One year. What?
Hi beautiful people!
I have recently hit my one year in country mark. (August 18th)
Crazy right!?!? It definitely doesn’t feel like it has been that long! I will
be hitting my one year of service October 26th. You know what that
means… you only have one very short year left to come visit me so get on it!
Anyways, I have recently become VERY busy. The work has just started piling on.
I am not sure if it is due to my inability to say “no” or just because I think
I can be in 12 places at once… but it is happening! Here is a short recap of A
FEW things I have done since my last post.
Deportes para la Vida
I went to a training came with 2 of my teenage girls for a
youth initiative called Deportes para la Vida. It is an extension of the
Grassroots Soccer program. We were trained to use basic drills from various
sports to teach kids about HIV/AIDS prevention. It was a five day training, and
we were going going going the whole time. We usually had a one hour break a
day, and I chose to play soccer with the Dominican and Haitian staff during
that time. BAD IDEA! They were REALLY good and I am so out of shape. I also
brought poopy shoes so my knees were bothering but then when I was about to
complain I realized they were playing barefoot. Relativity folks, relativity.
Needless to say I shut my mouth and kept playing.
When I returned to my community I went to the school and
asked if I could do the program with the high school kids during PE once a
month. The director of the school told me that they did not have a PE teacher
for the high school, and that during PE the kids just stand outside. Then the
director went on to give me the position of PE teacher in the high school. I
walked out dazed and confused. I have no idea how I walked in asking for a one
hour a month commitment, and walked out having a full time, every day job
(without the $) haha.
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| Deportes para la Vida |
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| The whole camp...Deportes para la Vida |
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| My girls and I |
Corps Forum, Health Conference=Hurrication, and Training
I have been fortunate enough to get to go to the capital
twice recently. The first time was for a health conference. I was only supposed
to be there for 2 days and it turned into a week because we were put on
standfast due to hurricane Isaac. That was interesting because we all only
brought 1-2 days worth of clothes = lots of smelly volunteers crammed into a
tiny hostel. The second was for committee weekend and the training for the new
volunteers. I went and taught all the newbies about the health initiatives and
what they will be doing the first three months in their site. It was very fun,
and gave me a lot of time to reflect on the last year.
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| beach time |
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| out after corps forum |
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| braving Issac to give a proper goodbye to jenna |
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| hurrication |
Day with Laisha
Okay so one of the best days I have had recently was with my
6 year old BFF Laisha. During her summer vacation I let her go to a couple of
my meetings in the surrounding communities with me. She loved it because it got
her out of the house and she felt very grown up “helping” me with all the
important work I am doing. Since school started up again, she keeps talking
about how she misses working with me and taking the long walks to the other
communities. So on a Saturday I invited her to take a long walk to the farthest
colmado (tiny store) from our house. She got so excited and got all dressed up.
When we were about to leave the house she handed me five pesos and asked me to
protect it for her because it was all the money she had. I was a little
confused, but I put it in my purse anyways. The three of us laisha, skeeter (my
new dog) and I walked and talked and visited some other people on the way to
the colmado. When we got there Laisha asked for her 5 pesos and bought us each
a piece of candy. It was the cutest thing in the entire world! When I thanked
her and told her she didn’t have to do that she responded by telling me that
she wanted to share her money with her best friend. It melted my heart. We then
went to the park, ate our candy, talked about life, and watched the world go
by.
The girls also enjoy
“exercising” with me. It usually just turns into play time on my yoga
mat… but we have good intentions.
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| Laisha and Skeeter |
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| Laisha and Skeeter |
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| Sharing our candy in the park. |
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| Tat time. Thanks Mom! |
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| This is what happens when I try to exercise. |
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| ... and this. |
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| This is what Sharlin does when you ask her how Amanda exercises. |
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| She loves looking at pics of herself. |
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| How I spend my downtime: Laisha, Sharlin, and Skeeter. |
Pregos
Recently two of my Escojo Mi Vida graduates (people I trained
to be peer educators about safe sex, HIV, condoms, STDs, etc.) got pregos. One
of them I was very sad about because it was an unplanned pregnancy, and the man
who got her pregnant has daughters her age and is married. I have been trying
to reach out to her because she needs all the support she can get right now,
but she had to move to another community really far away due to her family
having problems with the pregnancy. The other girl is one of my best students.
