The Oughts

Navidad has come and gone. Actually, I’m told Christmas is celebrated up through the New Year so there are still a few more days left. Christmas Eve, Noche Buena, and not Christmas Day is the day with the most significance here. The Dominicans cook a large meal (what would normally serve as a week’s worth of food), spend time with family and walk the streets sporting their Christmas best. They also dip into some traditional alcoholic beverages, which turned the ordinarily pious evangelicals into inexperienced inebriates. Humor ensued. All passed by well and I got to spend part of Christmas Day at the beach with a couple of other volunteers. Not exactly a traditional Christmas, but who could complain about a day at the beach?

With that it is time to usher in the New Year. The new decade. This marks the end of what I consider to be my first complete decade. I lived through the 90’s, but was 4 when they began so I didn’t become mindful and aware of that decade until Grunge was out and Presidential indiscretions were in. With this past decade, which I’m told we are referring to as the Oughts, I was between the ages of 14 and 24. I came of age in the Oughts. These were my most formative years. The years of high school, college and early adulthood. The years that put me on a roundabout path to the DR.

I spent most of the decade in school and since then I have done a lot of wandering; taking one calculated step after the next to see the world while avoiding adulthood. I don’t know whether or not I should be concerned that the wandering will take me into a new decade and my late twenties. I’m comforted by Tolkien, who said, “Not all those who wander are lost”. I’m still wandering in a way, but don’t feel lost. I’m right where I need to be and don’t have to worry about the next step for another 23 months. The ‘Real World’ will catch up with me eventually, and I’ll have some great stories to tell it.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

¡Feliz Navidad!

The obvious beauty of the Caribbean surrounds me every day. The abundance of fruit trees, the white sand beaches, the dazzling sunsets and natural green everything. If I were here for a short vacation I would take note of each of these things and truly appreciate them. But as I am here every day, I too often fail to see and truly appreciate the physical beauty of my surroundings. On Monday I found myself in the back of my host family’s camióneta riding along the highway between nearby Hato Mayor and El Seibo with the Caribbean breeze in my face and for the first time in country, truly took in the impressive countryside and felt really at peace being here in the Dominican. I watched the clouds form over the mountains to the north and create a mystical haze over the conical lomas and the sun set behind us in an explosion of orange and pink and felt truly contented and at ease for the first time in the company of family and in my site.

We had our Peace Corps Christmas get-together hosted by our Country Director last Friday in the capital. It was a nice little break in a slow December month to meet up with other volunteers and eat some quality food. We had a Chinese dinner, which, while not traditional Christmas fare, was a more than welcome break from platanos y yuca. A small group of volunteers that live in the east made a pit stop in the beach town of Juan Dolio on the way back to our sites. I have been in the DR for 4 months now and had only been to the beach 1 time before this past weekend so I was due for some time at the playa. A day of sunbathing and sunburning was exactly what the doctor ordered after some recent stomach woes and a tranquilo month.

The holiday season feels very much unlike the holiday season. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it is still 80 and sunny rather than 30 and snowy. Maybe it’s the lack of Xmas music and movies. Maybe it’s the absence of Salvation Army bell ringers. It’s just not Christmas-y. After all, what is Christmas without 24 hours of A Christmas Story? I’ll be spending Christmas at my site with my host family, seeing how Dominicans celebrate Navidad, eating many apples, which are a holiday season delicacy here, playing Santa Claus for my family and hoping that Home Alone is on TV just once in English.

In the past few years I have spent much time and many holidays away from home but this will be my first Christmas away. Perhaps the most valuable attribute I brought with me into the country is imperviousness to homesickness. Not to say I don’t miss home, I just don’t suffer from homesickness. But even while not homesick, it’s weird to be out of the country and away from family and friends this time of year. It’s certainly helpful to have other volunteers here to share the holidays with and helpful to know that a New Year’s celebration is but a week away.

Happy Holidays!

Diagnostics

I know some out there are wondering what exactly it is I'm doing down here. I don’t know that I’ve taken much time to clarify. In all honesty, I’m still in the ongoing process of finding out myself. As a Youth, Family and Community Development volunteer my reach is quite broad. The list of potential projects is virtually endless. Right now though I have one specific task to focus much of my efforts on before tackling that endless list of projects.

These initial 3 months of service are dedicated to a Community Diagnostic. This is the time when we integrate into the community, build confianza, continue to improve our Spanish, attempt to meet everyone and work on a large presentation that will be our guide to projects and community needs over the next 2 years.

The diagnostic has many layers. There are interviews to be done with community members. Work to be done with community groups and organizations. Creation of community maps, priority matrices and seasonal calendars. Compiling of data to prepare the presentation and constructing a work plan for my first year of service.

Based on the results of my diagnostic, I will be better able to understand the needs of the community and the resources at my disposal to meet those needs. Doing this work and dedicating time to community integration prevents me from entering my site on Day 1 and thinking I know what is best for the community before I’ve even met with anyone. With the diagnostic I should able to better understand my community after 3 months and they’ll better understand who I am and what my role is as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

While that still doesn’t do much in explaining my role here as a Youth PCV and the types of projects I’ll eventually be doing, it does attempt to explain what it is I am to be doing (and not doing) in these initial months.

Knowing I have the diagnostic to complete is a necessary crutch to lean on. Not having multiple projects going on and having a flojo daily schedule can make one feel like they aren’t getting much accomplished and are doing a disservice to their community. The people here are definitely beginning to wonder when the gringo is gonna start doing stuff. I have to continually remind myself that these initial days and months are dedicated largely to the diagnostic and not get down on myself for not having classes, practices and/or charlas on a daily basis.

With the holiday season in full swing, time seems to be playing tricks. Days crawl by slowly while weeks elapse quickly. It makes little sense. It’s both irritating and delightful. This trend is sure to continue into the New Year.

