Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
5 things that make me hopeful for my community
Obligatory Preferatory Paragraph
I think in paragraphs. I sometimes speak in them - much to the annoyance of Cat - and I write in them as well. To embrace this Blog Challenge as an actual incentive to try something new instead of just indulging in my old habits, I've opted to write this entry as a listicle.
1. Good relations between Dominicans and Haitians
Unlike the rest of Latin America, the DR celebrated it's independence not from Spain but from it's neighboring nation. Things have been pretty tense between the two cultures since that time. So I am especially grateful to see the Dominicans in my community treating Haitian immigrants with a respect and decency that its not universally common across the nation.
2. Multi-generational environmental awareness
While deforestation is exactly improving fast enough, there is a wide-spread awareness of the problem. The old hands know it firsthand from comparing the paisaje ("landscape") of their youth to the bald hills of today, and they have instilled this knowledge in their children. The local national park was declared in 1995 and the local technical high school teaches conservation.
3. Conservation of cultural
When cheap digital cameras came to the pueblo in the form of cell phones, what is the first thing the jóvenes (youth) did? Well, after they got on WhatsApp. they made a movie telling the story of a local Don and Doña. Two, actually!
The first, Una Boda de Oro, focused on their courtship and marriage. Cat and I are very proud to have arranged a local that featured this film.
A second chapter, Teofilo Mora 1966 which premiered Wednesday night at the local community center, tells the rest of the story.
They have be abandoning the old ways in the city, but here in the capital, the young people still young ones can play the traditional music and still dance the traditional dances no matter how much time they spend chateando.
4. Steady arrival of modern convenience
30 years ago this village was all wooden shacks. They had neither running water, electricity or telephones. Now, it has suburban style houses with all the essential services (however imperfectly implemented) - plus internet. Hopefully this comfort and convenience in the campo will make the capital and points further afield less alluring and thus slow the brain drain.
5. Religious diversity and tolerance
Two generations ago, the pueblo was mono-culturally Catholic. Now it has multiple, well-established Evangelical congregations and a thriving Salon de Reinos (Kingdom Hall) for the local Jehovah's Witnesses. I am officially fine with Catholicism but am a fan of religious diversity because new ways of worship often means new ideas.
Like ethnic inclusion, religious tolerance better prepares a society (however small) to whether the changes in a rapidly evolving world. Unsurprisingly, the members of these minority religions have a major religion in the local culture. Los evangélicos and los Testigos are well-represented in non-religious leadership positions around town.
CHALLENGE FAIL
OK, so my bullet points turned out to be paragraphs. At least I tried. Thinking positive, especially as I emerge from a mild holiday induced depression, was challenging enough.
This post is part of Blogging Abroad's 2017 New Years Blog Challenge, week four: Change and Hope. My final one actually! I hope you've enjoyed the more regular posting schedule. I'll be taking next week off. If you want something to read in that absence give the other bloggers participating in this challenge a try.
I think in paragraphs. I sometimes speak in them - much to the annoyance of Cat - and I write in them as well. To embrace this Blog Challenge as an actual incentive to try something new instead of just indulging in my old habits, I've opted to write this entry as a listicle.
1. Good relations between Dominicans and Haitians
Unlike the rest of Latin America, the DR celebrated it's independence not from Spain but from it's neighboring nation. Things have been pretty tense between the two cultures since that time. So I am especially grateful to see the Dominicans in my community treating Haitian immigrants with a respect and decency that its not universally common across the nation.
2. Multi-generational environmental awareness
While deforestation is exactly improving fast enough, there is a wide-spread awareness of the problem. The old hands know it firsthand from comparing the paisaje ("landscape") of their youth to the bald hills of today, and they have instilled this knowledge in their children. The local national park was declared in 1995 and the local technical high school teaches conservation.
 |
| Mural on the side of a local store |
3. Conservation of cultural
When cheap digital cameras came to the pueblo in the form of cell phones, what is the first thing the jóvenes (youth) did? Well, after they got on WhatsApp. they made a movie telling the story of a local Don and Doña. Two, actually!
