First Impressions of Santo Domingo

I made it to Santo Domingo!  I arrived on Sunday night, right in the middle of presidential elections.  Danilo Medina, from a conservative party, and Margarita Cedeño, his wife the wife of the current president, as vice-president won the elections, and although his opponents accused Danilo of vote-buying and fraud, nobody seems to care very much about it one way or the other. The only reminder of the elections are the ubiquitous purple Danilo billboards throughout the city.  Today, the city shut off the water, which I'm told happens frequently, so everyone who has them are using their water reserves.  No problem, because everyone just drinks beer!  El Presidente, very fittingly, is the local beer.

I've been staying with a very gracious Spanish host near IDDI's office in the central part of the city, and everyone at IDDI has been very welcoming and kind.  Several people I've had the opportunity to get to know a bit better have been pretty astounded by the americana with a Caribbean attitude; I'm just going with the flow and flying by the seat of my pants at the moment, and I'm very happy to do so.  I'd say that this mentality has been serving me well here - nothing is very planned out.  I only have a vague idea of what I will be doing from one given point in time to another; for example, I'm pretty sure they're sending me to the campo near Bonao on Friday, but I'm not sure if I'm staying for a day, a week, a month, or the whole time.  Or even if this will actually occur on Friday at all. 

Another interesting shift is in entering into a more collectivist society.  The only alone time I have is when I am asleep, which is obviously very different from my lifestyle stateside.  And while I've consciously decided to embrace this, collectivism certainly has its upsides.  I feel very well taken care of, and I have been left to fend for myself in literally no situations thus far.  Dominicanos are very open and easy to talk to, and I've already made a few friends I feel close with.

Anyway, I am not sure yet what I will do for my project.  IDDI has a network of youth mediators (ages 18-24) in Santo Domingo (about 30) who work with low levels of conflict and conflict prevention in their communities.  I met with one of them today to ask him about the process, what he does, and his general impressions.  I'm still waiting to look at training materials to get a better idea of their capacity, but it seems really interesting.  Of course, they can't work in some of the poorer barrios, because their priorities are in preventing/treating cholera, improving sanitation and health, and dealing with youth delinquency and lack of education.  I will get into it more later, but we drove through a few barrios today, and to say the least, they were pretty astoundingly bad.  The Ozama river that flows through Santo Domingo is one of the most contaminated in Latin America, I'm told, and some of the worst barrios are right next to it.  Here's a preview:

 
(Not my photo - I haven't taken any since I've been here - and the photo does not show the worst of it.)

Anyway, Bonao does not have the same types of problems as in the city, and from what I've been told, the level of conflict is somewhat lower.  Nonetheless, it might be interesting to develop a youth mediator capacity in the campo.  Or to spread their network in some other way.  I'm also going to have the opportunity to travel to Haiti with IDDI with someone who heads up their projects over there, which I am really excited about.  Another idea we discussed is that with going to a few places, I could write up a flexible framework that they could use on the island, Hispaniola, to deal with a low level of conflict.  (Anything that becomes violent goes to relevant authorities, like police and courts.)

 We shall see how my project begins to shape up!  I'm hoping for the internet to be connected in my house so that I can read up a bit and access resources.  They keep saying tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes.

The semester is over and summer begins!

I am thrilled to report that I submitted my final paper for my culture, peace, and conflict class last night!  That was *hopefully* the last class I’ll take at American University.  I wrote about cultural violence in post-conflict Sri Lanka, and I highlighted the Sarvodaya movement, which is working toward sustainable development and peace in the country.  (On a side note, if anyone’s dying to know more about this topic, I can definitely hook you up.)  Anyway, the course was one of the best I’ve taken at AU – the professor did a great job of connecting theory with practice.  It’s awesome to leave a class with a clear understanding of how the materials covered in class will help me along my professional path. 

Now to switch gears into my adventure-filled summer.  My very thoughtful employer is hosting a happy hour for me tonight after work.  With class being over and this party tonight, the horizon feels much closer.  Only two more weeks left in DC!

Earlier this week, I met with a board member of the organization I’ll be joining for the summer.  Tito gave me a background of IDDI and Bonao in addition to some great insights and guidance.  I ended up chatting with him about my final paper and Sarvodaya, whose programs remind me a bit of IDDI’s.  He suggested that while writing my paper, I look more closely at Sarvodaya’s programs to see if I could adapt some of their ideas into something to do this summer in the Dominican Republic.  I never liked the phrase “to kill two birds with one stone,” so maybe “to release two birds with one hand” could describe it better?  Yeah?  In any case, a wise man Tito turned out to be. 

