Guandules Guandules Everywhere

Written November 22 2009
It is guandule season here in the DR. In the past week I have helped pick, de-shell and eat guandules like no other! My favorite part is the de-shelling process- or degranando. A circle of 4 or 5 women/young girls gather ( usually outside the house or in the galleria) around a big platter of guandules and together begin the degranar as they talk, make jokes, and gossip. Though the job can be done alone, it takes a lot less time with 3 or 4 extra pair of helping hands. As the guandules are picked out of their shell, they go into a container and the shell is thrown on the ground until the process is completed. At first none of the donas wanted me to help degranar because the shells can be dirty and sticky sometimes and they didn’t want me to “manchar” or stain my hands. I insisted and told them that with a little water, that would come right off. I am now a pro at degranando guandules.
Yesterday I vistited a school in the neighboring campo where one of the women of the community work. It was really neat to see how the schools here operate. Her class of preschoolers were adorable. I had arrived just in time for recess and ate some arroz con leche that the school prepares (their daily snack). After that, Delia read to them and then had them draw images from the story. Delia did a great job in decorating the classroom. It was full of dynamic colors, games, and decorations. I told her that one day I was going to bake cupcakes and bring them as a treat for her class. The school is really small. It goes up to 6th grade and has 5 teachers and around 200 students. The school was recently expanded and remodeled so it is in pretty good condition. However, there are no bathroom facilities yet so whenever the kids have to go they either run home or go across the street to use the neighbor’s bathroom. All of the kids live within a 5 minute walk from the school so at the end of the day, they are released and they just walk home. Delia saw how shocked I was to see little 4 year olds walked home by themselves.
This week I also shadowed another volunteer to learn about the documentation process. There are currently 200,000 undocumented people in the Dominican Republic. Kaitlin and I made our way to the Ayuntamiento and Oficialia of San Cristobal to help 6 Dominicans get documented. We arrived at 8 in the morning and were finished by noon. The process can be a bit time consuming because a lot of people arrive early in the morning. First they hand in all of the required paperwork to the Oficialia to make sure that they are not missing anything. Then they are interviewed by the judge to verify that they know their name, birth date, local mayor, place of birth, etc. After that they go to another office where more paperwork is filled out. After seeing how it all works and the role that I as a PCV have, it is definitely something that I want to continue to work on. When the applicants come in accompanied by a Peace Corps volunteer, the Oficialia takes them a lot more seriously and is less likely to deny them their papers and make them wait hours and hours to be seen. A lot of the time, Dominicans feel intimidated to go to the Oficialia alone. When they go accompanied they feel a lot more confident and sure of themselves. Kaitlin introduced me to the two key people in the Oficialia; the judge and to office manager – I told them that they would be seeing more of me.


So everything is going well here. Last Sunday I held my first volleyball practice andtIt went really well. The girls seemed to have enjoyed themselves which is the most important thing. Tomorrow some other volunteers and I are going to Kaitlin’s despedida party. I bet her community is going to be really sad to see her go. On Monday, Paul and I will be in Santo Domingo taking care of some loan deferment business. We will then be there again on Wednesday where all of the volunteers will reunite for Thanksgiving week! I can’t believe it’s almost Thanksgiving. Oh, how time flies!