A life in the DR

Reflections, stories, and tidbits about my summer interning with Yspaniola in the Dominican Republic

[amoelleryspaniola]

Tidbits after un mes...

The first month has been quite the eye-opening experience in a multitude of ways, to say the least. It has introduced me to a new culture, full of life and love. The drastic culture-change induced quite a shock the first week, but it also left a many impressions that I hope to remember back in the states. I have learned more about Non-Governmental Organizations and how small international development foundations function, especially in the education sector, than I could have hoped or anticipated. It has been the most incredible experience to come and live in the truths and theories of development that I have learned in international development classes during my schooling at UCLA. I have loved living and working completely immersed in the community, as with multiple homestays in the Batey, and seeing how important the relationships are on a personal and community-to-NGO level. In addition, working here has really opened my eyes to the need for development in a wide variety of sectors, and how each individual, both domestically and internationally within the community and organization, has specific skills, attributes, and passions that can make a greater impact when used to each person’s strengths. I could go on for pages and pages about all that I have learned and realized while working here thus far, both in how to best interact with communities, cultures, and people and also how to narrow down my overall interests and passions to best serve the developing community. I am overwhelmed by the amount of change that I hope to see in the world but have come to re-realize the importance of working together to ignite that change.

As simple as the following “week one” realizations sound, I would like to share a few “don’t take for granted moments”. Living here has made me appreciate many things back at home that I often took for granted, such as a few of these observations:

The few mosquitoes that come at night when eating on the back-porch in California are babies. Squash them with your pinky finger. These blood suckers are vampires with wings. They will leave red mountains on you if you have anything less than 60% DEET.

 Cameras are magic. Mirrors are unthinkable. To see a picture or reflection of yourself is a gift, not a way to criticize yourself or pick out flaws.

A bed is a beautiful blessing. A bed without springs poking through is not something to forget.

 So you mean that there are places that inflict continual sweat and wet clothing and make it so that you can’t fall asleep because of the warm air that engulfs and drowns you? Fans and AC are something not to be taken lightly. Those are fit for the gods.

Eat fresh food. The community would spit upon hearing of the amount of frozen, industrialized food that zooms through consumers’ Costco baskets on a daily basis, mainly for the purpose of eating to function. America, give thanks and use the food that you are blessed with. Make hot meals, eat together, wait for family to return from work, learn to cook “specialties”, take pride in your cooking skills, invite others to your home, eat less but eat better. Even here, they will eat nothing but a chicken that was alive three hours earlier. THAT is fresh and consideration of the quality of food.

  Curvy isn’t fat. Curvy is “fuerte” and beautiful. Be you. Bigger hips can dance better anyway.

We actually don’t clean laundry in the US. I recently did laundry with my host mom, and that is a WORKOUT. You scrub the bajeebies out of every piece of clothing, probably making my clothes 500x cleaner here than at home with the high efficiency washer, and also giving you a half pound weight loss added bonus with every piece of clothing.

Many of these people truly live moment-to-moment and are constantly in the present. Future planning or investment in education, finances, etc is a forward thinking idea. Maybe save that extra $5 per week with pride, being thankful that you have learned to critically think and plan for the future, but also remember to live presently because that moment is truly a gift.

 Showers now are the best part of the day. Running water for a shower is unthinkable in so much of the world. So for now, I will enjoy the bucket shower with canal water but will look forward to showers that will continually run down my face and have drinkable water, as it flows down like gold.

Love is universal. Children’s curiosity and love for life transcends all borders, and the adult world has a lot to “relearn” from these little bundles of joy. Laughter, hugs and smiles are all multilingual. When in doubt, show more love.

