Regreso a la Republica Dominicana mas pronto!

Listening to the soundtrack of the last 2 weeks one of my mas o menos home stay sisters, Maria, gave me while eating the best cheese empanada I've ever had at the Santiago airport waiting for my 3:15 AM flight to Boston. 

Can't believe two weeks went by. 

What happened?

Biggest accomplishment: I actually got 104 pages of a thesis draft done. Seriously. While it was hot fun in the summer time, bright, sunshiny days, I was writing. And I'm glad I did- because I am seriously behind in school (did I mention I get into Burlington at 3:30 PM tomorrow and have to book it to a class at 4:00 backpacking pack and all). 

I carried out interviews with all the workers at the factory about their personal use with the filter and if they see any problems with it, and then conducted interviews around the tiny, Higuerito community where I gathered more responses from people who use the filters in town. 

Most importantly, I got to see how the clay is mixed up and made into the clay membranes that make the filter. I got to see the liquid colloidal silver get added to the clay (and I learned the trade secret amount that is used for FilterPure filters), and I watched as over 200 lbs of clay and sawdust got mixed in a pug mill and then got wedged and pressed in a mold to create a batch of 30 filter membranes. Really exciting stuff to be able to watch! And I learn so much better by doing and observing, all of those scholarly articles I've been researching about ceramic water filters really came to life.

On Friday, Negro, Radhy, Melissa, Mark and I took a trip to Santiago to get helados and sit in the city park. I liked Santiago much better than Santo Domingo, less hectic!

The Gray family took Mark and I to a tourist beach last Saturday, Cabarete, and it was really nice (even with all seven of the Gray children plus 3 of their friends). Dad, you would've loved to snorkel in this ocean, and you also would love to see how much it looked like Miami...but alas...I didn't take any pictures of it, so you'll just have to trust me (and you can enjoy looking at the Picture of McDonald's I took in town in Santiago that I told you about to which you responded, 'McDonald's? Oh WOW'). 

Maria, Radhy, Melissa and I got to free Negro from his night school classes twice, once last week and again tonight. More or less we would be stopped by the guard at the front of the school around 8 PM when class doesn't get out for Negro until 9, and we would walk up to his class, tell one of the head professors he needed to leave, and no problem. Negro was free to leave so we could fulfill our nightly ritual- dance parties in my room. I got to tell the head professor tonight that it's my last night here and I wanted to spend it with mi mejor amigo and she understood. Although at every other dance party, 10:00 PM would roll around and the girl's mom, Maria, would knock on the door and say it was time for bed. But tonight, all the girls and negro (my 4 sisters) got to come with to drive me to the airport in Cousin Claudia's car. 

Tonight being my last night, one of the workers, Domingo, invited me to get ice cream with him, another one of the workers, Benjamin, and my sister- Maria. We got to go there by motorcycle which was the most fun (and not at all dangerous, Mom and Dad) and it was the best 'double date' I've been on (except for the quadruple date we went on in high school). 

It was hard saying goodbye to all of the hermanas and Elena, Radhames and Maria tonight! I can't believe how close I got with this family after only being here for 2 weeks. It just seemed like we were all always laughing about something and had the best time together. Negro wrote me the nicest cards, one in English and one in Spanish, and Maria gave me two vests to bring home with me. Domingo, one of my favorite workers, wouldn't let me leave without accepting his gift of three Muneca dolls that he makes---and they are beautiful! 

I'm going to find a way to stay here for a year and work with promoting and educating on the ceramic water filters. Whether it's through a full bright or what, I'm not sure, but I know I will be back to Higuerito and hopefully it is for longer and more than just a visit next time!

Feminist, Environmentalist, Missionary?

The first thing Mark said to me was if I could guess his 3 brother's names. I guessed Matt (since it sounds like Mark?) and was right, but I couldn't guess the other two, and so when I stared blankly at him after he told me their names are Mark, Matthew, John and Luke, there was a long pause until he finally said, "You know, from the bible?"

"Oh, of course, yeah."

Uhhh??

Needless to say, Mark isn't cute, mostly because I find him extremely hard to be around as he is truly your Straight Out of the Book Ignorant American (I really don't think he will ever read this....) And yes, I am completely being a total judgmental Travel Snob when I say this, but he just doesn't get it and told me this is the first time he has "traveled to a place like this," and I just wanted to say a place like WHAT?  When I told him about the bodega I've been getting my juice and cookies fix at he was shocked that I had 'ventured off from the FilterPure site to explore the town because I heard the Dominican Republic is so dangerous' (seriously, readers, this bodega is maybe a 1/4th of a block from the house in the friendliest community there is and I get my cookies in complete daylight). He just asks so many questions. All the time. Never stops. Tranquilo.

