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| Caribbean Property Magazine Home / May 2010 / 'Tales of a Peace Corp Volunteer in Dominica (a Series)' | SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND  |
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M A Y
 2 0 1 0 Issue 40
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| TALES OF A PEACE CORP VOLUNTEER IN DOMINICA (A Series) Cruise Control and Opportunities By Ella Rychlewski Love is patient, love is kind … It always protects, trusts, hopes, and preserves. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: Faith, hope, and love; But the greatest of them all is love. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Coming back to Dominica after a trip abroad, I always feel different: less tension in my shoulders, a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I am arriving in a place that I know and love, where people will be friendly and helpful from the moment I get off the boat or plane and, more than likely, I will run into a familiar face before long. In that second year of Peace Corps service, Dominica became home. The previous Youth Officer of the Northern District, where Capuchin is located, introduced me to her replacement when she left to study in the USA. He was newly appointed and a little overwhelmed by the task ahead. Officers in Dominica are assigned to huge territories and given scarce resources and support to organize and implement development programs in their various fields. It is a thankless and mindlessly frustrating job but all the officers I have had the honor of meeting have a real passion for their job and an ability to appreciate the small victories. Sort of like us Peace Corps who survive. They are amazing people who bring new meaning to the phrase ‘serving your country.’ So, I got to know my local youth officer and came to him with the idea of running a series of sessions on youth-related topics in the villages in my area. He agreed and eventually asked me to help him design and implement the youth program for the entire district. This collaboration became my service’s main project. We covered monthly themes, ranging from health and social to employment and culture. We also presented a version of the program to the local secondary schools, offering to run them at their convenience. This led to specific topics being commissioned. For instance, one of the schools requested a whole-day workshop to address some of the group dynamics issues in one particular class. Altogether, over a six-month period, we ran about thirty sessions, attended by over four hundred young people. However, I am actually more proud of the fact that the program has been continued and expanded now that I am no longer involved. I think the difference was that we approached it as a partnership: with other Peace Corps, local village councils, schools, other branches of government, and even non-governmental organizations. The aim was to use all the tools at our disposal and engage not only our target audience but also the communities as a whole. For example, our first series was on ‘Love, Sex and Relationships’. We informed the councils and schools of the schedule and agreed on dates and locations. The clerks then advertised for us and the schools made time for our presentation. On that particular topic, we worked with the national Planned Parenthood Association, who sent a representative to make a presentation at each session. This meant we could reach a wider audience with information provided by a trained specialist. I discovered the importance of icebreakers. These had driven me crazy during Peace Corps training, as every session was peppered with them, but now I was grateful for the inspiration. Icebreakers are games or activities included in a session to illustrate the topic and create ‘learning breaks.’ Most people have a short attention span, young people especially, and no one likes to be lectured at, so the games came in very handy. I had very little experience of preparing or leading a workshop before my time in the Peace Corps but I learned; and I really came to enjoy it. These skills were complemented and enhanced by my teaching. During my entire service, I taught French and, at times, computer science, at primary school level. French is a compulsory component of the Dominican Curriculum and yet most schools do not have a proficient French teacher so I was asked to fill in. Creating lesson plans and engaging young students with no formal training were daunting tasks at first but I grew into the role, to the point where I felt comfortable running a forty-five minute session unsupervised. |
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| As I have said before, it probably helped that one of my most beloved activities was coming to school and being surrounded, hugged, prodded, cuddled and fussed over by the children. I apparently have ‘doll’s hair,’ poker straight and thin, and I would sit and have ten of them pull, braid, ‘wash’, and generally mess up my hair, to my fellow teachers’ horror. I would laugh and take out my comb when the bell rang and then, with one quick comb through, it would be poker straight and tidy again. A fellow volunteer was also teaching French at her local primary school and we started thinking about what would happen after we left, namely the problem of teaching French with no background or training in the subject. We came up with the idea of writing a comprehensive curriculum based on our first-hand experience, with a textbook and pronunciation CD to accompany it. We eventually ended up with a thick manual covering all primary-school grades, accompanied by recordings of each lesson. It took six months of intensive work but we also had a lot of fun doing it, including games and Internet based resources, among other things. We presented the idea and the finished product to the national primary-school French coordinator, who was delighted but we are waiting, still, for its publication. Times passes quicker in the second year and the months blended into each other, interrupted only by the seasonal activities. I spent most of my summer in Capuchin Bay swimming with fish and children, becoming the fittest I have ever been in my life. Independence was a whirlwind of familiar faces and activities, good pictures of the dancers as elusive as ever as they moved about the stage. I went to all three nights of the World Creole Music Festival and became a big fan of Carimi and Kassav. My second Christmas was spent with my newfound second family, still unsettling because of the lack of cold and Christma-style atmosphere, but nice all the same. For the first time, I really showed off my ‘winning’ dance moves at Carnival and was assured, by my dance partners, that I had made considerable improvement. I did not believe them, but enjoyed myself all the same. Dancing is something I have never really done and always been very self-conscious about, but I figured Dominica was as good a place as any to start. DOMINICA IS THE EPITOME OF THE CARIBBEAN LIFESTYLE…BEAUTFIUL ENVIRONMENT…LUSH JUNGLE…GORGEOUS BEACHES…LESS DEVELOPED…NEVER GETS COLD…PLENTY TO EAT… WATER IN ABUNDANCE… Dominicans consistently rank among the happiest people on Earth which, on some level, is somewhat puzzling to me, considering the social construct. However, it may be explained by the fact that Dominica is the epitome