Grita Week

2:11 PM | Posted by Bri

3-25-11

Gringo Grita is a volunteer publication made by volunteers for volunteers. It is a really cool opportunity for me, a graphic designer, to showcase my many talents of laying out and using Adobe programs and also my cool tablet. Hehe. But more than that, it's a full week of hanging with volunteers in the capital as we organize COS (close of service) surveys, edit cool articles and drawings by talented volunteers and create a 60 page magazine with stuff we think other volunteers would like to read or look at. I participated in working with the magazine in the Fall of last year and I have the pleasure of working on it again this past week for the Spring issue. I am happy to announce that my pal Justin Seiter is the new editor, yay! And I will continue serving until I leave. I love being able to design something here in a place where design doesn't matter. I was really worried in the beginning of my service that I would lose my edge with design coming to the Peace Corps but I am happy to be able to showcase my talents or at least just use these programs so I don't forget how to add a stroke or put in a drop shadow. I believe the grita will will be out for release in late May or maybe June but I am excited!
Here is last years cover picture. It's an iphone with apps for everything you need in the DR...

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IT Trainee visit!

11:35 AM | Posted by Bri

3-20-11

Zenia Perez arrives! She is a new trainee who just arrived to the country in March just around my year mark. Basically every year in March a group of IT volunteers come in and around May of the same year an old group leaves. This cycle continues going on and on until there is a certain level of sustainable projects and the country is completely free of volunteers. Clearly that hasn't happened yet. We are coming up on Peace Corps DR 50th anniversary. That may be really sad. 

It's crazy having a trainee visit because I still feel "new" to Peace Corps. When I go the email asking to host this volunteer I almost didn't reply because I didn't feel like I was ready but I am really glad I did because after the visit I can see how integrated into my community I am and how much I have grown living here. I am casi a dominicana!

Anyways, as far as I know, there are 17 new trainees in country who will have to go through the same things I did, living in Pantoja for spanish training, CBT in el Seibo for tech training then finally being thrown into their own site to figure out their lives for the next 2 years. Its exciting to see a new group, to have new friends and I am excited to see the next generation of volunteers who will watch me on my way out. 

I am sad to see the old group go. I have gotten very close to a lot of the volunteers and its sad to see the "seniors" leave and make us fill in that role. The older group is so good at managing things and having things run smoothly so it will definitely be hard to let them go. It's now my groups turn to fill in their shoes which will definitely be a hard thing to do. May 2012 will be my time!

So this past weekend was a really fun time. We had a special Moca night for the trainees then crashed at Heather's house after we sang karaoke at a colmado in her town. The next day Zenia and I went to my site where I showed her my "work." I showed her the club, liceo and ayuntamiento and we even got to chill at my donnas for a free lunch and hang with the neighbors. I feel like I may have been a bit harsh because I was trying to get her to talk constantly since she is a fluent spanish speaker but she was so shy. Then I talked to the volunteer I visited last year and she reminded me that I was the exact same way. I was quiet the entire time and really shy so now I understand. I think sometimes I don't realize how comfortable I am living here now so when other people get thrown into these situations I am expecting them to just adjust as fast as I did. And they will, it's still their second week being in country, after CBT they will really get the hang of this "Peace Corps" thing.

Best of luck to the new trainees! Soon you will be volunteers and begin this amazing learning experience. I honestly can't believe I am here a lot of days and I am thankful for everything and everyone. Being a volunteer in the Dominican Republic is tough but it's amazing.

Magee, Phil, Zenia*, Charlie*, Me and Keaten* hanging at the colmado in Juan Lopez. (*New trainees)


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My 25th Birthday in the DR!

11:16 AM | Posted by Bri

3-25-11

Twenty five years ago I would have never thought I would be living in the Dominican Republic doing what I am doing now. Scratch that, make that 2 years ago or even 1 year and 6 months ago. This is my second time celebrating my birthday in the Dominican Republic and it is definitely by far the best birthday I have had in a while. (Haha, its hard for me to commit to the best ever, but it was very good!) My group arrived in the DR in the beginning of March last year so because everything was so new and foreign to me I didn't tell anyone it was my birthday and spent it eating yucca and spaghetti alone in my room with my dona who also didn't know it was my birthday. Crummy. But this year I definitely went all out celebrating my birthday for an entire week! Yeah! I didn't even have to announce it to everyone, people actually remembered. Haha.

