Last in a long list of visitors

It's been nearly 7 months since my last post, so I figured it's high time I add something new. I can't imagine trying to write about everything that's happened since February, so I'll start with something a bit easier: photos. I said goodby to Sarah Farber at the airport yesterday, last in my long list of visitors, and it got me thinking about what a huge part of my DR experience hosting friends and family from home has been. It's been so much fun to share my life here with everyone, from motorcycle rides up to the coffee farms to sleeping inside a mosquito net and bathing with a bucket (when we're lucky enough to have water), and I'm honored that so many people from home were able to travel to the Caribbean to see it all. Thank you!!! Still interested in coming down but think you missed your chance? I'll be here until late November and my door's always open... as the saying goes, mi casa es su casa!

Thanks for coming!

Mel, Tim and Cat heading back from Bahia de las Aguilas, April ´07



Tim and Melanie cruising down the loma back towards Enriquillo, April '07



Shopping at the Haitian/Dominican border market with Erica in Pedernales, May'07



Erica braving the waves at San Rafael



Getting a 'bola' down the southern coast (aka hitchiking)



Schreins and Meliss, December '07



Emily and I watching the sunset in Bahoruco



Nate, Kimberly, Me, Iosefa, and Darrel spending Christmas Eve in Vicentillo, 2007



Feliz Navidad!



The Watson family atop the Ozama Fortress in Santo Domingo, January '08



Mom and Dad at Los Patos, feasting on rice and spaghetti with the women of the Love and Faith Women's Cooperative



Lisa and I making paper cards with Mirqueya and Negra



Lisa adored my new kitty, Mucina--can´t you tell?



Sarah Farber sips a cafecito with Bienvenida at their coffee farm up in the loma, August '08



We couldn't resist taking a picture of the Haitian priest with the Mariners shirt

And She’s Back!!!!

Hey folks, I’m alive and well after absent a few months after my last hurricane-drenched post. A LOT has happened since October and I don’t have too much time at the moment to fill y’all in now, so for now I’ll leave you with the highlights and some photos to satisfy your curiosities until I get another chance at the internet. Thanks for checking back in!

This has been the season of the “visit,” starting of with Emily and Steve Schreiner from Spokane (the former Emily Fuller, for those of you who are out of the loop), then Darrel Frost from la Gran Manzana, and finally my wonderful, adventurous parents. All visits were incredible, and I feel so very fortunate to have friends and family who would come all the way to the Dominican Republic to visit me. The beaches and warm weather don’t hurt of course, but unless you’re stuck in an all-inclusive a trip in the DR is no cakewalk—just ask my mom and dad about hitchhiking their way up the south coast in the back of a truck!





Steve, Emily, Me and Iosefa watching the sunset out at Bahia de las Aguilas

Noel hits hard

Alright folks, in case you heard we´re getting pretty wet in the DR, and I thought I´d send out an update since I´m stranded in the north and have little to do but watch the news and now check my email....

I was just up in Jarabacoa visiting my old host family from last year´s community based training, and left yesterday morning; it was pouring and on the windy, steep road down the mountain we ran into three downed power lines, two pine trees lying across the road, and a landslide.... the truck made it past all obstacles until the landslide, where we all got out with our umbrellas and watched the rocks and boulders tumbling down. There were some periods of inaction too, during which crazies like me ran through the rubble to the other side, where there were vehicles waiting to take us down. I sort of felt like i was in an action movie, darting across the piles of rocks in the rain, franticly glancing up the cliff to make sure I wouldn´t be killed. And that was just to get down to the town of Jarabacoa!!