Día de Pavo

Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone and I don't even know where to begin in describing how glorious it was. From the Olympic size pool with a high dive, athletic and non-athletic competitions and the greatest meal I have eaten in the Dominican to the talent show in the piano bar, cheeseburgers at the Embassy, sleeping 11-deep in one small hotel room to save pesos and the many shenanigans I will not list here, it was a fantastic weekend to say the least.

It was great to see the volunteers from our training group and great to meet dozens of other volunteers, finally putting some faces to the names I have already heard so much chisme about. Meeting so many other volunteers simply reinforced what I already know about the incredible and inspiring group of PCVs we have down here in the DR. The one downfall of Turkey Day is that it comes but once a year and we must wait 365 days to do it again.

After spending multiple days and far too many pesos in the capital, it is back to my site for the Navidad season, which I'm told has already begun. Christmas here is not a day but a month. An entire season. A time when everything slows to a crawl. Not exactly the ideal time to start many projects but certainly an ideal time to become better integrated into the community and with my host family. Also a good time to start teaching myself to play the guitar I bought before leaving the capital. I've always wanted to learn and there will be no better time period in my life to learn than in these next 2 years.

Between now and Christmas is when I hope to get the bulk of my Community Diagnostic done. There are more than 100 interviews still to be done with community members and community leaders. Plus, I recently fell ass-backwards into a role as basketball coach for a group of local muchachos, so I will thankfully be a bit busier than I was in the initial weeks. While the tiempo libre has been great and these first months are supposed to be tranquilo, I gotta get some volunteering done.

Leonel

The President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, came to my barrio Saturday. He was here for about 53 seconds. Enough time to shake some hands and give a wave. But he was here. I kind of took a picture of him.

I was really impressed when I arrived in my barrio, more than 3 weeks ago now, to find that nearly all of the roads were paved. This is most definitely not the norm in towns and barrios across the country. But I learned Saturday that as recently as August, none of the roads here were paved. In the last 3 months the government has aided my city and a beach town north of here in laying asphalt atop formerly dirt roads. My barrio is pretty big and it is quite a Dominican feat to get such an infrastructural project done in a timely manner.

There was still one road to finish the night before Leonel arrived and the road crew worked late into the night to get it finished. The heavy machinery needed to do the roadwork had sat parked and untouched for more than a week, but with a presidential visit imminent, the road was completed and painted in a matter of hours. What I deduced from this chain of events is that Dominicans should always work as if the president was coming to visit. Much, much more would get done.

So he came to check out the streets his government laid. He swooped into town on a helicopter to get a bird’s eye view of las calles and then hopped into a motorcade of jeepetas to be the first to drive on some of them. Then he was gone.

I’m told with midterm elections in May, his presence will be far more visible in coming months. While he is not up for reelection, he is getting out there to campaign for his Purple Party. The entire country is littered with political signs and billboards and not a day goes by without a camióneta, equipped with speakers in the truck bed, passing by to broadcast the platform for some obscure candidate at an obscene decibel level for all to hear.

Politics are ridiculous here. Politics are ridiculous everywhere.

¿Estás Perdido?

"To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." - Freya Stark

It is a strangely pleasant sensation to wake up here every morning. Now knowing exactly what the day has in store for me. Not yet having a daily agenda to follow. Not knowing if I'll meet dozens of community members of simply read a book from cover to cover. A far cry from the regimented life we lived for 10 weeks of training, where scarcely an hour passed without a training session, charla, language class or scheduled mealtime.

It is a bit unpleasant that everyone thinks I’m lost. Almost daily I’m asked ¿Estas Perdido? They all want to give me directions to the bus station where I can make my way to the nearest beach like all the other gringos. It’s kind of awkward. In fact, most everything about these initial weeks is kind of awkward. Introducing yourself to countless people and misunderstanding countless hours of Spanish conversation. Most everyone not understanding who you are or why you’re here. When I’m not a lost tourist I’m a missionary. Awkward.

All is good though, even while the awkward turtle insists on continuously showing its ugly head. After all, Americans are beginning to thrive on awkward. It’s kind of our thing at the moment. Why else would The Office be so popular? I look humorously upon it. The bright side, right? The Dominicans on the other hand don’t seem to even realize that awkwardness exists in my daily interactions. They don’t even have a proper translation for the word. I’m just the new guy and ya. Nada más. Todo bien.

I’m starting to look down the barrel at post-Thanksgiving to get some projects started. English classes are what the community most wants. So while I don’t want to be the local English teacher for the next 2 years, it’s a good starter project to do for a couple months. I’m also hoping to start a book club and a girl’s volleyball team. All in time.

For the time being until those projects take shape and come into fruition, I foresee more awkward, some quality time with the host fam and more books. Lots of books. Perhaps too many books. My host mom suggests I may get brain cancer from reading too much. Her suggestion to remedy the eyes she thinks I’m damaging and the tumor growing in my noggin? Watch TV. Seriously. Her next suggestion is undoubtedly to talk on a cell phone more often. I do heed her television advice from time to time in that I am fortunate enough to be a PCV with ESPN, meaning I still get a weekly dose of college football (sorry Hawk fans) and my fair share of English language movies. Not the typical Peace Corps experience. But I’m not a complainer.

Tis' the Season

Shameless as it may be,

I'm a broke PCV

I need lots of supplies,

and other goodies from you guys

So get off you duff,

and send me some stuff!

I'm getting requests for potential Xmas gifts and don't know where to begin. So...I created an Amazon Wishlist for all of you feeling generous out there. I have books and supplies for my kids here in the DR and books and supplies for myself to get through the especially long Caribbean days. Anything and everything is welcome so long as it fits in a padded envelope (no boxes) and is sent via USPS. If anybody has some good teaching materials or some fun items/ideas to use with kids and teens send them on.

Sorry for being so shameless but asking for money/resources is a big part of my life in the coming two years. I might as well get started early.

MY WISHLIST

Sworn-in

On Wednesday October 28th I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer.

