Summer's End

The crew with the base of our Eco-Bano

What a week!

Last Sunday was full of laughs as I went to spend Sunday at the beach in Montecristi: about 20 minutes by bus from my house. Normally fairly deserted, Sunday afternoon makes El Morro beach feel super crowded as close to 30 Dominicans descend on the playa to bathe at the beautiful beach. The women, normally minimally dressed en la calle, don full outfits to swim in the ocean. It could have something to do with the fear of the sun and becoming any darker than God intended. The funniest/most disturbing thing happened when an elderly gentlemen went behind a scraggly bush to change into swimming trunks. Unfortunately I think he thought he was hiding, even though he was standing next to a some scrub bush as his cover. We never could figure out if the man was severely intoxicated (likely), mentally disabled or both. He struggled for (I kid you not) close to three minutes with the trunks halfway up his butt, but try as he might, he couldn’t seem to get them up the last, very important, foot, perhaps he was borrowing from a friend or perhaps he had gained some weight. Therefore, he logically proceeded to put on an extra large pair of men’s briefs on over top. This long endeavor was accompanied by an audience of very amused hooting and hollering Dominicans in the ocean. He then, sin verguenza, turned around and got in the ocean, underwear over the top of his half on swim shorts…that definitely made my Sunday.

About two months ago, I had written a card to the governor of Montecristi asking for 20 trash cans (aka old metal barrels that used to hold pesticide) to be donated to our community as there are no trash receptacles in the community. Everyone throws their trash on the ground and then the donas sweep every morning and burn little piles of trash all up and down the street. This is something I will not miss waking up to, the smell of smoldering plastic at 6 am. That being said, the governor was able to gift me 12 of said receptacles. This of course has the added cost of finding someone in my community to come with a large truck and get the trash cans and pay him for his diesel fuel. Luckily, I have some leftover Kids to Kids grant money for just such an endeavor. Upon arriving back in the community people started yelling at me from the street they would pay me $100 pesos each for the trash cans. I said that they aren’t for sale, I will be painting them with the muchachos and they will be put in public places. This elicited a lot of disappointment. People really like to acquire as many barrels at their house as possible to store water when the aqueduct gets turned on a few times a week. So now my backyard is filled with said barrels awaiting paint and a fun art project. The only thing missing is the commitment and cooperation of the local ayuntamiento to come and collect trash from our community, something that has never been done even though it is part of the provincial budget. However, unless the truck gets sent with regularity, my soon to be painted trash cans will be black with smoke from burnt trash…Let’s hope for the best.

I have been aware of my rodent problem for quite some time now. Little things have popped up with holes in them, I noticed lots of turds on my kitchen counter every morning, and about a month ago, there was an actual spotting!! Being a bit of a procrastinator, I did not do anything to confront my rent-free roommate, that is, until I read up on the dangers of lectospirosis. I went to the vet in order to see my options for mouse traps. What I ended up getting was the safest thing that Blue would not eat and poison himself. It is a sticky pad about half the size of piece of paper that the mouse or rat gets stuck to, you then kill the mouse and reuse the sticky pad for up to two more times! I had heard some pretty funny horror stories of other volunteers using this contraption. One being that only the foot of the mouse got caught so the mouse was running all around the house dragging the cardboard behind him. I was terrified of hearing the whimpering cries for help in the night when I captured my furry friend so I decided to lay the trap the night I would be spending in the pueblo. When I got home, the plan was to send in a neighbor to finish the deed. The culprit ended up being a baby, squealing away when I got home the next afternoon. My neighbor, instead of immediately dealing with the task, contemplated the trap and asked me if he could keep the pad to use at his mother’s house. I said fine, but first could he please kill the mouse and get it out of my house. He dragged the trap about five feet from my house and stepped on it, and left it in the middle of the path out to my latrine. He looked at me and said, “Eso me da asco!” That grosses me out! Then he picked up the sticky pad and happily went home to give his mother the trap.

It is so nice having lovely neighbors always willing to help. I could not have been happier, I was finally free of my pest. I sat down at the table to read a book and if a little mouse didn’t scurry right by! I had already given the trap away so I figured I will have to try the natural remedy I have heard also works. You grate the seed of an avocado which contains cyanide and mix it with some peanut butter or cheese. My only worry is the mouse will eat this and then climb under my roof and die thereby smelling up my house. I will keep you all posted on this. My unhealthy and irrational fear of furry rodents (not irrational I suppose because they are dangerous and can pass on lectospirosis) is extremely strong but I am glad this fear does not apply to tarantulas and large spiders which appear all over my house at all times. But don’t worry Brooke, I will kill them all before you come to visit! I really wish Blue got along with cats because having a kitty would be the solution to all my problems. At least Blue will eat the cockroaches sometimes. Good girl!