Once I got there (in time for my bus, I might add), I found out that the bus co. wasn´t running because there was a bridge washed out and the weather was worsening... And here I thought it was just rainy as usual. I did manage a guagua down to La Vega, a big city about 45 min. from Jarabacoa, but I arrived to find no buses were leaving for the capital due to multiple bridges washed out and flooding. To come so far only to get stuck in La Vega! And then Peace Corps called and said I couldn´t go anywhere, that we are on ¨standfast¨ and can´t leave our current locations til Thurs. at the earliest. There´s a volunteer here so I´m staying with him (actually, with his host family) for now; I´m hoping to get going, either to Santiago or at least to a hotel--but I´m still waiting pc approval. But I´m fine and apparently my house is fine, so that´s good. Iosefa´s roof was partly blown off, and their fighting to keep the rest of it on... There´s massive flooding all over the country and so far over 20 people have been killed... far worse that Hurricane Dean back in August--and we didn´t even know this one was coming. Looks like it may be a while before I can get back to my site because the roads are so bad. Kimberly was in the capital (we were going to meet up for a night since it´s been a couple of months since we´d seen each other--sad!) and she´s doing fine. Nate´s holding down the fort in Vicentillo, together with their cat Ichiro, and apparently everything´s okay there too.

Alright, that´s it for now. I´ll be in La Vega until the water receeds.... Hope all is a bit drier where you are!!!

Love,
Melissa

Mi "Abuelo" Marcario

Unas pregunats

My mom recently sent me an email with a few specific questions, and I thought it might be interesting to share my answers with the rest of you. And so here you have it at last, the answers to your most important daily-life questions, in the order asked:

How do you get food to prepare?

I buy certain staples at the chaotic, smallish supermarket in Barahona, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes and 80 pesos up the coast. I’ll buy wheat bread, canned goods (black beans, garbanzo beans, veggies, tomato paste to make pasta sauce), bags of dried soy ‘meat’, pancake mix, organic local coffee, pasta, cheese when I feel like splurging, dried nonfat milk powder, peanut butter, etc. There’s a decent market in Barahona too, where I try to buy veggies like broccoli and cauliflower and bell peppers that I can’s get here in Enriquillo. It’s your standard developing-world market, crowded in a web of tiny winding streets, covered by tarps huing by ropes and packed with Dominican and Haitian men and women selling bags of spices and grains, fruits and veggies, and lots of used clothing. I probably go there 2 times a month or so, and to the supermarket 3 or 4. Otherwise, I buy everything here in Enriquillo, mostly at one of the many colmadoes near my house. They have a varying supply of veggies, so I’ll buy what’s available—mostly tomatoes, potatos, onions, little green pepeers, and garlic, and sometimes carrots and little eggplants. There’s a daily market in the center of my town where I can go get any of the above-mentioned veggies, plus some fruits, lettuce, cabbage, beets, and fresh cilantro. The women selling there are mostly Haitian, and they tend to spread their produce out on tarps and sit on the ground next to them. They just started rebuilding the market, funded by some Dominican organization and an org from the EU, so it should be much nicer soon. There’s also a butcher there, but I try to avoid going near the cow’s heads and whatnot. Overall I have decent access to food, and I spend quite a bit of time cooking. You have to if you want to eat anything healthy—otherwise it’s just white bread, hot dog bun-style, or chips and cookies. It’s fun to invent meals, especially when I have guests to share them with! When Kimberly and Nate were here we had fettuccini with pesto sauce I made from the basil growing in my backyard (so good!) and a noodle dish I invented with broccoli and potatoes and a spicy peanut sauce. Today I’m making lentils with squash and garlic and peppers to eat with brown rice for lunch—a new invention! Melanie brought down all sorts of spices, so I have lots to work with.

What is your monthly allowance?

I get a little over 9,000 pesos a month, or about US $270. My rent is only 1,000 (US $33), and I had to pay the full amount for the year when I moved in, so I don’t have to worry about that. I’d say the bulk of my money goes to food and transportation, since I’m always taking guaguas up and down the coastal highway, to get to meetings and to visit Iosefa and to go shopping and to the bank in Barahona. Trips to the capital tend to suck my wallet dry, so I try not to go too often… perhaps once every other month or so. The next trip is scheduled for the first week of August, after a regional youth conference we have Aug 2^nd -5^th. The allowance is usually just enough to cover my monthly expenses, and the end of month is always a little tight—like right now!

