Tropical DepressionTomas in the time of Cholera

First a few photos of what we've been doing. I promise more photos later.

I’m writing this from a hotel in Santo Domingo. Peace Corps, fearing the current swirling tropical depression in the Caribbean will open up a can of hurricane on the DR, has ordered all the volunteers in the south of the country to congregate in hotels in various big cities. Basically they want us all in a few key spots in case they decide to evacuate is. I’m closest to the capitol, so I’m here. The staff is painfully slow at handing out our room keys; I’ve been waiting almost two hours. It’s just another Peace Corps moment, sitting on the floor in the lobby of a hotel that charges $10 a day just for internet access (my house rent in comparison is $15 a month). We will be stuck in the hotel here until the storm goes away. At this point it looks like we will be here until the coming weekend. Although I miss my site, I’m not complaining. I’m only a 20 minute walk away from the Peace Corps office where I can find free internet. The hotel has a fabulous restaurant where we get all the food we can eat three times a day. And no, they don’t even serve boiled green bananas. They do have made-to-order omelets, lots of fresh fruit, yummy chocolate-brownie ice cream, and fresh bread with real butter (the kind that actually requires refrigeration). I’m now sitting outside under a warm hurricane-gray sky beside palm trees and a huge, blue pool. Yes, I’m in Peace Corps.

Last week we were also ordered to appear in the capitol for cholera training. Given the cholera epidemic in Haiti, it’s pretty much guaranteed that cholera will spread throughout the DR. The DR’s water supply system is almost identical to that of Haiti’s. The majority of rural people’s water supply comes from untreated (as in un-chlorinated) aqueducts or rivers. And all the country’s sewers (aside of properly built pit or composting latrines) run directly into the Atlantic, the Caribbean, or underground aquifers. We can only hope that it’s not a bad epidemic. Well hope, and then also train people how to minimize cholera transmission. It’s been decades since this country has seen cholera and the public doesn’t know what it is or how to deal with it. Many call it “the Haitian disease” and volunteers living near the border report seeing Dominicans refusing to get on buses with Haitians. So our current job is to teach our communities that it’s a bacteria that’s only spread when fecal-contaminated food, fingers, or water enter one’s mouth. Symptoms are explosive diarrhea and vomiting and can kill (from dehydration) a child in a few hours and an adult in a day. Treatment is as simple as taking lots of re-hydration solutions along with an antibiotic. With proper treatment less than one percent of infected people die, but if you don’t know what to do , you most likely die.

So we’ve been in our site over five months. I know I’ve posted about a lot of different things going on here but you may be wondering by now what it is that we actually work. For starters Peace Corps usually doesn’t expect that volunteers do that many projects in their first three months. This time is mostly devoted to getting to know the community, identifying their needs, and developing project plans. Our communities demonstrated a need for help with constructing latrines and improved cook stoves. The improved cook stoves use less wood than traditional stoves (which are essentially open fires) and just as importantly feature chimneys so that the women, who spend a big part of their day in the kitchen, are not constantly breathing in smoke. So we are currently waiting for grant money for both of those projects. I am also filling out another grant to help with the latrine project. This grant gets filled through private donors (like you) visiting the Peace Corps website and donating funds. Once Peace Corps gets the information online I’ll post the link here in case you are interested in monetarily supporting the project.

Between the two of us we also have three Brigade Verde (Green Brigade) youth groups. Basically we meet weekly with the groups and give environmentally themed presentations. The basic idea is to train these kids to be environmentally responsible. Two weeks ago a foundation Juventud Naturaleza (Nature Youth) brought a bunch of people out from Ocoa to participate in a tree-planting project in my community. They invited me and I invited my Brigada Verde group. My kids loved it. In the course of a Sunday morning everyone together planted about 3,000 pine trees. I hope to be able to use the foundation to organize similar projects that my Brigade Verde kids can participate in.

We have also had meetings about dealing with trash in our communities. There is no trash pickup so most people just throw their trash in the gutter or over a bank. Most of it soon winds up out of sight in the weeds giving the feeling it’s gone away. But when their great-grandchildren come along the trash will still be there. So working alongside a few more forward-thinking people in our communities we are trying to find a few strategic plots of land where we can dig a hole and place the trash. Basically it would be a micro-landfill. That’s the dream, but so far no one has been willing to put up the land. If we can find land, then we still have to convince the majority of the people that it’s worth their time putting their trash into sacks or cans and bringing it to the dump spot. It will be a patience-challenging project.

We are also currently trying to organize a reforestation project with the farmers. The DR government provides free hardwood and timber trees in various nurseries located around the country. Basically farmers request the amount of trees they want and we visit the nursery and make sure the trees are available and bug the mayor to provide the trucks to transport the trees. The last month the nurseries have been giving me the run-around. The local nursery told me that I have to go to Ocoa, the province capitol, where the director has her office. After a rather long and frustrating meeting with her she told me that I have to go back and talk to my local nursery. You would think that a government-funded nursery would be more than happy to find someone who wants to work in reforestation. While the nursery leaders say they want to work with me, it’s becoming increasingly clear that their lack of clarity and participation is going to make the project twice as hard as I had first imagined.

I also give English class once a week. It’s been progressing quite slowly because we really only have class half the time since it either rains a lot or I have to leave for the capitol to do things like attend cholera training or hole up in a posh hotel waiting out a hurricane. It doesn’t help that hardly any of the students actually study outside of class either. But it’s fun. It’s really mostly an excuse to have a good time.

So that’s a summary of our current projects. Well Peace Corps officials are here to give us hurricane updates. And then maybe I’ll spend the afternoon basking in the sun and swimming in the pool. Wish me luck.