The Vela

 think I have told you guys about velas and valorios and all that jazz, but just in case you don’t remember here is a recap. When someone dies (in the catholic community aka almost everyone here) they have a valorio. The body is laid out in a casket (the same day the person dies) and everyone in the community comes to visit the house. They spend the day singing and crying and then bring the body to the cemetery and burry it. They  then continue to congregate at the house for 9 days after the person dies. After that they start having “velas” every month on the anniversary of the persons death for a year, and after the first year has passed they have a vela every year on the anniversary of the persons death for 7 years.  Usually a vela consists of singing, a mini church service, and food and coffee or soda for all of the attendees. Now I live in pretty large campo so all the velas can be a little overwhelming…

Anyways, the other day my neighbor had a vela for her daughter who died of brain cancer. Since it was my neighbors vela, and she is very old, I went with all my other neighbors to help prepare the day before. We spent the entire day cleaning the house and preparing the food for the next day. We had to prepare food for at least 100 people so it was CRAZY. I swear I peeled at least 500 cloves of garlic. No joke. We also killed a cow, chopped it up, and cleaned all the meat. This got a little intense because they use EVERYTHING (heart, liver, intestines etc.) and ummm ewwww I did not like cleaning those parts. We also went out to the conuco and picked bean pods, took them out of their pods, and prepared them. The next day was the actual vela, and we started cooking the food early in the morning. We had 8 HUGE pots cooking in the backyard. Some had moro (rice and beans cooked together) and the others had the meat. Now my favorite part of all of this is that the men sit around and drink while the women do all the work haha. One of the men was giving instructions from his chair because he didn’t like the way we were making the salad so I jokingly told him if he didn’t like how we were doing it he could do it himself. He then held a spoon and pretended to stir so that I could take a picture of him “helping”. However, I do have the give the men credit because they do pass out all of the food after the women box it up in to-go boxes.

It was just one of those days that I kept thinking… wow this is my life now. Weird!

Stirring the moro with branches.

salad!

helping stir the dressing

I

men watching the women work.

washing the meat

washing the meat

lots of cow

Four of the eight pots.

This is how we cook rice.

my kids.

Me doing a condom demonstration with a platano.

The kids explaining what they learned about STDs

my neighbor teaching me how to open a coconut with a machete

my neighbor teaching me how to open a coconut with a machete

Mango Season!!!

dont let the bed spiders bite!

On Creepy Crawlies:

Ew. Ew. Ew. Ewwwwww. When I got back from scuba diving I had a bit of swimmers ear in my right ear. However, I do not have any hydrogen peroxide in my house so I did what any peace corps volunteer would do. I improvised. I used some rubbing alcohol to dry the water out of my right ear.... and I figured hey, while Im at it I might as well do the other ear too. So I put the alcohol in my ear and let it sit there for a few minutes. Then I turned my head over onto a tissue to let all the alcohol drain out. When I looked at the tissue I was absolutely horrified. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh or scream. There was a dead spider lying there. I am assuming it got there during scuba camp because we were camping in a tent that had a few spiders roaming around.

 Ok now lets rewind to training... I was sitting with my friend Jenna talking about how we loved our mosquito nets because they not only kept out mosquitoes but they also kept out all the other creepy crawlies. Then I said "yeah that is one of my biggest peace corps fears. I am so afraid that I am going to wake up with some type of critter in bed with me. That is why I wear granny panties to bed because at least I know they are not getting all up in my lady bits. My other orifices are fair game though because I cant wear a bag over my head." Jenna agreed with me and said she was also a subscriber to the granny panty theory and that we were just shit out of luck if the critters wanted to enter a hole in our heads.

And what happens! Amanda aka worst luck with critters EVER gets a spider in her ear! Also, lets not forget that I am somewhat of a hypochondriac and now I cant stop wondering if the spider made spider egg babies in my ear. I might have to go to therapy if a whole brood of spidy offspring march out of my ear!

I took a picture this time because everyone got so mad at me for not taking a picture of the larva.

