Escojo Intercambio!

What is an intercambio you ask???? great question and it could mean a few things in this culture (including a secret santa exchange), but I am currently referring to a union of the forces! The Escojo groups from Loma Verde, Casique and El Ramon all came to exchange charlas, laughs, ideas and phone numbers with Escojo Duveaux on Saturday, June 13th. We hosted about 50 Dominican teenagers for the morning and taught each other about Discrimination, Teenage pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Gender Inequality. Wild, I know. That wasn't all.... there were socio-dramas, snacks, music, lunch and the beach! What a day! Now, this is no small task to throw one of these gatherings together and it came with a price, but in the end it was all worth while. I returned from the day feeling proud of my kids and that I had a hand in making this happen for them. Escojo is a Peace Corps initiative and has over the years developed quite an extensive network of groups in the country. We try to go intercambios with other groups so the kids can feel supported and that they are part of something bigger.
Wouldn't it be great if the explanation of this blog ended there? Its never a dull moment in the Peace Corps, so here you go.... on the way to do the "compra" Odi Luis (Escojo Vice President and my right hand man) and I got in a motorcycle accident. Going down a hill we crashed into another motorcycle that was parked, king of the hill, smack in the middle, ogling at a turned over truck. I ever so elegantly got up close and personal with the pavement. I took a seat, got a first hand biology lesson on the patella and sent other Escojo kids with 6,000 pesos ($204) to the grocery store to get saturday's lunch. We went our separate ways (me to Clinica Abreau and the kids to take care of business) and reunited 2 days, a handful of phone calls, a splint, torn tendon, local Anesthesia and 5 stitches later.
The prep work for the event had been long underway, but my kids worked their ass off to get the cooks cooking, the space decorated and all was a go! If anyone out there needs an event planner who speaks Spanish, let me know! All things considered, they did a good job. This was their first major event organizing things on their own and I would say they succeeded. I won't go into the details, but of course there were a few things that were left to dry and it wasn't as picturesque as this blog may lead one to believe, but nonetheless, Escojo Duveaux pulled it off. They did not short themselves in celebrating either..... chisme (gossip) travels fast and I later found out, leftovers, cookies and spaghetti dinner at my vacant home complimented their evening! This situation may remind you of your kids throwing a house party while you are out of town. It rings a bell for me! Kids will be kids whether they are in the U.S. or the Dominican Republic!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

so, it is a little late and I couldn't give this to you in person, but I am thinking about you. I love you Dad. Happy belated birthday.

Sala goes on!

Sala de Tarea has moved to my front yard! It is kind of a long story, but I will try to keep this breif. Basically, the elementary school is under construction and the school got moved to various spots throughout the community. Thus, the women's center my Sala de Tarea was formerly meeting in twice a week is being occupied by the 8th grade every morning. My Sala de Tarea kids got the boot! We picked up shop and moved to my front yard. I have company when I drink my coffee in the morning now!

Money, Money, Money, Money!

My Escojo kids did what's called a peaje last sunday morning and we raised 1,400 pesos (about $50)! They wanted formal I.D. cards to represent themselves as members of Escojo! They earned it and I was proud!

Mango Mama!

Tis' the season for Mangoes! My mata (tree) is droppin' mangoes like there's no tomorrow! I am starting to invent things to make with mangoes... mango cobbler anyone? They are delish and what would life in the Caribbean be like without a mango tree in your back yard? I don't even want to imagine. So, life is good.

Escojo Regional Conference

Escojo kids go to their first regional conference! We had a blast! Odi, Cholo and Anabel got to meet with Escojo groups all over the Southern Region of the D.R., hangout, dance, listen to charlas and feel part of the Escojo force! They are amped up and we are on a charla roll! We did a peaje recently and raised 1,400 pesos (40 dollars!) wahoo!

Woman makes Fire!

Fire! Fire on the mountain!
When the electricity goes out and the gas tank is empty, whatcha gonna do? Make a fire! And I now know how. I am sure I was taught somewhere along the road, like at girl scouts or something like that, but at the time my belly wasn't empty. This time around, I was starving! So, Julia and I lit the fogon!

My name is Helen

And I am the cutest kid in the world!

Julia!

We immitate Dominicans all the time and Julia took it upon herself to immitate some of the gringos walkin' around the campo. I had a blast doing this photo shoot!

Hot Shower!!!???

So this is a new luxury that has recently come into my life, thanks Mom! Yes, I am pretty spoiled here in the D.R. Now, it says Summer Shower, but it is summer on this island year round so you better believe I am not waiting til June 21st to use this and nor am I calling it a day come September 21st! This thing makes a world of difference in terms of my bathing. After showering, I feel like a new woman! No, I am not doing promotions for “Summer Shower”, but I would be happy to if they wanted to set my community up with water! Usually a shower involves pouring buckets of rain water over my head, but this new addition to my life is definitely kicking the bucket to the curb!

