Un chin chin... Dominican Republic

After looking forward to this trip/job for months it hasn't let me down yet. For those of you who don't know I am working for a program called VISIONS Service Adventures. The company itself has handfuls of different sites around the world for teens to sign up for and volunteer with the locals. It is something I would have done in a hearbeat as a kid and now I am getting paid to be here.

The trip itself started with a weekend adventure to Boston and training the Conniticut for six of our sites. Although training was a challenge for me, sitting the WHOLE day learning the things I know will come in handy, it was great to connect with people who have very similar stories and even more similar interests. Hearing all the cool things people have been doing really got me thinking ahout other future opportunites.With that said it sounded like one of the jobs that those people returning enjoyed most and found most rewarding was VISIONS. The photo blew is all of us before boarding our flights or taking a few days if rest bride it all gets started.

Upon departure I knew someting was different. I exeperienced the luxery and strange feeling of traveling  with people. I met a few of my new coworkers, Sarah and Chris, at training in CT and we took off together for the DR for  our first week consisting of set up and preparation. Having training so spaced out made us all a llittle anxious to get there. We flew late at night and were greeted by our director Alberto, our carpenter Santos (Alberto's father), and our support staff Juan de Dios. At first I was a little antsy, I haven't spoken Spanish since I left Guatemala almost a year ago and many people we met at training are extremely fluent. But that aniety went away when they brought out the fresh pineapple, banana, and melons. Something about fresh fuit can really make you feel at home. Furthermore the fact that I was understanding the conversations we were having quickly killed the anxiety I was having on the plane surrounded by a whole new accent and a whole new vocabulary... Even as a write this I am trying to write in Spanglish.

Our first day in the Dominican started off slow and relaxed. We were greeted with fresh fruit and eggs while sitting outside in our new neighborhood. As we layed out plans for the week Alberto really helped us to understand the importance of VISIONS in the specific community and how it fits into their current political system. We then set out for a day of touring our new house and walking to the local market to get what we needed to make some progress the first day. After returning we were greeted by part of a big and amazing community that has been by our side ever since. There are a number of Dominican boys/men who do whatever they can to help us and the mission of VISIONS. They spent a good two hours perfecting our welcome sign for the participants and have spent many hours since moving stuff into our houses, helping with meals and overall clean up,and most importantly adding a lot of Dominican flavor and volume to everything we do. 

The people of the DR are different than the other Latin Americans that I have met in my travels. They still have the open arms and positive attitudes that I confronted in both Peru and Guatemala, but they add a big BANG to it all. By far Dominicans are the loudest, most disruptive, and easiest people to make laugh. There is never just a simple distribution of duties. It must be done with a lot if talking over one another, a lot of jokes about this and that, and loud music in the background. I say this is the most positive way because it is extremly energizing to see how everyone in the community- literally everyone- can communicate with such expression and passion and still get everything done much more creatively than any American (even my Echo Hillians) could think of.

What has been best about this first week is truly learning about the country and creating the experience for ourselves. We had a chance to relax on the beach Boca Chica for an afternoon and we have hardly eaten anything that wasn't truly Doninican in some way. With that we have really learned the bonds and divisions that exist in this country and how we are going to be playing a big part in a story much bigger than ourselves or our participants. The Dominican has a number of national problems one of witch is poverty, felt the most by the Batey communities. Bateys are Haitian immigrants who don't have citizenship in Haiti or the Dominican Republic. The Dominican constitution specifically says that all people born in the Dominican Republic are automatically Dominicans- exept for Haitans. This keeps them in a no mans zone that really increases their suffering. Now to understand why we have to go back to the 1800s in the 1840s the Dominican gained its independence for Haiti. Since then the history books have painted in Haitians as evil people. Not only that, but the Hiatians speak French, they practice Vudoo, they have different food; they are a totally different people on one island. The last thing that creates tension between the Haitan, Batey, and Dominican communities is similar to the US Immigration debate. The Haitians will come in and work here for less- theoretically taking those jobs away from the Dominicans. With all these pieces set you can see how much of a cultural rift we are seeing, and how much suffering has and does occur on a daily basis. VISIONS side by side with many other organizations that Alberto either directs or facilities have in mind sustainable solutions to hit the problem where it starts. They are investing in developing a community focused on the eduction of the children-starting in preschool. They have motivation to build schools, provide scholarships and create a productive community in which everyone can prosper. Being a part of something that has a future and a future in the people it is helping is truely a relief and a sense of accomplishment for me. I normally have conflict with volunteer and aid normally because it creates dependency, but we will, and have, put the power on the hands of those directly impacted by the community's success and be able to create a system they can prosper in under their own control. Out projects this year will be a summer camp, English classes, finishing a community center, and constructing a community garden to top off the school VISIONS started five years ago in the pueblo San Luis. 

As the last member of our team comes today we are nearly ready for participants. It will be interesting to see what sort of kids come our way and how that will impact the dynamic we have created here. But here is to what looks like a rewarding as successful summer!!

Eastern Shore Once More

There is something to be said about returning to a place you know and love. Lately, with how vagabond-esk my life has been, the feeling of returning has been a foreign concept to me. Returning to EHOS this fall was an enchanting experience.