On Porch time:

Here in the DR we spend a lot of time on the porch. It is a great way to pass the time. Plus, most porches face the road so you get to chat with all your neighbors as they pass. It is a way to be social and relax at the same time. I have to say the Dominicans really do it right! My two neighbor girls (Laisha 5 yrs, and Sharlin 1 yr) are always over at my house hanging out on my porch with me. Now the other day I was skyping with my Aunt Linda, Uncle Doug, and my cousins Davia and Dustin for Easter. Laisha and a neighbor boy were over coloring on my porch, and they were so confused. They didnt understand why I was talking to the computer. I did my best to translate for them, and at one point Dustin said "Ahhhhh Im trapped in the computer". I made the mistake of translating this... and they have been asking me ever since if he is still trapped in the computer and how he got there in the first place. As an attempt to explain to them how skype works I showed them how the camera on my computer works by taking photos of all of us. They were having so much fun with the photos that they completely forgot about Dustin being trapped in the computer. Here are some samplers from our porch time photo shoot.

On Odd Transportation:

In a past blog I explained how public transportation here works, and all of the weird/different modes of transportation. I realized the other day that I forgot to mention one! My campo is on one main road that dead ends on both sides at the beach. There is only one way to leave my campo and that is through Luperón which is WAY out of the way because you have to go all the way to the coast which is kind of a zig zaggy trip. It takes about 30 mins (when it hasnt rained... double that if it has) and it is also the location of our nearest clinic. Anyways, there is one other way out of my campo... and that is to cross the river. How you ask? well there is a little ferry type thing called a yola (not sure if that is spelled right). Some Haitian men in my community made it with four 50 gallon drums and a slab of wood. You just hop on and they walk you across for 10 pesos. Only problem is if it rains the river is too deep and moves too fast so they cant do it... and it only fits people and motorcycles. no cars. 

Sorry this isn't the best photo... but here is the yola with a moto on it :)

LASTLY, if you guys want to know something about my life, peace corps, or the DR please let me know! I am open to questions or suggestions! amandamappel@gmail.com

scuba corps.

OK. So. This week is Semana Santa aka Easter Week, Holy week, Spring Break etc. Basically nobody does anything except drink and go to the beach. In fact, I was told, not asked, by my womens group that there would not be a meeting this week because nobody does anything productive during Semana Santa…. Well nothing except cook a poopload of habichuelas con dulce or in other words sweet beans. Now I know what you are thinking… sweet beans Amanda? Really? But they actually grow on you. They basically cook beans (red, black, any color really) until they are soft. Then they mash/ strain out all of the good bean juices and cook those with cinnamon, milk, sugar, un chin de salt, sweet cloves, and then they add whatever they have available (sweet potatoes, raisins, cookies, bread, etc). My neighbors have also been bringing me (and teaching me how to cook) lots of fresh fish and lambi (conch).On a side note the DR is definitely “domesticating” me. All I do is cook, clean, garden, and take care of my two children (the girls that live behind me… and talk about cooking, cleaning, gardening, and childcare. Bet y’all never thought you would see me doing that!

