Week 45

Sorry y'all- there was a bit of confusion with my flights- there are two airlines that fly out of Dominica and the one I was booked on is having some industrial issues. The pilots have all been calling in sick for the last three days in protest of the chief pilot being fired on Monday. Leaving the island seems to be a game of chance so my mom doubled down (thanks mom!) and bought me a ticket on the other airline which only flies if there is good weather. I'm about to head to the airport with hopes of getting out today...

I promised you some body parts and I wanted to live up to my promise. In the interest of time we'll just do the best one: Boom boom. Your butt.
Common usage: Those hills doing you good. That looks like a home grown boom boom.
Miss Erin, you're boom boom is so big today!
You fell on your boom boom again?!

Can't wait to see those I'll see, to talk to others and to eat and drink like an American!

Week 44

As the year comes to a close (I only have one more blog post before I head home for the holidays) I thought I would share with you what was hot and what was not in Dominica during 2011 (this is also fulfilling a long time fantasy of mine to write a hot/not list.)

I In Dat Fancy denim rompers	Doe Call My Name Wearing a wet bathing suit under your clothes
Facebook privacy by using names like “Erin ‘Yoboyfrindalwayswatchinaftermyboomboom’ Skis”	Ironic engagement photos where both people look like they may cry
	Not ironing
KES the band	The Band
Church	Being “spiritual, but not religious”
Waking at 5 am to cook and clean	Waiting until after 9 am to call people
Step-ups (Ginger Wine and Rum)	Considering beer a booze drink
Matching your shoes, earrings, bracelets and eye makeup	Lota (read more about lota)
DeMarco’s “I love my life” (the song)	Erin playing country music
KFC	Girls trying to lift things

More importantly the Hands Across the Sea shipment came in! It is incredible! We’re creating an art program using the supplies and have started categorizing the books so

they are all ready for the kids to check them out of the library next term. The most exciting part (from my perspective) is that we are doing a class book project- each class will be using the craft supplies to make their own book. I think Grade 5 is doing a “Magic School Bus” book!

Thanks to everyone who donated! You are making a wonderful impact on Salisbury children’s lives!

No dictionary entry this week. Tune back next week for body parts.

Gangsta Robba Week

Gangsta Robba on the bus with his Hennesey and champagne glass. Sorry its so blurry.

Saturday night at minutes to midnight I was riding in a coaster (a big bus) with Gangster Robber (my long time enemy turned acquaintance) and his friend/my ex- suitor Kwai Kwai as they drank Hennessey out of stolen champagne glasses and yelled out the windows at American Medical students asking if they were lesbians or if they understood the jibberish Chinese these men were screaming at them.

This was real life.

In April, just after moving into my own apartment, I was walking home one evening when a man yelled at me from in front of a snackette across from my home to come over and talk to him. I approached hesitantly as he seemed drunk. When I got there he started berating me about not treating him with enough respect and how I need to come when he calls me. I felt as though this was overstepping some boundaries so I bid him adieu. As I walked away he screamed after me “you need to respect me! I’m Gangsta Robba, watch out I’m Gansta Robba!”

I ran home, locked all of my doors and turned all of the lights on as I hid peering out the window to make sure he didn’t come to my house to attack me.

I went to help in the Reunion Bar that night and tried to find out if he was someone I should worry about. My description of a drunk man with big sunglasses and locks (dreads) did not serve well in identifying him as it could be a plethora of drunk men with locks and big sunglasses. One of my friends walked me home around 9 pm and again I double locked all my doors and prepared for bed. When I looked up at the snackette he was still sitting outside drinking. Alarmed, and afraid of dying, I called our Dominican director who was unfortunately out of town. After a long internal debate I decided to call the security officer in St. Lucia who I get along well with in hopes that she could shed some light on the situation. When I rang her phone our Country Director (who is in charge of the entire Eastern Caribbean) answered the phone as she too was out of state. I was too embarrassed to tell him that I just wanted someone to tell me that no one would kill me so I muttered something and hung up. (A month later I found out that earlier that same night the Country Director had told the older class at their mid-service training that people should not call him late at night to ask about non-essential questions, hopefully he thought it was a well timed joke.)

The next three nights I slept with all my lights on and tried to tactfully inquire about this man, fearing that he was someone’s son or brother.

Eventually I learned that he was my neighbor and while a little crazy quite harmless.

On Saturday night I couldn’t get over that 7 months later Gangsta Robba and I had sat together at a wedding and he was now offering me Hennesey out of stolen champagne glasses. Until Kwai Kwai decided that it was a fun game to throw everything glass out the window of the moving bus and then Gangsta Robba went to sleep. Integration.

Ma Clem dressed up for the wedding.

Dominican phrase book: “Don’t call my name” I broke the cardinal rule in this post by calling Gangsta Robba’s name in this blog. Hopefully he doesn’t spend a lot of time on the interwebs. Calling someone’s name means saying his/her name, regardless of whether it’s good or bad, whether the person is present or not. Calling someone’s name is always a bad thing.

Ex.

Vexed woman: “She called my name in the meeting saying that I organizing snacks. I’m not in it anymore. She’s always calling my name and we don’t even deal.”

Erin: “But vexed woman, I thought you were making snacks? I’m sure other lady whose name I won’t call didn’t mean anything by it. Everyone is happy you fixing snacks.”

Vexed woman: “But I’m not in it. She needs to know not to call my name. She always calling names. I’m not in it anymore.”

Jungle Week

This is where I spent the week.

Dominica has made me certain that I have a fairy godmother.

