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 (1)

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)

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)

Within the past month I’ve been to Santo Domingo more times than I care to say. I’ve made a personal record of going three times within one week. There is only one thing that could possibly cause me to venture into the heat, humidity and unpleasant bustle of the capital so many times in such a short period of time- that’s right, a medical problem. The first trip was actually for the previously mentioned Coffee Committee meeting, which went well. We have 2 new members from the Agroforestry group, established key areas for the committee and held elections. I’m the new president, although it’s really just a title. A few short days after I headed back to m site, my ear became blocked up and started to hurt, which caused me to ask people more times than normal to repeat themselves. A quick call to the medical office resulted in the decision to go back on Monday. By Thursday there had been no improvement so I called again and went back in on Friday (visit number 3), this time to see a specialist. Here’s where the fun starts. You can’t make an appointment with the PC recommended EENT but have to go to the office in the open time window. The doctor was supposed to arrive at 5:30, which turned out to be closer to 7. I was the second to last person to be attended to, despite having arrived before many other patients. No problem. I just wanted to hear out of my ear. Finally, I went in. After looking at the ear, the doctor retrieved a spray bottle and squirted liquid at my ear. When I asked him what he was doing (it must have just slipped his mind to inform me), he replied that it was anesthesia. Anesthesia?! For what, I’d like to know. Before I had time to inquire, the doc came back and started shoving something, painfully, in my ear. Explanation? No. I responded with some ‘Ows’ and ‘That hurts;’ all I got was ‘Calm down.’ But really, how calm was I supposed to be with someone forcefully shoving an unidentified something into an already painful ear? Once Dr. Pain was satisfied with his work, he told me that it (whatever it is) was supposed to open my ear and that it should come out on its own by Monday, but if it doesn’t, I can just get someone from my campo to take it out with tweezers. (Uh…excuse me?) By the time I left it was dark and almost 9pm. I tried calling several taxi companies but no answer. Erica and a friend walked to come get me. I called a PC doctor the next morning because I was uncomfortable having something shoved down my ear without a satisfactory explanation. She took it out and it had actually helped a lot, however, I certainly hope to never have to go to a DR doctor again. My fourth capital visit within the month was to get the ear checked one last tie last eek. All better, but I just got an email to schedule my dentist appointment in November- something to look forward to.

Despite that unforgettable experience, it has been a good month. A former volunteer left me a camping oven- a collapsible square oven that I can use on top of my stove. I’ve already made good use of it, including several birthday cakes, one of which a group of us took to a friends’ house at night when she was asleep to serenade her (don’t worry, it was with a CD; I didn’t sing).

I wanted to do something fun with my English class so I assigned them skits with different topics to do in English. They went all out and used costumes and props. One groups’ skit was in a doctor’s office with a crazy patient. They didn’t quite, as I’d hoped, looked up medical vocabulary, however, they worked very hard perfecting the crazy lady and learned important phrases such as ‘Shut up!’ and ‘Go to hell!’ She also tried to light a cigarette during the skit but the fan was on strong and 4 matches blew out before she was able to do so. I haven’t laughed so hard since I’ve been here as I did during that class.

With the Association we are getting ready for the annual assembly with all of our associates before the new harvest begins. I want to start working on a grant to get more infrastructure for the association but that will have to be after the assembly.

Maura, Matt, Andy and Justin are coming to visit for a week. They will get here this weekend. I can’t wait! I have now been in country for over a year. The time is flying.

Posted by katie at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week the East Lake Community Church HS youth group was in the DR for a missions trip in Jarabacoa and a campo outside Jarabacoa called Boma. Getting to spend the whole week with them was so refreshing, not only because I got to speak English and be with awesome people, but also because I have not been communicating with God lately and being around youth enthusiastic about serving the Lord was truly a breath of fresh air for me and my faith.