The ceremony took place at the beautiful training center that had served as a home base during our weeks in the capital. The acting ambassador to the DR, as Obama has yet to appoint one, spoke. Our fantastic Country Director spoke. Two of our fellow trainees spoke. A couple of other distinguished guests spoke. Then we took the oath and became Volunteers. The ceremony was great and seemed to pass by just as quickly as the 10 weeks of training.

The only left to do before heading back to our sites to begin our lives as PCVs was to celebrate. We spent a significant chunk of the day Thursday eating cheeseburgers and enjoying the pool at the US Embassy. It was a small taste of all things great about America. (I forgot what a luxury it is to actually flush toilet paper.) Thursday night we crammed into a hotel and celebrated the night away. We Youth Volunteers found our own little Loma in the City and had one last hurrah until the day in just under a month when we reunite to eat turkey, stuffing and pie and swap stories of volunteerism and cultural/linguistic blunders.

As I sat and sunburned beside the Embassy pool on Friday, I couldn't help but feel like I had won the lottery. The Peace Corps lottery. Of the 70+ countries the Peace Corps sends Volunteers, I found myself siting beside a pool on a tropical island that I will call home for the next two years. I could be under feet of snow in Eastern Europe right now or living in a mud hut somewhere, which I was more than willing to do. But here I am in the DR. Like I said, the lottery.

With that we're official. 45 of us from 4 different sectors are the newest additions to the DR team. It really did feel on Friday as we headed back to our respective sites that the training wheels had come off and we were entering into new, exciting and unknown territory.

It's time to see what I learned these past 10 weeks.

Half the Man I Used to Be

I just got back from a 5-day visit of my site in El Seybo where I will be living for the next 2 years and couldn’t be more ready to get started. After we arrived back in the capital following CBT, we had a quick turnaround before leaving once again. It was great to reunite with the trainees in other sectors who we hadn’t seen in 5 weeks, swap stories and learn where everyone was going to be living for 2 years. It was also good to get back out of the capital where it was too hot, too polluted, too busy and downright depressing compared to our mountain oasis.

On our first day back at the training center in the capital we received our official project plans which contained the information about our sites, communities, host families, project partners and any other pertinent information regarding the life we will be leading in the coming months. We also received long-awaited cell phones, attended our final Spanish class and weighed ourselves for the first time since entering the county. I am already down 22lbs and counting. Apparently the Peace Corps is the world’s greatest diet. Granted, I was sick for a couple weeks but other people lost even more than I did. Between the 15 Youth volunteers we could have created an entire human being with the pounds we dropped. I haven’t been this skinny since I was 16 and my host family in the capital was concerned about how flacito I had gotten. I’m pretty excited but kind of annoyed that my clothes no longer fit.

With project plans in hand and bags re-packed we were ready for Project Partner Day. The day when our project partners, those at our sites who solicited a volunteer, come to the capital to meet us and take us to our site and new homes for a 5-day visit. It was both exciting and awkward to finally meet our partners. Exciting to see who we will be working with in the months and years to come and awkward to make small talk for hours on end in a second language. My Spanish small talk was exhausted in about 8 minutes and I had about 8 more hours to fill with smiles and reassuring nods.

The drive to El Seybo was beautiful. We first drove along the Caribbean Sea before turning north into what looked a lot like Iowa, but the seemingly endless fields were filled with sugar cane rather than corn. When the terrain became a little more mountainous we had arrived in El Seybo and we dar-ed una vuelta of the community. There is one main avenue that passes through the city center and the many barrios jut off each side of the avenue. The specific barrio where I will be living and working is on the north side of the city and has a population of approximately 4,000 people. The entire city is home to about 50,000 depending on who you ask.

One of my project partners works for the international NGO World Vision and another is vice president of the local Sports League. Between the two partners I have a number of potential projects to start thinking about including teaching English, organizing athletic teams and tournaments and creating an after-school program for kids. The wheels are already turning in my head about all the potential projects I would be able to carry out here. There are a number of existing community groups for me to get to know and work with and an excellent community center with a computer lab and space for classes and charlas. Plus, an excellent play (baseball diamond) and the best cancha (basketball court) I have seen in the country. I have really great resources to work with.

My host family is fantastic. I have a Don (host dad) for the first time and baseball is currently our primary source of conversation. I’ll have to think of something else to talk about once October is over. My Doña is the director of a local elementary school and a super-educated Dominican woman. The walls are decorated with her numerous degrees. I also have a 15-year-old host sister and a 14-year-old host brother. The brother reminds me a bit of myself 10 years ago, often skipping dinner because he can’t find a good place to pause his video game. And, amazingly enough, the city has 24-hour luz (electricity), which is virtually unheard of in this country. This will definitely make for a good living arrangement in the next 3 months until I am able to move out on my own.

While the visit was both great and encouraging, it was at the same time very overwhelming. My project partners took me to more than a two-dozen local businesses and organizations and introduced me to countless people. It will take a lot of time to remember all the names and faces. I had been feeling pretty good about my Spanish before this week but had a reality-check on how much further I still have to go before feeling truly comfortable with the language.

With the visit over and done with it is back to the capital for one last week. We have some more training to do before getting sworn-in on the 28th by the ambassador and have a couple days to celebrate before heading back to our sites to begin our 2 years of service. It will be an odd feeling to be separated from the other Americans we have shared the training experience with and to say goodbye to daily usage of the English language we rely so heavily on, but good to get our work, service and path to language fluency started.

Adios Constanza

CBT is over. We head out at 9am Saturday and will be back in the sweatbox that is the capital until Tuesday when we leave yet again to visit our sites, meet the families we will live with for the next 3 months and get a glimpse into the life we will live for the next 2 years.

Leaving Constanza is easily one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. The past 5 weeks have been some of my greatest to date. I'm gonna miss the hippie lovefests on the loma with my fellow trainees and the community we have called home here. It's been bliss and it will be missed.

