feeling the flow

For most of the Community Development majors, you’re wrapping up your research right now and putting the final shine on your presentations (cept Renee…you’ll get there!). I feel relatively up to date and caught up now with everyone’s news, that is, assuming you’ve been faithful to the blog gods. Its really amazing to read the stories from all over the world and I realize that most of you aren’t bad writers…maybe we did learn something useful?. Aside from anecdotes and memoirs i pray that you all are wrapping things up well with your research contexts and things are actually coming together (at last for some). I want to encourage everyone from my soapbox for a moment (after all, you are reading my blog) to say that the end is near and that yes you can do it. If Kate can go without water for a week at a time, if Rachel can “stumble upon” a her keynote material for her research, if Christian can survive public transit in South Africa, if Pepper can ever get the stain out of his car…we’ll see pep. All of this to say that I can almost taste it for you. I’ll be attending Kate and Seth’s final presentations this Wed and Fri respectively and from what I’ve heard, I’m really excited.

On the other hand , I’m just getting started it seems (but this is by no means a pity post). I’ve had some breakthroughs this last week and I’m spending the weekend to sort out what exactly I have on my hands now and what to do with it (more on this when I know what I have). It appears I was destined to never make it to the comdev camp out or an assortment of other ‘members only’ events that I’ve missed in the fall for the last 4 years. ha. But I am excited to see you all when i get back. i’m planning on making sweet Covenant College one of my first stops (just can’t get enough of the place). And as Seth and I were talking about last weekend… We’ll need to have a Dominican comdev party when we’re all back, with you Renee, in the street– highlights including: Vitilla, hacky sack, card games, and Merengue music played at butt-jarring levels all while principally sitting in plastic chairs and complaining about the government–In the street. Thats all I’ve got for now. Ciao!
oh, and ‘Blessings’

-j

research. or something like it

I realize that I am long overdue in giving an update on how the research has been going. Sorry, but we’ll fix that right now.

I am currently assigned to conduct impact research in two communities that are a stones throw from where I lay my head. I say ‘currently’ because I’m continually reminded that it can, has and probably will change again before I leave. It turns out that the two communities are so close together that many of the inhabitants overlap in where they are from and which group they are participating in. So much so that I can’t be sure into which group to put people into.

I have recently written a new structured interview guide and have started testing it in some other ’safe’ communities. It should be ready by the end of the week and then I will be using it to get to know the people in both communities a little bit better. I would like to say that my research will be that simple, but it has actually taken a little bit of an ethnographic turn. Because my study is limited to an impact study in two communities, I’ll have the time “to get to know the people” on a much more personal basis. This is where “hanging out intentionally” comes in. It may not sound like research, but I have found that Dominicans in general don’t like things that resemble structure. They tend to tighten up and not be as willing to talk as openly when they are answering pre-written questions. What this essentially looks like is me hanging out in the communities, simply spending time with the people there, getting them to teach me how to make things, and all the while trying to garner a level of trust and acceptance that will enable them to tell me things that they otherwise would not. (Thank you Turnbull!)

In addition, I have been at the Esperanza office lately, trying to dig up documents on these clients. This is complicated by the fact that I don’t really have a list of the clients that I’m trying to research and the files that i am handed are extremely disorganized. In talking to Smita (my professor), she assures me that it is all part of the process and that I won’t really know what I have until I put it all together; that being the nature of research. In essence, I’m following many roads to get to the same place, eventually. All roads lead to Rome, right?

One of the problems that I’m continually running up against is that many of the women that I meet here think that I am here to help them out in some way or that because I am white, I am automatically willing to drop everything I am doing and help them out with some particular situation. It breaks my heart to not be able to do anything for women like Carmen or Luisa, who was recently robbed of all of her capital for her clothing sales business. But I simply can’t. I just have to gently remind them that I am only a student, doing research, and I don’t have the resources or ability to help them out in the way they would like. There is a lot of separating the wheat from the chaff, but one of the problems is that it is too early to descern what is wheat and what is chaff. Part of this is that many Dominicans just like to complain. Politics, prices, husbands, government in general, you name it. But it all gets written down. I guess we’ll see what we have when it is all over.

So as I sit here in Esperanza’s office, I’ll think about Paul’s single-minded focus while I sift through papers in a foreign language, and pray that what I’m doing will be useful.

prayer

There is one thing this time that I beg all of you drop what you are doing right now and PRAY. Ben Entwistle, a classmate and fellow student of Covenant College, is in a very serious condition right now in Africa. He has caught bacterial pneumonia or some other horribe desease and has already had a stroke. He is critical right now, and I beg all of you to pray for him. Details can be found in this open facebook group for Ben. I never thought I would say this, but thank the Lord for facebook. Please be praying for him.