Yesterday after a lazy day of watching Radhames and the whole family fly kites in the yard, and after a swim in hermano Ricardo's pool para las ninas (that people over the age of 5 can't really fit in), I played Old Maid and Go Fish with Disney themed cards with Melissa and Rhady. I got the Old Maid (Ursula from Little Mermaid). We were playing in my room and we invited Mark to play with us, and from my doorway he saw my bra hanging from the bamboo bed drying out from the 'swim' I had earlier and got scared off. We all saw his horrified expression seeing a girl's bra and then his immediate reaction that he had to go and didn't want to play. We were all like, c'mon, really, what's the big deal about a bra?? The joke with the girls for the rest of the night was about Mark's face when he took one look at my hanging bra and closed the door to leave my room saying he just wanted to hang out with the guys downstairs. So funny, but also, seriously? He's 23?

Today I received the compliment from the workers at the factory that I am a strong woman and a hard worker. For being the only woman working alongside 10 guys at a ceramics factory for the morning, I felt pretty accomplished. Just breaking down gender stereotypes one day at a time.

Our project this morning was clearing out the kiln that had hundreds of tiles in it for flooring, then transferring the tiles (along with cement) up to the third floor of the dormitory unit via a pulley system.

I remember my academic professor in Ghana, Yemi, said that the first step in doing research somewhere is establishing relationships with the people, and that's definitely what I did today. It was the best joking with all of the guys who work here and in between hauling tiles we would be singing Juanes and laughing and now it seems like I've built up a right to be able to interview the workers about the FilterPure because we are friends.


Today I went to Santo Domingo to accompany David on one of his trainings and FilterPure distributions with his oldest son, Izaiah and Mark. Santo Domingo is crazy and I was ready to get back to humble, quiet Huguericito Moca as soon as we were stuck in our first traffic jam about an hour into the ride.

We went to where nurses doing a community health work with Pentecostal affiliated Volunteers for Peace were stationed. David did a really great job advertising the filter and explaining to the Volunteers for Peace all about how they should explain how to use the filters to the families they distribute them to. The nurses spoke about how what they see the most is people infected with multiple parasites, and instead of just treating them with antibiotics, they want to distribute FilterPures to families in Santo Domingo to eliminate parasites at the source. It was great hearing such positive responses supporting the FilterPure from a health perspective.

Over the meal we were fed at the Volunteers for Peace site (plantains and chicken and lots of people saying grace), there was lots of talk about "following God's calling" and mission work and I mostly just kept quiet because all of this overly religious stuff was beginning to wear on me at this point.

I always wondered the types of people that actually listen to the band Train and other Christian Rock. 

Turns out David's family are those types of people. 

Of course, they only listen to this from the Family Ipod that has been screened for appropriate/censored music that do not curse. It kind of seems ironic to move your entire family of 9 to the Dominican Republic, but you screen all of their music and movies, but I'm not the parent of this family- so be it. 

I swear, if I heard another Praise Jesus from another Christian rock band I was just going to open up that car door and jump. Those were two of the longest two hours I've spent in a car. Being around David and his family I make sure to restrict myself (I really do swear too much) and that I definitely offend them when I slip the occasional "oh my God." They're the type of family that wouldn't recognize that Goldberg is a Jewish last name, so I just silently have been going along with this whole charade. 

Lessons learned:

-Hanging out with Radhames and his family and the workers at FilterPure is how I want to spend all of my time here. 

-The anthropological aspect of preserving traditional pottery in conjunction with making ceramic water filters seems feasible and is getting a good response from people Radhames and I have spoken with. 

-The FilterPure model is awesome in that it provides parasite-free, bacteria free water; but it does nothing to relieve the time burden of fetching water; and I have to remind myself that there is no one water solution and each circumstance and place in relation to water accessibility is different

-The FilterPure is not helping the poorest of the poor who really are the ones in the most need of having clean water if it is not being donated to families and they have to pay an upfront cost that most in need cannot afford. 

The "DR" is In...back at it in the Dominican Republic

When I told my Environmental Studies thesis advisor during a meeting a few months ago about the FilterPure NGO in the Dominican Republic that holds trainings on how to make ceramic water filters outside of Santiago in the Domincan Republic she just flat out told me that I should to go there.