How do you wash your clothes?

I take my clothes in a bag down to Berta’s house (my host mom here) and she washes them in her washing machine. I pay her 200 pesos each time I bring her clothes, which seems to be fairly standard among volunteers. It’s not super convenient since she lives sort of far, down the hill, but I know she needs the money and she’s been washing my clothes since I arrived in Enriquillo, so I think it’s the best situation. Sometimes I’ll hand wash clothes here, especially underwear and delicates, but I’m always running out of water and I never feel like clothes get very clean when I wash them here.

When you are alone, do your read often for personal entertainment?

Yes, I read a lot. Sometimes I get on kicks and read entire books in 2 or 3 days, and I read magazine articles everyday. I just finished “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,” a book by Julia Alvarez, and am now reading “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families,” about the ’94 genocide in Rwanda. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that lately I’ve been reading a lot of gossip magazines too, like People and US weekly—mostly pictures with little substance, which are extremely addicting—I blame Kimberly though, she brought them!

How do you cool yourself when it is really hot? (Kimberly told us that she would never go into the rivers because of pollution)

Forget the pollution, I go into the rivers!!! Actually, I only get a chance to go to the rivers occasionally, since the “river” here in Enriquillo is more of a tiny stream, and although they have a pool set up in a nice shaded setting along the river, the current’s weak and the walls are slimy, so I refuse to go in. There’s a beautiful river in Iosefa’s town Bahoruco, so we go up there sometimes, and there’s a little touristy spot called Los Patos about 10km from here, where a wide, clear, cool river meets the ocean and they have little food stands and restaurants set up. I’ve been there a couple times, too. Other than occasional dips in the river or the ocean (where I’ll swim about once a week), I mostly just sweat it out in the shade, praying for a breeze or the electricity to come back so I can sit in front of the fan. That’s what I’m doing right now—sitting at home in front of the fan, with my windows and back door open to let in the breeze. If I have extra water, I’ll throw a pitcher of water on myself to cool down—but that’s only if there’s enough water. Lately the water’s only been coming ever 2 or 3 days, and then only for an hour or so… worse than usual. It’s a struggle, I’ll tell you.

How to you get computer connections?

I usually go to the internet café in Barahona, about once a week. It’s 40 pesos per hour, which is sort of expensive, but the connection’s fast and good, and it’s usually pretty cool in there. The mobile computer lab at the primary school here in Enriquillo is shut down for the summer, and the connection there is usually pretty bad/slow anyways. They’re currently constructing a computer lab closer to my house, next door to city hall, and I’m excited for it to open up since it’s so close. Let’s hope the computers are decent!

What is your plan if there is a hurricane?

Haha… Our emergency action plan calls for everyone in our region to meet up at a hotel in Barahona—ON THE WATERFRONT! I think they’re going to change that so we’ll meet in San Juan, which is further inland. My part of the island usually doesn’t get hit as hard, so hopefully that won’t be a problem. Plus my house is high on a hill, with a good roof and cement block walls with iron bars on the doors and windows, Iosefa’s house, on the other hand, is right on the beach, with a rusty, hole-filled metal roof and palm-wood walls that don’t look like they’d survive much. So hopefully we won’t get hit by anything this year—I fear it would tear his place apart, not to mention most of the houses along the coast.

Do you nap when it is too warm?

I get really sleepy, yes, but it’s impossible to sleep when it’s so hot during the day. Like, really nasty, sticky, sweating-in-bed hot. When there’s no electricity, I sometimes struggle to sleep at night too—it’s just so hot! So I do nap occasionally, but not as often as I’d like to!

Do you document your activities from day to day for your information and for the Peace Corps?

