Bits and Pieces from "winter"

Our first big excursion in February was a trip to Cabarete with our friends Patricia and Jessie. What was supposed to be a 3 or so hour drive turned into a 7+ hour adventure. It began with a flat tire... an unfortunate happening, but easily solvable given that it occurred in a populated area and we had Jeremy with us! A quick hop onto a motor bike, tire in hand, and off to a repair shop down the street... I don't think we lost more than an hour. Hitting the "Mocha Road" at night, however, slowed us down. The twisty windy road with many a mysterious intersections and the typical Dominican direction-giving of "derecho derecho" or "por alla" did little to help us. Armed with a sense of adventure, great company, and eventually a few Presidentes, we made it to our destination.

¡The crew: Jessie, Jeremy (doing..?), Paty y yo!

Jeremy shops for fresh fish in town

 The highlights of our Cabarete trip included a huge beach house to ourselves, beers with fish and chips in town the first night, an enormous home-cooked meal the second night, a late evening of "celebrity" or "salad bowl," lounging, and, of course, the beaches...

Jeremy being... Jeremy during post-snorkel sunset

A constant highlight in the DR has been the fresh and incredibly delicious fresh fruit. Amazing guacamole is on the menu regularly. Home-made piña coladas were also on the menu this weekend.

While living in the Dominican Republic has not been all kicks and giggles... it seems as though the adventure has already served its purpose - to learn to live together, navigate new landscapes together, take on responsibilities together, deal with life's challenges together, support each other, and strengthen each other (especially during times of weakness). We have done it all, are doing it all, and despite the obstacles that this year has presented to each of us... we have grown increasingly happy to go through it all together.

Enough of that... onto the Super Bowl!

Well, yes... this is about all we have to say about the Super Bowl.

 Some other highlights of our "winter" months... Yet another wonderful weekend in Las Terrenas. This time we opted for a tiny beach bongalow next to our favorite hotel, Atlantis, where we could pay less, let the dogs run free more, and roll out of bed to the hotel's restaurant for our favorite meals. A quick conversation on the beach with two awesome lady travelers from California quickly turned into wine at sunset, piña coladas at dusk, who knows what at dinner, and then beers, guitar and singing with a group of German's at the nearby pizza joint. A beautiful, relaxing and highly entertaining evening with dogs in tow... 

Valentines Day!
Jeremy, who is always quite thoughtful and sweet, went the extra mile on Valentines day. Champagne (which Luna loved and Fia reacted to with a sneezing fit), home-made garlic flatbread, yummy pasta, our amazing olive oil from my trip to Italy, mango icecream and the world's most amazing chocolate sauce (go Jeremy!)... complete with a card filled with love and puppy paw-prints. It was a refreshing evening that prepared me well for my weekend adventure in New York.

The newest semi-member of our family visits at the window (kitten). Luna and Fia are not her biggest fans.

 

 

 

 

Kenya Reunion hike!

My weekend in New York consisted of my first of four interviews with doctorate in clinical psychology programs, two nights in Alison and Kathryn's apartment (my siblings) in the West Village, and many yummy U.S. meals including a dinner with Abby and Jason (Jeremy's siblings). Then I headed uptown to meet up with my girlfriends from studying abroad in Kenya. Six of a group of eight or so close girlfriends, reunited for three nights at Liz's farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley. As if 7.5 years had not gone by... we had an inspiring, comforting, memory-filled weekend.

 Jeremy has continued to stay busy at work. The census ran in January/February with great success. One of the first times UNHCR has used mobile technology to conduct a census. He has since presented the project (planning, process, results) to representatives from Geneva and all of the Latin American offices. As a result, a number of the offices expressed interest in doing something similar in their countries. Jeremy receives phone calls from refugees from Haiti, Iran, Cuba etc. on an almost daily basis. The topics of conversation range dramatically and the calls (which can come any day of the week or time of day) vary in their level of urgency. Jeremy answers every call and you'd never be able to guess who he was talking to... everyone - friends, family, refugees, drivers, colleagues - receives his same level of attention and kindness. I think some of the refugees call him just to hear the voice of a friend. In addition to work and taking care of me, Jeremy has been an excellent Puppy daddy. As you can see in this picture he is well equipped to take the dogs out into the Dominican heat with leash and beer in a wine cooling bag. He's got this figured out...

