Week one of my new surroundings.

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  Pentojas, Dominican Republic
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Hola y como estas!

Yes, I am still alive and well, but just found the internt cafe today. I miss you all!Things have been great here since coming to the DR. I have been journaling every day to capture my experience, and will try to sum up the key aspects as best as possible!

At the airport, we all piled in like a bunch of kids going to disneyland for the first time in our lives. Such excitement and anxity! I begged my PC sister, Lali, to let me sit at the window seat so I could see the ocean we were flying over. There were several little islands uninhabited by people smack dab in the middle of the ocean. Then, all of a sudden, we were flying over the DR. We descended onto the Island and could see miles of tin roofed shacks, surrounded by perfectly manicured baseball diamonds.

Once at the Santo Domingo airport, we were met by our country director and descended outside to pile onto buses. You could breath the humidity once stepping outside and I realized "Lisa, your not in San Diego anymore!" Boy was it hot.

We started down the walkway amongst many other people on either side. We felt like celebrities going down the red carpet. Several onlookers held Peace Corps signs and some clapped. We later realized these were our trainers, but we felt pretty special nonetheless!

The first night we were in a retreat center and I got the first taste of all the wonderful people in my training group. It became apparent to me when one girl, frustrated, could not mount her mosquito net ( a must-have for all the diseases we are going to be getting apparently). We all worked together and suddenly, bobby pins became hooks and plastic bags and yarn and luggage tags became anchors. It was truly an exhibit of teamwork and utilizing your resources.

The next day we went to an orientation and were told, once again (there would be about fifty more talks between then and now) of all the diseases we have to avoid. Fun times. Then, we met our host families and went home with them. I had a lot of anxiety in the fact that I speak little spanish and would be thrust into this situation with such limited communication. I was pretty sure the first night that my family thought I was a complete moron. I believe in some ways they still do, but I am at least used to it by now! ha

So now that I Have been here almost a week, I have broken down the intresting aspects of my Dominican life:

Lifestyle:
I take two baths per day because it is so blasted HOT! THese baths consist of "bucket baths" because you have to dip a small bucket into a larger one and pour it over your head because sometimes there isn't any running water...actually, most of the time there isn't. I actaully don{t mind the bucket baths and like them quite well. I have electricity, but that's not a constant either. It goes out mostly at night. However, I am told that I am living in the lap o' luxury because when I get to the Campo (my work sight) I will not have it so good! The other day I straightened my hair and put on makeup as a special treat to myself, but soon after, my hair was wavy again and my makeup was melted onto my face. No worries though, because i haven't really felt the need to be attractive really. We have one phone, but I try not to use it too often, because we were told by our trainers not to hold up the phone line and also it took me about an hour to figure out how to use a stupid phone card to call my dad.

Activities:

The biggest pastime here is "chismea" which means gossip. They sit outside all day and night in these chairs outside the house and talk and talk and talk. Now most of you who know me would think that I would be in Hog Heaven with this activity, but mostly I sit and stare into blank space with my spanish dictionary on my lap, trying to make out some phrase or word to no avail. They all sit in the streets and when a car comes, they pick up and move, and then when the car passes, they go right back to where they left off. Other activities are playing dominos and baseball. I had a real culture shock the other day wehn I approached a few men with my mitt and asked if they wanted to play and they laughed at me. THey then explained that I was a girl and could not play baseball. My little brother, Jefferson, age 11 agreed to bite the bullet and play a game of catch with me, and I believe the young men were quite impressed that a girl could actually catch and throw. Another popular activity is drinking. They LOVE to drink. In fact, it isn't too uncommon to see children with beer or rum. I have not engaged in alcohol consumption, even when it is offerd, because of all the warnings up the yin-yanhg about public drunkedness from our PC trainers.

Food:

Food here is awesome, mostly rice, beans, and chicken or pork. Although, the other night I was served some sort of mystery meat which I could not eat, and played it off quite well. The serving of rice, meat and beans is called La Bandera, which signifies the colors of the DR flag. The fresh fruit and juices are amazing...mangos, lemonade, etc. The avocados here are as big as a large squash or gourd and they are delicioso! Also, the thing that I LOVE The most is the Coffee. I feel like I have died and gone to heaven, it's so great. And they drink it all day long! Other food sare mostly potatos, cheese, and lots of starchy other stuff and fried stuff.

Transportation: luckily, so far, we have only traveled mostly by foot. We got to go on the public transportation for practice yesterday, and it was quite the adventure. Mostly, we went into the city and back on these things called Guaguas, which are buses, they jam pack with people. The other mode of transportation are carros publicos, which are cars that people also use as taxis. The third mode is Moto conchos, which are motorcycles you hop on the back of, but we are not aloud to ride those just yet, and it's no wonder why when you see them screeching down the road. Everyone drives like a maniac. THer are no defined rules or anything. Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way. I have found that the bigger cars have the advantage.


My typical day:

So most of my days consist of about five hours of spanish, and then technical training and more health clinics to reiterate more diseases we will get if aren't cautious. Honestly, I have learned to leave my germaphobic conditiion back at the states, because they arent nearly as clean consciouis as we are in the states, but I think that in the states we tend to be paranoid. I have yet to get any sort of sickness yet, so I really think that it is all hype. Anyway, today we had our first technical training and talked about what we will be doing when we visit our technical site next week for four days, where we will live with another volunteer and do a mini internship with a youth group. After school I usually try to go hang out with some of the other volunteers in my neighborhood or play dominos or stare blankly again outside while i listen to conversations and try to comprehend them.

Things I miss the most:

You all, of course! But also, I think i miss the freedom and independence to just get up and go wherever without having to tell someone, go with someone else, or figure out how I was giong to get there. A bunch of us volunteers planned a day trip to go to Ole, which is sort of like a Wal-mart with food. We walked there and you would think that we were kids going to a candy store whos parents never served us candy. We stalked up on candy and cookies and ice cream and I bought some disinfectent for my own peace of mind.
I also miss being able to do simple things as far as communication is concerned. Like I wanted to develop film, but I didn{t feel comfortable communicating with the photomat person. But I am sure these are all things I will adjust to soon.

ON a final note, I hope you are all doing well. I havent received letters from anyone but I hear it takes about 3-5 weeks to get mail to us, so if you did write and didn't hear back, it isn{t because i dont like you! Also, it is very difficult to get stamps and find a post office as well so some of you may not receive letters from me for a while.

This internet cafe is close to school, so I may be able to visit it a few times, but not too often, because money is limited.

I hope you are all doing well, and God bless!!

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