This week our first shipping container for export will go out to Japan! After a lot of issues in preparation and logistics we are finally there. Of course, after this one goes out we get to go through it all over again for the second container, but at least with a better understanding of the process. I am in the capital now so I will hopefully be able to check up on how everything goes in the final stages. Yesterday I had a sector meeting with all of the other CED (Community Economic Development) volunteers and our director about improving the project plan for future trainees. I'm not sure it was very productive, especially since we did the same activity at our 1 year training event, but it was nice to see everyone at least.

In May CODOCAFE put on the second annual DR Quality Coffee Competition. Again the Association and Juncalito area cleaned up in prizes. The Association won 4th, one of our associates (also VP of the association) won two first prizes and two other farmers from the area won prizes, 2nd and 5th respectively. Out of 11 prizes awarded, 5 were out of the Juncalito region.

I am working with the Technology Center on various projects. At the center, I will be leading a youth group based on health issues including, HIV/AIDS, sex ed, self esteem and others and also starting an income generation women's group which will include giving talks on savings and money management as well as creating and marketing a small product (such as floor cleaner or bleach). In addition to these projects with the center, we are working on a grant request for creating scholarships for basic computer classes for children as well as educative weekend camps covering a variety of topics. The grant gets sent through Peace Corps and funded by donors in the states, including friends and family of the volunteer, so you may be receiving letters from me regarding this. For less then $20 a child can take a basic computer course. We are working out the details of the project to decide how many scholarships we are going to include based on the needs of the smaller communities surrounding Juncalito as well as Juncalito itself. I'm excited about this project because a lot of kids really want to learn but come from very poor families and can't afford the classes. They also know that it's incredibly important for them to learn about technology for their futures.

Last weekend one of my best friends in my site got married. It was a nice, small wedding and I had a great time although I will miss her in Juncalito because she moved to Santiago with her husband, who lives there. I will post pictures soon.

In May Susan and Brandon came down to Punta Cana and I met up with them at the resort for a few days. It was beautiful, relaxing and went by way too fast. It was a lot of fun despite the long trip to get there. I left my site at 7 am and didn't get there until around 9. I spent about 2 hours of that in Santo Domingo waiting for a bus but the rest was all travel time although it was more than worth the trip and I hope they come back again. Hint hint!

Posted by katie at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rainy season is just starting. The past three days have seen heavy afternoon showers so I will be taking my umbrella around with me everywhere. Last year it rained nearly every day in May so this year I am prepared. When Im in my house I love hearing the rain pound the tin roof. It completely drowns out any other noise and gives a great feeling of solitude. Also, now that some very generous people (my parents) donated a laptop to the association I will actually be able to get work done during rainy season if I am stuck at my house and cant go anywhere.

The Association is still heavy into the harvest and we have been very busy getting coffee prepared for our exporting contracts. The first shipping container is supposed to go out by the end of this month and the second in May. It has been hard getting all of the coffee dried because of the rain starting up but we are getting there. There is so much involved in the process of exporting and we are working hard and crossing our fingers that there are no major problems. So far just the rain, but our drying tunnels have plastic over them to prevent the coffee from getting wet. Obviously it wont dry as fast in the rain as it does in the sun but at least the workers dont have to run out and cover up the coffee every time it looks like it will rain. The second Quality Coffee Competition is coming up as well so our farmers are getting their coffee ready for that. We got a filing cabinet donated also and I have been wanting to close the office for a day just to organize the immense amount of paper that is in our small office but it has been hard to arrange it because of all the farmers that come in during harvest time.

I was playing in a volleyball tournament. My team lost but I enjoyed playing a sport again as it had been quite a while since I had played one. They get really into it…Ive only ever played backyard volleyball after barbeques or at the beach so Im not that good but I was getting better. The tournament is still going on and some of us will probably get together and play some when it is over.

Mom and dad came to visit last week and it was a nice visit, although short. We came to Juncalito and they met Alberto (my boyfriend) which was interesting. We had a sancocho (Dominican stew) dinner with a bunch of friends of mine. It was fun but my throat was dry by the end of the night from all the translating as my friends dont speak English and my parents dont speak Spanish. Mom understands more than she lets on though; I am convinced. Everyone remarked on how young my parents are and enjoyed either meeting them for the first time or seeing them again, as it was a year since the last time they were here. After Juncalito we went to the beach in Cabarete and Sosua with Cat, another volunteer. When we went to the beach at Cabarete, we went into a bar for happy hour just in time as it poured buckets about 10 minutes after we sat down. Fortunately we had cards, dominoes and free refill beer for happy hour. What more can you ask for on vacation? We also went to the Centro Leon, which is a museum in Santiago. There was a really well put together exhibit about baseball in the Dominican Republic that had the history of the sport in the country, how to play, information about Dominican street baseball and also about all of the players that have gone and played in the States.

