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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ November 26, 2007 }
Evading the law...sort of
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
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ November 16, 2007 }
2 months later...
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
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