Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Glory Be
Having been in the Dominican Republic for six weeks without visiting a beach should be some sort of punishable offense. For a day, I finally traded in the sounds of motorcycles, barking dogs and blaring music for some glorious quiet adorned by crashing waves. For the first time since we arrived six weeks ago, I saw the ocean... and got to swim in it! It was a glorious day, a perfect combination of adventure (getting there and back) and leisure (being there). Amazing how palpable the change in aural environment was.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
R&R
Managed to get out of the city last week and explore the DR a bit more. I ventured out on my own, taking guagua after guagua after guagua (yes, three guaguas) down to Monte Plata to rendezvous with Ellen, a Peace Corps Volunteer who graduated from the MPH program at Emory last year. I got a glimpse of a day in the life in the Peace Corps and slept in her hammock before we took off for Puerto Plata the next morning for a grand waterfall adventure. We worked up a sweat hiking to the mouth of the river, and then went walking, swimming, jumping back down. It was really fun. I highly recommend a visit to 27 Charcos if you find yourself looking for something fun to do in the DR.
Since then, I've been back entering data and sleeping more than I should. Its not as exciting as traipsing through the campo looking for Haitians, but its part of the process. I also picked up a copy of In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez's novel about the Hermanas Mirabal. Its a doable read in Spanish (they don't sell English versions here), and the mental picture I have in my head from visiting their house in Salcedo and meeting Dedé, the surviving sister bring it a little closer to home than the Mexican novel I just couldn't get into.
One failure we've faced in San Francisco is that of finding the dance scene. It was one thing that we spent the first half of our weekends working, but now that our schedule is a little more fluid, we're still having trouble finding the party on the weekends. What is becoming clear is that we (practically the only rubios in the city) are simply too lame to catch the party train in this town. We have made the mistake of going out around 8 or 9, only to be all pooped out by the time the party gets going (which is well after midnight). Apparently the trick is to sleep until 11 or 12, go out after midnight and stay out dancing until the wee hours of the morning. We're learning, and hopefully we'll get in at least one raucous night of veritable Dominican baile before our time here runs out.
Since then, I've been back entering data and sleeping more than I should. Its not as exciting as traipsing through the campo looking for Haitians, but its part of the process. I also picked up a copy of In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez's novel about the Hermanas Mirabal. Its a doable read in Spanish (they don't sell English versions here), and the mental picture I have in my head from visiting their house in Salcedo and meeting Dedé, the surviving sister bring it a little closer to home than the Mexican novel I just couldn't get into.
One failure we've faced in San Francisco is that of finding the dance scene. It was one thing that we spent the first half of our weekends working, but now that our schedule is a little more fluid, we're still having trouble finding the party on the weekends. What is becoming clear is that we (practically the only rubios in the city) are simply too lame to catch the party train in this town. We have made the mistake of going out around 8 or 9, only to be all pooped out by the time the party gets going (which is well after midnight). Apparently the trick is to sleep until 11 or 12, go out after midnight and stay out dancing until the wee hours of the morning. We're learning, and hopefully we'll get in at least one raucous night of veritable Dominican baile before our time here runs out.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Warm Fuzzies
Much of the past week had me a little down on the DR and San Francisco. Its dirty, its noisy, and every morning I dreaded the drama and complaints the RAs would bring with them to work each day.
Today was one of those days that made me so happy to be here, that made all of the stress and issues from the last two weeks seem worth it. There was a lot of room for complaining today: lots of bumps in the road that could have been grounds for lots of complaining, but everyone took the issues in stride and on the van ride home, everyone was singing, laughing and even dancing... almost like a party bus but with a twist.
One day of surveying remains, and then a little bit of vacation and a new leaf in the project. As much of a struggle as it was, part of me is sad to be done with the field/data collection stage for the survey. It was stressful but also thrilling. I'll begin entering data next week (which will be much less thrilling than what I've been doing the last two weeks) and will hopefully be able to support my team members as they ramp up with their interviews and qualitative research.