Posted by katie at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a great time on my trip to Saint Louis for Kim and Jake's wedding. Matt and Maura came out from Boston so I spent most of the time trucking around town with them, getting together last minute wedding details and observing all of the 'interesting' statues that we seemed to run across, and I'm not talking about the arch, although we did visit that too. It hailed one of the days I was there so I got to experience some of the winter weather that I haven't really seen for a number of years. I finally got to meet Jake, who I had been hearing about for two years. He's a great guy and I am very excited for both of them. Congratulations you two. I will post pictures of the trip when I get the chance.

I got back to the DR on Monday but I haven't made it back to site yet due to lingering tooth issues. I had a dentist appointment yesterday and I couldn't get a follow up until tomorrow because today is Independence Day and everything is closed, so I am trying to catch up on some emails and research that I've been meaning to do. I can't wait to finally get back to Juncalito and to getting some work done. I got a filing cabinet donated and once it gets to Juncalito I want to have a big spurt of office organization. Other association projects I need to get a move on for are another accounting program (which I found out about thanks to another volunteer and is much better and more easily tailored according to business needs), follow up on grant proposals for our big infrastructure project, and creating marketing materials. I also really want to get another computer (preferably a laptop) for them because the one really isn't sufficient for all of the people that need to use it. My parents are coming to visit in April so if anyone reading this has or knows of someone who has a used but in decent condition laptop that they would consider donating to my association please leave me a comment or email me at kdevinedrv@gmail.com and we could coordinate getting it sent to my folks so that they could bring it down.

My English class will be starting up again after a two month break next Wednesday. It was going to start today but as I am stuck in the capital for dental reasons it has been postponed. Classes will be with the same students (+1 who already has some English experience) but will be once a week on Wednesdays and focused on comprehension and pronunciation. I tried to find some helpful materials at Borders in St. Louis for pronunciation which is the most challenging area for them but I didn't find anything that I really liked much. If anyone knows of some good materials, websites or anything for teaching specifically pronunciation I would love to hear from you. We have covered the majority of basic grammar points so, aside from some initial reviewing and covering whatever may come up that we haven't done yet, I want to more get them comfortable talking (talking so that they can be understood, that is). I have a lot of respect for teachers...I enjoy this class because it is all women and am grateful for the experience but thoroughly appreciate that teaching is not for everyone and requires much patience, something which I admit I lack.

I may have mentioned that in Juncalito there is a girls' home for girls that go to high school in town but live in farther out campos and have to walk hours each day to go to and from school. The home exists for them to stay there during the week instead because many students don't go to school due to these conditions. There are certain rules of the home as far as the amount of time they are allowed to spend outside of it for activities other than school. I am probably going to start a curriculum with them called 'I Choose My Life,' which includes lessons on self esteem, planning for the future, sex ed, HIV/AIDS and others. Part of the curriculum also encourages the facilitator to teach the youth how to give talks and subsequently share the information with the community. I am excited about this possibility as I miss working with youth and they are very important topics to cover that are certainly not covered in school here. There are also several regional and national conferences in the country which would be nice to go to. I'm also considering trying to do an income generation project with the group but we haven't started anything yet so that would be in the future.

Posted by katie at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There isn't a lot new since I wrote last but I wanted to say that I have put some new (or relatively new) pictures on my picture site. Go to the link that says 'my pictures' and under the categories of Corys visit, Association, and Juncalito (and under Juncalito 'boys birthday party' and 'English class') there are a number of new pictures. It takes me a while to load them on the site and I am still working on it so keep checking.

On Tuesday I go back to the US to St. Louis to go to Kim's wedding. I can't wait to see her, Maura and Matt and finally meet her fiance Jake, but I am sure I will freeze, as noted in Kims comment on my last post.

I'm fairly certain we are exporting this year. I can't talk about details until it actually happens, but it's an excellent and very exciting opportunity for my association. I may be going to Carnaval on Sunday before I head to the states but I'm not sure yet...I hear it's a lot of fun and a bit crazy. Should be a good time.

Have a great Valentine's Day! (Here it's the day of love AND friendship.)

