Stop. Rewind. Start over again.

"Hi. My name is Laura, but they call me Jocelyn"

Yes, in my short time here I have adopted my first nickname!!!

I will be at my new site almost a week now and it feels like I have been here for longer. Not because it is dragging but because I feel like I know so many people in this community already. Los Blancos is a small town with a campo feel of about 550 houses. It is right on the southern coast of the country and has beautiful scenery. I am living with a host family again, just for one month while I settle here and will then move to my own place which I have already picked out. I will  be working with two women s associations that are already going here and have already formed two youth groups. I will be starting our meetings this coming weekend and am so excited! This community is very motivated and I have had a lot of people ask to participate already.

This is an agricultural community where the primary focus is coffee. The women I hang out with everyday sell all sorts of produce that their family grows in the mountain. This community sits right at the foothills of the mountain overlooking the coast..ya tough life, I know. So the women sit under this large, breeze inviting tree all day and I relax right there with them.


My typical day here has consisted of the following:
- wake up around 7 am
- do a cross word puzzle or two while sipping on coffee on a rocking chair
- shower, get dressed and go outside to sit under a tree for an hour or so chatting with women and eating mango for breakfast.
- I take a walk to visit other houses
- Come back and wait for lunch while sitting under the tree with the women
- Have lunch
- have coffee under the tree with the women
- Have mango for dessert
- Sit in the rocking chair planning some work stuff
- take a break to have another mango or two
- read or take a walk
- 5:30 I go on a coastal run to the nearby town of Los Patos
-shower
-have dinner
- in bed by 9:30

I am loving life right now and am so grateful that the stars aligned perfectly to put me here. I love the people in my new community and am already getting so much support. This is a beautiful place, with beautiful people.

Leaving my project partner's house - heading home

Standing at the front door of my host moms house. the torquie blue you see is the ocean!

PCVs rent a house in a nearby town right on the water for R&R

and play Settlers

San Rafael House - PCV renters

waiting for the guagua with fellow southerners

my kinda- host sister...i have about 50 pictures of her posing...domminican style

my best girlfriend so far..yes shes 14

finishing up for my first charla

the green house with the white picket fence is my host family's house...yeah i know...Peace Corps?

one off my youth helping me figure out how to hang it

my invention for not having a stand or board...one of the girls in my escojo group

MANGO!

So much floss is necessary after this

one of the women I spend hours a day with chilling under the tree and just looking out into the ocean!

my running route