Celebrando la Juventud

We have entered our final week of Community-Based Training here in beautiful Constanza. We leave on Saturday to return to the capital and prepare to swear-in and move to our sites/new homes for the next 2 years.

It is muy agridulce (very bittersweet) to leave our mountain pueblo and the group of fellow Americans we have grown close with over the past month. At the same time it is exciting to reunite with the other trainees, swear-in as volunteers, see our new communities, begin our service and get to work. This past month in the mountains has been somewhat like a study abroad experience. We spend our days in class and our nights hanging out with fellow Americans in a strange, foreign land. Very study abroad. But the work aspect of service is just around the corner.

We are going out in a big way in our final week in Constanza. This is the week of Celebrando la Juventud (Celebrating the Youth). In conjunction with our local youth groups we are putting on a number of fundraising and community clean-up activities. Thus far we have put on a movie for the community, organized a domino tournament and cleaned the streets of two local barrios with more activities to come including a mural painting and basketball tournament. Hopefully some of what we do will have a lasting effect. One of the biggest frustrations of being a Youth volunteer is not being able to see the tangible results of service. Whereas Community Economic Development volunteers can see their business plans put into action and Water volunteers can see their aqueducts flowing, we have little in terms of tangible results. We teach, we educate, we have some fun and hope our efforts have lasting effects on the local youth.

While this week is busy and entertaining, it is also serving as a small glimpse into how difficult and oftentimes random working with Dominicans might be. For example, during the middle of the movie we put on for approximately 50 children and youth, the entire group began cheering and applauding midway through the film (when the Polar Express pulls into the North Pole) and promptly stood up and exited the building. Regardless of the fact that there was still an hour left of the movie, they just got up and left. The first hour of the domino tournament was somewhat of a disorganized shit-show as well with the locals not understanding we had a bracket and a system for who would play and when. They just sat down and went for it. Cultural differences can lead to frustration, but in the end it all worked itself out and was successful. A current volunteer came to visit with us a few weeks back and informed us of the difference between being right and being effective. Even if we don't always think what they are doing is right, we are raising money, cleaning streets and getting things done. Effective.

One of the single greatest accomplishments of my weeks here has been my integration into the language of Spanglish. It is the greatest language ever and seems to be the primary means of communication between volunteers in the DR. It's not quite English but certainly not Spanish either. It's great. In two years I will be more than fluent in Spanglish and foresee having trouble readjusting to life without randomly slipping Spanish vocab into English sentences and adding -ing to the end of Spanish verbs.

It's always hard to leave a place. We say our awkward goodbyes to our host families this week and our see-you-laters to all the fellow Youth volunteers. We've had somewhat of a love fest up here (in a completely platonic way) and have developed really great group cohesion that is hard to let go of but will be very beneficial throughout our service when we need ideas, support, resources, ears to complain to or shoulders to cry on.

Another downside of leaving is a return to life without frequent internet access. My posting will be far less regular in the weeks to come as I swear-in, get settled in my new site and figure out what type of internet access I will have out East. For now, I can prepare to close this first chapter of my Peace Corps days as a trainee and start the next as a volunteer.

Moving East

It has been a crazy week full of ups and downs.

I had to make an unplanned and unfortunate trip to the capital this past week to spend some quality time with the PC Medical Staff. I came down with a fever on Monday and it was continuing to climb upwards of 103 Tuesday morning when I was directed to head into the capital. I had a number of blood tests done to in order to determine whether I had Dengue, H1N1, Mono or any number of other potential illnesses. Once I was cleared of all these and it was decided that I simply had a nagging virus and was not dying or highly contagious, I was put up in a local pensión that PCVs often call home while in the capital.

My 2.5 days in the pensión were very bittersweet. I was ill and feeling miserable. I was back in the very hot and very humid capital. I was missing all the technical and language training in the mountains. But at the same time I had AC, cable TV and a hot shower. It was hard to feel quite so bad knowing that CNN, Seinfeld or Sportscenter were one click away. Once my fever finally dipped down to around the 100 mark on Thursday, I was able to make the trip back up the mountain to Constanza.

What awaited me in Constanza was a whirlwind 24 hours in which I learned where it is I will be living for the next 2 years. Our boss paid us a visit on Friday morning to give us all the preliminary details of the sites we will be moving to and the projects we will begin working on at the end of the month. The only true nerves/anxiety/shit-my-pants fear I have had in this entire Peace Corps process has been over site placement. Where you go and who you work with can have positive or negative effects on service. Ultimately, as a volunteer, you have to make it work no matter where you are or who you are working with. But having a good site with positive project partners is a big plus.

Our boss went one-by-one through each of our fifteen placements and gave us the basics as to where we're going, what we'll be focusing on, why we were placed there, etc. We then got to see a map of the DR with thumbtacks representing all the Youth volunteers in their respective sites. I'm heading out East and couldn't be more excited about it. I will be living in a barrio in the pueblo of El Seibo. There is another Youth volunteer in the same city and he was instrumental in setting up the site I will be working in. There are 3 others from my training group heading to the east and a handful of current volunteers living there already.

What I know of the east (almost nothing) is that it is fairly flat and agricultural. Not unlike the Midwest but in a tropical way, with sugar cane and pineapple in place of corn and beans. My city has pretty good access to electricity and water, which is a plus. It's about 2.5-3 hours from the capital by bus. It's hot (Naturally). Great beaches and some places as yet untouched by all-inclusive resorts and droves of tourists. And best of all, a great project site with an eager project partner. I can't wait to head out there for my first visit in just under 3 weeks.

It was hard to concentrate on much of anything after the emotional high that was learning of our sites. The anticipation had been building for weeks and then was released with one glimpse of a map. We had to turn around quickly and host a talent show Friday night. It was put on for our host families and community members who have made us feel at home here in our barrio of Constanza for the past 3 weeks. We sang. We danced. There were puppets, bad Spanish jokes and Michael Jackson impersonators involved. The Dominicans loved it. Plus, the baker extraordinaire of our group baked cookies, which was the cherry on top of a long day.

