The Interim

We're in a bit of a strange period here at the DREAM Project, as the summer camp is over and most of those volunteers have left, but the regular school year hasn't started and most of the full year volunteers aren't here yet. For the next couple of weeks the four of us that are carryovers from the summer are conducting a census of sorts. This began on Monday and will continue until it's finished, which we really don't know at this point. Monday we went to the DREAM office and all sat down and hashed out what we were going to do with the director on speaker phone. What we concluded was that we are going to ask a series of questions to every household in the Callejon neighborhood. Helping us in this endeavor have been two Dominican teachers and a Dominican college student. This may not sound like it should've taken much time, but most of Monday was spent figuring this out. We had to decided exactly what questions to ask, what kind of teams to break up into, how to make sure we weren't double counting houses, etc. etc. Tuesday we began the real work. We initially broke up into three teams, each with a Dominican in the mix. We believed, and proved to be correct, that this would put the people at ease and eliminate the tension and suspicion that can arrise from a bunch of strange foreiners knocking on doors and asking questions. We made a lot more progress on Tuesday than I thought we would, which gave us encouragement that we could finish the data collection in about two weeks. Today was a little discouraging at the beginning as we found ourselves in a downpour for much of the early morning. It rained through breakfast and the walk to the Callejon, which takes about 30 minutes. It continued to rain as we waited under cover for it to lighten up. After it lessened to a drizzle, we finally hit the streets. Periodically, however, it would switch back to a downpour and we'd have to find cover. Things weren't looking good. After about an hour, however, the sky cleared and the sun appeared. This made things a lot easier as we didn't have to worry about our papers and supplies getting wet, not to mention the nuisance to us. With the sun out, however, it turned the whole area into a hot, humid, swampy bog. So we got to slog around in mud and garbage the rest of the day. We did end up making good progress, though, which is the most important thing. Most of the time, I don't do much talking during the interviews, but just try to listen and follow the conversation. I also try to make up for this by following our map (which was put together by one of the teachers' husbands--and has been quite useful) and making sure we know where we are and where we need to go. A couple times I did do the questioning, which usually resulted in some success, but also some confused stares. I was always with one or two other people, however, who could clean up my mess and get the point across. I think this whole activity is a good way to help my Spanish. Well, that's where I stand this afternoon, it's off to dinner now. I'll tell you about that situation some other time.