Daniel Wendt, Peace Corps Blog, Dominican Republic

I took the GRE and I didn’t die. In fact, it looks like I...

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:39:00 -0400

I took the GRE and I didn’t die. In fact, it looks like I am quite capable of going to to graduate school. I am glad that it is over and that I can start looking at programs for fall 2014. Who knows, maybe I will find some financial help. A special thanks to Barbara, who practically had to force me to sign up for a test date and put up with my anxiety all the while.

To celebrate our victorious conquest against the GRE, Barbara and I went out for sangrias and a make-shift bachelorette party for Christina who left for the US the following morning. We played mad-libs, retired some bottles of wine, ate falafels and a good time was had by all.

Next, Jason, Kayla and Barbara came to my village for a campo-vacation we drank honey mead, took naps on the porch, hiked to the river for a dip, and went out to see a local merenguero (meringue artist). We danced meringue/bachata, had our share of Presidente beers and devoured $1.25 chimis (hamburgers) that were slathered in processed squeezy-cheese. It was great.

Sadly, my friends had to depart. Kayla and Jason are heading to Iowa after two years without visiting the US. They have been model volunteers and I am proud to have served with them and learned from their example.

As you can see, I am too infatuated with the styles i n the DR. Here is my mohawk that when coupled with a mustache-less beard, is called the victorino. It is all over the DR and was made popular by you guessed it… a telenovela (soap opera) that I have never seen. Fear not cousin Erin, I have already gotten rid of it and I will have a professional haircut for when I officiate your wedding at the end of May.

Finally, ever wonder how a cement roof is made? It starts with a wooden mold. We are advancing and I am trying to get all of the materials ready so that they can pour the roof while I am in the US for a few weeks. AMERICA!

We have been working HARD. My house is a mess, I haven’t...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:23:53 -0400

We have been working HARD. My house is a mess, I haven’t had time to do laundry, I am burnt up, I haven’t worked out because, ‘my everything hurts’ and It feels good to have the walls up.

This is my JOB. Environmental Education, Youth Leadership...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:18:00 -0400

This is my JOB.

Environmental Education, Youth Leadership Development and HIV/AIDS prevention wrapped up into one conference with 60 participants over 4 days.

I bought a mask, snorkel, fins and diving boots from a volunteer for $50 and took a dip today. Although I am panicking about taking the GRE on May 2… life is great right now.

The two boys that I brought to the environmental education conference are brothers and they have been busting their butts working on the community center. Travelling farther than they every have, meeting new people and swimming at the beach is their reward for being so great.

Go Bucks! Thanks Central Ohio Returned Peace Corps Volunteers...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:07:22 -0400

Go Bucks!

Thanks Central Ohio Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Association for donating to our community center!

http://corvapc.org/

Peace Corps at Ohio State University:

http://www.facebook.com/OSUPeaceCorps?fref=ts

A hell of a lot of sun burns, swear words, my neighbor’s...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:45:00 -0400

A hell of a lot of sun burns, swear words, my neighbor’s home-made sweet potato ice cream, jokes, disagreements, hard work, begging, borrowing, water carrying and laughs later… we have a 1/2 building and a way to go.

Note that Juan-Andrea (aka abuelo, my 90 year old neighbor) is making sure that the blocks are level with my mason Marcoris. He is the man.

Dominican kids invent to coolest toys. Yeron and his step...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:44:00 -0400

Dominican kids invent to coolest toys. Yeron and his step brother, chiquitin (chiqui-teen), took a handle off of an old cabinet and fastened it to a stick with twine. Next they put a match head in the back of the cabinet handle and then insert a nail into the metal tube. Slamming the contraption down results in an alarmingly loud POP!

To the displeasure of their mother, I promptly gave these boys an entire box of matches. As I write this I am realizing how irresponsible that would be in the US.

The sound quality of the video doesn’t do it justice. It sounds like a gunshot.

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday our neighborhood association...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:42:00 -0400

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday our neighborhood association made “Domplin” (Dumpling) Soup to raise money for our skilled laborers who have been helping us out with the community center. Domplin consists of making a bunch of dough and then rolling it into small balls before tossing them into the boiling water with celery, tomato paste, peppers, onions, fish, hot sauce and cilantro. It really is a nice, filling soup. I tried to find a recipe online to do it justice, but you just have to see it. http://www.caribbeanchoice.com/recipes/recipe.asp?recipe=394

You can see how many people we have throwing dough into the caldron. 12 pounds of flour is a lot and it took us some time.

We divided up into about 5 locations over 3 miles and my neighborhood kids helped make signs. It is a tradition that people go to the river on holidays and it is a fact that swimming makes you hungry. We made sure to take advantage of this information and sold out!

Also continued is games that Dominican kids play. For those of you that have been to the developing world, it will be no shock to see kids pushing an old bicycle tire with a stick.