To commence the celebration, a big group of volunteers headed into the capital and we had a fun night at the Conde with drinks and dancing. My two favorite things. The next couple of days I visited a fellow volunteer Amber in Las Canas which was so nice to just be tranquil and peaceful. I pretty much slept a lot because her site is sooooo quiet. I didn't hear concho drivers, horns, trucks, nothing. It was perfect for sleeping and chilling out. Plus her dona was an amazing cook and her host family was super nice. From there I headed over to my favorite site in the DR, Magee's house where we continued the delicious food and tranquility. I honestly think I have gained 10 more pounds just from this week. Everyone was giving me so much free food and goodies I couldn't turn them away! I even got midnight birthday pancakes! 
Heather, Me and Masa swinging at this cool new bar in the Cap

Heather, Me and Amber got all dolled up to go to a family wedding. Yep, we were way overdressed!

Lindsey, Magee and Jose. We ate delicious Mexican tacos with homemade salsa! Yummmmmmm!

Virgen, Melvin, Me and Mirian, my beloved neighbors who take care of me very much.

My birthday pies! Me blowing out the candles. Can't believe I am 25. :(

So thinking everything was over I returned back to my campo ready to detox all the bad food and relax. I spent the night hanging with the neighbors and surprise! They bought me 2 pizzas and drinks to celebrate my birthday too! It was really cute the way they went about it, they slyly asked to go to my house to have some tea then came walking in singing "Happy Birthday" in english. Cute. I have to say I definitely feel loved. Comparing my birthday from last year to this year I'd say it was a huge improvement and I am most excited about the stuff that happened in my campo. It's one thing to celebrate and do things with your friends but having poor dominicans buy you things to show you how much you mean to them was priceless. I couldn't stop telling them "thank you" and how happy I was to be spending it with them. 

This goes to show that wherever you are you can make an impact on the others around you. I cant say this was the best birthday ever because I still was missing those people at home who mean the world to me like my friends and family but regardless of their absence I still felt loved and cared for. 

Thank you to everyone who helped make my birthday special and rememberable. Guess what? I get another year to celebrate here in the DR! March 2012 will be even better!

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1 year living in the DR

4:17 PM | Posted by Bri

3-20-11

So March 4th marks the 1 year reunion of me being here in the Dominican Republic. As I sit here reminiscing on the past years frustrations, triumphs, tears, smiles and times of major confusion, I realize that I have definitely come to love this country and am turning into a campesina.

I remember my first impressions of the DR were that it was a dirty country, full of trash on the streets, it was so unorganized and lazy. Now living here for a year I feel like I am now starting to see past these traits and also see them in me. I definitely am a lot more lazy. If it rains, I don't want to leave my house, if it's cold I won't go on my morning runs and I am also more prone to ask for bolas, no longer embarrassed to show that I don't want to walk. Maybe its not so much that I am lazy but I am getting comfortable. I speak like my neighbors, I live like my neighbors (for the most part) and I have to be completely honest when I leave I miss my neighbors. It is such a simple life to just sit by the colmado and talk about the day. I love learning new things from them and compartiring with special dinners and cross culture chats. I can honestly say the DR is starting to be a big part of my life.

Hitting the one year mark also makes me feel like everything that I have done is finally making sense. I now know what my role is in the community, I now know who the people I can trust are and I feel more comfortable in my community to be myself and not this stuck up professional. I have one year left! My time is now not a large amount of hanging out but a countdown of work I still have to do. I want to leave my community knowing I am leaving something physical (like a library), and emotional (like my presence, youth groups and memories). I definitely feel loved. All my neighbors and community members are super overprotective of me, they always claim me like I am their volunteer, always asking if I am thinking about staying forever, and telling me never to leave.

It's only the one year mark but I know that I will be very sad when it is finally that time to say goodbye. I feel like a dominicana already. I am very anxious to see how much I grow from here. Vamos a ver...

