The Rocky Coast Part 2

I decided to walk up the coast in the direction of the sugar factory, inspecting the drop-off all along the way for signs of a promising handhold. I saw a few spots that looked alright, but they tended to be covered in crabs. Finally, I could see in the distance the dividing wall that delineates the boundary of the sugar factory and the gated community that surrounds it.

Andrew jumps into a charco (natural pool) in Punta Cana during his visit last summer

As I approached the wall I cold see some figures coming toward the ocean along it. Before long there were about a dozen Dominican teenagers, poking around a certain spot along the rocks and making talk of jumping in. I didn't know what to think, since some of them sounded apprehensive. But right about the time I began to conclude that they were all going to chicken out, one of them stripped to his boxer and turned a somersault from the highest point into the brine.

Playing Dominoes with Clínica staff at a party the med students threw at the guest house

I watched with a bit of trepidation as he made his way back toward the rocks and, to my surprise, DISAPPEARED INTO THEM at the water's edge only to reappear a moment later inside a sinkhole a few feet back from the sea. After watching a couple of other come ashore by more conventional means, I decided to give it a try. The water could not have felt better. The kids were so stoked to see the gringo doing it too. I think they were used to seeing foreigners who were too afraid to get off their tour buses, let alone hang out with them at the swimming spot.

The Rocky Coast Part 1

There's this neighborhood down by the ocean called La Caleta that I explored on my first visit to La Romana, when I tried to bushwhack my way through the thick brush down to the sea. That time, I ended up getting stung by wasps, so I turned back early, but I discovered a path and had been wanting to explore it ever since.

The crowded counter and sink in the tiny kitchen of my new apartment in La Romana

I was resolute, but not entirely optimistic about my prospects when I went a second time today, since I didn't know how many people knew about the trail or even whether it made it all the way to the coast, but my hope was to get a nice little stretch of ocean all to myself. Well, it turned out that was just the case. Apparently, if it's not a beach here, nobody hangs out there.

The view of Sagrada Corazón de Jesus cathedral from the balcony I where I used to live in Moca

The whole rocky coastline, from what I could tell, was made up of fossilized coral and went out maybe 50 feet from the brush and trees before abruptly dropping about 10 feet into the churning water below. I had just walked for about 40 minutes and the thought of a nice dip sounded divine, but there didn't appear to be a safe spot where I would have good prospects of climbing back out.

From Moca to La Romana Part 3

During the course of my youth group, Rafael invited his boss, Jose Bencosme, to observe. It turns out, Jose is the kind of public servant who gets things done. He oversees the Indotel computer labs of an area encompassing five provinces and was eager to put me to work training his employees to multiply my efforts throughout the greater Moca area. When I finished up with my students at the high school, he was ready and waiting for me with more than 30 adult students, all in charge of computer labs.

View Encargados Reach in a larger map

Each point represent a computer lab where one or two my students worked

For 8 weeks, I taught a morning group of about 12 and an evening group of about 20 for four hours each every Saturday. Some came from as far away as Gaspar Hernandez on the north coast and Sabana Iglesia in the country’s interior. During the week I keep hours at the lab to provide technical support there and help people who came in to use the computers. I also ended up running around to various labs run by my students and helping them reformat hard drives and troubleshoot problems. It was a very busy time for me. I would typically visit a lab for three or four whole days, talking my student through the various steps of Windows installation, system cloning, and so on. After all was said and done I must have done this at least 10 labs.

My buddy Max Podemski came to visit. Seen here in the
Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración in Santiago

By the time Summer was coming to a close, I had taught an entire other group of 20 people at a public lab above the post office while simultaneously overhauling its 20 computers. The requests for one-on-one lab help were still rolling in and Jose Bencosme was bugging me to let him plan me a class in nearby Salcedo.

From Moca to La Romana Part 2

While things were falling apart with the scouts a and coming together at the library, I spent a lot of time networking with other volunteers and developing a secondary project to track Peace Corps volunteer history online. During spring 2012, a former volunteer named Derrick Lewis caught wind of me while describing his workplace’s data management needs to Nate Lohman, a friend of mine living near Punta Cana. I spoke with Derrick on the phone and it was clear that we were both very excited at the prospect of me going to La Romana to volunteer at Clinica de Familia La Romana. In my exasperation at my repeated lack of success in Moca, I told him I would move to La Romana, given the opportunity.

