Racism~Noticias Continued

Ok first of all one of the classes I am taking is Dominican Haitian Relations. Although it hasn’t turned out to be as good of a class as I had hoped, I have learned a lot about the history of this island and the two countries that share it. This is in hopes that I can try to even begin to understand to unique situation of two drastically different cultures and countries sharing such a small island. It has been explained to us that we will not understand but this is the best way to start.

A frequent topic of discussion is the idea of race and skin color in this country. Officially the country does not identify different races (and therefore cannot have problems with racism). However the do very clearly identify skin color. There has been a history of leaders, namely Trujillo, trying the “whiten” the Dominican race. There is clearly a preference to lighter skin colors. Especially with the rich white image of North Americans. Well maybe not so clear. The Dominicans deny that this is true. The students in this class (majority from the states), me included have a hard time believing this. It seems that we are more sensitive to discrimination because of looks or background, probably because it has been beaten into us in the education system because of our history.

The UN began investigating the claims of racism in the country this last weekend. I had a really good conversation with my host parents the other night after seeing this on the news. It seems so obvious to me that it exists here and there is a problem. There were several girls in my group with dark skin, that have been denied into clubs until a white or someone with lighter skin entered with they and it was clear that they were from the US. My host parents flat out do not believe that racism is a problem here. It seems so black and white but is there a way that we can both be partly right?

Maybe it is the word ‘racism’. It seems sometimes that we use it interchangeable for discrimination, sometimes based on race or culture or even a unique situation. They can’t deny that there is discrimination against Haitians here, but they think that it is racism but because of the situation. I think racism to them is the situation of African American slaves in the US after slavery was abolished. The slaves came to the New World and US by force not by choice. ‘Racism’ is what ensued after that, the assimilation of the freed slaves into the culture. I can’t explain it much more than that because I don’t really understand it. Only that the situation is different now, and here. What I don’t think they understand is that racism has evolved with the times. The US definitely still has its problems with racism but not in the same way as during the civil rights movement or before. Now the major problem is with immigrants, a trickier situation. Without really getting into illegal immigration, I consider the generalizations that are made about all Hispanics or all the Mexicans come to this country illegally and deal drugs and create violence and take our jobs, racism. They felt it living in the NY for 10 years legally. I’m not equating it as the same but a similar situation here in the island of Hispaniola, they consider is not racism. The Haitians don’t respect the Dominican culture and they take jobs and just are looking for health care. I can understand the frustration when you lemon tree gets damaged because someone doesn’t know the proper way to pick a lemon. I can understand that the DR shouldn’t have the responsibility to take care of the neighboring country in drastically worse conditions than it’s self. But what I can’t understand are the other generalizations that I hear, even from my host parents in this conversation that the Haitians are all poor, smell, are hungry, don’t have homes, or jobs. My host dad even repeatedly used the work animal to describe them (granted both his wife and I let him have it for that one). There probably are people in the US that think that is the same as the DR. There is a lot of poverty here, many people are hungry and live without homes or jobs. Well I could go on. It was an interesting and insightful conversation and I was really pleased with my ability to get my point across in Spanish. Unfortunately not a resolvable topic.

These are my thoughts. I have been confronted with so many US cultural things here that I have to take a step back and really look at why I think I am right or my way is better, because sometimes I am wrong. Maybe the language is not right or the fact that their culture is more upfront and blunt, maybe it is the tricky situation, but there is evident violence and discrimination in this country that needs to be examined.

They side note is that last Friday I went a huge market at the Haitian boarder with this class, a location of many UN peacekeeping troops; and where the UN investigation began. They open the border every Monday and Friday for this market in Dajabon, the Dominican city. Lots of Haitians cross the boarder to buy and cell goods, things from new and used clothes, shoes, bags, toiletries, tupperware and dishes. There are Dominican vendors too but the merchandise is generally different. They usually cell food, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, flour, rice beans, and bulk packaged juices, milk, and crackers. The physical border between Dominican and Haitians.

La República Dominicana en los noticias.

The DR has been in the news quite a bit this week. First the Caribbean was hit with a tropical rain storm. The heart of it passed over the south of the DR through the west of the island mostly in Haiti. The entire island has had rain for 5 days now. It rained nonstop from Sunday evening to Tuesday afternoon, and then only paused for a few hours before beginning again. For a country that supposedly gets a lot of rain they certainly aren’t prepared for it. I guess that comes with not having the money to invest in info structure. They have named several cities in the southwest, northwest and central of the country as disaster areas. The roads are flooded with water or destroyed. Lots of people are with out electricity. Hundreds of acers of agriculture have been ruined. More than 20 people have died due to various causes. Transportation in the city is still ok but between cities is dangerous and slow at best. So many roads aren’t paved and are going to be slow for…well a long time.