The first, Una Boda de Oro, focused on their courtship and marriage. Cat and I are very proud to have arranged a local that featured this film.
A second chapter, Teofilo Mora 1966 which premiered Wednesday night at the local community center, tells the rest of the story.
They have be abandoning the old ways in the city, but here in the capital, the young people still young ones can play the traditional music and still dance the traditional dances no matter how much time they spend chateando.
4. Steady arrival of modern convenience
30 years ago this village was all wooden shacks. They had neither running water, electricity or telephones. Now, it has suburban style houses with all the essential services (however imperfectly implemented) - plus internet. Hopefully this comfort and convenience in the campo will make the capital and points further afield less alluring and thus slow the brain drain.
 |
| ¨What a difference 300 feet of steel makes" |
5. Religious diversity and tolerance
Two generations ago, the pueblo was mono-culturally Catholic. Now it has multiple, well-established Evangelical congregations and a thriving Salon de Reinos (Kingdom Hall) for the local Jehovah's Witnesses. I am officially fine with Catholicism but am a fan of religious diversity because new ways of worship often means new ideas.
Like ethnic inclusion, religious tolerance better prepares a society (however small) to whether the changes in a rapidly evolving world. Unsurprisingly, the members of these minority religions have a major religion in the local culture. Los evangélicos and los Testigos are well-represented in non-religious leadership positions around town.
CHALLENGE FAIL
OK, so my bullet points turned out to be paragraphs. At least I tried. Thinking positive, especially as I emerge from a mild holiday induced depression, was challenging enough.
This post is part of Blogging Abroad's 2017 New Years Blog Challenge, week four: Change and Hope. My final one actually! I hope you've enjoyed the more regular posting schedule. I'll be taking next week off. If you want something to read in that absence give the other bloggers participating in this challenge a try.
Friday, December 16, 2016
Small world, small starts
The other day Cat and I woke early to get on the first pickup out of town to head to a community called (in Spanish) "The Cherry Trees". We went there to meet some Chris and Matt of Earth Sangha, the NGO who were the iniciating force behind the tree planting that we participated in not long after we first arrived in site.
I recognize that the phrase "iniciating force" is somewhat awkward, so allow me an explanatory note: I want to give ES the credit they deserve but not all of it. They are essential to the reforestation project of which the planting was a small part - they literally started the project and it is doubtful that this type of project would have (literally) taken root without them - but the vast majority of the work is done on the ground by Dominicans. The planting we participated in was organized by another Peace Corps volunteer with the help of the local Asociación de Productores del Bosque ("Association of Forest Producers"). There are 3 paid staff here in the DR and the directors of ES only need to visit once or twice a year.
Before heading out to check on the seedlings we planted we sat down with Chris and Matt for a get-to-know you conversation. Cat recorded some great audio that should be up on the podcast shortly. Earth Sangha is an interesting organization. Sangha is a Buddhist word that means "collection of things". Originally the word referred to the community of monks who followed the Buddhas but can also be understood to include the community of all living beings. Por lo tanto, the "sangha" in ES includes not just the staff and the members of the association but also the trees themselves and the wildlife that will return to the new forest.
It turns out that Chris, the founder, and I studied under the same Buddhist teacher despite doing so at different decades in different countries and being more than 20 years apart in age. Small world! So how did Chris come to planting trees after studying Buddhism?
After many years working for an organization trying to raise awareness about the dangers of deforestation he wanted to produce more tangible results than just reports. He began with the idea in 1997 and after nearly 10 years of false starts he was able to establish a sustainable project among the Cherry Trees of la República Dominicana. To me, this is an inspiring Buddhist lesson about the importance of persistence in the face of difficulty, whether he thinks of it that way or not. A key Zen teaching is "continue under all circumstances" - never give up. No matter what happens.