I’m spending the week at the Waitukubuli Entrepreneurs Leve (WEL) Emerging Entrepreneur Retreat at Jungle Bay Resort and Spa. I got pulled into working with WEL by one of the older PCVs as the program is national and not directly affiliated with Salisbury. The program was the brainchild of the owner of Jungle Bay, Sam Raphael and a previous PCV who was assigned to the community Jungle Bay is in. The organization works to encourage entrepreneurship in Dominica by training young entrepreneurs in both hard skills (cash flow, sales and marketing, cost calculation, etc.) and soft skills (personal motivation, efficiency of time, leadership, etc.) during a one-week retreat and quarterly “re-connects” focused on participant requests. All of the presenters and speakers donate their time to the retreat. Sam spends all day with the participants teaching and coaching them.

It is an absolutely incredible project. Today is the last full day of the week long retreat; tomorrow we have an incredible speaker coming from St. Lucia to address this year’s graduates. The participants are incredibly diverse ranging from a grandmother to 18 year olds, participants who have studied business administration overseas or only have a primary school education, entrepreneurs who want to screw and nail manufacturing companies and those who want to develop their custom cake decorating businesses. Each and every one of them have blossomed during the retreat. They talk about their businesses during breakfast, while relaxing at night and on the daily morning hikes we take. They explain business concepts to each other and discuss collaborations. They love the human knot game.

The retreat has been a week of seeing the absolute best side of Dominica. Jungle Bay is the most beautiful place I have ever stayed. It is located right on the Atlantic coast in a jungle. The entire resort was built using local, natural resources. I’m staying in a cottage with an outdoor shower in the jungle and a porch with a hammock overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Beyond the physical beauty of the resort its existence is inspiring to the entrepreneurs. Jungle Bay is built on what was considered unusable land. The idea of an upscale eco-tourism resort was unheard of. Jungle Bay is now easily one of the most successful businesses on island.

It seems that Jungle Bay inspires everyone to be at his or her best. The participants have told me repeatedly that one of the best aspects is having incredibly successful and busy entrepreneurs and business people come and spend time talking to them. Reversely the people coming to speak love working with the entrepreneurs. There have been a number of speakers who hung around the rest of the day hoping to have a chance to answer more questions and spend more time with the emerging entrepreneurs.

Dominican Phrase Book: “If I plant you, will you grow?” When Nicole and Aaron were here we taught my friend “nose goes”, the “game” in which after someone says something that needs to be done, ex. going to Ma Clem’s shop to buy ice, everyone touches his/her nose and the last person to touch his/her nose must go to buy the ice. “If I plant you, will you grow?” is the Dominican version.

Erin is relaxing on the couch. From the kitchen:

Erin’s man friend: “If I plant you, will you grow?”

Erin: “Sure babes. The soil in Dominica is quite fertile.”

Erin’s man friend: “Watch in my wallet for coins for soap.”

Erin: “What?”

Erin’s man friend: “You said you’d grow babes. That means I need you to do a message for me.”

**A “message” is any kind of errand. Buying rum can be a message.

Erin: “That doesn’t even make sense. Is this payback for nose goes.”

Erin’s man friend: “Yes babes.”

“If I plant you, will you grow?” I really want someone to mail me a new pair of sandals. I’ve burst three pairs of sandals in the past two weeks.

My Plenty Long Post

Dominica doesn’t have daylight savings time. From April until October we’re in the same time zone as the East Coast and the rest of the year we’re an hour ahead. This morning I was calling the States and I realized “fall back” happened. It explains a lot of confusion in my life this past week but more importantly made me realize that I still thought it was September. The past two months disappeared.

Highlights:

· The Bills are a real team this year!

· The Sanquezes (Nicole and Aaron) came for an incredible visit to Dominica! We hiked to boiling lake, which is the hardest hike in the Caribbean (I’m not sure how much that is saying though as one generally does not think of the Caribbean as a hiking destination), swam under beautiful waterfalls, snorkeled amongst volcanic underwater geysers, almost died when I led us down a mud covered cliff into a ravine with only hand ropes to climb on (at about an 80 degree incline), ran a Creole game show, went to a Caribbean music fest and ate a ton of delicious food. Ma Clem was so upset when she found out I had not cooked them any real “food” that she prepared a meal for their final night that was easily 50,000 calories. We ate sancoche (a spicy fish stew with coconut milk), breadfruit, yams, green fig, fried fish, steamed vegetables and avocado salad.

I didn’t want to believe that I am a stereotypical PCV who would fall apart when visitors left but I absolutely am. Having them visit was so amazing and I forgot how easy it is to hang out with them in complete comfort. When they left I spent at least three days crying about everything. I cried one night when someone didn’t laugh at my joke.

· While the Sanquezes were visiting I ran a Creole Day celebration at my school. My school hasn’t done a celebration for the past few years so I channeled my Cradle Beach Camp energy and planned a Creole game show. The show, “Sa ou sav, sa ou pa konnet” (What you know, what you don’t know) was incredibly fun and incredibly long. There was a question and answer section, a flag drawing competition, a Creole poetry competition and a singing competition. I had invited Grades 4- 6 to perform as “special guest performers” but I was not prepared for the outcome. Every grade wanted to perform and each class wanted to perform all 3 of the traditional dances and sometimes a song as well. The 1 hour activity I’d prepared quickly became a 3.5 hour recital.

Miss Jno Baptiste and I hosting Sa ou sav, sa ou pa konnet. I'm the white person.

My favorite part was the band. Three boys played music for all the classes to dance to. The band sounded awesome and comprised kids playing a metal cylinder, a chair (which was later replaced by a bucket) and a PVC pipe.

The Grade K girls dancing to the band on Creole Day.