***And LASTLY, relationships and people are the spice of life. Families, communities, friends are priceless. Yes, love yourself, but also love and live for others. Anyone here would take being 1.5 hours late to a meeting (which in Dominican time is actually more or less right on time) and a conversation with his or her neighbor over getting the to-do list crossed off and priority list assembled, as many in the United States strive to complete daily. At the end of the day, that list is ever-so insignificant in comparison to how you treated the pineapple man on the corner or your neighbor as you ran out the door. Love your family, friends, neighbors and the people that make you feel at home. Take the time to get to know the people that make up the world around us. : ) 

[amoelleryspaniola]

Cemento Cibao

Throughout the course of my time working in the Cibao Valley, I have learned a lot about:

·      working internationally (especially after reading How to Work in Someone Else’s Country by Ruth Stark- HIGHLY recommended)

·      teaching different types of children from a variety of cultural backgrounds (also after reading Other People’s Children: A Cultural Conflict in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit)

·      international development work and Non-Governmental Organizations

·      and, of course, the culture here in the Dominican Republic.

More specifically, I have been learning first-hand how many populations in the developing world are often denied basic human rights. Although many rights are technically provided and “ensured” under documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the reality of these provisions lacks.  Access to education, or lack thereof, for example, is one area Yspaniola works to address through the Literacy Center in Batey Libertad. But while living in the Batey, I realized that there are countless other standards of living that, in my opinion, violate the right to live, thrive, and succeed. Getting an introduction of developmental work in the field and past the textbook education has opened my eyes to the never-ending list of improvements and areas of growth that continue to arise. One major shortcoming is the limited access to potable or even non-contaminated water.

99.9% of the time in the United States I would let my shower water wash over my body like a waterfall, not even noticing as I took a gulp of the potable drops raining down. Here not only can you not drink the shower water, but ingesting the majority of non-bottled water will cause the spread of diseases such as cholera, as it did on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 2007, or parasites (which I currently have as well), especially if the water has been infected by feces. Many Americans, including myself before spending time here, have the impression that “us outsiders” get these sorts of diseases easier because we are not accustomed to the country-specific germs. To some extent, this may be true. But no matter the environment or type of person, humans are humans, suffer from many of the same problems, and are designed to reject certain harmful bacteria and organisms in order to survive. Water that has been infected with disease or feces affects children, men, and young woman in the Batey; the biggest difference is that many of the populations here don’t have access to acceptable healthcare or medical resources to treat, or even identify, the problem.

I was talking to a good friend who is involved in professional international development work, and she reminded me that it is not bad to comment on the negative living circumstances that many of the world’s populations face; as long as the complain does not stem from selfish comparison or desire for luxury that one feels like he/she is entitled to; for the dislike of the current situation ensures that we are not “normalizing” situations that should NOT be rationalized or accepted as healthy ways of life. As long as “potable” water stand next to latrines, as it does in Batey Libertad, this water will not even begin to scrape the category of “acceptable”.

In Batey Libertad, there is no running water, as discussed above. The nearest town, Esperanza, lies about a 10 minutes southeast, and is significantly more developed than the Batey, with running water, a few neighborhoods, shops, banks, and pharmacies. The pipe of running water that feeds Esperanza and the surrounding communities stops a quarter mile from the Batey’s center.  Finding this neglect unacceptable, Yspaniola and the community have been working for seven years to work to bring water from this pipe to the batey community. In late July, this project reached a climax when a group of us went to Cibao Cement Company, one of the main cement producers and exporters in the Caribbean region, to propose the donation of materials and funds to run this pipe 1320 feet further to the community.

The group of international representatives from Yspaniola included volunteers, interns, directors, and sponsored Yspaniola scholars from the Batey. We started the morning by receiving a private tour around the facilities and talking to the head engineer about his work with Cibao (pictured below). Then we entered a private meeting with the president of the company, sharing with her about Yspaniola, Batey, and ourselves before presenting our proposal. With a smile, she ended the meeting by saying, “We’ll send an engineer to survey the land tomorrow.”