I document all work-related activies, both for reporting to the Peace Corps and for the cooperative’s sake. I try to journal for my own personal sake, but I get sort of lazy sometimes… but I’m trying to be better, since this is something I’ll want in the future. Plus I think writing things down keeps me sane in an often less-than-sane environment.

How often do you ride the public transportation and where do you go?

Like I mentioned before, I take the guaguas a lot—perhaps 3 or 4 times a week. Many of our meetings are in Los Blancos, where the coffee coop office is, and sometimes I have meetings in Paraiso too. Plus Kat, the other volunteer, lives in Paraiso, and I go hang out/work there with her every other week or so. I go to Barahona about once a week, and probably go to Bahoruco about once a week too—I try to combine the two to cut down on costs and time spent in the guagua. There are motorcycle taxis here in town, and I take them rarely; I don’t always have my helmet, so it’s usually not an option.

How often is the power on or off?

I’d estimate we have power about 50% or the time, though we’re near the end of the line (the same line feeds all the towns along the coast), and if something happens to the line anywhere north of here we lose power. We have gone days at a time without power, which is difficult. Plus when the power’s bad, they can’t pump the water, so we don’t have water either. Enriquillo’s worse than any of the other coastal towns, both electricity and water-wise. But at least we have it sometimes, right? But boy do I envy Kimberly and Nate, who have power almost all the time, and Iosefa, who always has water running from the tap!

Do you have any shade for your huts?

First of all, I think “hut” is a little misleading…. Although it sounds more rustic and romantic, I’d definitely say I live in a “house.” Not a big one or a fancy one, but a house nonetheless. I have a little shade out front, under the anon tree (a funny-looking green fruit with big black seeds and mushy white meat), but only early in the day. There’s shade out back all day, either from the trees or the house itself. I have coconut trees, sour orange trees, a little lime tree, and some growing little banana and cherry trees. I’ve been trying to landscape a little back there with rocks and flowers and plants, and it’s looking much better. There was a ton of trash when I moved in, and it’s better now.

How is your Spanish now?

I’m very comfortable speaking and listening, though I’m still not 100%. It’s rural campo Spanish too, so it’s not exactly the most refined, vocabulary-rich form of the language. But yeah, it’s pretty good. I think I’m honing my campo Dominican accent pretty well too.

Are the people still treating you like celebraties?

I don’t know if I’d say celebrities, but I’m definitely the center of attention wherever I go still. And I don’t like it. I’ve never liked being the center of attention, and I really miss the anonymity of big-city life in the US, much more than I ever thought I would. Just thinking about getting on the subway in Boston, sitting down and reading, with nobody so much as looking at me… well, just the thought of it makes me homesick sometimes. I think some volunteers thrive with all the attention, but I just want to hide away sometimes. I guess it’s not as bad as before, since people here in Enriquillo are used to seeing my face and I’m used to seeing theirs, but it’s a big enough town that there are lots of people who I’ve never seen before, and plenty of new people to gawk and stare. The attention from men is particularly difficult for me. There’s so much machismo and cat-calling and whistling and all that, and sometimes I just want to scream at them or give them the finger or something—which is totally NOT like me. Up until now I’ve kept those urges in check, but I could see myself snapping sometime. It’s just so annoying, and is so rude in my eyes. The thing is, most Dominican women like that sort of attention, whereas I just see it as disrespectful maddening. I’m trying to have patience. And that’s usually in bigger places, like Barahona—here in Enriquillo it’s not so bad.