Posted by katie at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I last wrote I've been through another tropical storm, to and from the US and we have started a new year. I'll start with before Christmas. My Association participated in the Artisan Fair in December again this year but it was much more successful and less stressful for me, mostly because I was working with other volunteers who were also selling coffee and cocoa so the support was much better. We sold a good bit of coffee and I enjoyed the fair overall. 2 days after the fair ended I was still in the capital working on some other things when we got the news that another tropical storm was coming in but this time the Peace Corps wanted to consolidate everyone in Santiago, Santo Domingo and another town in the south. This was just a few days before I was supposed to be going to the States for Christmas. At first I thought I was going to get stuck consolidated in the capital and was worried because my flight was out of Santiago and I thought I wouldn't make it back to my site before I left. I did end up getting to go to Santiago, where we were consolidated for 3 days, but I didn't make it back to Juncalito so I had to buy shoes in Santiago because all I had with me were sandals and I didn't have a lot of clothes packed, but at least I made my flight!

I had a really nice time over Christmas. Brian picked me up from the airport and I had a bit of culture shock going to a trendy wine bar for the first place that I ate at, but it was interesting. I got to see Bill, Ashley, Susan and Tom in Maryland which was great. I'm glad mom and dad moved from Texas so that I could visit some friends even though it was brief. The rest of the time I was in Virginia Beach with the folks- it was nice and (mostly) relaxing. I got one of the most useful gifts I've ever receive this year- a battery powered lantern for when the power goes out! Perhaps not so useful but entertaining was the Jack Sparrow action figure that 'Santa' gave me...

I made it back to the DR with no problems and had a fun new years here, dancing it in Dominican style until 5 or so in the morning. Since I was out of my site for a full 3 weeks, I spent the first week and a half back mostly catching up with people in my town and having lots of cafecitos as well as hearing about all the good Christmas parties that I missed. Their way of trying to make me feel guilty, that and 'what did you bring me?'

I was proud of my association for actually filling out a grant proposal that I had been mentioning for a while before I had left. I would not have necessarily chosen the same projects as priorities, but at least we have got the ball rolling on some more infrastructure for the future as the amount of coffee that we are buying from our members is growing rapidly, as well as interest from foreign buyers. Not so encouraging was the accounting situation (shocking, I know). They had entered the information in the spreadsheet while I was gone (great!) but not balanced it with the cash drawer and check book (not so great). I spent an entire day making a months' work of accounting balance. We are getting there, slowly but surely. If I leave nothing else done when I go, I hope they keep doing that. Laly, the secretary who was on maternity leave, is back, so I am working on teaching her how to do it. It's not hard but I think part of the problem is that they are slow on the computer and know that I can do it much quicker so they try and see if I'm going to do it for them. I must not break down! Still working on that patience and it's coming slowly but surely.

During IST (which was before the Artisan Fair) we got to go to a baseball game and that was a lot of fun. My team (Las Aguilas/The Eagles) won the game and they just won the Final Series. The Caribbean series is here this year in Santiago with Venezuela, Mexico and I don't remember who else. I might go to a game on Sunday. I'm in Santo Domingo for committee weekend, which I usually don't come to but because I'm now president of the Coffee Committee I considered it important that I come. Now I just need to figure out what we're going to discuss in the meeting.

The other day I went to one of our campos for a meeting with some socios and the roads were so bad that 2 trucks got damaged and we had to walk a while and ended up going the rest of the way on a motorcycle. It was quite a trip- it should have taken a little more than an hour but it took over 3! Good thing for once that the meetings here never start on time anyways, so we only missed a little. It was worth going though- I hadn't been to Cerro Prieto before and it was beautiful. It's about 1380 or so meters above sea level and you can see really far around from the top where we had the meeting. It was definitely chilly up there and when I went back the other day with Roque, our tecnico, it was cold enough to see your breath. I know that's not much for home but that's freezing by Domincan standards.

Posted by katie at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This guy from my area made a deal with the former administrator of the association about a farm that the association owned that he was going to run it and if there were a certain amount of profits he would get some benefits from it. That is what I (and my project partner and board of directors) have understood. No one is 100% on the details because the administrator no longer works for us and it was a verbal deal. Well, the farm ended up losing money. The guy, who was never actually an employee of the association, later claimed that we owed him money and that the deal was more of him as an employee, which is not true. Because he wanted to get money out of the association, he hired a lawyer. The sum of money really wasn't all that high, but he had no right to it, so the board of directors, mostly influenced by my project partner, ignored the first court date that was sent to us. The second one was sent over the summer while Francis, my project partner, was in the States and so no one went. Finally, a third order is sent for the end of October and they were going to go because it was getting drawn out. Several times other members of the board had tried to come to an accord with the guy and it didn't work out because he is greedy and just wants a lot of money for nothing. The day before the appointment, he and a member of the board supposedly reach an agreement on a sum of money just to get rid of the case and that they don't have to go to the court appointment the next day. The guy shows up anyway and mentions nothing about an agreement. 2 or so weeks later there is a warrant of arrest out for Francis, who is the president and therefore representative of the association, for evading the law by not going to the appointments. This is a Thursday and there is another appointment the following Tuesday. Sitting in jail for the weekend was not really in his plan so he waited over the weekend and then the whole board of directors went to the appointment on Tuesday and straightened out the warrant, however, the guy never showed up so they have another court date for December. Who said life in the campo is boring?

