(José Miguel, 2/25/2007)

Well it has been a fun and eventful month of February. I brought in the new month by heading to the nearby penninsula of Samaná for a regional meeting of all volunteers in the Cibao region. The meeting was spiced up by taking the following day to go on a whale watch! It turns out that our North Atlantic Humpback whales come down here to this specific bay in the warmer waters of the Dominican Republic to mate. It was a good time to get to know other volunteers and enjoy a few days away. Samaná is so beautiful! The whales were very active too, we even saw one breaching. We went out in small motor boats, about the size of a Humpback whale, so it made it a little nerve wracking to see them jumping out of the water so close to where we were! Here are some photos:

This month marked the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps in this country, so they held a big celebration for a weekend in Santo Domingo with current and former volunteers from decades past. There were free and paid events, and one returned volunteer named Jackie Alcorn, who served in the years 1965 – 1967 (during the American occupation – scary!), was kind enough to sponsor me so I could attend the paid events. It was so inspiring and motivating to talk to Jackie and other former volunteers to hear what they did and how important their Peace Corps experiences were to their lives, enough so to come back to the country and celebrate it 40 years later! It helped me see the big picture again of what this experience can mean, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day little things that distract you from that greater understanding.

That Friday all current volunteers were invited to the National Palace to meet the Vice President of the country! I really wish I had pictures of these things, but cameras were not allowed in the Palace and I´ve just been really lazy in general lately. They did, however, air the entire one-hour meeting of each volunteer shaking VP Albuquerque´s hand on National TV, some people in my community saw it and told me about it. (That was actually the second time I was on TV here, the first was during training when we helped out with a youth group trip to a national park.) It was a unique experience, its not easy to get into the National Palace.

On to the following week, and Livin´ la Vida Loca! That´s right, I saw Ricky Martin in concert! Friends, you´re probably thinking, “I just don´t know Joan anymore!”, but I´ll tell you, it was a blast. I´d never been to a pop music concert like that, it was an event for sure. Lots of choreographed dancing, and Ricky had a different outfit on for every song. I went with three other female (obviously) volunteers, and we danced like Americans from the bleachers and had a great time! When else could you see a concert like that for $8? I´m not kidding, that´s how much we paid...

This month things have really been coming together at my site. I´m finishing up my community diagnostic and it has been really interesting. I´ll post the results when I´m finished. With this project I am determining which projects I´m going to work on throughout the year. It was a great way to get to know the community and individual people more, and to really understand what I am doing and why.

After six months of living with host families, still pulling belongings out of my half-packed suitcase, I have FINALLY moved out on my own! I got a SWEET deal, renting my own house for under $80 per month, which comes mostly furnished, including a CD player, TV, and DVD player! (“Joan, are you sure you´re in the Peace Corps?”) Yes I know, it seems a little strange, but they came with the house, why should I complain? Actually as soon as I moved in I realized that the CD player doesn´t work, the DVD player won´t play burnt CDs, and the TV is black and white. Plus, the power is still out half the time, so I still have to deal with that. The owner lives in Spain. I knew her mother, so she suggested that I rent the house. It has two bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a bathroom, and a storage unit for water. I stayed there for the first time last night, and though it was a little scary getting used to all of the new sounds, it was so nice to wake up to a cool morning in my own bed! It rained a little on Saturday when I was cleaning, so I got to hear the rain on my tin roof for the first time. ("Tiiiiiiin ROOF! Rusted.") Here are some photos, I´m so excited! My last bit of news is that I have joined the group of Peace Corps volunteers who works on the PCDR (Peace Corps Dominican Republic) magazine. It is like a fancy newsletter for all volunteers in the country. Volunteers can write in stories, funny or serious (I wrote a funny one, of course), and there are information updates, fun tidbits or games, etc. With my background in advertising and marketing I felt this was a perfect fit for me. We spent this past week, myself with five other volunteers, in the capital putting together the Spring issue. It was so much fun for me, I´m so glad I got involved. Again, I didn´t take pictures, but I at least do have this one that will serve as my staff photo. (The cover is a Rolling Stone spoof, so we had a rock and roll theme. This is me as, “Better than Joan Jett” Joan.)