Escojo Graduates!

My first Escojo group graduated March 15th! I was so proud of them! They all said something they learned from Escojo and something they liked from the course. I was impressed! They are my first Escojo students and will be Escojo teachers for more teenagers in the community! Here are the graduates..... Chito (26 - this is his first diploma for anything), Odi Luis Made (17-Vice President of the group), Juan Brujan(18 - President of Escojo and has a 7th grade education), Ariel Rojas (16), Javier Made (19 - now wants to be a photographer!), Anabel Rodriguez (16 - will be attending the Escojo Regional conference at the end of April), Janna Maria Lugo (12 - youngest member of Escojo), Julia de los Santo Vallejo (14 - my best friend in the campo and most eager to learn of the bunch!), Soranye (19- mother of Marco and will be graduating from the 8th grade this May), Barbara (16)

Only in the D.R.!

As you all know, I go develop photos all the time for my Escojo kids and our photography habit. This is a picture of the place I go to. Yes, there is a Chinatown in the D.R. and of course they call the boss, China! Although extremely un-P.C. in the over hyper U.S., this nickname is accepted here. I just got a kick out of how the photo place I go to about every week also sells toilet paper! What a place.... develop photos for 7 pesos a photo and get 8 rolls of toilet paper for 135 pesos! Only in the D.R.

Duveuax's Photo Debut!

Go Escojo!!

Success!!
This past Saturday, March 7th, my Escojo group made me proud. They were up and at em’ early Saturday morning to get chairs in place, balloons blown up and snacks sliced for our big debut. We celebrated International Women’s Day with photography, a play, poetry and a song. My kids also educated the community about gender equality.
We kicked things off with a women’s rights song sang by the one and only former host mom, Melania! I didn’t understand much of it, but I did make out that if women don’t stand up for themselves, men will treat them like a tree stump (or something of the sort). She was a real crowd pleaser. Anabel and Julia explained the difference between sex and gender and then the drama. And oh, what a drama it was. The skit was basically about two families (one where gender equality was present in the household and one that was living under a machista father) The ending was slightly vague and it didn’t turn out exactly as we practiced, but I was proud of my kids because they put it together, practiced and the show had a moral to the story.
We also had the 1st ever (that I know of) photo gallery in Duveaux! It was awesome to have my kid]s photos up! They had taken pictures of people doing activities that contradict stereotypical gender roles in Dominican culture to demonstrate how our lives should not be limited to the gender roles we are placed in because of society’s influence.
They also took pictures of women who were important to them or the community and wrote about why. It was an amazing afternoon really, to have Dominican teenagers all gathered around to celebrate International Women’s Day, look at photos and perform.

This is a picture of a meeting we had to elect the president of the Junta de Vecinos. It was a total riot voting for people in the community to be electoral candidates of an organization solely based on their character. None of the candidates said anything prior to the vote. We all just raised our hands based on former knowledge. Everyone in the community essentially knows one another whether they want to or not because they have lived here their entire lives. I suppose 30 or so years watching someone’s life speaks louder than any 5 minute speech!

International Women's Day!

Mujeres!

The women of Duveaux made quite a presence March 8th, 2009 in the Dominican Republic. We marched screaming phrases like….. Mujer Lucha, Familia Crece (Women fight, while families grow); Mujeres de Duveaux, pongamos en acción para que cambiemos nuestra situación (Women from Duveaux, put us in action so we can change our situation.) The phrases have a lot more umph in Spanish!
It was pretty exhilarating marching together with these Dominican mothers to celebrate Women’s Day in such a machista society. I was pretty empowered to say the least. Now, this is not to say that all the piropos (catcalls) have stopped or that my conversations with men are no longer limited to why I don’t have a boyfriend or what kind of men I like (dark skinned or light skinned), because something tells me this will be the case while I am living in this country, but regardless, this day was great. I was happy to feel included and partly responsible for an important event that promoted female empowerment in this country or at least in the community of Duveaux. We marched throughout the community and ended up in the Local – the Women’s center. Milanda and Nilcia performed a skit, Melania, Milagros and Martina sang with an audience of about 50 women and 4 men! I had fun and at the same time was supporting women in this community, which felt pretty good. I am not expecting too many male dominated marriages to change, but at least more women in Duveaux know they can hangout with other women every other Thursday, chill out, laugh and relax with their female peers. March on Mujeres de Duveaux!

Happy Birthday Marco!

Today, Marco turned 3 years old! We brought in his first day as a three year old with 3 candles on a cake, 3 balloons and a banana (they are his favorite!)

Drama, drama, drama!