View to the left from the pool

Our apartment has been a sanctuary for us... we retreat into our home and somehow the noise from the busy streets dissipates We are surrounded by squawking parrots in the neighbor's mango trees, the sound of the fountain in our courtyard and enjoy fresh cross breezes aided by our many fans. The pool and patio just one floor up, which is always empty when we use it, is an additional perk to living here. Cooling swims, sunset drinks and nice views... Yes, our apartment is a much needed sanctuary. I, in particular, spend quite a bit of time here!

View to the right from the pool

Tired after a particularly difficult morning's work

Puppy parenting has continued to be both a joy and a pain in the butt. February seemed to be a particularly difficult month when the girls did not want to sleep. We had many nights with 12am, 3am, and 5am wake up calls (and sometimes that was a good night!). Jeremy somehow maintained his calm and collected demeanor while I turned into a zombie-like disaster. Somehow Luna and Fia seemed to regain our affection during the daylight hours with their ridiculous and cute antics and distinct and entertaining personalities. They really got back on our good sides when, thanks to our cyber-vet Dani, we discovered that you can, in fact, give dogs benadryl as a sleep-aid. YES!! With a bit more sleep, and full dedication of our "office" to become the puppy's room (we try to make it like a cave so they can't detect the rising sun and keep the fan on so they can't hear their relatives yapping on the streets), we happily transitioned into "spring" much better rested.

This was the view from inside their house (pool...ocean...). How could they not be satisfied?!

March came in the blink of an eye. After finishing my work with UNHCR and one of their implementing partners (to save or not to save for a separate post). Jessie and I ventured up to Las Terrenas to meet up with Andrea, my friend from high school, and 14 or so of her friends from NYU law school. I had recommended Las Terrenas as their spring break destination and was happy to learn that they were beyond satisfied. Based on their approval I will continue to recommend this area to vacationing friends.

Playa Bonita and Playa Cosón continue to be wonderful escapes from Santo Domingo. Stunning beaches, sunrises and sunsets, fresh coconut water and amazing food (if you keep going to Atlantis, as we do...). It was fun to take a girl's trip to the beach with Jessie. We are very much on the same wave length and enjoyed sleeping, walking and reading. As much as I missed Jeremy and the puppies... it sure was low key :)

Jessie looks back at Playa Cosón on our way back to Playa Bonita

Somewhere mixed into these winter weeks I had a job (!) and three other interviews for PsyD programs (doctorate in clinical psychology). Jeremy and I both made the trip to Denver for my interview at DU's Graduate School of Professional Psychology to see if we could see ourselves moving to the Rockies... and on that note I will leave you anxiously awaiting to hear more from us from our tropical island.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Greetings family and friends! We are just a bit behind on our blog updates. I guess that means we have been busy! Where to begin?! It has been over five months since we moved to the Dominican Republic. Luna and Fia are over six months old! We have quite happily created a little family here in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. Very happy with where we chose to live, we take frequent walks to La Plaza España where the puppies are able to run freely in the grass and in the square. The puppies regularly attract the attention of passing tourists- yesterday we saw half of a tour group turn away from their guide to watch Luna and Fia run around in circles.They are quite the speedsters and love chasing Jeremy up and down the stairs that lead from the old gate into and out of the colonial zone and up to the house where Diego Columbus (Christopher Columbus's son) lived in the early 1500s.