Pictured is a home-made bow and arrow that Enyen (pronounced engine) made from scrap metal, rubber bands and an old antenna. He swears that he has killed an entire pile of birds with it. But let’s be honest, he’s a bultero!

Next you will see the MATCH POPPER! Which my kids actually call match thrower… or phosphorus thrower… anyway it is described in the video above. Enjoy.

Dominican boys are crazy, but look at how nice my neighbor girl is here sitting under the tree on a piece of cardboard studying social sciences while her brothers raise hell.

Games that Dominican kids play continued. This is a stick ball...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 08:02:25 -0400

Games that Dominican kids play continued.

This is a stick ball / handball / horseshoes hybrid where each team has two people who are at opposite bases. In this case the bases are flattened coffee cans. One team pitches with the intent to knock down the can. If they succeed it is their turn to bat. If the ball is hit, then the team on offense runs to the center of the court and counts how many times they can spin in a circle and return to their coffee can (scoring points for each revolution) before the defensive them knocks it over with a well aimed throw.

I woke up to rain at 5 am and worried that we were not going to...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:35:29 -0400

I woke up to rain at 5 am and worried that we were not going to be able to pour the footer of the community center today. Holy Thursday was the perfect day because not many of my neighbors had to work. The rain was serendipitous because it stopped at 7 am, I collected a tank of water for washing clothes, we got to work under some nice cloud cover and the sand needed less water. I hardly make it to 2 pm working in the heat so the overcast was much appreciated.
5 of my neighbor ladies got together from the community and made la bandera dominicana (The Dominican Flag) which consists of rice, beans and meat for twenty workers. They also kept the coffee flowing which was nice.
Monday we are going to start with the first rows of cinder blocks. Finally we are making some progress. To all of the people who donated to this project via the Peace Corps website (www.peacecorps.gov), THANK YOU for helping make our community center a reality!

Construction Continues. Here we are mounting the re-bar columns...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:55:00 -0400

Construction Continues.

Here we are mounting the re-bar columns and supports for the footer. Although we stopped at 1pm, it was a long hard day of lifting, twisting, cutting and pulling.

We got water delivered and tomorrow we are going to pour the footer.

Sun burnt and tired, I am going to bathe and go get my hair cut. It is semana santa (Holy Week) after all.

Failure.

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 07:35:00 -0400

Today my host dad and I carried PVC tubes for 1/2 a mile and made multiple trips. For 8 hours we burned empty cement bags, partially melted the tubes and inserted a stake so that they would fit together. We bought gasoline and carried a pump down into a ravine so that we would have water to mix 60 bags of cement for the community center. I got blisters on my hands, sunburned, poked by thorns, cutunder the eye, dehydrated and exhausted. Then the incline was too steep to send the water up. In a moment of complete failure and homesickness I told my host dad that in my country I would just turn on the spigot. He looked at me smiled and said, Danny that’s just how shit is here. I laughed and then several 5-8 year old boys helped me carry some of the little tubes back. Although I was dead on my feet I carried 3 of them up hill joking about how much they weighed saying that I was going to make a fortune selling them by the pound like cows. They ran off into the meadow and were happy to have helped their Americano. Sometimes a failure leads to a good ending.

Update: My host brother is a mechanic so we downloaded the manual, unscrewed a lock to release the throttle a bit and managed to send about 1,000 gallons up an even steeper incline. Win.

Photo

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:13:56 -0400

CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES! Here we are cutting and bending REBAR....

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:58:00 -0400

CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES!

Here we are cutting and bending REBAR. You can see that the money that ya’ll donated is going to a good cause and soon we will have a library and real community center with electricity!

So what is happening here? Well take a look at my hand… It might not look that bad but let me assure you that cutting hundreds of pieces of rebar by hand takes its toll. I have a college degree, I manage the finances and logistics, I have hardly any comparable construction experience, Dominicans don’t expect me to work because I am educated and moderately useless, but I still I find myself compelled to pretend that I can work in 95 degree tropical sun like Dominicans. I can’t. I do however push myself because it lends me a ton of respect among my neighbors. Thus, I have been hydrating ever since and peeing florescent orange. Seriously, I cut one piece, lift one block and I am drenched in sweat. This happens when I exercise too. It is great if you are trying to slim down, not so great if you don’t like dehydration headaches.

In the last picture you will see my 90 year old neighbor Juan Andrea (abuelo) supervising. I literally can do no wrong in his eyes.

Closing note: it just started raining for the first time in almost 90 days. The water here comes out of the spigot every 8 – 16 days so water is always scarce. I am celebrating because this week I won’t have to decide between doing my laundry and washing my nalga.

A while back I posted about the games that Dominican children...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:53:00 -0400

A while back I posted about the games that Dominican children play and I said that I would follow up with some other examples. Today I looked up and saw a kite so, so very high!

Take a look at these photos! These kids made a kite out of trash bag and sent it WAY UP THERE! It is amazing what growing up without a lot of electricity does to the imagination.

Also pictured is my host dad, ‘TOBAO, tying two girls’ ponytails together. What a goof?