· The following week was Independence Week. On November 3^rd Dominica celebrated its 33^rd year of Independence. I joined the primary school at the National Youth Rally. I was incredibly proud watching the students march across the field in traditional march. Every school across the island sends a group of 10 – 30 students to march across the stadium and salute the Prime Minister.

Salisbury students marching.

The day after was National Day of Community Service. About 50 children and adults came out to help clean up the community.

· Sunday was Eat Fish Day in a neighboring village. I had been asked to organize a Peace Corps booth to sell fish cooked in an American way. We decided on grilled mahi mahi tacos. Mahi mahi is called dolphin in Dominica. I love telling people that we were serving dolphin tacos. Using the interwebs and George (thanks!) as resources we prepared about 150 tacos made entirely from scratch!

They delivered 40 pounds of dolphin on Saturday afternoon and thank goodness Ma Clem’s grandson saw us staring at the huge garbage bag of frozen fish (heads, skin and cavier included) and offered assistance. We went to the back of Ma Clem’s house and cleaned the fish like Dominicans- right on the concrete ground. We were short on cutting boards so Ma Clem’s daughter found a piece of wood, complete with rusty nails, washed it off and bam! a cutting board. The whole fish got used- we used all the meaty parts to grill, the skin and fat got soaked in rat poison to kill the rats in the garden and Ma Clem made a yummy dish with the fish heads.

Tortillas are stupidly expensive here so we made our own. It took around four hours for the four of us to make 200 tortillas but they were delicious. We topped the tacos with a yummy chipotle lime coleslaw, guacamole and pico de gallo. The festival was a perfect Peace Corps experience- explaining fish tacos was an adventure but totally worth the 20 hours of prep time when people came back for seconds.

Our net profit was $4 EC.

I’m back to weekly posts! Check back next week for Erin’s adventures at a fancy resort.

Dominican Phrase Book: “Check your scene” in honor of Nicole who took this phrase home with her. “Check your scene” means do what you want and don’t worry with me.

Proper usage:

Erin: “Babes, do you want to go to Mero this afternoon with the Peace Corps?”

Erin’s man friend: “Check your scene babes.” (meaning “I’m not going”)

Erin: “I’ll check you when I get back.”

Week 40

I owe the interwebs a plenty long blog entry but until then (hopefully I'll write it on Friday) I'd like to share some great things I heard this week:

I'm working with a Peace Corps Volunteer from the 1960's who lives in Dominica and served in Liberia on a project. We had lunch the other day and he began a story, "The man was absolutely objectionable- to any culture at any time." The story was about a man in Africa with 3 wives who was terrible. He was so awful that his wives would beat him up monthly. They would get tired of his ways and beat him up as the village gathered around to cheer them on. He would spend the next few weeks quietly nursing his wounds and then begin to bother everyone again. After a week of being terrible his wives would get vexed and beat him and the cycle would begin again.

I had a 3 hour bus ride home (it should take 40 minutes) due to construction on Tuesday. The woman sitting behind me was making plenty of noise. The two best lines were, "I was well far when God was sharing patience" and in response to someone telling her to plan for having children (she has one son and said she wants more), "I have it well planned. One to clean the house, one to move America and send my boxes, one to drive a bus so I don't have to wait on Sam (the bus driver who could hear all of this) to learn to drive."

I'll share more soon- when God shares some motivation to write!

Week 37

Mr. Evans sent hard copies of the Buffalo News article which I received on Saturday and passed along to Ma Clem and Glen John. Ma Clem's daughter is a secondary school teacher and read the story aloud at the secondary school assembly. I'm not sure if this will give me more or less street credit.

I've been stocking up on my Dominican specialties in preparation for my first non-Peace Corps visitors. I was trying to buy cacao sticks to make cacao tea (the hot chocolate like drink that is traditional here) but cacao is scarce now. (Things being scarce secretly makes me happy, because I can say things like "You doe find soursop now- its scarce," although I join in with everyone else making noise about it.) I asked Ma Clem about where to find some and today when I went in the shop for flour she gave me a little bag of her own homemade cacao, cinnamon sticks, some type of leaves and a whole nutmeg! Have you ever seen a whole nutmeg? I wish that I had a working computer so I could show you.

When I told Ma Clem I have guests coming next week she responded by saying, "Sir kills his pig this weekend. You'll have stew pork." Best I never rent an apartment again because all landlords will pale in comparison.

Dominican phrase book: "You'll" You'll is used here as a question word. It took me a long time to figure that out and I used to just assume everyone was very bossy. "You'll call me in the morning." But in fact the person is asking a regrets only question. An answer is only required if you won't be calling in the morning. My speech is now heavily seasoned (as opposed to lightly peppered) with "you'll" statements. You'll all think I'm quite bossy when you speak to me.

Proper usage:
Me: I want to go to the action at Macoucherie today.
Friend: After I prepare lunch I will go.
Me: You'll call me before you bathe to go.

My seamstress finished my National Wear this week. I wore it to church. Pictures to come.

Week 36

**Some adult language is included.**

1. I am almost 1/3 done with my Peace Corps service.

2. My computer black screened on Friday while I was trying to upload pictures of adorable barefoot children running around a track and noone on the island fixes Macs. (I find this particularly humorous because I had played with the idea of creating an entirely tongue-in-cheek blog where I would complain endlessly about all of the things the develloping world is lacking- mainly Mac stores and large cheese selections- and post sad videos about how I couldn't buy 90% cocoa dark chocolate anywhere. Now I have the perfect opportunity to do so legitimately.) So my posts for the next two weeks will be limited to using other people's computers and thus quite short. But the short posts will culminate with my first American visitors, the Sanquezes, and Independence celebrations which I'm sure will produce posts so long that noone will be able to bear to read to the end.