The cutest little girl in my barrio, they call her "China"

For some strange reason, she adores me. I think it has a lot to do with the bike.

The cute barrio girls. We tried riding the bike together and fell. Haha. Finally a dona told us not to do it. I am so glad an adult was around. :)

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Celebrando Las Chicas

9:13 AM | Posted by Bri

3-6-11

Dios mío! So, Heather, the volunteer next to me in Juan Lopez, and I got this grant to do an event for International Women's Day observed March 8th. We were so excited because we are just starting to get our girls groups going so we thought this event would help us get more attention and girls to attend. I would say if I don't get a 10% better attendance rate from girls I am going to be sad because the conference was planned for 30 girls in total and about 70 girls ended up showing up. Yeah. We were crazy.

The day started off as a disaster. I asked my project partner to help me find people to help me bring over chairs and participants to the event over a week ago and he said he would take care of it. Needless to say, he had no clue who could help me. Jerk. So I am scrambling trying to find someone with a truck while still trying to attend to the million other things I have to do and keep a cool, calm face. I bought the 10 huge 2 liter refrescos and decided to call my neighbors. In about an hour my neighbors came to the rescue with a guagua to transport the chairs and my project partner decided to take my girls. Bien right? Well in the process of all this I tried to carry all 10 refrescos (I am pretty strong but not that strong) and while lowering the sodas onto the ground I ripped my pants! So I went to the event and tried my best not to open my legs. Thank god, my enamorado Melvin showed up and I sent Lindsey to my house to pick up another pair. Ha! I forgot about it for a while but it was a good idea to change since I was in front of tens of girls staring at me.


All in all, the event was a huge success. We shot for 30 girls and got 70. We ended up being right on our budget so there were no miscalculations. We got lucky to get help from 2 other volunteers which helped us out A LOT. We started behind but later caught up on time. We got to play volleyball. We got to dance. We got to do face painting and I think we did a pretty good job on the informational charlas too. I liked mine!

Basically the week of the event Heather and I were pretty stressed. I tried to never make Heather worry but deep inside I was so worried for us but I am proud of everything the way it turned out and our success. We couldn't have done it alone so thanks to all those who helped (Joe and Lindz). 

Heather is already talking about the next event we are going to collaborate on. Hopefully that wont happen for a couple of months. I have to admit, this was one event that I am very proud of myself about. We did it Heather!

Heather and I

I gave a gender charla so I decided I should have a mustache.

Taming these girls caused me to lose my voice for a bit, but it was fun

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Carnaval in La Vega Baby!

9:08 AM | Posted by Bri

3-6-11

Carnaval. In a few words I can describe it as colorful, fun scary and painful. Let me count thy ways…

Basically Carnaval is a celebration for the entire month of February in the DR where different towns dress up in costumes and walk the streets with these things called "vejigas" where they beat anyone in front of them exposing their butt. The best place to go for Carnaval is La Vega because they have the most elaborate costumes and they are the heart of the country for this fiesta. 

I arrived in La Vega pretty early considering American party times but apparently Carnaval is something celebrated during the day into the night because around 9pm I found the streets of Carnaval empty. So FYI if you come to celebrate Carnaval, do it early. I was in bed and asleep by midnight, which was kind of nice actually especially since I had a fun night the night before.

So basically the streets are filled with people of all ages wearing masks, purchasing vejigas to whip people and running away from costumed whippers. I was pretty nervous getting to the site because I heard they whip people pretty hard and I saw a couple of grown men fall to their knees from the pain but I was lucky to not get whipped too bad, it was mostly the kids who would get me cause I would not expect it from them.

The costumes are beautiful with different colors, themes and groups. There was even a lot of girls dressed in the costumes which I was totally all about and I am actually going to look into being in costume walking the street next year. I am going to try and be a part of it cause it looks like a lot of fun. 

I ended the night watching a free salsa concert with a couple of volunteers which was definitely a good way to end the night. I am glad I got to experience this cool DR tradition. Although I was scared and running away from scary costumed people, it was so much fun to be able to do something different and new. I have a whole new view on February. Screw Valentine's day… it's all about Carnaval!




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