Books and Babies!

Hola todos!

We’re here and we are happy and safe the last few days have been a whirlwind but everything is going well. Here is our timeline: We had some pre-training in Miami, then we left for Santo Domingo (where we are for 3 weeks of language and culture training), then we will go into el “campo” – the less urban regions of the DR – for specific job-related training and more language training (5 weeks) then we come back to Santo Domingo to wrap up and be sworn in as official volunteers. It’s all so exciting! Darryl and I are living together with the same Dona (host mother) for the first 3 weeks, but since we have different jobs, we’ll be separate during the job training for 5 weeks. I will be in Constanza and Darryl will be in Bani.

Interesting facts about the trip so far:

• Nobody can say Darryl’s name, so he’s thinking of changing it. I like “Enrique” but he likes “Dimitri” because it’s close to his middle name (Demetrius)…but Dimitri is not Dominican…it’s Russian or something!

• Today se fue la luz! The electricity is inconsistent, so whenever it wants to, it goes off. You often hear people say “se fue la luz!” (The lights went out!)

• We had interviews in Spanish today that will place us in the level of Spanish classes that we belong in. I think it went pretty well.

• We learned about medical stuff…including dengue fever and malaria. I have about 5-6 mosquito bites already (in spite of the repelente and el mosquitero – mosquito net). I’ll keep you posted on that.

• The training center is beautiful! There are pictures.

• We rode our first “guagua” this morning. A guagua (pronounced “gwah-gwah”) is a van used for public transportation and it’s cheap and convenient to ride…however, I have to let go of my American need for personal space – because there is NONE! I got to know a stranger really well this morning because it was so packed.

Ok, I think that’s it for now. Here’s the wrap-up:

Plates of rice and beans eaten: 5-6

Spending money: $45 pesos a day (about $1.50 US)

Temperature upon arrival in the DR: 98 degrees

Anti-malarial pills: 2

Shots: 2 (with 7 to go!)

Conversations understood: maybe 5 out of 200

The experience thus far: priceless

Nos vemos! (see ya!)

P.S.  I have some pictures, but I don’t have time to post them…I’m in an internet cafe (can you believe it Imana?…running water and electricity are inconsistent but there’s an internet cafe right up the street!)

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pm Filed under Uncategorized and. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.