We’re back in the mountains. We got back from Philadelphia the night of the 31st and took an early bus from Santo Domingo the following morning. Although I had an amazing time in the states it’s wonderful to be back again. Schnickelfritz had moved in with the neighbors and seemed rather confused for the first 30 minutes after I brought him back home but within the hour he was all cuddles and purrs.
Our vacation was sublime. We send a big thank-you hug to everyone who made the trip possible! We ate tons of cheese of course. A lot of days I didn’t even eat a regular meal. I just snacked on the things that I rarely get here like good cheese, apples, pretzels, grapes, and apple cider, just to name a few. We ate so well that even I, notoriously difficult that it may be, gained a few pounds. Eighteen days of catching up with friends and family and eating all the things I’d fantasized about for so many months was nothing short of a winter paradise. And to top it all off we were gifted quite a valuable pile of Clif and Luna bars. They really are the equivalent of Peace Corps gold, so thank you!
In other news, we finally found a horse. We’re still working on a name; I’ll update you on that once we get to know her better. She’s not very big and has a rather mulish-looking face but she’s super tame and has a very smooth trot. Like most Dominican campo horses she’s rather desensitized. To make her step sideways you can’t just tap one of her hindquarters, you have to give her a good shove. Also, unlike every horsey book you’ve ever read, she doesn’t want to eat treats out of your hand. So far Anna has tried sugar, a carrot, and a handful of grass but she wants nothing to do with it. She eats weeds and that’s it. It’s clear that no one has ever tried to hand-feed her before. So Anna is working her horse charms. Pictures are on the way.
One of the hens that likes to hang around our house showed up the other day with eight peeping chicks. After two of the chicks disappeared we decided we’d better cage up the hen so that the chicks are safer. I caught her and put her in a large mesh cage which allows the chicks to slip through the cage and peck around in the immediate area. When they wander too far the hen clucks them back. Often when a hen is loose she wanders around too far too fast and chicks get lost or a hawk gets one. So now they are (hopefully) safe under the mango tree. We’ll probably let the mother range free in a week or two. We feed them pancakes and cracked corn kernels while they cheep-cheep-cheep all around our house. Fritz has taken an interest in them, but so far I’ve always chased him away before he pounced. He thinks that he can attack all moving things smaller than himself.
We've finally received some grant money! We've been waiting for months for this so we're pretty ecstatic. We got a small grant to start off our latrine project while we wait for more latrine funds. We also received funds to build improved cookstoves. My community is also working on building their own landfill to properly dispose of inorganic waste and I received grant money for art supplies so that the youth of the community can help put up posters and signs that will visually educate others about this (and other) environmental projects. In other words we'll be pretty busy for awhile. I'll keep you updated.
-paz
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Community Latrine Project
So I've been talking about projects for a while now, and finally one of our grants is online. And you can help! Check out the links on the right. We are trying to do a latrine project in each of our communities. I'm just going to clarify briefly what a latrine project is. A latrine is an outdoor bathroom, often called an outhouse. Basically you dig a hole, if the soil is crumbly you may have to line the hole with rocks, and then you build a concrete pad over the excavated hole. You then construct a small box-shaped seat over a hole in the concrete floor and that's your toilet seat. Then you erect a small house over this concrete pad so that you can use the bathroom in privacy. It's quite simple really.
The people in our communities live in a very rural area. They are mostly coffee farmers and generally have an abundance of clean drinking water from underground springs and food that they produce themselves. What they are desperately short of is cash. Without cash they can't buy the concrete and tin needed to construct a safe and sanitary bathroom. I've posted a few photos of what types of bathrooms many of our neighbors use right now. Some latrines are full and need replaced. Others are a safety hazard because they are about to cave in. Others are in the beginning of the construction process and just need a funding boost to be finished. What I didn't show are the houses that have no latrines at all. It's hard to photograph what doesn't exist.
Why are latrines important?
If you don't have a bathroom to use you will go in the bushes. If you go in the bushes it's likely that some curious dog or child will stumble across this makeshift bathroom which increases the likelihood that certain diseases will be contracted and spread from person to person. This is so much more important now that cholera has spread to the Dominican Republic. Since mid-October 2010 cholera has killed over 4,000 people in Haiti and sickened more than 200,000. Cholera has now spread to the DR where more than 200 people have contracted the disease and one has died. We all fear a cholera epidemic in the DR. Cholera is a bacteria that is spread principally through fecal matter and vomit from infected persons. Once these infected body fluids contact a water source like a river, the entire river becomes infected passing on the disease to anyone who bathes (and accidentally ingests a bit of water) in the river or drinks the water. Sanitary latrines help ensure that all fecal matter ends up in an enclosed area where it does not jeopardize the health of other community members.
To learn more about these projects or to donate please see the corresponding links on the right side of this web page. Also we welcome any questions you may have about what we're doing. By following one of the links you can donate by check, credit card, or electronic debit (ACH bank check). All donations are tax deductible. Check it out! Tell your your friends and acquaintances. Every peso counts. Ya ustedes saben. Now you know.