Now on to the exciting stuff… Some of my peace corps friends and I decided to aprovechar (take advantage of) our week without work and we went to Las Galeras, Samana (gorgeous) to get scuba certified. Again, I know what you are thinking… but Amanda dear, you are deathly afraid of fish why on God’s green earth would you want to go scuba diving??? For those of you who were unaware of my ichthyophobia here is a little background info : When I was a young lass vacationing at our family friends cabin on lake Tulloch I was attacked by a very large blue gill. It bit me in the belly button and drew blood… and now I swear that is why I have a crooked belly button. Anyways, I later decided that I wanted to major in marine biology and be a dolphin trainer in cancun. While I was applying to schools my supportive parents pointed out that I would have to deal with a lot of fish as a marine biology major… I changed majors immediately. Skip to present day… if I jump into a body of water deeper than 10 feet I am out before you even realize I was in (it is a superpower adaptation I have acquired over many years of being petrified of fish). 
So back to scuba… If there is one thing I cant say no to it is a good deal, and it was definitely the amount of money I would be saving on this scuba camp that blinded me to the reality of what scuba diving actually is (now the fiscally minded readers are no doubt realizing that if I didn’t do the scuba camp I would have saved even more money… but that is not how blonde Californian brains work). Anyways, we were extremely lucky because the wonderful people at The Dive Academy gave us an amazing peace corps deal, cooked for us, and let us camp there! Diane, Paul, and Amy were all AMAZING. We worked very hard, and played very hard as well (without alcohol of course). Now in my attempt to keep myself from having a panic attack I did not let anyone know how freaked out I was about the whole scuba thing. I mean everyone knew I was afraid of fish, but nobody knew that was all I could think of the whole 5 days I was there. Those of you that know me know that an extremely tired or preoccupied Amanda equals a very blonde Amanda. Usually I can suppress the blondeness, but at scuba camp I WAS BAD. At one point we were talking about hair color and I said “ I died my hair dark and people definitely took me more seriously-er” oh and lets not forget the instructors joking about the fact that for every skill activity we had to do “Amanda just needed to get her "blonde try" out of the way and then she did everything perfectly”. Anyways, all joking aside, we had a really fun week and we learned a lot. I happen to love scuba diving now. I mean, you wont see me purposely swimming close to fish or anything, but we now have a mutual understanding. 
In fact, we all stayed the last day to do an extra dive. We went to a shipwreck that was out pretty far. Unfortunately there was a mini storm, and it got super choppy out there. Almost everyone on the boat got sick. I however, thanks to my strong sea legs, did not. I guess my parents putting me under the dashboard of the boat during naptime when I was an infant was a good thing J Anyways, underwater everyone was fine, but there were really strong surges. Now this made our instructor very nervous because visibility was low, and we were so close to a shipwreck... apparently not being able to control where your body is near hard objects can be a problem. Who knew? Of course I loved it. One minute I would be in one spot and two seconds later I was ten feet to the left, and four seconds later I was ten feet to the right. Also, the sandy bottom looked like a desert in a windstorm with little seaweed tumbleweeds. awesome. Anyways, after this dive we all decided we were pros and started a dive club named Scuba Corps. Right now we have four members… Ellen “attitude” parkhurst, Hillary “muscle” Smith, Kali “underwater blonde” Hethorn, and Amanda “Daryl” Appel. (nicknames courtesy of Paul Williamson from The Dive Academy). Apparently Ellen has attitude, Hillary walks like a body builder, Kali thought the whistle on our bouyency control devices worked underwater, and I look like Daryl Hannah from Splash. Oh and all four members of Scuba Corps will be returning to Las Galeras to get our advanced certification in may so that we can participate in reef checks and scientific dives.

Moral of the story:

Just because you are scared to death of something doesn’t mean you cant continue to be afraid a little bit closer. Also, if you want to get NAUI certified go to The Dive Academy in Las Galeras. You will be soooo happy! http://www.diveacademy.org/ or http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Dive-Academy/

PHOTO TIMMMEEEE!!!!

founding members of scuba corps. (Left to right: underwater blonde, muscle, daryl, attitude)

beach day.

Playita

gearing up

coco rehydration

we did all of our skills here instead of a pool :)

Left to right: Kali, Ellen, Hillary, Me, Tori

duck faces (left to right: Kali, Ellen, Hillary, Me, Tori)

Practicing our new skills

First all girls scuba camp!

Me (or daryl) being one with the fishies!

Laisha making me a yummy dinner before I left.

I found these two lizzards doing "yoga" on my yoga mat when I got home. Ew. 

until next time... 

Work Hard. Play Hard.

Ok so some of you have been asking me what exactly I do for work… I don’t write a lot about work in my blog posts because as of right now it hasn’t really changed too much, and therefore my posts would be very repetitive. However, I will dedicate this entire post to enlightening y’all about what exactly I do here down in the Caribbean.

My Job Description:

I am a Community Health Extensionist working in the Healthy Communities sector. This was the job description given to me when I started…

Goal 1: Low-Income youth and young adults (18-24 years) living in rural communities will make healthy decisions in their sexual lives

* Objective 1.1- Youth will be trained promoters to lead youth groups in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (HIV) and adolescent pregnancy as peer educators

* Objective 1.2- Rural youth will have received basic orientation in the prevention of STIs and unwanted adolescent pregnancy

Goal 2: Low-income mothers living in rural communities will adopt improved health practicies

*Objective 2.1- Community members will be trained as rural health promoters

*Objective 2.2- Rural mothers will have received instruction that will assist them in improving their health and the health of their families

*Objective 2.3- Families who have participated in the family nutrition program will establish a family-scale food production unit

Goal 3: Low-income mothers living in rural communities will adopt improved reproductive health practices

*Objective 3.1- Community members will be trained as reproductive health promoters

* Objective 3.2- Rural mothers will receive instruction that will assist them in improving their reproductive health knowledge and practice

What does this mean???

