Collares Rojos

When I moved to Bayahibe in April, I started walking Rosalinda every morning with a lady named Yanela who has six dogs. I learned more and more about a local foundation called “Collares Rojos” or Red Collars, of which Yanela is the director. It is a non-profit organization working to help abused and abandoned dogs and street dogs. Their main mission is to fix all the street dogs so that the dogs are less aggressive and, of course, cannot reproduce. However, they also look after street dogs that have been in an accident (get hit by a car, etc.), and try to get dogs adopted. Here there are not very many laws against dog abuse, and Dominicans, in general, have a bad attitude against dogs. For example: when I adopted Rosalinda, she would bark at children because the kids in the neighborhood where she was born would throw rocks at her.

When I lived in Mano Juan, the community always complained about how the dogs were a huge problem because they always bothered the tourists. In an effort to help, in May I worked with Collares Rojos to get three veterinarians to go out to Mano Juan and fix the street dogs there. There were four dogs already pregnant, so they planned to go out a couple of months later to finish the job.

A couple of weeks ago the new volunteer in Mano Juan, who had just gotten back from a trip, called me and said that she could not her dog, Mandy, and was worried about her. Later that day, I was walking down the street and ran into my friend that works with a tourist company that goes to Mano Juan. He said that that day when they went, a community member had met him on the beach and told him that they had taken care of the dog problem for the tourist companies. They had killed eight dogs the day before. My friend and all of the other workers were furious; they had not wanted this to happen.
I called the volunteer in Mano Juan back to confirm her worries; Mandy was dead.

The order to kill the dogs had come through a community member who had just become the local governmental official. However, there is a law against killing dogs in such a way so Collares Rojos and the tourist companies that go to Mano Juan were very upset and the whole town of Bayahibe was talking about the incident for several days.

Now the community members of Mano Juan understand what they did was wrong but the incident still has a lasting effect. One of the dogs they killed had eight puppies. Four of the puppies have died, one the volunteer at Mano Juan adopted, and three are awaiting adoption at Collares Rojos.

Since this incident, I started volunteering at the Collares Rojos’ new pound where they have abused and abandoned puppies and dogs awaiting adoption. There are always going to be bad stories like this but they don’t have to end there because there will also always be individuals that strive to make a difference. If anyone would still like to donate to one of my projects, please donate to this one! The foundation is always looking for money for dog-food and medicine. You can donate at collaresrojos.org; be sure to say that you know me!

Collares Rojos' pound:




Puppies at pound:


***When I was on vacation in June, Rosalinda got out of the yard and was hit by a car. A friend of Yanela’s saw Rosa and called Yanela. When Yanela recognized that it was my dog, she took her straight to the vet in La Romana. Rosalinda had a broken rib, bruised jaw, and a dislocated shoulder. Now she will always have a limp, but she is alive. A special thank you to Yanela and Santiago for taking such good care of her!

Summer Vacation

At the beginning of July, I went on vacation to Boston and New York City, and then I spent a week home in Texas. I left Santo Domingo 3am on May 31st and arrived in Boston at 9am. Katie Apone, a friend from my Peace Corps group who wasn’t crazy enough to extend had returned home there and so I went for a couple of days to visit her.

It was quite strange being with another Peace Corps volunteer in the states. Especially when we went to WalMart and she drove. What? You mean that we don’t have to wait for the public guagua (bus) and drive through crazy, noisy traffic for a half an hour longer than it should be to get to the supermercado and then take all our bags back on the crowded, hot guagua back to site? Weird!

We had a great time…we walked all over Boston, I learned the train system (which helped out a lot in NYC), we had a picnic in the park, took a tour around Harvard University, and went to a Boston Improv show.

Next, I took a bus through Connecticut to NYC to meet with my sister, Liz, for five days. We got to see all of the touristy sites including…





Central Park which was beautiful and so weird because it’s a HUGE park stuck in one of biggest cities.



Times Square





The Statue of Liberty


The Empire State Building (We did not go up to the top because neither of us wanted to pay $25 to ride an elevator but it was pretty from the outside.)


Phantom of the Opera on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre.

So much for a mud hut in Africa

On Monday Charles Beeker, the professor I'm working with, told me that a TV show wanted to interview him, me, and a couple of other people about the work that we have been doing. I honestly thought he was joking until the next day!

It didn't really hit me until Wednesday morning when we left at 4am from Bayahibe to the capital. I was in the back seat typing a letter to the Ministry of Environment, whom we had a meeting with later that day. We pulled up to the station, got our make up done, and walked on to the set.

Of course, I was really nervous. Then I found out that the show would be live, so I got a little more nervous. Then I found out that it would not only be playing here in the DR, but also in parts of the US and in Europe, so then I was super nervous!!!! Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that it was all in Spanish.

