"I challenge you to a headstand contest..."

So this past week, Peace Corps DR (who hasn't consolidated volunteers in years) has emergency consolidated us twice. The first one was for a meeting about cholera. Cholera, as some of you may know, is spreading like wildfire over in Haiti. Cholera is a fierce infection caused by bacteria in the water. The water that the cholera is in happens to be the border river between Haiti and Dominican Republic. The CDC says that there is a 100% chance cholera will arrive in the DR. It is just a matter of time. So all 165ish volunteers were called to the capital to learn how to prevent and treat cholera in ourselves and how to inform our community of the same. The biggest problem is that, as if Dominican-Haitian relations weren't bad enough, Dominicans are calling cholera the "Haitian disease" and are now even more apt to disengage from any contact with Haitians in the DR as they think they can get cholera from them (which they can't, unless they wipe up and consume an infected person's feces...unlikely?).

So the next consolidation occurred this past Tuesday. My region (the southwest) is consolidated in San Juan (about 20 minutes from my site) at Hotel Maguana (no pool but very good food and hot showers) for the supposedly oncoming Hurricane Thomas. Now, on Day 3 out here, there has been very vague amounts of drizzling and a few clouds. And here we are, not allowed to leave the hotel, with all the Dominicans going on with their lives outside in the city of San Juan. Really, I make it sound more tragic than it is, being that we're a group fun charming people and we have hot water showers, decent free food, and speedy Internet. But I'm just saying, we better at least get some churning winds and good-sized droplets going on before we disperse so I can feel like I canceled all of my classes for the week with some sort of purpose or reasoning. People here are starting to get cabin fever. Headstand contests, push-up contests, and discussions about life's deep questions like why Cliff shops online for dresses have plagued our everyday lives. But we will endure. We're rough-em-tough-em Peace Corps volunteers. An evangelical concert is just starting right now in the outdoor concert venue next to the hotel. It feels just like I'm back home in my community. In fact, I bet you half of my town is there right now. Perhaps I should go mingle...

The soccer team's new uniforms

Sosua Photos

Playa Chiquita in Sosua.

Masa enjoying the beach and the immense heat.

Chicken Caesar Wraps and Caramel Frappuccinos

This past weekend I headed north, way north. I went to collect some soccer uniforms and equipment I was able to get donated to my community soccer team, and along the way I stopped to visit a few volunteers. First I hit the town of Moca (in the province of Espaillat), which is the largest town near Heather and Sabrina. Moca is really freaking nice. They have a delicious bakery and a really cool coffee shop that has coffee drinks, smoothies, and cocktails. I had a mind-blowing caramel frappuccino (at first I was deterred by the word frappuccino, since I’ve never had such things back in the States, but it was a verrrry good choice). I stayed the night at Heather’s house in Juan Lopez. She’s got a cute, 2-bedroom place, which she JUST bought a stove for. I thought I lived on peanut butter sandwiches, but I have nothing on her.

Next, I headed up to Jimao, where Masa resides. He lives in a sweet 2-bedroom, second-floor apartment with real-life windows. His town’s got a really pretty (and clean) river that runs through it. It’s a hoppin place. After a quick 2^nd breakfast of boiled bananas and eggs at his host-moms, we headed up to Sosua, a beachtown up in the Puerto Plata province (pictures to come), where my uniforms were waiting. After some time walking around town, chilling on the beach (water so clear, I took various photos of my feet), and a Stateside-eque meal at Britannia Pub (Chicken Caesar wrap and chocolate milkshake), we collected not one, but two large duffel bags full of stuff for the soccer team! Thanks to Admiral Soccer for the generous donation. That night we went to Masa’s “sports week”, a sort of patronales. We rode the “death swings” and got hotdogs on a stick with mayo squirted all over it. Back to DR cuisine.

After the 8-hour trip with my various bags, I arrived home Monday night to find that my house is finally getting bars on the windows. 3 weeks after the incident (someone tried to break into my house through a shuttered window while I was trying to get my beauty rest), they have finally started working to put protective metal bars on the windows and around the entire patio. Very exciting stuff.

