Funerals

On New Years Day the father of my host sister’s husband passed away. This afternoon I went to his funeral. Here in the DR there is typically always a funeral to go to. The DR tradition is that the day after someone dies, and the following nine days are dedicated to grieving. After the nine days are up they have the funeral. Because of the length (and the fact that 90% of the highway road traffic is comprised of motorcycles) it seems that funerals are constant activities within the community. Before I went I was talking to the secretary at the Cooperative, Yesenia, about funerals. She prefers the Haitian tradition that whenever a baby is born the community gathers together. They cry, howl and grieve for the difficult life, full of work and hardship that is to come in the newborn child’s life. They view life as work and strife. As a result, when someone dies they have a big party and celebrate because the suffering is finally over. The person who has died no longer endures difficulty, they are free.

I’m not sure I’d like to view life in the same way, but I would much prefer to celebrate the ending of a life well lived than to mourn the loss.

January 10, 2008

Tropical Storm Olga

I took 3 women from my Cooperative to an Artisan Fair that was held in the Capital from the 7-9^th of December. We sold cocoa powered and enjoyed our weekend. Monday morning the ladies headed back to La Peonia and I headed to a meeting at the Peace Corps office. That afternoon we received a message from our Emergency Coordinators that a Subtropical storm was approaching and to travel with caution; we were to contact Peace Corps on Tuesday morning for further instructions. Tuesday morning we were called into to “Consolidation”- that all volunteers are to consolidate into their small regional meeting points or into the general consolidation points i.e. Santo Domingo and Santiago. If I were to have been in my site I would have had to pack a bag and head for Santiago, but since I was in Santo Domingo I just stayed put. Now… consolidation is both good and bad. Bad for the obvious reasons associated with natural disasters; good because it means a hotel with hot showers and air conditioning. Volunteers often take advantage of situations like this to actually get clean and enjoy a meal of something other than rice, beans, yucca and plantains. Although I haven’t been a volunteer for long- it’s wasn’t hard to appreciate the opportunity. We spent Tuesday through Thursday relaxing in our hotel rooms watching television in English.

Tropical Storm Olga hit the north of the country hard. Many domestic food sources were damaged; countless people lost their lives and many communities dealt with flooding in their homes. Personally, it knocked down my host family’s kitchen and blew part of the drying tunnel at my cooperative away. In situations like this it is hard not to feel a little removed from your community. You are comfortable and safe while they are spending sleepless nights listening to the wind and rain and watching the water levels rise. It’s one of the many times you can’t help but feel guilty. As much as you integrate into your community and work alongside Dominicans you are still the American and your perspective of events within the country affect you differently.

December 20, 2007