In the end, I think I did really well. I answered about six questions. They are going to send us copies of the tape.

On another note, go to iu.edu to see an article about what we are doing. It is currently the "Spotlight" article. (Yes that is me as the "scientific diver".) When that gets taken down, you can go to...
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/18401.html.


When I joined the Peace Corps, I never expected to be doing things like this. I feel really blessed to be a part of this project.

Living Museums

I will be extending to Bayahibe to work on the Living Museums project, which was created by Indiana University and USAID. It will extend for three to six months but not sure exactly the time length.
They need someone to run checks on three Living Museums project sites: Guadalupe, Morales, and Captain Kidd. At each site they want to check the following things every two to three months.
1. The three sites are ship wrecks with items such as cannons, anchors, etc. some of the items they found there and some of the items they placed. They need to check if the items are still there and if there is any damage to the items.
2. Some of the items have biology or soft coral growing on them. For example, one cannon at the William Kidd wreck has two sea fans at the end of it. They need to check this biology, if it is still there or if there is new biology and the health of the biology.
3. At the William Kidd wreck there are two types of endangered coral, Staghorn and Elkhorn. They need to make sure that the coral is still there and is healthy. Also, if there are any pieces of live coral that we can save, we received training in this procedure. With two zip ties, we put broken off pieces of Elkhorn coral to an Elkhorn coral base. If done correctly the two will grow together and become one coral and continue to live.
4. Also, we would check on any other damage at the site. For example, any anchor damage or damage to the buoys, and any signs of overfishing.

The thing that I am most excited about is saving the endangered coral. Also, they would like me to work on community outreach to get the locals involved. However, we are still making plans and arrangements about what I will specifically be doing.
Last month we did training for checking and maintaining the sites. Also, how to zip tie the coral together…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!

When I came home in September, I got one question a lot: What exactly do you do? My answer was always the same: That’s a good question!
That is because it depends on what I have going on at the time. However, I have some specific projects that I am almost always working on. So, I decided to update y’all on my projects so that y’all can understand a little better what it is that I do do…
1. Brigada Azul – I started the environmental youth group, Brigada Azul, in October. The original Peace Corps club is Brigada Verde, but because most everything we are going to be working on involves the ocean, I decided to call it Brigada Azul. So far we have done a few things. We painted a world map in the school and fixed-up some other murals and I took some youth to two different conferences. A health volunteer brought her youth to Isla Saona to have an “intercambio”. We gave them a speech on trash, they gave us a speech on sex ed, and we had the local doctor talk about Cholera. By the end of the year, we will do a beach clean up, some recycling activities, and take a trip to Bayahibe to see the other side of the park, the caves with Taino drawings.
2. Vendor classes – There are two jobs in Mano Juan, fishing and vending. The vendors are the people that sell small crafts and jewelry to the tourists on the beach. I am the coordinator for the vendors to get classes from an organization called Infotep. It sounds pretty easy, but what makes it difficult is where we live and having no public transportation. We always went through a specific tourist group that has about 10 workers living in Mano Juan. In July when we started, it was very difficult to get the transportation situated, but it’s gotten easier because the tourist company decided that they want to join the class. So, they provide the transportation regularly now. So far we have done classes like: basic accounting, marketing, job security, sanitation in cooking, etc. In December we’ll have a big graduation, and make a list of the classes they want to do the next year.
3. Lionfish – The lionfish is an invasive species of fish that migrated to the DR (and the Caribbean in general) from Florida. They escaped from an aquarium in Florida during a hurricane in the early 1990s, and have been migrating south ever since. They are striped, usually white with black, red, or maroon, and usually can grow to about a foot long. The problem with the lionfish is that it is one of the most venomous fish on the ocean floor and very aggressive. They have 18 venomous spines and use them against predators. For hunting, they work in groups cornering their prey, and then shallow them whole. In the Caribbean, because they’re not native here, they have no natural predators. And, because they reproduce very quickly, lionfish are becoming a plague and are rapidly killing the native fish that the fishermen live on fishing. Though they can’t kill a human, if one of their spines sticks you you’d feel it for a while.
Mid-August, I gave the fishermen a speech all about the lion fish, and was surprised how receptive they were. In October, I tried the fish (it is edible after you cut off the spines and head) with a fisherman and his family, and we all liked it.
Now one of the tourist company that eats lunch in Mano Juan has decided the fishermen $70 pesos for each pound of lionfish to feed their clients. So hopefully this will create a small market and then the fishermen will have more motivation (making money) to hunt the lionfish. Also, in January, we are going to have a huge fishing (for lionfish) competition in Bayahibe with the organization, Reef Check, and then afterwards prepare the fish for the restaurant owners. The hope is that they like it and put it on the menu. If this happens it will create a bigger market and a huge motivation for the fishermen to kill the lionfish.
4. English classes – I’ve been doing English classes ever since I got here and they are still going strong. I still teach two classes Monday through Friday in the school, and one adult class in the evening Monday through Thursday.
5. Marine Interest Group – I am the president of a Peace Corps club called the Marine Interest Group. Right now we are working on various projects. One is creating an educational manual for kids (through Brigada Verde) about issues that effect the coastal parts of the DR. Another is working with Reef Check to check and manage some coral reefs in the DR. Also, we just made a new contact that I’m very excited to work with. It’s called Living Museums in the Sea and is a project by Indiana University and USAID. Basically they set up paths of artifacts (some found and some placed) in the sea about a specific event or area. For example, in Isla Catalina they have one on the William Kidd wreak with canons, ship parts, etc. Then, tourists can scuba dive down and follow the path of artifacts learning more about the event. Indiana University would like to check on the reefs AKA museums every two or three months to make sure that the items are fitting in well with their environment and also make sure that they are not affecting the surrounding corals. However, IU can only come about twice a year. So they need man power to do the dives. IT and USAID will provide training to do the job, and then after that we will dive every two to three months to manage the sites.
I hope that this explains a little better about what I’m working on. If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information, please email me.