Exhausting but great weekend. And when I showed the captain of the soccer team the stuff, he started to cry. First big win down here in the DR! Now back to giving classes and forming youth groups, the usual stuff of my life.

Bola-ing 101

This past weekend I went to Los Rios, where Sarah (an enviro volunteer) lives. There was a group of about 14 of us there to celebrate her community’s fiestas patronales (saint’s festival). Sarah lives to the south of me, however as public transportation-worthy highways are scarce in the southwest region of the DR, I traveled about an hour to the east, then an hour south, then back toward the west to get to her.

The fiesta was a delightful time and there was even a small Ferris wheel to ride! In true Dominican style, having none of those awful “safety” regulations to follow, they spun that Ferris wheel round and round as fast as they could, making it more of a roller coaster than a Ferris wheel. I’m siding with the Dominicans on this one—I love me a good Jersey shore Ferris wheel but the Dominicans know how to do it best—más rapido! However, the feeling of absolute freeing abandonment is somewhat tapered down by the thought that, at any moment, the rust that has been corroding this old not-taken-care-of Ferris wheel could send your Ferris wheel seat flying out into the starry night. At least my last Ferris wheel ride would have been amazing.

So Sunday, Elise (an enviro volunteer who kind of lives near me) and I decided to hell with going all the way back east to get up to our sites. We’d gotten word that there was a new highway being constructed with a more direct route to San Juan. Unfortunately, it was questionable as to whether it was actually finished or not, and we were told that there was no public transportation there. However, being stubbornly adventurous Peace Corps volunteers who would just about sell our souls to save 5 pesos, we headed for the entrance to this highway. For those geographically capable readers, we arrived to this highway entrance via a guagua (minivan/bus) to Neyba, then a bola to Batey 2. Sidenote: A bola means “free ride.” It’s the equivalent of hitchhiking in the States, but much less taboo here in the DR. It is also the one activity in this country that is somewhat easier for women to accomplish as we not only look less threatening, but perhaps if the bola-giver is lucky enough, he might mangar a visa to the U.S. Yeah, okay.

So we arrive unscathed at the entrance to the carreterra nueva. I wish I had had my camera so I could show you fine folks a picture. I’ve been to many a place in this country and elsewhere that seemed to be the middle of nowhere, but this highway, the way it stretched back into the mountains, the way it had nothing but sugarcane fields in every immediate direction, the way there were no cars or shade-bearing trees anywhere in sight. This, I was sure, was the actual physical center point of “nowhere.” While it would have been smart at this point to give up on our dream of riding the carreterra nueva and continue on to the usual eastward route, we decided to stick it out. So we started walking. If there had been a helicopter with a camera crew above us filming, we could have made this into an opening scene for some sort of film—horror, adventure, the possibilities are endless.

To shorten this up a bit, we eventually caught a bola with an 18-wheeler headed for Vallejuelo. We made such good friends with Bobby and Hansel (yes, these were their authentic Dominican-given names), that we detoured from San Juan to go have lunch at Bobby’s family’s house (where I ate goat for the first time) and then got a bola to San Juan in some sort of PT Cruiser-esque vehicle driven by a guy who I’m pretty sure is the Haitian James Earl Jones (every time he spoke, I thought of Bell Atlantic).

To end this story, I’d like to inform all of you that our trip (which was meant to be a shortcut) ended up taking 5 ½ hours. The other way—the one that goes all the way east, then back west, takes about 3 hours. However, the extra time was completely worth the beautiful mountain views, the free meal, the 200 pesos saved, and the fact that we can now claim to have ridden on the carreterra nueva (which I have already boasted about to at least half my town). All in all, a successful experience.

Getting ready to fry up some "rulo" in the dark...

“Is that a microwave?!”