One of the highlights from fall 2011 was our discovery of a little piece of paradise. Las Terrenas is an area on the northern coast of the island on a peninsula called La Samana. By searching for pet-friendly accommodation we happened across a hotel called Atlantis, run by a man who is also the French Consul. It turned out that the hotel is not only very dog-friendly, but it is set on Playa Bonita with a stunning view of what must be one of the most beautiful sand-lined coves on the island. The hotel itself looks to be set in Southern Spain or a colonial Morocco with white, ivy-lined walls. Breakfast and dinner are served open-air under a thatched roof. Lunch is also served outside, but literally feet away from the water. Did I mention the food? A French cook bakes fresh bread for every meal and every item on the menu that we have tried thus far, has been amazing. Uh, GAZPACHO?!! On our first trip we barely left the premise. We did leave, however, to walk down to an even smaller cove where the waves were less intimidating for the dogs. Luna and Fia learned how to swim!! Luna, being quite the daddy's girl, proved herself to be a natural aqua-dog. Fia, a bit more like her mother, opted to nervously wait on the shore to make sure everyone got back in safely.

Playa Bonita. It's muy bonita.

The Atlantis hotel

Our holiday card

learning how to dig!

daddy's girl :)

fresh oysters!

Piña coladas!

Showing off their ability to "stay!" in the park

 Alas, it has not all been about swimming lessons and beach bumming (in fact, we have gotten to the beach much less frequently than desired!). Jeremy has tirelessly working away with UNHCR (while also trying to keep the three girls at home happy). In December a good friend, Stephane, and another colleague made the trip to Santo Domingo to work with Jeremy on designing the tools required to implement a nation-wide census of the refugee population. Together they have designed a relatively ground-breaking system for collecting data from refugees and then continuing to exchange information - using cell phones! The census officially began this past Wednesday with Jeremy and other members of UNHCR's protection unit in the field ensuring smooth implementation. Now off and running, the census is going well and it's amazing to think that all of the future public data on the number of refugees and their demographics in the DR will be, in a large part, as a result of Jeremy and the rest of his team's hard work.


In addition to the census Jeremy has been working closely with a number of asylum cases, specifically an Iranian family and a Cuban man. While the government's apparent lack of will to grant asylum and hence guarantee the rights of refugees is frustrating, the work itself has been interesting.

The villa where our classes were held

As mentioned in the last post, I spent two weeks in Orvieto, Italy with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. This trip was the two week on-site portion of a nine-month program on addressing the mental health of trauma survivors, particularly refugees. It's hard to put into words how the two weeks impacted me and how the course continues to fine-tune my professional goals. The faculty and participants on the program were from all over the world and all walks of life. Each class was different ranging from mental health within human rights law to culturally appropriate diagnostic tools. Never have I been so entirely captivated by lectures. I have also never attended "school" that gave you two 30 minute coffee breaks where they served freshly baked focaccia and then, of course, an hour and a half for a lunch cooked on a nearby villa that uses all locally grown food - oh my! Aside from the coursework, every dinner was spent getting to know my classmates, eating amazing food and drinking Orvieto wine! A weekend in Rome on the night Berlusconi's resignation was the icing on the delicious cake!

Touring Rome - at the well of something something

One of my favorite meals

View of Orvieto! Yeah... amazing

Occasionally we dress up for our dog walks :-)

Around when I returned from Italy we became the proud owners of a Ford Escape. This may not sound like a terribly exciting event to most of you, but it has transformed our lives here in Santo Domingo. We are able to escape (hee hee) to the beach whenever we want, run errands to our hearts galore, take the dogs to the vet without being nervous about Luna's car-sickness in someone else's car, and, in particular, it has enabled me to feel much more independent, mobile and safe moving about the city. Between the car and becoming members of a nice gym, we feel significantly more settled. We even hosted a holiday party and got all dressed up to go out for a festive night on the town!

I was fortunate to be able to go to Minnesota for Thanksgiving, and both Jeremy and I were very happy to have nearly two weeks in our respective homes over Christmas and New Years. Both of us feel very grateful to have families that we love so dearly and to love each others' families so much as well! The only problem is that Rhode Island and Minnesota are not close enough! I can tell Teddy is feeling a lack of Jeremy in his life and I know that I am feeling that a visit with the Harkeys is already long overdue.