Ya, that’s all the questions for now. Here’s un chin more info, in case you’re interested…

This week is my town’s Patronales, a 10-day party celebrating Enriquillo’s patron saint Santa Ana. Originally they had lots of activites like horse races and competitions where they’d scramble up oil-covered posts and rice and beans eating contests, but now it’s mostly about dancing and drinking and music. They set up a big stage down by the waterfront, right on the main street where it splits into two, and there are stands selling drinks and food all along the street; they also set up a ferris wheel and merry-go-round, and it’s packed with people every night. The second half of the week they’ll bring in live music, some fairly well known Dominican musicians, and it should be really fun. Saturday night Jill, the volunteer from Oviedo (down the coast), Iosefa and some Dominican friends from his town, and perhaps a few other volunteers are coming to stay here and we’re all going to go down and dance the night away on the highway by the shore—should be fun! It’ll also be the most people sleeping in my house at one time, which may be interesting. Let’s hope we get water before then!

Oooh, speaking of, the water just came!!!! It rarely comes in the afternoon, this is exciting!!! Perfect timing too, I’lm almost out. Okay, I’ll be back soon, after I go fill up my tubs and buckets….

After filling the buckets I jumped in the shower, to take a rare, real shower with water actually coming out of the showerhead! Usually I have to use the buckets because there’s not enough time when the water comes, or I’m not at home and I leave the shower on to fill the empty buckets that I leave in the shower. But boy, a real shower feels good! And then, after showering and getting the lentils going, I chopped off my hair. I meant to just trim it, but it’s a particularly hot day and since I wear my hair up all the time anyway, I thought why not just get rid of it? So now it’s just past my shoulders, and much uglier than before, but hopefully it’ll be cooler. Oh, how I miss being able to wear my hair down! It’s just too hot here, way too hot.

Before I end this, let me give you a quick update on my projects:

• The women’s group is coming along slowly, but it’s good. Sometimes I feel like I’m in charge of the group, and nothing would get done if I don’t do it or lead it, which is frustrating because that’s not why I’m supposed to be there. The whole idea is to assist them, making sure that they’re self-sufficient without me. But we had a meeting to sign up new women two days ago, under the mango tree in Los Blancos, and the president and other members of the directiva really seemed to take charge. A good sign, I think. My project du jour with them is recycled paper—particularly, recycled paper made with old papers, plus coffee tree leaves and other natural fibers. It barely requires any initial capital investment (you just need a blender !), and the paper itself is quite easy—no real arts and crafts skills required. Making and decorating cards and envelopes, on the other hand, will require some training. Right now I’m giving workshops to the women to teach them how to do it, and researching possible marketing opportunities in the capital and with local groups here. I see a lot of promise in it, and the women are quite interested too. More to come!
• The coffee harvest is just around the corner, and farmers are starting to move up to the loma, to stay and work until December or January. We recently had some trouble with money: that is, an organization we’ve been working with initially promised a large sum of money so that the coop could build the infrastructure necessary to clean and process the members’ coffee this year (and thus be able to buy coffee from members and sell it as a cooperative as “certified organic” for the first time), but the funds kept diminishing and their demands kept growing, eventually leading the coop directiva to reject the funds and decide to mostly sever relations with said organization. It’s a setback, yes: the members are disappointed that most of them will not be able to sell as “organic” this year, but also feel a sort of empowerment, knowing that their group is strong enough to stand up to a bad situation and decide to go ahead on their own. It was messy, but they showed strengh and conviction to do it. So now we move forward, hopefully to a good harvest and good profits despite this setback.
• The past few months I’ve been tutoring two lower-level English students, which will soon grow to a group of 5 or more, it seems. We gather every week in my house for coffee and discussion; we go over their lesson for the week, focusing on prononciation and usage, and generally talk in English to practice. They’re good students, and they recently invited others from their weekly class to come to our conversation hour. It’s ideal for me: I don’t have to teach a formal class (which I’ve been trying to avoid, to be honest—there’s already a private teacher here in town, and I don’t want to steal his students), but I do get to help out by practicing and teaching my students more about the United States and the rest of the world. We do a lot of work with maps and geography, since few Dominicans here have any idea how to spot the DR on a map, let alone tell you what continent Italy is found in or where Venezuela is. I enjoy it.
• Next week we have a Peace Corps sponsored youth conference called “Celebrando El Sur”, in which each volunteer from the southern region brings two youth from their community and we spend three days giving talks and workshops on all sorts of subjects, and then the youth return to their communities and give at least two of the talks/workshops with their local youth groups. We have to raise funds for the conference (to give them a sense of ownerwhip of the conference, partially), and so my two high school kids, Richard and Eva, and I have been doing raffles in our town the past few weeks. We tried selling tickets at Patronales, but had less success with that than we expected. Going from business to business (colmados, hardware stores, etc.) has worked well, and we plan to do that this afternoon and tomorrow for what will hopefully be our last fundraising raffle. We also asked the mayor for funds, and he promised an as yet unspecified amount. It’s good experience for the kids, though I must admit, I’ve never liked fundraising!

