Changes

The only consistent thing in life is that life is inconsistent. What we thought we knew, or what we thought we could get used to and start to depend on can break, change or simply be removed in a blink of an eye, or in the case I am about to explain, in the hiring of a new director.

The center I work for in my town is a nation-wide program supported by the office of the First Lady. As an outsider coming into this government run program, it is not hard to see that the centers are not exactly the most efficiently run or living up to their full potential. Apparently, within the last few weeks, the Dominican government has agreed with this notion as well and fired their director and hired a prominent business man in the DR to take over the reins and whip the centers into shape.

On Monday morning, I got a phone call from the lady, Sarah, who serves as the liaison between us Peace Corps Volunteers and the office of the first lady. She called each one of us and said there was “emergency” meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) in the capital at 8 a.m. and people from every center around the country needed to be there, including Peace Corps Volunteers to discuss the new changes that are going to happen in the centers. At first I sort of laughed in her face. 8 a.m.! Are you crazy? It takes at least four hours for us to get the capital from La Caya, and even if we did leave here at 4a.m. we’d be sitting on the curb for two hours, waiting for the buses to start running at 6 a.m.

With this thought in my head, I wrote her an email and said thanks, but no thanks- if you want us to come to the capital in a day, the meeting needs to start later and give me a break, you can’t expect us to just stop everything to go into the capital for a TWO hour meeting (yes, have I mentioned that yet? Yes, the meeting was only scheduled for two hours).

Within an hour Sarah called me back and said the meeting had been changed to 10 a.m., was going to be at the Hilton in Santo Domingo (which is one of the swankiest hotels in the city, right on the water) and drum roll please… the First Lady was going to be there. What?! The Dominican Republic’s own Michelle Obama! Well, Sarah now that the office of the first lady has its priorities straightened out, we’ll see you in the capital in less than 24 hours. Keep the coffee hot if we’re not right on time.

We did in fact arrive right in time to have hot coffee and soon after the new director of the centers started to give his presentation with all the upcoming changes about to rock all our worlds (the drama was just as thick at the meeting, I promise).

First the “proposed” good changes: All centers will have improved internet service by the end of the year. The first lady said it herself in her speech, “If we expect people to come to our centers, our internet needs to be fast and reliable.” This cannot come fast enough, let me tell you.

Second: Training for all teachers of the centers will be given, at least for this year, on different subjects such as making a webpage and teaching basic computer skills. This has been one of my biggest problems with the current structure of the centers. These centers exist across the country, and they employee local people to work, but there is minimal to NO training. How is anyone expected to teach their communities about computers if they themselves have never been trained to do so? The fact that the new director recognizes the importance of this and is spending the money to train the employees is a great start in the right direction for the future of the centers.

However, and now to only some of the “proposed” changes that have most of us concerned: one of the classes they want to train the teachers in and eventually have all the centers give as a class to their communities is, “how to buy goods off the internet.” First things first, in order to buy things off the internet, especially from the states and have them internationally shipped, people need an address. There is no regular postal service in this country, how the heck are people supposed to get goods delivered to them if there literally is no infrastructure to deliver the goods? Second, as Stephanie a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, brought up during the question and answer time, it is a rare thing for a Dominican to have a credit card. Of course some do, but the average person, especially in a town as small as mine, does not have a credit card. I don’t think US companies are going to let people buy things off their websites based on the honor system.

Next, they want to eliminate the “sub-encargado” position in all the centers. Currently, in all the centers there is an encargado (this is the person who runs the lab daily) and the sub-encargado, who works in the afternoons to relieve the encargado, but has basically the same responsibilities. In order to make this cut, they will have to change the hours of the centers, which for my town means we’d have to cut our evening classes. We scheduled evening classes on purpose, so people who work or have school can still take classes at our center after. Plus, for our center, eliminating our sub-encargado is taking about five steps backward. Our sub-encargado, Mari, is one of our main strengths at the center. People come into the center just to talk and hang out with her. If we lose her, we lose half our business.

Speaking of business, both the new director and the First Lady gave these great idealistic speeches about how all Dominicans, no matter how rich or poor and including the 2 million who are living in extreme poverty in this country deserve a chance to use and learn about technology. And because of this, all services, including internet and classes will be free of charge to everyone. This again, idealistically, sounds amazing. Free computer and oftentimes language classes and internet to small rural communities with limited resources for anything like this is something I as a Peace Corps Volunteer fantasize about. However, and as everyday more I spend in this country I learn, reality is not something we can ignore. What happens when my center runs out of paper or ink cartridges for our printers? Or we need to buy dry-erase markers for classes? The money we make from the internet and now the classes is what is paying for all these expenses.

How is any center in this country supposed to be sustainable (which is the ultimate goal of the First Lady, by the way) if they have no income? Just a small question I have to wonder if the new director has really thought about yet.

On the plus side, the First Lady came to the meeting at the swanky Hilton Hotel and as mentioned above, gave a great speech about the potential of the centers. She’s much prettier in person than in her photos. The lunch at the Hilton was delicious, and for a few hours I honestly felt like I was at some conference in a hotel in the states. I drank apple juice for the first time in six months, which was honestly six swallows of heaven.

But with how much they paid for this meeting at the Hilton, I’m pretty sure they could pay Mari’s salary for at least half a year.

On the long bus ride home, the two people from my center who came with me to the meeting, Selsy (the center’s encargada and my project partner) and Fausto (a teacher at the center) and I had an equally long talk about the fate and future of our center. Although we all agreed this meeting and the plans of the first lady meant many changes, some good, most not so good, it’s still our center. It’s still our community and we need to and should do what we want. In the end, the government can tell us how to run our center, but they don’t live in La Caya. They don’t know or understand the needs of my small community and what is keeping my center alive are the things they want to eliminate.

Just when life starts to look consistent, the First Lady calls a meeting and tells you to fire people. The top-down structure of this country, to be frank, pisses me off. If anything came from our long day in the capital, I hope my team at my center doesn’t take that we have to do everything the big shots in the city want us to do. But rather, they listen to their gut and take what we discussed on the bus ride home. It’s our center, and idealism is great, but we have to combine it with our reality and make it work for our center.

Its September now, which means I have officially been here for six months and I can honestly say it has been the fastest, busiest, yet slowest six months of my life. Life is full of surprises, and what six months in the DR has taught me is to be flexible. More flexible than I ever thought I could be, or have to be for that matter. But here I am, I’m doing it and so is every person on this island- because they’ve spent their whole lives knowing what they think they know, what they can grow to get used to and depend on can change in an instant.