During these weeks following the meeting with Cibao Cement, we have talked to more community leaders, engineers, and governmental officials to work out the logistics of the project and the start date. I am coming to learn that many developing communities have a myriad of hoops through which to jump, but with persistence and refusal to normalize the unacceptable, we can create that change. I am incredibly thankful to be a part of this process and have the opportunity to tangibly provide a human right that I saw as denied. I look forward to seeing the outcome of this promising series of events!

[amoelleryspaniola]

Preparación del centro de lectura

This summer has seen a month of transition for Yspaniola and specifically the Literacy Center in the Batey Libertad, between summer camp, preparation for the reopening of the Center, and the welcoming of a new Local Program Director who has both great ideas for the center and experience to help implement those changes. This has been quite the exciting whirlwind to jump right into, and it has opened my eyes to many of the jobs and steps that are integral parts of international development work. This past week, my skills as a handyman, test proctor, Microsoft Excel master, researcher, and librarian have been put to the test.

  The Center, which has been closed since the middle of July for summer break (pictured above), will reopen shortly. So in this period after camp, the Yspaniola staff has been making the necessary changes and preparations before the final “fall unveiling”, from painting the center, cleaning out the cucarachas (cockroaches) and repairing the roof to planning curriculum and administering literacy tests. I, personally, am thrilled to see the opening of the Center, as are all the children in the Batey. After sprinting to give each of us our daily morning hugs, the children immediately ask when “el Centro” reopens. They could not be more excited for the community to cut the fall 2013 opening ribbon, especially since the Center opening normally coincides with the beginning of school (which officially started on Monday, but it is commonly known that no one, including teachers, show up until week two or three).

Okay, so if the children already receive schooling for much of the year, why did Yspaniola establish this center, and what does it actually do, especially since it mainly focuses on Spanish, not English, literacy? In a nutshell, the Dominican Republic was ranked 101 out of 177 countries in terms of literacy, a skill that is vital to development and growth. Furthermore, the Dominican Republic’s public investment in education is 2.3% of its gross domestic product, which ranks 122nd out of 132 countries. It is plagued by poor infrastructure, few hours of instruction, frequent teacher absences, and limited resources. Public education is free and compulsory at the elementary level (“Nivel Básico”), free but non-compulsory at the secondary level (“Nivel Medio”), and non-compulsory and costly at the preschool level (“Nivel Inicial”) and higher education (“Nivel Superior”). So although (low-quality) education is publically offered to students, the opportunities for growth and higher education are few and far between, especially in reading and writing. Test scores consistently show students two grades behind in both reading and mathematics. Unfortunately, the statistics for children living in the marginalized Batey are lower still. According to UNDP data, children in one third of the bateyes, including Batey Libertad, lack access to any education, and a full third of those living in batey communities lack basic literacy skills. Much of this has to do with citizenship issues for Haitian migrants that settle in the Bateyes. Children living in Batey Libertad, for example, are routinely denied citizenship papers, preventing them from enrolling in schools and receiving desired levels of education*.

This is where Yspaniola’s Literacy Center comes in. Through leveled classes that are taught daily by trained teachers and local community leaders, the Center’s library, and learning resources in the Center, the Center provides children a place to strengthen their skills in language comprehension, decoding, and fluency, especially in many cases where Spanish is a child’s second language to Creole. Throughout the year, there are two leveled morning classes, each around 90 minutes, while the afternoon has one upper-level class and a “free reading hour”, an addition that the new Local Program Director has implemented for this fall.

    To assess the students, level them into the appropriate class, and best teach to each specific level of literacy, Yspaniola mainly uses two tools: Reading A-Z (A-Z Books) and the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA). Both of these resources have been a large part of the preparation for the last week.

  Reading A-Z is a program that levels students from non-readers to fluent readers, breaking each level in between with a progression of books labeled A-Z. Students are placed in one of four levels: Early Emergent Readers- Levels A-C, Emergent Readers- Levels D-J, Early Fluent Readers- Levels K-P, and Fluent Readers- Levels Q-Z. Each level is then assigned to a lettered section of books that are leveled by word count, word variation, ratio of new words to total words, number of high-frequency words, sentence length, sentence complexity, predictability, language pattern and repetition, print size, spacing, number of words per page, illustration frequency, and topic familiarity. Each level also has an accompanying lesson plan to strengthen reading and comprehension and link writing to other curriculum areas such as math, science, and social studies.

