On being creative and resourceful

Living here, in a culture where nothing runs on time, stores are always out of the food I need for a recipe, people don’t respond to urgent phone calls or text messages or any other stressful (by American standards) problems, has made me so much more creative and resourceful. Everyday gives me the opportunity to think on my feet, as I never know what will go wrong in a 24-hour time period. It’s inevitable that something will! But it has also made me more relaxed, taking things as they come and not stressing about things and situations that I cannot control.

At first (and sometimes even still) it was very difficult for me to adapt to a culture in which no one is stressed ever and things never run “smoothly” by my old standards.  I am a planner. This is a country without plans. Fortunately, I am also very resourceful and have become more so in the Peace Corps. As I’ve mentioned, adapting to cultural differences has been infinitely harder than getting used to bucket showers and unreliable electricity. But it helps when I can make these unreliable things slightly more reliable. If you’re ever thinking about a partner for your Amazing Race application, or if you’re friends with the producer of the show Survivor, just remember me, street smart, resourceful Bea down here in the Dominican Republic.

Here are common problems in the DR and my resourceful solutions:

1) The lights go out and the nearest colmado just ran out of candles.

Negra runs a colmado that is sparsely stocked. Fine for her but bad for her clientele. She is frequently without mosquito candles and plain white candles for when the lights go out. So? I invent my own candles. I take a few pieces of paper that were used to wrap up slabs of freshly killed cow bought at the local carnicería and dip it in old nasty cooking oil. Then I twirl up the piece of paper to look like a tiny pyramid (or wick) and light the baby. It’s the best free candle in the world and lasts for hours (must be all the fat and oil!).

2) I don’t poop.

I’m either constipated or have diarrhea in this country. I can’t remember the last time I had a great poop – until I got creative. First, I tried switching my diet to include more bananas/fiber. Didn’t help. Then I got these special prune extract pills. Nothing. Then I started taking a multi-vitamin. No luck. Finally, a friend recommended linaza, flax seed, and I made a trip to the nearest town especially to find me some flax. Now, I sprinkle a little flax on my corn flei in the morning, add it to the peanut butter my best friends sent down, put it on cookies, add it to natural juices and top off my broccoli with the stuff. And since I’ve started putting flax on whatever I can find, I’ve been doing just great with the pooping situation.  

3) I need copies for my groups but the local printer just ran out of ink.

This is a weekly problem. Each time I go to the free printing center, the printer “just ran out of ink” or “there’s no paper” or “we can’t find the cord” or my favorite, “I don’t know how to turn it on.” So I head down to the customs agency where I’ve made friends with the printer lady and what do you know – they are out of paper, too, and there's no electricity. In a final attempt, I head to the grocery store and it’s closed for an afternoon siesta. After a few last ditch efforts to print materials for my group, I get resourceful. I end up sending the materials via email (when we have electricity) to my friend Dante who lives in the closest city, Santiago, two and a half hours away. He goes his local printer man and asks for 500 copies of my worksheets. Then, when he goes to a conference, he will intercept a near-by volunteer, Julie and the transfer takes place. Julie then takes the copies and brings them to Andy, who lives in Montecristi, the nearest town to my site. From there Andy keeps them safe and sound until I can finally make it to town by the motorcycle and guagua. Phew! It takes a lot of forward-thinking but this kind of resourcefulness also works for getting medicines delivered via the volunteer chain, printing graduation certificates in a small campo with a great and cheap print shop, sending stoves parts from a workshop in the middle of the country to my town in the northwest corner, getting mail delivered, or any other seemingly small and petty task. We Peace Corps volunteers have created a genius chain of delivery by using a lot of cell phone minutes and some serious creativity.

4. I can’t communicate.

As my Spanish continues to improve, I generally feel pretty good about my communication skills. However, there are those horrible days that make me feel like I just want to hide in my room and binge on Speculous cookie butter and episodes of Scandal all because no one can understand me. They look at me like I have three heads and proceed to raise their shoulders and scrunch their nose to say “what?” or give up and just walk away. Well, in my quest for having one-hundred days with no communication errors, I have become kick-ass at charades. I don’t know how to explain a story? My hands do it for me. I can’t remember the name of that one animal? I make exact replica noises to mimic it. I get frazzled and forget how to speak Spanish during a meeting? I just stare at the women for a second, think on my feet and hand out coffee mints and wait until I gain my composure again. Works every time! So, if you’re looking for a charades partner when I return in a mere 15 months, call me up.

Of course, it was hard to adapt here with my super-planner personality, but I appreciate the patience and kindness of Dominicans who have shown me how to relax, chill out and be tranquila when things don't go my way. And I think I’ve found the perfect balance of Dominican/American stress. I still expect a lot from my project partners, youth and women, but I am not offended if they cancel a meeting for rain. When I get too overwhelmed, I like to remember a motto my friend Julie uses with her project partner, Domingo and means essentially, such is life and it will all be okay. ¡Asi es la vida y todo va a salir bien! 

Perhaps this is a solid lesson for those of you working the grind in America. Just remember my motto the next time you're worried about your m-dash and n-dashes not lining up in a conference agenda or when your boss makes you return a 27-inch Mac computer because it doesn't fit and he wants the 21-inch. Just get a little creative, take a deep breath and remember that todo va a salir bien!