I've had a pretty roller coaster week. They weren't lying when they said the Peace Corps was about peaks and valleys. As usual, everything at the end of the day is fantastic. I know where I'll be living for the next 24 months. I am pretty well back to health. And I still have 2 more weeks to enjoy here in Constanza.

Aguas Blancas

It is a special week in Constanza. It is Patronales. Each city in the DR has a patron saint and each city has an annual celebration to honor that saint. The celebrations begins as a religious event and over the course of the week becomes a big party. Naturally.

The festivities here in Constanza have consisted of bouncy castles, creepily androgynous clowns (see above right), trinket vendors and food stalls popping up in the parque that marks the city center. That and concerts. On Friday a groups of us Americanos went to a merengue concert downtown. Not yet my kind of music but it will grow on me over time as that and bachata are seemingly the only forms of music played in this country. Oh, and Michael Jackson too. He is something of his own musical genre down here. Despite not loving la música, it was a fun cultural experience. And we got to stand right next to the Síndico (mayor), whose face is plastered all about town on all things ranging from buildings to garbage trucks. A true Constanazan celebrity.

The only other highlight of my Patronales experience was sliding down the fire pole at the local fire station. A couple of the local youth that we work with are part-time bomberos (firemen) and had no reservations about letting us slide down the tubo. In the U.S. there would likely be rules & regs against allowing random foreigners to do such a thing. But here in the DR, most anything goes.

Saturday was a day of team-building activities for the 15 remaining Youth volunteers. We started the morning by reluctantly hopping into another godforsaken camión. The flat bed trucks from hell. Our destination was the beautiful area of Aguas Blancas. This weeks' go round with the camión was exponentially better than last. Less people, more space and a 1-hour trip rather than a 3-hour tour.

Aguas Blancas is an area high up in the mountains that consists of a 100+ foot waterfall cascading into an ice-cold pool. It's pretty to look at and daring to swim in. 2 for 2. Our host families provided us with the cautionary tales about the low water temperature and looked at us crazily when we told them we intended to swim there. No matter, we were jumping off the nearest rocks and into the pool immediately upon arrival. The water was indeed cold. The closest thing to a Polar Bear Club experience I have ever had.

The water truly did take your breath away on first contact. Once you were able to breathe, it hurt to do so and was all-around pretty intense. You got used to the water (more or less) soon thereafter and all was good. Some in the group kept climbing upward to find a higher, more adrenaline-filled spot to jump from. Normally I would have followed suit, but after my skull-crushing Canadian experience with cliff jumping this past summer, I stuck to the less death-defying heights.

The real team building came later that night as a number of us passed up another Dominican concert to partake in my favorite PCT pastime, kicking it on the loma. There is a large hill nearby the neighborhood we all live where we often sneak away to in order to avoid the ever-watchful eyes of the locals, listen to music in English and better get to know the people we will be sharing experiences with in the two years to come. The loma is easily the best part of Constanza.

A close second is the local repostería (bakery). We eat mountains of rice and platanos each day, but comfort food is missing from our diet. This is why when a teacher or current volunteers pay us a visit and happen to have M&Ms or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in tow, we pounce on them like rabid dogs. Enter the repostería, which can sate my sweet tooth on a daily basis for under $1 US. It makes each plate of rice all the more appetizing to know that cakes and cookies are in the near future.

All is fantastic here. Couldn't be better.

GI Woes

I speak not of the marines. I speak neither of the old toys nor of the new movie. I speak of a common affliction among Peace Corps Volunteers and, I imagine, all foreigners living in developing countries. That's right, the GI Woes I have experienced this week are of the gastrointestinal variety. If toilet talk is not your thing, avert your eyes now.

We were lectured for hours in our initial weeks of training about how to avoid stomach issues and the Big D (not Dallas). Avoiding the water is the obvious one. Purified only. Steering clear of lettuce, cabbage and other veggies that are water-based is another. Passing up on street food (which is hard being as street food is always the best type). But even while taking all the proper precautions, shit happens (pun intended).

Visits from the GI fairy are never fun. But when living in an environment with no running water, limited & unflushable TP, and paper-thin walls separating you from not just your host families but your neighbors too is a new experience altogether.

While being both bedridden and within close proximity to the baño, I was visited and taken care of by a steady stream of fellow trainees as well as an overbearing Doña who when she hears, "No, I do not want anymore god-awful tasting death tea." she brings it anyway. It fascinates me that while denotatively the word "No" means the exact same thing in both English and Spanish, connotatively it seems to mean something different altogether. No means yes. Yes means yes. There in no No here.

Secrets and/or things on the DL do not exist in the DR. The chisme (gossip) is in full force at all times. Therefore, a sick gringo in one house is first news and then common knowledge to all in the neighborhood. Everyone makes it their business to know how your bowels are moving and offer their advice on a med, soup or herbal death tea that will fix you right up.

Now that the 54-hour parasite has passed and I am positive that no little creature is going to jump through my stomach cavity a la Alien, I can look back with humor. In the end it wasn't all bad. I got some serious reading done. I got caught up on sleep. Watched a couple movies. Lost at least 5 pounds, making an intestinal parasite the most effective diet I have every willingly or unwillingly been on.

I would like to be able to say that after this little run-in I am now better accustomed to the bacteria and microbes living in every glass of water or bite of food here, but who am I kidding? I have the weakest stomach ever. This is the first of many parasites that will make camp inside me and wreak havoc. These will be the tales that add up to my PCV equivalent of war stories. Occupational hazards of life on the front lines. My GI Joe meets GI Woes meets tainted street empanada fables.

Clean-Up Crew

The past week has been our busiest yet. Our weeks in the capital were spent doing very general and primarily language-based training. Here in Constanza, things are getting far more specific. We are learning the tools we will put into action after swearing-in as volunteers.

