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.