3. This morning I woke at 6:00 am (late for Dominican standards- people often call me before 7:00 am or just show up) to two men arguing next to my house. The one man was screaming at the other man, "I'll cut your Mom's pussy!" while weilding a cutlass (machete). Both of the men's mothers are 70+ years.

4. I bought several pounds of yellow fin tuna out of the back of a truck yesterday and then realized I didn't have any money with me so the fisherman drove me home to get money.

Week Love and Marriage

Today I went to the Northwest Division Athletics Competition with the Grade 4, 5 and 6 students at my school. It was a track meet for the schools in our division to decide who will go to the National Competition. I brought my inner camp counselor today. I walked with (brought with me) poster board, markers, face paint, snacks and plenty of cheers. The setting was gorgeous- a field right on the Caribbean Sea in a village about 10 miles north of Salisbury.* I'll try to put up pictures this weekend.

I had a wonderful time, especially as we were the only school cheering. My favorite moment was after we all prayed together (every meeting, school day, meal and class begins with a prayer here) the kids were sent to run a warm up lap. It took a minute to begin because they all bent down to take off their shoes. Most of the children performed all of the track and field events barefoot. I laughed at our culture when I thought about those glove running shoes and how people take classes to learn how to run barefoot.

I want to share with you some of my observations and thoughts on love, marriage and family life in Dominica. The easiest description of the differences in “love” was when I was talking to my host mom and the Pastor we teach with. The Pastor asked me if I “love” the young man I’ve been dating (about 3 weeks after we started dating), I had a look of panic and replied that I “really like him”. The Pastor stared at me in a confused manner for a moment before my host mother explained that, “Americans don’t love like Dominicans, they ‘really like’.”

The structure of romantic relationships here are very different as well. It is quite common for a couple to have children together, buy a home together, and be together for 10+ years before getting married. A couple I know, who have a 16-year-old son and an 11-year-old son, who are active members of the Catholic Church, are celebrating their 10^th Wedding Anniversary and 20^th Anniversary as a couple next week. One of the American stereotypes here is that we “love getting married”, that we get married quickly and often before we’ve actually started a life with someone.

This post was inspired because I read a description online that claimed Dominica has predominantly single-mother families with absentee fathers and no family structure. That is entirely untrue. Dominica has an incredibly unique situation. Some families are constructed exactly like a traditional nuclear family in the US with a mother, father and children. But often children are raised in a single parent household however they are not raised by a single parent. You’ll see children living with their mothers but because their fathers live in the same community they have strong relationships with their fathers. Even when a child was conceived in an extramarital affair his/her father is actively involved in the child’s life. It creates a fascinating web in such a small community of siblings through the mother who live in the same home, siblings through the father who don’t live together and siblings who are not biologically related but their parents are in a relationship. My favorite family web is the two brothers, Fred and Mike*, who have the same mother. Fred’s sister (through his father) is Marie. Mike’s brother is Greg (through his father). Greg and Marie are now married. Sometimes the family tree reminds me of the song, “I’m My Own Grandpa.”

*Please note that we are NOT discussing the Bills loss this week.

**Names have been changed- the real names are much more Dominican.

Dominican Phrase Book: How to describe your relationship:

“Loving”- In a relationship with, ex. “She’s loving that black partna in Layou.”

“My man”/”My woman”- Your boyfriend/girlfriend

“Going behind”- Chasing after a woman, ex. “He’s going behind that big girl with the butt.”

“Make a break on”- Having someone else set you up with a person, ex. “Make a break on your nice friend for me”, translation “Tell your white friend that I like her”

“Fanm de wa”- Woman on the outside, ex. “His wife must know his fanm de wa.”

Week Fame and Hurricanes

Huge week for the Buffalo Bills and the Bills Bar in Dominica! I hope everyone enjoyed the Buffalo Bills making Tom Brady cry like a little girl as much as we did in Dominica. The only thing that came close to rivaling that this week was being quoted on the front page of the Buffalo News about Tom Brady’s girly hair http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article568402.ece

That’s right. The Buffalo Bills Backers Bar in Dominica was featured on the front page of the Buffalo News on Saturday morning with a big picture of Ma Clem, Glen John (my neighbor) and myself. I am still quite excited about it. There will be nothing better than giving Ma Clem a huge framed picture of herself on the front page of the newspaper!

Since I wrote this on Tuesday I have not had electricity or water. Dominica was brushed by Hurricane Ophelia and it was ugly. Flooding, landslides and unpassable roads were the norm for the past two days. Being incredibly lucky I didn’t have to leave my village and avoided spending countless hours stuck in a bus or walking through knee deep mud.

I have been better about storing water for times when the water goes out (about once a week for around 18 -24 hours) but I was absolutely not prepared for 48 hours. I had plenty of drinking water but no cleaning water. I had to step up my indoor survival skills by doing things like collecting rainwater and manually pouring it in the toilet tank to flush my toilet, screaming at anyone who approached my refrigerator to make sure NO coldness got out (luckily I have a Dominican style refrigerator which has an icebox that has to be defrosted which I whine about but because of it the 5 pounds of chicken wings I purchased are still frozen), putting up a mosquito net at 3 am while holding a flashlight, and most importantly making sure that your faucet is closed even when the water is off lest you come home to an entirely flooded kitchen that makes the straw mat, handmade by your landlady, smell like a moldy barn.

Luckily everyone is safe in Dominica and all of the damage was to property and not people.

But still- this is some rough damage:

Stolen photo of Massacre- a town south of me

Dominican Phrase Book: “Current” is used instead of electricity and it is referred to as an object.