During this past week, we assembled, laminated, leveled, labeled, and shelved the A-Z books to prepare this section of the Center’s library. Knowing that these books will be directly used as a integral learning tool made the more mindless stapling and organizing much more enjoyable…especially with fresh pineapple and mango slices to break up the day : )

  The EGRA, or Early Grade Reading Assessment, is an international reading assessment that is currently implemented in over 50 countries and 70 languages. It tests students’ reading levels, based on performance in naming letters, sounds, phonetics, word recognition, reading non-meaningful words, oral fluency and comprehension and listening comprehension. The absolute scale of 342 represents the acquisition of basic fundamental literacy skills and allows teachers to know a student’s reading level and specific skill level in each of the above categories. Although many countries publically administer this assessment, many schools in the Dominican Republic, such as the one in Batey Libertad, have not conducted this test in past years. Last fall, however, Yspaniola received permission to test the community. Within these summer break weeks, we tested each child from last year (and even noticed individual and group improvement : )) as well as any new children who are entering school this fall. This test is important to Yspaniola in order to mark individual and community growth and also to see on which areas the Center’s curriculum should focus.

  In addition to organizing the A-Z Books and administering the EGRA, Yspaniola staff and I put on many hats and picked up any tasks that needed to be completed before reopening, a multi-faceted role that I have found to be quite common in developmental work. We spent the week planning the upcoming retreat (“un retiro”) to train the fall’s local Center volunteers with teaching strategies and basic classroom management, establishing the curriculum and daily lesson plans, becoming painting-masters while fixing up the center, researching ways to further involve the community and strengthen the strong bond between the Batey and Yspaniola, and conducting parents’ meetings.

Additionally, a young woman in the community wanted to establish a library of textbooks for the secondary and advanced schooling levels so that students need not buy more costly supplies that may inhibit many from attending higher education. It was great to see the community voice its need and then work with Yspaniola to find a solution, which now includes a section of the Center’s library with required textbooks that were drawn from last month’s book drive.

Lastly, as with the rest of the year, English classes for young adults were conducted every Tuesday and Thursday and were a fun way to spend the afternoon in “intercambio” pairs and workshop classes. After the director of the program returns to the States in late August, I will be taking over with a local teacher for the rest of my time here in the Dominican Republic.  I am excited for this opportunity to conduct these classes and continue to support the community in ways more than the Literacy Center.

  When the Center soon opens, it will be new and made-over for these excited children, which ideally will translate into their excitement for learning and reading, which the Center represents. I believe very strongly in the power of education and literacy and can’t wait to see how the center progresses and continues to be a safe-haven for learning as the weeks progress.

   *Data from UNICEF, World Bank, United Nations, UNESCO, OECD, Wikipedia, USAID Basic Education and Policy Support and American Association of Fundraising Counsel, Programa de Promoción de la Reforma Educativa de América Latina y el Caribe (PREAL), December 2006; United Nations (UN), 2005; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2004; Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 2008; UNESCO 2008.

[amoelleryspaniola]

El Campamento

Today marked the end of our “campamento” (summer camp) for the children in the Batey. To close camp, we had a “concurso” (a contest and talent show of sorts) of all the rotations and groups that comprised the fun of the last few weeks. Handing “paletas” (lollipops) to the winning team, the 10-13 year old campers who performed a traditional Dominican music and dance number, Yspaniola’s second annual summer camp came to a close.

During the year, the literacy center in the Batey Libertad is up and running as a great resource for reading and education to empower individuals and the community. However, during these past few summer weeks during the children’s summer break, Yspaniola conducted a summer camp with over 100 of the children living in the Batey. We had four different age groups of children, ranging from 5-12, which rotated among art, music/dance, Deportes Para La Vida (a sexual health program that focuses on education and awareness on age-appropriate topics), and education (which included projects on a variety of topics, including world culture and geography).