I had a hard time getting in touch with them to meet up due to some cell phone problems but I thought I would do the Peace Corps thing and wing it by jumping on a moto and hoping to find them. How many groups of Americans can possibly be in a small campo at one time? Fortunately it worked out fine and I ran into them on Monday while they were bringing in supplies for the week to the campo. During the week the group worked on various projects including digging a latrine, clearing away and digging out the foundation of a house, clearing rocks from a pathway to make it passable when it rains, hauling sand from the river to mix cement, putting on tin roofs and conducting 2 childrens' services. The kids worked really hard and did an awesome job. Some of them were the youth I was with when I worked with the junior high group and they have grown in every possible way- physically, emotionally and spiritually- and it was so amazing to see them getting their hands dirty and also forming relationships cross-culturally when they don't speak the language. There were also several youth that I didn't know or not very well before and I really enjoyed getting to know them and see how God is working in their lives. Lexi brought me some goodies from Cory (thanks!) and the new Harry Potter book (gracias a Ashley and Bill), which I have already finished. So nice of them, and Lexi for bringing it all! The youth also gave me a bunch of their snacks that they didn't eat on the trip so, all in all, I left with considerably more than what I came with. I was definitely tired when I got home because we all got up at 4 am for them to get to the airport with enough time on Saturday but it was a great trip and I hope they come back while I am here for another trip.

Saturday and Sunday after they left I wound down a bit and prepared my talk to the Agroforestry and Environmental volunteers on Monday, which went ok but they were mostly tired from having a good time the night before. I did get to see a pine tree nursery run by Plan Sierra and a beautiful botanical garden in Janico, as well as hang out with one of my favorite Spanish teachers from training. This week has just been busy catching up at the office and doing a lot of work- yesterday we had a visit from CODOCAFE and the French Development Agency, which funds part of PROCA'2, the loan side of CODOCAFE. I talked with the 2 guys from the Development Agency and it was interesting to hear about some of the other countries they have worked in, including Morocco, Chad, Lebanon and others.

Right now I am in the technology center while my adult English class takes their exam. Several of the class members did not show up so I will have to decide what to do about that. I'm not overly suprised, although somewhat disappointed.

Next in the office is to really get into Cafelio and get the loans all computerized. I know I have talked about that for a while but one computer isn't a lot, especially when there is always something going on that needs to be done. Little by little we are moving forward and I am pleased with how far we have come even though there is always more to do. I am fortunate in that I have people that want to learn and work because just that can be a challenge here sometimes.

Posted by katie at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can definitely say things have been quite busy lately. Right now we are working on getting the budget together for next year, including the amount of loans that we are going to solicit from PROCA2 and in which areas we are going to solicit them. In previous years, the association has sent a request without consulting the socios, usually late, for loans and then gotten the loan around January or so, well after the harvest has started. This year we decided that we were going to plan more in advance and also consult the socios to get an idea of how much they will need for the upcoming harvest. Because there are many small campos around Juncalito and we have nearly 200 socios dispersed among them, we are visiting most of the campos and having small meetings with the socios, explaining about the budget and planning and subsequently filling out solicitudes for loans for each socio, which will then be evaluated by the Credit Committee and compiled to create a budget proposal. I'm not giving the meetings but I am helping and it is good to go to some of the communities that I either haven't been to or have only been once or twice, and see the socios where they live. Helping them understand the importance of planning is a challenge, and I'm sure the whole process will need tweaking for next year, but it is a great move in the right direction.

Apart from that, we are still working on loan recuperation. There are still many accounts that are unclear, but after a few meetings with several socios, I would say we have cleared up at least half of the cases. I am hoping by the end of the summer/before the next harvest to computerize all the loans with the Cafelio program, but am also working on creating files for each socio on how much coffee they have sold and at what price, as well as how much coffee the association has bought monthly, to get an idea of our capacity and how it has grown and changed since the association has reopened.

English classes are going well. I spoke with my adult class and we decided to extend it to be 12 weeks total instead of 6. I won't be extending the kids' class...it is like pulling teeth to get them to participate. I realize that that is a product of how school is conducted in this country, but as I only committed to 6 weeks, I am just going to leave it at that.

I had a meeting with a former PCV who now works in specialty coffee in the states yesterday. He just bought a coffee farm at his old site in the DR. We discussed the industry, coffee characteristics, export quality for specialty coffee, etc. At least with my association, we have great potential and since the quality competition we have had several interested buyers but have not had the quantity of export quality coffee available, so working on quality is a big goal for us, especially since our name recognition is growing.