learning curve

I recently had a conversation with Seth while at the beach the other day about learning and Covenant and whether we thought we would keep up this three ringed circus called community development after graduating in the spring. I was complaining, as usual, about the school and not feeling ready for this internship and other such criticisms with which I could placate my overloaded mind. Right in the middle of my diatribe on “four years of this nonsense and still not feeling up to snuff in the field” when Seth remarked on something that I realized was rather obvious. He interjected that our undergrad degrees aren’t exactly supposed to teach us everything we would need to know for our careers. He said that he thought one of Covenants philosophies was to inspire students to want to learn. I thought about this and felt like someone had just whispered in my ear that the Golden Gate Bridge was in San Fransisco after trying to say it was somewhere in east Asia. Aside from generally trying to grind into us a few solid ideas that might stick with us for ten to twenty years, the rest of it really won’t stick. It isn’t something that I haven’t thought of before, but in the middle of my self pitty, it was pointed out to me that this internship was actually supposed to teach me how to do research and community development. Yes the professors might chuckle a little when they get our emails crying for help saying that we don’t know how to do it all, but thats the point isn’t it? (surely you guys aren’t that brutal? wait, who am i kidding…)

So, in an effort to dance off the stage after falling in my opening act, allow me to say this. I am glad that I am in the Dominican Republic. I am glad that I am being faced with new challenges and trials. I am happy to be put in a place where I am extremely uncomfortable. Because I know that this time is not only an opportunity to really learn what community development is all about, but it is also a time to continue to be shaped by the great Sculptor, leaving the shavings of what we were on the floor and leaving only that which He wants us to be, just so, in the image of His Son. (thanks Seth, Smita, Mom and thanks to the man who introduced me to this analogy)

remodeling…life

It hasn’t been a good week. Though I did get some key care packages and letters that have made all the difference (thank you Mom and Erin!). I’ve been sick for the last five days and I don’t know what it is–no surprise. I was just remonstrated in a very nice way for the last two days about my lack of organization and focus by my professor where we completely revamped my research (more soon). Yesterday consisted of: her showing me how to completely reorganize my research–something I should have been able to do after four years talking about this stuff; having my translator call wondering where I was, again, after telling him, again, that I didn’t have anything for him to do yesterday; hearing the memorable themes from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sound of Music and Chariots of Fire causally on the radio ( ); and finally having the sickness up the ante while in the solace of a coffee shop, and then passing the afternoon staring out the window, into the poring rain, in complete dry, comfortable, misery.

Last night was not an improvement: being sick, not being able to sleep, and trying to make good use of the waking hours by working. I can’t say that it won’t be over soon and I have no escape from these trials. These things I count objectively overall, as a gain; subjectively right now, as a pain in the neck.

the elixir of life

at last

i’m officially leaving the country…..eventually…

Date	Flt	Depart	Arrive	Stops
28 Nov 08	1718	Santo Domingo, DR 11:40am	Orlando, FL 1:23pm	0

but the important thing is that i actually have an exit date and plane ticket now. Kate, you were surprised they let me in the country w/out a return ticket. i was too. especially because i thought i might have the temptation to stay; indefinately. thats it for now. hope you all are doing well!

‘Eyes of a Child’

Why is it that we always hear those simple yet profound pronunciations…have faith like a child…believe like a child, but cannot actually articulate beyond a certain naïveté what that would look like? I have always heard these statements and scripture verses and generally let them pass with out much notice at all really. Like those sage bits of wisdom that are dripped into your ear while growing up, but you can never appreciate them until you see the other side with some life experience. Before I read the words of our savior, believing and feeling that I understood. Acknowledging the wisdom while a far off voice says “well, is that really possible? to become again like a child…” lightly in a cynical tone.
Yet in coming here, that wisdom, those words, have come to life like many other things. How can we have “childlike faith in the triumph of God’s love” as J. Piper puts it? Take a look at the face of Elkin or Daniel or any other numerous walking examples of innocence around here and you will see that they care not what the stock market does that day or even if their mom gets that job that she needs. Children deal in an economy of hugs and kisses and shear necessities. They don’t care if they are made to walk around the house all day without underwear or pants all day. Actually they’d probably prefer it if you would help them out of that encumbering t-shirt as well.
Peter Pan strikes a cord here. “All you have to do is believe,” right? Ahhh! My next idea was a children’s story, but I guess the unblemished innocence and faith of a child has been obliterated (meaning covered) by the literary giants right? Though I’d like to think my theme is different, I think my mind is just tingling from the wit and imagination of J. K. Row right now…

Its amazing that I can only see this now. Now that I am in a foreign country and don’t even speak the language as well as I might. But there have been so many lessons that hit me on a daily basis that I hardly have the time, or the energy to even think them through, much less write them down. First I thought to write a poem about it—too limited. Then a book—no time (oh thats right, i’m working down here…). I think we’ll just let this one rest with you for now and I’ll go on being taught by “the least of these.”

learning curve

6.28.08

i really have been bad about keeping you all updated, and for that i apologize. but on another note the research has taken some exciting turns and life here gets more interesting by the day. let me try to surmise the last week for you.