Happily satisfied by our holiday visits, we were both excited to be reunited with each other and our little fur balls, Luna and Fia. They keep growing somehow getting cuter all of the time and most definitely are still enjoying their puppy-hood. 2012 has been off to a healthy start for both of them (horray!) and has brought on a new stage of the teething process. Money, internet cords, shoes, iphone chargers, plants, books, their harnesses... yes they have gotten their little teeth on everything! However, all things considered, they are turning into pretty fantastic and well-trained puppies. We welcomed, with open arms, my mom as an assistant trainer for an entire week!

Mom was our first visitor and I would say we are off to a great start hosting guests! The three of us spent a relaxing weekend in Punta Cana at an adults only resort. Yes it was 99.9% couples and then the three of us! However, we figured out that adults only resorts are the way to go in Punta Cana - much more peaceful, higher quality and less of an "all-inclusive" feel. On our first full day back in Santo Domingo mom and I went on a walking tour of the colonial zone and, well, I'll just get to the point - she broke her foot! She was a trooper and (just like Alison who broke her foot with me in Argentina) she hobbled around the Dominican Republic with a smile on her face. We tried new restaurants, walked the dogs, mom got a manicure in the salon (where Chuckie, dog-sitter and friend, lives), she braved the traffic jams, and the two of us made another 24 hour escape up to Las Terrenas. It was a fun-filled and refreshing week. Thank you mom!

Broken foot... but happy with her Presidente!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner with a view!

happy girl

happy hour in Las Terrenas

We can feel the weather changing here, as the cool winter months (okay, 60s) seem to slowly be taken by heat and humidity. It seems hard to believe that stifling heat will someday return. Meantime, we have been enjoying wonderful tropical storms that whip up out of the ocean or develop in blackened northern skies. Today we had a full rainbow, stretching 180 degrees within our range of vision. I was riding our exercise bike on the porch when it hit, and Jeremy was reading poolside on the roof. Quite a sight!

It's mango season, and our neighbor's trees are full. The blossoms have been making Jeremy allergic, but he's made friends with the neighbor and has secured an offer for a steady supply of mangos once they start ripening. In the meantime, Jeremy has noticed that the parrots are beating him to the fruit. We can see hundreds of mangoes on the trees, and quite a few that are hanging pieces of stripped orange pulp. Lucky birds! These same birds fly over us each afternoon, screeching in pairs or groups of up to ten. Lucky us!

And indeed, lucky us. We have our little gripes about this country (grisly traffic, bad manners, the sloooowness of so many things...) but we are happy here. We live spitting distance from the coast, in a stunning colonial building, with good friends and cute dogs. We've found great escapes, and will find many more. Life is good, life is good! Please come visit!

Pleasure and Work

Katie's run off to Italy for two weeks, to complete the residency portion of her Harvard course in refugee mental health. Lucky her, as her first report was that Orvieto is beautiful. She will begin to deepen knowledge of a field that has long interested her, and around which she hopes to shape her career. I know from my limited experience in US and international refugee work how important, and often (actually, regularly) overlooked, mental health services are for refugees. Go get 'em, Katie!

Goodbye hugs. 

Ever loving of their mother

And so, I'm left in the DR with my day job and my other job, the puppies. I was thinking yesterday of how the puppies have helped us discover our surrounds. First, there is the fact that we must walk them. They don't particularly LIKE walking, but we sort of make them do it. And so, on walks we meet neighbors (not so much meeting as repeatedly saying hello, smiling, their clucking or awing at the pups), and take time to look at the colonial architecture while the dogs sniff (99% of the time aimed at some chicken bone that we can’t see but they eventually find. Dominicans LOVE fried chicken and throw bones all over the place).

The zona colonial is in varying states of preservation and decay.  

Stone from the ancient seabed was a common building material in colonial times. It's still frequently used for stairs,  walls, etc. 

                                                 

                                This colonial government building was made from seabed, as above. 

