Crowdfunding Cucuyo: Edition 2013

Friends, Cucuyo is born of love and feeds on passion. We are an entirely volunteer-run organization (sadly, are small staff has day jobs that aren't this). We need everyone's help in funding this thing so that we can get back to designing a meaningful, fruitful experience for our youth. If you, a good friend, or beloved family member has benefited from international exchange, make it happen for another lucky young person.

A donation to Cucuyo makes an excellent holiday gift. A donation in honor of your daughter who studied Spanish in Ecuador or your friend Amy who rocked Peace Corps when she turned 50 is a great way to say, I know your experience was essential to who you are. On top of that, following the program, you will also receive a tangible gift from us that corresponds to the many giving levels detailed below. And because Cucuyo is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation, you, the donor, will be rewarded with a little bit of tax relief come 2013.

Our funding campaign is being hosted by Fundly (similar to indie go-go if you are familiar with that platform). Head over to our campaign to:

• Donate quickly and securely online
• Read about Cucuyo's history and purpose
• Watch a brief video about the wildly wonderful Cucuyo experience
• See what your donation buys for Cucuyo Youth
• See what your donation buys for you!
• Learn about the 2013 program Spanish on Stage
• Help us invite others to see that the value that Cucuyo adds is worth a few of their dollars

Why We Need Your Help

Our U.S. teen participants cover their own program costs, but we rely on people like you who think this is a groovy idea to supply the rest (workshop expenses, class materials, in-country transportation, scholarships, etc.). Since 2009, more than 200 Dominican youth have participated free of charge, and we have been able to cover some of the other program costs thanks to past donors, a hard-working board, and an all-time best volunteer staff. We have seen first hand the benefits of affordable, cross-cultural arts programming for teens all over the world. Mutual cultural understanding between our youth is worth funding. Help us make it happen today and tomorrow.

High Five for That!

Your donation is 100% tax deductible; Cucuyo is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit. After donating, you will receive an email receipt from Fundly that you can print and submit with your taxes.

In addition, we'd like to offer some tokens of our gratitude to you, the donor, as follows:

• $25: a chuckle by means of a Dominican postcard containing a joke or riddle from a youth participant
• $50: a 8 x 10 color print from the 2013 program
• $75: a Dominican postcard bearing a joke or riddle, an 8 x 10 color print from the 2013 program, and an original illustration
• $100: two original 5 x 7 illustrations from our talented Media Manager, Bianca Bidiuc + one pound of artisan Dominican coffee roasted by Dallis Brothers in New York
• $250: two bags of Dominican organic ground cacao (cocoa powder) from La Red Cacao Cooperative + a dedication on our website
• $500: DVD of the 2013 final performance + autographed script from all the teen actors + a dedication on our website
• $1,000: a handwritten note from your scholarship recipient + a DVD of the 2013 final performance + an 8 x 10 color print of your choosing from the 2013 program + a dedication on our website
• $2,500: Everything you see on this page (chuckle in a postcard, color program prints, original illustrations, Dominican coffee, Dominican cacao, DVD of final performance, autographed script, handwritten note from recipient, dedication on our website) + a pretty darn good feeling in your heart

We thank you for any donation. A little goes a long way when there are creative, resourceful minds at work.

B-Ball Y'all: Cucuyo Seeks Coach for 2013

Cucuyo is a nonprofit organization that brings American and Dominican youth together for an arts and language summer program in Bonao, Dominican Republic. 

2012 Basketball Tournament in BonaoWhy are we looking for a basketball coach, you ask?

In addition to our theatre workshops this year, we’d like to offer three weeks of basketball training to kids, teens, and adults. Basketball is hugely popular in Bonao; every year the community hosts a tournament with local teams that attracts hundreds of spectators. And even in the hottest mid-day sun, teens and adults come to the community club every day to play basketball—but none of them has ever had access to formal coaching.

We’re looking for a coach to work with three age groups and lead them through drills, court strategies, and other exercises. We want someone who can teach them to be team players and how to improve their skills. This is a meaningful way to make a difference in the lives of youth and adults in this small, underserved community, pick up some Spanish, and earn valuable experience coaching abroad.

Cucuyo will pay all expenses, including food, lodging, and in-country transportation, EXCEPT airfare to the Dominican Republic. (There is a chance we can pay or subsidize part of this too, but we won't be certain until early 2013.) Workshops are 5 days a week Monday through Friday and will include a mini-tournament that the coach is free to plan as they wish. Included in the trip is a surprise weekend excursion that involves delicious food and a relaxing trip to the beach.

If interested, please email your CV and a brief description of your interest in the position to moreplease@cucuyo.org. Spanish is not a requirement, but some functional knowledge is a big plus.

Deadline to apply: January 15, 2013
Dates of program: June 29-July 18, 2013
Questions? Sure! Email moreplease@cucuyo.org or see www.cucuyo.org for more information.

