nights, they relive their college days). Which made me think of how perfect this kind of trip would be for hard working, hard partying students like us! Haha.
After the first week, all the other Americans left for the states and I moved into my new home for the summer. I am living with a host family: two parents, their 15-year-old daughter, their 12-year-old son, and 11-year-old son. The father is Dominican, from San Juan, and a family friend of my boss, but the mom is Venezuelan and all three kids were born in Venezuela. The family has lived all over: Caracas, Venezuela; Santo Domingo, DR; Montreal, Canada; and have now lived here in San Juan for one year. So at home I am exposed to a little bit of Venezuelan cooking and culture mixed in with Dominican rice and beans and music, along with a few conversations in English (the mom really wants to be fluent) thrown in with the Spanish.
This is the third time I have lived with a host family, and, as is always the case, is quite different from the past two. I have my own cozy room here, as well as my own bathroom. The family also has a computer with internet, and all the other comforts of home. The water rarely goes out, which makes washing easier. And while the power goes out frequently, we are not affected as we have a generator; but when the power does go out at night, it is amazing to go outside and watch almost the entire city of San Juan go black.
This past week I have visited our first house daily, helping to put on the finishing touches and run multiple errands to the hardware stores in San Juan, and getting to know the summer plan better. This week José and I hope to start visiting the rest of the community to begin their preschool program and get as many people involved as possible, as well as finishing things up from the last build and start planning the next house build. José speaks fluent English, and speaks to me in English about program specifics, but when we are with other people, he speaks to me in Spanish, so my Spanish can continue to improve.
That’s all for now. Sending amor y paz from la República Dominicana.
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I know, I know. I’ve been in the DR for about a month now and have been practically incommunicado. Besides being very busy with work and adjusting to living in a foreign country again, my only real excuse for not posting earlier is that blogspot won’t let me sign in without creating a new email account (and after creating emails for my boss and our organization, and then becoming in charge of all organization emails, I don’t want to have to deal with one more email account). I can’t even use the internet as an excuse, as I have internet at my house. At any rate, the following is the first mass email I sent out to my family back home. More posts to follow.
Tuesday, June 5th
I apologize for not writing earlier, as I promised, but life has been a whirlwind for me since I arrived here on May 19th. It’s not the culture shock (or lack there of, in this case) or the switch to Spanish that keeps me busy; what keeps me away from the computer here is learning new things, meeting new people, and getting back to the intense, yet tranquilo way of living that I have missed since I left Nicaragua in December.
I am living and working in San Juan, a city about three hours west of the capital, Santo Domingo. Although I am getting to know the city rather slowly, I like what I have seen so far. It may have a population of about 200,000, but it is easy to get to and navigate the downtown area, and it is well maintained (at least, I think it is—but I’m comparing it to Managua, where I lived last fall). The city itself is rather flat, but only a few minutes away are mountains, speckled with small towns and rivers. From the mountains, you can see all of San Juan. The mountains are absolutely beautiful, and I enjoy watching the fog lift from them in the mornings and watching the sun set behind them in the afternoons.
For those of you who do not know, let me explain a little bit about what I am doing here this summer. I am working with a non-profit organization, Cambiando Vidas (Changing Lives) that was started here in San Juan literally weeks before I arrived. The non-profit has two components: the first is to build low-income houses for the people in the campo communities surrounding San Juan, and the second is to start a preschool program in these communities, since the government in the Dominican Republic provides no schooling until the kids here reach elementary school. One of the most important aspects of Cambiando Vidas is to get as many community members involved in the programs as possible; to make Cambiando Vidas the community’s program instead of the communities participants in our program. Right now, Cambiando Vidas is just working in one of the communities outside San Juan, Las Charcas de Garabito, but in the future we hope to work in other communities.
This summer, I am working primarily with the preschool program, helping my boss (the founder and idea man behind the organization) to create the program, assess the needs of the community, and get as many kids and parents involved, so that it will be ready to begin in January. But I’m doing other things too, such as helping out with house construction, the budget, writing newsletters to donors, getting other people involved in the organization, and anything else that is needed to help this organization succeed.
The first week I was here marked the first house build of Cambiando Vidas. I came down with some other Americans, all of whom had met the founder, José Abreu, before through working with Habitat for Humanity. I can’t imagine having started my summer internship any other way than that first week. In that first week, our small group of Americans worked with countless community members to build this house. Despite the sun, the heat, and the hard manual labor, community members of all ages came to watch and help out, from the school kids (who kept begging their teacher to cancel classes so they could work on the house all day) to neighbors and family members. For me personally, I had the opportunity to meet many community members that I will be working with this summer, practice my Spanish and translating skills, start to learn about Dominican culture (food, music, dance, beer, catcalls and Dominican men, etc.), and give my brain a break after just having finished final exams.
It’s funny, because I thought that since all the other Americans were in their late 30s, mid 40s, and early 50s (one of them being my parent’s friend from college), I thought I would feel awkward in the group and after spending the day in the Dominican sun working, everyone would want to go to bed right away. Turns out, at least for these guys, the rule here is work hard all day and party harder all night. They all loved to go out, dance, and drink beer (they told me during these nights, they relive their college days). Which made me think of how perfect this kind of trip would be for hard working, hard partying students like us! Haha.
After the first week, all the other Americans left for the states and I moved into my new home for the summer. I am living with a host family: two parents, their 15-year-old daughter, their 12-year-old son, and 11-year-old son. The father is Dominican, from San Juan, and a family friend of my boss, but the mom is Venezuelan and all three kids were born in Venezuela. The family has lived all over: Caracas, Venezuela; Santo Domingo, DR; Montreal, Canada; and have now lived here in San Juan for one year. So at home I am exposed to a little bit of Venezuelan cooking and culture mixed in with Dominican rice and beans and music, along with a few conversations in English (the mom really wants to be fluent) thrown in with the Spanish.
This is the third time I have lived with a host family, and, as is always the case, is quite different from the past two. I have my own cozy room here, as well as my own bathroom. The family also has a computer with internet, and all the other comforts of home. The water rarely goes out, which makes washing easier. And while the power goes out frequently, we are not affected as we have a generator; but when the power does go out at night, it is amazing to go outside and watch almost the entire city of San Juan go black.
This past week I have visited our first house daily, helping to put on the finishing touches and run multiple errands to the hardware stores in San Juan, and getting to know the summer plan better. This week José and I hope to start visiting the rest of the community to begin their preschool program and get as many people involved as possible, as well as finishing things up from the last build and start planning the next house build. José speaks fluent English, and speaks to me in English about program specifics, but when we are with other people, he speaks to me in Spanish, so my Spanish can continue to improve.
That’s all for now. Sending amor y paz from la República Dominicana.
posted by Jake at 8:01 PM
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