A lot has happened in this past week.
For starters: Due to a safety and security incident, I moved
houses and host families. Where I was living turned out to be an inappropriate
placement for a volunteer. Luckily Peace Corps staff was incredibly receptive
and quick acting. I am now living in a nice neighborhood with a shower (yes, no
awkward bucket baths for another week), a nicer room (cha-ching!) and a 13 year
old host brother who lets me watch an episode of New Girl every night with him
on his computer. My host mother is an older woman, I would say late 60’s who is
a true Dona. She definitely feeds me well (so far I would say I am half way to
my second round of the freshman 15), does my laundry, chats with me, and
actually partakes in helping me with homework! I feel so cared for and
definitely look forward to coming home! When I heard the other trainees talking
about having this last week I was confused and now I see the experience they
were talking about and the one we’re “supposed” to have. I am sure many of you would like to know what
happened with Blanca but I would rather not share on a public forum like this.
Know that I am okay and am feeling safer and better in my new home! BEST PART –
my new Dona has given me fruit with every meal! Yay for finally having proper
digestive processes’ (sorry for the TMI)
A bit about training….ITS INTENSE! Day in and day out we are
constantly being given tons and tons of information about every topic and idea
that us as future volunteers should know. History and politics of the DR,
geography, topography and meteorology of the country, learning the Dominican
past times and practicing them in class, tons of transportation training (more
on that later), a lot of sector related information and training (my sector is
HEALTH IN CASE YOU HAVENT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION!), tons of medical info and
vaccinations, culture and “dominicanisms”, a lot of language training (for
those of us that know the language we are learning a lot about different
Dominican words and especially about how they say words…they speak very
different than I am used to. Some of the trainees who don’t know the language I
think are better off. ) The days are heavy and we go, go, go all day 8-5 with a
lunch break in the middle where we fill up on rice, usually some kind of meat, and beans. After
training we walk home and continue “learning” with our host families while we
are integrating, eating with them, doing tons of homework and just getting to
know them. We have to be “ON” all the time > it is exhausting.
Transportation : We have been learning how to get around
this crazy city. There is no rhyme or reason to how people get around. Other
than stuffing the Guaguas full of people.
ALWAYS 5 per row and usually 5 in the row with the driver. The guy who
you pay hangs out the door and looks like he could fall at any moment. It is
hot, it smells, and you will exchange sweat with strangers…it’s inevitable. You
will also feel like you are bound to get into an accident….the guaguas, or any
car for that matter, do not follow traffic laws (I actually don’t know if there
even are any). There are no established
stops…when it seems like you’re in the area where you need to get off you yell
REALLY LOUD “HERE” or “WHEN YOU CAN” (all in Spanish of course). Then the guy
hanging out the window bangs on the side of the guagua if the driver doesn’t
stop. It’s all pretty loud and chaotic. Today we will learn how to properly
ride a Motoconcho – a motorcycle taxi where five people can catch a ride up a
mountain, to the beach, down the street, to the store, etc. We get our helmets
too since we will be using motoconchos on our volunteer visits (more on this
below) –
-talk to my brother if you want some serious detail about
the chaos that is transportation here…he got a detailed description!
Cultural things!
It has been more difficult than I expected to get used to
life here. I imagine part of it is the constant, unrelenting chaos that is
Pantoja (the area of the city where we live and have training – look it up!)
Every morning I walk to the training center and I have to walk down the main
drag of Pantoja. It is essentially a two lane road with sidewalks made up of
sand, dirt, broken glass, uneven rocks formations, rusty fences, a lot of trash
and people EVERYWHERE. I walk by several colmados
(corner stores) and a truck load of chickens in plastic cages…it smells awful
and it smells even worse on mornings when I am feeling nauseous from my
breakfast. During this walk I get hissed at 9/10 times, am hyper aware of how
white I am and can feel the anger rise every time I get a piropo (gnarly
comment as I walk by a guy) – I think the hissing is worse though. It sounds
like a snake is in your ear….ugh I hate it. I have let it roll off though, I
know it does no harm and it only bothers me if I let it. So I laugh to myself a
little every time cuz it is ridiculous that men just sit and do that ALL THE
TIME to any female…
The religious aspect of the culture here is interesting. I
currently live with a Cristiana. My host mother goes to church every day and
sings, dances and from what I can tell when I walk by in the mornings and
afternoons, it is a church where people end up speaking in tongue. She is very
respectful about not imposing views but every day, at least once, she talks to
me about our father and his time for everything. I do my best to sit, listen,
nod and respect her beliefs. She has asked me about mine and I say that I have
beliefs and they may not be similar to hers but I still want to know about her
experience. I figure it’s a good way to set a boundary while letting her know I
am interested and teaching her something about myself.
History and zone tour
The history of this country is something I never knew about
and more interesting that I would have imagined. For the sake of not wanting to
provide wrong information, I am directing you to look it up. Google the following if interested:
-
Columbus and the Island of Hispaniola
-
Trujillo,
las hermanas mirabal, Dominican Republic
-
Hatian
and Dominican relationship
With our language clases we went to El Museo de la
Resistencia – it covered Trujillo’s dictatorship – fascinating and devastating.
This past Sunday, we had the option of taking a Colonial
Zone tour with an incredible woman who is doing some awesome research on the
Tainos (indigenous people of the DR). We learned so much about the island and
how the DR was the first to have a school, a cathedral, a hospital, etc. in all
of the Americas. Much more to it….look it
up for sure!
Another cool fact I learned today – the UN names Lago
Enriquillo a Biosphere Reserve in 2002 – the lake is located in the south
region and is a lage salt water lake where there are two species of iguanas
(which apparently never happens), tons of flamingos, crocodiles, etc.
Friends
and awesome-ness
I have to say that I have met some incredible people. I was
thinking about how close we have become and realized that we already had a
major base of friendship covered…having the same values. If you join Peace
Corps, you see the world a certain way! It’s definitely awesome to be around
people who are also so passionate about international development and global
change! We celebrated a birthday on
Saturday and all went to her host mother’s house where we MacGyver’d a flip cup
table, danced for hours and bonded!
Volunteer visit and regions of the country!
On Thursday I leave for a
volunteer site visit. One of our trainers put it well – “you will be going to a
volunteer’s natural habitat”. We finally get to see what it is like to work as
a volunteer in Peace Corps Dominican Republic!!! I am more excited for this
than I expected! We are all expected to hop on the crazy public transportation
system and make our way to the part of the country where our volunteer lives.
Mine lives in Puerto Plata, a little southeast of Luperon (a major city there).
He lives in the campo, the most rural type of placement. I think it is going to
be great and I can’t wait to experience life in the campo for four days!!!!
I will do my best to post more
often…I rarely have internet but will try to post about my volunteer visit
before I head out to El Cabreto NEXT Thursday for “Community based Training”
for 5.5 weeks!
I am missing everyone like crazy
Happy Reading!
