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.