All of this is from watching the news. Besides all of the rain it really doesn’t seem that bad here. Nothing I haven’t seen before, lots of rain and a little bit of wind. It’s 75 degrees out and everyone is wearing pants and two sweaters complaining about how cold it is. I’m still in shorts and a t-shirt sitting under a slow moving fan. I have to say it has all of the rain has been a bit comforting. Although it’s still warm here, at least I’m not missing all of fall. I like clothes for this kind of weather, and being able to drink warm drinks and use a sheet or even blanket to sleep.

The thing is it doesn’t seem that rare to me. Our classes were cancelled Monday and Tuesday. I can only remember once in my life school was let out early because of a big storm. Even in Santiago, where we weren’t hit very badly, the people are worried about going out on the streets because of falling trees and electric polls. I feel fairly safe outside in a storm at home. Although I might rather sit inside and watch from a window, I wouldn’t be worried about putting on a sweatshirt and rain coat and walking to class. I had to be reminded that things are not the same here; safety is not the same. I got a lecture about not owning an umbrella. Although it is so practical, I have never owned one before. Dominicans believe that if you get wet from the rain you will get sick. Not even if you get inside soon and dry off, EVERY time you head gets wet from the rain you WILL get sick. The people here do not go out in the rain. There is a tradition when it rains like this everyone stays at home, no one goes to school or work, and eats sancocho (kind of like a stew) and drinks rum. We had sancocho…but no rum.

Another aspect of cultural differences, as well as a reminder that I am living in a developing country. I pray that no more damage will be done, as well as for the safety for those who have lost homes. It seems that those who have little to lose end up losing the most in unfortunate situations like these. I pray that help and support will end up in right places for people who need it.

Well there the DR has been in the news for another thing this week that actually relates to my trip this weekend and one of the classes that I am taking, but that will have to wait until later this week.

Work Retreat

I went on a work retreat this weekend. It felt so good to go away from the house and away from Santiago to do something. My health held up pretty well. I just got lighted headed a couple of times after standing or walking a lot with out water. This was definitely the most activity I have had since I was sick. As frustrating as it is to get tired before I should I was pretty happy with how my body handled the weekend.

We worked with a Peace Core volunteer in a batey only about an hr from Santiago. First a batey, originally constructed by sugar cane companies to house its workers during the harvest. The workers were not strictly but usually Haitian, and other foreigners. This was work that Dominicans don’t do. Considered modern day slavery, the men work 6 or 7 days a week 12 hrs a day, get paid about $2 for every ton of cane they cut. Barracks were constructed to house one man in every room. Now there are whole families living in each. Over the year the immigrant Haitians didn’t return to Haiti and so little towns grew in these bateys. Some of them still have harvest but in the last decade the sugar companies have plummeted. The world doesn’t use it the same any more. There are artificial sugars, and the US has such a big low sugar diet campaign. The DR use to produce almost all of the sugar for Europe but now they get some from other places and use other types of sweeteners. So the harvest have been less frequent or none at all. These towns were/are not constructed for the permanent residence that it has and the racism towards Haitians has lead to the government or anyone for that matter thinking these people even deserve better living conditions. This is poverty. The one we went to doesn’t have running water. Recently got electricity although only sometimes, and they pay more for it than the average Dominican. There are all kinds of health issues.

The Peace Core guy is a health volunteer. We worked with him to construct latrines. %60 of the people go to the bathroom in the cane fields which causes all kind of health concerns, namely from the back tracking that occurs because there isn’t any real designated location. We made six latrines on Saturday. Not exactly easy work in the sun but once we figured out what we were doing it picked up and in the end of the day we were successful. And some of the little kids would try to help, holding wood and nails. We had a lot of help from several of the guys who lived in the batey. We just built the latrine casitas, a group of men there dug the holes, and will continue to finish putting it all together. I was pleased with the project that we worked on. I really think this is something that the people want and will use. If they don’t understand or care about the health concerns, it is so much more convenient and closer. I have become critical of service type work like this. It is a lot harder to give valuable aid than it seems. It takes a lot of work to decide what the people really need and then to go about doing it in a way that will actually benefit them. There is so much more that needs to be done than building a latrine. If they have it but have no sense of ownership, it won’t get taken care of. If they don’t understand the value of it, it won’t get used. We only worked on a very small portion of this project, the easy part.