Example:

Adorable Grade 3 student when the lights went out: “Miss! Miss! They took the current!”

Neighbor: “Air-een, did they give your current back yet?”

Week 33

I had both a Buffalo miracle and a Buffalo whatever-the-word-for-uncertainty-about-whether-it-is-a-good-or-bad-thing this week.

First and foremost, the Buffalo Bills Backers Bar in Dominica had access to NFL on NBC for the first time ever for exactly 32 minutes on Sunday afternoon. Those 32 minutes were the crucial 4^th quarter of the Bills embarrassing the Raiders. For clarification, that was the miracle.

The uncertainty was on Monday afternoon when I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. I have not “topped up” my phone this month so I have almost no credit. Dominicans don’t leave voicemails so call screening is irrelevant. As it will cost me money to call people back, I now answer every phone call regardless of whether I know who is calling. The gentleman calling was none other than the towel guy (TG) from my post about networking in March (to refresh your memory he came out to a networking session in just a towel and mimed to sit down at us before he returned to yell at everyone about their Godlessness and only liked me because his children live in Buffalo). He informed me that he had a project to be written up and had requested assistance from a Peace Corps. He was directed to me by the Peace Corps office and was “pleased that is was the girl from Buffalo”.

I met with TG on Tuesday and while I was more prepared for the meeting it was still just as ridiculous. He showed up in a full boy scout uniform. I complimented him on how nice the building looked, windows and doors had been put in and it had been painted. This was the wrong thing to say. The group that owns the building had decided that they want to use it again after TG and his group repaired it. The project TG wants to work on is building a new rehab center because they have been asked to leave the building. I asked if they needed to leave soon, TG told me they need to leave in March. I explained that there was no way to get funding and build by March. He informed me that they had to leave by March 31, 2011.

The project he wants to work on will be incredible if he is successful. He donated a plot of land adjacent to a river in the south of Dominica and wants to build an eco-friendly, organic farm/sustainable rehab center. His idea is to have a center, which improves and protects the land around it while providing a rehab program. He wants to clean the river and reintroduce native species that are endangered, plant trees to increase the water level and maintain an organic farm, which will provide work therapy for the clients and sustain the center financially.

The need is extreme (there is not a single alcohol or drug rehab center in the nation) and his program is already quite successful (they have reintegrated into society 12 out of the 60 people who have come through the program). The project will be enormous though. The land is not yet “accessible by transport” thus a bridge will need to be built before anything begins, there have been no surveys of the land and while he wants a building that “flows with the landscape” no such building prototype or architect has been identified making it impossible to produce any sort of budget.

So the idealist in me agreed to come on board of the now two-person team as the grant writer.

No Dominican Phrase Book this week. Check back next time.

Week Bills are going to the Superbowl!

Let’s go BUFFALO! The Bills Bar in Dominica was open this week (although the bar did not actually have access to the Bills game but I wore my Bills shirt and booed for every team on TV). We kicked off the season with the Dominican equivalent of chicken wings- spicy chicken back stew. It was delicious.

School started again last week. I had a double ear infection (both of my ears had swimmer’s ear that became an infection because the water stuck in them was dirty and then infected my ear drums) so I only went on Thursday. I’m working on many of the same projects I was doing last year; tutoring children who are very behind in classes, working with Hands Across the Sea (you can still donate to get us more books and art supplies for this year!) to set up the library, cleaning up the computer room, etc.

I’ve added on two projects that I am incredibly excited about. I’m working with a young woman in Salisbury to set up a resource center in the unused building above the school. There are some Salisburians living abroad who came back for Reunion and offered to collect donations to send down for the center. We’re envisioning a big open room with a reading corner, tables for tutoring and homework help, a craft area and using the stage that is already in the room to have some theatre programs. Currently there are no consistent after school activities (there are sports that happen on and off one day a week after school) and its clear that some structure would behoove many of the children. I’m hoping to incorporate a peer tutoring program (like the one I had last year) into the after school program as well.

My second project is expanding the House competition. The students are divided into four houses that currently only compete on the biannual Sports Days. They have house assemblies once a week, where instead of coming together as a whole school they meet by house. The summer camp lover in me saw this as a waste of potential competitive spirit. Where are the cheers? The songs? The inappropriately serious rivalries? Most importantly, why are we not using this to con children into cleaning and participating in activities that they would otherwise not care about? Thus I have worked with the principal to create a much expanded house competition system to encourage academics, cleanliness, school spirit, sports and active participation in all my future projects. If you know any good cheers please send them this way! Next week I’ll begin teaching house chants and the Bear Song.

Dominican Phrase Book:

Waist pain. When I was a child I was painfully dramatic, a hypochondriac and a whiner. Apparently everything that came out of my mouth was in a whine until I was around 7. My mom still teases me about my waist pains. I used to complain that my waist hurt all the time, which was due to my waist cancer. I’ve found my people. Dominicans all have waist pain and they talk about it incessantly.

Strong, grown man: “Air-een, my waist is so bad. I been taking rum all day and the pain in my waist not leaving me.”

Middle-aged woman: “You know when you start bleedin’ and you waist does hurt you all the time.”

Small child: “Miss Air-een, my waist is broken!!!”

Adorable children anecdote:

The children have begun calling every interaction they have with me a “club”. Some children came over and played UNO the other day, everyone wants to join the UNO club. A little girl borrowed a book and I have had many requests to be part of the book club. There is also a baking club, a bay club, a slinky club and, my favorite, an essay writing club.

