Faith is My Only Factor

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

In the meantime...pictures

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!

My Super men...after we made Ojos de Dios highlighting their values

My chiquitika group...doing the same thing

Our first Deportes para la Vida camp (an HIV/AIDS prevention program through sports) we were going over the ground rules here

After the first day of camp, one of my boys drew this for me, they were sooo cute!

All the boys!!

2nd camp: me and my trainers....love them!

My sister and my niece, we were using Biore face products and scaring the kids in the colmado lrl

2nd graduation: whew these kids made us work hard!

All of these boys have my heart...blessed to work with them..we were doing a DPV activity here

their graduation at centro Juvenil

some of my babies at Centro Comunitario...love them!

the DPV graduation at centro Comunitario

they all signed their names on our graduation poster

work hard play harder...beach time with Core

my host mom, host sisters, and me, we went on a Mother's Day Brunch 2 months later...

ensenandole =)

My project partner Mecho and I during one of the DPV camps.

Dahlin with his new glove...thanks AP

Veronica and I walking through my barrio

family popcorn night =)

a highlight from the busqueda at GLOW

another highlight from the busqueda at GLOW

me and my host sister and the Cibao stadium watching Dahlin's team play a team from Oklahoma City

Some of my host fam...love them!

Dahlin posing with some of the legends of Santiago baseball =)

my PCV love Jose making us guacamole in his site....

Me and my Chicas Multiplicadoras after GLOW 2012 =)

DPV Training in Cabarete with dinner on the beach...we're so blessed!

GLOW 2012....A camp to remember!

Walking through the barrio w/ Jenae and my sobrinas...thanks for capturing this moment AP!

Possibility walking....shoutout to TDP =)

Gotta love puppies!

Sam and I presenting Pensando Positivamente...I'm so blue =)

Mis sobrinos....le quiero mucho!

Core getting ready to hit the beach =)

Core on my fav beach in the D.R. so far..

Core with Bentodina! My AC mom!

Core with my host fam...def special

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Month by Month Update April & May

Life has been pretty hectic here in the D.R. and the consequence has been my complete and utter disregard for my blog. I really need to do better because I have also fallen off with journaling so I need to keep one of these avenues of reflection going. I've been mia in reality since April so I'll give you the updates on my projects and what I've been up to.

April: At this point I remember being really excited from Deportes Para la Vida training, and in the middle of planning Soy Sana days. In the month of April, every Saturday, I hosted a Soy Sana/o day at the centro Comunitario for kids in my Chicas Brillantes and Chicos Superman groups. Those days featured breakfast, lunch, and a snack, condom races, nutrition charlas, learning body parts, Deportes para la Vida games, and a sit down chat to do manualidad activity. I had the amazing help of several of my volunteer friends: James, Norma, Jose, Diona, Caleb, and Joe: thanks! It was nice to have a couple of girls from different areas come to the conferences as well. I'm still working on my Spanish, but it I was determined not to let it deter me from providing information that youth in my community need, so I was happy and thankful to work with volunteer friends! PS for those of you who are planning to serve, building a community of volunteer friends is vital to your sanity, community work, and any camps you all may have to put on together.
I spent the end of April taking 3 boys to the Superman Camp in San Cristobal. It was 4 days of sleeping in a tent, eating a lot of viveres, participating in a lot of team building activities, and looking through the lens of my boys who (for 2 of them) had never left Santiago before. It was humbling and exciting. I also went down the zipline for the first time so it was sweet to get a brand new experience as well. From that conference I learned a lot about what I want my superman group to look like: from activities, to the overall goal of our group. I want them to challenge every stereotype out there: they are NOT tigueres (in the bad sense of the word), they are smart and go to school, they can cook for their moms, play sports without fighting, and talk about how men should treat women and what they can do to combat the staggering domestic violence numbers in Santiago.They are well on their way and with their graduation tentatively set for December 7, I am excited to see where the fall takes us!