And so today the Earth Sangha has led to the reforestation of over 200 acres of hillside in the Cherry Trees. Erosion has been halted, rainwater conserved and pesos injected into the local economy. I am truly impressed by the variety of different programs that ES operates here and in the US. I won't go into all that here since their website does a far better job of that and has better pictures. Check it out and donate some money while you are at it.
So how are the trees doing?
There was some failure but enough have taken hold that a forest will soon stand where now there is only grass.
In Peace Corps we often talk about the long game of sustainable development. Unlike other groups that build buildings or donate goods PC works with the people to introduce ideas and teach techniques that will continue to have impact long after we've left. Volunteers don't get to see that impact while they are in country and may never see it at all. Some volunteers leave country after two years of hard work with the feeling that they have failed. The metaphor often used is that PC service is like planting trees in whose shade you will never get to sit. I get that - I just never thought it would be so literal!
Before heading out to check on the seedlings we planted we sat down with Chris and Matt for a get-to-know you conversation. Cat recorded some great audio that should be up on the podcast shortly. Earth Sangha is an interesting organization. Sangha is a Buddhist word that means "collection of things". Originally the word referred to the community of monks who followed the Buddhas but can also be understood to include the community of all living beings. Por lo tanto, the "sangha" in ES includes not just the staff and the members of the association but also the trees themselves and the wildlife that will return to the new forest.
It turns out that Chris, the founder, and I studied under the same Buddhist teacher despite doing so at different decades in different countries and being more than 20 years apart in age. Small world! So how did Chris come to planting trees after studying Buddhism?
After many years working for an organization trying to raise awareness about the dangers of deforestation he wanted to produce more tangible results than just reports. He began with the idea in 1997 and after nearly 10 years of false starts he was able to establish a sustainable project among the Cherry Trees of la República Dominicana. To me, this is an inspiring Buddhist lesson about the importance of persistence in the face of difficulty, whether he thinks of it that way or not. A key Zen teaching is "continue under all circumstances" - never give up. No matter what happens.
And so today the Earth Sangha has led to the reforestation of over 200 acres of hillside in the Cherry Trees. Erosion has been halted, rainwater conserved and pesos injected into the local economy. I am truly impressed by the variety of different programs that ES operates here and in the US. I won't go into all that here since their website does a far better job of that and has better pictures. Check it out and donate some money while you are at it.
So how are the trees doing?
There was some failure but enough have taken hold that a forest will soon stand where now there is only grass.
In Peace Corps we often talk about the long game of sustainable development. Unlike other groups that build buildings or donate goods PC works with the people to introduce ideas and teach techniques that will continue to have impact long after we've left. Volunteers don't get to see that impact while they are in country and may never see it at all. Some volunteers leave country after two years of hard work with the feeling that they have failed. The metaphor often used is that PC service is like planting trees in whose shade you will never get to sit. I get that - I just never thought it would be so literal!
Sunday, August 7, 2016
On living without running water
Before we moved out, Cat asked our host mother if people in the pueblo collect rain water. We lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for a while, which has a similar climate and rains a similar amount. There, the people use catchment tanks the size of above-ground swimming pools as either their principal source of water or to guardar it in case there is a drought.
Our Dominican mom said ¨No, not since they installed the acueducto." Most of the houses have running water now, though some poorer families still take plastic buckets to the river. Later, after a couple of days of steady rain, the water stopped coming out of the tap and we put out buckets to collect the rainfall.
Yes, you read that right. When it rains a lot we are less likely to have water. The acueducto draws from the river in las rodillas of the mountain nearby. Due to erosion free flowing sediment sometimes clogs the pipes. When this happens you abre el llave and the pipe coughs like an asthmatic.