Cholera and Tomas

The past week and a half has been one crazy trip…

On Wednesday, October 27th, I got a call from the safety and security officer. She told me that we would be having a Cholera training, because of the outbreak in Haiti, on Friday so I needed to head in to the capitol ASAP. I packed my bag and headed in Thursday morning. The session on Friday lasted two hours…

Cholera is a bacteria that enters through the mouth. It makes you throw up and have extreme watery diarrhea. Without treatment, young and old people usually die within two to four hours, and a normal, healthy adult usually die between 24 to 48 hours.

They predict that cholera will enter the Dominican Republic soon, maybe even sooner due to the hurricane. Also, they have no idea when the outbreak will stop; it depends on how quickly they can get it under control.

During the training, they announced that there is a strong hurricane out in the Caribbean Sea, and that we needed to call in on Monday to find out more information. On Saturday morning, I headed out to Saona. I was going to have a day camp with my friend, Laura, a health volunteer that lives in La Romana and her jovenes. I sent Laura and one of her kids off in and boat and finally, an hour later, boarded a boat with the remaining three jovenes to head to Mano Juan. Just then, the safety and security officer called me and told me that I should not return to Saona till Monday, when we knew more about the hurricane. “Bueno!” I told her the situation, and she said go ahead but be on the first boat back in the morning.

We had a great time in Saona. Our jovenes got to mingle but also learn together. We gave her group a trash charla and she gave out group a charla about sex ed. Then, we gathered the community together to have a cholera charla.

Then Sunday morning, we chipped in with a couple of community members to get a boat to take us to Bayahibe at 7am! I stayed in La Romana on Sunday night and Monday headed into the capitol. Then we learned about the potential Hurricane Tomas that was currently stalking Haiti in the Caribbean Sea. We were being consolidated in the capitol until further notice.

Then began five days of being consolidated in the Barcelo Lina, a really nice hotel, in the capitol. For two days straight the sky was dark gray, and we had high winds and rain. We were safe, though, up in the hotel. The Peace Corps picks the hotel depending on back-up generators, water, building structure, and location.

The first day, it was really fun because we were all together; however, as time passed and we ran out of things to do…we got more and more bored.Thankfully though, today, Sunday, the consolidation was lifted and we can go back to out sites. I’m really excited to get back because I really haven’t been there in 11 days!

Brigada Verde

At the beginning of October, I started the youth group, Brigada Verde. Brigada Verde is a Peace Corps youth group that was developed to teach kids about the environment. We did our first charla on trash on the October 3rd. We learned the Three R's of trash: reduction, recycling, and re-utilization; and we are doing trash activities. This next week we will do a beach and town clean-up. I hope that we can get the community involved, too.

We also did a map mural in the school. To teach the kids geography and to have some fun painting. They got really into it and we finished in three days.





This past weekend (October 22-24th), I traveled with two of my youth, to Sabana de la Mar for the East Conference. It was held in "Los Haitises" which is a National Park. It was a great learning experience for them, and they also meet a lot of new friends from all over the east.

The last weekend of October, we are going to have a health volunteer and a few of her youth come out and do an "intercambio". They are going to give some sex ed charlas and we are going to give them a charla on basura (trash). We are also going to play soccer and have a Halloween party! After that we will have November for geography class (use the map) and the National Brigada Verde Conference the second weekend of November.