May: May was extremely busy and I felt like I was not in my site as much as I wanted to be for the first 2 weeks. I started off May at the 2nd annual Conferencia Nacional para NNAs en Situaciones de Alto Riesgo. I served on the Planning Committee for this conference and we had been planning since February. It was really nice to see the whole conference come together, particularly the way the entire committee (made of up of volunteers and Dominican professionals) came together to support one another at the conference. For me, it was so important and refreshing to see Dominican professionals who are dedicated and doing good work at their non-profit organizations to have the chance to come together and brain-storm, plan, and participate in sessions designed to improve their skills, knowledge, and conscientious in taking care of themselves as they take care of others.
Then I went to Corps Forum, which is our form of volunteers getting together to plan conferences and events over 2 days versus having meetings all the time all over the place, which can lead to too much time spent out of site. Entonces, I was able to help with the planning of glow, and then I had to jet back to Santiago to pick up 4 of my Deportes para la Vida trainers in order to get to Cabarete for a day and a half of training. We spent the afternoon sharing and giving feedback on our progress with our trainings. We shared that we were having issues translating the curriculum in a way that our boys of Haitian descent could understand because oftentimes we are lacking a language in common. We received great feedback and offers of support, of which I will share those details in June. It was a cool experience because I was only PCV there and I was having a good time trying to "blend in". We were able to walk by the water at the beach (always an opportunity for reflection, appreciation, and thanks to god for the opportunity to just be), eat dinner at a restaurant (always a treat), and just hang out with my trainers. My work experiences with my trainers have been much stronger because of this experience. Finally, we spent the next day helping the Dream Project/DPV with their baseball tournament. The tournament was also a community event where local families could come and watch, play DPV games, face paint, and most importantly, everyone had the opportunity to take an HIV/AIDS test. Although the field was muddy, the teams still tried to play, many people were tested, and we had a really good time! It was an awesome event and I can envision us planning and executing a similar event in Accion Callejera!
I spent the rest of May in my site on mandatory lockdown for 3 days because of the presidential elections. Fortunately for me, everything passed muy tranquila in my community. I spent the end of May hanging out with my various groups and planning summer camps.

Of which, I will share in my next post tomorrow! I promise to be more on it!

Have a great day everyone!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

A year ago today....

I found out that I would be headed to the Dominican Republic to serve as a Youth Development Promoter. I had started the process to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer after my grandmothers death in October 2010. I officially applied and submitted all of my materials in November 2010 and interviewed January 2011. I was nominated for youth development in Latin America leaving in August despite my lack of Spanish and despite the chaos that was my medical review process I still ended up with my original nomination. The process of applying to Peace Corps was a labor of love, and each setback and/or day of waiting only solidified my beliefs that this is where God was leading me. I remember that I had almost given up being invited. I just knew that the budget cuts would affect me and that I would be put on hold.

A year later, I have to say that the application process helped me realize how much I wanted to do this, and it has kept me focused during my hardest days here in the Dominican Republic. There are some days where my Spanish is just awful and I want hide behind a tree, I miss my family and friends more than tears can express, I'm lonelier than I've ever been in my life and no one seems to understand me, and nothing goes as planned. These are the days where I choose to reflect on everything that led me to this point, and how blessed I am to be serving here, and those tough days become motivation to give it my very best the next day. And I am also very blessed to say that there have been many more lessons learned, smiles, hugs, and joy than sad moments. It's only been 10 months, but I've gained lifelong friends, 3 Dominican families, a strong start in learning the Spanish language, and I've fallen in love with my org, the youth and donas here.

There is a lot more I want to write...but I need to finish a grant and prep for my Deportes para la Vida camp next week <-- please pray for this endeavor. I'll be sure to put up a blog post while I'm at language training about what I have been up to for the past 3 months...Time is really getting away from me here with these blog posts. Sorry1

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Feliz Dia de las Madres Dominicanas!

Sorry this has turned into a monthly blog and I will post an update of projects soon. Feliz dia de las Madres! My sister and I are planning to take our mom and other sister to dinner as a treat for all of their hard work and labor as wonderful mothers tonight. They are always working: cooking, cleaning, working in the community center, cuidando hijos and nietos and they rarely get a chance to leave, breathe, and enjoy a little down time. This is our attempt to give them a little bit of that and I am super excited.Pictures will be coming soon.

Other than that, I will post some pics from the last couple of months.... Enjoy!

Part of my team of Deportes para la Vida trainers. My hermanitos!!

A mezclave of some of my Chicas brillantes groups for our Soy Sana mini conference!

Def a Deportes para la vida groupie! love this program

my hermanito is going to college! we made him a cake....I promise you I did not put the alcoholic beverages there

Soy Sano day with my Chicos superman group

My org had a Satiago corre to raise funds for the work we do with youth...these are some of my boys!

My chiquita chicas brillantes are making libros de sus suenos!!! They deserve to dream =)

MY girls made mother's day cards....Hopefully they give them to their moms' today!

My Chicos supermen! They make my wednesday every wednesday!! They also made mothers day cards and wrote a note saying why they are supermen to give to their moms!