Its no day at the beach (actually, it is)

Well, I finally made it to the beach! When you're on a Carribean island it just feels right to see a beach to confirm that you're actually there. Holy crap was the water warm. And the waves were huge! They were so much fun to swim in. We were at a beach called La Playa Caribe, which is just past Boca Chica, a popular tourist beach near Santo Domingo. My family took me on Sunday, along with a friend from training, Angela from Indiana. We also ran into two other trainees at the beach - Cat (from Rockport!) and Aaron. We had fun swimming in the water and finally feeling like real tourists. At one point a little girl came up to me and said, "you're really white". She couldn't stop staring at my legs. I'm here seeing new sights, but at the same time I'm a sight to them!

My host family also took me out on Saturday to the movies! I got to bring a friend here too, Adrienne from Michigan/Chicago. We saw a local movie which is popular right now called "Viajeros", or "Travelers", which is about Dominicans trying to flee to Puerto Rico in a small row boat. It was very sad, a little cheesy too, but I learned a lot from it as well. Here is me and Adrienne on my front porch.

We also got to see a few sights in Old Santo Domingo this past week during one of our training sessions. They took us into the city to practice using public transportation, visit the Peace Corps headquarters, and get a general feel of the city and how to get around. At the Peace Corps headquarters I got this picture with the country director, Romeo Massey.

Dominican Republic was the first place where Columbus landed in the Americas, so there are a lot of "firsts" in this country: first road, first university, and here we are in front of the first church of the Americas.
Though I've been having fun, there are still a lot of general frustrations that are surfacing now that I've been here for some time. The language barrier can of course be very frustrating. For example, "Joanne, I am waiting for you," says Martha, host mom. "You are? Why? You want me to go to the store with you to get some corn? Why did you just serve me breakfast and then say you are waiting for me to go to the store? The store is three feet away!" Turned out she was going to get her hair done and wanted me to bring the things back. I had completely missed this.
I also wasn't understanding when my host father was trying to tell me about his son, Angelito. A common name, I thought, especially for girls - Angelita. But why doesn't his son live here? I wondered. "He lives with God," he told me. Angelito literally means "little Angel". Their youngest son had died.

I will learn the language, of course. I already feel improvement. However, their are other areas where I will also need to learn and make adjustments. Cultural differences can definitely take their toll. For example, why did you tell my friend that we would pick her up at 9:00 am to go to the beach when we didn't leave until 11:15? Dominicans are fashionably late as a norm. Also, the water has been a big issue for me. We were without running water for almost six days, during which it came on briefly twice on the outside pump, just enough to fill the basins we use to store water for when the water is out. Not being able to wash my hands, do dishes, or do laundry with running water was an irritating challenge. The electricity is still out more than half the time, but I have realized that I would rather have running water than electricity.

Anywho, all trainees get to visit a "real" volunteer at their sights for the latter half of this week. I'll be staying in a city called El Seibo in the east of the country. We will get to see how they live and ask them questions about their work. I'm really excited about it! In about two weeks we will leave Santo Domingo to head to different areas of the country to get some practical work experience and training in our specific work areas. I will be in a city called Nagua, on the north coast.

Until next time,
Joan

PS - I may not be able to update every week, be prepared for sporadic posts : )

We're not in Kansas anymore

Well, I have made it to the Dominican Republic and finished one full week of training! Things have been incredibly busy, our schedule is laid out for us and has been jam-packed every day. The staging sessions in Miami were a lot of fun and it was great to meet all of the new faces I will surely get to know too well. To the left is a picture of me with Christina from Seattle in the Miami airport.

Lacking sleep from having to get up at 4:00am for my initial flight and never getting the chance to sleep in caught up to me very quickly, and by the time we arrived in the DR I was exhausted. I had a hard time keeping up with the rest of our busy week! Emotions have been up and down since, but I think that just comes with the territory.

We started in a retreat center in Santo Domingo, where we had some medical and program briefings. This was the day we first received our mosquito nets and malaria medications, two un-fun essentials. Here is Emily (from Massachusetts) attempting to mount our mosquito nets for the first time. We had our first taste of Dominican food here as well. Some people love it, I think its OK but I worry about getting sick of rice and beans every day for two years!

After our initial retreat we headed to the training center, where we will spend our first month and last two weeks of training. It is a nice compound on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, fitted with fruit trees of all types and cute little lizards running around everywhere. I was lucky to be placed with a family who lives pretty close to the center, I have a short 10 minute walk each morning and afternoon.

I live with a great family. There is the mother, or "Dona" of the house, father (of the younger daughter) "Don" Antonio, 17 year old daughter Ray, and a six year old girl named Lizbeth. They are very nice and treat me special in their house. At dinner, I sit at the head of the table and have the biggest plate. They also give me the most food, though I can't always eat it!

The house it quite different from what I am used to in many ways. Electricity is out half of the time, it usually comes on around 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening and goes on in the morning. This is fine, as it keep the fan on during the night! (The title "The Muggy Years" is more than accurate, the heat and humidity have been almost unbearable!) Water is also not always reliable, it has been off a couple of times. There is no shower or bath, instead we have a bucket of water and a smaller container that we use to scoop the water and pour it over us. The water is cold, but it is so hot here that I really need it to cool down my body temperature. Here are pictures of my host mother and sister at the training center the day we met, a "classroom" at the training center, my little sister Lizbeth (she's all over me all the time!), and my bedroom with my mosquito net:

There are also some obvious differences between my new neighborhood and life back home. First, there is noise ALL of the time. Latin music is always blaring from stores, homes, or car windows. A common form of transportation is the "carro publico", which is like a taxi. My first experience with one was quite interesting - my host mother met me at the school to take me home to her house. A taxi pulled up, but it was already full. No matter! Four people in the back and two in the passengers seat is the norm here. Here is Iosefa, another trainee, stacked in the back seat of a taxi as we had our first transportation lesson (an actual part of the class!).

There is so much to tell, but its hard to put it all into a nice neat message! I hope you enjoy reading, now that I know how to access the Internet I'll be keeping up with my posts!

Hasta la proxima - Until next time

Joan (Juanita - people seem to like that better than Juana. And Lord knows they can't pronounce my real name!)