So let me tell you a little story about life in Peace Corps Africa. I know, you say, I’m not in Peace Corps Africa. And you would be very correct. But, let’s start here: When I find myself complaining about stuff here (the fleeting electricity, the cold bucket baths, the dirt that falls down from my tin roof, etc., etc.), I like to say—well, could be worse, I could be out in Africa. Not that I wouldn’t have loved being out in Africa. Let’s be honest, I was a little wah, wah when I found out I was going to the DR, what good would I be in the country of the famous Punta Cana spring break? But when things get tedious out here, when I’m sitting around on a Wednesday night doing nothing by candlelight trying to catch a breeze through my slatted windows (I know, could I sound any more destitute?), I say—at least I’m not in Africa.

So fast forward: My friend Andrea (who I haven’t seen in 5 years, since our big round-the-world Semester at Sea trip) comes to visit. She’s doing this amazing thing called JetBlue’s All You Can Jet. She paid 500 bucks and can fly anywhere in the U.S. for free and parts of the Caribbean/Central America/South America for only the international taxes. Awesome, right? So Andrea’s got this family friend who happens to be doing Peace Corps Namibia right now. She left in March as well. Andrea’s mom has been keeping me updated with a few stories about this chica and up until now I couldn’t say I envied her.

Well, recently, Andrea and I decided to check out this girl on facebook, Andrea said she thought there was a picture of where she lived on there (and that it was a “pretty decent place”). We find this photo, and…ummm…this place is nicer than the townhouse I lived in at college! Part of it has hardwood floors, she’s got like Pier 1 light fixtures, an oven AND a microwave, 24-hour electricity, HOT running water, Ikea-looking furniture. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has air-conditioning. While I am sure this is not how everyone in Peace Corps Namibia lives, I will no longer say—at least I’m not in Africa. And I do feel better about the fact that I’m in the DR. We may have Punta Cana, but at least I’m overcoming arbitrary life challenges like doing nothing by candlelight on a Wednesday night and trying to catch a breeze through my slatted windows.

So on to important things…how to replace my old, decayed mantra of not being in Africa? I will now say—well, could be worse, at least I’m not Cliff. Cliff is an environmental volunteer (gotta love those enviros) here in my region of the DR. Cliff has NO electricity. Cliff has to hike over a 2-hour hill just to get into his site. Cliff grows his own food. So now, when I am annoyed that I have to sweep random debris from my bathroom floor for the 3^rd time today, I will sit back, take a deep breath, and say: At least I’m not Cliff.

"Quiero una americana. Pa' que? Pa' manga mi visa!"

Let me apologize to those who actually look forward to reading this thing for not having posted in almost 2 months. Things have been surprisingly busy and the Internet predictably slow. Besides, now that I have gone back to eating pbjs every day, I have nothing exotic to share with the world. In a short sum of things, I finished my first round of English classes--success!--and I start a new round on Tuesday. I'm also preparing an intensive Photoshop course so I can certify my two comp teachers here in the community center. Tambien, I'm starting to gather some jovenes to make a club de informatica/community service, and I'm trying to help the solo soccer team in town get some uniformes (insert desperate plea for help here). Plus, in very exciting news, I had my first visitor! G came to visit and we did lots of fun stuff--like go into San Juan, visit Chloe (another volunteer), see the zona colonial in the capital, and go to the beeeach! He also, of course, played some futbol with the muchachos here and experienced fritos (fried green plantains). I have another visitor showing up tomorrow--Andrea from SAS, and my house is rather messy (let's just say my bathroom mine as well be outside--I'm pretty sure it's grosser than a latrine right now). So, in other words, I have not much time to write you well-intentioned Americans who are nice enough to skim this boldly artistic venture of mine. In the meantime, enjoy the above song lyrics (the ones in the title of this post, duh)--lord knows I do every freaking day of my blessed life here. Nos vemos!

Y mi casa...

So out of the blue on Saturday, while lounging at another volunteer's site in Juan de Herrera, I received a phone call from my project partner telling me to "ven aca" ASAP. Turns out, after some conversation, I snagged a 4-bedroom, fully furnished house to live in!! They are even, as I write, putting in an inversor (a generator) they had lying around, so I will most likely have 24-hour luz (electricity). They left me everything from the full-size fridge to the lavadora (vaguely like a washing machine, vaguely not) to the glasses. There is a little shaded front porch and a little private space in the back to hang. It even has my metal roof so I can listen to the sounds of the rain falling. The only condition is that these people live in la capital and they want to be able to return and use the other bedrooms during Easter weekend and Christmas. I told them I would try and cook for them, but I couldn't promise anything (grilled cheese, anyone?). So around August 13th, I'm going to move into my very own place and people can start coming to visitarme!! Yayyyy! Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat bread all day every day. Aaaah, the life.

