------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ May 10, 2007 }
Mango season is starting
I've been in Santo Domingo since Friday and I'm heading back to my site shortly. Christina, our PCVL (Volunteer Leader) for my group is coming up to my site to see how everything is going and will stay the night. I came first for medical (which has gotten much better) and also for language training, which I am leaving early from. I had a nice weekend last weekend where I stayed at Sarah's house and relaxed, saw Spiderman 3 and read. It was a nice little break.
Monday I went to Pantoja to stay with my Santo Domingo host family and have language training. There were only 6 of us so it was a good small group (3 classes). We got to do pretty much whatever we wanted. We played dominoes, listened to music, went to an art museum where there were Picasso drawings and got some evaluation. I knew I wasn't really going to learn anything new, but I wanted to know if I was making any consistent mistakes in the language in order to work on them, but my professor just told me I'm doing fine, mostly self-correct when I say something wrong, and have developed a campo accent where I cut off words. Well, what do you expect? I'm sure it will be that way for a while. It was a pretty relaxing atmosphere and I'm glad I was able to make it.
I got a huge surprise last night...one of my PCV friends is pregnant and is going to early terminate and marry a Dominican. I was struck speechless when she called last night, as this came mostly out of nowhere. I'm still floored.
I mentioned before that the DR was having a competition for Quality Coffee in the country. Well, Juncalito did fairly well for itself. There were 3 different categories that were judged. We won 2nd place in the group category. There were also categories for individuals and individuals that are associates. One of our associates won 1st in the associates category and 3rd in the individuals overall, and a grower from our area won 1st in the individuals. The winners are guaranteed a certain price above market for a fixed quantity of coffee but I believe we've been contacted by some others who are going to pay more. This is an excellent opportunity for my association so I hope this shows the socios that producing a high quality coffee pays off even though it is a difficult process. These winners are only the best of our coffee, and we have a lot of socios who really need to work on their quality. There are so many stages in the production of coffee that there are a lot of chances to mess it up and change the flavor in a bad way.
I may start teaching English classes soon. Other than that, I'm working on a report of the coffee that we've sold since 2004 to see how much per month, at what prices, etc. to know our capacity and its growth. This is going to be very helpful while working with exporters and others interested in buying our coffee. It doesn't matter so much for the internal market where we sell the majority of our coffee but clearly we want to get away from that. I'm enjoying my house and looking forward to Patronales in June. Patronales is a celebration for the patron saint of a town and it lasts for 9 days and there are a lot of parties and activities. It should be a lot of fun.
Posted by katie at 10:39 AM | Permalink
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ November 19, 2006 }
My site: Juncalito
I just got back to Santo Domingo from visiting my site, which is located in Juncalito. It is a little town in the mountains of the Cordillera Central (one of the DR's several mountain ranges), in the middle of the country. I will be working with the Asociacion de Caficultores de Juncalito. I didn't really want to work with a producer group, but my counterparts are really nice and this site is probably the closest thing to Jarabacoa there is out of our group. It's nice that I won't be baking in the southern part of the country for the next 2 years and instead get to enjoy the crisp air and beautiful mountain scenery. This was just a preliminary visit, and I'll be going back for good in a week, when I will start to do my organizational and community diagnostics to figure out what exactly I'll be doing for the next two years.
The Association wants more sales outlets and to expand exporting (from my basic understanding at this point), but from what I gathered in the short time I had this week they really need some work on Mission, Vision and goal creating, as well as organization and fundraising. I'll have more on this later...I won't really know what I'm doing until I have a chance to analyze the organization completely.
My family is really nice. The mom is a teacher at the school and the dad has a colmado. They have 3 kids- 1 16 yr old girl, 15 yr old boy and 10 yr old girl. I met some people in the community, but I will admit to being nervous at this point. It was easy in Jarabacoa because I also had 3 other Americans with me but now I will be completely on my own and although I've done the whole move to another place without knowing anyone thing a few times, this is completely different. I am excited though to finally know where I'm going to be and to get started.
Posted by katie at 01:35 PM | Permalink
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ October 07, 2006 }
Jarabacoa
OK this is going to be short because I´m at a less than stellar internet cafe in the city...taking a quick break from walking around the city with a few friends. Monday morning I leave for CBT to Jarabacoa and will be there for 5 weeks. It is in the mountains and is supposed to be beatiful, but is a lot more rural than where I´m at now. I won´t have a phone at my house and will only be able to get to a computer on the weekends. I´m also pretty sure my house won´t have electricity.
I will put a little hint in here though...I can still get mail. HINT. Thanks, mom, for the package. Things I will always welcome include books, candy, cards, pictures and anything random that will make me think of you.
Busy week this past week included the following: visiting a public school to see the education system, day long seminar with a coffee cooperative including a coffee tasting, stalking tourists to interview them about their purchases, just to name a few. I will need patience with my new family, as they have 3 kids whose ages I don´t know.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!!!!
Posted by katie at 02:20 PM | Permalink
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ September 22, 2006 }
Site design
Quick shout out of THANKS to Justin for making my site look awesome!!! You're great and I really appreciate it.
Posted by katie at 12:20 PM | Permalink
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ September 20, 2006 }
New family
OK, I will get to the public transportation part but I have to cover something else first. I moved families yesterday. It was not a great situation at my other one- highlights being that I was locked out of the house 3 times and never offered a key despite not so subtle hinting, the parents were never at the house so I spent most of the time with my 14 year old sister who is not disciplined and made comments about me in Spanish to her friends while I was there because she thought I didn't understand, and because the brother and his girlfriend were making out and my friend came over and wasn't sure it was my house but they completely ignored her and me and continued on. So I talked with the family coordinator- I was going to just stay and deal with it because, in reality, I'm only here for 2 more weeks now, and then 2 more weeks after my CBT (Community Based Training) but they really wanted me to move so I did. I went out w/my new sister and her friends last night and it was really fun- we went to a karaoke place that also played some merengue. Yes, I sand and yes, it was fun and embarrassing. It was neat b/c they have random instruments scattered around the room and people will just pick them up and play them with the beat- drums, cow bells and this Dominican instrument that I can't remember the name of. It's like a cheese grater sort of and they rub something against it to make music. I'll meet the mom shortly- she was out of town for a funeral yesterday and didn't get home until today.
Tomorrow (really, really early) I go to Samana to visit the another volunteer until Sunday. I'm really excited to hear about what she's doing, get a break from regular training and see another part of the country. What's going on with you guys? Send me some emails!
Posted by katie at 06:49 PM | Permalink
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