Estoy Aqui!

I am here! It wasn’t a long trip from Washington D.C. to Santo Domingo, though it seemed that way as 36 of us rose to meet an exciting day at 3am! As a team leader I was in charge of making sure that myself and 8 of my teammates arrived at each location; the bus, the Washington airport, the Miami airport, and finally Santo Domingo, la capital de la Republica Dominicana!

As we stepped into what seemed like 90 degree heat and humidity in our business casual attire, we were all beaming with excitement. We packed into vans and thus began the job of a lifetime!

For the next two weeks we will be in classes here at the oasis of a training center near Santo Domingo. We have class from 8am – 5pm six days a week, including Spanish, Safety, Health, Transportation and Culture. After the two weeks we will begin the technical training in our specific fields of work, either Computer Information Technology, Special Education or Community Environmental Development.

Each of us is living with our own host family, who either doesn’t speak English or is instructed not to with us. My family is wonderful! My Senor and Senora are surprisingly young and are always watching out for me and feeding me lots of delicious things! Here is a picture of my standard breakfast. There is at least one plate of fresh tropical fruit with all of my meals and I get a smoothie or fresh made juice with breakfast too (though I must say that not all volunteers have it quite so good)!

The standard diet here consists of lot of rice and beans, eggs and chicken, as far as I can tell. I tell my Senora that she is the best cook in the city, she loves to cook and I have eaten some excellent eggplant, tomatoes every day and more melon, papaya (lechosa) and bananas than I have ever eaten in my life!

In addition to my Senora and Senor I have two sisters, ages 3 and 13 who are both a ton of fun! The younger one is exactly like my cousin Jada – but dubbed in Spanish! She loves to dance and has quite the attitude! The older one and I talk about our classes a lot and we have been helping each other learn our new languages (as she is currently learning English). I have a lot of trouble understanding them all so it is difficult to spend every evening here (and by every evening I mean the six days I have been here, though it seems like an eternity when you can’t communicate well!).

Fortunately, the 35 young Americans I’m sharing this experience with are some of the most kind and interesting people I have ever met. We range in age from about 22 – 35, with all different interests and skills, but I have enjoyed absolutely every minute I have spent with them, each and every one! I could not have hand picked a better group of people to share this time with.

I have also been extremely fortunate to be one of the two volunteers who shares a house with another! My friend Cecelia lives downstairs with the grandmother of my family and we couldn’t be more happy! She is such a fabulous person and we never go anywhere without each other – which is fun and safe! Here is a picture of my patio, our absolute favorite place to talk, study and have coffee.

The seven of us share a fairly large house, about the size of two small apartments, which is pretty nice for the area. Below is a picture of my room complete with my mosquitero. (The mosquito net I sleep under as a precaution against malaria and dengue fever...though we have been vaccinated quite a few times already for various things and there are more to come!) Anyway, we don’t have running water in our house but it really hasn’t been unpleasant except when I have to dump a bucket of cold water over my head in order to shower! Even in this wonderfully warm climate this is quite a task – like jumping into a cold pool on a hot day…every day! Fortunately, we have electricity for most hours of the day, but what is worse than no longer being able to watch your favorite shows (House, MD and The Simpsons in my case)??? Having to watch them in a language you don’t know, completely dubbed over in Spanish! No!!!!! As me and Cecelia say, “Guelga me!” (Hang me!) My Senora says it’s good for me.