Picture This…

Night time. A 24-year-old chica stands outside her house with an overstuffed backpack on (looking a little Dora the Explorer) yelling…shouting…hollering…howling for her mom or dad to come open the door because she’s locked out.

Yes, that chica was me Wednesday night. This pathetic scene only served as a reminder that I do not yet have my own place to live come August. And while I love my host family dearly (especially that Mama Yudelka), I need my own space. But as the house-hunting process has been so incredibly difficult and more than a little depressing, I’ve kind of given up. However, I awoke Thursday morning with renewed vigor…and then I talked with some people in the afternoon and remembered what a hassle this whole process is. Vamos a ver.

In other news, I’ve started my English classes this week! They are still a work-in-progress, but they seem to be going really well and everyone is having lots of fun. My dear brother sent me the alphabet song he used when he was an English teacher in Japan, and yesterday I had my classes sing along to it. I was afraid it’d be a little corny for them, but they went nuts! They loved it. Teaching is also making me feel a lot more settled in here, as it finally gives me some purpose. All in all, very good week.

And a brief note on last weekend: I went to Paraiso (“Paradise”) to spend July 4^th with some other voluntarios—camping on the beach, making s’mores, that sort of business. It was incredibly relaxing and lots of fun. And a great reminder that, hey, I get to live in the freaking Caribbean for 2 years! How lucky am I?!

In future news, I’m supposed to go to the beach in Barahona this Sunday for a day-trip with my community’s evangelical church. This one should be a cultural shockwave. Forget about wearing a 2-piece, evangelical women don’t wear anything but long skirts and sleeved shirts! The pastor’s daughter in a traje de baño?! Scandalous.

Yudelka

This is the infamous host-mom, Yudelka.

¡Chimis!

This is me eating my first chimi at the fiestas patronales in
Bohechio. A chimi is an amazing roadside sandwich. Most of them are
hamburgers, but every so often you find a chimi stand with chicken
chimis, which is what I am about to devour here. Amazingness in the
form of a latenight sandwich. Mmmm...

"And thank you for being American..."

Got my laptop power cord from the capital on Wednesday, thus I`ve been too busy watching episodes of Will & Grace to bother writing updates on my life. While there, I also purchased a box of chewy Chips Ahoy which I have torn through at an alarming rate. This has also "eaten" (har har) into my blogging availability.

In real news, currently working on creating a few more surveys for my community. I did all my surveys for the jovenes (high school kids), but still need to talk to individual families about life here in Sabana Alta. But the community diagnostic is coming along. I also start English classes on Tuesday the 29th of this month, which is very exciting. Sign-ups for the class start the 21st. Will keep you all updated about the expected mobs and riots that will obviously erupt due to limited class sizes. (Good thing I have this money belt to keep my personal items safe.)

In other somewhat real news, the Americans have arrived (volunteers from Los Amigos de Las Americas). Two high school boys who have no idea what they are doing. They make me look like a native dominicana. One actually thanked me for being American. I think he´s freaking out a little. I politely pointed out that they are here for 2 months, whilst I am here for 2 years. I`m hoping that gave them a little perspective. I guess I can`t imagine being 17 in a country where nadie speaks English. But seriously, I told them I had Avatar (like, the movie) and I`m pretty sure they wet their pants. Vamos a ver with these two peleles.

Photos!

The view from the higher ridge of my town. What a view!

My community center!


My host family´s house. Where I live. Where I sleep. Where I eat too much.

"Pero tu quieres cocinar?!"

