"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...