This simple yet clever idea led me to look into Sarvodaya’s Shanthi Sena Peace Brigade.  The program focuses on youth leadership development, and its goals include creating a peaceful society.  Part of the program includes 4-day amity camps for youth over the age of 15 who come from diverse backgrounds.  They open up space for cross-cultural dialogue and peacebuilding, as participants begin to build relationships across societal divides.  Some of the areas of training include:

• Leadership training 
• Conflict transformation training
• Emergency disaster management training & service
• First aid & primary health care
• Environmental conservation
• Cultural & sports programs
• Community development activities
• Promotion of literary pursuits

A Shanthi Sena program in action.

Cross-cultural relationship building pictured right here!

More information can be found at http://www.shanthisena.org/.  Very cool stuff.

I'm feeling really enthusiastic about adapting this idea into a proposal to present to IDDI after the weekend.  During the summer, youngsters will be out of school, and who doesn’t want to spend a few days at an awesome peace camp?  I’ll interpret any lack of response as an awed silence. 

On a side note, another part-time international peace and conflict resolution student who is a dear friend of mine is moving to Ecuador this summer for an internship.  You should check out his far more entertaining blog here: http://mainerstrangeland.blogspot.com/.     

A Cultural Primer

I'll admit that I haven't done much to develop my internship program yet.  Finishing up the semester has taken priority as I work on my final paper on culture and conflict (specifically the militarization of culture in Sri Lanka).  I'm probably in a super culture mode due to my current class, as I inevitably find myself thinking more and more about what I'll be doing this summer. 

I've been thinking a lot about the cultural profile of the DR to start me off in my planning a culturally sensitive program.  Dutch cultural researcher Geert Hofstede identified five universally present dimensions of culture: power distance (PDI), collectivism vs. individualism (IDV), masculinity vs. femininity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), and short vs. long-term orientation (LTO) (data wasn't available for this dimension in the DR).  (Of course, individuals reflect a melange of different cultures, so a country's scores in these dimensions only reveal dominant cultural trends in society.)  Hofstede's website (geert-hofstede.com/) has a pretty cool tool that enables the visitor to compare countries in terms of his cultural dimensions. 

Here's the Dominican Republic compared to the United States: 

(Yes, I made a graph.)  This data shows that both the DR and the USA are pretty similar in terms of being masculine cultures (assertive, competitive cultures with fairly rigid gender roles) that aren't too bothered by uncertainty (generally more accepting of unorthodox ideas and the unknown).  However, the DR is far more collectivist and has a higher degree of power distance (accepting of hierarchy and the unequal distribution of power).  Very good things to keep in mind.  I'm really looking forward to learning more about the local culture of Bonao in particular to help me craft an appropriate program.  This is going to be such a great learning experience!  Exactly what I want to get out of my summer. 

In other awesome news, I just finished getting caught up on vaccinations (hepatitis A, tetanus, and typhoid), and I'm now well-stocked with malaria pills. 

Inaugural Post

Ahh, the inaugural blog post.  The spring air is full of changes, and tonight is as good as any to begin chronicling it all.

I will soon be embarking on a new and exciting life adventure.  In mid-May, I will be moving to the Dominican Republic to gain experience in the field of peace and conflict mediation; I was offered an internship with el Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral (the Dominican Institute of Integral Development) (IDDI -- www.iddi.org) to develop a project dealing with peace programming/conflict mediation and then implement it during the three months I will be living there.  I am certain that this experience will challenge me professionally - even with four years of post-BA job experience in Washington, DC - as I am being granted complete freedom and responsibility for what I decide to do.

I'll be living near Bonao, a small city in the middle of the DR half of Hispaniola.  From what I can tell, it's a bit remote and absolutely gorgeous, nestled in green mountains.  How to prepare beyond vaccinations and malaria pills for a summer in a rural Caribbean village, I'm not quite sure, but I have a feeling that it will require shifting toward an attitude that celebrates the unknown.  Of course, this attitude will be balanced with adequate project preparation prior to my departure.

All in all, in the upcoming month, I intend to document my project-planning process and then after that, the cultural and professional adventure that follows.

And now, back to working on finals...