Today was one of those days that made me so happy to be here, that made all of the stress and issues from the last two weeks seem worth it. There was a lot of room for complaining today: lots of bumps in the road that could have been grounds for lots of complaining, but everyone took the issues in stride and on the van ride home, everyone was singing, laughing and even dancing... almost like a party bus but with a twist.
One day of surveying remains, and then a little bit of vacation and a new leaf in the project. As much of a struggle as it was, part of me is sad to be done with the field/data collection stage for the survey. It was stressful but also thrilling. I'll begin entering data next week (which will be much less thrilling than what I've been doing the last two weeks) and will hopefully be able to support my team members as they ramp up with their interviews and qualitative research.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Trabajo Agotador
[Exhausting work]
I am dog tired with only two half-days of rest in the last two weeks.
Those two weeks have been full of a combination of data collection and last-minute preparations for data collection. In days between surveying, I have been traveling to surveying communities to characterize them: talking with local authorities to figure out where the barrios of interest are, their relative composition of Dominicans and Haitians, devising plans for sampling in these barrios, etc. Days later, we travel to these communities to actually execute the data collection. I have my last couple of community visits today, and we'll finish out over the weekend.
This has been a great push to get this work done, and after Sunday, I'll be relieved to have some more rest and time to spend a couple days out of the city. The constant noise of the city is wearing on me, and I'm really looking forward to vacating to do something fun for a short time.
We're reaching an inflection point in the project. As we're finishing with the surveys, we're ramping up for the qualitative aspects of the projects. Trying to plan ways to make contacts with people in the communities where we've surveyed to coordinate in-depth interviews and recruit people for focus groups. It should be really interesting to see what comes out of these conversations - deeper, more detailed accounts of people's experiences. It will be information that transcends what we're able to gather through the more concrete survey format.
And for me, I'll be spending more and more time in front of the computer, entering data: the stacks of surveys are piling up and will be very time consuming to go through.
I am dog tired with only two half-days of rest in the last two weeks.
Those two weeks have been full of a combination of data collection and last-minute preparations for data collection. In days between surveying, I have been traveling to surveying communities to characterize them: talking with local authorities to figure out where the barrios of interest are, their relative composition of Dominicans and Haitians, devising plans for sampling in these barrios, etc. Days later, we travel to these communities to actually execute the data collection. I have my last couple of community visits today, and we'll finish out over the weekend.
This has been a great push to get this work done, and after Sunday, I'll be relieved to have some more rest and time to spend a couple days out of the city. The constant noise of the city is wearing on me, and I'm really looking forward to vacating to do something fun for a short time.
We're reaching an inflection point in the project. As we're finishing with the surveys, we're ramping up for the qualitative aspects of the projects. Trying to plan ways to make contacts with people in the communities where we've surveyed to coordinate in-depth interviews and recruit people for focus groups. It should be really interesting to see what comes out of these conversations - deeper, more detailed accounts of people's experiences. It will be information that transcends what we're able to gather through the more concrete survey format.
And for me, I'll be spending more and more time in front of the computer, entering data: the stacks of surveys are piling up and will be very time consuming to go through.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
A Slice of Life
Casa // House
I've had trouble sleeping in on my days off, because if I sleep past 8am, I wake up burning hot without fail. Today I realized why: the roof is made of zinc and heats up the entire room like an oven when the sun is up. An interesting circumstances that will force me to keep a regular sleep schedule.
There is a fan in every room of the house. The most powerful one doesn't start on its own (i.e. you need to spin the blades to get it up to full speed), and as a result the front cage is never on. The thing scared the bejeezus out of me at first, but now I'm pretty used to it.
We have a family of chihuahuas in the house: a mom (Samantha), a dad (Cuco) and a baby (a female, still to be named). They sleep in the backyard, but are allowed in the house during the day. Like most animals here they are obviously not spayed/neutered, but otherwise well taken care of. Everyday they are fed leftover rice, beans and meat. Samantha is a very sweet and affectionate animal, but receives none from the humans of the house.