 

I pose with the family of one of my students in her father's finca

With the La Romana project far from certain, I proceeded in Moca as if I would be there until the end of my service. Together with Rafael, I planned and led a ten-week WordPress course for a group of adults at the library. One of my students, Yoryi Carvajal, was a teacher at the local high school. With his help, I formed a group of teenagers and led them in Encargados del Futuro a curriculum developed by Peace Corps volunteers in the DR the year before I arrived.

From Moca to La Romana Part 1

When last I submitted an update from Moca, things were on the mend with the Scouts. I explained to Pablo that I would possibly get moved to another city and that I wanted to take measures so that something was retained of my efforts to update and maintain the computers at the scout lab. He called a meeting of the caminantes (the older scouts), and made a schedule for each of them to come for a couple of hour-long training sessions during the next two weeks in how to manage the lab.

Me and Joel, a member of the youth group I formed at the library

This campaign went well for a few days until, as usual, the scouts discovered they were only being held accountable to me and quit showing up. Since this was what I had come to expect, I simply stopped going to the scout lab and invested the balance of my time in the growing list of tech support requests being made by Indotel students.

An example of a home in the Moca neighborhood where I was originally placed

Indotel is the Instituto Dominicano de las Telecomunicaciones, a Dominican Institution, I first encountered on my volunteer visit almost two years ago when I was less than a month into my Peace Corps training. Indotel sets up computer labs all over the country, and as fate would have it, I met a very motivated administrator named Rafael who was running Indotel lab in the Moca municipal library.

Hello 2013

It's been at least two months since I wrecked shop in Moca (surely, a whole other post unto itself) and moved on to bigger (and better?) things in La Romana. This time two weeks ago, I was I fresh off the plane in the apartment of the generous Brian and Kristy Humpheys. At the last minute, Mom planned me a trip home for the holidays.

The house I moved to in downtown Moca. My room is behind the upstairs window on the right.

My visit to Portland was a whirlwind of emotions. I think it's safe to say that it altered the course of my Peace Corps service. Before going home, I was all set to take an extra year to finish the project I began last November. Now I'm not so sure. It looks more like I'll be asking Peace Corps for an extra couple of months beyond my scheduled Close of Service (COS).

The inside of my room in Moca. If I wanted to cool off, all it did was open the door and the windows.

It goes without saying that for almost a year, I neglected you, fair readers. Part of the reason for this has been the effort required to take and prepare photos for each of my posts. Well, I tell you now, I managed to return from the United States without the cable I was using to charge my camera's battery. Thus, I will be forced to make do with what images can be found on its memory card until such time as the cable can be replaced. Keep an eye out for new posts detailing recent developments.

Charlie’s Last Few Months: The Cliff's Notes Edition

I present the Peace Corps DR history map to attendees at the 50th Anniversary conference

A lot has changed since my last blog post. Here’s a brief outline of developments since Spring:

• Problems persisted with my property managers failing to pay the power bill toward which I so faithfully furnished my share every month.
• There was an electrical fire late at night, during which I had the good fortune to be awake and able to exit the building before it flooded with smoke.
• My relationship with the Scouts gradually fell apart.
• I began to foster a budding relationship with the public library in Moca’s town center.
• In the month that followed the fire, I began canvassing for a new apartment, eventually discovering a charming family whose Mocan matriarch now rents me a room four blocks from the library.
• I finally managed to form a group of about seven youths after visiting about six classrooms, each contain more than 30 high school students.
• Observing my efforts with the youth group, my coworker at the library notified his regional supervisor. Together the three of us planned and promoted a six-week course for more than 30 computer lab supervisors from all around the Moca area, some of whom come from as far as an hour away every Saturday to participate in my workshops. It is presently in week 4.
• Faced with the threat of its computer lab being reclaimed by the country’s public computer lab authority, the Scouts have renewed their commitment with me, forming a two month schedule of trainings for certain members of the scout group.

MEANWHILE…

• Nate, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer was networking with potential hosts for his med school residency when he discovered that La Clínica de Familia in La Romana could use an IT specialist to help them with their patient records system.
• Having been introduced to me during my visit to Punta Cana last Christmas, Nate put me in touch with personnel from the clinic who have since had me out for a tour and interview and petitioned Peace Corp to solicit my service. I am tentatively scheduled to begin there in mid-September.

Me and my latest round of students, computer lab attendants from all over the Moca area.