yesterday

I wrote this yesterday or the day before, but I haven't had a chance to post it. Here goes:

La Vida Republica Dominicana

I am really enjoying life here. The culture is very much like other Spanish-speaking countries that I have been to, yet very different. It reminds me a lot of Cuba. The Spanish here is some of the most different that I have heard. They speak extremely fast (I think even faster than the Puerto Ricans), and I am already starting to pick up on the extreme exaggerations and very expressive language the Dominicans use. Like other Caribbean Islands, everyone enjoys drinking rum and their national beer is Presidente. El merengue is the national dance and we’re learning it today in class, along with Dominoes. Everyone plays Dominoes like it’s their job. It’s great. People stop by all the time and we pull out the Domino table and play a couple games. The Domincan Republic is a very talkative culture. At night, I have been so tired from listening to so much Spanish all day that I want to go to bed at 9:00. The food has been pretty good, but not much variety or vegetables. It’s tough to get accustomed to eating this many carbohydrates.

The family I am living with is great. I have the most outgoing Doña (this is what you call an older woman, the head of the house). Her name is Oneida. She has 12 children, only one of which lives here with her. She also has 9 brothers and sisters, so pretty much there are always people stopping by and coming to visit their sister, mom, grandmother, great grandmother. She’s great and everyone around here knows here. La Doña never stops talking. Haha. My “sister” is Germinia and she’s 28, the youngest of the 12. That’s all that lives here, but it feels like a lot more than that are here at any given time. My family is also Baptist, which is kind of strange. Most the people here are Catholic, but I went to the good ole Southern Baptist Church with my family on Sunday.

Training is going well. There have been some definite boring times as we go through all the rules of Peace Corps and all the health and safety standards. Today we were told the results of our Spanish proficiency exam and I placed into Advanced High and I’m in one of the two highest classes, which is pretty exciting. This means that when we get to Honduras (eventually and hopefully), I will not have to attend daily Spanish classes like the rest of everyone else. Instead, I will get to do other projects out in the community. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know more people that are with us, but one person has already gone home. That leaves us at 50.

I have to get 4 more vaccinations, and I am not excited about that. Some people say they are already getting homesick and stuff like that, but I hate to break it to you, I am not. I am adjusting to this culture very easily and I have enjoyed it tremendously thus far. I’m sure the missing will come, but I don’t know to what extent I will experience culture shock this time. Who knows when it will hit me though, or how it will do so.

It’s extremely hot and humid and mosquitoes are rampant here, but fortunately, they don’t like my blood here like they do in the States. I have only been bitten once even though they swarm in the dark corners of the house (knock on wood). We’re taking Malaria medicine though and it’s giving me terrible nightmares. I’m not looking forward to taking this for the next 26 months. The humidity here is absolutely ridiculous. You can’t even imagine. The power goes out several times a day and we drag little chairs outside and sit under the trees or on the front porch and shoot the breeze (if we’re lucky enough to have one that day). I’m getting used to cold bucket showers twice a day. You almost crave those cold showers, because you need them to cool off and stop sweating, if only momentarily. I’m sleeping under a mosquito net with a fan blowing on me, at least until the power goes out. Oh and I can’t forget the ear plugs, a definite necessity if you want to get any sleep here. The culture is loud and I feel like people never go to sleep, the dogs bark, and the roosters crow, and I love it because it’s culture and I’m a part of it, even if I have the whitest skin and bluest eyes in my neighborhood.

We still don’t know what we’re going to be doing about continuing on to Honduras. The situation isn’t looking very good from what I read today, but hopefully things will start looking up. They tell us they will make a decision by the end of the week as to if we will go or not. Please think and pray for me in this. I’ve given up pretty much my life to do this for the next two years, and I don’t want this to end here. There’s a possibility that if we cannot go to Honduras, they will try to assign us to different countries, but who knows how long that will take or where in the world we will end up. Keep an eye on the news for me.

Por tres semanas, soy Dominicana y lo me encanta. Mañana aprendemos bailar el merengue y la salsa, y jugar a los dominoes.