The two main health iniciatives in the Dominican Republic are Hogares Saludables (Healthy Homes) and Escojo Mi Vida (I choose my life). Health volunteers are also allowed to do anything they feel their community needs (more education courses, building latrines, water filters, stoves etc.).

Hogares Saludables is an educational course to inform women in rural communities about healthy practices (maternal health, child health, family health, nutrition, reproductive health, mental health etc.). We also train women to be local health promoters.

Escojo Mi Vida is a course for teenagers, and it concentrates on reproductive health, STIs and HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, and how to make good decisions. We also train teenagers to be peer educators.

What am I ACTUALLY doing???

In my rural community I have started an Escojo Mi Vida group, a nutrition course, and I am working with an existing Hogares Saludables group.

1.     Escojo Mi Vida- We are currently doing the coursework for Escojo Mi Vida because the group was just formed. This means that once a week we meet for 1-2 hours and I teach the teenagers about reproductive health. Once we are finished with the course I will train a few of the students to be peer educators, and we will then start new Escojo Mi Vida groups in neighboring campos. We also have regional and national conferences for the group members.

Example of an Escojo charla.

example of an escojo charla

example of an escojo charla

example of my beautiful drawings... i draw penises and vaginas all day.

My escojo boys preparing a "drama" to teach the girls about teen pregnancy

the escojo girls preparing a drama to teach the boys about teen pregnancy

the escojo boys explaining to the girls why dominican teens end up with unwanted pregnancies (social/familial pressures etc.)

2.     Nutrition Course- I started a nutrition course in order to get to know some of the women in my community a little better.  We meet once a week for 1-2 hours and I teach them about nutrition. When we are done with the classroom portion we then go and cook a healthy meal together. The women LOVE this. We decide the week before what we are making so that each woman can bring one of the ingredients.

Cooking with lots of hojas verdes!

Reviewing the activity I just had the women do to help them learn about vitamins and minerals

My nutrition group

Locrio with hojas verdes. I try to choose foods that are similar to the food they eat on a daily basis and spice them up by adding lots of veggies!

Enjoying the yummy/healthy food they just made!

3.     Hogares Saludables- There is a group of women who have already completed the Hogares Saludables course with another volunteer who lives a few campos over. Therefore they are in the “house visits” phase. This means that they have all learned the information in the course and are now going around in the community house to house. They talk to the women of each house about specific health themes, and when they feel that the woman of the house knows how to run a “healthy home” we certify the house and give them a sticker. I have taken over this group for the other volunteer so I go on all the house visits with them. We also have regional and national conferences for the group members.

We have our hogares group in the clinic because it is an empty building (it is not functioning/doesnt have any equipment)

My project partner (left) and some of the women from my community at a Hogares Saludables Regional conference.

4.     I am also currently working on an application for a big PEPFAR grant. The money will go towards starting 10 new Hogares Saludables groups and 10 new Escojo Mi Vida groups in my area. (I just turned in the application... YIPPEEE)

5.     I would like to integrate the Escojo Mi Vida curriculum into the local high schools because they do not have a very thorough health curriculum. I am thinking about doing one class every week for two grades at a time (so each student would see me every other week). I am still negotiating with the director of the school in my area, and once I get approval I will either include the program on my current grant application or do a completely different grant application.

6.     While doing my community diagnostic (it ended up being 20 pages in Spanish…. Yikes) I noticed that my community has a really big problem with hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. I am thinking that for my thesis project I will do an integrated nutrition and exercise course. I want to set the course up as a competition (like The Biggest Loser) and during the course I will monitor fasting blood sugar levels, blood pressure, weight, and body fat. I also plan on helping each participant to start an organic vegetable garden in their yard (availability of vegetables is an issue here).

That is all I have planned so far, but I am sure more projects will pop up down the road J

This is my friend Estrella. I was helping her get ready for her Model UN competition in Puerto Plata. I taught her the few Swahili phrases I remembered so she could use them in her intro, and helped her prepare. She won! and now she gets to go to the capital to compete!