Comida // Food
My host mom is always asking what I want to eat, and she serves me salads (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sometimes with avocado) at lunch with my rice/beans/meat. When I arrived, she served a lot of (overcooked) boiled vegetables that I had to struggle to choke down. We asked if she'd serve us those vegetables (broccoli, carrots, green beans) raw, and apparently that's not a thing here, even if you do wash them in good water. She has stopped serving them, and has been serving salad instead.
Breakfast is usually some combination of two or three of the following: eggs, bread, mango, pineapple, cheese, salami.
Dinners are sometimes random. Last night, for example, was mashed potatoes and cheese with fried onions. But more often than not its pretty typical: rice, beans, meat, vegetables, fried plantains (maduros which are a good dessert or tostones which remind me of french fries)
Fresh juice is served at every meal. We've been drinking chinola (passionfruit) mostly, but have also had tamarindo. Dominicans sweeten all their drinks, almost too much. Batidos (smoothies) are the same way - fruit and ice blended with sweetened condensed milk. Half of one does me in - its so so so sweet.
Mangú is another interesting Dominican dish. Its like mashed potatoes but with plantain instead of potatoes.
A friend from the hospital threw a major party on Friday to cook sancocho for us. Sancocho is a rich stew with meat (usually pork), yucca, potato, carrots, etc. It was one of those events that we thought would be pretty low key, just us gathered around the table with a couple others. However, they pulled out all the stops with a big crowd on the roof of her apartment building; the rum/coke was flowing; the music was playing and the actually dinner didn't happen until 9pm. It was a blast.
Familia // Family
My host mom has two boys (one 6 years, the other 15), but only the youngest one stays with her. He is rambunctious and often runs down the street in his underwear. The older one lives with his father and is an aspiring baseballer. He visits on Thursdays. One of her nieces has also been staying with her since I arrived. It sounds like she will return home when school starts next month.
There are always people visiting the house, and they often come and go without notice. I have trouble keeping all the relations straight but the words tia (aunt) and sobrino/a (niece/nephew) are used often. It seems that these familiar terms are used relatively loosely, but who knows maybe all the neighbors are actually blood relations.
A señor (older man) that lives alone down the street because his wife and kids are in the states. He often comes to sit on our patio for some company, and my host mom often cooks extra food to bring over to him.
Transporte // Transportation
Its not always easy to get around in this town, but there are some cheap options.
Carros públicos (public cars) are essentially taxis that run up and down the main drag. You pay RD$20 (US$0.50) per person to ride, and as many people as fit will pile into the car. Carritos, as they call them, because they run up and down the Avenida, can only get you so far.
Motoconchos (motorcycle taxis) are another cheap (but demonstrably dangerous) option that will pick you up at home and take you where you need to go for RD$50 (US$1.30). There are also regular taxis available, but are significantly more expensive: usually about RD$200 (US$5.25) to get you somewhere in town.
Guaguas are buses that run a particular route and are pretty cheap, but similar to carritos, will pile in as many people as can fit. The routes and stops aren't marked, so you just kind of have to get to know the system of routes and wait until one comes.
What's most commonly seen on the roads is throwback models (mostly Toyotas) from the mid-1980s. Just like my childhood, but tripped out with subwoofers, etc.
Música // Music
It is everywhere here. Even when the electricity is out (which is at least a couple times a day), music is always audible in the street. There are certain songs that seem to crop up everywhere that I want to share. [Let me know if any of the links don't work; I know there may be videos here that may not be visible in the States and viceversa]
Pa'lante by El Chuape : I hear this song at least a couple times a day. Represents a Dominican style called Dembow, akin to reggaeton, but somehow uniquely Dominican. The song sounds raunchy (and it is), but its so catchy.
Desesperado by Zacarías Ferreira : This bachatero played a concert nearby SFM last Saturday. A few of us went and saw part of it (more on that later), and todo el mundo sings along at the top of their lungs to everything he sings, including this song with which he opened the concert.