The whole situation was a little odd at times and I still don’t really know what to think about it. We get there the first day and pile out of this guagua nicely dressed with cameras. Jonathan, the Peace Core guy, gives us a poverty tour of the batey. I am interested in learning how they live, but I feel like I am exploiting their living situation for my own learning. As much as I can benefit from the experience it doesn’t seem right. Why do I deserve to be on this side of the glass in the situation that I am in? It doesn’t make it any better that I am horrible at small talk, in any language. The whole weekend was more for our benefit of the experience than the actual good or help we were giving. Those guys could have made the latrines in probably a quarter of the time, but they were suppose to let us to some of the work. Mostly the service we provided was donating the materials for these latrines. So much of volunteering is just this. The people volunteering are looking to benefit from the work, and this gets in the way of what they can actually give. Would it have been better for use to just donate the materials? At what point do people have the right to benefit from the life experience? I don’t know the answer to that, ‘cause I think that something like this can be very eye opening and there are a lot of people in the US, in the world that should probably have an experience with poverty. I want to spend my life serving, and I am more and more interested in working in developing countries, but it’s awkward, and hard. It’s a lot to think about, much from just living here, but new things from this weekend. I am inspired, skeptical, curious, confused.

Two adventures, one a lot more pleasent than the other.

There are two Dominican experiences to report. It has been a while since I’ve written an update.

Primero Samana!

An all inclusive group trip to an incredible 5 star resort! Includes two privet beaches three pools, all you can eat buffet and drink menu, its own dance club and work out center. It may not be exactly Dominican life, but a dream luxury vacation, complete with picture perfect palm trees and beaches.

Two highlights- A boat tour to el Parque Nacional de Haitices. We went into some isolated caves and man groves on accessible to by boat. I loved learning about the formation of the islands and the intricately carved caves. There were so many amazing views and images that couldn’t be captured on camera.

The second highlight for me was Sunday morning I walked into town with a couple of other girls from the group. The contrast of the town verses up on the hill is crazy. I just hope that even half of the people at that resort make it into the town to spend a little money and really see part of the Dominican Republic. We went to a little market area. A photographer’s paradise. There was this open market where everyone would bring whatever goods they had to sell, whether it be fish or chicken or rice or vegetables. There were so many people there selling and buying. After that we walked around in a little neighborhood. People started coming up to us asking if we would take their picture. It felt so good to just be with the people. It felt so much more like home than in that resort.

Segundo Dengue Fever!

First featuring, head aches, fevers, body pain, exhaustion. At this point there is little anyone can really do for you. Unfortunately this is the most painful and when the frustration of being in another country with another language and not at home in your mom’s arms (no I’m not ashamed that at 21 years old and this is all I wanted) sets in, all you want to do is break down and cry. Don’t worry there is an overbearing caring family to make sure that you feel really stupid because they think you are crying not cause you want your mommy but because you think you are going to die here. Don’t cry, everyone gets sick, don’t cry it’s not that bad you won’t die. NO YOU DON’T GET IT. I just hurt all over and want my mom to hold me…

Next is an all inclusive stay at a Dominican hospital. 4 nights with an IV lots of drugs and visitors. You will barely move except to go to the bathroom. All of your muscle and the body you worked so hard for will sadly get left at this hospital.

Ok so it wasn’t that bad. Yeah I got Dengue Fever. It wouldn’t be like me to miss out on the opportunity to learn first hand about Dominican healthcare. I survived and am now trying to cope with the idea that my body won’t let me do what I want. I’m sick of being stuck at home because I can’t walk 200 steps without getting light headed and tired. But everyone has been really great. My host family defiantly went out of their way to take care of me and still is. As frustrated as I was that they weren’t my real family they did the best job they could taking care of me. I have to say they have a lot of faith in magical juices. There always is a type of juice that my host mom can make that will fix anything wrong with me. I believe that eating nutritious foods can help your health but they talk it up like it has super powers.