The second and most significant benefit has come through our relationship with Chookie, our dog sitter and household helper. Chookie runs a hair salon in her mother’s home, and has become Luna and Fia’s #1 public fan. The dogs run freely around the salon when in Chookie's care, and have made many friends there as well. Chookie, and her workmate Rosa, have given us pointers for security in the neighborhood, formally and informally introduced us to her neighbors, and  presented me to a group of domino players who have offered to have me join them whenever I like. 


Katie's studies in Italy position me as point man for the puppies. Nonetheless, we've been able to integrate them into my favorite elements of weekends and free time. First is the pool on our roof, which is small but incredibly refreshing. 

It’s only four stories up, but offers a great view of the colonial city and the Caribbean (not the most attractive part of the Sea, but it is suggestive of the rest). It’s open all day and night, which is great because ‘pool hours’ always disappoint me, so it serves well for morning pre-work dips, afternoon refreshers, and evening wine under the moon, stars, or whatever's going on in the tropical heavens. 

Katie's leg mind you, not mine

Lately we've benefitted from strong cool breezes, which at night seem like pre-storm winds, but mostly happen under clear skies. There must be something going on out in the open waters.  


After two years of mostly novel-free grad school, I've rediscovered "reading for pleasure". I still feel sort of guilty doing it at the expense of work or other pursuits, but it's great. I'm now finishing Graham Greene's The Comedians, which is about Haiti in the time of Papa Doc Duvalier. Many of the Haitian refugees in the DR fled from Papa and his thugs, the Tontons Macoute.  I highly recommend the book. 

 


















Finally, we've both been busy still setting up the house. My most recent project was a division between dogville and humanville on our porch. It's a rather rudimentary structure, built of cardboard, plastic from water bottles, bottle tops, and screws pinched from Ikea furniture. 

Cardboard division at right. Mini tropical paradise,  center.

Nevertheless, it keeps the teeth, pee, and hair on one half of the porch; and furniture, plants, candles and anything we don't want chewed to death on the other. 


And then there is work, the reason after all that Katie and I came to the DR. UNHCR has the UN mandate to ensure that refugees receive the protection they need in countries around the world. International refugee law is based on the Refugee Convention, which was created in 1951 to respond to WWII refugees and then updated and expanded in 1967 to officially apply to persons who flee persecution in other contexts.   Countries that are signatories to the Convention have the responsibility to receive asylum-seekers, and make a determination on their request in accordance with refugee law.  They must ensure that they have access to human rights in their countries of asylum, and that they are not deported to the country in which they fear persecution.


UNHCR was in the Dominican Republic between 1993 and 1997,  responding largely to inflows of Haitians fleeing the military government that overthrew Aristide in 1991. This was just one of a number of violent, unfair assumptions of power in Haiti's political history. UNHCR helped the Dominican government decide upon refugee claims during this period, and then left the country with the understanding that the Government would and could fulfill its obligations under international (and domestic) law. Nonetheless, the Dominican government did not systematically provide full protection for refugees. Most of the Haitians and nationals of other countries who sought asylum in the DR after 1997 were received, and allowed to apply for asylum, but have not had their cases studied. This means that they have the tenuous legal status of "asylum-seeker", which should prevent them from being deported, but does not allow them access to work. This situation, which is systematically aggravated by the fact that street-level authorities are not familiar with their country's asylum policies, with the legal value of an asylum-seeker certificate issue by the Government, or with the guarantee of non-return to the asylum-seeker's home country, makes for a hazardous and marginalized life for many asylum-seekers. It is hard for them to work, they are regularly detained, they have trouble accessing schools, and they do not have equal access to police protection.