as one of my friends so eloquently put it, and she was right, i am drinking from a fire hose of information down here. there are so many little intricacies and happenings that i won’t bore you with the details, but for a researcher looking for what i have been (ie: impact), it has been a very exciting week. i have conducted interviews in spanish with the translator and without (even one in french and a little creole). i have visited a community leader at her hospital bedside and had a conversation that melted my heart. and i think the funniest thing that has happened to me this week as far as the research goes was a four way interview of one lady that had to be translated from creole with a little french to spanish, then from spanish to english, and finally from english through my murky brain to the notepad infront of me. there was much confusion and in the end we all just about ended up rolling on the ground laughing. i never really sorted it out completely, but i was told later that i had called her daughter a monkey or something to that degree when i tried out a few phrases in creole that i had heard.

the other side of things… you know, actually living and breathing here in the DR has been rather interesting recently as well. this week we were without power for about four days and after a period like that without their TVs or other distractions at night, the natives start to get a little restless. also, i have decided that i love the weather here and would like to take it home with me if possible. its really hot, but you get used to that. the key is that the breeze and rain that cool you off on a hot day are like a godsend every time. God really does have quite the creative streak…

prayer requests: diligence, perseverance and whatever other kinds of karma that it will take to do a good job here and get it done. also for Carmela. she is a leader in La Lechería (one of the communities i’m working in) who is in the hospital in serious condition without any more money to pay the hospital. she has been there for 11 days now and I ask that you pray for provision for her from Esperanza or her community in some way.

summer camp :)

(6.20.200
For the last three days the three Covenant Community Development students here in the DR have been enjoying the resort life filled with lots of food, sleep, and tourists. I guess, to be fare, we were still tourists as well. At least that’s what it says on our country entry documents. The break was a much appreciated reprieve from our research contexts and were able to have some much needed discussions with our in country professor, Smita. I was able to hear all about how Seth has been “killing it” on the field, Kate has taught every card game known to man to her host family’s kids (I really felt uneducated when she started listing them all out). Though we did have one sick among us throughout the time, sorry Seth, it was really good time spent. Although at the end of our time there I realized that I had taken very few photos of us despite having the camera most of the time, it was a great three days. There were multiple options for food, all good, and yours truly cashed in on the all you can eat. We were able to rest, recuperate, and talk about the work that we’ve been doing which was really important.
I guess my only commentary would be that it truly felt like I had just walked into a grown-ups’ summer camp. When we arrived we were each handed a map and an activities schedule that had various events by every hour, from 10am into the night, such as meringue dance lessons, arts and crafts, and bocce ball all scheduled out for us. The pool looked like a huge amorphous blob, surrounding a swim up bar and dotted with volleyball net, water polo goals, floats, and oodles of sun-burnt foreigners. About every hour we could count on someone coming up and trying to recruit us for beach aerobics, tennis, a boat ride to snorkel, a beer-drinking contest or something along those lines. The music from the ‘beach party’ that pounded throughout the place our first night was reminiscent of a middle school dance with a few anthems from the Jock Jams album and even a few Grease songs remixed with heavy bass. We were even furnished with “camper” wristbands, but at least we had something to laugh at the entire time we were there.
All of this to say that I am thankful for the weekend away for rest and relaxation and for some absurd things to laugh at while there. Cheers!
Oh, and I’m terrible at windsurfing!

a grand beginning

this has been my first week actually diving into the research and its been rather interesting. in summary: i finally got a mailing address, i’ve had three interviews with Esperanza staff in three days, and i think i’m going to have to fire my first translator. the last one isn’t quite as sweet.

for those of you who are like me and love it old school, my mailing address is

Jason Furman
Republica Dominicana
Santo Domingo Oeste
Los Alcarrizos
Aportado Postal 120

it took three days of haggling with the local post office, but i now have a box, and not at the “gringo price” (everything here is negotiable)

my first three interviews have been good. i’ve gotten a lot of leads to follow when i actually start talking to the savings groups next week, i’ll have something to follow up on. I do have a bit of a schedule next week. tues, wed, and fri Carmen (area liaison for Esperanza) and i will be headed to some of the communities so that i can observe the group meetings…but we’ll meet monday to get organized for the week. i think the schedule was more of a concession for my americanness and i’ll find out what we’re really doing on monday

yesterday (tues), i met the translator that Pastor José Almonte (host family father and church pastor) had arranged before my arrival. i was glad to finally meet the mystery man, but he has the annoying habit of using one of the two phrases, “things we have to do,” and “used to,” in the most confusing situations sufficing for just about any subject or english grammar convention. unfortunately i don’t think he is going to work out even though i really like him. all three interviews i’ve had to pretty much get by with my own spanish, but it worked out. i understand the gist of almost anything thats said to me if its not too fast (thanks to the last month!). so the search for a translator begins…

please pray for: 1) my current translator, as i am yet unsure if he was counting on this income for the next six months, 2) Fabia’s (host mom) brother who has led a hard life and is on his death bed–prayer for this family as well has her family in Santiago, 3) the Almonte family that continues to put up with the smelly american with the upmost hospitality and kindness, 4) my focus on the cross each morning to die to my own selfish wants and desires, 5) prayer for the country as a whole…guidance and earnestness for the country’s leaders. 6) i also ask for prayer for this next week in trying to find a translator, the work that i have to do and my language proficiency as well (as that’s all i’ll have in the mean time!). grace and peace to you