My thesis advisor's response went something like,

 "You're a senior! Go for your Spring Break. Take an extra week off. Flights down there are cheap, just do it. The Environmental Program puts money aside for people who do things like this." 

So that's what I did. And now I am here, in the Domincan Republic at the FilterPure ceramic water filtration site in one of their dormitories. Simple as that.

Sort of. 

This is the first travel I have organized completely on my own, unprogrammed, traveling on my lonesome.  I arranged for David Grey, one of the program directors in the DR for FilterPure to pick me up at the airport in Santiago....at 4:15 AM when my flight landed Friday morning. This was the part I got nervous about sitting at my kitchen table in my apartment in Burlington talking with my roommates the night before I left. 

What if David doesn't show up? Will he have an ID so I know it's him? Is this actually a legit FilterPure person? Will I just get murdered? What am I doing? Am I crazy for trying to go to the DR for the first time alone without knowing where I'm even going (Lisa Ballantine, Director of FilterPure assured me that the filter site does not have an address, but it is in Huegericito Moca)?

My roommate's advice? 

Bring Mace. 

Stay at a hotel if I don't feel comfortable. 

I love them because they know the rational stuff I need to hear to calm my nerves. 

But I didn't buy the mace, and sort of just hoped for the best (and got the rates on using my phone for emergencies; remembering of course the oh-so very eventful overage charges I racked up during the Nicaraguan portion of my traveling binge last year). 

.....I interpreted that avoiding all pre-traveling disasters (including previous scenarios of getting pink eye or a scratched cornea or having to get my thumb drained because of paronychia the night before leaving the country) was a sign that all would go well.....

So I left Thursday at 11:00 AM from Burlington and of course, it was one of the only snowy days we have had all year which meant lots of delays. My route to get here involved a MegaBus ride to South Station in Boston, a T ride from South Station to Logan International Airport (where a 6 plus hour delayed flight layover ensued), then a 30 minute plane ride to JFK in New York (where I ran to catch my flight to the DR before all of the security gates closed at 11:30 PM), and a 4 hour flight to Santiago, Dominican Republic. 

There were 3 other Gringos on the plane.  I sat next to two of them and found out 2 things about traveling to the DR:

1. Guys from the US go to the Domincan Republic to hook up with girls. 

2. If you are 30, single and a Jewish Chief Financial Officer for a restaurant in NYC, you're going to have a house in the DR, and you are going to have a lot of Domincan girlfriends. 

The third, drunk Gringo on the plane pulled me aside as we were boarding and gave me some other advice. He told me:

1. I should be very worried about going to this airport as a Lone Female because it is "the worst he has seen and the men are very rowdy and I should be aware and cautious." When I told this guy I've been to the New Delhi airport where cows roam free and there is no sort of organized system or lines for arrivals or departures and I could handle it, he told me he wasn't so sure I could. OK. 

2. This is the craziest flight I will be on and once when he was on this flight from JFK to Santiago, flight attendants had to break up a physical cat fight between two women who had ripped out each other's weaves. 

The third Gringo must've been drunk because although the people on the flight were more animated than any other night flight I've been on, there were no cat fights. And the Santiago airport was beautiful. Very calm at 4:15 AM, and the easiest customs I've ever been through. Got my checked bag no problem and right when I walked out, I recognized David Grey with a sign that read "Erica Goldberg." Totally professional, and I was put at ease immediately. 

David took me to his house in Jarabacoa to rest up before he took me to my dormitory at the FilterPure site. On the drive I learned that he has been doing missionary work here in the Dominican Republic with his church from Ohio for 10 years, and got involved with FilterPure on one of the missions. 

I then found out he has 7 kids. 

I'm in a car with a missionary man with 7 kids.

My inner dialogue:
-Don't Panic.
- "19 Kids and Counting"
-please don't say anything about working for a Population NGO, please don't say anything about working for a population NGO....

All judgments aside, two black, pitbull/lab mixes greeted me at the door of David's house and I immediately fell in love with them, just about as immediately as I was passed out on this stranger's living room couch until the morning. 

Through squinted, blurred eyes (I fell asleep in my contacts), I caught glimpses of some of those 7 children staring at me an hour later when they woke up (to get ready to be home schooled, of course), but that was about it- as I was so exhausted from all the traveling I slept until 10 AM. 

