Sancocho

By: Giselle Deñó

InteRDom Correspondent, Giselle, has completed the first year of her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Sciences Po, Reims, France. She is participating in the 2013 10-week Dominican International Student Program. You can read more about Giselle and her participation in the Correspondent Program here.

Two and a half months into my stay in the Dominican Republic and I still have not eaten sancocho. It was an aberration to everything I stood for, to my “Dominicanness.” I had had it in mind since I set foot in this country, but the odds were against me; every time I held a chance to enjoy this delicious dish, something got in the way. My colleagues had to pay for the effects that the lack of sancocho had on me; the side effects are very serious, almost lethal. I spent the whole week telling anyone who had ears to hear me that I needed, not even wanted, sancocho in my system.

Regardless of this condition, the week went off great. I experienced some relapses every now and then but in general everything went very smooth. I worked on some amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, with which we are in search of more effective penitentiary and judicial procedures that would be tougher against criminality in our country. The subject of criminality and violence is one that is very close to every Dominican’s heart due to its degree and reach, but also our fervent desire to see it get better. It is a subject that should be addressed for countless reasons, but opening tourism that is so much restricted and overly dependent of all-inclusive hotels is perhaps one of the most important. There is so much to see and experience on this little Caribbean island and that is why leaving without eating a sancocho distraught me. 

Besides my usual work, a couple of things happened off-schedule. Kim came to visit me at the House of Representatives for an interview about my internship. We had a pleasant talk and I felt happy to show her what I have been working on and so that she too could be as amazed as I was the first time coming here. I don’t believe law is her cup of tea but she had fun filming around the building. One day this week I was also invited to visit another department, PNUD, Spanish abbreviation for the Development Program of the United Nations. I conversed with the director and got a chance to meet her intern, a very nice Italian girl that has grown a liking for the country. One of the thoughts that crossed my mind while I was with her is that I bet she had already enjoyed a nice and steamy sancocho and what a disgrace that me, a Dominican, had not. The impossibility of such thing remaining at that state was assured this weekend when my grandmother, who had just arrived from New York, cooked this typical dish at my request. Nothing like cucina della nonna. Now I can finally resume with my work in peace and my colleagues are let off the hook with my constant mention of this famous sancocho.

Photo by: http://carlosprieto.net/?s=sancocho+de+pocho

My boss is in a good mood

InteRDom Correspondent, Giselle, has completed the first year of her Bachelor’s degree in

By: Giselle Deñó

Political Science at Sciences Po, Reims, France. She is participating in the 2013 10-week Dominican International Student Program. You can read more about Giselle and her participation in the Correspondent Program here.

“¡Levanten campamento!” shouts Mr. Ortiz as he comes storming out of his office with suitcase in hand and switching the lights off. Malge, Domingo and I are immediately possessed by a secret smile. That is our boss’s way of giving us the green light to go home and for the first three days of the week, it was an identical scenario. We were dismissed awfully early and the workload we had on our desks went from very little to none. I even took the freedom to draw on a bunch of yellow post-its; scribbles keep my mind going as everything else outside follows a slow pace. No sessions at the Congress, only a few files coming in the department to be revised, less reporters and people roaming around the hallways; there was a sense of stillness, in which I felt completely at peace. Our boss cracked jokes, he was seen around more and he replaced his usual motivational speeches for random, impersonal small talk. In this abnormal situation we stayed at ease because we knew that it consisted in a false calm before the storm. I marked my words.

Thursday arrived and there it was, waiting for us, a pile of manila folders on top of the secretary’s desk. And there he was, he knew it all along; the chief director came in laughing as he saw our future together with what seemed like a thousand documents. Something told me that I was not going to hear the pleasant phrase I had heard very early the former three days until at least sunset. My predictions did not fail me once again, but there was an unexpected twist to the story. Our boss happily announced to us that we had to prepare a presentation on a specific subject, which he gave us, to present the next day in front of all of the lawyers in the other legal departments of the House of Representatives. No smile from our part this time, but he was still in a good mood. To heal our wounds he bought us pizza and as we struggled to juggle between turning the huge pile into a smaller one and writing an essay-type of discourse about a subject that was, at least to me, completely unknown, we fed our minds and body with cheese, ham, tomato sauce and a lot of carbohydrates. On top of which we had a restraining order that kept us from reaching even 10 meters away from the door until our job was done. 