She is extremely bright and really believes in Escojo and what it teaches. She
got married when she was 12 years old, and she has managed to not get pregnant
for 4 years (which is a miracle here). She recently decided that she was ready
to be a mother (I think that her husband and his family were pressuring her).
As her friend and mentor I could not judge the decision she made because she
did exactly what I ask the kids to do in Escojo. She planned her pregnancy, and
managed not to get pregnant during her first 4 years of marriage. She is also married
and financially stable. However, I realized that she needs help managing her
pregnancy. Her mother died 8 months ago, and her father lives in the US. She is
now living in our campo because her husband is from here, and she is far from
all of her family and friends. I realized she doesn’t have anyone to take her
to the doctor or tell her what she can and cannot do while pregnant. I decided
that I would be that person for her, and I took her for her first visit to the
doctor. We had to leave at 5 am and it was a crazy mess at the clinic. We were
there for 6 hours and all she got done was a blood test to prove she was
pregnant and 30 folic acid pills. We have to go back again in a week for an
ultrasound, and it will probably take even longer. Gracias a Dios I will be
here for her entire pregnancy.
Of mice and woman….and spiders.
I have been traveling a lot for work recently, and my house
has been empty = attack of the critters. I have seen multiple taranchulas and I
can hear the rats running around at night. Needless to say I have been tucking
my mosquito net in VERY tight at night to keep all the creepy crawlies out.
I also killed my very first taranchila. I usually let them
live when I see them as long as they don’t give me an aggressive glare. If I
decide they need to die I go find someone else to do it. However, this time it
was the middle of the night and I had seen the exact same taranchala one week
before. I realized it had almost doubled in size and it was a little too close
to my clothes for my comfort (taranchula in clothes= worst morning surprise
EVER). I killed it with my shoe and I was in awe of how much goopy stuff came
out. It squirted a good foot away from the site o’ smush.
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| Site o' Smush |
Work Update
I am still working on training the 6 groups of rural health
promoters and 6 groups of teenage peer educators, I am now the PE teacher
(kinda), every time I step into the school someone else asks me to give some
kind of charla, and I recently started working as one of 3 volunteers one the
national Escojo Mi Vida (teenage peer educators) program.
Random Work Photos:::
Future
-The second week in October I will be translating for the
Geraghty Medical Mission in Santo Domingo (MACLA). I am a little nervous
because my Spanish will definitely be put to the test… yikes!
I have decided to do a big art project in my community. It’s
a long story but basically nobody wants to use the clinic (empty building) for
meetings because of political reasons. I think it is really sad because it is a
great space for the community. So my plan is to do 3 big murals on the walls
facing the clinic with different community groups (one wall per group) and then
to do a photo contest/project. All photos will be taken of community members by
community members (using my camera… nerve racking). We will blow up the best
photos and place them on the walls in the clinic. The rest we will get little
prints made and sell them as a fundraiser (most people don’t have any photos of
themselves). I plan on finishing this by the end of my service (long term
project) and having a big art opening in the clinic. The hope is that by
getting the community to work together on this project, and having the
community as the subject matter, they will feel like the clinic is theirs and
feel more comfortable using the space.
-Starting in January (after my much needed trip to the states
for Christmas) I will be starting an exercise and nutrition program based
loosely on the biggest looser. We will be concentrating on obese women with
diabetes and/or hypertension.
-Oh yeah, next month I am also going to a training to learn
how to make “stoves”. They are actually just an improved version of the fogons (open
fire cooking)that the women use here. The improved version makes an inclosed
space for the fire and a tube to ventilate the smoke. We will probably be
starting this project in February after we find funding for it J
Well if you made it all the way to this point…. Congrats man.
You deserve a pat on the back.
Until next time…