After I woke up and got ready, David drove me back toward Santiago to the FilterPure factory site where I will be staying for the next two weeks. 

Driving through parts of Jarabacoa reminded me of Isla de Omatepe in Nicaragua with all of the pink, yellow and orange painted houses with white trim and advertisements and names of shops painted on. I missed seeing banana trees and stray dogs all over and street vendors, too. Oh and the weather is too perfect. Sun shine with a breeze by day- always bearably hot and comfortable in the shade, and it cools down to a comfortable 65-70 degrees at night: Paradise. 

I met Ryhames and his entire family right when I got there, as their home is next to the FilterPure studio. Ryhames and his wife, Maria, have three daughters: Melissa, Rhya and Maria ages 16, 17 and 20. Rayahames' sister, Elena is the one who makes all of my meals as she already does this for father, whose house is right next to Ryhame's. Emmanuel is Elena's son that is always around and hanging out with us. After being checked into the 'dormitory' which is right next to Ryhame's family's home, and after having a day's worth of really delicious meals cooked by Elena, I felt like I was back at a Ghana home stay. 

Ryhames is incredible. He is the master potter of Moca and has a famous sculpture in Santiago of one of the traditional dolls that are made without painted faces to symbolize all of the mixed races of Dominican people. His true dream is to preserve traditional pottery all around the world and in the Dominican Republic and has dreams of uniting all traditional potters to preserve their craft. He believes that traditional potters are the most happy and content when they are practicing their craft and supporting them will bring peace around the world. After exchanging pictures of traditional water pots in the Domincan Republic and in Ghana, we both agreed that you couldn't tell the difference between the two, they look so similar. Could be attributed to the crossing of cultures through the slave trade. 

I toured the factory, which has only 10 workers and is entirely outside with open rooms made of concrete and cement. I got to see all of the fine particles of red, yellow and black clays that are mixed with 4 parts clay to 3 parts finely ground saw dust particles which burn away when they are fired to make the clay porous. I learned about how the FilterPure model differs from the Potters for Peace model because FilterPure bakes the colloidal silver inbetween two clay membranes, and Potters for Peace paints their colloidal silver on, which apparently fades after a year and has to be reapplied- whereas the FilterPure allegedly has a lifespan of 5 plus years. The thing about this colloidal silver though, is that it is the one ingredient to these filters that has to be imported from an outside source from one of the 3 colloidal silver hubs in New York, China or Spain. 

I forgot about how the pace of work goes outside of the US and was reminded of all the 'down time' I had doing research in Ghana. Everyone works extremely hard here, it is just different- punctuality and promptness just aren't as necessary to accomplishing what you have to and I already know that I will be mostly doing informal interviews, as the formality of set questions to ask just seems strange and out of place. So when Ryhames told me to come and see what he was working on after I was finished with my breakfast, I leisurely walked over- only to find out that him and all the other workers had finished for the day and would be off for the weekend. And I thought I had this whole concept of time thing figured out???

Today, David and his family (yes, all 9 of them), invited me to come with them to hike a waterfall, so I squeezed into their van with all of them since no one works on Saturday. The waterfall was beautiful, with lots of potholes that we all were climbing and exploring and I felt really brave conquering great heights of the closest thing to rock climbing I will accomplish in my life. And by the way, after spending a day with 7 kids all under the age of 14----I will never complain about babysitting for two again. 

I came back from the day of hiking and waterfall adventuring just in time for the much anticipated dance party of the evening. After buying much needed supplies (Coca Cola and cookies) we came back to the house to where I found out that the dance party would be held in my room!

We played the radio and Maria, Melissa, Rhya and Emmanuel taught me how to dance like a Dominican with Bachata and Mirengue and I am happy for all of the Colombian exposure I have had to prepare me for this moment! Katie, you really expanded my Latin American music repertoire. And PS, everyone here wants to go to Colombia SO BADLY to dance dance dance and listen to Don Omar and all they do is ask me everything about Colombia. Also, not having you as a safety net for help on Spanish words I don't know has enabled me to only speak Spanish all day and it is awesome! And I am so surprised at how much I was hesitant that I didn't know that I actually do! I may speak like a toddler, but I am able to express most of what I need to!

All for now. Graduate student/Environmental & Civil Engineer, Marc from Virginia comes to stay at the dorm tomorrow to do research---and I find myself not wondering so much if he will be cute, but instead that he better like dancing bachata and mirengue with all of us because we have got a pretty good thing going!!!

And I'm wondering if he's cute.