To do list

This past week, my group of volunteers who all arrived in country in August of 2009 held its ‘Close of Service’ Conference. It was three days at a nice hotel near the airport in the capital (closer to home?) eating good food, sharing with friends, and thinking about what has happened in two years here and what will happen in our futures. At one point we broke into small groups to give each other advice on career choices based on our strengths, skills, and interests. When it came time for people to give me ideas, a good friend told me “Ryan, what you do here as a volunteer fits you perfectly, you simply need to find a way to do the same thing, but get paid more for it!” I agree with her in many ways, I have enjoyed immensely being the combination of a municipal engineer and celebrity superstar in the small community I work and live in. I think I also prefer working with a community and getting my hands dirty on a daily basis rather than work for a large organization filled with polo shirts and vague objectives. However, as much as I enjoy sitting on my porch listening to the neighbor’s blasting bachata music while contemplating the minute differences in flavor between a plantain and a banana and slipping on my boots to troubleshoot the latest repairs to a water system, I also miss greatly sunny days on the beach with my family, skiing in the woods, acoustic jam sessions at school, and even the structured comfort of working at a desk in an office, with no distractions save facebook. So, although I probably would be relatively happy sitting around here in Rio Grande developing one community project after another while perfecting my dancing skills for years to come, I would also like to go home. I will be going home on December 20th , 2011 or a couple days after. So, please excuse me for not writing much, as I’ve been busy working and enjoying, and will keep on doing so until I leave in December. If I don’t stay busy, I won’t be able to come home. And I really want to go home. Before I slip into non-communication for the next few months, I thought I’d share a list of things I need or want to do before leaving (or so I can leave) the island.

• Buy plane ticket (this way I have to leave). Will someone come to Detroit Metro to get me in December? I might be cold.
• Finish collecting data for research report. Doing alright, a lot left to do.
• Keep supporting my community, especially as the Water Committee learns to take care of its own responsibilities.
• Finish site development for (at least) three other water systems.
• Visit more volunteer friends
• Go windsurfing at least once in Cabarete
• See at least one good Bachata Band in concert
• Enjoy one last Thanksgiving poolside
• Find homes for eight puppies and one permiscuous female dog – just after getting them all fixed.
• Make lots of banana bread
• Learn to cook rice like a Doña does (why are Americans so bad at this?)
• Buy more ridiculous clothing – for instance, the t-shirt with President Obama’s head sort of glittering as if it were made of sequins and with this sort of Egyptian or Mayan bordering (it’s 4 U, Grandpa).
• Learn to drive a motorcycle – will do the day I officially become Not a Volunteer
• Roast a bunch of coffee to bring home
• Stop worrying about so many things, sit, smile, and laugh with Dominicans as if it were just my first day here.
• Don’t miss the plane (again). Haha jaja haha!

So yeah, a long list, but very possible. In any event, if I don’t feel like I have completed my work after going home, and don’t find that other job that pays money proportionate to the workload, I could always return to keep volunteering with the 70% of my fellow volunteers who have decided to just stay on as volunteers for a year or two more until the economy improves or we revert to a hunter-gatherer and trade/barter system.

I can literally hear various neighbors snoring right now, so it is time for me to call it a night. Take care, Ryan.

p.s. I posted a bunch of pictures with stupid comments as well in Picasa, you might look at them.