Here is the best 9 second video that I have ever been a part of....

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:07:00 -0400

Here is the best 9 second video that I have ever been a part of. Watch my buddy Scott nearly complete a double back flip during our Peace Corps Close Of Service weekend get-away to Playa Esmeralda.

Unfortunately it has not yet made its way to YOUTUBE so you can’t see it if you are not my FACEBOOK friend (and are not currently logged-in)… surely you are my friend… it just isn’t FACEBOOK official yet.

Varilla (Rebar). Yes that. In this country it gets cut, bent and...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:24:00 -0400

Varilla (Rebar). Yes that. In this country it gets cut, bent and wired together by hand. In the last few days I have learned a lot about making columns, footers, crabs and arcs out of rebar.

Last weekend about 20 people from my Peace Corps swear-in group...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:04:00 -0400

Last weekend about 20 people from my Peace Corps swear-in group went to Miches and Playa Esmerald for a few days of rest and relaxation at THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH I HAVE EVER SEEN. Honestly, I am not much of a beach person. I have lived on a tropical island for 2 years and have only been to the beach a handful of times, but the natural beauty and isolation of Playa Esmeralda are a forces to be reckoned with.

A Peace Corps Volunteer who lives in the same province claims that anytime she has taken a motorcycle to this beach, someone has wrecked, fallen off the bike, burnt themselves on the muffler or experienced some other sort of misfortune. I now understand why this beauty hasn’t been developed. To ameliorate the danger we contracted a flatbed truck with seats to take us there for the day. Being the PCVs that we are, we kept the drivers there too late and they drove like crazy down this road to teach us a lesson.

Besides feeling like I had received several floggings after the ride back, I lost my polarized sunglasses which were perfect for spotting fish or river crabs under the water. These were a gift from my brother so not all casualties were mitigated during this adventure. :( I guess it is 2 dollar pirated RAYBAN sunglasses from here on out.

The beach is isolated. We must have driven 10 miles on gravel, pot holes and sinks of the like. We arrived and hiked our coolers, rice-n-bean-bagged-lunches, sunscreen and other miscellaneous provisions to a point about a half mile down the beach. It was isolated to say the least and we had the entire place to ourselves. Fortunately someone thought to bring 10 gallons of water cooler jugs to ensure proper hydration (cough).

So look at the pictures and how happy these volunteers are to be completing 2 years of service in such a lovely place. During the day we played bucking broncos which consisted of someone sitting on a coconut tree and two broncos shaking the tree until the person fell into the water. We also attempted flipping everyone who came no matter their stature. I figure that I helped throw someone at least 60 times and I am still sore. See the video above.

As a side note, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and his wife were staying at the same place as us and visiting his old stomping grounds 35 years later. He and his wife came along. They also flipped and were a blast to hang out with! Thanks for the great time Jim and Jane!

Everyone in the village is poor by American standards but this...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 06:21:00 -0500

Everyone in the village is poor by American standards but this boy in the first picture is especially poor. Deworming medication is free and sometimes his little belly is just full of parasites because no one will take him up to the clinic until it gets bad. A swift remedy for repeated infection would be shoes but both of his parents are losers (meaning they have the means to care for their children but don’t) and his poor grandma does her best with him and his two half-brothers. They probably wouldn’t have food if it weren’t for his neighbors Tanya and Guadalupe. Tanya feeds anyone who comes by and Guadalupe assures me that, “you can’t complain if you have food.”

His name is Jonas and I love to watch him color. He hardly puts crayon to paper but he loves it so much! Even before he could really speak I knew that he was threatened by adults. Grown-ups would speak to him and he wouldn’t respond. I thought that maybe he didn’t have the ability to talk until I caught him and his brother laughing and yelling at each other while they picked my unripe watermelons one day. I love my watermelons but I didn’t say anything. Discipline is done with a switch and he could use a break.

Jonas has a unique voice and it is very endearing. I love him and his brothers. He is going to have a hard life and there isn’t much that I can do about it. So we color, I throw him into the air, I give him a hug and we hope for the best.

Community Center CONSTRUCTION BEGINS! Thank you to all of the...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:57:11 -0500

Community Center CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

Thank you to all of the faithful community center donors and supporters! After more than 6 months of fundraising, planning, negotiating a land donation, begging the mayor’s office for free sand and organizing our work crew we finally broke ground!

Today ~20 people showed up to mark and dig the footer which is nearly complete. The sun got too high and everyone (including me) wanted their rice and beans so we broke until next Saturday.

More photos to come.

Es pa’ lante que vamos. (We are moving ahead. Dominican saying.)

Here are 6 minutes and 30 seconds of a march through the main...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:07:14 -0500

Here are 6 minutes and 30 seconds of a march through the main drag in my village. We were transporting the santo (Saint? Catholic tabernacle?) back to a neighbor’s house. If you stick it out you can see the great view of Santo Domingo once we get to the top of the hill.