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.

La Republica Dominicana

I am in the very hot Dominican Republic. We got in yesterday afternoon and stayed the night together and today we are at our training center. We just ate lunch and this afternoon we will have language interviews and then we will go to meet our host families tonight. We're all really tired and hot, so I am sure this is going to make for an interesting experience. The weather here is probably 95 and 80% humidity.

I'm getting to know lots of the other volunteers, but there are still a few that I haven't even met yet. I have some pictures to post, but I don't have my camera card with me right now. I'll post more later.


Things are going great and it's really looking like we're going to get to head to Honduras July 22nd.

Happy 4th to everyone!

Flexibility

Well, my journey has finally begun and there have already been some kinks along the way. First of all, the past couple of weeks have been so emotionally draining that I cannot even begin to describe that feeling. Monday and Tuesday, I was so nervous, I couldn't eat and my stomach hurt like I've never felt before. I kept questioning myself as to why I'm doing this.

Monday afternoon, the Peace Corps office in Washington, D.C., called and told me that Tuesday (yesterday) I would be still going to Miami for Staging (introduction and orientation to PC), but that we would be going to the Dominican Republic instead of Honduras. Wow. Big change in plans.

If you haven't seen the news lately, on Sunday afternoon there was a coup where the military arrested the President of Honduras. Since then lots of things have gone done, but all in all, Peace Corps made the decision that we should hold off on our entry into Honduras. They came up with a plan to send us to the Dominican Republic for a tentative 3 weeks where we will begin training as scheduled. Only now, in the Caribe!! (Which I am pumped about!) Most of the PC staff from Honduras will be joining us in D.R. for a couple of weeks to get us started. Because of the sudden change of plans, they were not able to buy plane tickets to get us all on the same plane to D.R. today. We are traveling there in 4 groups. One group left today. My group is leaving at 4 a.m. tomorrow (not pumped about that), and the other 2 groups will leave on later flights tomorrow. Meanwhile, we're hanging out in Miami.

Yesterday was an extremely long day with saying goodbye to family, almost missing my flight, getting to Miami, then sitting through hours of Staging, which really wasn't that bad. Our group is quite different than I had imagined. I thought there would be more hippie-type, but really most everyone is really normal. I was also surprised by the ages of all of us. Of course, I haven't met everyone yet (there are 51 of us), but most of the group is straight out of college. Maybe that's a generalization, but I feel older than a lot of these people. There are a couple of older people with us too though, including a couple from AZ. There are also 2 or 3 married couples. I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone. The teacher in me is coming out, because I've already learned a majority of everyone's names. Haha. It's kinda sad.

I'm going to go play in Miami. Hopefully South Beach. :) I'll be in the Dominican tomorrow. I will have wireless internet there, so I will be sure to update as to where the road will take us next.

Flexibility is key in a successful Peace Corps experience. I'm perfectly fine with the flexibility I'm having to maintain right now. That flexibility is taking me to a Caribbean island that I wasn't planning on seeing, and I'm totally okay with that.

Maya

I miss my dog Maya so much already. I think I'm going to miss her more than just about anyone else (except for my mom maybe).

27 days to 27 months

I leave in 27 days.... I have moved out of my apartment and sold lots of my stuff, but I still have lots more to do. These next few days are going to fly. There will be lots of goodbyes, tears, and hugs.

Right now I am in Colorado visiting a friend. Before that, I was in Montana visiting another friend. This trip has been a good distraction from the waiting and preparing that is to come in the next few weeks.

I'm freaking out. Not nervous, but it's a strange reality that I am going to be leaving for 27 months. Crazy!

Check out some pics from my trip if you'd like:
Album 1

Album 2

last day of school

Today was the last day of school. I will miss my kids tons....

Love all you guys.

58 days

I leave in 58 days. 

Today my mom tried to talk me out of going into the Peace Corps. She's starting to freak out because I guess she is realizing how close it is getting. 

When I was studying abroad in the fall of 2007, I made a list of ambitions and things that I want to do in my life. A few of them included:

-Get a master's degree

-Be a teacher

-Live outside of the U.S. for a period of time

I graduate from graduate school next weekend with my masters degree in education. I have been a 7th grade teacher for the past year, and I love it, and I am about to embark on a journey of living outside the U.S. for a period of time. 27 months to be exact. None of these things were put on that list in hopes of accomplishing them in the near future, more so down the road, but suddenly 3 of the major ones have been crossed off the list. And almost effortlessly. How has that even happened? 

I need to make more lists. Maybe those things will fall into place just as easily. (hopefully hopeful.)

I am moving out of my apartment in about 3 more weeks in preparation to move to Honduras 4 weeks after that. I will be keeping my stuff in a storage unit for 2 years for a total of about $1700. Is it worth it? I am beginning to think that I should sell it all.