Faith is My Only Factor: August 2012

I'm continuing with the month by month updates for June and July in the hopes that this will inspire me to actually start blogging more regularly.

June: I kicked off the first weekend in June at what has been my favorite camp experience so far in country: Deportes Para la Vida football camp in Batey 9 in the south. This was my first time travelling to the South and I must say it is a breathtakingly beautiful part of the country. I definitely want to head back and explore more...plus visit Nicole and Sean's sites. There were 8 volunteers and a guest DPV trainer and 36 guys. With only 3 female volunteers, we were sorely outnumbered so we ended up taking over a volunteer's house while all the guys stayed in the dormitories. I had a great time at this camp, it was the smallest camp I had been to in terms of number of volunteers present so we really had to come together and work as a team which I love. It was also my first opportunity to take youth from Centro Juvenil to a camp so I really appreciated the opportunity to get to know some of my youth and challenge them on a more individual basis away from the center.

Following the DPV soccer camp, we went right into 2 weeks of Deportes para la Vida camps. We enlisted the help of a DPV trainer to help us with our first camp because PCVs normally do DPV over a longer period and we were trying to knock out all of the curriculum in 5 days. (Similar to my CS days but this a whole different type of ball game in the D.R.) I really enjoyed these camps because it challenged my trainers and me and allowed us to connect in a way that only shared experiences/funny moments/challenging issues/learning working styles can create. I really enjoy the DPV curriculum because it reminds of the College Summit Rap Director curriculum in what it tries to do.

July: I started off July with a camp on my home turf! We had a Deportes Para la Vida camp at Centro Comunitario which is where most of my sustainability work has been focused. The goal was to bring in new youth who have not used the community center much, sprinkled in with some of my Chicas Brillantes and Chicos Supermen leaders. It was an amazing opportunity for me to meet more youth in my community, and allow them to see me at my best (with 2 DPV camps already completed, we were at our best for this camp) and pull them into fall programming at the community center. I enjoyed spending time with these youth and I just remember back to the time when I wanted a site change. I am so thankful that I hung in there because these youth deserve and are worth every doubt challenged and fear overcomed to persevere in my site. They are intelligent, aware, focused, and dedicated to being better: their enthusiasm for DPV and just doing something other then hanging out on the streets of the barrio was evident (and appreciated).

My CORE girlfriends came to visit me while we were wrapping up this camp. My Core consists of some of my best girlfriends in the world; we all met through my church youth ministry: Remnant. It was an amazing opportunity to have some of my friends who know and love me best see the work that I am doing, meet my host family, and understand the social environment of my community. They were able to see the Deportes para la Vida graduation, meet all of my co-workers/friends at both Centro Comunitario and Centro Juvenil, we were able to have lunch with my work mom Bentodina (who I love very much), walk around the barrio, travel and head to the beach. We are also a group of women who strive for what we want, and hold each other accountability in our faith walk, goals, and personal development. It has been hard (though not impossible) to be in the Dominican Republic without friends who know my history/faith walk/source of Christian accountability so it was refreshing/invigorating/a much needed relief/a source of revitalization to have my Core with me. It was also amazing to see the Dominican Republic through their eyes, I had to play the role of translator (which if you know my Spanish history is humbling/hilarious) and explain customs that had become normal in my everyday life in the Dominican Republic. It was a fun, difficult, educational, humbling, and important experience: I see clearly now wow the 2nd and 3rd goals of the Peace Corps are designed to promote cultural understanding. BTW hosting family and friends in the Dominican Republic an experience that I want to have again (hint hint to ALL my family and friends)

I went to San Cristobal to prep for the Chicas Brillantes National Conference which is our version of the Peace Corps worldwide initiative: Girls Leading our World which is a gender empowerment initiative. I've never been to a prep camp for a camp here in the D.R. but it was a lot of fun. It was an opportunity to plan out our charlas, build camaraderie for the camp, and I had a chance to work with the Comite girls: the 10 girls who were selected to be Dominican representatives who work hand in hand with volunteers to plan camps and they can share information during charlas with the girls in a way that we never could.

Then we had another DPV camp in Centro Juvenil, the most challenging place possible to have this kind of camp given the nature of the kids set up. These our our kids who usually work on the streets as shoe shiners, selling food, movies, etc. They have the opportunity to come to Accion Callejera Centro Juvenil for a half day program filled with learning activities, art, sports, destress, emotional, legal, and health support, and an opportunity to buy breakfast and lunch for a very low cost. To put on this type of camp is difficult because you never know who is going to show up day to day and the mood in which they will show up-they see and experience a lot. Plus there are some serious language barriers because half of the boys do not speak or understand Spanish-which makes it hard for even our native speaking Spanish trainers to reach them. It was the most challenging but by far the most rewarding DPV experience so far because a lot of the kids left having a basic foundation for how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and how to make healthy life decisions. Now that they have the information, I just pray that they utilize when they are in difficult situations.

Veronica, a Spanish teacher with PC who was my "aunt" during CBT, came to visit me in my site. She is def my best Dominican friend, its just sad that we live so far away from each other. Anyways she came up to visit and we had a ball1 We didn't have to go out all over Santiago to have a great time, we just walked around the barrio, caught up on life, passed time talking with my vecinos, we watched Pride and Prejudice in Spanish, and we went out to one of my favorite restaurants in Santiago. I was feeling a little lonely before she came over (the low of having your close friends leave the week before) so it was nice to have her over!

I ended July at the actual Chicas Brillantes National Conference. I was able to take 3 girls which was a blessing for more reasons than I can share on this blog. It was a 5 day camp, pretty long but I learned a lot about myself and what I want to do through this camp. It was a lot of work, inspirational, an opportunity to connect and re-connect with volunteers, and a wonderful opportunity to see my girls learning and growing away from Santiago. there was also a professional panel of Dominican women who re-inspired me to keep striving for everything that I want to accomplish, regardless of what others may say or think. It was an incredibly fulfilling experience! I took a lot of possibility walks in the charlas and activities I shared because they were a mix of my youth facilitating training with TDP and I shared some sisterhood activities with the Comite girls.

So as you can see, I have been blessed to be busy with what I believe is meaningful and sustainable work that youth in my community can take over. Next blog should be a guest blog from a member of my Core who will share what their experience was like visiting me here in the Dominican Republic!

Hey friends,

While I'm sure you are waiting for my June and July updates, plus Core's trip in review to the D.R. (cough AP), I figured I would share a wealth of pictures with you. Next time I write, I should be stateside for a 2 week trip to see loved ones and friends! I'm so excited!