After a week of getting to work, a group of us Peace Corps Trainees had a chance to get out of the city and see our youth groups in action. The majority of the youth groups we are working with are Eco-Clubs focused on tackling environmental issues. Saturday was the International Day for Cleaning Coastlines (at least that's what it says on the free hat they gave me). Since there are no coastlines up here in the mountains, we drove into a nearby national park to do some trash pick-up. Sounds cool enough, right? Enter el camión.

The camión is a type of flatbed truck commonly found here in the DR, usually used to transport food. On Saturday, it was used to transport humans. Twenty-five humans to be exact. We, Americans and Dominicans alike, piled into the back of the truck and set off on the most uncomfortable ride I can fathom in a moving vehicle. I now know how livestock feel in semis.

We were initially under the impression that we were heading 45 minutes into the mountains and picking up some trash. That seemed feasible. Discomforting in the back of a camión, but feasible. We should have known better.

Three hours later we had maneuvered through the unpaved mountain passes and arrived at our destination. We spent about 45 minutes picking up the trash that didn't exist because we were in the middle of nowhere and there were no human beings within a 50-mile radius to produce any trash whatsoever. In the 9 hours the trip took, we could have cleaned entire neighborhoods in the city and made an actual difference rather than picking up imaginary trash. Priorities seem to be an issue here.

The whole thing turned out to be somewhat of a publicity stunt, complete with television cameras capturing the picking up of trash. In fact, some of the Dominicans poured out their bags full of trash just so the cameraman could get a shot of them picking it up and putting it in a bag. Pretty random stuff. To boot, the trash we were able to find had to be taken back to the city to be properly disposed of. How was it going to get to the city? With us in the back of the camión of course. What was a cramped ride before had become far worse as we had to share our limited space with garbage bags leaking garbage juice.

I currently look and feel a bit like Quasimodo, with a hump protruding from my back due to being slammed against the railing of the camión time and again. I cannot and will not be able to sit properly for a week due to a bruised tailbone. My ribs are sore. All in all, a fantastic DR experience.

While I sarcastically bitch, the trip actually was very fun and the breathtaking scenery made it all worthwhile. We were literally walking in the clouds we were at such a high altitude. We got to see the monument that marks the exact center point of the country. We got free hats and t-shirts. We got to know one another on a more intimate level due to the close quarters and entangled bodies. It became one of those situations where you just have to laugh because it is so absurd. I expect many more equally absurd experiences in the years to come.

Constanza

God damn it is beautiful here. Way up in the mountains, far away from the Capital, with fresh air and a cool breeze. Fantastic.

I had heard nothing but great things about the city of Constanza and now I see why. The drive here was full of beautiful scenery and a queasy stomach due to those zigzagging mountain roads, but the end of the road led to this picturesque pueblo. For the next 5 weeks, the 16 aspiring Peace Corps volunteers in the sector of Youth, Family and Community Develop will be calling this  place home while we tackle some hands-on training with youth groups from across the city.

Being cooler doesn't mean it's not hot. It is. Just ask my bright red skin. But nothing compared to the sauna that Santo Domingo has been in the past few weeks. I think after a few short weeks in the capital, anywhere would have been a welcome change. Aside from the heat, the traffic and feeling of never being entirely safe turned me off to the capital. The cooler weather means I actually use a blanket at night rather than sleeping in a pool of my own sweat. That said, the early morning bucket baths are far more brisk in the cool weather.

New city means new host family. I was very spoiled in the capital to have such a great host family. They set the bar high. My new family is also great. Many little kids running around keep things interesting. My Dona lives in a modest house with her daughter and three grandsons aged 2, 2 and 4. They are impossibly cute but a bit much from time to time. Can't remember the last time I fell asleep or woke up to the sound of crying children. All is well though. I think it's hard to feel unwelcome by any family here in the DR. The people are overwhelmingly hospitable and seem to enjoy nothing more than overfeeding a gringo.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and Friday night met the representatives of the youth groups we will be working with in the weeks to come. I was extremely impressed with the leader of the youth group I will be working with. He is creating a youth group from the ground up to offer a positive alternative to the negativity in his barrio. It is an Eco Club that will tackle environmental issues and help clean up the neighborhood and surrounding areas. Anyone who has been to the DR knows that trash in the streets and anywhere and everywhere else is a major problem. More than anything else though, the group serves as an opportunity for local youth to meet up, have some fun and do positive acts for themselves and the community. Inspiring stuff.

On Sunday, leaders and members of the local youth groups took a group of us Americans to the river. It was a 90-minute walk each way to get there, but the scenery was terrific. It's almost difficult to believe that we are in the Caribbean while being surrounded by pine forests. It seems a bit more Colorado than DR. But gorgeous nonetheless. This small country is home to many diverse eco-systems and this mountain valley is just one of them.

The water in the mountain stream was cold and refreshing after sweating through the long trek there. And after a couple of hours of swimming and sunning, the walk back went uphill and included a trip straight up 349 stairs. The views were even better heading back and I can't foresee these mountain views getting old in the next 5 weeks. It's gonna be hard to leave Constanza.

Volunteer Visit

I am so ready to be a volunteer. After 4 days of staying in the campo with a current volunteer, I cannot wait to have my own place, with my own food and my own time schedule. I learned a lot, got a more realistic view of what life will be like as a Peace Corps Volunteer and, most importantly, had some fun.

I visited a small campo of about 1,500 people that is centrally located between the cities of Santiago, Moca and La Vega. The town was about the exact size I wish to be placed in. Small enough to know most everybody and build great confianza while large enough to have occasional electricity and running water.

I had the opportunity to visit my first Dominican beach during my trip. On Friday, a small group of current and future volunteers made the trip to the northern beach town of Sosua. I got to swim, snorkel and burn crispy over the course of the day. The Caribbean sun is not going to be my best friend in the 2 years to come. The beach was beautiful and not full of tourists, which is batting 2 for 2. And in the Dominican, batting average is of the utmost importance.

