Thursday, May 30, 2013

Bienvenida a la Republica Dominicana

I made it! I arrived to the Dominican Republic at 3pm on Monday, May 27th after sleeping through both flights and catching up on some work in the airport.  After exiting the airport I was immediately assaulted by unexpected humidity.  I was no longer so thankful for the cool weather we were having in Alabama because now all of a sudden I have to acclimate myself to the hot and humid weather here without access to any AC for some relief. I better get used to sweating!

I found my assigned driver and was soon dropped off unceremoniously at the hotel I would stay at for the next two nights. Zoe Kopp, the President of GRACE Cares (the umbrella organization of the local Project Hearts organization) was to meet me later that evening at the hotel. So, for the first time in over two weeks I found myself by myself and with free time.  I had been accustomed to living with 40 people and having my day planned from from sun up to sun down. I had no idea what to do! I wandered around the hotel (which I found out was all inclusive, oh yeah!), read on the beach with beverage in hand, ate at the buffet, and meandered back to my lonely room to wait for Zoe to arrive. She arrived that evening and I finally got some real rest.

The next day she and I relaxed on the beach and particpated in the aerobics before settling down to make plans for my time here this summer.  My main focus will be the development of the Community Health Leader program in the area of Baitoa. From my understanding, Baitoa consists of about 10 communities that have some leaders that have participated in focus groups last year. These groups identified clean water as their main concern and so my job will be to identify these leaders, train them in leadership skills and as community health workers, whilst focusing on promoting clean water and sanitation in my education sessions with them and the general community.   Zoe and I worked all afternoon and enjoyed a relaxing evening because the next day we were to meet with Teresa Narvaez, the director of Project Hope here in the DR, as well as the rest of our Project Hearts team, Ruben (the president of Project Hearts), Anel (an engineer and Project Hearts community organizer), and Jewel (a nurse practitioner that is currently teaching in a local school but will be taking over my job in August).

Zoe is the president of GRACE Cares, an organization with the sole purpose of finding local "heroes" as they call them, in different countries that have the potential to create small NGO's to empower local communities. The initial role of Grace cares was to simply give a small grant to a local heroe so that they had a launching point for their ideas and then to let them do their thing. However, GRACE Cares has remained intimately connected with Project Hearts as a guide and point of reference for planning of projects.  So technically I will be working for Project Hearts, but I will be referring back to Zoe as well for guidance and support as Project Hearts grows and develops its projects this summer.  As I stated in my previous post, project Hearts does not only focus on health, but this summer it will be my main focus and probably much of Ruben and Anel's focus as well.  We were all to meet at the Project Hope headquarters in Santo Domingo because Project Hope has also served as a mentoring organization for Project Hearts. Teresa Narvaez is one of the most passionate and inspiring women I have ever met and has helped build an extremely successful NGO that provides much need healthcare for women and children. I have much to learn from her and will continue to collaborate with her this summer as well.

So, Wednesday morning we all met at Project Hope to discuss ideas with Teresa and to tour Project Hope. Jewel and I went on a few house visits with their community health worker as we will be the ones developing the program for Project Hearts. We concluded the day at Teresa's house with delicious food and karaoke! It was so wonderful for us to finally meet each other and our group clicked so well. Ruben, Anel, and I will be the backbone of Project Hearts this summer and I have such high hopes.  They are wonderful men and it is going to be such an honor to work with them.

Today, we woke up early and set about forming a strategic plan for the next 6 months for the organization. This took up most of our day, with quick breaks to dip in the pool, have lunch, and run to the store (I now have a dominican phone!) Around 4 we finally wrapped everything up, and said our goodbyes to Zoe and Teresa. Zoe will be returning to the US and Teresa remains in Santo Domingo.  We gave Jewel a lift since she lives in Santiago, which is the big town near Baitoa. I once again slept the whole way and awoke to stunning scenery.   I will be staying at Ruben's for the next few days until I move to the houses on the hill. I've already made good friends with his 2 sweet daughters and am looking forward to getting a good nights sleep tonight before we head out bright and early tomorrow to meet with a local Peace Corps volunteer about fuel-efficient stoves for the area.  I will post pictures soon from the past couple days!

Love,

Meghan



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