Cucuyo 2012: A Lesson in Stealing Time

This post was written by Bianca Bidiuc, Cucuyo's Program Coordinator and Media Manager.

When the lovely Laura asked me to accompany her on this year's trip, I dove at the chance. Headfirst. Arms flailing. (I've never been a good swimmer). Our original intent was to spend the trip visiting with the community of Bonao for planning purposes - to develop and form ideas for Cucuyo's future with the community's input. I would also get the chance to visit her husband Byron's coffee farm in the South of the country. Yes, please! 

The view from Los Frios by Bianca Bidiuc

As I mulled over the future of Cucuyo, my multitasking brain started to churn with the idea of offering the youth a workshop on community activism. As a community organizer with Sustainable Food Center, I have seen firsthand the benefits of building leadership and organizing the community around pertinent issues. During last year's program, I observed how the youth who attended our workshops were involved in many different groups in their communities - from student organizations to theatre groups. There was a fire for grassroots community development. It struck me as only logical to offer my (beginner's) knowledge of community organizing in the form of a mini-workshop on leadership and community activism, with the hope that they could apply these tools to any group they belong to or would like to form.

When I shared the idea with Laura, she delightfully and generously agreed (Thanks, Laura!). We believe that tapping into the leadership potential of the youth is a vital part of Cucuyo's goal. Cucuyo aims to be transformative, whether through art or intercultural exchange, so the idea of sharing tools that can transform a community was a natural fit.

Workshop in Bonao
The workshop lasted 3 days and covered topics such as: forming a group, characteristics and levels of leadership, finding leaders, transforming private pain into public action, individual and group meetings, maintaining the group, community planning, and more [These concepts were adapted from the Industrial Areas Foundation with help from my community organizing gurus Rebecca McIlwain and Carmen Llanes of Marathon Kids].

On each day of the workshop, the youth tenderly, painfully, and joyfully shared their personal stories and goals for their groups and communities. That was my favorite part. Some of them soared with leadership experience while others were just beginning to discover their roles. They shared stories of hope for better youth programs, medical care, neighborhood safety, environmental stewardship, education, support for students, neighborhood unity, y más. They completed daily worksheets and participated in group discussions. They also role-played "individual meetings"  and interviewed each other to learn about their own leadership potential.

Workshop participants in Zona Sur by Bianca Bidiuc

Stealing Time

The days were full. Between the workshop, visiting with community members, and planning, I made time to sit on my host Tia Nini's front porch and sip her thoughtfully brewed coffee (sin azúcar, just how I like it), talk to neighborhood children, learn to make La Rubia's famously tasty asopao, and treat myself to a creamy, cold batida de lechoza (papaya smoothie). Tia Nini's rapid-fire Spanish ("Come más!/Eat more!") and mischievous laugh balanced out local Cucuyo coordinator Orlando's soft-spokenness. In fact, it was Orlando that gently scolded me and Laura to steal some time for ourselves and rest. And we did, in our own special, silly way: by walking to a nearby roadside cafe, buying dried cashew fruit and batidas, and using the fancy bathroom more than once (it smelled like cinnamon! there were rocks in the sink!). Oh, and we laughed. A lot.

Tia Nini and her beloved bird, Candy Jr. by Bianca Bidiuc

La Red Guaconejo

A ripening cocoa fruit in El Factor by Bianca Bidiuc

I was also able to steal a whole day and visit La Red Guaconejo, a small cocoa cooperative in El Factor, a village located in the north of the country, near Nagua. This place strikes a chord in my heart because of my interest and background in food, agriculture, and sustainable community development. We first visited the cooperative and nearby eco-tourism center last year, and I couldn't believe I would have the opportunity to return there to the community and experience it's beauty again. I've included photos of El Factor in this year's photo album.

Our creative exploration and rest led to a current of reassurance and energy for Cucuyo's future, which we will unfold in due Dominican time, as Laura said. Needless to say, this trip glued me to Cucuyo's vision, and I am happily and clumsily swimming in the possibilities of el próximo paso.

Cucuyo 2012: Learning to Hustle Less and Be More

Though Cucuyo did not put on a program this year, Cucuyo volunteers Bianca and Laura traveled to Dominican Republic to visit with all of our Dominican participants in Bonao.

Part One: Los Frios

My boyfriend/husband Byron owns a coffee farm in the Dominican Republic, specifically in Los Frios, the community where he served as a Peace Corp Volunteer many years ago. I had been before but it's the kind of place where it just gets sweeter with every visit. From the capital, I and a dear friend Bianca met up with Byron and grabbed a 6:30 a.m. three hour Caribe Tours bus to San Juan de la Maguana. There, over huevo frito and yuca, we caught up with San Juan resident Carmela which is always fun because she's a perfect specimen of what it means to straddle cultures. Carmela's mother is a conference interpreter turned cake-maker who I had the honor of conversing/throwing millions of questions at during my last trip to the DR. And her father is a Dominican from Puerto Plata. She is adamantly Dominican.

