New City

My new host family is great. It includes my host mom, Esperanza, her husband, Negro, their son, a daughter and her husband along with their 1 month old baby Carlos. A woman and her daughter come over everyday to cook and clean. And unlike most Dominican families, mine has a pet cat, Angora, I have seem her eat multiple lizzards. Next to our house is a small clothing store the family owns. They also own a bus or guagua that goes between different towns. I am the first trainee to live with them.

It is definitely more quiet here, I'm enjoying it. It is safer too so we can be out at night and walk home.

We will have class at the local high school and Spanish class at the house where our Spanish teacher is staying. During the week we visit schools, meet with current volunteers to learn about various topics, and met with youth groups. We walk home to have lunch with our families everyday and continue classes after that. We have quite a bit of free time so I'll be reading, studying  and compartiring(hanging out).

I wanted to tell you abut the interesting things I've eaten.

Hot chocolate with cloves and oatmeal, you drink it for breakfast or dinner,it's like chunky oatmeal.

Juego de avena, basically uncooked oatmeal, sugar, with water or milk blended up. I like it better than the hot chocolate. Whole grain juice.

Beans and rice, lucky me I haven't gone a day with out eating them.

Banana milkshake, made with sweet and condensed milk, so good but so bad for you.

Arepitas, pretty much a hush puppy with anis, these are my favorite.

Abechuelas dulces, sweet refried beans eaten during Semana Santa, can't decide if I am excited or scared to try this.

And how could I leave out salami.  Breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can find me staring at my fried salami thinking up ways to get rid of it.

Lately

Wow.  Time is flying by.  Last weekend I traveled to the South to stay with a current PCV, Rebecca.  She lives in a small town near the border, Commendador, Elias Piña.


I went to her Adult Literacy Class and her English Class.  Since it is so close to the border, there is a  Haitian market every Monday and Friday where they sell everything and anything.  Rebecca and I bought all sorts of food; eggs, cheese, bread, salami and avocados to name a few.  It was nice to be in control of what I ate.

I put up some photos on Facebook.

It's Thursday now.  The 3 training groups are going to different areas of the country today to continue technical training in what they call Community Based Training (CBT).  I am headed to the Eastern part of the country with the Education/Information Technologies group.  I am ready to get away from the craziness of Santo Domingo for awhile.  Hopefully our new city will be more relaxed.  If they don't have dogs or roosters I'd be the happiest person around.

Week 1

This week we learned to do some truly Dominican things like dance Merengue and Bachata and play Dominoes.  We traveled to the center of Santo Domingo too, where we learned how to get to the PC office and the Clinic.  We get our cell phones tomorrow!  I'll be sure to pass along my number because you will be able to call me!  I will also be celebrating my 23rd birthday!

I'm currently eating some cold spaghetti and fried plantains.  I'm not really hungry though because on my walk home from La Sirena, the DR superstore, I stopped at another trainee's house and his Doña fed me cake and mango juice.  I will definitely be stopping there more :)

On Saturday, I hope to be relaxing on a beach.  We still haven't worked out all the details, but hopefully it works out.  

Then, next weekend all of the Trainees go on a volunteer site visit, where we get to spend the weekend with a current volunteer in our sector.  I will be traveling to the Southern Region near the Haiti/DR border.  I hope I'm ready to take on their transportation system solo.

the new normal

I haven't been here but a couple days, but I see some patterns already.  I eat some form of banana everyday.  I eat them boiled, fried, right out of the peel.  Drink a ton of super sweet coffee; there is usually a teaspoon of undissolved sugar in the bottom of my cup.  I meet lots of new people, and remember not one of their names.  I smile and nod a lot because I have no idea what is being said.

I start Spanish class tomorrow.  We have class all week at the training center from 8-5.  I live a ways from the center and I walk there, unless I want to pay 20 pesos to take a shared taxi, which you can't actually take the whole way...just part way.

I look forward to understanding everyone and learning how to make toastones.

First Days

Day 1: We arrived this afternoon.  PCV's and staff greeted us at the airport. From there we went to a 'retreat' center. I had some delicious pineapple and super sweet coffee  before a short session about how training will go and a brief talk about medical stuff.  i got my mosquito net and we had dinner,which included rice,chicken, and carrots w/potatoes.

Day 2: We toured the training center today. It is going to be a great place to be the next 3 weeks.I started speaking Spanish, and I'm  not too bad. At the end of the day I met my host family. I will be staying with a nice lady and her 2 older kids.  Her 7 year old niece came over and talked my ear off.  I took my first bucket bath and will sleep under a mosquito net for the second night. My Kindle has been the best thing I've packed so far, free internet just about everywhere. I did have a moment today, I have temporarily misplaced my PC passport. I'll let you know when it turns up.

All I can ask is for the rest of my trip to continue to be like these first two days.

Staging

I arrived in DC last night for staging.  We leave tomorrow morning for the DR.  There are a surprising 52 people in our training class.  We had orientation all day, and I'm officially a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT).  I had Thai for dinner, and tried to get a cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes, but they were sadly closed.

My last days in the States have been great; western themed going-away party was fun, I met Mark in Vegas, and ate pizza and burgers for the last time.

It snowed 6'' in Kingman, and DC is pretty cold.  So, I can't wait for the warmth.

I am excited to speak Spanish, but less excited about not having a phone.  It is such a luxury to pick up your cell and call whoever.