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 : )