The longest we've gone without water is five days. When we moved house one of the first things we bought was a 50 gallon tanque and a mangera (hose) to fill it with. I just passed 3 days by myself (Cat's in the capital for a conference) with no water from the llave and was able to get along fine thanks to the tanque. Instead of taking a shower, I washed myself from a bucket. Instead of flushing the toilet, I dumped a bucket in the bowl. Instead of filling the sink to wash dishes, I- you get the idea.
The water from the llave is safe use to brush your teeth but not safe to swallow. You have to boil it if you are going to cook with it. For straight drinking we use a botellón, which you might recognize from your office water cooler. This purified water costs $50 RD (a little more than a dollar) a jug and lasts the two of us about a week.
When we walked to Naranjito the guías drank straight from the river near the acueducto. I have heard that the water is generally cleaner and safer straight from the source but I declined to follow their example. They probably wouldn't have let me either, being concerned for my safety as they were.
I have tried the agua filtrada, though, and I did not die. The filters are a previous PC project. All of the houses I have visited have them in their out kitchen. The local water is heavy with calcium and prior to filters the incidence of kidney stones was alarmingly high. There are three filters in the acueducto system but I believe they only filter particulate matter.
And that water? It´s cold. I have yet to encounter a hot water heater in this country, even in the capital. I imagine they exist in the all inclusive resorts where the high energy cost can be bundled into the price of the package. But out here Cat heats up her bath the shower "traditional" way by putting a plastic jug, ideally painted black, in the sun to heat up over the course of the day.
Not being able to rely on either water or power makes doing laundry an extra chore. Poorer families still use the river while wealthy (relatively speaking) people have washing machines. This still takes time more time than back home, though. The type of machine than can run on a solar inversor has only one chamber, which means you have to rinse off excess soap in a bucket. There are no gas lines to power machines so the wash needs to hang on a line or the roof to dry. This is yet another example of how much extra time and works it takes to be poor.
All this thinking about water hasn't facilitated the sort of change in consciousness that living without reliable luz has. California, the state where we lived for five years before coming here, is entering its 6th consecutive year of drought. Cat and I were a "if it's yellow, let it mellow" household there and we continue to be here, though I have taken to peeing in (you guessed it!) a bucket and later using it as fertilizer for the compost pile. I'll post an entry on tropical gardening as soon as I have something to take pictures of.
Our Dominican mom said ¨No, not since they installed the acueducto." Most of the houses have running water now, though some poorer families still take plastic buckets to the river. Later, after a couple of days of steady rain, the water stopped coming out of the tap and we put out buckets to collect the rainfall.
Yes, you read that right. When it rains a lot we are less likely to have water. The acueducto draws from the river in las rodillas of the mountain nearby. Due to erosion free flowing sediment sometimes clogs the pipes. When this happens you abre el llave and the pipe coughs like an asthmatic.
The longest we've gone without water is five days. When we moved house one of the first things we bought was a 50 gallon tanque and a mangera (hose) to fill it with. I just passed 3 days by myself (Cat's in the capital for a conference) with no water from the llave and was able to get along fine thanks to the tanque. Instead of taking a shower, I washed myself from a bucket. Instead of flushing the toilet, I dumped a bucket in the bowl. Instead of filling the sink to wash dishes, I- you get the idea.
 |
| This machine has changed my life. |
The water from the llave is safe use to brush your teeth but not safe to swallow. You have to boil it if you are going to cook with it. For straight drinking we use a botellón, which you might recognize from your office water cooler. This purified water costs $50 RD (a little more than a dollar) a jug and lasts the two of us about a week.
When we walked to Naranjito the guías drank straight from the river near the acueducto. I have heard that the water is generally cleaner and safer straight from the source but I declined to follow their example. They probably wouldn't have let me either, being concerned for my safety as they were.
I have tried the agua filtrada, though, and I did not die. The filters are a previous PC project. All of the houses I have visited have them in their out kitchen. The local water is heavy with calcium and prior to filters the incidence of kidney stones was alarmingly high. There are three filters in the acueducto system but I believe they only filter particulate matter.
