Business or Pleasure?

October 16, 2008
Community Based Training

Business or pleasure? That is indeed the question that often comes to mind when I reflect upon what the next two years will bring me. While long days of tutorials, visits, and interviews and nights filled with host family “bonding” and neighborhood socializing have begun to drive home the reality that the Peace Corps is the “24 hour, 7 day a week job” it claims to be, so far it appears that this experience will also hold true to another one of its slogans: “the toughest job you’ll ever love.”

The line between “work” and “leisure time” has already been blurred. Although there is a part of me that likes structure, I have always believed in the importance of doing what you love and loving what you do. For this reason, the ambiguity in classifying activities as “professional” or “personal” has thus far been relatively easy to accept. Do the following examples that illustrate this trend make me a workaholic or a slacker? You be the judge…

Construye tus Sueños, “o sea”, the Business Plan Competition

What happens when you lock Dominican youth from all corners of the island, a committee of Peace Corps Volunteers, a team of PC newbies, and a handful of American diplomats, Dominican business gurus, and NGO representatives in a retreat center in Santo Domingo for three days? The technical answer is a Business Plan Competition started by Peace Corps Volunteers three years ago. What actually goes on within the workshops, activities, and presentations is, logically, a lot more complex.

As it was my first time observing and helping out with the conference, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of work that both participants and facilitators put in prior to the event and during the event itself. Though only teenagers or younger adults, the youth participants brought a force to be reckoned with. While it might have been the first time some of them had ever come up with an idea for a possible business and/or attended a summit at the national level, their proposals and their perspectives demonstrated a grasp of essential concepts (such as marketing and budgeting) and an ability to both constructively critique and foster companionship with colleagues. While the Peace Corps Volunteers cannot take all the credit, of course, they do merit recognition for teaching basic business classes in their sites, committing to countless hours of work with the aspiring entrepreneurs in their community, and pulling together an event that showcases the fruits of the efforts of both sides.

While a good part of the sweat came from hard work, some of it came from group-strengthening games and activities, a talent show, and dancing to bachata and reggaeton. Not exactly your typical day at the office.

A Lesson in Non-Formal Education: “Clase” de Español

As you might imagine, language acquisition composes a large chunk of training here in the D.R. For those of you who know me personally, you might guess that I’d actually admit to enjoying going to Spanish class. Before you call me a nerd (which is no big secret at this point), ask yourself if you too would enjoy “studying” if it involved the following “lessons”…

- Dominican history. In order to teach us about the island’s past and prepare us to be able to speak about it on an intellectual level, our Spanish teacher has shown us movies that combine the stories of important political figures with famous Dominican literature. Given the location of our training site, we were also able to visit the home of the hermanas Mirabal, a site turned into a museum after their murder.

- Colloquialisms. Since the objective of our class is to fine-tune our Español, what better way to do it than with practice in slang and common expressions? Favorites include transportation lingo (e.g. vete a la cocina­ – or “go to the back of the bus – which literally translates to “go to the kitchen”) and pick up lines to deflect (e.g. yo quisiera ser un mosquito para entrar en tu mosquitero y decirte lo mucho que te quiero – “I would like to be a mosquito to be able to enter your mosquito net and tell you how much I love you”…ummm no thanks?). Extra points for those of us who can use new vocabulary in front of our Spanish facilitator at the expense of other instructors and volunteers – especially when they’re double entendres (e.g. telling a teacher he “lives far” – vive lejos – because his house is on the top of a mountain…and it means that he’s, errr, “well endowed”) and when they involve inter-Peace Corps gossip (e.g. inquiring about a chuleo, or hook up).

- “Gastronomy.” Finally, like good doñas, we must learn to make certain staples in the Dominican diet. Ok, that might be taking it a step too far, but at the very least it’s a good idea to be able to make a refreshment to serve at a workshop or meeting once we’re in our sites. To complement our community diagnostic presentation, for example, as a Spanish class we made a juice from carambola (star fruit). Our proportions might have been a little off (just a chin less salt next time), but we accomplished the general goals of reviewing recipe Spanish, concocting a local treat, and dancing to meringue when it wasn’t our turn to contribute. Hey, too many cooks in the kitchen…

Building relationships through prayers and Presidente

Though “professional” and “personal” also overlapped in much of our field work – such as our visit to an ecotourism project that allowed us to, literally, “test the waters” by swimming in a waterfall – I can already tell that the greatest ambiguity will present itself in our “free” time spent with our host families and the members of our communities. While building confianza, or trust, among the residents of our sites will ultimately affect the success of our initiatives, it doesn’t exactly take the form of “networking” someone coming from Washington D.C. might be used to.

So far, my “business luncheons” have ranged from food in front of the T.V. with my host brothers, their cousins, and any other 20-something who happens to be passing by in time for the midday novella to a picnic at an artisan fair after helping them set up their booths. My “meetings” include chats with neighbors about politics and the price of plátanos and visits to local businesses in which I leave with a free work of art (seriously – an artist gave me a beautiful, full-on painting the other day). Finally, I cannot neglect to mention the importance of making my appearance known at “special events” …even when calling attention to my foreign self is the last thing on my agenda. E.g.: Stuttering and turning the color of the holy wine when someone offered me a beer during a neighborhood prayer session. Somehow I had missed the memo that the transition to the afterparty had begun; a good laugh at my feeble attempt to remain “respectful” and “appropriate” won me some brownie points, the promised drink, and a better explanation on what exactly we were celebrating in the first place.

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In just a few days, our coordinators will finally reveal to us where we will live and work for the next 2 years. While I am anxious to find out, I feel that the events and experiences of the last 5 weeks have shown me that I will be cut out for whatever they send my way. (Or, more accurately stated, whatever way they send me). I can already tell that the details of my job description will not be as clear as that of those of you currently reading this from your office job in the Back Bay, Manhattan, or Mumbai – but I wouldn’t trade places with you for anything at this point in time. :)