Dos and don’ts of being a tourist in a non touristy location-

Don’t go where there aren’t very many people. Isolation is deceivingly beautiful.
We arrived to Barahona after more than 6 hours of public transportation. Immediately after checking into our hotel we head to the beach. We are clearly the only tourists in the town. Which on is neat not being in a touristy area, but when there is no hope of blending in, all the stares are just awkward. We found the beach practically deserted. There were a few fisherman and workers at a local hotel. Not quite the idyllic beach we were all hoping for but we walked around a little with some little boys looking for shells. We had been sitting down talking when one of the oldest boys in the group stole Lynnea’s back pack. No one had a quick response and he easily got away. Damn, that sucks. We all felt so stupid for putting ourselves in that situation. We were completely isolated, it was so easy. It then turned into this big ordeal. A bunch of the boys tried to go off and catch the kid we spend several hours waiting and talking about what to do. The kids found us in the super market, (creepy but how hard is it to find 6 North American girls in a little town) and tried to get us to come with them and confront the kid. Quickly the whole town knew. Later that evening we were sitting on a corner and this guys come up on his motoconcho and asks if we were the girls who got robbed and scolded us for going that far on the beach by ourselves. It was a very unsatisfactory ending of a long day traveling. We felt so vulnerable and stupid. The town just didn’t feel comfortable or safe.

Don’t always trust the guide book.
The next morning we got up early and were ready to get out of that town. We book a hotel recommended by my guide book in a town about 30 km south and got on our way. When we got close to the town and asked the driver to drop us off at this hotel. Turns out it was back in Barahona, the town we were running from. Great we have all of our stuff and don’t know where we going.

Do make ask for help when you need it.

The guagua driver and the guy who takes the money (there’s an assistant who runs the door) made it their mission to find us a place to stay. We went to three little towns looking for a room, more difficult than you would think. Finally we ended up in this little town called Ojeda. It couldn’t have had more than 40 houses. They had this little colmado, a hotel and a bar, right on the beach. Perfect!

Don’t let what one person did to you dictate how you interact with others. You could miss out on what others have to give.
We couldn’t understand why they went to all of this trouble to help complete strangers. At one point they made us all get out so that we could go look at this amazing view of Los Platos, a fresh water river meeting the ocean. I think it took all of us a little while to let it happen but we were being taken care of for no reason. They had know idea how much what they were did meant to us.

Do make friends with people who are willing.
Next thing we knew they were going to come back and visit us that night. We played dominos and hung out at our hotel. It was great, safe and comfortable. A couple other people from the town and who worked at the little hotel joined.
The next morning Pio, the guagua driver, and Arismende, the door man, picked us up at the hotel to give a couple of the girls a ride to the next town so they could catch a bus because they wanted to head home early. We all decided to go a little ways to find a place to eat breakfast. I guess a fresh fruit market is hard to come by in that area, so Pio just takes us to his house. He says we don’t have much but come, my wife with make you breakfast. How wonderful. We spent the morning sitting in front of his house playing with his kids and neighbors too.

Do find the cultural way to say thank you.
Pio’s wife and Arismende took us to San Rafeal that day and bought us beer and snacks. It was really cool to get to talk and hang out for the day. The took care of us in every way they could. They wouldn’t let us buy them anything. We continued to say thank you thank you, but it just made them uncomfortable. We couldn’t do anything for them. After a little while it got a little frustrating. We didn’t have anything to offer them. The one thing we did have was money, but they wouldn’t let us get them anything. A cultural barrier we couldn’t understand.
That night their whole family came over to our hotel, we hung out on the porch and played games and talked. We had gone to the colmado and bought juice and chocolates. They felt no guilt to let us serve them. We had finally figured out how to play the game. When one person is hosting, the other is always the guest. The idea of dutch, where you go somewhere and each person pays for them selves, or first person buys the first round of drinks and the other buys the second, doesn’t work here. One person completely hosts everything, and the guest reciprocates by hosting another time. It was an interesting lesson to learn. We got so frustrated when they wouldn’t let us buy anything, but we didn’t understand the pride that comes with hosting.

Do take advantage of wherever you are.
This trip we saw other beautiful parts of this country. Besides being basically adopted by a Dominican family, we went to two gorgeous beaches on the south west coast, very different than the north. Bleached white pebbled beaches, lined with palm trees. The two beaches we spend days at had fresh water streams that were made into little swimming holes right next to the beach. The water was cool but refreshing...not like the ocean. The water had good waves to play in too.
Both Sunday and Monday morning we got up early and watched the sunrise over the Caribbean Sea. After we would go and get coffee from this lady who basically feed the entire village from her little colmado. The sweetest coffee I’ve every tasted. It was wonderful!