A friend from my site got married in Santiago on Saturday. It wasn't a church wedding- they got married with a justice of the peace and then just had a 'presentation' and reception. I will put pictures up soon. Of course, nothing starts on time in this country so the hour was 7 but it didn't start until 9. They had 2 busses come from Juncalito for the wedding and we didn't even leave until almost 5:30, but then ended up waiting a while once we actually got there. It lasted until 2:30...few people have weddings here so it's a pretty good party when they actually do.

This week I will be doing more budget work and also getting together a presentation for Agroforestry volunteers who have their 3 month training session coming up. They wanted more training on coffee and their training is only about an hour from my site so in addition to a field session, the trainer asked me to come give a presentation. Next week the East Lakers are coming to the DR for a missions trip so I can't wait to get to see them for that!

Posted by katie at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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 | Comments (3)

I moved! I am finally in my own house, above a colmado. It is sooo nice to be able to cook what I want and not have to go to bed at the same time as everyone else. I only have 'provisional' approval though, which means they can tell me I have to move later but hopefully I won't have a problem. Moving was interesting...I finally got approval the day before my parents came to visit but couldn't move anything that day because it rained, so the next morning some friends helped me move everything in and I organized as much as I could before heading off to Santiago to meet mom and dad at the airport.

It was a fun visit and we did a lot in a short amount of time. The first night we stayed in Santiago because they got in in the evening, then the next day we bought a bunch of things for my house and loaded up the SUV and headed to Juncalito. People in my town were really excited to meet them because family is so important here and everyone said they looked very young, which they appreciated. I stayed the first night in my new house when they were there. Apparently, however, they didn't sleep all that well due to the large quantity of roosters in the campo. I have been here so long I don't notice it at all, but both of them as well as Susan commented on it, especially because they do not only crow at dawn but also during the day and in the middle of the night.

The next day we went from Juncalito to Jarabacoa on the mountain road that goes in between them. Well, I hadn't been on it the whole way before and it was somewhat of an adventure. No car could make that trip and I am just grateful dad was driving instead of mom, although he definitely was ready for a few cervezas afterwards. When we were in Jarabacoa we went to a waterfall, where we met another volunteer who I hadn't met before, and her family who was visiting her. Our hotel was right by a river so when we ate at the restaurant you could look right down at the river.

From Jarabacoa we went to Santo Domingo, where we visited the Colonial Zone including the first cathedral of the Americas, the Larimar Musem (larimar is a precious stone only found in the DR), a memorial and a fort the first day. We had dinner with my friend David whos site is only about an hour and a half away from the capital and afterwards listened to some merengue at the Plaza Espana. The next day we went to Diego Colombus' house (Christopher Colombus' brother- Christopher left him in charge of the DR), had lunch with Sarah (the woman who works at the Embassy that I normally stay with in Santo Domingo) and had dinner with my host family from Santo Domingo.

On Sunday we went to Samana. This was an interesting trip. Mom and dad like the beach but none of us had wanted to sit at a resort all week, which is why we trucked around to so many places. I thought the Samana peninsula would be nice because it is on a bay and you can drive a little bit and go to the beach but could also take a boat ride on the bay. Options. Well, I had only been to Samana one other time for my site visit in September, so I had apparently forgotten how long it takes (those buses really fly too!). First, it took a super long time to get there. Then, when we finally got there, the hotel wasn't quite what it was described to be in the Lonely Planet and the only other decent option was a highly over price all-inclusive resort unless we drove further on to Las Galeras, another part on the peninsula. We went to Erica's house (the volunteer I visited) before going on to Las Galeras to see if there was anywhere else to stay but there wasn't. We ended up staying at a very nice hotel in Las Galeras...I am putting pictures up and there are a few with the view from the hotel. Part of the reason I had wanted to go to Samana was to go to Playa Rincon, supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in the DR and the Caribbean. The following morning we went there and yes, it was beautiful, however, the experience was partially ruined by the mass quantity of trash on the beach. Mom and dad visited the week after Semana Santa (Holy Week), the only week of the year that almost all Dominicans have off and therefore go on vacation. Environmental damage between the trash, deforestation and other issues is high in this country. There is another sector of volunteers that works in environmental education. We stayed at Rincon in the morning and then hung around the hotel for the afternoon because there was a small beach and area for swimming. The next day we drove back to Samana and went on a boat tour to Parque Los Haitises, a national park on the other side of the bay that has cave drawings from the Taino Indians from as far back as 4,000 years ago. Unfortunately, it rained on the boat ride over and we had to duck under ponchos to avoid getting drenched. It calmed down when we got there and it was a really neat tour and interesting to go into the caves. There were also German and French people on the tour and our guide spoke to each of us in turn. The day tour also included a trip to Cayo Levantado, a little island off the coast of Samana that is pretty and has a nice beach, however, as soon as we got there, it rained again so we had to wait around for a while to get back to town. We drove part of the way back to Santiago and stayed in Las Terrenas for the evening. In the morning we headed back to Santiago because their flight left very early in the morning.