Our camp staff was comprised of 20 local young adult volunteers who served as counselors of the groups and as rotation leaders, 15 international volunteers (with university students from Mexico, Canada, France, Spain, and the United States), and local program directors and interns who are staff from Yspaniola. I arrived to the Batey the day before the start of camp, jumping straight into the camp adventures. Three hours within landing in the Dominican Republic, I was already getting my introductory tour from some of the local community members, hearing personal anecdotes about different parts of the community and its history, and learning the social web and construction of all the families and some advisories (such as avoid petting one of the local dogs, Suci, which stands for “sucia” (“dirty”) in Spanish. Matted-down hair buzzing with flies is a clue as to why one should avoid her…). Immediately I fell in love with the welcoming, beautiful Batey Libertad community. I also saw the great need for development and began to realize how I have taken many basic human rights and securities, such as clean water and a sturdy roof, for granted. Latrines stood next to water sources, homes needed much repair after a monsoon season, and children’s eyes lit up at the sight of their picture reflecting back on the camera screen. Needless to say, I am beyond excited to be calling this place home for the next six weeks and can’t wait to see the progress that will slowly happen during this time.

On day one we conducted a “limpieza” (“clean-up”) of the community, followed by breakfast and then organized sports in the early morning before lunch, with fútbol as the fan favorite.

On Friday of the first week, all of the children and leaders painted the community water containers (“tinacos”), shown in the second picture. Although these days differed from the other structured days of camp with rotations, the pride in giving back to one’s community and making a difference in its appearance that these children and young adults felt was invaluable.

 Throughout the rest of the two weeks, camp taught the community members and me a few lessons and basic themes:

---First, these introductory weeks were both incredibly rewarding to see the smiles across each child’s face and also eye-opening to a new, completely different culture. In this camp environment, many cultural differences were intensified with the long camp hours and the large group of children. For example, I soon found that “Dominican time” sees time more as a guideline, rather than the American tight schedule. The international leaders and interns soon learned to adopt flexibility and improvisation as a motto, as camp would often start an hour after “scheduled”. In this community, there is also a large population of Haitian immigrants who only speak Creole, therefore my inability to communicate with some of the children forced me to learn to use body language, or newly-acquired Creole phrases to successfully connect with some of the children. However, smiles, laughter, dance and music are all universal. :) Conflict problems differed from past camp experiences, such as the usual hair-pulling to having children throw shirts of red fire ants on each other—conflicts and ways to discipline are very, very different, yet children’s curiosity and desire to play and love proved to be universal. Both working the camp and living in a homestay in the Batey continued to relay many cultural differences as well as luxuries and/or basic necessities that I had often taken for granted in The United States.

---Although from a leader’s perspective there often appeared to be much chaos and lack of organization, this “organized chaos” had a hidden purpose. This camp was much different compared to some summer camps at which I have worked in the States that have a concrete lunchtime of 11:30 am, 25 minute rotations, a perfectly counted number of beads for art, and a distinct hierarchy of organization, for example. With less control in the hands of the older program directors, leadership was delegated to the young adult community leaders. They had a leadership role. They were learning to lead and think critically. They had a way to tangibly make a difference, and the personal growth in each of them throughout the camp was out of this world. By the concurso, age units were a family, with a proud community teen leading as the “papa” or “mama bear”. This blessing in disguise taught my more type-A camp counselor self to let go some of the menial details to look at the benefit of the larger picture.

  If I could collect all the smiles that were spread across the Batey these last two weeks, my hands would be overflowing. The children of the community considered it to be a highlight of the year, and they anxiously look forward to next year’s camp and for the reopening of the literacy center, where the local directors and interns, including myself, will be interacting with them once again. These weeks have provided so many opportunities for personal growth (even learning a few new traditional dance moves and all!), and I could not be more thankful for the personal relationships made through this camp experience and for the introduction to this incredibly loving and hardworking community that I am starting to call family and home. 