Last fall felt like college (in a way) all over again. I crammed more knowledge than into my noggin than I thought possible. I learned all about the Chesapeake Bay, the history of this area, aquatics, survival, and much much more. I was confident in our approach to experiential education and had the fundamental facts mastered. This season has been much more enriching. The kids have really empowered me and every encounter with a new group has brought a new energy and a new way of learning. Additionally, I have been able to add an impressive amount depth to my knowledge and really apply it to my every day life- I am constantly curious to learn more from all of my coworkers and the schools that come through here. Rather than wanting to visit friends in nearby areas over the weekends I found it much more enriching to spend a day canoeing through the swamp to see what new forms of life and colors might have popped up in the glorious spring sunshine.

What has really amazed me is spring itself. Being in Montana and North Dakota spring was more of a dreary happening during which the snow turns brown and eventually the grass turns green from the melt off. The changes that happen here in Maryland are much more gradual and of course colorful. We started season with the surrounding ecosystems full of brown with little movement in and along it. As spring quickly snuck up on us there were little things sprouting everywhere. Leaves the size of my finger nail lined our swamp board walk, buds on trees were turning the tips of the red maples a fire like, and miniature animals of all shapes and sizes were making their first spring appearance. This may seem so normal to some of you, but for me this was utterly fascinating and it kept my attention consistently for three months. Every day I would see a new color catch my eye in the form of a bird, fish, bud or flower. One of my coworkers truly discovered my obsession with colors one day while we were canoeing through the swamp when my thrilled exclamations about the rainbow of colors fully exploding all over the swamp filled our afternoon  along with his girlfriends enthusiasm about any movement happening in and around the swamp . As spring developed and summer approached more and more, when I thought things were pretty set and grown for the season BOOM the lush green plants took over everything. Our adventure course was almost unrecognizable because of the wall of green blocking the view of the other side, we even woke up to a baby goat surprise!

There were also some really great excursions over the past three months. We spent one of our first weekends brewery touring in Delaware and visiting the beach in eastern Maryland. A spur of the moment weekend trip brought is to Black Water National Wildlife Refuge where we explored some more marshy areas where I got the chance to break in Sarah's new fancy car with mucky hand prints and of course see all sorts of cool creatures. Another weekend was spent camping at Maryland State park with a swamp right behind our campsite. We hiked around and explored the area only to come up with the best got it sequence of beautiful and ecosystem equaling swamp. Yes, I may be a little in love with the swamps around here which is why I also jumped on board a weekend program to take kids marsh mucking. I don't mind making a little bit of extra dough while doing something I had been voluntarily doing in the weekends past.

Yet this season we saved the best for last. Chestertown is the nearest center of population to EHOS campus. Every year they celebrate the Chestertown Tea Party on Memorial Day weekend. The weekend is kicked off with a fundraiser run for a local school. A few of my coworkers and I decided to participate. Some of us did the 5K and others of us did the 10 miler. I have to say that ten miles is the perfect distance to run at a race, and I discovered afterwards that is was much more fitting for me than I thought. I ened up placing second in my age group for the 10 miler, I have to say I wasn't prepared to hear my name called after all the race festivities because my short legs really don't give me much pace. Yet, it was really thrilling! The rest of that day was spent helping at our booth and wandering the cool local artists that had set up camp for the day. The highlight event of that Saturday was the Tea Party reenactment. It is said that when the Boston Tea Party occurred Chestertown followed suit to protect their beloved Chester River. A big part of the EHOS staffs puts together a reenactment of this event where they hold a town meeting and then march down to the river to literally throw the red coats overboard along with the boxes labeled tea. Beyond the questioning of historical relevance it was really fun to see my coworkers totally in their colonial element. The next day went by in a whirl wind. The Tea Party has an annual raft race in which you have to put together a raft and oars to race around some buoys in the Chester River. Some staff members and me got up and rolling on our raft the morning of. We attached a whole bunch of five gallon water bottles to bamboo and used lunch trays as oars with a letter of EHOS tapped to every one. They called us an optical illusion once all five of us mounted the boat. Our boat was completely submerged for the entirety of the race, yet despite Echo Hill's track record we finished the race AND didn't even come in last. We were rewarded afterwards with a can of farts and the Biggest Spectacle award- which was quite accurate since half of the race to crowd spent cheering us on to the finish line. Not too shabby of a showing for a race day construction!

Along with all the things described in the first part of this post I was most happy to be able to share this home with people who mean a lot to me. About half way through the season my parents were able to visit me, and after spending three days in DC doing the tourist thing we were all more than happy to make our way to the Eastern Shore. I think my parents understood instantly why I like it out here. It is peaceful and full of life and things to be learned around every corner. They got spoiled out here and got a ride on the Annie D up the Chester River, and, despite their initial apprehension, I got them up and down the zip line. We enjoyed some good beer, some great seafood, and the mellow pace that the Eastern Shore of Maryland is so well known for. In addition, one of my best friends from elementary school was able to make a weekend stop. Sophie came at the perfect time in which the humidity  was to intense to do much more than sit on the beach. So sit on the beach we did ALL day. It was lovely to enjoy the sunshine and the refreshing brackish water of the Chesapeake Bay and to share a place I call home with those who know me so well.

As I am leaving EHOS (for now) yet again for another adventure south of our borders I feel completely alive. I am inspired by the nature all around us and want to continue learning more. What is more I feel pretty lucky to be able to explore the various types of education that American students experience. I have seen students from inner city Baltimore public schools out here, charter schools, small private montessori schools, and everything in between. Each student walks away from here a bit stronger and with a bit more knowledge, whether that be about nature itself or more importantly themselves. It is a great opportunity to be able to provide such a positive experience for such a large range of youth who all seem to leave this place beaming. I hope to only be able to imapact others as much as this and other jobs have allowed me to do.