Two months came faster than I ever imagined. I’ve traveled and danced the Dominican Republic with comfort, smiles, and with enough home cooked food each night to feed three persons or one extra tall “Americano.” Coco sweets and mashed red beans with sugar and a host of other sweet ingredients rank among the top on my dessert list. All I have to say is that the Peace Corps has its act together. I don’t think I’ll be laid off and tomorrow my training group is going reef checking (aka. Snorkeling around the coral reefs near Santo Domingo). I am privileged to be part of an organization that has given me the opportunity to thoroughly question my definition of poverty. As a fellow volunteer reminded me today, “It is only when we have nothing, that we are free to have anything.” – Today was that example for me. We traveled to the urban slum of Las Casetas on the outskirts of the capital and held interviews with many households where the daily expenditures amounted to $2-3. Ones vision of transport, choices of food, or even purchasing children’s school uniforms is severely limited under such budget constraints. However, the people share the warmth of lots of face time and frequent sips of coffee on the plastic chairs of their front porch. One Dona even poured me (the stranger in the barrio) a fresh cup of tamarind juice to welcome me into a front porch conversation; a cup of juice that she would have ordinarily sold for 10 pesos (35 cents), but for me was welcoming refreshment from walking the humid and hot streets.
So I count down 6 more days before I receive my final placement. I’m hoping for the mountains, but good people grow like weeds here so they can plant me anywhere.
In the name of Tim Keifer, our environmental training director, “Feed your soils and let your soils fed your plants.
Love, Jared
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