Promise by Romeo Santos feat. Usher: Another good bachata jam that we hear all the time here. This song is pretty popular in the States right now, too.
Vocabulario // Vocabular
I've had trouble sleeping in on my days off, because if I sleep past 8am, I wake up burning hot without fail. Today I realized why: the roof is made of zinc and heats up the entire room like an oven when the sun is up. An interesting circumstances that will force me to keep a regular sleep schedule.
There is a fan in every room of the house. The most powerful one doesn't start on its own (i.e. you need to spin the blades to get it up to full speed), and as a result the front cage is never on. The thing scared the bejeezus out of me at first, but now I'm pretty used to it.
We have a family of chihuahuas in the house: a mom (Samantha), a dad (Cuco) and a baby (a female, still to be named). They sleep in the backyard, but are allowed in the house during the day. Like most animals here they are obviously not spayed/neutered, but otherwise well taken care of. Everyday they are fed leftover rice, beans and meat. Samantha is a very sweet and affectionate animal, but receives none from the humans of the house.
Comida // Food
My host mom is always asking what I want to eat, and she serves me salads (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sometimes with avocado) at lunch with my rice/beans/meat. When I arrived, she served a lot of (overcooked) boiled vegetables that I had to struggle to choke down. We asked if she'd serve us those vegetables (broccoli, carrots, green beans) raw, and apparently that's not a thing here, even if you do wash them in good water. She has stopped serving them, and has been serving salad instead.
Breakfast is usually some combination of two or three of the following: eggs, bread, mango, pineapple, cheese, salami.
Dinners are sometimes random. Last night, for example, was mashed potatoes and cheese with fried onions. But more often than not its pretty typical: rice, beans, meat, vegetables, fried plantains (maduros which are a good dessert or tostones which remind me of french fries)
Fresh juice is served at every meal. We've been drinking chinola (passionfruit) mostly, but have also had tamarindo. Dominicans sweeten all their drinks, almost too much. Batidos (smoothies) are the same way - fruit and ice blended with sweetened condensed milk. Half of one does me in - its so so so sweet.
Mangú is another interesting Dominican dish. Its like mashed potatoes but with plantain instead of potatoes.
A friend from the hospital threw a major party on Friday to cook sancocho for us. Sancocho is a rich stew with meat (usually pork), yucca, potato, carrots, etc. It was one of those events that we thought would be pretty low key, just us gathered around the table with a couple others. However, they pulled out all the stops with a big crowd on the roof of her apartment building; the rum/coke was flowing; the music was playing and the actually dinner didn't happen until 9pm. It was a blast.
Familia // Family
My host mom has two boys (one 6 years, the other 15), but only the youngest one stays with her. He is rambunctious and often runs down the street in his underwear. The older one lives with his father and is an aspiring baseballer. He visits on Thursdays. One of her nieces has also been staying with her since I arrived. It sounds like she will return home when school starts next month.
There are always people visiting the house, and they often come and go without notice. I have trouble keeping all the relations straight but the words tia (aunt) and sobrino/a (niece/nephew) are used often. It seems that these familiar terms are used relatively loosely, but who knows maybe all the neighbors are actually blood relations.
A señor (older man) that lives alone down the street because his wife and kids are in the states. He often comes to sit on our patio for some company, and my host mom often cooks extra food to bring over to him.
Transporte // Transportation
Its not always easy to get around in this town, but there are some cheap options.
Carros públicos (public cars) are essentially taxis that run up and down the main drag. You pay RD$20 (US$0.50) per person to ride, and as many people as fit will pile into the car. Carritos, as they call them, because they run up and down the Avenida, can only get you so far.
Motoconchos (motorcycle taxis) are another cheap (but demonstrably dangerous) option that will pick you up at home and take you where you need to go for RD$50 (US$1.30). There are also regular taxis available, but are significantly more expensive: usually about RD$200 (US$5.25) to get you somewhere in town.
