Graduations, Libraries, and Goodbyes

Well, I can't believe it, but my time as a Peace Corps volunteer is coming to an end. The last couple of weeks have been full of all sorts of activities. Jake, Betsy and Alan came out to my site for a week and helped me create a children's library inside the already existing local public library. Walls were painted and books were organized and now the children all have access to books. They also helped me finish the painting in the school. We painted the alphabet, numbers and shapes in one of the classrooms and it looks AMAZING!!! I can't even tell you how excited I am to have those projects done and looking great.

My youth group graduated from their training and we had a party. They were so excited and all dressed up for the occasion. Each of them was given a diploma and food and cake were served. It was an amazing experience working with the youth group. I am confident that each of them will go on to do great things.

MACLA Medical Mission

I was able to participate in a week long medical mission here in Santo Domingo. A group of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and volunteers come down here for a week and do free surgeries on children and adults. The surgeries range from repairing cleft lip/cleft palates, amputating extra fingers and toes, skin grafts on burn victims and much more. It was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. Peace Corps is involved with the mission and has been for a couple of years. We serve as translators in the OR, pre-op and post-op rooms. We are also there to do whatever needs to be done. Because we speak Spanish, the volunteers tend to create the biggest bonds with the patients and their families. We spend time with them before and after surgeries and we help to reassure them that everything will be ok. It was amazing to see these people who wouldn't have been able to afford a surgery get the help they need for free! One of the patients is a woman named Ana that had a mixture of acid and honey thrown on her by an angry neighbor. More than half of her face is completely burned, as is her body, and she lost one eye. She is so ashamed of her face that she will only leave her house with a towel over her head. She had now had two surgeries in two years from the MACLA doctors and she will continue to have surgeries for many years to come. There is a picture here of her with a towel over her head. She is standing next to Dr. Geraghty, the doctor who created the MACLA foundation and has been coming yearly to the Dominican Republic for 25 years. If anyone wants more information about MACLA and is interested in possibly donating to the cause, look at their website at www.macla.org. It is an amazing thing and I am so happy that I had the chance to participate in it!!

Way Too Long!!!!!!

It has been so long since my last entry! When I was first in country and everything was so new and exciting, Blogging was easy. Now, things are more normal. I am used to my life here and not everything seems so out-of-the-ordinary, hence the lack of blog entries. I was recently contacted by a man named John who served in Peace Corps Dominican Republic 14 years ago. He lived in my same site, and in fact, he lived with the same woman that I live with in the same compound of houses. It has been amazing talking to someone who knows everything about my site and completely understands the Peace Corps experience. I am lucky that he came across this old blog and decided to contact me.

Things have been really busy. I am getting ready for my Close of Service (COS) in April. That means that for the first time in over 2 years, I will be back in the United States! Crazy to think about! I am busy finishing up my projects in my site and getting ready to start to say goodbye to all the wonderful people that I have met throughout my service. It is going to be a crazy and interesting transition to go home! I am excited, but at the same time sad to leave my life here. On to bigger and better things, I guess.

The pictures that I posted are mostly of my PC group that I came into country with 2 years ago. They were taken at our COS conference a week ago. The last picture posted is of the youth group that I have been working with for the last couple of months. We are working on a project called Escojo mi Vida, or I chose my life. It is a program that was developed by a PC volunteer here that provides training for youth in the areas of health, sexual health, HIV/AIDS, STIs, abstinence and self esteem. It has been an amazing project and I love working with the group. They are going through a "training" right now. We meet one day a week, every week to discuss a new topic. In March, they will graduate and then they will go out into the community to form new training groups or just to present information to community members. I am excited to see them all graduate and to see what they will continue to do in the community after their training has finished.

Las Galeras and New Friends

There was a group of people from my home state spotted in the Dominican Republic! I was so excited to spend time with someone from "my own country!" I was invited to spend a long weekend with Betsy and her family in Las Galeras on the Samana Peninsula. We stayed in a great bungalow (www.juanylolo.com) and had a great time discovering Las Galeras. One day was spent at Playa Rincon, which is an amazing site. Fairly remote, it is a beautiful bay that is surrounded by green hills and palm trees. Just amazing. One of the best beaches that I have ever seen. Time was also spent dancing and drinking and playing dominoes. The greca was used too many times to count and pedicures were done. It was a great weekend, and I am so happy to have more friends at home. What a great family!!!

Mana!!

A bunch of us went to the Mana concert in Santo Domingo last night and it was AMAZING! We all had so much fun. Mana is a Mexican rock band and it was a great concert. About 20 volunteers went, as you can see from the photos. $400 pesos for the bleacher seats was totally worth it. I would recommend seeing Mana if you ever have the chance.

New Projects

I have been working on some new fun projects. The first one is that I added another English class, one for kids. The picture on the bottom is of my students. I hold class outside my house on my patio and it has been fun. Working with kids is always fun because I can incorporate games, art and other subject lessons into the class. We just did a map project where we talked about the United States and the Dominican Republic. We talked about similarities, differences and the fact that New York and the United States are not one in the same! It was fun.

My other new project is a group of guys that I am working with. They are in the picture at the top. I am facilitating a business course for them and then they will hopefully write a business plan to enter into a competition. They could win money to help them start their own business if the plan is well written. The six guys that I am working with are great. Really serious and really fun. I think that they will do well.

Adios Anett

My school was lucky enough to get another volunteer for two months. Her name is Anett and she is an occupational therapist from Germany. She spent two months working with the teachers and the students in the school, giving therapy to the students and training the teachers in certain techniques. It was a great two months. She made such a huge contribution to the community in the short time that she was here. It was sad to see her go. The students and the parents loved having her and they all have their fingers crossed that she will be back next year. We had a little going away party at the school, which is what all the pictures are from. There was food, dancing and singing. A very good time was had by all.