Okay, that’s it for now. My hands hurt from typing! Take care, and thanks for checking in!

Paz,
Melissa

A glimpse into the life...

Making "Mistolin" with the women of COOPMAFE

Our new Coffee Cooperative office in Los Blancos

(from left: fellow volunteer Kat, Wilkin, and me)

Dinner Party! Kimberly and Nate the first night

of my visit to their site

Easter morning breakfast with mi novio, enjoying the view from his back door

I'm back!

I feel as though I’ve come full circle, almost. I’m back in my bedroom in Doña Maria Antonia’s house in Pantoja, a neighborhood in north Santo Domingo, sweating beneath a weak fan mounted on the wall and getting my things ready for another day at the training center tomorrow morning. I’m here for my weeklong 6-month language training, which lasts until Friday. It’s nice to be back, and to return ‘home’ to a family who already knows me, and to just relax. Tonight a group of 10 community economic development volunteers went to a sushi/Mexican restaurant (who knew such a place existed in this country??) to celebrate our 6-month annivarsary as official Peace Corps volunteers; on a rainy day exactly 6 months ago in November, we swore in and, shortly after, shipped off to our individual sites. Hard to believe we're already a quarter of the way through our service!

So, where to start? Life in Enriquillo, on the rugged, breathtaking southwestern coast of the Dominican Republic, is an adventure. And with each day that passes, I’m appreciating it all more and more. The days are getting unbearably hot however, and I'm nervous about what's going to happen when summer actually arrives; right now, every time I complain about the heat (which is often), whoever I'm talking to kindly reminds me that this is nothing compared to July and August. Honestly, I can't imagine. Fortunately I have a fan (and a house!) now, so whenever we're not in the middle of a blackout, I can usually be found sitting within three feet of it. When there's no 'light' (and thus no fan), people in town deal with the heat by sitting outside beneath a shady tree for hours and hours, talking and shucking beans from their pods, playing dominos, or just watching the people and the motos pass. Fortunately there's usually a bit of a breeze on my street, and my neighbors have warmly added me to their usual group of tree-sitters. During the hottest part of the day life in Enriquillo falls somewhere between lethargic and comatose; doing anything that requires any amount of movement is a waste of energy. I'm fairly certain my red-headed, pale, freckled self was not made to withstand this climate. If Kimberly and Nate weren't coincidentally assigned to serve in this country too, I easily may have thought my placement here a cruel joke or mistake by our Creator. As it is, the fact that the three of us are here together serves to further my conviction that there is a reason I am here, in this precise spot at this time. I definitely have plenty of time to ponder such wonderfully deep thoughts--ideally 3 feet in front of the fan.