Week 31

EMERGENCY UPDATE: I completely forgot to mention that last week I ate accra, a pancake made out of tiny fish without bones, and over the weekend I ate black pudding, sausage made out of congealed blood. I am using these as my two biggest integration steps for my Peace Corps report. BLOOD SAUSAGE!

Most of the moments when I want to laugh out loud by myself happen on the bus. This is quite troublesome because there is nothing to pretend I am laughing at. I’ll table bus stories for a couple weeks after this.

Yesterday morning I heard the bus pass up the hill so I grabbed my partially packed bag and a banana for breakfast. I got on the bus and ate my banana before we left Salisbury. The bus was not full and I had nothing to put my banana peel in so I held it curled up in my hand. As we left Salisbury the woman next to me who I have never seen before yelled at the driver, “Aaron, stop a while at the trash!” Aaron pulled up alongside the trash and I thought, how lucky, now I can throw away my banana peel. Before I had a chance to the woman next to me strongly advised, “Throw that ripe (as opposed to green bananas with are a starch Dominicans eat) banana peel in the trash now!” I threw it and turned to see if she wanted me to throw anything but she did not. She stopped the bus to allow me to throw away my banana peel. I was not sure if this was incredibly kind or rather rude that my banana peel was so offensive to her and she was so bossy.

During training the Dominica Associate Director (Patrick- who is outstanding) told us a story/joke. Two men leave their respective villages, separately, to find a new place to live. The first man reaches a new village and finds an old man sitting at the entry to the village. He asks the old man, “I’ve left my old village in search of a new place to live. What are the people here like?” The old man responds, “What were the people in your old village like?” “They were all a** holes, that’s why I left!” The old man spends a moment thinking, “They are exactly the same here!” The man mutters about jerks and walks off. A bit later the other man looking for a new village to live in sees the old man and says “I’ve left my old village in search of a new place to live. What are the people here like?” The old man responds, “What were the people in your old village like?” “They were wonderful! They were so kind and generous. Leaving my village was very hard.” The old man doesn’t hesitate and says, “They are exactly the same here!”

I try to remember this story whenever I’m unsure about whether I should be offended or not.

Dominican phrase book: “Where da road be?” The Chinese Government has a large rather complicated agreement with the Dominican Government to donate/lend the money for several big infrastructural projects. There are many political issues that I do not completely understand but if you like developing country politics be sure to look into it.

One of the projects is the repaving and building of a road down the west coast of Dominica. The road before was painfully terrible, with so many potholes that you weren’t quite sure what level the road should be at. The repaving has just reached Salisbury. Salisbury is perpendicular to this road with one main road and 2 feeder roads coming off of it. Starting last week each time I leave Salisbury and come back someone asks, “Where da road be?” meaning “Where are they currently paving the road?”

Favorite usage:

Teacher at my school: “Air-een, where da road be now?”

Me: “Ummm… in front of the school? Which road? What?”

Other teacher: “The road is just so, I saw it this morning. Where Frederick for Sylvia’s son lives. Just so by the church.”

1^st teacher: “Frederick’s son with the green van?”

Other teacher: “Wi. Air-een, you must have seen that coming down from town.”

Me: “Oh yes, it was just so.” (Just so is the correct answer for any direction question. You point in the general direction and say “Just so.”)

Here are lots of pictures of my friend Kyle’s visit. Luckily he takes pictures.

Kyle in front of the waterfall we will climb tooth and nail to reach.

The treacherous ascent to the waterfall.

Kyle made it to the waterfall!

Kyle trying to heal his scrapes and bug bites in a natural, hot sulpher pool. I'm not sure why he looks so uncomfortable. Maybe because this was the 7th picture I took trying to make him not look blurry.

Bubbles coming up volcanic fissures in the Sea at Champagne Beach

A fish

Scott's Head- I think I've already included a picture but we snorkeled to the shelf (where the water gets darker is a HUGE underwater cliff) that day

Me- snorkeling at Champagne, although it also looks a little bit like I've drowned

Coral snorkeling at Scott's Head

Week 30

I had my first real cry, during my time in Peace Corps, this morning. I checked my Peace Corps feelings schedule and sobbing uncontrollably at 7 months was planned which reassured me that my feelings are not unique. It was a mixture of homesickness (feeling so sad about missing Charlie and Sarah’s wedding, seeing a beautiful picture of Nicole and Ashley’s garden, missing throwing a faux-hipster engagement party for Emily and Greg, not being able to hug Kristen on her birthday and missing pizza and beer with my family in Columbus- I also miss the rest of you a whole lot!) and feeling exhausted by living in a constant state of confusion. One would think that with all my Dominican colloquialisms and booze recipes understanding simple daily plans would be… simple.

In the beginning of the summer the lady who took me out for Carnival asked me to teach her 13-year-old daughter to swim. I was thrilled because Peace Corps taught me that the summer would be painfully boring which would lead me to make bad decisions that would impair my ability to change the world. Fortunately my summer was not at all boring (check out the video of me scuba diving http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150277669768892) so today was my first free morning to go to the beach with the young lady.

I pulled myself out of my cry fest (with some help from a Dominican friend who made me a delicious breakfast that did not involve cold, canned cornbeef or hotdogs- as most Dominican breakfasts do) and did like the Peace Corps instructed and went about my day instead of wallowing in my misery. I walked up to the girl’s house and her grandmother was outside peeling grapefruits. Her grandmother is in her 70’s and has been back and forth between the hospital and bedrest since I arrived. She instructed me to go in and start squeezing juice. I stared blankly until she brought me a knife, a juicer, a strainer and a pitcher and then she left. The girl came out almost ready to go followed closely by the grandmother- in her bathing suit (called bath suit in Dominica). We were at approximately 1 mile and 1,000 feet elevation from the beach. I started panicking. Was the grandmother coming swimming with us? How was I going to get her down the enormous hill? How was I going to get her back up the hill? Should I be teaching her to swim? How much sugar do I put in the juice that she keeps telling me “not so much sugar” before I’ve put in any sugar?