This morning I convinced Mama Yudelka to let me cook a grilled cheese on the estufa. Que bueno! She doesn`t actually own a pan (only pots) or a spatula, but all in all it came out delicious on my recently purchased whole wheat bread. The bread was bought when I went into San Juan on Saturday. I found a larger supermercado, a park to sit and enjoy my yogurt, and a very nice old doctor who took me on a historical tour of the entiiiire city. I even got a free Dominican lunch out of the deal (we stopped by his friend´s house at just the right time). Spent the afternoon at a rio, which wasn´t much of a rio since they are building a hydroelectric dam up a ways from where we were (and at the time, it was shut tight). Sunday, I went to the hometown of Mama Yudelka and played dominoes all...day...long. This 6-yr-old kicked my butt for half the afternoon. Intense domino player. If they have a World Dominoes Tour, I´d keep an eye out for this kid. Time to go eat lunch (pollo and platanos fritos, I believe, and of course a mango smoothie). Adios!

PS, was able to send my dearest brother a few photographs so hopefully he´ll upload them here soon! Woot.

Cake, Soccer, and a Blessing from Jesus Himself

First week has gone well. A lot of free time, a loooot. But I´m getting to know the community inch by inch. Yesterday was the big 2-4, how vieja. My host-mom made some kids from the evangelical church get me a slice of cake and then they stuck around for a bit, and then my jovenes that I took to a youth club training for the past two days showed up, then some kids that I´m gonig to be helping with soccer skills showed up. Crazy amounts of Spanish going on at once is very overwhelming, but it was very nice of them. And Mama Yudelka and my pastor of a host-dad both gave me separate 10-minute blessings to the heaveans (lots of Jesu Cristos and Gloria a Dioses). I´m pretty sure even if I kill someone, I´m going to heaven. Spent the afternoon at a soccer game, or something that appeared to be vaguely like a soccer game. I´m excited they asked me to help out. They definitely need some. It was pretty sad to see many of the kids playing in worn out flip-flops or just barefeet on their mostly dirt playing field. One pair of muchachos only had one pair of sneakers between the two, so one wore a sneaker on his right foot and went barefoot on the left, and the other wore a sneaker on his left foot and went barefoot on the right. Perfect picture of the generosity of Dominican culture--If I´ve got two shoes and you have none, of course I´m going to give you one.

In other news, the community center has Facebook blocked so until I can get that changed (obviously a primary project plan right there), e-mails (Kaitie.Brown@gmail.com) are always welcome! (Also, I can read what you send me on Facebook through e-mail. I just can`t write back.) I think that´s all to report for now. Possibly off to Juan de Herrerra today to see another volunteer´s site!

Buuueno...

So I lost my power cord to my computer, so while I wait for my wonderful mother to send me a new one, I won't be on here much. Tear. But things are going well. I got to my site today for good. Get started with my community diagnostic/projects. Very exciting. I will be happy to stop carrying all this stuff around. Celebrated the birthday last night with some of the volunteers. Fun fun. Oh and I got a headlamp in the mail!! I can now cook and shower sin luz. Okay. All for now!!

Back from the Site Visit...

5/10--Back in Santo Domingo from my site visit. It was great. There's a lot to be done but nothing that I'm too overwhelmed about. The biggest thing is that the radio station just plays a loop of music and no one listens to it or is involved with it, so that'll be a project. The people I'll be working with in the CTC are very cool and motivated. I went around with my one project partner to every neighborhood, going house to house introducing myself. Felt a little like a politician running for office. Went to 3 different church services in 6 days, still need to go to the Menonite service when I return. Absolutely nuts. I've never had so much juice in my life. My host family is nice--my dad is actually the pastor at the evangelical church. My host mom is crazy and pretty much lives her life to feed me (3 plates of food per meal). She told me she was going to throw Garrett and I a wedding when he came to visit. I politely declined. She also said she'd get my parents some horses to ride around town when they visited. She obviously does not know my mom (who probably won't even come to the site). The house is cute, small cinder-block, running water sometimes, although the shower spicket is pretty much over the toilet which is an awkward experience. I told them it was a rule of Peace Corps that I had to move out on my own in 3 months (which is a total lie, but I didn't want to make Yudelka-my host mom-cry). All for now--took a lot of pictures, so hopefully will get them up soon!!

El Sur here I come!