And what is the biggest change since I last wrote (ahem, 5 months ago...), you ask? Well, after 7 months of living with various host families, I am finally out on my own! It was a bit of a struggle to find an appropriate house in my town--safe and secure yet not ostentatious, in an acceptable neighborhood, with an indoor bathroom or at least a latrine in decent condition that's not too far from the house, etc. The main struggle was availability; people who were rumored to move out decided at the last minute to stay, and of the already vacant houses most were for sale and few owners were willing to rent. Nonetheless, a couple coffee cooperative members managed to sway the owner of a house near where they live, and she agreed to rent the house to me. Hooray! I'd be lying if I said it was charming or even cute, but it's certainly safe, and it has a nice big space out back for gardening and an indoor bathroom, and there's plenty of potential. And it came with some furniture, including a musty rat-infested couch and stuffed chair, two rustic wood tables, a dresser, and a countertop stove that's deteriorating quickly and should soon be replaced. Though it's not exactly Crate and Barrel, having something to start with was super helpful when I bought the other furnishings. Unfortunately most of my home improvement plans are on hold until I can convince the owner to foot the bill somehow, or until I manage to save up part of my monthly living allowance from the Peace Corps. We'll see. The house itself is composed of two decent sized rooms, a small kitchen, and bathroom at the end of a hallway. The outer walls are constructed of cement (you never know, exposed gray cement block could soon be as in vogue as exposed brick!), and the inner walls are made from plywood (light blue, pink, and unpainted) and knotty posts. The tin roof is fairly new so I luckily don't have to deal with leaks when it rains. My neighbors are absolutely ideal. The family immediately to my right is Evangelical Christian, and every morning the grandmother passes me a mug of homegrown, fire-roasted coffee over the barbed wire fence that separates our yards, and the granddaughters who all wear dresses with sleeves are always calling me over to play with their puppy "Scooby Doo" or offering to come over to help me sweep my back patio. Very sweet. Speaking of sweeping grass, one evening I went out to sweep my front steps, and before I knew what was happening a group of 10 neighbor kids were chopping and pulling and sweeping away at my front lawn, all armed with brooms and machetes and little helpful hands. I'll try to post a photo of them cleaning that afternoon, with my house in the background. In short, my house is far from luxurious and I have plenty of work to still do, but I love it and I love cooking in it and I love the freedom of once again living on my own. And don't worry, I still see my former host mom all the time!

Like most of life in the Dominican Republic, the work with my women's group is going rather slowly. Right now we're focusing on recruiting new members and becoming an official, legal cooperative, which involves cooperative education workshops twice monthly. This in itself is hardly a big draw for the women, so I've been giving other income-generation workshops where the women learn how to make products for familial use and also to sell. I've done a few Mistolin (floor cleaner) workshops so far which are quite popular with them (they love to argue about how much perfume we should add and suggest what scents and colors we should invest in for the future), and hope to do a recycled paper workshop for early June. We're also planning on making menthol (a popular Vicks Vapor Rub-like Dominican cure-all), candles, and shampoo. The idea is that these workshops will draw more and more women and get them excited about the cooperative, so that even though they may not have received a cow from our rotating pregnant cow project, they still recognize that they can get something out of the group. Moreover, they feel a sense of empowerment from learning how to make and sell products themselves. If anybody has any good ideas for projects we can do or easy recipes we can use (for vanilla, beauty products, cleaning products, decorative items, etc.), please send them my way!

Alright, I had planned on writing quite a bit more, but since this is the first time in a while that most of you have heard from me, I'll let you digest two pages' worth of news for now and leave you with the promise of writing more--much more--soon. In the next post: coffee, sunburns, and the novio. Hasta luego!