And that water? It´s cold. I have yet to encounter a hot water heater in this country, even in the capital. I imagine they exist in the all inclusive resorts where the high energy cost can be bundled into the price of the package. But out here Cat heats up her bath the shower "traditional" way by putting a plastic jug, ideally painted black, in the sun to heat up over the course of the day.
 |
| "Solar Power" |
Not being able to rely on either water or power makes doing laundry an extra chore. Poorer families still use the river while wealthy (relatively speaking) people have washing machines. This still takes time more time than back home, though. The type of machine than can run on a solar inversor has only one chamber, which means you have to rinse off excess soap in a bucket. There are no gas lines to power machines so the wash needs to hang on a line or the roof to dry. This is yet another example of how much extra time and works it takes to be poor.
All this thinking about water hasn't facilitated the sort of change in consciousness that living without reliable luz has. California, the state where we lived for five years before coming here, is entering its 6th consecutive year of drought. Cat and I were a "if it's yellow, let it mellow" household there and we continue to be here, though I have taken to peeing in (you guessed it!) a bucket and later using it as fertilizer for the compost pile. I'll post an entry on tropical gardening as soon as I have something to take pictures of.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
We got a lot less work done today because someone in my community captured an endangered species
Translation:
"OK! This animal is called el solonedonte. It was captured in the foothills of Nalga de Maco National Park. This animal, I think it only exists in the island of Hispaniola and was last seen in this part - I think it could have been - in 1990. The dogs killed that one and it was dried and now it`s in the Museum of Dominican Humanity. This is the soloneodonte!"
The critter was caught by a farmer. The video was taken by my project partner. As it happens he was instrumental in the foundation of the aforementioned national park. Immediately after taking this video we got the Ministry of Environment on the line and they told him to release it back into the wild.
In terms of rarity they are somewhere between wolverine and unicorn. We showed the video to anyone willing to look. Reactions were mixed. Some shrugged ("It looks like a big rat.") to very impressed. What a difference environmental education makes.
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispaniolan_solenodon
Sunday, June 19, 2016
A Race from Top to Bottom
Our first few weeks have mostly been concerned with getting to know our way around but we've already been able to participate in a satisfying project. It was not just technically outside of my site but also technically out of my province and far outside of my assigned project. Though it took place just up the mountain road from our pueblo when we hopped out of the pickup bed we were no longer in Elias Piña but Dajabon. And just as I don't live in the hot and dry Elias Piña of the south, this was not the busy and bustling Dajabon of the famed international market. We were in a small hillside village and we were there to plant trees.
The project was coordinated in part by another PCV and an NGO but most of the work was done by locals. The trees had been grown in a vivero (plant nursery) owned by the local Asociación de Producción de Bosques (Reforestaction Association) and the lion's share of the labor was done by local high school students.
The land was steep and the day was hot and the bosquedores had grown some 2000 pines and other native trees for us to plant. We worked the entire hillside from the bottom to the top and back down again. The jovenes (youth) approached the job with the uneven effort of teenagers everywhere. Some worked, but the kids who were literally too cool for school (they got the day off for volunteering) chatted in the shade. My work with troubled youth in the States has taught me skills rooted in positive reinforcement to challenge and motivate the disengaged. This worked with some of them, but the doña's approach was more effective. "Look at me! I'm over 60 years old and I'm dripping with sweat! What are you, flowers?"
Dominicans, generally speaking, are more direct with their children than American parents but slightly less so than American drill sargents. They worry about delincuencía (juvenile delinquency) but this to me seemed more like garden variety laziness. Also, some of the muchachos would likely be working in the fincas (agritultural tracts of land) later that week and possibly for the rest of their lives so I can't blame them for lack of enthusiasm. Still, we got the work done in time for lunch. We were assisted by a kicky mule who dutifully hauled saddlebags of matitas (seedlings) from the bottom of the slope to the top. He was a huge help but you had to steer clear of his hindlegs.
