Long overdue update

It's obviously been some time since I've updated the blog. I've lost a lot of blogging steam in the last few months- most of it due to being very far removed from the field but also due to just having nothing terribly interesting to report.

A few months ago, I got word from my now former employer that the economic crisis had hit the organization hard. My position was funded by private donations which had been reduced drastically. As such, my position was being eliminated. (This was a blow, considering they had instituted salary cuts a few weeks prior!)

This was crushing news, both professionally and personally. Professionally, I had worked very hard to get the organization's program in Jamaica off the ground. After several months of hard work, it was starting to pay off. In fact, just three weeks before my last day of work, we got word that a large proposal of US$200,000 I had submitted to a US government agency had been approved. Sadly, it was too late. My last day of work was September 30.

I attempted to find a new post within the same organization but was unsuccessful. Having left a post-conflict country before coming to the DR, I didn't feel ready to take off to a Sudan or DRC post, which severely limited my employment options. I tried finding a job with another NGO here in the DR but was unwilling to take a 60% salary cut, so I was out of luck.

Along with this, I had personal circumstances to consider. As much as I love living abroad, I've started to crave stability and would like to be closer to my family. And, as luck has it, I met a great guy here in the DR. So great that he is willing to uproot his life for me and follow me to the US. So we have applied for a fiance visa and he will join me in the US in the next few months and we will get married. (Providing the US government doesn't try to stop us!)

I'm sad to be leaving the DR and the life I've set up here. However, these are the cards I've been dealt and they aren't so bad.

I might be inspired to put up a few more posts before I officially leave the country and settle in the US. Otherwise, this is likely the end of my blogging. I'll still leave it up since I still see that my Angola posts are getting hits even 2 years later. Thanks for reading as long as you have.

Fishing along the Malecón

Sunday, May 2009

Constanza

Semana santa, Holy Week, is a big holiday in the DR (and most Catholic countries). It's when Dominicans celebrate the distillation of sugar cane into rum. Ha! I'm being facetious, although the "holy" part of semana santa seems to be an afterthought. 

Dominicans take the two day holiday (Holy Thursday and Good Friday) as an opportunity to travel and, most cases, party hard. I did have the opportunity to travel, but not party.  (I wanted it that way!)

I went to Constanza, in the central part of the country, way up in the mountains. It is truly spectacular up there and reminded me a lot of my Peace Corps site in Honduras, La Esperanza. Constanza is a nice, sleepy town with cool weather, beautiful scenery, and great agriculture.  They even had a green market! Here are a few of the highlights: 

Cauliflower!

Beautiful jacaranda tree near our hotel.

Aguas Blancas

Some amiguitos selling calla lillies on the road to Aguas Blancas. 

CONDUCT RULES:
1. Turn in firearms at the entrance building.
2. Risk of hypothermia due to low water temperature.
3. Trash should be placed in the trashcans. 
4. Cooking on the premises is prohibited.
5. No glass bottles on the premises. 
6. No diving from the rocks on the side of the falls. 
7. No swimming in underwear. 
8. No running or playing on the premises. 
9. Immoral public acts are prohibited. 
10. Play music at a low volume. 

#s 1 and 9 are my favorite.

Whoops!

From today's New York Times:

As a clerk at the Dominican Republic Consulate in New York, Francisco
Estevez enjoyed a number of diplomatic perks, including something any frequent
flier would covet: an exclusive visa that amounted to an airport E-ZPass.

Mr. Estevez would travel to the Dominican Republic and interview potential
customers face to face to make sure they resembled one of his family members,
according to the authorities. Once he determined there was a match, they said,
Mr. Estevez would give that person a family member’s passport and an A-2 visa
and fly with them to the United States. He sometimes took as many as seven
people who would pose as family members.

Not good when diplomatic immunity is taken away, is it?