Amor y paz,
Melissa

Carta de Navidad

Dear friends and family,

Happy holidays! I've been thinking about you all, especially these past few weeks, and hope you're doing well and are enjoying some time off for the holidays. I've now been here at my site for nearly a month, and there's much to report. It's odd to think that it's Christmas with the sun blazing outside and cold and snow a distant memory, but the warmth of the Dominican people and their unique way of celebrating continually remind me of how fortunate am to be here. Enriquillo is festive and cheerful: the evergreen Christmas trees I'm used to have been replaced by creations made out of bunched-together recycled plastic bags, empty juice boxes dangle by the hundreds from tree branches in people's yards, and Christmas lights twinkle and flicker on the small, colorful houses--but only when there's electricity, of course. I'll be spending Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) with my host family, as that's the big family day here, and then I'll head up to another volunteer's house to spend Christmas day with some other Peace Corps volunteers from around the area, baking holiday treats and enjoying some American food (most likely spaghetti or pizza--not traditional holiday fare, but a welcome change from the standard Dominican diet of yuca and boiled plantains). And then I'm meeting up with Kimberly and Nate so we can welcome the New Year in together, on a gorgeous Carribbean beach with some of our new friends. Honestly, not a day goes by when I can't believe this is actually my life!

Enriquillo itself is a decent-sized town with a population of approximately 15,000, and is absolutely beautiful. The coast here is breathtaking, with green lush mountains rising up dramatically from the aquamarine sea, and the town, though poor, is colorful and alive. Though I'll be living mainly in town, my project partners also arranged for a room for me to use on a small coffee farm up in the mountains. The currently-empty house is directly above a coffee 'depositorio,' so I'll have to weave my way through piles of coffee beans to get upstairs to my bed! It's much cooler and more tranquil up in the loma (the mountain), and I know it will be a welcome refuge once the heat of summer sets in. Despite its natural beauty and varied terrain, this area has yet to be 'discovered' by the tourists that crowd most of the country's beaches. On the one hand that's a good thing, as locals retain their traditional way of life, but an influx of tourist dollars could really help the struggling economy here. The principal sources of income here are farming (primarily coffee, beans, and fruit) and fishing, and the small towns along the coast are shrinking as students leave to go to college in Barahona or Santo Domingo and rarely return. The people are resilient and hard working, and I can see that there is much opportunity for growth here as well. It should be an interesting two years.

Although I will likely be working throughout the community, I have been assigned to work with two groups in particular: a newly-formed womens group and an organic coffee cooperative. The womens group currently hase 24 members, middle age and up, and they are wonderful. They're awful about arriving on time, but they're charming and friendly and excited about their new group. 14 of them just received pregnant cows as part of a rotating pregnant cow program: once the calves are born, the women will return the cows to the group so another woman gets a turn. It's sort of ironic that they assigned the only vegetarian in the group to the cow project, but I'm hoping the women will choose the dairy/cheese route rather than raising these lovely cows for the butcher! We had our first meeting a few weeks ago and discussed other ideas for the group, and their enthusiasm was inspiring. We discussed cooperative lending and other services as well as small-scale income generation projects such as selling homemade candies and making our own floor cleaner. They also want to open the group up to other members as soon as possible, and are eager to get started. Oh, and they voted on a name for the group: Cooperativa de Mujeres Amor y Fe, which translates to "Love and Faith Women's Cooperative. As one woman explained, the name encompasses the two most important aspects of life. This project is about as grassroots as development projects get, and I think it will be great.

My other main project is working with COOCAFESUR (Cooperativa de Cafe del Sur), whose 150 members work on small farms in the mountains stretching from Enriquillo north to Paraíso. They're currently in the process of being certified organic, and will be able to sell the next harvest as such--and hopefully gain a better price for their beans. There is another volunteer who has been working with the group for the past year, and she should prove valuable in learning the ins and outs of the cooperative--and understanding all the various organizations associated with it. I spend a lot of time on the back of a government agronomist's motorcycle, climbing the steep, rocky dirt roads that weave throughout the lomas. Considering I was terrified to get on the back of a motorcycle just last year, I'm loving it now! The views, as I mentioned before, are stunning. As volunteers we will work to strengthen the organization, teach basic business skills like accou8nting to the famers, and work with the directiva to better their product, search out domestic markets, and tap into the export market.

Well, I had hoped to write more, but my guagua (minibus) will be leaving shortly and I should go. Again, happy holidays and thanks for all the warm wishes. I love and miss you all!

Amor y paz,
Melissa