The land we planted was owned by the bosquedores so we know the trees won't be cut down but in the national parks it's a different story. The slopes of nearby Nalga de Maco are steadily being denuded of their timber. Some blame Haitians coming over the border to harvest carbón (charcoal) but more often than not it is poor Dominicans. Without better prospects the best way to make a living along the border is to plant beans in the hillside and sell them at market.
They lack land and opportunities but not consciencia. Dominicans are well-educated on the problem of deforestation. Haiti is so badly deforested you can see the difference from space. During the years of dictatorship and caudillisimo the Dominican forestry service was militarized and illegal loggers and farmers were jailed. Today, enforcement is lax. I imagine it is a grim business. Just barely getting by and knowing you're not doing yourself any favors them in the long run.
Every time it rains the water washes loose clay from the hillside where it runs into the valley where it runs in a ruddy band in the river. The locals tell me that the river is wider and deeper than it used to be. Without trees to drink it it the water flows into the valley. Without trees to retain the moisture and release it as mist it rains less and each season grows hotter. Climate change is real.
One local I talked to likened it to a race between deforestation and reforestation. It remains to be seen which side will win but I got back in the pickup proud, tired, and happy to have carried the baton a little further in the right direction.
The project was coordinated in part by another PCV and an NGO but most of the work was done by locals. The trees had been grown in a vivero (plant nursery) owned by the local Asociación de Producción de Bosques (Reforestaction Association) and the lion's share of the labor was done by local high school students.
The land was steep and the day was hot and the bosquedores had grown some 2000 pines and other native trees for us to plant. We worked the entire hillside from the bottom to the top and back down again. The jovenes (youth) approached the job with the uneven effort of teenagers everywhere. Some worked, but the kids who were literally too cool for school (they got the day off for volunteering) chatted in the shade. My work with troubled youth in the States has taught me skills rooted in positive reinforcement to challenge and motivate the disengaged. This worked with some of them, but the doña's approach was more effective. "Look at me! I'm over 60 years old and I'm dripping with sweat! What are you, flowers?"
Dominicans, generally speaking, are more direct with their children than American parents but slightly less so than American drill sargents. They worry about delincuencía (juvenile delinquency) but this to me seemed more like garden variety laziness. Also, some of the muchachos would likely be working in the fincas (agritultural tracts of land) later that week and possibly for the rest of their lives so I can't blame them for lack of enthusiasm. Still, we got the work done in time for lunch. We were assisted by a kicky mule who dutifully hauled saddlebags of matitas (seedlings) from the bottom of the slope to the top. He was a huge help but you had to steer clear of his hindlegs.
The land we planted was owned by the bosquedores so we know the trees won't be cut down but in the national parks it's a different story. The slopes of nearby Nalga de Maco are steadily being denuded of their timber. Some blame Haitians coming over the border to harvest carbón (charcoal) but more often than not it is poor Dominicans. Without better prospects the best way to make a living along the border is to plant beans in the hillside and sell them at market.
They lack land and opportunities but not consciencia. Dominicans are well-educated on the problem of deforestation. Haiti is so badly deforested you can see the difference from space. During the years of dictatorship and caudillisimo the Dominican forestry service was militarized and illegal loggers and farmers were jailed. Today, enforcement is lax. I imagine it is a grim business. Just barely getting by and knowing you're not doing yourself any favors them in the long run.
Every time it rains the water washes loose clay from the hillside where it runs into the valley where it runs in a ruddy band in the river. The locals tell me that the river is wider and deeper than it used to be. Without trees to drink it it the water flows into the valley. Without trees to retain the moisture and release it as mist it rains less and each season grows hotter. Climate change is real.
One local I talked to likened it to a race between deforestation and reforestation. It remains to be seen which side will win but I got back in the pickup proud, tired, and happy to have carried the baton a little further in the right direction.
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