On Wednesday I went to Santiago with a mason from my community. My mason was going with me to attend a 4 day eco-bano latrine training: he along with five other masons was going to learn how to build the Peace Corps model latrine with ferro-cement technology. I was a little apprehensive because my mason, Rafael, who I have very little previous experience with other than he fixed up my house and put in electricity for me, rarely leaves the community. I would be paying his transport on the bus and covering all expenses until we got to the training center. Rafael participated in a pilot project with World Vision a few years back where he helped build a composting latrine in my community out of cement bloc. Their model of latrine is very expensive, is much larger, and is impressive compared to the size I will be building. The training was being led by my friend Andrea who has had the first large-scale success building this model of latrine. Her mason has built 52 of these latrines and was going to be teaching the masons in attendance all about the measurements and tactics of building this awesome bathroom.
The training was very successful. We built the latrine at a public swimming hole where many Dominicans go to jump off a waterfall. The need for the bathroom was obvious as when we were collecting sand by the river we ran into a few piles of human feces. The training was very successful and very amusing to me as the masons all struggled to work together. Much like any craft, they all seemed to be critiquing each other and holding nothing back about their preferred styles or so and so’s lack of skill at mixing cement or cutting rebar, etc. The most difficult thing for me will be ensuring that Rafael uses the dry cement mixture instead of the more common wet mixture he is used to working with.

The volunteers and I kept lamenting that we should do a fun activity at night because we were staying at a dorm-style retreat house and other than watch tv at night, there was nothing to do. Dancing and drinking were out of the question as my mason is Evangelico and therefore does not partake in either vicio (vice). We decided that going to see a movie at the mall would be perfect, as long as the volunteers paid for the taxi and the movie tickets. Even though the movies only cost about 3 dollars, that is still more than they would be able to spend most likely. Because of Rafael’s’ opposition to anything violent, sexual, etc, we picked the Smurfs in 3D. It was so fun! Rafael watched the whole movie without his glasses because he thought the glasses made him dizzy. A few of the masons in attendance were from very rural areas and because the only movie theaters in the country are in the big cities I bet a lot of the masons had never been to see a movie. Watching Colleen’s mason who lives on a small island with no electricity and only 200 people, confront the escalator was certainly amusing. All in all, it was a priceless experience and Rafael definitely loved the Smurfs as much as I did, although his experience was not as animated as my own without the glasses.

I returned back to my site Saturday night. Today I received some sad news. My project partner Digna, in charge of helping me collect the quota for my second round of filters, had all of the money stolen from her house. We were planning on collecting the filters on Tuesday so almost all 60 recipients had paid their 9 dollars. A man from the capital had been staying at her house while he recovered from an operation. Digna, one of my project partners, is the evangelical pastora and everyone assured me that no one would mess with her because the community has great respect and reverence for her. However, the man absconded with a little over 400 dollars. That money was meant for future community projects as well as is necessary to pay for the gas to go get the filters which are several hours away in a factory. I was really impressed when she told me that she would be selling a cow tomorrow in order to make up for the stolen money. We will not be able to recover all of the money, but it will be enough to at least go get the filters. I feel so blessed that she is taking responsibility for this unfortunate incident and all will not be for naught.

In other news, our electricity has been all over the map recently. The electric company decided to cut all power last week (when they cut power here they literally cut the power lines and take them away).

Within two days my neighbors had rigged the electricity back up. Why would we pay they ask me, we never have electricity for more than half the day, that’s not worth paying for. Definitely a cyclical problem as people will never pay for something that doesn’t work and until people pay it will not improve. However, the voltage was extremely strong and my fan blew up as well as all the light bulbs in the house. Luckily I have my mini fridge plugged into a power strip so that is still chugging away.

Thanks so much again to all the friends and family who have donated to my latrine project. Within the week I will have an additional grant online in hopes of raising money to build another 15 latrines. If anyone still wants to donate, that would be great! I wish I could thank everyone personally but I am unaware, unless you tell me, who has donated to my project. Stay tuned as I will need to raise an additional 2500 US dollars. I am so excited to start this project because the latrines are super cool!
There’s never a dull moment here in Judea: el Silvestre Oeste! *the wild west










My Club de Madres at sewing class,
learning to make pants!


At latrine training, coloring to teach illiterate families the different modes of contamination. This educational component will be 90% of my latrine project


Even he was having a great time!


building the compost latrine



Putting in the poop door: where you can take out the compost in a year