11 de febrero, Tina

Sweet- just found out that Monday is a national holiday. What is it? Valentine’s Day. Really, DR government?! A holiday?! Dominic was very dominicano tonight and killed a cochroach with his machete tonight. I heart my husband. Also, despite my laziness of uploading my blog from the past few months, when we had consistent internet access, we are back to not having internet, which apparently means you will be hearing a lot more from us. Riddle me that. Also, drum roll please…. We have a house!!!! It is a cute little block house that we share with a little mouse and a few other creatures. We have a 2-part blue front door that opens at the top and bottom, a fridge, a bathroom inside (no running water inside so back to bucket baths), and a cute patio/ mini garden. I went to a volunteer conference last week where I presented my diagnostic and learned a lot of invaluable information as well as some forgettable tidbits. I am feeling really good and motivated to actually start classes and groups since I feel like I have not really done much since I have been here. I was helping out with a preschool doing story time and some literacy projects. I want to continue with that, and I also plan on doing gender-focused groups, a sala de tarea, English classes, and a documentation project, which helps (hopefully) to legalize undocumented citizens in my community. Like many people are pressing for in the U.S., the DR recently changed a law that now states that people who are born here are not automatically citizens, but they have to prove their citizenship, including that of their mothers. This would all be fine, but many are of them are of Haitian descent, who came to this county generations and generations ago, amidst less than desirable circumstance, and are not legalized citizens. Other than simply having Haitian blood, many speak only Spanish, have never been to Haiti, and consider themselves Dominican. Their culture and lifestyles are Dominican, yet they are getting deported to a country with whom they have no little to no connection, including not being able to speak the language. Without documentation, they are denied many privileges, such as going to school past 8^th grade, working, healthcare….

Anyway, for documentation projects, we work with local judges and the judicial system to retrieve and present documentation for them to become legal citizens. Lots of work, but it really can change the lives of those involved, or so I hope. I will try to keep you more posted, in real time, about our lives. As for now, things are great, life is great, and my house is great.