Granny finished dressing and the three of us headed down the hill with Granny taking the lead (apparently the past month she has been doing p90x- that is a joke but I have no idea how she went from bed rest to a speed walker). As she passed her friends on their porches she mocked them for their sicknesses that prevented them from going for a “sea bath”. Then Granny hailed a bus, told the driver “I vex with you for not having a drink by me” and “best you drop us at the sea” which got us a free ride down to the bay.

We reached the bay and before the girl and I had our towels out Granny was in the water swimming. She ran into some of her friends, arranged a ride back home for us and pulled down her bath suit to bathe topless while giving her granddaughter pointers on swimming back stroke and complaining about lazy Salisbury fisherman in kweyol.

The morning did not quell my feelings of absolute confusion but at least it changed my self-pity into comic relief.

Dominican Phrase Book: Words regarding the beach and swimming

The Bay: the beach and the sea

Bath suit: bathing suit

Sea bath: going swimming in the sea

Sea bath: the cure to any ailment

Test your knowledge:

Ma Clem: Best you go by the bay for a sea bath to come back. Doe wet your hair. You lookin like you take too much stress.

Erin: Just now. De lady is goin to make noise with me and den I go.

Week 29

Sorry this is so late but nothing happened this week. Not a single thing. Just kidding. My friend Kyle, a Peace Corps Volunteer in St. Lucia, came to visit and it was awesome. We visited some beautiful places, I snorkeled for the first time, I lead us into a terribly dense, un-navigable forest where we got covered in ant bites, Kyle taught me to make homemade flour tortillas for our fish tacos with guacamole, and we visited another village’s feast and danced on the beach in a Tropical Storm warning (for Hurricane Irene before she became a hurricane) which reinforced that Salisbury is hands-down the best village in Dominica. Only about 150 people turned up for their feast (more would have shown up in Salisbury even if there was an actual hurricane) and they opened the night playing songs from Salisbury’s Reunion.

I’d like to use this opportunity to talk about riding the bus. The buses, as I’ve described before, are actually 15 passenger vans (pick-up trucks here are called vans) with flip-out seats in the aisle. One would think that people would file into the bus filling in all the seats to allow for ease of loading new passengers. When I first arrived in made me furious that instead people do not fill the bus in any logical way. People sit in the aisle seats before the rows are filled and for the 10^th – 15^th people getting on the bus half the bus unloads to let them on and reloads back into their seats. I sat balling up my hands and chewing on my cheek as what could be a 40-minute bus ride became an hour, in a non-air-conditioned van with 15+ people. Then I sat in the back row a few times. It is treacherous. There’s no air circulation, they cram 5 people into a row and every pothole feels like it is throwing you through the roof. So now I also climb in and out of the bus 4 or 5 times each morning to avoid the back row.

Buses are privately owned here. Usually on my bus home from town (I only go into town about once a week) someone on the bus will yell “Stop a while” in one of the villages we pass on the way to Salisbury. Sometimes he/she gets out of the bus to relieve his/her bladder on the side of the road. Sometimes another person runs up to the bus and collects a bag of chicken from a passenger on the bus. Sometimes the person gets out of the bus walks into the village and we all wait on the bus with no indication of what is happening for 5 – 10 minutes. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. About a month ago I was walking up the road to drop something for a woman when a bus was passing down. I got in the bus and asked (questions here sound like demands which is an entirely different sense of confusion) the driver, “Reverse up the road a while for me to drop this for Auntie Connie.” Sure enough he proceeded to reverse 50 yards up the road to Connie’s house and made all the passengers wait while I went into Connie’s house to drop her package.

Dominican Phrase Book: Doe (pronounced like a female deer) means don’t. Sometimes I still have trouble figuring out if people are asking me a question, “Doe you go there?” (Do you go there?) or yelling at me, “Doe you go there!” (Don’t go there!)

Patron at the Reunion Bar: Bush rum and I doe wan’ ice.

Confused Peace Corps Volunteer: You do or you don’t want ice?

Patron at the Reunion Bar: (louder) I DOE want ice.

Confused Peace Corps Volunteer: I’m sorry I just don’t understand- do you want ice or not?

Patron at Reunion Bar: Titus, gimme a bush rum and I doe wan’ ice.

Titus: In a while. (Immediately brings the man a bush rum with no ice in it.)

Curse of the Golden Chain Week

Post-reunion Salisbury is in mourning. In the past week and a half two young boys have died in dangerous accidents. The first accident was during the second week of Reunion when a boy of 15 slipped to his death at a cliff named soloma (in kweyol: if you die, you die) where many young boys jump into the sea. Just hours after the boy had been buried another young man (around 23) was riding a motorbike that went out of control and ran into the house below my apartment. The boy died on the spot but ambulances in Dominica are not allowed to collect bodies of people declared dead so his body was left there for 2+ hours on Saturday night. My porch overlooks the steps the boy died on and I haven’t been able to sit on my porch since. It was the first dead person I have ever seen.


Salisbury is swarming with rumors. According to the bef (gossip) in the village the first boy to die was responsible for beating up and stealing the gold chain of a Haitian woman who attends my English Language class. The second boy who died allegedly bought the chain from the first boy. Thus the Salisbury’s “Curse of the Gold Chain” was born. The boy who bought the chain from the second boy buried it in the cemetery and a round the clock prayer circle for him has been formed.