I got to experience the slow-paced life to come and see where I stand with my language skills as compared to current volunteers. I also got to hear some of the inside stories shared amongst volunteers that we are not privy to at the training center. After getting to meet a number of volunteers and get a small glimpse into the life of a volunteer, I am most definitely ready to start my service.

In the days to come it is back to being over-fed and overprotected by Donas and long days of language and technical training in the barrios of Santo Domingo. While it is hard not to love the Donas and our training center, I'm ready for a change of pace and a change of scenery.

This coming Thursday we will be leaving the Capital once again, this time for 5 weeks. After a few short days of training we will be breaking up by job sector to begin our Community-Based Training. It will be sad to leave the entire group of people that we are still getting to know, but good to get some practice in the work we will be doing come November. I have heard nothing but great things about the city of Constanza where my training will take place and am ready to head to the mountains for some cooler weather and outdoor activities. Anywhere with less heat, humidity and mosquitoes is most welcome by me.

On a less exciting note, our group of 51 became a group of 49 today. Two trainees decided after their Volunteer Visit that this was not for them. It was strange to watch the first people go and disappointing to realize that this will happen time and again throughout the next 27 months. Every group hopes to pass everyone through, but that's not entirely realistic. Seeing them leave really reinforced the difficult challenges ahead and proves that this is not for everyone.

Inspiration

We are a lucky group of trainees. On Tuesday we had the great pleasure of being visited by the brand spanking new International Director of the Peace Corps. He's been on the job just a few short weeks and his first stop abroad was right here in the DR.

Director Aaron Williams is himself a former Peace Corps Dominican Republic Volunteer. He served in the late sixties and early seventies alongside Senator Chris Dodd. Other former PCDR Volunteers have gone on to any number of impressive professions, including astronaut. It will certainly be interesting to see where the 50 trainees I currently spend my days with end up in the years and decades to come. Past volunteers have set the bar pretty high by making it to Capitol Hill and Outer Space.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect after being told that the International Director was to visit with us. My natural assumption was that some old, albeit important, man was going to come and share his slightly dated and/or mundane ideas with a group full of twentysomethings. What we got was anything but that. Director Williams, fresh off his appointment by President Obama, was young, engaging and, most of all, inspiring. He took our questions, ate lunch with us and took the time really listen to us and not simply talk at us.

To hear his story as to why he joined the Peace Corps decades ago and how it changed his life for the better very much reinforced the reasons I am here. He has been right here in our shoes as a PCDR trainee and future volunteer. His visit as a real treat and a dose of inspiration to take with us into our service.

Washing Cars

Things are speeding up a bit. Many hours of Spanish class each day, not including the time spent speaking with host families, bus drivers and people in the street. My brain is working in bilingual overdrive. It's great.

We spent some time this week learning about and getting practice on the public transportation "system" here in Santo Domingo. Public transportation here is nothing more than organized chaos. It is organized, more or less, for those who are familiar with it. And it is chaotic. The buses are jam-packed with people and taxis somehow accommodate seven in decades-old cars. Not unlike clowns in some ways. Although, I think a car full of clowns would get less stares than a car full of gringos. There is a lot of sweaty, uncomfortable lap sitting and some hanging on for dear life near wide open bus doors but it is cheap and surprisingly efficient. Just another daily experience in the DR.

We also had a chance this past week to see the Peace Corps DR office and the clinic in which we will stay if/when we break a leg, come down with Dengue fever or need to have some tests done to discover what type of worms are living in our stomach. Along with that, we had a couple opportunities to check out the Zona Colonial, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and learn a bit about Columbus, the discovery of the Americas and some DR History 101.

There's also been some time for fun in between our busy days of training. As my host family is easily among the coolest here, my front porch has become a hangout for the other gringos in the neighborhood. A place to chill, chat, play dominoes and listen to some non-Latin American music. We've had a chance to check out some local haunts, including the neighborhood car wash. A car wash is just that by day, a car wash. But by night it is where the locals go to dance and let loose. I don't know the origins as to why Dominicans spend their weekends hanging out at a car wash, but it is a pretty fun time.

This coming week we have our first big dose of independence. We will all be spending four days with a current volunteer in our job sector. We'll get a chance to see what volunteers do in the field and see what life will be like once we swear-in come October. I'll be traveling north to the city of Moca. I'm a little nervous about getting there solo on public transportations but excited for what is to come once I arrive. 

La Republica Dominicana

"The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it." - Rudyard Kipling

It smells really great here.

After one quick day in DC and a flight through Miami, I have arrived in the Dominican. All of us Peace Corps Trainees, of which there are many (and more than a few Iowans), arrived in country on Thursday and everything has gone really fast since then. The first day and night were spent in Santo Domingo in what was referred to as a "retreat." Basically just an orientation to get to know Peace Corps DR Staff, continue to get to know each other and get the first of many, many vaccinations. From there it as on to the outskirts of the city where our daily training will take place and where we will call home for much of the next 10 weeks.

The Training Center is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The trees, flowers, plant life, outdoor classrooms and everything about the place are perfect. Extremely conducive to learning. It is here we are getting our Spanish language training, cultural sensitivity training and much of our introductory Peace Corps training as well.

On Friday we met our host families, whose homes will be our homes for much of the next 10 weeks. Meeting my host family was certainly the most nerve-racking experience thus far. It's impossible not to speculate how they might be, where they might live, how they might react to you, etc. But, of course, there was nothing to worry about. Along with my Dona (host mother), I have 1 host brother, 2 host sisters and one impossibly cute but extremely rambunctious 5-year old grandson. I live in a barrio not far from the training center alongside a number of other trainees.