Adjusting

I had top-ramen soup for breakfast this morning. My host mom prepared the whole bag plus toasted bread and fruit and juice. Yesterday I had a ham and grilled cheese sandwich and cookies. She always seems surprised when I don’t eat everything I am given, but when I finish something that means that I must want more. They say that portion sized are huge in the US but I can’t believe how much my family eats here. It is incredible. Plus the concept of healthy is so different here. I would die for fresh raw vegetables, or a mixed green salad. Oh yumm. I’m going to be dreaming about my raw carrots. One night for dinner I had pasta, mashed potatoes and bread, oh and rice, rice goes with everything.

I am finally feeling comfortable here. There are still a couple cultural things that I have a hard time getting over. One, the concept of first come first serve, or wait you turn does no exist here. If you think you are in line people will just walk right in front of you. You have to be aggressive to get anything done. That does not work for me. Emily, pushing people out of the way to get to a bathroom stall? I so content to patiently wait my turn, but here I will not get a turn unless I’m aggressive about it. Watch out when I come back, if I actually get adjusted to this one over the next 3 months.

Another is that no one is on time for anything. School is one thing but everything else in this country runs without a hurry. If a program is suppose to start at 7:00 and you show up at 6:59 you will be the only one there. Likely the speaker won’t even be there yet and people will still be setting up the stage for the next 10-15 min. Say my family is going over to someone’s house for dinner. My host mom might tell me we are leaving about 6:30 ‘más o menos.’ So I get home at 6, change and am ready to go. I don’t like being rushed and hate the feeling when other people are waiting for me. So around 7, someone says ok let’s go, let’s go. No one moves from in front of the TV. We won’t get out of the house until after 8. Ahh take it all with a sense of humor : )
Adjusting has been longer and harder than I had thought, but I finally believe that I am in the right place. As hard as it is at times I don’t think that I would want to be anywhere else right now. Funny how sometimes you need a change from everything you know. I’m not sure what I would do if I was at LC this semester. This is going to be a growing experience many more ways than one. And has already been, just having more time really by myself to get some thoughts and feelings organized. It sounds so cliché but I’m learning but in ways that I didn’t expect to. My eyes have open to things that my life and heart have been missing the last several months. Not easy but I have been happier here than I have been in a long time.

Weekend exertion

Saturday 4 friends and I set out on an adventure with limited directions to get to a river and swimming hole below some taino ruins. Take a guagua to Moa than another in the direction of Los Pinos but ask if the driving knows where Dona Micha lives. Knock three times on the door than go around back and the mango tree with cast a shadow towards a wire cage and inside will be a chicken that when let loose will show you the trail head. Ok it wasn’t that bizarre, but we felt like we were on a treasure hunt.

We showed up at the house of a woman who is friends with the director of our program. She did not know we were coming but insisted that she make us lunch and let her sons show us the way up the hike. The house had an incredible view of a lush green valley. It was absolutely breath taking. We sat outside in rocking chairs talking as we gazed at the beautiful view. This family owns a casaba factory. Casaba is made from yuka, a potato like root. It is one of those things that don’t necessarily taste good but once you start eating it you just can’t stop. We got a tour of the factory, and ate plenty of casaba before lunch even started. Everything turned out just as perfectly as possible. We got a ride in the back of someone’s pick up to the trail head, walked up for about 30 min along a stream/in the stream. We ended up at this series of really deep swimming holes connected by a stream of waterfalls. The backdrop was a tropical rain forest fitted with cacti and palm trees, and a huge rock carved face. Well to be honest the face was a bit of a stretch. I guess half of it fell off at some point.

It was such a perfect day. I wish that hiking was easier to do. I defiantly miss that. I was so glad that we actually found one. And swimming is always wonderful here. It was raining when we got there actually but the water still felt amazing. It was one of those days that you have to appreciate God’s beauty. I felt so blessed by so many different things, the area, the company, hospitality, and how everything just fell into line. Very refreshing. I need to keep worshiping Him for this.

Next weekend is a 4day weekend. As of now the plan is to climb Pico Duarte, the tallest peak in the caribbean. I guess it takes a couple of days but backpacking it sort of unheard of here. It sounds like we have to go with a tour guide and will likely have mules carry our stuff up. So not really backpacking but I hope it will be rewarding just the same.