I had a fun Thanksgiving. Every year there is a big Peace Corps Thanksgiving event at a country club in Santo Domingo and while not quite the same as at home, the food is really good and it's nice to be with fellow volunteers. Friday we had the annual All Volunteer Conference and today through Wednesday I have my one year IST (in service training) with the other volunteers in my project sector who came in at the same time as me. Because of that (and that we have to be at the office at 8 this morning), I stayed in Santo Domingo all weekend. Otherwise I would have left Saturday morning to come back yesterday afternoon so it wasn't worth it to go home. Yesterday Cat, Laura and I went to the botanical gardents. It was really pretty and refreshing to go there because there are not many green spaces in Santo Domingo and we don't ususally get a chance to do tourist things when we're here because there is often so much going on and so little time. Laura, Cat and I stayed with an Embassy family and it was relaxing and fun. We cooked them dinner on Saturday night and then last night Karen cooked dinner for us. They put up their Christmas tree on Saturday also and that definitely put me in the Christmas mood and made me even more excited to go home.

After IST I am going back to Juncalito and we will hopefully have our Assembly on Thursday. Next week I will be back in Santo Domingo for the Artisan fair but it should go much smoother than last year. Should.

Posted by katie at 07:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I realize it has been about 2 months since I have given much of an update. Since then, I've been through 2 visits, a tropical storm and my project partner having an arrest warrant out for him, among other things. I'll start with the first visit.

At the end of September Maura, Matt, Andy and Justin (4 friends from USC) came to visit. First we went to Sosua, a beach on the Northern coast in the Puerto Plata region. Aside from Andy gettnig attacked by a sea urchin (it had to be Andy), it was very nice and relaxing. We stayed at a motel run by an American woman which had a pool and great pancakes. I naturally dazzled the crew with my taxi negotiating skills (read- giving lots of attitude and walking away when charged too much). After the beach, we went to Juncalito, where we went on a hike up to the coffee processing plant, the boys bonded with my little neighbor Jeury and we had an all around awesome time. They participated in my English class (which was on Matt's birthday) and learned to dance merengue and bachata. Before I sent them off to Santo Domingo, we stayed one night in Santiago, where Maura and I yet again dominated in Taboo. Fortunately there was no Trivial Pursut or we would likely have reversed our winning streak. I was sad to see them go but it was a very memorable trip.

During all of October we were working on preparing for the Annual Assembly of the Association. We had to get all of the year end financial information together for an audit. (Forget all those times I suggested working on this prior to October.) So we did all that hard work and then the day of the Assembly there were less than 50 people total due to Tropical Storm Noel, so it has been rescheduled for November 29th. Aside from that, I gave up on both Quickbooks and Cafelio for various reasons and set up an accounting spreadsheet myself in Excel to start at the beginning of October (our fiscal year) and so far it is going well. My test for it is when I go home for 2 weeks to see if they do it while I'm gone. I'm hopeful though- I think they really see the benefits of keeping up with the information after the struggle to get all the information together for the Assembly.

Also in October I helped at a training activity for the new volunteers and one day the Association had an activity at a more advanced coffee plant and toasting factory. It was a lot of fun and the socios really enjoyed it. At the toasting company they did a campo coffee drinks class and taught us how to make cappuccinos, rum coffee drinks and more.

I had a great birthday. There was a party at the bar on my birthday with a merengue group and they sang to me. We stayed and danced until 2:30am. My English class had a "surprise" party for me too during one of our classes (they secretly just didn't want to work, although they brought a cake so I was ok with that).

On November 3rd Cory came to visit, which was another really fun visit. We came to Juncalito, had a dinner with my English class (with a little dancing, of course), hiked up to the coffee plant and hung out with my friends. Cory got to experience all of my favorite things in Juncalito: walking up the mountain, my friends, coffee, dulce de coco, chulitos, dancing and, of course, dominoes. She was starting to get good too. After Juncalito we had a long travel day (4 busses and 2 taxis) to get to a resort in Bayahibe. It was wonderful! We mostly ate, drank and lounged on the beach from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon. We also went kayaking and saw Grease, Dominican style (not recommended). Then, sadly, she had to leave (even moreso because it was so early in the morning) and now all my friends keep asking when she's coming back. (Hint Cory!)

To keep you in suspense, and because this is already really long, I'll save the arrest warrant story for the next post, which should probably be next week.

Posted by katie at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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