I have many opinions about this but best (see below for grammatical problems) I do not share them with the internet. To sign up for the “Curse of the Gold Chain” mailing list email me.


Dominican Phrase Book: starting thoughts with “best”. “Best” is used in place of “Would you please…”, “I would appreciate if you…”, “I think you should…”.


Usage: Someone calls me on the phone to request that I deliver a Reunion T-shirt to them by 8 am.
Said person: Best you reach by 8 am when I make for work.
Erin: It would be better for me if you didn’t go to work today and instead passed by my home for the t-shirt.
Said person: That does sound like the best idea. You are such a good problem solver Erin!


Just kidding. I would never say that. Also I love the way “best” is used so much that when people use it I’ll jump as high as they want.


Your first Dominican recipe:
Peanut Punch:
1 bottle of cask rum (local rum that is not bottled that will burn your nose hairs off which you buy by bringing a container to someone’s home or a small shop which they fill up. Appropriate containers include: gas cans, Nalgene’s, empty rum bottles, to-go cups, etc. If you don’t live in Dominica best you use the cheapest, strongest clear rum you can find)
18 oz. of creamy peanut butter
2 cans of evaporated milk
2 cans of condensed milk
Vanilla essence
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Water
Brown sugar


Blend whatever quantities you so desire until it is a creamy texture (like a melted milkshake) and tastes delicious. Bottle and serve over ice.


A picture of me and a guy I work with at the Oldie Goldie party (he is also a customs officer so you may see him when you reach Dominica):

Week 27

Reunion is over. It feels a bit anti-climatic as it has been my only project since the end of June but I also feel incredibly relieved. Last night I woke up in a Reunion Event panic, feeling certain that there was an event about to happen that I had not yet prepared for. It was actually an earthquake, just a little tremor. Nothing to worry about according to my neighbors. We are sitting on 9 active volcanoes which makes it a bit scarier. I’d like a statue of me in a Bills t-shirt on the site if I die in an earthquake.

Describing Reunion is almost impossible. Hundreds of people from Salisbury, or whose parents were from Salisbury, came down from the rest of the Caribbean, the US, and the UK. Salisbury is a village of 1,800 so the 300 – 400 people who visited made a huge impact on the community. I loved meeting the Salisburians living abroad and it was fascinating to think about them having the opposite experiences I am having. Realizing all the cultural adjustments they face, without 2 months of training, was very humbling.

Friday night (July 29^th) we hosted a Calypso show in our community- the show started around 10 pm and I left early at 3:30 am before it was done. As Wilmina (a Peace Corps visiting me) and I headed home we passed dozens of people heading down the road to get ready for Jouvert (a parade starting at 4:30 am that is a big moving party that follows a truck playing music). Around 5:00 am we woke up to hear Jouvert passing up the hill and at 6:00 am woke again to hear them passing back down the hill. We left my apartment around 6:30 am to head down to the Market Day event, which showcased the agriculture in the community. It was a hilarious experience. People had been up and drinking for 12 hours were dancing in the road alongside pious farmers who had set up booths to sell produce. After Market Day I headed into town to shop for the next three events (Saturday night’s jam, Sunday night’s jam and Monday’s beach day) as stores are closed on Sunday and Monday was a holiday. I was put in charge of buying 600 pounds of chicken thighs and wings, 15 pounds of goat, several rabbits and 2 gallons of local rum, which is bought in containers that we use for gas in the US. I didn’t realize that the next logical step would be skinning and cleaning the 400 pounds of chicken. Meg, Kelly and Jenna will remember when I moved in and asked how to cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts. That was about 2 years ago. Until Saturday I had still never cooked chicken that was not boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It was trial by fire as 4 of us cleaned and seasoned hundreds of pounds of chicken (please note that I was the slowest and least useful so I should not be complaining). Once everything smelled like raw chicken I returned home to shower and prepare myself for the party. Another Peace Corps, Jeff, had come to help and we headed to the party at around 9:30 pm with no idea that we would not be returning home until 7:30 am. At 9:00 am we were woken by a text message from the Peace Corps that a storm was headed right for Dominica and we should prepare ourselves to consolidate (gather all of our important possessions and head to a hotel in town). Jeff headed home and I prayed for consolidation to avoid an afternoon of cleaning chicken and a night of serving drinks in the bar. My wish was not granted but I had a wonderful night and made sure to “free myself up” that evening.

Luckily the rest of Reunion was a bit less hectic.

Dominican Phrase Book: “Making noise”

“Noise” is a complaint or an argument. “We have noise” means we have a disagreement or “I’m angry with you about something”. Men are always telling me they have “noise” with me, generally because I don’t chat with them enough or dance with them. I’ve taken my Outward Bound training and now respond with “thanks for your feedback” which is confusing to everyone. “Making noise” is complaining loudly and angrily. During the first 4 days of Reunion we ran out of food at every event. People were always making noise at me about it.

Usage:

The Chairman of the Reunion Committee and I were walking down to the last celebration of Reunion, a Block-o (block party) and the music truck had still not arrived. It was 9:30 pm and the party was scheduled to begin at 4 pm.

Mr. Chairman: “Air-een, I’m not going down until the truck arrives, everyone’s going to be making too much noise.”

Erin: “Wi, I’m not taking any noise. I’m going to tell them I didn’t know Block-os had music.”

I’m walking home from a meeting and the man I had yelled at months ago for trying to sell me fruit late at night stops me on the road.

Angry man: “Air-een, I have noise with you!”

Erin: “Yes?”

Angry man: “You saying hi to me but never stopping and you never say my name, you say good afternoon, you making me vex (angry).”

Erin: “Thanks for the feedback.”