5/3--Quick updates. Being back in Santo Domingo with scrambled eggs and fruit and an actual host family is awesome. The lack of breeze--not so much. : )

So we found out our sites today. I'm in the South, although the northern most part of the South. From what I've gathered, I'm in a rural farming community (which is pretty much what I asked for) of about 4,000 (my host-dad is a farmer) and my town is directly south of Pico Duarte. There isn't much tourist-wise to see or do there, but as the South is the poorest section of the country, I'm excited. I feel like I can do a lot more here. There community center (which is where I'll be working) is the only place with computers in the town. I'll know more when I visit there tomorrow!! Then back to Santo Domingo for swearing in.

Also got our cell phones today. Exciting 2 weeks coming up. And then an exciting 2 years!

The end of the beginning…

4/24—So this is the last week of training here in El Seibo. Teaching another class on Tuesday, youth project fair on Wednesday, then we leave on Thursday! Craziness. And Friday, we find out if we will be working in a school-based lab or a community-based lab (although we don’t find out our actual sites until the following Monday). Very exciting. A little scary. But I’m antsy and ready to go, so mostly exciting.

This past week was good—Thursday, my Spanish class made empanadas and quesadillas at mi casa. Chicken and cheese goodness. And tomorrow we go to Playa Esmeralda once more! Hope the rains hold off—May’s rainy season seems to have gotten its start. Speaking of which, they told us that the cockroaches only fly in June, but a lot of them are flying already. Hmmm…I guess they aren’t on Dominican time.

Lots of updates…

4/19—So the beach went really well (as you all could see from the pictures, it’s beautiful). I did NOT get burnt—woohoo. Did get sick again that night, though, which we don’t need to go into. On to better stuff—taught my first class in Spanish on Thursday! Ah. It was long and stressful but very cool. I enjoyed it mucho. Teaching another one next Tuesday at the community center.

Also had another meeting with the APCD (the head of my sector) and the PCVLs (Peace Corp Volunteer Leaders) about site placement. Some people got a good idea of where they think they’re going. I definitely don’t think I did. I requested a small pueblo or a campo (i.e. boonies)—they seemed pretty onboard with that, but as for anything else, we shall see. Coming up soon! I’m pretty ready to get out and actually start my projects—getting a little antsy.

In other news, my Dona abandoned me this week as she has to travel for her job (gracias a dios). Thus, I’m cooking all my own meals. I’m going to be honest, it’s probably the best time of my life. For instance, today I made a tuna melt sandwich! And just one—no one was there to make me eat 5 of them along with viveres and a mound of onions. Serious excitement. I then attempted to cook a platano maduro (the really good yellow ones) for dinner. I ended up with Heather’s Dona pretty much cooking for me because I couldn’t even start the stove. But now I know how to cook platanos fritos (and how to start a stove with a match)! Says the girl who doesn’t even know how to make pasta. Ah, so much to learn. Excited to have cereal for breakfast tomorrow. And maybe scrambled eggs for lunch. Mmmmm…

BELOW...

...is a picture of all the volunteers at la playa Esmerelda!


\

La Playa Esmerelda!

4/10--Tomorrow we go to the beach! Our trainer is taking all of us to la play Esmerelda for some relaxation. Woooo. It's supposed to have cool coves and stuff--I'm excited.



I'm 100 percent better and very busy--we're working on two projects in the community right now. The first, me and two other volunteers are going to teach an adult Microsoft Word class for an hour--in spanish obviously. Aaah. Should be interesting. In the meantime, we are observing the class to get a feel for the things they need to know.

The second is our group projects with youth. Our group is making a school newspaper at the local liceo (high school)! Very cool. I'm in charge of the Arts and Entertainment section. We had our first meeting yesterday. It'll be hard to crank out a newspaper by the end of the month but should be funfun. All for now!

"Mi hermanita mala!"

4/2 Host-brother came home from the university in Santo Domingo for Semana Santa. Went to the rio with him and his friends and Heather. A little dirty, but lots of fun. My hermano y yo tried to convince everyone we were twins, but for some reason no one was having it. 20-year-old Dominican and 23-year-old Caucasian American, what could possibly be the difference?
4/3 Got extremely sick. 4 times. In 5 hours. And other things I'll leave out. But recooperating. Nothing very exciting besides my crackers and boiled potato diet. Mmmm...