When we arrived to the market at 11:30 to catch the next leg of our transport, the camion—which usually leaves at 12—had already left. So Bianca and I wandered off to buy mangos and guineo while we waited for plan B to make it's way to us.

Plan B was a guagua (small bus in DR Spanish) to Arroyo Cano where we waited on a corner for 4 slow hours to creep by. During that time we peered at a newborn and mused over the life of the 17-year-old mute new mom. We ate tostones with agrio. We talked about the new president and found out we were sitting in his hometown. We watched motor bikes hum by. We got up and walked to the corner when we couldn't sit any longer. We watched time elapse.

The camion arrived and we climbed into it's open bed, strapped our bags to the back of the cab and settled into our favorite grip and riding stance. It would be a two hour ride with about fifteen other nice folks up the mountain and through the potholes thanks the Japanese's ingenuity. The new mom and baby sat in the cab in the front.

That evening we arrived to Los Frios, where the sun is the main source of light, and the most important innovation in most people's lifetime was the coming of the aqueduct and running water. It's easy to walk slow in Los Frios. Working comes naturally and not working does too. We spent two days up in a place where the clouds are as likely to be above you as below. 

Finca La Paz's Farm Manager Antonio taken by Byron Holcomb

As an interpreter, Los Frios is a gold mine. Los Frios is a day in day out vocabulary workshop in campo-speak and other strange-isms. A everyday interaction between two Los Frieños would go something like this:

Middle-aged incredibly strong man 1: Homb'e, ¿cómo tu 'ta?
Middle-aged man 2 in rocking chair: Entre lo' do'
1: Ha visto mi montura hoy?
2: No lo he vido hoy
1: Hay que dir pa' el conuco de mi compai 

First one to decipher that gets a free gallon of aceite and an 125-pound sack of arroz.

Part Two: Cucuyo & Bonao

Cucuyo is the youth cultural exchange through the arts non-profit that I direct. It's entirely volunteer run (including me as well) and it operates in the summer. This year we didn't do any full out programs because of how much was going on in my life—job change, wedding, moving apartments, looking at master's degrees, etc. We did however want to go visit and do some planning for the future. Continuity is important to me and I also wanted to see if I could tease out the current needs and desires of the Dominican youth that participate with us.

In addition to our aim to have some conversations about the future, Board Member and last year's Documentarian and Interpreter Bianca made plans to put on a brief three-day workshop on leadership and effective community activism—one of her specialties she's been developing during this past year with her work at Sustainable Food Center in Austin, TX. This she delivered with beautiful competence complete with an ice cream party and certificates for the 22 youth who participated. The youth latched on to the material easily and honored us with their openness and willingness to share the collective pains in their community.

Community Activism workshop in La Ceiba taken by Bianca Bidiuc

So, while no less important than our previous years' operations, the workload was significantly less. This left us with significant time to do the hardest work of all—not working.

In the space between running and rest is where all the magic happens.  I always knew this on some level, but this year's gift was that this teaching crystallized into a precious clarity. As I slowed down to meet all of our Dominican friends in their space, in their context, the rate at which our gnarled connection became muscled and tight accelerated. From there, it loosened into an easy swing. There was where Bianca and I found a vision for a simpler, cleanly-structured, repeatable, sustainable program based on workload sharing and the principle of doing a few things well rather than many mediocre things.

More details on our newest ideas to come. And in honor of this year's experience, they will be released at a Dominican pace.

Bonao is my community. It's yours too. If Cucuyo pretends to achieve anything, it would be a shot at providing an experiential opportunity in interconnectedness. It's amongst the unfamiliar that all the familiarities stand up and shout their names.

Coordinator Lauren Stephenson moves to Argentina!

Like many of our staff, Lauren has worn many gorros for Cucuyo.  She has seamlessly glided between researcher, workshop instructor, development associate, youth coordinator and first counsel with ease and competency.  The latter role as fantastic advice giver has been an enormous gift to me personallly as a director and this is my public thank you to her.  Thank you Lauren Stephenson.

Lauren's big heart gets its groove on with MarializThis amazing woman has moved to Argentina and you can follow her through her days in Buenos Aires—and I encourage you to do so—in her blog Alta en Argentina. Below is an excerpt from her first photo-rich entry about her 2011 Cucuyo experience.

I recently spent two weeks in Bonao, Dominican Republic working with Cucuyo, an intercultural arts program founded by my lovely friend Laura Vaughn. Last year I taught a creative writing workshop (in Spanish!), and this year I returned as a Youth Coordinator (chaperone) for our 3 American participants. This year was particularly exciting because it was the first time we had students from the U.S., we had an AMAZING group of teachers and support staff, and it was just wonderful to see my Dominican family and friends again...

Read the rest of this entry and see the pretty pictures.