I'm sure I have forgotten something and that mom and dad will remind me, but I haven't had much time for the internet since their visit. I am in the capital now and will try and post again while I am here. I am in for medical right now (no worries) and then have my 6-month language training from Monday through Friday. David and Christina have theirs at the same time so it should be a good time, minus the class part.

Posted by katie at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have had a busy but productive and fun month. The diagnostic period of my service is finally over- I did my report and gave the presentation at our 3 month IST (In service training) conference, which was March 21-23rd in the capital. I also got a great opportunity to work very hard on improving my patience while my project partner were elaborating the Annual Plan for the Association. It was fun, really. The conference went fairly well and is over at least. I need to work some more on my own Annual Plan but I feel like a weight has been lifted since the diagnostic is complete.

Also, we finally finished our big report at the association to send to CODOCAFE! That was a releif. Granted, we have still got a long way to go, but hopefully we will get our loan soon so that we can better support our socios as we are in the final few months of the coffee season. As I said, I am going to be working on my Annual Plan this week (especially because it is Holy Week and the office will be closed after noon tomorrow) but I am hoping to focus on 3 things in particular: the first, basic office organization and getting a lot of information about the association compiled on the computer such as how much coffee we have sold each month, ect; second, revising our statutes and establishing written rules for giving loans to our socios; and third, working on finding more outlets to sell the coffee. Accounting, which has been my biggest concern since I have been here, goes with the first category. I would like to get a program for the computer at the office so mom has been helping me look into it. Hopefully that will happen soon, and then I will have to teach them how to use it.

I just had my first visitor after the conference. SUSAN CAME TO SEE ME! I cant tell you how excited I was that she was able to come! Before starting her new job she came down for a week. We went to Bayahibe (in the south east) and then came to Juncalito. Another volunteer, David, and his mom were also there when we were so we met up with them some as well. Bayahibe is a cute little town with lots of boats and a small beach. We only had 2 days at the beach because the day we got there it was raining. One day Susan, David and I took a day tour to Isla Saona to go snorkeling. It was absolutely beautiful- think of those gorgeous brochures of crystal clear water and palm trees. Yes, that is where we went and we got to see a bunch of different kinds of fish. I would like to go snorkeling again sometime and maybe see some stingrays and other types of animals but it was still great, maybe minus getting rum poured down my snorkel by one of the guys leading the trip but hey, it is the Caribbean. David and his mom were staying at a resort while Susan and I, on the Peace Corps budget, were not, so we visited them one day. It was really beautiful and well kept, but the resort has nothing on the beauty of the beach itself. After Bayahibe we came up to Juncalito and went walking through the mountains a bit. I had a great time and hope she did too and am ready for my next visitors, my parents, who come on the 10th!

I still havent been able to move. My APCD did not approve my house yet because it only has one exit and it is above a colmado, so she has to come see it but cannot come for probably at least 3 weeks, but the owners of the house will rent it to someone else if they find someone else because even when she comes there is no guarantee that I will be able to get it, so I started looking again. It is frustrating because I really want to move and have started to buy stuff for a house because I thought I would be able to move this week. I found another house so I am sending pictures to my APCD now to see if she will approve this one. I want to jump on it because it took me forever to find the other one so I am afraid of waiting too long. I like my family, but I am ready to move.