Que bueno!

3/28 Made it out here to El Seibo for technical training. Big town but a lot calmer and a lot more safe than Santo Domingo. Like it so far. My new host family is just one Dona. I get my own bathroom and it’s nice and calm and I can do my own thing, but it’s kind of weird not having anyone else or kids around. She’s only got me to talk to (inside the house anyway) and my Spanish is only good for a 20-minute or so conversation. Internet is harder to come by here without the training center’s free wi-fi. Went out to Discoteca WOW one night. Tried to get our bachata on. We’ve started doing our group diagnostic projects—interviewed some people about issues in town and had some jovenes make some maps of what they thought El Seibo looked like.
Had dinner at a Korean (KOICA) volunteer’s apartment with Heather (another PC volunteer)—we can only communicate in Spanish though. It’s weird to think that I translate my English thoughts into Spanish, say them to Odelia or Feliz (the Korean volunteers), and they translate what I said into Korean in their head. Feels like a lot could be lost along the way there. But very cool that a foreign language for both groups is what bridged the communication gap between us. A hen just freaking walked into my room so I’m going to go run away now!

(Update--got the hen out of the room, then it laid an egg in the corner of the room which my Dona cooked for breakfast the next morning.)

Pero yo soy muy serio...

Back from my volunteer visit. Great time. Awesome food (cereal, quesadillas, empanadas, pancakes, pizza). Took a shower. Two a day, in fact. Amazing what a little spewing tube of water can do—like get out the 2-week shampoo buildup in your hair. The visit made me very excited for my own future project site. Hopefully it will be in a school—that seems to be where the excitement is. Loved the campo feel. I like my barrio and all, but the campos and pueblos have a much homier feel. It was my first time out of the Santo Domingo area. The mountainy areas in the DR are awesome. Getting there and back was a total gringa experience, but I succeeded.
Back to training for a few days, then on Thursday the ICT volunteers go to El Seibo for technical training. It’s the UN model city for the UN Millenium Goals, so it’s got 24-hr luz (!) and enough computer labs for all of us to split up into smaller sections and do some hands-on project management of our own. I’m excited. Means a new host family, though. I’d rather take the one I have with me. We’ll be stationed there for 4 weeks. Will hopefully have decent Internet access. Supposedly we take a day-trip to the beach at some point. I’m pretty excited about that.

"This place is kind of like...Jersey"

Things are going well. Although my little little sister has been sick with el gripe so no one sleeps at night. And we are running out of water and our new shipment is almost a week late. No water = no shower, so hopefully it comes soon. Borrowing Harry Potter in Spanish--hopefully that will go smoothly. Language is going slowly but surely. Started running around the barrio, which I was informed the other day is the "hood" of all the barrios. I go to visit a PCV volunteer this Thursday. First time traveling outside of Santo Domingo area and first time traveling alone! Going up near La Vega. Crossed fingers. All for now.

Made it!!

Made it to the DR. Have Internet at the training center but not much free time to use it. Loooove my host family. Two sisters--one 15, one 6. Realizing I'm awful at Spanish (they speak so fast!) but getting better every day. Exhausting but awesome. No running water, so I take bucket baths every morning. Very cold but efficient. I do jumping jacks beforehand to get ready. Not too much electricity but it never fails to come on for the evening tv. The colmado (general store that turns into a bar at night) plays extremely loud music from up the street 24/7 en mi barrio. I go to sleep to the sweet sounds of reggaetone. Found chocolate milk yesterday!!! Going into the center of the city (Santo Domingo)tomorrow to find the Peace Corps office. Fellow volunteers are awesome. Lucky to have great vecinos (neighbors) in my barrio (neighborhood). So much to say!

So this is it...

So this is the "blog" I'll be using while I'm in the DR. Under my profile is a link to my pictures website. I'll try to keep both updated, but just know I was never good at keeping a journal.