Escojo Mi Vida is rehearsing for their big debut, tomorrow, March 7th! They are doing a little skit about gender roles in society! They have been working very hard and I am really excited for tomorrow! I am also exhausted, my house and yard has become the stage where they practice every night! Stay tuned for the pictures that we are featuring in the photo gallery tomorrow.

Mama y Madrina come to the campo

A day in the life…… Mom and Auntie Eileen came to visit the small, Dominican campo of Duveaux, San Cristobal and I think they got a pretty accurate look at my life in the D.R. All my neighbors, community members, anyone and everyone really were all wide-eyed and honored to meet and greet. We schlepped all around the campo because everyone wanted to see, watch and sit with my mom and “Aunt.” My Mom and Eileen patiently sat in plastic chairs while campesinos just stared. Eileen brought letters from Fairhaven High to Duveaux and all my Escojo kids anxiously selected their future husbands and wives! We are attempting a cross-cultural/ pen pal relationship between middle school and high school students of Duveaux and Fairhaven High. The idea is that they can ask each other questions and learn about one another’s cultures. My Escojo kids however only see romantic potential! They devotedly chose their match and began writing. They also wanted photos to accompany these pictures; so of course, we went through the thousands of pictures of them on my computer and chose the perfect one. We also talked at length about how their new found romances will receive these pictures electronically. (Many of them have not been on the internet before) Some asked for their email addresses, but I told them that they, themselves needed an email address to send an email! I suppose I would be asking the same questions had I not gone through adolescence while technology too was simultaneously hitting puberty so to speak. So, we will wait to see what unfolds, but until then, Escojo Mi Vida de Duveaux is learning to write love letters! I am not encouraging it, but it is pretty awesome to see them get so excited about writing a letter!
Back to the visit with the fam. Mixing cultures is a funny business, but oddly enough it wasn’t all that strange this time around. I may be more used to it or my community is more accustomed to peculiar behavior, but somehow I was unfased when my mom and Eileen brought out their sun hats, cheese, crackers & wine and sat down at my picnic table. Sure, they could have been in an ad for J.Crew, but somehow I think all the Dominicans surrounding them would have been airbrushed out. Regardless, all my neighbors were of course very welcoming and excited; maybe a little too much because my Mom & Eileen hit the hay long before the evening banter came to a close at the picnic table. Nonetheless, we had a great time and family is really important in Dominican culture, so my Dominicans were happy to meet more of my family and friends and I was proud to show them off. There just isn’t a better cross-cultural exchange, than real life, American family spending a sleepless (dogs barking, roosters crowing, etc.) night in the campo under a mosqiutero.

Desigualdad de Genero! (Gender Inequality)

Give a kid a carema and look what happens! I love this shot. It was for no particular assignment, so I can't take much credit, but it is fun to see my kids get creative and have the freedom to take pictures.!
Cholo (one of my Escojo members took this picture)
This is the grant I just got! I am so excited!
Rachel Gottesman ($1,500 RD): Rachel has been teaching photography to her Escojo group over the past eight weeks and they have been using it as an educational tool for sexual education and healthy decision making. Using the GAD Grant, Rachel will be planning a photography exhibit on March 8th, International Women’s Day. Members of her Escojo group will take pictures of both male and females participating in activities that contradict traditional gender roles that have been developed in the community. These photos will be displayed in a public exhibition and a presentation will accompany the exhibit regarding the meaning of gender and how it influences society. The youth will each present their photo and talk about what gender role applies to that photo in particular. Additionally, each Escojo member will take a picture of the woman they most admire in the community, present the photo and talk about why this woman is important to them. The GAD Grant will provide the funds to develop enlarged pictures for the exhibition and brindis for the activity.

Escojo Mi Vida!

My kids are learning photography! These are just a few of the kids in my Escojo group. We have completed 8 of the 12 charlas for them to graduate from the course and they are doing a great job. We went to Rancho Campeche to celebrate the half way mark and these are some portraits they took of each other. I think they speak volumes of their personalities! They are not only learning about Sexual Health, (H.I.V./ A.I.D.S, Abortion, Birth Control methods, Family Planning, Drugs, Violence, etc.) but they are learning about photography! It is so much fun to teach and the group has really taken to it. We raised about 3,000 pesos ($90) by taking pictures and selling them to people in the communtiy.

Amores Perros!

Just bein' a grandma! I am a little young to be a grandma, but asi que vamos! Life in the campo has been pretty quiet, hence the time I took to take these pictures of my "grandchildren". I have been concentrating on Escojo Mi Vida and preparing for upcoming events such as.... Mom and Eileen coming to visit!!! and Dia Internacional de Las Mujeres (International Women's Day), a sports camp in May and G.L.O.W., which is just around the corner!