I am gonig to try and put up more pictures on my Photobucket site so keep a look out for those. Oh, I also got to see Davids site for a day when his mom was here because it is not very far from the capital, so that was interesting. I like to see other peoples' sites because they are all so different.

Posted by katie at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those of you who have commented on my lack of posting during February, no, I have not fallen off the face of the planet; I have just been working a lot and slow on posting. Right now at work we have to do a report for the organization that works with coffee growers' association and gives loans...it is essentially an audit from 2004 until now, so, we have been keeping quite busy in the office. I can't say I enjoy working on it, but it is helpful and necessary for the organization so it is a good step for us, especially since we won't get our next loan until the report is done.

We (the Association) had visitors from Mitsubishi in Japan come who are interested in buying coffee. I wasn't aware that Mitsubishi did more than cars, but they are apparently in a lot of different industries, including the importation of gourmet coffee. We took them to a coffee farm and to our beneficiado, where we process the coffee. We haven't heard anything yet because they had to go discuss plans with the home office, but hopefully something will come out of it! If nothing else, it's good exposure for our region. In April there is the first national competition of quality coffee in the DR; CODOCAFE (an organization that helps coffee growers in the DR) organized it and is bringing in professional coffee tasters from various parts of the world and the winners of the competition will get special prices at which to sell their coffee to prearranged buyers, not to mention great publicity. Each region can enter 5 individual growers and 1 group mix, but they have to have a certain production capacity to enter so that they can sell enough if they win. It's an excellent opportunity so I hope our region does well.

February 8-10 there was a series of events for the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps in the DR. There were various presentations on what's going on in the DR now, PC projects, etc. and they invite former PCVs to come. There was also another, smaller artesan fair and one day all the current volunteers went to the National Palace to meet the vice president and have a toast- very political but at least we got to go there. It was a lot of fun (and a bit of work too) but one of the best parts was that I got to stay at Embassy housing. When there are big PC events, PC asks if any of the embassy employees if they will house volunteers because the cheap places where we normally stay in the capital fill up and we don't have the money to rent normal hotel rooms. The woman that housed Jessica, Morgen and I, Sarah, is very nice and the apartment is amazing. I had my first hot shower in this country and that alone made my trip to the capital 150% better than the last one. I'm in the capital now as well, trying to get some work done on my diagnostic and running various errands, so Christina and I are staying with her again. Ahh.

I'm trying to find a house to move into in Juncalito, which is proving problematic. The first problem is that there haven't been any available houses, and then when one becomes available either a) it gets snatched up really quickly or b) I don't know who I have to talk to about it and I go on a wild goose chase to find the right person. So, right now it 'appears' I have 3 options- 2 houses which aren't completed yet (one is being remodeled, and the other is a basement apartment of a brand new house- that's the one I really want but the people in charge live in NY so I'm waiting to hear from someone who is supposed to talk to them...read: not holding my breath) and one that I just found out about on Wed. which will be available in a few weeks, but I haven't seen it yet. I like the family that I am with, but I'm definitely ready to be on my own, cook for myself, and come home whenever I want without having to call if it will be late.

I've started to go on walks through the mountains and it is very calming and beautiful (not to mention good exercise). I'll start bringing my camera soon so I can take some pictures of Juncalito and post them so you can see where I live. Unfortunately there hasn't been as much dancing there as in Jarabacoa, but there was a party on Valentine's Day and I'm meeting a friend in Santiago to go dancing tomorrow before heading back up to Juncalito on Sunday. I visited my host family from Santo Domingo for lunch yesterday and then last night Christina, my host sisters' friends and I went to a karaoke place. Christina and I sang "I Will Survive," and, I know this is shocking- they didn't ask for an encore.

My parents are coming to visit in April so I'm excited for that- to see them and also to get to travel around a bit since I haven't been able to do that very much.

Cultural note of the day:
Dominicans. Love. Ballads. It's great going to karaoke and having these big men get up and sing a romantic ballad with a deep, serious, emotional voice- something very few American men would do. They get so into it- it's great. There's also no embarrassment about dancing. In the States, fewer people dance and most people stand around awkwardly, trying to look cool; here, everyone dances. I love it.