The people in our communities live in a very rural area. They are mostly coffee farmers and generally have an abundance of clean drinking water from underground springs and food that they produce themselves. What they are desperately short of is cash. Without cash they can't buy the concrete and tin needed to construct a safe and sanitary bathroom. I've posted a few photos of what types of bathrooms many of our neighbors use right now. Some latrines are full and need replaced. Others are a safety hazard because they are about to cave in. Others are in the beginning of the construction process and just need a funding boost to be finished. What I didn't show are the houses that have no latrines at all. It's hard to photograph what doesn't exist.
Why are latrines important?
If you don't have a bathroom to use you will go in the bushes. If you go in the bushes it's likely that some curious dog or child will stumble across this makeshift bathroom which increases the likelihood that certain diseases will be contracted and spread from person to person. This is so much more important now that cholera has spread to the Dominican Republic. Since mid-October 2010 cholera has killed over 4,000 people in Haiti and sickened more than 200,000. Cholera has now spread to the DR where more than 200 people have contracted the disease and one has died. We all fear a cholera epidemic in the DR. Cholera is a bacteria that is spread principally through fecal matter and vomit from infected persons. Once these infected body fluids contact a water source like a river, the entire river becomes infected passing on the disease to anyone who bathes (and accidentally ingests a bit of water) in the river or drinks the water. Sanitary latrines help ensure that all fecal matter ends up in an enclosed area where it does not jeopardize the health of other community members.
To learn more about these projects or to donate please see the corresponding links on the right side of this web page. Also we welcome any questions you may have about what we're doing. By following one of the links you can donate by check, credit card, or electronic debit (ACH bank check). All donations are tax deductible. Check it out! Tell your your friends and acquaintances. Every peso counts. Ya ustedes saben. Now you know.
Friday, January 28, 2011
More photos: mangos and auyama seeds
I really don't have much more to say with all this updating I'm doing today. But I do have more photos of the past months. Salud.
Dance party at the Americans' house
We recently acquired a small speaker for our house. We also got some Dominican music. The combination is potent. We were making supper one evening and to celebrate finally having a speaker we started playing Dominican tunes. As if by magic a handful of neighbor kids showed up to shake it. They danced and they danced while we made supper and let them taste tidbits. We all had a great time. I posted a few photos for your enjoyment. Here's to more dance parties at the Americans' house.
Christmas pig roast
Our neighbors celebrated Christmas a week early with a traditional Dominican pig roast. Although I'm not a big pork fan, I got caught up in the excitement and found the roast to be quite fun. Enjoy the photos.
The coffee story
Our community spent the last few months harvesting coffee. They call this difficult month's-long coffee-harvesting affair la brega con café. Since I don't really know how to pick coffee, pulp coffee or get the mules to haul sacks of coffee, I spent some time just learning about the coffee process and documenting it in photos.
All the coffee where we live is shade-grown which means all the work such as pruning, fertilizing, and harvesting is done by hand. Good coffee is a very labor-intensive crop. There are coffees that can be grown in the sun at lower altitudes which can then be machine harvested. This greatly reduces the price of the coffee, but sun-grown coffee is not very good. If you buy cheap Maxwell House or Folgers coffee, it comes mostly from cheap sun-grown coffee with enough shade-grown coffee thrown in to make it palatable. But if you like real coffee, not Maxwell or Folgers junk, all the coffee you buy is shade-grown and hand-picked. My pictures are representative of how most the the DR's good coffee is produced. I'm sure the coffee story doesn't change that much in other countries.
This is why fair-trade becomes important in products like coffee. Coffee is mostly produced by small rural farmers living in remote mountainous regions. They often have no control over the market. The big buyers come in and pay whatever they want (often unfairly low prices) and the coffee farmers have no choice but accept. The buyer can then sell the coffee on the world market at a premium, pocketing most of the profit that should really be going to the coffee producers.
Also coffee is usually harvested by (often illegal) migrant workers. In the DR these migrant workers are the Haitians. They are extremely poor and will take whatever pay and food comes their way. Unfortunately this means that they often get taken advantage of. Hence why it's a good idea to buy fair-trade when possible to ensure that all the workers and growers are being paid fair wages. So enjoy the coffee photos.
All the coffee where we live is shade-grown which means all the work such as pruning, fertilizing, and harvesting is done by hand. Good coffee is a very labor-intensive crop. There are coffees that can be grown in the sun at lower altitudes which can then be machine harvested. This greatly reduces the price of the coffee, but sun-grown coffee is not very good. If you buy cheap Maxwell House or Folgers coffee, it comes mostly from cheap sun-grown coffee with enough shade-grown coffee thrown in to make it palatable. But if you like real coffee, not Maxwell or Folgers junk, all the coffee you buy is shade-grown and hand-picked. My pictures are representative of how most the the DR's good coffee is produced. I'm sure the coffee story doesn't change that much in other countries.
This is why fair-trade becomes important in products like coffee. Coffee is mostly produced by small rural farmers living in remote mountainous regions. They often have no control over the market. The big buyers come in and pay whatever they want (often unfairly low prices) and the coffee farmers have no choice but accept. The buyer can then sell the coffee on the world market at a premium, pocketing most of the profit that should really be going to the coffee producers.
Also coffee is usually harvested by (often illegal) migrant workers. In the DR these migrant workers are the Haitians. They are extremely poor and will take whatever pay and food comes their way. Unfortunately this means that they often get taken advantage of. Hence why it's a good idea to buy fair-trade when possible to ensure that all the workers and growers are being paid fair wages. So enjoy the coffee photos.
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