of the Caribbean lifestyle: a beautiful environment of lush jungle and gorgeous beaches; it is less developed so no ‘concrete jungle’ syndrome; it never really gets cold; you can always find something to eat off a tree, in the ground or in the sea; there is water in abundance (if not from the tap, then in the river nearby) and the people are warm and friendly. This means that all your essential needs of water, food and shelter are met at little or no cost. Capitalism means, however, that these days there is less and less appreciation for this fact as the bright lights and ‘riches’ beckon, mainly the USA. I started a new relationship. And it got complicated. It grew though, into something that meant a lot to me and I fell in love again. Cultures, religious beliefs, and lifestyles clashed but the connection was there. Dominicans friends have repeatedly told me that I make broad generalizations about them and their country and that I am wrong but here is one more: they do not know the meaning of love. At least to recognize it, nurture it and treasure it. I once told a close friend that I had good news about a couple of mutual friends who had recently got married and he, without hesitating, said, ‘she’s pregnant.’ I said ‘how do you know?’ to which he responded, ‘that is what people get married for.’ This is but an illustration of the mentality; everything has a purpose and is done for a reason. It seems that getting to know someone and really appreciating them is a luxury. For someone who grew up where I did this is something of an aberration: I want a life partner, a best friend someone whom I can trust and who will support and enhance me. I have never gone into a relationship calculating the marriage potential, and I view people’s character and qualities as more important that their suitability. This is a topic that came up again and again and it has caused me to question whether what I picture as a good relationship is in fact possible… and I choose to still believe it is. Work took off and, while still not doing what most would consider ‘full-time,’ between the teaching and the sessions, the meetings and various activities, I kept myself quite busy. On the personal front, my relationship was also something I worked on, as well as my friendships. I made many acquaintances, but real friendship was more elusive. Dominica is small enough that, wherever I went, I always ran into someone I knew, but a real support system is also essential. I became close to a couple in the Peace Corps, spending endless hours comparing notes on our experiences and sharing frustrations. I was lucky enough to also have a few Dominicans I could come to and know that they would listen, if not necessarily understand, and give me a shoulder to cry on, if necessary. To them I am eternally grateful and sincerely hope our friendship was not limited to my time in their country. I learned to live by myself and embrace my time with myself. No one likes to be lonely, but knowing how to be with yourself is a challenge worth undertaking as most of us will have to deal with being in that situation at some point during our lives. I had hoped my time in the Peace Corps would allow for some reflection and some creative work but in the end, time just seems to slow down and you end up focusing on just being. For most of my service I didn’t have reliable internet and I got bored with television. I did however accumulate quite a music library and my small Shuffle Ipod was a real companion. As was Ginger, my cat. There are tangible benefits to having a pet, no question about it. He would come and sit next to me for hours on end as I worked on the computer and provide entertainment on demand. OVERALL, I LIVED A RELATIVELY SIMPLY BUTVERY WELL. I RARELY FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE SO-CALLED THIRD WORLD. Life became simpler, it seems. I lived very comfortably but with little, by standards from back home. My kitchen had a stove, a sink, a fridge, an electric kettle and a blender and I never felt the need to add to that collection. My wardrobe had to be replenished because I lost quite a lot of weight, but consisted of a limited number of choices and that was ok. I had a TV, a computer and my Ipod and eventually acquired a DVD player that I barely used. My only real luxury was space, as my two-bedroom apartment was very spacious for one person. I took public transport and did not often eat at restaurants or go out. My diet was quite repetitive: I never really cooked ‘Creole cuisine’ but rather basic European fare with the produce I could find. Overall, I lived relatively simply but very well. I rarely felt like I was in the so-called Third World. I have often been accused of being overly judgmental of Dominica and Dominicans, and speaking only in absolutes. I know that at times I sound harsh and insensitive, a Foreigner looking in. Part of it is in response to personal experiences and observed trends but also, at times, because I relish playing ‘Devil’s Advocate’ and creating a reaction, fostering dialogue, and raising questions. My time in Dominica did make me reconsider a lot of things and change my perspective in certain areas. I believe this; the act of questioning, evolving and re-assessment is called growing. I learned that to succeed you have to want to and you really have to be proactive. One of my projects, a First Aid program to be implemented in Primary Schools, started because I got a ride, on a Sunday morning, from a Portsmouth firefighter and we started talking. One thing led to another and we started working on it. Ironically, this same project taught me that sometimes you have to let it go and move on. MY LIMITS HAVE BEEN TESTED ON SO MANY LEVELS, AND I WAS IN A CONSTANT BALANCING ACT BETWEEN WHAT I KNEW AND WHAT I WAS LEARNING. I came to Dominica as a confident, somewhat cocky, new university graduate and by that second year I realized that I had had to deconstruct myself and was in the process of putting myself back together again. My limits have been tested on so many levels, and I was in a constant balancing act between what I knew and what I was learning. Dominica has a different culture and different values and ways of doing things than what I had been used to up until then. I was convinced I knew it all and I had a clear vision of what I was and, to a certain extent, where I was going. By the middle of my second year this had all changed and I was struggling with what to keep and what to discard from both, what was right and what was wrong, what was important enough for me to hold on to and what did I now have to incorporate. Many things did not make sense anymore and eventually, everything came down to day-to-day living and letting go. Very soon, just as things were coming together and starting to make some sense again, it was time to think about leaving. I had found my place in Dominica, my identity as a Peace Corps and I was as happy as I had been in a long time. But there was no escaping the looming question: what next? “Tales” is a multi-part series about my time as a volunteer – be sure to read part five in next month’s issue |
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Author: Ella Rychlewski is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who is still living and working in her island of assignment, Dominica. |
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