With barely any sleep, we came like zombies next day to work. Our boss greeted us and the first thing I noticed is that he was no longer in a good mood. He had revised our work for the meeting we were scheduled to have in an hour and decided to change his mind regarding our respective speeches. Even though we were kind of disappointed not to reach the level he was requiring from us, we had been relieved from our duties and I could go back to the state of peace of mind from the beginning of the week. The meeting went great. The idea behind it was to share the common problems we saw in all files and set homologous criteria to face them. Ideas clashed, and interpretations of laws and the Constitution, led to some very heated arguments. I kept quiet and watched as lawyers defended their position. I was glad to finally hear some soundtrack after a couple of days in complete silence. Because the reunion went so well, our boss, who had led the conversation, was in a good mood again. He even announced a paella day for the following week. Storms are not so bad after all. 

Photo Credit:  ©iStockphoto.com/VallarieE

Transparent Democracy

By: Giselle Deñó

InteRDom Correspondent, Giselle, has completed the first year of her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Sciences Po, Reims, France. She is participating in the 2013 10-week Dominican International Student Program. You can read more about Giselle and her participation in the Correspondent Program here.

It is the age of questioning and preoccupation for the future, the age of contestation of authority. We breathe politics through media and technology, and news travel in the twinkling of an eye, faster than we can digest all the information. Our generation is destined to reinvent positions, to be cynical of traditional political orders; but worry not, it is not a crisis of democracy I’m describing, but on the contrary, we are witnesses of the perfect context in which democracy can thrive through the voices of the youth who participate more and more through unconventional ways. Governments are obliged to open the door to the public and ready or not, here we come. My internship in the House of Representatives is exactly that. I was given the opportunity to participate in, rather observe and listen carefully, ardent political debates and other processes that conform the life of legislation in my country.

The House of Representatives of the Dominican Republic is an undecipherable maze I was put in, a bureaucratic organism full of departments and busy schedules. I have gotten lost not once or twice, but innumerable times. The first week of my internship I was given a tour around this huge building and I stood amazed by the magnitude of the paintings of ex-presidents and important political legislators that hanged on the walls. My first day was spectacular. I shook hands and presented myself as the new intern while others explained to me their career trajectories as deputies or lawyers. I was sure it was the beginning of a good and endurable experience in my life.

Day two, I’m put in the Legislative Audit Department where they already have an office prepared for me, Dominican Republic’s Constitution, the House of Representative’s Regulation, notepad, pen and pencil. I believe the fear and intimidation could be easily perceived as coming out of every pore in my body but I tried by best to keep my composure and pretend like I knew what I was doing. But whom am I fooling? First thing it occurred to my boss was to give me, a complete law amateur, a bill of law that had just passed in Congress and ask me to verify the whole record as to identify any type of anomalies or disjunctions with the Constitution, and if the due process and rules were followed. All I can say is that that day I left at 7p.m when I was actually supposed to leave at 4p.m.

The fact that I’m able to see zoomed in the way laws are being made each day in my country means that transparency is definitely taking place. Even though the international community is sure that Latin America is a cradle for corruption and deficient governmental powers, as an intern of one of the most important institutions in my country I can say that we’re advancing at a steady pace towards a good place. Everyday I come to work happy because I know that this famous “rule of law” does exist and no one is above it; we’re mandated to be meticulous and rigorous about our reports corresponding every resolution or bill that passes our hands. I’m able to read about what will be implemented in my country, how this will affect the population and be already prepared mentally and informed about it. Knowledge is the key to a transparent democracy and it can only be gathered if we look for it in the right places.