Thursday, March 31, 2011

Article

Jessica, Chloe, and I worked on this article for the PCDR magazine, the Gringo Grita.

New Chapters: Alfabetizing Peace Corps


Imagine that you can’t look up information in your phonebook, check your child's homework, follow street signs, verify that your bill was correct, or understand the warning labels on medication. Some say that being able to read and write your own name is sufficient to be "functionally literate," therefore not illiterate.  Such arguments help disguise the surprising number of Dominicans who sign their names with an XX.


We know this bait and switch. Look at the massive hotel chains in Punta Cana, the beautiful ecotourism projects of Samaná, and Santo Domingo’s brand new shiny French metro system. As Peace Corps volunteers, we know that crippling poverty, unbridled pollution, nonexistent sanitation systems, faulty electricity, and washout-prone roads are all a mere guagua ride away from the glossy brochure destinations. This is why we PCVs are here – to fight for underprivileged communities, and to give a voice to those in the shadow of the all-inclusives.


So, we turn to education. PCDR’s Education sector has historically focused on information and communication technologies, and we are extremely happy to now include literacy within the sector goals. With numerous studies on the links between literacy and a population’s health, economy, and family development, we can conclude that many other Peace Corps sector goals depend on literacy. Imagine trying to do a water filter project, an Escojo Mi Vida group, teaching health coordinators, or training cacao guides, not to mention teaching basic computer classes, with groups who can’t read or write. Knowing how to put on a condom is extremely important, but being able to read the wrapper is just as empowering.


We have literacy volunteers working in the Capital, bateyes, and towns large and small. We are reaching out to Haitians, Dominicans, and the multitude that neither government will claim. We are working with 80-year-old doñas in rolos, single mothers, men who exchange their machete for a pencil, and youth who never went to school. We are coordinating with NGOs, the Ministry of Education, and the First Lady’s office. We are strengthening and broadening the vision of the Education sector by making information technology accessible to people who never imagined they would touch a mouse or understand the symbols on a keyboard.


This is huge. This is transformative. We don’t remember how our own worlds changed when we first opened a book and plodded through the combinations of consonants and vowels, forgetting punctuation and skipping lines. As literacy volunteers, our projects can’t be concluded by graduations or certificates or grand openings. Our moments come when least expected, whether it’s watching weathered, shaking hands writing letters on a chalk board, or watching a group of women learn how to write their names for the first time in their lives. It is the impact of these moments that will forever mark our service, our lives. To learn the value of literacy, ask a person who cannot read.


So, this is what we are working for. We would like to acknowledge volunteers across all sectors who work with literacy projects.  The literacy initiative is still new, and we have a long road ahead to fully develop it, but we are Peace Corps volunteers. This is what we do. If you haven’t, visit a literacy volunteer. Observe a class, talk to the participants, and make a pencil the most powerful symbol in your community.


Signed, XX

Trainee Visit

The newest class of Peace Corps Trainees arrived in March!  After a week or two of training, each newbie goes out to visit a volunteer to see what their service is like.  I took Blair around to all my classes and groups, out to one of the bateys, and got to see Heidi's kids play baseball. 

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This is the basic computer class for women who have completed basic literacy.  Look at your keyboard. The letters are tiny, strange-looking, there are tons of symbols, and the entire thing is baffling.  Especially if you can’t really see it.

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Blair, helping out some of my favorite Doñas. These are awesome, funny, kind women. I’m glad she got to meet them.

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The baseball game between Heidi’s kids and the team from La Mina. Batey baseball is pretty awesome.

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Every once in a while, we had to stop the game so a truck could drive across the field and load up on cinder blocks and gravel. Horses, cows, and motorcycles also wandered onto the field...

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My cousins play baseball in West Virginia, and generally kick ass. They’re superstars. My uncle uploaded the above picture from one of their games, and I was shocked by how different it looked. That grass is SO GREEN.

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The province is pretty damn pretty. Once you get out of Yamasa and the rolling hills, it gets really flat and arid. They used to grow sugar cane here under Trujillo, but they stopped, and now the cane towns are left without any major form of work and income. Peace Corps has started putting more volunteers out here, and they’re doing really awesome work with kids.  These are small communities of just a few hundred people, without running water, paved roads, sanitation systems, reliable power, or virtually any other services.  The main goal for a lot of the kids is to get out. There is so little to do, and so few opportunities even for those who do manage to stand out. 

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Not the one in Texas

This is San Antonio!

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Out in the campo. Green, green, green.

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The road used to be paved. Then, it got a lot of potholes, so the mayor had it torn up, and never repaved it. The aqueduct is damaged, and only reaches a part of the community when it is working.

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The school yard. I think the trees may have been planted by a PCV in the 80’s.  The Ministry of Ed was fixing it up, then the contractor left with the money. So, the offices are rubble, they don’t have batteries or invertors, and they use an outdoor shelter made from political banners and advertisements as class space.

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You can see the fogons (three-stone cooking fires) mixed in with the chairs.

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The offices, boarded up.

It’s a great little campo town. The people are super nice, very welcoming, and are excited of the prospects of doing projects.  First up: sending letters to the Ministry of Ed, and trying to get the school fixed up.