Guaguas are buses that run a particular route and are pretty cheap, but similar to carritos, will pile in as many people as can fit. The routes and stops aren't marked, so you just kind of have to get to know the system of routes and wait until one comes.
What's most commonly seen on the roads is throwback models (mostly Toyotas) from the mid-1980s. Just like my childhood, but tripped out with subwoofers, etc.
Música // Music
It is everywhere here. Even when the electricity is out (which is at least a couple times a day), music is always audible in the street. There are certain songs that seem to crop up everywhere that I want to share. [Let me know if any of the links don't work; I know there may be videos here that may not be visible in the States and viceversa]
Pa'lante by El Chuape : I hear this song at least a couple times a day. Represents a Dominican style called Dembow, akin to reggaeton, but somehow uniquely Dominican. The song sounds raunchy (and it is), but its so catchy.
Desesperado by Zacarías Ferreira : This bachatero played a concert nearby SFM last Saturday. A few of us went and saw part of it (more on that later), and todo el mundo sings along at the top of their lungs to everything he sings, including this song with which he opened the concert.
Promise by Romeo Santos feat. Usher: Another good bachata jam that we hear all the time here. This song is pretty popular in the States right now, too.
Vocabulario // Vocabular
- Un chín de [lo que sea] // A little bit of [whatever]
- Ese chivo // That guy (literal translation: that goat; an expression meant to talk about someone in their presence without them knowing, derived from the days of Trujillo, who was known as El Chivo)
- Que lo que // What's going on?
- Heavy // Cool
- ¿Novedad? // Right? (a Dominicanization of ¿No es verdad?)
- No es fácil // It's not easy. Used in reference to just about everything!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
¡Adelante!
We've finished training research assistants and piloted the survey in the field over the weekend.
The pilot was an opportunity to make sure the research assistants were understanding the survey contents, administering it correctly and recording answers clearly. After spending the last six months putting this survey together, all the questions seem blatantly obvious to me, but even after going over it in the classroom during training, there were still parts that required clarification for the RAs.
The pilot also gave us a chance to see if there were any problematic spots in the survey: flow, comprehension, translation, clarity, etc. Issues definitely emerged, and sitting down with the research assistants to discuss the problems they encountered was really helpful in ironing out these issues in the next (and hopefully last) set of revisions.
For our next steps, we're hoping to actually start collecting data on Saturday, and in the meantime, we face the task of figuring out exactly how we will select houses in the different communities. A matter that has significantly complicated this task is the difficulty we've had finding Haitian households. Doing a purely random sample in the community may miss the Haitian demographic entirely, as they live in places that wouldn't necessarily be considered a house in a regular household survey protocol. Since Haitians are a major focus of our research (and half of our research assistant team is Haitian), its necessarily we find them but in a systematic way so that statistically, we can make comparisons between the two groups during our analysis.
We've got our work cut out for us and its exciting to be moving forwared. ¡Adelante!
The pilot was an opportunity to make sure the research assistants were understanding the survey contents, administering it correctly and recording answers clearly. After spending the last six months putting this survey together, all the questions seem blatantly obvious to me, but even after going over it in the classroom during training, there were still parts that required clarification for the RAs.
The pilot also gave us a chance to see if there were any problematic spots in the survey: flow, comprehension, translation, clarity, etc. Issues definitely emerged, and sitting down with the research assistants to discuss the problems they encountered was really helpful in ironing out these issues in the next (and hopefully last) set of revisions.
For our next steps, we're hoping to actually start collecting data on Saturday, and in the meantime, we face the task of figuring out exactly how we will select houses in the different communities. A matter that has significantly complicated this task is the difficulty we've had finding Haitian households. Doing a purely random sample in the community may miss the Haitian demographic entirely, as they live in places that wouldn't necessarily be considered a house in a regular household survey protocol. Since Haitians are a major focus of our research (and half of our research assistant team is Haitian), its necessarily we find them but in a systematic way so that statistically, we can make comparisons between the two groups during our analysis.
We've got our work cut out for us and its exciting to be moving forwared. ¡Adelante!
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