Posted by katie at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Better late than never. I had a great time in Jarabacoa. I has been fairly rainy and cold lately, so on Saturday I finally broke down, went to Santiago, and bought a coat. I went to about 30 stores and found 1 coat. Not one type of coat,but literally, one coat. One heavy coat...there were plenty of jean jackets, but nothing but this one for actual cold weather. It would not have exactly been my first choice if there had been options, but it is definitely preferable over being cold every morning, night, and whenever it rains.

Check out this site: www.27charcos.com and you can see where Im going in 2 weeks for a meeting. We have regional safety meetings a few times a year at different peoples sites in our region, so Im lucky that this just happens to be where my meeting is and we can jump off of waterfalls after. Tough break, huh?

Shortly after that, I will be heading back to Santo Domingo for a few days because in February marks the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. All the PCVs that have ever served here are invited, but right now, they expect about 150-200 to come and there are going to be several events, although Im not sure exactly what yet. There will be a mini-artesan fair so I will be selling coffee again, but it will not be the headache of last time, as there is only one table for all of us in coffee, so I will be working with other volunteers instead of my project partner. Im looking forward to it and it will be interesting to meet some of the volunteers who have served here in the past.

Right now, besides my diagnostic, Fior (the secretary at the Association) and I are working on some office problems, namely updating all the loan amounts to the growers of the associations. As there isnt usually electricity to use the computer, we have to maintain manual accounts as well, but the former secretary did not keep up with them so we have got ourselves a big headache trying to work out how much each socio owes. This is something she could do by herself, but its peak season for coffee and this is a headache on top of the regular work of the office. I think we will finish up soon, but I can safely say there wont be a lack of projects for me here during the next 2 years.

Posted by katie at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Artesan Fair ended Sunday and I was supposed to go home yesterday but I will be going home tomorrow instead. Let me start at the beginning of the incredibly stressful week at the fair. As I said in my prior post, the coffee didn't come until late- about 3 or so on Thursday. All 440 pounds of it. The old secretary, Monica, came with it. We hauled it over to the table and started selling. The entire week at the fair, we only sold 101 bags. I got so much advice about how we could have done it better which, thank you very much, I knew already but didn't have time to do because I just got to my site and also because there was practically no support from my organization on the last minute planning. The last minute planning is typical here, but I definitely should have had more support. The fair was from 8am to 8pm Thursday through Sunday, and I was alone at the table at least half that time, if not more. At an Artesan Fair with Dominican products, why should an American be alone selling the products? Granted, most Dominicans have a LONG way to go as far as customer service is concerned, because they time they were actually there they didn't sell any coffee unless someone said 'I want to buy this coffee.' No chatting it up and talking about the Association unless the person directly asked. So 1) late coffee, 2) people besides me only there half the time. Let's continue. It was really hot the whole week, so not only was I by myself a lot, I was beat from the heat and sun. Saturday I had a Coffee Committee meeting at 4 and then Romeo (our Country Director) had a Christmas party starting at 5, both of which I really wanted to go to. Well, my project partner who came on Saturday around 10 had to leave at 3 and I was going to be alone because he had a 'committment.' Obviously, so did I and I, unlike him, had been there all week and was also going to be there all alone on Sunday but he is a micro manager who makes decisions and then that's how it is. So, he left. My PCVL (PCV Leader- they have one for each sector) was in charge of the fair and had to be there anyways so she watched my table for a few hours so I could go to the meeting and then I told her just to close it up around 6:30 because I needed a break and wasn't going to come back.