My Spanish needs a lot of work. It's been almost three years since I studied in Spain and used the language with any frequency. I've obviously forgotten a lot in those three years and need to pick it back up quickly. I have decided that my brain shuts down slowly throughout the course of the day and by dinnertime I understand little and speak less. Fortunately, my host family has accommodated other Peace Corps volunteers in the past and knows how to deal with linguistically challenged gringos.

The first weekend has just finished up. I spent about 8 hours of my Sunday partaking in the Dominican pastime that is Dominoes. My family passes much of its day on the front porch, especially when the electricity is out, and today the porch was used for endless games of dominoes. Multiple aunts, neighbors and fellow PC trainees dropped by and joined in. The front door of the Dominican house may as well be a revolving door because people are constantly dropping in throughout the day to chat, chismear (gossip), simply sit around or meet the new gringo on the street.

Everything has been great so far. The food, the people, the weather, the staff working with us, the hurricane that went the other way. After just a few days I almost don't mind being perpetually sweaty and the cold-water bucket baths the sweat leads to. In a couple weeks it will be second nature. Hot showers, flushing toilets and life sans mosquito net will be a distant memory.

There is most definitely no internet access at my casa and finding time to use the wireless before, during and/or after our busy training schedule isn't easy, but I'll try to update as much as possible in the days to come before heading out to the Campo for some hands-on training in a few short weeks.

Moving Out

Bags are packed. Only thing left to do is get on the plane. Still a couple days until my actual arrival in the Dominican but the trip starts, with a few stops, today.

I head to DC from DM first thing Wednesday morning. I'll spend a day back in the nation's capital going through the Peace Corps "Staging" process. Don't know exactly what staging entails, but I'm sure there is a lot of paperwork involved. It is my understanding that staging is more or less an orientation that gives us an opportunity to meet the other volunteers heading to the DR, but the Peace Corps hasn't been big thus far in providing details, so I could be completely wrong. I anticipate some awkward introduction exercises and at least a few agonizing team building activities. And paperwork.

After a day in DC it's off to the Dominican where we start things off with a "retreat." Again, don't really know what this means because, again, they're not big on details. And then host families are met and the 10-week Pre-Service Training begins. More on all of this as things happen. Not until the Pre-Service Training is completed will I become an official Peace Corps Volunteer and begin my 24 months of service.

Packing was not as outrageously difficult as I anticipated it might be. The thought of packing for the next 2 years of my life with an 80lb limit seemed to be a tall task, but I finished up with about 15lbs to spare. Don't know whether to pat myself on the back or cram 10 more pounds of shit into my bags. 

The act of packing made me feel very fortunate to be serving in a tropical climate. Not just because of the sun and surf, but also because packing for 1 season made things much easier. I cannot imagine having to pack 80lbs of things if cold weather clothing was needed. Although a change in season might be helpful in avoiding the perpetual sunburn that I expect to have over the course of the next two years.

Not really feeling any serious excitement or nerves yet. I think jumping out of a plane last Saturday provided enough of each to last me a while. Not until I meet my host family and start having to use Spanish will the nerves really set in.

For now it's off to DM, then to DC and on to the DR to start life in the Caribbean.

La Semana que Viene

1 Week. 7 Days. 168 Hours. 10,080 Minutes. 604,800...604,799...604,798 Seconds.

It's about that time and the reality is slowly starting to set in. Throughout the now seven month odyssey that has been joining the Peace Corps, I have been able to wait patiently with each passing stage in the process. Only now with seven days to go is my patience being put to the test. Only now does this experience feel truly imminent.

While those 600,000+ seconds tick away, there is much to pack and many good-byes to be said. I also have an almost uncontrollable urge to do something borderline irresponsible. Jump from a plane perhaps? Something low on sense and high on adrenaline. One last experience at home before 2 years worth of experiences abroad. I think I must.

Bokononism

Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are 'It might have been.'  - Vonnegut

There are few things worse than "It might have been" moments. Those moments of coulda, shoulda, woulda. Moments of regret. It is my goal to have as few of those moments in the next 27 months as is humanly possible. In fact, it is my goal to have zero it-might-have-been moments, but that's simply unrealistic. I stumbled upon this quote, was reminded of Cat's Cradle and have now adopted these as words to live by (or to avoid?) in my forthcoming service.

I've spent the past few weeks doing my research about the Dominican and, naturally in doing so, have begun to develop expectations of and aspirations for the place I will soon call home. It is only natural and almost wholly inevitable to create these expectations but I have found in past experiences abroad that such expectations can be perilous.

Over time I have become a big believer in simply letting things happen rather than planning, expecting and itinerarizing (not a word). This has happened quite naturally as I have shifted from a shameless tourist to an aspirant traveler. I stated in my Aspiration Statement to the staff at the Dominican Republic Peace Corps office my goal of keeping all expectations and preconceived notions to a minimum. So while I won't stop soaking up some Dominican Culture 101 and will surely continue to cycle through Blogs from PCDR volunteers past, present and soon-to-be, I am going to stop trying to expect what is to come and simply wait for the next two weeks to pass and experience what is to be for myself.

How To Disappear Completely

The time has come once again to uproot myself and start anew. I have been in one place for far too long a time.

In 3 short weeks I will be in the Dominican Republic to begin my 27 months of Peace Corps service. I have survived the 6+ month application process and have scaled the mountain of paperwork (though I am certain there is much more to come). I am ready to depart.

At this point in time I know that I will be serving in the Dominican Republic and that I will be a Youth Development Promoter. Beyond that, things are still pretty foggy. The fog will remain until I am in Santo Domingo and have begun the 10-week pre-service training and learn a little more about my specific assignment.

In the meantime I'll be passing my final weeks in the States prepping, packing and polishing my Spanish skills on the complimentary Rosetta Stone provided by the Peace Corps.

This will be my primary form of communication for the next 27 months (along with email). Check in to see how go things in the DR and follow along as I disappear completely into volunteerism and Dominican life.