UNHCR, absent in the country from 1997 to 2010, has returned to help the Government revamp its asylum system. They have welcomed us (though with hesitations that you can imagine) and have "helped us help them" in initial steps to stimulate the analysis of and decisions on some of the cases that have been pending now for over a decade. As you can imagine, this is challenging in many aspects. I'll continue to update on this and other aspects, as our work progresses. In the meantime, following are a few articles in English on refugees, migrants, and human rights in the DR:


1) Amnesty International report on human rights abuses by DR authorities
2) "As Refugees From Haiti Linger, Dominicans’ Good Will Fades"
     Note: The article misapplies the term 'refugee' by referring to earthquake victims who fled. In fact, by international law definition a refugee is someone who has fled persecution for one of a number of specific reasons.
3) "Dominican Republic: Haitians Detained"
     Note: Mass detentions of Haitians are regular. Most times refugees and asylum-seekers are able to avoid deportation, but not always.

Settling in... (Katie)

We've had an exciting few weeks since our last blog update.

Jeremy is back! Attack!

After a quick trip to NYC, Jeremy returned with a suitcase full of nuts and dog treats. One thing we've been enjoying here is figuring out how to fulfill all of our cravings by making things ourselves. I've  continued to try new vegan recipes and Jeremy has been making delicious nut butters. In place of Thai delivery and hearty Indian buffets we've cooked up our own Thai stews and coconut curries. Guacamole and hummus are regular delights.

Jeremy makes peanut butter

We have also been creative in buying food. We are members of what seems to be the only organic food organization placing our orders over the weekend and picking it up every Wednesday. Every Sunday we have been walking 15 minutes to China Town (yes there is a one-block China town here!) where we go to a restaurant to buy freshly made tofu. We are finding that we only need to go to the grocery store once a week and are greatly enjoying our culinary adventures!

On September 30, Jeremy celebrated his first Dominican birthday. The puppies and I made Jeremy breakfast and gave him cards. The puppies gave him "IOUs" for poops on the paper and licks on the face. Jeremy took half the day off of work to wait for our UN shipment to arrive. It didn't come until 6pm, but arrive it did! Happy birthday Jeremy! We had a lovely dinner at our favorite Italian pizzeria with UNHCR colleagues. After our rooftop dinner with prosecco and cake to go around, we finished the night off dancing.

Birthday skypes and beers

Bday night on the town!

Fia got all dressed up (courtesy of the vet) to go home!

 The birthday weekend took a turn in a more challenging direction when, on Sunday, we had to take one of our puppies to the emergency room (for animals of course... we aren't THAT ridiculous). Fia, hand-picked by yours truly because she was the runt of the bunch had always been small, but her sister had almost doubled her in size and without going into the details, we knew something was wrong. Long story short, Fia spent 3 nights at the vet last week with parasites, worms, an amoeba, and an infection. I was at the vet 6 times in 5 days!! We brought Luna in for another de-worming session and discovered that she is anemic. In a nutshell we are missing full nights of sleep, administering multiple medications every morning and evening, and we are relieved that both puppies are on the mend. Welcome to puppy parenthood!

Are we doing anything else besides parenting and cooking you ask? Well yes we have somehow managed, sans sleep, to continue to work and study. Jeremy continues to do an assortment of protection activities. His office is growing and the activities are changing, so he is doing a bit of everything. The office is in a hotel room, which is not ideal- so he appreciates any opportunity to get out into the slums. Literally. He will soon be traveling to Haiti to repatriate two -year-old Sophie who was brought here by her father for safekeeping, after her mother died in the earthquake; Sophie was in her arms.

Luna likes yoga

I have continued with my Spanish classes and am cutting back to half days to spend more time doing work for my upcoming course  "Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery." It is a certificate program through the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. After two weeks in Orvieto, Italy, the rest of the course is online.

Fia enjoys her perch as we start unpacking

All in all it has been an exciting 5 weeks here together. We feel a bit like new parents trying to figure out how to take care of our adorable puppies while also getting out to explore (they aren't so good on the leash quite yet). We've met some great people and are starting to feel at home. A beach vacation is hopefully on the horizon as is a phone call with you! Please take note that we have a Rhode Island phone number so you can call us with domestic U.S. rates! Our number is (401)-369-9538. We would love to hear from you!

Luna thoroughly enjoying unpacking

 

play, play, play annnnd we're out