As I said, we only sold 101 bags the whole time. Honestly, without exaggeration, if I had been able to swing brewing the coffee there I believe we would have sold, at minimum, double that amount if not more. However, due to lack of time to plan and me just getting to my site and having a lot of other things to do and other people not helping plan for the fair, that didn't happen. This begs the question- how were we going to get all the other coffee back to the Juncalito since no one could come pick it up? I left 95 bags at the Peace Corps office to sell, but there were still a lot left. Well, Francis (my project partner), when he was at the fair had met a guy who had a tourist shop and wanted to buy some of our left over coffee to sell at the shop, but at a much cheaper price with very little profit margin so Francis said no. Francis then called him again on Sunday and got the price up a little bit, not enough to do if it were a regular thing, but to get rid of some of it so we wouldn't have to take it back, we sold 120 pounds to them. A representative from the store was supposed to come get it on Sunday. He comes and says I am supposed to bring it on Monday. As if I can carry around 120 pounds of coffee, and, that I'm going to bring it to where I'm staying and bring it back to the same area the next day? I don't think so. So after much confusion and phone calls, we get it to the store but then I had to come back the next day to pick up a check for the coffee because they couldn't give it to me there. More trouble, thanks much. Even with selling that coffee, there was still 120 pounds that needed to go back to Juncalito, which, again, they asked me if I could take it with me on the busses. I said no because I am not their employee and also that it was impossible for me to do that, and very unreasonable for them to ask. I didn't mention that last part, but I will be having a lengthy discussion with them shortly about what my role is at the Association. So they sent Juan to come get it, which I feel bad because he had to then take it on the bus and everything, but it really is not my job and it was too much for me to manage. He came and got it yesterday morning.

Yesterday I was running around trying to get a bunch of things done so that I would be able to leave on time to catch the bus in Santiago on time. I got on the bus to Santiago and half way there, I realized I forgot to get the check for the coffee money. Then when I got there I had to turn around and go right back to Santo Domingo, but I couldn't get the check yesterday because I got back too late, and wasted 400 pesos on that round trip. In my defense, I would have had to stay last night anyways because I wouldn't have had time to get the check and do all my other errands in time to catch the bus, although I wouldn't have had to stay tonight also. It took forever to get the check today and when we first went, the people who needed to sign for it weren't going to get there for another hour and a half or I would have actually made my bus today on time. All in all, it was stressful and I felt really unhappy with the lack of support from my organization. I talked to Joy, my 'supervisor,' yesterday about the whole situation so we could work out how I should approach talking to my Assocation. I've got a lot of work to do on that front.

Aside from all those issues, I really enjoyed the fair. The artesans were interesting to talk to and I got to see a lot of my friends, eat non campo food, and have a good time. Also, thanks mom and dad for the Christmas package! For others who have inquired, I am always up for some chocolate, I could use some more flash drives for all the pictures I've got and I need some good markers, which you can't find here. I don't really need anything, but since you keep asking. I'm not picky, if you send me a card with a paper clip in it I would be happy because it's from you.

Posted by katie at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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 | Comments (0)

Community Economic Advisor

The overarching purpose of your work will be to strengthen the capacity of community-serving organizations, small business entrepreneurs, and communities in a manner that promotes locally driven projects and community wealth.

CED volunteers will work primarily in rural areas. Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) will engage in numerous activities that range from business education to strategic planning to technical assistance. PCVs will work with farmers groups and agrarian cooperatives as well as with micro-entrepreneurs receiving loans from micro-credit organizations. PCVs also promote the improvement of business and leadership skills with Dominican youth through capacity building workshops. All PCV activities are carried out in a manner that taps all 'stakeholders' of the community: staff of community organizations, entrepreneurs and community leaders.

Throughout your two years of volunteer service, you will assess and transfer knowledge and skills toward three "beneficiary oriented" focus areas:

Organization Focus: Here, you will work with Non-governmental organizations (NGOs); Community Based Organizations (women/youth groups) or Government Organizations to strengthen their capacity to work for/with marginalized communities.
Entrepreneurial Focus: Here, you will work with small business entrepreneurs (women, men and youth) to create or improve small businesses.
Community Focus: Here, you will work with CED Organizations and individual entrepreneurs to developing projects that can enhance the well-being of the community.
Those are the highlights of what I'll be doing. It will get more specific when I am assigned a community and have the chance to assess their situation and needs. My responsibilities make me feel small next to the tasks but I welcome the challenge and opportunity to grow. I know I'm going to learn a lot. Probably freak out every now and then too, but if I wanted comfortable and easy this isn't what I would be doing.

Posted by katie at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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