5 Months 3 Days

Hola! Tis' the safra! the season to cut sugar cane that is! the pictures below are in the sugar cane spirit. The building is "la oficina" or what used to be the office for employees at the Ingenio (the sugar cane company). It was built in 1929! and since the Ingenio closed in 2006 in the closest pueblo, it serves as more of a bee hive and a playground for neighbor kids and goats. I live next door so abejas (bees) are constantly swarming, but it is a really cool building and makes me feel closer to history!
the other photo shows all the already cut sugar cane they are taking away to sell. It is pretty grueling work from what I have seen anyway. workers are in the dry, hot, heat all day, chopping down cane. unfortunately, there aren't many people in my community who are working. most of those working live in the next Batey over. this puts a big damper on our economic situation. Well, this is just a snippet of what I talked about recently in my community diagnostic presentation. I have spent the last week at our 3 month I.S.T. (In service training) with other youth volunteers. We presented our community diagnostics with our project partners to all the other youth volunteers and Peace Corps staff. For the last 3 months or so, we have been assessing the situation at our sites; talking to people, taking surveys, conducting interviews, holding focus groups, etc. all of which helped us to reach some conclusions about the situations in our individual communities. It is difficult to explain the reality of life at my site in a blog, but I will try to give you a brief outline.

What's going on in Las Pajas? (for the youth)
Lots of kids with different abilities in the same classroom in Elementary school
High school is outside the community
Universitites are an hour or so away from the community
Young adults have to travel to tourist sites for work
- becoming a transient community and education does not have a clear connection to work
So many kids are Haitian - Dominican so they don't have birth certificates (can't continue education past the 8th grade) and this weighs on them psychologically and socially
There isn't an economy because the closest Ingenio closed two years ago.

What are we going to do about it?
We are going to use our people and our resources
Bring in alternative education for those who don't have birth certificates
Start small businesses for youth
Form an Identity group for Haitian-Dominicans
Start a girls volleyball team to give the girls something to do

This is the idea anyway! We shall see!

The 3-month I.S.T. was a small but significant milestone for me. I have been in the country for 5 months and 3 days now! I have my health, my spanish is much better and I recently took in a puppy! I am also planning on moving into my own place in a few weeks! On top of that I have some direction in terms of what my projects are going to be. This has been a bit on the informative side as opposed to recreational, so I will cut things off for now.

I apologize that I didn't post any pictures with people in them. I know that written words can only keep your interest for so long and photos are always more fun with a face. The next blog I post will certainly have photos to accompany my banter!