[amoelleryspaniola]

Where in the world is Allyson Moeller?

Name: Allyson Moeller

Height: 5’4”

Favorite Color: depends on the day, but today it’s a tie between lime green and coral pink/orange

Favorite Movie: The Princess Bride

Don’t you dare feed me: Flan, mooshy cherry tomatoes, overripe bananas

  Those are the cold, hard facts. But who is this girl named Allyson Moeller? In a nutshell, I am entering my fourth and final year at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I study International Development Studies, Spanish, and Political Science. I am exploring a variety of options post-graduation, which include returning to graduate school for public health, psychology, nutrition (to address malnutrition), or international business, or going into education or non-profit management. As you can see, I’ve got some whittling down to do. But what I do know is that I have a passion for people and their betterment, especially children, global health, and education in the developing world. I believe that global health and education are fundamental human rights that are often denied to the majority of marginalized populations, especially youth. Children’s voices often go unheard in a world dominated by adults amidst historic tensions, societal images, and corrupted values, and I have a drive to change that. In addition, I hope to apply my Spanish-speaking capabilities, which I have learned through studying abroad and living with a local host family in Sevilla, Spain, and now living and working in the Dominican Republic.

Outside of the classroom, I love to immerse myself in the Bruin culture. I serve on the board for Camp Kesem, a camp that works with children whose parents either have or have had cancer. I am also a campus tour guide, and a member of Chi Omega sorority, and other campus organizations, events, and opportunities. I love to travel, run, backpack, find the best frozen yogurt in LA, spend time with family and friends, adventure, laugh, and cross items my kooky bucket list (the most recent completions were scuba diving with sharks and riding a camel in the Sahara desert).

  THIS SUMMER I am serving as the Community Outreach and Education Intern for Yspaniola, an education-focused non-profit based in the Cibao Valley of the Dominican Republic. Founded in 2009 at the local Literacy Center in the Batey Libertad (a community an hour outside of Santiago, and close to Esperanza), Yspaniola works to increase access to high quality education for marginalized communities in order to alleviate poverty and promote development. Focused on literacy for younger children and pursuit of higher education for high school students, Yspaniola’s programs empower participants with the skills to provide for their families and the capacity to become leaders and advocates for social justice and development in their communities. Yspaniola is sensitive to integrating into local culture, having interns learn the local language, Creole, while living in the community. In addition, by teaching children from two historically tense groups, the Dominicans and Haitians, together in the Batey’s literacy center, Yspaniola creates a cohesive generation of leaders that will bring their communities together to survive, thrive, and succeed. Yspaniola also offers university scholarships for youth from the center, service-learning trips, and women’s savings groups, which encourage women establishing entrepreneurships to support their families. Visible connections made between communities and individuals, the understanding of a new culture, building a child’s confidence to speak before peers, and, most importantly, a child’s newfound love for education, learning, or reading will mark the progress to break the cycle of poverty and allow individuals to thrive and communities to develop.

  I am looking forward to the weeks ahead working with Yspaniola to advocate for education and basic fundamental rights in a community where these are not the norm. Additionally, I am excited (and yet nervous) to use my Spanish skills to communicate with individuals in the community and hope to further refine these “classroom” and European Spanish skills through total immersion. Despite the seven years of Spanish classes, studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain and living in a host family, and the completion of my Spanish minor at UCLA, this Dominican accent is a Spanish of its own, with dropped consonants, speech muy rápido, and many colloquial terms. In addition to my passion for Spanish (and newfound interest in Creole) and its use as an integral form of communication, I am deeply passionate about international development and education. I highly believe that education is the key to development within a country, and that education starts with schooling and especially reading from a young age. I am excited by the opportunity to serve the international community to help this developing community!

  ¡Hasta pronto!